News archives from June, 2004

Does your business use PHP? How much and what are some of the benefits or disadvantages you have found?

It is a well-known fact that speed is all important in the computer market.
Back in the olden days, when there were not very many serious computer
enthusiasts, a fast CPU was perhaps the most sought after component of a
computer. That era has passed, and nowadays an extremely fast Video Card is
what matters. Increasingly, however, serious users are beginning to
understand the importance of RAM. For those of you who are just starting to
take an interest in the RAM industry, this review might be a little
confusing at first. Admittedly, I was confused at first. The truth is,
there are so many different RAM producers out there that it often very
difficult to decide which manufacturer has created the best upgrade.

I really like this card because of many reasons, the first and most
important being that it performs really well. The next best thing to a great
video card is giving it two DVI ports to output that performance to DVI
ports on two LCDs. The stock speed of this video card makes it a great buy
and the overclocking ability makes it even better. One of my complaints with
the XFX 5600 Ultra I previously reviewed was that it lacked a game bundle.
XFX has addressed that negative aspect by including a pretty good bundle and
also includes all of the necessary cables and adapters.

A new Beastie Boys'' CD called "To the Five Boroughs" (Capitol Records), is raising hackles around the Web for reputedly infecting computers with a virus.

According to a recent thread at BugTraq, an executable file is automatically and silently installed on the user''s machine when the CD is loaded. The file is said to be a driver that prevents users from ripping the CD (and perhaps others), and attacks both Windows boxen and Macs.

Taking into consideration the few shortcomings of this PDA, I would still consider it a good choice for someone looking for a media powerhouse w/ WiFi and Bluetooth not to mention the dual slots and respectable battery life. Now if your just looking for something with the built in WiFi and Bluetooth there are probably cheaper alternatives that would better meet your needs.

EARLIER THIS WEEK, I toured Abit''s factory in Suzhou, China. Read on to see what motherboard production looks like, complete with video of some of Abit''s high-speed machines in operation.

It appeared there were over ten screws on each side panel just to remove it! I also did note that the acrylic was extra thick and it looked very sturdy. There are also five 80mm fans with standard wire grills. There is one fan in the front and two on the side of the case for intake, and one in the back and a blowhole on top for exhaust. This is a fairly impressive fan placement for an acrylic case and the airflow looked promising.

This is a great processor and I am pleased with what AMD has done
with it. Not only is it a great processor now but it will only get better.
With 64-bit operating systems and software not far off this Athlon 64 has a
lot to look forward to soon. Another great thing about this processor is
although it is indeed 64-bit capable it is also 32-bit backwards compatible.
You wont have to worry about your 32-bit software becoming obsolete or
buying upgrades. Overclocking was also quite impressive as shown by the
above results and with some watercooling I think this CPU has more in it.

Today we will be reviewing the Thermaltake Heatpipe cooler.
Right off the bat you will realize that this is an unusual heatsink;
the unique design of this heatpipe cooler allows for two fans sucking
heat away from the heatsink. Unlike traditional heatsinks where you
would be blowing air into the heatsink to cool it. The Thermaltake
heatpipe cooler transfers the heat from the heatpipes to the heatsink,
and the fans suck the heat away. While you are not obligated to have
two fans, I would highly recommend it, however in the case we will be
testing this in we did not have room to add a second fan, so keep in
mind that this heatsink has the potential to keep your CPU cooler than
it does with just one fan.

Today we will be Reviewing the Thermaltake SilverRiver 3.5" USB
2.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure. Some of you may be thinking to
yourself, "why would i need an external hard drive enclosure?" Well one good example is, your computer messed up, and the only way to fix it
would be to back up and reinstall windows, well before you pull out
that CD Spindle to backup your many many Gigs of files, you may want to
pull out your Thermaltake SilverRiver instead. When used with windows
XP the Thermaltake SilverRiver is automatically detected and shows up
as a normal Hard drive in My computer. Wheras your Hard drive may be
drive C: Then the SilverRiver Would be Drive D:. This Hard drive
enclosure is USB 1.1 backwards compatible for older machines but you
will not experience the 480MBps Transfer speed that you would using USB
2.0 .

Are you getting tired of always seeing the same kinds of mods?
Nothing new and original, you say? Well then, take a look! This one is
definitely out of the box. When I first saw the work of the modding artist,
Yang (Jae Chul), I was definitely surprised by how this individual had
managed to unleash his creativity. This is his masterpiece, and I would
like to share it with the entire world.

This being my first experience with a Thermaltake case I must say I
am quite impressed. Though some of their previous Xaser series cases I did
not like because of the aesthetics I do like this one. It looks great and
even better works great. There are a ton of features that make the case
really easy to use and maintain. There are also many features which promote
functionality, cooling, aesthetics. This case looks to cost about $125 which
could be a little expensive for some, however it is a worthy case if you
want to spend the money.

The advanced chipset features sub menu has a good amount of RAM, AGP,
and PCI settings that will assist in overclocking ventures. I set all of the
RAM settings to the fastest to get the best performance. The
frequency/voltage control sub menu is where you will do your overclocking.
The CPU ratio only goes up to 10 because the BIOS revision I am running is a
little old and at the time the 3200+ was the fastest CPU available. The FSB
also goes high enough for you to overclock as much as should be possible.

"Having trouble squeezing those last few mhz out of your video card? Got a windowed case with some cool CCFL''s making the innards glow but still feel like something is missing? Vantec may have exactly what your looking for, to solve both of these dilemmas...the iCEBERQ 4."

"I haven''t been to mp3.com in about 2 years... happened to see an add for it on news.com and I was quite surprised with what they are doing these days. The front page is what you''d expect, new releases, playlists, news and tutorials. But what really grabbed my eye was the musicvine. "

"Since their advent, ATI s graphic cards have always commanded a lot of attention from the public. The new X800pro is no exception to this rule. While X800 Pro is now out at the market, many people are now considering the possibility that it can be transformed into the superior X800XT. After all,
the underlying structures of the X800pro and the XT are quite similar. I am quite positive that the mod can be done, because I have succeeded, myself, in making the X800Pro into the X800XT PE. Allow us to show you how to do it yourself."

"This is the lightest, most comfortable, and best cooling controller I have used so far. At times, it was even too efficient and had to be put on low. Even though the design is not exactly original, it is very comfortable and most people will feel at home from playing Sony Playstation or Playstation 2. The long ten foot cord is also very handy, especially if you like to play PC games displayed on your TV or if your case is simply in a hard to reach place."

"When it comes to modding, the possibilities are truly endless. Thousands of people might have the same exact case as you if you buy the ones that are in pre-made. But once you design a mod that is uniquely yours, then you can be sure that you possess a system that nobody else has! A lot of pride is visible in the systems of people who mod. For example, take a look at this handmade HTPC. It uses an old radio that looks so natural with other equipments in the living room."

"The clarity of the sound, even at high volumes, was remarkable when bumping music on my PC. It even comes with an extra cable to hook the speakers up to a TV or DVD player which is a very nice feature. I didn''t like the directional sound coming out of the holes in the satellite speakers, the bandpass subwoofer enclosure, size of the amp/controller (being too big for desk), and absence of headphone jack on the front of the controller."

Another innovative mod has been unveiled at pcunleash. This time, the lcd monitor will be embedded into the PC case. Moreover, this pc is designed to carry around, so it is the perfect PC to take it to a Lanparty. This was Mr Lee''s (Gwang Kyu) his first time trying his hand at a mod, and came up with a very uniquely designed pc.