Next generation connectivity hits AMD's platform

Gigabyte, the world's second largest motherboard manufacturer, announced today the availability of next generation USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps interfaces on AMD hardware. The technology, marketed as 333 Onboard Acceleration, was first released a few weeks ago on their P55A lineup of Intel motherboards.

The new features will first be available on three motherboards sporting different variations of AMD's latest chipsets. The GA-790FXTA-UD5 will cover the high-end market, while the GA-790XTA-UD4 and GA-770TA-UD3 will bring the latest technologies to an affordable price point.

Both USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps are implemented the same way as they are on Intel motherboards. The NEC µPD720200 provides two USB 3.0 ports and Marvell's SE9128 supplies a pair of SATA 6 Gbps ports as well as hardware RAID0 support. The two controllers are each connected using a PCI-Express 2.0 lane.

In addition to third generation USB and SATA, Gigabyte also designed their USB ports to be able to handle up to three times as much power as required by the standard. The boards support AM3 processors up to 140W and also embed Gigabyte's proprietary Ultra Durable 3 and Easy Energy Saver features.

All three AMD motherboards will be hitting your favorite retailer within a couple weeks from now.

Check out this beast of a machine

NVIDIA teamed up the folks at Smooth Creations and a world-class case modder by the name of Richard “Darth Beavis” Surroz to build a hell of a gaming PC that is now for sale on eBay.

The idea came from NVIDIA employee, and former hardware editor guy, Paul Jastrzebski, who has had a friend of his recently diagnosed with a multiple myeloma -- a cancer of the blood. 100 percent of the proceeds of this sale will be going to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  And as you can see from the pictures, this system is pretty bad ass.

The case goes without saying; as for the rest of it: you get the best CPU out right now, the Core i7 975 Extreme Edition, watercooled, and dual GTX 295s are on graphics duty. Then you get 3D Vision (which we have a review of coming soon, by the way), and 12GB of Crucial Ballistix DDR3. Two 256GB SSD's in a Raid 0 setup will be storing the games, and two 1TB drives will take care of everything else. An Asus Rampage II Gene X58 motherboard gets the job done here.

So whatta-ya say? Want to place a bid? Right now the system is at $3,500 USD; NVIDIA probably hopes it sell for at least $10,000 USD. 

If your parents, wife, or whomever is not convinced that you need this computer, just tell them it is for charity.

Packs both P45 and Ion chipsets on a single board

While powerful quad-core processors from AMD and Intel have been getting most of the attention lately, low power platforms are also gaining in popularity, thanks to the incredible abundance of netbooks and nettops.

Well, DFI is coming up with something that might just put some life back into the Core 2 platform, while retaining the advantages of a low power system: their DFI Hybrid P45-ION-T2A2 attempts to bring everything together and it seems to be very well executed.

The motherboard actually has two full systems, one based on the Intel P45 and the other on nVidia's Ion. That means you can use a more powerful LGA775 processor to do the heavy work, while the frugal Atom processor can be used as a NAS, low power server or general, but light usage such as web browsing or word processing. Both can be controlled independently and are squeezed on a standard sized ATX motherboard.

Its projected $399 price tag will definitely not have everyone holding their breath for it, but it should appeal to a certain niche and there is no doubt it is a great technical achievement.

The video below demonstrates the rather interesting  capabilities of the system, inclusing the embeded network switch and KVM.

It looks like it might well be worth the money after all! If only the late October or early November release window could come sooner.

Supports 3-way or 2-way multi-GPUs in either SLI or CrossFireX

Along with its P7P55D Series boards, ASUS has also released a version of it WS SuperComputer board based on the P55 chipset; features the new LGA1156 socket for next-generation Intel Core i5 processors and dual-channel DDR3 memory at speeds up to 2133MHz (overclocked).

The motherboard supports both 3-way and 2-way graphics card configurations based on SLI or CrossFireX technology to enable multiple-GPU rendering. Users can install up to three SLI-capable GeForce graphics cards at x16, x8, and x8 connection speeds, or two graphics cards at true x16 connection speeds; those wanting to go with ATI graphic cards can use CrossFireX for a multi-GPU setup.

The SuperComputer in the product's name is just a marketing term though, as the ASUS P7P55 WS SuperComputer provides the foundation for users to build a cost-effective personal supercomputer by leveraging the power of NVIDIA's CUDA parallel computing architecture; there's room for three NVIDIA Tesla cards and one NVIDIA Quadro card that combine to generate four teraflops of computing power which ASUS claims is 250 times that of a standard PC.

Like it's mainstream P55 counterparts, the P7P55 WS SuperComputer comes with ASUS TurboV EVO, an easy to use hardware utility that allows users to boost CPU speeds by up to 22.2% and memory access rates by up to 14.8% by simply pressing a button. Also featured is ASUS Hybrid Power with 16+3 phase power design and T.Probe technology for active cooling and Hybrid OS for rapid online access. There are plenty of connections including dual Gigabit LAN, 6 SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports, 14 USB 2.0 and 2 x 1394a ports.

These boards are currently available online in the $225-$250US range.

Supports LGA 1156 socket for Intel Core i7/Core i5 processors

Asus launched its P7P55D Series motherboards yesterday in conjunction with the official release of the Intel Core i5/i7 processors. Based on the Intel P55 Express chipset, the six new motherboards in the P7P55D Series support the latest LGA 1156 socket processors with some innovative new features.

The P7P55D Premium is the flagship model in the series and is the first to offer native support for SATA 6Gbps data transfer bandwidth through the use of an expansion bridge; the new interface nearly doubles the throughput on the latest SATA devices, enabling 50% faster reading and writing of disk data. Other models in the series can achieve the same results through the use of the PCIE GEN2 SATA6G expansion card available as an option.

Dual-channel DDR3 memory is supported at speeds of up to 2000MHz (2133MHZ overclocked on some models). All but the lowest model come equipped with Hybrid Phase Technology Which combines ASUS Xtreme Phase with ASUS T.Probe — the world’s first active cooling technology that detects and balances power phase loadings and temperatures in real time. Both novice and advanced overclockers can easily boost system performance with TurboV EVO’s intuitive interface and three easy-to-use tools; auto tuning automatically overclocks and self-tests the system to an extreme yet stable state and the P7P55D Premium and Deluxe models come with ASUS TurboV Remote that allows users to adjust performance settings from a convenient controller.

Depending on model, there are 6-9 SATA ports, 12-14 USB 2.0 ports and 1-2 eSata connections. Prices ranges from $279 for the Premium motherboard to as little as $139 for the P7P55D LE on the low end although you can currently find these online for less.

Six new models support Intel LGA1156 socket Core i5/i7 processors

Gigabyte has launched its series of P55 chipset motherboards in conjunction with the official release of Intel's Core i7 and Core i5 Lynnfield processors (check out our review here.) The P55 chipset boards use the new LGA1156 socket required for the new Intel processors, support dual-channel DDR3 memory up to 2200MHz and are all built using Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3 technology.

The Ultra Durable 3 motherboards use 2 ounces of copper for both the power and ground layers which allows for greater heat dissipation while also offering improved energy efficiency and enhanced stability for overclocking; they also feature Japanese solid capacitors boasting 50,000 hours of operation, ferrite core chokes with higher energy efficiency compared to the commonly used iron core chokes and Lower RDS(on) MOSFETs that features a lower resistance, resulting in reduced power consumption and heat generation.

The new P55 motherboards offer a host of other features including the introduction of the world’s first 24 phase power VRM design on the GA-P55-UD6 model that has been designed and engineered to deliver fast transient response times through quick and seamless power delivery during extensive CPU loading variations; this results in a cooler and more stable platform as heat from the VRM is effectively reduced by spreading the load between all 24 power phases.

The P55 series boards also come with GIGABYTE Smart 6, six software utilities that provide an easier and smarter way for managing your system; the utilities include functions for faster boot times, easy overclocking, dual BIOS, rollback features and more.

The are six models in the P55 series at launch and you can find out more by checking out the web site here.

Not exactly a budget board

A new high-end motherboard has gone up for sale today. Built by EVGA, it has a name; it's Classified. The EVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI.

Being built upon the performance-focused X58 chipset, you'll be able to run up to 4 Nvidia or ATI video cards, if you are interested in doing such things. The Classified has a whopping 7 PCIe slots. 

Selling for somewhere around $450, this a top-end motherboard, probably appealing to those hardware junkies out there that want the best firepower they can get, no matter the cost.

Interested in the full specs? Click here.

$111 worth of discounts, plus a few MIRs

Many manufacturers teamed up to offer customers a mega bundle deal on an AMD Dragon Platform computer, available on Newegg.com. It comprises eight, yes eight components. In other words, what you get is a complete PC. The only thing left to do is build it.

This computer sets you at a not too shabby $679.88 after MIRs, or $719.88 without. Moreover, you get free shipping on this large package. Buying each part separately would cost you $831.81 and most probably a somewhat steep shipping cost.

With the already awesome price/performance ratio of the dragon platform, this deal just make it even more attracting. Don't miss out on it!

Micro ATX Black Series board with integrated graphics

ECS first announced its A785GM-M micro ATX board back in May in time for Computex 2009 which officially launched this week. Based on the AMD 785G and SB710 chipsets, it supports the latest socket AM3 45nm AMD Phenom II processors up to 140W TDP; the A785GM-M also supports up to 32GB DDR3 1333/1066/800 SDRAM via the 4 DIMM sockets although 16GB is the practical limit due to maximum DRAM size of 4GB at present. The board also offers plenty of connections with Gigabit LAN, 12 USB 2.0 ports, 6 SATA 3.0Gb/s connections, along with Firewire and eSATA connectors.

Due to its size, the A785GM-M is ideally suited for a home theater build and offers integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics including AMD Hybrid Crossfire technology and DirectX 10.1 capabilities. Recognizing the potential as an HTPC platform, ECS has also included 8-channel HD audio and HDMI+DVI+VGA video connections along with eJIFFY, a Linux-based interface for quick booting for when you just need to go online for browsing or checking e-mail.

ECS didn't formally announce pricing or availability but you can find it online now for around $100US.

Intel, ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI to offer SLI support on P55 motherboards

With the upcoming release of the Intel P55 Express chipset and socket LGA1156-based motherboards designed for the Intel Core i7 and Core i5 LGA1156 socket processors just around the corner, Nvidia announced that the major motherboard manufacturers have licensed its SLI technology for inclusion on the next-generation boards.

The announcement means customers will be able to pick up boards based on the new p55 chipset that will support up to quad SLI configurations. It also means that Nvidia has filled in some gaps in platforms making its SLI technology available for all consumer PC platforms; that lineup has now been stretched to include the Intel Core i7, Core i5, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo processors, as well as those based on the AMD Phenom II CPU.

This is certainly good new for gamers and enthusiasts alike as they will now be able to choose Nvidia and SLI technology and Intel P55 chipset from the start.

Seems to work on P45/X38/X48 motherboards for now, in Directory Services Restore OS Mode

NVIDIA has allowed SLI on X58 motherboards. If we do not consider the Intel Skulltrail platform and the HP Blackbird 002, it was the first time SLI was enabled on a non-NVIDIA motherboard. However, it is now possible to enable it on a few other chipsets.

Most people agree that NVIDIA chipsets for Intel socket 775 processors are not worth much when it comes down to overclocking, so this could allow both insane FSBs seen on Intel chipsets and SLI technology at the same time.

So let's go straight to the experiment. Apparently, Firewings [CCG], the author of the little software that would allow this hack, was able to get SLI to work on his ASUS Maximus Formula, when running in the Directory Services Restore Mode. However, Firewings [CCG] is confident that he will soon get it to work under normal mode. Moreover, it seems he got it working using a GTX 260 and a... 8600GT! That would mean he has achieved two hacks at once.

Expreview has run their own tests using the second version of the ASUS motherboard and a pair of GTX 260, and it was a success.

Who knows, maybe later it will be made to work on the P35 chipset, and on AMD motherboards!

Written from scratch, lots of improvements for all your sweeping needs

If you don't like driver issues, Driver Sweeper is a free program we can wholly recommend using.

The long and short of it is before installing a new driver (like say, those new NVIDIA drivers released today), you uninstall the old ones, reboot, run Driver Sweeper to get rid of all the old bits lying around, then install the new set, thereby minimizing the possibility of any future conflicts or issues. We've been using it for some months now with only good results, so there's that.

Version 2.0 is released today, complete with an overhaul, Windows 7 support, lots of improvements and more. Grab it at Phyxion; link and changelog is below.

Driver Sweeper is completely rewritten from scratch at 2.0.0

• This version requires at least .NET 3.5 installed.
• UAC message requiring administrator access on Windows Vista and Windows 7 on startup if UAC is enabled.
• Resizable window.
• Lowered requirements to .NET 3.0.
• Windows 7 support.
  Only the final version is supported.
• Updated:
     - Improved ATi - Display cleaning.
     - Improved NVIDIA - Display cleaning.
     - Improved NVIDIA - PhysX cleaning.
     - Renamed AGEIA - PhysX to NVIDIA - PhysX
• Added many translations

MSI's overclocking competition in full swing

Selection for the MSI Master Overclocking Arena North American qualifiers begin today and MSI is inviting overclockers from USA, Mexico and Canada to sign up and participate in this online tournament to determine the best overclocking team from their respective countries.

Phase I competition is open to everyone and the qualifiers will run from June 29th to July 19th. All you need to do to take part is submit your highest overclocking score online. The top 10 winners will be selected for the Phase II which runs July 25th to August 2nd. The top two overclockers from that round get to choose a guest to accompany them to the MOA 2009 Grand Final in Beijing. So head on over to the MOA 2009 site and check out the rules and submit your best overclocking score.

Qualifier event details announced for North and South American region

We gave you a heads up about MSI's Master Overclocking Arena a week ago and now MSI has the site ready in preparation for the regional competition for overclockers from USA, Mexico, Canada, South America.

Phase I of the competition runs from June 29th - July 19th and is open to everyone; all you have to do is submit your best overclocking score online. The top 10 winners will be selected for Phase II of the competition which runs from July 25th - August 2nd. The 10 teams will be whittled down to the top two and each winner can invite one person to head to the grand finale competition pitting winners from other regions around the world to be held in Beijing, China this August with hotel and airfare paid for by MSI. To sweeten the pot a little more, the top 3 finishers for North America will walk away with $6,000 worth of prizes and components,

You don't have to be an overclocker to join in the fun as you can stop by the official MSI MOA 2009 website to check out the rules and cheer on your favorite team.

American competition to begin soon

MSI is putting together its U.S. web site for the MOA overclocking competition which is set to begin soon. While final details are a little sparse, there is some early information you can use to begin preparing yourself - that is if you think you have what it takes to compete against the best from the U.S. and around the world.

Here's what we have so far:

• Phase 1 elimination round – 6/29-7/19 (scores will be submitted online.  Top 10 will continue into Phase 2)
• Phase 2 showdown round – 7/25-8/2 (scores submitted online.  Top 3 will receive hardcore X58 systems.  Top 2 from the top 3 will move on to Grand Tournament in Beijing China with paid flight and hotel)

The official U.S. Sponsors are OCZ and Thermaltake and there will be over $6000 in prizes and a free trip for the top two teams to Beijing, China. The MSI MOA site should have more details very soon so take this as an early heads up to get prepared; you can check out the MOA Arena web site and read up on the rules posted for the European and SEA competitions to get a feel for how things work.

All it takes is a BIOS upgrade

Owners of MSI X58 motherboards will finally be able to run multiple Nvidia graphics cards in SLI mode simply by downloading a new set of firmware from MSI's web site and flashing the BIOS using the built-in M-Flash tool; users also have the option to upgrade the MSI X58 mainboard in Windows using MSI’s Live Update tool.

All of the MSI X58 boards currently support ATI's CrossFireX but, prior to this, you had to be using one of MSI's Eclipse boards if you wanted to run multiple GeForce cards on your Core i7 system.

Now maybe enthusiasts with one of MSI's X58 boards can challenge Eclipse owners for overclocking supremacy -- a new world record of 5.7Ghz was recently set using the MSI Eclipse SLI and the Intel Core i7 975.

Team USA1 takes first place, breaks 3DMark Vantage world record

It's one thing for a company to tout the ability of its products to be pushed to the limits, however it's an entirely different matter when it actively promotes the use of them for overclocking around the world as Gigabyte does with its GO OC competitions. The competitions begin with events in 26 countries around the world that lead to four regional events to determine which teams will compete in the world finals in Taiwan. This year teams from the U.S., China, Sweden, Belgium and Australia met June 3 for five hours of head-to-head competition to see who would walk away as this year's champions.

When all the liquid nitrogen vapors cleared, Team USA (Fugger and Vapor) came away with the first place position and in the process broke the 3DMark Vantage world record for GTX 260 Dual Card SLI with PhysX disabled with a score of 28,093. In addition to worldwide fame and guaranteed groupies (OK, maybe that's stretching it a bit) Team USA also received $5,000 and products from various sponsors.

The Belgian team, PT1T and Massman, won the SuperPI competition with a score of 6mins 40secs in SuperPI 32m using an Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition processor and Gigabyte's GA-EX58-UD5 motherboard overclocked to 5.634GHz. This just goes to show that not only does Gigabyte promote overclocking around the world but backs it up with products like the GA-EX58-UD5 which managed a 76% performance boost over the default 3.2GHz with 4 cores, 8 threads.

Powered by Intel's latest Core i7 975 Extreme Edition processor

CyberPower is introducing a pair of high-performance gaming computers based on Intel's latest desktop CPU, the 3.33GHz Core i7 975 Extreme Edition. The Fang product line consists of the Black Mamba and the Cobra and include features targeted at gamers and enthusiasts starting with a special BIOS designed to allow for higher overclocking including real time readings of CPU speed and additional options for QPI signal and CPU Clock Skew features.

The Black Mamba pairs the Core i7 975 Extreme Edition processor with a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 motherboard and 6GB of DDR3 1600MHz memory. The unit comes with a factory overclock that pushes the CPU speed to 4.0GHz. CyberPower keeps the heat down with an Asetek liquid cooling system, all tucked inside a Cooler Maser Storm Sniper full-tower case with a Thermaltake ToughPower 1000W  power supply. That much power will come in handy as the rig includes a pair of  NVIDIA GeForce GTX285 1GB videocards, two 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor drives in RAID 0 and a third 1.5TB data drive.

The Cobra is a more modest rig that uses the same Core i7 975 Extreme Edition CPU running at stock speeds on the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 motherboard. The Cobra is also water cooled but includes a single GeForce 285 videocard and a single 1TB hard drive, all housed in an Azza Solano 1000 full-tower case with an 800W power supply.

The base MSRP of the Black Mamba is $3999 with the Cobra starting at $2399 and both systems can be ordered direct from CyberPower.

New Intel P55 and AMD 785G chipset boards on display

Gigabyte has a range of new motherboard products on display at Computex 2009 this week including boards featuring its 24-phase power VRM design along with boards based on Intel's upcoming P55 chipset and AMD's 785G chipset.

The 24-phase power VRM is designed to deliver power more efficiently to the CPU and spread the workload over 24 power phases allowing for greater heat reduction, better stability and higher overclocking ability. This new feature will be used on the X58-based GA-EX58A-EXTREME and the P55 GA-EP55-UD5 boards for Intel processors. Both boards support next-gen SATA running at 6Gbps and will be featured in live-demos this week.

For AMD enthusiasts GIGABYTE has the GA-MA790FXT-UD5P based on the AMD Dragon platform for the latest 45nm socket AM3 Phenom II processors. Also on display will be the GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H that with DirectX 10.1 gaming support with ATI Stream technology based on the latest AMD 785G chipset with ATI RADEON HD 4200 graphics.

No prices were disclosed, but GIGABYTE has revealed the following launch windows: Intel X58- GA-EX58A-EXTREME (July), Intel P55 GA-EP55-UD5 (September), AMD GA-MA785G-UD3H (Q3).

Normally we would see such things in magazines, but MSI made quite an innovation: a word scramble printed on a motherboard!

This morning I was tinkering with computer hardware when I grabbed the MSI 790FX-GD70 I had reviewed a while ago. All of a sudden, something I had never noticed in two months just popped out on me:

Can you guess the answer? If you inverse the two letters in the center, you get... "dial"!

But I'm joking. This is more likely a typo than a word scramble game. I am just amazed that nobody else had caught this typo. Sure it happens to everyone. We often see some typos in user manuals and more rarely in BIOS screens, but right on a motherboard!? This is a premiere.

This motherboard is version 1.0. Maybe it has been fixed on later versions? Also, I wonder if such a thing is covered under warranty...

Prizes include GeForce GTS 250 videocard and an AMD 790GX motherboard

Just in time for summer, ECS is offering a chance to win free stuff just by following ECS on Twitter. It's all very simple, no complex contest rules or forms to fill out. All you have to do is log on to your Twitter account and go to http://twitter.com/ecsusa and click on “Follow”. Next, send the following tweet (no quotes) “RT @ecsusa I want to win that motherboard or VGA #ecsusa http://tinyurl.com/gimmethatboard”. All that's left is to sit back and wait until June 12, 2009 at 5:00PM Pacific Time when ECS will hold the raffle and respond within 48 hours if you win. How easy is that?

The first prize is an ECS NGTS250-1GMU-F GeForce GTS250 graphics card that comes with 1024MB DDR3 SDRAM with 256-bit data bus. The second winner will receive the ECS A790GXM-AD3, a Socket AM3 board for AMD Phenom II processors supporting DDR3 1333 memory. Part of the ECS Black Series, the board also features an AMD 790GX-based integrated GPU with ATI Radeon HD3300 graphics.

Sounds like a pretty cool way to get your summer started.

Micro ATX AMD and Intel P55 Black Series boards unveiled

The weeks leading up to the annual Computex show in Taipei always bring lots of new product announcements. ECS has kicked things off with the announcement of two new motherboards it is unveiling at the show next week.

First up is the A785GM-M, a new micro ATX board based on the AMD 785G and SB710 chipsets. The board supports AMD's 45nm Phenom II processors and DDR3 memory. With the 785G chipset and the integrated ATI Radeon 4200 GPU, the A785GM-M is ideally suited for digital home entertainment applications with its D-sub 15 pin/ DVI/ HDMI rear panel connectors. That doesn't mean the board is lacking in performance features though -- take for instance its 5-phase power design supporting up to 125W TDP processors, all solid capacitors and ECS-exclusive M.I.B. II overclocking utility.  

The second board being introduced is based on the Intel P55 chipset. The ECS P55H-A motherboard is designed for the upcoming Lynnfield/Core i5 processor and comes with dual PCIe 2.0 slots that can run in either single x16 or dual x8 mode. The board also supports Intel Matrix storage technology through its 6 SATA 3Gb/s ports and has 14 USB 2.0 ports as well.

Both of these boards are part of the ECS Black Series and as they are just being introduced, ECS has not yet released any information on availability or pricing.

Republic of Gamers line marches on to Phenom II's

Asus released a new higher-end motherboard today, aimed at the gamer and enthusiast crowd. Part of the Republic of Gamers line, the new Crosshair III Formula motherboard looks like it is ready to turn a few heads.

It is a socket AM3 790FX chipset, supporting the new Phenom II's. The motherboard comes with a SupremeFX X-Fi sound card, compatible with the ROG OC Station (a big fan a system status LCD display that fits into a drive bay and attaches to the motherboard that allows for on-the-fly overclocking and more), and the new MemOK! feature, which is a button right on the mobo that resets the memory to run at default speeds if there is a problem when POSTing.

Overclocking setup featured in The Proving Grounds video

When you set out to break a world record you need a few things to ensure your success including the right equipment, experience and a willingness to push things to the limit. In this case overclocker Brian Mclachlan, or chew*, has what it takes when he takes on the 3DMark06 world record.

Pairing an AMD Phenom II X4 955 with a GIGABYTE GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard, chew* took a run at the record using air, dry ice and liquid nitrogen cooling. Taking full advantage of the Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3 Technology, Brian was able to break 3DMark06 records for dual Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4890 in dual CrossFire setups. Brian also claimed the #2 spot using a single HD 4890 videocard. For the dual ATI Radeon HD 4850 class he achieved a 3DMark06 score of 28,831 and hit 32,281 in the dual ATI Radeon HD 4890 class.

For more on this feat you can check out a video AMD produced called The Proving Grounds.

Ban of broken hardware exports goes public

Quick though we may be to jump on cases of corporate misconduct, those involving doing good on consumers and the environment deserve equal praise, too. Though Dell does appear to have accepted bribes from Intel, they are willing to rectify environmental hazards if they can help it, we learn today.

As it were, the computer corporation has been exporting broken computers, monitors, and hardware to developing countries in response to opposition due to insufficient enforcement of environmental and worker-safety regulations in the regions, resulting in an "often hazardous electronic-waste recycling industry." Turns out many of the people aren't so grateful for the gear and would rather smash and/or burn it instead of putting it to use; the behaviour exposes citizens to mercury, lead and other toxic chemicals.

The revised policy is not necessarily a huge deal in itself, but the fact they're making this news public could go a long way in the bigger picture, say environmental organizations, since US regulations are non-existent and Dell is the world's number two computer manufacturer. According to reports, they're doing a very thorough job, too, auditing each one of its 25 recycling partners and tracking the electronics from the point of collection to their final destinations.

Dell's senior manager for environmental sustainability Mark Newton says they've seen the light, so to speak:

"We have suppliers lining up to work with us. There are plenty of reputable suppliers. It's just a matter of time before companies operating on the margins lose the business of companies that are serious about doing this the right way."

There are exceptions to the new rules, but they seem entirely reasonable. Assuming Dell is true to its word and isn't just greenwashing, we applaud them wholeheartedly.