Tech News October 2004

by NewsOctober 31, 2004June 29, 2014032

Aerocool VM-101 GPU Heatsink Review @ GruntvillE
GruntvillE :: Saturday, October 02, 2004

“Minus it’s excessive length and the fact that it doesn’t have a solid base, the VM-101 could almost pass as a common day CPU cooler. From an overhead perspective, the unit almost takes on a Thermalright SP-94 personality; with its dual heatpipes and massive fin array. The nickel plating definitely adds a nice touch of class to the unit; easily helping it to stand out from other components in your PC.”

A Day at ATI @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Saturday, October 02, 2004
“Given some of the demos we’ve seen that day, we asked for his opinion on benchmarks, particularly synthetic vs real-world. Both are important he says. The problem of course is possible driver optimization, so a balance with real-world benchmarks is needed. On that note, we bugged him a little about the performance gap with NVIDIA regarding Doom 3. Stanley recognizes that scores can be improved, but timedemo’d benchmarks are not true indicators of actual gameplay.”

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard Review @ PCStats
PCStats :: Saturday, October 02, 2004
“Over the next few pages PCstats will be sussing out the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard to see just how it performs, and the features it offers up. Built upon the nVidia nForce3 Ultra chipset, the MSI K8N Neo2 supports the socket 939 AMD Athlon64 or AthlonFX processor, and will support up to 4GB of PC3200 DDR memory. With respect to its onboard components, users of the MSi K8N Neo2 Platinum will find two onboard Gigabit NICs, IEEE1394 Firewire, 7.1-channel audio, four Serial ATA ports with NVRAID (RAID 0, 1, 0+1), and MSI’s own CoreCell technology. That might not sound like a lot, but remember the four Serial ATA channels are integrated, as is Serial ATA/IDE RAID, and all this runs us about $140USD.”

OCZ PowerStream 470W PSU Review @ OcPrices
OcPrices :: Saturday, October 02, 2004
“OCZ is a company that has over the years developed a well deserved reputation as a top choice for overclockers. When the company decided to add power supplies to their product range, obviously a simple re-badge of a Fortron Source or some other generic PSU with a fat price increase was not going to cut it. The PowerStream series from OCZ are designed to take on the best of the best. I have the 470W version on the bench, read on to see if it succeeds.”

Asetek Hard Drive Water Cooler Kit Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
PC Modding Malaysia :: Saturday, October 02, 2004

“These days, water cooling for CPU is quite normal as many cooling solution manufacturers keep on producing high end water cooler kits with progressively cheaper prices. However, water cooling for a hard drive is something quite new for many of us and there not as many manufacturers that are willing produce it probably due to the customers having less heat issues with the hard drive. Not so long ago, Asetek just introduced 2 types of hard drive water cooler; one is for CDROM bay and the other one is for FDD bay. In this review, we took a look at the FDD bay version; hard drive water cooler KT92-L20.”

Editorial on Digital Audio @ Overclockers New Zealand
Overclockers New Zealand :: Saturday, October 02, 2004
“The upgrade went without a hitch which is a bit of surprise, as AMD64 and nF3 are still relatively new products. However, I noticed multi-channel audio was gone in games and audio applications from my AV receiver that is hooked up to the onboard S/PDIF connector; the receiver was playing back stereo sound even though it is a 5.1 receiver and the driver was set correctly. What went wrong? Why didn’t the 5.1 receiver give me the 5.1 audio via S/PDIF in games?”

Enermax Noisetaker 470W Review @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Saturday, October 02, 2004

“When I first started getting into the computer overclocking, Enermax was the highest recommended power supply by overclockers. It provided stable power and kept the systems running nice and smooth under heavy operations. After they earned their well deserved recognition, Enermax quieted down somewhat, and remained that way for about two years until the launch of the Noisetaker series. It was one of the first designed to have an adjustable fan and kept systems running nice and quiet. Today, Enermax continues the Noisetaker series with a few adjustments to comply with Intel’s new 12v v2.0 requirement.”

Silverstone TJ05 PC Case Review @ Short-Media
Short-Media :: Saturday, October 02, 2004
“The Silverstone TJ05 has got every angle covered; cooling, temperature monitoring and control, tool-less design, front USB, 1394, audio ports, abundant space for components and stylish design. It’s the PC case with all the features most others don’t have but is it too much? Did Silverstone try to put too much into one case?”

D-Link AirPlus ExtremeG (DI-624) router Review @ DataFuse.net
DataFuse :: Monday, November 01, 2004

“The Range of the DI-624 is very good. At first I was able to go to the end of my drive way, but after I updated the firmware, the range increased by about 50 feet and the stability greatly increased.. There is an option to enable extended range, but no matter what, it covers my entire house. ”

Gateway M520S Laptop
Designtechnica :: Monday, October 25, 2004

“The truth is that you will be very hard pressed to find a real desktop replacement notebook with 512MB of RAM and a desktop class processor for under $1000. We checked out desktop replacements from Sony, Toshiba, HP and Dell and could not find a system that matched or beat the Gateway M520S in price. Our recommendations: finance or save $500 dollars more and get the Sony A320 notebook which is a killer multimedia system and only costs $1799 – money well spent. If you just cannot see yourself spending that much on a system consider going with a Centrino based system such as the Gateway M320, or Gigabyte N512.”

Kingston DataTraveler II, II Plus, & Elite Flash Drives Review @ Mikhailtech
Mikhailtech :: Friday, October 22, 2004

“USB flash drives are without a doubt the floppy of the 21st century. Their small size, high capacity, amazing durability, and fast transfer rates make them an ideal portable storage solution. It comes as no surprise that so many companies embraced this technology. In the past we’ve had the opportunity to check out 3 different drives, specifically the plain 64MB FlashDisk, sleek 64MB TX50, and Kingston’s original 128MB DataTraveler. Since then much has changed. The greatest improvement came in the transition to USB2.0 which bumped up transfer rates significantly and made flash drives all the rage. A couple weeks ago Kingston announced their latest series of toys: the DataTraveler II, DataTraveler II Plus, and DataTraveler Elite. This second revision got a complete overhaul: USB2.0 support and impressive transfer rates, at least on paper. We’re here to find out if this new lineup has what it takes to make pro league.”

D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G Wireless
The Tech Lounge :: Friday, October 22, 2004

“D-Link has been a staple of the networked community for a very long time. I even remember purchasing one of their home network starter kits for Ethernet (that’s 10 Mbps for the younger readers). Since that time, much has changed in the world of networked components, one being that we no longer need those pesky wires we were so fond of many years ago.

D-Link was nice enough to send me a full AirPlus Extreme G wireless network setup. This consisted of the DI-624 wireless router, a DWL-G520 PCI card, and a DWL-G650 wireless PCMCIA card. With these components I should be able to share my Internet connection and files, all wirelessly. Unlike the old 802.11b standard with transfer speeds published at 11 Mbps, the new G standard has a published rate of 54 Mbps. This is quite an increase in speed for such a short period of time. All this is great, and most would say that going from 11 to 54 Mbps was quite a feat, but the fine folks at D-Link have decided to go one step further. Using an entire D-Link setup, it is reported that their equipment can reach speeds of 108 Mbps.”

Steelpad S&S Mouse Surface @ TechFreaks
TechFreaks :: Thursday, October 21, 2004

“It all comes down to one question, which is the better pad: the Steelpad S&S or the Xtrac Hammer? By a slight margin, the Steelpad S&S. The slight margin can be attributed to many circumstances, the first being that the S&S has only been used for two-weeks, not nearly enough time to show any signs of wear or dullness. The Xtrac Hammer, on the other hand, has been my primary mouse-pad for a bit over six months, and not until recently had it shown any signs of wear.”

Kingston Data Traveler Elite KUSBDTE/1GB USB Drive Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Monday, October 18, 2004

“While USB flash drives are extremely convenient, the small size and ease of use open up many possibilities for being easily misplaced resulting in the loss of what was otherwise important or personal data. This being a common concern, several similar flash drive units incorporate a variety of approaches to secure your data should the drive be lost. In order to cater to this situation, the Kingston Data Traveler Elite KUSBDTE/1GB USB Drive features a two-layer security mechanism that uses a combination of user authentication and hardware based 128-bit AES encryption.”

Waffer PC AirCon PAC 400
3dXtreme :: Monday, October 18, 2004

“The PAC 400 is basically an air conditioning unit for your PC. It’s designed to provide cooler ambient air into the computer system in the hopes of dropping the internal and CPU temperatures. It sounds like a great idea, but can it live up to the marketed expectations?”

Steelpad S&S Mousepad Review @ OCIA
OCIA :: Saturday, October 16, 2004

“I could immediately tell the difference the mousepad made. Small movements were so much more accurate it was incredible. I made several kills that I probably wouldn’t have made using my previous setup (no mousepad), as the mousepad made me much faster on the draw. Don’t get me wrong, I still got my butt kicked, but I was amazed at how many more butts I kicked in the meantime.”

D-Link Central Home Drive @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Friday, October 15, 2004
“Over the years, networks have developed substantially. With this booming growth, a demand to share files among other computers on your network has become a common occurrence, however many users simply don’t have a spare computer they can setup as a SOHO file server. D-Link has luckily jumped to the rescue with a 40GB Central Home Drive.”

BTC 9019 URF Wireless Keyboard Review
Hardware-Pacers :: Thursday, October 14, 2004

“The BTC 9019 URF Wireless Multimedia USB Keyboard with Dual Mode Joystick Mouse is one of the world’s finest gaming keyboards on the market today. It is small in size yet powerful in its functionality. Handy function buttons, and superior joystick response and sensitivity make this keyboard ideal for gamers. Easy installation creates a hassle free environment during setup. Full featured functionality create a smooth sailing keyboard experience for gaming and keyboard input during any computing function.”

Kingston Data Traveler Elite KUSBDTE/1GB USB Drive Review @ MODTHEBOX.COM
MODTHEBOX! :: Thursday, October 14, 2004

“While USB flash drives are extremely convenient, the small size and ease of use open up many possibilities for being easily misplaced resulting in the loss of what was otherwise important or personal data. This being a common concern, several similar flash drive units incorporate a variety of approaches to secure your data should the drive be lost. In order to cater to this situation, the Kingston Data Traveler Elite KUSBDTE/1GB USB Drive features a two-layer security mechanism that uses a combination of user authentication and hardware based 128-bit AES encryption.”

Waffer PC AirCon PAC 400 Review at 3DX
3dXtreme :: Thursday, October 14, 2004
“The PAC 400 is basically an air conditioning unit for your PC. It’s designed to provide cooler ambient air into the computer system in the hopes of dropping the internal and CPU temperatures. It sounds like a great idea, but can it live up to the marketed expectations?” We would appreciate a posting in your Daily News!

Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse Review
Designtechnica :: Tuesday, October 12, 2004

“Rewind the clock for two years, we were completely blown away by the revolutionary Logitech MX700 Cordless Mouse and its advanced features. We thought the essential input device of a computer couldn’t get much better with MX700’s precise MX Optical Engine, Fast RF wireless technology, recharging base station, and the ergonomic design. Well, we were wrong. Two years later, Logitech has done it again, releasing a refined version of their ultimate cordless mouse with a second to none laser sensor that is twenty times more sensitive than traditional optical sensors. In addition to the surface tracking technology, many other aspects of the mouse have also been vastly improved. Let’s take a close look at what’s new and what’s hot about the Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse in this review.”

Steelpad Steel Grip
Phoronix :: Tuesday, October 12, 2004

“Most of the time mice are designed quite well but sometimes you just have to wonder what the design team was thinking. We have no problem gripping our better-designed mice but for whatever reason the staff here a Phoronix always seems to have some mice that are more difficult to use. To aid us with this problem Steelpad has sent us their latest product, the Steel Grip.”

BTC 9128CRF Wireless Office Keyboard Kit @Hi-Techreviews
Hi-Techreviews :: Saturday, October 09, 2004
“We reviewed one of BTC’s wireless keyboards a week ago and this week we are checking out their BTC 9128CRF Wireless Office Keyboard Kit. It offers multi-function shortcut keys along great looks and ease of setup. Plus it made be give switch from one brand to another.”

Apple 4th Generation iPod Review @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Wednesday, October 06, 2004
“The biggest change between the 3rd generation and 4th generation iPod is the new wheel used by the 4th gen. Where as the old iPod features a touch wheel and four buttons; the new iPod moves those buttons onto the touch wheel itself. You still use the wheel as a touch pad to scroll though lists or control volume, but if you press down on the edges of the wheel, you activated the buttons lurking underneath. It sounds more complex than it is but after about 10 seconds, the controls feel completely natural. The merger of the buttons with the wheel is a gigantic improvement over the original iPod interface. It’s a lot easier to navigate by touch when you don’t need to find the buttons above the wheel.”

Microsoft Optical Desktop Elite for Bluetooth @ HTPCnews.com
HTPCnews :: Wednesday, October 06, 2004

“HTPCnews takes a look at the newest Keyboard / Mouse set in the arsenal from Microsoft, the Optical Desktop Elite for Bluetooth, today and reports back on how this latest combo does. With it’s Bluetooth technology they’ve increased the usable range on this unit to a very decent 30 feet and gave the set an impressive look and feel. Added extras include a built-in faux leather “padded” wrist rest, multimedia keys, programmable keys, and a two tone paint job. Head on over to HTPCnews and see how this unit performed in a variety of tasks and if it’s worth your hard earned cash.”

BTC 9019 URF Wireless Keyboard w/ Dual Mode Joystick Mouse Reviewed
Hi-Techreviews :: Wednesday, October 06, 2004

“Wireless keyboards are not something I get to worked up about because they either work or they don’t. That changed when I got a chance to review and use the BTC 9019 URF Wireless Keyboard with Dual Mode Joystick Mouse. This keyboard just might be the perfect solution for anyone that has a Home Theater PC. Yes it’s a wireless keyboard but it also offers a dual mode joystick as well. The joystick can be switched to operate either as a mouse or a plain gamers joy stick. Now that is nice. Come take a look and I’ll bet you will agree.”

Samsung ML-2551N Laser Printer Review
Tech-Mods.net :: Monday, October 04, 2004

“With the cost of inkjet cartridges the laser printers steels the show when it comes to performance and production costs. Having a network laser printer in a small to medium office for all to share is better yet. Today we will be looking at the Samsung ML-2551N Network laser printer that not only can be shared over a network but can also print on both sides of a sheet of paper. ”

Kodak EasyShare DX7440
The Tech Lounge :: Monday, October 04, 2004

“In front of me today I have one of Kodak’s latest digital cameras, the DX 7440. This camera sports a 4.23MP CCD (4.0MP effective resolution), 4x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom (16x total zoom), 2.2” TFT display with 153K pixel resolution, pre-programmed scene modes, PASM modes, and of course Kodak’s EasyShare functionality.”

Microsoft Optical Mouse by S+ARCK Review @ Everything USB
Everything USB :: Saturday, October 02, 2004
“The S+arck mouse certainly is an attention grabber. At first glance, it doesnâ€™t even look like a mouse, but more like a silver and orange egg. Essentially, there are the two mouse buttons running the full length of the mouse much like Appleâ€™s Pro Mouse. The smooth, silver body matches the silvery finish of our speakers and monitor, and goes great alongside a PowerBook. When viewed from the side, the silver body is interrupted only by the extruding scroll wheel. Down the center is an orange stripe which houses the wheel and four bright LEDs, casting a spiffy looking glow, Ã la TRON.”

Kingston DataTraveler Elite 512MB USB Flash Drive Review @ GideonTech
GideonTech :: Saturday, October 02, 2004
“Today we have the DataTraveler Elite 512MB USB Flash drive from Kingston. Sporting USB 2.0 support and some rather nifty security features, this may well be the last USB drive you will ever need.”

Albatron Trinity PCX5750 @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Monday, November 01, 2004

“In current games such as Serious Sam SE and UT2004, this card can play 1024*768 without any real problems, and for the most part you can enable AA and ansiotropic filtering while still keeping playability. Newer games such as Splinter Cell also are playable at 1024*768, but only without the extra quality settings enabled. New games such as Doom 3 and Far Cry are playable at 800*600 without AA and ansiotropic filtering, but I wouldn’t really suggest going beyond that.”

Gigabyte 6800 Video Card Review @ CoolTechZone
CoolTechZone :: Monday, November 01, 2004

“NVIDIA launched their GeForce 6 series of GPUs a while back and now every board partner has their versions of 6800 flavors, most notably the regular 6800. This is the most popular version of NVIDIA’s GeForce 6 family of products – maybe because of the poor chip yields. If you are not aware of this, both NVIDIA and ATI are having a difficult time producing chips for their GT/Ultra and PE line of products, which has led to ridiculous price increases for the aforementioned models from NVIDIA and ATI. Recently, at an online retailer, we found NVIDIA’s 6800 Ultra to be around $735.00, which is way higher than its retail price of $500.00. What’s even more annoying is that both NVIDIA and ATI have launched the products, but they are having a hard time bringing them into retail channels. In an effort to compete against each other, they forgot the sufferers of their actions – end-consumers. Why is it that we have to wait months before we can purchase high-end cards for our needs? We like to call this a mere business monopoly. The only difference is we have two companies creating the monopoly instead of one. Just as an advise to NVIDIA and ATI, we would like to see the high-end cards soon in the market.”

S3’s OmniChrome S4 @ Hexus
Hexus :: Saturday, October 30, 2004
“Overall, S3 still need to do some serious work with OmniChrome to bring it up to scratch. If you can suffer the downsides, great; it’s cheap and does the basic TV-tuning-with-good-softwre-and-remote job fine. But those downsides are pretty dire in a 2004 TV tuning product. HDTV input and output don’t save it for me. If you have the basic facility to actually record or watch HDTV signals properly, you’ve got the need for something more than mono audio from the TV tuner.”

ATI HDTV Wonder – Remote Control Edition @ SystemCooling
SystemCooling :: Saturday, October 30, 2004

“High Definition Television (HDTV) continues to gain in popularity and market share. ATI is bringing this technology to the desktop with the introduction of the HDTV Wonder. At the heart of the HDTV Wonder Remote Control Edition is a PCI tuner card that allows receiving both traditional analog TV signals and the newer over-the-air (OTA) high definition digital television signals. The received video signals are decoded and passed to the PC’s main video card for display on a standard computer monitor.”

ATI’s TV Wonder USB 2.0 @ Hexus
Hexus :: Saturday, October 30, 2004
“I prefer the PCI version for latency reasons, but if USB2.0 is the interface you need for a TV tuner and multimedia product without breaking the bank, the TV Wonder USB 2.0 is highly recommended. The software needs significant spit and polish, to rectify some aesthetic and usability issues, but coupled with a RemoteWonder II, the TV Wonder is how I’d enjoy low-cost, high-quality TV tuning on my PC.”

ATI HDTV Wonder Review
Designtechnica :: Thursday, October 28, 2004
“There’s no denying the incredible picture improvement of HD broadcasts over regular analog TV. The ATI HDTV Wonder does a good job of allowing you to enjoy this amazing video on your computer at a fraction of the cost of an HDTV. Of course, an HDTV is often much larger than a computer monitor and if you get an HDTV set, chances are you will just get an HD tuner from your cable company – allowing you to enjoy all of the HD cable channels as well as the over-the-air broadcasts.

Unfortunately, the system requirements are quite demanding – in our opinion more so than what even ATI suggests. Even if you have a powerful enough system, HD performance is dependent upon your proximity to a broadcast tower and other environmental factors. As a result, you really won’t know if the HDTV Wonder will work well with your system and in your house until you actually try it. Considering it may take several hours to set up the HDTV Wonder and get it working properly, this is just too much time and effort for the average computer user to dedicate to such a project.”

PowerColor Radeon X800 Pro VIVO Review @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Thursday, October 28, 2004

“PowerColor provides a numerous line of ATI Radeon cards. From low end budget solutions to high end enthusiast favorites, PowerColor has a graphics card to suit everyone’s needs. Many enthusiasts can probably remember the success of PowerColor’s highly popular and moddable Radeon 9800SE. Although the card’s performance was only considered to be mediocre, there was a hidden secret that unleashed the full potential of the “cheap” card. With a simple BIOS flash, the 9800SE turned into a full fledged 9800 Pro. Of course there were certain things to be aware of, such as choosing the 256-bit versions and providing good cooling. What we have in today is the enthusiast’s favorite: the X800 Pro VIVO. The VIVO line, although not an “official” release by ATI, offers the same exact hardware components as the full fledged X800XT PE, something that definitely shows promise.”

Samsung CLP-550 Colour Laser Printer Review
The Tech Zone :: Monday, October 25, 2004

“Samsung has jumped into the colour laser fray with their CLP-500 series printers. The higher end of the series, the CLP-550, is the model we’re reviewing. Priced at an MSRP of $599.00, this printer is definitely priced with the budget conscious in mind. You’d hardly think “budget printer” when you see the list of features that include a built in duplexer, an LCD display, and a generous paper capacity. Add to that the rated speeds of 24ppm monochrome and 5ppm colour you certainly have a great package.”

MSI Radeon RX800XT-VTD256E Videocard Review @ PCStats
PCStats :: Friday, October 22, 2004
“Architecturally identical to the ATI Radeon X800XT PE, the 16-pipeline Radeon X800XT core is clocked a whole 20 MHz slower than the Platinum Edition, and so it sits at 500 MHz. The DDR-3 memory backing up the ATI R420 core is clocked at an even 1 GHz, down from 1.12 GHz for the X800XT PE version. MSI’s RX800XT-VTD256E direct competition comes from the nVidia GeForce 6800GT class videocard, as both PCI Express cards are one step down from the top of the heap. However, as you’ll soon see in PCstats benchmarks, the MSI RX800XT-VTD256E does very well for itself!”

Logitech Z-3 Review @ Overclockers Online
Overclockers Online :: Friday, October 22, 2004
“For my last test, it was time to load up Doom 3. Overall the Z-3s performed very well, but without having rear speakers it’s hard to create the same atmosphere as my Z560s do. Nevertheless, the Z-3s made Doom 3 fun to play. I should also note that you may want to turn up the bass for games when compared to music in order to feel the explosions and bullet sounds more.”

ATI HDTV Wonder @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Friday, October 22, 2004
“If you don’t have digital cable, and you don’t want to spend close to $1,000 for Satellite equipment and a HD capable television, you can use this to get HDTV… ”

Altec Lansing FX6021 2.1 Speakers @ TheTechLounge
The Tech Lounge :: Monday, October 18, 2004

“2.1 or 5.1? Where do you fit in? Are you the type of person that has an incurable need to be surrounded by acres of speakers just to watch “The Matrix,” or do you treasure your personal space? Do you despise bulky cabinet speaker boxes filling up your living room? Are you sick of my questions?

If you are a space saver, protective of your precious desktop real estate, yet are a touch on the audio snob side, Altec Lansing is looking for you. Altec Lansing’s new FX6021 is a set of 2.1 speakers featuring a hefty subwoofer and svelte satellite speakers, and they aim to pack a stealthy sonic punch. Let’s put them to the test, shall we? Sorry, that was another question.”

BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra Overclocked @ HEXUS.net
Hexus :: Monday, October 18, 2004

“Any and every GeForce 6800 Ultra is an excellent gamers’ card. BFG’s effort is above average, as the company offers a pre-overclocked core at default core prices. BFG’s popularity is on the rise and it’s easy to see why. If BFG can beef up the entire bundle, add, say, basic VIVO, and keep a keen price, its range of 6800-series cards will be hard to beat. As it is, you can literally place the names of NVIDIA’s AIBs into a hat and pick any one. Most cards keep to the reference design and most range between 400-450MHz core.”

Logitech Z2200 THX Certified 2.1 Computer Speaker System Review @ Tweaknews
Tweaknews :: Saturday, October 16, 2004

“Testing this product interested me right from the first time I picked it up to move the product box to the office. The incredible heft of this two channel system speaks volumes for the thick robust construction and large powerful speaker magnets that make this product what it is. Everything about this system is oversized, powerful, heavy and can only be described as a thumping and deafening tank for your computer system. And because of these traits, I have loved it from the first press of its’ power button. The sound reproduction is powerful, full ranged and crisp, the subwoofer is large enough to be strapped into that car stereo system in the local teenager’s civic you hear thumping down your local street and the satellites will just laugh at you when you crank them up to full volume. Why? Because you ear drums will be on your lap long before these speakers even come close to popping.”

Samsung HLN617W 61″ DLP Television Review @ PCStats
PCStats :: Friday, October 15, 2004
“We took a look at Samsung’s enormous 61″ HLN617W DLP flat screen TV this week, and even found time to run through a few DOOM3 games on it!. Off the cuff, the Samsung HLN617W boasts a laundry list of features as you might expect. For starters the display is a little over 19″ deep, and a hundred pounds light. At the heart of the unit rests a second generation Texas Instruments 0.8″ Digital Micro Device, which has a native resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. This resolution matches HDTV’s 720p, pixel for pixel, and for television signals it features automatic conversion to 720p.”

HEXUS.net Review: GeCube Radeon X800 PRO
Hexus :: Thursday, October 14, 2004
“X800 PRO pricing sits around the £280 mark in the U.K. at the time of writing and GeCube promise us that if you find the X800 PRO CS:CZ Limited Edition in the U.K. or indeed elsewhere, it’ll be competitive with any and all X800 PRO pricing from other manufacturers.

Given that, and the derivative PRO performance (no bad thing!), it’s hard not to recommend the card to anyone who asks. If you’re desperate for X800 PRO, if NVIDIA’s hardware isn’t your thing or you’re annoyed with GT availability at the moment, GeCube’s board is as good as any to spend your money on.”

Altec Lansing FX6021 2.1 Speakers @ TheTechLounge
The Tech Lounge :: Thursday, October 14, 2004
“2.1 or 5.1? Where do you fit in? Are you the type of person that has an incurable need to be surrounded by acres of speakers just to watch “The Matrix,” or do you treasure your personal space? Do you despise bulky cabinet speaker boxes filling up your living room? Are you sick of my questions?

If you are a space saver, protective of your precious desktop real estate, yet are a touch on the audio snob side, Altec Lansing is looking for you. Altec Lansing’s new FX6021 is a set of 2.1 speakers featuring a hefty subwoofer and svelte satellite speakers, and they aim to pack a stealthy sonic punch. Let’s put them to the test, shall we? Sorry, that was another question.”

NVIDIA’s GeForce 6200 Launch @ HEXUS.net
Hexus :: Wednesday, October 13, 2004

“Think 6600 and NV43. Think the same 0.11µ process production at TSMC. Think half the pixel power at the same clocks, without some optimisations before pixels are generated (Z opts) and after they’re written to their render buffers (colour opts), no SLI, but complete SM3.0. If that makes sense, you’re most of the way there.”

ATI X600 PRO Review @ Hi-tecreviews.com
Hi-Techreviews :: Tuesday, October 12, 2004

“When ATI started designing there first mid-priced PCI-Express video card you knew they were on pretty sound footing when you look at how closely it resembles their very successful Radeon 9600XT. So when we got a chance to review the new ATI Radeon X600 PRO we were extremely curious if this graphics card would perform as well as its AGP cousin did.”

SageTV and Hauppauge PVR-250 Review
GruntvillE :: Tuesday, October 12, 2004

“Nobody wants to come home from a hard days work, plop down in front of the TV and muddle through a windows/linux OS in order to watch their favorite shows. A DOS prompt and a task bar are the absolute last things I want to see when I’m trying to wind down. So apart from the obvious hardware requirements, an HTPC also needs an easy to use front end.”

Albatron PX915G Pro @ Viper Lair
ViperLair :: Tuesday, October 12, 2004

“This is a good board that has good performance and overclocks well, though it could do better if the PCI-E lock worked better. There were really no problems with this board, though there was nothing overly amazing, a good solid first LGA775 board.”

Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 2.2 @ Adrian’s Rojak Pot
Tech ARP :: Saturday, October 09, 2004
“These days, there are so many mobile GPU models that it has become quite impossible to keep up with the different configurations. Therefore, we decided to compile this guide to provide an easy reference for those who are interested in comparing the specifications of the various mobile GPUs in the market as well as those already obsolescent or obsolete.

Currently covering nearly 30 mobile GPUs, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare 14 different specifications for each and every GPU! We hope it will prove to be a useful reference. We will keep this guide updated regularly so do check back for the latest updates!”

SilverStone Lascala LC03V HTPC Case “Cool-n-Quiet” Custom Mod @ SystemCooling
SystemCooling :: Friday, October 08, 2004

“When Tommy asked me a few weeks ago if I would like to review one of the new SilverStone Home Theater PC (HTPC) enclosures I jumped at the chance. I was rewarded with a sleek Lascala LC03V sporting a new vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) and glossy black finish. The SilverStone LC03V has been designed to blend in perfectly with modern audio-video equipment and permits using both a full size ATX motherboard and standard ATX power supply.”

PowerColor A350A-VF (ATI) Motherboard @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Friday, October 08, 2004
“Motherboards using NVIDIA, VIA and Intel chipsets can be found everywhere. Today however, I take a look at a motherboard from PowerColor that uses the ATI RADEON 9100 PRO IGP( RS350) + IXP 300 chipsets.”

Samsung SCD103 MiniDV Digital Video Camcorder Review @ Tweaknews
Tweaknews :: Friday, October 08, 2004

“Ok, I have to admit, this has been my first full camcorder experience other than a couple short video projects in college and university and thanks to the SCD103, it was a very smooth full introduction. You see, I walked in just like you would and I have had nothing but a positive experience with this affordable, feature packed and easy to use MiniDV camcorder.”

ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 Review @ Beyond3D
Beyond3D :: Thursday, October 07, 2004
“Internally the we can clearly see TV Wonder USB 2.0 uses the large Philips analogue Tuner “can” which was previously used on most of ATI’s All-In-Wonder products, among other applications, which is obviously the main contributor to the size of the unit. Another component that is familiar from recent All-In-Wonder boards is the Theater 200 chip.”

Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 7.2 Posted!
Tech ARP :: Thursday, October 07, 2004

Covering over 200 desktop graphics cards, this comprehensive comparison allows you to easily compare 14 different specifications for each and every card! If you need to find out about the specification of any card, just come over and check out our Desktop Graphics Comparison Guide!

Chaintech AA6800 Turbo Review @ OCC
Overclocker Café :: Wednesday, October 06, 2004

“A few other cards have hit the shelves that were overclocked at the factory to give themselves at edge in performance and market share. The problem with most of these is that the price gets jacked up to the point that you might as well spend a few extra bucks and get a 6800 GT. Surprisingly, there is an exception to this. Chaintech’s overclocked model, the AA6800 Turbo, carries a price at or even a hair lower than most standard 6800 cards.”

Albatron GeForce 6800 Ultra @ PCStats
PCStats :: Wednesday, October 06, 2004
“With so many differently clocked 6800 models to choose from, consumers have a couple of routes to follow. They can shop on price points alone, or shop smart and overclock for a little after-the-fact performance upgrade. For example, the Albatron GeForce 6800GT is not quite as fast 6800 Ultra version, but with its core running at 350MHz it is still plenty powerful, and a heck of a lot less expensive than a 6800 Ultra. It’s also safe to assume that the 6800GT is overclockable to Geforce 6800 Ultra levels (400MHz core), and in fact in our own round of testing we were able to push this card as fast as 433MHz!”

Altec Lansing XA2021
Phoronix :: Wednesday, October 06, 2004

“Altec Lansing has long been known as a reputable leader in the North American audio industry for producing outstanding audio systems. Altec Lansing has recently released yet another speaker system, the XA2021, to their already large selection of audio solutions.”

ATI Radeon X300 Reference PCI Express Videocard Review
Tweaknews :: Monday, October 04, 2004

“What I will be stating is that if you are moving to the new Intel LGA775 specification or the new Athlon64 PCI Express motherboard and you just need a basic 2D videocard, the X300 based alternatives on the market will make you more than happy. If you are even considering gaming, do yourself a favor and upgrade to an X600 if you want some decent playable framerates on any of the more recent or newly released games on the market.”

BFG Geforce 6800 OC Review @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Saturday, October 02, 2004

“We all know that the Geforce 6800 series is Nvidia’s new generation comeback kid. It is the first video card to support Shader Model 3.0. There were glimpses in the Far Cry v1.2 patch of what the new SM3.0 was capable of. Unfortunately, Ubisoft pulled it off due to bugs with ATI video cards. The majority of you know the 6800GT is possibly the best performance/price ratio video card today. It has the full 16 pipelines, just like the 6800 Ultra, but with a price tag $100 less. The only difference between the GT and the Ultra lies within the clock speeds. The slower clocks can easily be remedied by overclocking, provided that you have good cooling. This, of course, is good news to the enthusiasts. We’d all love to save that $100 and still get the performance. What about saving another $100 and going with the vanilla 6800? That, my friends, is what we’re going to find out.”

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