X-bit labs

Thursday, February 3, 2005

DFI Set to Offer Unique Products for Overclockers. DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers

There is a special kind of customers, a relatively small group, in the computer world hardware manufacturers like most: PC enthusiasts. Products for them do not sell in millions of units, but still every manufacturer wants to be the one that is been talked about and owned by computer enthusiasts. DFI, one of the leaders among high performance mainboard makers, recently released a new lineup of top class products for computer enthusiasts. A pair of this new mainboards based on NVIDIA nForce4 core-logic has been reviewed by AnandTech.

“There are two new DFI nForce4 boards covered in this review - the full-blown LANParty nF4 SLI-DR and the LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D. However, the boards are basically the same and built on the same PCB. The LANParty is based on the nVidia nForce4 SLI chipset, while the UT has a few less features and is based on the nForce4 Ultra chipset. However, both boards sport 2 x16 PCIe slots, both boards perform the same, and they even use the same BIOS. We will talk about the few differences between the boards in this review, but all benchmarking, overclocking, and memory performance tests apply equally to both boards,” the web-site explains.

“DFI set out to create the absolute best nForce4 boards that an enthusiast could find on the market. After spending several weeks with engineering samples and now the final retail boards, we believe that DFI has succeeded in their goal. There are other very good nForce4 boards that compete well at stock speeds, overclock well, or perform well in SLI mode, but no other board that we are aware of does so many things so well as the DFI LANParty nForce4 boards. Looking at the boards as they ship, it would be hard not to be impressed with the feature sets, performance, record-setting overclocking, and stability of the new DFI nForce4 motherboards,” claims AnandTech.

• AnandTech: DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers.

First Ever PicoBTX PC Barebone Reviewed. Web-Site Tests Shuttle’s SB86i

The first ever picoBTX form-factor PC from Shuttle Computer, a top maker of small form-factor PC barebones, emerged for sale during the weekend in Tokyo, Japan. Furthermore, the product had been reportedly available in Europe for some time and some web-sites, like Matbe.com, even managed to review the part.

Shuttle’s XPC SB86i small form-factor computer barebone is based on Intel’s i915G core-logic that supports Intel’s Pentium 4 and Celeron processors with 533MHz and 800MHz processor system bus. The system can install a PCI Express x16 graphics card, a PCI add-in card and up to 2GB of dual-channel PC3200 DDR memory. The chassis allow installing one 5.25” optical drive and two 3.5” hard disk drives to utilize Intel’s Matrix RAID capabilities. The XPC SB86i also sports a number of multimedia enhancements, such as 8-channel Intel’s high-definition audio, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, FireWire and 8-in-1 card reader.

While this is not the first ever BTX form-factor personal computer in retail, this is the first BTX product oriented on do-it-yourself (DIY) market, but how good it actually is?

“Indeed, SB86i must face a wild competition from its Shuttle brothers. Currently available starting from 399 euros, it finds on its way the less expensive SB83G5 (333 euros) and the SB81P quoted 399 euros. Furthermore, you have to keep in mind that these two direct competitors are smaller and lighter,” web-site Matbe.com reports.

• Shuttle SB86i: The BTX in a Barebone (in French).
• Babel Fish Translator.
• X-bit labs: Shuttle Pushes First PicoBTX PC Barebone into Retail.

Desktop PC – In the Process of Fading into Oblivion? Why the Desktop Is Dying

For the moment the desktops are continuing to gain power, performance and innovative capabilities like additional security and virtualization, but some think that the times of desktops for all is near its end and in future tiny network terminals that cost a few dollars will replace conventional desktop PCs that are continuing to shrink their retail price.

“To survive, PC makers will keep cutting costs. But how much lower can they go? Sure, they can squeeze suppliers and redesign plastic casings until both are as thin as tissue paper. At some point, however, they'll have to start discarding entire subsystems. First to go will be the optical drive. Flash memory will be a cheaper and more flexible medium for any data you want to store or transfer locally. Next goes the hard drive: Network storage will be abundant, and the bandwidth to move vast amounts of data will be cheaper than ever. Then PCs will lose the CPU, replacing it with a cheap processor that just shuttles data between the network and the screen, with all the computing taking place in distant server farms. Sun already offers a stripped-down terminal like this, the Sun Ray, but given the company's lack of experience in selling PCs, I doubt that it will be the dominant supplier of such machines when they become the primary computing platform,” suggests and article over Business 2.0 web-site.

“To be sure, there will still be some personal computers around. Engineers and creative professionals may still require high-powered workstations, and road warriors will still likely tote laptops, though they may shrink so much as to be indistinguishable from cell phones,” the story by Owen Thomas concludes.

• Business 2.0: Why the Desktop Is Dying.