MSI launches its New Media Center PC
MSI :: Monday, January 08, 2007
MSI Media Live is the latest addition to MSI’s Media Center PC family. You will enjoy a true digital life in the living room with Media Live. MSI will showcase its outstanding R&D competence in the Media Center PC field at the CES 2007 in Las Vegas, U.S.A. on January 8-15, 2007.
CoolIT Systems Unveils Advanced Liquid Cooling Innovations
CoolIt :: Monday, January 08, 2007
CoolIT Systems, known for their high-performance MTEC™ liquid cooling technology, has developed the first-ever MTEC™ Control Center module with “Predictive Cooling™” effectively allowing computers to anticipate heat production from the CPU and adjust cooling power accordingly to provide a new level of cooling stability. The MTEC™ Control Center module consists of a USB connected control board that allows full software interaction to dynamically control the cooling power and fan speeds of nearly any MTEC Chilling solution depending on the preferences of the end user.
Kingmax Digital Creates Global Sensation with World’s First 4GB & SD 2.0 Compliant microSDHC Memory Card
Kingmax :: Monday, January 08, 2007
With this new product, Kingmax has fully realized the allure of microSD, which lies in its ability to accommodate smaller form factor and portability in product design, its ease of use on various platforms, and backwards compatibility.
Bill Gates: 2007 CES Keynote Transcript
Microsoft :: Monday, January 08, 2007
Well, good evening. I’ve always loved coming back from Christmas vacation, you’re nice and relaxed, and you come right into the most managed environment ever, seeing all these thousands of companies delivering on the promise of the Digital Decade. It’s always been fun to come here. I love giving the keynote. In fact, people ask me, are you going to keep doing it, what’s the plan there? And the answer is, yes, next year I’ll give the be involved in the keynote like I always have been. After that, I’m not sure they’ll want to invite me, because I might talk a lot more about infectious diseases than great software. So if they want me, fine, but they’ve been warned what they would hear about.
SilverStone Tundra TD01S External Liquid Cooling System
Dragonsteel Mods :: Monday, January 08, 2007
” SilverStone makes excellent, high quality products that are designed well with functionality and performance in mind. Today for review I have the SilverStone Tundra TD01S, it is their venture into liquid cooling, and they have done it with style and class. The Tundra is something amazing to behold, it is an external liquid cooling system that is truly noiseless, as there are no fans involved in the cooling process. It uses a unique, patent pending, uni-body technology where the entire housing is the radiator to dissipate the heat from the coolant. I am truly impressed by the Tundra, not only does it look like a work of art, it performs exceptionally well at cooling, and does so truly silently. So read on to learn more about a truly silent cooling solution, the SilverStone Tundra… ”
Counterattacking Cold Calls
Hardware Secrets :: Monday, January 08, 2007
“I hate cold calls, simply because if I needed something from any company, I would call them. Last Saturday morning I got a call from someone offering me a free checking account at a certain bank. You know what? I would never open an account on a bank that allows their salespeople to annoy me on a Saturday morning. The worst case that happened with me was a few months ago: a lady from the local phone company called me offering their ADSL service SEVEN times on the SAME day. She only stopped after my second phone call to their 800 number threatening to sue them. In fact, I blacklist companies that use telemarketing and never do business with these companies. If everybody did like this, they would stop using this annoying “technique”. Wouldn’t it be wonderful? But I have a really terrific (and funny) way to counterattack cold calls.”
Review: Zalman Fatal1ty VGA Cooler
Gideon Tech :: Monday, January 08, 2007
“I’m going to be using the 7900GS I reviewed recently because one of my complaints with it was the heatsink, which was merely adequate. The 64-degree core temperatures recorded with the stock heatsink, while safe, was too high for my personal taste.”
AOpen Showcases Newest PCs
AOpen :: Monday, January 08, 2007
In addition, AOpen will showcase its newest MoDT-based products including MoDT based miniPC, miniITX motherboard, Digital Signage Display, Digital Signage Media Player, Housing for miniITX motherboard and others. AOpen’s MoDT technology provides the perfect combination between low power consumptions and high performance solutions.A highlight of the show will also be a showcase of a new Vikuiti™ Rear Projection from 3M. The truly innovative and eye-catching display provides more brightness, clarity and definition. Vikuiti Rear Projection takes digital signage away from the electronic display. It is more affordable than flat panel display (particularly at large sizes), brighter than conventional screen, and performers at all angles even in high ambient light condition. John Kirkpatrick, Sales Director of 3M Digital Signage will be on hand co-host the 1st Digital Signage seminar session AOpen will be holding, January 8th at 3:00pm.
Intel Core 2 Q6600 review
The Tech Spot :: Monday, January 08, 2007
Hot on the heels of the Core 2 Duo launch, Intel came out and released the world’s first quad-core processor last November. Given how powerful the Core 2 Duo had proven to be, we wondered how much of a performance gain this new quad-core version could offer.
According to our previous tests, there are currently no games that take advantage of the additional two cores; however software such as Photoshop, Pinnacle Studio Plus, QuickTime and 3D Studio Max all greatly benefited from the power of four dedicated cores. For example, the QX6700 was 15% faster than the Core 2 Duo E6700 in Photoshop, and gains as big as 43% were seen in Pinnacle Studio Plus. The biggest performance gap was found in 3D Studio Max where the QX6700 was 89% faster than the E6700.
Even though there will be those out there that will want the power of the QX6700 for image and video editing, the processor’s steep price ($1000) might set high barriers for getting one. Today Intel is releasing a second quad core processor called the Core 2 Quad Q6600. This new entry that comes clocked at 2.40GHz does not belong to the Extreme family of processors and will begin life at $530, making it a much more affordable alternative than the QX6700. Finally, the obvious question becomes how much impact does the clock frequency reduction make and is the new Q6600 a worthy.
CES Unveiled 2007 
Think Computers :: Monday, January 08, 2007
“Well it is the beginning of another year and that means CES. This year marks the 40th anniversary of CES. Last year was our first year at CES and now it is our second so we know what to expect. It is 2 days before the actual show and we are at CES: Unveiled, which is the official press preview of what to expect at the show. Last year we were able to take a look at some really cool products before everyone else did, let’s take a look at what we saw this year.”
Know Thy Host!
Hardware Logic :: Monday, January 08, 2007
Sitting on your computer is the power to block sites, survive the end days, and lock your system down tighter than a White House press conference – no third party needed. Are you game?
Top 10 Email Mistakes and Mishaps in 2006
MessageGate :: Friday, January 05, 2007
MessageGate presents some of the year’s most costly and comical e-mail blunders
Antec Nine Hundred Hardcore Gaming Case Review
Madshrimps :: Friday, January 05, 2007
“After spending more than a month with this Nine Hundred Gamers case we stress tested it with different system to find its strong and weak spot, read on to see if this new Antec case is worth your money.”
Storage Technology Guide Article
Fast Silicon :: Friday, January 05, 2007
“Today we have an informative article, the purpose of which is to enlighten you on the topic of mass storage technology. Mass storage is an interesting technology, storing its data in a series of what looks like (to our eyes) as a bunch of pseudo-randomly situated magnetically aligned bits. Yup, you heard it. A bunch of little micromagnetic charges arranged in 2 different directions. Odd huh? Well my fellow geeks, shall we dig into the wonderfully diverse worlds of hard disks? Read on!”
Crucial Ballistix 2x1GB PC2-5300
Overclockers Online :: Friday, January 05, 2007
As I mentioned in the opening, this was our first experience with a kit of memory from Crucial here at Overclockers Online and I don’t think we could have had better modules to look at. I had big expectations from this memory after I saw that the IC’s they used were the famous D9GMH and those lofty expectations were surpassed in all aspects of overclocking.
Apevia ATX-IB680W-BL Iceberg PSU
Viper Lair :: Friday, January 05, 2007
“A PSU is still one of those things that many people don’t put a lot of thought into when in reality it should be one of the components you put the most thought into. Would you build a performance car with “no name” brand, or inferior quality parts? The Apevia Iceberg we tested was well within spec and didn’t have any wild fluctuations that would lead me to believe there are any problems with the unit.”
CoolIT Eliminator Review
Overclockers Club :: Friday, January 05, 2007
“Last month we had the privilege to take a look into Coolit’s Freezone CPU cooler. That unit used TEC (Peltier) cooled water, in a “chiller” module to cool the CPU. Being the first of its kind, Coolit was basically pioneering this field. This month we have the unique and very privileged chance to take a look at their latest addition, the “Eliminator” CPU cooler. This unit has the same basic design as the Freezone, although it looks to be a little bigger. Only time will tell us if they worked out the few bugs that the Freezone had and if this Eliminator is actually an improvement over the Freezone. However, with the slated $199 price tag, this cooler will definitely be grabbing more of the market than the Freezone. With the smaller price and hopefully the same kind of performance, this will make the Eliminator a CPU cooler for the masses.”
Ultra Products 2000W ATX Power Supply
Legit Reviews :: Friday, January 05, 2007
Bigger is always better right? It seems that way when it comes to the computer industry and today’s annoucement of the upcoming Ultra 2000W power supply should be no suprise to those that follow the computer hardware. The Ultra X3 Modular 2000W PSU has a footprint that is similar to the PC Power & Cooling 1000W power supply. This means this PSU comes in at 10.25 inches long and doubles the power rating all while keeping the same form factor!
In 2006 The PC Industry Shrunk and Prices Went Up
Legit Reviews :: Friday, January 05, 2007
It’s getting around that time of the year where we look back and reflect on the things that happened during the previous. One year ago to the day I posted an editorial that talked about being a smart consumer and to keep the ‘electronics envy’ bug under control. For the most part I hit the nail on the head with 2006 being a really expensive year for enthusaists and a number of products were released that were worth skipping. I even pointed out that key players were leaving ATI, but I missed the signals of the impending merger that would happen this past year. A number of big changes have taken place in the hardware industry in 2006 and I have had the honor to be on the sidelines and watch them happen. Twelve months ago I wrote that 2006 would be an expensive year for enthusiasts and I think I was spot on, but that raises the question is that are the prices getting too high?
AMD’s 65 nm “Brisbane” core
Lost Circuits :: Friday, January 05, 2007
The latest line of CPU – codename “Brisbane” – is AMD’s first foray into 65 nm interconnect technology. AMD claims that the process shift does not affect performance, only power consumption is greatly reduced. However, there has been some controversy regarding the effects of the process shift on cache performance, especially the Level 2 cache appears to be severely affected with respect to access latencies. Sometimes numbers don’t add up and sometimes, even if they do they don’t really paint a consistent picture. We looked at the “Brisbane” from the top, from the bottom, turned it left and right and finally we suspected that some benchmarks are flawed. If we are right, then there is a small increase in cache access latency which is in the order of approximately 10% or 2 cycles between the Windsor “F” revision and the Brisbane “G” Rev. That’s really all we can let out here, but there is more in the rest of the article.
Logitech Peripherals Enhance the Windows Vista Experience 
Logitech :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
Logitech Uses CES to Showcase Portfolio of Peripherals Certified for Windows Vista
Biostar Sigma Gate V7603GS21 GeForce 7600GS Review
PC Modding Malaysia :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
“Biostar’s budget friendly EGate V7603GS21 graphics card packs a powerful punch for your money. Again, to keep the costs low, the package bundle just comes with the bare minimum for those who prefer not to pay for any extras. The included V-Ranger overclocking utility is a revolutionary way of overclocking graphics cards. And surely, this little beast can overclock! With the V-Ranger utility, we managed 702 MHz on the core, 75% faster than stock, and that was done with the stock cooler. Armed with GDDR3, this graphics card is virtually a 7600GT in disguise. Actually, it blows a 7600GT when overclocked ;) The GPU does get a little toasty when overclocked and overvolted, so we believe it may be a good idea to give it a better cooler.”
‘The Chill Factor’ Thermalright Thermal Compound
Dragonsteel Mods :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
” Everyone pretty much knows that Thermalright makes excellent quality products, their products have won numerous awards for their excellence in design, quality and performance. Up until now, Thermalright has only made the cooling products, now they have ventured into making their own thermal compound called ‘The Chill Factor’ This was the natural next step for a company like Thermalright, so today for review I have ‘The Chill Factor’ and I will be comparing it to the well known Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound to see how it compares to the king of thermal compounds… So let’s just jump right into this review… ”
Silverstone SST-ST40EF 400W Power Supply
RBMods :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
With todays more demanding videocards and computers, the need for a good and stable power supply is high. Many manufacturers claim theirs are the best and that you need a 700W PSU to be able to get a stable computer. Well in many cases this is not true, Silverstone sent us a sample of their latest creation a SST-ST40EF which is a 400W power supply. It comes with “only” two 12V rails when most manufacturers create ones with three or even four 12V rails. Can this one work aswell as the others? Will it be able to keep a computer stable with only 400W and two 12 rails? Well this is what we are here to figure out today.
Coming to Terms with Office 2007
PC Mech :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
Microsoft Office system 2007 is finally here. Because I am in the business of keeping up with technology, I will replace my installation of Office 2003 with it as soon as the mailman drops the package at my doorstep. In fact, I have already installed the trial version and I play around with it whenever I get a chance. After an initial jolt of disbelief, I am beginning to like it. Whether you will like the new Office or not will depend on your familiarity with earlier versions of Office.
TrueCrypt v 4.2 Protects our sensitive information
PC Mech :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
In this digital age, security has become a widely discussed topic. It is increasingly important to protect not only people and computers but every bit of information that we collect or encounter. So instead of bringing you a program for anti-virus or anti-spyware protection, I’ll be taking a different angle in this week’s Freeware Frenzy. I will discuss TrueCrypt v4.2; a freeware solution to protect your sensitive information–and protect it well.
