Tech News August 2004

 

OCZ DDR Booster Diagnostic Device
InsaneTek :: Tuesday, August 24, 2004

“We recently reviewed the OCZ PC4000 Gold memory, which was undoubtedly one of the best performing PC4000+ memory available. It overclocked extremely well and provided excellent performance. However, in order to reach the insane overclock, we had to up the juice and give it a good 3v in order for it to start performing. Most of the motherboards produced today only give enthusiasts the option of VDIMM up to 2.8v-2.9v. Other than utilizing voltage modifications, there is no way to increase voltage to memory. OCZ strives to give overclockers a better chance at improving overclocking results. They have made everyone’s dream piece of hardware–the DDR Booster.”

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AOpen H420 MicroATX Case Review
PCStats :: Tuesday, August 24, 2004

“The jet black Aopen H420 is a compact desktop chassis intended for use with MicroATX or FlexATX motherboards. It is large enough that full height AGP and PCI cards can be installed too. Depending on the application, the Aopen H420 is versatile enough to be laid horizontally, or standing in a vertical orientation. Behind a little plastic locking cover along the bottom of the bezel is a set of common multimedia ports; a headphone and mic jack, and two USB2.0 ports.”

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Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU
Phoronix :: Tuesday, August 24, 2004

“Ultra Products is a company none of us here at Phoronix had heard of until recently. Ultra Products manufacturers the Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU which is the first fully modular consumer power supply. We were initially impressed with this power supply’s features, but can we remain impressed with the Ultra X-Connect when we take a look at its performance? Read the review to find out.”

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Zalman Poweroid TNN 500A PC / Poweroid Silent PC
Hexus :: Tuesday, August 24, 2004

“Quietness is generally a subjective issue, yet I feel confident in stating that the Zalman / Poweroid combination can’t be heard above normal background noise. It’s nice to hear birds chirp 30 feet away. It’s nice not to have to dial the stereo up when listening to music, and it’s nice that such quietness can be achieved without having to compromise performance.”

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Crucial Ballistix PC4000 Memory Review
GruntvillE :: Tuesday, August 24, 2004

“With the Ram out of the static bags, you can see the cool Ballistix print that Crucial added to the heat spreaders. The black PCB looks cool from this view and is a nice added touch. Although most of these features are hidden when the RAM is tucked in the slots, at least you know Crucial went to all extremes to make this RAM appealing to the performance user.”

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Thermaltake XTunner – IR Remote Fan Control Device
Bjorn3D :: Monday, August 23, 2004
“Ahhhh. The remote control. Found in the hand of many Americans every evening and weekend after a hard work week. This device has brought us comfort and efficiency since its inception, and it doesn’t show any signs of stopping anytime soon. The old style televisions required you to actually get up and walk to the television just to change the channel. How horrible. ”

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Apricorn EZ Bus Mini 20GB Review
Everything USB :: Monday, August 23, 2004
“Apricorn EZ Bus Mini is a Hi-Speed USB bus-powered hard drive housing a Toshiba 1.8″ 20GB hard drive. While being just one among a plethora of similar products, it has everything a road warrior hopes to find on a mobile hard drive, including a disaster recovery CD, file/folder synchronization, encryption software and a generous three-year warranty.”

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The Complete BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.0 @ ARP
Tech ARP :: Sunday, August 22, 2004
“Ever peeked into the BIOS and got your brains scrambled with all the mumbo-jumbo? Maybe it’s time to check out the most comprehensive guide on 250 BIOS options!”

Read it here.

MTB Folding@home Guide
MODTHEBOX! :: Sunday, August 22, 2004

“In short, there really isn’t a good reason NOT to run Folding@home. The research has the potential to benefit everyone; be it a friend, a relative, or anyone affected by the aforementioned diseases. Typical computing activities such as surfing the web, checking email, and office productivity applications use 5-10% of the capacity of today’s CPUs. This means that at least 90% of the time, your processor is doing nothing, even while you are working away. Folding@home takes these otherwise wasted CPU cycles, and puts them to good use.”

Read it here.

ThermalTake X Jog USB Fan and Light Kit @ PimpedOutCases.net
PimpedOutCases :: Sunday, August 22, 2004
“As far as build quality is concerned, I was amazed to see how well the light and fan were constructed. I must admit I had a preconceived expectation for them to be made cheaply based on the gimmicky nature of the product. The flex-necks hold their shape well, and both the light and fan are terminated with metal ends.”

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A 64-bit app in the real world
Short-Media :: Sunday, August 22, 2004
There is discussion, rumor and banter that 64-bit technology will alleviate some of the bottlenecks. Many hope but some are still waiting for a definitive answer to the 64-bit question. Is it for us and is it better? Here is a real world application…giving real world results.

Read it here.

Arctic Cooling ATI and NV Silencers
InsaneTek :: Sunday, August 22, 2004

“Arctic Cooling is well known for their excellent and quiet cooling gear. They have always built well performing heatsinks, fans, and other cooling devices that offer excellent performance for overclockers while creating minimal noise. It was the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer that made them popular among enthusiasts. This cooler was arguably the best video card cooler in the market and gave fierce competition to the likes of Thermaltake and Zalman. This cooler was the perfect cooling solution, but many wished that Arctic Cooling would somehow integrate copper and cooling for the ram chips as well. Many also wished they could have made Silencers that were available for ALL different video cards. Well Arctic Cooling has answered all of your pleas by doing just that and so much more.”

Check it out here.

Seasonic PowerAngel Power Monitor Review
Mikhailtech :: Sunday, August 22, 2004

I’ve wanted to get one of these forever and just in time Seasonic released their newest doodad, the PowerAngel power monitor. As the name implies, this simple to use contraption monitors energy usage in a variety of ways. Its primary purpose (according to Seasonic) is to optimize power usage in the workplace whether it’s a small business, a factory or an enthusiast’s basement. Though it’s not a product for everyone, die hard techies and IT workers alike will find this tool quite useful.

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Corsair TwinX PC3200 XL Pro (2-2-2-5) DDR Memory @ TheTechLounge
The Tech Lounge :: Sunday, August 22, 2004
“Corsair introduced their PC3200 XL memory last June. The modules are built using Samsung chips which have timings of 2-2-2 at DDR400 speeds. Not only do these chips allow for extremely low latencies at DDR400, but they also have plenty of headroom, allowing for clock speeds in excess of DDR500! The entry of this memory into the market not only signified the return of high-speed, low-latency memory, but also the opening of the floodgates; the drowning of the market in 2-2-2 modules.

Soon after Corsair’s introduction, most other major memory manufacturers followed suit. After Corsair’s entry, Mushkin and OCZ were among the first to bring their own 2-2-2 memory to the market. Soon after, everyone and their mother had their own memory based on the new Samsung chips. Well, everyone but Crucial, who used similarly rated Micron chips for their PC3200. We have gotten our hands on a few different flavors of this new low latency memory, and today we will be looking at a 1 GB set of Corsair’s TwinX PC3200 XL Pro which is rated to use timings of 2-2-2-5 at DDR400 speeds.”

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Bio-Hazard Custom WaterBox Project
SystemCooling :: Saturday, August 21, 2004

“I’ve been messing around with water cooling for a little while now. I started with a bone stock Corsair Hydrocool 200EX. And being the kind of person that I am, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. So I started modding it little by little and ended up with a pretty good performing LITTLE box. That’s when I came up with the idea to try and build a system something like the Hydrocool but without most of the bells and whistles and with a bit better performance.”

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Logisys Liquid Neon Thunder Kit Review
Mikhailtech :: Saturday, August 21, 2004
Like other lights the Thunder kit is plug & play. While it’s not as bright as cathodes, it more than makes up for it with its coolness factor. The tube has a steady green glow while brighter spirals go crazy within. These spirals don’t have a constant pattern, but instead react to the presence of nearby objects. Holding the tube up in the air will create a very slow moving effect; gripping it in your hand will make the spirals move a lot faster. It’s very entertaining to see them speed up and slow down as you move your hand closer or farther away. It doesn’t seem to be reactive to sound or light though, so don’t expect any synchronization with games. Here’s a short video showing the light in action.

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Plextor PX-712SA SATA DVD±RW Writer @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Saturday, August 21, 2004
As serial ATA (SATA) hard drives grew in popularity over the past year or so, many users who fancy SATA’s small cable and simple interface (no jumper) started wondering when SATA optical drives would hit the market. It makes sense, right? You get so happy that you can toss those large ribbon or round IDE cables in place of your new SATA cable for that new SATA hard drive, but then your joy is quickly diminished as you realize you still have to live with your optical drive’s big, fat cable.

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Intel’s 3.4GHz ‘Nocona’ Xeon @ HEXUS.net
Hexus :: Friday, August 20, 2004
Snip: “Look around the web for pre-Nocona Xeon vs Opteron articles and you’ll generally find just one style of conclusion; the Opteron is great, the Xeon less so. Therefore testing the Nocona Xeon, based as it is on the desktop Prescott core which affords it a faster system bus, new cache layout, SSE3, tweaked HyperThreading and access to DDR400 memory officially for the first time, was a means to see if the update was worth Intel’s time and effort.

And my opinion is yes, very much so. While it doesn’t overtake and outrun the Opteron at any point in our benchmarks, there’s seemingly a lot of improvement to be had from bumping up the new entry-level Xeon’s basic specs to 800MHz bus with 1MB L2. 3400MHz doesn’t do it any harm either.”

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Crucial Ballistix PC5300 DDR2 Memory Review
PCStats :: Friday, August 20, 2004
“And so, without further delay, PCstats is testing out a pair of Crucial’s brand spanking new Ballistix PC5300 DDR2 memory. Each heatspreader encapsulated DDR2 module is 512MB each in size, and features sleek black PCB shielded by orange aluminum heatspreaders! By default the DDR-2 Ballistix memory is capable of running up to 333 MHz (or PC5300 speeds) while maintaining 4-4-4 memory timings at a voltage of 1.9V. It appears as though Crucial is not to wary of consumers raising the voltage a bit to reach those higher speeds either. The memory timings are on the conservative side but then again so are most PC5300 DIMM’s on the market.”

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Antec Notebook Cooler Review
Mikhailtech :: Friday, August 20, 2004
Two low profile 70mm fans provide the airflow but unfortunately they suck air from the bottom of the laptop and exhaust it from the bottom of the cooler. In general, sucking air out is noticeably less effective than blowing air onto a hot surface, as we’ll see shortly. Pumping a total of 31.6 CFM (ideally, not practically mind you) at 25.9dBA is definitely noticeable. While it’s not that much, decibels are relative measurements and since laptops are significantly quieter than their desktop counterparts (largely in part due to the lack of fans), even 26dBA seems a bit loud.

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Arctic Cooling ATI & NV Silencers @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Friday, August 20, 2004

Summary: “When one focuses upon cooling their computer system, more often than not the main focus is the CPU. With recent graphics cards getting warmer due to higher clock and memory speeds, stock cooling just isn’t satisfactory any more. Today we have the privilege of presenting to you two of the latest VGA silencers from Arctic Cooling, the ATI Silencer 2 and NV Silencer 3.”

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SimpleTech Nitro PC4000 Dual Channel Kit Review @ GruntvillE.com
GruntvillE :: Friday, August 20, 2004

“The SimpleTech package is similar to most matched pair product packaging. It encases two golden modules and has all the features of the modules listed minus one; the timings. Other than the rated speed of the modules, this is by far the most important bit of information users will be looking for.. Nowhere can you find the timings of the modules; not on the package and not even on the site. This missing piece had the three of us searching high and low to find them but it was nowhere to be seen. I fired off an email to the SimpleTech folks and they provided us with the timings but I feel, as I’m sure most of you do, that this information should be included on both the packaging and website.”

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Xtrac Pro HS & Hammer @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Friday, August 20, 2004
“Have you ever been able to find a mousing surface which suits all of the aspects you desire, from the size to its texture? In this review we will present to you the Xtrac Hammer and Pro HS.”

read the article!

Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Aluminum Case (VA3000BWA) @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Friday, August 20, 2004
The Thermaltake Tsunami… what can I say? When I saw it on Thermaltake’s site, I instantly knew I wanted one. It’s a very nicely designed case and well thought out, with a totally different front that makes it stand out from all other Thermaltake (Tt from here on out) cases. I’ve been using probably one of the most popular ‘clone designs’ for the past year or more in the form of PCToys’ CaseMax 610 (also seen from Chieftec/Chenming/etc…the list just goes on and on). The Tt Tsunami design is a nice departure from this overly common design.

click here to read the article

Swiftech MCW5002-64T Thermoelectric Waterblock
SystemCooling :: Friday, August 20, 2004

“Swiftech is one of the few manufacturers that offer actively cooled waterblocks for extreme cooling. Today we are going to take an in depth look at the Swiftech MCW5002 series of thermoelectric waterblocks, which incorporate a Peltier device to actively cool a CPU well below ambient room air temperatures. The MCW5002 series includes three different mounting options for AMD Athlon XP (socket A), AMD Athlon 64/Opteron (socket 754/939) and Intel P4 (socket 478).””

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Build Your Own Home Theatre PC Part 1 @ MODTHEBOX.COM
MODTHEBOX! :: Friday, August 20, 2004

“The first step in the process of building this system would be to select a suitable HTPC enclosure. Case selection is rather subjective and just about everyone will give you an opinion on the type of enclosure to use. Budget consumers can minimize costs by using anything from a standard desktop case, mid-tower or server case. For those individuals who consider themselves HTPC purists, there are HTPC style enclosures that have been designed to resemble the look and feel of stereo or home theatre equipment.”

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OCZ 2GB PC3200 Performance Series Dual-Channel Kit @ HEXUS.net
Hexus :: Thursday, August 19, 2004

“If you can honestly find a meaningful use for 2GB of unbuffered memory, OCZ’s £400 dual-channel pack is as good as any. We’d pair it with AMD’s new S939 Athlon 64 FX-53 and ATI’s Radeon X800 XT PE. That would lead to a multi-purpose system that’s equally at home with the most demanding of games and adept at handling professional image and rendering applications. For most users, though, it’s one of those options you select when deciding on your dream system. 2GB of system RAM has its uses, sure, but they are few and far between for most of us.”

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Xoxide Bio-X Case Review @ 3DX
3dXtreme :: Thursday, August 19, 2004

“Today 3DXtreme is taking a look at a new Case from our friends over at Xoxide, the Xoxide Bio-X Case in black. The Bio-X is a slick looking budget Case with a side panel window sporting the Bio-Hazard logo. Another attractive feature of the Bios-X Case is on the front of the Case where decorative screen covers are backlit with multicoler LEDs that alternate patterns and colors. This Case retails for $49.99 without a Power Supply Unit.”

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Logisys Cold Cathode Kits Review @ Mikhailtech.com
Mikhailtech :: Thursday, August 19, 2004

“Each inverter can power two bulbs and has cutouts on top for ventilation (the electronics inside can get a bit warm). It still makes a tiny bit of noise when working, but nothing noticeable more than a few inches away. The provided velcro strips are cut to size and have adhesive backing for easy application, allowing you to mount the lights anywhere in a case. The cables are good length so placing two cathodes on opposite ends of a case is no problem. The molex connector is pass-through and is wired to a PCI slot with a simple on/off switch. Even better, this switch is removable so if you aren’t satisfied with it being mounted in the rear of the case you can easy place it anywhere else with screw holes or plain old tape. As for the bulbs, they’re rated for 30,000 hours of operation or approximately 3.5 years of continuous use. Assuming you don’t have your computer on 24/7, these could very well last you into the next decade.”

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Zalman Reserator 1 Fanless External Water Cooling Kit Video Review @ 3dGameMan.com
3dgameman :: Thursday, August 19, 2004

“The Zalman Reserator 1 is a water cooling kit that stands apart from most. It’s an external unit which is very easy to install and doesn’t clutter up the inside of the case. Performance equals any high quality heatsink with a fast fan, but there is one big difference: this unit is virtually silent. Also, the overall design and large stance screams cool! Watch the Video to find out more…”

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