Tech News February 2004

NewsFeb 28, 2004June 29, 20140

PowerColor Radeon 9600XT Bravo 128MB
Hexus :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“It’s difficult to manufacture an intrinsically bad Radeon 9600XT. PowerColor has done just fine with its attempt. It’s small, it’s quiet, it overclocks like a champ, and it doesn’t cost the earth. Just don’t expect super-smooth gameplay with every conceivable option turned to the maximum, especially with DX9 games. If you fully understand the architectural limitations that ATI had to make to the RV360 design for it to be a profitable GPU, you’ll appreciate that its forte is at medium resolutions with a reasonable level of image enhancement through edge and texture aliasing. ”

Chaintech GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
TweakTown :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“Yesterday we compared the performance of nVidia’s GeForce FX 5950 Ultra against ATI’s Radeon 9800 XT. Today we step down a class to the mainstream segment and put nVidia’s GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, in the form of the AA5700U from Chaintech, against ATI’s Radeon 9600 XT. Let the mainstream VGA battle begin!”

Gainward GeForce FX 5700 Ultra Golden Sample Ultra/960 Dual-DVI 128MB
Hexus :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004
“We’re left with the nagging feeling that NVIDIA has orchestrated the premature death for the FX 5700 Ultra with its own 5900XT. Thus we think Gainward’s diligent NV36 efforts may prove futile.”

MSI FX5700 Ultra-TD128
ViperLair :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“For the games of today, the MSI 5700 Ultra will do the job. Even for games that will come later on, the FX5700 Ultra is what we consider the bare minimum for playability. With the overclocking potential, you should be ok for the next few months.”

Inno3D’s Geforce FX5700 Ultra
Techwarelabs :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“Few video card retailers deviate from reference design these days, which makes the bundle and price of the card even more important. A 5700 Ultra purchased from Inno3D is likely to perform very close to the Nvidia reference design. Inno3D has choosen to manufacturer the card using a black PCB board and an attractive HSF cover. This card would look excellent in any case with color highlights and a window.”

ATI 9600XT Review
GruntvillE :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“This latest generation of the 9600 line is built around ATI’s RV360 GPU, an improved version of the RV350 that pushes the 9600 Pro cards. The most notable improvements denoted by the “XT” branding are the introduction of a new insulator that has less capacitance than the old silicate glass of the pro line, and the inclusion of GPU core temperature monitoring capabilities. Obviously these are two major steps towards improved overclockability of the card and should prove to be quite interesting in the benchmark phases.”

Albatron PX 875P Pro Review
Overclocker Café :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

At it’s basic, the Albatron PX 875P Pro motherboard is a good solid board. While the board is lacking in features that other 875 based boards might sport, not everyone needs those features. The lack of FireWire doesn’t make a difference to me, nor the lack of Gigabit LAN that other boards are starting to sport.

PowerColor Radeon 9600XT 128MB
SystemCooling :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“Well if you’re looking for a graphics card for that new system you’re building or are considering replacing what you currently have, today’s PowerColor 9600XT review will hopefully assist you in your decision. We will put the 9600XT through several different types of benchmarks and compare it’s performance to an ATI 9500Pro and 9700Pro.”

ASUS Radeon 9600XT/TVD 128MB
Hexus :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“When evaluating a product for a final rating, we look at a number of factors. Firstly, how much has the manufacturer done to appease a wide spectrum of users ?. How good is its implementation on the whole ?. What kind of value-adding features does it use that go beyond most others’ ?. Is the technology that it is based on sound ?. We feel that ASUS has done as much as anyone in relation to the RV360. Almost every facet is covered with thought and attention. Priced at around £145, it also represents good midrange value. Highly recommended.”

SilverStone Mini Server Case Review
Voided Warranty :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“Well just about everybody’s heard of Silverstone Technology and their lineup of Power Supplies, but did you know that they make cases too. Yep. Today we are going to be taking a look at this mini server case. Here’s what they have to say about themselves:”

SilverStone B032FW Enclosure
TweakTown :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“In the not too distant past, the thought of getting an aluminum case meant pouring out a huge chunk of change. While there are some high-dollar aluminum cases out there, it is getting easier to find them in a more reasonable price range lately. Come join us as we take a look at a low cost aluminum case with some very high end features and see for yourself if it is worth the meager entry fee!”

ASUS Radeon 9800 XT and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra – Kings of the VGA Hill
TweakTown :: Friday, January 23, 2004

“Today we are looking at the two top dogs from both ATi and nVidia in the form of the Radeon 9800 XT and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra from ASUS. We pit them directly against a reference 9800 XT and an older 9800 Pro to find out who is the king of the hill in the VGA department.”

Albatron GeForce FX 5700 Ultra Video Card Review
3dXtreme :: Friday, January 23, 2004

“We would like to thank Albatron for providing this card for review today. I have to admit I was a bit excited when I received this video card. The packaging was rather attractive and when I opened the box I was greeted with many goodies. Albatron has been known to deliver quality products and just from the looks of things this was no exception. But could this video card live up to expectations? Let’s find out…”

Albatron KX18D Pro II Nforce2 Motherboard Review
Tweaknews :: Friday, January 16, 2004

“I am thoroughly impressed with this motherboard. Part of what one has to consider when purchasing any type of hardware is what they are getting for their money. What you are getting with the KX18D Pro II is a stable, feature-packed motherboard that overclocks like a dream. I know that a lot of people do not overclock their systems, and so care very little about such things. Frankly, that doesn’t matter. The board has so much to offer that even if you never stray from the default settings, you will still be very happy with your investment.”

HIS Excalibur IceQ 256Meg DDR2 Radeon 9800pro Review
Tweaknews :: Friday, January 16, 2004

“The Excalibur IceQ 9800 pro embodies everything I have ever wanted in a videocard. The card is packed full of 256megs of fast DDR2 memory, includes a quiet and efficient monster cooler and for once there are memory sinks installed throughout the card. The performance numbers and results would easily make even the pickiest of gamers happy with the ability to handle quality settings and pump out great framerates without breaking a sweat.”

Beginners Guides: Preventing Data Theft From a Stolen Laptop
PCStats :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“Portable computers are made for traveling and computing at the same time, and are thus incredibly valuable for their weight. We’re talking ‘carton of cigarettes’ dollars-to-weight ratio here. Consequently, laptop’s make a tempting target for thieves and have been known to go AWOL with distressing frequency when compared to less expensive things like your baggage full of Hawaiian shirts. Having a laptop stolen is a double-dose of bad news, since not only are you confronted with the fact that your (at least) $1500 portable PC is now gone, perhaps forever, but you also have to deal with the possibility of data theft. It’s sort of like losing a wallet, but a wallet cannot hold gigabytes of potentially valuable or personal data. Credit data, email records, license keys, personal documents, all at the fingertips of the kind of person who was willing to steal your laptop in the first place. For business travelers, this is especially bad news.”

Nikao F-1 Mid-Tower Case Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“Located under the two floppy bays is the main visual attraction for the Nikao F-1 Mid-Tower Case. A plastic chrome emblem surrounds the recess and sports a chrome heart at the top. Behind the chrome heart is another blue LED that will slowly pulsate on and off once powered. On the bottom of the emblem is the computer power button, a reset button and both power and hard drive activity LEDs.”

Vantec Vortex
Red & Blackness Mods :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“Today I’m going to be reviewing the Vantec Vortex hard drive cooling system. Their have been many different hard drive coolers recently. They are being required more and more. The faster hard drives spin/work the more energy is lost to heat and as we all know heat can shorten the life of components. ”

CES 2004 and Cyber-X Games Coverage
GruntvillE :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“On January 8th-11th 2004 Las Vegas was the home to not only the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Las Vegas Hilton, and Alexis Park, but also the Cyber X Gaming Competition (at the Stardust) and the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) (at the Venetian and Sands Expo Center). With over 110,000 people in town for CES and several thousand very colorful characters for the AEE it was a hopin’ town, and I, DickNervous, was in the middle of it all.”

Leadtek WinFast A360TD FX 5700 128MB
Hexus :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“What this conclusion, rambling as it is, is attempting to convey is that Leadtek has made decent use of a GPU that’s not a hot property at its current price point. That’s an eminently important point. Finite money forces the user to choose the product that provides the best value. Unfortunately, we can think of one or two cards that would tickle our fancy ahead of the Leadtek A360TD FX 5700. Solid and dependable, so it’s a decent enough choice for a die-hard NVIDIA fan. We just feel as if it doesn’t have enough of the right stuff to make it a recommended choice.”

VIA K8T800 Performance Motherboard Shootout – Gigabyte, MSI and ABIT
TweakTown :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“It’s time for the battle of the big guns in the AMD Athlon 64 motherboard department. We’ve collected three high-end performance motherboards from Gigabyte, MSI and ABIT which are all based on VIA’s K8T800 chipset and tossed them all in the ring to fight it to the death with our still shiny Athlon 64 3200+ processor. Let the fight begin ladies and gentleman!”

Kool Solutions Chill Vent II
SystemCooling :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“No matter what kind of heatsink and fan combination you have, it’s not going to be of much use if the air around it is hot. There are a variety of means of getting cool air into that area, and ducting mods, although they’ve been around for a long time, are getting popular enough that entire companies are sprouting up around the concept. Kool Solutions is just such a company, and they make the subject of our review today, the Chill Vent II. ”

MSI’s GeForce FX 5700 U
Bjorn3D :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“Our review card is the FX5700 Ultra-TD128 from Micro-Star International (MSI). The 5700U is NVIDIA’s attempt to atone for the under whelming 5600/5600U. The 5700U features the NV36 core at 475 MHz, 900 MHz DDR2 memory speed, and improved pixel shader performance courtesy of CineFX 2.0. While both the 5600/U and 5700U utilize a 128-bit memory interface, the 5700U is the first NVIDIA GPU to be built with IBM’s 0.13-micron manufacturing process. The 5700U sports 3 vertex shader pipelines compared to just 1 on the 5600/U. Anyone who has tried to play “Halo” with a 5600 should appreciate having triple the pixel power! In essence, the 5700U is a scaled-down 5950 Ultra and not in the least a hopped up 5600. And that’s a very good thing! ”

SilverStone Technology Temjin TJ-01 Mid-Tower Case Review
3dXtreme :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“Today 3DXtreme has the great pleasure of reviewing one of SilverStone Technology’s latest cases, the Temjin TJ-01. We’d like to thank SilverStone Technology for supplying this case to us. With the focus mainly on modded cases and lighting of cases it’s actually refreshing once in a while to come across a design that is not. SilverStone Technology has put a lot of effort into providing a wide variety of case solutions to meet everyone’s needs. This case is no exception…”

Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 Heatsink
SystemCooling :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

Quiet cooling is quite popular these days, which is not surprising at all. Most users would prefer not to have to listen to the howl of their systems being cooled. They just want the job done without a lot of drama. When we reviewed the Thermaltake Silent Boost heatsink back in October, we found that it performed in exactly that way; quiet, efficient, and without a lot of drama. Now, Thermaltake has introduced a new model in the Silent Boost series, the Silent Boost K8, designed specifically for Socket 754 and Socket 940 AMD processors. Today, we’re going to find out if this new model is cut from the same cloth.

Vantec Cable Sleeving Kit
OCIA :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“The trick to getting this sleeving on is to work it in a push-pull motion. When you push the sleeving together, it widens so that the cables can easily slide through. Then when you pull the end tight again, the sleeving moves up the cable. For all of those that got lost there, I’ll just say that it works exactly like a Chinese Finger Trap. You push it together so that it becomes loose. Simple, eh?”

Shuttle XPC SB75G2 SFF System
Bjorn3D :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“The case is a smooth jet black aluminum finish. Very sleek, very sexy for a PC. I can definitely see this kind of component in a home theater system or in the living room. It’s very refined with the black finish and silver buttons and accents. You have to be a little careful you don’t scratch up the surface as it seems like it could show knicks and scrapes pretty easily if you get rowdy with it.”

Kodak EasyShare DX6490
The Tech Lounge :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“Today we are taking a look at the DX6490, Kodak’s top-of-the-line camera in the EasyShare DX series. The DX6490 boasts 10x Optical Zoom, 4.0 Mega-Pixels, and of course, Kodak’s EasyShare functionality. One of the great things about this camera is that it gives you a lot of the control you would expect from a more expensive, enthusiast-oriented digital camera at a price lower the competition.”

iRock! 830 128MB MP3 Player Review
3dXtreme :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“This MP3 Player features 128MB of onboard storage and up to 30 hours of playback on a single AA battery. Also integrated is an FM Tuner with the ability to save up to 20 presets. The unit includes some cool extras like a leather case, wrist strap, ear bud headphones and a list of other features. Let’s get right into it…”

PowerColor Radeon 9600XT Bravo 128MB
Hexus :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“It’s difficult to manufacture an intrinsically bad Radeon 9600XT. PowerColor has done just fine with its attempt. It’s small, it’s quiet, it overclocks like a champ, and it doesn’t cost the earth. Just don’t expect super-smooth gameplay with every conceivable option turned to the maximum, especially with DX9 games. If you fully understand the architectural limitations that ATI had to make to the RV360 design for it to be a profitable GPU, you’ll appreciate that its forte is at medium resolutions with a reasonable level of image enhancement through edge and texture aliasing. ”

Chaintech GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
TweakTown :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“Yesterday we compared the performance of nVidia’s GeForce FX 5950 Ultra against ATI’s Radeon 9800 XT. Today we step down a class to the mainstream segment and put nVidia’s GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, in the form of the AA5700U from Chaintech, against ATI’s Radeon 9600 XT. Let the mainstream VGA battle begin!”

Gainward GeForce FX 5700 Ultra Golden Sample Ultra/960 Dual-DVI 128MB
Hexus :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004
“We’re left with the nagging feeling that NVIDIA has orchestrated the premature death for the FX 5700 Ultra with its own 5900XT. Thus we think Gainward’s diligent NV36 efforts may prove futile.”

Inno3D’s Geforce FX5700 Ultra
Techwarelabs :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“Few video card retailers deviate from reference design these days, which makes the bundle and price of the card even more important. A 5700 Ultra purchased from Inno3D is likely to perform very close to the Nvidia reference design. Inno3D has choosen to manufacturer the card using a black PCB board and an attractive HSF cover. This card would look excellent in any case with color highlights and a window.”

ATI 9600XT Review
GruntvillE :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“This latest generation of the 9600 line is built around ATI’s RV360 GPU, an improved version of the RV350 that pushes the 9600 Pro cards. The most notable improvements denoted by the “XT” branding are the introduction of a new insulator that has less capacitance than the old silicate glass of the pro line, and the inclusion of GPU core temperature monitoring capabilities. Obviously these are two major steps towards improved overclockability of the card and should prove to be quite interesting in the benchmark phases.”

Albatron PX 875P Pro Review
Overclocker Café :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

At it’s basic, the Albatron PX 875P Pro motherboard is a good solid board. While the board is lacking in features that other 875 based boards might sport, not everyone needs those features. The lack of FireWire doesn’t make a difference to me, nor the lack of Gigabit LAN that other boards are starting to sport.

MSI FX5700 Ultra-TD128
ViperLair :: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

“For the games of today, the MSI 5700 Ultra will do the job. Even for games that will come later on, the FX5700 Ultra is what we consider the bare minimum for playability. With the overclocking potential, you should be ok for the next few months.”

SilverStone Mini Server Case Review
Voided Warranty :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“Well just about everybody’s heard of Silverstone Technology and their lineup of Power Supplies, but did you know that they make cases too. Yep. Today we are going to be taking a look at this mini server case. Here’s what they have to say about themselves:”

ASUS Radeon 9600XT/TVD 128MB
Hexus :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“When evaluating a product for a final rating, we look at a number of factors. Firstly, how much has the manufacturer done to appease a wide spectrum of users ?. How good is its implementation on the whole ?. What kind of value-adding features does it use that go beyond most others’ ?. Is the technology that it is based on sound ?. We feel that ASUS has done as much as anyone in relation to the RV360. Almost every facet is covered with thought and attention. Priced at around £145, it also represents good midrange value. Highly recommended.”

SilverStone B032FW Enclosure
TweakTown :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“In the not too distant past, the thought of getting an aluminum case meant pouring out a huge chunk of change. While there are some high-dollar aluminum cases out there, it is getting easier to find them in a more reasonable price range lately. Come join us as we take a look at a low cost aluminum case with some very high end features and see for yourself if it is worth the meager entry fee!”

PowerColor Radeon 9600XT 128MB
SystemCooling :: Sunday, February 01, 2004

“Well if you’re looking for a graphics card for that new system you’re building or are considering replacing what you currently have, today’s PowerColor 9600XT review will hopefully assist you in your decision. We will put the 9600XT through several different types of benchmarks and compare it’s performance to an ATI 9500Pro and 9700Pro.”

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