Friday, November 18, 2005

ATI’s New Chipset Set to Offer Dual PCI Express x16 Lanes. ATI’s Code-Named RD580 Previewed

5:02 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

ATI’s CrossFire multi-GPU technology has taken a long time for the company and proved to be quite a challenge. Mainboards based on ATI’s RADEON XPRESS 200 CrossFire Edition (ATI RD482 chipset) only started to emerge on the market very recently, which means that the first round of multi-GPU clash was by NVIDIA’s SLI, as CrossFire simply could not be obtained. But ATI does not give up and is getting ready to release its new core-logic that should offer new capabilities.

Since mainboards with two fully-speedPCI Express x16 slots are beginning to appear on the market, ATI is also preparing a competitor with similar specifications. AnandTech has had an opportunity to preview a mainboard featuring a yet unannounced ATI code-named RD580 chipset designed for CrossFire multi-GPU platforms. The web-site compared the RD580-powered dual PCI Express x16 code-named Manta mainboard with the recently released ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe mainboard featuring the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI x16 core-logic. The comparison included both single and dual graphics cards head-to-head testing with the GeForce 7800 GTX in SLI mode and the RADEON X1800 XT in CrossFire mode. Apparently, the dual RADEON X1800 XT setup managed to be faster compared to the dual GeForce 7800 GTX system.

“In the comparison of the RD580 Dual x16 motherboard with X1800XT Crossfire to Asus A8N32-SLI with 7800GTX Crossfire, X1800XT Crossfire won every benchmark. That means if RD580 and X1800XT Crossfire were shipping today the graphics war would be on and plenty hot. The reality, however, is that X1800XT Crossfire and X1800XT PE are “coming soon”, while nVidia’s offerings are available today. ATI RD580 will likely land in early to mid January,” concludes AnandTech.

Since such a product is aimed at enthusiasts, overclocking features were also examined. Quite unexpectedly, but the web-site has managed to run HyperTransport bus at over 1500MHz, which is currently the record for the shipping AMD Athlon 64 processors.

“The possibility of HTT ratio-free overclocking will also interest the real overclockers out there. Running over 300FSB with a 5X HTT multiplier with current Athlon64 chips seemed impossibility until we saw it working for ourselves in RD580. We are also glad to see ATI continue their commitment to quality audio on the AMD platform with continued support for High Definition audio codecs. Audio is one area where ATI is clearly outperforming nVidia,” writes AnandTech.

• AnandTech: ATI RD580: Dual x16 CrossFire Preview.

How to Clean a Keyboard Fast and Thoroughly. Get Rid of Dirt on Keyboard Rapidly and Easily – A Guide

5:01 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

As long as you have an inexpensive keyboard, you are not too concerned what to do with it if it is going to be “washed” by tea, coffee or just gets too dirty to be worked on. At the same time, if you happen to have one of a premium-class keyboard products you will most probably want them to be tidy, clean and to serve you for a long time.

The Tech Zone has posted a step-by-step guide about cleaning the keyboards. The guide describes actions that should be taken in order to clean the keyboard without damaging its vital parts.

“Computer keyboards can get dirty very easily when they are not properly taken care of. Stores sell compressed air and cleaning products to help you clean your keyboard. Many people have their own way of cleaning their keyboards, but most people usually just flip it upside down and shake it. Those who do spend money on compressed air or cleaning products, you are wasting money and time. Compressed air won’t always give you a thorough clean because most of the dirt is trapped underneath the keys. The air does blow out some dirt; however it creates more of a mess for you to clean up,” starts the guide.

The main steps of a keyboard cleaning are the following:

• Unplug your keyboard;
• Picture it so that you know the location of all keys;
• Get appropriate tools (e.g., tissues, vacuum cleaner, water, screwdriver, etc);
• Clean the keyboard with vacuum cleaner;
• Absorb the dust with dust-pad;
• Detach all the keys;
• Clean the keyboard with vacuum cleaner again;
• Wipe the keyboard with a wet tissue or q-tip (make sure that there is no water going inside);
• Wash the keys;
• Dry the keys and the keyboard;
• Attach the keys, assemble the keyboard.

Keep your keyboard clean!

• The Tech Zone: How to Clean Your Keyboard – A Step by Step Guide.

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