motherboard posts

So, the curtain is finally up on the Phenom II, and folks seem to be pleasantly surprised by what the green arrow group have pulled out of their collective hats, especially with the Black Edition X3 (model 720), which is aimed solidly at our enthusiast-flavored selves. The BE is the unlocked version, which means we can tinker with both the multiplier and the FSB to find the sweetest spot to hang our performance hats, and is a welcomed throwback to the old days when both chip manufacturers didn't try to dictate what their consumers did with our toys.

Fogey Check: Anyone else remember the pencil trick? Anyone ever do it? BI lacked the deft and delicate touch to succeed in his attempts, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Just another failed DEX check....

Ready to put the screws to all that shiny stuff and get the most out of your rig? It's time to scare away the timid, or drag them screaming into the realm of the technorati.

It's time to tweak your BIOS.

That's right, it's time to play with the Blue Screen of Life. None of that namby-pamby, "I fell on my face choking on a device driver and puked up a memory address error" Blue Screen of Death crap today. We've got Trans-Siberian Orchestra's version of Beethoven's Ninth cranked up, and it's time to soar to new heights.

Besides, cranking up clock speeds is an excellent way to keep warm in the absence of hot cocoa, egg nog, or Irish coffee (which are fattening, vile, and not allowed at the office, respectively).

In the wake of this week's big hardware news -- nVidia's launch of the 200 series of graphics cards -- we, the hardware enthusiast community, are pushed one step closer to an approaching and annoying precipice. There is, unfortunately for those who want the best of both worlds, an impending schism between Intel and nVidia, which is liable to leave users in the unenviable position of having to make a fairly large choice or compromise.

Do you want to use the most powerful CPU soon to be available (Intel's upcoming Nehalem) or the most powerful video card implementations (nVidia's SLI)? However, if the current corporate stalemate doesn't resolve, you can have one or the other, but not both.

Let's all take a few minutes to say a few things that shouldn't be heard by polite company. I'll wait. Hell, I'll offer suggestions.

We here at Big Download naturally assume you like free stuff. That's why we've got that enticing heap of files up there, batting its eyelashes seductively at you (or maybe I need to switch to decaf that isn't laced with wormwood). But, chances are, free (as in beer) stuff is lurking on or under your desk right this moment. No, not the cans with the five cent deposit. No, not that copy of Daikatana you forgot to take to the pawn shop, either.

Unless you're already at the bleeding edge, got exceedingly unlucky, or are highly risk-averse, there's extra performance to be had out of the components you've already got by running them faster than their rated, factory-set speed. This practice is known as overclocking, and has grown from a lunatic fringe cottage industry into big business, frequently with the tacit approval of component manufacturers, and occasionally engaged in by some brands themselves.

In a nutshell, overclocking allows you to get the performance of a more-expensive part -- CPU, video card, or RAM module -- out of a less-expensive one by the strategic application of brains, willpower, voltage, cooling, and luck.

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell was confident of video game piracy's demise when speaking at a conference hosted Wedbush Morgan Securities this past week. He believes that the Trusted Platform Module (or TPM) -- a secure cryptoprocessor attached to some PC motherboards -- will prove an insurmountable obstacle for would-be software pirates. "The TPM will, in fact, absolutely stop piracy of gameplay," he said. A version of the technology is already shipping in some systems.

The TPM performs a hardware check of installed software, and verifies the software using practically uncrackable encryption keys. Given that console gaming pirates are able to (and must) solder a special chip to their console-of-choice's motherboard to play pirated games, we wonder if it might be possible to perform similar hardware operations on a PC to remove, modify, or replace the TPM chip. Even in the event that it is, the TPM's existence still might raise the bar of technical prowess required to pirate software much higher than most users can reach.

Given that Bushnell was speaking to sell the industry to potential investors, we're understandably skeptical, but his was an intriguing proposition. Bushnell noted, however, that the TPM technology will not solve the characteristically different problems of video and music piracy.