Building Your Own UPS

An UPS (uninterruptible power supply) can become an essential part to any office, or for one's beloved gaming rig. Whether the need for an UPS is to protect important documents when the power goes out, or squeezing in a few more minutes of gaming in before boredom the sets in, one can come in hand for in many situations. Over at Icrontic they've put together an informative article depicting what you should look for in an UPS when making a purchase. One pointer they give is that you should keep in mind, when making a purchase the price you pay for the amount of power you'll be receiving. If a retail UPS doesn't suit your needs they also, instruct you how you can make your own Super UPS. So, get shopping or if your the do-it-yourself type get building!

 

[Via Icrontic]

An Ultimate Extra Released...Wait What Was That Again?

The "exclusive" extras to the owners of Window Vista Ultimate, have emerged yet again after a long, long hibernation. Today, Microsoft released an "Ultimate Extra" for the owners of Vista Ultimate, which is hardly an extra at all. If you call a resource hungry task running in the background, although it may be beautiful, an extra then your senses might appeal to Dreamscene. This extra, which was supposed to be released at the latest by the end of the summer was released today. A deadline which was not met because the development of the extras was somewhat delayed for some obscure reason. If these "extras", are an exclusive to Ultimate owners, I would expect better from Microsoft. As many of you know I am a Microsoft fanboy, but this issue just ticks me off a bit. Premium customers should be treated as so, and not left in the dust. If you would like more information about the development of these "extras" follow the link at the bottom of the post. I do apologize about the rashness of this post, but this just gets on my last nerve.

[Via WindowsUltimate.com]

Halo 3 in Full Throttle

Last night, at 12:01 the much anticipated Halo 3 was released. This third chapter to the Halo series ends the Halo trilogy, leaving many quite satisfied. The guys over at C|NET's Gamespot have given the game an in depth review, and as to be expected the game got an excellent review of 9.5. Some of the things that the guys at Gamespot liked about the game were:

• Satisfying storyline that simultaneously provides closure while making you wonder what will happen next
• Four-player online co-op is a lot of fun
• Forge mode map editor lets you do some extremely crazy and unexpected things
• Web integration makes sharing new maps and custom modes easy.
  

[Via Gamespot]

Vista Performance and Compatibility Hotfixes Go Official

Finally, the long awaited Hotfixes for Windows Vista have been released, the "Performance and Reliability" and "Compatibility and Reliability" Hotfixes. I have yet to see them go through windows update, but they are posted on Microsoft's website. Enjoy your patching!

Performance and Reliability Hotfix:

• You experience a long delay when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
• A memory leak occurs when you use the Windows Energy screen saver.
• If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.
• When you write data to an AVI file by using the AVIStreamWrite function, the file header of the AVI file is corrupted.
• When you copy or move a large file, the "estimated time remaining" takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.
• After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.
• When you synchronize an offline file to a server, the offline file is corrupted.
• If you edit an image file that uses the RAW image format, data loss occurs in the image file. This problem occurs if the RAW image is from any of the following digital SLR camera models: Canon EOS 1D or Canon EOS 1DS
• After you resume the computer from hibernation, the computer loses its default gateway address.
• Poor memory management performance occurs.

[Performance and Reliability Hotfix Download]

Compatibility and Reliability Hotfix:

• The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver.
• The computer stops responding, and you receive a "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer's power button.
• The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.
• The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.
• The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off. For example, this problem may occur when a projector is turned off during a presentation.
• A computer that has NVIDIA G80 series graphic drivers installed stops responding.
• Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.
• You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.
• Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.
• Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.
• Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.
• The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.
• You receive a "Stop 0x0000009F" error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active.

[Compatibility and Reliability Hotfix Download]

Microsoft Cuts the Price of the Xbox 360

Yes, it is true Microsoft on Monday did announce that they will be cutting the price of their 360 console, in all its various forms. They will be slashing $50 off the Premium consoles bringing the price to $350, $30 off the Elite bringing it down to $450, and $20 off of the Core system bringing that down to a very, very low $280. This price cut is effective as of Wednesday, so get you wallet ready! If you've been waiting for a price drop to buy your 360 console, here is your opportunity!
[Official Microsoft Press Release]

[Via Engadget]

Ars System Guide: Gaming Box

Over at Ars Technica, they've compiled a guide to building a gaming PC. They have both a Value Gaming Box and a Performance Gaming Box. The Value system being for the gamer on a budget and the Performance system being for the gamer whom wants the hottest performance out of their gaming PC. The Value system will cost you $1,237.66 not including shipping, and the Performance system will set you back $2,802.81 also excluding shipping. So, if you want to build a gaming system and are in a pickle trying to figure out which hardware to get, Ars has created two very good gaming PC's to base yours off of.

[Via Ars Technica]

AMD's "Asset Light" Strategy

If you've been in the clouds, about what AMD has been up to lately here is your explanation. At AMD's Analyst Day presentation AMD explained their "Asset Light" strategy in quite a bit of detail.

When AMD purchased ATI, they began to submerge themselves into many new product markets. The term "Asset Light" refers to the incorporation of AMD and ATI interests and resources, the optimization of those resources, and the utilization of existing assets to their fullest extent. At the presentation, AMD focused in more detail on AMD's manufacturing efficiency rather than fabrication tactics. If AMD's plans on the embedded fabrication of both CPU and GPU succeed AMD may see an increased demand in markets, which have not been in the path of AMD, thus far. Myself, being an AMD fanboy, I hope that this new strategy aids AMD to get out of the hole which they've been digging, deeper and deeper as days go on, and put them on top of Intel, once again!

[Via Ars Techinca]