Archive for December 2010
Turn your Radeon HD6950 into a 6970 in a flash
December 28, 2010 | 
Author 
Own a Radeon HD6950 and wish it was a 6970? Well it is, the clever guys at techPowerUp! Figured out that the 6950 has all the same parts as the 6970 it has just been piped down throug the firmware. They have made a new firmware releasing the 6950′s full potensial… But as with all good things there is a downside, the retail 6970 cards have one 8 pin and one 6 pin power connectors for the auxillary power and the 6950′s only have two 6 pin connectors, it’s unknown if this will cause stability problems while rendering heavy graphics or not but might be worth a shot… Keep in mind that the 69xx cards ar so new that preforming this hack most likely will remove your warranty so if you do get some damage to your card you wont get a new for free
Legal notice: nordic-vikings.net do not take responsibility for damage to anny hardware if you choose to follow this article.
To see the how-to and get the firmware visit techPowerUp!
Source: Engadget
Posted in Hardware | 
Tags: amd, firmware hack, hd6950, hd6970, Nordic-Vikings, radeon | 
No Comments »
Nordic-vikings.net 2010: CPU and motherboard of the year
We, like others have made our choice for the CPU and motherboard of the year 2010.
The choice has been made based upon price, compatibility, ease of use as well as raw performance.
Let’s start of with the CPU of 2010:
Our winning CPU differs from what other testers has chosen as their winning CPU. Yes the “Intel i7 980 Extreme” is the ultimate performance CPU. But if you want to go for one of those, it will cost you an arm and a leg just to get one. To be announced a the CPU of the year, it has to be possible to justify the cost, and with the i7 this is just not possible.
Our choice is far cheaper than the i7. It’s an AMD, but it’s not the “x6 1100T black edition”. We like the six core setup a lot, but as this is a fairly new type of CPU the technology of a 6 core CPU has more to prove. The “1100T Black Edition” is a 3.3 ghz 6 core but when the load goes up, it goes into turbo mode and then it’s a 3 core 3.7ghz. Why this is not enough is simple; It’s a x3 at full speed and our CPU choice of the year is a x4 at all times. And with minimal effort it has the same speed as the “1100T Black Edition” in turbo mode, but cost far less. Our choice is the “AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition”! It’s a quad core 3.4 ghz AM3 socket CPU, and since it’s a black edition the possibility are far more compared to the regular one. The thing with “Black Editions” is that it has an unlocked CPU multiplier, so clocking it from 3.4 to 3.7 is a walk in the park. Another reason for choosing this CPU is the price of motherboards and RAM that fit perfectly to it. The price is also way lower compared to the Intel CPU in the same preformance range. Our machine run on the 140W version but we do recommend the 125W version since it has the same performance.
AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (photo by AMD)
Now for the motherboard of the year:
This might come as a shock but the board of choice this time is a fair bit pricey but after carefull consideration we decided that what it lacks in price you gain in performance so it’s worth the extra buck… Our winner is the Asus Crosshair IV Formula this is a motherboard made by Republic Of Gamers (ROG) for Asus and it has all the extras to make it a high end card and that it is, it supports all the latest AMD prosessors and it has the 890FX chipset and in the words of The guru of 3D This card is the top dog in the 890FX world. Is has USB 3 support and native SATA 6GB support it supports DDR 3 2000mhz ram and has all the built in oveclocking tools you’ll ever need and since ROG has had theyr finger in the game this motherboard supports 6 external temperatur sensors (these have to be bought seperartly) and 4 onboard case fans and it looks the part aswell so it’s a super sweet card throug and throug…
For a closer look please read the review on The guru of 3D‘s homepage.
Asus Crosshair IV Formula (photo by Benchmarkreviews.com)
Sources:
Posted in Hardware | Tags: 965 BE, amd, asus, black edition CPU, cpu, cpu of the year, crosshair, formula, intel, motherboard, motherboard of the year, nordic-vikings recommend, nordic-vikings.net, phenom, phenom II | No Comments »
Merry christmas and a happy new year!
We would like to wish all our readers a merry christmas and a happy new year from all of us here at Nordic-vikings.net!
Where is my smart phone?? OHH, there it is….
Theft Aware helps recover your lost or stolen Android smartphone. It enables you to control and find your device in the event of loss or theft.
NEW VERSION RELEASED
Theft Aware 2.0 is now offically released. You can check it out at http://www.theftaware.com for details on the new release. This Theft Aware 2.0 software was rated the best security app by AndroidPIT and AndroidPolice.
Some new features in 2.0:
- Extremely good ROOT support, (no command line required)
- Able to enable GPS automatically
- Theft Aware 2.0 will hide the GPS icon during GPS tracking
- Reworked UI, with new help system
- Much faster and more accurate GPS
- All settings can be changed via SMS
- New Froyo (Android 2.2) APIs supported
- Wipes external SDCARD, even when shared via USB
- And MUCH more… check it out!
The software also has a 7-day unlimited feature trial for you to try out!
(ITAgents interactive software solutions GmbH, 2010)
Reveal the Thief’s identity simple and fast!
To enable communication to your phone you can register up to two notification mobile numbers with Theft Aware (i.e. friends of yours, or your second phone). That added number will then receive all Theft Aware messages for you.
Now, if the thief changes the SIM card of the phone, Theft Aware will invisibly send the new SIM card’s phone number to those registered numbers of yours.
By using the phone number of the thief you can stay in contact with your phone even if the thief uses his own SIM card. You simply just tale a look at the GPS map as your phone sends you continuous location updates.
So now you know where to find your phone. I wish I had this installed on my keys……
What’s the deal?
- No subscription fees, pure one time payment with free upgrades and for ONLY €9.99!!!
- No internet necessary on phone, and will therefore work in non internet areas
- Theft Aware is hidden by a customizable application name and will not attract attention to the thief
(Source: theftaware.com)
© 2010 Nordic Vikings
Posted in Smart Phone softwares | Tags: find phone, gps, gps tracking, Nordic-Vikings, phone trace, smart phone, theft aware | 2 Comments »
Cook your graphic card well done
Are you having problems with unwanted reboots and “bsod”, or the grey version of “bsod” (also known as the blue screen of death) when trying to play games? And after having checked for any software errors and memory faults you still get those annoying “bsod’s” and unwanted reboots!
The problem might be based in your computers graphic card. If you use an external graphic card and not the “on-board” one this trick might be the solution for those annoying computer crashes.
Before you put your mind on getting a new graphic card for your computer, you should be sure that you have the latest graphic drivers for your card. This might fix the problem. If this is not the solution you could give this neat trick a try first before you dump your card in the trash-can. This trick fixed my problem and the graphic card works like a charm now!!
If your graphic card still has warranty on it, we do NOT recommend that you try this! Instead, bring it back to the retailer and make use of that handy warranty the producer of the product promised you.
Firstly you should pre-heat the kitchen oven to 200¤C (392¤F). Then strip your card from any plastic like the cover (if any), fans and wires. You should now have a card that looks like the one on the picture below. Scrape away as much cooling paste as possible (be gently to the gpu) and put the card on a piece of non metallic oven proof paper, and then on an oven tray. Put the tray in the oven at the middle section and cook it for 8-10 minutes. Take the tray out and let it cool down for 2 hours before putting it back together. Remember to put new cooling paste on the GPU before installing the fan back on!
My “XFX Radeon HD 4850″ got this treatment and is now as good as new!
The reason why this worked is that over time as the card heats up the soldering points goes bad, but after 10 min in 200 C they melt back together.
Brilliant!!
Attention:
Nordic Vikings.net takes no responsibility if this doesn’t work, or cause any further/other damage to your computer! You do this at your OWN RISK! Nordic Vikings.net relinquish all financial losses that may occur for the user!
© 2010 Nordic Vikings
Posted in Hardware | Tags: bad gpu, blue screen of death, bsod, computer crashes, computer hangs, computer reboot, gray screen then reboot, Nordic-Vikings | No Comments »
Share things super fast in Chrome!
Found this nifty little addon for the Google Chrome browser on the norwegian IT newspaper ITavisen
This addon makes sharing pages you like with your friends on the social networks you choose eazy and quick!
Check out this promo video Cortex Promo
The addon can be downloaded here!
Posted in Recommended by Nordic-vikings.net, Software | Tags: addon, chrome, google, Nordic-Vikings | No Comments »
Recommended Norwegian e-store!
If your going to buy Hardware online in Norway we recommend Netshop.no through personal experience and also they were just tested by the norwegian Consumer Union (Forubruker rådet) in a test among 100 online stores and Netshop and Multicom were the only two that past with NO errors or comments….
Posted in Hardware, Recommended by Nordic-vikings.net | Tags: netshop, netthandel, Nordic-Vikings | No Comments »
Scareware alert!
Online criminals are getting more and more cunning at they’re job, the latest is hard drive defrag. programs like HDDDiagnostic… they advertise through mail and promise quicker computers but when the programs have done they’re job your computer is most definitely slower, spotting them is quite eazy, look for program names very similar to know programs and in the mails they tend to use poor english… the following programs have been identified as scareware and should be avoided at all cost:
* HDDRescue.
* HDDRepair.
* HDDDiagnostic.
* HDDPlus.
* UltraDefragger.
* ScanDisk.
* WinHDD.
* PCoptimizer.
* Privacy Corrector.
* PCprotection Center.
Sources
