Tech News December 2004

Hardware [M]adness in 2004: a Recap
Madshrimps :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“The year is ending in a few short days. In looking back a few months ago, we, the enthusiasts certainly could say “what a year!””

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Vantec SATA EZ-Swap Review @ PCmoddingmy
PC Modding Malaysia :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“With the price of USD 46.99, it is a little expensive but the Vantec EZ-Swap is solid good device where it allows user to hot swap their hard disks. It also comes with a nice LCD screen display, temperature measurement and active cooling inside. For modders, this device should be your next target because it really looks cool with its blue LCD screen and blue LEDs. If you are looking for a good removable and swappable HDD rack, this Vantec SATA EZ-Swap should serve you well.”

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Thermaltake Shark Case Review
CoolTechZone :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“Thermaltake’s latest addition to the Xaser line is the Shark full tower aluminum case. Weighing in at 14lbs (6.8 kg) the Shark is packed with features. It includes two 120mm fans spinning at a leisurely 1,400 RPM, producing 21dbA. Besides the fact that the exhaust fan includes a blue LED, they are identical. The front door features a blue LED as well, and provides a cover to hide un-matching 5.25″ drives. The door also features a lock because the external drives can be installed and removed from the front of the case. The side panel has a lock as well, and features a see through mesh that is coated with an EMI shield. In terms of expansion, the Shark supports five externally accessible 5.25″ drives, two externally accessible 3.5″ drives, five internal 3.5″ drives, and seven card slots in the back.”

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DFI 875P-T Motherboard Review
Legit Reviews :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“A few motherboard makers have released boards that bridge this gap in the 865 chipset, these “budget boards” allow users to upgrade their CPU to the new LGA 775 while continuing to use their AGP and PCI based hardware, but none of these boards really stand out performance wise. With the release of the 875P-T, DFI became the first motherboard maker to mix the high performance 875 chipset with Intels newest processor line, the LGA 775. The DFI 875P-T allows users to realize the full potential of the LGA 775 processor while still using their current AGP video card and DDR 1 memory. This allows users to upgrade incrementally instead of replacing their whole system at once.”

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Zalman CNPS-7700 Cu Heatsink & Fan
SystemCooling :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“The CNPS-7700 Cu is Zalman’s latest (and largest) addition to their line of radial coolers. This monster measures 5 3/8″/136mm in diameter, and stands 2 5/8″/67mm tall yet masses only 2.0lbs./0.91kg. The heat sink is composed of sixty-five copper alloy stampings that each measure 0.016″/0.40mm thick. Each copper stamping forms two fins that protrude from each side of the heat sink block in a radial pattern, for a total of 130 fins. This, as you might expect, provides a vast amount of surface area. Actually, the amount of surface area on this heat sink is borderline-ridiculous: 506.5 Square Inches/3268 Square centimeters! 3.5+ Square Feet! In layman’s terms, the CNPS-7700 Cu heat sink has just a little more surface area than if you laid two food trays commonly found in fast food restaurants everywhere, side by side.”

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OCZ Announces ModStream Power Supply Family
OCZ Technology :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“Every ModStream power supply is equipped with OCZ EZMod technology. This advanced cable management system allows complete customization of your power system by utilizing only the UV cables you require, resulting in optimal airflow and elimination of cable mazes. All EZMod cables glow brightly when illuminated with UV lighting accessories to add a visually-pleasing effect to any system.”

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Diagnose PC problems with Memtest86+
Short-Media :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“One of the recommended steps to diagnose a problem with a PC that is crashing or unstable is to test and diagnose memory because memory is one of the more likely hardware components that can fail. Faulty memory can cause many problems even if the PC continues to operate. ”

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ASRock K8 Combo Z @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“ASRock, the budget division of ASUS, has long been known for their inexpensive motherboards. Will the ASRock K8 Combo Z be an awakening to enthusiasts or will ASRock continue to belong on the budget motherboard shelf?”

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Seagate 120GB SATA 7200.7 HDD Review
Mikhailtech :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“The early ATA Momentus series was almost unheard of and it wasn’t until the Barracuda arrived that Seagate got its slice of the pie. Of all the manufacturers, Seagate is yet to disappoint me. The updated Barracuda 7200.7 was the nail in the coffin. A combination of the best warranty in the industry (5 years replacement), the quietest widely available drives (note that Samsung’s SpinPoint series is a bit hard to come by), low access times, high performance, and an impressive track record all make for a near perfect drive. A while back we took a peak at Seagate’s 200GB USB drive combo and were very impressed with its quality. Today we have a newer model up for evaluation, the 120GB SATA Barracuda 7200.7. Keep in mind this isn’t the newest drive currently on the market; Seagate recently announced their 7200.8 series featuring native command queuing (NCQ) and lower 8ms access times. Supposedly this technology outperforms standard 10,000RPM SATA and PATA drives; even WD’s Raptor may get a run for its money.”

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OCZ Gold PC3700 Rev3
InsaneTek :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“OCZ Gold PC3700 Rev3 that uses Hynix DT-D5 chips is indeed better than the previous OCZ Gold line of memory. How and why can I say such a thing when I didn’t even compare it to the previous? The goal of this review was to see whether the OCZ Gold PC3700 Rev3 is able to perform on the AMD Athlon64 platform. Sure enough, it did, performing very well. Based on this fact alone, the kit of memory is superior than its predecessors. The BT-D5 and CT-D5 (or D43s) were unable to run successfully and stably on A64 platforms, making the migrations from Intel to A64 rather difficult. The overclocking potential of the OCZ Gold PC3700 Rev3 (DT-D5) was rather impressive. It reached a high frequency while maintaining decent timings and a command rate of 1T. Although there might be better memory out there, the Gold PC3700 Rev3 does deserve a good recommendation for the ability to overclock high and perform well on an A64 system.”

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Diagnose PC problems with Memtest86+
Short-Media :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“One of the recommended steps to diagnose a problem with a PC that is crashing or unstable is to test and diagnose memory because memory is one of the more likely hardware components that can fail. Faulty memory can cause many problems even if the PC continues to operate. ”

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A4Tech’s Wireless Battery Free Mouse
TechTastic :: Tuesday, December 07, 2004

“Today we take a look at a new innovative new product from A4tech called NB-30 Wireless optical mouse. The cool thing about this mouse is it requires no batteries to operate! Thus allowing you to save on battery costs and avoiding contributing to battery pollution.”

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The Dark Side of P2P File Sharing @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Saturday, December 04, 2004
“Some P2P file sharing programs offer “pro” versions of their free software. But again, their basic service is free to the public. I want you to fully understand this, because paying a P2P scam site money can not only make your wallet a bit lighter, it can also make your computer vulnerable to dangerous spyware.”

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mCubed T-Balancer @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Saturday, December 04, 2004
“If there is one single thing that irritates me the most in a PC it is noise. True, after a while you get used to some of the noise but it is always there in the background giving you a headache and just annoying you.”

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AC Ryan NutCase o’ Connectx Contest – Guess and Win! @ ACRyan
AC Ryan :: Saturday, December 04, 2004

“AC Ryan teams up with GruntvillE.com and Mikhailtech.com to give you the last contest of 2004! When you think of AC Ryan, you think of connectors…and lots of them. We took our AC Ryan AcrylicCasing and filled it to the top with our own connectors – and its your job to tell us how many we used! First place winners will receive our new and powerful AC Ryan Ryanpower2 Power Supply! Thats not all!! AC Ryan has a bonus prize!! Our new LAN.Ranger – the ultimate gaming cable, will be sent to the person who guesses (or counts ;)) the correct amount of types of connectors we used to fill this case. Do you have enough fingers or abacuses to count these? Or are you going to take a wild guess? Drop in the forums and win win win!”

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How To Search Your PC With Google Desktop @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Saturday, December 04, 2004

“The search function integrated to Microsoft Windows is not a big help either. It requires you to know, albeit vaguely, where the file could possibly be located. If your data storage is significant and you made a search on your whole hard disk, it might take ages to get search results and, then again, there is no guarantee that you will find the right file. Frustrating? Thanks to new Google Desktop Search this is about to change!”

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Diamondback Precision Gaming Mouse reviewed @ hi-techreviews
Hi-Techreviews :: Saturday, December 04, 2004
“The gang over at Razer Inc., the same people that have brought us items like the Razer Viper – which at the time had the highest resolution of any mouse available on the market and the eXactMat – a two-sided, longer-lasting Anodized Aluminum mousing surface that when used with the Viper became a true deadly duo had one more surprise for us this last October. On October 7th at World Cyber Games (WCG) 2004 held in San Francisco, where their newest creation the Razer Diamondback was released and named “The Official Gaming Mouse of WCG”

The Razer Diamondback is the world’s first optical mouse with a precision of 1600 dots-per-inch (dpi), this is roughly 400 dpi more than the closet competitor. When combine with Razer’s highly tunable software you end up with a mouse that is ideal for gaming, photo manipulation, or just surfing the web.”

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Yamada Beatbox MP3 Player @ PCreview
PCreview :: Saturday, December 04, 2004
“The Yamada Beatbox is not along the same lines as the iPod MP3 players (and clones), as the capacity is a much smaller 512 Megs – which can store around 8 hours of music. Firstly, this unit is about 60% the size of a standard iPod and 75% than the iPod mini. Secondly, this unit features an inverted LCD colour backlight which can display many different colours of text during playback.

Uniquely, the Beatbox has two speakers build into the unit. Although the speakers are only around 12mm in diameter, they are surprising quality. Of course, with such small speakers the bass and sound fidelity will clearly lack – but it is on a par with a small FM radio. Sound quality distorts a little at high volumes, but is optimal at around 2/3 max volume – ideal sound levels to listen to without headphones at a desk.”

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Alpha PAL8150T @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Saturday, December 04, 2004

“Most companies today have started using heatpipes to increase the heat dissipation, increasing cost. Alpha has stuck to the basics and this heatsink is no exception. The 8150T is designed to keep costs low while minimally sacrificing performance”

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Notebook Purchase Fiasco @ Adrian’s Rojak Pot
Tech ARP :: Saturday, December 04, 2004

“Buying notebooks was supposed to be a pretty clear-cut affair. Determine what you need, eyeball the available notebooks and choose the best one that suits your needs. Simple, no?

Unfortunately, this was not to be as Ken and Adrian discovered. Check out Episode I : Aspiration For Better Service and find out what happened!”

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Raidmax Cobra Gaming Case @ hi-techreviews.com
Hi-Techreviews :: Thursday, December 02, 2004

“Looking at the computer case that someone uses can tell you a great deal about the person that uses that computer if stop and think about it for while. As I have gotten older I have begun to shy away from cases that have lights in them or lots of bells and whistles, instead I have begun looking for cases that have clean looks, good ventilation and most of all ones that are priced reasonably.

No matter how hard I try to separate myself from the pre-modded cases I still find myself stealing little peeks of them at the local computer emporium, sort of like a dirty old man getting caught looking at a teenage girl. Oh how I want one but what would the wife and kids say, more than likely that Dad has flipped out the some comment about spending my childhood on small farm in Iowa where our toys were corn cobs and sticks.

As luck would have it when you run a review site there is one really nice thing that happens, you can play with the cases you’re to ashamed to buy. Now you can tell your wife and kids its work and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. So that brings us to the case we are going to look at today the Raidmax Cobra Gaming Case, by my standards this is a case I could even live with. But the review is where the details come out so let’s get with it.”

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512MB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Review Rev. 2.0 @ Rojak Pot
Tech ARP :: Thursday, December 02, 2004

” In collaboration with SanDisk, Sony came up with the new Memory Stick PRO standard. Boasting much faster read and write speeds as well as much larger capacities, the Memory Stick PRO is what the original Memory Stick was meant to be; but could never be.

Today, we will take a close look at the 512MB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO. Although ostensibly similar to the Sony Memory Stick PRO, we found the SanDisk Memory Stick PRO to be far better than the Sony Memory Sticks. Find out why!”

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Thermaltake 120mm Blue LED Smart Case Fan Review @ Tweaknews.net
Tweaknews :: Thursday, December 02, 2004

“I must say that I’m very impressed with the Thermaltake Smart Case fan. The packaging, product quality and accessories are all top-notch. I used nothing more than a screwdriver to take advantage of all options and never had to dip into my collection of spare parts to get it running or installed. While the highest fan speed produced a lot of noise, the Smart Fan was fairly quiet at low speeds while still moving a very respectable volume of air. 38CFM @ 17dBA on low is nothing to sneeze at.”

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Leadtek WinFast A400 TDH (GeForce 6800) @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Thursday, December 02, 2004
“Being the older brother in my family, I have always seemed to pick on my little brother, from as far back as I can remember. I had always thought that being the little brother probably sucked while growing up. But Leadtek has changed my mind about that. The Winfast A400 TDH, their name for the GeForce 6800, makes being the little brother not so bad after all. ”

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Thermalright SI-97 Heatsink Review @ ap0calypse.com
ap0calypse :: Thursday, December 02, 2004
“What do you do when you make the best performing Socket A heatsink? Well, if you are most companies you would probably be satisfied…but not if you are Thermalright! Enter the SI-97. Thermalright takes a totally different approach to creating a high-performance heatsink and we are here to show you how well they did.”

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Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2 Memory Review @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Thursday, December 02, 2004
“While there have been many reviews on DDR2, I fear early reviews for the new standard were unconsciously prejudicial. While PCIe/DDR2 technology continues to experience growing pains, Corsair has done an excellent job with what is arguably the fastest memory on the market.”

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MSI DR16-B Dual Layer 16x DVD @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Thursday, December 02, 2004
“In terms of performance, the MSI DR16-B provides ample speed for a Dual Layer drive. Performance is on par with the HP unit and is quite a bit quicker in DVD-R burning. All the DR16-B burns worked flawlessly, and if you can find them, 16x DVD writes is as fast as it gets.”

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