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Yesterday, a fierce storm blew through the Internet targeting Windows 7, and the reports weren’t good. It’s been discovered that there is a severe enough issue that many are believing could result in a delayed Windows 7 release, although that would be tough to believe, since the RTM has just been released to MSDN subscribers today. According to Microsoft though, they see no issue, and if there is one, it’s not their fault.

The problem lies with the built-in disk-checker, “chkdsk”. When run with the /r switch, on a secondary drive, the program suffers from a major memory leak that effectively hogs all of your system RAM, and ultimately, gives you the infamous Blue Screen of Death. While many people have verified that this issue exists, Microsoft is adamant in stating that they’ve yet to experience the issue, and they believe if anything, it would be caused by hardware, not their software.

“While we appreciate the drama of ‘critical bug’ and then the pickup of ’showstopper’ that I’ve seen, we might take a step back and realize that this might not have that defcon level.” is what Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows Division, said, so it appears that they don’t believe it to be a major issue at this point. It’s also unknown whether or not this bug only exists in the RTM or not, because you’d imagine that if it has always existed, people would have discovered it long ago.

If anyone out there happens to be running any build of Windows 7, and you have a two-disk setup, and you are feeling a little brave, try out the chkdsk command, and see if the bug exists on your system. If your secondary drive is “E:”, then the proper command would be, “chkdsk /r e:”, without quotes.

On the Chris123NT’s blog, a user name FireRX, who appears to be a Microsoft MVP, said, “the chkdsk /r tool is not at fault here. It was simply a chipset controller issue. Please update [your] chipset drivers to the current driver from your motherboard manufacturer. I did mine, and this fixed the issue. Yes, it still uses a lot of physical memory, because [you're] checking for physical damage, and errors on the Harddrive [you're] testing… Again, there is no Bug.” FireRX also said he was sure a hotfix would be issued today.

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Motherboards & Processors
• ASUS M4A79T Deluxe – PureOverclock
• Gigabyte GA-EP55-UD4P – Overclockers Club
• MSI 785GM-E65 – Motherboards.org

Displays & Video Cards
• GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 285 2GB OC – TweakTown
• Using Dual-Monitors to Optimize Productivity – Benchmark Reviews
• Zotac GTX 285 Infinity – XS Reviews

Memory & Storage
• Iomega eGo Mac Edition – Digital Trends
• OCZ Platinum PC3-10666 6GB – Hardware Logic
• OCZ Vertex Turbo MLC SATA SSD – Benchmark Reviews

Peripherals & Gadgets
• Iqua VizorSUN Bluetooth Handsfree Car Kit – Tech-Reviews
• Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard – Phoronix

Cooling
• AeroCool Touch-2000 LCD Fan Controller – Legit Reviews
• Xigmatek S126384 Thors Hammer CPU Cooler – FrostyTech

Chassis & Power Supplies
• NZXT Zero 2 – Virtual-Hideout
• ThermalTake Element G – Ninjalane
• Xclio Godspeed One Advanced Chassis – DragonSteelMods

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• Hantech SISO Markus-800 Full 1080p HD Media Centre – ModSynergy
• Samsung Highlight SGH-T749 Cell Phone – Digital Trends
• ZeroShock III Netbook Case – TestFreaks

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Although GPGPU (general-purpose computing on GPUs) is growing in popularity, we’re still a little ways away from it becoming totally mainstream, and used by many. Over the course of the past year, though, NVIDIA is one company who has actively been pushing GPGPU, along with their CUDA technology, in order to get applications and scenarios in front of consumers to show them the benefits that their speedy graphics cards can offer.

One area where GPGPU can drastically improve performance is with video encoding, especially where filters are concerned. In some cases, the performance can increase upwards of 100 times over a CPU, and it’s for this reason that NVIDIA focuses on pushing the technology so hard. The company has just experienced a nice thumbs-up from a company called Lowry Digital, as well, as that company is the one which is responsible for enhancing the film footage of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

As you’d imagine, video footage from almost fifty years ago can’t hold a candle to today’s HD video, but even considering the time it was recorded, it still looks pretty bad given the circumstances. As you can see in the sample below, though, the image is drastically improved (there are more samples at the below link). In the  press release, it notes that on typical CPUs, each frame being dealt with would take upwards of 45 minutes to process, but with GPGPU, it takes seconds.

Maybe this is the kind of news that NVIDIA and GPGPU as a whole needs to get consumers excited about such technology, especially given that many people don’t realize they can do similar processing in their own homes.

“Lowry Digital’s restoration process has brought out details in the Apollo 11 videos that were never visible before,” said Andy Keane, general manager of the Tesla business unit at NVIDIA. “You can now see the faces of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin behind their visors, the stars on the U.S. flag when it is being raised and amazing details of the moon surface. We’re proud that NVIDIA has made such an important contribution to this historic project.”

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Motherboards & Processors
• AMD 785G Chipset – PC Perspective
• AMD 785G Chipset – The Tech Report

Displays & Video Cards
• GeForce GTX 275 Versus Radeon HD 4890 – Legit Reviews
• GIGABYTE GV-R465D2-1G1 Radeon HD 4650 – Motherboards.org

Memory & Storage
• Crucial M225 256GB SSD – TweakTown
• OCZ Vertex 32GB SSD – Think Computers
• Patriot Xporter Magnum 64 GB Flash Drive – techPowerUp
• Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB – Bigbruin
• Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB – Club Overclocker

Peripherals & Gadgets
• Cooler Master SNA 95 Notebook Charging Kit – CCE Reviews
• Logitech G13 Gaming Keyboard – Modders-Inc

Cooling
• Evercool Transformer 4 CPU Cooler – Hardware Bistro
• Xigmatek Dark Knight-S1283V CPU Cooler – Overclockers Club

Chassis & Power Supplies
• Antec True Power 750 Power Supply – Hi Tech Legion
• OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Power Supply – VerdisReviews
• QNAP TS-219P NAS – Ninjalane

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• Windows 7 versus Windows XP on the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA Netbook – Legit Reviews
• Xbox 360 Media Server Setup – Digital Trends

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At one time, netbooks used to be known as small notebooks that offered just enough power to accomplish rather modest tasks throughout the day, such as e-mail, web surfing, listening to music, et cetera. Things have changed a lot since then, though, as recently, even ASUS has been releasing Eee PC models that in no way represent what we originally thought a netbook would be, primarily in size.

The cool thing about netbooks, though, is that because the prices for such machines are affordable, many people are now purchasing mobile PCs who might not have ever done so in the past. Also because of this, competition is fierce, especially to get into retail channels where regular Joe’s will actually stumble on them.

About a month ago, both Acer and Gateway (Acer owns Gateway) released ~$400 netbooks, one that would see its life in Wal-Mart, the other in Best Buy. Both offer a varied combination of features and perks, and whichever is the better buy is really dependant on your needs. Our friends at The Tech Report took both new notebooks for a spin though, to see which was more worthy of your $400.

In the end, it was difficult for Scott to reach an ultimate winner, as both had their pros and cons, but overall, the Gateway machine looked to pull ahead, thanks to its nice blend of components and style. One hit is against the overall battery-life, but as is mentioned in the conclusion, if it had a second battery (or perhaps an even larger battery), it’d be almost perfect. Now that’s a statement.

Credit: The Tech Report

The Gateway LT3103 is the most successfully executed of the two systems, because its Athlon 64 processor and Radeon graphics give it the performance to match its larger screen and keyboard. The grown-up looks and finish of the Gateway set it apart from the Aspire One 751, as well. If you like to fret over the semantics of “netbook” versus “notebook,” the LT3103 will positively put you into a tizzy of hair splitting and confusion—endless hours of fun.

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