The Zone

After the release of NVIDIA's GeForce 9600 GT and its soon to come GeForce 9800 GX2, how will AMD-ATI counter it after just releasing its own dual GPU card (the HD 3870 X2)? With its HD Radeon 3600 and 3400 series barely doing better than most 8500 or 8600 cards out there, is AMD-ATI hoping for a somehow untouched market of HD video computer users to come to their rescue? Which is basically all that the 3600 and 3400 series will be able to offer.

However, we just recently got our hands on a reworked HD 3870 that was both single slot design and gave comparable performance to an overclocked 8800 GT. If AMD-ATI can encourage other card manufacturers to follow suit then maybe AMD-ATI has a chance of hanging on instead of trying in vain to go head to head for the latest and greatest path that its competitor is going for. After all, to repeat that age old adage, its not how big your package is, its how you use it! 

Panasonic Malaysia has recently flown a gaggle of media up to the beautiful state of Langkawi, where one can indulge in the fresh air and scenery....and to take beautiful shots with their latest camcorders and camera offerings. Look out for this space to check out what their SW20 camcorder and DMC-FX36 camera is capable of! In the meantime, while the videos are uploading on YouTube, you can see an inkling of the event after the jump!

Check out our Elite Gaming Rig that's to be unveiled VERY soon! Boasting a Phenom, high-speed memory, a Terabyte of hard drive space and two graphic cores in a sweet water-cooled chassis, it will definitely make an impact!

There's a new gadget store in town, and its owned by non other than Lee Chong Wei, our own Malaysian badminton player who's currently ranked second in the world. The opening was attended by none other than Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik, our former Transport minister, his wife, Toh Puan Edna Ling, Tan Boon Heng and Frank Teh, Managing Director of SiS representing HTC. More pics after the break :D The store is located at Subang Parade, near the digital products section of the mall.

Ever since 3-way SLI came out, trying to do so with the 8800 series was just another excuse to overheat your casing, overburden your PSU and fill up the remaining PCI-e slots on your mainboard. Now with the 9800 GTX (which is 3-way SLI capable), there's finally a valid reason to do 3-way SLI. However, with a single 9800 GTX card capable of running Crysis on high settings and 16X AA there doesn't seem to be much point, unless you're prepping for future games and their even more resource hungry requirements.

3-way SLI 9800 GTX for Crysis 2 maybe?

The PC Fair official launch included a real cannon full of confetti! 

It was a tiring weekend but it was totally worth it with the response that HWM and GameAxis recieved from the crowd at PC Fari (I) 2008. Although there were several issues regarding the unfair abuse of PIKOM tag-holders such as exhibitors and visitors who sneaked in, we will implement a system that is fair and just to both our readers who deserve that all-important free gift and to exhibitors who love the mags. Here are some shots that were taken during the fair by both FatCatLim and myself, enjoy and we welcome any feedback from you guys! More pics after the jump!

Yesterday, Samsung had a grand introduction of their new mobile phone lines which takes a break from the traditional numbering system. Now coming to a dealer near you in the Business, Essential, Infotainment, Multimedia, Style and Connectivity flavors, the new mobiles are more than mere updates to the current line (the G810 for instance) and also includes the Samsung Soul in the lineup. You can't get them yet though, as they are only due in the market around May. Watch this space for more hands-on updates! BTW, the cupcakes were yum-my! More pics after the jump!

Mr. Min Yong Ho launching the collection 

When it couldn't get any better, Samsung has just rolled out their latest AV products last Thursday with a couple of surprises up their sleeves which includes 1000000:1 dynamic contrast ratio Plasma TVs, sleek LCDs which have built-in programs for working out, cooking and entertainment, two new MP3 players, an upscaling DVD player and their latest Blu-ray player. Feast your eyes on the buffet spread after the jump!

Mr. Taku Taguchi introducing the Sony Time convention 

Sony heralded the return of its Sony Time convention, this time at the Mandarin Oriental in KL. Boasting two halls in seperate floors, the convention showcased everything HD under Sony's banner and even gave us a glimpse of whats to come. They also launched the W200 LCD TV series, a host of AV equipment which includes home theater in a box(es) and the Cyber-shot DSC-T300 with Rynn Lim. More pics after the jump!

ViewSonic recently launched a 22" LED backlit LCD with a 12000:1 contrast ratio; the VLED221wm along with its P-series of profesional level LCD monitors. The launch also featured a couple of ViewSonic's new DLP projectors. Read the full event and check out the new stuff in the next issue of HWM.

With the latest NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 dual GPU graphic out to flex its gaming muscle we managed to snag two cards as well as an nForce 790i motherboard for a Quad SLI setup. Installation is easy as long as you use the latest drivers but performance across the board isn't as good as expected. Its all good however if you're a big fan of Crysis, but if you're not then you may be better off waiting a while longer.

Our personal bet is on a 3-way SLI for three 9800 GTX OC cards, which we will try out as soon as we can get our hands on three of the monsters. Till then read up more about our Quad SLI adventures in our May issue.

The onslaught of new mini notebooks and UMPCs begin! Fresh from Computex, we have HP's new Mini Notebook for our perusal. At first glance we can safely say that the large keyboard keys are a great comfort to work with while the exterior design is top notch. The system we got runs on Vista but as to actual performance and the other more nitty-gritty details please read the full review in our next issue of HWM.

MIMOS recently did an MOU with FTEC to manufacture and produce among other things, the new iDOLA computer platform. Most Malaysian's won't know what we're talking about unless you mention that the iDOLA (and its scaled down version; the JEN ii) is the renamed Makcik computer which was all the hype earlier in the year. Produced and developed by MIMOS in collaboration with MOSTI the iDOLA has been transferred to FTEC for commercialization. Complete details about the computer are still sketchy but for now we can say that it is a lightweight tablet PC running off of the new Intel Atom processor. Read about the full event and more details in our latest issue of HWM.

NVIDIA and AMD-ATI square off again for the single GPU graphic card throne with their respective new cards. Off in the green NVIDIA corner we've got the new GTX 280 and GTX 260 which are essentially the 10th gen in the GeForce series. From AMD-ATI, we've got the new HD 4870 series. Obviously AMD-ATI will not be able to compete in terms of pure GPU muscle, but instead tries to go for the higher end mid-range gaming crowd. As the HD 4850 is definitely not powered enough to go toe to toe with the GTX 260 and the GTX 280 in a class of its own, it looks to be a direct head to head battle between the HD 4870 and the GTX 260. Which one will be on top? Your guess is as good as mine, but we'll update you with hands-ons with each of the cards as they roll in. Later folks.