Dec.
21, 2004
D-Link Gigabit Wired/108Mbps
Wireless Gaming Network
Author: Shane
Unrein
"Several
months ago, D-Link approached me about doing a review. The
proposal was for a 'hybrid wired/wireless gaming network' review.
I was about to move to a new apartment, so this was perfect
timing. I was growing more and more annoyed by the router I
was using at that time, and I wanted to try wireless in the
new apartment to prevent running cable into the living room
for my media PC."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
DFI Lanparty 875-T
LGA 775 Motherboard
Author: Carl
Nelson
"Contrary
to what Intel wants you to think, the 915P and 925x chipsets
may not necessarily be the most suitable platforms for a new
Pentium 4 CPU. Although they do introduce support for new features
like Matrix RAID, NCQ, and PCI-E, you will be at a loss if
you're planning on doing some serious overclocking.
Enter DFI's Lanparty 875-T. It takes the latest CPU socket platform
and mates it to the mature 875P chipset. It won't win any Gigabit
Ethernet races, but you just wait and see how it performs with
the tighter timings of DDR memory, and killer overclocking ability."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Author: Chris
Tom
"We
have tested the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe with SLI using two Asus
and two eVGA 6600GT cards as well as with the Radeon X800XT.
We have 18 benchmarks in all. We also take a good look at the
included hardware of the board, and at the myriad of bios and
overclocking features. We also look at stability and availability
of this very sought after board."
Read
the full review here
Dec.
20, 2004
Corsair XMS Twinx1024-4400C25
1GB DC Kit
Author: Randy
Torio
"Corsair
recently sent us their latest and greatest XMS memory modules,
the TwinX11024-4400C25. These modules use the highly-acclaimed
TCCD chips that Corsair originally introduced with their XL
lineup. Now they have revamped the TCCD chips with newer chips,
higher rated speeds, and a new PCB that looks to be made by
Brainpower, although I’m not entirely sure. With that
said, on to the review."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Koolance PC3-720SL
Liquid System
Author: Hubert
Wong
"Overall,
Koolance has a very impressive kit in the PC3-720 and is definitely
worth considering if you're interested in an easy to use water-cooling
setup. Performance is very good, and the case aesthetics are
top notch in our opinion."
Read
the full review here
Dec.
17, 2004
Single Drive and RAID
0 SATA NCQ Performance with Seagate\'s Barracuda 7200.7
Author: Chad
Unrein
"One
important thing to note about NCQ technology is that it requires
not only a drive that supports it but also host-side support,
meaning the PC that the drive is connected to must have a controller
capable of using NCQ. Today, only Intel's 915 and 925 platforms
have this feature, but AMD fans will have it when motherboards
based on NVIDIA's nForce4 hit the streets."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D
GeForce 6600GT Videocard
Author: Colin
Sun
"nVIDIA
was the first to enter the 'mainstream' PCI Express video market
with the GeForce 6600 class GPU. ATi followed suit a few days
later with its Radeon X700. While the companies are different,
the technology behind the competing VPUs is actually quite
similar. Built on IBM's 0.11 micron manufacturing process,
the nVidia GeForce 6600 has eight pixel rendering pipelines
and the 'GT' model has a core clock speed of 500 MHz. ATi uses
TSMC's 0.11 micron manufacturing process, and its graphics
core has eight pixel rendering pipelines too. The higher-end
Radeon X700 XT VPU is clocked slightly slower than nVidia's
solution, at 475 MHz. Over the next dozen pages, PCStats will
try to answer that question as we test out a videocard made
by Gigabyte called the GV-NX66T128D. This PCI Express x16 videocard
is based on nVIDIA's GeForce 6600GT GPU, and packs in a svelte
128MB of Samsung GDDR3 memory."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Matrix Orbital MX232
LCD
Author: Craig
Shyjak
"The
LCD itself is very nice. The picture is crisp and bright, and
with the included software you can adjust how well the display
looks in your environment. The included accessories were great
as well. The internal USB cable allowed for a cleaner install,
and the temperature sensors were easy to use and a extremely
useful. The included software is very powerful and allows for
a multitude of custom configurations and screens."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Asus Extreme N6600GT
single and SLI mode
Author: Denver
Mcanally
"This
article will focus mostly on the performance of SLI enabled
setups versus single video card solutions. I use an X800 XT
as a base to look at when thinking about price to performance.
A single GeForce 6600 GT is about $200 making a pair $400.
The retail price of the X800 XT I will be using is almost $700.
Think about the price to performance ratios when looking at
the benchmarks."
Read
the full review here
Dec.
15, 2004
ASUS P5AD2-E
Author: Michael
Schuette
"With Intel
pushing the 1066 MHz host bus interface for the 925X-E chipset,
yet failing to provide affordable processors or even unaffordable
ones that would take advantage of the higher bus interface,
the second speed step of Alderwood boards can only target the
Prescott LGA 775 as possible driving force. Yet, what looks
good on paper may not stand up to reality. On the other hand,
ASUS has once again come out with a mainboard that is setting
new standards in hardware, including the bundle. We have drilled
down to the nitty gritty on the component and implementation
level to bring a full report of the P5AD2-E which looks identical
to the P5AD2 in all its glory.
Yet, there were a number of Winstones that we had to leave
unturned."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Athenatech A605 Mid
ATX Computer Case
Author: Joe
Anderson
"After using
this case for a couple of weeks, I'm fairly pleased with its
performance. The Athenatech A605 has a lot of competition in
its $50 price range. While none of its features put it head
and shoulders above its rivals, I feel it is a good buy. With
the addition of another fan and a motherboard tray it would
have been a great buy."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Albatron GeForce 6800
GT
Author: Adam
Erker
"ES,
XL, SE, GSR and every other combo of letters used to describe
a car, razor, or your favorite deoderant can be confusing.
So which one is the best, which one is fully loaded, and which
one sucks like a black hole? The same kind of system has been
floating around the video card world for a while now, and NVIDIA's
latest line of 6 Series cards has their own to throw around.
Well today we are going to take a look at the Albatron 6800
GT, the gran turismo of the video card world. We won't call
this the model with heated leather seats and navigation, but
it definitely comes with 17's and a moonroof."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Cooler Master Hyper
48
Author: John
Chen
"Our
last look at Cooler Master's enthusiast cooler left us a bit
disappointed. The Ultra Vortex cooling design was similar to
the design of the Zalman CNPS series, but was not nearly as
easy to install. Yet the Ultra Vortex provided good performance,
but not enough to justify the poor installation method. Thermalright's
introduction of the Light-N-Easy series of heatsinks only provided
more competition. These factors wiped away all possible considerations
for using the Ultra Vortex. Lucky for us, Cooler Master jumped
on heatpipe technology once again and created the new Hyper
48. Unlike the Hyper6 that utilizes 6 heatpipes, the Hyper
48 uses 4 heatpipes to distribute heat across the copper fins.
Hopefully, the Hyper 48 doesn't come with installation problems
too."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
eVGA Nvidia GeForce
6600GT SLI
Author: Denver
Mcanally
"By
now you should have heard of SLI. When talking about today's
modern video cards SLI means Scalable Link Interface. Basically
what SLI does is takes two identical video cards and makes
them render as one. Using dual PCI-Express X16 slots the nForce
4 chipset allows SLI to become a reality brought back to life.
3Dfx used to have SLI video cards before they were bought out
by NVIDIA. Back then it stood for "Scan Line Interleave",
but still the same concept."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Final CATALYST posting of the year
Well here it is, to wrap up our CATALYST updates of the year
we present the final update in the 4.xx series of CATALYST software.
Next month we will kick off the 5.xx series (since our numbering
scheme is based on calendar notation) with CATALYST 5.1.
Anyways before I get to the details please wish your viewers/readers/forums
an amazing holiday season and a great new year on my behalf!
One other thing, just
late last week Andrew and I completed a very extensive interview
on DH, in which we answered a lot
of questions and gave away some info on our upcoming plans. Have
a read, and please post a link for your community/readers to
have a read if you don’t mind http://www.driverheaven.net/dhinterviews/terryandrew/ as we (Andrew and I) really liked this interview. (Speaking of
interviews if you ever want an exclusive interview related to
CATALYST don’t hesitate to ask, we are always looking for
good outlets to chat with.)
Now, on to the CATALYST 4.12 info. As always we have some performance,
innovation and stability:
Performance:
· Driver efficiency
has improved considerably for both Direct3D and OpenGL.
· Numerous
D3D games show 2-3% gains at low resolution. The small batch
size tests in 3DMark05 show improvements as large
as 15% on some products.
· In OpenGL,
several game titles show improvements in the lower settings.
Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory, for instance,
shows gains as large as 15% in low resolution (driver-bound)
cases. Doom III performance improves 5-10% at low settings. Call
of Duty improves 5-6%.
· Half-Life
2 performance also improves as much as 20% over Catalyst 4.11
in certain sections of the game.
Features:
· Problem Report Wizard for CCC – New
menu item in CCC
· Overdrive 3 – for users of X850XT – manual
overclocking tool with thermal protection
Stability:
· Half-Life
2: Playing the game on a system containing an Athlon XP CPU
no longer results in missing textures occationally
being noticed
· Half-Life
2: Intermittent psychedelic patterns are no longer seen when
playing the game under Windows XP
· CounterStrike: Playing the game under Windows XP with
an ATI RADEON™ X800 series installed no longer results
in display corruption being seen in the floor in de_chateau map
· Doom 3: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI
RADEON™ X800 XT Platinum Edition no longer results in display
corruption being seen when pressing CTRL+Alt+Delete followed
by clicking Cancel
· Everquest: Playing the game under Windows XP with an
ATI RADEON™ X800 XT Platinum Edition installed results
in the game displaying a black screen when setting the texture
quality to high and having all radio buttons selected
· Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault: Setting the model
detail to high and change the game resolution to high no longer
results in the game failing to respond under Windows XP with
an ATI RADEON™ X800 series installed
· Tron2.0:
Setting the display device resolution to 1280x1024 32bpp and
setting the display option for the game to 800x600
32bpp no longer results in display corruption being seen in the
game cinematics
· Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Playing the
game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ X800 series installed
no longer results in triple buffering failing when enabling the
option in the CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER
· Attempting
to rotate the display 90 degrees and play an OpenGL game under
Windows XP may result in the game failing
to launch
· Enabling
clone mode along with theatre mode option under overlay no
longer results in WinDVD and the operating system
failing to respond when dragging the WinDVD window around the
desktop
· Display corruption is no longer noticed when playing
a DVD using WinDVD and having subtitles enabled under Windows
XP with an ATI RADEON™ X800 series installed
· Attempting to make a change to a saved profile within
the CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER no longer results in the Save
button being greyed out
· Connecting a secondary CRT and clicking the X button
to close the Enable this display window found in the CATALYST™ CONTROL
CENTER Advanced view, no longer results in the window not closing
· Muting the
audio during the playback of full screen HDTV video under Windows
Media Center Edition no longer results
in the video being paused
· Angle information in the rotation modes is now correct
for the CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER
· Enabling Overscan under Windows XP with an ATI ALL-IN-WONDER™ 9600
installed no longer results in the image not being centered properly
on the display device
· Connecting
a secondary CRT display device and extending the desktop, followed
by unplugging the secondary device and
hot-plugging a DFP device no longer results in the DFP remaining
in the Additional display area when attempting to swap devices
· The Windows
desktop brightness no longer dims when playing a DVD and having
an HDTV connected as the primary display
device
· Playing a DVD under Windows XP MCE with an ATI RADEON™ X800
XT installed no longer results in VPU Recover being activated
when attempting to drag or resize the Media Center window
· An error message is no longer displayed when attempting
to switch a secondary display device back to the primary display
device when using the CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER
Dec.
8, 2004
Lian Li PC-6077 Mid-tower Case
Author: Chad Unrein
There are certain brands or companies people usually turn to
when they want a certain level of quality in a product or service.
When it comes to aluminum PC cases, Lian Li is one such brand.
Based in Taiwan, Lian Li has been a leader in the aluminum case
market for quite a few years now. The company recently released
its newest line of cases - the V-Series. However, its older lines
of cases are still readily available and worth consideration
from anyone wanting a high-quality case.
Read
the full review here
Also in the news
SilverStone Temjin TJ05
Author: Luke Ponio
"The most noticeable
aspect of your computer isn't that latest graphics card or
high-end CPU, but the chassis it is
housed in. A new case can give your computer a whole new feel
of satisfaction.
Silverstone has been around since 2003. They are known for
their well built, beautifully designed cases, but they also manufacture
other products, such as power supplies, fans, CPU coolers,
and
case accessories. One of the best things about Silverstone
is their attitude toward innovation. Silverstone has taken the
computer
enclosure industry head-on and made a name for themselves in
a very short period of time."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Ultra Retractable
Cables
Author: Craig
Shyjak
"People in
general like things to be somewhat organized. Be it your house,
or the cabling on the computer, things definitely have their
place. Now your computer can look awesome on the inside, but
the rats nest of cables on the outside draw away the attention.
Or you are someone on the go, and need to carry the least amount
of stuff possible. These are the markets that the Ultra cables
are aimed at."
Read
the full review here
Dec.
7, 2004
Half
Life 2 for free?
Yes folks
it seems to be true.
Monarchcomputer.com
is offering Half-life 2 for free if you purchase an Athlon
64 combo. You also get Far Cry and Napster thrown in with the
deal.
Get
all the details here.
