AnandTech posted an article about notebook computer from Gigabyte – G-MAX NB-1401 – the first mobile computer ever released by Gigabyte, which is supposed to be announced in North America soon after Computex Taipei 2003. It belongs to the “thin and light” class, as it weights 5.5lbs (about 2.2kg) and has a thickness of only 1.1” (about 2.75cm). Other features include Pentium-M processor working at 1.40Hz frequency, 14.1” LCD screen, 4200RPM HDD and integrated graphics (Intel 855GM chipset). AnandTech concluded that the first Gigabyte’s notebook could be quite successful on the market, as it combines nice design and good performance. Read AnandTech’s review here. 

Ace’s Hardware has benchmarks of AMD Athlon 64 FX processor running at 2.80GHz frequency. It was made possible by utilising a special case called nVENTIV Mach II, featuring, as far as I understand, Prometeia “refrigerator-type” high-performance cooling system, which was able to cool AMD Athlon 64 FX CPU down to -39 degrees Celsius. The system has ASUS SK8N mainboard with “special” BIOS inside, thus, it is possible to change CPU multiplier on AMD Athlon 64 FX processor. Ace’s Hardware guys ran quite a lot of benchmarks to understand how well AMD Athlon 64 FX processors scale with frequency. Read their thoughts and benchmarks here.

ExtremeTech has posted a review of Shuttle small form-factor PC supporting AMD Athlon 64 CPUs. Shuttle was the first company to mass-produce SFF PCs, thus, it is no surprise that this company is now a leader of this market segment and was the first to introduce AMD Athlon 64-based SFF system. ExtremeTech concluded that this barebone offers excellent performance and stability in compact package. On the other hand, fully equipped system will be quite expensive, since Athlon 64 3200+ for about $450 is the only Socket 754 CPU on the market. Read the review here.

The Inquirer has an article about FriendTech, a Taiwan company, which offers modified XBOX consoles. Particularly, its FT-XBX2 console features Celeron 1.40GHz processor, while the “original” XBOX from Microsoft has a processor with 733MHz frequency inside it. Other mods include S-Video and A/V output, 5.1 surround sound, a hard disk upgrade and the ability to read DVD disks from all regions. I just wonder how Microsoft (and possibly RIAA?) will react to this novelty. Read The Inquirer’s article here.