Tech News November 2005

 

MIPS RAM Freezer
techPowerUp! :: Monday, November 21, 2005
MIPS Computer is a manufacturer of specialized high-performance water cooling solutions for overclockers. Their products offer excellent build quality made in Germany. This time we test the RAM Freezer which is a water cooling device for DDR1/DDR2 memory. We saw great testing results with Winbond UTT, Samsung TCCD and Winbond BH-5 memory – up to 25 MHz faster without any additional fan noise is very impressive.

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Kubuntu v6.04 (Dapper Drake) Flight 1 @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Monday, November 21, 2005

Summary: “Ubuntu the Debian-based distribution funded largely by Mark Shuttleworth that is focused upon building a viable desktop operating system powered by Linux, as well as enterprise software after it has received DB2 certification from IBM, has released their preliminary BETA release for the upcoming v6.04 build. Unlike Breezy Badger (v5.10) with its “Colony” development builds, Ubuntu has renamed the development snapshots for the v6.04 release to “Flight”. The name for this upcoming release is also going to be known as Dapper Drake. Continuing on with their six month release cycle, Ubuntu 6.04 will be making its presence in April of 2006. Today we are checking out Kubuntu (the KDE version of Ubuntu) 6.04 Dapper Drake Flight 1.”

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Need for Speed: Most Wanted Review
TekBunker :: Monday, November 21, 2005

Quote – In 1998, a little game from EA called Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit came out onto the PC gaming scene, fast cars, fast cops and intense racing all in one package. What could be better than this? Well now 2005 has almost passed us by we get one more EA creation, Need for Speed: Most Wanted. A successor to our beloved Need for Speed Underground games, whom if I may speak for the masses were kick ass additions to the series.

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Next Generation 7200 RPM Notebook Drives – 100GB from Hitachi & Seagate
hardCOREware :: Monday, November 21, 2005
It may come as no surprise that laptop computers are actually starting to outsell desktops in retail. After all, they are quickly approaching desktops in price and speed, and are portable to boot.

However one thing that has always held laptops back was the use of notebook hard drives. They always had lower densities than desktop drives, and often a ‘high end’ unit was still only 5400 RPM.

Hitachi has had a 60GB 7200 RPM drive out for a while, but Dell buys most of those. Now they are on their second generation, with capacity up to 100GB. Seagate is also entering the high end laptop drive market with their own 100GB drive. We’re going to find out which is better – either of these may make a great holiday gift for laptop users!

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Technology Pretensions
PC Mechanic :: Monday, November 21, 2005
Quote: The first type of person I’d like to cover is the “Gamer.” I should know about this type, because I thought of myself as a “gamer” in the past. I used the fact that I was a “gamer” to justify the purchase of an expensive video card, an expensive CPU and RAM, an expensive LCD, and later an even more expensive gaming laptop.

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Epox EP-8NPA SLI Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
PC Modding Malaysia :: Monday, November 21, 2005

Content: “The Epox 8NPA SLi performs very well and it offers little difference when compared with other socket 939 boards in term of graphic performance. Since socket 754 doesn’t support dual channel memory, memory performance is affected but the processor performance is quite good especially when it was clocked at the same speed with the AMD64 3200+ during the testing. Overall, the Epox EP-8NPA SLi is a great board where it allows the user to run a SLi setup on socket 754 systems. Besides that, the board comes with a great bundle of features and it is cheap as well which will be great when matched with a value processor like AMD64 Sempron.”

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News – Startech SV411KA KVM
Overclockers Online :: Monday, November 21, 2005
Quote: A four port KVM switch that also has the ability to distribute audio and a microphone across four computers in or out of the OS can be the ultimate tool for those of us with multiple systems. With a quality KVM like the SV411KA there is absolutely no lag whatsoever. I was worried that mouse lag or stuttering would show up with all three machines on but it certainly didn’t. Even at 1600×1200 the display kept up 100% when gaming and watching movies. The other huge benefit to using this KVM over VNC is the ability to switch between computers outside of Windows allowing me to jump into the BIOS of any of the three machines without swapping a single cable; this is priceless for an overclocker.

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OCZ Gold GX PC3200 XTC @ Techgage
Techgage :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Quote: Lots of memory manufacturers have tried their hand at custom heat spreaders, but most don’t usually make much of a noticeable difference. Being the innovators that OCZ are, they have delivered a very unique new spreader, that incorporates a honeycomb design to aide with better heat transfer. We are taking a look at their Gold GX PC3200 1GB kit.

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Corsair 2GB Secure Digital 133x @ Viperlair
ViperLair :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
“We added the Flash Voyager simply as a scale to help put the numbers in perspective. Flash media (in it’s current state) will never be as fast as a flash drive, so what it boils down to today is how does Corsair fare against other “hi-speed” memory cards? Overall, very well from a performance aspect. The Sandisk Extreme III gave a close fight, but generally trailed the Corsair SD 133x by a small margin.”

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Titan TTC-K8ATB/825/SC Athlon64 Heatsink @ Frostytech.com
Frosty Tech :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
“The Titan TTC-K8ATB/825/SC is a ultra-budget AMD Athlon64 K8 heatsink. It is most likely to find its way into unknowing PCs by way of thrifty stores, and really doesn’t offer much to get excited about. The Titan TTC-K8ATB/825/SC comes with a fan speed controller used to wrangle in the 63 dBA, 3800RPM fan. The fan speed controller is not mandatory, which is a good thing considering how the Titan TTC-K8ATB/825/SC performs thermally even with its fan spinning at full tilt.”

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X-Micro Video MP3 400 Player Video Review #618:
3dgameman :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005

“There are many MP3 players on the market but only a few can do it all. Well, this one is loaded! It comes with a 65,000 color OLED display, is available in 256MB/512MB/1GB sizes, supports a number of different media formats & its USB2. It plays music, records & plays back voice, has a FM radio, displays pictures, plays video, & even has an e-book feature for reading text files. All this and it weights in at only 40 grams! Watch the Video to find out more…” ~3dGameMan.com

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2005 Gaming Holiday Gift Guide @ Bytesector
Bytesector :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
“While board games are still somewhat popular, a videogame will still be the best gift under the tree for any gamer. And if the gamer on your list is hoping for the latest and greatest, now may be a good time to pick up a new console like Sony’s handheld PSP or Microsoft’s next-generation console entry, the Xbox 360. In this year’s edition of Bytesector’s Games Gift Guide, we have everything from intense action, to multiplayer jam sessions represented to ensure that you can find something for gamers of all ages and tastes.”

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[Preview] World Cyber Games 2005 Grand Final @ Singapore
Hardware Zoom :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Quote – Over 700 national finalists from 67 countries will be competing with each other at World Cyber Games 2005 Grand Final, to fight for prizes worth more than US$435,000. From 16 to 20 Nov, HardwareZoom.com will keep you updated with the latest happening here. 24 hours before the official opening, let’s check out the battleground to see what’s hot here for the next few days at Suntec City, Singapore.

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MGE XG Dragon Case Review
Overclocker Café :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Along with the wicked looks, this case packs a long list of features. The removable mainboard tray was a blessing in disguise. The 80mm intake and exhaust fans that were included boast spectacular blue LED’s as well as directing the airflow. The included 500W PSU should be enough for any enthusiast, and the tool-less drive clamps were also a definite plus.

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Crucial Tracer PC2-5300 revisited – C19 Performance Review @ Madshrimps
Madshrimps :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Quote: “We first reviewed Crucial’s Tracer series in our …Lights Out Performance article authored by the magnanimous JNav89GT. The DDR2 part in that test performed well on the P5AD2-E Premium at 704Mz 4-4-4-12. Today we’ll retest Tracer PC2-5300 on the Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe. We’ll test for higher clock speeds, tighter timings, and compatibility with the nVidia’s C19 chipset. At the current sale price Tracer in 1024MB-kit form may be the ergonomic sweetheart and performance value of the year.”

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PimpRig Review // Sapphire Pure Innovation PI-A9RX480 Motherboard
PimpRig :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
We have a new review up on a new ATI chipset motherboard from our friends at Sapphire. This Pure Innovation board has to be one of the prettiest motherboards I have ever seen. Here is a snip from the review: “Tell me, isn’t that one of the purdiest boards you’ve seen seen since the Soyo Dragon KT400 Platinum? I “borrowed” the full board pics from Sapphire since the top is pretty reflective and honestly, their shot looks better than any that I took of the full top. I think I would have to cut a window in the motherboard tray and right side of the case just to show off the nice Sapphire logo on the bottom of the board.”

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Evaluation: LG LGDVB418 DVD Player
Designtechnica :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
“As the battle lines were forming over future high definition DVD formats Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, impatient home theater enthusiasts have been drawn to standard definition DVD players featuring up-conversion and high definition outputs. These DVD players can convert your standard DVD video to 480p, 720p, or 1080i resolutions for use with your HDTV. The theory is that with some signal processing, the video quality can be improved enough to justify converting to a higher resolution format for compatibility with high definition televisions featuring inputs such as HDMI, DVI or component video.”

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Cowon iAudio U2 Mini MP3 Player @ CoolTechZone.com
CoolTechZone :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
“Cowon is back with yet another MP3 player. Instead of introducing a full-fledged hard drive player, the company is hoping to target Apple’s iPod Nano with a version of its own, iAudio U2. The iAudio U2 comes in three striking colors including red (256MB), blue (512MB), black (1GB) and white (2GB).”

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Cooljag SFO-H (68YC) Skived Athlon64 Heatsink @ Frostytech.com
Frosty Tech :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
“The Cooljag SFO-H (68YC) stands out because of its one piece skived copper construction with four milled exhaust ports in the base. The heatsink is intended for use with socket 754/939/940 AMD Athlon64 and Opteron K8 processors, and comes with a K8 retention frame and packet of silicon thermal compound.”

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XG Magnum 500W Modular PSU @ Techniz
Techniz.co.uk :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The MGE Extreme Gamer (XG) Magnum 500W PSU is a totally silent and powerful PSU. With the fully aluminum housing, internal heatpipes and multi-direction air ventilation which will provide the optimum cooling solution for this PSU yet silent. With the dual 12V rails of power, it will support many peripheral devices without any problems. The downside for this PSU is the sleeving is not very good due to it was not fully sleeve to the end of the cables and this PSU is not SLI ready as well. This was a good buy power supply unit if you are looking for a powerful and nice looking PSU although it was slightly expensive than other normal PSU.

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PrimoChill PC ICE @ ThinkComputers.org
Think Computers :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Quote: “I’ve been into liquid and water cooling for almost a year now, you may think that that isn’t a long time, but trust me it is. I’ve learned A LOT in that short amount of time about the various aspects of liquid cooling. I’ve used plain water, water with additives, and alternative liquids for cooling. Being in the review ‘business’ I find I need cooling solutions that are far superior to stock and even after market air cooling. With many reviews I have found myself overclocking my CPU, which of course generates a lot of heat and stock cooling just will not let me do what I need to do. In all my trials and errors I have found water is the best for cooling, there are a few companies out there that make alternatives to water and today I will be looking at one of them. PrimoChill’s PC Ice from Voyeurmods is what is on the testing/review block today.”

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Connecting Two PCs Using an USB-USB Cable
Hardware Secrets :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Here is a snippet: “A very easy way to connect two PCs is using an USB-USB cable. Connecting two PCs with a cable like this you can transfer files from one PC to another, and even build a small network and share your Internet connection with a second PC. In this tutorial we will explain you how to connect two PCs using a cable like this.”

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Techie Christmas Gift Ideas @ The TechZone
The Tech Zone :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Finding the perfect gift for the person in your life can be tricky. That’s made even more so when the person you’re buying for happens to be a techie. However, the editors and staff at The TechZone got together to help you out with our gift ideas for the tech heads. Not only will we give you some great gift ideas but we’ll show you where to get the best deals on them.

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PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 Express/SLI @ PCstats.com
PCStats :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
“The PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 Express/ SLI is a no-nonsense black 510Watt (650Watt peak) power supply. The woven sleeved cables eminating from this PSU include no less than (6) SATA HDD connectors and (2) six pin 12V connectors for dual SLI videocards! This means no more converters that tie up four molex connectors or independent lines. The Turbo-Cool 510 Express/SLI’s main selling point is its suitability for SLI videocard systems. This starts with the pair of 12V six-pin video card power connectors on the unit and ends with the fact that the power supply is one of only four officially recommended by nVidia for use with SLI videocard computer systems.”

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OCZ Rally Dual Channel USB Flash Drives Review Rev. 2.0 Posted!
Tech ARP :: Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Quote – “OCZ Technology is the latest manufacturer to join the flash drive party. Their brand-new OCZ Rally flash drives boast a really slim profile and dual-channel performance.

Today, we will take an in-depth look at these USB flash drives and see just how great they are!

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Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Tuesday, November 15, 2005
“Arctic Cooling is currently dominating the GPU aircooling category, but how do they hold up in the CPU area? The new Freezer 7 Pro comes with some new features and improved performance, with drawbacks of course.”

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Editorial: How To Maintain Password Security @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual-Hideout :: Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Quote: ” Password security is something that everyone needs to be mindful of, in the same way the we need to keep part of our attention on our surroundings when we’re out for a walk.”

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Evercool K803-925CA
Overclockers Online :: Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Quote: The Evercool K803-925CA is not going to be the outstanding performer like the huge heatpipe coolers you have seen here at O² and other places. What the K803-925CA is, however, is one heck of a stock HSF replacement that will fit into any case. Even without the lapping the results were comparable to the retail boxed unit from AMD and after some wet sanding fun it easily outperformed it. The whole time making less noise, not taking up much more space, and looking a whole lot better. Keep in mind, we were asking this cooler to cool an overvolted, overclocked CPU and it performed quite admirably.

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Plagiarism – Well And Alive Posted!
Tech ARP :: Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Quote – “ARP recently found that repeat offender, Michael Sievers, was up to his old tricks again, plagiarising our guides and getting other sites to post them as his own guides.

What should we do about such people? Come and tell us what you think!

We recommend that you take a look at his guides and see if he has lifted anything from your guides.”

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ePower XScale 570W (EP-570MP) @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Summary: “OCZ Technology has been near the top of the power supply hierarchy for quite a while now. Nevertheless, it is a well-known fact that they, like most manufacturers, do not actually make their own units. OCZ Technology uses Topower’s as their OEM supplier. Some of the other companies that benefit from Topower include Athena Power, Globalwin, BeQuiet, Aerocool, and ePower. Today we have ePower’s Silent Engine 570W PSU for review and it uses Topower’s power supplies.”

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