News archives from January, 2004

"We decided to discuss a slightly unusual but very interesting topic: Mac computers. Today we would like to offer you a detailed analysis of the processor architecture for the newest Mac systems IBM PowerPC G5. It is not just the first desktop processor with 64bit architecture, but a really interesting solution with a lot of unique technologies and features from IBM. Read more about it now!"

"A company who has been concentrating on lucrative market of high-performance feature-rich mainboards for a number of years now will shortly offer something new for clients in budget. After dealing with strictly expensive products, Gigabyte now wants to offer new mainboards for the masses and, apparently, already has a strategy for that!"

"Advanced Micro Devices, who very often follows its main rival Intel Corporation with price cuts, denied assumption about CPU prices slashes next week, according to Reuters News Service."

"The new TwinX1024RE-3500LLPT is the world s first 433 MHz registered module kit. This matched pair of 512 MByte modules was developed expressly to give Athlon 64 FX power users greater headroom for overclocking. Until now the memory bus in Athlon 64 FX based systems has been limited to 400 MHz."

"We reviewed one more very interesting barebone system: DiGiDice solution from ABIT, which is remarkable not only for its outstanding functionality, promising configuration and extensive overclocking friendly features, but also for the extraordinary attraction like nice rosy odor the working system emits Curious? Then check out the review now!"

"It is not a very frequently occurring thing that the users need a RAID array in their home system, but in some cases it is simply impossible to do without it. For our test session we took four ATA RAID controllers, which are mostly spread in the today s market: a controller from VIA, a solution from GigaRAID, and two products from Promise. Find out which one is the right choice for you!"

"By now you''re probably familiar with DFI''s coming-of-age with the Lanparty series board. They first launched with a pair of AMD boards, and an Intel board. They have since dropped the KT400A chipset, and released new versions of their NFII and 875P boards. They also have a new 865PE board.

The new series feature "CMOS Reloaded", which sounds a lot like PR fluff, but we found it to be truly innovative, and extremely helpful for overclocking. With a packed bundle, and awesome OC performance, the D875B is more than just a pretty motherboard!"

"I LOVE TO see manufacturers pack in all sorts of extra goodies with their mainboards as much as or maybe even more than the next guy, but not everyone needs rounded IDE cables, case straps, multiple Serial ATA and IDE RAID options, MOSFET cooling, or on-the-fly hard drive encryption capabilities. All those bundled goodies and extra peripherals are great, but they raise the price of the board and are really a waste if unused.

As the Athlon 64 3000+ hits a price/performance sweet spot for budget-conscious enthusiasts, the outlook is good for Athlon 64 boards that trade bundled bells and whistles for lower price tags. One of these more affordable Athlon 64 boards is Albatron''s K8X800 Pro II, which has all the essentials without the frilly extras. Is the K8X800 Pro II worthy of an Athlon 64 3000+? Read on to find out."

""The power supply doesn''t boast any flashy designs or cool colors however that is not the purpose of this power supply. Silence is what the main goal of the unit is and there are tons of features to help achieve that.""

"And here is one more Socket754 mainboard for AMD Athlon 64 CPU from the well-known ABIT Company. In this review we will take a closer look not only at the mainboard performance and design peculiarities, but also at those new technologies introduced by ABIT in its latest products and known as uGURU."

"A report over The Inquirer claims that ATI s upcoming graphics processor code-named R420 will sport all possible memory types that are on the market, or a likely to be available in 2003. The unconfirmed information may seem pretty probable, as ATI is known for its abilities in creating universal designs to grant more flexibility to final products."

"Thermaltake, a well-known company to most pc-enthusiasts, which makes cooling products for almost every aspect of your computer, has just raised
the bar with their new CPU cooler; the Volcano 12. While this HSF resembles its predecessors, it also has quite a few new features, and appears to be a very nice cooler for your blistering CPU. Let''s take a closer look..."

"Performance of highly-anticipated code-named Prescott processor, the third-generation NetBurst microprocessor from Intel, may appear to be generally slower than speed of currently available Pentium 4 Northwood chips. The reason for that is deep pipeline implemented to bolster clock-speeds of the CPU."

Every component of the SB51G felt sturdy and well constructed, and the design let me move around the case with ease. The SB51G passed my unofficial "cheap-squeaky-case" test with flying colors. Cheap, generic, POS hardware always seems to squeak a lot. You pick it up, or flip it over, and half of the time it squeaks as the cheaply assembled parts shift around. In a good manufacturing process the unit should be solidly built, and the parts engineered to fit properly. The Shuttle, thankfully, was a pretty quiet little case.

"In this article we are going to tell you about volt-modding techniques for the today s top graphics accelerators based on NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and ATI RADEON 9800 XT. Among the benchmarks results you will find the performance numbers for the nominal frequencies, overdrive mode (for ATI RADEON 9800 XT), during regular overclocking and after extreme volt-modding of the voltage regulators according to our unique methodology."

"Looking for a sleek way to present your power supply''s ugly cabling? There are several methods of cleaning up the wire jungle, be it electrical tape, split loom, wire wrap, or expandable sleeving. This guide will assist you in your quest for a case with higher performance, and much better looks, especially if you have a case window."

"WE LOVE TO COVER the release of hot new processors that run at seventy jazillion megahertz and cost more than a Florida vacation, but everybody knows the real action is down in the middle of the product line, in the sweet spot. No, we''re not talking about some semi-veiled reference in a Britney Spears song. We''re talking about the point where the supply and demand lines converge at optimum performance, the place where good deals are born and tech know-how can overcome the constraints of a limited budget."

"You will recall that AMD dubbed its model number-based rating system, upon its introduction with the Athlon XP, a "bridge metric." The company pledged to replace the system with a more robust set of performance metrics to be produced by its True Performance Initiative, or TPI.

We decided to hold AMD to this promise, and thus I had a conversation with AMD''s TPI director, Hal Speed, back in December ''02. He said at that time that TPI was still on track for early ''03, with lots of new partners and new momentum backing the effort. However, 2003 came and went as did the launches of AMD''s Opteron and Athlon 64 processors with nary a peep about TPI''s new performance metric.

Here''s the kicker. The True Performance Initiative will not produce a performance metric."

"We are glad to introduce to you the first 2.5 hard disk drive with 7,200rpm spindle rotation speed. This solution from Hitachi should indicate the beginning of a new stage in the HDD market. Besides setting a new standard for notebooks, low-profile 2.5" "mobile" drives with "desktop" speed are about to start their invasion into the SFF systems."

"This fan without a doubt is one of the most
powerful fans on the market if not the most powerful. It does put out a lot of noise but the payoffs are worth it."

"It took Intel several months to bring Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors 3.20GHz to the market. Now there are Prescott chips available for pre-order, the industry wonders whether the world s largest chipmaker is able to deliver Prescott and Extreme Edition processors at exceptionally high 3.40GHz clock-speed on time and in sufficient quantities."

"Just in case you think Intel has problems with Prescott because of 478-pin packaging and everything will go a lot better after the firm introduces its new type of processors in Land Grid Array package, you are probably wrong, as the company is not going to flood the market with LGA775 chips in the first half of the year, according to estimations."

"It is expected that the tendency towards Mini PC systems turning into home entertainment centers become much stronger this year. Almost all systems will be a combination of a PC, stereo system, MP3 and DVD/VCD player. And the first example is already here. Please, meet ASUS DIGIMatrix a home PC and a multimedia center in one purely consumer case."

"With OEM prepackaged computers still making up the majority of today''s computer market sales, we still see two channel setups holding their ground as the most popular soundcard specification in the everyday home computer. Now say you purchased an everyday computer with onboard or PCI card sound solution and after 6 months or a year you wanted to experience the fidelity of full 5.1 surround sound, what would be your options?
1.) You could purchase a surround sound PCI card and void your computer''s warranty by installing the card yourself.
2.) You could have the computer manufacturer install the soundcard at a high installation fee and upgrade cost.
3.) You can find an audio solution that is relatively cheap, effective and won''t involve you touching your computer other than one small connection.

If you are interested in option #3, Philips now has an external USB 2.0 compliant 5.1 sound center that can have you enjoying surround sound with a quick insertion of a USB cable."

"SHUTTLE HAS made some long strides its first SV24 barebones system, but the delightful little cubes have actually put on weight along the way. As enthusiasts and gamers demanded more robust power supplies and support for AGP graphics cards, Shuttle''s XPC cubes grew to accommodate those desires. However, not everyone needs a beefy power supply or the pixel-pushing prowess of a discrete graphics card.

For mainstream markets and applications that don''t require discrete AGP graphics, Shuttle has whipped up a smaller, quieter "Zen" XPC ST62K system. By stripping the cube of its AGP slot and using a passively-cooled external power supply, Shuttle manages to make the ST62K nearly 20% smaller than current XPC systems. And thanks to ATI''s Radeon 9100 IGP, the ST62K is still packing DirectX 8 graphics under the hood.

Is Shuttle''s Zen concept a viable alternative to AGP-equipped XPC systems? Read on to find out."

Aopen is on the Athlon 64 trail with their new AK86-L which is based on the VIA K8T800 chipset. Aopen has been pumping out excellent Athlon XP motherboards over the past year. Can they continue this streak with the Athlon 64?

"Since the Allsop Raindrop Mouse Pad did not come with a manual (a fault which will severly lower the mouse pad''s final score,) I was forced to use my intelligence to install the Allsop Raindrop Mouse Pad. At first I had difficulty installing the pad, as this picture will plainly show."

"This heatsink comes packed in somewhat abnormal fashion, it looks more like a spindle of CD-RWs not a heatsink. Either way its nice
to see something different than the standard plain box. From the side of the package you can also see that the heatsink is quite large due to the ducting that it comes with."

"We have an exceptionally interesting guest today: a dual-chip XGI Volari Duo V8 Ultra graphics card from Club 3D company. eXtreme Graphics Innovation is a new player on the highly competitive 3D graphics market, who decided to break and enter the scene with an expensive dual-GPU part. Historically graphics cards with two processors were able to demonstrate exceptional performance, but were quoted at a very high price-point. Dual-chip products on XGI Technology do not cost more than competitors single-chip offerings, but are they really fast in today s games and have a bright future? Find it out with us!"

"IN 1996, Microsoft forever changed the mouse by introducing its first scroll wheel. The wheel was an instant hit, and now nearly every mouse manufacturer has its own version of the revolutionary scrolling tool. In fact, scroll wheels have become so ubiquitous, I can''t imagine using a mouse without one. It''s amazing what a little rubberized wheel can do, isn''t it?

As I grew accustomed to and then dependent on the ability to scroll down a web page, document, or window with just the flick of a finger, I couldn''t help but wish someone would come up with a mouse wheel that could scroll left and right in addition to up and down. Years passed, and just when I began to lose hope, Microsoft announced that it had developed Tilt Wheel technology to bring horizontal scrolling to the vertical mouse wheel.

Microsoft''s first mouse product to use the pivoting tilt wheel is the Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0, which packs plenty of other neat features in addition to the tilting wheel. Is the tilt wheel really all that? What else does Microsoft''s latest Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer have to offer? Read on to find out."