Seems some PCs are going into endless reboot loops after installing Windows XP SP3. Both issues seem to affect AMD-based machines, unfortunately. One involves HP machines which, apparently, also run Intel's power management driver by default. The other issue centers around the BIOS, and may be limited to ASUS' A8N32-SLi Deluxe.

Hit the link for Jesper Johannsen's blog. He's a Microsoft MVP, & has posted details of both issues, along with workarounds.

If the guys at ExpReview are correct, then Intel's X58 chipset, with an ICH10 southbridge, will be the first chipset to support Nehalem. They'e got a roadmap posted, along with a photo of a board they believe to be X58-based.

"he biggest point of the board will be the odd lay out, dual channel, Triple channel DD3 supporting and Dual PCIe 2.0 X16 or Quad PCIe 2.0 X8."

The guys at the Tech Report have posted a ton of pretty scatter graphs, which, to me, anyway, say that the 9800GTX is one hell of a value. If you're into the whole dual-card setup, the 9600GT SLi is apparently the way to go.

"Thanks to our latest round of graphics card reviews, which culminated with the massive GeForce 9 series multi-GPU extravaganza last month, we've ended up with enough benchmark data to paint a fairly complete picture of today's mid- to high-end GPU market."

Video Cards

Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC @ Futurelooks

Diamond Viper HD 3650 1GB @ OverclockersOnline

RAM

Patriot Viper DDR3-1866 2GB Kit @ TweakTown

Audio

ASUS Xonar DX PCI Express 7.1 @ HotHardware

XtremeMac Tango X2 @ DigitalTrends

Cooling

Coolermaster Z600 @ ChileHardware

Coolermaster LED Silent Fan @ XSReviews

Etc.

Opera 9.27: Part II @ OSWeekly

Enermax PRO82+ 525W PSU @ HardwareSecrets

I couldn't agree more. nVidia certainly has flooded the market with parts lately. Not that it's ever a bad thing to have a SKU for each market segment, but I think nVidia's heading more towards two or three per segment. I disagree on the Inq's posit about model numbers, though; I'm thinking more about GT vs GS (each SKU having three different amounts of memory to choose from).

"Given that Nvidia so desperately wants to become a big boy chip firm like Intel, expect the revamp of the naming scheme to produce an utterly incomprehensible numerology that can only be understood by scholars of ancient mathematics. Soon."

It's been nearly three months since the release of the ETQW 1.5 Beta, and though the update hasn't been officially released, there's now a devblog post that details the changes in 1.5. I'd say the beta stage is nearing its end.

Meanwhile, the maps from the flash-based version of Valve's extremely popular Portal puzzle game have been ported to an unofficial map pack for the retail game. I've personally played through several user-created Portal maps, & a few of them are excellent additions.

You can win a pair of 8800GS SLi cards over at Motherboards.org just for filling out their contest form. Two XFX GeForce 8800 GS 384MB DDR3 XXX cards, to be precise.

Or, if you're more in the market for a shiny new case, you could win an NZXT Tempest over at OCIA. This is the case that really resembles Antec's 900 - plenty of blue fans and airflow. This contest is forums-based; you need to be a member, & post a pic of your case or work area, and the crappiest submission wins. Hah.

I'm sure you've read at least one nForce 780a motherboard review by now. LegitReviews goes a bit deeper into what makes the 780a chipset special: Hybrid SLi. They explain the tech, & include some benchmarks.

"Having the ability to turn off the discrete graphics at will is one of the coolest new features we have seen on a PC. It's amazing that it took this long for someone to figure it out, but the time has finally come."

Notebooks

Hyper Sonic AG2 @ techPowerUp

Motherboards

ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe @ THG

Power

NESTEQ ECS7001 700W @ TechwareLabs

Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 460W @ HardwareSecrets

Etc.

Sans Digital MobileSTOR MS2UTN+ RAID Enclosure @ ASELabs

Opera 9.27: Part I @ OSWeekly  NZXT Tempest Case @ 3DGameMan

Sleek Audio SA6 Earphones @ CoolTechZone

Canon EOS Rebel XSi @ DigitalTrends

USB 2.0 Computer Copy Cable @ OCIA

Razer Destructor Professional Gaming Mat @ ThinkComputers

CoolIT Systems PURE CPU Cooler @ TweakTown

The guys at Phoronix have some inside info that gives more credibility to the rumors that have been circulating. They don't go into the information, or (obviously) the source, so take it as you will, BUT... Phoronix does have a good track record with such things...

"Valve Software has yet to officially announce Linux clients for any of its software, but at Phoronix we have received information confirming that Valve is indeed porting its very popular Source engine to the Linux platform."

The nForce 780a reviews were fast & furious on the web yesterday, but the HotHardware guys got three to test against each other. See the daily reviews for a couple more.

"For the first time since the Phenom launch, AMD fans will now be able to pair up NVIDIA's flagship graphics configurations with an AMD CPU and exploit all of the features inherent to both."

The guys at the [H] take a look at running not one, not two, not three, not four, but all of the above 98xx series cards in a rig to see if SLi has a point of diminishing return. The one table that sums it all up for me is the power consumption. Insane.

"If you are looking for the absolute highest framerates, 3-way SLI will provide this, but it will not allow you to improve your gameplay experience in some games, so you are paying extra money for nothing unless you want the performance for canned benchmarks."

Video Cards

S3 Chrome 430 GT @ TweakTown

ECS GeForce 8800 GT 256MB N8800GT-256MX @ LegitReviews

MSI GeForce 9600GT 1GB OC @ TweakTown

Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3650 1GB @ HotHardware

Gigabyte GeForce 8800GT TurboForce 512MB @ APHNetworks

Motherboards

ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe @ LegitReviews

Tyan Thunder n3600M @ Phoronix

Asus M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe @ APHNetworks

ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe @ the TechReport

RAM

Kingston HyperX DDR2 PC-9200 @ TechwareLabs

OCZ PC2-6400 ReaperX HPC 4GB Kit @ techPowerUp

OCZ ReaperX HPC DDR3-1333 2GB @ ThinkComputers

Power

Tuniq Miniplant 950w @ Virtual-Hideout

Cooler Master Real Power M850 850W @ techPowerUp

Zalman ZM850-HP 850W Modular @ ThinkComputers

Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W @ Tweaknews

Cases

Lian Li PC-C1110 Super Mid-Tower @ OCIA

NZXT Alpha Classical Series Mid-Tower @ BenchmarkReviews

NZXT Tempest ATX Mid Tower @ TweakTown

Cooling

Noctua NH-U12P CPU Heatsink with/ Additional Fan @ TechwareLabs

ThermoLab Micro Silencer CPU Cooler @ TweakTown

Xigmatek Achilles S1284 HDT CPU Cooler @ BenchmarkReviews

Noiseblocker Coolscraper 3.0 @ XSReviews

External Enclosures

Vantec NexStar 3i Power Management Enclosure @ Pro-Clockers

Silverstone Treasure TS01B RFID Enclosure @ techPowerUp

Etc.

Computrace LoJack for Laptops @ HardwareLogic

Honeywell Airlite 700 Wireless Bluetooth Headset @ 3DGameMan

Corinex GameNet Powerline Networking Kit @ Futurelooks

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Sound Card @ TweakTown

Logitech diNovo Mini @ TechwareLabs

Western Digital 320 GB Scorpio Notebook Hard Drive @ techARP

Hanns-G Hi221D 22in Widescreen Display @ OCIA

Archos 705 WiFi @ DigitalTrends

VL System M-Play Blast LCD Case Display & Remote Control @ Tweaknews

If this deal goes through, Deutsche-Telekom will own both T-Mobile and Sprint, & would then be the largest mobile provider in the U.S. Crazy...

"Sprint Nextel's depressed share price may make a takeover seem attractive, but the deal would require massive investments to integrate different network technologies, he said."