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Sticky: New Forums
Posted by slau @ Saturday 9th March 2002 - 13:30:00
Just a quick note to let you know our forums are back and running very well (have been for a week actually.)
As the old forums went a bit pearshaped last month, we had to ditch the old database and as a result, we lost quite a few members. But worry not, our small communinity is rather lively and very friendly, so if you're not a member, sign up now!
"If you've ever used Windows, you've inevitably had to do a three-finger salute. The good old Ctrl-Alt-Delete is by far, the most well known keyboard combination on the planet (sorry Bill, but its true). We don't even think about the Windows Task Manager as an application, but rather an annoyance we have to endure. And unlike other Windows utilities we fervently exchange for third-party solutions (like system cleanup agents, disk defragmenters and such), it is probably safe to estimate 90% of Windows users haven't even contemplated replacing the Task Manager with something useful. While power users tweak cable modem settings and adjust Windows parameters to speed up load times, very little time is spent tweaking the processes that Windows manages. Today in the MTB Labs, we will be reviewing WinTasks 4 Professional by Leading Interactive, an advanced resource management application."
"The next thing on our list was was the heatsink and the Power Supply unit. We chose to go with the heatsink first as it can be a pain since you have so little space to work with. Now we all know that the Athlon gets a little hot and when Shuttle announced the FS40, we wondered how they will be able to capture the heat problem. Let us tell you that Shuttle has an ingenious solution- the heatsink has a copper base with copper wires that extend and rest inside the fan. Now the fan is pretty big in size, however, it rotates at 2000 RPM which barely makes any noise."
Virtual-Hideout FrozenCPU Blizzard 360 ULTRA QUIET! Case Review
"Today I'm gonna be giving you a look at the next installment of the hugely popular "Blizzard" series of cases from Frozencpu.com . This new revision is called the Bliizard 360 "ultra quiet". Now, If you're familiar with the blizzard cases, you may be thinking that "blizzard 360" and "ultra quiet" couldn't possibly be in the same title. I assure you, in this particular case, the name holds true. But don't let the name fool you into thinking that this is a weak performer. It's only quiet if you set it to the slow settings by means of the included dual-voltage baybus. Once you crank up the three 120mm Panaflo H1A's, you could rename this beast to the " Blizzard 360 Ultra OMFG$#!$" :o) Read on for all the juice ...mwuahhaha"
"Why has this list been kept so small? Well, first is mainly because of the problems AMD was having with their chipsets. AMD never quite got the MPX chipset right until it was too late. And then with the announcement of the AMD Opteron Processor we already see that AMD has turned its enterprise-level attention elsewhere. While that is good for the users and AMD in the long run, it makes the AMD workstation and server market rather weak. The product is very good, from the processors to the motherboards – just getting it accepted is difficult without the full assault of AMD’s marketing and promotional teams"
"One thing that disappointed me on this case was the lack of a reset button and the lack of LEDs (such as power and hard drive activity). The only button provided was the power button and there were no LEDs whatsoever. Another thing I really have to say I was disappointed with is the lack of instructions regarding what screws to use and how to install components. It took me a while to figure out how to properly install my hard drives using the supplied hardware. The below pic shows how this is done. Since all the bays are full size bays (5 1/4"), you need to use standoffs when mounting things such as your floppy drive or hard drives"
"Leadtek has long been a manufacturer of quality video cards. While it has recently expanded into TV tuners and motherboards, video cards have remained Leadtek's focus. Leadtek has long favored the overclocker, with very large active heatsinks on their GeForce 2 models and up. It's no surprise, then, that the A250 Ultra TD should stand out as much as it does to those of the overclocking community"
"The temperature probe and LED are quite useful, and if you're a statistics freak, you'll love the ability to monitor the temperature of everything you have (albeit, one at a time). The brushed aluminum looks very swank, and you'll undoubtably impress your techie friends with it."
"The i-Buddie XP is a dream come true for all AMD Athlon fans. ECS has really showed the world that it could do more than just plain motherboards. All the most advanced features packed in a small form factor similar to an all-in-one notebook, the i-Buddie XP has what it takes to replace the desktop. What's more, it is semi-mobile since it weighs no more than 3.18kg. The only drawback with the i-Buddie XP is the lack of a battery compartment. But then again, it wouldn't be called a DeskNote with a battery compartment, right?"
"I designed the shroud to stand off of from the heater core nearly 1" to give the passing air a chance to swirl. All fans big or small have a dead spot directly in their center. If you were to place the fan directly to the shroud two problems are going to arise. First the core is not going to be cooled in this dead zone and second, you're going to restrict air that you are trying to push or pull through the heater core. In my system I am using the push/pull format. The front fan is pushing air across the core while the rear fan is pulling air across the core. This gives a true CFM airflow. Both fans used are Panaflow 120mm 86 CFM"
"To cut down on the noise of your hard drives Noise control have come up with a way to hold your drive suspended so that no vibration is carried through your case. Check out what we thought of this little gizmo at Digital-Explosion"
"Cases have become the new rage for people building new systems. People now want cases that not only can provide the space needed for their peripheral's, but also ones the look cool so they can amaze their friends. Many new case companies are coming into the market because of this demand, and the cases they make are becoming cooler and cooler. Directron/Chieftec/Antec cases are one of the most popular cases around. Many people have this model of the case, which is made by a few diffrent companies, but they all look and perform the same"
Wednesday News
Posted by Forplay2k @ Wednesday 22nd May 2002 - 18:33:00
Raven Software Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix Is Out
"I picked up my copy how about you.
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix is the much-anticipated
sequel to the explosive FPS hit!
Reprise the role of John Mullins: Weapons Specialist, Anti-Terrorist Mercenary, and "Military Consultant." A new and insidious threat has arisen in the form of a bio-terrorist organization and their two-pronged Gemini Virus. Now, you're off on a transcontinental mission to stop the terrorists and destroy the virus before it's unleashed on humanity."
"Sometimes, even the smallest things can make a difference. One may think that having a fully-decked out box complete with the latest hardware and most novel mods may be all that there is. However, even a minor addition can make your box just that much more personalized than it already is, and add that "final touch" that you've been dying to have. That is where appliques come into the equation. However, purchasing a mass-produced applique might not be what you've been looking for if you're into the personalization thing. So what do you do if you are just a plain old gal or guy who doesn't have the resources needed to produce your own decal? That is where The Shattered Web comes into play. They can produce for you a custom-designed applique of different sizes, suited directly to your box, and your identity. Let's take a look at their productions and whether it's worthy for your rig or not."
"The new Asus P4T533-C motherboard is based on Intel's new 850E chipset which is built for the RDRAM platform. The Intel 850E was launched recently along with the new Pentium 4 processors at 533MHz FSB speeds. In the specifications of the chipset alone, we know that the chipset will only support PC800 RDRAM modules but when these new products are marketed by other vendors like Asus, it is specified to support PC1066 RDRAM.
At this time, PC1066 RDRAM are still not available in the market and are mostly still in the sampling stage. We expect the price to be higher than conventional PC800 RDRAM and we think it would be worth the investment only if you are crazy about performance. However, in our tests, most of the newer PC800 Samsung RDRAM should have no problems reaching PC1066 speeds. In fact, the newer PC800 40ns RDRAM parts from Kingston should do wonders for overclockers as it is rated at 5ns lower than current Samsung modules."
"For IT professionals, software developers and other advanced users, WinTasks 4 Professional makes resource management easier than ever before. Including features like detailed cpu usage graphs per process, system presets and a built-in scripting language, WinTasks 4 Professional is an essential addition to any advanced Windows user's toolbox"
Secondly, we have SilentPCReview.com's review of the VIA EPIA-5000 all in one mini-ITX motherboard, which could be useful in silent computing applications, although perhaps it's a little too underpowered for some uses.
"The VIA EPIA Mini-ITX motherboard is available with a choice of two embedded processors. The EPIA-800 features a 800 MHz C3 (Ezra core) with an operating core voltage of 1.35V. VIA says it is suitable for compact systems running more multimedia applications. The EPIA-5000 Mini-ITX is equipped with the Eden ESP 5000, essentially a 533 MHz Samuel 2 core C3 running at 1.2V, which VIA says is suitable for fanless systems with low heat and ultra-low power requirements."
"I was faced with the usual mess that every IT manager faces. "I need you to make me a Gourmet network on a fast food budget". I have 6 Windows NT 4.0 servers and only 2 licenses. Do to the fact that Microsoft thinks that everyone with a network has $10,000 sitting around to blow on licenses. Not every company has the funds to keep up with their performance needs. So I needed to find a cape and a big RED "S" for my chest and find me a solution. My choice is Linux. Redhat 7.2 to be exact"
Voided Warranty takes a look at the Thermaltake Low Profile Orb
"Today we inspect the Thermaltake Low Profile Orb. Just hearing the name Thermal Take or seeing the logo TT on a package makes me think "this is a high performance product, I need no matter what!!!". Over time, Thermal take is becoming dramatically successful, also most of my friends carry a Thermal Take HSF, if not they definitely have something from that brand in their rig. With its sleek, low profiled and "elite" design, just looking at the Low Profile Orb, you can tell its a good product. The low profile orb is made for rackmount servers. This orb is the same as the Golden Orb but smaller heatsink and fan and without the "twist on clip" feature."
"VCDGear is a program designed to allow a user to extract MPEG streams from CD images, convert VCD files to MPEG, correct MPEG errors, and more -- all in a single step. Initially developed back in late 1997, the program has grown to do various extractions, conversions, and corrections on the fly. Cross-platform support will allow different machines to process and generate output that is compatible between one another.
People requiring the need to transport their video materials will find VCDGear as a useful tool to assist them in getting the video to play on their computer or Video CD player.""
Some news for the weekend
Posted by Darkhorse @ Sunday 19th May 2002 - 08:26:00
Neozmatrix - Kensington WebRacer Internet Mouse Review
"The installation of this mouse went over fairly well. The directions are very well written and to the point; the only thing I found confusing is the question about the infamous 'Which device should I look for'. In other words, are you keeping your other mouse, or are you just going to stick with me. After the installation has completed, it will ask you to shutdown your computer, and change out the mouse with the new WebRacer. Once you have done that, you will power up your computer, it will detect your new mouse and your practically set to rock and roll once you done the configuration"
"NeoZMatrix.Net is giving away a Penguin Case. It goes well with the Linux Box of yours. You can check the forum for more details, and rules. And the contest is going to run till May 30th.
Alltechbox.com - BTC BCE3212IM 32x10x40x CD writer review
"...BCE3212IM has obtained optimal results in all of the tests, beginning from the reading test, where it read a CD-R faster than 40X! Reading performances were better with CD-Rs rather than with original CDs. As I told it reached a speed higher than 40X and it is always over 30X of average speed"
"Bytesector presents its very own I-want-case-syndrome Contest! Small Description: Only for a limited time, Bytesector.com and Directron.com have just teamed up to launch a contest available to all of our visitors. Want a free case, for practically no effort? Then apply here!"
"NVIDIA’s Ti4200 card was a surprise on many levels. It consistently came in over the Radeon 8500 card, even though it has a 64 MB memory deficit. It was beat out by the Ti4400 card, but that was to be expected as it was the lower level in the line of GF4 Ti cards. But, just like the Ti4400 above, the Ti4200 card has a price advantage coming in at about $100 less than even the Ti4400 cards! That means you can expect to find the Ti4200 cards when they are out on the retail for under the $200 price tag. That is a tremendous amount of performance for the price"
"All of the 6 fans are mounted with a 4-pin Molex ”pass through” connectors, so you don’t risk running out of plugs. Furthermore they’re also equipped with gold-coloured finger guards to prevent ”Delta-injuries”. Personally I don’t really like the combination of gold-coloured finger guards and the silver-like finish of the aluminium, but that’s of course just a matter of personal taste. All edges are of course rounded so you don’t risk cuts, and finger screws all over so you don’t need to dig up a screwdriver"
"The irock! 520 MP3 Player is a compact product with great looks and functionally. The key with this MP3 player is, its affordable price with all of the key features needed to get you rockin' with your favorite tunes."
"Today I am taking a closer look at the Soyo P4I Fire Dragon, a Pentium 4 motherboard based upon Intel's 845D chipset. Frequent Overclockers Online visitors should have noticed that this is the first time a Soyo motherboard is being reviewed in our lab, so I was very eager to find out how this company and its products would compare to the other Pentium 4 solutions out there. Although Soyo products are new to me, I must say that I am very impressed by the fact that this company is donating $5 of each P4I board that is sold to the WTC Disaster Fund."
"A first glance at the stats sheet tells us that the 180P2 has a .280mm dot pitch. Comparing this dot pitch to the dot pitch of the Samsung SyncMaster 180T, reviewed earlier, you will notice that the 180P2 beats the 180T a .001 mm. Obviously this won’t make a huge improvement, but you can see that Philips put a lot of work into this monitor. Similar to the 180T and most other 18” LCD monitors, however, is the recommended and max resolution of 1280x1024 The next spec to take a look at is the 250 cd/m2 brightness rating. This again beats the Samsung 180T monitor, in terms of specs, by about 30 cd/m2. Finally, the last spec we will take a look at is the contrast ratio. Identical to the Samsung 180T, the Philips 180P2 monitor has a contrast ratio of 350:1. As you can see, the stats sheet is definitely impressive, beating the 180T specs in quite a few areas. Also impressive are the large screen, the minimum size “footprint,” and the optional bases. Before we continue, it will be productive to understand a little bit more about LCDs and the LCD monitor market."
Beyond 3d 3Dlabs Wildcat III & SuperScene AntiAliasing
"The Wildcat boards are available in two flavours, The Wildcat III 6110 and Wildcat III 6210. Apart from the various connectors available on the back-panel the main difference between the two options is down to the memory configurations available.
At the release for Wildcat III 3Dlabs outlined the key areas of performance that were increased from the Wildcat II boards, which are as follows:
Up to 65% increase in T&L Geometry performance
2X improvement in line/polygon rendering performance
Improved anti-aliasing performance from dual setup units"
3d Action planet Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix Has Gone Gold!
"ACTIVISION AND RAVEN SOFTWARE’S SOLDIER OF FORTUNE II: DOUBLE HELIX HAS GONE GOLD AND PREPARES FOR A TOUR OF DUTY ON RETAIL SHELVES NATIONWIDE
SANTA MONICA, CA – May 13, 2002 – Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) and Raven Software’s Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix has gone gold and is on its way to manufacturing. The sequel to the award winning Soldier of Fortune, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix drops players into the ranks of America’s shadow soldiers in a gritty and intense battle for survival. Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix is rated M for MATURE (17 and above) for animated blood, violence and gore."
Silent PC Review
Posted by slau @ Thursday 16th May 2002 - 08:51:00
I've been interested in quiet computing for a long while, I've just never got round to doing anything about my noisy computer. I'm planning on writing a few reviews/articles on silent computing products and methods to silence a computer, but in the mean time, you might want to check out our new affiliate, SilentPCReview.com
"The NEW CD/MP3 Player that reached the market in September of last year rocks! This player is called the RIO Volt SP250, the LATEST edition in SonicBlue's RIO VOLT CD/Mp3 player series.
Unlike other portable mp3 players, the RIO Volt is able to carry or read a 650 or 700 MB CD-R/RW filled with mp3s. I love this technology, because I can listen to BOTH my store-bought/burnt CDs, and enjoy my mp3 collection, without carrying 2 players. I also love this product because not only do I burn my mp3s on a CD-R to listen to them in the RIO Volt, but I also use these CD-R's for my mp3 collection backups."
"There you go. Yes this stuff worked! My PC really annoyed me most of the time before since I have some of the loudest computer fans available installed in it (YS-Tech 120mm 135CFM blowhole and suckhole, and a 60mm Delta (which is drowned by the others). It didn't silence my PC quite obviously, that would just be silly. What it did do however, was cut off the edge. It 'dampened' out the high-pitched sounds, which are what made my system sound so prominent, and left a nice hum. Imagine how a loud background hum is different to someone in the next room playing music really loud."
MODTHEBOX.com Computuning Fan Speed Controller Kit Review
"The main PCB consists of a 10K ohm potentiometer or pot, two 2-pin male connectors for power in and out, some onboard resistors, capacitors and a heatsink. Also attached to the board is a length of cable with a 2-pin female connector for powering the LED. As you can see, the unit is quite small at 3½ inches square and 2½" high, with the bulk of its height being the heatsink. Since this unit is so compact, there will be plenty of installation options, although most people will mount it in a drive bay or on the front bezel of a case."
"So what/who holds this integral job? Routers - whether software or hardware. Hardware routers generally allow higher throughput than most software solutions, doesn't require a host computer and is consequently more reliable. Today we take a look at the Pro100, one of several internet security appliances from Nexland. A relatively new player in the field, Nexland's products have been adopted by quite a few large enterprises including Motorola, Bell Canada, Symantec and even Cisco. Nexland's claim to fame is their patent pending ability of allowing encrypted VPN packets over NAT, multi-session IPSec and PPTP."
"When I proceeded to update the BIOS, the system seemed to hang halfway. At first, I assumed that it was having problems trying to read the disk, but after a couple minutes, I began to worry. Everything was frozen, and I had no choice but to power down and try again. I decided that now would be a good time to try the backup BIOS, but that chance never came. When I powered up again, I was greeted with a blank screen. Power was certainly being fed into the mainboard, as all the fans turned on as expected, but there was no POST, nor was there any system beeps."
"Thermaltake is widely recognised as a company known for excellent cooling solutions. They provide superior finished, performance enhancing goods which are good value for money. As we enter the world of the hardcore hobbyist (you know, the ones who don't mind compromising with a little extra cost for an increase in performance) TT provides an excellent alternative to Intel's Stock P4 Fan."
"Ahoy, ZZZ's 128th issue is out, with several items of interest:
SkyTower, an airborne satellite capable of giving 50Mbps of wireless data transfer to each user;
Buy your own space shuttle for...well, whatever you need a hulking space-era icon for;
Of course, the issue would not be complete without another mad scientist claiming a source of free energy!
All this, and a Russian circus member who can shoot a compound bow at targets using her feet while doing a hand stand."
"Tired of spending fifty dollars on a case and getting twenty dollars worth of product? Kingwin has jumped into the market with a new aluminum case the will give serious challenge to the high end manufacturers in the range of both price and quality..."
3dGameMan ZALMAN CNPS-6000 CU Cooler in Video Review #162
"With its sweet looks and easy install/removal design the ZALMAN CNPS-6000 CU Cooler is one of the more interesting coolers out there. They have packaged; quality and great cooling into this product, however, it comes at a higher price then your regular copper cooler."
