Tech News October 2005

by NewsOctober 31, 2005June 29, 201400

RoHS Explained
Hardware Secrets :: Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Everything you need to know about RoHS, the European environmental law that will affect the computer industry.

“Recently several PC hardware pieces were launched as “RoHS-compliant” and you should see more and more RoHS-compliant products reaching the market on the next months. In this tutorial we will explain what RoHS is and what is its impact to

find out WTH RoHS is

New Layout and Features @ TheTechLounge
The Tech Lounge :: Tuesday, October 11, 2005
“TheTechLounge is nearly three years old now, and it was time to make some changes. As you have no doubt noticed, the new site looks drastically different. We decided to update our old logo and graphics, which were created by Brian and Kurtis, to something that was more professional and better portrayed the image we wanted for TheTechLounge. The new logo was created by professional graphics designer, David Montooth. The new website design was a collaboration between Brian, Kurtis and designer, Naveed Lalani.

Aside from the visual aspect of the site, TheTechLounge required a new backend that could handle the new features and server load. Brian spent the past nine months developing a new content management system, dubbed TimberwolfCMS, that not only made this new site possible, but also allows for future expansion. Continue reading and we will walk you through many of the new additions to the site. We would also like to note that some additional features will be added in the weeks and months to come.”

[News] OCZ PC-3500 Gold GX Dual Channel DDR Review @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual-Hideout :: Tuesday, October 11, 2005

“The OCZ PC3500 Gold GX memory lived up to its name, and performed as specified, providing some additional bandwidth beyond typical settings of 200MHz. The memory was stable and worked great at the better timings specified… ”

Review: Digital Media Server 701 by 2partsfusion @ HTPCnews.com
HTPCnews :: Tuesday, October 11, 2005

“Things that stood out to me were parts chosen for the sole purpose of building as quiet of a HTPC as possible without going to extremes. The fact that these guys who build the 2partsfusion HTPC’s are just HTPC enthusiasts like the rest of us is a major added bonus. This ensures that the unit is of overall high build quality and will perform as advertised. ”

Corsair TwinX2048-6400 PRO PC2-6400 DDR-2 Memory Review
PCStats :: Tuesday, October 11, 2005
“Battlefield 2 is especially well known for requiring at least 1GB of installed RAM memory to run smoothly… so why not aim high and upgrade to 2GB of installed RAM? To see what effect 2GB of system RAM will have on Battlefield 2, and a couple of other game titles PCSTATS is testing out a (2x1GB = 2GB) set of Corsair’s dual channel Twin2X2048-6400 PRO PC2-6400 DDR-2 memory. This is exactly what the doctor ordered for any memory-strapped dual core Intel Pentium 4 PC!”

Bigbruin.com Review: Ultra Products 2nd Generation 500W X-Finity PSU
Big Bruin :: Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Quote: One issue that Ultra Products seems to be avoiding is the power factor value. While most manufacturers are offering units with active (or passive) PFC resulting in PF values around 0.90 – 0.99… the Xconnect and previous X-Finity were both rated in the low 0.60 range, and the new X-Finity is slightly improved at 0.70, but that is still quite weak.

PimpRig Review // Ultra Products Fan Commander
PimpRig :: Tuesday, October 11, 2005
“All of the cables that are included with the Fan Commander are Silver braided and covered with a clear plastic which will make them look less unsightly inside a case. They needed to do something because think of it; once everything is installed you will be adding 12 cables to your interior. The braided cables are flexible and because of the Silver braiding they hold their shape well when you bend them.”

News – Thermaltake Blue ORB II CPU Cooler
Techniz.co.uk :: Monday, October 10, 2005

“The Blue ORB II CPU Cooler from Thermaltake is a good performance and good looking CPU cooler. This CPU cooler is an ideal choice for those users who wish for the fancy look and good performance. The entire cooler is just looks like a huge blue flower. Not only that, the performance of the Blue ORB II CPU Cooler is very good as you can see in the performance section. But, there is always a downside which is the size of this cooler, after install it onto the motherboard, it will block the 1st and 2nd RAM slot. However, it might not be a problem as long as the cooling performance is good. Furthermore, the 12cm fan on the Blue ORB II CPU Cooler is a Blue LED fan.”

Architecture Analysis R520 v G70
Driver Heaven :: Monday, October 10, 2005
Imagine a world where all graphics cards were made more equal. One in which the latest 7800 used 16 pipelines and 450/1000 clocks and the X1800 used its 16 pipelines at 450/1000 speeds. Which would perform better, and under what circumstances? Well imagine no more as here today we have a 16 pipeline NV47 going head to head with a R520 at 450/1000.

http://www.driverheaven.net/articles/efficiency/

The Story Of The First Internet Worm @ The TechZone
The Tech Zone :: Monday, October 10, 2005
Robert Tappan Morris was the first person convicted by a jury under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. The story of the worm he created and what happened to him after it was released is a tale of mistakes, infamy, and ultimately the financial and professional success of its author.

How Gigabit Ethernet Works
Hardware Secrets :: Monday, October 10, 2005
“Gigabit Ethernet allows network transfers up to 1.000 Mbps using standard Cat 5 UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cabling. How can this be accomplished, since Cat 5 cables can run only up to 100 Mbps? We will explain this and also other very interesting issues regarding Gigabit Ethernet performance.”

Hitachi vs. Seagate 400 GB Hard Drive Comparison @ The TechZone
The Tech Zone :: Monday, October 10, 2005

So today we will review two of the biggest hard drives currently on the market. The first drive is the 400GB Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 which features five 80GB platters, 8MB of cache, a 7,200RPM rotation speed, and a 8.5ms average seek time. We will also look at the 400GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 which carries basically the same specifications as the Hitachi drive except that the Seagate has a 8ms average seek time rather than 8.5. Both the drives in this review use the SATA 1.5Gb/s interface. However, they are also available in PATA if needed.

Listen to Believe ProAmp 5.1 Headphone Amplifier and LTB True 5.1 Headphones
Think Computers :: Monday, October 10, 2005

Quote: “Listen to Believe; interesting name for a company, rather catchy actually, kind of makes you want to buy their product just to see if they are that good. With a name like Listen to Believe, you expect their products to be just awesome. Today I have for review something that I thought was pretty cool to be reviewing, I myself like good quality sound from all my audio equipment, and since my computer is such a large part of my life I feel that I need great quality from that as well.”

Microsoft Vista Build 5231 Leak w/ Screenshot
Microsoft :: Monday, October 10, 2005
“A new build of Windows Vista has leaked, a week before the new build is expected to be released to testers.

The October CTP build released to testers will incorporate additional functions than this leak, whilst likely retaining the same build number.

Released with build 5231 are Windows Media Player Version 11 (still under the guise of Windows Media Player 10), which includes a smart new interface, and the latest Beta of Internet Explorer 7, with tabs adopting the more conventional ‘below the address bar’ style. New sound features are added with active output and input monitors, so hopefully previous sound problems have been resolved.”

Scythe Katana CPU Heatpipe Cooler Review Posted!
Tech ARP :: Monday, October 10, 2005

Quote – “The latest cooler from Scythe is a relatively innocuous-looking heatpipe cooler. But beneath that lies a cooler with great potential.

News – Vantec Stingray All-In-One Water Cooling Kit
Techniz.co.uk :: Monday, October 10, 2005

“The Stingray All-In-One water cooling kit is the first water cooling kit that launch by Vantec, and they did a great job by producing such a great water cooling kit. This kit comes with all the block that you needed for cooling your high performance hardware. All the block is made of aluminum cover with the copper base and a powerful pump to give the best cooling performance to meet the Enthusiast needs. The universal clips are ready to support all type of system. The installation was very easy as well due to it was using the quick connector, the quick connector is one of the most safety hose connection for water cooling.”

Review: Flexiglow Cyber Snipa Gamepad @ GideonTech.com
GideonTech :: Monday, October 10, 2005
“What Flexiglow has done is taken the most important keys on a keyboard to a gamer and placed them onto a smaller gamepad. Equipped with it’s own wrist rest, it just might be the wrist and finger saving piece of equipment many gamers have been looking for.”

Cahintech VNF4 Ultra Motherboard Review @ TW Labs
Techwarelabs :: Monday, October 10, 2005
“Today we are going to take a look at a socket 939 motherboard that is based on the nForce4 Ultra chipset. The Chaintech VNF4 Ultra from their Zenith value edition series. Now this board is intended for the budget user so you can’t expect a load of features however it does it’s thing and still includes Gigabit ethernet and 7.1 audio as well as Serial ATA II.”

Gigabyte i-RAM – Affordable D.I.Y Solid State Storage
TweakTown :: Monday, October 10, 2005
“During the Computex 2005 trade show in Taiwan this year, much attention was drawn towards Gigabyte’s new i-RAM product. i-RAM is Gigabyte’s latest innovation which caters for users and businesses who require super quick data transfer over the SATA bus through the use of DDR memory modules. Read on as we take a look at Gigabyte’s first attempt at hitting into the solid state storage market – how does 150MB/s burst and average read speeds sound?”

SunBeam Trio @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Monday, October 10, 2005
Can you remember the days when the typical computer case was grey or beige? I’m not sure who decided to use those colours but you couldn’t call computer cases good looking or cool. Those days are now long gone and these days we expect our to be able to keep our cases out in the open without being ashamed of the look.

SunBeam sent over a new case from them, the SunBeam Trio, which both has a low cost but also look pretty cool.

HP PhotoSmart 475 Printer Review at Designtechnica.com
Designtechnica :: Monday, October 10, 2005
“At first it was enough for photo printer makers to add a portable model to their mix. Now that most companies sell one, a little more creativity is required to separate one from the pack. HP has stepped up to the challenge with the Photosmart 475 ($279), a.k.a. GoGo, an unabashedly cute tagalong that prints not only the requisite 4 x 6 prints but 5 x 7 enlargements too. GoGo went a step further, adding 1.5 gigabytes of internal storage that can pack up to 1,000 images. Take it to the next family party, hook it up to a TV and you can run a slide show that lasts all afternoon.”

[Phoronix] SilverStone Strider ST405 400W
Phoronix :: Monday, October 10, 2005

Summary: “Although a great deal of the power supplies we look at on a regular basis are designed for high-end systems, occasionally we accept the offer to look at a lower-wattage power supply that may not be ideal for an SLI or CrossFire setup but continues to pack a punch when it comes to features. The power supply unit up for review today is the Strider ST405 400W from SilverStone Technology.”

Bigbruin.com Contest: Halloween PhotoChop Contest
Big Bruin :: Monday, October 10, 2005

Quote: BigBruin.com has teamed up with ClubIT.com on our latest contest. Up for grabs are two sets of assorted Cooler Master products, including a couple Cool Drive units and some UV/EL cables. The contest requires entrants to modify the ClubIT.com logo with a Halloween theme. Entries could be scary, funny, freaky, sexy, etc… Just make them so they can be displayed in public!

Windows Vista Build 5219 Review @ CoolTechZone.com
CoolTechZone :: Monday, October 10, 2005
“At the recent PDC, Microsoft started a new way of launching software, and we aren’t complaining. The deal is that it’ll showcase a monthly update to Vista, which would show progress from the last month in terms of added functionality, features, and graphics in addition to additional functionality. This is an excellent method as it allows Microsoft to gauge developer mood as well as check out how well the features are received overall.”

[News] Coolmax 24-pin PSU Tester Review @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual-Hideout :: Monday, October 10, 2005

“With items like this on the market for less than $20, there’s no excuse to fry a system anymore from a bad power supply. This unit should be in every PC builders tool chest. ”

BrightSide DR37-P Extreme Dynamic Range Display @ The TechZone
The Tech Zone :: Thursday, October 06, 2005

The DR37-P takes display technology to a new level. This is the world’s highest dynamic range display. How high? Try contrast ratio of infinity! Well, it’s officially listed at 200,000 to 1 but it’s really infinite. I have seen this display in action and words (and following pictures) can not describe how amazing it is. The DR37-P is a 37″ display that offers 10 times the brightness of a standard LCDs and delivers over 100 times the contrast range plus provide much more vivid color. The display provides peak luminance in excess of 3,000 candela/m2, a contrast ratio in excess of 200,000:1 and it is the first display capable of accurately displaying 16 bit per color.

[Phoronix] NVIDIA Q4-2005 (1.0-7XXX) Driver Performance
Phoronix :: Thursday, October 06, 2005

Summary: “With the public release of the NVIDIA Linux 1.0-8XXX display drivers now coming toward the end of October, we felt it was time to offer another driver comparison of all the drivers released in roughly the past year, as we haven’t done any mass comparisons since early 2005.”

Enermax CA3030 Pandora Case Review @ OCIA.net
OCIA :: Thursday, October 06, 2005

“Sandwiched between the grill in the bezel and the front of the case is this nifty push-to-open filter slot. The panel slides out to reveal a washable, reusable foam filter that would hopefully prevent a little less dust from getting sucked inside the case. Unfortunately, no such preventative measure exists on the other two openings in the side panel.”

Intel Mobility Party Report Posted!
Tech ARP :: Thursday, October 06, 2005

“Intel recently concluded their Mobility Campaign with a big bang at Zouk! Boasting a celebrity DJ, a fashion show and DJ group Altered Image, the Intel Mobility Party was also where Intel announced the winners of the Intel Notebook Bag Design Contest! Check out the report!”

Swiftech H20-APEX “Extreme Duty” @ Viperlair
ViperLair :: Thursday, October 06, 2005
“With the amount of kits for watercooling your PC that are out on the market today it’s hard to decide what would be best for you, throw in all of the different types and sizes of cases that are available and choosing a kit could be a real nightmare. Swiftech has done all of the leg work with the Apex-H2O kit and have made a damn near universal water cooling kit that requires very little if any “handyman” work to install.”

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