collective: 01/10/06

2007 Jeep Compass: official specs and photos

The 2007 Jeep Compass has finally been launched as a production model. Actually called a compact SUV the Jeep is a crossover vehicle bringing decent gas mileage up to 6-8 percent better. Equipped with a 2nd generation continuously variable transaxel(CVT2) that optimizes the torque curve lowers load on the engine improving fuel economy over tradition 4-speed automatics. Compass will be the first FWD jeep with fully independent suspension, and will be available with Chrysler's 2.0L diesel engine package. Inside stereo will be MP3 compatible and SIRIUS Satellite Radio-ready. Expect Compass to reach U.S. markets by third quarter of 2006.

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World's smallest power supply - the picoPSU

We have been looking at the ecosystem growing around VIA's ITX and Nano-ITX platforms and we've just discovered what has to be the smallest PSU around.

The picoPSU, by MiniBox, is barely the size of an ATX connector. It's 120W, and has a couple of molex connectors and a floppy connector, as well as an input jack for mains power.

It's designed for use in embedded systems where space is at a premium. It's 100% silent, has a lack of messy cables and provides enough power to keep a Pentium M or Via C3 processor juiced up, depending on the other peripherals in the system.

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Dell quad SLI spy shots

The Quad SLI setup is built into Dell's XPS 600 Renegade system and the system features four GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB GPUs on four custom PCBs that seem to be attached together in two's. They fit into two PCI-Express x16 interconnects on an nForce4 SLI X16 Intel Edition motherboard.

The system comes with an Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 processor - overclocked to a mouth watering 4.26GHz - 2GB of DDR2 667MHz memory, a custom paint job by Mike Lavellee and both Mike Lavellee's and Michael Dell's autographs on the finished paint job.

VoodooPC's Gold-dipped OMEN Elemental Limited Edition PC starts at US$14,600 - we managed to spec one up with an Athlon 64 X2 4800+, ASUS A8N32-SLI motherboard, 2GB of Corsair memory, 2 GeForce 7800 GTX 512's, 2 500GB hard drives, and a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS sound card, a Logitech keyboard & mouse and no screen for $15,375. I wonder whether Dell will try and match this baby for price?

Just to recap the known specifications of the Dell XPS 600 Renegade system: Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 overclocked to 4.26GHz, NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 Intel Edition motherboard, 2GB DDR2 667MHz memory, 2 dual GeForce 7800 GTX 512's (estimated 430MHz core, 1200MHz memory) and a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS sound card. Hmm, which would you rather have?

Click to enlarge

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Evesham Mini PC Plus

Evesham call this system the 'Mini PC Plus', and that really sums it up - it's a mini PC with more than you'd expect. Of course, one might point at the fact it shares the 'Mini' name with a certain product from Apple, but hey - who hasn't seen the Mac Mini and thought, "That'd be ace - with Windows!"

Evesham, in conjunction with the chaps at AOpen, have come up with this system for exactly those kind of people. It's designed to be a quiet, tiny Media Center solution for your home. It presses lots of aesthetic buttons and also packs a Pentium M under the hood to provide some decent horsepower.

The full specifications for the machine we were sent for review are thus:

* Pentium M processor 2.0GHz
* 512MB DDR2 RAM
* 80GB 5400RPM Hard drive
* Intel Extreme Graphics
* External PSU
* Azalia High Definition audio
* DVD writer
* 10/100 Ethernet
* Windows Media Center Edition 05
* BullGuard Anti-Virus

All of this will set you back £773.94 including VAT.

However, we'd recommend a couple of tweaks to the configuration to get the optimal price/performance. Number one, drop the BullGuard software - it is quite possibly the worst AV software we've ever seen. Many of you will know that there are some well-supported freeware Anti-Virus solutions available, which means that paying for the inclusion of BullGuard is unneeded. Our favourite freeware AV scanner is AVG Free Edition.

Number two, drop the Pentium M from 2.0GHz to 1.8GHz - the small drop in clock speed makes no difference to Media Center operation. However, with the cash saved, you can upgrade to a 100GB drive and add integrated wireless functionality with a 802.11G internal card. These tweaks will take the cost of the system up to £783.87, but we think this is a good price for a more rounded configuration for its intended use.

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MXM SLI for desktops; SLI notebooks to follow

Dubbed the Geminium-Go! this card features two 6600-class GPUs on the same board. Big deal, you might say - ASUS have had dual 7800GTs on their Extreme N7800GT DUAL/2DHTV for a while now. The real reason the Geminium-Go! is causing such a stir is because MSI have used twin notebook MXM graphics daughterboards instead of hard-wired chips.

This has the effect of creating what MSI claim is the World's First Upgradeable graphics card. As the theory goes, one might buy this dual Go6600 card to start with, and upgrade later to a pair of the more powerful Go7800 series down the road.

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Cat Bag Couture Marni Bag

Cat Bag Couture
is designed by Christine Baumgartner(or just Kevin Costner's wife). She has several designs that are more of the cute features like faux fur and fun details. This Marni messenger bag has leather from italy, fur from france, and vintage US fabric. It'll hold a 15" laptop and is running $250
(down from $500).

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Dodge Challenger concept debut

Pics of the live debut from the Detroit Auto Show.

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Dolby sounds off on 14-channel audio

Dolby has a very cool stand in the middle of the audio hall here in Vegas, and the chaps there have been showing us some very cool technology behind closed doors. Wouldn't you like a quick rundown of everything we've seen?

Dolby and Viiv
Of course, Dolby is right behind Intel's new Viiv platform, and on its stand we saw a number of machines badged up with both Viiv and Dolby stickers. Dolby's sticker programme certifies PCs with different levels of capability - for example, a Dolby Master Studio machine can do all kinds of upmixing and encoding, as well as supporting 7.1 digital audio and an awesome sound and signal quality.