IT News HeadLines (Elite Bastards) 04/02/2010

Ten LGA 1156-compatible performance coolers tested

If you're looking to overclock one of Intel's Socket LGA 1156 CPUs, then you're pretty much guaranteed plenty of headroom provided you equip your system with a decent cooling solution.آ But which one should you pick?آ Tom's Hardware have a round up of no less than ten air cooling solutions with support for Intel's latest processor socket.

Although our Core i7-870 sample raised the temperature level at which we had to put on the brakes, its temperature limit coinciding with our cooling and voltage limits happened by mere coincidence. Surely a platform that operates so close to its thermal limit on an open test bench would be unsuitable for use in a closed case, since the higher ambient temperatures would cause thermal throttling (Intel’s automatic speed reduction) at anything close to full CPU load. Liquid cooling could help, but recent tests have shown that anything less than a dual-fan radiator version often provides unsatisfactory results. Most users don't want to bother with a high-end liquid configuration, and most cases don’t support those enormous radiators. For the sake of builders, it’s time for us to track down the best possible air-cooling solution.

For all of the results of their testing, check out this article.

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More leaked Duke Nukem Forever gameplay footage appears

Duke Nukem Forever may be dead and buried, but it seems like its legend simply refuses to go away, with plenty of people still desperately trawling around for new footage, screenshots and information about this now aborted project.آ Indeed, it's some "new" gameplay footage that has now cropped up on YouTube, giving us a flavour of what might have been and keeping the legend alive.

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22-inch 3D Vision LCD monitor showdown - Samsung vs. Viewsonic

From football matches to Avatar, everyone seems to be talking about 3D viewing technology these days whether they're discussing movies or gaming.آ Of course, in the PC hardware space 3D support is already available in the here and now thanks to NVIDIA's 3D Vision technology, and Hardware Zone have taken a look at a pair of 120Hz capable monitors that support this technology to see how they stack up.

We tested two games, Avatar and Fable: The Lost Chapter, both of which had an "Excellent" rating on NVIDIA's website for 3D gaming with their 3D Vision kit. For a full list of compatible games, you can check out their websiteآ here.

The 3D mode is automatically switched on when you have all the necessary drivers, programs installed and peripherals (NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit) attached. We had a relatively easy setup time with both monitors, but notably more so for ViewSonic's VX2268WM as the Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ had problems detecting the same DVI cable used until we swapped it out for another. The actual onscreen rendering was smooth, and had no noticeable lag due to the monitors' sufficient refresh rate of 120Hz. Both monitors were able to realistically convey depth that is consistent even when viewed at a different angle.

You can read all of their findings over here.

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