Tech News October 2003

Blue cold cathode 80mm fan
Xoxide :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“New Cold Cathode fan comes completely assembled including both the crystal clear fan and round cold cathode tube. Tired of those Dim LED fans this fan is as bright as any cold cathode light and performs well also. ”

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Antec Minuet Case Review
Bjorn3D :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“That’s right, this case only accepts half height expansion cards. That said, integrated video and audio might be something to look for when buying your hardware. The computer industry seems to be offering more compact and full featured components (such as motherboards), so it’s not out of the question to have a decent computer crammed into this case.”

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Thermaltake Silent Boost Heatsink Review
Furioustech :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“I am starting to prefer quiet and performance more than that jet engine whine next to my ear. Thermaltake has a heatsink called the Silent Boost, I was very impressed with this product and I think you will be also. Great design and good cooling and you can hear your TV or significant other over your computer always a plus in my world!”

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Swiftech MCP600 Water Pump and Fill & Bleed Kit 525
SystemCooling :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“Swiftech has a new pump in their water-cooling line up, the MCP600. Not only is it more powerful than their previous pump, you won’t need AC power to run it. We will flow test this pump with single and multiple blocks using a popular pond pump for comparison. We also have the newly configured Fill & Bleed Kit 525 for evaluation.”

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Antec TrueBlue 480 watt PSU Review
GruntvillE :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“If the PSU is weak, your machine is going to be weak. Over the last year I have been thru 3 different PSU’s. The first, an Antec 350w was a good PSU but right off I knew I was going to need more power. So in Feb I came across a killer deal on a Thermaltake 420, and while that worked good for awhile it started to show signs of faltering. After I added my Raid array, when my Raid was accessed my CCFL’s would flicker. Then the Raidmax came in for review and that didn’t go as well as expected. Which leads me to the newest PSU to get a thorough inspection from us here at GruntvillE; the Antec True Blue 480watt. Let’s see if this is going to cut it for me, and possibly for you.”

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Cooler Master Musketeer Review
The Tech Lounge :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“Since I started reviewing, I have seen many functional 5.25” panels come across my desk. I must say that this is probably the most unique I have seen as of yet. Strangely enough, it seems Cooler Master has made a sort of ‘trophy’ product. What I mean is that, at least at first glance, the device doesn’t appear to be of much use, but it is surely a looker.”

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Cooligy’s Active Microchannel Cooling System
Frosty Tech :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“Having a chance to test out a new cooling systems can really let you know just how accurate a manufacturers wild claims really are… take that hands-on experience away and things get a little mirky, though, when it comes to new and revolutionary tech we have to be a little more forgiving. Especially if the technology, like that of Cooligy’s Active Microchannel Cooling, has just been introduced. Mix in reported cooling potential of 1000Watts per square centimeter (current processors output about 250W/cm2), and you can see why we’re more than just a little interested.”

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Geargrip TFT harness review
Red & Blackness Mods :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“Geargrip is a pretty big company that is working behind the scenes since they don’t make hardware or modd products. They make carry bags for screens and computers. They sent me a sample of their LCD harness which is a carry “bag” for your LCD screen. This seems to be a nice high quality product that you can use when you want to move your TFT screen to LANS or when you are moving etc etc so stay tuned as we have a closer look.”

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Aspire Aluminum ATX-AS500W PSU Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“The exterior of the PSU has been encased in a black anodized aluminum chassis while the top portion has been covered in a see through acrylic shell. The unit measures approximately 150mm x 168.5mm x 86mm and is slightly heavier than most steel based power supplies on the market. By default this unit comes with two 80mm Blue UV sensitive ball bearing fans, which are positioned on either side of the unit for optimal cooling.”

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FSP Aurora 350W Power Supply Review
Furioustech :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“Power supplies are the lifeblood of your computer, but not every one needs a 500W server unit. Enter the Aurora from FSP, a budget minded power supply that will meet the needs of your average builder. Check this review out and you might get a charge out of it!”

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Gigabyte Ga7vt6000 Kt600 review
Red & Blackness Mods :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“Nforce 2 is found here and there but what about Via Kt600? Well that’s tonites review object since we have this Kt600 board from Gigabyte. We are going to test nforce 2 vs this kt600 to see if there is a huge difference or not. Sisoft Sandra, Pcmark2002 etc etc will be used for testing. This board seems to be great with all the accessories but is it ? Well let’s get this show going to see how this board is able to perform.”

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Biostar iDEQ 200N SFF System
Bjorn3D :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“All the power and drive cables are neatly placed out of the way, cable-tied and strapped up all around the case. The IDE / FDD cables are flat ribbon cables, but they have been folded and taped with special tape so they are very small and neat, reducing clutter and helping airflow. So, basically all you need to do when you receive your case is add the CPU, RAM and drives, no routing of cables or wires is necessary. I really liked this because when it comes to case wiring / tidiness I’m a bit of a neat freak. It saved me from having to do some work! Always a good thing.”

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ExtremeCase.com Z-Black Windowed Case
TweakTown :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“Remember back a couple of years when all computers were created in a beige box? Things have changed considerably since then, but that doesn’t mean all new designs are created equally. Come join Mike “Darthtanion” Wright as he takes a look at the Z-Black Case from Extreme Cases, Inc. It offers a true budget price and some features that may give you enough reason to add it to your wanted items list!”

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Gigabyte GA-8KNXP i875P Motherboard Review
PCStats :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“Today we’re going to be testing Gigabyte’s flagship Intel motherboard, the GA-8KNXP. The GA-8KNXP is based on the i875P chipset and the board has native support for Serial ATA/Serial ATA RAID, Ultra/133 RAID, IEEE 1394, CSA Intel Gigabit LAN, and 5.1 audio. For extra measure, Gigabyte use dual BIOS’ on all their boards, and to improve reliability have even engineered something called DPS2 (Dual Power System) which clips into the board in a special slot adjacent to the IO panel.”

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Zalman ZM80C-HP Heatpipe VGA Cooler + ZM-OP1 Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“The 12 bladed fan is capable of pushing air across the heatsinks at a respectable 20 dBA of noise in silent mode, or at full with a level of 33 dBA. Unfortunately there is no airflow information available, however, the ZM-OP1 is an optional kit to the ZM80C-HP, therefore with the added fan, the total package only exceeds the intended thermal conditions. The fan grill with the company name cut into it is made from the same dull grey aluminum as the heatsinks, matching the overall “industrial” feel to the heatsink.”

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MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R K8T800 Motherboard Review
PCStats :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“When it comes to motherboards, most manufacturers were ready to go public last year with their Athlon64 products, but due to AMD having manufacturing delays, no one could release their goods. After all how successful are you going to be at selling a motherboard when the processor’s are not even available? Today we’re going to be testing a K8T800 based motherboard from the minds at MSI, called the K8T Neo-FIS2R. It’s one of the first socket 754 Athlon64 motherboards on the market, and believe me, it’s one heck of a package! The MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R with an Athlon64 3200+ will cost about $910 CDN. When shipped with a processor, the K8T Neo-FIS2R also includes a nice copper-base socket 754/940 AVC heatsink.”

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SeaSonic 400w Super Silencer PSU Review
Monkey Review :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“Sea Sonic’s 400W Super Silencer delivers an impressive slew of features to go along with its good amount of power. A shift in the desire an average user has for his PC has been changing over the last few years. Not only do people want their PC to run well, but also run quietly, and in some cases, look presentable. Sea Sonic has looked at the industries standards, Enthusiast standards, and the average user’s standards on Power Supplies and they’ve come up with the Sea Sonic Super Silencer line, which offers the following models; 300W, 350W, 400W, and a 460W.”

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Cooler Master CoolDrive4
SystemCooling :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“The CoolDrive4 is Cooler Master’s latest creation, and in truth, it’s less revolutionary than evolutionary. In effect, what they’ve done is take the multi-function Aerogate II front panel, along with the housing from their CoolDrive3, and combine the two to give you all the benefits of both units while only taking up one drive 5.25” drive bay.”

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Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro2 GTR 865PE
Overclockers New Zealand :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“The 8IPE1000 Pro 2 GTR is designed for performance and the MIB gives the overall system boost to the 875P level. On the innovative side, the CIA is Gigabyte’s latest invention on user friendly overclocking.”

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DFI 865PE INFINITY
Hexus :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“It’s very fast, stable, feature rich and should be aggressively priced. If DFI can iron out one or two presentation and overclocking problems it has the potential to be one of the very best consumer-level Intel-based motherboArds. The CMOS Reloaded feature was an especially nice touch. A decent showing from DFI.”

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Xoxide X-Turbine (Silver)
Xoxide :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“Our new X-Turbine case is an exclusive Xoxide.com model, produced only for our customers. It features a see-through metal mesh front grille, with two blue LED fans behind it. The end effect is stunning and aggressive. The airflow of the case is powered by six total cooling fans, making for a low case temperature, and a great start for low CPU and other component temperatures. The case features front mounted (behind a hidden door) USB and firewire connections.”

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Sunbeam Overclocker’s CPU Cooler Kit Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“After examining the package contents, I couldn’t help but feel very skeptical over the whole idea of this kit. The material included in this package is not relatively expensive and from a quick examination looks like it can be easily duplicated using ordinary house hold materials. Sunbeam Technology’s premise behind this kit is that it effectively reduces CPU temperatures thus providing a more stable overclocked system.”

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Aspire X-Alien Case Review
3dXtreme :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

“The Aspire X-Alien case uses Green LED fans to illuminate the entire chassis with a green glow. (The X-Superalien uses Blue) There are six 80mm fans 3 with LEDs and 3 without. On the top of the case is an exhaust fan that features an Alien head grill over it….”

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Antec Minuet Case Review
Monkey Review :: Tuesday, October 07, 2003

“Opening the Antec Minuet gave way to a couple of interesting findings. The initial one that pointed out was the lack of any fans for cooling/air circulation. Antec has given us a place in the rear to install a 40mm intake/exhaust. My personal recommendation: that it be used as an exhaust. Inside we also see how Antec has remedied the cumbersome job of installing a 5.25” or 3.5” drive/device. The removable drive bay, which is capable of housing the following drives 5.25” x 1, 3.5” external x 1, 3.5” internal x 1, is equipped with metal pegs on the side which fit into groves in the case. This allows it to move up and down freely and ultimately be removed completely.”

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SilenX 400 Watt Ultra Quiet Power Supply Review
Tweaknews :: Tuesday, October 07, 2003

“I simply cannot praise the SilenX 400W PSU enough. I mean, I beat the hell out of this little unit, and it laughed at me. It never faltered once, and held true to all of its claims. It is stable and amazingly quiet. Power supplies are, in my opinion, the most important part of a system. They provide the juice which powers the entire computer and a generic p.o.s. can harm your precious devices and hinder your box’s performance.

The SilenX 400W is a very wise investment.”

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Thermaltake Volcano 12 Cooler Review
Overclocker Café :: Tuesday, October 07, 2003

“If you think those fins look pretty tightly packed you’d be right. Sixty-six fins. This is the highest fin count I have personally ever seen on a heatsink. The fins themselves taper from roughly 82mm at the top, down to 63mm in width where they attach to the base. I’m not going to do the math beyond saying, that is one hell of a lot of surface area.”

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guide on sleeving your PSU.
Voided Warranty :: Tuesday, October 07, 2003

“I have had more than a few people ask, “How can I hide the ugly wiring inside my case?” And to answer that question, I have composed the following guide using the “Lab Rat” as the subject. Man, if ever a case needed some serious wire management, this is the one. So roll up your sleeves (no pun intended), and let’s get at it.”

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Spire SP420B8 CopperStream HSF Cooler Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Tuesday, October 07, 2003

“Unlike other Spire coolers that I have reviewed in the past which were skived, the Spire SP420B8 CopperStream Cooler is stamped from copper. The sides of the cooler, also copper, have been die stamped as well as bent into shape to allow the fan to be securely attached using the four screws.”

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X-SuperAlien Aluminum Mid-Tower (Blue)
Xoxide :: Tuesday, October 07, 2003

“This case is a gamers dream come true. The SuperAlien mid-tower case comes full of extra features to make your case the coolest around (<– coolest, get it?). The case includes a total of 6 80mm quad blue LED UV sensitive fans, and an LCD temperature display on the front of the case with 2 adjustable fan speed controllers”

Only $79.99

Athlon64 Motherboards Likely Delayed
PCStats :: Tuesday, October 07, 2003

“Which should come first, the Athlon64 motherboard or the Athlon64 processor? The answer depends on who you ask; ask AMD and they’ll say the chip, ask motherboard manufacturers and they’ll say the chip…. wait, did I get that right? In spite of all the glory AMD are now reveling in having produced the world’s first desktop 64-bit processor, until January 2004 arrives, it is going to be darn difficult for consumers to actually purchase an Athlon 64 processor by the sound of it. Consequently, while there were dozens and dozens of Athlon64 motherboards in both the Socket 754 and Socket 940 flavor on display at Computex 2003, things were not as they looked. Manufacturers it seems, are very hesitant to begin production of Athlon64 mainboards until AMD takes the bull by the horns and the limited Athlon64 supply problem is fully remedied. Given the excitement which has maintained itself surrounding the Athlon64 launch, PCstats has compiled a comprehensive assortment of the many Athlon64 motherboards from over a dozen different manufacturers; and here they are… 44 Athlon 64 motherboards!”

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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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Maxtor 80GB IDE Ultra ATA133 8MB
SystemCooling :: Thursday, October 02, 2003

“Recently the hard drive industry has seen one of its most important innovations, Serial ATA (SATA). Although SATA is slowly becoming more excepted and affordable, most computer users are still waiting for this technology to mature, leaving them with choices between the many IDE hard drives currently available. Having said that, today we will be taking a look at a DiamondMax Plus-9, 80GB IDE Ultra ATA133 with 8MB cache hard drive from Maxtor. I believe that this hard drive, with its size and performance hits the sweet spot that most computer users are looking for.”

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DFI LanParty NForce II Ultra
The Tech Lounge :: Thursday, October 02, 2003

“You may remember our review of the DFI Lan Party KT400a with it’s unique looks and numerous accessories. If you frequent LAN parties or like to show off your rig, you might have considered this great board. Sadly, there was one disadvantage, the board overclocks a bit better than a poundcake with a processor jammed in it.. Thankfully, DFI produces a NForce II Ultra based motherboard in the Lan Party series, and if the board makes good use of the NForce II chipset, your overclocking worries may be over. So follow along my friends, as we venture into the mysterious world of… well… umm… motherboards. Yeah.”

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Trust 735s digital camera
Red & Blackness Mods :: Thursday, October 02, 2003

“We reviewed a Trust camera awhile back that gave alot of camera for a small amount of money. Today we are having a look at a even smaller camera. Will it be able to take good enough pictures even for the picky dude? Well let´s have a look and see what we got here tonite. ”

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Memory Bandwidth and Timing Article
OCAddiction :: Thursday, October 02, 2003

“How is memory addressed?” is another common question. This one is quite simple. Think of a matrix, a collection of rows and columns. Each cell containing a 1 or 0 is defined by a location that is the intersection of a specific row and column, within a certain “bank”. The older i845 Brookdale chipsets only had 4 banks, and could only address 2GB of memory. Newer Springdale and Canterwood chipsets are capable of addressing 8 banks, with a total of 4GB’s maximum of memory. How a bank is defined is mostly by the memory used. Most modules are “double sided”, or have two banks on them. So in a Brookdale, you could only have one double sided module and two single sided modules, one/two/three/four single sided modules, or two double sided ones. With an i865/i875 based chipset, the combinations are much larger, especially relating to the use of double sided modules”

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Vantec Nexus NXP-301 Fan and Light Controller
ViperLair :: Thursday, October 02, 2003

“On the far right we find the dial to control the Dual CCFL Inverter. This dial is smaller to help distinguish it from the other dials and has 3 basic positions (although it will rotate freely without ‘locking’ into a position’) which are from left to right – off, sound activated and on.”

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Steelpad 4S Professional Gaming Mousepad Review @ Tweaknews.net
Tweaknews :: Friday, October 03, 2003

“Today I will be reviewing my introduction into the high performance gaming mousing surfaces, the SteelPad 4S. Now as most people cruise the net for high performance gaming videocards and monitors to help them be their very best at gaming, sometimes the simple solution is overlooked. I myself prescribed to the thought train of “It’s only a Mousepad” or “This is not going to do much to help me..”. After the initial setup and testing, boy, was I wrong……”

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Samsung ML1750 Laser Printer Review @ GideonTech.com
GideonTech :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“In the previous laser printer model we reviewed from Samsung, the paper loading was top mounted, which we didn’t exactly liked. With the ML1750, the design has been changed and we now have full usage of a paper tray that holds 250 sheets. There is a small indicator on the right side of the tray that slowly drops as your paper level decreases.”

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XFX GeForceFX 5600 Ultra review
OCmodshop :: Monday, October 27, 2003
I have just posted a review of a XFX GeForceFX 5600 Ultra. This is a great video card so check out the review, I will also have some more posted soon.

Albatron K8X800 ProII Motherboard Review
PCStats :: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

“For a company just over a year old, Albatron has staked a name for itself under the leadership of CEO Jack Ko as a pioneer when it comes to adopting new technology. Since its inception, Albatron has produced a good many enthusiast-friendly motherboards, and so many users have been patiently waiting to see what Albatron has to offer before jumping into an Athlon64 motherboard of their own. Based around the very popular VIA K8T800/VT8237 chipsets, the bright blue Albatron K8X800 Pro II supports Socket 754 Athlon64 processors. The three DIMM slots can handle up to 3GB of DDR333 RAM, and 2 GB (or two 1GB sticks) of DDR400 RAM. In either case, both memory types run in a single channel memory configuration. In terms of onboard goodies the K8X800ProII motherboard boasts a 3Com Gigabit NIC, SATA, IEEE 1394, VIA’s 7.1 audio and dual BIOS’s for extra reliability. Upgrading is easy with the K8X800’s lone 8x AGP port and six PCI slots.”

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ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9600PRO Videocard Review
Tweaknews :: Thursday, October 16, 2003

 

“ATI has successfully filled every possible sector with an All-in-Wonder option that is bound to please anyone with any wallet size. With great performance and a very good pricetag, the All-in-Wonder 9600pro is bound to be one of the most sought after stocking stuffers for the 2003 Christmas season.”

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Sapphire 9800Pro Atlantis 128mb DDR
DataFuse :: Tuesday, October 07, 2003

“Although the original 9800Pro codenamed R350 was introduced almost 6 months ago, it’s still one of the best graphics cards out there. ATI recently introduced a newer version named the 9800 XT, good reviews here and here (give me a shout if I forgot to put your website in it ;)) ”

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nVidia NV36 FX5700 Reference Videocard
PCStats :: Tuesday, October 07, 2003

“Amongst the masses of nVidia Geforce FX5900’s that everyone seemed to have on display there were a few closed door displays of nVidia’s next core, NV36. According to one unnamed marketing rep, the NV36 core weighs in at about 5000 3DMark03’s. The card should be making its way into the market in a month or so, hopefully before Comdex 2003 in November. While several companies took the time to show us their working NV36-A1 “P190″ reference videocards, none that we saw were anything other than units provided by Nvidia themselves. Memory speeds are expected to be as low as 3.9ns from the outset, and while we are a little unsure of the accuracy of this last point, cards may support up to 1GB or DDR-2. ”

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Samsung 172W LCD – Life at 16:9
TweakTown :: Saturday, October 04, 2003
“Widescreen is a new way of viewing life, at least your computer life. Widescreen or 16:9 started to become popular as Plasma displays entered the market. Today Shawn “Toxic” Baker, the man addicted to 16:9, takes a look at Samsung’s 172W LCD monitor. Interested in viewing life at 16:9? If so, read on and discover the benefits of the new dimensions.”

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XFX FX5600 Ultra @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Saturday, October 04, 2003
“For $200, you’re getting some excellent performance in many of todays games, though the Splinter Cell performance was severly lacking. The games of tomorrow? I can’t say for sure, but I consider a card of this caliber to be the bare minimum for Half-Life 2 when it arrives later this Fall.”

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Samsung SyncMaster 211MP TFT-LCD Monitor Review @ MODTHEBOX.COM
MODTHEBOX! :: Friday, October 03, 2003

“As previously mentioned, consumers have two options for attaching the included 5 watt speakers when setting up the SyncMaster 211MP. In order to conserve space, I opted to attach the speakers to the left and right hand sides of the monitor using the magnetized double sided screws. One point that should be made about a product of this nature is that you need to have the necessary free desk space required to accommodate the size of this monitor as evidenced when I placed it next to my gaming rig.”

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MSI i865 NEO2-FIS2R @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“What is so interesting about CSA, that makes it so different from using a standard PCI 32/64 gigabit card? Simply put CSA, or Communication Streaming Architecture is just like the Hub link between the 865PE and the ICH5. This means that the gigabit card doesn’t have to go through the PCI bus, which if used to its maximum, would saturate the PCI bus very quickly.”

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Altec Lansing VS4121 2.1 Speaker System Video Review #355:
3dgameman :: Friday, October 03, 2003

The Altec Lansing VS4121 2.1 Speaker System offers two slim stylish speakers and a subwoofer. The total power on this system is 31 watts but don’t let that fool you. They have very rich accurate loud sound whether they are connected to a gaming console, MP3/CD/DVD player, TV, etc. at a reasonable price. Watch the Video to find out more…” ~3dGameMan.com

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MSI GeForce FX5600 Ultra review @ Hexus.net
Hexus :: Friday, October 03, 2003
“Given a price of ~£160, this card will represent a good buy. MSI give you a nice bundle, VIVO, decent overclocking and good base performance for your money. IQ is a mid-range reality, games can finally look like they should.”

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