PC Gamer: Insider

Today, in the wee hours of the morning. . . well for me at least, AMD decided to announce its brand new, oft-rumoured, third-core processor the Phenom. The processor is set to be released in Q1 of next year (sorry not Christmas processors for you this year) with a price of. . . well they didn’t give me a price so who knows. . . my guess would be at least $250+. Don’t quote me on that.

What is most interesting about this core, though, is that it will be the first 3-cored processor ever. Intel went straight from 2 cores to a quad-core. They didn’t even think about doing a tri-core. Who knows what kind of positive/negative affect this will have when compared to dual and quad-core computers. We’ll find out next year though.

Check out the full press release HERE.

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Check it out, AMD has just announced its’ newest addition to its processor fleet and it’s no pushover either. While AMD has yet to announce any quad-core models for purchase they have maintained in building strong and durable dual-core processors; where the 6400 now holds the top spot.

The new processor clocks in at 3.2 GHz per core, which is 200 MHz faster than its last 6000+ model. The best part about it is that this model won’t cost you an arm and a leg to get, the 6400+ will cost about $239 when it launches copmpared to the 600+ which now costs $178. Not too shabby eh? Word to the wise though, the new “Black Edition” is only labelled as such because the 6400+ does not include a fan or heatsink like most AMD models.

Check out the full specs HERE.

So this isn’t really PC gaming “news” per say, but it is PC related and it has to do with me so I am writing about it anyways. You’ll live, I promise. In any case, we finally finished putting together my brand new PC this morning at around 3am. I have, for the past month, been buying upgrades. Eventually the upgrades became so much that I was basically just buying a new computer, which is fine by me. After putting it together last week, we learned that the PSU was a dud, and I ended up having to go out and buy a new one. Oh well. Check out the specs below:

• Asus AMD Motherboard
• AMD Athlon FX2 5600
• 4 GBs of RAM
• ATI MSI HD 2900XT video card
• 250 GB HDD (I don’t need that much space)
• Brand new 24″ Acer widescreen monitor
• 700w ULTRA PSU

The system runs at 1980 x 1200 resolution, flawlessly. It is an amazing system. What makes this even sweeter is that Quake Wars gets released next week followed by Bioshock a couple weeks later. I can’t wait to give them both a spin. Sorry I forgot to take pictures.

Smell that? Thats the smell of brand new electronics. Smells good, doesn’t it? Funny thing is that the more powerful the electronics get the better it smells.  In particular the new ATI DX10 compatible HD2000 series (more specifically the 2900, 2600, and 2400) are smelling absolutely delicious right now.

GameSpot recently got their hands on the whole series of 2900, 2600 and 2400 video cards, and luckily for us, they came away pretty impressed with the enitre lot. The new HD 2900 card seems to be more powerful than even NVidia’s GeForce 8800 GT card, which is pretty impressive. However, as with all of these high-end video cards, they come with a price. Check out the full specs below:

Check out the article HERE.

IGN has recently released an article containing some of the ideas, and technology that will be affecting our fair platform within the next few years. It is, so to say, the future of the PC gaming platform.

As many of you already know multiple cores are the new “thing” for PC computing. In fact, if you have anything less than a dual core your computer is probably obsolete by now, especially if your a gamer. It’s not all that surprising then to find out that quad-core machines are starting to beocme more and more available. Given the next couple years, I’d say its possible that each of us will be sporting a 3.16 Ghz quad core computer. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the same predictions do not bode as well for the future of graphics cards. Sure we use them now, but will we even need them with a quad core machine? In theory we will be able to dedicate one of those cores in a quad core cpu for graphics alone which, if tuned right, will be stronger and faster than any graphics card today. Also there is a theory going on right now about the advantages and disadvantages of needing multiple cores within the already established graphics cards. Personally I wouldn’t be upset about the loss of my Nvidia or ATI cards. They are power-hungry, expensive, and confusing to the average consumer.

In terms of software, the ball is in the air. Naturally we have been seeing a steady decline in PC gaming over the last few years mainly due to the easy and less-complex console platforms. It also serves to note that after you buy a console its good for a few years where as a computer will go obsolete in only a couple years and will show varying signs of degrading from the very moment you buy it. However, thats not to say that PC gaming will die. I don’t think it ever will, to be honest. It’s the one platform where you can program anything on it and sell it or give it away to people. Its an open and free platform to build on. This is all, of course, shovelled along by the likes of Microsoft’s recent push for PC gaming with their new OS, Vista, and Games for Windows franchise. Only time will tell whether those two incentives pan out, however.

Well thats the future, pretty much summed up in two neat paragraphs. Naturally there are a multitude of variables that I did not include but I think in a couple years this is largely where we will be at. Here’s to the future.

Check out the full article HERE.

I love the smell of fresh gear in the morning. It smells like. . . plastic, which if you think about it doesn’t smell all that great. Oh well the smell isn’t why we like new gear. The functions, the enhancements, the looks! We crave new gear for all of these things and we desire them in all of our products. Thats why even something as simple as a mouse can be so cool. The new Microsoft Habu is just that, cool. Here is what you can expect from this mouse:

• Sensitivity - The default is 800 DPI but is adjustable from 400, 800, 1600 to 2000 DPI.
• High-speed motion detection - 16 bit Data Path and 1000 Hz Ultrapolling.
• 32KB onboard memory - Razer’s “Synapse” cache of 32KB of onboard memory, is also present on the Habu and that allows the user to save up to five customized profiles for specific games directly on the mouse.
• Always On - There will not be any “inactivity” lag for this mouse when you go to play your computer after it has been dormant for the night, a rather nice feature.
• Wired - Lets face it, wireless mice still aren’t up-to-snuff with their wired counterparts. For gaming, its best to have one that is wired.

Have I sold you one already? Come on I get a commision for each sold! No, not really. But if you are seriously considering getting a new gaming mouse this is one of the best I have seen for a while.

Check out the full article HERE.

P.S. Yes it does glow blue via LED lights. Neat huh?

So when you buy that brand new stock computer, by the name of Dell, HP, etc, more often than not it will be powered by an Intel graphics core. Why? Mainly because the stock computer companies don’t care about performance and just want to sell their computers for the most profit. Scummy huh?

Well apparently Intel has something else up their sleeve. According to rampant rumours, they are designing a completely separate graphics chip to unearth some of the market share AMD has gained by acquiring ATI Technologies last year. Luckily for us, however, none of these Intel “chips” have seen the light of day. Intel, while being the largest graphics chip maker in the world, does not make them very well. In fact they are crap. I would not be seen  with one of those things in my computer ever. So lets hope this ends with nothing but rumours. Nvidia and ATI seem to have the market tapped anough as it is.

Check out the full article HERE.

So I have noticed a few trends with our platform in the recent years. PC gamers love their keyboard and mouse. Why? Because it is fast, accurate, and easy-to-use. However, that only applies to a few genre’s that currently inhabit our PCs. Playing an FPS, RTS, strategy, or MMORPG with the keyboard and mouse is perfect. Its a great fit, unfortuantely anything else seems to fall short with wierd button layouts and questionable design. This brings me to our chosen gear for the day:

The Xbox 360 controller. Don’t fret! I am not advertising for the system, thats your deal if you want to buy the console or not. What I am advertising is their controller.  The thing is nicely weighted and feels “right” in your hands. Its not squished or cramped in any way, and even better all 360 wired* controllers use the USB which means they WILL work on your computer. Its a definite pick-up if you enjoy RPGs, Action-Adventure, or platform games on your computer. Also if you have GameTap it is definitely worth it.

*Not all 360 controllers are wired, and although there is an additional option to have wireless 360 controllers work with your PC I do not suggest it. Pick up a wired one, they are cheaper and guarenteed to work.

Hello I’m Sevenout one of the newest writers for PCgamer: Insider. I’m a very avid gamer and my main loves are my wonderful Nintendo Wii and my custom built PC. Unfortunately, as of the past two weeks I have not been able to play any PC games. Why you ask? Because Nvidia wants me to kill myself. The past few Nvidia Drivers have been how should I say…absolute crap. I can’t run any of my games, most importantly, I cant play Half Life 2 wich is my favorite game and in my opinion best first person shooter out there to date!

Ok so back to Nvidia I was playing just fine with my old drivers even after I switched my OS over to Windows Vista 64 bit. Yes I know I was asking for a bit of trouble when switching over to a 64 bit system but a few of my friends went with the switch and didn’t have much of a problem so I did it as well. However, once I switched over to the forceware drivers thats when the crap hit the fan. A few friends have had the same problem and have made a huge jump and switched over to ATI (yeah those guys are on the ball, Nvidia) and for me thats not sounding like such a bad idea right now.

Well thats my first blog and any helpful tips would be more than welcome. I need to play Half life Death match!!!

So PCWorld.com just came out with its list, its picks you could say, of the top 20 products of the year. What is kind of odd, however, is that more than a few aren’t even really PC related. Oh well, to each his own and so on and so forth. Coming it and number one is the Google Apps Premiere Edition (really?). For those who don’t know what that is, its basically an alternative to Microsoft Office, which is neat becuase I think its free and Office is expensive anyways.

Congrats to Google for taking the top spot. Other notables are Intel’s Core 2 Duo coming in second, the Nintendo Wii coming in third, AppleTV (blech) coming in at #11, and finally the Xbox 360 Elite coming in at #18. Ouch, they didn’t even give the PS3 a passing glance. Thats gotta sting!

Read the full article HERE.