Via Hyperion 4.46 Drivers worth the install?
Tweaknews :: Monday, March 17, 2003
“Turning your attention the Via’s latest offering, I was wondering if these drivers would offer much more than what I was getting with the 4.45 variety, and pure curiosity got the better of me. I visited some forums and found the same old fight going on about the latest version and how it was affecting people computers. Some people had improvements (one yahoo claimed a 40% increase), some people claimed that there systems have slowed down, and some said that they had no difference.”
Matrix Orbital MX212 Review
IpKonfig :: Monday, March 17, 2003
I can tell you from personal experience that LCD displays are the best case mods you can do, and that Matrix Orbital displays are the easiest to configure and are of the highest quality. You owe it to yourself to read this review!
“The Matrix Orbital is nothing new to modders; in fact it’s a very popular unit indeed. It offers some nice enhancements, including all sorts of software features, and is programmable to do most anything you’d like it to. We’re looking at Matrix Orbital’s latest. The new model, MX212, uses a USB connection to communicate with the computer and its software. It requires only the USB power link, and is quite simple to operate . . . Most of the software we tested seemed to work very well with Motherboard Monitor 5.1, and even with the latest version, 5.2. However, we did find LCDC to be the most configurable, allowing us to grab and change code enabling display a wide range of information. The data we chose were CPU temperature, CPU usage in percent and graph, physical memory available, and email. We wanted each screen to provide full information using the supplied software, LCDC, including numeric percentages and, in some cases, bar graphs. The software allows setting of different screens to rotate. In total, we ran four screens. We could also display the ipKonfig.com headlines, yet another great feature. Below are few of the screens we captured for you.”
Chieftec Black Aluminum Case Review
Mikhailtech :: Monday, March 17, 2003
The insides of the case are nothing new either, except many times shinier and lighter, yet almost as sturdy as the thicker steel. One of the few differences from vendor to vendor in Chieftec style cases are the kinds of fans included. This particular model came with three temperature controlled translucent models which I’ll discuss shortly. Still present is the support rail which spans across the case to keep the structure. The continued use of plastic fan holders is nothing to complain about, but the purple color scheme is. I don’t think it would be too difficult to paint the holders to match the color of the case. Also included are six removable PCI slot covers. The 5.25″ drive rails are inserted into the bottom of the case with a pair of hooks; this is a great way to store your extras inside the case where you won’t lose them. At the front is the fixed 5.25″ rack with a pair of removable 3.25″ cages beneath. The mechanism is the same: pull the lever back and slide the cage out.
Vantec Nexus @ Nexus Hardware!
Nexus Hardware :: Monday, March 17, 2003
“Vantec has listened to the many complaints about loud fans. In an attempt to fix this issue, they have designed the Vantec Nexus Fan Controller. It controls up to four fans into and it fits in a 5.25” drive bay. The Nexus comes in colors of black and silver, and both have snazzy blue LED’s. This fan controller supports up to 18 watts per channel and also claims to be able to handle high power Vantec Tornado fans. It looks great and can handle the loudest and meanest fans!”
TurboCase X-Dreamer Mid-Tower Case Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Monday, March 17, 2003
“One of the standout features of the TurboCase X-Dreamer Case is the inclusion of stealth bay covers similar to the design MTB Labs first noticed in the Nikao Eclipse Case and Platinum XP Case. The stealth bay covers give the case a uniformed look when used, but are not mandatory. To use the stealth drive faces, you first must remove your CD/DVD-ROM faceplates. The stealth bay covers include a chrome plastic CD/DVD-ROM button which will reach the original drive’s own eject button”
Swiftech MCW462-UHT Thermoelectric Cooler
SystemCooling :: Monday, March 17, 2003
“Today we are going to take an in depth look at the Swiftech MCW462-UHT thermoelectric cooler, which incorporates a water-cooled Peltier device that is designed to keep an AMD processor chilled well below the ambient room temperature. Swiftech manufactures a full line of quality heatsinks and waterblocks designed for high performance PC cooling applications. Their products include innovative cooling solutions for both AMD and Intel CPUs along with coolers for some of today’s hottest video card GPUs.”
Zalman ZM80a-HP VGA Cooler Review
M:6 :: Monday, March 17, 2003
Gone are the days where all you need was a heatsink for your CPU and GPU. (remember the old days with your Voodoo3s?) With today’s powerful chips, they generate a lot of heat so that active cooling is an absolute necessity. Most GPU fans doesn’t create much noise, but there are some which sounded like a hairdryer. Introducing the Zalman ZM80a-HP!
Lian Li PC-5 Aluminum PC Case
Tech-Dreams :: Monday, March 17, 2003
The battle of the cases is never-ending. With so many choices out there, it’s pretty hard to decide which case is right for you. These days, the most common factors in purchasing a case revolve around size, weight, capacity and looks. This is why I chose to review the PC-5 case from Lian Li. It not only offers a large enough area for your motherboard and PSU and all the components you need to connect, but it is also lightweight and has a nice aluminum finish to give it an excellent look. This review will talk about the PC-5 case, including its pros and cons. Before jumping in, I would like to thank Robert of Lian Li for letting me review this case.
Chaintech Zenith 7NJS nForce2 Motherboard review
Monkey Review :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“Today, MonkeyReview is diving into a new world of fun. With that said, on the block today, we have one of Chaintech’s most popular motherboards, the Chaintech Zenith 7NJS. This will not only be our first look at motherboards, but also our first glimpse as to what Nvidia’s nForce2 chipset has to offer. Most of you know that the initial nForce chipset made high claims and delivered a flat, non competitive chipset, which very few desired. Most of you also know that the nForce2 Chipset has been a very different story. ”
Tt Xaser Edition PSU Review
Overclocker Café :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“With the fans in manual trim, they are limited to a range of 1125 to 3125 RPM. What is especially nice about the manual adjustments is that you are given two ways or rather, tools to do it with. A front mounted 5.25″ bay cover Rheostat and a rear slot cover Rheostat.. ”
Zalman ZM80-HP VGA Heatpipe Cooler Review
Frosty Tech :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“Recently I was looking around at the heatsinks & cooling gear of a local computer store to see if they had anything new and interesting. Aside from the dozen or so CPU heatsinks sitting on the shelves were a few items for cooling video cards, including the standard assortment VGA card slot coolers (don’t bother, they are a waste of money) and a few BGA fan sinks from Thermaltake. As I stood looking at this assortment of heatsinks and fans it struck me first off that there are very few companies actively making cooling gear for videocards, and secondly that there is only one I know of making silent cooling gear for videocards. That one company is Zalman Tech Co. of Korea, and of the five models of silent VGA coolers they have produced, only the recently released heatpipe series have captivated the mass attention of consumers.”
Altec Lansing 5100 Enhanced 5.1 Speaker System Video Review
3dgameman :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“The Altec Lansing 5100 Enhanced Speaker System has all the style, quality and performance you come to expect from Altec Lansing. This product can be used with computer systems, gaming consoles, portable players and more. Also, the handy remote allows easy control over the system and is very well laid out. Watch the Video to find out more…”
A Basic Introduction to Serial ATA
SystemCooling :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“It would seem that the changeover from Ultra ATA hard drives to Serial ATA is gaining momentum with more and more new motherboards being released with Serial ATA connectors installed. The whole drive behind SATA is, and was of course increased speed, with an end product that also reduces cable clutter.”
1COOLPC’s Thermaltake Blue-eye LED Case Fan review
Tech-Dreams :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“Case fans have become almost a common site on computers, modded or manufacturer built. Most cases however use typical black case fans, but why stick a black case fan on your plexi side panel or your clear case when you can purchase a clear case fan. A step further than this would be a clear LED case fan, which brings us to our review of Thermaltake’s Blue-eye LED Case fan, which not only gives you a dazzling effect with three blue LEDs but it also provides a red LED for your HDD activity. Let’s take a look..”
DFI Xabre X400-T2 64MB review
Hexus :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“I’d like to recommend the DFI Xabre X400-T2 but find it difficult to do so. Whilst fully appreciating that the card has been available for some months now, it still doesn’t detract from SiS not playing on a level playing field as far as drivers are concerned. The drivers, too, are a little basic compared to what we’ve come to expect recently. I applaud the fact that SiS and DFI have decided to take on the aforementioned two in the budget sector, but the final product will have to be substantially better if it’s to give NVIDIA and ATi sleepless nights.”
Enermax Mid-Tower Case review
ReviewNation :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“More power. You know you want it. More Hz, more RAM, more sound channels and more pixels pushed to the limit, stroking our hungry eyeballs into a soothing frenzy of hardcore Quake III frag action. And to support all this, you want more Watts, of course. Because of this inevitable sequence of events, we are all familiar with Enermax, which has long been known in the computer world for their reliable, fan speed self-regulating and serious Watts dispensing power supplies which give you bang for your buck whenever it counts, without sounding like a hurricane in heat…”
Abit NF7-S nForce 2 review
Overclockers New Zealand :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“The NF7-S offers mediocre performance when compared with other nF2 boards, especially with Epox 8DRA+ and Asus A7N8X. However, it is the first stock nF2 board (in our bench) that can make it to 203 MHz FSB. (Mostly due to chipset voltage adjustment) One last note, Abit could be smarter with the positioning of the IDE and 3 pin fan connectors.”
Cendyne 48X12X48 CDRW Review
GideonTech :: Friday, March 14, 2003
“The drive can sometimes be very noisy during the initial stages of recording, but it dissipates as it moves towards the outer part of the CD. The back has the usual IDE connector, power connector, and analog/digital audio connectors. Opening the drive reveals that it utilizes Ricoh chips, and most likely a similar mechanism to that of Ricoh drives. The drive seems to lack support from software vendors. As of today, February 25th, 2003, the only software found to support the drive are Ahead Nero Burning ROM version 5.5, and Roxio EZ CD Creator. Golden Hawk Technologies CDRWIN does not support the drive.”
A Second Look at the CAK488T
SystemCooling :: Thursday, March 13, 2003
“Way back in May of last year we introduced you all to the then all new entry to the 80mm heatsink market, the, Global WIN CAK488T. At the time, it was the first universal cooler that was as happy on an AMD CPU as it was on an Intel P4. The CAK488T is still the only cooler that employs a 70 mm to 80 mm fan adapter as part of its standard configuration.”
Sky Hawk Matrix Series Aluminum Towers
SystemCooling :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
“It seems that Sky Hawk has released more new aluminum cases than all other manufactures put together, in the last six months. Noted more for their economy pricing and futuristic design, most of their offerings have tended to be more appealing to the general computing public, rather than the high-end overclocker/power-user”
Raidmax LP-6100D Blue Aluminum PSU Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
“Out of the box, the Raidmax LP-6100D Blue Aluminum PSU has an aesthetically pleasing design. The exterior of the PSU has been encased in a blue anodized aluminum chassis. The thick aluminum chassis has small fins incorporated into the design, which allows this unit to act as a heatsink and provide additional cooling for the PSU. The unit measures approximately 150mm x 145mm x 86mm and is slightly heavier than most steel based power supplies on the market. By default this unit comes with two transparent built-in UV sensitive 80mm ball bearing fans, which are positioned, on either side of the unit for optimal cooling. The Raidmax LP-6100D did not ship with any instruction manual but includes a few built-in features, which include over current protection, over temperature protection and in-rush current protection.”
Zalman 300W Quiet Power Supply Video Review
3dgameman :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
“The Zalman 300W Quiet Power Supply is another quality product from Zalman and this product continues their quest for virtually silent computer components. This Power Supply is extremely quiet and it’s 300 watts will power most current computer systems. If silence is your goal when building a computer system then this is a required product. Watch the Video to find out more…”
Shuttle SB52G2 Review
myWORLD :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
myWORLD is celebrating its 3rd generation site revamp with a Shuttle Review!
Build a HDD VU Meter
GideonTech :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
For those who want their rig to look good, there are always some eye-candies available on the market.I’ve seen on the forums several members asking about ways to mod the Hard Disk Drive Led indicator. There is not much we can do with just this led, except if we’re to go with a pre-modded commercial item like the $40 MojoMeter.
Now for those who are a little more hard-core, the DIY style HDD meter is for you. This guide has 2 different sections: analogic meter and digital meter. Both uses the same principle: taking the signal from the HDD Led indicator and having a scale of its on/off ratio showed visually.”
Athlon XP 2700+ Review
Nexus Hardware :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
“AMD is catching up with Intel with all these recently released processors. The Athlon XP 2700+ uses the relatively new Thoroughbred B 0.13-micron core. The Thoroughbred B runs with a 333MHz front-side bus (FSB). This supposedly yields a 20% performance increase from the old 266MHz FSB. This processor runs at 2.17GHz with 256K of L2 cache. Intel’s Pentium 4 processor on the other hand, has 512K L2 cache. Surprisingly, the Athlon XP’s can be as fast or even faster than a comparable Pentium 4 processor. ”
Shuttle SB52G2 XPG (845GV Chipset) Review
Hexus :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
“Recently Shuttle has announced the SB52G2. The SB52G2 is designed to deliver stability and power in a footprint that rivals servers with the flexibly of a desktop PC. Other Shuttle SFF PC’s have been aimed at the home users and used for a broad range of applications. The SB52G2 is well-suited for SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) running mail servers, NAS, file servers and other applications. ”
MSI 655 Max Review
Hexus :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
“MSI are the first motherboard manufacturer we have seen to utilise the new SIS 655 Chipset. This chipset is set to give Intel’s Granite Bay a run for its money as it also features dual channel DDR memory for the Pentium 4 processor. Unlike the Granite Bay, the SIS 655 chipset allows the memory speed to be set independently from the front side bus and gives proper DDR333 capability. ”
Zalman ZM50-HP VGA Heatpipe Cooler Review
TweakTown :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
“After all the buzz about the new Zalman heatpipe coolers for the high-end video cards, there were some of those less fortunate who were feeling just a little left out. But fear not! Come join Mike “Darthtanion” Wright as he takes a look at the Zalman ZM50-HP VGA Heatpipe Cooler. It features the same quiet cooling method as the larger models but is made for those who are still using a low-end video card. Can it still maintain good results in a smaller package? Lets find out!”
ThermalRight SK6+ HSF Review
OCIA :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
“The install of the sink was a bit tricky. The back side clipped down onto the fingers very easily. The front side clip is set by using a small flat screwdriver. The screwdriver clip notch is not very tight and the screwdriver slipped out on my first attempt, but luckily I was prepared and had thick piece of rubber under the clip area. The bottom of the heat sink was highly polished and free of any burs or rough places and made good contact with the cpu core. I applied a small amount of silicone paste which was supplied with the unit and booted up.”
Win a Cooler Master Case and Spire CPU Cooler!
XtReMoDs :: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
“Not Only is there less then three weeks left of the giveaway, but now your chances of winning have doubled. XtReMoDs has added the Spire MicroFlow I to the giveaway so more people have a chance to win. So, for a review you can win a Cooler Mater ATC-710 GX1 Case AND a Spire MicroFlow I!”
