Tech News October 2003

 

Triplex REDai Millennium Silver R9600 Pro 128MB VGA Review
Overclockers New Zealand :: Saturday, October 04, 2003
“Well, Triplex has certainly surpassed PowerColor’s R9600Pro Bravo Edition with its REDai Millennium Silver and becomes the fastest R9600Pro on the market, at stock setting. REDai MS also overclocks slightly better than PowerColor R9600BE, with a maximum clock of 492Core/714Memory.”

Swiftech isn’t known just for its thick base and cooling pins, either. The introduction of its first heatsink with cooling pins was quite a surprise to the consumer, and they quickly took off due to the performance gains it gave. Now, Swiftech MCX series is known as the heatsink ‘that performs’, considered one of the world’s premier heatsinks.

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SiS 655FX Chipset Preview @ myWORLD Hardware
myWORLD :: Saturday, October 04, 2003
“With that, most of the chipset manufacturers, including the giant Intel who once committed to RAMBUS solution, finally gave it up and chooses the dual channel DDR memory solution for their line of desktop chipset, which included the all-time-favorite, Intel Springdale(i865) and Intel Canterwood (i875). For our SiS, initially, SiS had never designed any dual channel memory solution for their chipset that includes our previously reviewed 648FX for Pentium 4 and 748 for AMD. But, seeing at how Intel and NVIDIA were happily earning away with their successful product, SiS has finally taken the step to introduce their first ever dual channel DDR memory solution for Intel Pentium 4 CPU. Is it too late to capture the heart of hardware enthusiasts? We’ll find out how amazing this product can performed on our test bench on the next few pages!”

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Silverstonetek ESST-ST35F PSU reviewed @ R&B
Red & Blackness Mods :: Saturday, October 04, 2003

Tonite we are having a look at a power supply from a new sponsor of ours. It’s a nice 320w power supply which is supposed to be really quiet and even able to run at 26 db at normal usage. It has a 120mm fan on the bottom which probably runs alot quieter than the standard 80 mm fans. Let’s see if this power supply can take the pressure.

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Crucial Pc3200 DDR memory reviewed @ R&B
Red & Blackness Mods :: Saturday, October 04, 2003

Tonite is a big nite since we are having a look at some Crucial memory! They sent us a 256mb stick of PC3200. We are going to test some timings, overclocking, and benchmarking. Crucial does not recommend or does not want their memory pointed out as overclocker memory, however we are still going to try it and see what it can do for you. Stay tuned as tonite it will get hot at rbmods.

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Thermaltake LANFIRE Case Review
Overclocker Café :: Saturday, October 04, 2003

For the Thermaltake to be priced approximately $30 over another excellent LAN box that includes a PSU, will make things difficult for Thermaltake extra features or no. However, if money is no object (and we’re not talking tons of cash here folks) the Tt LANFIRE is the best LANBOX you can buy. Its pricing is the only thing that kept it from earning an Editor’s Choice award.

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Aspire X-Dreamer II Review
Overclocker Café :: Saturday, October 04, 2003

Once again, I have absolutely no problems giving our highest recommendation to this case. The features and attention to detail that this case has are just something that I would not expect to find in a “budget” case that sells for less than $70 with an included PSU, and LED fans and laser cut grills. Plus the bright as crap front LEDs that could blind you if you’re not careful.

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Sunbeam Technology EL & CCFL Fan Grills Review @ MODTHEBOX.COM
MODTHEBOX! :: Saturday, October 04, 2003

“The Cold Cathode Fan Grill is based upon the popular first generation cold cathode fan grill design. A second inner ring has since been added to the unit to provide twice the amount of light produced. Both cathode rings are neatly and securely housed inside a clear plastic shell. Once powered, the Cold Cathode fan grill provides and impressive amount of light and could easily fully illuminate a mid-tower case. After 5 hours of usage, the unit remained cool to the touch and can be easily switched on or off using the bundled PCI plate switch.”

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Data Recovery – Put to the Test @ The Tech Lounge
The Tech Lounge :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“Today we get a close look at perhaps the leader of this industry, ACR Data Recovery. I worked closely with Doug Roberts of ACR to find the answers to questions you might ask. Not only did I ask Doug an array of questions, I also received a sample of their Media Tools Professional 2003 to see for myself if it really works, and moreover, how well. Check out the full article for more details.”

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Coolermaster Jet7 @ DataFuse.net
DataFuse :: Friday, October 03, 2003

“The performance was what I expected, good, but not the best. Besides the fact that the freakin’ blinking light drove me crazy, I was pretty fond of the product. The looks were fine to me, coolermaster tried something totally different and I think they got away with it. Installation went easily, and the ability to set your fan is always a good thing. ”

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Bjorn3D takes a look at the Radeon 9600XT and the Radeon 9800XT
Bjorn3D :: Friday, October 03, 2003
Today we’ve taken a look at the new Radeon 9600XT and the Radeon 9800XT. While neither VPU’s are more than an evolution from the 9600/9800 they still have some nice improvements that make them interesting for anyone looking for a new 3D card.

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Macpower DigiDoc 5+ Review @ VH
Virtual-Hideout :: Friday, October 03, 2003

“As cool a product as it was, the DigiDoc still suffers some setbacks in it’s design. First of all, many modders gives a boo-boo to the amber backlit LCD as we are all sick of green and amber and a blue backlit LCD was the only thing deemed worthy of any modified case! The 5.25″ bracket design allows you to install a hard drive behind the unit to fully utilize the drive bay but with all the cables and a puny 40mm fan, installation is a tight squeeze and cooling is nothing to shout about. A lot of peeps were wondering why the position for the 40mm fan wasn’t used for something else, like a USB/Firewire port instead. These are just some of the quirks but other companies take cue from there and soon, there was a myriad of other controllers/monitoring devices available that the DigiDoc simply got buried and forgotten.”

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ThermalTake TR2M1 AMD CPU Cooler Review At 3dXtreme
3dXtreme :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“ThermalTake added a bit of flair to the TR2 M1 Cooler with an 80MM tri-colored LED fan that spins at 2500 RPM at a decibel level of 21dBA. Overall this cooler is relatively quiet as compared to other coolers I’ve used in the past…”

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ABIT Siluro FX5900 OTES VGA Card Reviewed @ myWORLD Hardware
myWORLD :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“On 18th November 2002, NVIDIA announces their highly anticipated top of the line product, GeForce FX5800Ultra. It was touted to be the first ever graphic chip to be made under 0.13micron process with incredible core and memory speed, featuring DDR II memory that runs at 1GHz. Although NVIDIA was heavily promoting it, getting hands on one of them is sure hard enough which were mainly contributed by delay productions and high priced tag. Choice wise, it was the only DirectX 9.0 card by NVIDIA at that time.”

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Computex 2003 Coverage – Booth Babes!
TweakTown :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“You’ve had all the hardware you can possibly handle from Computex 2003 – now we present you with all the lovely booth babes from the event!”

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Koolance EXOS External Water Cooling System Review
TweakTown :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“Computers aren’t getting cooler, and as this is true, we are seeing more and more water cooling products hit the market place as the said style of product slowly gets closer to becoming a mainstream commodity. Today Cameron “Sov” Johnson takes a look at the Koolance EXOS External Water Cooling System. How does the near silent system compare to air cooling? Read on!”

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SilenX 400watt PSU Review @ GruntvillE.com
GruntvillE :: Friday, October 03, 2003

“Today I will be reviewing one of the PSU’s from the SilenX Corporation which has been associated with various computer products since 1995. The SilenX website claims that their Fortron based ultra quiet PSU’s are the rivals of such top names as Antec, Enermax, Vantec, Zalman, and Nexus. I have to say that I was eager to test these claims and take a hard look at the SilenX 400 Watt PSU to see if it has the kind of quality that will help your computer reach its maximum potential.

As you may recall, we recently reviewed the Ahanix SilenX PSU and there’s lots of the “he said she said” going on between the two companies. We’ll be posting results for all to see and we highly recommend you take a good look at both reviews before making your decision.”

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Jab-Tech Logisys Footstep LED Case Feet Review at 3dXtreme
3dXtreme :: Friday, October 03, 2003
These footstep lights add a really nice ground illumination to a case with a pre-existing cold cathode or LED fans. At a price of $9.95, they won’t break the bank and provide an impressive modded look to your case….”

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Corsair Twinx512x-3200LL reviewed @ R&B
Red & Blackness Mods :: Friday, October 03, 2003

Corsair is a name many of us know nowadays! They make this wonderful high overclocking memory and even watercooling kits nowadays. Tonite we are reviewing 2 sticks of memory called Twinx512x-3200LL which run as dual memory.

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Zalman 5.1 Headphones Review @ GruntvillE.com
GruntvillE :: Friday, October 03, 2003

“If you haven’t already figured it out, the Theatre 6’s mainstay is to deliver the 5.1 capabilities of your high end soundcard directly to you ears and not to your walls, floor, and ultimately your neighbors or roommates. If you’re a little fuzzy on the 5.1 concept let me explain it briefly. As the name cryptically suggests, it consists of six total speakers. The first five being the front right and left, a center, and the rear right and left. The sixth speaker is the sub-woofer. This is included to provide the low frequency effects that are necessary for realism. The sub-woofer is non directional and therefore sits on the right side of the “point” in 5.1.”

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ABIT KV7 Motherboard Review @ Short-Media
Short-Media :: Friday, October 03, 2003
ABIT continues to take bold design step going places others don’t and now ABIT steps out on a limb with the KV7 KT600 motherboard. The KT600 chipset promises many improvements including reduced latency through faster access to system memory, improved six-channel sound and native serial ATA/RAID support. These improvements may be more of a benefit to the manufacturer than the enthusiast as many are discovering.

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Vantec Nexus NXP-301 Fan & Light Controller @ 8BallsHardware.com
8Balls Hardware :: Friday, October 03, 2003
Vantec’s engineers decided to go one step above a fan controller, and integrate a light controller on board, basically fusing the rheobus with a cold cathode, giving the user the ability to control both his or her case lighting and fans from the same control panel, hence, the Vantec Nexus NXP-301 Fan & Light Controller.

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Micro Cool NorthPole Northbridge Cooler Set Review @ MODTHEBOX.COM
MODTHEBOX! :: Friday, October 03, 2003

“The NorthPole Northbridge Cooler features an all copper-constructed heatsink that accounts for the majority of the unit’s weight. The copper base measures approximately 5mm thick for maximum thermal dissipation. The top portion of the copper heatsink uses Skiving Technology to form multiple thin copper fins. The base of the Northpole Northbridge Cooler has been machine finished to a satisfactory flat surface with moderate reflections and slight machine marks visible. Users may want to lap the base for greater performance yet it is entirely optional.”

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OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 DUAL CHANNEL MEMORY review @ Hexus.net
Hexus :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“If you own a Canterwood or Springdale board, or have some mutant nForce2 board that can hit 250FSB, dual channel PC-4000 memory will help reduce the clock buffering penalties currently associated with asynchronous RAM settings. Performance arrives with a considerable cost, though. A brief look through on-line e-tailers puts the sample 1 GByte OCZ EL-DDR PC-4000 Dual Channel memory kit at comfortably over £300.”

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AOpen Aeolus FX5600S (GeForce FX 5600) Review
Sharky Extreme :: Friday, October 03, 2003
Today on Sharky Extreme, we’ve reviewed the AOpen Aeolus FX5600S (GeForce FX 5600) video card:

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New Swiftech MCX462-V Heatsink (Review)
IpKonfig :: Friday, October 03, 2003

Swiftech, as we all know, is very well known for its extreme Heatsinks that feature cooling pins with small ribs on a thick copper base, exceptional products for air cooling. MCX heatsinks use the thick copper bases that Swiftech is known for using on most of its product.

Swiftech isn’t known just for its thick base and cooling pins, either. The introduction of its first heatsink with cooling pins was quite a surprise to the consumer, and they quickly took off due to the performance gains it gave. Now, Swiftech MCX series is known as the heatsink ‘that performs’, considered one of the world’s premier heatsinks.

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Contec 6″ Advanced TFT LCD Monitor/TV Tuner Video Review #356:
3dgameman :: Friday, October 03, 2003

“The Contec 6″ Advanced TFT LCD Monitor/TV Tuner is a unique product that can be used for many applications. This product can be plugged into a vehicles cigarette lighter or regular AC home outlet. Also, just about any Audio/Video source can be connected into it and let’s not forget the built-in TV Tuner. Watch the Video to find out more…” ~3dGameMan.com

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Senfu Tech Station Review @OCAddiction.com
OCAddiction :: Friday, October 03, 2003

“As you can see in the pictures, the speaker, LED’s and switches have very short leads. This can be a problem depending on the layout of the motherboard header pins. The motherboard in the picture is an MSI board and as you can see, everything is bunched up tight. I would prefer to see the speaker LED’s and switches mounted onto a small PCB with four to six inch leads for adaptability to different motherboard layouts. The final item in the kit is the dust cover and it does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It covers the tech station and everything sitting on the shelves.”

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Bjorn3d Reviews the MSI NBOX N5900 Ultra
Bjorn3D :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“‘Drool-inducing’ is probably the best way to describe the NBOX. This has be be one of the best bundles ever offered with any PC component! MSI really outdid themselves with this one. The included games are great, and the utilities and other software are quite useful. Kudos to the team at MSI that put the NBOX together!”

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Project Silent PC
SystemCooling :: Thursday, October 02, 2003

“A couple of years ago, cooling your PC adequately was an endeavor that was often difficult to do efficiently, given the state of cooling system technology. In many cases, the rapid advance of processor power, and the resultant heat, had outstripped the ability of cooling systems to keep up. Fortunately, that is no longer the case, and there are many choices of cooling system components that will effectively cool even the highest-end PC CPU’s and GPU’s.”

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Vantec Nexus NXP-301 Fan & Light Controller
8Balls Hardware :: Thursday, October 02, 2003

“If you’ve seen one fan controller, you’ve seen them all. After all, most commercially available fan controllers are just a bunch of knobs stuck to a drive bay cover allowing you to control the speeds of the fans you connect to it.

Vantec’s engineers decided to go one step above a fan controller, and integrate a light controller on board, basically fusing the rheobus with a cold cathode, giving the user the ability to control both his or her case lighting and fans from the same control panel, hence, the Vantec Nexus NXP-301 Fan & Light Controller. ”

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