Says Major Nelson, the Xbox Live community guru:

When Preview Program members start receiving the Xbox 360 system update next week, one of the changes is that unauthorized Memory Units will no longer work with the Xbox 360. If you've moved your profile or saved games onto one to "back it up," you'd better move it back onto an authorized Xbox 360 storage device prior to taking the update. If you continue to use an unauthorized Memory Unit after the update, you will not be able to access your stored profile or saved games.

One way to be sure you have an authorized storage device is to check it against this list.

Note: Unauthorized does not necessarily mean "third party." This link identifies the brands featured on third party products - including memory units - that are authorized.

Don't Use Unauthorized Xbox 360 Storage Devices [Major Nelson, via Gamers Reports]

Microsoft promised that some kind of 'storage solution' was in the works and has just released details of an upgrade program to ensure under-specced consoles can receive the dashboard replacement.

www.xboxstorageupgrade.com recommends either clearing some space by removing saved content or entering your Serial Number and Console Id to see if you are eligible for either a free 512 MB memory card or a 20 GB hard-drive for $19.99.

UPDATE: We are checking the validity of this. The link seems genuine, but nothing has shown up through the usual MS sources and there have been rumors that this is a phishing scam. Microsoft has been contacted for comment.

UPDATE 2, Electric Boogaloo: Microsoft have confirmed that the site is genuine.

Enjoy the New Xbox Experience and Xbox LIVE![Xbox Storage Upgrade via Xbox.com - thanks to Magnum1024k for the tip]

I finally got down to the nitty-gritty, here's what I think I'm going to buy to put together for my PC:

Cooler Master Centurion 532 ATX Mid Tower Case: $65
Rosewill RP550-2 550w power supply: $60
Abit KN8-Sli motherboard: $97
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ CPU: $257
Two Kingston 1GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM: $99 each
XFX Geforce 7950GX2 1G graphics card ($550) or eVGA Geforce 7950GX2 1GB graphics card ($580)
Total: 1158

I decided to go with a Sli-enabled motherboard because I really, really want the Geforce 7950GX2 graphics card. I also decided to skimp a tad on the CPU to make sure I could afford that particular graphics card. The 4800 AMD chip would have cost an extra $130 and I'm not sure if it's worth the money. I still plan on using my two harddrives and the bits and pieces I don't have listed here.

So what do you think? Any fatal mistakes before I take the plunge and go on an ordering frenzy? Brian Crecente

In a stroke of rather charming ingenuity and consideration for their seaborne customers, specialty memory manufacturer Corsair has provided a wide variety of translations for their online catalogue. Including Pirate. Via Lumberjack Bauer on Digg:

How many times have you tried to buy memory but could not because you are a pirate and cannot understand proper english? If this is you, you're in luck. Corsair has added a "Pirate Language" option on their memory finder application. Just click on the Jolly Roger.

I do wish it translated the entire site, but this is good enough for now:

Ye have a barnacle-covered PC that be getting sluggish? Ye have a new PC and be looking for memory that makes it faster than a clipper with a full mast? Want to enhance yer gaming experience by boosting th' performance o' yer gaming rig?

Let this be a reminder that Talk Like a Pirate Day is not so far away: September 19th. Eliza "ask me how to become a pirate" Gauger

See their search page here [Corsair, via Digg]

Nuzzled in the Wiimote, there's 6KB of memory. Not a lot by any post-80's standard. No one seems to know what it's for. But Press the Button has an interesting idea on one possible use:

I want my player profile stored in that memory. When I turn on the Wii and it detects the controller, the two devices should sync up and automatically assign my name into the game. Imagine entering your name or initials one time during initial configuration and then never having to do it again on a per game basis as we do now. Imagine taking your Wii controller to a friend's place and having his Wii automatically pick up your identity from your controller.

You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that's an excellent guess. I mean, after all, Nintendo has stressed that they want gamers to feel a connection to their Wiimote, like a personal Excalibur. Making the Wiimote into a sort of identifying key is just a swell idea; let's hope Nintendo's on the same page. Florian Eckhardt

Where EverybodWii Knows Your Name [Press the Buttons]

Wiiflap enthusiasts, let loose your most raucous rattles of delight: a new Wiister Egg of a flap has been spotted in a Spanish Wii forum. Says Joystiq:

A member of the Spanish gaming forum Canal Nintendo has posted an image that appears to feature another mystery port located near the bottom of the left side of Wii.

Speculation about the new port includes DS slot, SD memory slot, Fleshlight Rumblepak peripheral compatibility, and Juicy Fruit dispenser. Eliza gauger

Another Wii mystery port spotted [Joystiq]
Month-old forum post on the same topic [WarpPipe]

I spent some time over the weekend trying to mock up a desktop that would let me use at least some of my current bits and pieces.

I'm not exactly thrilled with all of the components in the system, but staying at about $1,000, this seems to be the best I could do.

I leaned heavily, very heavily, on Ars Technica's Hot Rod specs for this system. (thanks, Dan) I also tried building systems with Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo PC and Hypersonic. I found that Alienware was the most reasonably priced (they came in at $2,120), but I wasn't happy with some of their options, including graphics card, so I think I'll build my own.

I think I'm going to go with an Abit KN8 Ultra motherboard. It isn't SLI-capable, but I don't think I will be using that anytime soon, and it's super affordable, coming in at under $90.

For the processor I decided to go with AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4600+. I'm still going back and forth on the processor speed. The 4200 runs $350, while the 4600 comes in at $530. I'm not sure if it's worth the extra money. I'm a little worried about the whole AMD over Intel. I know I probably shouldn't be, but I was one of those people who bought an AMD chip right when they were getting started and it wasn't a pleasant experience.

As you guys almost all suggested, I'll be going with two 1GB sticks of ram. I'm leaning toward the Kingston PC3200s (about $88 each), but if you have a better suggestion I'm all ears.

My graphics card selection was between Radeon's X1800XT or X1900 XT (both with 512) or Nvidia's GeForce 7900GT. The Radeons were considerably less expensive and since I opted for a non-SLI card, I think I'll go with either the 1800 or 1900. There's a $90 price difference between the two, so I'm still pondering which to choose.

I'm going to stick with my two Barracuda 7200 120GB harddrives. I'm also going to keep my SoundBlaster sound card and my three flat panel monitors.

Since my power supply is way too weak (250 watts), I'm going to go with an Antec SLK3800B case which comes with a built in 400W power supply. I'm a little worried that even 400W, won't be good future proofing, but upgrading that down the line shouldn't be a problem. My other option is to stick with my Gateway case and just buy a power supply like the 600W Coolermaster, which uns about $78.

This system rings up at about $1,000 to $1,200 (depending on my choices), which isn't that bad.

So here are my main concerns. Is it a bad idea to skip out on the SLI-enabled motherboard and go with ATI? And, do you think mixing AMD and ATI is a bad decision? Brian Crecente

Ars System Guide [Ars Technica]

Every time I try to report on the technical angle of gaming — how many triangles are being squirted per second out of a console's positronic sphincter and what not — ten thousand of you instantly email me to point out that I got it all wrong. So I'm not even going to try this time. Read for yourself why the PS3 is "slow and broken."

For local memory, the measured vs theoretical bandwidth is missing, I wonder why? RSX is at a solid 22.4GBps for both read and write, good job there green team. Then comes the blue team with Cell. Local memory write is about 4GBps, 40% of the next slowest bandwidth there. Then comes the bomb from hell, the Cell local memory read bandwidth is a stunning 16MBps, note that is a capital M to connote Mega vs a capital G to connote Giga. This is a three order of magnitude oopsie, and it is an oopsie, as Sony put it "(no, this isn't a typo...)".

The author claims that the PS3's hardware is inferior even to last year's 360... not necessarily surprising, considering the mediocrity of the demos we saw at E3. A more important question is: if the games are fun, does it matter? I'm tempted to say no, but at this point, even the most credulous gamer has to ask themselves at this point what they are spending $600 bucks on. The answer? Blu-Ray with a subpar, underpowered game console grafted to the side. FLORIAN ECKHARDT

PS3 Hardware slow and broken [The Inquirer]

Unfortunately, that means that we didn't report on the PC side of things very much. Sorry about that — you PC gamers are a proud and bumptious lot with little to no patience for Nintendo's latest bobble-headed offerings. If you aren't composing your next 1600x1200 graphical sig, replete with all your system's 3DMark scores and the complete quotes of Douglas Adams translated in Tolkein Elvish, you're in the bathroom with a hardware upgrade catalogue, praying fervently that your Mom doesn't knock. We know how it is — we've been there ourselves.

So good news, PC Gamers! Looks like you've got a sexy new PC upgrade coming your way! Because the Inquirer is reporting that Windows Vista is going to require 2 gigs of RAM when it's released early next year. Although 900 meg seems to be the bare minimum required even to use Word or Powerpoint, it looks right now like Halo 2 or any other Windows Vista game is going to double the amount required. Looks like it's time to start peeling apart the soggy pages of your latest Crucial catalogue!

Vista gamers need 2GB plus of memory [Inquirer]

That one-gigabyte memory card not enough? Some folks put everything they can on their Sony portable, only to come up short on memory. Akihabara News brings word of the S25, which is a casing for 2.5" HDD that offers various functionalities (OTG and USB2) and allows you to copy your files from digicams and PSPs. Suddenly the lack of space ain't a problem in PSP-land.

You Can Buy It Too! [Akihabara News]

PNY recently announced some hopped up high speed PC memory designed for gaming. The PNY Verto Hi Speed Gamer Memory Modules come in packs of two 512 MB modules and each includes an intergrated heat spreader. The DDR modules are available in speeds of 400 MHz, 550 MHz and 600 MHz. The DDR2 modules are available in speeds of 533 MHz, 667 MHz, 800 MHz and 1,000 MHz.