Tech News February 2005

NewsFeb 28, 2005June 29, 20140

Systemcooling’s Coolest of 2004 @ Systemcooling
SystemCooling :: Saturday, February 26, 2005

“It’s that time again. We’re almost two months into the New Year 2005, and with all the CES hoopla finally out of the way and some hard decision-making behind us, we’ve finally compiled SystemCooling’s Coolest of 2004. These are products that we thought made an impact on the enthusiast computer market and created a new standard for others to follow”

Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TCL @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Saturday, February 26, 2005

“The Silencer series is not highly recommended for use in an overclocked system, but instead is aimed for systems with silence in mind. But without a doubt, you’ll be able to see this little budget cooler in action today, in both stock and overclocked environments.”

Mushkin PC4400 1GB DC Kit @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Saturday, February 26, 2005

“It seems like every RAM company has at least one module based on TCCD. Although it is used by most companies as low latency DDR400, Mushkin rates this TCCD as high latency DDR550. This is nice because you are guaranteed a high FSB, but you can also tighten the timings if you don’t mind lowering the FSB. Mushkin also has a low latency DDR400 TCCD based RAM in their product lineup, which is a little less expensive, but is not guaranteed to run higher speeds.”

Razer eXactMat Mouse Pad Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
PC Modding Malaysia :: Saturday, February 26, 2005
“The eXactMat is the first and only mouse pad from Razer. It delivers good performance for users especially for gamers in terms of speed and control since this pad comes with two different pad surfaces. Price around USD35, the eXactMat shouldn’t be considered expensive as it’s really one of the best mouse pads in the market. Besides that, the eXactMat looks cool and can last longer than most rubber/cloth pads. If you planning to get a new mouse pad (especially for your Viper or Diamondback), you might want consider the Razer eXactMat”

AMD’s Athlon FX – CPU Scaling to 3GHz and 250MHz dHTT @ Hexus
Hexus :: Saturday, February 26, 2005
“AMD recently released their latest Opteron running at 2600MHz, the same speed as the Athlon FX-55. With one Opteron speed hike usually comes the next one on the desktop, which for Athlon FX means 2800MHz and FX-57. Apply the logic above and we can examine the performance of FX-57 before launch, using an existing FX processor and its unlocked multipliers. With FX-55, all that means is the use of the 14x multiplier at the standard 200MHz dHTT (derived HTT, calculated by the use of the base HTT clock and clock divisors). While it’s not quite a front-side bus, since the memory controller always runs at core frequency, it’s close.”

Asetek WaterChill KT03A-L30 Review @ Overclockers Online
Overclockers Online :: Saturday, February 26, 2005
“Today O² is presenting you an in depth look at Asetek’s most powerful watercooling kit currently available: the Asetek WaterChill CPU Power Kit featuring the Antarctica waterblock and a black ice radiator that can handle a total of three 120mm fans! Powerful? You bet! We also tested Asetek’s latest cooling block which is made to cool down your hard drive, so go ahead and check out our brand new article!”

Kreisen LT-30FMP 30″ LCD HDTV Review
Designtechnica :: Saturday, February 26, 2005
“At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, there were several new manufacturers offering LCD televisions at price points below our typical expectations. Two companies in particular, enCross and Syntax are offering 30-inch LCD TVs for right around $1500. The first thing you are probably thinking is that you get what you pay for, right? Not necessarily. For example, enCross’s Kreisen LT-30FMP which is the subject of this review, features LCD panels manufactured by either Samsung or LG.Philips. Both Samsung and LG.Philips are known for making excellent flat panels for both the PC and home television markets. enCross builds on a great picture and adds plenty of features to their Kreisen LT-30FMP 30-inch LCD television. With a street price of $1399, will you bite?”

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI nForce4-SLI Motherboard Review @ PCStats
PCStats :: Saturday, February 26, 2005
“The Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI is built around the popular nVidia nForce4-SLI chipset. This board supports socket 939 Athlon64 and AthlonFX processors, as well as up to 4GB of PC3200 DDR RAM in a dual channel configuration. The board features an onboard four port SATA/RAID Silicon Image controller, two Gigabit NICs, one wireless 802.11g PCI network card, a 7.1-channel audio controller, three IEEE 1394b ports, Gigabyte’s DPS-2 power system, and of course dual BIOS’. The GA-K8NXP-SLI also has two PCIe x1 slots as well as two standard PCI slots. Finally if that weren’t enough already, the nForce4-SLI MCP supports the new Serial ATA II standard for up to 3Gb/s of HDD goodness on four channels. A pretty well rounded motherboard I’d say, wouldn’t you?”

Digital Extreme’s Pariah Preview @ Hexus
Hexus :: Friday, February 25, 2005
“In a nutshell, you play the part of Jack Mason (a great action shooter hero name if ever there was one!), a burnt out doctor who really has hit the lowest point in his less than illustrious career. You’re reduced to baby sitting cryogenically frozen medical patients and are on a routine trip when your ship is blasted from the sky over a prison planet.”

Silverstone SST-FP53 HDD Cooler Review @ FastLaneHW
FastLaneHW :: Friday, February 25, 2005
“Components in your computer need proper cooling– I’m sure you know that. CPUs, video cards, cases, hard drives all need to be cooled well, but in my opinion, hard drive cooling is the most important. If a CPU dies, you can get it replaced under warranty or at worst, go buy a new one– but a failed hard drive could mean weeks of downtime, and most importantly, losing all your precious data.”

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI Motherboard Review @ PCStats
PCStats :: Friday, February 25, 2005
“The MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI is actually the third revision of MSI’s popular K8N Neo series, and it’s now based on the brand new nVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset. The motherboard supports Socket 939 AMD Athlon64 processors with HyperTransport running at a smooth 1 GHz. In terms of memory, the board supports up to 4GB of PC3200 non-ECC DDR RAM, and unlike Intel’s new DDR-2 systems, you won’t have to throw out those trusty sticks of DDR memory if you’re upgrading from an older box. There are two physical PCI-Express 16x slots on the motherboard as well as three standard 32-bit PCI slots. Under SLI, the two PCI Express videocard slots operate with 8 lanes each. The SLI jumper is included in the package.”

PDP Systems Patriot XBLK PC3200 Review @ OcPrices
OcPrices :: Friday, February 25, 2005
“The memory we are looking at today is part of their Patriot range of sticks, which feature either ultra high frequency or ultra tight timings depending on the sticks you choose. This particular model is a dual channel kit of XBLK PC3200, which uses Samsung TCCD chips on a non-JEDEC PCB.”

Mushkin PC2-4200 DDR2 Low Latency Kit Review @ ViperLair
ViperLair :: Friday, February 25, 2005
“We were quite pleased with Mushkin’s PC2-4200 3-2-2-8 as it performed reliably and was quick as well. We did hit some hurdles in overclocking past DDR2-667, but in that case you would be better served by their PC2-5300 kit. Other than that, Mushkin doesn’t package the bling such as flashing LEDs, but in turn their ram modules are easier on the wallet.”

A4 Tech EasyGo Notebook USB Optical Mouse Review @ Futurelooks
Futurelooks :: Friday, February 25, 2005
“The A4 Tech Mouse goes into the category of things that should have been thought of earlier. The cord management is excellent, but how’s the actual performance? Read on to find out!”

Ultra 80 & 120mm Titanium Finish Fans Video Review @ 3dGameMan
3dgameman :: Friday, February 25, 2005

“The Ultra 80 & 120mm Titanium Finish Fans are stunning & will unquestionably add new life to any case. Not only do they have the looks, but they have the performance & quiet operation to match. Both include four mounting screws & a 3-to-4 pin pass-thru power cable. The 80mm fans come in a 3-pack while the 120mm are packaged singly. Watch the Video to find out more…”

nTrensound 128mb MP3 Wrist Watch Review @ Tech-Mods.Net
Tech-Mods.net :: Friday, February 25, 2005

“We have been wearing watches on our wrists for quite some time now; we almost take them for granted. Knowing at just a quick glance to see if we are on schedule or not. Many of us have also become acclimatize to carrying our favorite music around with as well. Today we are going to take a look at a wrist watch that not only will tell us the time when needed but also can provide our favorite music via the built in MP3 player. nTrensound has provided us with their new take on time and music with an 128mb MP3 Watch .”

Chaintech VNF4 Ultra Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
Legit Reviews :: Friday, February 25, 2005
“The Chaintech VNF4 Ultra was found to be an extremely stable motherboard at defualt clock speeds. When you consider price versus performance, this board is a perfect fit for those looking to get the most out of their money….”

The History Of The Computer @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Thursday, February 24, 2005
”

Unlike most devices, the computer is one of the few inventions that does not have one specific inventor. Throughout the development of the computer, many people have added their creations to the list required to make a computer work. Some of the inventions have been different types of computers, and some of them were parts required to allow computers to be developed further.

”

Oakley Thump MP3 Sunglasses @ TheTechLounge
The Tech Lounge :: Thursday, February 24, 2005

”

Take Oakley’s high-tech eyewear technology, morph it with an MP3 player built on a SigmaTel chip and out comes Oakley Thump. Though you will need some major coin ($395 for the 128 MB version up to $545 for 256 MB model) to get a hold of a pair of Oakley Thump, it does separate the men from the boys when it comes to cutting edge style and technology. Lil’ John even has his own limited edition Thump color scheme (WHAT?!? YEAH!!!).

”

XGBox Viper case reviewed @ XtremeResources
Xtreme Resources :: Thursday, February 24, 2005

”

Welcome back to my second half of my look into two gamer computer cases by XG and I saved the best for last. Let me introduce you to the Viper. The Viper is easily the single most impressive OEM case you can buy that has most all the modifications you could want from a low cost mid-tower. The Viper runs a little more than the Sidewinder but what you get is an amazingly unique case that is fully modded from the factory.

”

Ultra UV X-Connect 500Watt ATX PSU Review @ Tech-Mods.Net
Tech-Mods.net :: Thursday, February 24, 2005

”

Back in the day the old street racing term was “If it don’t go chrome it!” we would say that about cars that never really had the edge. Make it look good and show it off instead, if it wasn’t going to perform. Well Ultra Products took a different approach; when it comes to their power supplies. You take looks, function and performance and put them all together in one sharp looking package and you end up with the Ultra X-Connect 500Watt ATX Power Supply. Today we are going to see if it has the edge or is it just a show piece.

”

V-Tech X-Focus7105H Mid-Tower Case Review @ GruntvillE.com
GruntvillE :: Thursday, February 24, 2005

”

Snugly packaged inside the box were the two case handles and the two case feet. The two can be distinguished by the textured rubber coating applied only to the ones that point down. “Always keep the rubber side down”, a good tip I’ve learned from my motorcycle riding seems well applied in other areas too. The feet made from the same diameter steel as the case are quite sturdy and I don’t think one need worry about over stressing them. They should be able to take your system weight and them some due to their rolled edges.

”

Intel Pentium 4 6xx Series PREview @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Thursday, February 24, 2005
”

While we give Intel a lot of credit for the new features, at the same time we’re left thinking is that it? AMD owners have been sitting on similar technologies for almost two years now. While the names differ, for all intents and purposes they do the same thing. Basically, Intel hasn’t brought anything new to the table for computing in general.

”

Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 Review @ Ninjalane
Ninjalane :: Thursday, February 24, 2005
”

Throughout the review process the general impression of this board has been very favorable. Soltek has made quite a few improvements with the SL-K890Pro-939 that compliment the new chipset and make the motherboard very enthusiast friendly.

”

Thermaltake Purepower 680watt PSU reviewed @ XtremeResources
Xtreme Resources :: Thursday, February 24, 2005

”

This beefed up power supply by Thermaltake, is one of the few on the market currently to feature two PCI Express connectors, and also includes four SATA connectors, along with 3 separate +12V rails. All the power cables are sleeved in different colors, to differentiate the type of connectors. Thermaltake advertises this power supply to produce 680 watts of clean power, along with support for the latest motherboards and other components.

The Thermaltake PurePower 680W Power Supply features a plethora of connectors. It comes with a 24-pin power connector for the motherboard, but also includes a 24-pin to 20-pin adapter so this power supply will be compatible with most motherboards currently on the market. You will have plenty of expandability, with this power supply furnishing ten 4-pin Molex power connectors. You’ll also find four 5-pin SATA connectors. Dual 80 millimeter fans are included with the Thermaltake PurePower 680 watt power supply, and a classy touch was the addition of the gold plated fan grills on the exterior of the unit. This unit also includes two 6-pin PCI Express connectors. Air vents on the side of this power supply assure good thermal management features, along with the beefy internal aluminum heat sinks, in combination with the afore mentioned 2 x 80mm fans. This particular power supply is advertised by Thermaltake to only produce 17 dBA, and I can honestly say that anyone needing a quiet power supply, will not be disappointed by this model. It is virtually silent compared to some of the high powered case fans I utilize.

”

V-Tech X-Focus Review @ FastLaneHW.com
FastLaneHW :: Thursday, February 24, 2005
”

Well, I was just starting to think that every new case on the market was modeled after something you might find in a comic book. Today we’re here to see a pleasant surprise, a new case from Vtech called the X-Focus.

”

Beginner’s Guide To HTTP @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“I thought about calling this article a “Geeks view of HTTP”; I am not going into the nitty gritty, but rather present a sketch of how a geek might see something like HTTP, how they can think something like HTTP is simple, and why they are not trying to make things complicated just for the sake of it!”

Intel Pentium4 3.73GHz EE @ t-break
t-break :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“When Intel released their first EE CPU, we saw a very clear distinction between itself and other standard Pentium4 CPUs- the amount of on-die cache. At that time, the Pentium4 processor had 512k L2 cache while the EE came equipped with a 512k L2 cache as well as a hefty 2MB L3 cache. However, between that time and today, the Pentium4 CPU got upgraded to a 1MB cache and now a 2MB L2 cache while the 3.73GHz’ L3 cache got replaced by an L2 cache of the same size due to its move to the Prescott core.”

Thermalrock Circle Silver Designer ATX Computer Case Review @ Tweaknews.net
Tweaknews :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. That is certainly true when it comes to computer case design. When the Circle showed up at my house I was less than ecstatic with its appearance, but over the week or so that I’ve had it around, I must confess that it’s grown on me. Love it or hate it, you have to admit that ThermalRock’s Circle chassis has a very distinctive look.”

AMD Cool’n’Quiet How-To @ Envy News
Envy News :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“AMD’s Cool’n’Quiet is, for many, a major selling point of the Athlon 64 processor family. Designed to cut down on heat and noise, this option has not been the easiest to enable for many users. This Quick’n’Easy guide to enabling Cool’n’Quiet will hopefully help those befuddled users take a step closer to lower temperatures with less noise.”

Corsair XMS4400 1GB TwinX Memory Kit Review!
Tech ARP :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“Ever thought of breaking the 500MHz barrier? And doing so without resorting to loose timings? Well now, you can! Today, Chai takes a good look at the new Corsair XMS4400 1GB TwinX Memory Kit! How well will these ultra-fast modules perform? Let’s find out! ”

TTGI 600W Modular ATX/BTX PSU @ Legit Reviews
Legit Reviews :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“TTGI USA (also known as Super Flower) became popular in Overclocking circles aproximately 3-years ago with the release of their TT-520SS 4-fan aluminum PSU. Enthusiast’s loved the stability, rail adjustments, and especially the price. Today we look at the TT-600K04 600W Modular PSU for the evolving BTX standard…”

OCZ Announces PC-4000 Voltage eXtreme Gold Series
OCZ Technology :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Following the successful introduction of the ground-breaking line of Voltage eXtreme DDR, OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the addition of PC-4000 Gold VX DDR to the Voltage eXtreme series.

Running at 3.3 volts, PC-4000 Gold with Voltage eXtreme technology masterfully maintains ultra-fast timings of 2-2-2 with unyielding stability. Furthermore, the Gold VX series is built with OCZ’s proprietary Enhanced Latency technology to facilitate lower latencies than normally possible on most standard memory modules.

Link: http://www.ocztechnology.com/aboutocz/press/2005/123

Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz Review @ Beyond3D
Beyond3D :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
”

Throughout the period of Prescott’s introduction Intel sought to capture the enthusiast space not with the Prescott based Pentium 4’s, but with the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, which was essentially a 130nm based “Gallatin” core leveraged from the server range. However, with some changes to the Prescott core Intel are now moving the Extreme Edition line over to these 90nm chips. Today we are taking a look at the latest Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz.

”

Vantec Iceberq Copper BGA Ramsinks @ eXtreme Hardware
eXtreme Hardware :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005

”

Using your graphics card heavily, will over time, shorten your graphics card’s life, and eventually render your card useless. And if you just so happen to be an overclocker, and want to squeeze that extra performance out of your memory, how can you do that if the BGA memory is already at its maximum heat capacity? Well today we have the Vantec Iceberq BGA ramsinks, here to solve the memory issue.

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Ultra Products PC3200 XL 2-2-2 DDR Memory @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
”

Before releasing the X-Connect power supply and becoming a household name virtually over night, Ultra Products was slowly releasing more and more products and hitting the retail shelves at CompUSA and Fry’s. Before the big Samsung TCCD IC boom, Ultra had already released some memory modules and had proven that the company can provide a decent stick of RAM. Now, Ultra is the latest company to jump on the Samsung TCCD memory chip bandwagon, which is actually a good thing to be on.

The Samsung TCCD ICs have really leveled the playing field like never before it seems. Now, any company that can get ahold of some of these chips and create some memory modules is able to compete with the big boys, like Corsair, Kingston and OCZ, because the Samsung TCCD chips are just that good. Of course, the companies are still trying to distinguish themselves from each other by adding blinking lights or using superior PCB for even better overclocking, but who would have guessed a couple months ago that you could compare Ultra memory to Corsair, and it actually be a fair fight? Ultra obviously has a long way to go before it will be listed in the enthusiasts’ top five, but its new PC3200 XL modules are definitely a step in the right direction.

”

Plextor introduces slot-loaded optical drive for digital photo kiosks and media-centric computers
Plextor :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Plextor Corp., a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, today announced its first slot-loaded optical disk drive. The new PX-716AL DVD±R/RW and CD-R/RW drive allows users to insert disks directly into the device through a slot mechanism, eliminating the traditional slide-out tray. The drive is specifically designed for digital photo kiosks and other retail Point-of-Sale equipment, as well as media-centric computers intended for the living room.

The new PX-716AL drive meets several specific requirements of digital photo kiosk developers and OEMs. The 5.25-inch half-height design can be mounted vertically or horizontally to accommodate a wide range of kiosk designs. The drive accepts both 80mm and 120mm disk sizes, and provides a means to extract disks from the drive in the event of an equipment or power failure. In addition to high performance 6X DVD+R DL and 16x DVD±R recording, the PX-716AL also includes Intelligent Recording features that ensure reliable, high-quality results across a broad spectrum of CD and DVD media. The new drive is bundled with Easy Media Creator 7, Basic DVD Edition by Roxio®, a division of Sonic Solutions®.

The Plextor PX-716AL is a highly versatile 10-in-1 slot-loaded DVD/CD burner that supports 6x DVD+R DL Double Layer, 6x DVD-R Dual Layer, 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, and 48x CD-R Writing; 8x DVD+RW, 4x DVD-RW, and 24x CD-RW Rewriting; and 16x max DVD-Reading and 48x max CD-Reading. The PX-716AL features an ATA/ATAPI-5 (EIDE) interface for broad based PC-compatibility, 8 MB buffer, and Buffer Underrun Proof Technology to prevent errors and allow multi-tasking. The drive also includes Intelligent Recording, a combination of technologies designed to achieve high-quality recordings across a broad spectrum of media with varying grades of quality.

Pricing and Availability – The Plextor PX-716AL DVD±R/RW drive will be available for delivery in April and lists for $169.00 USD. Discounts are available for OEMs and Systems Integrators.

Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu Heatsink @ IpKonfig
IpKonfig :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005

”

Zalman: The name strikes fear into the core of all the heat generating CPU’s everywhere. The CNPS7000A-AlCu from Zalman keeps up the battle against thermal meltdown on multiple fronts.

”

Corsair Ships PC3200 CAS2 XPERT Memory Modules
Corsair :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Corsair Memory, Inc., a global leader in ultra-performance DDR memory modules for PC gamers and enthusiasts, today began shipping a PC3200 CAS2 model of their XPERT series memory, the world’s first memory modules that measure and display critical performance parameters.

The new model is the TwinXP1024-3200C2, a matched pair of 512MByte DDR DIMMs. These modules are tested at PC3200 speeds at 2-3-3-6 latency settings on Intel platforms and at 2.5-3-3-6 latencies on AMD platforms to ensure solid performance.

This 1GByte matched module pair includes the full XPERT feature set. XPERT technology uses an integrated microcontroller and embedded sensors to measure voltage, temperature, and frequency on the memory module. Each of these parameters, along with a user-programmable scrolling marquee can be shown on a big alphanumeric display that is part of the memory module. Corsair XPERT modules also have two rows of memory activity LED’s that show real-time memory activity, similar to the popular Corsair PRO series.

The display of parametric data and scrolling messages can be controlled from the Windows™ desktop using Memory Dashboard, a stand-alone application that provides the software component of this technology. Using Memory Dashboard, the user can control which parameters are displayed, for what duration, and in what order. It also allows the user to program scrolling message strings up to 69 characters long. Corsair includes Memory Dashboard on a CD with every XPERT memory kit, and software updates can be downloaded from the Corsair website.

According to Corsair Marketing Director Joe James, “XPERT demonstrates Corsair’s leadership in memory technology and our commitment to computer enthusiasts. This product makes the XPERT feature set available at a much lower price point than ever.” Street prices on the TwinXP1024-3200C2 are expected to be under $300.

TwinXP1024-3200XL is shipping now to resellers worldwide. Further information on XPERT memory can be found at www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/xms_xpert.html High resolution XPERT photos are available here, http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/media.html

Day of Defeat: Source Approaching Beta
Valve Software :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Day of Defeat: Source, Valve’s World War II-themed multiplayer action game, is approaching beta and will be available early this spring via Steam. A team-based multiplayer game that cast players in the Axis vs. Allies battles of Western Europe circa 1944, Day of Defeat: Source leverages the power of the Source engine to introduce integrated physics simulation technology, all new audio, updated maps, enhanced effects and more. More information about Day of Defeat: Source will be released in the coming weeks. For more information on Steam, please visit www.steampowered.com

Intel’s Prescott-2M: Pentium 4 660 and Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz @ HEXUS.net
Hexus :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
”

And it’s that 64-bit ability of Prescott-2M that’s its main selling point, rather than any performance to be gained by the double-sized L2 cache, compared to Prescott-1M. I missed out gaming performance since I honestly couldn’t find a game that really enjoyed the 2MiB that the 6-series or 3.73GHz XE had. While I could show gaming scaling with the XE, that was due to bus speed increases and the 3.46GHz Gallatin-2M was often faster. The working set of most games simply doesn’t care for much more than 1MiB or so of on-CPU memory.

”

Silverstone SST-LC10 HTPC Case Review @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005

”

The Home Theatre Personal Computer (HTPC) movement has been gaining momentum quite a bit lately. Companies are starting to see a market for this genre of computing and are giving enthusiasts more choices than ever before. Today we are evaluating the Silverstone SST-LC10 HTPC case. Before we dive into the details of the case, we are going to give a brief overview of what an HTPC is.

”

Cooler Master Cooldrive Lite @ Tech-Mods.Net
Tech-Mods.net :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005

”

The Cooldrive Lite is based off the Cooldrive 6 model without the LCD monitoring display. The front sports a silver face with black grille and Cooldrive across it and the CM logo. Behind the front panel is a 44mm fan for active cooling inside the unit which is powered by one molex connector.

”

Crucial ‘Icebox’ giveaway reminder
Crucial :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Don’t get left out in the cold on your chance to be a winner in Crucial’s ‘Icebox’ Cool Case Giveaway! This is the last week to enter to win one of two packages that each includes a custom blue acrylic desktop case, plus TWO sticks of 1GB Ballistix(TM) Tracer(TM) DDR2 memory.

To enter, complete the entry form at www.crucial.com/gamer. Sweepstakes ends February 28, 2005. TWO randomly selected winners will be announced on March 8, 2005. Good luck!

This promotion is open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. One entry per person, per household, and per e-mail address.

Gigabyte 3D1 Review @ t-break
t-break :: Sunday, February 20, 2005
“Gigabyte’s 3D1 is an interesting product based on nVidia’s SLI technology. While all other manufacturers implementing SLI have done it using two separate cards and bridging them together, Gigabyte decided to skip the two cards process and make one card with two cores and connect them internally.”

Intel 64-bit Desktop CPU comes to life @ TweakTown
TweakTown :: Sunday, February 20, 2005
“Today we see the launch of the first 64-bit processor from Intel in the flavor of the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition with EM64T which is clocked at 3.73GHz. In this article we cover the changes in the new CPU and how it performs against previous processors from Intel. Read on for your first taste of 64-bit from Intel.”

XG Sidewinder Case Review @ Xtreme Resources
Xtreme Resources :: Sunday, February 20, 2005

“XG, What is XG? I asked that very same question when I saw their booth at the CES 2005 show. XG founded in 1990, makes great electronic products from cases to power supplies. While I won’t be bragging about their “Magnum” power supply unit I saw there, I do however have 2 cases from them I picked up to check out a little closer than I was able to in Vegas. I am talking about the Sidewinder and Viper Xtreme Gamer Cases. First I want to talk about the XG Sidewinder, a case that emphasizes basic clean design concepts with the look that says it can take on the best. From the flat clean front bezel to the big sky window bragging what it has under the hood this case is a modded case owner’s dream. For those with no time to upgrade a core piece of any computer but want to get noticed at any LAN party, XG has a case for you.”

OvisLink 54Mbps Pen Size Wireless USB Adapter Review @ Techniz.co.uk
Techniz.co.uk :: Sunday, February 20, 2005
“The WL-5460USB is an ultra light weight WLAN USB 2.0 adapter. Weighing at only 11 gram and measured at 75 x 24 x 9 mm, it is one of the smallest and lightest wireless USB in the World. As matter of fact, it is smaller and lighter than many USB flash drives. From now, you can carry the high performance 54Mbps WLAN network with you everywhere. It is also compatible with USB 1.1 and 802.11b network. Although it was smaller in size, the WL5460USB has excellent signal quality. User can even adjust the output power in different percentage increments and traffic statistics is displayed in graphical format for easy viewing of sending and receiving packets rate.”

Spire CF450BO Heatpipe Skt478 Cooler Review @ Hexa Plague Hardware
Hexa Plague Hardware :: Sunday, February 20, 2005

“After using this cooler for a reasonable period of time I found it to be a lot more efficient than the standard Intel cooler, the temps where certainly far better, with load temps never exceeding the 60C mark even when the system was overclocked.”

Soyo KT880 Dragon 2 Review @ FastLaneHW
FastLaneHW :: Sunday, February 20, 2005
“While many computer users have made the move away from socket A to something newer, there are still many users who are still using and buying products for socket A, and Soyo hopes to captivate this audience and draw them into making the switch to one of their boards.”

Intel Pentium 4 600 Series with EM64T & SpeedStep @ hardCOREware
hardCOREware :: Sunday, February 20, 2005
“Today Intel is quietly launching its latest CPU lineup; 600. Although it’s still based on the Prescott core, it adds some interesting features, as well as some that are not-so-interesting.

Among the more interesting features are the power saving featuring Intel has added to the core. Our temperature level results will amaze you, believe me.

With the 600 series, Intel is ready for WinXP x64 – not a moment too soon either ;)”

Are consoles overtaking PCs? @ TekBunker
TekBunker :: Sunday, February 20, 2005
“As a hardened PC nut, I have always said a firm no. But all this new Cell technology has me thinking of the endless possibilities. It seems that the age old snobbery of the (IBM) Personal Computer has finally had its day, and at the hands of – IBM.

Did they know? They have released tonnes of old patents, possibly no longer needed, as they deemed them out dated! What’s next? Is Cell technology just the start? I suppose a long hard look at the patents released, might give some indication as to “What they are up to!”

Corsair XMS2 DDR2 TWIN2X1024-4300C3PRO Review @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Sunday, February 20, 2005
“Corsair has tightened the reigns on DDR2 latencies reducing seek times below that of many high-speed DDR kits. Able to run at CL3-3-3-6, Corsair´s 4300C3PRO has brought hope to those who believed the only way to extract performance from DDR2 was to run the memory at super high clock speeds and hope for bandwidth. Does Corsair´s 4300C3PRO perform and overclock without the need for insanely high latencies? Read on to find out.”

Enermax MaxFlow Full Tower Case @ TheTechLounge
The Tech Lounge :: Saturday, February 19, 2005

“With my recent heatsink reviews I had the chance to check out the ThermalTake Fanless 103 heatpipe-based heatsink. Unfortunately, it simply couldn’t perform for my system without the addition of a side intake fan to help cool the chipset and CPU. I was a bit disappointed as I really hoped to continue to use the cooler in my system afterwards to help cut down on noise.

Well, apparently Enermax realized my dismay as I soon found that I would be reviewing their new CS-718 series ‘Max Flow’ case. With two 120mm fans and a translucent blue shroud running the length of the case, it promises to provide adequate airflow for even a fanless heatsink like the 103. And since the included fans are 120mm and come with a fan controller, it should still be suitably quiet. So now that I’ve lived with this case for a while, I’m prepared to give full discourse on how it performs. Of course, you have to keep reading if you want to hear it.”

Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Saturday, February 19, 2005
“The Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 proved to be a solid and high performing board across all our testing and is a nice entry on Soltek’s part for VIA’s new PCI Express enabled K8T890. Overall, we were quite pleased with the motherboard and if you’re looking for an alternative to NVIDIA for your Athlon PCI Express needs, the Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 is certainly worthy of consideration.”

Belkin Universal AC Travel Adaptor Review @ Adrian’s Rojak Pot
Tech ARP :: Saturday, February 19, 2005

“Travel a lot and hate the hassle of bring multiple AC socket convertors? Worry no more!

Today, jwsk takes a look at the compact Belkin Universal AC Travel Adaptor! Let’s see how this nifty little gadget helps you solve your socket problems!””

Asetek WaterChill CPU/VGA/Chipset Water Cooling Kit @ Techniz.co.uk
Techniz.co.uk :: Saturday, February 19, 2005

“The KT12A-L30 [03-L-5715] is the NEW EXTREME package for PC end-users searching for a complete water cooling kit. In this kit the end-user will find everything that one could wish for to cool down any PC, incl. CPU, VGA and Chipset. Besides the Extreme performance, a low noise level will be achieved! Lowest possible temperature and sky-high overclocking potential characterizes this kit.”

Scythe Arctic Silentium 2 Mid Tower Case @ Systemcooling
SystemCooling :: Saturday, February 19, 2005

“Scythe has a well-earned reputation in the computer industry for innovative and unique designs. In this review we will take an in-depth look at their new Arctic Silentium 2 mid tower case, which has been designed to provide noise reduction and optimal cooling. The Scythe Arctic Silentium 2 may appear to be a typical mid tower case from the outside but a quick look inside will reveal it is anything but traditional”

Mushkin PC3700 1GB DC Kit @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Saturday, February 19, 2005

“Mushkin is a popular manufacturer of performance memory. Mushkin Memory Systems was founded in 1994 and is based in Denver, Colorado. Mushkin’s most recent success were its Black Level II PC3200 and PC3500 modules with Winbond BH5, which received high acclaim from overclockers near and far. They almost always overclocked better than the other BH5 based memory. It is my pleasure to be able to review their new PC3700 modules today”

Sunbeam Transformer Case Review @ Overclocker Cafe’
Overclocker Café :: Saturday, February 19, 2005

“The Sunbeam Transformer is a nice package for $95. You get lots of features and function for a reasonable price. The design is bound to attract more than just a few people with its spiral window design accented by the LED case fans. While the Transformer was lacking a removable mainboard tray, it was roomy enough for to negate this to some degree. The only other two concerns we had were the lack of fan filters and the noise.”

Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

”

We recently reviewed Zalman’s VF700-AlCu, which was impressive in terms of cooling performance and silence. I attributed the VF700-AlCu’s excellent performance to its design, which is clearly derived from the successful CNPS line. As if improving their VGA cooling line was not enough, Zalman revamped the CNPS series itself by releasing the more extreme CNPS7700 series (available in both aluminum/copper or copper). Today, we have the honor of reviewing Zalman’s CNPS7700-AlCu.

”

Review: Sunbeam Lightbus @ GideonTech.com
GideonTech :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
“Today Sunbeam was nice enough to send over a Light Bus and some of their CCFLs. Basically the Light Bus is used to control just about anything that can be powered by 12v. With a nearly limitless combination of settings, you can count on some nifty effects.”

Future of ATI’s Overdrive
techPowerUp! :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
ATI will introduce Overdrive 4 with the next Catalyst Driver scheduled in March. Previously you could only overclock your GPU core with Overdrive, and only by a rather small amount. Now you can overclock both core and memory and the frequency range will be increased to 75% of the next higher class product.

News – OvisLink 4-port KVM Switch
Techniz.co.uk :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
“The KVM-104 is an digital KVM switch that allow using two computers with only one set of keyboard, monitor and mouse. Best of all, it comes with a very stylish housing to compliment your decor of your home or office. Comparing to the old data switches that frequently wears down and cause signal degradation, the KVM-104’s digital switch mechanism guarantee high signal quality and long term usage.”

Wi-Fi Hotspot Security Tips @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
You’ve set up your Boingo account, you’re hanging out at the Home Turf sports bar in LAX and you figure you’ll do a little business or check your e-mail while sipping a Chardonnay. Well, that’s the point of Wi-Fi hotspots; being able to take care of a few things while in a relaxing atmosphere. Don’t, however, get so relaxed that you ignore security and give all your confidential information to some unscrupulous hacker.

Lian Li V2000 Tower Review @ GruntvillE.com
GruntvillE :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

”

The entire Lian Li V-Series comes standard with billet aluminum wheels. Now if your desk is slanted, this could pose a problem but Lian Li thought of everything. The wheels come with a brake! The brake consists of a billet rectangle attached around the center of the rear axel and a metal plate. When the brake is engaged, the rectangle is pressed against the plate keeping it from spinning. When the brake is disengaged, the plate is slid back and allows the rectangle and axel to spin freely. Yup, there’s a parking brake to ensure your case doesn’t sneak out and try to take a spin when you’re sleeping. What’s that you say? Your desk is slick as glass and it’s slanted?

”

PimpRig Review // Enermax Black Knight (CS-527) Case
PimpRig :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
“An interesting (and patent-pending) feature of this case is the stealth drive-bay covers. Both the 3.5″ and the 5.25″ bay covers don’t come out like your usual blanks, but they slide down, nesting behind one another.”
BR<>

Arctic Cooling Freezer 4 Heatsink Cooler Review @ MODTHEBOX.COM
MODTHEBOX! :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

“The second stage of cooling added into the Freezer 4 is the inclusion of four copper heat pipes that are interconnected to a solid copper base. One of the distinct advantages of using heat pipe technology in PC cooling is that it provides some excellent benefits in terms of improving thermal transfer. Arctic Cooling has expanded diameter and bonded each heat pipe allowing this unit the ability to transfer heat up to 200 watts.”

[Phoronix] Voice Recognition Editorial
Phoronix :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

“I still remember my first encounter voice recognition software. I was at a friend’s house sometime during 1997 and he had just gotten a new software package. It came with a headset that had a microphone. It looked cool, not that it was my first time seeing a headset with a microphone, but this was different, it was at someone’s house rather than on TV. Then he showed me how he could open up different applications and perform easy tasks like saving a file and such just by speaking to the microphone. The software only recognized some words and it also had to be very clearly spoken. In addition, it also required a sample of your voice before it would function properly. Nonetheless, it was cool.”

Enermax EG701AX 600W PSU @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
”

While the Enermax EG701AX-VE-SFMA24P does not have modular cables, many reputable PSU makers will probably tell you that ideally, you’ll want cables drawn directly from the PSU to your components for the best reliability. The EG701AX was just that; a solid and reliable PSU with plenty of power when you need it.

”

X-raypad Thunder9 Review @ PCmoddingmy
PC Modding Malaysia :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

”

After much observation, comparing and testing, I concluded that the Thunder 9 is worth the RM 120 price tag. In terms of maintenance and precision, Thunder 9 clearly has stood up to its expectations. I would also recommend the rough surface BK2 to lower sensitivity users and the BK1 to the people who love higher sensitivity.

”

Swiftech H20-120-FB Water Cooling Kit Review @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
”

Swiftech updates their popular H20-8600 water cooling kit, a new compact and silent pump and a large radiator and accompanying 120mm fan can make the H20-120 a true performer. Read on to find out how hard it can help push an A64 FX-55 and X800XT-PE towards overclock-heaven.

”

Plextor PX712A DVD R/RW Review @ GruntvillE.com
GruntvillE :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

“When testing an optical drive there are a few things you need to consider. First and foremost is performance, both speed and accuracy. Next is reliability and media compatibility. As we all know, not all media is created equal. Finally there is the aesthetics of the drive, both visual and audible. Does the drive look good and how much noise does it make? Anyone who had one of the first generation 52x CD readers knows how important the sound factor is as those things sounded like a jet warming up when they spin up.”

HighSpeed PC HSPC Tech Station Review @ XtReMoDs
XtReMoDs :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

”

The main purpose of the tech station is to allow easier access to your computer parts. It comes with an anti-static mat for the motherboard to lay on as well as rubber pads to allow the power supply and cd/dvd drives to sit on. With this it is much easier to work on your PC. It is also ideal for people who have multiple PCs to test at once or certain parts to test, such as memory. The average user probably wouldn’t need a tech station due to its size. It is very small and really wouldn’t be ideal for a case replacement, unless you are into that sort of thing.

”

Sunbeam Transformer Case @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
”

It is hard to imagine that once computer cases were all beige and dull. Today you actually have to look hard for a beige case, and most cases now have one or more cool feature that makes it stand out. The case I’m reviewing today makes you think of the old Transformer comic, and it is no surprise that the name reflects this – the SunBeam Transformer.

”

The Search for the Perfect Linux Distribution @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

”

The criteria for picking the four are as follows. The first and most important consideration was that the installation procedure had to be simple and easy to understand. The distributions should have good hardware detection and multimedia support. They should be easy to update and installing new software should not be a chore. Another criteria were the level of support and help available around the Internet. In the end, this became a major criterion, since the chosen four distributions have a lot of resources available – on their own websites as well as on other websites.

”

ASUS P5GD2-Premium Motherboard @ Legit Reviews
Legit Reviews :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
“The ASUS P5GD2-Premium is based off Intel’s i915P chipset and sports all the newest features that this chipset offers: PCI Express, DDR2, SATA, etc…”

The Matrix Online (BETA) Screenshots @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“Now that the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) has been lifted for the upcoming MMORPG, “The Matrix Online”, we have a few screenshots from our BETA testing experience. Although the game won’t be released until Spring of 2005, expect more information and screenshots to be released soon.”

AOpen i915Pa-PLF mainboard review
Overclocker Café :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“There are four options available; Performance, Normal, Automatic and Silent. Power Master will also control the smart fan speed allowing for increased/decreased fan speed depending on the actual CPU usage at the time. It’s quite a nifty feature, and it does work very well. For our testing purposes, we will provide results with the Power Master set to Normal as well as Performance to give you an idea of how well this feature works.”

Corsair Voyager Giveaway @ SystemCooling.com
SystemCooling :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“Just in case you didn’t get the love you deserve on Valentine’s Day we’ve teamed up with Corsair to bring you 4GB of love. This love will come in the form of four 1GB Flash Voyager USB drives that we’ll be giving away. The rules are simple just send an email with the subject line “Corsair Voyager Giveaway” include your name and email address in the body to contest@systemcooling.com. The giveaway will run from Feb. 15th to the 28th, at the end of which we’ll randomly draw four lucky winners. Contest is open to the world. Please note that your name and email address will be forwarded to Corsair for marketing purposes. Basically all you’ll get is Corsair’s Monthly Newsletter which you can unsubscribe from later on. If you have any questions please drop by the forum. Good luck to you all!!!”

Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR675 Review @ PCmoddingmy
PC Modding Malaysia :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

”

The Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO is a fantastic piece of hardware. It has plenty of headroom for overclocking and also large aluminium heatspreaders that helps to keep the memory cool. It ran perfectly stable at the rated speed of 675MHz with timings at 4-4-4-12. Moreover, the LEDs that run on the modules is definitely a head turner as it is pretty bright and performs as memory usage indicator. Priced at USD335 / RM1273, it is currently the best bang for your buck!

”

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI @ HEXUS
Hexus :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005
”

The GA-K8NXP-SLI oozes of being an enthusiast’s motherboard, and it shows throughout, from the thoughtful packaging which doubles as a test bed for the board through to the comprehensive set of overclocking features available in the BIOS. Performance is also generally on a par with other nForce4 boards we’ve seen, and the whole system was rock-solid stable throughout. The appearance of Gigabyte initiatives such as DPS and Dual BIOS add to that feeling of powerful stability, even in a worst case scenario such as a BIOS failure or power surge.

”

Enermax Venus Micro Case @ Tech-Mods.Net
Tech-Mods.net :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005
“Today I’ll be reviewing the Enermax Venus CS 10068-S3 case. Back in 1990 Enermax Technology Corporation was founded and is well known worldwide for excellence and high-end products this case is no exception to their standings. The Venus is a Micro-ATX case with great potential to become a HTPC or LAN rig for your next gaming fiesta !”

The Cyrix Hotplate @ RabidHardware!
Rabid Hardware :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

”

Welcome to the 21st century. The age of conservation, renewable materials and Jolene Blalock. As we’re urged to replace our gaming equipment on a weekly basis, many tonnes of silicon, lead, and copies of Daikatana make it into our planet’s landfills.

Aspiring to save the planet but don’t know how? Why not do it over breakfast with your very own energy-efficient CPU-powered hotplate.

”

Corsair Ships DDR2 SO-DIMMs for Mobile Intel® 915 Express Platform
Corsair :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Corsair Memory, Inc., a global leader in ultra-performance DDR memory modules for PC gamers and enthusiasts, today announced immediate availability of a new line of DDR2 PC2-4200 SO-DIMMs designed to support Intel’s newest mobile computing platform.

Corsair’s three new SO-DIMM modules are rated at DDR2-533:

VS1GSDS533D2 1GB, DDR2-533, 200-pin SO-DIMM
VS512SDS533D2 512MB, DDR2-533, 200-pin SO-DIMM
VS256SDS533D2 256MB, DDR2-533, 200-pin SO-DIMM

All three parts are included in Corsair’s Value Select family of desktop and laptop memory, and are guaranteed compatible with 915 Express–based laptop computers. Further information and specifications on these and other Corsair products can be found at Corsair’s web site www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/valueselect.html

Thermaltake’s Silent 775 Heatsink @ TechTastic.ca
TechTastic :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“Today we take a look at one of the first aftermarket heatsink/fan combos available to cool Intel’s Prescott CPU from Thermaltake, their Silent 775. To keep this beast quiet, Thermaltake has opted to use heatpipe technology along with their funneled 90x90x25mm fan that centralizes airflow and provides high air pressure and better cooling.”

IBM’s CELL Processor: Preview to Greatness?
PCStats :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“IBM, in cooperation with fellow industry giants Sony and Toshiba, recently announced a new processor, called the Cell. The Cell processor contains a powerful 64-bit Dual-threaded IBM PowerPC core but also eight proprietary ‘Synergistic Processing Elements’ (SPEs), essentially eight more highly specialized mini-computers on the same die. It’s these SPEs that make the Cell architecture special, as you might guess. IBM describes the product as a ‘System on a Chip.’ Like IBM’s Power5 processors, multi-processing is build right into the die.”

Akasa PaxPower 460W PSU @ Hexaplague-Hardware
Hexa Plague Hardware :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“Now, I’m no stranger to 120mm fans, but this is the first PSU I’ve seen with a 120mm fan installed and it looks good, really good. Next impression was the actual look of the PSU which is very high quality. In the past a PSU was a functional item, that was it. Now, with PC users becoming more and more proud of their PC’s, Akasa have focused on the look of their product”

JAHT Bluetooth Accessories
Techniz.co.uk :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“The JAHT JBT-0402HF is portable headset solution that uses Bluetooth wireless technology to provide basic call handling between the headset and the compatible phone, easy-to-wear and free your hand to make calls, answer calls ¡V all by voice command where supported by JBT-0402HF. With Bluetooth technology, you can construct a wireless working environment. As illustrated, the notebook with the JBT-2001U and JBT-0402U can communicate with a mobile phone, PDA, and other computers. If the Bluetooth server has network connection or physically attaches to a fax machine, Bluetooth clients can share these services easily. In a conference, all co-workers can obtain synchronized information via Bluetooth, reducing paperwork.”

Corsair Flash Voyager Flash Memory Drive Review Rev. 1.1 @ Adrian’s Rojak Pot
Tech ARP :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

”

Corsair is well known for their high speed memory modules, they have also started selling flash memory products!

Today, we will take a look at the Corsair Flash Voyager USB flash memory drive. In particular, the 512MB model. Let’s find out how well it fares!

”

Gigabyte 3D1 Dual Core 6600GT Video Card
hardCOREware :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“Several weeks ago, Gigabyte announced a product that we have seen in the past, but have forgotten about until now – a dual core video card. Using NVIDIA’s SLI and paired up with their own NFORCE 4 SLI motherboard, the 3D1 is available as a package that is about $50 cheaper than buying all the parts separately. Of course, there are inherent issues with NVIDIA’s SLI, and the use of the mid-range 6600GT cores used. Is a dual 6600GT solution better than a single 6800GT? It certainly has the potential to be…”

How To Avoid Internet Theft, Fraud and Phishing Scams @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005
”

Phishing is one of the main scams in the present moment. People set up phoney websites and email addresses. Then they spam Email inboxes with official-looking messages explaining that your account with Company X has encountered a problem and that they need you to login and confirm some details. The email addresses are masked to appear official and the links provided in the email all seem to check out. If you click on the link provided then you will usually be taken to a site that looks for all intents and purposes to be official. When you click ‘submit’ your details will be sent to a criminal somewhere who will do as they please with your information, such as withdrawing money from a bank account or purchasing things in your name.

”

Radeon X800 Pro/XT/XT PE Voltmods
techPowerUp! :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“In this article you will be guided by step-by-step instructions on how to do the VGPU, VMem and VDDQ voltmods for ATI’s X800 Pro/XT/XT PE cards. Both pencil and resistor mods are covered.”

Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 3 Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“The NV Silencer 3 is comprised of three components that work collectively to cool a GPU. The entire unit is encased by a clear translucent plastic housing that surrounds an aluminum/copper heatsink and cooling fan. The cooling fan resides towards the front of the unit and is positioned as an intake fan to draw cool air from the case interior and blow it over the high quality aluminum heatsink. The base of the unit consist of a 2.5mm thick Copper heatsink plate and a 1.9mm backing plate which is supported by four mounting screws.”

Chaintech VNF4 Ultra Zenith VE Motherboard Review
ModdersHQ.net :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“The VNF4 kept very stable voltages. According to NVTune, the VCore and VDimm voltages never dropped or went more than .03v beyond its settings. The VNF4 was able to achieve a maximum HTT of 320Mhz, though this was not stable with the stock HSF on the AMD 64 3500+ processor. Despite not being stable at 320Mhz the VNF4 chipset did not overheat, and the temperature did not go up more than a few degrees Celsius.”

A Look Inside The Internet ‘Grey Areas’ @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“The Internet has opened up whole new avenues of freedom for people: freedom of information, thoughts and the ability to achieve anonymity while still being active in a community. This freedom has been latched onto by a large proportion of the Internet user base and has fuelled a desire for even more liberties. This in turn has given rise to the ‘Internet Grey Areas’, those little things that ‘everyone’ does but which aren’t quite legally correct. A few examples are Abandonware, MP3 downloads, warez and their kind.”

Enermax Venus Series mATX Model CS-10068-B
Xtreme Resources :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“With the enthusiast community continually striving for more powerful, faster hardware, and the industry providing, the idea of smaller seems to get lost in the shuffle. Indeed, there is still a market out there for enthusiasts who desire their overall package to be more compact than the norm. With many options out there in the microATX realm, today we are looking at the Enermax Venus series; model CS-10068-B. It may seem unreal to most to want or desire such a platform to build from, but this case does support the latest CPU platforms.”

Valentine’s Day: Alternative Fun for the Single Techie @ Futurelooks
Futurelooks :: Saturday, February 12, 2005
“Yessiree another year, another Hallmark moment that makes you feel like a total loser if you’re not: spending outrageous amount of money, making promises you don’t intend to keep and scrambling to make reservations at restaurants that were booked up months ago. And if you’re a single techie the feeling is even more intense.”

ASUS P5AD2-E Premium Review @ Hexus
Hexus :: Saturday, February 12, 2005
“ASUS has effectively made its i925X-based P5AD2 Premium board redundant with the newer P5AD2-E Premium. The latter carries all the feature nicities of the former but adds in support for 266MHz FSB CPUs. As described, not only is this beneficial from a complete processor support point of view, it also allows the enthusiast to be safe in the knowledge that 200MHz FSB Pentium 4s, which is the vast majority of Intel Pentium 4 chips out there, can be overclocked by at least 33% before the motherboard becomes the limiting factor”

Lian-Li PC6070 Plus Review @ AMDReview
AMD Review :: Saturday, February 12, 2005

“Just two weeks ago I had the opportunity to review the PC-60 Plus, Lian-Li’s upgraded version of the PC-60. Today I get to write a review on the PC-6070 Plus, Lian-Li has updated their PC-6070 case the same way they upgraded the PC-60.”

Corsair 3200XL-PRO Give Away @ FastLaneHW
FastLaneHW :: Saturday, February 12, 2005
“Are you ready to win big with FastLaneHW…again? That’s right, we’re doing it again!! We’re giving away another 4 1GB sets of Corsair 3200XL-PRO memory. This is the same exact memory that we reviewed and clocked up to an amazing 252Mhz (with room to go)… Truly awesome sticks of memory, without a doubt! If you don’t end up winning, you can always buy a 1GB kit for about $300…

All you have to do to win is enter your email address. Ends February 15th! (By entering your email address, you will receive Corsair’s monthly newsletter, which you can cancel out of at any time after the contest period. Your email address will not be spammed or sold!)”

February 2005 Giveaway @ Mikhailtech
Mikhailtech :: Saturday, February 12, 2005

“Just wanted to let everyone know that there is still a bit over 2 weeks left in this month’s Xtrac-sponsored giveaway. We also updated the contest page with more details regarding our “mystery” 1st prize now that it’s been officially released”

Thermaltake Beetle CPU Cooler Review @ Techniz.co.uk
Techniz.co.uk :: Saturday, February 12, 2005

“The Beetle truly appears as one, with its wings (shield) on the top. It contains Blue LED inside the shell of the Beetle and flashes LED in front, where the Beetle comes alive bringing a bright and dazzling effect. The Beetle is created with an aluminum fin soldered to the copper base and Thermaltake’s engineers have designed the heatsink of Beetle to have perfect contact to ensure the best and high superior performance. The Beetle uses Heatpipe technology which dissipated the heat effectively and efficiently. Not only does the Beetle work hard to cool all your needs, it even comes with a manual control fan that can be installed in both 3.5 drive bays and PCI slots.”

Blue-ray technology Editorial @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Saturday, February 12, 2005
“The movie industry wants high def and the consumer electronics industry wants high def. Movie people want it because if you want to copy a movie across the Internet today you “can” do it. Okay it takes 2-3 hours to accomplish but it is possible. To do the same in high def would require 8-10 yours. In addition, the new formats – HD DVD and Blue-ray – are being designed at the outset with stronger digital rights management so making copies will be more difficult.”

Mad Dog SurePower 600W Smart Cable @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“Mad Dog recently opened up a new category called “Techie Toyz”. This category mainly includes products for case modding and accessories, such as rounded cables, fans, CPU coolers, power supplies, etc. Today’s sample will be their flagship SurePower power supply. It boasts a whopping 600W of power and is almost fully modular.”

EQS A58XK9-ALF Radeon Xpress 200P Review @ Hexus
Hexus :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“While I wasn’t expecting this particular motherboard to offer a plethora of overclocking options, as it simply isn’t aimed towards that market, what I would expect is at least the ability to tune and alter memory timings, and in this discipline the A58XK9-ALF is more than lacking. If this is fixed in future BIOS revisions or final retail boards, then we could be left with something far more worthwhile on our hands. As it stands, the A58XK9-ALF is great for out-of-the-box performance, but a major disappointment for anyone looking to tweak a little extra speed out of their rig.”

DFI LANParty UT nF3 250Gb Review @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Friday, February 11, 2005

“DFI was fairly small and quiet back in the early days. It was not until a year or so ago that people started recognizing the company. They broke out into the enthusiast community with their first LANParty motherboard, based on VIA’s KT400A chipset. They quickly continued the LANParty line with Nvidia’s nForce2 chipset and eventually branched into Intel motherboards. The LANParty was a huge hit, not only because it provided possibly the best overclocking results on an overall basis, but because the motherboard offered great voltage options. It was certainly a huge plus since enthusiasts no longer needed to perform voltage modifications. The LANParty motherboards were also the first to provide a stunningly high 3.3v to VDIMM. Everyone, including myself, jumped on the DFI wagon.”

Thermalright XP-120 Heatsink Review @ GruntvillE
GruntvillE :: Friday, February 11, 2005

“Thermalright designed the heatpipes in this heat sink a bit different. Thermalright states on the web site that orientation of the tubes does not affect the performance. They also claim that the wingspan hanging over the mosfets and Northbridge chip will reduce the PWM temperatures as well. Thermalright also claims this is the first heat sink that configuring either suck or blow will net less than 1% difference in temperatures.”

AL Tech AnyDrive Car MP3 FM Transmitter Review @ Mikhailtech
Mikhailtech :: Friday, February 11, 2005

“The majority of computer enthusiasts who also happen to have music collections have, by now, digitized their collections and stored them on hard drives and drive or flash-based players. But if you want to take your music on the road, chances are you’ll be stuck with CDs. And that’s where the AnyDrive car MP3 player FM transmitter comes into play. Basically it’s a USB-driven radio that lets you tune your car stereo to a specified station to listen to music stored on a USB device. It’s pretty robust in its abilities (you can also have it transmit audio to a home audio system or PC speakers via FM or direct connection), but those require more accessories.”

Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 3 Review: Shushing the FX5900XT @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“Arctic Cooling has made a name for themselves by providing silent and performing cooling solutions for VGA cards and AMD/Intel CPUs. Today we take a closer look at their NV Silencer 3 which was designed to be used with NVIDIA’s Geforce FX 5900XT.”

1GB Lexar High-Speed 32X SD Memory Card Review @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“If you recently purchased a digital camera, chances are the memory card that came with the digicam was of low capacity, perhaps 16 or 32 megabytes. You will no doubt discover this is simply not enough memory to do any serious shooting. With many of the compact, point-and-shoot digital cameras rated at resolutions of 4 or 5 megapixels, the highest quality settings will quickly consume that memory and store only a handful of pictures. Without a doubt, the first accessory you should buy for your new camera is a higher capacity memory card.”

Thermaltake Sonic Tower CPU Cooler @ Techniz.co.uk
Techniz.co.uk :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“Thermaltake Sonic Tower CPU cooler is a very good CPU cooler with the excellent design of look. Furthermore, it was specially design for the universal platform. By the way, the package was bundle with a pair of aluminum fan holder where you can install the optional 120mm fan on it. And you can change the fan direction according to your needs. The installation of the Thermaltake Sonic Tower CPU cooler is very simple and easy.”

Thermaltake Shark Full Tower Aluminum Case Review @ SystemCooling
SystemCooling :: Friday, February 11, 2005

“Thermaltake has been in the computer business since 1999, they started off making cooling solutions. Since then they have become one of the better known makers of computer accessories world wide, selling just about any accessory you could ever need to customize your computer. From pre-modded cases to cooling solutions to power supplies and lighting systems, Thermaltake has it covered. Today, we’ll be looking at their newest pre-modded case, the aluminum full tower known simply as the Shark.”

Ultra Mini Portable 3.5″ Hard Drive Enclosure Review @ MODTHEBOX!
MODTHEBOX! :: Friday, February 11, 2005

“The Ultra Mini Portable is a dual combination enclosure that supports both USB and Firewire technologies. The premise behind this product is that it has been designed for home networks, offices, and small to medium businesses.”

Asetek’s VapoChill XE-II review @ HEXUS
Hexus :: Thursday, February 10, 2005
“If you want the ability to run your CPU well above its rated speed, in relative peace and quiet, and you have around £500 to drop on cooling that’ll last you for some years to come, Asetek have something for you to spend your money on. ”

Soltek Qbic EQ3501 915G Cube Review @ Neoseeker
Neoseeker :: Thursday, February 10, 2005
” Here at Neoseeker today, we’ve got Soltek’s latest SFF system, the EQ3501 915G based cube on the review bench. Besides PCIe, Soltek chooses to go with the ICH6R which includes Intel’s Matrix Storage Technology. The Qbic also gets a facelift with the introduction of the Mania series casing with its loud color scheme. ”

Corsair Flash Voyager USB 2.0 @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Thursday, February 10, 2005
“We were very pleased with the Flash Voyager’s speed and more importantly, the durabilty. It survived a free fall onto tiles, a swim in a sink, and a full laundry cycle without missing a beat. The 10 year warranty is great, but unless you stick this into your Thanksgiving turkey and cook it, I doubt you’ll ever need to give Corsair’s support a call.”

Gigabyte 3D Cooler Ultra GT @ HEXUS
Hexus :: Thursday, February 10, 2005
“After spending some time with Gigabyte’s 3D Cooler Ultra GT, it’s hard (name aside perhaps) to fault it. The manual is good, the bundle contains everything you need, installation is easy with all of the retaining clips easily labelled, and most of all its performance under high load is most impressive. Add to that the nifty looks and addition of an LED, and you have a real winner on your hands.”

TwinMOS Speed Premium PC3200 DDR Review @ PC Stats
PCStats :: Thursday, February 10, 2005
“Most of the dual-channel DDR memory kits on the marketplace are aimed at hardcore enthusiasts and overclockers; users with money to burn. Agressive timings, shiny heatspreaders and even banks of LED lights are the order of the day. You have to wonder how many high-end products this market can possibly support though, with all these ‘extreme’ memory products competing for a sparse amount of performance users. This mainstream DDR dual channel kit features a pair of PC3200 512MB DDR modules with CAS timings of 2.5-3-3-8. Though not aimed at the extreme overclocker or performance enthusiast, this package looks to offer decent dual-channel performance at a price that won’t cause pain.”

Sunbeam Transformer and Samurai Cases Giveaway! @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Thursday, February 10, 2005
“CoolTechZone is proud to partner with SunbeamTech and announce a special giveaway for our readers. We are giving away Sunbeam’s Transformer and Samurai cases to two lucky winners and entering the contest is fairly effortless.”

Sparkle 6600GT 128Mb AGP Graphics card Mini Review
TekBunker :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“Supercharge your gaming with the power of an NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GPU. The NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GPUs deliver best-in-class performance and advanced visual effects for next-generation games. The only GPU in its class with support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 and with support for PCI Express, the GeForce 6600 delivers ultra-realistic effects, unmatched features, and rock-solid stability so you can play your game the way it’s meant to be played.”

Wireless Networking Troubleshooting Guide
The Tech Zone :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“Fortunately for us, fixing a Wi-Fi problem is really not that complicated. In fact, most problems associated with wireless networking fall into three main categories: problems connecting initially, throughput and connection speed problems, and coverage issues. To get you back up and running we present the TTZ Wireless Networking Troubleshooting Guide. The guide covers all three wireless issues you’re likely to encounter – with fixes and solutions to all of them.”

Sunbeamtech Transformer Give-Away Contest
Madshrimps :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“The innovative guys at Sunbeamtech have paired up with Madshrimps to present our readers with free give-away contest, all you need to do is answer a few simple questions about one of their latest ATX Cases: the Transformer. The winner will be picked from the correct entrees and will receive a brand new Transformer case at his doorstep.”

February 2005 Giveaway @ Mikhailtech
Mikhailtech :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“Today we begin our 6th consecutive monthly giveaway. This time we’re teaming up with XtracPads again and giving away several performance gaming accessories with a yet-to-be-released mouse pad among them.”

Evercool WC-202 Watercooling Kit Review
3dXtreme :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“About a year ago we had the opportunity of reviewing the WC-201 which was a decent all-in-one unit for watercooling. We did a little modding to the unit and brought it to a point where it would perform much better in it’s capacity. We mentioned some of our concerns to Evercool and I’m sure others did also and they have since updated the unit with the WC-202 that 3DXtreme has the pleasure of reviewing today. Our main focus of this review will not be to look at it completely as we did the WC-201, but to highlight the updates and to show performance of the unit in our modded setup. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the WC-202…”

Ultra X-Connect Green UV 500W Power Supply Review
PCStats :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“There’s a good reason why we always recommend consumers spend good money on a power supply, and skimp elsewhere, if necessary, when building systems. The danger of a cheap power supply blow up and destroying the rest of the computer is more likely than you might imagine. In this review, PCstats will be testing the Ultra X-Connect Green UV PSU. Each power cable has its own port on the power supply unit, so you only need to connect the cables you need. No more having to stuff extra cables into the 5 1/4″ drive bays, or hide them behind the motherboard tray for a neat looking system.”

BenQ Joybook 7000 Notebook Review
Tech ARP :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“You followed our journey to the Loss of Joy (Episode II of the Notebook Purchase Fiasco). Now read the review!

Join Peaz as he explores the features of the BenQ Joybook 7000 and find out of it was worth all the anguish and pain. ”

Telecommuting Editorial
Phoronix :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“Telecommuting is defined by Webster’s dictionary as to working at home by the use of an electronic linkup with a central office. With today’s technology, telecommuting has become a reality for more and more people. I have been able to work from home many nights, had dinner with my family, and then continue working instead of staying back in the office. It seems like an excellent alternative to late nights at our place of employment.”

St. Louis Gaming – Warfactory LAN
Legit Reviews :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“This nice “bunker-style” concrete room was the perfect setting for some major gaming action! As I mentioned, 74 systems running and fragging is a beautiful thing! There were some pretty slick looking cases on those tables. One that comes to mind was an amature custom rig with a Mario Bros. theme…”

FSP AX500-A Blue Storm PSU Review
Short-Media :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“Fortron Source Group (FSP) is a power supply that should be at the top of any PC buyer’s list. FSP launched the AX500-A Blue Storm PSU late in 2004 to meet the demands of the “bigger, better, faster”. The “norm” is quickly becoming 500 watts and FSP puts in a good showing with the AX500-A.”

Logisys Multimedia Acoustics System Review
Hardware-Pacers :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Logisys Multimedia Acoustics System is a handsome, easy to set up speaker system. Its major advantage over some of the competitor’s sound systems is its price and design. Since most of the speakers on the market today perform similarly, sound as third advantage is excluded. However, it must not be underestimated since the speakers do sound well. The package has some minor design deficiencies which can be neglected due to its overall performance.”

X-Micro USB 2.0 Flash Drive Review @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“We thought of flash drives as being incredibly similar to each other and to a point we were right. After all, you get the same partitioning and security software, same storage options and same features from one drive to another. But there are quite a few aspects that differentiate one from the rest. These aspects include brand, warranty (although it is unnecessary with Flash drives, since the failure rate is unheard of), price and performance. It is natural for manufacturers to gain customers with their brand, assuming that it’s a trusted one. While brand, warranty and price are understandable, we were surprised to see different performance numbers from various drives.”

OCZ Announces PC2-5400 DDR2 Enhanced Bandwidth Platinum
OCZ Technology :: Monday, February 07, 2005
OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the release of PC2-5400 Enhanced Bandwidth DDR2 Platinum Edition series, an exceptionally high-performing DDR2.

OCZ’s PC2-5400 Platinum series with Enhanced Bandwidth technology is designed to exceed standard DDR2 capabilities and deliver indomitable performance and speed to gamers, PC-enthusiasts, and graphics professionals. As a member of the Enhanced Bandwidth Series, PC2-5400 Platinum maintains lower latencies than conventional DDR2-667, while providing intelligent bandwidth management to allow maximum system performance without compromising stability. Ideal for the most demanding computing environments, this memory can achieve blazing speeds of up to 667MHz at CL 4-2-2-8.

Link: http://www.ocztechnology.com/aboutocz/press/2005/120M

Newest NVIDIA nForce Professional motherboard from Arima-Rioworks
AMDboard :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“After Abit WN-2S+, Asus K8N-DL, Iwill DK8E, DK8E2 DK8S and Tyan Tiger K8WE, Thunder K8SRE, Thunder K8WE, it’s now Arima Rioworks’s turn, with the HDMA Express, to release a NVIDIA nForce professional motherboard accepting AMD Opteron from grade 240 to 252. The socket 940 motherboard loaded with SATA 2, IEEE1394, PCI Express, PCI-X, Rioworks HDMA Express accept up to 16GB of registered DDR 400 and supports RAID 0, 1, 10. ”

Acer AL1715b @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Acer is undoubtedly a leader in the digital world, ranking among the top 10 branded PC vendors, and manufacturing a whole array of products from notebook computers to video projectors. In this article today, we will be trying out one of Acer’s LCD monitors, the AL1715b. Not only do we have one AL1715b in our lab today, but two! With its 12ms response time, we will be sure to check just how well these LCD flat panels can handle some gaming, along with every day tasks, as we go dual head in Fedora!”

VIA’s PT880 Pro and PT894 Core Logic
Hexus :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“PT880 Pro is just what the doctor ordered for those not interested in Athlon 64. If you’re a P4 fan and you want to continue on that path into 2005 and fancy a piecemeal upgrade to PCI Express and DDR2, PT880 Pro is for you. Good performance matches obvious upgrade potential. The ability to bring AGP and your existing DDR400 to a board that supplies LGA775, DDR2 and PCI Express is not to be underestimated.”

ThermalRock Dragon Case Review
Overclocker Café :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and with that in mind, the aesthetics of any case are a purely subjective measure. Designing a case to be smart looking without being gaudy ensures its appeal to the masses. Match that with features to rival any case on the market at a low price, ensures success. Let’s face it, we are all on a budget and make our purchases accordingly. ThermalRock approaches the high end case market in such a way as to make us all feel like Donald Trump.”

OCZ 520W ModStream Power Supply @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Known mostly for their overclocker-friendly RAM, OCZ provides top-tier products for the PC enthusiast market. Established in 2000 by enthusiasts and for enthusiasts, OCZ has branched out into the power supply market recently with their PowerStream and ModStream power supplies. The ModStream is one of the new modular power supplies that have been sweeping the world due to their vast combinations for powering your hardware components. OCZ offers two versions of their ModStream, the OCZ-450 and the OCZ-520. Our review sample was the OCZ-520 that produces 520 watts but is capable of a peak load of 620 watts. Read on to see how the OCZ ModStream performs in a modern system.”

Intel Centrino Overclocking Guide
Tech ARP :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Due to their proprietary nature, notebooks have so far eluded attempts at overclocking. Except for isolated cases, notebooks have so far been safe from the overclocking craze. Until today, that is. Today, we will show you how to overclock Intel Centrino motherboards! We will show you how to do it, as well as explore the risks and the rewards associated with such an attempt. ”

SilverStone TJ03 Case Review @ PCmoddingmy
PC Modding Malaysia :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“One of the included items in the HIS X700Pro package was Hightech’s own overclocking software. The interface is great and very easy to use, and it worked very well. Not only can you adjust the clock and memory speeds, but you can also manually adjust the fan speed.”

Intel P4 3.46EE Review @ t-break
t-break :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“The 3.46GHz CPU is based on the Gallatin core and is basically a Xeon with a 1066MHz (4 x 266MHz) FSB sold as a Pentium4. This was a bit surprising as the Gallatin is based on the older Northwood core and not the newer 0.90nm Prescott core that is used by all new Pentium4 CPUs. Besides the FSB speed bump, this CPU being an Extreme Edition, features 2MB of L3 cache which is over and above the L1 and L2 caches found is standard Pentium4 CPUs. Like most new CPUs by Intel, the 3.46GHz EE is packaged in an LGA775 format.”

Swiftech H20-120(Rev. 3) Liquid Cooling Kit @ OCIA.net
OCIA :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Now it’s time to install the radiator. The first step is to install the PCI bracket. Choose a spot that won’t interfere with any of your AGP/PCI cards. You’ll notice a little notch that is beside on of the holes on the PCI bracket. This is for the 120mm fan power wire. I chose to not use this slot as there were no fan headers near where I installed the bracket. I instead routed mine in an opening above the AGP slot.”

VIA PT Series Chipset Preview
The Tech Zone :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Today VIA launched three new core logic chipset for the Intel Pentium 4 processor platform; The PT880 Pro, PT894 and PT894 pro. The new chipsets are designed to compete head to head with Intel’s 915 and 925 chipset and will offer users an alternative and less expensive PCI Express solution.”

Prime Cooler Hypercool III+ & Hypercool 4+ @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“Prime Cooler, a cooling manufacturer, was established in 1998, but a lack of distributors has made their products almost unheard of. We recently got our hands on the Hypercool III+ and 4+ which are Prime Cooler’s flagship products. Can these two massive copper radial heatsinks prove to be a viable alternative for enthusiasts trying to get the maximum potential out of their processor?”

VIA PT880 Pro, PT894, PT894 Pro Chipset Preview @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“Intel has usually dominated the chipset market for a long time. While chipsets from SiS and VIA were always there, Intel’s core logic chipsets were the choice of many Intel preferring enthusiast. If we were to take out Alderwood and Grantsdale out of the picture for the time being, their Springdale and Canterwood chipsets were a new step in performance for the last generation of Intel microprocessors. Intel offered almost all features desired by the enthusiast crowd and with new performance discoveries and features of the Springdale chipset, no other chipset maker could take the crown away from the world’s largest chipmaker in both mainstream and high-end performance segments. In fact, after third party board makers started tweaking the Springdale core logics, they were robust enough to compete against its high-end counterpart.”

Logisys UV Red Acrylic Case
Phoronix :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“Up on the review block today we have the Logisys Assembled UV Red Acrylic Clear Case. Many of the cases we see at Phoronix on a daily basis are composed of aluminum, steel, or plastic, but when the Logisys CS888UVRD entered our sights, we knew everyone would be in for a big surprise.”

ASUS S-presso SFF System Review @ Adrian’s Rojak Pot
Tech ARP :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“Like coffee as well as small form factor PCs? Then you will be interested in the new SFF system from ASUS.

Christened the ASUS S-presso, is this new SFF system really your cup of coffee? Read on and find out!”

EPoX 9NDA3+ Socket 939 (nForce3 Ultra) Motherboard Review @ TweakTown
TweakTown :: Saturday, February 05, 2005
“Mike takes a close look at the EPoX 9NDA3+ Socket 939 motherboard today which is based around nVidia’s nForce3 Ultra chipset. The motherboard makes use of an AGP port instead of the newer PCI-Express version which makes it a good option for users wanting to keep their old yet workable AGP graphics card and upgrade to the new Socket 939 Athlon 64 platform. Read on as we compare the EPoX 9NDA3+ against other solutions in its league and work out which is best for your needs as a gamer.”

XG Quantum ATX Case Review @ PimpRig
PimpRig :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“Despite its gaming credentials, I could tell by the way Attila the UPS guy was huffing and puffing when he reached my second story doorstep, this was no Lan rig I was going to be reviewing. Shipping weight was 37 lbs., sans psu the net weight is just under 32 lbs. MGE’s 500 watt psu option was not included with this sample. It’s a steel case, it’s a big case, it’s a man’s case, and it’s a hernia waiting to be born. In short, the suckers heavy! 1.0mm SECC construction and a heavy aluminum bezel make for a very sturdy case.”

Prime Cooler Cable Accessories reviewed @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“In this short write up at Phoronix, we have several accessories for any case modder. These items include the Prime Cooler PC-C1, PC-C3, PC-C4, PC-CC1, PC-EC1, and finally the PC-EC2. Since obviously the product names aren’t very descriptive as to the actual product function, we are looking at a variety of different extension cables and cable connectors.”

Trapped under ICE: Extreme FX-55 overclocking @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Saturday, February 05, 2005
“When you have the fastest CPU (at stock speeds) on the planet, you just have to push it further, although phase change cooling can get your underway, LN2 is bound to give you the edge. Let´s pour a few litres on this blazingly fast A64 FX-55 to see how high it can fly.”

Corsair Flash Voyager Review @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“Corsair, the manufacturers of the XMS high performance DDR and DDR2 memory lines, and the soon to be released XMS XPERT, have been manufacturing a line of flash memory that has been getting a lot of attention lately, the Flash Voyager. In this review today, we will be trying out the Corsair 512MB Flash Voyager thumb drive.”

CaseBuy EZ Power Supply Tester @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“In this review, we will be testing the CaseBuy EZ Power Supply Tester. This product is used to test your power supply for any sign of failure. Efficiency and affordability is the resulting factor we should expect to see from the CaseBuy EZ Power Supply Tester. A device that can test your power supply with ease, and offers a peace of mind assuring that no damage will result from the testing process. The sheer brilliance of this device eliminates a need to swap out power supplies in order to test multiple PSU’s.”

Corsair Flash Voyager Review @ Overclockers Online
Overclockers Online :: Saturday, February 05, 2005
“The Corsair Flash Voyager simply rocked against the competitors! It’s essentially twice as fast in both reading and writing compared to the SanDisk and VisonTek models. There’s also a significant increase in the number of operations per second.”

ASETEK Waterchill review at Techwarelabs
Techwarelabs :: Saturday, February 05, 2005
“The upper bounds of air cooling’s usefulness have already been passed by serious overclockers, and even regular systems can demand better cooling than OEM solutions have to offer. Asetek’s all-in-one water-cooling kit, WaterChill, offers a fantastic way for new users to enter the arena of watercooling. The setup procedure is easy and well documented, and the results in temperature and noise reduction are more than any air-cooling system could offer.”

Akasa AK-688 Black Knight Heatsink Review @ Mikhailtech
Mikhailtech :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“The cooler itself is a bit on the heavier side given that it’s a block of copper. It measures in at 90 x 70 x 40mm, so it’s about the same size as the stock Intel cooler. The clips used for attaching the heatsinks generally follow Intel’s reference design, but with a twist. The “legs” can bend outward so you can place the fan fixture on top of the cooler and line up the hooks one by one without a problem. This is a very versatile and worry-free approach. The latches on the clips are a little stiff but after a few bends they loosen up, so no complaint there.”

CoolJag JVC558A Review @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“This is the second CoolJag product that we have had the pleasure to get our hands on. At first, we were expecting somewhat of a heavy heatsink and noisy fan but we were happily proven wrong. Let’s see how the Skiving fins compare not only to the AMD stock fan, but also to its brother the CoolJag JAC103C.”

AOpen Silent Power AO400-12AHN Power Supply Review @ PCStats
PCStats :: Saturday, February 05, 2005
“Additional features and frills such as pretty lights, UV reflective coating, fan controllers, etc. are nice, but beside the point. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the latest PSU to cross our bench, the AOpen Silent Power AO400-12AHN. This 400Watt unit comes armed with a bristling array of cables as well as a rear mounted knob which controls the speed of the LED-lighted 120mm fan mounted on the bottom of the PSU.”

Silverstone SST-LC04B HTPC Review @ ModdersHQ
ModdersHQ.net :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“HTPC’s (Home Theatre PC) have quickly become a familiar site among computer enthusiasts. Even though an HTPC is nothing more then a glorified desktop case, appearance and function are what keeps us from using our old IBM workstations in conjunction with our home entertainment systems. Silverstone has been a front runner in the HTPC case market and today we are taking a closer look at the SST-LC04B”

Antec TriCool Review @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“With the overwhelming demand all of us place on our computers when we overclock them, it’s no wonder why we need to load our cases full of fans. In this review, we have to present the Antec TriCool LED fans, which not only will improve the airflow throughout your system, but also the overall looks of the machine.”

Networking Basics Article @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“A network is a group of computers, printers, and other devices that are connected together with cables. The sharing of data and resources. Information travels over the cables, allowing network users to exchange documents & data with each other, print to the same printers, and generally share any hardware or software that is connected to the network. Each computer, printer, or other peripheral device that is connected to the network is called a node. Networks can have tens, thousands, or even millions of nodes.”

OCZ ModStream 520W Review @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“Ultra Products was the first to introduce the world’s first fully modular power supply. The power supply was great for case modders, because it allowed great cable management. Well, OCZ is here again with a similar approach. OCZ knows that overclockers not only need the best performance possible but a nice tidy system too. The solution is the OCZ ModStream. The ModStream caters less to overclockers but more to the general public and case modders who want a nice looking system.”

MSI Mega View 561 20GB Portable Media Player Review @ GideonTech
GideonTech :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“After seeing a review for a portable media player I searched for an easy to use player that would be cheaper but still have good functionality. I eventually came across the MSI Mega View 561, a 20GB unit that costs less than $400.”

Quad Desktop Anyone? @ Hexus
Hexus :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“MSI DBS (Dual Bridge System) Technology supports dual PCI Express graphics card with PCI Express x16 and PCI Express x2 interface onboard. The PCI Express X2 slot onboard is an open-ended slot for ordinary PCI Express X1, X2 add-on card or PCI Express X16 graphics card population.”

Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 4 Review @ techPowerUp!
techPowerUp! :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“Arctic Cooling is the first video card cooler manufacturer to use a heatsink base manufactured from copper. The ATI Silencer 4 just does awesome on all settings. If you are looking for a good cooler for your X800 you must definitely consider the ATI Silencer 4. Its cooling performance is excellent no matter what the fan speed is. Memory cooling works pretty well and gives you a bit more overclocking headroom.”

The State of Linux Gaming Article @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Friday, February 04, 2005

“It’s 2005 and the Linux juggernaut shows no sign of slowing down. Everywhere you look, Linux seems to be gaining steam. Home users are finally finding that they can use a Linux distribution without learning esoteric text commands. Everyday Linux is becoming more user-friendly and accessible. In fact, distributions have matured to the point where they can be the only operating system on a home computer. Except for one thing – Gaming.”

ABIT RX600 Pro-GURU Review @ Legit Reviews
Legit Reviews :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“The ABIT RX600 Pro-GURU was the first card from ABIT that featured vGURU technology. Today we take a look at this card and see how it performs and give the vGURU software a test drive. It looks like vGURU is going to be a feature on many of ABIT’s upcoming cards…”

Asetek Waterchill Antarctica Water Cooling System Review @ Tweaknews
Tweaknews :: Friday, February 04, 2005

“Seeing that this is the first of many water cooling product reviews to be posted on Tweaknews.net, you might as well come in with a bang or in this case, a strong gurgle. Asetek have been in the water cooling market for quite some time and it definitely shows. Along with the outstanding quality and workmanship, detail, and efficiency, my first voyage into Asetek water cooling has resulted in a very positive experience…”

Performance Computing – Q1 2005 (AMD64 and SLI Overclocked) @ TweakTown
TweakTown :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“It has been 14 months since our last Performance PC article was published where we collected the best performing computer parts around and built up one of the quickest and most expensive systems of its time. Today we bring you our much anticipated follow-up taking a look at exactly what almost $5,000 USD worth of hardware gets you. Based around an AMD Athlon 64 system with SLI, we have oodles and oodles of performance to play with. Read on as we bring you our recommended Performance Computing system for Q1 2005.”

AeroCool CoolPanel Control Panel Review @ SystemCooling
SystemCooling :: Friday, February 04, 2005

“Today we’ll be taking a look at a product that has great potential to make your computing life easier. The Aerocool CoolPanel is not just a fan controller, fan speed monitor and temperature monitor; it also boasts an 8 in 1 card reader, dual USB ports, a firewire port, two SATA connectors along with a host of audio ports and a video input. Will all these features come together to form a great control panel? Let’s find out.”

TriGem KLOSS KL-I915A Review @ Hexus
Hexus :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“It’s not as cheap as Shuttle’s SB77G5 XPC but for the extra £50 it’ll take to snag a KLOSS, you get more than £50 worth of extra value in this reviewer’s opinion.

An innovative take on SFF chassis partitioning and the cooler for the processor are the final big highlights on a well presented and desirable mini barebones computer system.”

Seagate 100GB Portable External HDD Review @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“On the go? Always away from home or the office? Looking for a way to take a big chunk of data along with you wherever you may roam? With the arrival of USB portable drives in sizes all the way up to several GB of data, the desire to go portable with all of your data is fast becoming the norm. Enter Seagate’s portable external USB 2.0 100GB HDD ready to help you out with every storage need you may encounter while on the move.”

Thermaltake StarForce Fan Review @ Mikhailtech
Mikhailtech :: Friday, February 04, 2005

“The unit itself is an oddity. It’s basically a 92mm fan encased in a slightly tapered cylindrical frame. On top is a Thermaltake logo with multi-color LEDs beneath which steadily change colors every few seconds. Since both the blades and case are UV reactive, there is also a pair of small UV LEDs right next to the fan blades. On the back side is a set of fixed blades which function as part of the frame; supposedly these also make the fan more efficient.”

EPoX Bluetooth Flash USB Dongle Review @ The Crucible
The Crucible :: Friday, February 04, 2005

“For the person that is on the go more often than not having a simple way to connect all those cumbersome electronic devices together and keep them is sync is not only more convenient, but a requirement. If you are one of these people take a look at EPoX’s BluetoothT flash USB dongle. Life without wires is a good thing.”

Orb Audio Classic Two Speaker Review @ Designtechnica
Designtechnica :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“Based out of New York, employee owned Orb Audio claims that you can have audiophile quality speakers at a fraction of the cost because of the company’s low over head. And believe it or not, they are made here in the USA. Orb Audio offers a 30 day money back guarantee as well as phone support from 9AM to 9PM Eastern Standard time.

With four systems to choose from in both stereo and surround home theater setups, there is a speaker package for anyone’s needs. The speaker system featured in this review is the company’s Classic Two Stereo Speaker System featuring four satellites paired up in a 2.1 system. The Classic Two system has an MSRP of $629.”

Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 Review @ Neoseeker
Neoseeker :: Thursday, February 03, 2005
“We managed to overclock the Soltek K890Pro-939 to a maximum stable speed of 280 MHz on the HT bus, with a memory divider of 6:5 (166 MHz), HT multiplier of 4x, and CPU multiplier of 8x. These settings resulted in a total CPU clock of 2240 MHz, memory clock of ~233 MHz, and HT bus clock of 1120 MHz. The SATA1/2 ports appear to be locked, as we did not experience any problems with data integrity.”

SunbeamTech Light-Bus & Laser LEDs Review @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Thursday, February 03, 2005
“When the loud noise of your water cooling radiator fan rig or high performance heatsink fan bothers you a lot, the fan controller (rheostat) will come to the rescue. When your modded case does not have enough lighting or too much lighting, Sunbeamtech has the Light-Bus for you. In fact, this Light-Bus serves a dual purpose duty in controlling the fans and light intensity plus more.”

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB SATA Hard Drive @ Systemcooling
SystemCooling :: Thursday, February 03, 2005

“Maxtor’s DiamondMax 10 line of desktop hard drives covers a wide swathe of products. All the products feature a 7200 RPM spindle speed, and range in size from 80GB to 300GB. They are available in both ATA133 and SATA 150 interfaces, with cache sizes from 8 to 16 MB. The drive we’re looking at today is the top of the DiamondMax 10 line, with its SATA interface, 300GB capacity, 16MB of cache, and NCQ (native command queueing) support to boot. It’s got all the tools, and we’ll find out if the performance is there to match its lofty specifications.”

GeCube SilenCool X700 PRO 256MB @ HEXUS
Hexus :: Thursday, February 03, 2005
“GeCube pull off silent X700 PRO running with aplomb, for competetive money, by not going overboard on the bundle. If it lies in your price range and silence appeals, be sure and consider it. GeCube promise that availability will be strong in early 2005. Recommended based on that.”

CES 2005 Article @ GruntvillE.com
GruntvillE :: Thursday, February 03, 2005

“The first thing we do is hit the Intel booth so I can get a personal look at the masterpiece that is Stormbringer. I have to tell you, the pictures suck. Either Hobbes has a really crappy camera, or he is the one of the world’s worst photographers. The case is simply amazing, really, and I am not the only one that thinks so. When we arrived there was a crowd of people standing around the case and poor Alex from Intel trying to answer their questions about the case and what was done to it.”

Leadtek WinFast TV USB II Deluxe Review @ Everything USB
Everything USB :: Friday, February 25, 2005
“The WinFast TV USB II Deluxe has a cleverly designed pearl white body that reveals only the infrared sensor when viewed from the front. The most frequently used connections of coaxial-in, mini-USB, on/off switch and power cable are hidden in the back of the unit, with composite, S-Video, audio, and USB ports on the concave black sides accented by gray rings for each port. To top it all off, the sides of the unit cast a blue glow from two bright LEDs.”

Logitech Cordless Precision Controller for Xbox Review
Virtual-Hideout :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“The first thing I noted was that there was no lag at all with this cordless controller. Once the controller has established a connection, button presses are reflected in the game immediately. I tested this controller in an environment with both an 802.11b/g network, and a 2.4GHz cordless phone in operation, and experience no lag whatsoever.”

Handy Recovery 2.0 Undeletion and Data Recovery Software Review
PCStats :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“In PCstats critically important guide to data recovery, we walked through several freeware applications that you can use to restore your data in case of disaster. Today we’re going to take a quick walk through the features and tools of a commercial option for data and file recovery, SoftLogica’s Handy Recovery 2.0. As you’d expect, this $30 data recovery program is free from many of the limitations that can make using freeware recovery software a trying experience. Handy Recovery supports the NTFS file system, has a full GUI and most importantly, is easy to use.”

Casebuy USB Vacuum Cleaner Review @ PCmoddingmy
PC Modding Malaysia :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“I’d say that if you are a desktop computer owner and wish to clean the hard to reach areas of your computer from time to time and you’re worried that your nice keyboard may be evolving into an eco system, you could invest some money to get this tool to help you out. You could also clean your CRT Monitor Screen real quick with this item without the need of wetting a cloth, wringing it out and running it where water shouldn’t be present. So I’ll say that it is a nice tool to have, although it isn’t a MUST for everyone out there. I believe that you could use it to clean the insides of a dusty desktop computer, but please, do not switch it on while doing it!”

Bluetake BT007Si Bluetooth USB Adapter & G5 Headset Review
Hardware-Pacers :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“Both the BT400 G5 Bluetooth Headset and the BT007Si Bluetooth USB Adapter are cleverly designed products. The Bluetooth USB adapter is exceptionally portable and still maintains an excellent stable signal. The USB Bluetooth adapter can connect to any Bluetooth device, from Bluetooth cell phones to Bluetooth headsets. With the thickness of only ten mm and the length of forty nine mm, the USB Bluetooth adapter still packs a load of features. These features include the ‘Human Interface Device’, ‘Advance Audio Distribution Profile’, and the ‘Basic Image Profile’. The Bluetake adapter is perfect for consumers who have numerous amount of Bluetooth products. This adapter is designed to be capable to be conveniently transported along with other Bluetooth products. It can easily fit into any pocket and carried around all day.”

Glacial Tech Igloo 7200 Light @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Saturday, February 12, 2005

“Not an overclocker? Is your system screaming for quieter options (pun intended)? We have a Glacial Tech Igloo 7200 light in our labs, so let’s see how well this little heatsink, designed for Socket 754/939/940, can really perform!”

iRiver H10 MP3 Player Review @ Designtechnica
Designtechnica :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“The H10 is iRiver’s first micro-drive based digital audio player. Sporting a 5GB drive from Seagate, the sleek looking H10 comes in four different colors and features a color display. The H10 is priced at $279.99 which is about $30 more than the non-color Zen Micro and iPod mini. Will good looks and a color screen be enough to bring buyers over the iRiver camp? Read on to find out.”

Palm Tungsten T5 @ TheTechLounge
The Tech Lounge :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“As we all know, technology never stops, nor does the onslaught of new gadgets and fun things to buy. PalmOne is no stranger to this phenomenon, and they have just released their new handheld, the Tungsten T5. Of course, being the ‘latest and greatest’ in any product line is sure to have an impact on pricing. The T5 is on the top end of PalmOne’ product line, so I am expecting to see top end performance. Not only does the T5 come with a hi-res screen, but it also takes advantage of several of the features introduced with the T3 such as the larger viewing area, the ability to rotate into landscape mode, and the digitized writing surface.”

Apple iPod photo 60GB
Designtechnica :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“The iPod photo is another great piece of Apple engineering that takes what could be a remarkably cumbersome idea and executes it with ease. Not much has changed from the original iPod menu navigation, which has been the pinnacle of efficient user interface since its introduction. The added photo slideshow ability, color screen and larger hard drive offerings are a step forward, but the Windows software is still buggy at best. Also, with so many iPod accessories, the slight change in form factor has caused many case companies to go scrambling back to the drawing board. Even so, the iPod remains the best easy-to-use MP3 player available.”

Casebuy USB Vacuum Cleaner reviewed @ MetkuMods
MetkuMods :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“Small size combined with powerfull suction and work light make this product very usefull. It doesn’t take that much space to store away and is instantly ready to be used after you plug it in to an USB port.”

Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2 @ The Tech Lounge
The Tech Lounge :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“Well this should be a familiar sight for most of us gamer geeks. Logitech’s wireless Rumblepad 2 bears more than a passing resemblance to the ubiquitous stock PlayStation controller. Of course this is what they are aiming for, taking the comfort and familiarity of the console gaming pad and coupling it with a desktop computer. And with the added features of force feedback and wireless connectivity, you’ll never know that you have stepped away from your PS2.

But, unlike the stock PlayStation controller, the Logitech Rumblepad 2 carries with it a larger range of programmability and functionality. With the included programming software, you can designate X and Y axis control and sensitivity, assign specific button functions and even load pre-made game profiles for your game pad. It’s even compatible with Macs! But will it capture the essence of console gaming on a PC?”

SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 512 MB USB Drive @ TheTechLounge
The Tech Lounge :: Tuesday, February 01, 2005

“USB flash drives have been around for quite some time. In the beginning of their existence, they were useful tools, but were generally bulky, slow and of limited capacity. Of course, when compared to the dying floppy disk, they were a godsend for those who could afford them and live with their quirks. Today’s USB drives, also known as thumb drives, have reduced greatly in physical size and price while sporting capacities of up to 2 GBs and transfer surpassing 15 MB/s. Additionally, the market has started to evolve in different areas, bringing on some great new features to some of these devices such as water-proofing, shock-resistance, and extreme durability. Today, we will be taking a look at SanDisk’s Cruzer Titanium USB flash drive which, as SanDisk claims, can resist 2,000 pounds of pressure without any data loss.”

ATI Radeon To ATI FireGL Mod Guide Rev. 4.2 Posted @ Adrian’s Rojak Pot
Tech ARP :: Saturday, February 26, 2005

“Want a FireGL workstation card but can’t afford to pay ATI’s exhorbitant prices? Well, why don’t you grab a Radeon desktop card and mod it into a FireGL card? Yes, you can easily mod a Radeon into the FireGL!

Our guide will go through all the possible FireGL mods for the Radeon 8500, 9500, 9600, 9700 and 9800 series of cards and teach you just how to mod your Radeon into a FireGL! Check it out!

Here are the updates:- – Added a section on the Forsage driver in page 21. – Added even more benchmark results in page 22. – Added a notice about the possibility that the new drivers may not be moddable in page 4. ”

Icemat Siberia Multi Headset Review @ TechTastic
TechTastic :: Friday, February 25, 2005

“One way to increase your gaming experience is to get a good set of stereo headphones. An even better idea is to get a set of headphones with a built in microphone to take advantage of games that include a voice over ip technology to allow real-time chat with teammates and opponents during game play.

Today we take a look at and test a set of these gaming headphones from Icemat called their Siberia Multi Headset.”

HIS Radeon X850XT and X850XT IceQ II Turbo Review @ Overclocker Cafe
Overclocker Café :: Friday, February 25, 2005

“Their true performance power lays in the fact that no matter how high the resolution goes, you’re getting some awesome frame rates. With the exception of Doom III, there was almost no drop in frame rates at all. Even with all the eye-candy maxed out, we saw very little drop in Far Cry and Half-Life 2. If you’re a gamer who likes his settings maxed, then these cards are for you.”

Samsung SyncMaster 170N LCD Review @ Tech-Mods.Net
Tech-Mods.net :: Thursday, February 24, 2005

”

There was a time when the color of your monitor was not really important, today we have evolved and now there are options. Back in Black a song that comes to mine when looking at the new Samsung SyncMaster 170N LCD monitor. This baby is completely black and it shows off well. Today we are looking into the darkness of the Samsung SyncMaster 170N.

”

SoundGraph iMON Multi-Median Plus Remote Control Review
OcPrices :: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

“Pressing the blue MM button on the remote at any time loads up the Imon MM software. It is here that the product really comes alive, allowing you to select media files such as music or photos in a large, easy to read interface. This obviously makes it perfect for viewing via a large television screen. Pressing left and right on the thumb stick allows you to select the various options.”

Sapphire X800 PCI-E Review @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
”

The Sapphire Radeon X800 is clocked at 391.5 MHz core and 351 (702 DDR) MHz memory. The 391.5 MHz core clock is a bit shy of the 400 MHz ATI specs. We’re not sure of the reason why Sapphire would choose to downclock their cards from the reference specifications. They did; however, include an overclocking utility, Redline, that easily clocks the core to 400+ MHz. They also doubled the memory from ATI’s reference to 256MB, which is a nice bonus.

”

Altec Lansing GT5051 5.1 Surround Speaker System Video Review @ 3dGameMan
3dgameman :: Sunday, February 20, 2005
“This product offers 6 channel audio with only 4 speakers. The two front satellites have two 10W 3″ full-range drivers & the Side-Firing Surround™ technology provides rear surround sound. The center speaker has a 10W 3″ full-range driver & the subwoofer has a 30W 5.25″ long-throw driver. It looks & sounds great, is well constructed & affordable. Watch the Video to find out more…”

Altec Lansing XA2021 Speakers Review @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Sunday, February 20, 2005
“Altec Lansing has been known for their affordable speaker systems for decades. And although they have been a prominent name in the industry, Altec Lansing is usually associated with speaker systems on a budget. While Altec Lansing has rigorous competition from Logitech (and others in the budget sector), they have still managed to hold on to their position quite impressively. The company has introduced viable audio solutions for the enthusiasts that are looking to enjoy their games and music without investing in a high-end system.”

ATI Radeon X800XT Platinum Edition 256Meg AGP Videocard Review @ Tweaknews
Tweaknews :: Saturday, February 19, 2005

“So you have weighed your options and you are deciding on the fastest ATI Radeon AGP videocard that money can buy. Even through there is plenty of X800XT standard edition available on the market, the Platinum Edition is only different because of its stock core and clock rates. The standard X800XT is clocked at 500Mhz core and 500Mhz memory but the Platinum Edition is stock clocked at 520Mhz core and 560Mhz memory.”

ATI’s Radeon X800 256MB and Radeon X850 PRO Preview @ Hexus
Hexus :: Saturday, February 19, 2005
“When I interviewed ATI’s Matt Skyner recently, we talked about availability of ATI’s GPU products on both PCI Express and AGP. The general tone of his responses indicated that volume of new R480 and R430 products would be as high as possible and that ATI were also committed to bringing some of the PCI Express SKUs to AGP if the market required them. We’ve seen some evidence of that AGP endeavour recently with spy shots of RIALTO, and today I’m able to bring you further evidence of pervasive availability for R480 and R430 with a look at two new SKUs, one for each GPU.”

Albatron Trinity GeForce PC6600U Videocard Review @ PCStats
PCStats :: Saturday, February 19, 2005
“What makes the Albatron Trinity GeForce PC6600U special is that it is one of the first commercially available, virtually silent videocards. This next generation ‘stealth assassin’ gives the consumer excellent performance without the noise. Nice. Based on the GeForce 6600 GPU, the PCI-Express based, SLI-compatible, Albatron Trinity GeForce PC6600U has 128MB of memory as well as an impressive heatpipe GPU cooling system that is virtually dead silent”

Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 Speaker System @ AMD Review
AMD Review :: Saturday, February 19, 2005

“With today’s computers getting more and more advanced and capable of taking on more functions, many users are starting to utilize their pc’s for doing things other than reading email or surfing the net and the occasional excel spreadsheet. Sound is no exception.”

Gigabyte Fanless X800 Review @ Neoseeker
Neoseeker :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
”

The memory, however, is a completely different story. In the introduction I mentioned that the stock memory speed on this board was 480 MHz (960 MHz DDR). I was able to push that memory far beyond that, all the way to 545 MHz! This is a whopping 65 MHz overclock (130 MHz DDR) on memory chips that are rated at only 20 MHz more than the stock speed of the card. Very impressive. ”

XFX 6600GT PCI-E Video Card @ Legit Reviews
Legit Reviews :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
”

The card itself is built upon an attractive blue PCB and looks like your typical PCI-E video card. Something I noticed was how “clean” or uncluttered this card is. The 6600GT core runs at 500MHz, so no special cooling is needed. You should also be able to make out the lack of a 4 pin power connector. Pretty sweet card with a very clean and simple layout…

”

Albatron K8X890 Pro II Motherboard
PCStats :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
“In a few days time, VIA will present AMD with its 100 Millionth chipset. Quite a feat for a collaboration that has already been 10 years in the making. Today we’re going to look at an Albatron K8X890 Pro II motherboard which uses VIA’s new K8T890 chipset, so you know what that means – PCI Express videocards! This Albatron motherboard supports all Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 or FX processors as well as up to 4GB of unbuffered non-ECC PC3200 DDR memory (in dual channel). The VIA K8T890 chipset supports PCI Express, so as you’d expect we see a full PCI Express x16 video slot on this board as well as a single PCI Express x4 peripheral slot.”

ATI Radeon 9800 To FireGL X2 Hard Mod Guide Posted!
Tech ARP :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

“Can’t afford an ATI FireGL X2 workstation graphics card? Well, don’t let high prices stop you from enjoying the great performance that all FireGL users are experiencing!

Earlier, we covered the soft-modding techniques, which unfortunately may not work for everyone. So today, we will take a look at how you can hard-mod your Radeon 9800-series card into a full-fledged FireGL X2 workstation card! ”

HEXUS.news – ATI’s Radeon Xpress 200M
Hexus :: Thursday, February 17, 2005
Snip: Today sees ATI’s announcment of the Radeon Xpress200M chipset, a mobile chipset for AMD systems. So, what does that bring mobile AMD users? Well, there’s PCI-Express support for starters, along with support for Athlon, Sempron and the upcoming mobile Turion 64 processor. Add to that an onboard DirectX 9 PCIe graphics solution and there’s promise of a very appealing mobile chipset.

Silverstone LC04 HTPC Case @ Controlled-Insanity
Controlled-Insanity :: Thursday, February 17, 2005

”

Well, this being our first time around with an HTPC, I wasn’t sure what to expect. This being one of several times working with Silverstone, I knew exactly what to expect. What did we get? We got an extremely well made product, both inside and outside. The outside maintains Silverstone’s super clean lines, and modern look, while the inside is very spacious and designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind.

”

News: BTC 6300CL Ultra-slim EL Keyboard reviewed @ MetkuMods
MetkuMods :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

”

I was bit surprised that I liked this keyboard so much. I’ve always wanted a keyboard that is bit similar to keyboards found on laptops/notebooks; short travel distance on keys when pressed and similar overall feel. Now that they have taken these characteristics and streched the layout to resemble a regular keyboard, I was sold.

”

BFGTech 6800OC Video Card Review @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005

“While this evaluation features BFGTech’s graphics wonder – the 6800OC vanilla, we are going to take this opportunity and talk a bit about ATI’s newly announced X850 series. As if the market wasn’t crowded enough, ATI jumped in the market with a new series of cards that they kindly call the X850 product lineup. This time it’s their six-month refresh product lineup, which, considering limited availability with its previous X800 series of high-end cards doesn’t exactly fit with the market scenario. ATI is having a difficult time yielding chip quantities to meet demand for its X800 XT PE cards, and now they have announced their X850 XT PE, which is clocked even higher (20MHz to be exact) than its predecessor.”

Albatron K8 Ultra-U Pro A64 S754 Motherboard Review @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Tuesday, February 15, 2005
”

Albatron recently introduced a new S754 motherboard, based on the lesser known ULi chipset, it comes feature packed and offers some overclocking potential. Can this budget friendly board stand up to the competition? Read on to find out.

”

Samsung CLP-550N Colour Laser Printer Review @ PCStats
PCStats :: Saturday, February 12, 2005
“If you know anything about printers, you know that the laser printer is an essential tool for business. Colour laser prices however, have only recently dropped out of the stratosphere into the realm of affordability. The Samsung CLP-550N colour laser printer PCstats is testing out in this review is one of the new breed of networked colour laser printers, offering efficient colour and black and white laser printing over a wired or wireless network, USB or parallel interface, and even comes with its own set of starter toner cartridges”

HIS Radeon X700 Pro IceQ Turbo 256 Meg PCI Express Videocard Review @ Tweaknews
Tweaknews :: Saturday, February 12, 2005

“I have to be honest, when I first starting testing this videocard, I wasn’t exactly expecting anything significant other than maybe a little higher benchmarking. What I actually encountered was an excellent performing videocard loaded with extra hardware and software, yet still has a MSRP US$199 pricetag seen associated with even the bland reference model from ATI”

BFG Tech GeForce 6600 GT Review @ Beyond3D
Beyond3D :: Saturday, February 12, 2005
“Like the standard board design, this overclocked version is equipped with four 32MB Samsung 2.0ns GDDR3 chips; with a maximum rating of 500MHz, they are genuinely overclocked to be running at 525MHz unlike the reference card; it too is using 2.0ns chips but clocked down to 450MHz”

Albatron PX925X Pro @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Saturday, February 12, 2005
“Throughout all the testing the Albatron PX925X Pro didn’t falter once, and let’s face it, if your motherboard isn’t stable, then nothing you do will make the whole system stable. Standard performance was up there with all the other 925 based boards we have seen, and even put in a few impressive memory and content creation scores higher than expected (nothing you would see except in a benchmark but higher none the less).”

Chaintech GeForce 6200 TurboCache 32MB PCI-Express Review @ Techniz.co.uk
Techniz.co.uk :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“The Chaintech GeForce 6200 TurboCache is the most budget and good performance that suitable for the low end users. The performance of the GeForce 6200 TurboCache is perform very well in all the benchmarking compare to the ATI X300. The only bad thing is the poor bundle, anyway who cares as long as the performance of the graphic card is performing good. The onboard memory of 32MB, it able to sharing the system memory and assign up to 128MB for the graphic usage. This Chaintech GeForce 6200 TurboCache was the most value and affordable price for the low end users.”

Logitech Z-680 5.1 Speaker Set Review @ Adrian’s Rojak Pot
Tech ARP :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“Tired of puny little squeaks from cheap speakers? Throw them aside and bring in the REAL stuff!

Today, we will take a look at a set of high-end 5.1 speakers – the Logitech Z-680! If you were not satisfied with the likes of mid-range speaker sets like the Z-640, maybe this will impress you!”

Sapphire RADEON X800 XL Review @ Neoseeker
Neoseeker :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“One of the nice features about the Sapphire overclocking utility is the find the maximum function. Click a button and the utility will run tests at each clock increment for a user specified time. If no errors are detected at that clockspeed, the next clock stepping is used. This is a pretty slick process and seems more accurate than the process used by the NVIDIA drivers – attempts to move the clock and memory speed above the detected failure rate would result in crashes and artifacts.”

ATI X800XT PE vs. eVGA 6800 Ultra: The Battle at the Top @ 3dXtreme
3dXtreme :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“3DXtreme is extremely pleased to present our latest review. Thanks to our friends at both eVGA and ATI we are finally able to take a look two of the fastest stock AGP cards available on the market. We are not the biggest hardware review website on the internet so for us to be able to bring this type of review is only due to the generosity of the kind folks at each of the respective companies. Availability has been an issue with this latest generation of high end Video Cards, producing pieces that are able to run at blistering speeds is no doubt very difficult so understandably samples to a smaller site like us would is tough.”

Sapphire Radeon X800 XL Review @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“MSRP of $299, huh? Yeah, right. That’s a joke! Big time! I like to think of MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) as the high point when it comes to actual retail pricing. Video cards prove that wishful thinking wrong all the time, but ATi’s new kid on the block – the X800 XL – is selling for much higher than its announced MSRP. We all knew this card would rock (or rather violently shake) the successful NVIDIA 6800 GT boat if it really hit streets at $300. That’s not happening though…try adding $100 to the MSRP. What was looking like a dead-on, hands-down lock for best-bang-for-the-buck glory is now on a more even playing field.

At a street price of $400 though, the X800 XL makes for a great competitor for the similarly priced 6800 GT, which is exactly what it’s meant to do. Does it make a great competitor as far as performance is concerned though? We have a Sapphire Radeon X800 XL here to find out.”

Albatron Trinity 6800 Video Card Review @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Friday, February 11, 2005

“The graphics card market is crowded with numerous products from both ATI and NVIDIA. We have X800SE, X800 Pro, X800 XT, and X800 XT PE from ATI and 6800LE, 6800, 6800 GT, and 6800 Ultra (not assuming that there is a 6800 Ultra Extreme in the market) from NVIDIA for users to choose from. Both product lines range from eight pixel pipelines to 16 pixel pipelines with lower clock speeds to suit just about everyone in the market. It is not surprising to see frustrated consumers who don’t know what to purchase for their gaming and application needs. It is truly a battle of the titans, as ATI and NVIDIA both compete to win more buyers.”

Klipsch ProMedia GMX A-2.1 Review @ Hexus
Hexus :: Friday, February 11, 2005
“If I had to sum up the GMX A-2.1 in a single sentence, it would most likely be ‘One of the best sets of stereo speakers I’ve ever heard’. For audio from two-channel sources, it’s hard to imagine Klipsch’s offering being beaten (particularly in the price range in question), the entire listening experience is an absolute pleasure and is genuinely all but impossible to fault. Be it CD or MP3, almost every track I listened to was given a new lease of life by the rich and colourful sound produced, it’s the kind of experience that makes you want to revisit every corner of your music collection.”

HCT 720G 5.1 Surround Sound Headphones @ Controlled-Insanity
Controlled-Insanity :: Thursday, February 10, 2005

“It seems to me as though HCT thought of everything when they package up these headphones. They come with an impressive list of accessories that includes two optical cables one long and one short for depending on how you are going to use your headphones, next of course is the Dolby decoder box/charger that sports 2 headphone inputs so you can use more than one set of headphones at a time, aside from that it also comes with two rechargeable batteries and pretty much any kind of audio hookup cable you can imagine. To make a long story short, no matter what type of input you have on your audio device HCT has included it in the package.”

HIS X700 Pro IceQ Turbo VIVO @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Tuesday, February 08, 2005

“Want extreme cooling on your ATI-based video card without adding extra noise? Don’t want to do it yourself? HIS and a few other companies want to help you out. These companies provide better-than-stock cooling solutions on ATI’s latest and greatest graphics chips. You might be thinking that you’ll just buy a board with a stock cooler and upgrade it yourself. That’s cool (pun intended), but what about that warranty that says any modifications of the board voids it? I realize that hardcore modders probably couldn’t care less about voiding a warranty, but I’m concerned about the newbie who reads some article about how some guy put his refrigerator on his brand new video card so he could overclock it to perform at levels that only boards twice as expensive can normally perform. The newbie probably wouldn’t realize that if he makes changes to his board that an RMA department could recognize as modding, he’s out of luck and has to buy a new board.”

Logitech Z5300 Review @ ModdersHQ
ModdersHQ.net :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Carrying the box in from being delivered let me know immediately that there is some heavy build quality in the Z-5300’s. Opening the box I found very well packaged satellite speakers and a subwoofer along with a manual and the SoundTouch Control. All of the speakers were so nicely packed that it took a good ten to fifteen minutes before I could even set them up for their photo-op.”

HIS X700Pro IceQ Turbo VIVO 256MB PCI-E
Overclockers Online :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Today we would like to give you a look at a card sporting ATi’s mainstream PCI-E solution, the HIS X700Pro IceQ Turbo VIVO 256MB PCI-E. A long name indeed, but the length is justified by the amount of features this product carries.”

NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache Review @ Beyond3D
Beyond3D :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“Following on from the 110nm TSMC based NV43 chip, NVIDIA have adopted the same process for NV44. Whilst the NV43 derived 6200 has 4 fragment pipelines disabled from the NV43 6600 configuration, the NV44 chip is designed specifically for the entry level market so only 4 fragment pipelines are built into the chip, although it does still retain the same number of Vertex Shader units as NV43, standing at three. Although the NV43 based 6200 chip still has 4 pixel output units (ROP’s) the pipeline diagram on the previous page indicates that NV44 only has two – this is no surprise given the memory bandwidth and latencies it will be dealing with and because processing time is being increasingly spent within the fragment processors.”

HIS X700Pro IceQ (PCI-E) Review
Overclocker Café :: Monday, February 07, 2005

“One of the included items in the HIS X700Pro package was Hightech’s own overclocking software. The interface is great and very easy to use, and it worked very well. Not only can you adjust the clock and memory speeds, but you can also manually adjust the fan speed.”

ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition review @ AMD Review
AMD Review :: Saturday, February 05, 2005

“Today I am going to review the Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition, which is the latest video card released by ATI. This card is now ATI’s flagship card, and has all the features you would expect from a top of the line card, like VIVO, DDR3 RAM, HDTV Decoding, etc. However no matter what the card is capable of, the main thing people purchase these high end cards for is the gaming. So today I am going to tell you about all the features, and show you how the card performs in some of the most popular games out.”

Albatron Trinity 6600GT PCI Express Review @ ViperLair
ViperLair :: Friday, February 04, 2005
“For a mid range card with 128mb, I was expecting Doom 3 and Far Cry to require an 800×600 resolution for acceptable frame rates, but this wasn’t the case; all the games tested ran at 1024×768 with some FSAA and AF without issue, and in some cases a few even broke into playable at 1280×1024 (albeit without FSAA or AF).”

New nForce4 Driver Package Released
NVIDIA :: Friday, February 04, 2005
NVIDIA nForce4 SLI, NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra, and NVIDIA nForce4 motherboards and systems.

Version: 6.39
Release Date: February 4, 2005

Installation Notes
– Windows XP users must install Service Pack 1, at a minimum, prior to attempting to install this package. Failure to do so will result in the inability to support USB 2.0.
– Installation of DirectX 9.0 or higher is required in order to use NVMixer.

Release Notes
WHQL-certified kit
Standalone drivers with support for nForce4 products, including support for dual-processor systems.
Added support for NVIDIA Disk Alert System
General compatibility fixes

Windows XP/2000 Driver Versions
Audio driver 4.60 (WHQL)
Audio utilities 4.51
Ethernet driver 4.68 (WHQL)
SMBus driver 4.45 (WHQL)
Installer 4.60
IDE NVIDIA driver 5.07 (WHQL)

Download for Windows XP
Download for Windows 2000

HIS X700Pro IceQ Turbo VIVO @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Thursday, February 03, 2005
“3D performance was very good in most of the games tested. This card can play any current game at 1024*768 without any real problems, especially when overclocked. The DirectX tests showed that this card can play at 1600*1200 with AA and ansiotropic filtering in older games such as UT 2004.”

Hauppauge PVR-150MCE, the 60$ Hardware Mpeg II encoding dream @ HTPCnews.com
HTPCnews :: Thursday, February 03, 2005
“Hauppauge has decided to give the consumers a bit of choice with their latest lineup of capture cards. You, the consumer, can purchase three different versions of their PVR-150 capture card, and we’re taking a look at the new low profile (l.p.) version today. Many may think that the 150 is inferior to the 250 since its number is lower (and the price), but we recommend you read the review and make up your mind for yourself. Coming in at a price around 60$ at many places online and offering a better D/A conversion than their already famous PVR-250 could help this card make its way into many PC’s.”

GeCube Radeon X800XL & X850XT Graphics Cards @ TweakTown
TweakTown :: Thursday, February 03, 2005
“Today we compare the performance of two new ATI Radeon high-end graphics chips – the Radeon X800XL & X850XT through retail cards from GeCube. After examining each card we compare the performance of each against an nVidia GeForce 6600GT and 6800 Ultra which are what ATI’s new cards are aimed at competing against. So, will it be nVidia or ATI in your gaming system? Read on and find out!”

SapphireTech Hybrid X800 256MB PCIe Video Card @ PimpRig
PimpRig :: Thursday, February 03, 2005

“The X800 comes stock clocked at 390Mhz Core and 350 MHz (700MHz effective) memory. I can already tell you that the Samsung GDDR3 RAM on this card is seriously under-clocked at 350MHz since it is rated for 500MHz (Samsung Part#: K4J55323QF-GC20). With a healthy overclock and the extra 4 pipelines this should be a nice card.”

nVidia SLI Technology – Introduction and 6800 Ultra Performance
TweakTown :: Tuesday, February 01, 2005

“We finally get our chance to setup an nVidia SLI system with two GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards and see just what type of performance we can expect from this expensive yet impressive setup which deserves respect. Since this is our first SLI article we look into what exactly SLI is, what it stands for, how it works and everything else we think is important and then get straight into the benchmarking to see what we can come up with.”

XFX GeForce 6600 GT Dual-DVI
Hexus :: Tuesday, February 01, 2005

“XFX, a division of Pine, has done an excellent job with its GeForce 6600 GT card. The company knew that it was on to a winner with the GPU; it’s difficult to manufacture a bad one, really. XFX, intelligently, also knew that bigger NVIDIA partners would probably steal the limelight unless it did something special to its package. A pre-overclocked GPU speed was always unlikely, so XFX has gone with video RAM that runs at a full 20% faster than the default 1000MHz. That extra memory bandwidth, totalling 19.2GB/s off only a 128-bit bus, is the reason why XFX’s effort is between 5-10% faster than the competition in the majority of our benchmarks.”

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