June
30, 2005
Seagate 5GB
Pocket Hard Drive
Author: Hubert
Wong
"Ultimately,
not matter how good or bad a product is, most of us are going
to be concerned about the price. At $122 USD, the Seagate 5GB
Pocket Hard Drive rings in at little more than $0.02 per Megabyte.
Compare this with a 4GB flash drive at $350 USD, which rings in
at about $0.09 per meg, we can see the Pocket Hard Drive's value."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
ECS RS480-M
Author: John
Chen
"ECS
has always had a reputation of being an inexpensive solution for
DIY system builders. They haven't had a great history
in terms of overclocking but their new micro-ATX motherboard may
actually be a viable solution for HTPC systems."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Ultra Memory
and HDD Cooler
Author: Craig
Shyjak
"The
Ultra Hard drive cooler is an excellent cooling product, temperatures
on my hard drive dropped dramatically once installed. If Ultra
fixed the minor cabling mess and designed it to allow for a hard
drive to be installed underneath it would be even better."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
New BIOS for
Leadtek 7800GTX
"Isaac
at Leadtek has let me know about a new BIOS out for the Leadtek
7800GTX. It increases the core to 450MHz and the RAM to 1.25GHz.
This is of coarse supported overclocking by Leadtek's warranty.
He also informed new boards will be shipping with this BIOS."
Download
the BIOS here
Also
in the news
Seagate 400GB
Pushbutton Backup USB 2.0/FireWire HDD
Author: Shane
Unrein
"All
of us have movies, pictures and/or music that we treasure and
would hate to lose. You may have already heard or read it a thousand
times, but you really should back up any data that is important
to you. Before you reach for those 3.5' floppies, you should realize
that your backed up data is only as good as the media you put
it on, which is why you should steer clear of floppies, especially
when there are so many superior options available today. Besides,
you can't fit much more than a few school papers on a floppy.
One common
option employed is to install and utilize a spare hard drive.
In the end this is probably the most convenient option because
your backup media (the spare HDD) is right at your finger tips
every time you use that PC. Unfortunately, if it's installed in
your PC, that solution isn't very easy to take with you when you're
on the go. This is one of the reasons external solutions are so
popular; they make back up and sharing easy and convenient. Flash
memory and hard drives are the most common external storage types
for personal use. While I can't live without my 2GB USB flash
drive, it just isn't big enough to back up all my media files.
But, Seagate's 400GB Pushbutton Backup USB 2.0/FireWire external
hard drive easily solves that problem."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
VIA 100 Millionth
AMD Chipset mod, Antec vs Coolermaster 550W Power Supply Comparison
Author: Craig
Shyjak
"As
one can infer from their name, Coolermaster have been in the heatsink
and fan game for a long time, providing solutions to efficiently
rid the heat that comes off increasingly power hungry products.
Coolermaster though have also been in the PSU market, providing
a number of solutions and today we look at their latest, the Coolermaster
Real Power 550W. Antec however are more renown for their cases
but are also very well known for power supplies for sometime now.
We're also looking at Antec's True Power 2.0, another 550W PSU."
VIA
100 millionth AMD chipset mod review
Antec
vs Coolermaster 550W Power Supply Comparison
June
27, 2005
Intel Pentium
Extreme Edition 840
Author: Stephen
Cooper
"In
the case of multi-tasking, I should say we see less of a performance
loss than we would with a standard single core CPU, even one equipped
with Hyper-Threading. This can be seen from the last multi-tasking
benchmarks that we ran where, even though the 840 was far behind
in a dedicated environment, it came out on top in a multi-tasking
one."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Foxconn 925XE7AA-8EKRS2
Author: Joel
Weirauch
"Using
an Asetek Waterchill system, with only a water block on the CPU,
we tested the overclocking potential of the Foxconn 925XE. We
would have put a block on the chipset as well, but with the new
chipset HSF mounting solution, we have no way of attaching the
block to the northbridge chipset. We managed to get our 3 GHz
P4 running stable at 3.75 GHz, which is a healthy 750 MHz overclock."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Spire KestrelKing
Heatsink and CAS RAS Latencies Explained at motherboards.org
Spire
KestrelKing VI Heatsink
Author: Tulatin
"In
the end game, Spire comes up with an attractive offering at an
attractive price, and pending that you don't plan for any heavy
duty overclocking, this would make a good replacement for the
stock heatsink provided with your CPU."
Read
the full review
CAS
RAS Latencies Explained
Author: Heather
Skinner
"Many
factors contribute to a computer's performance. Beyond the processor
speed, motherboard bus speed, and hard disk drive capacity (and
speed, too), a system's memory plays an important role."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Compro VideoMate
Action Ultra
Author: Björn
Endre
"
I work the best when watching TV. At home I have a nice big TV
on the side of my computer which always is on showing a movie
or just a random TV-channel. Obviously at work I cannot do the
same and need to solve this in another way. Luckily Compro came
to the rescue and let me test one of their latest external TV-Tuners,
the Compro VideoMate Action Ultra tuner."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
AMD Athlon
64 3000+ Winchester Contest
"This
is part 4 of InsaneTek's 1 year anniversary contest. The prize
is an AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 Winchester. This
contest is available to everyone in the world. Shipping is cheap
so here's your chance. The contest will only last for 1 week so
hurry and get in."
Get
the full details here
Also
in the news
ECS Production
Tour 2005: How to build a mainboard, ECS style
Author: Rys
"The
final production testing is done by skilled technicians who have
the ability to test two at a time, in tandem. They've got some
test hardware that I'm jealous of (fast-removal memory modules,
CPU heatsinks that don't need full attachment, PCI and PCI Express
logic testers, etc.) and can have a mainboard fully functionally
tested in a matter of minutes."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
New ForceWare
drivers!
"NVIDIA
announced the availability of the ForceWare Release 77.72 graphics
driver for add-in graphics cards based on NVIDIA GeForce graphics
processing units (GPUs). These new drivers adds support for GeForce
7800 GTX and GeForce 6200 AGP, improves TurboCache™ performance,
and more. ."
Download
the driver here
June
24, 2005
ASUS P5WD2
Premium
Author: Hubert
Wong
"ASUS
put together a fine package in the P5WD2 Premium. Performance
was solid and the board was problem free out of the box which
is something we don't see enough of these days. We were quite
happy with pushing our 3.73 Extreme Edition past 4.5GHz, and although
we've had mildly better success with other boards, we'll still
take a free ~700MHz boost anyday."
Read
the full review
June
23, 2005
Rock Xtreme
Ti 3.6 Laptop
Author: Tarinder
"Thinking
of the Xtreme Ti in strict DTR terms, the overall impression is
favourable. You can zip around Windows XP, thanks, in main part,
to Rock's use of 2 60GB 7,200RPM laptop drives that are pre-configured
in RAID0. Browsing around in 2D mode, the machine felt faster
than Dell's Inspiron XPS Gen 2, which shipped with a single 100GB
4,200RPM drive. The screen is a hit-and-miss affair. You'll either
love the high-contrast 17-inch (1680x1050) screen or immediately
dislike just how reflective the X-Glass-equipped panel is. Rock's
got most of the performance bases covered, too, with a fast Mobility
Radeon X800 (now XT) card providing decent framerates at the laptop's
native resolution. There's also plenty of memory and the optical
drive is decent enough."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
NVIDIA to launch
'open driver'?
Author: David
Ross
"ATi
have stated that their solution will support different cards,
which delivers an upgrade solution to current ATi card users.
We find it
very likely that NVIDIA will release a new driver soon which will
allow the support of 'un-matched' cards, and if what has been
whispered to us turns out to be true SLi will deliver an impressive
upgrade path."
Read
the full article
June
22, 2005
AMD Tech Tour
2005 Dallas Stop Coverage
Author: Chris
Tom
"We've
posted up my coverage of AMD's Tech Tour 2005 Dallas stop. We
cover of course AMD, Microsoft, ATI, Asus, MSI, Tyan, and Newisys.
Of note is Longhorn, 64 bit drivers, 64 bit Direct X, 64 bit Windows
Media Center Edition, Crossfire, the new Ferrari laptop, and the
new Newisys dual core quad Opteron 3U servers. It has an interesting
look at how AMD gets the white box guys up to speed, and something
we were surprised to hear about Dull."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Uniblue Wintasks
5 Professional
Author: Jeff
Caldwell
"WinTasks
is a great tool for doing what it does, and it does do exactly
what it says it does. Uniblue (formerly LIUtilities) has given
us the perfect compliment to our arsenal against the evil software
monkeys of the future. Everything is neatly bundled into one seamless
program to take the guesswork and confusion out of checking for
viruses, malicious services, and adware."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Evercool WC-202
Watercooling Kit
Author: Patrick
Ng
"The
use of watercooling to cool your system is becoming increasingly
popular. Evercool joins the watercooling crowd and
provides a setup with TWO compact radiators."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
MACS Kooler
TEC Heatsink
Author: Scott
Harness
"TEC
cooling has a few drawbacks compared to a regular HSF setup, the
main one being that it's cooling is usually so efficient that
temperatures will drop to below ambient, which means that you
will need to insulate against condensation. This kind of setup
also usually requires a separate power supply and more often than
not, watercooling to cool the hot side of the TEC. But take the
middle ground of a low power TEC coupled with a HSF combo, and
while the temperatures won't drop below ambient, they should get
down lower than a HSF combo alone."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Cool-Matic
G70 for Nvidia G70 / Geforce 7800
Author: kosta
"Parallel
to the upcoming Launch of the new Nvidia G70 Graphic Card -Monster
(Geforce 7800) we have the suitable cooling solution ready and
available today -> The new Cool-Matic G70 Special Coolers !
Power and silence come together an meet in perfection. Made in
Germany!"
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
nVIDIA GeForce
7800 GTX
Author: Scott
Sherman & Bjorn Endre
"Looking
back, the video card race between NVIDIA and ATI has usually meant
a new chip once a year and a refresh once every six or so months.
Usually the refresh has been the same chip with some minor tweaks
and increased clock speeds when they've gotten better yields out
of the design over time. Those of you who follow the industry
however might have noticed that since NVIDIA released the first
GeForce 6 cards in spring 2004 there haven't been any refresh-products
coming out. Instead NVIDIA choose to release SLI-support on their
motherboards. It is easy thus to think that the new GeForce 7
chips are nothing more than a refresh product. As the name suggests
though this isn't the case. The GeForce 7 is a new chip with improvements
beyond mere increased clockspeed."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
NVIDIA GeForce
7800 GTX preview
Author: Rys
"All-in,
a solid improvement to an excellent architecture. NVIDIA balance
ALU increases with ROP considerations to create a formidable pixel
pusher that currently has no equal. 7800 GTX boards can be bought
from today for a UK retail price of £369. That's only some
£70 more than a 6800 Ultra (15%), for a rough 40% increase
in performance, should your wallet be up to the task."
Read
the full review
June
21, 2005
Samsung DVD-HD841
High Definition DVD Player
Author: Nathan
Glentworth
"Overall,
my experience with this product has been excellent. This aesthetically
pleasing product was problem free, easy to install using a standard
video connection and is packed full of features that will have
your DVD player future-proofed if you decide to upgrade your TV
to a high definition display sometime in the upcoming years. But
with the advantages of this product, there are some hang ups."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Cooler Master
Hyper 6+
Author: Patrick
Ng
"The
Hyper 6 is probably considered Cooler Master's first high performance
cooler. To this day, enthusiasts are still using
the cooler. Well now, Cooler Master gives you something else to
play with, the Hyper 6+."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
ThermalRock
Circle Case
Author: Douglas
Kavendek
"Take
a look at the review of this really interesting and unique case
from Thermalrock, a division of Thermaltake. The looks will definitely
catch your attention!."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Optorite ML-100
1600 dpi Laser Mouse
Author: Norman
Tan
"When
Logitech introduced the MX1000 laser mouse in cordless form, gamers
were wondering when they would see a corded version. Instead of
that, Logitech launched a high resolution version of the MX 500.
But what if
you're looking for both features? Laser has some advantages, such
as being able to track off pretty much every surface. For those
of you who want versatile tracking and high resoltuion, Optorite
has launched the 1600 dpi ML-100 mouse."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
ThermalRock
Eclipse
Author: John
Chen
"Like
the ThermalRock Circle but a tad too big and heavy for you? Count
on ThermalRock to have the answer. The Eclipse is
great for LAN parties without sacrificing what's important in
a case--the spacious room."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
AeroCool Turbine
Power 550 PSU
Author: Brook
Moore
"AeroCool
has brought to market a short list power supply with the Turbine
Power 550. It is an efficient solution that can drive most anything
you have to throw at it. There is ample power, connectors and
separation of 12V rails to alleviate headaches on high end water
coolers and the like. Their design plays nice with your customizations,
no matter the level, without taking over as the centerpiece of
your hard work."
Read
the full review
June
20, 2005
Watercooling
Kit Contest - Runs Only 1 Week
"This
is part 3 of InsaneTek's 1 year anniversary contest. The prize
is a complete kit of watercooling parts:
1 Swiftech
MCW6000 CPU waterblock (hand painted black by Randy)
1 DangerDen Maze4 GPU waterblock (originally black)
1 Black Black Ice Pro 120mm radiator (originally black)
1 MCP350 pump
1 MCRES-525 reservoir
and some black Tygon tubing. yes it's originally black and not
painted. thing is, it's been cut to accommodate the use of a dfi
ultra-d."
Get
the full details here
Also
in the news
Jon Peddie
June 2005: ATI drives CrossFire to market
Author: Jon
Peddie
"While
Nvidia has never denied that SLI’s speedup is application
and usage dependent, we were impressed with ATI architects’
willingness to look for ways to make the 2nd GPU useful when applications,
user demands, and/or host systems make it difficult for AFR or
Scissor mode to produce a solid performance increase. As a result,
CrossFire architects added support for two additional modes that
SLI' have. (or at least not yet): Supertile and Super AA modes."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
ATI Catalyst
Report
Author: Nick
Haywood
"The
Control Panel is coming to the end of it’s life and 8.16,
August, will be the last driver to support it. ATI are moving
towards CCC as the only UI available and from 8.17, September,
only CCC will supported. All next gen ATI products will support
CCC only."
Read
the full review
June
19, 2005
DFI LanParty
UT nF4 SLI-DR Review
Author: Chris
Tom
"Clearly
DFI has put overclocking on the forefront with the design of this
board. Pair that with the best chipset around, and you have plenty
of good stuff. 8 SATA ports help, as does 6 USB ports on the back,
and Firewire support along with dual Gigabit. Then the Karajan
audio module is impressive as well. The plethora of overclocking
options takes the cake however."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Mushkin Redline
PC4000 1GB Dual Channel Kit
Author: Randy
Torio
"If
you've never heard of Mushkin's infamous Black Level II BH5, you
should be ashamed of yourself and quit this computer
hobby. Well Mushkin is back with blazing fast Winbond UTT BH5
but with a pretty red heatspreader."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
XFX 6600GT
SLI Video Card Review at motherboards.org
Author: Benjamin
Sun
"XFX
is a company that started making NVIDIA based video cards a couple
of years ago. A relative newcomer as a manufacturer of video cards,
XFX has made a name for itself as being one of the only companies
that manufacture NVIDIA cards exclusively. XFX has a full lineup
of NVIDIA's product offerings available."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
NZXT Trinity
Author: Stephen
Jimenez
"NZXT
takes the chassis of the Nemesis and slaps on a more stylish and
sleek front panel. It's not as crazy looking as the Nemesis but
it's still one great gaming case."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Dell Inspiron
XPS Gen 2 Laptop
Author: Tarinder
"The
chosen combination of Pentium M 770 and GeForce 6800 Go Ultra
256MB make for, without doubt, the fastest gaming laptop ever
to grace HEXUS Labs, and I keep repeating this, ad nauseum, but
it's just so damn quiet. The screen's pretty sharp, the keyboard's
above average, and the chassis looks pretty cool. With the £2099
asking price and gamers in mind, I'd urge Dell to pre-configure
a model with a 7,200RPM hard drive for faster loading and, perhaps,
look into a better base warranty. Other than that, though, I'm
struggling to find bad points about it without resorting to nitpicking."
Read
the full review
June
16, 2005
Corsair XMS
XPERT 3200XL Memory
Author: Patrick
Harris
"With
the introduction of the Xpert modules Corsair has yet again captured
the wallets of enthusiasts everywhere. By utilizing their X-treme
Low Latency memory chips with the addition of the Xpert module
they have melded performance and looks together..."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
ECS KN1 Extreme
Motherboard
Author: Chris
Tom
"ECS
has impressed us, and we have to say this is the top board from
them we have ever tested. It is not yet at the top end, but it
is a marked improvement. The low cost is certainly in their favor,
and we hope they provide good BIOS support for upgrading CPUs
down the road like Asus does. We are a bit disappointed at their
not being a bit more to work with for overclocking settings particularly
with the extra board cooling, but hopefully in the future that
will be updated."
Read
the full review
June
15, 2005
WIN at motherboards.org
"Win
Two 512MB Ballistix Memory Modules from Crucial at motherboards.org."
Click
here to sign up for free
Also
in the news
Athlon 64 FX57
Performance
Author: Chris
Tom
"It
is clear that the FX doesn't quite have the same luster with the
X2 on the scene. AMD is quick to say that gaming performance is
best on the FX still, but clearly from our marks the FX57 will
not have a significant edge over at least the 4800+, and likely
will not overclock much further if at all. The advantage of the
dual core remains the ability to raise the clock multiplier. While
we still yearn for the days of the K6-2 when we started the site
almost seven years ago when a simple jumper change would change
the multiplier it seems unlikely that due to remarking, and perhaps
somewhat due to overclocking AMD will not unlock mid range or
lower CPUs."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Crucial 12-in-1
Flash Reader and 1GB Secure Digital Card
Author: Patrick
Ng
"Flash
devices and readers are becoming extremely popular as consumer
electronics demand more storage space. What better brand to trust
than a leading memory supplier?"
Read
the full review
June
14, 2005
Corsair XMS
XPERT PC3200
Author: Jeremiah
Bostwick
"Corsair
XMS ram in general should be on your very short list for any enthusiast
application. After working with this XPERT RAM in particular it's
hard to want to use anything else. Corsair once again delivers
some of the highest quality sticks of RAM in the industry."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Inside the
Labs of ASUSTeK
Author: Team-HEXUS.net
"3DMark
was run through on both cards at default settings and then at
1280x1024 with 4x Antialiasing and 16x Anisotropic Filtering with
all quality settings in the device driver set to maximum. We also
ran the EN6800GT through overclocked to ULTRA speeds."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
$70,000 In
Prizes At Newegg.com's LANFest2K5 Competition
Author: Team-HEXUS.net
"Newegg.com's
LANfest2K5 computer game tournament will award $70,000 in cash
and prizes.
The event
will feature Counter-Strike: Source, Counter-Strike: 1.6 and Call
of Duty tournaments, in addition to a 400-seat BYOC area. The
event will take place on July 30-31 in California at the Pasadena
Convention Center.
If you or
someone on your staff would like to attend, please respond to
this email to get your press pass to the event.
Registration
Begins Today
City of Industry, Calif.
- June 14, 2005 - Newegg.com's LANfest2K5 will feature Counter-Strike:
Source, Counter-Strike: 1.6 and Call of Duty tournaments, in addition
to a 400-seat BYOC area, with prizes for the event totaling more
than $70,000. The event will take place on July 30-31 in California
at the Pasadena Convention Center.
"LANfest2K5 is
an event inspired by our customers who love gaming and planned
by Newegg.com employees who share that love," said Howard
Tong, vice president of marketing, Newegg.com. "Although
we're hoping to draw premier e-sports teams to LANfest2K5 with
well-administrated tournaments and lucrative prizes, this event
is for all gamers."
Tournament participants
will duke it out on 60 meticulously tuned custom gaming PCs, each
filled with bleeding-edge system components. Cyber Square Alliance,
the video game event consulting and management division of web2zone,
Inc., will be administrating LANfest2K5 and its tournaments. The
company's credentials include CPL's 2005 USA Regionals, ABIT's
ACON5 tournament and the ESWC 2005 USA LAN Finals.
"We are very excited
to be working with Newegg.com to manage their LANfest2K5 activities,"
said Ed Tomasi, director of marketing, web2zone. "Participants
will be familiar with the rules and structure of these competitive
events, and we are happy to provide our professional tournament
administrators and staff to ensure LANfest2K5 gamers have an incredible
experience."
LANfest2K5 will feature
a 400-seat BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) area, where registered
attendees can "game" on their own PCs, and a spectator
area where attendees can chat with industry reps and "crash"
in the wee hours of the morning. Additionally, the event will
be riddled with product giveaways and off-the-wall contests. Last
year, one diehard competitor stuffed over 50 Abba Zabba candy
bars into his mouth for the victory, while another got the "W"
by covering almost every square inch of his body with Newegg.com
stickers.
Registration
is mandatory and will begin June 14 at the official LANfest2K5
website, where event information can also be found: http://www.newegg.com/lanfest2k5.
Tickets prices
are $30 for tournament passes (tournament passes include BYOC
entry), $20 for BYOC entry, and $10 for spectator passes."
Also
in the news
Silverstone
LC14M HTPC Case
Author: Norman
Tan
"Silverstone
has lately been focusing on HTPC cases more than anything else.
While they still have very high quality PSU's (theirs is one of
the few with NVIDIA SLI certification) and well thought-out tower
cases, they are mostly known for their HTPC solutions, thanks
largely to the innovative solutions we have reviewed in the past.
With the LC14,
they look to improve upon the award winning LC03, making for easier
installation, and more productive cooling. They also have a version
with a programmable VFD and IR remote."
Read
the full review
June
13, 2005
Battlefield
2 Performance: Athlon 64 3800+ and Sapphire Radeon X800XL 512mb
Author: Jeff
Tom
"After
a follow up, Battlefield: Vietnam, that left a community split
in it's reaction to it developer Dice and EA are back with Battlefield
2, this time set in a modern setting of Iraq. This latest Battlefield
also pushes things much further graphically than either Vietnam
or Battlefield: 1942 and we have done testing use FRAPS to and
new addition to the Battlefield series, the Battle Recorder. If
the server allows it, this records the game and allows playback
from any player in a third person camera mode or a roaming camera.
Unfortunately this does not allow playback from the first-person
perspective. Using a demo from our own Battlefield 2 server with
64 players we played back a file from the Gulf of Oman map using
FRAPS to recreate results. As a warning, due to the lack of first-person
playback in Battle Recorder the results are not likely to be 100%
accurate to real gameplay performance as we couldn't move the
camera in order to sure results could be recreated perfectly for
our testing. That said it is still a test of the Battlefield 2
engine and the performance variances among video cards and at
different settings."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
GeCube RADEON
X800XLA-VIVO 256MB AGP
Author: Tarinder
"The
bridged card opens up the X800 XL for a well-established market
that covers a plethora of chipsets, and the Rialto bridge doesn't
appear to hurt performance at all. GeCube's eschewed the reference
design by using an in-house cooling system, although it's not
as elegant as the company's Uni-Wise implementation. Going with
a custom cooler has added extra noise over and above the reference
card's, so GeCube loses a few marks here. The card, too, is a
larger-than-normal affair, making installation into small form-factor
PCs needlessly difficult. The saving grace, as far as design is
concerned, is the inclusion of ATI's no-frills Rage Theater ASIC,
giving rise to basic VIVO functionality. The bundle makes a point
of reiterating the card's HDTV and VIVO compatibility, but, other
than that, it's strictly average."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Sytrin Nextherm
ICS 8200
Author: Randy
Torio
"Summer
is around the corner and is threatening our hardware with intense
heat. Sytrin takes cases to the next level by providing innovative
airconditioning cooling but at a high cost."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Albatron PX925XE
Pro-R
Author: W1zzard
"Albatron
has built a competitively priced motherboard, which is based on
Intel's high-end i925XE chipset. It comes completely passive cooled,
only the CPU fan is producing noise, making it a good Media PC
motherboard."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
X-Arcade Two-Player
Joystick
Author: Shane
Unrein
"The
popularity of retro or classic gaming never seems to diminish.
In fact, it seems to only get stronger as the gamer population
gets older. With that increasing popularity, comes the desire
to play old school games in a way that is as old school as possible.
Playing Galaga or Pac-Man with a gamepad just doesn't feel right,
not even close. That's why a company like XGAMING came along and
created high quality arcade-style joysticks to satisfy that desire.
Many of you
have no doubt discovered all the wonders of MAME (Multiple Arcade
Machine Emulator) and other emulators out there, but you may have
yet to realize that there are far better alternatives than that
Microsoft SideWinder gamepad and that crusty keyboard of yours
for controlling the games you play. XGAMING currently offers a
solo and dual joystick, called the X-Arcade Solo and X-Arcade
Two-Player, respectively."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Gigabyte GA-8I955X
Royal Dual Core Motherboard Review at motherboards.org
Author: Doc
Overclock
"Gigabyte
is know for loading their boards up with as many features as possible
and the GA-8I955 Royal is no exception as it comes with enough
features and package content to satisfy even the most demanding
user."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
OCZ PC2-5400
EB Platinum Edition
Author: Brook
Moore
"It appears
as though DDR2 memory is becoming more and more mainstream. It
also appears OCZ, with its EB Platinum Edition, is serious about
staking the claim of performance in this arena. With CL timings
that you would be hard pressed to match, especially at PC2-5400
speeds, looks like the stake is driven deep."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
SilverStone
Lascala LC13
Author: Luke
Ponio
"SilverStone
has been focusing a lot on HTPC cases and their Lascala LC13 is
a great choice. The style is sleek and will blend into a home
theatre setup without a problem."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Athlon 64 X2
4800+ overclocking with high end air quest for 3GHz, Sorrel SF3000
MP3 player
Athlon 64 X2
4800+ overclocking with high end air quest for 3GHz
Author: Chris
Tom
"With
the release of the Venice and San Diego cores we have been on
quite the overclocking spree here at AMDZone. So far we have gone
through the Venice core 3500+, 3200+, and 3000+, and approached
2.8GHz with air cooling. We had already reviewed the Toledo core
Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual core, and found it would reach 2.7GHz
on mid range air. Well that just wouldn't do as we decided 3GHz,
a number we told AMD we would love to see released earlier this
year at CES, would be a better target. That would amount to a
25% overall overclock, and 50% than our first attempt. Would it
be possible on air? We thought so, but it meant an upgrade to
our test bed."
Read
the full review
Sorrel
SF3000 MP3 player
Author: Jeff
Tom
"The
Sorell SF3000 ships with 1GB of flash memory and also includes
an LCD for the playback of video so one might conclude that it
might be bulky or larger than the previous SF2000 model but one
would be wrong. The Sorell SF3000 is about the size of a pack
of gum and incredibly lightweight. After tacking the player out
we hooked it up to a USB 2.0 connection and allowed it to charge.
A full battery charges takes about four hours as it charges from
the USB connection, unlike the batteries that some smaller units
require."
Read
the full review
June
9, 2005
Thermaltake
PurePower TWV500W
Author: Chad
Unrein
"One
of the more recent trends in the power supply market is modular
cabling systems. Simply put, a modular power supply allows its
user to connect only the cables he or she needs to power up everything
in a PC. The cables come disconnected from the power supply, so
a modular power supply could be described as one with 'some assembly
required.' This is very simple, though, as it only involves plugging
the right cables into the right spots, and in most cases this
is error-proofed because most cables' connectors are unique when
compared to the others.
Thermaltake
is the type of company that doesn't want the enthusiast market
to pass them up. That is why the company has introduced a modularized
power supply to its PurePower line - the PurePower TWV500W. I
was fortunate enough to be able to take a look at this power supply.
Read on to find out what it has to offer and why I like it."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Cooler Master
Real Power 550W PSU
Author: Mike
Hermon
"In a
time when PC components are becoming more and more power hungry
almost by the day, the importance of a good stable power supply
is more evident now than it ever has been. Cooler Master hasn't
built a good power supply, they have built a GREAT power supply.
Cooler Master has gone the extra mile to "future proof"
the Real Power 550 as evident by the choice of connectors like
SATA (which has all but replaced IDE in the enthusiast market)
and a dedicated PCI-E connector for today's power hungry video
cards."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
CrossFire Up
Close
Author: David
Ross
"HEXUS
managed to get down and dirty with a Crossfire based rig today.
The solution was running on a complete reference design, which
was built by Sapphire - an ATi AIB and Motherboard partner."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Athlon 64 3000+
Venice Core Overclocking
Author: Chris
Tom
"In the
past few CPU reviews we have taken a close look at the 3500+ Venice
core Athlon 64, and the 3200+ Venice core. We found each CPU to
be a good overclocker, and to be reasonably priced. The Venice
core brings with it an enhanced 90nm process with SSE3 and better
memory support/compatibility. It also brings a lower operating
temperature. Today we add the Athlon 64 3000+ Venice core to the
list of CPUs we have tested from that code class, and compare
them all to the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ for fun."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Mushkin 2GB-Kit
HP3200 DDR
Author: Craig
Shyjak
"If you
are any of those then this kit is awesome. The tight timings and
overclocking headroom make this kit an excellent choice. Having
2GB of ram gives you some nice options when it comes to system
performance and usability. You can totally eliminate any virtual
memory in the system, and you also have the ability to make a
good sized high speed ram drive. Try running an app out of a ram
drive and you will never want to use your hard drive again."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
ABIT Fatal1ty
AA8XE
Author: Shane
Unrein
"Completely
silent and fragtastic gaming? Oh yeah, baby, and it comes in the
form of Gigabyte's Silent-Pipe Radeon X800 XL. By now, we all
know that the X800 XL offers a lot of bang for the buck, and if
you read my last couple of X800 XL reviews, you would know that
ATI's stock cooler on the X800 XL is quite noisy. While some companies
are releasing 'quiet' or 'nearly silent' X800 XL solutions, Gigabyte
completely eliminated the noise problem by extending its Silent-Pipe
technology to this excellent VPU.
My first thought
when asked to review a completely silent X800 XL was, 'Hey, that
would be a perfect HTPC card. Good gaming and silent! Sign me
up!' Unfortunately, the height of the Silent-Pipe X800 XL (GV-RX80L256V)
due to its heatpipes will prohibit it from fitting in my current
HTPC case (an Antec Overture) and many others. Nevertheless, it
still seems like a top media PC option to me. Keep reading to
find out if the performance is on par with other X800 XL PCI Express
cards and to learn more about this cool and silent offering from
Gigabyte."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Gigabyte Silent-Pipe
Radeon X800 XL (GV-RX80L256V) PCIe
Author: W1zzard
"Abit,
one of the top manufacturers for enthusiast motherboards, has
asked the Pro-Gamer Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel for ideas
on making a top-notch gaming board. The Fatal1ty AA8XE is an awesome
overclocking motherboard for Intel Pentium 4 LGA775, it offers
loads of features geared towards the hardware enthusiast and gamers.
We could overclock our P4 CPU by over 50% for a final clock of
4514 MHz @ 323 FSB."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Crucial 12
in 1 memory reader and SD card review, Seasonic S12-500 Power
Supply Review
Crucial 12
in 1 memory reader and SD card
Author: Jeff
Tom
"Flash
memory has seen an explosion in popularity over the past few years
with digital cameras now common place in the mainstream, PDAs,
and MP3 players which more than likely don't all use the same
type of media. Not only that but having to attach your digital
camera every time you wish to take pictures off can be a pain
and one sees where having a multi-purpose reader can come in handy.
Crucial have been strong in the memory game for sometime now and
have their own solutions for flash memory with their 12-in-1 USB
multi slot reader and Crucial SD memory as well as Mini-SD adapter.
Today we look at how those stack up."
Read
the full review
Seasonic
S12-500 Power Supply
Author: Jeff
Haluska
"Now,
as I've gotten older and wiser in my years I've learned a fair
share about power supplies. First off that wattage numbers can
lie to you. A lot of cheap power supplies like to advertise their
'peak' wattage, not what they can sustain, meaning they can't
really support as many devices as you think they can. The cheap
power supplies also end up being much 'noisier', meaning that
they have fluctuating voltage lines. These instabilities can make
a system that appears to work 99% of the time, and then crash
when the voltage drops enough to make the component lack enough
voltage to function properly. Another way that power supplies
are made cheaper is by making them less efficient. Efficiency
is judged by how much energy is lost in conversion. The energy
isn't truely lost, it comes out as the last thing you need in
your system more heat. They can mask this heat loss by putting
on a slightly more powerful and louder fan. The less efficient
the power supply is, the more electricity you are using to power
your system. Lastly, a cheap power supplies can lack the components
that protect your system when things go wrong."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Intel and Apple
Author: Jon
Peddie
"Apple
has been experimenting with x86 processors for some time, and
in fact Steve Jobs revealed what has been rumored for years that
a secret team inside Apple has had their OSes running on x86 for
over five years. OS X was developed as much on x86 hardware as
it was on PowerPC. SO if Apple wanted to, they could have offered
OS X to the x86 world a year ago. However, Leopard the new x86
version of OS X will not come out until 2006 – about the
same time Longhorn comes out."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
ABIT ACON5
Coverage
ACON5
Coverage Marred by Broadcast Rights
HEXUS.net has been
told that the broadcast rights for the games have been signed
over to a local TV company, who'll only be broadcasting one match,
obviously involving the host nation's team.
This means
that GotFrag and TSN, here to webcast all the matches to the net
are severely limited in what they're allowed to broadcast and
even worse, what they can even see to be able to broadcast.
Introduction
to the finals
We’ve been informed that the organisers insist that competing
players MUST wear their ABIT ACON5 T-shirt or be disqualified…
an interesting conundrum for AMD and NVIDIA sponsored teams…
as the ABIT ACON5 Finals are sponsored by Intel and ATI.
Opening
Ceremony
he pictures don’t really do justice to the skill shown by
the dancers and martial arts experts up on stage throwing themselves
around with flags, swords, staffs and battling with bare hands,
all to some pumpin’ dance music, interspersed with traditional
Chinese music to accompany the dance based on a mythological battle….
Enough of my prattle, enjoy the photos.
Speeches
and Teams
Chris Tobias from Intel spoke a few words, as did ATI’s
bad-boy Ian McNaughton, who came out with the memorable line of
“Let’s have some fun and kick some butt!”.
The
Draws
So, the bit that everyone was dreading and looking forward to
at the same time, the draw for the playoffs, where, if you pull
a top player early on, you will be out pretty fast, or where two
top players against each other at the start might leave you with
a shot at the title.
Also
in the news
AMD Athlon
64 3000+ 'Venice' Overclocking
Author: Tarinder
"If you've
already got a decent S939 motherboard on your hands it would be
almost criminal not to try an Athlon 64 3000+ E3-stepping CPU.
Sure, it's not hugely fast at default speeds, but I'd be amazed
if 2.5GHz wasn't a given and 3GHz on the cards with better cooling.
There's just something rather naughty but nice about 50% overclocks
with near-default voltage. For once, you can have your cake and
eat it! Yum."
Read
the full review
June
7, 2005
Interview with
Ms.X @ VIA Gamers Arena
"VIA
Gamers Arena have conducted an interview with Girlz of Destruction
clan leader and winner of MsQuakecon 2004, Alana Ried, A.K.A Ms.X.."
Read
the full interview
June
3, 2005
Crucial Ballistix
1GB Memory Review at motherboards.org
Author: Tulatin
"Crucial
is one of the premiere memory companies that has become a household
name in the PC industry. Today we take a look at their 1GB matched
kit of DDR2 Ballistix memory modules. Fast and overclockable,
the Ballistix series of memory is an enthusiasts geared product
line that has a lot to offer performance wise."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI
Royal
Author: John
Chen
"We take
a look at the first Nvidia C19 board we can get our hands on and
really like the performance so far. Gigabyte's features are always
top notch and the price is quite decent. There's a bit of overclocking
but nothing extreme."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
PowerColor
Bravo X700 PCI-e
Author: Rafal
Zak
"you
remember back in November of 2004, Tul announced a PowerColor
X700 XT. The card was equipped with SCS (Silent Cooling System)
mechanism instead of regular fan. In December, Tul decided to
release X700 PRO based card which also sported SCS. April of 2005
brings us PowerColor Bravo X700. Suggested retail price is pretty
competitive and weighs just about $160 with tax. ATI based RV410
cards can be found in quite a few flavors, i.e. different VPU
clocks and / or memory type -- it all depends on the Add-In-Board
manufacturer and most importantly customer needs. There's a bit
of overclocking but nothing extreme."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Intel i945G
Chipset
Author: Tarinder
"In short,
the i945G (or i945P) is a reasonable proposition for all but the
die-hard enthusiast who needs the ability to run two graphics
cards in tandem. I hope that motherboard manufacturers quickly
release versions equipped with the ICH7R southbridge. You'll then
be able to purchase it with, say, a Pentium D 820. Perfect for
huge and varied storage potential, decent sound, and the loveliness
that a dual-core CPU brings."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Patriot PC2-5600+
DDR2
Author: Brook
Moore
"Patriot
Memory has started off on the right foot, Tight timings, and great
overclocking along with things you expect, such as lifetime warranty.
Let's hope they continue this pursuit, as I enjoy being able to
pick from more than one or two vendors when it comes to performance
oriented gear."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
Computex 2005:
Day 3 Coverage (Part 1)
Featured
Article: XFX, the trailer trash of Computex
Going heavy
on the bare brick work with tasteful power tool adornments, XFX
have stood out once again with a stand designed to look anything
but chic. While all the other vendors strive to present slick
stands and reps, the XFX crew are lounging around, swigging Heineken
whilst ogling pin-ups of Carmen Electra and Brooke Burke.
FSP,
AC-DC for your LCD
The LCD Monitor Adapter runs at an efficiency of 80% (that’s
good, by the way) and knocks out 60W at +12V with built-in short
circuit and over voltage protection. Supplied with a range of
pins to fit most brands of LCD...
Thermaltake
get modular with power
Thermaltake have created a very unique modular solution: Using
proprietary connectors, you can then run power to nearby components
straight from the PST or take it on down to the Mini PST and your
SATA drives will plug straight into the PST itself.
ABIT
heatpipes the C19
ABIT have revealed their cooling solution for the NI8 SLI, with
a funky heatpipe drawing off from the Northbridge to a set of
fins mounted on the back panel of the board.
Thermaltake
get their Golden Orbs out
Thermaltake gave us the original Golden Orb and now they’ve
finally gone the way of Electronic Arts and done a sequel, the
Golden Orb II.
Shuttle’s
Dual Core SFF
Those guys at Shuttle are intent on cramming as much into a small
space as they possibly can, and after their SLI machine which
we reported earlier, we’ve now got a dual core machine too.
ASUS
Display Latest Creations
Not to be outdone by their competitors, ASUS also had ATI's Crossfire
on display, on a Pentium 4 Radeon Express 200 mainboard.
Also
in the news
PowerColor
Bravo X700 PCI-e
Author: Rafal
Zak
"'If
you are looking for a mid-range card with passive cooling system,
Tul is one of the companies that offer such solution on X700 based
cards. With good performance in its class and okay bundle, PowerColor
Bravo X700 is an interesting product to consider. The Silent Cooling
System has proven to be a worthy addition, the passive solution
performed marvelously and ran very cool."
Read
the full review
Also
in the news
OCZ DDR Booster,
Sapphire X800XL 512MB, Athlon 64 X2 32 and 64 bit drivers, X2
4800+ For Sale, Isonics 300mm wafers
OCZ
DDR Booster
A lot of extreme overclockers break out their soldering irons
and
change a resistor or add a potentiometer to their motherboard
so they
can get that extra voltage to the RAM. Now, as a person who has
done
this twice, I'll just say it is not that easy for an amateur.
If it
doesn't work, you just ruined your motherboard, and if it did
work you
still can easily fry your system components.
So what did
OCZ go and do to make our lives easier? They created the
OCZ DDR Booster device! Now this device looks like the offspring
of a
power supply and DDR ram stick, and that is exactly what it is.
It
simply redirects some of the voltage from your power supply directly
to the voltage rails on the RAM, effectively giving you the ability
to
raise the voltage of your RAM up to and beyond any safe levels.
Sapphire
Radeon X800XL 512MB card.
One might
be curious what else has changed from the X800 XL line
besides the additional memory and to answer that, not much. The
card
maintains the 400MHz core and the 980MHz memory speed. The R430
GPU
remains the same as the 256MB model as well with no tweaks to
enhance
performance. The only difference is that of additional memory
units on
the card and the inclusion of Rage Theater chip onboard.
We also have
news of 32
and 64 bit drivers for the Athlon 64 X2 that
enable the power saving features for AMD's new dual core CPUs.
We also have
found that the Athlon
64 X2 4800+ is now for sale with an
ETA of two weeks.
Lastly we
have news
from Isonics that they have shipped their first
300mm wafers. They have shipped their advanced wafers to AMD before,
and with AMD ramping up their 300mm German FAB this year it is
possible that this first shipment went to AMD.
June
1, 2005
Computex 2005:
Day 1 Coverage (Part 1)
"Our
hacks have been exceptionally busy over in Taipei, so we've got
a lot of articles for you to check out today. Here's the first
of two 'Day 1 coverage' mailings. A link to any you think will
interest your readership will be appreciated. Of course, if you
are also covering Computex, be sure to send your news our way!
Possible
new ATI SKUs
Boards with
1GiB of RAM, 512MiB Radeon X700s and the X550 replacing the X600.
Zalman
whips out 'Big-Boy' flower to whip P4 into submission
Nick Haywood
writes: "It’s long been known that Intel run a little
hot, so Zalman have gone extreme with a cooling solution that
finally does the biz."
Dual
DVI and passive cooling a way for PowerColor to differentiate
Powercolor
seek to produce dual DVI capable cards across their range of Radeon
products and also have a new passive cooling solution to show
off."
Also
in the news
Computex 2005:
Day 1 Coverage (Part 2)
"MSI
shows off odd-ball graphics boards
When we say
odd-ball we really do mean it! MSI have a dual 6800Ultra graphics
board... OK we've seen something like that before so it's not
that odd. So, how about an X800 with an AGP and PCIe connector?
Now we're talking!
Germproof
DVD media you can safely lick
"For
all of you out there currently sucking on or licking a DVD disk
you've burned yourself, STOP. The media you just removed from
your face was not safe for consumption"
VIA
fuses C3 and CN400 to give birth to Luke
It may be
small, but the force is strong in this one."
Also
in the news
Computex 2005:
Day 2 Coverage (Part 1)
Crossfire
still months away?
While most
of the graphics talk at Computex centres on ATI's Crossfire, it
could be months before the consumer can buy it. Talking to an
ATI board partner revealed that while it's on show at Computex,
it's on show using engineering sample silicon and a driver that's
not quite ready, and they fully expect it'll be sometime in July
before they have final product to push out and a driver to rely
on.
And now, more
of our coverage. We appreciate any linkage you provide to any
of our Computex articles. :)
NVIDIA
holding back an Ultra G70?
NVIDIA's G70
graphics processor, likely to be bound up in a range of products
carrying GeForce 7 branding, may have an Ultra version waiting
in the wings, to counter any ATI high-end product launch.
New
VIA mainboards might be needed for AMD dual-core
talking to
VIA yesterday confirmed that even though its board partners have
mainboards out there that run an FX just fine, that board revisions
may be brought out to properly support Athlon X2 from an electrical
standpoint.
CoolerMaster
CMStacker 830
Never a company
to sit back and hug the wall at the disco, CoolerMaster have unveiled
what has to be one of the biggest, boldest and brashest, yet most
practical cases yet.
Also
in the news
Computex 2005:
Day 2 Coverage (Part 2)
"Featured
Article: Shuttle SLI
Running custom
gear from the cards means that the SN26P comes ready fitted with
twin Leadtek PX6800GT TDH 256 MiB DDR3 PCI-e graphics cards, so
this baby is going to cost a bit more than the average barebones
system you’d normally be able to pick up from Shuttle. I
suppose you’d call it skinny rather than barebones?
Now, the rest
of our coverage from today:
VIA
K8T890 Pro runs NVIDIA SLI
In Hall 4 at Computex, if you look hard enough on VIA's joint
show area with S3 Graphics, you'll see them showing off a K8T890
Pro reference board running NVIDIA SLI.
ABIT
ring the changes with Guru Clock
Utilizing the Guru chip and connector on ABIT Guru mainboards,
the Guru Clock lets you adjust overclock
