April 2005

Dell is both large enough and savvy enough to engineer and market the best gaming system around. This Dimension XPS Gen-4, however, is overpriced and, from a package's point of view, hasn't been specified too well. Dell, I feel, needs to reduce the price to below £1,500 inc. VAT and offer a choice between CRT and TFT at no extra cost. Custom touches, such as a gaming mouse and windowed panel wouldn't go amiss, either. It's surprising to say this, but Dell, with this XPS system, isn't doing what it does best, that is, offering unbeatable value for money.

AMD has officially informed European resellers about the end of socket 754 Athlon 64. According to the chart published today at AMDboard.com, orders will still be accepted until March 25 and June 15 for final deliveries before September 25. AMD also encouraged resellers to push socket 939 Athlon 64 instead, insisting on the larger bandwidth, lower consumption and dual-core compatibility of the latter. Finally, Athlon 64 in 2800+ and 3400+ flavor will not be replaced with socket 939 equivalent, while socket 754 Athlon 64 3700+ will be available in new Socket 939 version during second quarter of 2005.

The company is working on an experimental chip design that would integrate a PC or server network controller directly into the cache of a processor, Rattner said. This would accelerate the journey from outside a computer directly into the chip, removing a bottleneck in system performance, he said. Caches store frequently used data in a repository close to the processor, where it can be accessed much faster than data that resides in memory.

Santa Clara (CA) - Spring cleaning in Intel's product line-up: The company said it will remove Pentium 4 workstation and server processors that carry the EM64T add-on and sell the chips from now on as part of the Pentium 500 series. The 2.80 GHz version of the desktop processor retires.

"In this article for the weekend, we'll be taking a look at the Triplett Line-Bug 4 Phone/LAN Tester. This tester is designed to test any phone jack (RJ-11) or LAN jack (RJ-45)."

Tired of plugging devices into the back of your computer? Can't read your friends camera's memory card? Looking for something that will tell you the temperature of the your case? Look no more, for Sunbeam has created their 20 in 1 Superior Panel. This panel is like a Swiss Army knife for your external devices.

The overclocking results strongly favored the DFI LANPartyUT NF4 SLI-DR as it was able to achieve an impressive 322MHz FSB. The DFI LANPartyUT NF4 SLI-DR did however house a few less features and was the most expensive motherboard out of the lot. The EPoX 9NPA+ SLI on the other hand also boasts exceptional overclocking abilities and was the cheapest of the four motherboards.

"The cutout of the door enabling the front audio ports to be accessible when the door is closed truly is ingenious. There are features like this all over the case. Another example is the power supply mount, not only is the power supply support by the bracket, but ThermalRock also integrated two steel stands, to support the back of the power supply. The cooling of the ThermalRock Circle is also excellent. The backwards internal design truly does help with cooling, and thus gives us an early look into the BTX form factor. "

There are a lot of power supplies on the market these days. Some are good; others a pure junk. PC Power and Cooling's offerings are in the good group, kind of like junk being a 1972 Ford Pinto and the 510-SLI being a Porsche Carrea GT. And just like the car comparison, junk power supplies usally run $10.00 to $30.00 while the 510-SLI is a $229.00 good power supply

"It all started on Jan 22nd 2005 with a post in the GideonTech forums about being on TV. Something about modding your computer and playing with power tools. Anyhow, I sent my info in and got nothing and was a little surprised by this. So I did a little searching elsewhere and found a few other post just like this one. Being the suspicious person I am, I began to ..."

I4U Reviewer Ken Wold is waking up the neighborhood while reviewing the Pyramat Sound Lounger PM550. These 'loungers' are primarily designed for the serious 'gamers' in all of us, but Ken found some interesting uses of the Pyramat for audio and video fans as well.

"By way of our sponsors overwhelming generosity, ModdersHQ is proud to announce its 4th contest. If you’re looking for the elite in gaming peripherals, look no further. This bundle is guaranteed to improve your gaming and all around computer experience 10 fold not to mention the added “bling bling” your desk will be sporting."

“To most of us GPU cooling is not that important. If you have having heat problems inside of your case then you might want to consider some type of aftermarket GPU cooling system. Now if you are Overclocking then you defiantly want to get an aftermarket CPU cooler. Today we will be looking at the Arctic Cooling NV Silencer and see if it can solve some of these heat problems.”

Systemcooling.com has teamed up with our friends at Cooler Master to offer another great giveaway! This time, we're giving away a total of EIGHT Cooler Master CoolDrives in various flavors. See the forum thread for contest details.

Six months after the release of the print version of the BIOS Optimization Guide, the e-book version is now available! Come and take a look at the e-book version of the ultimate guide on BIOS optimization for PCs!

"Behold… the Zalman TNN 500AF fanless case and power supply! This is one of the biggest, baddest, most technologically advanced (not to mention expensive) PC enclosures on the planet. The TNN 500AF design is based on Zalman’s Totally No Noise concept (TNN) that uses two massive heatsinks to absorb and dissipate the waste heat generated by the PC’s internal components. The 500AF is a second generation case based on the original TNN 500A and offers many new features."

"Just because a cooler uses heatpipes doesn't make it superb. While the Kamaboko Z looked promising, the performance wasn't stellar. It's still better than the stock cooler of course."

"A-Top has been one of the long standing leaders in the computer case market by offering innovate new designs or supporting base models for OEMs. A-Top has always been there to support the masses since 1992. Just when you think they have hit the mark with a certain new case, they come back with something more impressive and better looking and simply mind blowing. My usual reaction when I see a new design up close is to say “wow”."

"Welcome to the electronic (and replacement for) Post-It notes of the 21st Century! You like to talk; I like to have something to say as well. Yet, often times, no one is listening or has time to do so. Say hello to the Voisec Talking Notes. This little device will change the way you communicate with everyone around you. It is small; to be precise, 42mm (1.65") in diameter and only 18mm (.07") in height. "

Whether you are a seasoned pro or a new shooter, these ten problems can creep up on you. So review this list often and make a mental checklist to use every time you photograph. You will notice an immediate increase in the quality of your images

“Is the 100+ hour work-week your start-up requires getting you down? I feel your pain. No, I really feel your pain! That is, if we're talking about pain in your wrists, back, legs or neck due to excessive computer use. So, why don't you take a break for a second, relax and read this -- and for heaven's sake, sit up straight!”

"One of the key components included with this kit is the Alphacool NexXxoS XP Water Block which measures approximately 2"x 2" x 0.75". The NexXxoS XP has been designed to be a universal water block with different clipping mechanisms that are cross platform compatible supporting both the AMD and Intel platform. This particular kit included a mount for the Intel socket 478 but optional support mounts can be purchased for Socket 754/939/940
(Xeon) and Socket A."

Building a computer is a fun process that is riddled with choices - if you have sufficient funds. For someone on a budget, the choices are substantially less. After picking out a suitable motherboard, CPU, memory, and hard drive, little is left for the other important components such as the case and power supply. It is with these budget consumers in mind that Raidmax introduces the Virgo 811W computer case, which is what this review takes a look at.

We talk to the chipmaker's chief executive about getting customers over their fear of Godzilla, Intel's antitrust defeat in Japan and the possibility of the £50 laptop

"Hard disk space continues to expand affordably. As the average computer can use up to three hard disks in addition to a CD drive, it's easy enough to go out and buy a new drive to add extra storage space to your system. In this Beginners Guide, we'll cover all the necessary steps for installing and preparing a second hard disk drive on both Win9x/ME and Win2K/XP systems, as well as setting up the hard drive for installation on a brand new computer with no operating system. As both IDE and Serial ATA hard drives are used in modern PCs, we'll also investigate the differences between these two types of hard disk."

“On removing the top you are greeted with exceptional build quality. It is intricately packed with high quality parts. Examples of the quality are plain to see. The RF shielding in place for the power cable is of extreme quality – you won’t see this sort of shielding on any other power supply. The size of the blue capacitor is simply oozing quality. It’s almost a piece of art inside and the attention to detail in terms of quality and design are top notch. This is the PSU equivalent of Audiophile HIFI.”

Due to debut as part of Longhorn, Microsoft's 'Metro' will allow users to share, print and archive documents with greater fidelity, the Redmond software company says.

Antec has truly set a new level of standards when it comes to power supplies. The revised TruePower offers the latest in power technology with an ample amount of juice to power the hungriest machines. This 480 Watt supply will surly outlast many of your machines. All of the voltages were extremely stable and the dual 12V line, 18A each, will be sufficient for all of your overclocking and power drawing needs.

"Now that you know how to set up a basic home server, find out how to turn up the security and set up some advance features."

Satellite radio is a new service being offered by two companies, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Both companies are offering over 100 channels of streaming music and entertainment. Is this the wave of the future?

"Raidmax makes a few changes to their original Samurai case and comes up with an Alienware lookalike. While it still focuses on looks, there are still some good features included, like dual 120mm fans."

"With NVIDIA’s introduction of the nForce 4, it was announced that this chipset would indeed support NCQ technology found in some of the latest higher end hard drives. What about TCQ? Will it work in the same way? Western digital made it obvious that TCQ will not work on controllers supporting NCQ and vice versa. This lead me to believe that the drives will still perform normally, of course Queuing will not function on my Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe for the Raptors (assuming they’re connected on the nForce SATA RAID controller) but further problems should not occur. After all, I did purchase a top of the line motherboard, it would only make sense to pair it up with some of the fastest hard drives on the market. Then came my data or storage drive; The Seagate 7200.8 400GB SATA drive. This latter supports NCQ… Read on!"

Notice the wonderful way that Enermax spell out the meaning of their high-tech acronym scheme. SFMA, S2, FC2 and A2 should be enough to keep you satisfied for now. That is until you realise its, just marketing gone mad, or if you prefer, BS2 (that's a double helping of BS by the way!)

The response time race has been a hotly contested one and ViewSonic's latest VX924 takes speed another notch higher, scorching ahead with a 4ms GTG timing. A definite boon for gamers, but what of its display quality? Find out right here.

"Most of the cases that have been reviewed here at Phoronix have been gaming cases and almost all of them have been tower cases. Desktop cases are now few and far between, but today we have a desktop case from Logisys, which is designed for Home Theater PCs, the Home Theater Acrylic Case (CS688CL)."

Thermaltake’s PurePower 460w power supply on the other hand is a high-quality product that is designed to meet the power requirements of today’s computers. While the performance of this product was excellent, it is the stylish design that will sell the PurePower 460w. When dormant the power supply looks impressive with its honeycomb grill and black sleeved cables.

“Well it seems EVERYONE is into making Pre-Modded cases these days, they are popping up everywhere, and every computer related store you go into has them now. All shapes, sizes and price ranges. Not many really stand out from the crowd anymore, then there is the Atop Xplode Gaming case. This one could be one of those that stands out from the rest. It's sleeks looks, built in LCD temperature monitor, and interesting replacement of the side window with a mesh screen. Available in an assortment of colors (red,orange,blue,yellow,silver and white). This is one of the first cases I have seen that really incorporates the theme throughout the case, by that I mean the Drive bay covers aren't plain, they match the case, even down to the mesh screen in them as well!”

You troubleshoot printing issues like you would any other computer/network related problem. You start at a general point and rule out the possibilities until you have the specific cause. The first question that you need to answer is: "Is the problem hardware, software, network or performance related?”

"With every new generation of video cards come many iterations of the new technology. With nVidia's introduction of the 6 series of GPUs, there have come multiple cards based on similar families of GPUs. Most notably the 6800 family brought to the table the 6800, 6800GT and 6800 Ultra. Likewise with the midrange 6 series card(s) I'll be looking at today, the Asus Extreme N6600GT/TOP/TD, there are many flavors based on the enthusiast's budget. With the Extreme N6600GT/TOP/TD we have what is one of the most expensive 6600GTs on the market, but include Asus' reputation for ultra high quality components, build quality, and with this model, equipped with 128 MB of Samsung 1.6ns DDR3. Follow along on my evaluation to see if this Limited Edition card provides the performance to go along with it's higher than average price tag."

For the most part, chip sets for AMD's processors are currently designed by partners such as ATI Technologies, NVidia, and Via Technologies, among others, who often hire other companies to manufacture the chip sets. AMD has previously said that it is not interested in building its own companion processor/chip-set products like those made by its rival Intel. However, Hector Ruiz, AMD's chairman, president, and chief executive officer, said today that his company is not opposed to deeper ties with chip-set partners that could involve manufacturing agreements.

"If I were to buy a graphics card today, I would have little choice but to go with either ATI or NVIDIA. To break down my buying decision, I would probably consider the card’s features, the novel (and pointless in certain cases) concept of future proofing, price and performance in games that I want to play. Everything sounds so clear-cut, doesn’t it? I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but picking a graphics card is not an easy task these days. I can probably list a few reasons as to why my thinking runs that way, but chances are you are already aware of them. Therefore, I am going to focus this column on special relationships between the game developers and the graphics card makers."

"With today’s processors getting more powerful and running hotter and hotter, heatsink manufacturers are going to greater extremes to keep your CPU cool and still run at a respectable sound level. Today we are going to be taking a look at what has to be one of the largest heatsinks on the market, the Thermaltake Sonic Tower. Not only is this heat sink huge, it also runs fanless, making it totally silent."

"Jetart enters the GPU cooling competition and gives Arctic Cooling a good fight. Equipped with blue LED's and universal installation, it becomes a great choice for enthusiasts."

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates gave computer makers a brief look at Longhorn on Monday, but acknowledged that many of its key features will not be evident until much later test versions of the new Windows.

"Longhorn is our big investment," Gates said, calling up colleagues to show, among other things, the improved searching and printing capabilities that will come with the next version of Windows.

This is part two of the Sunbeam modding accessories review. Continuing from part one, we take a look at some more products that Sunbeam have to offer and hopefully give some inspiration for any modding projects you have in mind.

"The HIS adaptation of the X850XT is more than well done, it borders on ingenious. Simple, yet extremely effective silent cooling, give you stable overclocks to the levels of the Platinum Edition without even a 2nd glance. Add to that a range of adapters that could make your day and a Dual DVI output launch this card to the top of the pile, especially when you consider the price differential for that Platinum Edition card next to it."

"The device in question is of course the Samsung Yepp YH-925GS hard disk MP3 player/photo viewer. This device is the high-end model in Samsung's lineup of hard disk-based players. The Yepp YH-925GS contains a 20GB hard drive and sports a nice bright 1.8 inch, 260K colour LCD screen with a resolution of 160x128 pixels. The Yepp YH-925GS features SRS WOW audio processing abilities, picture storage & playback, and approximately 10 hours of audio playback care of a 3.7V Lithium-ion rechargeable battery. As you'd expect, the YH-925GS can automatically function as a USB-based HDD storage device with any Windows 2000/XP computer as well."

" It seems that I have particular interest in water-cooling kits these days, recently posted the dangerden kit review, and now im stress testing another fine kit from Alphacool Germany. Alphacool has a website devoted to casemodding equipment and a wide range of water-cooling equipment. Alphacool fabricates their own blocks and equipment and create their own kits. I have the chance to look at their Complete Set Pro 120 *old version*.

WINHEC, SEATTLE, April 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, today demonstrated its 64-bit computing platform technology leadership with the immediate availability of a Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL)-certified
graphics driver that supports the entire family of Microsoft Windows x64 editions. The NVIDIA(R) ForceWare(TM) suite of software drivers works with all of Microsoft's 64-bit and 32-bit operating systems to provide customers with updated support and features that enhance their computing experience.

Club3D's example doesn't go overboard on the bundle, however you do get a great game and the cables you're given are sufficient to make good use of the VIVO ability of the board. The Club3D-branded DVI adaptor is a nice touch, too. That you also get the aforementioned VIVO ability on Club's board makes it even more attractive. Presentation is tasteful and the only thing that detracts from the board is its size, due to the RIALTO bridge chip, and the lack of dual DVI ports. If you can accomodate it in your AGP system however, it comes highly recommended.

"Thermaltake calls its new Kandalf case “The Super Tower” and with good reason. Not only is it super sized, it has tons of super features that really set it apart from the crowd. I really can’t say enough good things about the Kandalf. While the $200 price tag may put it out of reach for some, Thermaltake gives the buyer that can afford it lots and lots of very nice features and I would consider the Kandalf to be worth every red cent. It looks great, has superb cooling and was a dream to work in. The BTX upgrade kit and the ability to easily install a water cooling system are very nice features and add a bit of future-proofing that buyers really should consider nowadays."

"The BadGuy is made of steel with plastic fascia and corners — nothing wildly exciting there. Luckily, 3RSystem avoided the wild design excesses sometimes seen and the BadGuy is actually fairly stylish. We got the black version, and it looks pretty good."

"The stock 9800XT cooler is not even in the ballpark! The VF700 just simply outclasses it. With the same clock settings the VF700 outscored the ATI cooling solution, I was able to clock higher with no artifacts long after they appeared with the ATI cooling. For testing temperatures I kept the clock speeds at a level the stock cooling could handle with no artifacts. The CPU was set at 250fsb during all video card tests. Since I could not vary the fan speed on the ATI based card I conducted all these tests with the VF700 operating at 12-volts."

Swiftech, one of the original pioneers of water cooling, is at it again with yet another revision of their already famous water cooling kits. The kit we have in hand today is called the H20-120 Revision 3a. This is one of Swiftech's more powerful cooling systems designed for heavy duty cooling and overclocking. Could this the complete water cooling kit something you've been dreaming about?

Forgent Networks has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the software giant infringed on its digital-image compression patent that serves as the ...

"Paul decided he wanted to expand his site and give you more than just great modding information, he wanted to provide you with the best advice on computer hardware. It was decided to get some test rigs for reviews. Paul said, "I can make those for $30 in parts." But he forgot one thing, and I'm sure you've noticed it if you have already looked at the Test Rig... he forgot he's Paul Capello. He can't make just a test rig. It's got to be the sweetest, slickest, and hottest Test Rig around. It is a type of computer case after all isn't it? So scroll down and take a look at Paul's latest creation - the envy of testers, techies, and reviewers alike."

"Does your desk look like a disaster zone? I have seen so many horrible workspaces in the past few years I just had to do something about it. What is the number one offending issue when it comes to messy desktops? Go on shout it out.... Clutter! Wires! Bulky Monitors! Massive PC Cases! I can't do anything about your personal clutter like musty old coffee cups, chewed wads of gum, and that collection of dried up ink pens laying around. However, I might be able to steer you in the direction of something to take care of those wires, massive monitors, and chunky PC cases...."

Therefore to keep up the great sales, their engineers went a step further and created the all copper, the XP-90C. The XP-90 design was original and more importantly it worked. For this reason Thermalright have found little that they could improve on and an all copper design seemed like the only logical move.

Intel sent out an e-mail last week announcing that Microsoft will be releasing its long-awaited 64-bit Windows operating systems today ... which turned out to be true, as MS made trial editions available today. Intel was taking the opportunity to tout the fact that the new OSes, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition, both offer support for Intel's Hyper-Threading technology. Of course, they also offer support for AMD's 64-bit processors.

Recently, Hitachi and Seagate have come out with two of the biggest desktop hard drives available on the market at a massive 400GB each. These two drives carry almost identical specifications, with the exception of the Seagate Barracuda and its Native Command Queuing technology. Read the review to see how these two drives compare head to head, with and without NCQ enabled in the tests.

After nearly a decade, Microsoft's vision for how to protect especially sensitive information within Windows remains largely that--a vision.

"At Phoronix, we've always had good times reviewing Tyan motherboards due to their superb performance, stability, Linux support, and features. Today, we have another motherboard from Tyan and this time it imposes the NVIDIA nForce 4 AMD Chipset. Will Tyan continue to make us smile when we wrap up testing the Tyan Tomcat K8E (S2865)?"

Last year, Intel admitted that shipping 4GHz processors would be more difficult than it previously believed. The current top-of-the-line Pentium 4 Extreme Edition maxes out at 3.73GHz; the Pentium 4 model 570J ships at 3.80GHz. The recent dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition 840 is shipping at 3.2GHz. Apparently, Intel has unlocked the multiplier on the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 dual-core CPU, similar to the way AMD ships the FX series processors unlocked.

“Front panel card readers, fan controllers, and I/O ports are nothing new to us. They have been around a long time. Today we will be looking at a device that combines these 3 things into 1 superior panel. So without further ado I present the Sunbeam 20 in 1 Superior Panel!”

"Up until today, DDR400 has been the official memory standard for majority of the platforms, but Intel made the change to DDR2, and now it’s AMD’s turn to make a change to their platform. According to an insider source, AMD has plans to adopt DDR500 as its official memory standard in the very near future."

We reviewed the first Apple iPod Mini back in October and found it to be a really nice (and expensive) little portable music player. The Mini has been selling like hotcakes since it came out, with Apple having problem keeping them on store shelves. It seems Apple hit the nail on the head with the iPod Mini - sleek, sexy and full of style. One would not complain much if Apple leaves the Mini alone. However, Apple is a company on the move these days, and almost as fast as the first Mini hit the street, Apple has updated it.

Most of us, at one time or another has heard about the importance of a computer's power supply. A good power supply will insure clean and stable power is supplied to all of the computer's various components; thus, keeping the system stable and trouble free. Moreover, a good looking power supply will help keep the inside of your case esthetically pleasing, which is especially important if your case has a window. With all that said, the average do it yourself (DIY) computer user is most likely not willing to spend $100+ dollars for a power supply, nor should they have to. It is with this in mind that Raidmax has released the KY-550ATX 480W power supply. Does this aggressively priced power supply belong in your system? Read on and find out.

By now you would have heard of a new Internet browser and email client, Firefox and Thunderbird, through your friends who have been trying to convert you. Read on as we introduce their features and our Editor's choice of extensions to further enhance user experience.

"Shuttle continues to innovate as they introduce their newest small form factor case, to it's already impressive lineup. Shuttle's newest entry into the SFF market is the XPC ST20G5, which is the the first small form factor (SFF) computer offering both integrated graphics (including DirectX™9 and OpenGL technologies) and PCI-Express for the AMD 64 platform. The following review will aid you in examining the new features and technologies, which Shuttle has brought to the forefront with the highly anticipated XPC ST20G5 case."

"With many households running multiple computers, sharing a printer may be hard when faced with all the networking needed to be done first. If you happen to have a wireless setup already, add this Actiontec printer server and you can get every computer connected to your printer in just a few minutes."

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory has recently been released and it contains numerous different options for Shader 3.0 graphics boards and a benchmark mode. We’ve knocked together a short guide to the options available – giving examples of their IQ and performance differences as well as detailing our easily configurable benchmarking script that hopefully will be of use to reviewers and end users alike.

The ISOTOPE chassis is much like Marmite; you will either love it or loathe it. I must confess, having first seen it on display at the recent CTS show, I was set against it. Too many hard edges and too much internal activity. However, it's the kind of chassis that grows on you ... it becomes a talking point as much as anything else, and if you're the kind of enthusiast that likes to have something look a little different, the chassis, with its pre-distressed look and colour choice, is a real alternative to regular SFF PCs.

There are many MP3 Players out on the market, who can really keep count? There are some that do everything, and then some that do the minimal. What if you are looking for an MP3 Player that's compact, and comes in at a great price? Find out more as we take a look at the RCA Lyra 1072 MP3 Player.

"In the near future, malfunctioning robots known as "rogue boomers", threaten human life and cause mass destruction. What causes to boomers to go rogue is unknown, but the AD police is there to stop them when they do. Sound familiar? It should. Parasite dolls is yet another chapter in the Bubblegum Crisis / AD Police universe, this time chronicling three cases with "The Branch", a secret division of the AD Police..."

You love the films, but now the Star Wars galaxy is about to invade the PC world. Prepare yourself for the first ever Star Wars PC -- the Alienware Aurora: Star Wars Edition. Loaded with exclusive Star Wars content such as movie soundtracks, wallpapers, desktop skins, fan club membership and game demos, Aurora: Star Wars Edition systems come in two awe-inspiring case designs: Light Side or Dark Side. Which side is your destiny?

Forgent Networks has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the software giant infringed on its digital-image compression patent that serves as the technology behind JPEG.

"As you can already tell, we have something very exciting for you today. Jeff “Dgephri” Kaiser has been kind enough to share the story of his latest creation and how it came to be..."

There were numerous rumors floating around about LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling and its features. Feelings about lightscribe technology are mixed. Many users are fascinated with the idea of direct-disc labeling their media, while others think that it is not something worth their attention. One thing is sure: although many companies are talking about Lightscribe technology, there is not a lot of information about how it actually works, and if it is worthy of attention. The million dollar question is can the LightScribe technology compete with other printing solutions and will it replace permanent markers?

If you're like me, you've come to take wireless pretty much for granted. Everywhere I go, I expect to be able to connect to the internet to check my email, chat with my friends or get some work done. It seem no matter where I am, I can open my notebook and find a wireless network to plug into. However, there are times when I'm logged into a wireless network and suddenly lose the connection or the speed suddenly drops to an unbearable level. I'm sure you have experience this as well.

Ultra Products has created the simplest yet most comprehensive way to test your power supply output, the Ultra Power Supply Tester. Simply turn on your power supply, plug in your 20-pin power supply connector to the minitester and check the LED lights.

"Just a few years ago, water cooling a PC component was practically unheard of. At some point some people did however and some companies jumped o­n the opportunity to create water cooling systems for the enthusiasts, claiming a share of that market. So water cooling became something known and widely used just 2 years ago, evolving rapidly. Revoltec had o­ne of the first and oldest complete kits around, the Liquid-Icer. It was a nice, simple water cooling kit, great for Athlon socket A processors at the time. But time has come for it to evolve as well. Revoltec just introduced the new version of the Liquid-Icer, the Liquid-Icer rev.2, which is available for all the mainstream sockets available currently, claiming to perform great o­n all of them. To my good fortune, I have a Liquid-Icer rev.2 for socket 775 here for testing, to its bad fortune with the hottest CPU currently available, the Pentium 4 EE Prescott core. Let us see how this water cooling kit can fare against the heat of an overclocked Prescott."

"Although at a MSRP of US$49.99 you might deem this mouse to be a little on the pricey side, as with any computer product, if you want to best, be prepared to pay for it. This mouse packs the precision, the features, the comfort and the quality a gamer will require to allow them to accurately game for years without a single issue. I have yet to have a single issue with any Logitech product. You buy it, you use it, you enjoy it like it isn't even there."

"Overall the Titan Vanessa S-Type is a great heat sink. Performance is on par with other similar heat sinks, and the noise wise it is very quiet. If you don't have a Socket 462, mounting will be a breeze, and the included fan controller gives you that much more control of the performance."

The menu controls are self-explanatory. However a couple features really stand out. For one thing, there's a very useful Auto button. Rather than having to go through several OSD menus to get automatic calibration, you can now do it with the press of one button. Even better is the "Turbo" key. This has 3 brightness presets, labeled "picture", "text", and "economy". Each one is dimmer than the last. You can cycle through them by continuously pressing the Turbo key. It's an incredible feature as most times you can quickly and effectively switch between settings depending on the application without having to manually adjust the brightness. For instance, you can now read text ("text" or "economy" setting) and then play some Doom 3 (incredibly dark game, set to "picture" mode) without having to always re-adjust the brightness. As far as the buttons themselves go, they're nicely sized and simply a joy to press.

Overall this series of Samsung CLP-500's seem to be an awesome series of color laser printers. It looks like Samsung has made a couple of speed enhancements to the CLP-510n over the CLP-550's. A processor change and perhaps some additional hardware changes to improve this already great printer series.

As an owner of one of Shuttle's devices, I was hoping that the newcomer could take a high-end graphics card. Sadly, though, the answer was no. The SB86i is aimed at the business market and fitting such a card wasn't thought to be a good idea at all.

And that, I fear, will be same with most SFF BTX models. Your average graphics card is no problem but these tiny boxes can't take the sorts of card that gamers want to use. Their low-noise fans simply can’t deal with the heat, and there's no obvious way of getting sufficient air throughput to prevent things starting cooking.

"One of the outstanding features bundled with the NMediaPC HTPC 100B Case is the inclusion of two additional stealth panels that are located on the left and right hand sides. The left panel includes front portion extensions for dual USB, IEEE1394 Firewire, Audio and Microphone. The ports are attached to a series of extender cables which must be connected to the proper headers on a motherboard prior to use. The right side panel includes an integrated 7 in 1 Card Reader. The 7 in 1 Card Reader supports all the currently popular formats which include Compact Flash/SM and Secure Digital/SMC.

Much like we've seen with CDRW recorders, recording speeds for DVD recorders keep increasing. Now that 16x DVD recorders and media is available we investigate whether they're able to record a 4.7GB DVD in under five minutes.

"Dual-core CPUs have finally arrived to the server/workstation market with today's announcement of AMD's dual-core Opteron processors. This is something that has been talked about for a while now and today we finally get our first crack at putting them through our gambit of tests. Although this is similar to what Intel announced a couple of weeks back, AMD's implementation is very different and, while Intel's launch was targeted at the desktop, AMD went for the high-end server and workstation market. So
what will these new processors mean for workstations and how do they work with Linux? We've got some brand new Opteron 875s in the shop to show you. We'll be putting these new processors against Intel's latest Irwindale Xeons which run at 3.6GHz and feature 2MB of L2 cache and throw in AMD's fastest Opteron 252s for good measure."

"One of the strong points of the Kloss unit is the front panel. The LED display is very nice and provides processor clock speed, the amount of memory, the current time amongst other things. Also included are some standard multimedia buttons as well as a volume control knob. The eject button is not mechanical and does not rely on having the CDROM drive aligned properly and it works both in and outside of Windows"

ASUS has produced a souped up version of the GeForce 6800 targeted at the gaming segment with their V9999GE. Although it has many similarities to the 6800 GT, the GPU is still that of the normal GeForce 6800. Bundled with extensive extras, it's an interesting hybrid with the ASUS-class price.

Few PC trends have swung from one extreme to the other in quite the way air cooling has. Just a few short years ago it seemed noise from cooling fans wasn't just tolerated, it was positively encouraged. Heat sink assemblies designed to take multiple fans were selling well, and the fact that some retailers were selling them pre-installed with dual high speed 80mm fans installed and a resultant noise level that genuinely warranted the wearing of ear defenders did little to dent sales."

There are a lot of important factors to consider when building a HTPC, such as operating volume, heat, appearance and expansion. The Tenor addresses all these issues very well and I have already talked about the cases excellent expansion and stylish appearance.

FREMONT, Calif., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Panasas, Inc., today announced ongoing support of the AMD64 platform and its innovative new Dual-Core AMD Opteron(TM) processors. AMD Opteron processor-powered Linux clusters, teamed with the Panasas ActiveScale Storage Cluster(TM), are helping technical computing environments eliminate both compute and storage performance bottlenecks from Linux clusters. The resulting performance improvements increase the speed with which customers achieve their business results.

MARKHAM, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 21, 2005--To mark the 2nd anniversary of the AMD Opteron(TM) processor platform, ATI Technologies Inc., (NASDAQ: ATYT)(TSX: ATY) affirms its ongoing support of AMD's (NYSE: AMD) industry-leading initiatives. ATI is now positioned to translate the tremendous success with the AMD Opteron processor platform and 64-bit technologies into new opportunities with the introduction of Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors.

Microsoft is working on two Windows XP thin clients to provide a low-cost alternative for server-based systems.

The clients, with 64MB of RAM, 50MB hard disk and a Pentium processor, will cost less but offer the same management features and an array of hardware drivers. They are designed to run on low-end PCs that could then be used for simple tasks such as data entry or as a way to access server-based applications.

We all know how DDR2 is struggling to keep up with DDR, which in turn makes Intel struggle against AMD who has better performing microprocessors for the gaming and enthusiast crowd. Although Intel has managed to be "successful" with its latest generation of hardware in the OEM segment, thanks to Dell, majority of the enthusiasts tend to stay far away from Intel’s latest platform due to an unfortunate performance hit with newer standards and technologies.

"In our latest guide we investigate DDR-2 memory on the Intel Pentium 4 platform and the differences between high bandwidth and timings to figure out which offers the best system performance. What is better - higher clock speed or super tight timings? We discuss the reasons why one is better than the other and prove our claims through a range of different system configuration benchmarks."

“For the price this pad is excellent, especially if you compare it to other pads available for twice as much. But if you are limited to desk space, then you may want to re-think purchasing this pad, as it is very large, and will take up quite a bit of room on your desk.”

That's right only 9 more days are left till one of the largest give away ever is over!
So far we have giving away more than 60 Ultra Products items totaling over $1200 USD! Read the rules and you are half way there! The only thing stopping you from winning is not entering the contest!

“When the chief first asked me to review a “gaming” keyboard, I was a little bit leery. How much difference could a keyboard really make to my gaming experience? Apparently, quite a bit as we find out in this review.”

How To Enter:
All you need to do to enter the Oz Case Modz Graphics Competition is to create a wallpaper which in some way must be designed with a case modding theme. Post a link to your wallpaper in this thread and thats it.

"The MSI NX6800GT-T2D256E is a very solid offering for those looking to upgrade themselves from a DirectX 8 video card. While it's not based on NVIDIA's flagship 6800 Ultra, the 6800GT offers everything feature-wise that the Ultra does at a much lower cost."

"As the industry moves to pervasive, mainstream x86-based 64-bit computing, NVIDIA fully supports AMD's evolutionary approach and dual-core leadership with our NVIDIA nForce(TM)4 product line," said Drew Henry, general manager of MCP business at NVIDIA. "The combination of NVIDIA nForce and AMD Opteron processors provides stunning performance for our customers, especially those in the CAD and DCC industries who require a lightning-fast graphics
response. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with AMD as both 64-bit and dual-core technologies become essential for our customers."

"Websites are still cool. It doesn't matter how many badly designed personal sites there are, the fact is that a website still offers you almost unlimited room for personal expression, with the added side-bonus of potentially being useful. In this guide, PCSTATS will explore the process of hosting a website from your home computer using a broadband Internet connection. For the sake of simplicity, we'll stick to using Microsoft's IIS (Internet Information Server) to render the site, and help you deal with the issues of dynamic IP addresses, among other potential home-based web hosting problems."

S3 Graphics is back again with a new product that supports PCI Express bus, boasts potentially competitive features and is offered at a relatively affordable price. But is it enough to win the race with the solutions from NVIDIA and ATI?

"The very first PCs that began entering into households were based o­n the original desktop design. Not long after, this design was abandoned for the more practical and convenient tower design, which was better for space arrangement and heat dissipation. However, nowadays the ‘old’ format became popular for HTPC setups, as they require a desktop design which looks nice in order for them to harmonize a living room hi-fi setup. o­ne of the cases that excel in looking just perfect to complement a hi-fi arrangement is the Uneed DIGN HV5 HTPC Case. To the untrained eye, it will be mistaken for an oversized DVD player. Uneed is a company based in Seoul, South Korea. Being a very new company, they specialize in building o­nly HTPC cases and hardware."

"Until recently portable DVD players have been plagued with problems. They have had to battle short battery life, fragility, and sensitivity but things are improving. Even better, the price of these devices is dropping steadily as they have moved from a luxury item to something that anyone can afford. This review will be taking a look at one of the most affordable portable DVD players available to date, from DiGix, and seeing if its as much of a bargain as it would appear to be."

THE WORLD+DOG already knows that AMD has its Opteron dual-core CPUs ready and that it's set to launch them tomorrow. But not many know that AMD is launching dual-core desktop CPUs as well.

The DFI Lanparty Freezer is a chipset waterblock, made by german company MIPS-Computer. It is the only chipset cooler on the market which can cool the DFI Lanparty's NForce4 chipset, even when there are two video cards installed in SLI mode.

ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY)(NASDAQ:ATYT), the world leader for notebook PC graphics, today introduced the industry's fastest integrated platform technology for Intel PCI Express notebooks - Radeon(R) Xpress(TM) 200M. Highly versatile in design, Radeon Xpress 200M supports all currently available Intel(R) Pentium(R) M, Intel(R) Celeron(R) and Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 classes of processors. With industry-leading graphics performance and innovative PowerPlay 5.0 technology, Radeon Xpress 200M is ideal for a broad range of notebook designs including thin and light, performance thin, and desktop replacement.

It turns out that despite ATI's heavy investment in the Half-Life 2, a majority of the gamers that play this game use Nvidia cards. Some 50.78 per cent of people that submitted the results are using Nvidia cards, versus 41.23 per cent of users who had ATI cards and drivers installed.

"After we got back from CES this year, we reported back on the industry’s speculation of DDR and where it’s heading in the near future. It’s pretty apparent that DDR isn’t going to budge until after two years, if not more. Aside that, almost all memory makers had the same answers prepared for us, which were that we shouldn’t expect much from DDR in the near future. And quite honestly, this statement was actually true at the time, but things have started to take turn for the better, perhaps."

"Corsair is not the only player with the flashy looks. Crucial's Ballistix Tracer steps up with their "bling bling" memory to give enthusiasts great performance, overclockability, and of course, aethestics."

"Today we’re going to be looking at another new Cooler Master cooling product. It seems that Cooler Master has been keeping their engineers hard at work this year, coming out with some high quality innovative products. In my last review we looked at their new water cooling system, and in this one we’re going to see how their latest air cooling solution, the Vortex TX, compares in performance and noise levels."

NVIDIA's nForce4 is upon us, but what happens then to the nForce3 Ultra? These boards still pack a punch when combined with the Athlon 64 and better yet, will not burn a hole in your pocket with need for additional upgrades.

"The Coolermaster AQUAGATE R120 performs quite admirably. At the highest fan speed setting, the AQUAGATE managed to cool the scorching hot Prescott down to 48 degrees Celsius (stock Intel HSF averaged 68 degrees). That is quite an impressive achievement, as the Prescott is not an easy beast to cool. Prime95 puts a very heavy load on a processor, and in most cases probably achieves close to the highest thermal output the processor is capable of."

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the maker of the animated movie "Shrek," has signed a three-year deal to create films with computers that have Advanced Micro Devices Inc. chips, the companies said on Monday.

"What originally started out as a fad for cute little semi-portable computers has slowly grown into a major market after just a couple of years. The Soltek's EQ3501-300PW QBiC Mania SFF PC is a flashy 'hot-rod' of good looks. The QBiC can be used in a variety of situations and unlike first-generation SFF PCs, is a truly viable desktop replacement. The EQ3501-300PW QBiC Mania is built around an Intel 915G motherboard which supports 800 MHz Pentium or 533 MHz Celeron D Socket 775 processors. There are only two DIMM slots and the QBiC supports a maximum of 2GB of non-ECC unbuffered PC3200 DDR RAM, but that should be enough for most situations."

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. launched a 15-month advertising campaign on Monday to boost sales of the Windows XP operating system, while the world's largest software maker prepares its next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn.

This is short article I wrote about protecting your security and privacy on when you are on the computer. It developed into a Windows XP security primer, but that was not the original intention. If you are looking for some basic steps to secure your computing environment this is a must read article. It focuses on a number of aspects of security from hardware to within your operating system and should be of much help to beginning users but also to power users who may want to pick up a few new tricks.

ThermalTake are a big player in the case modification/cooling industry today with very few companies with a product range as large as theirs; Today we had a look at the ThermalTake Shark case.

Ashley Brook Chow is our new 13 years old online editor (we're hiring young) and she says the iPod rules and everything else sucks! In this, her first article, she explains why the iPod rules and why your next MP3 player should be an Apple iPod.

"Today, we have its supposedly better version on our hands, and it would be an understatement if we say the board is better. For some reason, the 250Gb boards perform extremely well than their 250 predecessors. According to NVIDIA, the only difference between the two should just be the features, but as we apparently found out that wasn’t the case at all. Though this article primarily focuses on the features of K8N-E Deluxe over its K8N version."

One thing we do is operate a product for an extended period under load, to ensure things go smoothly for the long haul. You just don't put your machine under load for short 30 minute bursts you know. Here is where the story turns gloomy. In hindsight after our "event", we spotted the engineering flaws earlier but didn't connect the dots until it was too late. Let me start out by turning your attention to the pump.

The XPlode case by A-Top Technology is geared toward the gaming market. With a total of 4 open 5.25", 2 open 3.5", and 4 hidden 3.5" bays. You should have plenty of room to mount all your optical drives and accessories. The XPlode case has a unique look to it. It has 4 vented sections on the front filled with mesh, center area of the 5.25" bay covers are vented utilizing mesh as well. The case is one of the few that run a side mesh window instead of the standard clear windows.

"Today, Antec has further developed and refined it's cases and products. The P160 is one of the ultimate culminations in design - refined, polished, perfected, and now presented to you. While it isn't really made out of recycled fighter planes, you'll be just as happy with it regardless as you play and tinker with everything that this case offers."

"$150 for a set of 5.1 Surround Sound speakers from Altec Lansing. In the box you've got a total of 4 speakers. Center, 2 satellites, and a subwoofer. Intrigued? Yes, they're 5.1 Surround Sound. They use Altec Lansing's new Side-Firing Dipole Technology; less wires is always a good thing, but does the quality of sound/effect suffer?"

Today I am going to review the Thermalrock Circle Full tower case. Most of you have probably never heard of Thermalrock, they are a new company just started in March of 2005. Thermalrock is a division of ThermalTake who have been around for years, and have released many innovative products and cases, like the Xaser series. Going into this review I am expecting Thermalrock to have the same quality as Thermaltake.

A next generation Theatre chip could lead to a new ATI card that caters for both analogue and digital TV tuners.

On removing the bottom, which is also the mounting plate and heat sink for the hard drive, you'll find the housing containing the blower fan. Taking this apart reveals the tiny 44mm fan. The blower assembly does not direct air across the hard drive but rather across the fins of the heat sink.

The HYBRID is the latest culmination of XTracPads' development efforts. As its name implies, it is a hybrid of two different surface materials integrated together for superior performance. Let's see if this new method of creating a gaming pad works out!

We experiment with coolers, clock speeds and power connectors on ATI's mid-high-end graphics card. Does an external power connector provide for better overclocking? What power drain does a souped-up X800XL have? And what results can you get with an ATI Silencer cooler? All this and more...

After many hours of blood, sweat and tears we've finished our look at nVidia's latest chipset for the Intel Pentium 4 platform. It's the nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition or as its become known around the labs, the NF4 IE. It follows the features found in the nForce series of chipsets but helps fills a gap in the gaming market offering SLI gaming performance on the Intel platform.

ATI'S CEO Dave Orton dropped by to say hello to us while we were in Toronto and we had a chance to ask him a few questions. We didn't talk about R520 and future generation stuff but we did about some future guidelines and architectures.

If I have to say something bad about the board, it's that the aesthetic makes me decidedly unwell. Go forth and seek, should high-performance, feature-packed, well-presented Pentium 4 be your Valhalla. Highly recommended.

Thermaltake looked like it brought its entire product catalogue to CTS 2005. There was a mind-boggling array of fans, cases, heatsinks, passive-cooling and water-cooling bits and bobs on display.

If the original Reserator didn't quite have the features and compatibility you wanted, then the Reserator 1 Plus might be worth a look.

The X52, designed to take account of feedback from the gamers using the X45, addresses many of the niggles from the previous stick and adds a few all-new touches.

Reward of water-cooling a CPU is apparent; high cooling performance with
very low noise. Equally apparent is the risk involved. If something goes
wrong during the installation your computer turns into a high voltage
aquarium. While most computer enthusiasts feel the reward outweighs the
risk, the average computer do it yourself (DIY) person does not. In an
effort to push water-cooling into the mainstream by taking out the risk,
Cooler Master introduces Aquagate Mini. How does Aquagate Mini eliminate
the risk aspect of water-cooling? Read on and find out.

Case clutter has been a problem with computers forever, especially with PSU cables lying all over the place. Ultra promises to solve this problem, by allowing you to only use the cables you need. The X-Connect PSU includes other cool features as well, and you can read about them in our review.

If you hadn't noticed lately, the age of digital entertainment is more than upon us. Your old analog VCR and camcorder which served you so well through the early 90s are wearing down, as well as the tapes you use with them. It is time to digitally convert and backup your old wedding and graduation videos if you hope to keep them for the future. Turtle Beach, a maker of PC audio solutions, thinks they have an easy solution to help in this endeavor in the form of the Video Advantage USB.

What are the major criteria for your decision when you shop for blank recordable DVD discs? Is it the brand name of the manufacturer? Or the maximum claimed write speed? Or the price per piece? Well, we decided to check out over 40 different discs available in the market today to see how good they are. Hopefully, this roundup will help you make the right choice.

"Germany is arguably the country with the fastest and strongest growing water cooling products market on the planet. I do not know and can not possibly guess what caused this kind of growth, but it is most evident. I can think of at least 30 German water cooling product manufacturers in a single minute. One of the most reputable manufacturers in Germany for their quality and ease of use is Aqua Computer. Founded during the Spring of the year 2001, the company is dedicated to the research, assembly and manufacture of water cooling products. Their Aqua Premium kit is under the microscope today. Let us see what the Aqua Computer has to offer the hardware enthusiast."

"Bluetooth has been recognized as one of the great breakthroughs in wireless technology. Now Logitech, one of the most reputable peripheral manufacturers has integrated Bluetooth into a slim and stylish design package that even has an LCD on the numpad. Wanna control your movies, music, and pictures as well as get IM and E-mail notifications from 30 feet away? Then you should take a look at this..."

"In this guide, PCSTATS will be looking at what RSS feeds are, how they work and what they offer to the average user and site administrator. We'll also create a basic RSS feed to illustrate just how easy it is to use this web-syndication tool for your own needs. RSS feeds are the most common use for this protocol, and they allow websites to publish summaries of their content in a form that is easy for users to browse."

Several motherboards have the necessary hardware for the installation of an infrared transmitter/receiver, requiring only the installation of a module containing the infrared sensor. The great problem, however, is that this module is not easily found in the market and, when it is, its price is high. Our friend Alain Gailland created this module and any user who knows how to use a solder iron can assemble it.

In the search for
the ultimate components for our Ultimate Linux Workstation, we knew that the power supply would have a huge impact on overall system stability and reliability. We went in search of the best power supply that we could find for a workstation and came up with two possibilities. The first is a custom designed PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 and the second is a power supply produced by SilverStone, the Zeus ST65ZF."

A few PC makers will start selling PCs containing dual-core chips from Intel on Monday, three days ahead of the debut of the dual cores.

The actual key presses feel spongy, but that’s to be expected from a keyboard with no stiff bits in it at all and a high proportion of silicone. So what’s the advantage of having one then? There’s a whole mass of professions where having a keyboard impervious to dust and liquids would be a boon… and a keyboard that can be unplugged and dunked in the sink to wash is even better.

"SilverStone has taken a very simplistic contemporary approach to designing the SST-LC13 while maintaining the same high level of detail and craftsmanship seen on most Lascala HTPC cases. The SST-LC13 carries a large footprint measuring 430mm (W) x 163mm (H) x 430mm (D) with a weight of 9kg. 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-LC13 is the single piece front bezel design and support for mATX, ATX and Extended ATX motherboard formats."

The AirCruiser G Desktop Router is an ideal space saving creation from Gigabyte. Although most users would probably prefer external wireless routers they are not ideal for everyone. Take owners of small form factor computer such as a Shuttle XPC. These users often have LCD monitors to limit the amount of space taken up on the desk by the computer. Adding modems, routers and power cables is just not a practical option for these users.

Last year, we gave away 4Gb of Corsair's Pro Series modules. This month, OCTools team up with Corsair once again for another 4Gb Memory Giveaway! The contest will run for 2 weeks starting on April 15-30, 2005. 4 lucky people will be randomly selected worldwide with each receiving 1Gb Matched Pair of Corsair's latest and much talked about Xpert modules. All you have to do is submit your email address and you're in the contest. As simple as that!

I have looked at many Samsung monitors over the last year and a half and they all have performed well for what they where designed for. The one thing they all lacked was a <25ms response time that a more than casual gamer wants. Don’t get me wrong the monitors did play games well but you still had that ghosting effect that looked like motion blur when playing a fast first person shooter. 16ms or less is what you are looking for in a LCD monitor to play games.

Samsung steps up to the gaming plate with 915N for the gamer that wants to have a larger screen. This monitor is rated at 8ms response time! They also now make smaller monitors that also have 12ms response time. The only problem I have seen with this product line is so far they are VGA interface only and do not support DVI. On the other hand leaving DVI out does let Samsung sell this monitor at a less expensive price. This monitor can be found under 400.00 dollars from many online retailers.

"The 'spokes' are high intensity LED illuminating devices you can attach to that bike of yours or your child that’s been collecting dust while you all remain sedentary in your chair or home playing with all of the other high tech equipment everyone craves. However, in the back of your mind, your family secretly has that desire to get right back on those 'archaic', boring bikes and show the stuff we all know we have inside. That’s right, bicycling fun is back again. Now, I know what you’re thinking. So what does having some lights on a bike do for you? Plenty. "

Microsoft is slowly but surely lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding its next version of the widely used Windows operating oystem, code-named Longhorn.

Fremont, CA (April 15, 2005) - Corsair Memory, Inc., a worldwide leader in high performance memory and cooling products for the enthusiasts and the overclockers, today is pleased to announce launch partnerships with tier-one Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers for the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset.

“When you fall sick you go to a doctor and he/she asks you a couple of questions as well as taking a look at your case history before giving any medication to you. In a similar way you have to find out what’s wrong with your PC before treating it, if it’s working in an aberrant manner. This article will help you in finding out what’s troubling your PC.”

"Cooler Master has been around for sometime now, always coming out with innovative high quality products. It seems like they have been very busy this year coming out with several new cooling systems, both liquid and air. Today we’re going to be looking at one of their new low noise liquid cooling products, the Aquagate Mini 80, to see how they handle the heat from today’s modern CPU’s and see how it stands up to a high-end water cooling system."

" Nero AG was formed in 1995 by Richard Lesser and has been privately owned ever since. The company combines vision and innovation with the ability to adapt complex technologies. These characteristics make it one of the leading manufacturers of CD-R/RW, DVD and Internet audio software applications, and one of the foremost suppliers of optical recording solutions. "

"John Guzman is back with us this weekend, and in this
editorial, he's sharing his opinions about how living in the digital
world has really changed his daily life style and how this world has
become so digital."

While the X800 XT P.E used to hog the limelight due to its positioning as the performance leader, the X800 XT has been resigned to playing the role of bridesmaid. Discover the real impact of the marginally lower memory and core speeds of the X800 XT and if overclocking can narrow those margins.

Kingston Computer Memory - KHX3200ULK2 1GB (2x512MB) HyperX Memory, DDR400 (PC3200) 184-Pin DIMM Kit

"Centon is new to an arena already crowded with veteran brands like Corsair, Mushkin, TwinMOS and OCZ. If Kingston, Crucial and PDP Systems' success can be taken as any indication of what large OEMs can do in the enthusiast memory area, the 'boutique' manufacturers better take notice because another new player is in town. Centon is actually not quite ready to roll out its enthusiast line to the public, but we've been given a first look at an overclocker-calibre dual-channel DDR memory kit. The two 512MB GEMiNI PC3200 dual-channel DIMMs we are testing in this review are rated to run at 200 MHz with 2-2-2-5 timings, at a voltage of 2.6V."

"There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the two most popular gaming consoles currently on the market: Playstation 2 (PS2) and Xbox. PS2 is a Sony product, while Xbox is owned by the software giant Microsoft. Many different people have worked with these gaming systems inside and out, attempting to determine which system provides the best performance for your hard-earned gaming dollar. Here we take a look at each gaming system and compare the specs and performance of each. We will attempt to answer that age-old question: which is the better gaming system, Xbox or PS2?"

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 2005--AMD (NYSE:AMD) today again demonstrated its leadership in 64-bit mobile computing with the introduction of the Mobile AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor 3700+ for full-size notebooks. Based on the award-winning AMD64 technology, this new mobile processor enables a powerful 32-bit computing experience today with a seamless transition to 64-bit computing. The Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 3700+ also offers Enhanced Virus Protection (EVP), an advanced security feature designed to prevent the spread of certain malicious viruses when enabled by Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Service Pack 2.

Microsoft's worm-cleansing tool has been updated to detect and remove Hacker Defender, a notorious rootkit program used by malicious virus writers.

A PC is only as good as its motherboard. Our lab tests of PCI Express models will help you find the right one--whether you're building a system from scratch or upgrading the machine you've got.

"Water cooling was unknown to the majority of computer users a few years ago. Within a single year, it went from a hardcore enthusiast only cooling method to the mainstream market with many companies releasing some kind of a liquid cooling kit. There are hundreds of those kits around now, ranging from basic water cooling kits that can barely maintain a decent temperature to well-designed water cooling kits that can maintain operating temperatures near the environment temperature with ease. However all of them have the same problem; their cooling capability is limited by the laws of nature, where not a single one of them can lower the temperatures below the temperature surrounding the radiator. Swiftech, one of the oldest and most reputable cooling products manufacturers in the US, offers the enthusiast something different, stronger than the rest, able to lower the temperatures of your CPU way below ambient temperatures, the H20-120-T Thermoelectric Series Liquid Cooling kit."

"Amongst gamers, one of the most hotly contested computer
components are the graphics cards. With each new model come new features
or higher clock speeds and performance. Inevitably this also leads to
more and more heat, and as we all know, heat is unhealthy for electronic components and needs to be dissipated, otherwise overheating and damage could occur. With these new high-end graphics cards easily exceeding $400-500, it's important to protect your investment. The item up for review today, is unlike any other graphics card cooler we've seen. The Antec VCool offers 100% compatibility with any existing graphics card, as it simply mounts underneath the card in two expansion slots while claiming to lower the card temperature 5 to 15 degrees."

Holding the PSP up against the DS and Gizmondo, I’d say that there’s more on the PSP for the older gamer. The WIFI function makes it an attractive proposition for mobile surfing if Sony do a deal with a UK based ISP with national wireless coverage. How many early teen kids are going to want to bother converting MPEGs to copy onto their PSP? Or music or photos for that matter? No, given the complexity of the PSP, it’d be better used and give more satisfaction the older gamer… say late teens onwards.

The most noticeable feature implemented on the AA8XE is the black OTES housing. “OTES” stands for “Outside Thermal Exhaust System”. ABIT introduced OTES in 2002 with their “Siluro” GF4 Ti4200 video card. More advanced versions were later implemented on motherboards as well, such as the IC7 Max3. OTES provides active and passive cooling to mosfets and the circuitry. The AA8XE sports the latest and most advanced OTES version. The size of the mosfet heatsinks has been greatly increased and the hot air is now sucked away from the mosfets and blown out of the case by 2 fans at the end of the OTES housing instead of previously only 1 fan.

Kingston Computer Memory - KHX3200ULK2 1GB (2x512MB) HyperX Memory, DDR400 (PC3200) 184-Pin DIMM Kit

Innovatek has finally killed the water blocks with boring looks. The unusual form and the integrated lighting (LEDs included) make the water block the eyecatcher and the focal point of your computer. The V6 has the time-proven X-Flow water flow technology and is the perfect cooling for the "engine" of your computer :-)

Please meet one more exclusively looking system case from ASUS. Remarkable design, bright color, very easy and convenient assembly and sufficient cooling even for a high-end gaming system, this is what you get from this baby. Read more in our new review!

"In this Beginners Guide, PCSTATS is going to going to walk you through one of the simplest but potentially most powerful ways to customize and simplify the management of your computer: batch files. These text files are easy to create, and only as complex as you want them to be, but they can perform many useful operations from file backups to system configuration quickly and automatically. In this guide we'll illustrate what batch files are good for and how to create them."

Positioned as a slim and lightweight 15-inch notebook, the ASUS V6500V boasts a solid build, a pair of good speakers and decent performance. Find out if it really has all the qualities as claimed.

The flagship AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ will have both its cores operating at 2.4GHz, the same frequency as the AMD Athlon 64 4000+, and we'll be surprised if this doesn't obliterate the already impressive Pentium Extreme Edition 840 we reviewed here.

"MSI's new K8N Neo4 Platinum motherboard is based around the nForce4-Ultra chipset, this board can use any Socket 939 Athlon64/FX processor and can be stuffed with up to 4GB of PC3200 DDR RAM. A single PCIe x16 slot provides the graphical interface and the motherboard comes equipped with quite a few integrated peripherals like an additional Serial ATA/RAID controller, IEEE 1394, two Gigabit NICs and 7.1 channel audio. In terms of expansion, the K8N Neo4 Platinum is one of the best on the market with four traditional PCI slots, one PCI Express x1 and one PCI Express x4 slot. That's definitely more expansion room than we've seen on many other Athlon64 motherboards! Eight SATA devices are supported as well as four traditional IDE hard drives/optical drives."

“Do you have a lot of lights in your case? Do you want to be able to control them through one control panel, add a bunch of different effects, and even make them sound reactive? Well today we will be looking at a product that can do all that and more. I am proud to present the Sunbeam LightBus!”

"Ultra Products, known for their very sharp looking power supplies, has recently started to branch out and offer different types of products such as MP3 players, computer modding accessories, and system memory. In this review, we'll be reviewing their Mini Portable Hard Drive Enclosure 3.5"."

"Between the HIS card and ATI's card, the performance and features are identical, so the main advantage of the HIS X850XT-PE is the improved cooler. While we knocked it earlier, it does run quietly and cools on average about 12°C cooler than ATI's cooler. Other than that, deciding between the cards is going to boil down to pricing and availability."

"In this day and age, FPS gaming has become common place, and the mouse has since been chosen as the weapon of choice, but Monster Gecko has decided to challenge the mouse, let's see how the Pistol Mouse stacks up."

The Sunbeam Light Bus is more than a light controller and more than a fan controller. It gives you the ability to think more creatively about your case lighting... and that’s what modding is all about. You will no longer have to look at the same case lighting day in and day out, instead you can control fans and create unique lighting accents or effects as needed to take your mod to the next level.

"For sports enthusiasts, tech gadget fanatics, or anyone looking to have the first of its kind electronic device the THUMP is definitely the way to go. Of course the $499 price tag for the 256MB model isn't going to make this a mainstream item and until that price drops down a couple hundred dollars the THUMP will be for a select audience only. Of course, if Lil' John likes them then they are definitely worth a second consideration. YEAH!"

DVD technology is on a good rise for the consumers and it only grows each year. Now, Samsung comes out with their Double-Layer technology for their latest DVD recording technology. It offers a great deal of performance and stability--it's Samsung, would you expect something less? The Samsung DVD±R/RW - TS-H552B burner brings a lot to the table of DVD burning with its Double-Layer capability and its high-speed burning capacity

"However when Zardinia walked into the office on this particular Monday she could sense something was wrong. It was like an anxious buzzing cloud of confusion was raining weirdness in the air. As she sat down her supervisor walked up and gave her the news. The company’s Internet connection was temporarily ‘out of order’ and would be fixed at an indeterminate time. Well, life sure is unpredictable."

Asus has been catering to the needs of enthusiasts for quite some time now, and thus far they have succeeded in delivering some of the best user-friendly boards to the market. The fact that Athlon 64 754 platform isn’t an overclocker friendly platform of choice shouldn’t matter much to value users. Despite its drawbacks, it’s still a great platform for budget users. This week, we have already evaluated three Athlon 64 754 boards and quite honestly the performance from one board to another is within five percent, if even that, is most cases. Of course we are talking about boards based on the KT800 chipset and not the KT800 Pro or NVIDIA’s 250 and 250Gb chipsets. Once you start moving up the chipset chain, the performance goes up significantly. With performance goes up the price, which still is a great value for socket 754, but the counterparts to KT800 aren’t as affordable as some of us would like them to be."

Microsoft today released eight security bulletins on its products, including five concerning vulnerabilities rated "critical."

The critical security holes affect versions of Windows, Internet Explorer, Exchange Server, MSN Messenger, and Word. All of them could allow an attacker to take control of an affected system, according to Microsoft. Users should apply the newly released update immediately, the report advised.

The FSB is limited to 250MHz, though this was not such an issue as the motherboard appeared to be unable to exceed a 220MHz FSB. Given this is a budget motherboard I felt it would be important to offer reasonably good overclocking performance. After all, overclocking was originally all about getting the most bang for your buck and there is no better way to do this than overclocking.

" OCZ DDR Booster Diagnostic Device with Patent pending PowerClean Technology™ allows users to supply cleaner power to their memory modules, resulting in more stable memory. Additionally, users are able to view memory module voltage with the digital LEDs o­n the DDR Booster, allowing simple and inexpensive troubleshooting of the memory modules. Each OCZ DDR Booster allows VDIMM adjustments up to 3.9V* and is compatible with most DDR1 motherboards"

"It seams everybody is wanting to do more and more with their PC these days. We have ultra fast systems that put out lots of heat, so we want to keep them cool. We have digital cameras and other devices that use all kinds of media cards, not to mention those that use USB, Firewire or even SATA connections. To fulfill these needs companies have come up with fan controllers, I/O panels, card readers, and temperature displaying LCD screens. But what about the limited amount of real estate on the front of your case? If you have all these items and a standard mid-tower case, there’s no room left for your drives. How are you supposed to make that work? That’s where Sunbeam comes in."

We would like to offer you a detailed review of a Thermaltake case (VA3400BWA model), which not only looks great, but also provides excellent thermal environment for a high-performance home system. Check out our article for the assembly tips, design peculiarities of this solution and detailed investigation of system components temperatures in various work modes!

Microsoft is disabling its software tool that prevented Windows XP Service Pack 2 from automatically downloading itself onto business computers.

This means that people who wanted to avoid adopting SP2 may now be forced to incorporate it into their systems.

Austin, TX; April 12, 2005 -- BOXX Technologies has partnered with industry-leaders Adobe, Alias, ATI, CGNetworks, The D.A.V.E. School, Kurv Studios, Luxology, Newtek, NVIDIA, PNY, Softimage, Stash! DVD Magazine, 3Dconnexion, 3D Garage, 3DTotal, and 12-Inch Design to create the Ultimate Swag Bag promotion, designed to fuel creativity and amplify digital workflow.

The Ultimate Swag Bag promotion celebrates NAB 2005 by giving back to the digital content and video community with the ultimate swag for digital creativity.

"Today we're going to bring a bit of European flavour to PCstats with a review of Gigabyte's AirCruiser GN-BC01 802.11g internal wireless PCI router. This device incorporates a fully wireless home router/Internet sharing device onto a PCI card which you install directly into your desktop PC. The internal form factor of the Wifi Router AirCruiser GN-BC01 is new to us though, so we're interested to see how it performs and what kind of range it gets compared to conventional external wireless networking routers."

InFocus is a popular manufacturer of home theater projectors, especially their ScreenPlay series is often heralded for its performance. We literally take a closer look at their latest model, the ScreenPlay 7210, to see how it stacks up.

"In the test results, you’ll notice the memory was tested at three different speed settings and, in all three cases, the system was configured with a 1:1 ratio (CPU:MEM) and memory timings of 2-3-3-6 (CAS-tRCD-tRP-tRAS). The only thing that varied between the different rounds of testing was the voltage applied, with the 200MHz and 217MHz environments being pushed by 2.6V and the 227MHz environment by 2.8V (the maximum the Abit IC7-G allows). While I could have gone further with the overclock by loosening up the memory timings, I was more curious to see how far these modules would run at CAS 2 latencies. In all my rounds of tests, I could not get the system stable, and in many cases POST, with a tRCD or tRP of 2 no matter what level of voltage was applied."

SINCE YOU SHOWED some interest in the article where we disclosed how much an Nvidia card costs, we decided to reveal how much ATI's offering costs to produce.

"Unless you've been living underneath a Univac, you are aware of who PC Power and Cooling are. One could say that PC Power and Cooling is the benchmark by which all other power supplies are compared, but are unable to surpass."

“Being based on the R420 graphics core, the board is an AGP board, and this is probably one of the reasons it took so long for the All-In-Wonder X800 XT to actually appear. AGP signalling is fairly specific in terms of where the graphics core can be placed on the board, limiting the layout options which doesn't help when adding multimedia functionality to an already complex board such as the X800.”

"Being a novice of the Internet and realms of technology in general, the idea of hanging out in an Internet café scared me about as much as it used to when I first sat in front a computer trying to figure out how to turn the thing on. Pictures of super-obese, nerdy, snotty-nosed tech-heads filled my head as well as visions of stagnant, sterile rooms crammed with blue screens flashing the latest comic heroes and teen idols. Well, I just went on a trip to several countries around the world and I ventured into this unknown sector, as I wanted to keep in touch with people back home. Although I admittedly didn’t visit many of these cafes (I needed a break from the computer worlds of school and work), the few I did see were quite different from what I expected."

The chip maker is currently churning out SRAM memory chips in order to qualify the production equipment, Tom Sonderman, AMD's precision manufacturing chief, said this week in an interview with EETimes.

"We are making great strides with IBM and our SRAM yields are hitting all our milestones," he said. "The whole idea is to begin to process 65nm in the middle of 2005 and bring it into production in 2006. We're certainly on schedule."

"HIS are back in the labs again this month with their latest generation of cards, the PCI Express versions of the ATI Radeon X850XT and X800XL. Both cards are part of the HIS IceQ II series which claim (and do) to offer better cooling than ATI reference cards as well as not exceeding 20db in the noise department. Both cards support iTURBO and the X850XT version even has a standard iTURBO overclocked setting which matches the clock speeds of the more expensive X850XT PE. That means you’ll get the performance of the ultra high-end X850XT PE for the price of the high-end X850XT. Read on as we take a close look at both cards!"

"As far as the performance is concerned, the FIS2R doesn’t show much of an improvement in any of our tests. Since this version is equipped with more features, you would expect it to cost higher than FSR, but interestingly that’s not the case. The prices for KT800 boards have fallen so far that there isn’t much of a difference between the high-end and more economic class boards anymore, at least this is the case with the ones that were launched with Athlon 64 platform initially. The MSI K8T-FIS2R is a worthy contender for anyone who is looking to build a system on a strict budget, and for the approximate price of $60.00, this is definitely the board to get over its FSR equivalent."

"More than eight years ago, DVD (called Digital Versatile Disc at the time) burst onto the scene and offered the best quality audio and video images available, all on a new shiny 5-inch disc that looked like a CD. It was predicted that it would replace the aging VCR in just a few short years. However, at that time it was perceived by some to have one serious or fatal flaw: it could not record. In the beginning, this was viewed as the format's possible Achilles’ heel. No recording ability was thought to be the death knell of any video format. Well, times have changed and DVD recorders are finally starting to make inroads with consumers. Philips, the leading proponent of the DVD+RW format, has come up with a terrific recorder; it includes an integrated personal video recorder with an easy-to-use on-screen guide that makes recording your favorite show a snap."

" The R105SH computer case from 3R System features a rather unusual airflow design. Instead of having a few vents located in the front, side, and back, it has vents everywhere. The case has a total of 70,000 tiny vent holes that cover the front bezel, top, and both sides. The R105SH also has a built in temperature monitoring system, automatic fan control, and thumbscrews. If you are interested in learning more about this case, please read on. "

"Cooler Master introduces the first true all-in-one watercooling kit that's ready to go right out of the box. A kit like this is a good first step for future watercooling enthusiasts."

I have 350+ processors listed, modern and up-to-date components and ability to calculate wattage for overclocked CPU!
When I was trying to configure my first system I spent a lot of time
to figure out which PSU to buy. Google, online forums, web sites... it was a hard time. I just want people to know that there is a modern PSU Calculator out there.

As you may have guessed, the entire heatsink is gold plated. This is more of a cosmetic feature, but it doesn't hurt performance either. There are a total of 36 thin copper fins with 3 heatpipes coming up from the thick copper base on each side. This is a typical setup for heatpipe-style coolers. The little black mini-heatsink at the bottom offers no real cooling benefit; as we'll see shortly it has more to do with installation. You'll also find an aluminum shroud surrounding the cooler with mounting holes for 80mm and 92mm fans on both sides. This allows you to place fans on both sides of the GT-1000, though it's not really necessary. Finally, there's also an aluminum carrying handle up top so you don't get your greasy fingers all over that shiny gold (like I did).

"While we have personally looked at quite a few illuminated keyboards here at ExtremeMHz, all had their own set of drawbacks, which kept them from earning the long-awaited title as the "perfect" illuminated keyboard. One company, Saitek, primarily known for their quality gaming peripherals, has introduced a new illuminated keyboard that obviously addresses all user concerns and primarily designed to finally earn its status as the "perfect" illuminated keyboard. Today, we take a look at their new innovative Eclipse illuminated "True-Vu" keyboard that finally provides a very high level of detail and quality that is simply not found in similar product offerings."

Can the new NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition deliver SLI performance just as well as the AMD counterpart? You'll find that out in this article as well as the improvements we saw using the ForceWare 71.84 drivers. However, all's not perfect yet.

"The Asus Extreme N6600TOP/TD/128M/A PCI Express x16 videocard uses a vanilla GeForce 6600 GPU, but backs it up with Samsung GDDR3 memory (128MB, 2.0ns DRAM). ASUS has also set the GPU and memory clock speeds of this card considerably higher than that of a stock GeForce 6600, accordingly the speeds are 400Mhz core and 900MHz memory. The Asus Extreme N6600Top videocard natively supports TV-Output as well as dual analog monitors (care of the included DVI-analog converter). The N6600TOP installs into a PCI Express x16 slot, and is SLI compatible too."

EPoX, with its EP-5LWA+ i925XE motherboard, has done things a little differently that most other tier-1 manufacturers. Whereas they're happy to load on every conceivable feature known to man and bundle in everything but the kitchen sink, EPoX has been more conservative. The end result is a motherboard that's comparatively light on features, but, crucially, comes in at £30 or so cheaper than the competition. £120 or so buys you a capable Alderwood board that's laid out well, has decent overclocking options and utter stability.

Intel plans to release dual-core desktop chips for computers later this month in a move that seems calculated to prevent rival Advanced Micro Devices from claiming a first.

Microsoft will give the public its first glimpse of the next Xbox during a global MTV broadcast next month.

MTV outlets in North America, Europe and Asia will air a 30-minute program titled "MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed" on May 12 and May 13, the software giant announced Monday.

"Deciding on what kind of graphics card to purchase or upgrade to can be quite confusing, for those who aren’t too familiar with the technical aspect of computer hardware. There are some aspects to think about and research before purchasing. First thing is to determine the video card usage. Computer usage and video card needs can be placed in four categories; Standard computing, multimedia and graphic design, light gaming and hardcore gaming."

"Many people look at their case and say “it looks ugly” and proceed to make sure they don’t have to see that mess each day. There are more and more options when you want to clean up your case to make it more appealing. One of these options is cable management, which includes the purchasing of modified cables that reduce the overall footprint of the
cable(s) in the case and clean up its appearance. Another option is to upgrade your IDE hard drives to Serial ATA hard drives, which use 1/4” wide cables that are much easier to manage. Of course, now that the case is cleaner, you want it to have more appeal and that is where AC Ryan’s Xneon EL SATA cables come into play. These cables are slightly modified traditional SATA cables; their one difference being that they have a neon light down the middle of the cable."

Microsoft agreed to pay Gateway $150 million over the next four years, stemming from the finding that the software giant's practices had hurt the computer maker's business.

Microsoft said it will take pre-tax charges of $123 million in the quarter for its settlement with Gateway, $41 million for its settlement with Burst.com, as well as charges previously taken for these claims.

The performance of the G-Power Cooler Pro was impressive to say the least. While the much cheaper Gigabyte Neon coolers did put up a good fight, the G-Power Cooler Pro exercised its superiority in the stress tests. Surprisingly there was not a huge amount of difference between the Swiftech water cooling system and the G-Power Cooler Pro on the AMD platform. Furthermore, the G-Power Cooler Pro was far more capable of cooling surrounding components.

The latest version of the Windows XP Tweaking Companion (XPTC) has been released at TweakGuides.com, bringing this complete Windows XP and System Optimization guide up to Version 1.05. The changes include a new chapter on CCleaner, correction of some dead links, and refinement of various advice in the guide. I strongly recommend all XPTC users update to this version of the guide, and if you haven't yet downloaded this free 170-page PDF guide now's a great time to grab a copy.

"Over the past couple of weeks we've been playing around with a premium water cooling kit courtesy of the folks at Asetek in Denmark. The Water Chill kit provides a means of cooling your processor, chipset and GPU in an effective, easy yet most importantly quiet manor through the use of water. Read on as we provide a thorough investigation of the Asetek Water Chill."

"EFS-lense have a protrusion around the optics part that isn't there on the regular EF-lense. This to make sure that the lense can't be attached to an EF camera. As radical as it seems, we are going to remove that protrusion by force. Well, perhaps not with a brute force but the process does involve saws or power tools. Is this safe? Yes and no."

"With the Socket 754 now the mainstream platform for many, the boards that support this socket have fallen in price considerably. Although some of the boards were introduced back in September of 2003 with the Athlon 64 launch, these motherboards are equipped with some of the latest offerings and features that a mainstream user might want. Socket 754, at least with earlier boards, isn’t the most enthusiast friendly platform, but it definitely offers great performance at stock speeds. If you remember, majority of the boards were plagued with overclocking issues for one reason or another. Many of the socket 754 boards only managed to get around 225MHz on average, if not lower in certain cases."

The Corsair XMS2-6400 TwinX memory kit is the latest and fastest DDR2 memory kit at 800MHz! Optimized for the NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition platform, this memory kit features two matched 512MB CM2X512A-6400 memory modules but is also available as a single module.

...writes "In a move that will surely make waves in the industry, Dell's CEO, Kevin Rollins, has said they may provide machines decked out with AMD CPU's if their...

Microsoft continues to have problems with Phishing mails pretending to be something they are not. The latest case in public is a...

TEN years ago, Microsoft unveiled Windows 95 in a way that suggested that the product's arrival was no less momentous than when humans stood upright for the...

ATI IS FINALLY BRINGING some relief to long suffering notebook users. The ... thing. Congrats to ATI for finally taking this step.

Today 3DXtreme has the pleasure of testing the latest Socket A heatsink from Thermalright, the SI-97. Although A64 and Pentium 4 users have been given the opportunity to use the XP-120 and XP-90, the users of the older Socket A platform have not been able to share in their good fortune. Thermalright would not forget, and soon they produced the SI-97, an even lighter version of the XP “Light and Easy” series of heatsinks.

Here we get a better look at the main draw of the Gladiator case. Are these things wings or claws? I'm not sure but either way they're pretty tough! Looking closer, we can distinguish that the window isn't really a window at all, it's a mesh screen. As we said before, circulation isn't going to be an issue with this case. The down side is that the greater the air flow within a case the more often you are going to need to blow the dust out of it.

"Although there are many veterans in the computer case and component industry, not all know how to put a package together that satisfies today’s hardware enthusiast. Lucky for you, A-Top Technology has accomplished this task o­n several levels. Up for review is the XPlode mid-tower case by A-Top. Available in three different color options, this fully ventilated case looks as well as it functions. I had the pleasure to review the blue case with deluxe features."

The first of the included tools is the 4-pin plug remover. This is pretty much the best thing ever. One end is for male connectors, one for female. To remove the wires from a connector, simply slide the Toolx into the hole and pull the cable out the other side. This way you can disconnect all the wires from a plug in a matter of seconds. Note that you should always keep track of which wire goes where (best way to do this is remove them one at a time and immediately put them back into the new connector), since even the two ground wires aren't the same.

From work on improved databases for the Department of Homeland Security to the development of prototype operating systems that can exploit multi-core processors, Microsoft Research is quietly prepping a host of cutting-edge technologies.

With all the Dual Layer DVD drives on the market, it's hard to keep up with them. Hot on the heels of the SOHW-1633s comes LiteOn's new SOHW-1673S. Let's have a look shall we?

"Titan Computer Co. has been around since 1989 (first known as Sogic Computer Co.). Today they manufacture a wide array of CPU, VGA and system cooling devices. We were recently contacted by Titan and offered a review sample of their Vanessa S-type CPU cooler. So, without further ado, let’s see if design and performance can work together with this cooler."

"The importance of a PDA during a journey abroad cannot be denied. Many seasoned travelers swear by them.

Join Jason today in his journey to Beijing with his trusty Sony CLIE TH55 PDA. See how a PDA can save your trip from a disastrous end!"

An e-mail campaign designed to lure people to a bogus Microsoft Web site is making the rounds as part of an attempt to install a Trojan horse, antivirus company Sophos said Friday.

"Although Intel has focused all of their attention on the Socket T LGA775 processors, the supply of Socket 478 coolers hasn't dried up yet. In this review, we are bringing the Speeze EE475B13 CopperSnake III to the testing table to see just how well it can tame a power hungry Prescott core."

With the launch of ATI's X850 series, the honor of leading ATI's lineup has passed from the X800 XT P.E. to its X850 counterpart. Meanwhile, price and availability for the X800 XT P.E. has improved significantly. Find out why we think the ASUS AX800XT/TVD 256MB is an attractive option for those requiring a high-end performer with plenty of frills.

"Today, InsaneTek has the honor of reviewing Thermaltake's latest addition, the Thermaltake Kandalf Series. The Thermaltake Armor Series has already received considerable praise for its amazing features and versatility. The Kandalf series adds some extra features to the already acclaimed Armor series. We will be looking at the black version of this case, which utilizes a steel chassis. Thermaltake also has a silver version of this case that utilizes aluminum for lighter weight."

"ATI has developed some great products in the past and broken some barriers, but I don’t think that much can come close to their latest multimedia package that they have dubbed, the TV Elite Wonder. The TV tuner card sports their latest Theatre 550 Pro video processor, 12-bit analog-to-digital conversion, an advanced motion-adaptive 3D comb filter, and PVR capabilities. It is needless to say that the card sounds wonderful. The package also comes with a third generation radio frequency remote control also known as ATI’s Remote Wonder Plus. A complete package designed with perfection in mind and I intend to find out if perfection is what it actually delivers."

"There is a mural skull on the very front of the case and the sides have been drenched with smaller skulls as if they are piled high inside the case. Voyeurmods wants everyone to know that their custom shop is doing well and has broadened its scope. They still offer the awesome laser etching services we've seen from them in the past but have added waterjet and plasma cutting as well as airbrushing to their offerings. If this case is an example of anything, it's that Voyeurmods should be able to satisfy anyone's urge for a custom paint job."

“One definition of a killer app is: A program that gives average people the capability to use technology to solve everyday problems and enrich their lives. E-mail was the first of these. Its usefulness has been demonstrated clearly by it being embraced across the entire spectrum of computer users. Another killer app, according to some people, was the Web browser.”

The race between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices to be first to market with dual-core processors is about to come to a close. AMD is expected to introduce its first dual-core Opteron processors an event in New York City scheduled for April 21, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.

"For those who are looking for an upgrade to their system, PCIe (short for PCI Express) is a great technology to take advantage of. However, if you are looking to have the best possible graphics, there is no reason to splurge on a motherboard just with PCIe as AGP 4x and 8x should provide ample bandwidth for any intensive games you run, including Doom III / Half Life 2 and other soon-to-be released titles."

"I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough with the games ATI and NVIDIA are playing with their customers these days. Yes, I am referring to the abundance of X800 series, X850 series and 6800 series products that are "flooding" the market. I am sure you got a whiff of what I am trying to imply by placing the word flooding in quotes. I have discussed the lack of availability issues in my graphics card evaluations before, so I don’t think I have to go through that again. We all know the poor state of product availability and while it is improving, it’s still far from perfect. The ironic thing is that both companies will bring in new products this year and with availability already scarce with current generation of graphics adapters, it’s needless to say that ATI and NVIDIA will have a lot of catching up to do."

"Finally, someone listened to the cries of enthusiasts and got rid of the horrible rear stamped grill. A free-flowing design offers much better airflow and lower overall noise. The rest of the backside looks pretty standard, except for the button-switch near the middle-right side of the rear."

LONDON — Processor vendor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has started running wafers through Fab36, the company's 300-mm wafer fab located in Dresden, Germany and is on course to have commercial production in 2006, according to Tom Sonderman, the company's director of APM technologies.

Thanks to dropping prices, this month we were able to give our video card a slight boost. We're still recommending a Sapphire Radeon 9600 PRO, however this time around we were able to get the 256MB (vs. 128MB) version. The extra memory helps in certain cache-intensive, high content games (such as World of Warcraft). Having full DX9 and OpenGL 1.5 support as well as 400MHz core and 446MHz memory clocks allows this card to play all the latest titles at least on medium settings. We're only a few dollars shy of a 9800SE (though it's a toss up between getting the 128-bit or 256-bit version) or a vanilla GeForce 6600 (non-GT). Hopefully next month we'll be able to make the switch.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Dell Inc. remains open to using computer chips from AMD as an alternative to those of its current sole supplier, Intel Corp., but customers would have to demand it, the chief executive of the No. 1 personal computer maker said on Thursday.

Intel aims to extend its recent growth momentum in NOR flash memory to become the No.1 player in 2005, overtaking rival Advanced Micro Devices.

For anyone who might read the more high-brow broadsheet newspapers, there’s been an interesting wrangle going on that concerns us gamers. Eidos, that UK publishing house that brought us Lara Croft’s undisputed assets to delight our joysticks as well as big games such as the Thief series, Championship Manager and the soon to be released Lego: Star Wars, have been in a take over battle for the last two weeks following their announcement earlier this year of an operating loss of £29.2 million up to the end of 2004.

Nvidia's nForce4 SLI (scalable link interface) Intel Edition chipset will be priced at about $80 per unit, 60 per cent higher than Intel's most expensive chipsets from its 9xx series, motherboard makers indicated yesterday.

"I would like to thank the great guys at XGBox, today as I bring to you the XG Extreme UV Mod Kit. XGBox is hard at work establishing themselves in high end computer cases and aggressively pursuing what every LAN gamer wants, that one custom case everyone wants to check out and copy off of to make their own. The XG Extreme mod kit has what you need to make your case just a little more special than the rest."

Having a home network and traveling with a laptop, cables are an important part of everything I do. The hardware only takes up space without good cables. So when the LAN Ranger cable arrived I was thrilled to see the UV reactivity and blue LED ends.

One of the critical issues involved with the growing wireless market is security. Consumers and home businesses have been purchasing wireless devices to transmit everything from music to photos. However, mid-sized to large businesses, especially financial ones (banks, brokers, etc.) don't trust this technology, and with a good reason. It's not secure

"VOIP is a big thing lately, everyone is going into and saving money from this new technology that seems to be everywhere, VOIP has it's let down's though, for example you won't always be able to have an internet connection rendering mobile use impossible.This is where GPRS, GSM and EDGE come into it using the Aircard 775."

'The HIS X850 XT IceQ II Dual DVI VIVO 256MB PCIe is yet another high-end ATI-powered card from HIS that costs a premium but delivers a lot of horsepower to your computer. '

“To fully appreciate Enermax’s design with this case, you need to understand the current state of form factors. There is currently a transitional period taking place. The ATX form factor (Advanced Technology eXtended) will eventually be replaced with BTX (Balanced Technology eXtended), Intel’s new internal PC design standard for combating the ever increasing power demands of components, such as processors and graphics cards. Despite all these increases in heat and power output, the demand for quieter working environments from the consumer is ever increasing. BTX will attempt to address these crucial issues. The CS-718 is not BTX, though, but during this transitional period, BTX has inspired case designers to implement BTX style designs using the ATX form factor. Enermax is one such company.”

To celebrate the launch of our new site, we've brought in some sweet New Products for the masses. Some highlights include brand new Black Ice Radiators for water cooling aficionados, mod accessories from Ultra Products (makers of the popular X-Connect Power Supplies), and lots of new cases for gamers and enthusiasts on any budget. Get 'em while they're HOT!

“With so many colors available to each, it can sometimes be hard to decide what color to order for a particular project. Sunbeam has harnessed the cost effectiveness and small size of LEDs to bring a product to you that is both bright and flexible. No matter the case or idea, the concept behind the Chameleon allows you to "dial in" the right amount of each color to fill your case. Change it to fit your case, change it to fit your mood, turn it off all together. Whatever your wish, Sunbeam designed the Chameleon to fulfill your wishes.”

"Antec has an excellent reputation for their power supplies and cases, and their 3 year warranty is one of the best in the industry. With 3-2-3 bays, an ‘ultra quiet’ 120mm exhaust fan, an included 350 Watt Smartpower PSU, small footprint, availability in black, and no doors, it was just what the doctor ordered."

BACK IN THE summer of 2004 Nvidia surprised the world reviving the SLI idea. Everyone who is old enough to remember Voodoo can remember that we saw two cards working together in the past and that people where buying two cards to make their graphic faster.

"Although there are endless varieties of NVIDIA overclocking
utilities for use in Microsoft Windows, when using Linux, it's a bit of
a different story. In this article, we'll share our NVIDIA Linux
overclocking successes and failures as we load LinuxHardware's NVClock
on a Prolink 5900XT, Gigabyte 6600GT, Leadtek 6600GT, and even a Riva TNT2."

"If you are looking for a quiet PC, it doesn't help if your hard disk cooler is noisy. AC Ryan takes a different approach with their new XTOR Tanky hard disk cooler by making it from a massive block of aluminium! This allows the XTOR Tanky to passively cool your hard disk! "

"The Nikao ALIEN P4-520W & ICE P4-450W is equipped with the standard ATX motherboard configuration and is both AMD and P4 certified. The overall cable layout includes a 20 to 24-pin ATX connector, P4 12v connector, 6-pin AUX P4 connector, 8 x 4-pin Molex connectors, 2 x SATA connectors and 2 x floppy connectors. The 24-pin ATX connectors can be converted for 20-pin ATX motherboard use by detaching two snap-on clips. All of the 4-pin connectors conveniently come with flexible "EZ Grip" Female Molex connectors. One of the unique aspects of the Nikao ALIEN P4-520W & ICE P4-450W is that all the Molex branded cables are professionally sleeved in matching black and white mesh as well as heat shrink wrap. This is excellent enhancement to this product since it minimizes cable clutter and management inside a case interior."

Thermaltake's Armor, a full tower case for the true power users out there who are taking advantage of the 12 drives supported by some of the current high end motherboards. The full tower is a bit of a dying breed as the current trend is to go small and while the Armor is big, it is light and functional. Besides the massive number of drive bays, the design also accounts for those who want to watercool or run a fully passive system and should be of interest to enthusiasts.

The NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition has finally arrived. As one of the first retail boards, the Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Royal comes loaded and introduces new technologies for the Intel platform. In our extensive review, we found out that a generous dose of performance never hurt anyone either.

Volvo moved to make its cars safer by asking IBM to build a supercomputer that performs crash simulations.

IBM will provide more than 150 IBM eServer 325 machines running AMD Opteron processors, as well as services to help increase the "design-for-safety" approach cultivated by the Swedish car company. IBM did not disclose the cost of the contract, which is a multi-million-dollar deal.

It's that time again!! Systemcooling.com has teamed up with our friends at Cooler Master to offer another great giveaway! This time, we're giving away a total of EIGHT Cooler Master CoolDrives in various flavors. See the forum thread for contest details. Good Luck!!!

"Albatron is a name you are probably becoming more familiar with these days. They make some of the best products available in the computer market. Their product line extends from Wifi Audio to SFF barebones and also Plasma screens. See how their motherboard ranks with the others we have tested."

Microsoft said late Tuesday that it has pushed back the expected launch of a version of Windows designed for high-performance computer clusters.

If you're going to do a price/performance comparison this card is going to come out on top every time. Quite a bit less expensive and yet still giving out excellent performance. By overclocking this card, you can reach equivalent frame rates of the X850XT at stock speeds, and all for no extra money. You just can't ask for more than that. Though I have yet to handle an nVidia based 6800GT, this cards direct competitor, I'd have to say that this card is truly going to be the card to beat in it's price range.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 5 -- NVIDIA Corporation announced the immediate availability of the Company's new NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition media and communications processors (MCPs) for Intel platforms. This new line of core-logic solutions incorporates a host of new, innovative, NVIDIA features never before available on the Intel platform, including NVIDIA SLI technology, hardware-based firewall security, advanced storage solutions, and native Gigabit Ethernet networking.

Taipei, Taiwan April 6th, 2005 - GIGABYTE Technology, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, VGA cards and other computing hardware solutions, today introduced the new i-DNA series of motherboards with the launch of the GA-8N-SLI Royal mainboard, the world’s first high-performance SLI solution for the Intel Pentium 4 platform. By combining Performance DNA with Security DNA, GIGABYTE i-DNA motherboards provide Natural Intelligence for the digital lifestyle and afford users with a choice of platforms that was previously not available to them.

The Experience Pack software bundle includes Ink Desktop, which lets users take notes using the Tablet PC pen directly on their desktop, Microsoft says in a statement. Other applications are Snipping Tool version 2, which lets users select and capture part of their screen, and Ink Art, a drawing application.

SLI graphics from Nvidia. Dual-core processors from Intel. Overclocked parts. Chipsets that support one platform but not another. Release after release of new desktop technology this year may have left your head spinning, so we've prepared a primer to help you sort things out.

"This month's contest is focused on testing your organization skills by demonstrating how clean you can make your case interior or computing environment. What exactly does this mean? In the modding community, there is so much emphasis placed on modding the external appearance of a case with little regard for the interior. We would like to see how creative and meticulous you can be at cleaning up the inside of your case or work environment and at the same time win some great prizes for your participation."

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp. (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) are racing to introduce a dual-core computer chip in what could be the biggest change in PC technology in a decade.

"As the name suggests, the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR is a Nforce 4 SLI chipset-based motherboard incorporating a pair of PCIe x16 slots for dual SLI videocard action with compatible nVidia-based graphics accelerators. It supports up to 4GB of non-ECC DDR-SDRAM in its twin pairs of dual-channel memory slots. Up to eight SATA drives can be attached, four using the integrated SATA 3GB/s controller and an additional four on a Silicon Image SATA 150 controller."

"Those who go to LAN parties with pimped out systems now have an extra piece of hardware to show off--the keyboard. What we have today is an LED keyboard from Sansun. The keyboard has built in blue LED's that glow when the system is turned on."

"RAID undoubtedly offers more data protection than non-RAID disk systems. However, the management of the disks and the data distribution across them can be complex. Complex redundant systems can suffer failure, most often not a fault of the technology used or the design of the array, but most likely because of its failure to correctly apply these systems which leads to a single point of failure causing disastrous data loss."

"Dual-Layer writing capabilities have been around for the past year and we are finally starting to see the price of these DVD writers decline to more affordable levels. Case in point: Samsung’s new WriteMaster TS-H552 Dual Layer DVD writer can write Dual Layer DVD’s at a blazing 5x write time, yet the drive costs under $100 dollars and comes with a very tempting software package. Sony and Plextor both offer dual layer capable drives with 4X write times, so it looks like Samsung may have the jump on the competition."

NVIDIA has always been eyeing the Intel market. Lest we forget, the Xbox is powered by an Intel processor, not an AMD so technically this is NVIDIA's second Intel chipset, just the first for the PC. One of the big sticking points previously was the licensing of the Pentium 4 bus which in NVIDIA's eyes were cost prohibitive. The issue became moot however in November when Intel and NVIDIA announced that they had an agreement to broadly cross license patents which in effect, gave NVIDIA the green light to finally pursue an Intel chipset without any sort of strings attached. A mere five months after the announcement is today's feature presentation, the nForce 4 for Intel, based around a variant of their nForce 4 SLI AMD board that we have looked at several times already.

"A-Top Technology has recently released the Gladiator. The A-Top Gladiator is designed to be the "gamer's dream machine" with its car paint like finish, brushed aluminum front panel door, and tool-less features. In this review, we'll be trying out this case for ourselves as we see if the Gladiator is really a dream come true for gamers."

"Application performance is probably secondary as the nForce4 SLI is aimed squarely at gamers and enthusiasts. Going back to AMD Vs Intel, it used to be pretty clearly AMD all the way, but now the waters have muddied somewhat as the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition has bridged the gap by allowing the user to plug in two NVIDIA cards into their system. Granted, one card will also do for those who can't splurge on two cards, but the idea we're trying to make clear is you now have a choice."

It is really unbelieveable what LCDs can show you with new LCD programs like e.g. JaLCD or Smartie - temperature, utilization of the CPU, memory usage, MP3 title, DVD title, also stock prices, weather forecasts, the current television program or similar representations are absolutely no more problem. But how useful are all these information, if you don't have the display at any time in the point of view ? For this reason I worked myself on this acrylic glass holder ...

Today we have the first look at the first in a new range of 2005 case updates from CoolerMaster, the Praetorian 731. How does it rack up against its siblings? Well, not a lot has changed, but we have the details.

"Cases, cases and more cases are released out o­n the market monthly. Every color and shape for every given taste at your disposal. But most of them are still the same case inside, nothing innovative and with very little difference. There is o­ne company that released a single case which is trying to make a distinction from the rest while not being very expensive or drastically different o­n the outside. Sharkoon is the company and the Silvation Basic is the case. From the outside, it just looks like an ordinary, large, nicely built steel case with elegant looks. But the whole fuss about this case is the interior. Let us open the shipping box and see what is inside."

"This little white box is designed to be a universal gateway to pipe all sorts of external media into your PC. And when I say little, I mean little. We’re talking about the size of two or three Pop-Tarts stacked on one another. With its two coax inputs, you can not only plug in to watch cable TV on your desktop, but with the included antenna, you can also tune in to local radio stations. It also has single RCA and S-Video inputs which opens a floodgate of possibilities and uses for this device. Imagine being able to record old VHS/Camcorder tapes digitally into your PC so that you could then record them to DVD. With the right audio adapters, you could even plug in your favorite console and play on your high resolution monitor."

Novinit, a French company, has developed the world's first TDA or Tactile Digital Assistant. The TDA is based on touch-screen technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input, which are harder to lose than a stylus. The TDA is named Jackito and comes with two simultaneous touch points so you can operate it with your thumbs at the same time and so no need for a stylus. Using the TDA is very easy, since you can search a database or a large address book, with just your thumbs. Using the device with your thumbs is actually much faster than a stylus (well at least that's what the company claims).

NVIDIA has made a successful transition of its SLI tech. over to an Intel-based platform. SLI works exactly in the same way it does on a current AMD machine, and performance, if equivalent processors are used, is largely the same as a well-tuned AMD machine. Intel's 955X Express and the nForce4 SLI I.E opens up the market for a vast range of partners to launch pre-SLI'd machines. Expect the likes of Dell, an Intel-only partner, to have a number of configurations ready at short notice.

Want a Decal on that case window that no one else has, but don't know how to create it? In this tutorial I will explain to you how to create artwork and have it custom cut at your local Vinyl Shop. I also explain the different File Types and what the vinyl shop will need from you in order to save you time and money.

Today we're bringing you a whole series of products that we will call the "Titanium Series". These are fans and power supplies with an appealing high gloss paint. Will they suite your case's desires? Read on and take a look.

A new era for desktop CPUs has arrived with the introduction of the dual-core processor. AMD announced as early as June 2004 its plans to manufacture dual-core processors, but the first dual-core desktop processors you'll actually see in shipping systems will have Intel's name on them. Late last week we received Velocity Micro's ProMagix DCX, which features Intel's new dual-core Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 CPU using Intel's new 955X chipset. We expect to see systems from other vendors, Dell included, roll out shortly.

Together with the transition of the new Athlon 64 processors to the Venice core, AMD also introduced a new core for Sempron processors aka Palermo. Today we are proud to offer you a review of this budget CPU supporting SSE3 instructions and overclocking up to 2.7GHz clock speed.

DFI have done well, delivering what is possibly going to be the best nForce4 motherboard series. For those looking for an nForce4 SLI motherboard, the search may be over. The LANPartyUT NF4 SLI-DR is irresistible and the $180 US price tag makes it very competitive. With such an impressive level of performance, stability and overclocking, there are few that offer such a well balanced mix. There are really no flaws to speak of other than the awkward jumper configuration to enable SLI mode.

The 3.2GHz Pentium XE 840 is offered as an alternative to current single-core Extreme Edition CPUs. It may not quite have the pure gaming performance punch as, say, the 3.73GHz XE, but it's a better proposition when considered over a wide variety of applications. Think of it this way. The worst-case performance scenario is that the £650 Pentium XE 840 performs much like a single-core 3.2GHz 640 model. The best-case scenario, that is, being run with apps. that take advantage of its 4-thread parallel processing ability, is performance that no single-core Pentium 4 could ever hope to match, even under the most esoteric cooling.

Intel's new dual-core 3.2-GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 840 processor made a good showing on PC World's WorldBench 5 tests in key multimedia and multitasking tests. But users looking for improvements in single-threaded applications, such as most office apps and games, will see little benefit from the new chip.

Some people think that setting up a network in their home is a painstaking, agonizing, troublesome, technical task that they would rather not partake in. This simply is not the case anymore. There are many reasons why a person would like to setup a basic network. These reasons range from sharing multimedia, playing games, sharing a single printer, or most commonly, sharing a high speed internet connection.

Sporting an unchanged faceplate design from its predecessors, ASUS' newest flagship DVD writer, the DRW-1608P features a boost in DVD±RW and DVD±R DL write speeds, putting 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and the latest 6x DVD+R DL write speeds comfortably within your reach.

Once again Thermalright comes to the table with another top performing cooler. The all copper XP-90C shares all of the same great features and performance of the XP-90, but takes performance to a new level. The XP-90C supports Intel P4 Socket 478, and AMD K8 64 Bit processors (Socket 754/939/940). Using an innovative heatpipe design and thin copper fins the XP-90 offers the best cooling performance available for air coolers. Best of all you can choose that fan that is right for you! See our choice of fan options below.

"When Thermalright released their XP-120 heatsink, they almost redefined a cooling medium that many thought was reaching its limits. When the more compact XP-90 came out, I was surprised and pleased to find that it not only performed just as well as the monster 120, but had much better compatibility. For that reason, the XP-90 was the no-brainer choice for heatsink of the year, as far as we were concerned. Today, we're going to take a look at a heatsink that just might wrestle that crown away from the XP-90. Never one to sit on their own accomplishments, the folks at Thermalright are trying to do their own champion one better, in the form of the XP-90C. It's the same XP-90 we know and love, except this one is solid copper. Let's check it out!"

"Koolance is a very reputable company in the liquid cooling market with one of the most comprehensive consumer product lines to date. Aside from the standard liquid cooling systems, Koolance also makes a range of waterblocks for everything from the Northbridge on the motherboard to a variety of VGA waterblocks to Hard Disk Drive water coolers. Today, I will be taking a look at Koolance’s nVidia GeForce 6800 graphics chipset solution. Now, I know that these graphics cards don’t run anywhere near their auto shut-off temperature of 150 degrees, but wouldn’t you like to push that card further than standard air cooling allows you to? Of course you do."

i-Newswire, 2005-04-03 - Held in 20 countries and 150 cities around the world, ACON5 is one of 2005's most exciting gaming events. The finalists from each country and territory will head to an exotic location for an all-out battle to determine the ACON5 Champions. Where do YOU think the Global Finals will be held? Let us know and you can win big! ABIT, Intel, ATI, and Corsair are bringing you the chance to win an ACON5 SuperSystem valued at over $2000!

"Spring is here and what better time to clean up your rat nest of a case. Have that crazy arrangement of wires all over the place? This minibaybus from Sunbeam just might do the trick."

"Overclockers in Asia pick A-DATA as the top choice for overclocking memory, just like how top overclockers in the U.S. choose OCZ. It is only recently that they're reaching out to the overclockers here in the U.S. As soon as they start sending out review samples and making themselves more available in the online market, I'm sure enthusiasts will pick up the name in no time."

Today AMD starts shipping its Athlon 64 processors on new E3 core revision also known under the codename Venice. This core brings into Athlon 64 processors such new features as SSE3 instructions support and higher core frequency potential. Read our new review of one of these new processors for more details!

"EPoX put together a very nice motherboard based on the 925XE chipset. While you need to own the incredibly expensive 1066FSB Extreme Edition CPUs to get the most out of it, we see little reason to pickup a 925X based board even if you have an 800FSB CPU. The extra headroom should allow better overclocking as the chipset is validated at the higher speeds, and there isn't much of a price premium between 925X and 925XE boards."

Airflow aside, probably the most unique feature is the number of blades: two separate layers of "interwoven" 8 blades for a total of 16. This doesn't seem to impact performance much either way, but the appearance is certainly novel. The model pictured above is the 3000 and has a transparent blue frame with 8 transparent blue blades. Between them are 8 chrome blades. You may also noticed that all of these fans have LEDs mounted around the perimeter.

"Obviously, the largest selling feature of the Eclipse Keyboard is the True-Vu key illumination. A handful of companies have tried this but most ended up with a keyboard that feels a lot like you’re pounding on a laptop with the short stubby keys. Actually, aside from Deck, I can’t think of another company that has successfully produced a standard keyboard with illuminated keys."

“I have to say that when I first saw these on their site, I thought “WOW, it's about time someone came up with these!!” and Then I thought those would look cool in my computer, I have to have them, and here they are. From the pictures on their site, I thought they were made of some cheap chrome colored plastic, the site actually doesn't tell you what they are made of, it just says 'Nice Chrome anodized finish'. Well I have to say I was pleasantly surprised that they are actually metal, and they are pretty heavy (not in a bad way of course) but suprisingly for their size, they are heavier than you would think! These screws are on available now for $6.99 for 4 screws, and they come in three colors, Blue,Red, and Green. I got the blue ones for review today!”

"So, you have mastered every aspect of computing (or maybe not), and you are bored with the Internet. What can you do to bring back the thrill that you had the first time you fired up the latest Windows operating system? How about downloading or purchasing Linux? Linux is an "open-source" operating system that is in the "public domain", meaning that it must be offered free and no company or individual can claim it. Even for the most literate users, experimentation into new areas of computing can be a fun and an interesting challenge; therefore, trying out one of the latest Linux distributions is an excellent way to venture into the world of Unix based operating systems."

"Apple Computers aggressive marketing strategy has revitalized the consumer market with a wide array of unique products that cover every spectrum. One significant achievement was the release of the new Power Mac G5 which caused quite a buzz in the case modding community. The sleek and elegant design of the Power Mac G5 chassis prompted several individuals or either custom build or track down an original case to use with their own PC systems. Since the initial launch, there has been several case manufacturers that have attempted to capitalize on the G5 case design with the release of PC imitation cases."

It's no secret that multimedia needs has greatly influenced the design direction of notebooks of late. Dell's new Inspiron 6000 offers a 15.4-inch widescreen display, digital audio, dedicated multimedia controls and a capable VPU to satisfy your craving for DVDs and games.

RELIABLE SOURCES inform the INQ that a number of AMD's partners will get delivery of dual core Opterons now this month.

"What we have today is Corsair's new addition to their DDR2 line of memory. Although not the fastest rated memory available, the XMS2 PC2-4300 Pro allows low latency operations at 266MHZ."

"If you are looking into building a new system for yourself socket 939 a great choice. It offers serious performance advantages over last generation's socket A and 478 while being more affordable than most 775 setups. If you are upgrading the 939 platform even allows you to use your old memory, instead of having to buy DDR2. You will need a processor, motherboard, and PCI Express video card to make the move to 939. It is also worth investing in a a new power supply and an aftermarket CPU cooler, but you technically do not have to. In this guide we are going to put together three systems, each at a different price level. These are not systems we have built up so there will be no testing or anything like that, but it will give readers a good idea of current prices and some new products. "

The market is overcrowded with fan controllers, LCD panels and other such nifty devices seeking to fill up the 5.25” bays of your case. There are literally hundreds of various devices, simple and complex, cheap and expensive presently in the market. But how many times do you see something really innovative? Something more than a nice looking LCD panel with minimal customizable features or a simple analog fan controller? AeroCool offers a product that claims to do more than a simple fan controller and looks great, the Gatewatch fan controller. AeroCool is a relatively new company in the computer industry, established during 2002 in the USA. They have their own R&D and manufacturing ability, so they are able to grow quickly. Today, the GateWatch from AeroCool along with the optional HardDock accessory will be evaluated."

"Many of today’s high-end PSU’s come pre-sleeved from the manufacturer. Users with lower-end PSU’s must find their own solution if they want the benefits of sleeving. Companies have seen this demand and began producing cable sleeving kits of all different varieties. Today we have a kit from Ultra Products, the UV Cable Sleeving Kit."

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II died Saturday after a prolonged illness, the Vatican announced to the world. He was 84 and had led the Roman Catholic church for 26 years — the longest term of any modern pope.

"SystemCooling.com has reviewed a lot of power supplies over the past two years but none that provided hardware redundancy and hot-swap capabilities. The new SilverStone Gemini series ST46GF is actually two power supplies in one. Each power supply module is capable of delivering 460 watts continuous power. During normal operation the two modules share the load but if either one should fail, the other module will automatically carry the full load."

"Recently, I reviewed the Apollo nVidia 6600GT. During the research for that review, I found out that the chipset on all 6600GT's has an onboard temperature sensor, but many card manufacturers opted not to enable temp monitoring on their particular cards. I would assume to discourage overclocking, but I'm just guessing."

"Up to date, NVIDIA has given out "SLI Ready" certification to only two power supply manufacturers mainly PC Power & Cooling and SilverStone. We all know that SilverStone makes amazingly high quality PC cases but little did we know, they also manufacture some superb power supplies. Dubbed as ZEUS, the SilverStone ST65ZF power supply is one out of the three power supplies to receive the SLI certification from NVIDIA..."

Extreme Gamers need extreme hardware. We've combined state of the art technology, convenience, and gaming to create the portable LAN Potty. Perfect for LAN parties or home use!

The A-Top XPlode is offered in three basic color schemes of red, white and blue. Our blue review unit's paint job was first rate. A-Top's website states the case comes with a "car paint finish." I can tell you from first hand experience, they mean that. Another very interesting thing about the XPlode's color offerings is that A-Top can take custom orders for a case to be colored to suit your mood or fancy.

Upgrading to PCI Express is not cheap. For many it means an upgrade to Socket 939, a new video card and a new motherboard. Today at Neoseeker we take a look at a budget PCIe board based on VIA's K8T890 in Gigabyte's GA-K8VT890-9. With a MSRP of only 82$ and performance that is comparable to even high end nForce 4 boards, this could be a good choice for a budget entry level Athlon 64 PCIe system for those who are not conscientious about features or overclocking.

"In this review, PCSTATS will be testing out one of it's latest TFT-LCD models, the 24-inch Samsung SyncMaster 243T. This lovely piece of LCD technology sports some impressive specs including a 1920x1200 native resolution, a 500:1 contrast ratio, 170 degree horizontal/vertical viewing angles, 0.270mm pixel pitch, a pivoting display and dual digital/analog modes. It is ideally intended for commercial applications where its wide viewing angles and crisp graphics would be a definite asset. At a cost of approximately $2700 CDN, this is not a home desktop monitor by any stretch of the imagination."

On the eve of Gmail's one-year birthday, our engineers were toiling away furiously. Notes scribbled all over the walls. Complex calculations on napkins and empty pizza boxes. Millions of M&Ms.

The result?... starting today, we're beginning the roll-out of our new and top secret Infinity+1 storage plan.

At Google our mission is to organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible to our users. But any piece of information's usefulness derives, to a depressing degree, from the cognitive ability of the user who's using it. That's why we're pleased to announce Google Gulp (BETA)™ with Auto-Drink™ (LIMITED RELEASE), a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty.

But suddenly, out of nowhere, AMD have delivered a hammer blow to ATI, NVIDIA and Intel with a stunning new GPU that is set to light up the accelerator scene in a fashion not seen since 3Dfx brought out the Voodoo.

If you are looking to quiet down your system there are a lot of options available. Though it is not easy to move over to a fanless CPU cooler, as a processor produces most of the system's heat, this is the most effective way to lessen PC noise. In most systems the CPU cooling solution produces more noise than the other components so if this could be fanless then you are well on your way to a silent system.

While high speed TCCD is attractive, it's difficult to find. TCCD overclocking results are also inconsistent. Enthusiasts often go through multiple purchases before finding the right kit. All those transactions are a pain. Yet now, OCZ has the fastest DDR available, the Platinum PC4800.

We are now aware that Opteron dual core is slated to appear during this semester but news from AMD has been exceptionally scarce until now. Today AMDboard, the AMD specialist, is revealing some yet unknown AMD64 dual core physical design specification with an exclusive photo of the inside. Made in 90nm the current revision of the design has 205 millions transistors for the same size than a 130nm single-core Opteron design and runs at an incredible 95W!

"BeanTech International has done a decent job in terms of simplifying the process of keeping the Perspex window place. At the top and bottom portion of the front bezel sits a series of metal hinges which have two sets of threaded hex screws secured directly to the chassis. A small push to the locking mechanism allows the swing out front panel door to stay in place and can be easily opened with a slight pull on the front bezel."

We have some high-resolution images of MSI's Digital SLI bridge that we managed to spot at CeBit 2005. We also briefly explain how the solution works, and how it will improve the whole installation of an SLI configuration.

SP1, the server counterpart to Windows XP Service Pack 2, is primarily a security update. But, as was the case with XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1 also will include some brand-new features. SP1 is the foundation for Microsoft's forthcoming 64-bit Windows Server 2003 releases.

"We're going to have a bit of fun with this chip today. We'll test how high our Athlon64 3500+ will overclock with air cooling, but we're also going to put the processor under the deep freeze to see how high it goes with a R404A modded Prometeia Mach I phase-change cooler."

The Fast and the Furious set certainly had a hand in the design of the Monarch Computer Systems Hornet Pro ($3,792 as tested). The fluorescent lime-green case with side stripes, logos, and LED-lit case feet looks as if it belongs on the back of a tricked-out 2000 Honda Civic. It appeals to the same crew: young males who want to show off their gear to their friends, with the muscle to gain bragging rights.

The final board in our roundup, Soltek shows that features and performance do not necessarily need to come with premium prices. The SL-K8TPro-939 manages to impress us with first-class packaging and features for a modest cost.

We continue our roundups of 19-inch LCD panels. Today we are going to test 13 new models from Acer, NEC, Samsung, LG, Iiyama and Philips. Besides examining each monitor in particular, we will also compare the newly released TN+Film models against the old-timers of this market, i.e. monitors on S-IPS, MVA and PVA matrices.

"ThermalTake is a world leader in the computer cooling market with an ever- growing line of thermal efficient computer enclosures and computer accessories. In the past, I have had the opportunity to test out their latest heatsink designs and their first attempt at an external liquid cooling system, the Aquarius III. Today, I will be taking a look at their third liquid cooling kit (second internal) which sports a high efficiency radiator with a 12 cm variable speed fan, universal copper waterblock with an acrylic face plate, and a high speed, low noise pump. Together, these components come together and prove to be the most efficient liquid cooling system I have tested to date. Let’s take a closer look at the components and the system as a whole."

"As true gamers we all know that a hobby of this nature can be a pricey one. With video cards being the heart and soul of every gaming rig we find ourselves spending hundreds of dollars regularly on upgrading our graphics to keep up with the ever evolving world of computer gaming. Many options are always available from mainstream graphics cards to high end, more expensive versions made for the hard core enthusiast. NVIDIA has brought to the market its 6 series of GPUs: the maintsream 6600GT, the mid to high end 6800GT and finally the uncompromising 6800Ultra. Three first-class solutions built with gamers in mind. Today, we'll be looking at the EVGA e-Geforce 6600GT PCI-E SLI ready video card in both single and SLI configurations."

ABIT DEFINITELY recognises the value of its Fatal1ty brand and it sure wants to get the best out of of it. It has released several boards for enthusiasts based on this brand including Fatal1ty AA8XE based on 925XE chipset, Fatal1ty AN8 based on Nforce 4 ultra and Fatal1ty SLI based on Nforce 4 SLI.

Ever have to test out a Fan or HDD to see if they power up or not? Well, it can be a pain to open up your computer to get at the connections to do so. AC Ryan has made this exact problem much easier with their Backy. Read the review to find out more.

"As we've seen in our results, the gap between AMD and Intel in terms of application performance is a lot closer than it used to be, at least when we're talking about $1000 processors. The 3.73GHz Extreme Edition did edge the Athlon FX-55 in most of the application tests (and trumped it in video encoding), but the race is getting tighter here. While the FX-55 did win all the gaming benchmarks, we saw that the larger cache and 1066FSB narrowed the results for Intel, but not enough to overtake AMD."