XFX 5850 Review

The new card arrived today in a weird X shaped box that will take even the best of us a good five minutes to figure out how the bloody thing opens without reading instructions, which lets face it no body does anymore.

After removing it from the box, and getting a slight workout while doing so, due to the cards horrendous size and weight, I realised that this probably wouldn't fit in my Antec 900. No worries, move half internals of the computer about and that's the size issue of it sorted. If you've got a small case I'd recommend you buy another, as this will overheat and fill up more space than a whale in a small hatchback.

So, whats the new card like? Well the current range of drivers aren't that bad, after all the new 9.12 drivers have sorted out some of the bugs of the card.

If you'd want one of these you'd have to pay £100 more than the RRP of the thing, and no one has them in, go, look on a site, I can virtually guarantee you that no one has one (at the time of writing).

So, whats the performance like of the card I hear you ask. Well on the winSAT- windows benchtest, it scores 7.7 / 7.9 on stock clocks. I'd assume you could get 7.8 7.9 overclocked but if you want to do that, then may i suggest you buy a 5970 instead, and jam a nicely sized spike into your head if all you do is play on farmville.

I've got no idea whether the card is noisy on low fan speeds because, in the 12 hours I've had the thing running the fans been running at 100%, and cooking at around 40-45 degrees C.

The card is fking quick though, running Crysis warhead comfortably at 1680x1050, with 2xAA and everything on enthusiast settings, which is good enough, because lets face it your eyesight probably isn't good enough to notice a difference when your tearing through the jungle at some ridiculous speed.

Should you buy one?

If your a gamer then yes. If not then no.

-Sam Cooper

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Ever think about using your pc to look for a job?

As obvious as it may sound, i assume there are people out there who have never thought about the jobs that are often only avaliable to apply online for.

Go onto almost any business's website and usually at the bottem is a small link for 'jobs' 'careers' or something simple. Then its just a matter of filling in an application form! And who knows maybe you will get lucky.

Another top tip from me....

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-GingerFox

Hosting a pic, don't mind me.

Google Chrome OS; first impressions.

Google Chrome OS

A few of you may have heard that the search engine giant, Google, is having a stab at creating its own operating system – yours or mine is likely Windows (being XP, Vista or 7) or OSX (what Mac’s run on).

Now, before I start, Google’s OS wasn’t designed to work, or behave like any OS before it. As everything is based on the internet, referred to as cloud computing. This means that all your programs, apps and documents are stored not on your computer, but on the internet, which may be a little tricky to get adjusted to at first. However, this concept is something that you should look into if you’re buying a low power netbook that you’re using at home, or somewhere with a constant internet connection, or if you find yourself messing up or constantly adjusting your current computers settings allot. If this is the case, it may benefit you to install Google Chrome OS.

One of the great things about Chrome is that it’s just plain quick, you can login and be on the internet in less than 10 seconds, which by modern OS standards is nearly impossible, and would certainly require you to have a ridiculously expensive computer, so if all you do is go on Facebook, and YouTube and basic document creating then this is the system may be for you. Using Google’s vast library of apps you can create word documents, spreadsheets and presentations among other things.

There are some drawbacks though, in its current state you can’t do a lot with it. Sure you can get onto the internet, and create some documents but that’s about it. I can almost guarantee you that it won’t work on your current PC’s as there is no drivers out for it at the moment.

Well, I was going to give you a guided tour of it, but Chrome has crashed, what’s expected of pre-release stuff. Anyway, here are a few screenshots of it when it was working.

Chrome certainly won’t make an impact on Gamers and power users, apart from those that dual boot it with Windows, but it could make inroads into netbook OS’s and as a second dual booted OS. As is stands this OS has a lot of potential. I just hope Google gets it right.

-Sam Cooper

PS3 3.1 update, brings facebook with it, the joy.

See that? That is the bastard child of facebook and PS3, all it lets you do is post trophies and other in game awards (like lap times perhaps) onto facebook, you carn't even update your status, how great...

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-Read

-GingerFox

Folding Folding Folding@Home

So what the hell am i on about? Obviously i'm talking about the distributed computing network that helps solve the mysteries of how proteins in the human body fold, so therfore understanding how deseasies like cancer and what not affect us. Hopefully one day being able to treat/prevent them better! HUZZAH!

So how can you help? Simples, download the client that best fits your needs (theres a single core client, a client for multicore machines (SMP) and a graphics card client (thats where the most power is) Download pages:

Single core download for Windows, Mac and linux

Multicore and GPU clients for Windows only.

Then all you got to do is follow the instructions and leave it running, feels good don't it? Helping others?

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-Read-Folding@home Home page

-GingerFox

Orange Iphone prices revealed.

Pay as you go plan that same 8GB 3G will cost you £343, while the 32GB 3GS is a rather more painful £539

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-GingerFox