NVIDIA Claims No Planned Partner Reduction

NVIDIA has been having a rough year... not many people could argue that. From a dampened product launch to product issues to financial hits to rampant rumors - NVIDIA's had it all. The latest rumor that's been lingering around for a while is that the Santa Clara-based company is preparing to cull a few of its launch partners. Included in the culling were ECS, Biostar, Albatron and Foxconn.

According to DigiTimes, the rumors are not at all true, according to their contact at NVIDIA, who's not quoted in the article. It's noted that the relationship between NVIDIA and their second-tier partners is strong, and they have no plan to reduce supply to them. How'd the rumor start? Who knows, but it could very-well be true that the company was pondering the idea at one point in time.

In related news, the same website also found out that the partners to include SLI support on upcoming X58 motherboards will be ASUS, eVGA, MSI, Gigabyte and DFI. We'll be taking a look at two such boards in the weeks to come, including the ASUS P6T Deluxe OC Palm Edition (which we previewed here) and Gigabyte's EX58-EXTREME, so as usual, stay tuned.

While no maker confirmed that they had heard directly from Nvidia about a plan to downsize its base of graphics card partners, some makers said they heard about such a plan in the market some time ago but with the news spreading through the market, Nvidia would probably adjust any strategy that could damage its brand name.

Source: DigiTimes

Tech Roundup - October 23, 2008

Displays & Video Cards
• AMD Radeon HD 4830 512MB - PC Perspective
• AMD Radeon HD 4830 512MB - Tech Report
• HIS Radeon HD 4830 512MB - Elite Bastards
• PowerColor Radeon HD 4830 512 MB - techPowerUp
• MSI Geforce 9600 GT 1Gb Hybrid Freezer - Madshrimps
• Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD4850 - TweakNews

Memory & Storage
• Corsair Flash Voyager Mini 4GB and 8GB - TestFreaks
• G.Skill 4GB DDR2-800 Pi Black Series Dual Channel - Big Bruin
• Patriot Memory PC3-12800 Extreme Performance 4GB - ClubOC

Peripherals & Gadgets
• Apple iPod Touch 32GB - Digital Trends
• Microsoft SideWinder X5 Mouse - i4u

Cooling
• Antec Notebook Cooler 200 - IT Reviewed
• Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler - TopReviewshop
• Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer - PureOverclock
• Swiftech MCP655 (Adjustable) Pump - Bjorn3D

Chassis & Power Supplies
• Antec Micro Fusion 350 - Overclockers Club
• Ikonik Zaria A20 Mid-Tower Enclosure - TweakTown
• SilverStone Sugo SG04 - Phoronix
• Thermaltake V9 Gaming Case - Think Computers

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• 101 Tech Tip Tweaks for Windows - PC Stats
• Top 10 Most Overhyped Tech Products - Digital Trends