I find it very perplexing that the first generation of Nehalem won't support SLi, but will support CrossFire. Weird, but then nVidia did open the whoop-ass can, didn't they?

"If there is a mechanism for Intel to remove Nvidia from its chipset list for future products, this is highly likely to happen."

Joystiq's got four screenshots and a video clip of the new TF2 map, Goldrush. Head on over for the content if you're interested. Looks like a pretty big map...

"We're still anxious to get our hands on the latest gametype – Payload – but this oughta do for now."

New Catalyst drivers are available for all OSs today as well, bringing the current version up to 8.4. The latest drivers fix a slew of game-related bugs.

"The driver adds very little in terms of features: hardcore gamers will surely be disappointed to see that the headline revision is better support for Folding@Home."

Firefox is up to 2.0.0.14 as of this morning, which takes care of a Java exploit. Safari's been updated to 3.1.1 to deal with Java bugs as well.

"Vista and XP users need patching against these flaws and a brace of other vulnerabilities specific to Windows machines, involving memory corruption and a less serious timing issue in Safari 3.1."

Kind of like how you can connect a couple of PCs together with a firewire cable right now.... but different. If I'm reading this correctly, the transfer rates won't come close to firewire though, at around 24Mbps.

"The cable, used with FTDI's Virtual COM port (VCP) drivers, the USB NMC provides inter-PC communications at up to 3-Mbaud rates."

PCs

Maingear Dash @ DigitalTrends

CPUs

AMD Phenom 9850 @ TechwareLabs

Video Cards

ATI FireGL V8600 1GB @ HotHardware

Cases

In-Win B-2 Stealth Bomber @ HardwareLogic

Lian Li V2010 @ 3DGameMan

Software

Trials 2: Second Edition PC @ TTGamer

BeleniX 0.7 OpenSolaris Desktop @ Phoronix

Assassin's Creed Xbox 360 @ Gamepyre

Etc.

Cyber Snipa Stinger @ XSReviews

Mapower MAP-KC31 eSATA & USB 2.0 HDD @ techPowerUp

Thermaltake BlacX HDD Docking Station @ APHNetworks

Zalman TRIMON 22" 3D Monitor @ TweakTown

Lamptron Aluminum Case Handles @ techPowerUp

Vizo Propeller II PCI Slot Fan @ APH Networks

It's not been long since this month's patch Tuesday, & there's already another huge GDI exploit. Sites are hosting & spreading an infected .jpg that opens a back door for communication to malicious servers.

"According to Patrick Jungles, an analyst with Symantec's DeepSight Threat Management System, the GDI attacks were first spotted on April 10, a mere two days after Microsoft's Patch Tuesday release."

The 2^nd generation of ASUS' EeePC has been officially launched and brings a bigger screen and solid state drive to the table. There are two SSD options:

"The 20GB model will come with Linux, Asus said, while the 12GB version will be pre-loaded with Windows XP Home Edition."

MSI has unveiled their AMD 780G-based motherboards, the K9A2GM/VM. Both sport AM2+ support and DDR21066.

"The motherboards' IGPs are based on AMD's Radeon HD 3200/3100 series supporting DirectX 10, dual displays, and DVI, HDMI, and VGA outputs."

The guys at the TechReport covet their server grade hardware. This time around, they've taken a Xeon X3320 to task to see how far it would overclock.

"Although they share the same architecture and performance characteristics as their desktop counterparts, server and workstation processors like the Opteron typically undergo additional validation testing and run at lower operating voltages. In a sense, chips that make the grade for the enterprise world are the best of the breed."

The HardwareSecrets guys have posted a comparison between SLi & CrossFire. It includes the background details for each and everything you'll need to know about the technologies up to & including triple-SLi & CrossFireX. They even give a table of supporting chipsets for each.

Over at TechGage, the comparison is between Creative's EAX & ASUS' DS3D GX 2.0. They pit the two technologies against each other to see if there are any real-world differences in the sound each produces. Testing each in a trio of games, they found that Creative may finally have a competitor on its hands.

Notebooks

ASUS U6S @ DigitalTrends

Video Cards

MSI N9600GT 512M OC @ [H]

Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3850 512MB Overclocked Ruby Edition @ HotHardware

ASUS EN9800 GTX 512MB @ TweakTown

ASUS 9800 GTX 512MB @ Virtual-Hideout

Cooling

Scythe Zipang @ XSReviews

Themalright Ultima 90 @ TechwareLabs

Auras Fridge JES-988 Passive VGA Cooler @ Madshrimps

Etc.

Logitech diNovo Mini Wireless Kit @ ASELabs

Mitron Duplus DUP-35 HDD Selector @ OverclockersOnline

Sanyo Xacti CG6 Digital Camcorder @ OCIA

If the news at Neowin is correct, we'll be able to get XP SP3 by the end of the month. Finally. Looks like April 29 is the first date for wide public availability.

"As you can see in the list below, most of the stages will occur before the end of the month, though forced automatic updates won't land until June."

According to the numbers I'm seeing at TGDaily, not only are the lowest retails prices for AMD's tri-core and quad-core chips nearly identical, Amazon's actually selling some quad-cores for less than the cost of a tri-core. Make sense to you? Yeah, me neither.

"Leaving aside the fact that AMD recently decided to attach near-mainstream price-levels to its fastest quad-core CPUs, we were told today that the triple cores in fact fetch more money than the quad-cores in the retail segment."