Windows Vista, the new Microsoft’s operating system, is no longer available for pre-order via Amazon.com.

“Because of a Microsoft request, the many versions of the Windows Vista operating system are not currently available for pre-order at Amazon.com. They are estimated to be available January 30, 2007, and you can sign up at right to be notified via e-mail when Vista becomes available for pre-order. If you’ve already pre-ordered Vista at Amazon.com, your order will be fulfilled when the software is available”, the Windows Vista product pages at Amazon.com say.

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Along with P6N Diamond, Micro-Star International today introduced the MSI P6N SLI Platinum enthusiast motherboard, an “extreme SLI gaming platform for mainstream gaming users”. The P6N SLI Platinum supports Intel’s Core 2 Duo, Extreme and Quad processors.

“MSI P6N SLI Platinum can reach FSB2000 and DDR2 1200 because of its unique components condition which gives a great overclocking range. It also comes with built-in in 4 SATA NV RAID and 1 extra eSATA for instant back-up function”, the press release says.

It will have a special chipset heatsink solution that allows users to overclock easily with reduced heat. The new motherboard will also feature built-in in 4 SATA NV RAID and 1 extra eSATA.

The MSI P6N SLI Platinum is Windows Vista Premium Ready product, and it will hit the market around the end of the December.

MSI — MICRO-STAR INT’L CO.,LTD.

Micro-Star International today announced MSI P6N Diamond motherboard, supporting both dual-core and quad-core Intel Core 2 Extreme processors and Quad SLI graphics. It also provides support for FSB1333 and up to DDR2 1000 special memory module, FB2000 for overclocking and DDR2 1200 or higher with better CPU and memory modules.

The MSI P6N Diamond gaming motherboard has built-in 4 PCI-E x16 slot design with x8 or x16 bandwidth. When designing this motherboard, MSI focused on audio quality, enabling 7.1 surround audio using Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme.

The announced Windows Vista Premium Ready motherboard, will come soon, according to the MSI’s press release. There is no info on MSI P6N Diamond pricing.

MSI — MICRO-STAR INT’L CO.,LTD.

Micro-Star International revealed the list of its quad-core processor ready motherboard series, based on the Intel 975X, P965, and G965 Express chipset.

The MSI says the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 quad-core CPU, providing twice the L2 Cache and treads than the current Core 2 Duo, brings a smoother user experience in 3D Games, video editing, and working with the coming Microsoft Windows Vista.

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SiS today announced that the new SiS671FX integrated chipset, supporting he Windows Vista operating system. It supports Intel Core 2 Duo processors, and also supports FSB up to 1066MHz. Besides, the SiS671FX chipset integrates MirageTM 3 graphics engine to provide DX9.0 hardware support. In addition, the SiS671FX supports one PCI Express x16 slot to provide up to 4GB/s of bandwidth for each direction, the company’s press release says.

The SiS Mirage 3 graphics engine has “Smart Dynamic Clock Gating” technology. It can automatically adjust the clock no matter in 2D or 3D condition, resulting in less loading of the system so that it saves claimed around 40% of power-consumption.

The SiS968 Southbridge chipset is paired with the SiS671FX Northbridge chipset. SiS MuTIOL technology provides transmission bandwidth up to 1GB/s between Northbridge and Southbridge. The SiS968 Southbridge chipset features 2 SATA 3G connectors. All of the devices, connecting with the SiS968, include PCIe, PCI, SATA, USB2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and High-Definition Audio.

Press Release

ABS Computers announced its release of the Ultimate X8 Ultra gaming desktop computer, equipped with the newly released Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor and NVIDIA GeForce 8880GTX graphics.

“Power users and computer enthusiasts are excited about the Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor,” said Greg Pearson, Vice President, Sales and Marketing Group and President, Intel Americas, Inc. “The Ultimate X8 Ultra is a great example of innovative systems being built around our next-generation Microarchitecture.”

Intel Press Release

Dell recently announced Optiplex 740, the company’s first business-use dekstop PC featuring AMD’s processors such as Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 x2 dual-core. Dell Optiplex 740 has four memory slots allowing use of up to 4GB DDR2 memory, and has SATA2 interface with offered up to 250GB hard drive. Regarding graphics, there are Radeon X1300 Pro with 256MB of video memory, or X1300 with 128MB of VRAM. If you prefer NVIDIA graphics solutions, Optiplex 740 provides by default an integrated Quadro NVS 210s graphics offering up to 512MB of shared memory.

The Dell Optiplex 740 currently ships with Windows XP Professional, but it is Windows Vista Capable.

The basic Optiplex 740 has starting price of $608, after instant savings.

ZDNet has recetnly tested Apple Mac Pro, upgraded with a pair of Intel’s quad-core 2.66GHz Xeon 5355 processors. The eight-core Mac Pro was 31 percent faster than the same four-core machine.

“As the Intel Xeon 5355 is pin-compatible with the Xeon 5160 processors that came installed in our Mac Pro, we proceeded to swap out the two dual-core processors with the new quad-core processors. We saw a 31 percent performance increase on the Mac OS X version of the Cinebench test from the two dual-core chips to the two quad-core chips. Although we doubled the number of cores, we didn’t see twice the performance. There are a few reasons for this: the quad-core chips are actually running at a slower speed (2.66GHz) than the dual-core chips (3.0GHz). Also, the extra cores introduce some additional computational overhead to the overall workload. Additionally, our ‘octo-core’ testbed is our own unsanctioned unit, and therefore isn’t benefiting from any of Apple’s inside knowledge, such as firmware and driver updates to better optimise the system for the additional cores”, the reports says.

Benchmarks: the unofficial eight-core Mac Pro Tech Guide in Reviews at ZDNet.co.uk

Asus today announced the list of motherboards that support Intel’s latest Quad-Core processors.

“Tests show that a Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core processor running on an ASUS motherboard (P5WDH) resulted in PCMark05 and 3DMark06 scores that are 25.6% and 9.4% higher than when running a similarly clocked Core 2 Duo processor with two cores. This undoubtedly shows that a combination of ASUS’ motherboards with Intel’s latest Core2 Extreme Quad-Core CPU produces extreme and unrivaled performance,” the press release says.

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HP today announced the new HP Compaq dx2250 microtower desktop PC. Based on ATI Radeon XPRESS 1150 chipset, the Comapq dx2250 is available with a range of AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core, AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Sempron processors.

The new business desktop PC supports up to 2GB of DDR2 memory and comes with up to 250GB SATA2 hard drive and a DVD burner. It features integrated ATI Radeon X300 graphics, or ATI Radeon X1300 with 256MB of video memory.

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Dell announced it’s XPS 710 gaming desktop PC which can be built to order with the new 64-bit Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 quad-core processor. According to the press release, quad-core QX6700 can deliver “up to 55 percent better performance than an Intel Core 2 Extreme dual-core processor”.

The SLI enabled XPS 710 has four memory slots, bays for four hard drives and two optical drives, and seven expansion slots for single and dual graphics cards and hi-fi sound.

The new system is Microsoft Windows Vista Premium-Ready. The XPS 710 is available immediately worldwide. Prices start at $3,699 for the Jet Black chassis with an Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6700 processor, 750-watt power supply and two-year limited XPS warranty with prioritized support queue. The Special Edition Formula Red model with 1-kilowatt power supply and the same processor and warranty support starts at $3,799.

Game On! Dell Gaming Gets More Extreme

DFI announced INFINITY NF 570 SLI-M2/G motherboard, based on NVIDIA ‘s nForce 570 SLI chipset, with support for AMD AM2 socket processors. DFI INFINITY NF 570 SLI-M2/G is designed with 2 PCI Express x16 slots. Single graphics card runs in x16, while the two SLI graphics cards run in x8.

The INFINITY NF 570 SLI-M2/G motherboard use FirstPacket technology, which sets priority for network data transferring, thereby lowering the transferring latency of important file data. Also, when sending data to other PCs, via the method of coordination, Dual Ethernet ports offer double Ethernet transferring bandwidth. Besides, MediaShield Storing technology owned by NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset can optimize the management and performance of HDD and RAID, thereby raising the usage efficiency of HDD, and ensuring the safety of data storage. The motherboard supports six SATAII hard drives and enables RAID0 , RAID1 , RAID0+1 , and RAID5, the press release says.

DFI INFINITY NF 570 SLI-M2/G motherboard supports DDR2 RAM up to DDR2-800. It offers the adjustment function for CPU Clock doubling, and it can adjust FSB based on 1MHz increment. As f or voltage adjustment, under normal situation, DIMM voltage can be as high as 3.2V, north-bridge voltage can be up to 1.8V, and the core voltage can be up to 1.85V.

DFI INFINITY NF 570 SLI-M2/G motherboard has a Marvell 88E1115 GbE PHY network port, two IEEE 1394 ports, 4 USB connectors, and 6 USB ports. There is also a coaxial S/PDIF-Out port and a fiber S/PDIF-Out port on the back panel of the motherboard.

With the launching of INFINITY NF 570 SLI-M2/G motherboard, DFI also launched INFINITY NF570 M2/g motherboard and INFINITY NF550 M2/g motherboard, but with no SLI technology.

EVGA Corporation announced the EVGA nForce 680i SLI 755 motherboard, made for enthusiast. The new motherboard for Intel Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, and Core 2 Duo processors features the NVIDIA 680i SLI MCP which is specified to run at 1333MHz front side bus (FSB).

“EVGA nForce 680i SLI’s overclocking tools provide a complete kit of tools giving everyone from the most veteran enthusiast to the novice overclocker the ability to unleash the hardware in their PC”, the company’s press release says.

The nForce 680i SLI motherboard has a $299.99 retail price, according to EVGA.

Asus introduced the AI Lifestyle P5N32-E SLI motherboard, which offers a third PCI Express x16 slot for physics card support and several “unique thermal technologies”. Made for gamers and enthusiasts, the nForce 680i SLI-based P5N32-E SLI supports the Intel Quad-Core Processor and NVIDIA’s Quad-SLI technology, and is ready for the up-coming 1,333MHz FSB specification.

Asus AI Lifestyle P5N32-E SLI has the 8-Phase Power Design to generate less heat than other conventional power solutions. It reduces input ripple current and output ripple voltage, which keeps CPU and VRM (voltage regulation modules) from suffering the risk of high power stress. The motherboard’s fan-less design brings effective and noiseless cooling to counter the heat generated by components, the press release says.

www.hardwarezone.com® :: News Flash At A Glance!

With Windows Vista release to computer makers this week, Microsoft starts a harder push on the 64-bit version of the company’s new operating system, said Barry Goffe, director in the Windows client product management team. He said that in order to use the Windows Vista logo, device manufacturers must provide their drivers in both (32-bit and 64-bit) versions. “We’re really making sure that 32-bit and 64-bit are equally good choice[s] for a customer,” Goffe said.

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