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HP Pavilion Elite m9150f PC handles HD DVD, OTA TV
Not pleased with any of HP's other offerings? Fret not, as we've got yet another one coming your way. The Pavilion Elite m9150f PC comes ready to handle those HD DVD / PVR duties, and it may even withstand a e-mail or two. Here's the dirt: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor Intel's G33 Express chipset 3GB of DDR2 RAM Dual 360GB (720GB total) 7,200 SATA hard drives HP's Personal / Pocket Media Drive Bays HD DVD (read-only) drive LightScribe-enabled SuperMulti DVD burner Gigabit Ethernet / 802.11b/g WiFi NTSC / ATSC / FM tuners HP Media Center remote control with IR receiver Front-mounted 15-in-1 multicard reader If you couldn't already guess, this one also packs six USB 2.0 ports, twin FireWire sockets, audio in / out, a wireless keyboard / mouse combo and HDMI / DVI outputs. As with HP's other newly announced media PCs, the m9100 series is set to ship this month and start at $1,159.
HP's Pavilion Slimline s3330f PC does Blu-ray and HD DVD
A slim PC destined to handle both of the major high-definition movie formats? Say it ain't so! Turns out, HP is indeed doling out such a machine, and it's so eloquently dubbed the Pavilion Slimline s3330f PC. Here's a look at what this mighty mini-tower will be packin': 2.8GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor 2GB of DDR2 RAM 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA drive HP Pocket Media Drive Bay Single LightScribe-enabled optical drive that reads Blu-ray / HD DVD and writes to dual-layer DVDs NVIDIA's 256MB GeForce 8500 GT 802.11b/g WiFi Built-in NTSC / ATSC TV tuners Front-mounted 15-in-1 multicard reader Furthermore, you'll find 6 USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, audio in / out, DVI / HDMI ports and a wireless keyboard / mouse bundled in along with a whole suite of software. Intrigued? Be on the lookout for this one to land later this month starting at $949.
Winners picked for final week of Turbine's DX10 screenshot contest
Turbine's DirectX 10 screenshot contest for the LotRO community has finally come to an end. Three winners and one runner-up have been selected for the final week.Airak and Eoheryn of Landroval, and forum member Fatty_Lumpkin were the three winners. The honorably mentioned screenshot (included above) was taken by Rendo Gnollen. Why did Turbine pick three winners and one honorable mention instead of just saying there are four winners, since there are no prizes anyway? Who knows.Turbine also assured everyone that there will be another screenshot contest next year, and that DirectX 9 users will also be eligible.
Turbine announces fourth pair of DX10 screenshot contest winners
Week four of Turbine's screenshot contest for The Lord of the Rings Online has come and gone, and the fourth pair of winners has been selected.This time the winners are players Morreion and Brisbanoch. Their entries have been posted on the official LotRO forums. Morreion's screenshot is pictured here. It shows off the dynamic tree shadow effects you can enable if you're playing with a DirectX 10-ready video card in Windows Vista.Turbine's been hosting this contest to celebrate LotRO's place as the first MMO to fully support DX10 features. It's not too late to send in an entry yourself if you've got the high-end hardware needed to support DX10 -- and if you run Windows Vista. That's a big if at this point.
NVIDIA reveals GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB
Not even two months after NVIDIA tempted gamers on a budget with the GeForce 8800 GT, the outfit has loosed a new beast just in time for those eleventh hour holiday shoppers. Based on 65-nanometer fabrication, the 8800 GTS 512MB boasts 128 stream processors, twin dual-link DVI ports, PureVideo HD technology, DirectX 10 support, a 650MHz core clock / 970MHz memory clock and hardware decode acceleration for smooth playback of "H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 HD and SD movies." According to the company, this card provides some 25-percent more processing power than NVIDIA products previously offered at the same price point, which, if you're wondering, is around $299 to $349.[Via HotHardware]
LotRO DirectX 10 screenshot contest crowns week 3 winners
Week 3 of the Lord of the Rings Online DirectX 10 screenshot contest has rolled around, and there are two more winning snaps to share (full-sized versions available from the forum post). Both of the winners this week have shots that show off some nice tree shadows, and the reflection of the castle in the above shot is good too. Incidentally, an upcoming patch to the game will improve performance of DX10 with shadows in particular.If you missed the other winners so far, here is our coverage of Week 1 and Week 2. There should be two more weeks of entries still ahead, and we'll be sure to report them when they come through. It's also not too late to enter, if you have a ridiculous machine to back you up, so check out the contest rules if you want to get a chance at having a featured screenshot.
Downtime for LotRO will fix Troll and Ranger PvMP
The Lord of the Rings Online forums have spilled the beans on what will be getting fixed with the game's imminent update. The downtime will occur on December 6th, from 6:00AM (ET), and is expected to last until 12PM. This patch does not really contain any new content, however, one of the fixes will open up another option for PvMP players -- or rather, re-open.The update should bring back the option to choose Trolls and Rangers in session play, which we reported on a few weeks ago when they were disabled. At the time, they did not say how long it would be before they were reintroduced, so it's good to see this feature back in the game before Book 12 is out. The question is, will there have been other tweaks to how they play, to address the balance issues many have been complaining about? Or, looking at this thread -- do people even want them back? The scale seems to tip heavily towards 'no', with the topic-creator keeping a tally: 12 for them, and 25 against.Other notable fixes for this update include some DirectX 10 performance improvements with shadowing. Full pre-patch notes can be found after the break.
NVIDIA launching GeForce 9 series next February?
Details are unsurprisingly light on this one, but DigiTimes has it that NVIDIA is gearing up to launch its next-generation GPU just after the Lunar New Year in February 2008. Reportedly, "sources at graphics card makers" have revealed that the GeForce 9 series will include the D9E -- a "high-end product that adopts 65-nanometer manufacturing," supports DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 -- and the mid-range D9P, which will supposedly adopt 55-nanometer processing. Apparently, the former will be the first product in the new family, while the latter won't see light until June, but of course, we'd take every ounce of this with a healthy serving of salt for the time being.
Turbine picks DX10 Screenshot Contest winners for Week 2
As if people with GeForce 8800 GT video cards weren't lucky enough, Turbine has been hosting a screenshot contest just for them on the official The Lord of the Rings Online website. Players submit screenshots of the game running in DirectX 10 and Turbine posts the best screenshots each week.The water effects in LotRO are jaw-droppingly gorgeous; last week's winners both focused on those. Now this week's winners have been selected, and water still plays a part in one of the screenshots (pictured above), but it's not the sole focus. It's too bad none of the winning screenshots are presented in a variety of wallpaper resolutions. They would make excellent desktop backgrounds.Still, they're nice to look at. Enter the contest yourself if you think you have l33t virtual photography skillz!
Turbine selects the first DirectX 10 screenshot contest winners
Last week we reported that the LotRO crew at Turbine would be having a screenshot contest to promote how awesome they are for making LotRO the first MMO to support DirectX 10. Each Monday, the best shots from the previous week's submissions would be featured at the official website.Well, the first Monday (plus two days) has arrived, and two winners have been selected, which is a surprise since the original announcement said there would be three winners each week. They're both very good screenshots that feature very pretty water effects; one of them -- which we think is a view of the lake in Evendim -- appears above.You can look at the other one in the official forum post. The contest will continue until December 17th, so if you have a GPU that supports DX10 and if you're running Windows Vista, send in a submission!
LotRO downtime today for Book 11 Patch 1
Book 11 provided a huge chunk of content for Lord of the Rings Online players. Player housing, Balrog raids, the Harvest Festival, revamps to the Lore-master and Burglar classes, the introduction of Gollum, the list goes on. And with every fat patch comes a swarm of bugs that make it to the Live servers.Today, Turbine is stomping on a number of those bug with Book 11 Patch 1. Servers are down from 7am - 1p EST while the new patch is implemented on the Live servers. Along with usual pathing problems, stability adjustments and mob AI tweaks, fixes include DirextX 10 support coming out of beta, fixes to the Hooks in housing used to place decorations and nerfing some Conjunctions used in Player vs Monster Player combat.For a complete list of patch notes, check out LotRO's Lorebook wiki.
Commodore unveils lineup of US-bound gaming desktops
Unlike some companies we've seen, it appears that Commodore Gaming is actually keeping its word, as the company has just now released the final details on its lineup of flashy US-bound gaming rigs. The Cg, Cgs, Cgx, and Cxx machines progress gradually from least extreme to highly 1337, and all four can be customized to suit your every fantasy. To give you an idea of what's on tap (if you've got the coin), the Cxx packs a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 processor, twin 500GB 7,200RPM hard drives in a RAID 0 array, 2GB of Corsair RAM, DVD-RW optical drive, an 850-watt power supply, Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card, Windows Vista, and dual 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra GPUs to boot. As far as pricing goes, word on the street is that the base system will start out around $1,700, but we'll know for sure when these come stateside in Q3.[Via CNET]
Foxconn offering sub-$100 DirectX 10 cards
For those looking for hot, sweaty DirectX 10 action on a shoestring budget, Foxconn has announced a pair of NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS-based graphics cards that should do the trick. The cards will hit stores in a 128MB or 256MB configuration -- both sporting 450MHz / 800MHz core / memory clock speeds -- on an unspecified date for less than $100. That should be the perfect compliment to a basic Vista setup, or a cheap gaming option if you spent all your money on that fancy case.[Via ExtremeTech]
Diamond stuffs 1GB onto ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
With leading-edge graphics cards getting more and more dedicated RAM shoved onto their PCBs, it's only surprising that it has taken this long for a 1GB single GPU card to hit the market. Diamond Multimedia has just announced the launch of its Radeon HD 2900 XT 1GB, which packs a full gigabyte of GDDR4 memory, second-generation unified shader architecture, 512-bit memory interface, integrated CrossFire scalability, and built-in HDMI support. Moreover, it also includes ATI's Avivo display technology, dual-link DVI output, HDCP compliance, and DirectX 10 support. No word just yet on what kind of premium you'll be expected to pay for this momentary claim of superiority, but we'd wait for the benchmarks to see if it's even worth the extra coin.
A-Power's AP-Halo gaming PC dons Halo 2 outfit, beastly innards
With Dell's XPS 720 getting ready for showtime, it's quite possible that a few of you out there are eying a slightly different kind of animal, and for the Halo faithful, look no further than A-Power. The AP-Halo machine sports a fully customized Halo 2 chassis to go along with the game's PC counterpart, but it manages to look fairly good on the inside as well. Beneath the metal you'll find an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor, up to 640GB of SATA II hard drive space, Asus' P5K Deluxe motherboard, a Samsung dual-layer DVD burner, Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card, gigabit Ethernet, a 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX handling the DX10 duties, a 700-watt power supply, and to cap things off, it also comes bundled with Microsoft's own Reclusa keyboard and Habu mouse. Of course, it'll come pre-loaded with Vista Ultimate and Halo 2, and deep-pocketed gamers can add on an Xbox 360 PC controller if they choose. The Halo 2-themed system is slated to launch on May 22nd, and while the base price sits at CAD$1,659 ($1,505) sans a monitor, those hardware upgrades will send that figure quite a ways north.
Lost Planet PC demo available on 15 May
Those eager to traipse through an unforgiving climate and annihilate despicable alien creatures without the aid of an Xbox 360 won't have to wait much longer. A PC demo of Capcom's Lost Planet is set to materialize online next week, May 15th, and finally give those DirectX 10 cards something to do. Indeed, they'll be expected to utilize "the advanced features of Shader model 4.0" in order to render those frigid landscapes and enormous plot holes. Older hardware isn't quite given the cold shoulder, however, as Lost Planet also supports Windows XP and DirectX 9. If monsters and mechs do it for you, find it on store shelves this June, priced at a totally last-gen $39.95.%Gallery-2562%
NVIDIA's DX10-capable 8M laptop GPUs get official
NVIDIA's been parading its DirectX 10 desktop GPUs around for some time now, and while we've seen lappies in the pipeline that tout the DX10 niceties, the firm is getting all formal on us with the release of the 8M series of laptop graphics cards. Hailed as the "world's first mobile GPU to support DirectX 10 and fully accelerate decoding of H.264 full HD movies," the 8M series will initially consist of the GeForce 8600M and 8400M. NVIDIA claims that these chips will provide "up to twice the performance of previous generation GPUs," and also boasts about the PureVideo HD processing engine and PowerMizer technology that purportedly conserves battery life when you're not engaged in a ruthless deathmatch. Unsurprisingly, the chips have already been made available to laptop manufacturers, so watch for these suckas in forthcoming "HP, Toshiba, Acer, Samsung, and Asus offerings."
ATI's Radeon HD 2900 XT benchmarked, trumps NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS
Although preliminary testing proved that ATI's R600 architecture wasn't messing around, DailyTech added another layer of proof to the pudding as it benchmarked a bonafide Radeon HD 2900 XT against NVIDIA's 640MB GeForce 8800 GTS. The DirectX 10-capable card is a notch above the HD 2600 XT that was snapped in the wild, and the tested unit featured 320 stream processors, 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, a dual-slot "blower-type heat sink," dual dual-link DVI ports, and a serious desire to crank out impressive FPS numbers. While the marks weren't the end-all answer to the ATI vs. NVIDIA question, the Radeon managed to best its opponent in every single trial, including Call of Duty 2, Company of Heroes, F.E.A.R., Oblivion, 3DMark06, Maya 02, Cadalyst C2006, and a few more for good measure. Of course, we're sure NVIDIA will be hitting back with something of its own, but feel free to hit the read link if you take pleasure in graphical beat downs with ATI escaping victorious.[Thanks, Mathieu]
Zepto's Znote 6625WD does DX10, HSDPA, and HD DVD
Considering that Zepto isn't exactly "the name" in full-blown gaming laptops, we certainly hope this one won't turn out like ones prior, but the Znote 6625WD purportedly packs a plethora of lavish innards if it proves legitimate. The 15.4-inch machine is based around Intel's Santa Rosa, er, Centrino Pro platform, and sports a WSXGA resolution, Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.0, NVIDIA's 512MB GeForce Go 8600 graphics card, DirectX 10 support, an optional HD DVD writer, 802.11a/b/g/n, HSDPA compatibility, and to top things off, an HDMI output. The company will supposedly be taking customized orders in May to satisfy your wildest dreams, and while the bottom-end of the bunch could land at around "$1,100 to $1,200," we imagine that some of the aforementioned luxuries will ratchet that right on up.[Via Laptopical]
It's official: Lost Planet finds PC gamers
Capcom signaled its self-described return to more frequent PC releases by officially announcing a PC version of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition for June. The Windows XP and Vista game will support DirectX 10 for gamers with those shiny video cards, but DirectX 9 players are also invited into the snowy world.The PC version will run at resolutions up to 2,560x1600, making the console war's "True HD" sound like a tired marketing slogan. (Oh wait, it already did.) While the graphic effects beyond resolution will also be improved, little else is certain to change.Capcom told us at its Gamer's Day event that the PC game may include new multiplayer maps and even increase its 16-player online cap, but both updates are still pending. However, multiplayer matches between Xbox 360 gamers and PC players will not be supported.%Gallery-2562%
