MSI European Overclocking Challenge 2008 ~ Report from the OC Field
Madshrimps :: Thursday, August 28, 2008
“Overclocking is in, overclocking is hot! At least, that´s what these last few months are telling us. In the contrary to the previous years of overclocking, in which it was a big taboo for many manufacturers, many top notch brands are deciding to support the overclocking community. We took a trip to Amsterdam, where MSI held its first European Overclocking Challenge and due to some unforeseen circumstances, our editor even participated himself. Read out full report, coming to you straight from between the OC trenches”
back-to-school system guide
Tech Report :: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The back-to-school season is upon us, bringing with it droves of students stocking up on books, school supplies, and something trendy to wear on that all-important first day back. Notebooks are popular at this time of year, of course, but if portability isn’t a priority, desktops can offer substantially more horsepower and flexibility at significantly lower prices. The time is right, then, for another update to our system guide.
It’s been almost two months since the guide was updated, and its contents already read like an ancient Babylonian tale etched on stone tablets. Well, maybe not. But things change quickly in this industry, and the last two months have been no exception. Thanks to falling prices spurred by the introduction of new products, we’ve managed to slip a quad-core processor and a Radeon HD 4870 into our $1,000 Grand Experiment system. The $500 Econobox’s gaming chops have been upgraded with a GeForce 8800 GT, too, and our $1500 Sweet Spot build has been lavished with RAID and other high-end luxuries.
To make things even more interesting this time around, we’ve fashioned a sub-$300 PC based onIntel’s new Atom processor. This system won’t set any performance records, but it should satisfy users looking for basic, no-frills desktop functionality in the kind of small form factor that easily squeezes into cramped dorm rooms. Read on for all the details on this and other builds in our latest system guide.
Interview with Tamas Miklos / Everest
techPowerUp :: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
This month’s interview is with Tamas “Fiery” Miklos who is the brains behind the popular system information software Everest. He talks about his personal background, first experience with computers and how he came to make Everest.
I Know Where You Live [Online Privacy]
PC Mech :: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
“We live in a very inter-connected world today, a world where more and more of our lives take place on the Internet. As a result, pieces of our lives, or at least breadcrumbs of where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to, are left on servers across the Internet. And to illustrate that point, let me relay a quick story from Gnomedex.”
NVISION 08 Day 1: Jen-Hsun Huang’s Keynote
Hot Hardware :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
A few months ago, NVIDIA first told us about their plans to organize a massive event called NVISION that focused on all things in the visual computing field. NVIDIA planned to take over a number of major venues in downtown San Jose, including the convention center and a number of adjacent hotels, and invite experts and celebrities from the high-performance computing, gaming, video, movies, and graphics fields, to participate. An ambitious plan to say the least.
Bloo Balls by Cheapskate
Bit-Tech Modding :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Straight from the forum to our front page, we’ve got a scratch build that anyone interested in plexi, HAL or disaster recovery needs to read. Come on in and take a read over the wonder of Craig’s (aka Cheapskate) Bloo Balls…
NVISION 08: Day 1
Techgage :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Day one at NVISION kicked off and kept us busy from first thing in the morning until the late into the evening. Though nothing new was announced, we did manage to check out a few interesting sights, such as Jen-Hsun’s keynote, exhibitor booths and more.
Lucid HYDRA Engine Multi-GPU Technology
Techgage :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
One of the more exciting third-party demonstrations we saw at Intel’s 2008 Developer Forum was by a little-known company called Lucid, who promises highly-efficient multi-GPU performance scaling via their unique “Hydra Engine” technology. We take a look at Hydra Engine, and what it means for ATI’s Crossfire and NVIDIA’s SLI.
NVISION 08: Day 0
Techgage :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
We’re in sunny San Jose where NVIDIA’s mega-event, NVISION 08, will soon be in full effect. The event is bringing gamers and developers from all over the world to create what NVIDIA hopes to be the first true visual computing convention. We stepped behind the scenes before the official opening to see how things are being set up.
IDF 08 SF: Day 2 Keynote Roundup
Techgage :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Wednesday’s keynote schedule may not have been as chock-full of new hardware demonstrations as Tuesday’s Gelsinger-Perlmutter marathon, but it wasn’t without some excitement of its own. Here’s our summary of the day’s keynote speeches.
IDF 08 SF: Day 1 Keynote Roundup
Techgage :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Greetings from the Fall 2008 Intel Developer Forum! Day 1 is done, and we’ve already heard speeches from some of the biggest names at the company, regarding new products and the company’s future direction, as well as the significance of technological progress worldwide. We’ve got your details about what was said, and who said it.
IDF 08 SF: Intel Reveals More About Nehalem
Techgage :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Intel opened up about their Nehalem architecture at this summer’s IDF, and while we are unable to talk about performance data, what we can talk about is of great interest. Read on as we take a brief look at Turbo Mode, HyperThreading, CPU and Memory overclocking, the triple-channelmemory controller and much more.
ECS “Black Series” P45T-A
Techgage :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Need to build a new rig on the cheap? Need modest Crossfire support, and a decent feature-set? The ECS P45T-A might be worthy of your consideration, as it packs in a good amount of functionality, solid performance, a cool color scheme and of course, a good price tag, of around $110.
OCZ Alchemy Elixir Gaming Keyboard
Techgage :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
OCZ prepares to take on the world of gaming keyboards with their new Alchemy Elixir, part of the company’s Alchemy lineup of gaming peripherals. How does it stack up to the competition from established gaming peripheral companies like Razer, Logitech, and Creative?
PC Specialist Apollo System
Driver Heaven :: Monday, August 25, 2008
PC Specialist are a UK based company who concentrate solely on custom PC builds for consumers that do not have the time or expertise to create a system themselves. Trading since September 2003 they may not be the first name that comes to mind but this does not mean they should be ruled out if you need a prebuilt. Using their web configuration tool it is possible to create a system to match your dreams (or budget!) and one such system is the Apollo.
Today we are reviewing one of the higher specification models in that family which features a quad core Intel processor, dual graphics cards and over a terabyte of storage. As well as the standard performance testing we will also be taking a detailed look to see just how it rates in regards to the quality of the build.
NVISION 08: Day 0
Techgage :: Monday, August 25, 2008
We’re in sunny San Jose where NVIDIA’s mega-event, NVISION 08, will soon be in full effect. The event is bringing gamers and developers from all over the world to create what NVIDIA hopes to be the first true visual computing convention. We stepped behind the scenes before the official opening to see how things are being set up.
NVIDIA NVISION 08 Pre-Show Coverage
Legit Reviews :: Monday, August 25, 2008
“The picture shown above with the big screen TV and the PC game title Race Driver GRID is part of the 3D Stereovision Demo that will be shown during the event. This demo shows off the new stereoscopic 3D hardware and software that has never been shown publicly before. You can play some of the hottest new games with new 3D glasses that are sycn’d with brand new Mitsubishi and View Sonic LCD displays. We took a second to try out GRID and found it to be really fun and the 3D glasses worked great and were much nicer than ones we have seen over the past year…”
IDF In Pictures, A Video Slide Show
Hot Hardware :: Monday, August 25, 2008
Last week’s Intel Developer’s Forum was packed with enough sites and sounds to keep any self-respectng Tech Geek’s head turning. So, we’ve put together a video slide show for you, as sort of a final wrap of the event. Enjoy!
Everything You Need to Know About The QuickPath Interconnect (QPI)
Hardware Secrets :: Monday, August 25, 2008
“Since the beginning of times Intel CPUs use an external bus called Front Side Bus or simply FSB that is shared between memory and I/O requests. The next generation of Intel CPUs will have an embedded memory controller and thus will provide two external busses: a memory bus for connecting the CPU to the memory and an I/O bus to connect the CPU to the external world. This bus is a new bus called QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) and in this tutorial we will be explaining how it works.”
Modders-Inc at NVISION08
Modders Inc. :: Monday, August 25, 2008
NVISION08 is underway and Modders-Inc is there. Come take a look with us as to what is happening at NVISION08
Live blog from the Nvision opening keynote
Tech Report :: Monday, August 25, 2008
Join us as we live blog from Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang’s Nvision keynote address:
Smooth Creations Trek 08 Preview
Nordic Hardware :: Sunday, August 24, 2008
Smooth Creations is widely known for combining the latest hardware with workmanship of a higher art. While you can buy PCs packing extreme hardware from several system builders, only Smooth Creations will give your case an extreme paint job, where every case has personal variations making every computer unique. We got a chance to test its latest system, dubbed Trek 08. The full review will have to wait though, because after unboxing the case we decided that we wanted to publish a short preview first. It wouldn’t be fair to the artwork not to.
IDF: Inside Nehalem
Hot Hardware :: Sunday, August 24, 2008
Nehalem is the codename for Intel’s next generation Core microarchitecture–which has recently been given the official processor family name of “Core i7.” Nehalem was one of the big topics of discussion at IDF–and not just because it represents the next generation of Intel’s processors, but also because the clock is winding down quickly on when the chip will make its official, public debut. An official date has not been given yet, but Intel is promising that we’ll see Nehalem systems for sale sometime in Q4 of this year.
Intel claims that Nehalem represents the biggest platform architecture change to date. This might be true, but it is not a grounds-up, completely new architecture design. We’ve got the full scoop from IDF right here…
Gigabyte Previews Intel Canmore DVP Platform at IDF
PC Stats :: Sunday, August 24, 2008
As consumers we want digital access to our media, but at the same time we want big screen displays not to be undone by the noise of a computer. Intel thinks it may have a solution to this problem. Make a computer that is cheap and quiet, and specialized at media playback in high definition. The Intel Canmore Digital Video Player concept was discussed this week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, and Gigabyte have been quick to highlight its entry into this emerging marketplace.
Student’s Starter Guide to College
Digital Trends :: Saturday, August 23, 2008
“Here are a few items that will make your college dorm room a popular place to be.”
M Festival and i34
XS Reviews :: Saturday, August 23, 2008
The UK isn’t known for massive industry events such as CeBit, but we do hold some fairly large LAN Parties and some small scale events such as the M-Festival.
This year, the M-Festival and the 34th i-Series of LAN Parties were held at the massive Stoneleigh Park, where two halls were being used (one for I34 and one for the M-Festival). Altogether, there were over 2500 Gamers battling it out in various games (the UK’s largest ever LAN) and some of the top leading brands such as Cooler Master and MSI showcasing new products.
Asus Advanced Overclocking Championship Coverage
Overclock 3d :: Thursday, August 21, 2008
With 4870X2’s, QX9770’s and hefty amounts of LN2, ASUS attempt to break some records with the help of the worlds best overclockers.
IDF Day 2: Eric Kim and Renee James Keynotes
Hot Hardware :: Thursday, August 21, 2008
Eric Kim really loves TV. If he ever decides to step down as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Digital Home Group, he might have a future as a game show host. At least he had fun channeling one as he donned a bright red jacket and asked panelists some media-based trivia questions to prove a point during his keynote address at IDF…
Craig Barrett Keynote: “Inspiring Innovation”
Hot Hardware :: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
This year’s IDF kicked off in typical fashion with Pat Gelsinger, Intel senior vice president and general manager, Digital Enterprise Group, taking the stage and giving an brief overview of what the event has to offer over the course of the next three days, including highlighting key speakers (the Woz on Thursday!), contributors, and sponsors.
Gelsinger equated the childhood book series Where’s Waldo with trying to figure out where in the world Intel chairman, Craig Barrett might be at any given moment. As to “Where in the world is Craig Barrett,” the answer could easily be any one of over 30 countries, where Gelsinger suggested that Barrett has become the chief ambassador for the IT industry. Apparently, Barrett has been on every continent except Antarctica. This served as the segue to play a video the explored the themes of Barrett’s keynote speech: “Inspiring Innovation.” We have full coverage of Craig Barrett’s keynote, complete with numerous images, available here:
Anime Festival Orlando 2008
Techware Labs :: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Who doesn’t like anime? Our reporter Justin Washick attended the Anime Festival Orlando 2008 to bring you a look at the wild contests, constumes, and video direct from the event. Intrigued? Check out our coverage of AFO 2008.
Anand Chandrasekher: “MIDs: Platform for Innovation”
Hot Hardware :: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Day two of IDF kicked off with a cheesy, classic Star Trek opening-credits rip-off that concluded with the statement: “The Internet, to boldly go where it has never gone before–in your pocket.” Then it was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher’s turn to present his keynote on the state of today’s and tomorrow’s MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). We’ve got the full scoop from the keynote posted right here…
August GiveAway At Motherboards.org
Motherboards.org :: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Hello everyone, another month means another great month for a free giveaway. This month our friends at XFX sponsor a nice little giveaway featuring a 9800 GT VGA card and a 750A SLI motherboard, thanks XFX. All you have to do to enter is sign up at the link below. I wish everyone luck and remember if you do not enter, you cannot win. Take a chance, roll the dice and live a little, you deserve it so enter below.
Thermaltake VI-ON Hard Drive Enclosure Giveaway!
Think Computers :: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
“ThinkComputers has teamed once again with Thermaltake to bring you another great contest! It is that time of the year, everyone is going back to school and summer is over. We have decided to make this contest a little more interesting, but before we get into that let’s get into the prizes. Thermaltake will be providing 3 of their new VI-ON 3.5″ External Hard Drive enclosures! Each retail for $49.99.”
IDF Keynotes: Gelsinger and Perlmutter
Hot Hardware :: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
While Craig Barrett delivered a rather non-technical, but socially-charged keynote earlier in the day at IDF, Pat Gelsinger’s (Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group) keynote address by contrast was all about the tech. We’ve got all of the details of Gelsinger’s keynote which includes news on Nehalem and Larrabee posted right here:
IDF Day One Coverage
Legit Reviews :: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
One of the most anticipated SATA Solid State Drives (SSD) to come to market has been the upcoming series by Intel. During a briefing at IDF yesterday we found out some more details on these drives and actually have an non-working engineering sample to take home with us. Read on to see the features on the Intel Solid State Drives and see what they look like inside!
Asus Eee Box B202 Small Form Factor PC
Tech Report :: Saturday, August 16, 2008
When Asus released the Eee PC, it introduced a brand-new class of notebook to the market. Asus’s goal seemed fairly simple: to create a notebook as inexpensive and portable as possible. In doing so, it recognized our most common computing tasks-Internet use and word processing-and used those tasks as a baseline for the hardware. The result was a machine designed around a “waste not, want not” sort of philosophy coupled with a recognition that oftentimes, notebooks are used not as a primary computer, but as a secondary companion.
Released at an attractively low $299 price point, the Eee PC was such a runaway success that it led Asus to spin off an entire Eee division and brand, and inspired countless imitators from major competitors such as Dell, HP, and Acer. Recently, even Lenovo has gotten in on the action, announcing the IdeaPad S10 as the latest competitor in this new class of notebook popularly dubbed the “netbook.”
Emboldened by the success of the Eee PC, and with its new Eee division blossoming, Asus seeks to do for the desktop market what it did for notebooks. Many of the ideas the Eee PC was built around also apply to desktops, so it stands to reason a similar bare-essentials approach could be just as effective in a small form factor PC. Thus, the Eee Box was born.
10 Signs Living In A Cubicle Is Getting To You
PC Mech :: Friday, August 15, 2008
“Yes, I was a cubicle dweller and lived it up (read: down) in the corporate lifestyle for several years. It is the land where the most exciting thing that happens all day is when the server goes down (again).”
Grant Hill Interview: What kinda tech does he use?
Digital Trends :: Thursday, August 14, 2008
“Grant tells us about the his team’s Madden NFL addiction, reminisces about his childhood ColecoVision, and reveals what tech he uses daily. ”
Clearing Up Misconceptions about CUDA and Larrabee
Techgage :: Thursday, August 14, 2008
Both Intel and NVIDIA have lots to say about their respective GPU architectures, as well as the competition’s. Partly because of this, there are numerous misconceptions floating around about both Larrabee and CUDA, so we decided to see if we could put to rest a few of the most common ones.
Budget System Building Guide
OCIA :: Thursday, August 14, 2008
“For that very reason, we started writing these System Buying Guides a few years back. We have three categories of Buying Guides: Budget, Mainstream and Performance. Our Budget Guide has a spending limit of $600, the Mainstream limit is $1,200 and we allocate $2,400 for our Performance Guide. The systems that we piece together here are designed to give you the best overall experience under the given budget.”
Server Logs Revealed: What Systems Are You Running These Days?
PC Mech :: Thursday, August 14, 2008
“Every now and then, I find it interesting to delve into the server logs for PCMech and find out what you guys are using in your system. The PCMech audience is pretty representative of the “normal” computer-using audience. We don’t have an uber-geeky crowd here. We have what I think is a normal cross-section of the computer using public. So, what do the server logs say about you?”
Mainstream System Building Guide
OCIA :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
“It’s no secret that Intel has been dominating the processor market the past few years, which is why we decided to go with an Intel based system for the Mainstream build. Although the Kentsfield core has been out for some time, prices have only recently fallen to the sub-$200 mark. In fact, the Q6600 made our Performance build the last time out, so it is still quite a capable processor for Mainstream computing. The Q6600 operates at 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB with 2x4M of shared L2 cache. This processor has an excellent price point and is extremely overclocker friendly.”
Cosmos Skulltrail by Coolmiester
Bit-Tech Modding :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Just in time for i34, Paul (aka Coolmiester) has wrapped up another mod boasting some impressive hardware and a gorgeous cooling system. As always, we were more than anxious to get a look inside…
Publishing Your Own Book Successfully For Free
PC Mechanic :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Anyone can publish a book easily. Since the early 2000s there have been web sites in operation that enabled anyone to publish just about any written material at no cost. However the trick is to make people aware of your book so you can actually sell it. This tutorial will provide you with the necessary steps for basic marketing of your written work(s). Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article.
8/13/08: Iphone at Best Buy, Olympics and 43Things
PC Mechanic :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Iphone Coming to Best Buy stores Drunk Aussie captured in Google Street View NBC Olympic Coverage Beijing2008.com 43 Things
Google Street View Captures The Damndest Things
PC Mechanic :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Google Street View has been the source of intrigue, controversy and, on the Internet, humor. The latest installation of the Street View soap opera is a picture of a drunk Aussie crashed and burned in his front yard. According to the story on Daily Mail, this guy was sleeping in his lawn in a drunken stupor when the Google car drove by and captured him at his finest. Within days, the picture hit the Internet. The man calls himself simply “Bill” and says “I’m not too happy about it”, but he is not looking to pursue Google over the matter. Street View has been in the U.S. for some time now, and Rich posted the coverage map for the U.S. in this post. However, Street View in Australia is new. The motto of this story? Before doing anything embarrassing, make sure the Google car isn’t driving down your street.
Clearing Up Misconceptions about CUDA and Larrabee
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Both Intel and NVIDIA have lots to say about their respective GPU architectures, as well as the competition’s. Partly because of this, there are numerous misconceptions floating around about both Larrabee and CUDA, so we decided to see if we could put to rest a few of the most common ones.
ASUS Republic of Gamers Convention: Part 2
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The ASUS RoG Con is done and over with, so we take a look back at what made the weekend so great. Depending on who you ask, the LAN was a great success, with nobody leaving without some sort of swag in their hand. But, there was so much more to it than just that. Will we see another? We sure hope so.
Palit Radeon HD 4870 X2 1GB – AMD Reclaims GPU Supremacy
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
AMD has gone too long without a real high-end graphics card to compete with the competition, but they’re done with the pity, and prove it with the HD 4870 X2, which becomes the fastest graphics card the planet has ever seen. It may cost more than the competition, but its end performance easily negates that premium.
ASUS Republic of Gamers Convention: Part 1
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
There’s an exciting event happening in Dallas that comes in the form of a LAN party. Not any usual LAN though, as it’s sponsored by some of the biggest companies in the business, including the event leader, ASUS. While the Dallas heat sure isn’t fun to deal with, the event more than makes up for it so far.
Antec P190 + 1200 Mid-Tower
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Planning a new build and don’t know which chassis to choose? Does the idea of having a feature-packed mid-tower intrigue you? Well, the P190 is just that, with its intuitive design and two pre-installed power supplies, offering you a total of 1,200W of overkill pleasure. Is the case a true winner? Not exactly, but it’s still worth a look.
How to Identify Japanese Electrolytic Capacitors
Hardware Secrets :: Tuesday, August 12, 2008
“Not all electrolytic capacitors are manufactured equally. Japanese and solid caps have better quality, protecting your equipment from the infamous capacitor leakage problem and also increasing the life-span of your equipment, especially if it works at high temperatures, like it is the case with power supplies. In this short tutorial we will teach you how to identify Japanese capacitors and why they have a better quality.”
Performance System Building Guide
OCIA :: Monday, August 11, 2008
“In the past we’ve always spec’d a high-end air cooler for our Performance build, however we’ve seen a few really good yet inexpensive liquid cooling kits come out recently. Among these was the Swiftech H20-220 Compact that we reviewed several months ago. Coming from a brand like Swiftech you know it’s going to be high quality and the performance is really good, even for a pre-assembled kit. If you don’t have room for a double-sized radiator in your case, the Swiftech Compact series is also available in a single H20-120 model.”
HighPoint Technologies RocketRAID 3510 (Take 2)
Bios Level :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
“After looking at HighPoint’s RocketRAID 3120, we received the more powerful RocketRAID 3510 (RR3510). The RR3510 features an 800MHz Intel IOP341 RAID I/O Processor, supporting RAID levels 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, and JBOD. The RR3510 also doubles the amount of onboard DDR2 ECC RAM that the RR3120 had, with 256MB.”
Mod of the Month – July 2008
Bit-Tech Modding :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
We’re baaaack! The month of July is coming to a close, and that means it’s time again for us to bring you some of the world’s best works in progress hand picked straight from our forums. That’s right, it’s time for Mod of the Month for July!
Thecus N3200 NAS Box Review
Dragonsteel Mods :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
It’s nice to be able to take stuff our data with us wherever we go in the form of USB drives or portable hard drives, but there are times when it just isn’t feasible to take these things with us. In the world we live in now it’s quite possible that while traveling you could have your laptop and data seized at the border, for everyone that’s just not something we want to happen. The laws are just amazing now, we live in basically a police state where not even our personal data is safe, it’s bad enough to lose personal stuff but even worse when it’s our business and work related data. Sure there are things you can do to secure your data, but what does it matter when your entire laptop is confiscated? You’ve lost everything basically, the state of things right now is something to discuss elsewhere, but there are things you can do to minimize your potential losses such as a NAS box, or Network Attached Storage system that allows you to access your information from anywhere you go via the web. Some NAS boxes are more than just for accessing data from afar, they can offer many other features as well.. Today for review I’ve got an excellent product from Thecus, it’s the N3200 NAS box and it is a truly feature rich product that can add a new dimension to your storage capabilities of your home network. The N3200 is essentially a home storage server and it’s billed as a ‘Home NAS’ but it’s much more than that, it offers features that even a small business can utilize. With the N3200 you can have up to 3 Terabytes of storage capacity added to your network, the N3200 also offers various RAID solutions including RAID 5 which offers excellent security and performance for your data. On top of the security features theN3200 offers the ability to stream your media to other devices, a built in surveillance system with compatible webcams, HTTP, FTP and Bittorrent file transfer protocols, a print server, and even the ability to be wirelessly networked. The N3200 in physical size is small as well, but don’t let it’s size fool you, it’s a fully featured NAS box that anyone can utilize for their storage needs. So enough chit-chat, let’s just get into this review, I’ve got lots of pictures and tons of screen shots as well, so sit back, relax and enjoy…
Xigmatek SD964 HDT CPU Cooler Review
Dragonsteel Mods :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Keep those CPUs cool, that’s the main thing most people worry about with their computers, and for the most part the stock coolers do a decent job, but there are those of use that desire to keep our CPUs running cooler than the stock solution can provide. We all know that the cooler the CPU is the longer it will last, at least theoretically, and of course if the CPU is cooler there is always room for a bit of overclocking as well to eek out a bit more performance. Up on the review block today I’ve got one from Xigmatek, it’s the SD964 HDT CPU cooler, not a real fancy name, but then again what’s in a name right? It really doesn’t matter what it’s called as long as it performs! The SD964 is a small heatpipe style CPU cooler, at least in comparison to others on the market today, but it is by no means small in terms of performance. The SD964 dominates over most others out there in our tests on both C2D and C2Q CPUs…
Kingston 8GB microSDHC Card Review
Dragonsteel Mods :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
In a time when we take so much stuff with us, it’s always nice to have more storage to be able to take our pictures, movies and music with us where every we go. Most phones these days have the ability to use microSD cards or microSDHC cards and they are getting larger and larger as time goes by, the price is also coming down so it’s much more affordable to take all of that data with us. Today for review I’ve got an 8gb microSDHC card from Kingston, it’s a Class 4 card which means it should perform well with a rated transfer rate of 4MB/s. So read on to see if this microSDHC card lives up to its rating and how it compares to a couple other microSD cards I’ve got on hand. I personally use microSD cards in my AT T Tilt cellphone, so this card will provide me with quite a bit more storage to take my stuff with me wherever I go.
NZXT Tempest Crafted Series Mid-Tower PC Case Review
Dragonsteel Mods :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
PC Cases are a big business, you can find all styles, sizes and designs of them available for purchase today to be used to build a new system or just upgrade that blah case that came with the computer that you bought. Depending on what your needs and personal preferences are will be the deciding factor in the type of case you buy, be it gaming, htpc, sff, or even a server style case. As with any product though, all cases are not created equal, some are better than others in not only their quality but their design as well. Today for review I’ve got the Tempest Mid-Tower PC case from NZXT, this case is actually rather large, and it includes six 120mm fans to keep your system nice and cool. To be honest, when I saw those six fans included I was expecting a fairly loud case, especially with a name like ‘Tempest’, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I powered my system on to hear only a low hum coming from the Tempest. The Tempest is not only quiet but very well made, it has lots of room to get your system in there, and the blue LED accents really add to the overall look of the case. So continue on to check out the NZXT Tempest…
Monster ScreenClean for Cell Phone/PDA
Dragonsteel Mods :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
As an owner of several touch screen devices, I can see the effects of human interaction on these devices in the form of greasy finger prints that reside on the screen surfaces. Now, I generally use screen protectors, but even those can become smeared by human hands. Monster was kind enough to give us a sample of their Monster ScreenClean for Cell Phone/PDA at the recent Pepcom Digital Experience. Not only does the Monster ScreenClean for Cell Phone/PDA clean, it also controls germs with something called antimicrobial AEGIS technology. Does the Monster ScreenClean for Cell Phone/PDA provide a clean slate for your touch screen device or does it come short? I have had a chance to test it out on several devices, let’s see what the verdict is. Let’s gets started……
Delta to Offer Broadband Wi-Fi
PC Mechanic :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Delta announced that they will be offering Wi-Fi access on there entire domestic mainline fleet. Delta is partnering with airborne communications leader Aircell to offer Gogo. The Gogo service will allow Delta customers traveling with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, to access the Internet. The Wi-Fi will cost $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights more than three hours. Aircell was chosen to install the Wi-Fi because it is much cheaper and easier to install compared to the once offered service Connexion by Boeing. Boeing offered Connexion in 2004 but, it was canceled in 2006 because it was too bulky to be used on Boeing’s smaller domestic planes. Other airlines like American Airlines, Virgin America, and JetBlue have similar Wi-Fi plans in place. All of Delta’s mainline aircraft in the U.S. will get the service installed. The first Delta planes to get Gogo installed will be it’s 133 MD 88/90 planes. By the end of 2009 Delta plans to have the Wi-Fi installed on more than 330 aircraft. Offering wifi service will surely help the struggling airline industry recoup from the high expenses of the higher fuel prices.
Downloadable Boot Discs To Save Your PC
PC Mechanic :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
[PREMIUM] – When your PC decides to take a crap on you, preparation is key to getting yourself out of a jam without losing your data. Part of that preparation is to have ways to boot the PC when you cannot do so normally. In this article, we will give you a variety of options for creating a bootable recovery disc so that you can boot your PC which is not otherwise booting up. You’ll be able to then use the disc to get access to your files or run diagnostic utilities to rescue your machine. In the old days, you could create a special floppy diskette to boot your computer. Windows even had a way to walk you through creating that book disk. But, today, hardly anybody even has floppy drives anymore. So, we need to deal with discs (as in CDs or DVDs). Not only that, but Windows no longer includes a built-in way to create a bootable disc. Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article.
AVG Free Version 8 Tweaks
PC Mechanic :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
As with any major upgrade of a program, there are usually several customizations and settings you have to review to get the program to behave the way you are accustomed to. AVG Free version 8 is no different. The new version boast a new interface as well as new features which included the controversial (rightfully so) link scanner component and the infamous general “annoyances” / “bloat”. Of course, with a few tweaks you can trim down AVG. This post in the TweakGuides forum does a great job of pointing out the changes you can make. After reviewing the changes myself, I cannot say I disagree with any of them and would second everything the poster recommends. As with any new version, you cannot expect it to be exactly the same as the previous one, but you can [try to] make it behave the way you prefer.
Day 21: Gold in Joint Venture Partnerships
PC Mechanic :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
One of the secret weapons of internet marketing is the joint venture partnership, often called simply “JV”. A JV partnership is where you work in conjunction with another person to promote a product on the Internet. It allows you to take advantage of the resources built up by another. For example, let’s say you have a product you would like to promote. You have a mailing list. You have a website. But, there are others online who cater to the same market you do and they have their own mailing lists and clientele as well. There are two choices here: (1) You look at that other person as pure competition and you work to out market them, or (2) you look at that other person as a potential partner. So, you can work up a relationship with that other party and you can offer to do a JV deal. A JV deal can take a lot of different forms, but a very typical arrangement might be “You promote my widget to your mailing list and I will pay you XX% commission for every product sold.”. This allows you to get your product in front of that person’s database and it allows them to make some coin in the process. It can be work to set up a good joint venture partnership. You’re dealing with actual people here and they will need to be convinced to partner with you. Often, the successful people in a market are approached for JV deals quite often. You might be just another number to them. So, you need to exercise come tact when you deal with them and you need to have a product that is truly worthy of such promotion. We have a full series on how to set up joint venture partnerships here at PCMech. This series is available to members only, and it will walk you through the pitfalls of securing JV deals. JV deals can be the make-break point between an unsuccessful product launch and a very successful one. JVs are what allow some of the best known internet marketers to create these huge product launches and have million dollar paydays. Without JVs, they couldn’t do it. It is that powerful.
NVIDIA’s PhysX: Performance and Status Report – Part 2
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
It took a little longer than expected, but NVIDIA is soon to unveil new drivers that will open up PhysX support on all 8, 9 and GTX-series of GPUs. We’ve decided to follow-up on our previous article and see where PhysX stands today, and also pit seven GPUs against the new drivers.
eVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Need an SLI motherboard but have less than $200 to spend? No need to stress, as the 750i SLI chipset was designed with you in mind. We are taking a look at how eVGA put the chipset to good use in the form of their 750i SLI FTW board, which offers solid performance and overclocking-ability, in addition to great board design.
Intel Opens Up About Larrabee
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Intel today takes a portion of the veil off their upcoming Larrabee architecture, so we can better understand its implementation, how it differs from a typical GPU, why it benefits from taking the ‘many cores’ route, its performance scaling and of course, what else it has in store.
Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 320GB
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Maxtor’s diminutive OneTouch 4 Mini pushes the capacity envelope again, packing a positively huge 320 gigabytes of storage into a tiny enclosure. It’s also one of the sexiest mini external drives we’ve seen. Is the OneTouch 4 Mini 320GB a portable storage slam-dunk?
Turtle Beach X3 Xbox 360 Headset
Techgage :: Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Let’s face it… the headset included with the Xbox 360 leaves a lot to be desired, which is why third-party companies come along and release their own products that aim to blow it away. We are taking a look at one such headset today, in the form of the Turtle Beach X3, and answer the question of whether or not it’s worth its ~$90 price tag.
QuakeCon 2008 – A Quad Damage of Babes
Tweak Town :: Tuesday, August 05, 2008
“At QuakeCon I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of female gamers in attendance. Not only has gaming crossed the lines of language and social class, but it is now smashing through the gender barrier.
Don’t come to QuakeCon and expect to get your ‘game’ on unless you are a top seeded pro player or can handle more vodka than these professional party girls. Still, they can show you a good time and still kick your ass at gaming.”
Press Release: Nvidia’s Meltdown?
Fast Silicon :: Monday, August 04, 2008
“Though we’re sure most nVidia fans are happy with the state of things from a fandom view, most of nVidia’s manufacturing partners are anything but happy. Profit margins for board partners are getting slim to non-existent. The manufacturer adoption rate of its 7xx chipset platforms is painfully low. The notebook platform business is in serious trouble. With Intel’s Nehalem just around the corner, nVidia might be shut out of the Intel camp entirely in this regard.
Empire23’s Road Trip Review Madness!
Tech ARP :: Sunday, August 03, 2008
Are you tired of reading all those boring reviews with their lab tests and numbers on performance, ergonomics and other flim-flam aspects of a product? How about reviews where the reviewers take their stuff on easy-peasy holidays where the level of abuse isn’t even enough to make a 3-year old cry? Well, I’m tired of writing them.
Seriously, there are things one cannot test in a lab, on a sponsored trip or by even by an intelligent smart person for that matter. One needs an idiot with a total disregard for general safety, social norms, equipment care and personal hygiene! That idiot, of course, is none other than yours truly!
Gigabyte Motherboard Features: Smart Backup, Ultra TPM, and Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced
Think Computers :: Saturday, August 02, 2008
“Our friends at Gigabyte feel that a few of their new motherboard features presently on their Intel P45 motherboards are important enough to give special mention, that our readers should be educated about these features to make informed decisions when choosing their new motherboard. Rather than try to cram this information in an already too-long motherboard review, I thought that I’d describe Gigabyte’s Smart Backup, Ultra TPM, and DES Advanced in an article, and refer to the article when needed in motherboard reviews. Read on to find out about these cool features!”