Athlon64
Latest
Gateway's AMD-packing LT3100 netbook unleashed
Last time we saw Gateway's 11.6-inch LT3100 it was buried in a heap of other Acer / eMachines netbook reveals, including the Timeline. Now it's gone official, and the big surprise here is that the self-proclaimed netbook is sporting a processor from AMD -- you know, the company who has largely shunned netbooks while later looking to differentiate with the "ultra-portable" Athlon Neo processor. The 1.2GHz Athlon 64 L110 is what's packed in here, in addition to integrated ATI Radeon X1270 graphics, WXGA resolution, up to 2GB RAM and 250GB HDD, card reader, 802.11b/g, webcam, three USB 2.0 port, and a 6-cell Li-ion battery. Not sure if it's because they shied away from Atom or not, but instead of XP we've got Windows Vista Basic for the OS. Available in NightSky Black and Cherry Red, it should be out soon-ish with prices starting at $400.Update: Now with even more officialness.
Okoro Media Systems's OMS-AX100 amps up your boring HTPC
For some there's nothing better than the warm glow of indicator lights coming from a huge stack of home theater equipment. Others, though, prefer consolidation, and that's what Okoro Media Systems's upcoming OMS-AX100 will offer: an HTPC with an integrated 5.1 channel amplifier from D2Audio (a 7.1 version is also avail). With 100 watts per channel you can plug your non-powered speakers right into the unit and, through HDMI and component inputs, connect other sources, too. However, with only one of each, you're going to have to choose favorites among gaming systems. Orders can be placed now to ship in June, and a base Windows Vista-equipped machine with 500GB of storage, 4GB of memory, and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e 2.6GHz processor will set you back $1,650. A Blu-ray drive bumps the price another $190, which seems like a worthy upgrade -- if only because you might have a hard time finding an empty input for an external one.[Via eCoustics]
Athlon 64 2000+ at 8-watts outperforms, draws less energy than Atom
AMD's going through some rough times, no doubt about it, but for fanboys of the CPU maker (wait, do CPU fanboys still exist?) here's your feel-good story of the year. The always-thorough Tom's Hardware has pit Intel's 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor against AMD's Athlon 64 2000+, and the results just might surprise you. The 1GHz Athlon (with a core voltage of 0.90 volts and a power draw of just 8 watts) managed to best the aforementioned Atom in both energy consumption and processing power tests. The gurus at Tom's credited the more modern 790G platform and the highly efficient K8 architecture as big players in the Athlon's strong showing, finally deeming said chip "more economical, faster and quieter" than the Atom. We know you're in disbelief -- good thing there are 14 pages of proof waiting in the read link.[Thanks, Carl]
Vigor Force Recon QX4 gaming rig brings the Quad FX power
AMD's Quad FX chips haven't been on the market for all that long, but that hasn't stopped one company after another from pushing out the gaming machines. Today we bring you the third rig that we've spotted in as many weeks, the Vigor Force Recon QX4. This baby is pretty loaded, with two 3.0GHz Athlon 64 FX-74 dual-core chips, a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB DDR3 video card with DVI and TV out, 2GB of RAM, two 7200rpm, 250GB SATA II drives, an internal 16X dual-layer DVD burner, gigabit Ethernet, a whopping 10 USB ports, and for good measure, a floppy drive. The whole setup will start at $2900 and will be officially launched at CES 2007, coming up next month. We're pretty sure though that you'll have to BYO floppies -- that is, if you can even find a use for them anymore.[Via 64-Bit-Computers]
