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Filed under: Handhelds

The last VAIO UMPC mod we saw swapped out the UX280 CPU for a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, but this new UX490 tweak beats the pants off that by a long shot. According to “computercowboy,” a forum member on Micro PC Talk, he’s managed to push his handheld to a 45,999 score in Crystal Mark, easily besting the UX280’s 30,069. The swap of this CPU into the UX280 results in radically higher FPU and ALU figures, making it the “fastest UX in the world” — or so says the modder. Now it’s only a matter of time before someone comes along and overclocks this thing, a move which will undoubtedly result in badly singed hands and a melted VAIO — don’t say we didn’t warn you!

[Via UMPC Portal]

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Source: Stephanie Patterson

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Filed under: Gaming

Console modders out there have been doing crazy things with controllers for a while now, and while this latest piece isn’t as crazy as the one-handed Access Controller, it’s still good for a double-take — check out this wired 360 controller shoehorned into a DualShock3 shell, complete with green LEDs. THe modder, RDC, says it works great, rumble included, but that there’s no headset connector and the L2 and R2 triggers aren’t analog — both things he’s hoping to fix in the next version. We’d suggest keeping the DS3 buttons as well — while the colorful 360 buttons look pretty hot against that black case, we’d rather break this thing out and blow minds stealth-style.

[Thanks, Aguiluz]

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Gaming

El rei de la casa, meaning “the king of the house” in Spanish, is a video game exhibition being shown in Barcelona, Spain. The aim of the exhibition is to highlight the mainstream media’s misrepresentation of the internet and all its evils(C), and what better way to dispel these daily falsehoods than by putting together a pinball machine with a couple of LCDs mounted flat? There’s even a “Prey of the Net!” level, where kids avoid losing control by aiming the virtual ball at a browser bar. Just make sure to hit the power-up surely contained in that blue E!

[Via MAKE]

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Source: Conrad Quilty-Harper

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Filed under: Gaming

Warranty extension or not, the widespread nature of Xbox 360 failures pretty much guaranteed that it was only a matter of time before a third party stepped forward with a commercial fix. The X-Clamp Fix from Next Generation seems to the be first of these solutions available, although it’s certainly not as simple as we would have expected. Consisting of some replacement screws and washers, the $15 kit helps you tighten down your GPU heatsink, possibly resetting your GPU in the process, a strategy modders have been using to escape the red ring of death for some time now. Probably worth a look if you’re unable to get warranty service and the other wing-and-a-prayer fixes don’t work for you, but the kit looks like it involves pretty significant disassembly — we’d recommend picking up the phone and begging for an RMA first. Check the world’s most boring installation video after the break.

[Via MaxConsole]Continue reading Commercial X-clamp fix for red-ringed 360s: mostly new screws

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Gaming, Storage

One of the main impediments keeping many people from modding their own consoles is their lack of handiness with a soldering gun — not to mention the whole voided warranty thing — but now a new product is said to be on the horizon that moots both these points in a single blow, the ‘Vast’ advanced custom memory card for PlayStation 2. According to MaxConsole, which claims to have a dialog going with the developers, Vast “essentially exploits a flaw in the PS2 memory card system” to give you the same functionality derived from a hard-wired mod chip sans the need for a single power tool. The only real “proof” we have of this product so far is the above screenshot, which MaxConsole tells us was captured from the card’s proprietary operating system; if this is all on the level, we should know more before the scheduled launch, which is said to be a mere two weeks away.

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Source: Evan Blass

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Filed under: Gaming

Those of you aching to pull open your PSP and do a little modding but afraid to void your warranty — or worse, brick your baby — will want to check out the Virtual PSP Modder software from AcidMods. The Windows tool allows you to practice taking a PSP apart, look at the inside at up to 5X resolution, poke around with a virtual screwdriver and tweezers, tinker with the LEDs, apply random mods to see what works, and more — all without having to crack open your actual, working PSP. Or course, there’s no PSP emulation, so you can’t play any games, and you’ll have to somehow translate what you do on the screen to real life at some point, but hey — even Ben Heck had to start somewhere. Check out a fairly boring video of the software in action after the break.Continue reading Virtual PSP Modder lets you try before you hack

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Source: Nilay Patel

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