The Zone

Intel was generous enough to get us their own P55 board, a Core i5 750 processor and a Core i7 870 processor for HWM October's Hot Off the Lab section. Catch our in-depth tests and scores in the full analysis.

Intel's Core i7 870 processor

Some cheeky denizen of the web has took the pain (or is it pleasure?) to sign up Valve co-founder Gabe Newell in the "Love Your Body" contest hosted by famed lingerie purveyor, Victoria's Secret.

As participants are required to write a little something about how beautiful they feel, Gabe's entry is surprisingly poignant, or you can choose to see it as a wee bit of foreshadowing to the fate of Episode 3.

His entry reads: "I love my body. I don't let anyone get me down about it. If someone says a hurtful comment, I just push it back."

I say we vote for the good man.

With North Korea stepping up its military presence, quite a few of its neighbours are getting a little itchy about it all. Proof of the pudding is this product we got recently which was made in South Korea with a statement sternly saying 'Not for distribution into Republic of Korea'. Wonder if we'll see more of these or if the Republic will face a dire shortage of computer components any time soon?

An interesting video just popped up today showing how USB flash drives are made. Thanks to some lucky journalists who managed to gain permission to record the plant's workings, we get to see how these drives can be affordable, and its all thanks to volume! Even if its eight minutes long, one should check it out to see the huge production scale, its truly awe-inspiring.

Sidhe Interactive, the developer behind the popular PSN block-breaking game Shatter, received a cease-and-desist notification from actor/novelist William Shatner's attorneys for allegedly planning to use his name and likeness in an upcoming Shatter "Shatner" update.

The update was in a reality a joke article posted in a New Zealand game site, which details the non-existent skin update as replacing the blocks in-game with Shatner's Captain Kirk character from Star Trek, along with a remix version of the actor's cover of Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man.

Just when you think it can't get any sillier, both Paramount Studios and Bob Dylan were also notified of the alleged violations. Looks like somebody really doesn't know a joke when they see one.

Recently we were able to get our hands on the AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition. Running it through its paces the processor is almost like getting an X4 at a much cheaper price. As an AM3 socket processor it also makes the jump towards getting an AM3 board all the more performance (read OC!) oriented rather than the more conventional AM3 Phenom II X3. Check out the full review in our latest issue of HWM!

As accidents and deaths from texting while driving arises, someone somewhere has gotten bored of cleaning up after the victims and produced the video above as a deterrent. Its rather real and graphic, and as such, the shock value will definitely hit drivers for the first few months when the ad is shown, although its long-term effects are still debatable. Somehow, our own road safety ads are much more artistic than this gore-fest, don't you think?

Genuinely funny or wholly inappropriate? To demonstrate just how thin and slim its X-Slim Series notebook really is, MSI released a viral clip online that involves male gymnasts and some butt-clenching action in order to prove that point.

In the HWM Malaysia August 2009 issue, on page 250, you’ll find a 4-page Intel Advertorial on how the Dell’s Inspiron 1545, powered by a Pentium Dual-Core 2GHz processor with 800MHz bus and 1MB cache, as well as integrated graphics - fares against the Dell Studio 1555 notebook, powered by the Intel Centrino 2 Processor Technology, with a 2.4GHz processor and 1GHz bus and 3MB cache, as well as discrete graphics.

You can see how the Intel Centrino 2 Processor Technology, even with discrete graphics, enables you to do more in less time. Here we reproduce the screen capture of the MobileMark 2007 1.05 industry-standard notebook benchmark results.

Mac fans please don't weep, Ice-T was just giving his seven-year old Powerbook a good farewell. Then again, he didn't do the right thing; it isn't RoHS certified, especially when it was made seven years ago! Viewer discretion advised.

That's right folks, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the first entry to the highly ambitious StarCraft II trilogy is now pushed back to the "first half of 2010." The RTS extravaganza was originally scheduled for release before the end of the year, though it seems the reason for the delay is mostly related to the upgrading work currently being carried out on Battle.net, Blizzard's proprietary online gaming service.

Of course, by now, hearing a game delay announcement from Blizzard is somewhat akin to seeing the sun rise from the east - it's the rule of nature.

AMD's 785GM chipset is the successor to AMD's previous 780G chipset which was quite good in itself. We managed to get our hands on one board featuring the 785GM chipset which also bears the new onboard GPU; the HD 4200. The board itself scores quite well (Check the link to see the PCMark05 score) using the board's HD 4200 update. While initial performance for the new onboard GPU is encouraging what makes the board surprising is its hybrid graphics. When tested in tandem with a HD 4890 we got even more surprising results in PCMark05 (check the link for the results). Check out the board's full review in our latest issue of HWM.

Offering a comfier and keeping your mouse dry from your sweaty palms, Mouse Blisters are also purported to reduce CTS and Tendonitus symptoms for sufferers thanks to the increased size which reduces hand fatigue. Besides all that, it adds grip to your mouse which is perfect for gamers looking forwards to agressive gaming!

[Mouse Blister]

Network Accessed Storage (NAS) devices are finally making the move to 2.5" sized bays and we were privileged enough to get our handson Synology's four bay 2.5" DS409slim. Featuring four 2.5" bays with each bay able to support up to 500GB for a total of 2TB this miniscule NAS is extremely small, barely taking up more space than your average mouse. The 2.5" bay size also means that power costs and cooling costs are cut down significantly. For a full review of the Synology DS409slim check out the analysis part of the SMB section for HWM Malaysia August 2009.

We wish we could participate and try our luck in this simple survey, but we are employees and are barred from it! A lucky person can win a trip to Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort, have a holiday on us! Hurry, only three more weeks remaining till the end of the survey!

http://sites.hardwarezone.com/sea/readerssurvey/my/