We are currently in the process of rebranding “The SDF” to “The PC Report”. The new domain name is http://thepcreport.net. Update your RSS feed to the new feedburner feed.

The forums are currently still over on the old domain. We are investigating the possibility of better integrating the forums with the blog – although we intend to keep all 155 existing forum members and their posts.

Last week it was said by Mircosoft that the participants of the Windows Technical Beta Program would not be receiving a free copy of Windows 7, but they seem to have corrected themselves.

If you were a member of the invite-only Technical Beta Program that got to test some early builds of Windows then you’re in luck: you’ll be receiving a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate from Microsoft as their token of thanks. Too bad it isn’t every person who tested Windows 7 that gets a free copy…

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Corsair is one of the biggest RAM manufacturers in the world, and it seems as though they’ve released some new low-latency CAS 6 1600MHz DDR3 RAM specially designed to go with the AM3 Phenom II. The new set of RAM sticks (2x2GB) also use the DHX+ heatsink (pictured above on the RAM) and come with ultra-low timings of 6-6-6-18.

HotHardware took a look at the RAM and said that it gave performance increases of up to 20% when compared to 1333MHz DDR3 RAM with a Phenom II X4 Black Edition and ASUS Crosshair motherboard. The new speed/timing combo is perfect for the fast new AM3 Phenom II’s integrated low-latency DDR3 controller.

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We showed off not so long ago ASUS’s P6X58 motherboard that included USB 3.0; the first motherboard we’ve seen to include it. But now, according to The Inquirer the motherboard has been completely cancelled by ASUS.

The board was a premium model featuring an X58 chip, LGA 1366 socket for i7s, SATA 6gbps and the major selling point of USB 3.0. The board was apparently pulled “not for any particularly interesting reasons.” This could be because of the Marvell SATA 6gbps chip or it could be because USB 3.0 performance wasn’t up to scratch. We don’t really know

Fortunately, the lack of USB 3 products means that we’re not really missing out on much. However, it would still be good to see some sort of USB 3 motherboard in the future.

You may or may not have heard of Pine Trail, the new architecture for Intel’s line of Atom netbook processors. The new CPU will feature both the main processor and graphics on the same chip, cutting 3 chips (CPU, GPU, Southbridge) down to two (CPU, Southbridge) as illustrated by the above picture.

It was rumoured that the chip was delayed until next year but Mooley Eden, the General Manager of the Mobile Platform Group at Intel, said to Engadget that “Pine Trail is on schedule. You can quote me on that… The three chip solution down to two chip solution [is] coming this year.” Good news for all netbooks; hopefully we’ll have a preview on the chip soon.

This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a 500GB platter, but it sure is great to see some more hard drives adopting a faster way to access data. By reducing the amount of platters there is less work required in moving a head to the data. This advantage can give up to 30% greater performance over a 3-platter hard drive, which is good news for performance buffs.

Anyway, Samsung debuted their latest 1TB Spinpoint F3 HDD that utilises two 500GB platters as mentioned above, as well as a 500GB edition. The hard drives use the standard 3.5″ form factor, spin at a normal 7,200 RPM and have 16 or 32 MB buffer cache. According to Samsung, the 500GB model is available now with the 1TB version slated for a release next month.

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Not so long ago we reported that a “browser ballot screen” will appear on the European versions of Windows 7 (Windows 7 E) giving the user a choice of browser without having to get one via a USB Stick. Well according to ArsTechnica Vista and XP users will also see this ballot screen.

ArsTechnica found that in the fine print of the proposal it states that soon after the European Commission OKs the proposal, Vista and XP will get an update via Windows Update that’s marked “important.” This update will show the ballot screen on the next boot-up if Internet Explorer is set as the default browser, giving users the option to try out a new browser.

Hopefully this proposal will make more users move away from the god-awful IE and to something better such as Firefox or Chrome

Digitimes is saying that two of the biggest companies netbook wise are halting their development of new netbooks until the first quarter of 2010. Both companies are stopping making new netbooks with the Atom N200 series and are waiting on the next-gen portable CPU – Intel’s Pine Trail said to be released around early 2010. Acer is also postponing its dual-boot XP/Android machine because “demand for an Android netbook is not strong enough”

Still, both companies will keep releasing thin ultraportables between now and then, with ASUS planning new 12/14 inch models for August and Acer developing “models featuring discrete graphics cards and an optical drive based on market demand.” We’ll just have to wait to see how that goes

Mozilla have recently released some draft designs for Firefox 3.7 (last week) and 4.0 (today). I’m all for “Embracing Glass” personally, and loving the tabs-on-top design for 4.0. Loving the progress meter below the URL bar too! It’s about time Firefox’s relatively unchanged and aging interface was updated – although they should hurry up with merging the URL bar and search bar for 3.7.

Thom Holwerda thinks that the designs suffer from “visual overload”, although I think a simple adjustment to improve this would simply be removing the page and tools text – although would that be copying Chrome’s design a little too much? Check out the full screenshots after the break

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Working with large RAW files in Photoshop or cranking out complex 3D models? Well you might want to look into ATi’s high-powered beast of a workstation graphics card: the FirePro V8750. Unfortunately for gamers like me this card is not suited for cranking out Very High in Crysis, although according to HotHardware it still can pull 40FPS on High settings.

The card comes equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory at 900 MHz alongside a RV770 GPU clocked at 750 MHz, the standard PCI-E 16x interface and some power-sucking 6-pin PCI-E power connectors. Chuck another card in CrossFire and have 6 screens running via 2 DisplayPorts and 1 DVI port on each card. Of course, all this power comes with a price -  a hefty US$1,799 for just one card; more than I’d be willing to spend…

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