Tech News November 2005

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.”

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DFI nForce4 Infinity SLI Motherboard Review
Futurelooks :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
In the market for something that just works, and you don’t care about a gajillion useless extra gizmos? Well, DFI’s Infinity series should take care of that, and today we have a look at their Infinity nForce 4 SLI, a low-cost solution for those interested in SLI. So, come and check out what we thought of it!

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Reason Why Vendors Don’t Sell AMD Products @ CoolTechZone.com
CoolTechZone :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
“AMD went to court with an antitrust/unfair business practice lawsuit against Intel Corp. earlier this year. AMD also claimed that Intel was strong-arming and/or giving indirect incentives (joint marketing efforts) to vendors such as Dell to ensure that they don’t retail AMD products.”

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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.”

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Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro Athlon64 Heatsink
Frosty Tech :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
“The Freezer 64 Pro suspends its 2200RPM fan on four dualaxial rubber vibration absorbing posts. The general idea of which is to prevent any motor vibrations from transferring to other areas of the chassis which might create noise. The 92mm fan itself is pretty unique in that the design minimizes turbulence and noise created by air moving over the edges of the frame. ”

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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.

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[Phoronix] Enermax Laureate (EB205U-S)
Phoronix :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

Summary: “The Laureate 2.5″ from Enermax Maxpoint is made of high quality aluminum to maximize the heat dissipation as well as keeping to a diminutive weight. Not only is this enclosure made of the quality we have come to expect from Enermax but also the device is also water-resistant and shockproof with its neoprene travel bag.”

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MGE XG Vortec 500W
techPowerUp! :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

MGE targets the extreme gamer/modder niche and the build-your-own mainstream market of PC enthusiasts with this power supply. It features a unique blue anodized design with side windows in the PSU case. A PCI-Express video card connector is available, all cables are sleeved. During our testing we found that the PSU can supply stable clean voltage. Another plus is that the retail price of $60 is quite competitive.

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Mountain Mods Bob Slay Clear Acrylic Case @ ThinkComputers.org
Think Computers :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

Quote: “Hello everyone today I’ve got a custom acrylic case from Mountain Mods for your pleasure. The “Bob Slay” is a sleek, cube-style case, made entirely from laser cut ¼ inch cast acrylic. The Bob Slay’s cube design make it unique in the field of acrylic cases which normally are only available in the usual tower design.”

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The Cheapest Computer is Enough
PC Mechanic :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
Quote: Remember back in the day, when you had to spend $3000 to get a mediocre computer that could just barely do what you wanted it to and was overtaxed after a year? I certainly do. When my family got a brand-new Gateway 2000 in 1995, it came with a huge 17” monitor and an even larger case. We opted for the 124-key AnyKey keyboard, and bought an HP LaserJet 5P. The total price, including the $800 printer, was just about $3000.

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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.

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Article Name: Zalman ZM460-APS Ultra Quiet 460Watt Power Supply Review @ Tweaknews.net
Tweaknews :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

“The Zalman ZM460 is not the prettiest PSU I’ve ever seen. It has no fancy gizmos or modular design. What it does have, however, is performance. I’ve had a wide variety of power supplies come through here and I can’t honestly say that any of them have performed better than the ZM460. I know for a fact that I’ve never had a PSU that was this quiet.”

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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.”

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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.

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ASUSTeK A7G with ATI RADEON Mobility X1600 – First Hands-On Look!
Hexus :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
HEXUS.eXclusives :: ASUSTeK A7G with ATI RADEON Mobility X1600 – First Hands-On Look! Been wondering what to expect from ATi’s up-coming Mobility RADEON X1600? We’ve exclusively done some testing on an ASUS laptop running the Mobility X1600.

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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?

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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!

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Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.9 Hard Drive Review Rev. 2.0 Posted!
Tech ARP :: Thursday, December 01, 2005

Quote – “We are moving closer to the terabyte era. The new Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 hard drive pushes us closer to the goal of a terabyte of storage space in a single drive.

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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.

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Firefox Tweak Guide Updated @ TweakGuides.com
Tweaknews :: Thursday, December 01, 2005
To coincide with the release of Firefox 1.5, I’ve fully updated my Firefox Tweak Guide to cover the features of this latest version. If you’ve read the guide before, give it a quick run-through to see what’s new, and if you’re new to the guide, I think you’ll find it very handy.

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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.”

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ECS KN1 SLI Extreme Motherboard Review @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual-Hideout :: Tuesday, November 29, 2005

“Fast, reliable easy to setup/over clock and cheaper than similar featured boards. Someone at ECS knew what they where doing. I can’t think of a better single socket 939 board I’ve looked at.”

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Seagate 5GB Pocket Hard Drive Review Rev. 2.0 Posted!
Tech ARP :: Tuesday, November 29, 2005

check it outQuote – “Are you looking for a compact USB storage solution with a large capacity of 5GB? Then look no further!

Today, we take a look at the Seagate 5GB Pocket Hard Drive!

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fUnc 1030 Archetype mousepad @ Pro-Clockers
Pro-Clockers :: Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Quote: FUnc Industries is known around the gaming culture as providing some of the most celebrated and awarded mousing surfaces available. The 1030 Archetype mousing surface is no exception

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Swiftech H20-Apex “Extreme Duty” Series Liquid Cooling Kit Video Review #622
3dgameman :: Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Swiftech H20-Apex “Extreme Duty” Series Liquid Cooling Kit Video Review #622: “There’s a reason they call this product “Extreme Duty”! They include massive tubing (5/8″), the excellent STORM waterblock, and a wicked industrial quiet pump. All this in combination has to yield excellent results, and it does. If you’re in the market for an internal watercooling kit, definitely put this baby at the very top of your list. Watch the Video to find out more…” ~3dGameMan.com

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New at techPowerUp: CPU Database
techPowerUp! :: Tuesday, November 29, 2005
The CPU Database lists all modern CPUs together with important characteristics like codename, real frequency, multiplier and cache size. At the moment it holds almost 300 entries and is constantly updated with new info.

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Lian Li PC-V880 HTPC Case Review
Overclocker Café :: Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Lian Li’s PC-V880 will find a huge following in the HTPC crowd. It has a features and flash to please the most discriminating of users. Some of the most notable of its features is the value of two externally accessible bays which cannot be overstated. When you need to do disc to disc burning a single bay case won’t do and will have you fussing in no time. The smart and compact layout as well as the high level of construction quality show you that this case is a Lian Li and worthy of all you have heard before.

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Razer Copperhead 2000dpi Mouse Review
Everything USB :: Tuesday, November 29, 2005
“One of the most important (and subjective) aspects of a mouse is how it feels. The Razer Copperhead is a lean mouse, low in height, slim, and rather long in length at over 5 inches tall – best suited for people with medium to large hands. That, combined with the incredibly lightweight (127g) body result in a mouse that’s controlled more by fingertips than the wrist, a trait that arguably gives more control. Another notable if not obvious trait of the Copperhead is its symmetrical design, which unlike the other heavyweight contenders allows Lefties to play.”

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OCZ EL DDR PC-3500 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel Memory Video Review #621
3dgameman :: Tuesday, November 29, 2005

OCZ EL DDR PC-3500 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel Memory Video Review #621: “This product simply rocks in the latency department! It quite simply kicks butt with an extremely tight memory timing of 2-2-2-5. If that’s not enough, it can be overclocked for added performance. One cool feature is OCZ’s Xtreme Thermal Convection honeycomb heat spreader design. This not only looks amazing but allows for maximum cooling. Watch the Video to find out more…” ~3dGameMan.com

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Raidmax Glacier CPU Cooler
Big Bruin :: Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Quote: Check the price of the Thermalright XP-120. Roughly the same price as the Raidmax Glacier, and you do not receive a fan or fan controller. If you were considering the XP-120 previously, you would be well justified buying the Glacier and the same fan you intended to use on the XP-120. It would wind up costing the same, but the performance may be better!

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