Windows Vista Week 2: The Week of FUD
Digital Trends :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“We are now in the second week of the Windows Vista launch and the FUD (Fear Uncertainly and Doubt) being spread by those that compete with Microsoft is reaching amazing proportions. Apple, in their Mac vs. PC campaign is taking all kinds of shots at the system and wound up getting Bill Gates so excited he actually called Steve Jobs a liar in a NewsWeek interview. The campaign does say some questionable things which we’ll explore at another time but let’s check how the Vista launch month is going.”
Article: Memory Overclocking Guide
Eclipse OC :: Monday, February 12, 2007
So, it’s time to tweak your memory to get maximum performance out of it eh? After playing around with a LOT of memory, I’ve sorta settled on what I think is a good way to overclock memory. It might not be the fastest, as there is a lot of testing and tweaking involved, but you’ll be sure to learn a lot about what the memory can do, and see if there’s any hitches along the way.
Asus P5WDH Deluxe Review
CDR Info :: Monday, February 12, 2007
P5WDH Deluxe has been enough time at the market to become mature and nowadays compete with other Asus Socket 775 motherboards like P5B Deluxe and P5W64 WS Pro. We compare the three boards under several synthetic and gaming benchmarks and evaluate the test results. Overall a good proposal from Asus, with some minor problems that needs to be fixed…
Epox EP-AF550G Pro Motherboard Reviewed
PC Stats :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“The Epox EP-AF550G Pro supports all Socket AM2 AMD Athlon64/X2/FX and Sempron processors, and up to 16GB of DDR2-800 memory. The board obviously includes an integrated DirectX 9.0C compatible Geforce 6-series videocard. The EP-AF550G Pro hits all the standard bullet points like Gigabit networking, high definition 5.1 channel audio, Serial ATA II with RAID options, nearly a dozen USB 2.0 slots, and one lowly IDE channel. The nVIDIA nForce 430 Southbridge supports RAID modes 0, 1, 0+1 and 5. Expansion comes care of the PCI Express x16 slot for videocards, a PCI Express x1 slot for higher bandwidth devices and four 32 bit PCI slots. All this for a retail price of just $105 CDN ($90 US, £45 GBP). The Epox EP-AF550G Pro a very enticing board for those looking to build an inexpensive PC, and with onboard graphics you can differ buying standalone videocard until you really need one.”
Cooler Master CM Media 280/281 Case
3dgameman :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“The Cooler Master CM Media 280/281 Case is one of a kind, because it can be transformed from a mid-tower case into a HTPC. There are two different versions of this case, the 280 and 281. The only difference is, the 280 comes with a remote and media center with VFD, the 281 doesn’t. This case is available in a black color and is mostly constructed from steel, except for an aluminum/plastic front bezel. Watch the video to find out more and check out the bloopers at the end.”
Windows Vista vs. Windows XP vs. Ubuntu Linux
Viper Lair :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“Suffice it to say, unless you have a relatively new system in hand or you are looking to upgrade your system, don’t even pick up the MS Vista box; leave it on the shelf. MS Windows XP Professional is still a very viable OS, and apparently, outperforms or maintains pace with Vista in almost every test we have run with current hardware in place. Vista has the advantage of utilizing the performance a newer setup offers, XP is falling behind in that it is not as efficient with multiple processors or large amounts of memory.”
A look at Asus’ Vista Edition motherboard features
Tech Report :: Monday, February 12, 2007
WINDOWS VISTA IS upon us, and hardware vendors are already taking advantage of the buzz surrounding Microsoft’s latest operating system. There’s no shortage of products claiming to be “Built for Vista,” “Ready for Vista,” or “Vista-Ready,” but in most cases those labels denote little more than driver availability and support for core Vista features and functionality. Asus’ new “Vista Edition” motherboards are different, though.
Rather than simply bringing its motherboards up to code for Vista certification and bundling a few extra drivers, Asus has gone out of its way to exploit some of the operating system’s more exotic capabilities. Vista Edition boards brim with buzzwords, packing auxiliary SideShow displays, Media Center-friendly remotes, onboard flash memory for ReadyBoost, and even support for the Trusted Platform Modules necessary for BitLocker encryption. Join us as we explore each of these intriguing extras and the underlying Vista functionality behind them.
Noctua NC-U6 Chipset Cooler Review
Tweaknews :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“A product that does what it says it will always impresses me. While the cooling performance of Noctua’s NC-U6 is what the end user ultimately wants in a product like this, one can’t ignore the other things that it brings to the table. The simple, clever and effective mounting solutions just make this cooler even more impressive.”
Razer Barracuda AC1 Sound Card Review
Overclockers Club :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“Can a sound card increase your Frame Rate? You must be wondering whether it is even possible. With the Razer Barracuda AC1 Gaming Sound Card, the Razer design team claims that by not utilizing system memory, this just might be that sound card that makes it possible. Later on in this review, I will test that claim and further explain the reasons why.”
Brando USB Chiller & Warmer Review Posted 
Tech ARP :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“If you enjoy a cold or hot drink while you work or play at the computer, this is a gadget you will certainly be interested in. It has a great concept – keeping your cold drinks cold and your hot drinks hot, while you work or play.
But just how well does it work? Read on and find out as we put this gadget to the test. “
A-DATA DDR2 1066+ 2 GB Kit
techPowerUp! :: Monday, February 12, 2007
The A-DATA Vitesta DDR2 1066+ 2 GB memory kit is an excellent choice for overclockers who are looking to maximize their clock rates and performance. Even though it is specified to run at CL5, we had no problems running at CL4 above DDR2-1000 – CL3 is possible as well at reduced clock rates. What makes this versatile memory kit even more attractive is its fair price of $365.
Noctua NF-S12 & NF-R8 Reviewed
Burnout PC :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“I was familiar with Noctua in the past, but never reviewed anything from them. After looking at these fans, I can conclude that they take great care of maintaining a high quality on their products. These fans not only look great, but they also live up their expectations at being silent, yet produce a fair amount of cfm. If you find these fans to be to noisy, which i doubt btw. You can always plug in the resistor cable and decrease the fan speed making it even more silent. Overall three really good contenders when it comes to looking for new silent fans for your rig.”
ASUS EAX1950PRO 256MB Review
Sharky Extreme :: Monday, February 12, 2007
Today on Sharky Extreme, we’ve reviewed the ASUS EAX1950PRO 256MB video card, which is based on the Radeon X1950 Pro:
Swiftech Apogee GT CPU Water-Block Review
Legit Reviews :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“Swiftech has done what many didn’t think was possible by releasing a block that out performs their Storm block at a much lower price point. By increasing real-estate of the pin matrix they have optimized the block especially for the Intel Quad Core processors and it’s easy to see in our test numbers that the block doesn’t disappoint…”
X-Gene Mini HTPC Enclosure Review
Virtual Hideout :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“This must be the year of the HTPC or Small Form Factor case. Company after company are producing these smaller enclosures to fill the niche and doing so under the $100 price tag. Well, X-Gene offers two styles of HTPC enclosures. One is a mid-size unit, while the other is a Mini HTPC enclosure. The Mini HTPC is the unit up for review. The key to a low cost Home Theater PC is using low cost materials while still providing a nice looking enclosure. Will the X-Gene Mini HTPC look like a budget enclosure, or will it stand up next to its more expensive siblings? The only way to find out is to get on with the review.”
Advanced Backup Strategies
PC Mech :: Monday, February 12, 2007
When there are so many effective commercial products available, why bother using the command line? There are numerous benefits, including:
How to Buy an Inkjet Printer
PC Mech :: Monday, February 12, 2007
Buying a good inkjet printer is not rocket science but nor is it a trivial matter. Most people get burned by a couple of inkjets that they thought were great deals before learning their lesson.
CD Burner XP Pro 3 vs. Deep Burner Free
PC Mech :: Monday, February 12, 2007
Many brands of CD and DVD drives do not come bundled with burning software. This leaves users with only Windows XP’s built in burning ability, which is not only rudimentary, but limited to CDs only. As a side note, Vista offers both CDs and DVDs. But the majority of users, including myself, are still using XP. So for today’s Freeware Frenzy, I will be examining these two programs to decide which is the better choice for a free disc-burning solution.
Black Xbox 360 spotted at Taipei Game Show
Tweak Town :: Monday, February 12, 2007
“During the Taipei Game Show here in Taiwan today we spotted a black Xbox 360 console. It’s been talked about for the past week or so about only being available in Australia but we’re unsure how much truth there would be in that if its being shown at a game show in Taipei.
Take a look, if this is the rumored black Xbox 360 that’s been talked about you may be somewhat disappointed as there was no HDMI port to be found or any extended storage capacity from the HDD.”
Vantec Iceberq 6
Driver Heaven :: Monday, February 12, 2007
One of the most critical components which require cooling in a gamers’ PC is the VGA card(s). While most stock cooling solutions are quite efficient for the card itself, they tend to overlook things like efficiency and noise. Most of them will simply release the heat of the card inside the PC case, which can be a problem if even one, let alone two powerful VGA cards are installed. Couple this with two whirring fans and you can understand why there are many aftermarket VGA coolers available. Today we will take a look at an offering from Vantec, the Iceberq 6.
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8888 Review and Asus 7900GS
Neoseeker :: Friday, February 09, 2007
“Because it simply screamed when the right balance of FSB/CPU/memory speed was achieved, and because I was able to hit a scorching 1131-4-4-4-12 setting. Let’s face it. As soon as you get any memory that hits 1000-4-4-4-12 you are pretty much laughing. After PC8000 you really are only looking for how easy it is to get it running at 1000MHz+, how far above it you can push the memory if you are lucky enough to have a motherboard and chipset that can handle it, and on how many motherboards it will run at that speed. How high you can push the memory is a good indication of the quality of the stick; and often because of processor or FSB limitations you may still be better off to run the memory at less than its maximum speed – if you can run it with a higher FSB and a higher CPU speed.”
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Motherboard Review
Motherboards.org :: Friday, February 09, 2007
To say that I’m impressed with the ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe board is an understatement. Doc uses the board in his primary gaming computer and that says a lot right there about what he and I think of the board in terms of features, performance and bundle. The bundle is excellent, as the inclusion of Wi-Fi AP Solo, MP3-In and everything else makes the P5W-DH Deluxe the most full-bundled motherboard on the test bench in a long time.
IN WIN F430 Case Review
Hardware Logic :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Last week we brought you our impression of IN WIN’s Alpha 360 Micro ATX chassis. While we found it to be a decent solution for those on a tight budget, a list of minor gripes left us a little disappointed in the end. Today at HardwareLogic, we’ll be taking a look at the new IN WIN F430 gaming chassis. Racers start your engines! That’s right, IN WIN chose a race car theme, complete with a spectacular red paint job and full race car sound effects. This case promises extreme gaming performance, but will anyone besides the diehard racing enthusiasts be lining up to put this shiny sports car themed case in their electronic shopping cart?
Buffalo Technology FireStix PC2-8000 2GB DDR2 RAM Kit
PC Apex :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
“FireStix …is that a great name for overclocker’s ram or what? In mid 2004 Buffalo Technology released the first FireStix branded RAM and since that time Buffalo has managed to keep pace with the ever increasing demand for performance memory. FireStix is designed to not only meet the needs of the latest motherboards and processors, but to exceed it. FireStix gives overclockers the means to tweak out every iota of CPU performance without sacrificing memory performance. Today we look at the FireStix PC28000CL5 2GB kit. While this isn’t the absolute fastest ram produced by Buffalo, it is the fastest 2-gig matched kit available.”
Corsair HX620W Power Supply review
Metku.net :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
“From manufacturer of the ‘World’s Most Awarded Memory’ comes the Corsair HX Series Power Supply. With that same legendary focus on performance and reliability, Corsair has engineered the HX Series to support even the most demanding of systems.”
Buffalo FireStix PC2-8000 5-5-5
Overclockers Online :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The performance and the ICs on the pair of modules that I received certainly don’t portray the budget end of the enthusiast segment and the results back that up. Both the AM2 and Intel platform clocked really well with these modules and neither gave me a headache to achieve those clocks.
Interview with Joel Smith of AppRiver
TechSpot :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The Storm Worm, which made headlines a few weeks ago, was one of the first worms that came out with a known capability for infecting Windows Vista.
Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Joel Smith, the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of AppRiver. AppRiver is a spam filtering and virus filtering company that does pre-filtering on mail, taking the load off onsite hosted servers. We talked about the nature of mail-propagating worms these days, as well as what role third parties are playing in putting a stop to them. One particular tidbit that stood out for me was the future of “Storm”:
”… we actually think that this deployment was a test run. It was so quick that we think they were just testing the grounds, and in the next week or two they may plan a much more sophisticated campaign.”
Could it be on its way back? We also went a bit into what role his company plays in fighting spam and worms.
Ultra X-Finity and X-Pro: Two 800W PSU for Your SLI Needs
Bjorn 3d :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
If you just recently purchased the latest GeForce 8800 GTS/GTX graphics card, you may found out that your power supply is just not up to the task to handle such monster card. Often, not only a poorly constructed power supply will not deliver the needed wattage to the components, it could potential damage them as well. The power supply is the heart of the system and it cannot be overlooked specially if you have expensive components, such as GeForce 8800.
Corsair XMS2 Dominator PC2-10000 – World’s Fastest RAM
Tweaktown :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
“Today we are taking a look at the world’s fastest DDR-2 production memory and it’s from Corsair. Rated at PC2-10000, it’s able to run at 625MHz using a total of 2.4 volts and possibly even more if you are lucky enough. Can it truly dominate the competition, though?
Let’s have a look and see what a 2GB dual channel memory kit worth about $750 USD or $1000 AUD down under actually provides.”
Black Ice GT-Xtreme 480 Radiator Review
Technic 3d :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
“The new Black Ice GT-Xtreme 480 “Quad” Radiator arrived Technic3D. Better than the Dual and Tripple Series? See you in the following Review on Technic3D.”
Panasonic HDC-SD1 Review
Digital Trends :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
“The Panasonic HDC-SD1 is a perfect example of the blessings of solid state memory. Because video is recorded directly to Secure Digital or SDHC cards, bulky tape mechanisms and HDDs are nowhere to be found. This let Panasonic engineers create one of the slickest-looking camcorders ever. While it won’t have the cachet of the iPod or iPhone, it’s very sleek and stylish – a true small wonder. The -SD1 measures 2.9 inches wide, 2.71 high and 5.6 inches deep; it weighs 17.4 ounces with battery, SD card”
Sunbeam Quarterback ATX Chassis Review
Virtual Hideout :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
“The construction is simple, clean, and presents good air flow despite its size. At its current $60.00 average, the price is pretty close to the cost per feature ratio. A couple quick changes would make it a really good deal not to mention improve its appearance.”
Asus P5W64 WS Pro 975X Express Workstation Motherboard Review
PC Stats :: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
“With enterprise class hardware like the Asus P5W64 WS Pro motherboard, we get no less than four PCI Express x16 slots for videocards! The capability to support four PCI Express x16 videocards means this system can support up to eight monitors! That is a serious amount of desktop space! Based on the venerable Intel 975X Express chipset, the P5W64 WS Professional is ASUS’ most current stab at a workstation motherboard. The multitude of PCI Express x16 slots is possible thanks to an IDT 89HA0324 PCI Express switch. The four PCI Express slots are configured in x16, x0, x4, x0 mode when one videocard is installed. When two graphics cards are installed, say for ATI Crossfire, the four PCI Express slots are split up in x8, x8, x4, x8 mode. Thus each Crossfire videocard would receive 8 lanes of PCI Express.”
Mainstream OverClocker’s System Building Guide 
OCIA :: Tuesday, February 06, 2007
“We have a set budget of $1,300 and a goal of piecing together a very overclockable, well-rounded machine. We will describe each component below and give our reasons for selecting it to be used in our guide. This guide follows the assumption that you already have the basic components such as a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers.”
BeQuiet Straightpower reviewed
Burnout PC :: Tuesday, February 06, 2007
“This is a real performer. I would have liked it a bit more if it was modular, but this doesn’t do any justice to the performance. So im guessing that’s the reason they kept away from the modular thing. Anyway, this power supply is quiet, looks great, performs great and is available in many different wattages. What more could you ask for? If your looking for a new power supply, or simply want something stronger, and more quiet than I highly recommend you taking a good look at this power supply, if it’s a bit too powerful for your needs than there’s always a smaller version.”
Corsair DOMINATOR Twin2X2048-9136C5D DDR2-1142 Performance Memory
PC Stats :: Tuesday, February 06, 2007
“Corsair’s DOMINATOR Twin2X2048-9136C5D memory takes a very bold step in the right direction by ditching the old stick on RAM heatspreaders and going with a fresh approach. Corsair redesigned the memory thermal solution by redesigning the memory module itself. We’ll get to what Corsair has done in a bit, first here are some specs on the high performance Dominator Twin2X2048-9136C5D memory that is really the star of the show. Corsair’s DOMINATOR Twin2X2048-9136C5D part is a 2GB dual channel memory kit, each module bing 1024MB in size. The Twin2X2048-9136C5D is rated to run at speeds up to DDR2-1142 MHz with 5-5-5-15 memory timings – that’s very quick. The memory supports nVidia’s Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP) and really designed with nVIDIA nForce 680i based motherboards in particular.”
