Tech News October 2005

 

The TechZone reviews the OCZ Technology Rally USB 2.0 Flash Drive.
The Tech Zone :: Saturday, October 29, 2005

We’ll get right to the point; the OCZ Technology Rally USB 2.0 Flash Drive is the fastest USB flash drive we have ever tested. If you’re looking for the fastest flash drive money can buy, the OCZ Rally is it. How does the Rally get it amazing speed? With Dual Channel technology. OCZ Technology is among the first memory makers to use dual channel in a flash drive. The result is a flash drive that leaves the competition sucking dusk.

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[News]Powercolor X800GT graphics card review @ Xtreme Resources
Xtreme Resources :: Saturday, October 29, 2005

“ATi has a new trump card for the midstream market. After the X700 line, which came out a little bit too expensive and had trouble to easily compete with the nVidia 6600GT, a new release comes from ATi, the X800GT. Based on the X800 series but featuring a very competitive price, it certainly makes all competition sweat. Powercolor released a very impressive line-up of X800 based mid-stream cards recently and they were nice enough to let us have a sample of the X800GT card for review, so let us take a look at it.”

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The Accessories Your Notebook Can’t Live Without!
AMDboard :: Saturday, October 29, 2005
With Santa Claus around the corner, it could be time to think of a little gift for your devoted laptop for its daily abnegation… AMDboard.com has a list of the crème de la crème for both of you and you can’t stay insensitive to its enumeration: First, we have the Logitech notebook V200 cordless mouse that can work a whole year with a single alkaline AA battery, second, the great Chrysalis WIFI seeker that spot the WIFI hot spots in second with indication of the signal strength, third, the Jetart Notebook NP6900 stand with cooling, USB hub, card readers and much more, fourth, the USB fan that will send, right in your face, the morning breeze at any time of the day and, fifth and last, the IDE 2.5in HDD adaptor for a quick connection of your notebook HDD to any desktop IDE connector. So, whether you own a AMD Turion 64 or an Intel Centrino notebook, you will definitely find here the perfect present for the two of you and it’s all at AMDboard.com here

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PimpRig Review // Fatal1ty FS-V7 VGA Cooler & Fatal1ty FS-C77 CPU Cooler
PimpRig :: Saturday, October 29, 2005
“The Fatality line-up has a red theme to it, so Zalman dyed the coolers red and added red LED fans to them to finish up the Fatal1ty look. The red LEDs are not the only thing Zalman added, the fans are a little faster for that extra few degrees. We all know cooler temps help for a more stable system.”

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X-micro Video MP3 400 Review
Hardware-Pacers :: Saturday, October 29, 2005

“X-Micro’s Video MP3 400 is one of the most innovative things on the market today. Sure there are other companies that make MP3 and video players, but none of them succeed in making them small enough to be carried around the neck. Just imagine this player’s applications; one can watch his/hers favorite show or the Yankees re-run game while waiting in line in DMW, riding the bus, sitting in the park on a beautiful day. Great job X-Micro!”

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EYEpad Gaming Mouse Pad Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
PC Modding Malaysia :: Saturday, October 29, 2005

Content: “Overall, the EYEpad is another excellent gaming mouse pad from Corepad. Corepad did the right thing when teaming up with EYEBALLERS and they have made a pretty impressive mouse pad here. Unlike most mouse pads, users can save up extra cash by not paying for all that fancy packaging. Looks like Corepad is going to keep the EYEpad as an OEM version thus this will certainly appeal to more gamers and perhaps system builders. Priced at $15.61 for the EYEpad standard and $20.43 for the EYEpad XL, both of these pads are very affordable. Considering the quality you get for that price, the EYEpad is certainly a steal. If you’re looking for a lightweight, easy-to-use, high-quality mouse pad, you should probably give the EYEpad a try.”

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Sunbeamtech Theta TP-101 Fan Controller
Big Bruin :: Friday, October 28, 2005

 

Quote: Sunbeamtech has offered the typical fan controller (rheobus) in a variety of styles in the past, but the software based Theta TP-101 is much different. Instead of using knobs to mechanically vary resistance, a Windows interface is used to automate this through software, while providing on screen information for up to eight fans and eight thermal probes.

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OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 2GB Gold Edition Dual Channel @ Pro-Clockers
Pro-Clockers :: Friday, October 28, 2005
With the introduction of graphic intense memory hungry games like Battlefield 2 and recently released F.E.A.R. the need to increase ram is more important now then ever. And with the average gamer and enthusiast running at least one gig of memory the only logically choice to upgrade to will be two gigs. Looking thought any forum today the talk to the town are high performance one gig modules. Today we got ahold of a kit of OCZ’s EL DDR PC-4000 2GB Gold Edition. So if gaming is your forte, you may want to look into this one.

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Aspire X-Plorer Case @ Viperlair
ViperLair :: Friday, October 28, 2005
“Aspire has delivered a very attractive design, on the outside. Once you open the case up, you run into some old fashioned design concepts with some not so thought out solutions and positioning of fans and air-ducts. Although in my situation I have a specific motherboard that causes a position issue, there should be a plan in place for that, as DFI is not exactly a small motherboard supplier in the enthusiast market space.”

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[ocnz-news] Albatron K8SLI nForce4 SLI Motherboard Review
Overclockers New Zealand :: Friday, October 28, 2005
“The Albatron K8SLI exhibits an extraordinary level of overclocking potential, reaching 332MHz “FSB”. (Note overclocking is NOT guaranteed and may vary from sample to sample.) Based on our sample, Albatron K8SLI entered the same realm as the famous DFI LanParty series!! However, the board is lacking a bit in terms of raw performance, as it is slower than Gigabyte’s K8NXP-SLI.”

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DFI NF4 Ultra Infinity @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Friday, October 28, 2005

“We all know that DFI makes some killer AMD nF4 motherboards through their LANParty series. They’re out again with a more budget oriented nF4 motherboard that also excels in performance and overclocking.”

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[News] Sin-Tek 500w SLI Power Supply Review @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual-Hideout :: Friday, October 28, 2005

Quote: ” Power supplies in general have improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years, and the Sintek unit is a great example of the state of the art. The modified ATX connector is a nice feature, making the use of an adaptor unnecessary.”

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NEW CONTENT (Storage) – BYTECC LanDisk – Cost conscious Network Attached Storage
TweakTown :: Friday, October 28, 2005
QUOTE: “While we’ve seen any number of external hard drive enclosures, just about every single one of them is accessed through either the USB or IEEE1394 (Firewire) ports. The LanDisk, as the name implies, relies on networking a hard drive – it’s a NAS product or Network Attached Storage. This puts a new twist on external storage from what we’ve become accustomed to.”

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Virtual Handshakes All Around
Designtechnica :: Friday, October 28, 2005
‘Some people hate goodbyes – me, I despise introductions.

How uncomfortable were you the first time you met your friends at school? The initial moment you shook hands with your significant other? The time you sat there stunned as someone plopped a Playstation 2 controller into your outstretched paws and said, “Get to know this – it’ll change your life.” (OK, so that last one’s a stretch – still, wasn’t it a pain in the ass learning that dual analog joystick setup?)’

shake your hands in the air like you just don’t care

StarTech 2 Port USB Mini KVM Switch
Futurelooks :: Friday, October 28, 2005
KVM switches are the way to go for controlling 2 or more PCs, saving you space, time, and money. But just how good do these new USB-based switches perform? We take the new StarTech unit for a test drive.

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Flat Panel Furniture Buying Guide
Designtechnica :: Friday, October 28, 2005
‘Does your old, pressboard IKEA TV stand from grad school look out of place with your new plasma screen? If so, check out the following suggestions to help you organize and jazz up your home entertainment theatre quicker than you can find something decent to watch on TV.’

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HEXUS.reviews :: ECS PA1 MVP Extreme
Hexus :: Thursday, October 27, 2005

It pains me to say so but being a solid, dependable mainboard – even at a pretty excellent £90 including VAT – sometimes isn’t enough to make a recommendation. There are better Pentium 4 mainboards out there (and ECS sell some of them!) and currently Crossfire is fairly forgettable. Overclocking the PA1 was an exercise in frustration although it appears a coming BIOS might solve some of those problems. Stability was there to go with all the other upsides.

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FSP Group Blue Storm 500W PSU @ ThinkComputers.org
Think Computers :: Thursday, October 27, 2005
Quote: “Feeling down in the dump? Well then this might not be the review for you. Reason being, this power supply is very VERY blue! It’s made by FSP Group, which has been around since 1993 and currently is the 10th largest power supply vendor world-wide. They are focusing on green power products and looking forward to strengthening their product line as well as the range. The unit which I received for review is the Blue Storm 500 with (passive) PFC, they also have three smaller sizes and these all have the option to have PFC or not.”

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Bigbruin.com Review: Enermax MESH Pandora CA-3030 ATX Case
Big Bruin :: Thursday, October 27, 2005

 

Quote: The CA-3030 boasts some impressive features not normally found in lower priced, almost entry-level cases… like: tool-less drive mounting system, fan filter, flip down drive bay covers, and it is also great looking. But the nicest feature has to be the ability to run two full sized 120mm fans. This should provide enough quiet cooling for all but the hottest running machines.

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Thermaltake Max 4 @ Techgage
Techgage :: Thursday, October 27, 2005

Quote: Do you want a hard drive enclosure that not only lives up to your expectations, but looks classy at the same time? We are taking a look at the Thermaltake Max 4, which does just that… and well!

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Antec Take 4
Overclockers Online :: Thursday, October 27, 2005
Quote: This 4U rackmount case is designed for studio professionals looking for quiet superior performance, so who better to test its abilities than an overclocker? I must admit that I cannot wait so let’s take this show on the road and get to the package and contents section.

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CodeWeavers CrossOver Office v5.0 @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Thursday, October 27, 2005

Summary: “Complementing the release of the WINE v0.9 is CodeWeavers’ CrossOver Office v5.0 Standard and Professional. In addition to being based upon this recent WINE release, CrossOver Office now supports the running of Microsoft’s Office 2003 and the introduction of CrossOver “Bottles” capabilities. Although in our initial tests we didn’t find this v5.0 to be perfect, it’s much improved upon its previous version and a demo of this software is always available via BitTorrent for a full 30 day trial period. In this article we have a few snapshots of this latest WINE (Wine Is Not An Emulator) advancement.”

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More than we bargained for in ‘Byrne’s place’?
Hexus :: Thursday, October 27, 2005
Quote:

The codename of ATi’s forthcoming successor to its just released RADEON X1800 XT (R520) – the 90nm R580 is called ‘Rodin’.

Named, we think, after the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), whose works included ‘The Thinker’ and the exquisitely risqué ‘The Kiss’.

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Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Thursday, October 27, 2005

Summary: “When it comes to system memory, Crucial Technology is a name that comes to mind for many enthusiasts. Unlike a majority of the other system memory manufacturers, Crucial employs its own DRAM chips manufactured by their parent company – Micron Technology. Not only does Crucial utilize Micron chips on its memory modules but it also brings fourth superior technical support and competitive prices. Up for testing in this article is Crucial’s Ballistix DDR2-800 PC2-6400 2 x 512MB memory modules.”

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Athlon 64 Cores
Hardware Secrets :: Thursday, October 27, 2005
Here is a snippet: “Enthusiasts love to know which “core” their processor is based on. “Core” is the silicon chip version used inside the CPU. Even in some ads you may find a reference to which core the CPU uses. To the regular user the core reference looks like Greek, so we decided to post a quick guide to all Athlon 64 cores released to date.”

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Abit NI8 SLI @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Thursday, October 27, 2005

“Intel fans who look for SLI performance now have a new choice on their motherboard list. Abit’s NI8 SLI is a solid board that performs well without any issues. Overclocking is probably the only department that needs help.”

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E-Power Silent Engine Tiger 550 PSU Review @ Hi-techreviews.com
Hi-Techreviews :: Thursday, October 27, 2005

E-power’s latest power supply looked like a winner on paper, with its support for SLI, high output current on all rails. It was our job to find out if this power supply was really the Tiger they claimed it to be.

So come on along as we take a closer look at the outside – inside and see what makes the Tiger tick.

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Beginners Guides: Flash Memory Data Recovery and Protection @ PCstats.com
PCStats :: Thursday, October 27, 2005
“Stuck with lost data on a USB memory key or Flash card and don’t know what to do? Recovering data from flash memory devices is possible, and not to complex, so follow along and we’ll help you get those pictures back! In this Beginners Guide, PCSTATS is going to look at how flash memory works, what can go wrong with it, and how to recover and protect your data in case the worst does happen. ”

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Asetek VapoChill Micro @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Thursday, October 27, 2005

“Asetek makes their entry into the aircooling crowd with a big bang. The VapoChill Micro performs well at minimal noise levels and has the capability of cooling up to 150W of heat! Your toasty CPU can now thank you for prolonging its life.”

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Ultra Products Fan Commander
Big Bruin :: Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Quote: Ultra Products has a new fan controller called the Fan Commander which can control up to seven fans, and monitor three temperature probes. Controlling all your fans in one location will help you save time while also achieving the perfect balance between noise

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