Tech News December 2005

 

PimpRig Review // Innovatek Custom Water Cooling Setup
PimpRig :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
“This leads us to the next big advantage of aluminum for water cooling…the passive radiator. Meet the Konvekt-O-Matic MAXI, can you believe this is Innovatek’s mid-size passive radiator? In addition to the standard Konvekt-O-Matic, there is also a HUGE Ultra version. The MAXI measures 45x33x5cm (h x l x w) and weighs in at a whopping 10.5 pounds. And like all of Innovatek’s aluminum gear, it is anodized, this one in a vibrant red color. According to Innovatek’s testing the MAXI radiates more heat than an active dual 120 mm radiator.”

check it out

NeuNeo HVD2085 DVD Player Review
Designtechnica :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
“No sooner had our Oppo Digital OPDV971H DVD player review been posted that we had Neo Digits knocking on our door wanting to send us an evaluation unit. This time around Neo Digits is trying to make a mark with their new NeuNeo HVD2085 DVD player. Capable of up-converting DVD video output to HDTV resolutions including 1080p, this is another player you may want to consider when shopping this holiday season. The NeuNeo HVD2085 DVD player has an MSRP of $249 and can be found for purchase directly from the company’s website.”

NeuNeo HVD2084 DVD Player Review

Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ Techniz
Techniz.co.uk :: Saturday, December 03, 2005

“This Zalman CNPS9500 LED is an extreme performance CPU cooler. This CPU cooler is an ideal choice for those users who wish to overclock their CPU and also decorate the interior of the chassis with the fancy Blue LED fan. The entire cooler is really looks different compare with others. Not only that, the performance of the Zalman CNPS9500 LED CPU Cooler from is very good as you can see in the performance section, it really gives what you want…”

check it out

Corsair DDR1 2GB Memory Roundup @ Legit Reviews
Legit Reviews :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
“Starting with the TWINX2048-3200C2 and its tight timings of 2-3-3-6 at DDR 400, then on to the TWINX2048-3500LLPRO and its 2-3-2-6 timings at DDR438, and finally onto Corsair’s newest kit, the TWINX2048-4000PT that promises DDR500 at 3-4-4-8. We’ll look at each kit individually, making sure to explain the benefits and drawbacks of each as well as explain what type of user and system they might fit best. Then we’ll benchmark each kit at its rated speed and timings, and finally overclock them to squeeze every last bit of performance from them….”

check it out

DALSA chips power Leaf backs
DPReview :: Saturday, December 03, 2005

Semiconductor and electronics company DALSA has announced two new 33 and 28 megapixel CCD chips that will be used to power Leaf’s digital camera backs. The 33 megapixel FTF5066 will be used in the Leaf Aptus 75 back and produce files of around 200MB in size, while the FTF6146 28 megapixel DALSA chip will be used in the Aptus 65 back. The 33 megapixel chip is available now and the 28 megapixel chip will ship in early 2006.

check it out

Cooler Master Stacker 830 Full Tower Case Video Review #623
3dgameman :: Saturday, December 03, 2005

It’s easy to see that Cooler Master put a heck of a lot of time & effort into building this product. It looks great & has all kinds of features! The overall build quality is superb, & being made from aluminum keeps the weight down. There are a ton of drive bays (9×5.25″) & loads of places to install fans for extreme air flow. This case is the bomb! Watch the Video to find out more…” ~3dGameMan.com

check it out

Impact Acoustics RapidRun Cable Solution First Look
AVS Forum :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
We were absolutely stunned by the very innovative and practical new cable product Impact Acoustics announced at CEDIA this year – the RapidRun. So much so in fact that they recently received our 2005 Product of the Year Award for the most innovative cable product. In order to learn more about this product in preparation for our formal review, we conducted a detailed interview with Joe Cornwall the Business Development Manager for Impact Acoustics.

check it out

asetek WaterChill Extreme Watercooling Kit @ Viperlair
ViperLair :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
“Performance is great; be it silence or low temperatures you are after, the asetek WaterChill Extreme kit will provide you with both options. Even when the system is running at it’s quietest, the performance is very good, and at full speed (loud, but not overly so; I’ve heard louder air cooling solutions that didn’t perform half as well) the temperatures are simply the lowest I’ve seen, and the lowest I’m likely to see short of chilling the water.”

check it out

Velodyne’s SMS-1 Extends Digital Drive Bass Management Capability to any Subwoofer
AVS Forum :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
Morgan Hill, CA (December 1, 2005) Leveraging their patent-pending bass management system previously found only in the Digital Drive® line of subwoofers, Velodyne Acoustics, Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of powered subwoofers for home-theater and consumer audio, has recently introduced the Subwoofer Management System (SMS™-1) as a stand-alone unit for use with any subwoofer.

read more

Sigma 135 – 400mm DG lens
DPReview :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
Sigma has announced a new telephoto lens to add to its DG range with the 135 – 400mm F4.5-5.6 optic. The multi-layered-coated lens, designed to reduce flare and ghosting, has SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass elements that provide correction for all types of aberration throughout the entire zoom range. Its rear focus system ensures high performance stability and ease of use. The price will be £479.99.

check it out

Optimize Your SLI Rig
PC Mechanic :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
You just spent hundreds of dollars to build your own SLI computer for some serious gaming. But, you are having problems trying to configure your system to work at its full capability. Playing around with your nVidia 3D Graphic Settings, you come across two options called Antialiasing (AA) and Anisotropic filtering (AF), yet you’re not sure what these settings are used for and how they affect you.

check it out

Title: Coolmax CXI600W PSU @ Techgage
Techgage :: Saturday, December 03, 2005

Quote: As time goes by, we quickly realize how much power our computer really needs. You don’t want a PSU that provides ‘just enough’, you want one that will help provide clean power and worry about it dieing. Today we are taking a look at the Coolmax CXI 600W, which will easily power most systems today.

check it out

[Phoronix] Corsair Flash Voyager 4GB
Phoronix :: Saturday, December 03, 2005

Summary: “Two months back we had looked at the OCZ Rally 2GB, which offered blazing fast speeds with its dual channel technology. At hand today we have Corsair’s recently released 4GB Flash Voyager but just how is this new model able to compete with the OCZ Rally as well as other popular flash media devices?”

check it out

OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC 2048MB Memory Review at 3DXtreme
3dXtreme :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
once again OCZ is pushing the possibilities and doing it in style. This latest product may fall into the Gamer line of products but it definitely meets my expectation of any kit in the Platinum line. The new XTC heatspreaders effectively kept the modules cool throughout our testing as we pushed this kit past the PC-4000 (DDR500) rating without an increase in voltage.

check it out

Portable video beset by cost, lack of content, technical complexity
AVS Forum :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
At his Wauconda IL home, Rich Wacaser uses two ReplayTV digital video recorders to capture his favorite shows for later viewing.

Because they’re connected to his home’s computer network, he often watches the shows on his laptop, catching up on the latest “Grey’s Anatomy” at 30,000 feet during a business trip.

check it out

SinTek 600SLI 600W PSU @ Viperlair
ViperLair :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
“It all comes down to performance, if you have gone out and spent a boatload of cash on your mobo, CPU, ram and video card you are obviously looking for performance so why would you put a budget PSU in a performance rig? If you’re a performance enthusiast and only the best will do, you should definitely take a look at SinTek”

check it out

Sky Hawk GM670SC Power One Power Supply Review @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
Quote: “Sky Hawk aka Eagle Technologies, has upped the ante on their GM-SC power supply series. The most powerful model in that series, the GM620SC specified Peak Power from 640W ~ 680W. Extrapolating from Sky Hawk’s Peak Power formula in theory the GM670SC will offer Peak Power between 690W ~ 730W. Let’s find out how it performs.”

check it out

Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU Cooler Review at 3DXtreme
3dXtreme :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
The Blue Orb II is silent and cooling performance is very good however for the overclockers out there this cooler was unable to challenge the Big Typhoon and the Freezer 64 Pro when Prime stability was factored in. Priced around $40 this would be a great replacement cooler to the stock AMD64 unit.

check it out

Beginners Guides: Basic Home Networking and File Sharing
PCStats :: Saturday, December 03, 2005
“The purpose of this article is two-fold. First, to enable you to set up your own home network and share files between your computers, and second to make you comfortable with basic computer networking terminology and practice. Internet sharing deserves its own article, and so is not part of this one.”

check it out

Sigma 170-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG
DPReview :: Saturday, December 03, 2005

Sigma has announced a new telephoto lens in the shape of the 170-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG. The lens features multi-layer coating, aspherical lenses, SLD glass and rear focus

check it out

Dream’eo Enza @ Bytesector
Bytesector :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
“Despite the massive speculation and interest, the market for Portable Media Centres is somewhat limited. With selection limited to 4 or 5 choices, it’s a fairly big deal when a new one is released. Today we will be looking at a unit from a smaller manufacturer-Dream’eo. They also produce a GPS tracker, and another PMC, but oddly enough, no MP3 players. Let’s see how their product stacks up in a field dominated by the biggest names in the industry. Dream’eo’s latest release is the Enza, and despite its exotic name, it’s got all the same basic features that the rest of the market has. A great screen, large hard drive, built in speakers, and Windows Mobile Software for Portable Media Centres. It does have a few tricks that set it apart from the rest of the field; the Enza can output to a TV, and comes with a handy little remote. It’s also marginally smaller and lighter than the Samsung YH-999, but I hardly think you’ll notice the 10039mm^2 and 0.5 ounce difference.”

check it out

DFI’s LANParty UT RDX200 CD-DR motherboard
The Tech Report :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
THE MARKET FOR HIGH-END, enthusiast-oriented motherboards is presently dominated by NVIDIA chipsets. With few exceptions, the nForce4 has run the table for nearly a year, but that might be about to change. The recently announced Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire chipset is finally poised to offer an alternative to SLI, and several mobo makers are lining up with boards based on the ATI’s new core logic.

The first CrossFire board to become available in North America is DFI’s LANParty UT RDX200 CD-DR. Designed by Oskar Wu, creator of the legendary Abit BP6, the RDX200 pairs ATI’s CrossFire chipset with a myriad of extra peripherals, enough BIOS options to satiate even the most demanding overclocker, and DFI’s usual dose of LANParty flair. The RDX200 is also the only Socket 939 CrossFire motherboard that’s certified by ATI. Can its features and performance compare with the high-end nForce4 boards already available on the market? Read on to find out.

check it out

How To Take Control Of Your Inbox & Reduce Spam @ The TechZone
The Tech Zone :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
Everybody hates spam! I am sure spammers hate getting spam too, but they still continue to dish it out. Why? Because it is still effective. Believe it or not, many of us still click on the links or follow-up with the spam message. As long as we continue to do this, spam will exist. If everybody understood this and paid no attention to spam, the spammers will eventually give up because it costs them real money to send out emails. It is hard to quantify what the cost of sending out one, two or fifty emails is, but 1 million or 5 million emails certainly has a cost that is not negligible. When the payback starts to get so small that the spammers cannot make a decent living, they will find something else to do. This day will come and I cannot wait for it to arrive.

check it out

Thermalright V1 Ultra Video Card Cooler
SystemCooling :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

snip: “Back in June, we introduced users to Thermalright’s maiden voyage in the world of video card cooling, the Thermalright V1. It performed admirably in our initial testing, but as time went on, deficiencies were uncovered that made the cooler unsuitable for certain applications. The folks at Thermalright went back to the drawing board, and the result of their efforts is the cooler we’re looking at today, dubbed the V1 Ultra. We’ll find out if the changes Thermalright made allow this cooler to do to the GPU cooling world what their CPU heatsinks have done in their category – dominate.”

check it out

PimpRig Review // Jackson Armor Card
PimpRig :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
“With all this experience it’s no wonder why they have created what I would like to call the ultimate hardware tool for a secure PC. They stand behind their name and even put a rock solid GUARANTEE on their services. This sounds very promising for a review of just a little PCI card. That’s not just any PCI card though, this little card records changes made to the primary drive/partition and if you wish all you have to do is reboot and all the changes that were made are gone! Install a virus… Gone. Install a bad driver… Gone. Install spyware… Gone.”

check it out

Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB @ Viperlair
ViperLair :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
“Performance is the main focus of this drive, that’s what you are paying the extra $140 for after all. So how does it do? Is amazing, excellent, jaw dropping enough for you? The Seagate ST910021A will blast the covers off of the hard drive currently located in your laptop. Laptop drives are known for their speed, or lack their off, but no longer. As shown in the tests, the Seagate drive came very close to desktop drive performance, which is a huge hurdle. This drive will now allow you to have a full desktop replacement laptop.”

check it out

Nu Tech Dark Shadow 256MB MP3 Sunglasses
Big Bruin :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

Quote: Nu Tech has combined one of the most popular technology items of today, an MP3 player, with something many of us use every day, a pair of sunglasses. I am the first to admit I am a sucker for any tool or gadget that tries to combine more than one use or function into a single item, but I also have learned from experience that many times such items fail to perform well at any of the tasks they were designed to do.

check it out

Zalman Fatal1ty FS-C77 CPU Cooler
Big Bruin :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

Quote: Very few coolers offer a perfect blend between appearance, operation, and cooling ability. The Zalman Fatal1ty comes close, but has a few minor problems. The first issue is the need to use the custom motherboard back plate on an AMD A64 system. Having to remove your motherboard to install a CPU cooler isn’t always fun, but does give you a good opportunity to clean the cobwebs out of your case!

check it out

e-GeForce 7800 GTX BlackPearl 512MB – Full Review
Hexus :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

The EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX BlackPearl 512MB is faster out of the box than the XFX, overclocks further and does it all quieter, cooled by a decent and easy-to-fit watercooling kit. The choice of fittings and tubing diameters means that it should be an easy integration into an existing watercooling setup, too. So what’s not to like, from what’s current the fastest retail consumer graphics card on the planet?

check it out

Superpower XP01F PC Gaming Case
Hi-Techreviews :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

With an exterior that’s somewhere between an Apple G5 and Star Wars transport case the Superpower XP01F PC Gaming case is all business. With and snatch handles the case has its own distinctive look. One other feature of note is the side-panel and the ease with which they are removed. The time from start to finish to get a side-panel off is about 20-seconds. So come on along as we check this case out.

check it out