Tech News June 2004

Beyond Megapixels: Part III
The Tech Lounge :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“This last installment of Beyond Megapixels contains an overview of camera function, such as metering, white balance and focusing systems, popular filetypes and their usefulness to the photographer, and features that define each digital camera. In keeping with the editorial nature of this series, I will share my preferences and opinions of these aspects when I deem prudent.”

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Thermaltake Silent Tower CL-P0025
SystemCooling :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“The Petronas Towers don’t have the word tower in their name for nothing; they are the undisputed tallest skyscrapers in the world. In today’s review we’ll be examining and testing a tower that you can erect inside your own computer case, the Thermaltake Silent Tower CL-P0025. With today’s heatsinks expanding to enormous sizes the Silent Tower might not be the tallest heatsink that you can install in your computer but as you’ll be able to see it every bit earns the word tower in its name. This is not only because of the Silent Tower’s size but also because of the towering and stealthy performance that it delivers.”

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Corsair TwinX1024-3200XLPRO Memory Review
Hexus :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“The bottom line is that there’s absolutely nothing better for default performance. RAM equipped with Winbond’s BH-5 chips is currently hot property amongst enthusiasts. Corsair’s TwinX-3200XLPRO now easily displaces it as our A-listed module(s) for users who want blisteringly fast performance out of the box.”

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FlexiGlow FX Game Pad Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“Once powered, the FlexiGlow FX Game Pad will run through an animated light sequence to let you know that product is ready for use. Consumers can easily toggle the colour of their choice by pressing on the rubber control switch. The illumination from this product is great and evenly distributed via the LEDs that are installed in the center. There are a total of 12 LEDs in 4 sets that are positioned at 45 degree angles.”

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EluminX Illuminated Keyboard Review
GideonTech :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“One of the basic goals us modders try to achieve is to make everything glow. From “blue-LED-ing” case indicator lights and optical mice, to case windows, CCFLs and LED fans. Making almost every part of our PC system is glowing. Case, check. Mouse, check. Monitor, it’s already “glowing”. But hey, CCFL and windows in monitors, I guess, check. The keyboard?”

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Leadtek TV2000 XP – Expert Edition
Bjorn3D :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“My interest for TV tuners was sparked again when I started getting extra hard drive space and started hearing more and more about PVRs and DVRs. So, when Scott asked me if I wanted to review the Leadtek TV2000 XP Tuner – Expert Edition, I was looking forward to it.”

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Zalman Reserator I Fan-less Water-Cooling System
SystemCooling :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“Zalman is a recognized leader in the PC industry for their line of innovative noise prevention cooling products. Today we are taking an in-depth look at one of their latest innovations – the new Zalman Reserator I. It’s a fan-less water-cooling system designed to be totally silent. The reservoir, radiator and water pump are integrated into one unit (Reservoir + Radiator => Reserator :) and the kit includes Zalman’s ZM-WB2 Gold waterblock. Zalman claims the Reserator I will provide excellent cooling performance even with natural convection, making it a true fan-less, noiseless water-cooling system.”

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Foxconn Heat Guzzler CPU Cooler Review
3dXtreme :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“The temperatures the Foxconn Heat Guzzler provided were lower than we’ve seen after using a few different AMD64 coolers. If you are in the market for a quiet, decent cooling AMD64 cooler we’d have no reservations suggesting this cooler.”

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CoolerMaster Centurion – 5 Case Review
OCIA :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“This case is available with or without a 350W Cooler Master power supply(shown in picture). First let me say that when I put together a PC I always discard the case manufacturer supplied I/O shield and use the one that is provided by the motherboard manufacturer, but in this instance I just had to use the vastly superior Cooler Master I/O shield. The right side panel comes with 2 thumb screws while the left side is secured with standard philips head hex screws. The rear exhaust fan is a 120mm Cooler Master fan.”

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Corsair TWINX1024-4400 and Kingston HyperX PC4300 Dual Channel Kits
Bjorn3D :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“As PC performance enthusiasts hit new overclocking heights, enthusiast memory companies, like Corsair and Kingston, respond by releasing even faster memory to feed the hunger of the hardcore overclockers. For quite some time, DDR550 or PC4400 was the fastest RAM available. Faster RAM is available now but only from a couple companies. Very few motherboards can handle these extreme overclocks though, so as everything gets faster, the selection of usable components gets smaller.”

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Cooler Master CM Stacker STC-T01
SystemCooling :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“So you’re looking for a new case. It has to be roomy and good-looking, it has to cool well, and you’d also like to have a lot of flexibility in terms of configuration. The thing is, with a whole new form factor in Intel’s BX specification looming on the horizon, you’re really hesitant to spend a ton of dough on something that won’t even support the latest and greatest once the new spec takes off. So what do you do? The suggestion we’d make is to take a look at the newest case offering from Cooler Master, namely the CM Stacker STC-T01. And today, that’s exactly what we’re going to do today.”

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Matrix Orbital MX3 VFD Review
GruntvillE :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“ Putting the MX222 next to the MX322 we can see that there are absolutely no differences in the controller/logic boards; actually, they’re the exact same model and revision. Only by a top view are we able to discern a difference between the models. As you can see in the second picture, the VFD screen is not protected by a shroud and the PCB extends just a tad bit deeper. “

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AOpen AK89 Max Nforce3-150 Motherboard Review
3dXtreme :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“The AK89 Max is based on the Nforce3 150 chipset, as many are aware this chipset is being retired to make way for the new NVIDIA Nforce3 250 chipset. AOpen has made some significant improvements to this board since its initial inception and we were intrigued to review this product before the Nforce3 250 boards arrived.”

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Zalman Reserator 1 review
Hexus :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“It all depends on what you want. Do you want to overclock? Look elsewhere.Do you mind a wee bit of fan noise? Look elsewhere. Do you want is-my-PC-even-switched-on silence? Give Zalman your money now, they thoroughly deserve it.”

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Kingwin TC-02S Thermal Center Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“From the back, there are two PCB boards that make up the Kingwin Thermal Center. One PCB is for the controller chip, and the other for attaching connectors. Both the PCB’s are separated by four motherboard brass stand-offs. The unit uses the Holtek 8 bit HT49R50A-1 controller, which features an 8 bit high performance RISC micro controller that can handle up to 63 instructions. The controller has been designed for a wide range of LCD applications.”

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Gigabyte K8vnxp AMD64 motherboard
Red & Blackness Mods :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“Tonite we will have a closer look at a AMD64 board that Gigabyte sent us. We decided to run it vs a XP system to really see the speed difference. We will bench this with the latest programs to be able to figure out if this motherboard is anything worth having. You should definately stay tuned if you are interested in or thinking of getting a AMD64 system. ”

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Corsair TWINX1024-3200XL Pro
ViperLair :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“In our opinion, this is a required purchase if you’re sitting on the 200MHz bus. Spending your money on faster ram is pointless if your setup can’t handle the high clock speeds. Buying faster ram, while tweaking the timings is also pointless as well, as they still can’t match what we’ve seen of the TWINX-3200XL Pro today.”

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Swiftech MCX6400-V Heatsink
ViperLair :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“This is another excellent offering by Swiftech, and the price is competitive for a heatsink of this quality. For Athlon 64 owners looking to move away from their stock coolers, the MCX6400-V deserves to be on your shortlist.”

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Foxconn AMD 3400+ Heat Guzzler Heatsink Review
OCIA :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“Here’s where everything started to suck. Guess what folks? The fan got in the way. The capacitors around the processor wouldn’t let the heatsink on with the fan installed. It would fit without the fan, but that’s kind of pointless. I was going to try and install the fan on the other side but it screws into a special holder that I couldn’t move, so that was out of the question. This is something you need to check on your motherboard if your thinking about getting this heat sink.”

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Getting Ready for BTX
PCStats :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“Thus far, motherboards have remained pretty stable in terms of size, shape, and the location of cable connectors and such. Long ago, the AT standard morphed into ATX, the current day standard which outlines exactly where components are located on a board. The ATX 2.0 standard (the second revision of ATX) made way for a small assortment of sizes like Micro-ATX, Flex-ATX and so forth. Yet, no matter what the size of the motherboard, whether it be for a small form factor PC, or a desktop PC, the location of components like PCI slots, processor, and I/O ports (PS/2, USB, network, parallel, and serial) are all essentially the same. Several months ago consumers found out that Intel had plans to change all this. Called BTX, this new standard is as yet unapplied, but will eventually force you to toss out all your good hardware and purchase new parts; at the very least a case, motherboard and power supply which conform to the standard.”

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What’s this Gmail?
Short-Media :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“Gmail is currently in its beta testing phase. In this case, the term “beta” belies how robust the system already is. Surely there are features to be added and tweaks to be made, but the system works and very efficiently at that. After a few minutes with my account, I had no qualms switching the e-mail address on my various accounts (E-bay, PayPal, forums, etc.) to Gmail. Here are several reasons why.”

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Corsair TwinX3200XL Pro Review
GruntvillE :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“For this review we did something a little different. In order to explore the impact of different timings vs. FSB vs. PAT settings we ran a suite of benchmarks with a variety of settings on both Kingston HyperX PC4000 and the Corsair TwinX1024-3200XLPro. Each test was run 3 times and the average score reported. In addition, Memtest86 was run on each setting to ensure that it was stable.”

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Arctic Cooling Super Silent 4PRO L CPU Cooler Review
Tweaknews :: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

“Today I will be reviewing a sample of one of the quietest processor coolers on the market today. With fan speed selection, good cooling, excellent price and good looks, this might be a capable choice for your next cooling upgrade. The going trend is that if you buy a quiet cooler you should prepare yourself for some CPU temperatures that are higher than what you would witness if you were using a enthusiast blow hard. The cooler tested today goes against the grain and still offers some excellent cooling with the sound levels of a mute field mouse. But the goodness doesn’t stop there. With the four ultra bright LEDs incorporated into the fan, this cooler is also an attractive addition to your modified and windowed case. But wait, there is more………. You still have to be reminded that it sells for penny pinching value of US$20. Great Deal? Yip……”

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Gigabyte GA-7VT600-RZ Motherboard Review
PCStats :: Wednesday, June 16, 2004

“Most of the computer hardware community has been focusing on Pentium 4 and Athlon64 CPUs, but we shouldn’t count out the trusty ole AMD K7 just yet. In fact there are probably still more users with AMD Athlon or AthlonXP based systems than there are Athlon64’s! And as there are no killer applications or 64-bit operating systems (or games) on the market, why should an average user upgrade, other than perhaps for bragging rights?”

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Arctic Cooling Products Showcase Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Wednesday, June 16, 2004

“Included in the packaging is and assortment of items which includes mounting screws, mounting brackets, adapter cables, thermal compound, case badges and a set of instructions. As an alternative Arctic Cooling also provides PDF versions of its products installation instructions on its website. The included instructions are translated in two languages (Swedish and English) and are accompanied by a set of reference diagrams. I found the documentation to be very easy to understand and most users should be able to complete the installation of all the products in less than 30 minutes.”

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Silverstonetek ST460W PSU
Red & Blackness Mods :: Wednesday, June 16, 2004

“Tonite we seem to have a very nice 460W quiet power supply review up for you guys. Silverstone sent us their latest addition to their PSU series which is the 460W PSU. We will test this under load and under idle use to see how good the 12 and 5 v rails really are. ”

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Logisys 3D Edge Fan Review
Virtual-Hideout :: Wednesday, June 16, 2004

“3D can mean a lot of different things. I suppose anything that is a real object can be called “3-dimensional”, so it’s no surprise that the term is used for just about anything the marketing gents can think of. In the case of the 3D Edge Fan (provided by Logisys), it means that you get three fans, and the brackets needed to install them in three different orientations. As you can see in the lead photo, the fans are also lighted in a distinctive blue/green way, making them a prominent feature inside any windowed case.”

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Lexington Technology PC Access Review
GruntvillE :: Wednesday, June 16, 2004

“Password protected screensavers and other basic techniques of access control are easily defeated by someone watching as you type your password or cheap key loggers attached to your keyboard. Nowadays you need something tangible, a thumbprint, a retinal scan, something they can’t easily copy or take without your knowing. Sadly these methods can be quite expensive and even themselves become victims of the thieving little punk we’re trying to avoid. So this leaves us needing something we can keep on our person the entire time and hopefully something less than two hundred bucks. Well, Lexington Technology thinks they have what it takes to fill our needs without emptying our pockets. They gave us the opportunity to test out the Standalone and Network versions of their “PCAccess” security access control system.”

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StarTech StarView SV231USB KVM Switch (Review)
IpKonfig :: Wednesday, June 16, 2004

“As computer prices continue to drop, more and more people are buying a second PC. Some purchase laptops while others purchase mini-pc’s or another tower. The problem isn’t with owning more than one PC though, it’s the clutter of multiple keyboards, monitors, and mice that take up all the room on the desktop. That’s where StarTech comes to the rescue.”

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Kingston PC4300 1GB DDR Review
GideonTech :: Wednesday, June 16, 2004

“If you are running a P4 with 800Mhz support, you owe it to yourself to grab some high quality ram. Your system will love you for the extra memory bandwidth. However, not all ram are created equal. We’ll see if this PC4300 sample from Kingston will do the trick.”

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