Tech News March 2005

Neoseeker Athlon 64 Overclocking Study
Neoseeker :: Thursday, March 31, 2005
“Raising the LDT bus speed and dropping the multiplier so as to maintain a close-to-stock clock speed on the CPU nearly nothing for overall system performance. In synthetic CPU tests, CPU performance actually dropped a tiny bit, and memory bandwidth performance went up a non-impressive 3.2%. LDT and memory bus speeds aren’t all that they’re cracked up to be if your CPU is not there to eat up the extra headroom given.”

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Logisys Meshed 500W PSU Review @ Mikhailtech
Mikhailtech :: Sunday, March 27, 2005

“The sticker on the underside states 28A on the 3.3V line, 38A on the 5V line, and 17A on the 12V line. While the first two are sufficient, 17A on the 12V rail isn’t enough, considering other quality 300-400W models can provide as much as 30A. Even more interesting are the combined ratings. You’ll notice there’s a 200W power limit on the 3.3V + 5V rails. Furthermore, there’s a 350W total power rating for all three rails, with the “max output” capped at 500W. In other words, you’re not getting a 500W model. You’re getting a 350W model that’s theoretically capable of a 500W maximum output. The caveat here is that because the total power is written to be 350W, you can’t expect to get sustained, stable power delivery beyond that. Fortunately for most people, even 300 watts is more than enough.”

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Thermaltake Schooner VGA Cooler Review @ techPowerUp!
techPowerUp! :: Sunday, March 27, 2005
“Thermaltake has been creative – the Schooner is the first VGA cooler which uses a heatpipe to transport heat to the outside of the case where it is dissipated. The Thermaltake Schooner is the best completely passive cooler we tested so far.”

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ASUS W3, W5 & V6 Sonoma Notebook Series Launch @ Adrian’s Rojak Pot
Tech ARP :: Sunday, March 27, 2005
“Recently, Team ARP was invited to the launch of the new ASUS W3, W5 & V6 Sonoma notebook series. With great pleasure, we accepted the invitation to the launch at Modestos at Mont Kiara.

Armed with three Nikon D70s, we were there to capture every aspect of the launch as well as the new notebooks (including the two delectable models!). Check out our special report!”

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SilverStone Temjin TJ05S-TW Case Review @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Sunday, March 27, 2005
“We recently reviewed the SilverStone TJ05B case, which unfortunately had some design problems. SilverStone has made revisions since then and let us revisit the case. This time they sent a TJ05S-TW, which is silver and comes with a window and thermal controller.”

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Thermaltake Hardcano 13 Review @ GruntvillE
GruntvillE :: Sunday, March 27, 2005

“The installation of the Hardcano13 went well, considering the poor quality of the instruction booklet. There was at least one occasion where the booklet said to do something, but it didn’t say how to do it (hooking up the USB inside the unit, specifically). For the USB problem, there wasn’t a diagram for the connection inside the Hardcano13. Luckily, there was a picture in the FAQ at the end of the book (the FAQ question was unrelated to my problem), which showed the correct orientation of the connectors.”

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Scythe FCS-50 HSF Review @ ap0calypse
ap0calypse :: Sunday, March 27, 2005

“In a couple of my past reviews I have had the chance to try out some of Scythe’s processor coolers, the Kama and Kamakaze2. Both of these coolers were pretty basic in the way of design, and performed well. When Scythe asked me to take a look at their FCS-50 cooler equipped with a new “Heatlane” technology, I readily accepted in hopes this new design would exceed the performance of the others. As you will read, I was not disappointed.”

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Corsair XMS Xpert PC-3200 Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
PC Modding Malaysia :: Sunday, March 27, 2005

“Corsair has done it again with their XMS Xpert series. The LED displays not only serves as a bling factor in your rig but it is also useful for overclockers and tweakers. The Xpert provided crucial information such as frequency, volts and temperatures which makes overclocking successful. The Memory Dashboard is yet another excellent product from Corsair which gives users full control over their Xpert. Adding custom text and tweaking the LED display was fun but you might get bored of it after some time. The Xpert is meant to be a show stopper and it packs a bag of punch too!”

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Foxconn WinFast NF4K8MC nForce4 Mainboard Review @ Overclocker Cafe
Overclocker Café :: Sunday, March 27, 2005
“Given it’s size, with stock settings, the Foxconn NF4K8MC motherboard could be labeled as the little engine that could. With the exception of the CPU Multimedia benchmarks, it outclassed its Intel based counterpart. The board doesn’t have all the bells and whistles such as SLI, dual LAN, and only two DIMM slots but it does have everything else the average computer user would need or want in a system.”

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A.C. Ryan RyanPower2 450W PSU Review @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Sunday, March 27, 2005
“The RyanPower2 is a step in the right direction for A.C.Ryan, it’s very silent, provides enough juice to keep your system stable and features a handy (slightly flawed) cabling system. If they can work out the small kinks in the cable we’d recommend it straight away, but as it stands we have some reservations about the CableFREE quality and implementation.”

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Tt Kandalf Case Review @ Overclocker Cafe
Overclocker Café :: Sunday, March 27, 2005

“The top most bay is filled with a slide in tray that has your power and reset buttons as well as power and HDD activity lamps. The small screened area can be pushed out to accept a floppy drive or left in place so you can put a HDD there. The screen mesh is reasonable tight but there is no filter behind it. This is noteworthy only because each of the other bay cover screens you see have a removable filter placed immediately behind it. I do so love a clean machine. This tray can be removed and placed in any one of the other ten bay positions.”

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Kingwin Mini Shuttle Drive Enclosure @ Overclocker Cafe’
Overclocker Café :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

“Kingwin’s Mini Shuttle’s good looks grow out of their simplicity. Two thin gauge (1mm thick) black aluminum plates form the top and bottom plates with the sides being silver. Almost like an Oreo cookie for a robot. The thin gauge pays off in the form of weight. Coming in at an observed 309 gms, the Mini Shuttle weights less than most aftermarket heatsinks.”

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Thermaltake Sonic Tower @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

“A fanless CPU cooler doesn’t always mean high temperatures. Thermaltake’s fanless Sonic Tower provides great performance at 0 dBA.”

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HEXUS.review – Gigabyte 8IPE775-G ‘Springdale’ Motherboard
Hexus :: Saturday, March 26, 2005
Gigabyte has tried to create a motherboard that takes the forward-thinking approach of Socket-T and marries it with established Springdale technology. The end result is a hybrid board, unimaginatively named 8IPE775-G, that will last as long as Socket-T is around. It’s also priced at a wallet-friendly £60 and makes use of regular DDR1 RAM and AGP-powered graphics cards, thus making the jump to LGA775 a palatable one for most.

AquaXtreme 50Z-DC12 Water-Cooling Pump @ SystemCooling
SystemCooling :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

“Just a few short years ago, many of us in the PC water-cooling community wished for a suitable pump that could operate on 12 VDC. At the time, most of the popular pond pumps were powered from the AC mains and were relatively large in size. How times have changed! Now in 2005 we have at least a half dozen different DC pumps to choose from. The AquaXtreme 50Z-DC12 is a compact 12 VDC pump that delivers much higher head pressure and potentially more flow than many of the larger AC pond pumps. Gone are the days of having to install pump relays and route an additional AC line cord inside the PC enclosure”

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Guide: running Samsung TCCD at DDR600+ on DFI nForce4 @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Saturday, March 26, 2005
Quote: “Getting your brand new A64 S939 to overclock to high DDR600 speeds is not an easy feat. Even with high quality memory you still need a lot of tweaks to get everything running stable. In this guide we show how to reach stability at DDR600 speeds on the nForce4 board from DFI”

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Seasonic S12 430W PSU Review @ Mikhailtech
Mikhailtech :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

“From a design standpoint, the main box does pretty much everything right: there’s a 120mm slow spinning, low noise intake fan, meaning good airflow (and cooling) while being almost silent. As mentioned earlier it’s also load controlled (rather than temperature controlled), but the speed increase is exponential rather than linear. That is, it spins at the same rate in a certain load range (up to 40% according to their diagram) before spinning up to its maximum speed at 100% load. According to Seasonic it can also adapt to ambient temperature, so the higher the ambient temperature the faster it’ll spin at full load (though it still spins at the same rate up to 40% load regardless of ambient). There are a few ventilation holes in the front and right side, but most of the airflow goes from the fan and out the back. The rear uses a honeycomb mesh, the most air-efficient design possible (circular and grid meshes are both structurally weaker and don’t let as much air through). Here you’ll also find the AC plug and a power switch. No voltage selector is present and none is needed because the active PFC takes care of that.”

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Corsair Xpert TWINXP1024-3200XL DDR Memory
PCStats :: Saturday, March 26, 2005
“Introducing the Corsair XMS Xpert TWINXP1024-3200XP dual-channel DDR kit. As you can see, it makes quite a first impression. this dual-channel, PC3200 pair of 512MB DDR DIMMs come with a pair of programmable digital displays which can be attached to the top of each module. These LED displays work with the included ‘Memory Dashboard’ software, allowing your memory to display several monitoring characteristics or even a custom scrolling message!”

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Tek-Chain TC-12CAS-BL120mm adjustable LED fan @ ModdersHQ.net
ModdersHQ.net :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

“Tek-Chain (manufactured by Coolergiant) came up with a 120mm fan that can tickle anyone’s fancy. It boasts a maximum of 66 CFM at a very reasonable 33 dBA. Did I mention that it’s adjustable down to 19.2 dBA by way of the included speed controller? That’s lower dBA output then the ticking of an average watch. For those looking for a nice lighting solution, the Tek-Chain has 4 blue LEDs that, believe it or not, can be turned OFF!!! Now that I have your attention, lets take a closer look at the Tek-Chain 120mm adjustable LED fan.”

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Review: Razotech Blaze Mid Tower ATX Case Review @ Tech-Mods.net
Tech-Mods.net :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

“Not long ago computer cases were presented in a plain beige box; now with case manufacturers having to step it up a notch or three, we have many options. The looks from one case to another can vary, and that is what we like to see. Today we are going to put a torch up beside the New Razotech’s Blaze Mid Tower ATX Case to see if it has the form and function to keep the flame burning?”

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Thermaltake’s K450 Heatsink @ TechTastic.ca
TechTastic :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

Today we take a look at Thermaltake’s K450 which is part of a new line of heat sinks developed by their advance engineering team ITBU. The K450 is design to work effectively with Opteron and Athlon 64 processors, and features a high powered fan and heat pipe technology.

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AMD Dual-Core Opteron as soon as Q2 05! @ AMDboard
AMDboard :: Saturday, March 26, 2005
“The hottest processor issue is undoubtedly dual-core and both AMD and Intel are rushing to be first to cross the finishing line. Made with dual-core in mind, AMD Opteron looks to be ahead of schedule and AMDboard.com, the AMD specialist, has the latest AMD Opteron roadmap to prove it. According to the confidential document, AMD Opteron 2XX/8XX at 95W should hit the shelves as soon as Q2 2005. But that’s not all! On the low-power side, AMD Opteron 2XX/8XX HE at 55W should see the light in Q3 05 while the 30W, rated EE, is planned for Q4 05. If you consider the 102W difference with a Intel Xeon then you might understand what kind of huge pressure Intel is now enduring…”

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Logisys One for All VGA Cooler @ OCIA
OCIA :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

“”Our candidate for this cooler; my newly acquired XFX 6800 Ultra. At first glance the cooler on this card looks to be quite sufficient, even compared to the Logisys VGA cooler, but lets see…”

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Review: XTrac Hybrid Mousepad @ GideonTech.com
GideonTech :: Saturday, March 26, 2005
“A while back, I took a look at the RipperXL mouse pad from XTrac. I was very impressed with it and it became my mouse pad of choice. Now XTrac has sent over their new Hybrid mouse pad. The Hybrid combines characteristics from both cloth and plastic mouse pads into one nice package.”

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DFI UT LP nF4 Ultra-D motherboard review @ XtremeResources
Xtreme Resources :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

“The nF4 SLI-DR is based o­n the nVidia nForce4 SLI chipset, while the nF4 Ultra-D is based on the nForce4 Ultra chipset. Both of these motherboards include 2 PCI Express X16 slots and they use the same BIOS. The main difference is that the Ultra-D doesn’t come with the 4 SATA ports that are provided by the Silicon Image 3114 on the fully featured nF4 SLI-DR board. Many motherboard manufacturers represent themselves to the enthusiast computing community and market their products as “overclocker” friendly. However, the caveat with nearly all of these Tier 1 and Tier 2 motherboard manufacturers is that their overclocking options – in both hardware and software implementations – are often times piecemeal and ineffective towards overall results. The best overclocking motherboards must provide stable power, effective heat dissipation on power MOSFETS and VRM’s (voltage regulation mosfets), along with a logical layout, and a BIOS which allows the user to tweak the board parameterization’s for their own benefits.”

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Sorell SF 2000 MP3 Player Review @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Saturday, March 26, 2005

The Sorell SF 2000 is more than just a flash based MP3 player – there is also a built in voice recorder and FM tuner. Plus the unit can double as a USB flash drive, making filing transfer quick and easy. The SF 2000 is available in? 256MB and 512MB configurations. The player is really small, just 3.1″ long by 1.2″ wide by 0.59″ thick and weighs just 1.52 oz. Power is supplied by a built in battery that will last an amazing 25 hours.

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Niro 600 Review
Designtechnica :: Saturday, March 26, 2005
“The name NIRO is almost synonymous with innovation. The company, founded by industry legend Niro Nakamichi, has been pioneering innovative one-enclosure surround-sound speaker systems for some time now. The idea might seem rather far-fetched, but my previous encounters with NIRO products have changed me into a believer of the idea. That is mainly because past NIRO products worked as advertised. NIRO, however, is not the type of company who likes to stand still in its success. Recently, the company released its new product lines, which are supposed to feature improvements over their predecessors. One of them is the NIRO 600 system reviewed here.”

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Sansun LED Keyboard Review @ Ninjalane
Ninjalane :: Saturday, March 26, 2005
Ninjalane has posted a short review covering the LED keyboard from Sansun. This keyboard has a GSM detection feature that will react whenever your GSM phone is active on the network.

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OCZ EL PC-3200 Gold DDR Memory Overview Posted!
Tech ARP :: Friday, March 25, 2005

“OCZ has just released their latest Enhanced Latency DDR modules with the launching of the new EL PC-3200 Gold memory modules! Featuring a 400MHz DDR clock speed at ultra-tight latencies of 2-2-2-5, these modules also feature OCZ’s ULN2 and EVP technologies.”

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Super White 7654-47CW Barebones Kit Review
Mikhailtech :: Friday, March 25, 2005

The inside of the case is, big surprise, nothing special. The front uses a single cage for mounting all the drives using good ‘ol screws. There’s a stamped grill with holes for an 80mm intake, but as is the problem with many cases even to this day, it’s pretty much useless since there’s no opening in front of it to take in air. Around back we have the PSU, 80mm fan, non-removable I/O shield, and the expansion slots. If you look closely you’ll notice the protrusion mentioned earlier which holds the expansion cards in place. Finally, the motherboard tray isn’t removable either. You’ll find raised mounts where typical motherboard holes can be found; for the rest you’ll need to install the somewhat awkward provided plastic stand-offs.

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