February 2005

In June 2003, Microsoft bought antivirus company GeCAD and last December purchased Giant Company Software, which develops antispyware software. In addition, Microsoft is working on antivirus and antispam services for the next version of Exchange Server as part of a project formally called Exchange Edge Services.

"We are pleased to showcase the Phantom Game Service at ESC as an innovative example of how Windows XP Embedded can create a custom product solution and enable new services," said Jane Gilson, director, Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft Corp. "Windows XP Embedded provides a familiar and flexible development environment and feature set Infinium utilized to deliver a compelling home entertainment application."

"Hitachi's introduction of the world's first 3 Gb/s SATA drive exemplified how the company is innovating on behalf of its customers," said Becky Smith, Vice President of Marketing, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "Our collaboration with Silicon Image will showcase the numerous benefits of 3 Gb/s SATA and underscore Hitachi's position as the hard drive performance leader." Hitachi's 2.5-inch, 1.5 Gb/s SATA drives, which are also shipping in volume, will also be on display with Silicon Image at IDF.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 ES is immediately available to customers of The Planet. Red Hat's existing subscription customers can also obtain the new release. The Planet says the new platform will enable its enterprise customers to realize higher security and performance benefits throughout their IT environments, as well as the benefits of an open-source solution.

Both come recommended, but the DFI has strings to its bow that you will not find elsewhere. Go forth and purchase, there's absolutely no finer Athlon 64 mainboard at the time of writing.

"When pulling the Coolink BAT1VS out of the shipping crate, we were stunned at its immense size but little did we know just how big it really was... When installing the BAT heatsink it covered up 26% of the motherboard! Although the unit may be massive, in both weight and size, it will be interesting to see if it can effectively drive down the CPU temperature."

Our mega 915P Express motherboard shootout comes to a close with definitive benchmarks and feature analysis on each of the 17 motherboards showcased. Read on to find out which board will give you the best performance or best value today.

"Thermaltake continues to expand their PC power supply product line, which now includes the Purepower 680 watt PSU. Yes, you read that right – 680 watts maximum total output power! The Thermaltake Purepower 680W is ATX12V v2.0 and EPS compliant and provides all the latest connectors including a 24-pin main power, serial ATA, and +12V PCI Express connectors. The unit also includes active Power Factor Correction (PFC) and uses two 80mm fans in a push-pull configuration for cooling."

"One of the benefits of the MEGA View 561 is that it is multipurpose. While it's larger than the iPod, it's smaller than portable DVD players. Add to the fact that you can pile on quite a few movies on the 20GB drive, you save the additional hassle of packing extra DVDs."

"One company which has done a great job of putting their displays on a pedestal above most other companies has been Samsung. Through quality, innovation, design, and some clever marketing it has become known that Samsung's LCD are usually a cut above the rest. Though this is debatable, and competition is stiff, it cannot be refuted that Samsung is a leader in the LCD market. This review will be taking a look at the first 17" LCD monitor to feature a 1000:1 contrast ratio, a distinction which will certainly prevent it from being confused with the rest of the products out there."

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. continues to make headway in the processor arena, last week demonstrating a dual-core version of its Athlon 64 processor for desktops, which it plans to introduce in volume later this year. A week earlier, AMD demonstrated its dual-core Opteron in multiple server and workstation products at LinuxWorld. But while its chips are finding homes in enterprise-class systems from Hewlett-Packard and IBM, it has yet to crack Dell.

If you were Sony or Philips and you found that Microsoft had been not just using technology that you invented to invade your markets, but had been giving it away, would you want to sue or negotiate?

SANTA CLARA, CA—FEBRUARY 28, 2005—NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, today announced the Company will preview its upcoming NVIDIA nForce™ core-logic solutions for Intel CPUs, including support for NVIDIA® SLI graphics technology, at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) this week. Drew Henry, general manager of MCP business at NVIDIA, will also deliver a keynote address for IDF, being held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, on Tuesday, March 1, at 10:30 a.m. in room 2004. Mr. Henry will speak on the topic: “Developing the New Enthusiast PC”, and outline the benefits that NVIDIA nForce media and communications processors (MCPs) will bring to Intel computing platforms, including SLI, integrated firewall security, and the safe storage of digital media files and content.

The HIS Radeon X800XL IceQ II Turbo is an impressive product, the same can also be said for the Radeon X800XL. There are so many impressive aspects of this product that help this Radeon sell itself, though none more so than its uniqueness. Amongst the endless amount of clones out there this Radeon X800XL graphics card stands out as something different...

"Licensing costs is a huge savings," said Jeffrey Hewitt, an analyst at Gartner Inc., in San Jose, Calif., adding that the money not spent can be reallocated to the purchase of additional servers, boosting performance and uptime.

Earlier this week Intel announced their first desktop processors that will support 64-bit extensions similar to those found on the AMD Athlon 64 processors. These new chips not only bring new features to the table, they also raise the maximum clock speed of the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition to new heights. I've received both the new Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition at 3.73GHz and the Intel Pentium 4 660 (3.6GHz) and I plan to show you the most comprehensive 64-bit benchmarks of these chips that are available on the Internet. While Microsoft still hasn't come around with an x86-64 64-bit OS, Linux has had a stable 64-bit version for some time now. So let's take these processors out for a spin and find out how they handle 64-bit code and how they stack up against AMD's top two processors. Welcome to the LinuxHardware.org 64-Bit Desktop Battle

Every so often I like to do a review where I compare a high-end video card to a top-shelf mid-range card so that consumers can see what they get for usually about twice the price. The main focus of this review will be the Leadtek WinFast PX6800 GT TDH, but the secondary theme will be this comparison. I recently reviewed the Gigabyte 6600 GT, which is definitely a great mid-range card that many people would love to have. Thanks to Leadtek, I now have a 6800 GT that will allow me to do this high-end to mid-range comparison.

"With such a late release of the NF8 and the massive move to Socket 939, it'll be tough to stay in the competition. Abit doesn't worry though. Socket 754 is still a great and speedy platform and Abit promises that the NF8 will perform, and perform well. My question is, since their KV8 Pro became such a success, how is the NF8 going to compare to it's cousin motherboard?"

Does your PC sound like a broken refrigerator or maybe a hair dryer? Nexus has a solution that will let you sleep at night. Nexus (the 'Stop the noise' company) has sent Techware Labs a few items to help us see quiet down our lab machines. Read the review to see if their magic sound absorption material actually performs.

"When Corsair first brought its Pro series of memory to the market, it grabbed quite a bit of attention from the enthusiast community. After all, Corsair was the first to bring the "LED lights on memory" idea to reality. Although the company charged a premium solely for the LED lights, there was at least something in the market for the exclusive user who was looking to make their computer an extra special system with LED lights on possibly every component. Not surprisingly, the performance between Corsair’s Pro and regular XMS series was identical, saving those who were not interested in the LED idea. Expensive or not, it was a novel idea that put Corsair one step ahead of the rest."

To prepare for the possibility of having your DVD drive leaving you out in the cold one morning, we will discuss problems that may cause DVD failure as well as the procedures you should take to correct these problems.

Intel has formally reported a scientific breakthrough using a standard silicon manufacturing process to create the world’s first continuous wave silicon laser.

The MSI 915P Neo2 Platinum is the final contender in our Intel Grantsdale motherboard shootout. This flagship board from MSI offers several enhancements over the mainstream 915P Combo, but is it enough to win you over?

Six-year-old Mandrakesoft has designs on being a first-tier player. The last surviving European commercial Linux distribution, it going to acquire Conectiva, the Brazilian Linux distro, for $2.3 million in stock to increase its size and R&D capabilities.

"The highlight of the Swiftech H20-120 Rev.2 Water Cooling Kit is the inclusion of the MCW6000-P Water Block. The MCW6000-P consists of a stamped copper housing and brazed water block base that was manufactured using high precision CNC production methods. The base of the MCW6000-P is very reflective and features a thin pin design that consists of 281 pins. Swiftech advises that this particular geometry design maximizes the surface area exposed to the fluid and promotes turbulent flow which enhances the convection heat transfer."

Root kits are basically Trojan horse programs that run on your network but that you can't find because they "stealth" or hide themselves. Windows Task Manager, Windows Explorer, antivirus programs, and other applications can't detect the presence of these stealthed programs.

"Overall, the GeCube X850XT is an amazing piece of hardware. Up to date, this has got to be the fastest and meanest graphics card we had ever tested back in our labs. The Uni-Wise cooling solution is an ingenious solution we saw with the GeCube X850XT. Not only does it saves space, the cooler also performed great and made less noise. However, keep in mind that the X850 series run pretty hot so indirectly it could raise your case temperatures."

"VROOM! VROOM! VROOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!! Yeah! It's the racing season again! Excellent time for all racing fans as Need For Speed : Underground 2 is here!

Today, goldfries will take you with him as he speeds through NFS : Underground 2. Join him as he evaluates the latest incarnation of the NFS series!"

"Just in case you didn’t get the love you deserve on Valentine’s Day we’ve teamed up with Corsair to bring you 4GB of love. This love will come in the form of four 1GB Flash Voyager USB drives that we’ll be giving away. The rules are simple just send an email with the subject line “Corsair Voyager Giveaway” include your name and email address in the body to contest@systemcooling.com. The giveaway will run from Feb. 15th to the 28th, at the end of which we’ll randomly draw four lucky winners. Contest is open to the world. Please note that your name and email address will be forwarded to Corsair for marketing purposes. Basically all you’ll get is Corsair’s Monthly Newsletter which you can unsubscribe from later on. If you have any questions please drop by the forum. Good luck to you all!!!"

"C|net is reporting in an interview with Tom Rizo, director of product management in Microsoft's SQL server unit, that 'the company is thinking about including the forthcoming SQL Server 2005 in Microsoft's shared-source program for disclosing product source to customers'. Is Microsoft reinventing themselves, and are they ready to learn the benefits of open source?" From the article: "It's not finalized. It's not anything there, but if a lot of customers demand it, we'll definitely look at doing shared source with SQL Server..."

Microsoft is alerting customers that it will soon start delivering Windows XP Service Pack 2 to all customers using Automatic Update, whether they want it or not.

A lot of products came across the desks of CNET editors this year. Some were great; a lot were not so great. Which were our editors' favorites? From desktops to cell phones and more, see the 100 standout products of 2004.

It shouldn't take long to figure out that it's usually better to bid later in the auction--the later, the better. Many eBayers wait until the last few minutes of the auction to bid, leaving no time for lower bidders to be notified and respond with higher bids. This is called sniping, and all it takes is a little nerve and the ability to tell time.

You’re no longer safe when you turn off your computer! The demons and zombies of DOOM are invading tabletops around the world. The DOOM Boardgame is now available from Fantasy Flight Games. The game features 66 plastic miniatures based on DOOM 3 characters, multiple scenarios, custom dice and can be played by 2 to 4 players in 1 – 2 hours. Pick up a copy today!

Level the playing field with the EA SPORTS™ Hitter’s Eye in MVP Baseball™ 2005. With unprecedented control of your at-bat, the ability to move in the batter’s box,and the power to read the pitch, master the art of hitting and own the plate with superior offensive tools

After months of public flirtation with Advanced Micro Devices, Dell's chief executive officer has reversed course, telling financial analysts that Dell doesn't expect to offer servers or PCs based on AMD's chips in the near future.

Microsoft has made no bones about its plans to release new 64-bit versions of Windows client and server in the next couple of months. But until now, the company has said little about its schedule for porting some of its own applications to 64-bit systems.

The SQL Server 2005 family, code-named Yukon, includes four editions -- Enterprise, Standard, Workgroup and Express -- priced at up to 25% more than comparable offerings in the SQL Server 2000 line. The new systems will ship this summer.

Granted, at first glance some of these items could appear extravagant to an individual lacking technical sophistication. Such a person might find the Editors' Choice Overdrive Torque.SLi tower beyond the pale simply because it's an overclocked AMD Athlon 64 FX fire-breather with dual nVidia GeForce 6800 graphics cards. In reality, buying anything less would be unconscionably imprudent—the breakneck pace of advances requires you to buy all the power you can afford. So rest easy as you frag those puling, underpowered losers to smithereens in Far Cry.

Intel has just released its new line of P4 processors, made up of four CPUs in the new Pentium 4 Processor 6XX series as well as the Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition 3.73 GHz. All five processors support Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology of course, but the big new addition is 64-bit memory support.

What is MacMod? An idea and concept that sprung to life in the minds of Tim Robertson and Chad Perry way back in the summer of 2003. The idea? Wouldn’t it be cool if there were a video show online that was like a combination of American Chopper and Junkyard Wars, but about Macs?

David Mechnic wanted to play "Half-Life 2" on his computer. But the video card in his PC was too feeble to handle the game's high-powered graphics.

So the engineer from Mundelein bought a better card, which in turn required a bigger power supply and a bigger case to hold the computing gear. Then his stock motherboard no longer fit so he bought a new one, followed by a new hard drive and a few neon lights to show off the new parts.

There are only two original components left: the memory and the processor, said Mechnic. "The memory will go next and then I'll be adding water cooling. A $300 video card turned into $1,100 in upgrades."

"A soprano can be defined as a high singing voice, or in the case of Thermaltake, one of their latest computer chassis'. When we examine the Soprano Middle Tower, will this case make us want to sing in honor or great disappointment?"

Gamers from around the world are invited to join ATI Technologies Inc. and its marketing partners at the Ultimate LAN, held in association with the Texas Gaming Festival in Dallas, February 25th to 27th. In addition to offering gamers three days of top-notch gaming, the event will include an overclocking demonstration and a PC modding event. Attendees will get the opportunity to preview the world's first 512MB gaming card and one lucky gamer will even get to take one home

"Mad Echidna" has posted an article about his migration from a Linux based PC to an old iMac in this article. My Take: My reply to his annoyances: ...

"Since we were slashdotted into lag heaven this week (and nobody likes to surf at 2400 baud anymore), we're extending the (FREE STUFF) another week to make up! She be runnin' until March 10th, so you know what ya need to do!"

The first digital SLR from Nikon to cross over the double-digit Megapixel barrier is the Nikon D2X. Armed with a new DX format image sensor of 12.4 million effective pixels, it is a 6.8 Megapixel camera as well. How's that you say? Let us tell you more.

"The Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI is built around the popular nVidia nForce4-SLI chipset. This board supports socket 939 Athlon64 and AthlonFX processors, as well as up to 4GB of PC3200 DDR RAM in a dual channel configuration. The board features an onboard four port SATA/RAID Silicon Image controller, two Gigabit NICs, one wireless 802.11g PCI network card, a 7.1-channel audio controller, three IEEE 1394b ports, Gigabyte's DPS-2 power system, and of course dual BIOS'. The GA-K8NXP-SLI also has two PCIe x1 slots as well as two standard PCI slots. Finally if that weren't enough already, the nForce4-SLI MCP supports the new Serial ATA II standard for up to 3Gb/s of HDD goodness on four channels. A pretty well rounded motherboard I'd say, wouldn't you?"

"Illuminated keyboards look amazing. Plain and simple. I remember when I saw my first Eluminx glowing in bright blue, it was a keyboard of which Captain Kirk would have been proud. Since that day there have been many EL and LED keyboards out there and most are just lighted adaptations of a basic slim keyboard. Logisys however has added a little pizzazz- a keyboard that let’s you know when you are receiving a call by blinking. Remember how cool your first Nokia GSM mobile with a blinking keypad was? Same thing here, just with a computer keyboard.!"

"Want a FireGL workstation card but can't afford to pay ATI's exhorbitant prices? Well, why don't you grab a Radeon desktop card and mod it into a FireGL card? Yes, you can easily mod a Radeon into the FireGL!

Our guide will go through all the possible FireGL mods for the Radeon 8500, 9500, 9600, 9700 and 9800 series of cards and teach you just how to mod your Radeon into a FireGL! Check it out!

Here are the updates:-
- Added a section on the Forsage driver in page 21.
- Added even more benchmark results in page 22.
- Added a notice about the possibility that the new drivers may not be moddable in page 4. "

The Silencer series is not highly recommended for use in an overclocked system, but instead is aimed for systems with silence in mind. But without a doubt, you'll be able to see this little budget cooler in action today, in both stock and overclocked environments."

"This article talks about the soon to come Google Autolinks feature which has been very controversial in the webmaster world and will explain why it is a serious issue, and perhaps even illegal."

"Arctic Squad had a look at four VGA coolers. Three of the were equipped with a fan and one of them was passive. Which one finished best, which one had much to improve? You'll find answers in the review..."

And with his past experience of trade shows, Wil Harris isn't really looking forward to it.

Their true performance power lays in the fact that no matter how high the resolution goes, you're getting some awesome frame rates. With the exception of Doom III, there was almost no drop in frame rates at all. Even with all the eye-candy maxed out, we saw very little drop in Far Cry and Half-Life 2. If you're a gamer who likes his settings maxed, then these cards are for you.

The first thing I want to point out is this is not just a review of SLI; I am going to look at several aspects of the nForce4 chipset. Also this is not a clean install machine being looked at. This is a REAL WORLD machine. It is loaded with all the tools I use for work and things that most computer users would have installed and running. So the performance numbers you see on things should show you how your machine would perform if you had the same system I have built.

"For us LAN geeks, when we go out in seek of new computer gear we tend to suit up for what were built to do, and that is to LAN! We will jazz up our machines by pimping them out in all of the ungodly ways imaginable, as well as purchasing components that will make our LAN going experience as less of a back breaker as possible. For instance...

“Even though Logisys Computer has been a sponsor for ExtremeMhz for a long time, on occasion they have still managed to throw me a curve ball. If you would have asked me last month what the next product Logisys would come out with, the very last item on my list would have been a heat sink! Their first offering is a solid copper video card cooler, designed to be compatible with the majority of video cards currently on the market. Let’s take a look!”

"We were quite pleased with Mushkin's PC2-4200 3-2-2-8 as it performed reliably and was quick as well. We did hit some hurdles in overclocking past DDR2-667, but in that case you would be better served by their PC2-5300 kit. Other than that, Mushkin doesn't package the bling such as flashing LEDs, but in turn their ram modules are easier on the wallet."

"The MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI is actually the third revision of MSI's popular K8N Neo series, and it's now based on the brand new nVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset. The motherboard supports Socket 939 AMD Athlon64 processors with HyperTransport running at a smooth 1 GHz. In terms of memory, the board supports up to 4GB of PC3200 non-ECC DDR RAM, and unlike Intel's new DDR-2 systems, you won't have to throw out those trusty sticks of DDR memory if you're upgrading from an older box. There are two physical PCI-Express 16x slots on the motherboard as well as three standard 32-bit PCI slots. Under SLI, the two PCI Express videocard slots operate with 8 lanes each. The SLI jumper is included in the package."

Intel has bumped up the CPU variety in both performance and features with a new line of P4 6xx series of processors as well as a new Extreme Edition version for gamers too. Read on to see what these 64-bit desktop processors were capable in today's usage patterns.

AMD recently released their latest Opteron running at 2600MHz, the same speed as the Athlon FX-55. With one Opteron speed hike usually comes the next one on the desktop, which for Athlon FX means 2800MHz and FX-57. Apply the logic above and we can examine the performance of FX-57 before launch, using an existing FX processor and its unlocked multipliers. With FX-55, all that means is the use of the 14x multiplier at the standard 200MHz dHTT (derived HTT, calculated by the use of the base HTT clock and clock divisors). While it's not quite a front-side bus, since the memory controller always runs at core frequency, it's close.

The DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B is said to be the best NForce2 based motherboard (or even the best Socket-A board overall). This is still not good enough for some users, so we show you how to mod the board to increase VCore, Chipset Voltage, Memory Voltage and Southbridge Voltage. Also included is a mod to remove the VCore overvoltage protection and to increase the VCore stability.

Components in your computer need proper cooling-- I'm sure you know that. CPUs, video cards, cases, hard drives all need to be cooled well, but in my opinion, hard drive cooling is the most important. If a CPU dies, you can get it replaced under warranty or at worst, go buy a new one-- but a failed hard drive could mean weeks of downtime, and most importantly, losing all your precious data.

It was only yesterday that we exclusively brought you news of a 512MB GeForce 6800 Ultra from Gainward. Today, it's ATi's turn, with a Radeon X850 boasting the very same capacious amount of graphics memory. HEXUS has obtained shots of the new card.

Copyright Systemcooling.com

It's that time again. We’re almost two months into the New Year 2005, and with all the CES hoopla finally out of the way and some hard decision-making behind us, we’ve finally compiled SystemCooling’s Coolest of 2004. These are products that we thought made an impact on the enthusiast computer market and created a new standard for others to follow.

Copyright TheTechLounge.com

"Take Oakley’s high-tech eyewear technology, morph it with an MP3 player built on a SigmaTel chip and out comes Oakley Thump. Though you will need some major coin ($395 for the 128 MB version up to $545 for 256 MB model) to get a hold of a pair of Oakley Thump, it does separate the men from the boys when it comes to cutting edge style and technology. Lil’ John even has his own limited edition Thump color scheme (WHAT?!? YEAH!!!)."

Copyright Xtremeresouces.com

Welcome back to my second half of my look into two gamer computer cases by XG and I saved the best for last. Let me introduce you to the Viper. The Viper is easily the single most impressive OEM case you can buy that has most all the modifications you could want from a low cost mid-tower. The Viper runs a little more than the Sidewinder but what you get is an amazingly unique case that is fully modded from the factory.

Copyright OCmodshop.com

"The accelerator nozzles on the RBX are a very interesting concept. They allow the end user to adjust the water flow through the block to best suit the rest of the cooling system. The accelerator nozzle kit contains four precut nozzles and one blank for your own design. The #1 nozzle is the only one included with the block but the nozzle kit is fairly inexpensive considering the adjustability and performance tweaking it allows."

Copyright Extrememhz.com

While I personally do not use webcams as much as I used to a few years back, I can honestly say that the Logitech Quickcam has always been my preferred choice. The company has certainly come a long way from their first B/W Quickcam. Sporting a highly innovative design and feature set, the Quickcam ORBIT, also nicknamed "HAL", is sure to impress those who see or use it. This highly unusual and futuristic webcam features automatic pan and tilt capabilities as well as automatic face-tracking software to ensure you're always in the picture.

Thermaltake may be better known for cases, power supplies, and CPU coolers, but throughout the years they've also marketed their line of Hardcano multifunction drives. The Hardcano, despite its name, has turned into a good bit more than a hard drive cooler over time, and ironically, this newest model isn't even a hard drive cooler. Rather, this newest Hardcano 13 is a temperature monitor/rheobus/multi-function memory card reader. Best of all, it fits all in one compact, attractive package that goes straight into any 5.25" bay.

It has always been understood that a power supply unit (PSU) is extremely important to the performance of a computer system. The stability of a power supply unit affects everything from how many components your PC can handle to how much your system can be overclocked. That’s where ThermalTake comes in. ThermalTake has always been at the forefront of the computer cooling scene and today we have one of their new 350 watt Fanless PSU’s (W0029 model), a power supply that not only provides a decent amount of power, but one that is also completely silent.

"In PCstats critically important guide to data recovery, we walked through several freeware applications that you can use to restore your data in case of disaster. Today we're going to take a quick walk through the features and tools of a commercial option for data and file recovery, SoftLogica's Handy Recovery 2.0. As you'd expect, this $30 data recovery program is free from many of the limitations that can make using freeware recovery software a trying experience. Handy Recovery supports the NTFS file system, has a full GUI and most importantly, is easy to use."

"I'd say that if you are a desktop computer owner and wish to clean the hard to reach areas of your computer from time to time and you're worried that your nice keyboard may be evolving into an eco system, you could invest some money to get this tool to help you out. You could also clean your CRT Monitor Screen real quick with this item without the need of wetting a cloth, wringing it out and running it where water shouldn't be present. So I'll say that it is a nice tool to have, although it isn't a MUST for everyone out there. I believe that you could use it to clean the insides of a dusty desktop computer, but please, do not switch it on while doing it!"

this mouse is a great example of new technology in this specific market, and you would not be wrong - Logitech have raised the barrier when it comes to cordless mouse performance. Cleverly packaged, and with out-of-the-box use, the MX1000 appeals to graphics professionals gamers and mainstream users alike; comfortable and easy to use, the SetPoint software only extends its functionality.

"AMD's Cool'n'Quiet is, for many, a major selling point of the Athlon 64 processor family. Designed to cut down on heat and noise, this option has not been the easiest to enable for many users. This Quick'n'Easy guide to enabling Cool'n'Quiet will hopefully help those befuddled users take a step closer to lower temperatures with less noise."

"Ever thought of breaking the 500MHz barrier? And doing so without resorting to loose timings? Well now, you can!

Today, Chai takes a good look at the new Corsair XMS4400 1GB TwinX Memory Kit! How well will these ultra-fast modules perform? Let's find out! "

"Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. That is certainly true when it comes to computer case design. When the Circle showed up at my house I was less than ecstatic with its appearance, but over the week or so that I've had it around, I must confess that it's grown on me. Love it or hate it, you have to admit that ThermalRock's Circle chassis has a very distinctive look."

I thought about calling this article a "Geeks view of HTTP"; I am not going into the nitty gritty, but rather present a sketch of how a geek might see something like HTTP, how they can think something like HTTP is simple, and why they are not trying to make things complicated just for the sake of it!

That said, today we will be taking a look at the Gigabyte Radeon X850XT PE. This is not only the fastest graphics card ATi currently has on offer; it is also the most expensive. The average Radeon X850XT PE can be had for anywhere between $500 and $700 US.

"With PC Gaming a thriving industry, here in the United States and around the world, it's no wonder why companies are expanding their offerings from a single array of products, to a whole multitude of gaming devices. Icemat, known for their high performance mouse pads, recently plunged into the audio market, releasing the Icemat Audio MP3 followed by the Siberia. Up for examination in this review is the Icemat Siberia gaming headset."

"The Soprano is another entry into the enclosure field from the cooling giant Thermaltake. Lately we've been seeing a lot of pre-mod cases being mass produced and many of them aren't worth buying. Obviously the appeal is there for many individuals who want the "cool" looking case but don't want to do the work. Pre-mod cases aren't all bad for modders though, as even the transparent PC cases have spawned some of the greatest mods around. With the Soprano under our inspection, let's see if Thermaltake has created a pre-mod case worth buying."

"Once you feel like you have a pretty good understanding of what is going on, the next thing to do is consider your components. In my case, I purchased the motherboard and CPU on a budget and didn't plan to overclock from the beginning, so I will just have to tough it out. But as you will see in the end, a budget system can oftentimes clock higher than more expensive setups."

"For AGP based motherboard owners who are a little dismayed with all the PCIe attention by chip makers, nVidia and MSI have addressed your concerns with the NX6600GT-VTD128. The card was rock solid, and the performance improvements are light years over MSI's previous nVidia based mainstream solution."

Well, I was just starting to think that every new case on the market was modeled after something you might find in a comic book. Today we're here to see a pleasant surprise, a new case from Vtech called the X-Focus.

"Both the BT400 G5 Bluetooth Headset and the BT007Si Bluetooth USB Adapter are cleverly designed products. The Bluetooth USB adapter is exceptionally portable and still maintains an excellent stable signal. The USB Bluetooth adapter can connect to any Bluetooth device, from Bluetooth cell phones to Bluetooth headsets. With the thickness of only ten mm and the length of forty nine mm, the USB Bluetooth adapter still packs a load of features. These features include the 'Human Interface Device', 'Advance Audio Distribution Profile', and the 'Basic Image Profile'. The Bluetake adapter is perfect for consumers who have numerous amount of Bluetooth products. This adapter is designed to be capable to be conveniently transported along with other Bluetooth products. It can easily fit into any pocket and carried around all day. "

With Microsoft recently announcing that they will no longer work on a mainstream Windows XP version for the Itanium chips (they will still maintain their server/high-end OS version), Intel has no choice but to release a compatible 64-bit chip to AMD’s solution. On February 20, 2005, Intel officially released the 6xx series Pentium 4 processors and a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73 GHz. These processors will support their EM64T 64-bit extensions as well as a few other features.

"Voltage adjustments for the CPU is pretty unique. Besides the standard 0.0125 voltage stepping, DFI also has something an additional fine tuner if you will - a multiplier (from 1.00 to 1.36)can be applied to the base voltage to fine tune the actual voltage fed to the CPU in even smaller increments."

"Software support and strange bugs seem to plague those who want to write their own profiles for applications that nVidia has not supported yet. It’s a mixed bag of performance and issues that need to be worked out. However it shows a lot of promise, and if you don’t mind spending the extra dough to stay bleeding edge with your gamming performance in 15 games, nVidia SLI is the only route to go."

The creators of the popular gaming mouse pads have done it again. Tonight we have a look at the Icemat Siberia that not only looks good but works great.

Zalman: The name strikes fear into the core of all the heat generating CPU's everywhere. The CNPS7000A-AlCu from Zalman keeps up the battle against thermal meltdown on multiple fronts.

Welcome to the third installment of the Water-cooling for Everyone series. Quite a lot has changed in the computer world since the first installment was written over a year ago; especially CPUs and their operating temperatures. Today with most air cooling, like the god forbidden stock cooler, the CPU idles at a temperature that would have warranted concern as a load temperature back then. This rise in temperature makes alternative cooling, like water-cooling, a more logical and sought after choice, now more than ever. This makes water-cooling more mainstream than ever.

Thermaltake has put considerable thought not only into the looks of the case, but also the thermal properties and air flow of it. The front bay covers are all perforated to allow air to flow through freely. Don't be too concerned with dust either, as each one of the bay covers is fitted with it's own filter to keep those nasty dust bunnies to an absolute minimum.

When it comes to optical storage devices, there is one manufacturer whose name is synonymous with quality, dependability, and consistent performance: Plextor. Moreover, their products are known for stealth. Without exaggeration, I quite often find myself glancing at a Plextor drive just to make sure it's running. Seriously, they're that quiet. These reasons explain why I have never hesitated to pay a little more for a Plextor.

"Seagate, one of the most well-known hard drive manufacturers has stepped out from behind the curtain and has begun introducing several consumer level products to the industry. Seagate’s USB 2.0 5GB Pocket Hard Drive is one of those devices. A portable microdrive tucked away into a small, circular, well designed plastic shell. It was envisioned by Seagate to provide consumers an easy, affordable, and convenient way to bring almost any type of data on the road with them. The Seagate USB 2.0 Pocket Hard Drive has also won a CES 2005 Innovation award. So, does it live up to the hype?"

Overall for a good looking solid performer the OCZ ModStream series is a good choice. Some improvements could be made to really make this a top of the line power supply, but it'll look great inside most anyone's case!

“Today I get to check out another pre-mod power supply from Logisys Computer. Although we’ve seen power supplies chromed, painted, and clear, we’ve never seen one that was meshed! With 500 watts of juice and a low price tag, is this a good contender for your system?”

As a mainstream product, the MSI 915P Combo is a decent motherboard with sufficient features to please most users. The dual DDR and DDR2 memory support is certainly a welcomed feature, but it is also one that dents its ratings. Read on to find out more.

"As AMD introduced the Athlon64, Abit introduced their first Socket 754 motherboard. The first one, version 1.0, came with one huge bug--no AGP/PCI locks. Everyone looked down on Abit for not providing working AGP/PCI locks and turned away for quite some time. Fortunately, Abit was quick with their revisions and came up with the current version--v1.1. It provides working AGP/PCI locks to allow for potentially great overclocking results. While many consider Socket 754 an aging socket, it should still stick around for a while. Heck, Socket A is still around, so why not Socket 754?"

Overall, even with the price premium the ASUS Extreme AX700PRO/TVD is still an exceptional graphics card boasting excellent performance and rock solid stability. The frame rate performance is impressive, though nothing exceptional. On the other hand there is the stunning visual quality and highly stable performance. The current generation mid-range graphics cards are certainly amongst the best value solutions ever released.

Just wanted to let everyone know that there’s still 1 week left to enter our Xtrac-sponsored February 2005 giveaway!

“Ban these evil games”, “Videogame violence corrupting our nation’s youth”, “video games stole my husband”. It seems everyday that the media are making more and more claims about the evils of videogames. But are these claims based on fact, or is it merely that there is a juicy new scapegoat out there that the woes of the world can be pinned on?

Icemat, the maker of high end glass mouse pads, has recently expanded their business to include headphones and MP3 players. Today I will be reviewing a pair of Icemat Siberia Gaming Headphones, which come with a clip-on microphone, volume control dial, and a 3.5mm to 6.3mm converter. The headphones are self adjustable and sport a clean and modern look. If you are in the market for a new pair of gaming headphones, then this review is for you.

"Snugly packaged inside the box were the two case handles and the two case feet. The two can be distinguished by the textured rubber coating applied only to the ones that point down. “Always keep the rubber side down”, a good tip I’ve learned from my motorcycle riding seems well applied in other areas too. The feet made from the same diameter steel as the case are quite sturdy and I don’t think one need worry about over stressing them. They should be able to take your system weight and them some due to their rolled edges. "

"The SCX-4720F is a multi-functional machine equipped with the functionality of a laser printer, fax, copier, and color scanner. It also comes with some great features such as ScanToPC and direct scan to a USB disk. All of this capability comes neatly packed in 5,450 (17.7"x17.1"x18") cubic inches worth of space."

"Mushkin is an active leader in the memory market today with their release of blazing fast low latency PC3200 memory and DDR2 memory in mid-2004. When I took a look at Mushkin’s DDR2-533 CL4 memory a few weeks ago, I was quite amazed with the performance it offered, but I was also disappointed by the lack of performance increase when I overclocked those modules. Today, I will be taking a look at Mushkin’s DDR2-533 CL3 memory which offer an all-time low 3-2-2-8 DDR2 memory timings at 1.8v! I am hoping to find that these modules will offer greater performance than the CL4 modules; let’s take a look!"

The Sapphire Radeon X800 is clocked at 391.5 MHz core and 351 (702 DDR) MHz memory. The 391.5 MHz core clock is a bit shy of the 400 MHz ATI specs. We’re not sure of the reason why Sapphire would choose to downclock their cards from the reference specifications. They did; however, include an overclocking utility, Redline, that easily clocks the core to 400+ MHz. They also doubled the memory from ATI’s reference to 256MB, which is a nice bonus.

"At Phoronix, we continually find ourselves reformatting our systems for whatever reason. Whether it's an extravagant hardware change, wanting to upgrade a Linux distribution, or just to give the system a fresh install, we constantly find ourselves spending hours on the Internet downloading package updates. However, this isn't the case if you establish your own LAN up2date repository. In this Phoronix article we'll share with you the steps required in order to create your very own Linux up2date repository, configure your machines using this repository, and even host custom RPMs."

The Samsung TCCD ICs have really leveled the playing field like never before it seems. Now, any company that can get ahold of some of these chips and create some memory modules is able to compete with the big boys, like Corsair, Kingston and OCZ, because the Samsung TCCD chips are just that good. Of course, the companies are still trying to distinguish themselves from each other by adding blinking lights or using superior PCB for even better overclocking, but who would have guessed a couple months ago that you could compare Ultra memory to Corsair, and it actually be a fair fight? Ultra obviously has a long way to go before it will be listed in the enthusiasts' top five, but its new PC3200 XL modules are definitely a step in the right direction.

This beefed up power supply by Thermaltake, is o­ne of the few o­n the market currently to feature two PCI Express connectors, and also includes four SATA connectors, along with 3 separate +12V rails. All the power cables are sleeved in different colors, to differentiate the type of connectors. Thermaltake advertises this power supply to produce 680 watts of clean power, along with support for the latest motherboards and other components

Albatron has released the 6600U aimed at the budget minded consumer who also desires performance features. The Albatron 6600U takes a bold aim with features like HDTV, D-Sub, and heatpipe technology, but can it perform? We took the 6600U for a few rounds of testing to answer just that. Take a look inside and see what we found.

And it's that 64-bit ability of Prescott-2M that's its main selling point, rather than any performance to be gained by the double-sized L2 cache, compared to Prescott-1M. I missed out gaming performance since I honestly couldn't find a game that really enjoyed the 2MiB that the 6-series or 3.73GHz XE had. While I could show gaming scaling with the XE, that was due to bus speed increases and the 3.46GHz Gallatin-2M was often faster. The working set of most games simply doesn't care for much more than 1MiB or so of on-CPU memory.

LAN Addict and Sunbeam Technologies are teaming up to give you a chance to win a Sunbeam Samurai PC case!

All you have to do is answer a few simple, product-related questions! :-D

This giveaway runs from today, February 21, 2005, until Midnight, Central Standard Time, March 7, 2005, and is open to anyone, anywhere, so long as your entry does not violate any local or international laws.

The quality construction issue was further compounded by the bezel mounts that held it to the face of the case - these as you may recall broke off too. I am at a complete loss to explain the glaring discrepancies between the Sunbeam website's list of the case specs and what the true case specs were. Try as I might to find some redeeming qualities here - truth be told, this is one Samurai that should commit Hara-kiri.

In Part 1 - we show you how to pick where to buy your camera from, and how to avoid the con-artists that will take your money and run.

"The emphasis for this particular design has been formed around support for the Micro ATX motherboard format. The entire composition of the case has been designed using a custom aluminum front panel with a 0.8mm SECC body. The main focus for the SST-LC11 is the front bezel design which has been accented with brushed aluminum highlights. The left side of the front bezel includes an embossed SilverStone logo in black lettering as well as four USB ports for simple external device expansion options.

the rationale for retaining Pata will disappear as Sata DVD and CD drives become the norm. That’s still far from being the case but Sata DVD writers are now available – Plextor’s PX-712SA was one of the first. So using Sata optical writers and readers now is a good way of ensuring these components can be reused in future.

"Today we see the launch of the first 64-bit processor from Intel in the flavor of the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition with EM64T which is clocked at 3.73GHz. In this article we cover the changes in the new CPU and how it performs against previous processors from Intel. Read on for your first taste of 64-bit from Intel."

“If you’ve been watching Cooler Master’s product line for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with the CoolDrive series. Having gone through quite a few revisions through the years, I was rather interested to see what Cooler Master had in store after the CoolDrive 5. Surprisingly, it is not over the top with features! Instead they’ve handed us a pretty nice budget hard drive cooler – dubbed the CoolDrive Lite - which features all aluminum construction and a blower-style fan.”

It is this very feature that I will be focusing on today. In my hands I have PowerColor’s new Theater 550 Pro TV Tuner card. This card should allow me to convert my regular old computer into a digital powerhouse, or at least I should be able to watch a little TV with it. This card should also allow me to listen to FM radio and input various video signals into my computer for editing. Included with the card is a remote which every self-respecting media jockey must wield. But enough talk, let’s kick back and watch some TV… err… I mean, test this card!

More so now than ever people are realizing just how important it is to have a good quality power supply included in their setup. For example, if you are running a stock 300 watt power supply in today's high-end setups you are almost certain to run into a slew of problems. Random reboots, freezing, blue screens, etc. are some of the problems that could persist if your system is not adequately powered. It's probably good logic to overestimate the amount of power needed for your setup to prevent any of these types of problems from occurring.

"I don’t think I need to introduce Corsair to the readers of this site. Always on the memory front line, I think that some of us were surprised that they took so long in producing what a lot of us have come to think of as a necessity in daily computing, a flash USB drive. But we also knew that when Corsair did step up to the plate with one, it would stand out from the crowd. Today we’ll look at the 512 MB version of their new Flash Voyager, and see what makes it part of that special Corsair family."

“I have looked at a few Lite-On drives lately, most of which did impress me in terms of overall media compatibility and speedy performance. However, the last model I looked at, the SOHW-1633s, did not really offer much improvements over their previous models and still did not support 4x double layer writing out of the box. Fortunately, Lite-On has released their latest writer, the SOHW-1673S which now offers 4x double layer writing and next gen features such as 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing. These new features now make Lite-On worthy of consideration for those on the market for a 16x dual format writer that also offers faster double layer writing capabilities.”

Thermaltake makers of some of the finest computer components on the market today have introduced another great product, the Thermaltake 680 watt monster power supply. But can this power supply hang with some of the best power supplies on the market?

"While we give Intel a lot of credit for the new features, at the same time we're left thinking is that it? AMD owners have been sitting on similar technologies for almost two years now. While the names differ, for all intents and purposes they do the same thing. Basically, Intel hasn't brought anything new to the table for computing in general. "

Known for their excellence in peripheral cards of all kinds, I'm proud to review PowerColor's brand new Theater 550 Pro. With all the features on this simple and affordable TV tuner card, your PVR (Personal Video Recorder) dreams may have just come true.

While many computer users have made the move away from socket A to something newer, there are still many users who are still using and buying products for socket A, and Soyo hopes to captivate this audience and draw them into making the switch to one of their boards.

Copyright Systemcooling.com

Scythe has a well-earned reputation in the computer industry for innovative and unique designs. In this review we will take an in-depth lookat their new Arctic Silentium 2 mid tower case, which has been designed to provide noise reduction and optimal cooling. The Scythe Arctic Silentium 2 may appear to be a typical mid tower case from the outside but a quick look inside will reveal it is anything but traditional.

Copyright Overclockercafe.com

The Sunbeam Transformer is a nice package for $95. You get lots of features and function for a reasonable price. The design is bound to attract more than just a few people with its spiral window design accented by the LED case fans. While the Transformer was lacking a removable mainboard tray, it was roomy enough for to negate this to some degree. The only other two concerns we had were the lack of fan filters and the noise.

Taking a look at another VGA cooling solution from Zalman, the VF700-AlCu has a lot to offer in terms of performance and noise reduction. Overclocking was no problem for this unit...

"What makes the Albatron Trinity GeForce PC6600U special is that it is one of the first commercially available, virtually silent videocards. This next generation 'stealth assassin' gives the consumer excellent performance without the noise. Nice. Based on the GeForce 6600 GPU, the PCI-Express based, SLI-compatible, Albatron Trinity GeForce PC6600U has 128MB of memory as well as an impressive heatpipe GPU cooling system that is virtually dead silent."

When I interviewed ATI's Matt Skyner recently, we talked about availability of ATI's GPU products on both PCI Express and AGP. The general tone of his responses indicated that volume of new R480 and R430 products would be as high as possible and that ATI were also committed to bringing some of the PCI Express SKUs to AGP if the market required them. We've seen some evidence of that AGP endeavour recently with spy shots of RIALTO, and today I'm able to bring you further evidence of pervasive availability for R480 and R430 with a look at two new SKUs, one for each GPU.

“A while back, Yamaha introduced their innovative CRW-F1 CD writer that gave users the ability to label their discs right from their drive. While this feature, called DiscT@2, was indeed quite impressive and sparked quite a bit of interest, it certainly had its drawbacks. For one, you could only "tattoo" your discs on the data side, reducing the maximum storage capability of your media. It also required CDR media with a special darker (blue) colored dye in order to yield the best results. Fortunately, at least the one major drawback has been addressed, thanks to Hewlett Packard's exclusive new disc labeling technology called LightScribe. Drives featuring this new technology allow users to create and burn their labels where they should be...on the label side of the disc. But does it still have its disadvantages? Today, we take a first look at LightScribe and show you how it works and why so many have such a strong interest in these new and upcoming drives.”

“With today's computers getting more and more advanced and capable of taking on more functions, many users are starting to utilize their pc's for doing things other than reading email or surfing the net and the occasional excel spreadsheet. Sound is no exception.“

"That's right bob, it's your traditional 'register on the forums' contest! What do you win?

* 10 buttons of your choice at deeply disturbed (www.disturbed.ca)
* 5Fame Hard Drive Activity Module
* BG Micro ACS1375 8" VFD
* Official can of SPAM endorsed by RabidHardware (WITH certificate of authenticity!)

How to enter? Easy, just check out the particulars on our frontpage!"

"In a few days time, VIA will present AMD with its 100 Millionth chipset. Quite a feat for a collaboration that has already been 10 years in the making. Today we're going to look at an Albatron K8X890 Pro II motherboard which uses VIA's new K8T890 chipset, so you know what that means - PCI Express videocards! This Albatron motherboard supports all Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 or FX processors as well as up to 4GB of unbuffered non-ECC PC3200 DDR memory (in dual channel). The VIA K8T890 chipset supports PCI Express, so as you'd expect we see a full PCI Express x16 video slot on this board as well as a single PCI Express x4 peripheral slot."

The Gigabyte GA-8I915P Duo Pro shares many aspects with the previous GA-8GPNXP Duo, except that it doesn't come with extraneous features like the U-Plus D.P.S. module. Expect a robust performing motherboard with strong networking support.

"The Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 proved to be a solid and high performing board across all our testing and is a nice entry on Soltek's part for VIA's new PCI Express enabled K8T890. Overall, we were quite pleased with the motherboard and if you're looking for an alternative to NVIDIA for your Athlon PCI Express needs, the Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 is certainly worthy of consideration."

TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey state police seized more than $5 million in cash Thursday from a tractor-trailer found idling unattended for two days on the shoulder of a roadway, authorities said.

Well, apparently Enermax realized my dismay as I soon found that I would be reviewing their new CS-718 series ‘Max Flow’ case. With two 120mm fans and a translucent blue shroud running the length of the case, it promises to provide adequate airflow for even a fanless heatsink like the 103. And since the included fans are 120mm and come with a fan controller, it should still be suitably quiet. So now that I’ve lived with this case for a while, I’m prepared to give full discourse on how it performs. Of course, you have to keep reading if you want to hear it."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Studies looking at the oceans and melting Arctic ice lea