November 2003

November 30, 2003 7:23 PM - Sunday Edition

Leadtek K7ncr18d

Leadtek as a company is well known for their video cards. Tonite though we are having a look at one of their motherboards. It's a Nforce 2 board that has the weird name K7 NCR18D. It seems to be a really nice board and has several good features.

Shuttle SN85G4

Athlon 64 power in a small form factor is the best feature of the SFF. With a fancy new exterior and built in removable memory slots Shuttle has made definitely improvements in style and functionality. With the optional 802.11b module that does not take up one of the PCI slots, and built in SATA ports the expandability and airflow in the case is event better.

Bytesized Bits

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Cooling and Cases

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November 29, 2003 6:53 PM - Saturday Edition

Springdale
These DFI boards have gotten quite a lot of good press both for performance and the overall package. Check out the at Hardware Hell.

"Following on from the Direct X 9.0 3DMark 03, I used my personal favourite test: Aquamark 3. Although the games based on the engine were not very successful, I think that the benchmark is very impressive. Happily I can say that both boards got the exact same score in this test! Good work from the DFI Lanparty."

Rack Mount
We don't see many review of this nature pass through here. Down Under have the

"This case is firmly aimed at the enthusiast server community. Much like myself in fact - I’m an IT professional and I have a bunch of machines at home: 4 servers, 2 workstations and a notebook. Since I don’t happen to live in a palace, space utilisation is important. So, I’ve got those servers mounted in a standard 19” rack. Such a rack is divided into "Rack Units" or RU, each about 1.75 inches in height. You can get cases that only occupy 1RU, or as many as 9 or 10 RU for specialised server/storage products. This 4RU case from Antec allows standard PC components to be installed."

Xmas Giveaway!
T'was the month before Xmas, and all across the 'net, sites giving away free gear, like

"Adrian's Rojak Pot has just launched a Christmas Giveaway Contest! Prizes worth more than RM 1,600 or USD 420 are now up for grabs! Check them out - Mushkin PC4000 modules, AMD Athlon XP processors, official Second Edition ARP t-shirts and subscriptions to the BIOS Optimization Guide! Come and get a shot at an early Christmas present!"

Snap Happy
Shutterbug review is up next as HardwareZoom review the

"EOS 300D is the first DSLR that is compatible with EF-S lenses (S for short-back focus). You can use lenses that are specially designed for Digital SLR, which are cheaper and lighter than EF lenses that offers similar quality. Unless you are a sport photographer who demands the fastest Auto Focus (AF) speed and largest frame buffer, EOS-300D should be able to satisfy the needs of most amateurs. The price for EOS-300D is comparable to high-end point and shoot Digicams, yet its image quality and flexibility will be able to beat any of them in the market."

Mouse Pad
Aimed solidly at gamers, this aluminium black pad isn't that bad. is at HardExtreme.

"As a Gaming enthusiast, it is important to have every possible advantage while taking your latest head shot, or striving to completely obliterate the competition. When it comes to LAN games, mouse precision and speed isof the utmost importance. Whether you are wielding a roller or optical weapon, the new 4S promises to deliver the best possible advantage for a fulfilling gaming experience."

You can check out my review of it here.

November 28, 2003 4:36 PM - Afternoon Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

5950 Ultra
Hexus checks out the . Will nVidia's latest top ATI's?

It's quiet, nView 3.0 is excellent, the 2D quality was the best I've ever seen in isolation using my Sony G400 monitor and it should be comparatively cheap. Radeon 9800XT's are quicker, but FX 5950 Ultras make a decent case for themselves. Overclocking was a highlight too.

Mods and Ends

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HDD Rack
The Overclocker Café takes a look at the which has triple cooling fans and a shock absorbsion system.

This tray attaches by means of three screws. Each of these is cushioned by a soft rubber grommet of sorts that keeps the tray elevated so that an installed hard drive has rubber to dampen any vibration the drive may produce.

November 28, 2003 8:53 AM - Morning Edition

Radeon IGP
Short-Media looks at the Intel Extreme Graphics killer, the . It still doesn't replace a quality video card, but it's good to see an alternative.

The Radeon 9100 IGP is a cost-effective, on-motherboard graphics chip that will change the level of graphics performance for thousands and perhaps millions of pre-built PCs.

nF3 PCI Bus
There's been some debate on whether or not nVidia's . Leave it to Adrian's Rojak Pot to get to the bottom of it.

The hardware community has been speculating about the possibility that the NVIDIA nForce3 may not have a locked PCI bus. But no one knows for sure if the nForce3 really did not lock the PCI bus. Maybe it did. Who can tell for sure?

Case and Cooling Stuff

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Bytesized Bits

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November 27, 2003 10:15 PM - TURKEY DAY EDITION

Happy Turkey Day Everyone! It seems like everyone is pretty safe right about now, which is most certainly something to be thankful for. I'm not going to rant on about what I'm thankful for, however I will say that no matter how bad life can seem, one can always be thankful for life.

Okay, okay. On with the news.
Interview with Ujesh Desai
HighTekPC got to sit down with nVidia's Ujesh Desai, Director of Software Marketing and got to .

On the second day of Comdex it was back to the Four Seasons for a private meeting with nVidia. We ended up in a personal meeting with the Director of Software and Multimedia Marketing, Mr. Ujesh Desai. He showed us a quick PowerPoint presentation outlining nVidia's objectives and their current product line.

Pioneer DVD+-RW
CDR-Info has a review of the . I myself just purchased and started a review on a Dual DVD+-RW writer from Plextor. Pioneer has always been a great hardware DVD company, and their DVR-SK12D doesn't look to dissapoint (for a slim drive.)

Well, fear no more, for a solution is at hand. A new slim drive at an affordable price, with the performance and capabilities of a half height drive.

While there are certainly drives cheaper, faster and with more capabilities than Pioneer’s newly released DVR-SK12D slim external drive, there are none matching its performance in the slim drive category, and it gives a lot of half height drives a scare as well.

AVerMedia TV Tuner
MadtownPC has a review of the , which also doubles as a FM Radio tuner and comes with PVR software. If you have the disk space, PVR is damn convenient.

"After opening the Ultra TV 350 the installation was pretty easy in fact it was very painless and simple, once we got the software and drivers loaded up we configured the Ultra TV software and noticed there was a problem it wasn't detecting all of my channels only the first 5 channels and in the wrong order. We come to find out that this was caused by a driver problem or conflict from the old TV Tuner we had installed before this one. Once we removed the old drivers and we removed everything from the new card and reinstalled all the drivers and software it worked great. So note to anyone who has a TV Tuner card already, make sure you uninstall or get rid of your old drivers before installing the Ultra TV 350

EPIA V10000
The Backyard family has a review of the from Alternate. Woot for Mini-ITX

This time we’re looking at the EPIA V10000 motherboard from Via. This motherboard is of a rather new formfactor; mini-ITX. It measures 17x17cm, a little bigger than my widespread hand. Ok, ok, I have large hands, but it is very small.

Dream HTPC
Tom Ryback at System Cooling takes us on a guide through the building of his . Looks like he thoroughly planned everything out and came out with a winner.

Being that I'm somewhat of an audiophile and a computer addict, I've been mixing computers with my home entertainment center for a few years now, mainly for audio purposes. But it is only now that I've finally been able to put together a system that I am extremely proud of. It is this pride that has brought me to write this short article, briefly detailing my configuration and how I use it.

Bits and Bytes
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November 27, 2003 7:58 AM - Happy Thanksgiving - Morning Edition

K8T800
A1 have a pocket sized review to start off your Thanksgiving morning reading. They take a look at the and give us their quick thoughts.

"As with our comments on the Abit KV8-Max3 if you are looking for a decent top quality AMD Athlon 64 motherboard and do not mind the limitations imposed by the Via K8T800 chipset then this ASUS K8V-Deluxe motherboard should be on your list. For those of you looking for an overclocking to the hilt motherboard then you should look at motherboards using the nForce3 150 but you have limited HyperTransport speed."

2 for 1
Hexus double up and take 2 mATX motherboards for a spin. Check out the Biostar M7NCG 400 (nForce2)and K8NHA-Ms (Athlon64).

"I believe we've proved that it's a fallacy to state microATX boards cannot compete with full-blown desktop offerings in most respects. Manufacturers have become acutely aware that the form factor is an important criteria in the decision-making process of potential buyers. Couple up a mATX board housed in a small case, add in a TFT, stylish keyboard, mouse and multi-speaker set, and you'll soon have systems that the average consumer would like to own. The Small Form Factor systems have adequately shown that high specification machines need not be housed in antiquated cases."

R9800Pro
Even with the 9800XT on the shelves, the likes of the is still a viable top of the line alternative.

"All in all, Yuan R9800Pro is the perfect choice for the knowledgeable tweakers who want a quality build R9800Pro at minimal cost."

KT600
XBit look at an older chipset based motherboard for the AthlonXP lineup, the

"Besides the solutions for hardware enthusiasts ABIT also designed mainboards for not very demanding, mainstream users. Let’s learn more about an ABIT product like that on the VIA KT600 chipset. Will its quality and features be as attractive as those of the high-end boards from this manufacturer?"

Considering the price difference, I'd still suggest you go get an nForce2 based motherboard.

VoyeurMods Case
Fujikuro over at VH checks out the and gives us his opinion.

"Everything installed easily and fit without any force. I had only one problem: the top 120mm fan prevented me from putting my DVD drive in. I think this really isn't much of a problem though, because many people have fan controllers or system monitoring screens to put in a 5.25" bay, and those will still fit fine. Since I previously modded a window into the top of my DVD drive, I was pleased to have a top window in the case so I could actually enjoy the mod! Up front, the drives are a little tacky being beige, but thanks to the door they aren't visible when it's closed."

External DVD Burner
External DVD Burners are becoming quite popular lately. Is the , reviewed exclusively at HWZ, any good?

"Well, after spending a great deal of quality time with the drive and weighing all its pros and cons, we would have to say that TDK has churned out yet another winner here with the external 440N. Fusing stylish design with minimal sound and vibration during operation, commendable performance in both CD and DVD media into one eye-catching, affordable package, not forgetting the numerous bundled software included."

November 26, 2003 10:15 PM - Evening edition

Gainward 5950 1800

We can be honest about the target market for flagship cards; they are not going into the computers of average consumers but into the boxes of the hardcore early adopters. Flagship cards are not about common sense, they are about having the best piece of hardware you can get a hold of.

Chyang Fun MiniCube

When looking for a second PC it is very easy to forget that a Mini-ITX is a lot more than just a gimmick. Whilst ATX systems specialized in providing ugly beige box's, some of the greatest looking things come in small packages as JohnL at The Modfathers found :

Morex Venus Cube Review

The build quality and finish is excellent, it would be welcome on display on anyone's desk, and not beside it as with most large beige boxes.

Bytesized Bits

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November 26, 2003 12:22 PM - Afternoon Quickie

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November 26, 2003 7:08 AM - Morning Edition

Retail Athlon 64 System
Anyone in the UK and intereted in PC's will have heard of Time who now sell an Athlon 64 system dubbed the

"In summary, excellent performance that could easily be even better, a meagre software bundle but excellent monitor and speaker system to balance it out. Good features mean you get some value back for your substantial outlay. Disappointing in a few key areas for the money, could so easily have been much better."

PCMark 04
Who knows how much contreversy will surround this synthetic benchmark. For now, BoPC

"Overall this product is quite impressive, I'm sure most reviewers will continue using the Futuremark's range of software to benchmark, and develop a critical opinion about hardware these days. I would like to thank Tero for providing me with PCMark, this was another Pre(re)view from another FutureMark product."

Modular PSU's
Another company offering modded PSU's that can help in your PC.

"What is Modularization? It’s just what the name implies...All the lines coming from the power supply are cut to about 3” from the case with single connectors at the end of each; the only exception is the main ATX power line, which goes untouched. Why was this done?? For the obvious reason you just thought of, by cutting all the lines close and only connecting the wiring you need, you eliminate all the excess wiring you would normally have."

Cooling and Peripherals
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Mousin'
Got a lot of mouse pads reviews today.

LCD
Samsung have been getting a lot of review coverage around the web. ModSynergy check out the , but with it's 25ms response gamers will probably want to look elsewhere.

"The other day I went to Future Shop and around the area where there were demo units on LCD displays, and there were many people looking at them. TFT LCD Flat panels have come a long way and now is quickly becoming the standard. Everyone knows about them! Everyone has a basic idea of the improvements and benefits of having one. Well not all LCD monitors are created equal. Samsung has a wide array of LCD monitors and we are looking today at the Samsung SyncMaster 191T Plus"

ByteSized
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November 25, 2003 5:17 PM - Afternoon Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

9800 XT Review
OcPrices have just reviewed one of the fastest graphics cards on the planet, the .

ATi have now released the Radeon 9800 "XT" edition. This XT version has its core clocked some 8% higher at 412 MHz, and its memory clocked at 7% higher at 730MHz and also has some unique features including ATi endorsed overclocking.

9600 XT Review
Look for our review on Friday, but here's TweakTown's look at the .

Capitalizing on the strengths of the popular Radeon 9600 Pro mid-range performance graphics card, ATI has just released their brand new Radeon 9600 XT VPU which offers a tremendous price to performance ratio and performance almost matching 9800 XT at times when overclocked.

HyperX Review
Legit Reviews checks out Kingston's performance ram, the . If you're going to shop for ram, stick with quality, as we loved this stuff when we tested it.

Prior to using Hynix IC's Kingston was using Samsung Revision "C" IC's on their PC4000 memory modules and received some negative feedback from the enthusiast community. Is this criticism warranted by the community or are people jumping to conclusions without understanding the entire picture?

Bytesized Bits

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PC Mark 2004 Stuff

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2800+ Review
It's an oldie, but the isn't quite yet moldy. R&B give you the 411.

Well this product does probably not need any presentation. We recieved a AMD XP 2800+ from AMD which we are going to have a look at today. This is probably the best processor at the moment if you look at price/speed ratio.

November 25, 2003 7:54 AM - Morning Edition

K8T800
Some 64 bit action at Lost Circuits as they check out the motherboard.

"It is no wonder, therefore, that we are seeing all kinds of mainboard suddenly popping up, amongst which are some really fine pieces of engineering - supposedly, they all had time enough to iron out the kinks before the release into the market, a novum, indeed. What we are looking at today combines some interesting monitoring, a wind tunnel and the Athlon64 to a regular powerhouse in the personal computing scene. Add 6 SATA channels and Gigabit LAN and a hell of a lot of LEDs and the result is called ABIT KV8 MAX3."

A1 look at

AiW 9600 Pro
We looked at this card and were very impressed. but don't just take our word for it, see

"In February of this year ATI refreshed their VGA lineup with 2 new cards. The RADEON 9800 Pro replaced the 9700 Pro in their lineup and The RADEON 9600 Pro replaced the 9500 Pro. The 9600 Pro (codenamed RV350) was a mainstream card that was ATI's first .13 micron video card. In general ATI releases their AIW cards with the same or lower core as the card it's based upon, until now."

Also at Motherboards, they have the on the test bench.

Springdale
Soltek have a penchant for colours on their motherboards (remember the purple one?) and this new Springdale

"Black Thunder is what Soltek is calling their High-End series aimed at giving the overclocker and hardware enthusiast what they demand. The boards will feature a jet black PCB, purple expansion slots, with more onboard features and plenty of included cables."

Cases and Periphirals
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Free Schwag!
Couple of reminders for some free gear.

ByteSized
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November 24, 2003 10:47 PM - Evening Edition

DFI NFII
DFI NFII Ultra Infinity

So, what has the DFI NFII Ultra Infinity motherboard ultimately shown to us in its' entirety? Well, we can honestly say that this motherboard is one of the fastest platforms available for your K7 setup that can seemingly provide you with an infinite number of configurations and expandability options for all areas of your PC.

AMD AthlonXP

The AMD AthlonXP processor has long represented an equal balance of pure economical value and performance. These traits have been enticing consumers towards AMD since the introduction of DDR memory, and that has given the company a strong foothold in the consumer PC markets.

Bytesized Bits

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November 24, 2003 4:57 PM - Afternoon Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

nForce 3 Review
[H] looks at the . Good coverage from Kyle and the gang, and they discovered some issues I have yet to see anyone else report.

Overclocking with this board was more like a Herculean task rather than the easy ride it should have been. After a horror filled weekend of BIOS nonsense and OS corruption, as well as multiple system OS re-installs and system rebuilds / CPU remounts, the system magically stabilized and I was able to get down to business.

PC Control Panel
HTPC has an interesting mod titled . I suppose if you don't have a remote, this may be something interesting.

This final image shows it in the case, and ready to go. I am using the girder joy pad plugin to assign these buttons to operate the myHTPC software. Works great and has good Wow-factor, people ask where I bought it.

Mouse Pad Review
For the discerning gamer and computer user alike, having a good mousing surface is often of paramount importance. See what 8Balls has to say about the .

We've checked out many mousing surface solutions from many different companies. This time, we take a look at the Steelpad 4d, which is a variation on the Steelpad4s, though made from plastic instead of aluminum.

November 24, 2003 8:56 AM - Morning Edition

ProSeries Review
Gruntville reviews the , which is their fancy, high performance stuff. The LEDs don't really do much for me, but I thought the performace was killer.

Being that case modding is an entire industry in and of itself, what better way is there to stand out than come up with something that'll be sure to strike a nerve with the community?

9600 Review
myWORLD Hardware have a look at the . We've had some good experience with this VPU, and it's worth a look if money is an object.

Unlike some VGA manufacturers, most of them tend to bundle in demo version of the games and older software, which is useless. But, Gigabyte has been kind enough to bundle in more updated software and games.

Athlon 64 Write-ups
TweakTown has set out to build the You'll need to read on to see how they did.

We collected high-end performance parts from AMD, ABIT, ATI, GeCube, Mushkin, Maxtor and Thermaltake and built the fastest possible Athlon 64 desktop computer around. The heat is on - become part of the action and read about what this high-powered system is capable of!

Overseas, Planet3D Now! have an article comparing the . Gotta love these shootouts.

PCI Express
If you need an , IntelForums have a write-up. Good source of info, as this is the future.

PCI Express, previously known as 3rd Generation I/O (3GIO), is all set to replace both PCI and AGP, and take general I/O connectivity to the next decade. Designed to support multiple market segments and emerging applications, it will upgrade and unify I/O for Desktop, Mobile, Server, Communications, Workstations and Embedded Devices.

Cooling and Modding
Thermaltake has expanded their Xaser III line to include a new specialty model. The guys at the Café look at the , which is exactly what it sounds like.

The styling of the Skull holds true to the Xaser line and is even improved by compacting the bulky monsters of old, and adding a little flash. The diminished size of the case adds to its glamour, as the full size Xaser's can be too big to transport easily.

Here's the rest of the case and cooling related news.

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Windows Modding
Well, that's pretty much what the . If the three default themes in WinXP bore you, this is worth a look.

Object Desktop is a fantastic suite, although it does have the potential to overwhelm certain users. Novices will be intimidated by the amount of separate components which make up this suite. I believe Stardock would have been further ahead to group everything together neatly, allowing you to change each aspect of Windows (skinning, desktop, Start menu, etc.) within one application.

November 23, 2003 10:32 PM - Evening Edition

AMD Athlon 64

With the AMD Athlon 64 processor is now directly in control of the system memory, we set out to discover if the various chipset solutions from NVIDIA, VIA, SiS and ALi were able to perform similarly and the answer is both yes and no depending on your primary use of the system.

Bytesized Bits

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November 23, 2003 12:54 PM - Afternoon Edition

Asetek Waterchill

For most of us the coolest step our computers can take is that leap from air cooling to liquid cooling. But as you may know the entire process is extremely daunting, and the choice of which kit to buy can be nerve wracking.

DFI LanParty

4 port SATA, lots of USB2.0 and FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet, the FrontX and Transpo hardware, class topping Socket A performance, excellent audio, attractive looks. I'm struggling to think what else the board could do right. The layout has a couple of quirks, I ran into a BIOS issue or two, but on the whole I'm supremely impressed.

ASUS P4S800D

Finally, it would seem that someone has brought the competition to Intel and in a big way. SiS really should be proud of their 655TX chipset as it has single handedly taken on both the big guns from Intel.

Bytesized Bits

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November 22, 2003 6:51 PM - Saturday Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

KT800
Based on the KT800 chipset for the Athlon 64, Bjorn3D has the on the review bench.

"Then, the more relevant question for this review is whether or not the MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R is worth considering if are jumping into the 64-bit revolution. With 6 channel audio, Gigabit LAN, 4 SATA connectors, SATA RAID, Live Update and other great features, I think it's definitely worth your consideration if you are shopping for a Socket 754 motherboard, especially considering it only costs around $125 according to our Pricegrabber search."

Sound Off
SCC look at what is widely known as a great high quality card at a good price, the

"The Revolution 7.1 is a solid choice for any gamer, music, or movie lover who wants the best quality with great performance. Users who do a lot of recording and mixing will find this card to be a great choice with its great signal-to-noise ratios and sampling options."

PC4200
When it comes to 1:1 ratio's on an overclocked p4 system, you need fast quality ram. ClubOC tell us if is worth our hard earned.

"Just a few weeks ago, we named the OCZ PC-4000 Gold Series, the best overclocking memory on the market. While other brands of memory could barely run at default speeds, OCZ's Gold Series maxed out our hardware between 280 and 290MHz Front Side Bus. That is way past it's default rating of 250MHz FSB or 500MHz DDR. Now OCZ is back at it again with some new memory that is even more extreme than the last, PC-4200EL."

Screwed
Got your attention? got mine too when I checked the news. Hexus are reviewing a screw. They do however choose to compare it to the ATi 9800XT. So which one comes out on top?

"From every angle, top three quarters, side on, up close, up close enough to nearly have my eye out, it's a good looking screw, presented very well. Black all over, it's stylish, small and screams out to be used. I've resisted thus far, keeping it in its bag.How does it perform against other screws? I've no idea, so I've benchmarked it against an ATI Radeon 9800XT instead."

ByteSized
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Tweakin'
Josh of The Modfathers shows you how to

"Overclock this; overclock that; don't leave out your poor video card. Overclocking, a term referring to running components in your computer faster than they are specified, has become quite the craze, and for good reason."

And if your looking to make sure your system is tweaked fully, it's gotta start

November 22, 2003 12:06 AM - Late evening edition

ABIT AI7

ABIT's latest motherboard is the value-orientated AI7 for the Pentium 4 based on Intel's Springdale chipset. We put it right up against the IC7 MAX3 based on the more expensive Canterwood chipset and it doesn't fair too badly at all.

Bitesized Bits

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November 21, 2003 9:32 PM - Overclock Product News

This Week Only!
Leadtek WinFast FX5950 A380 Ultra TDH MyVIVO

Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 XT inc. Half Life 2 Retail Boxed

Abit AN7 nForce2 Socket A Motherboard

Coolermaster Centurion Silver (VL's Review)

AMD Athlon64 3200 64bit 754Pin CPU OEM

Pioneer DVR-106 DVD+-R/RW Recordable OEM

November 21, 2003 4:26 PM - Afternoon Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

Loaded PSU
Well, it looks like the reviewed over at the Café is about as fully loaded as it can get. In the end, I think more will care about the reliability.

Sporting sleeved and shrink wrapped lines, SATA power connectors, included two channel rheobus and squirrel cage fan in addition to internal LEDs that cycle and pulse seven colors, this unit looks like one that would interest most any case modder.

WaterChill
SystemCooling reviews the , which is one of those all-in-one setups. We looked at this same unit this week, and found it to be quite impressive.

Here at SystemCooling we very rarely give away the conclusion of a review in the introduction. But if you want, what I consider the best water-cooling kit out there right now, the Asetek WaterChill should be at the very top.

nForce 3 Review
Ninjalane has a spin with the for the Athlon 64. Not sure how it compares against the K8T800, but they do run it against a Springdale.

The synthetic benchmarks put the ZNF3-150 behind the reference system but in a strange twist the board won every real world benchmark we had. In the case of the Athlon64 3200+ we obviously cannot judge performance by synthetic numbers alone.

Bytesized Bits

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November 21, 2003 10:26 AM - Morning Edition

Hydrocool Review
MTB checks out the external cooling kit. For those looking into a water cooling solution that is close to turnkey, this may be worth a look. Here's our review for comparison.

An aluminum reservoir tank is positioned at the very rear of the unit and holds the coolant supply. One of the clear benefits of reservoirs is the ease of maintenance for filling and bleeding liquid.

nForce 2 Review
Those looking for a "different" mobo will want to checkout this at Tweaknews. Guess you better make sure your case window is clean.

You get a great bundle which contains a flashy UV reactive motherboard that performs very well right out of the box and can be inserted into any windowed case to create an instant attractive enthusiast computer system.

Antec PR

To help users eliminate the irritating whine of noisy computers, Antec has launched a guide to Quiet Computing. Available as a free download from Antec 's Web site, the guide includes 10 tips and techniques to minimize computer noise. The pointers take into consideration varying budgets and levels of expertise, and range from slipping a foam pad underneath a computer to absorb vibrations, to replacing the power supply.

Bytesized Bits

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November 21, 2003 1:17 AM - Thursday Night News

7.1 Shootout
TechConnect has released between the Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 and the M-Audio Revolution 7.1. Mmmmmm 7 channels of delicious sound.

Just to notice the little differences between the Revolution and Prodigy, we felt that the Prodigy put some more emphasis on bass response and highs, while the Revolution had a little bit more flatter sound and better stereo presence/detail. These are the little differences we managed to observe between the soundcards. We can safely say the soundcards did keep us in the front of the speakers quite a time, giving us a hard time to observe the differences.

P4-ITX
EpiaCenter takes a look at a from Idot. I just can't believe the size of that motherboard, the stock Intel HSF simply dominates it, and RAM and IDE look impossibly hard to get to...

hanks to our buddies from PC-Max.de we are able to present a review of a pre-production sample Idot P4-ITX board! I know many of you have been waiting for something "a little more powerful" and this board may answer your prayers...

Neuros
PCTechZone has a review of the . If I recall correctly, it should also have naitive ogg and linux support also. I remember being shown a pre-production Neuros at the last LinuxWorld conference I attended, and the MyFi truly is awesome. Go to your favorite electronics shop, set all the radios up, and wreak some havoc!

The MyFi (transmitting your songs over the FM radio) function worked perfect in my home as well as my car. I was able to get around 20 feet from my stereo in my home .The ability to listen to my mp3 collection wherever I went without a separate device was great.

DIY Etching
TechNation has on etching your own custom etched case windows with a sand blaster. I think it came out quite nicely.

Rather than use some kind of paint or imitation etch, ours is the real deal, using a sandblaster
for the final finish on the window itself.

Comdex 2003
Overclockers Club has some . They covered the Pre-Comdex Bikers Bash, and Days 1 and 2 at Comdex.

Sin City, USA... Las Vegas, Nevada, home of the 2003 Computer Dealers Exposition, or better known as COMDEX... Today we start our coverage with the Digital/Mobile Focus Bikers Bash at the Bellagio Hotel. This pre-COMDEX event included such names as nVidia, Opera, Dell, Microsoft, HP, Netgear, IBM, Sprint, Palm, Kingston, Harley-Davidson, the Hooters Girls, and many other popular names. The event faired well, with many companies showing off their latest gadgets and software for the Mobile world. Software, Hardware, and even some we're-not-so-sure-what-ware.

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November 20, 2003 2:13 PM - Afternoon Edition

nForce3
Chaintech make some great all round packaged motherboards. Does the follow as previous packages?

"The ZNF3-150 Zenith is based on NVIDIA's nForce3 chipset, which is on a single-chip architecture. This is much different from the typical North Bridge and South Bridge common to many types of motherboards. This allows for lower system latency and less power consumption. This is one of the major differences between nForce 3 and VIA's K8T800."

Spin another Mr DJ!
My boy would love one of these for Xmas ... honest, it's for my boy!

"Most of us love mixing music songs yet can't afford expensive mixing and DJ consoles, turntables, and CD-Players that can handle BPM. But we all do have a fast PC and a crapload of MP3's right ? So all you need is a device that controls the PC and MP3's and that's exactly what the Hercules DJ Console in todays review is all about. It's basically a mix-console with built in USB soundcard. And the thing is cool!"

LCD
The Monkeys check out the but I have to agree with them about the response time.

"Of the listed specs the main points of interest lay within its 270 cd/m2 brightness, 450:1 contrast, and 25ms response time. All of these results tie in within this monitors price range, about $490 ~ $550 USD. Though the brightness level and contrast ratio are acceptable, the 25ms response time wouldn't be my first choice when it comes to high speed FPS gaming."

Fan Control
If you have a lot of fans in your system, it pays to invest in something like this Rheobus.

"The Fan Master is a 5.25" bay-mounted fan controller (or baybus, rheobus, etc). The Fan Master allows you to connect 4 fans (with speed monitoring) via its back panel. The connections are the standard mini 3-pin such as you see on a motherboard fan header. You can buy most popular fans these days with that style, but retrofitting existing fans may require some wiring. There is plenty of room on the back panel to connect the fans, but it does leave the circuit board exposed to dust. I don't consider this a big issue, since most of the internal components of your computer are exposed as well."

Quick Info

November 20, 2003 7:12 AM - Morning Edition

Watercooling
We looked at this kit just recently and now BoPC as well.

"This kit rocks, but it's not perfect though, the GPU block can cause some problems with some of the Radeon users out there because of the shim the cards have. You want better contact? remove some copper on the outside of the block by using sandpaper, or remove the shim. It's an easy to use kit, everything is included and best of all, anyone can use it !. I had no problems while going through the installation, and I'm quite satisfied by the overall performance."

And a third review of it can be found

"The first revision kit has been thoroughly reviewed online and has received quite favorable marks. Asetek being a customer-oriented company still felt they should address the one or two minor complaints about the setup. They quickly went to work producing revision two. The second-generation kit boasts easy to use push fit connectors, redesigned waterblock lids and an upgraded radiator."

9600 Pro
OC Tools has some mainstream graphics action with a lookat the .

"As the name suggest, this EXTREME edition is one if not the fastest 9600Pro around. Using 2.5ns memory chips, the default memory speed of this card is set at 730mhz. They said all 9600Pros are created equal. Well, this special 9600Pro card from GeXcube will try to disprove that. Let's find out how this card is different from all the rest."

And there was me thinking EXTREME meant it jumped from the Empire State Building with a parachute and a snowboard.

FX5950
nVidia's top chipset based graphics card is reviewed down under.

"The FX5950Ultra really starts to shine when overclocked to its limit. At 520Core and 1030Memory, it is up to 40% faster than FX5800Ultra under UT2k3"

ByteSized
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MiniPC
Shuttle's mini PC, the is covered at Hexus and it would seem the initial appeal is wearing off.

"Perhaps we're being critical here but the XPC line doesn't seem to have evolved greatly over the past 18 months. We want it all, all without compromise. That entails Wi-Fi support, FireWire connectivity and perhaps even a snazzy remote control. If you've got a Socket-478 CPU and are short of space but thick of wallet the SB62G2 may help relieve you of some hard-earned cash. Lots of a good and a little bad make the Shuttle SB62G2 a mildly attractive proposition."

November 19, 2003 9:17 PM - Evening edition

AOpen XC-Cube EZ65

The Cube PC market has been attracting more and more players of late. The latest of these is AOpen. Today, the Overclocker Café looks at their entry into the fray with the AOpen XC-Cube EZ65. The EZ65 is based around an Intel 865 chipset. Weighing in at just over 5kg with a complete system installed it is indeed small. Don’t let size fool you… small but powerful.

Bitesized Bits

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November 19, 2003 2:30 PM - Afternoon Edition

Abit Springdale
Over at OC_Zone they have Abit's latest springdale on the review bench the with it's uGuru overclocking.

"I think I have already said all that can be said about this motherboard, i got really impressed and I think it has everything needed to be a "top performer motherboard". We can easily find out that this board was born to correct all the previous errors in Abit IS7, making of it an almost perfect board"

DVD Burning
Got some Dual format DVD Burning action with the Lite-On LDW-411S DVD±RW which has hopefully been cured of it's "coaster" making by the new firmware.

"The out-of-the-box performance of this drive was not very good as there were a few serious DVD-R/RW writing issues present. But thankfully Lite-On released firmware FS0F that cured these problems and made the drive become a strong competitor to most other DVD-Writers. So if you have not already upgraded the firmware to version FS0F (or newer) we suggest that you do that to get the best experience with the drive."

ByteSized
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Glowy SATA Cables
Seems everything is getting the glowy treatment lately, even

"Amongst the many cables and wires in a PC, one of the more challenging ones to managed are the IDE cables. But that's a few years back and with rounded cables widely available now and many motherboard manufacturers including them in their package, you don't have to worry anymore. But things just got better with the new interface, Serial ATA or SATA. Not only does it bring a speed bump, the data now travels on a cable just a tad larger than your regular USB cable! And for those of you who have a window, here's a SATA cable that would go well with your case!"

November 19, 2003 6:28 AM - Morning Edition

PC4000
We looked at this Corsair TwinX1024-4000PRO ourselves and were pretty impressed. Does the folks at

"Overall, we were certainly impressed with the TwinX1024-PC4000PRO. The LED's are a very nice touch, but you'll need a windowed case and a dark room to really enjoy it. Performance-wise, the memory performed well, achieving respectable overclocked speeds on both the Springdale and Canterwood platform. As such, we have no problem recommending Corsair's TwinX1024-PC4000PRO, and feel it is deserving of an Editor's Choice award."

Light Fantastic
Quite a simple idea this one but I would imagine some of you would enjoy these

"The Galaxy USB Cable is clear with silver wire on the inside. The activity light comes in 5 different colors: red, blue, green, yellow, and a mixture of colors. You can choose between a 6ft or 10ft cable. This universal cable can be used in any number of devices, such as printers, digital cameras, etc. For this review, I will be using a blue, 6ft cable plugged into a printer."

Or how about some or perhaps you would prefer some of

ByteSized
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November 18, 2003 10:20 PM - Evening Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

HSF Shootout
So, who owns the air cooling market? are argueably the top coolers, so let's see what the crustaceans at Mdshrimps think.

Little over a year ago we put Swiftech´s greatest against Alpha´s best. The MCX4000 vs PAL8942 review is more then a year old. And it is time again to find out who´s the king of the Pentium 4 aircoolers.

WaterChill Review
BoPC checks out the latest version . There were a couple issues though.

This kit rocks, but it's not perfect though, the GPU block can cause some problems with some of the Radeon users out there because of the shim the cards have. You want better contact? remove some copper on the outside of the block by using sandpaper, or remove the shim.

We didn't have the same problems with our WaterChill review, though we used a FIC Radeon.

Bytesized Bits

.:. .:. .:. AMD, ATI, All-In-Wonder, AOPEN, ABIT, ASUS, DFI, Babe Thread, Forums, Intel, nVidia, MSI, Shuttle, FIC, Radeon, google, Jokes, GeForce, FX, Small Form Factor, Cooling, Water Cooling, Swiftech, Vantec, Corsair.

November 18, 2003 2:45 PM - Afternoon Edition

Music on the Move
SubZeroTech take a look at in interesting device, the which has some great features.

"Digital Innovations decided to hedge their bets and make an audio player that costs roughly half that, has a similar design and interface, and does a few extra interesting things as well. Some of these extras include recording off of the radio to MP3 format, Line-In high quality MP3 recording and the ability to broadcast your MP3s to any radio tuned in to your frequency in roughly a 20 foot circle!"

Swiftech Cooling
Swiftech are a favourite around here so after posting this I shall be seeing what FastLane thought of the

"Today Swiftech strikes back with the MCX-462V, a new hybrid cooler, similar to the MCX-462+ plus a few improvements. How will this cooler perform in our high-heat environment? That's what you'll need to read on to find out..."

Smart Drive
If you have a noisy Hard Drive then perhaps one of these could help.

"The Smart Drive 2002 is an all passive hard drive enclosure designed to bring reduced acoustical levels to serial and parallel based ATA hard drives. A set of raised fins run the length of the side and upper portions of the unit. Aside from aesthetics, these fins are designed to aid in the dissipation of heat generated by the enclosed hard drive. In order to gain access to the Smart Drive 2002, a set of six screws must be removed from the bottom plate."

Surround Cans
Rodney gives us a Video look at over at 3dGameMan.

"Well, this is ironic... a renowned heatsink, fan, and powersupply company, that has its whole mission statement based around the pursuit of quiet computing, now wants to MAKE noise rather than prevent it."

November 18, 2003 6:43 AM - Morning Edition

Watercooling
Been hearing a lot of good things about these blocks , CoolTechZone tell us if this reputation is deserved.

"Surely, finishing is not everything that makes a product worthwhile. You, as a consumer, must look on the performance side of things when it comes to purchasing PC components. We received a PolarFLO CPU Water-Block in our lab few weeks ago and we must say that the performance was just as good as the finishing."

PC4200
Another name that has been up and coming lately is Buffalo and their Ram modules. Does this have what it takes?

"We're going to be taking a look at Buffalo Tech's new PC4200 DDR SDRAM module. The RAM comes in clear hard plastic shells that leave the RAM well protected. On it is a label with the Buffalo Tech logo as well as some basic information about the ram itself. Most of these modules are made for OEM builders, but BT is slowly spreading them out to the masses."

Mousing and Cooling
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VIA PT800
Hexus look at VIA's competitor to the Springdale/Canterwood and SiS S478 chipsets, the PT800.

VIA has come into the dual-channel game a little late for it to make a major impact immediately. It needs to ensure that partners utilise the best parts of the chipset and price it aggressively. It'll then be considered a real contender to Intel's crown. We can see that system integrators may want to get in on the cheap(ish) dual-channel act. VIA may just have provided the means to do so. We'll examine just how well partners have lived up to the promise shown by the reference board in a look at retail examples shortly. Until then, the VIA PT880 rivals the best from Intel - and that's quite a compliment in itself."

Comdex and ByteSized
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November 17, 2003 9:45 PM - Evening edition

Albatron & DFI 865PE Motherboards

The performance was expected and the results received from these two boards are close to that of the i875P competition. However, performance aside these are extremely good value products.

AOpen AK79D-400

The AOpen AK79D-400 Max we present in this review is based on none other than the nForce2 Ultra 400 SPP that officially supports FSB400 CPUs. The Southbridge of choice for this board is the more feature packed MCP-T, but AOpen has supplemented it with third party ICs and some of AOpen's own in-house engineered chips that offer even more good stuff.

Rocket 1520 RocketRAID Controller

The interface card is compact and utilizes highpoints HPT372A interface chip. There are two bridging chips manufactured by Marvell on the card to allow the serial data to be converted into parallel data for the main 327A chip to process.

Bytesized Bits

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November 17, 2003 5:10 PM - Afternoon Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

Go5600 Preview
Bjorn3D has a preview of the next big "mobile" thing from nVidia, the .

As we know, notebooks are becoming more powerful and flexible. Robust graphics solutions, better portability and longer battery life have been in demand ever since the first 3D games appeared on Laptops. Today, NVIDIA brings us the updated mobile solution: GeForce FX Go5700.

SFF Review
Biostar is a manufacturer that I'm not to familiar with, but in anycase, Hexus has a look at the , their first offering into the SFF market.

The iDEQ 200T is pretty good, especially if this is your first foray into the SFF world. It's by far the easiest to work with. Performance is adequate, even if the overclocking potential and PSU were found a little lacking. There's a number of other iDEQs, based upon differing chipsets. What we'd like to see is an all-aluminium offering with better integrated graphics, Wireless connectivity and a quiet PSU. Biostar is on the right track with the basic design, and we look forward to futre models with renewed optimism.

Cooling and Case Related

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November 17, 2003 9:03 AM - Morning Edition

AIW 9600 Review #1
I'm wrapping up our review right now, but here's Bytesector's take on the .

ATI Technologies is responsible for creating some of the most powerful video cards available on the consumer market today. The Radeon 9600, 9700 and 9800 rocked the gaming world with their powerful GPU's (Graphics Processing Units) and large memory configurations.

AIW 9600 Review #2
Ascully also took a look at the . This is, in my opinion, the best all round AIW available... more so than the 9800 Pro version.

"All our Base Belong To Us". Almost everybody who uses the internet will have heard that phrase at some time or another. ATI should start using it as their corporate slogan because in the graphics card industry they certainly do have all the bases covered.

nForce 3 Review
, Athlon 64 based mobo, gets some reviewage over at OCTools. This platform seems to be the fastest A64 solution out there.

AMD Athlon64 processors are quite expensive and scarce. That is actually the biggest obstacle most have been complaining about. This makes upgrading to this platform a toughie. But for those who wants the best gaming experience now and have very deep pockets, then the nForce3-150 based Chaintech ZNF3-150 Zenith Athlon64 motherboard is definitely a great choice.

For those server shopping, here's an to checkout.

FX5900 Review
You won't find the in North America, but Europeans should be able to find that card anywhere.

The memory chips are Samsung 2.86ns 350MHz (700MHz effective) DDR-SDRAM, which have shorter latency times than the 2.5ns chips found on the Ultra and standard 5900 cards. The difference is small though and may not have a noticeable effect on benchmarks, or indeed, everyday gaming.

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November 16, 2003 10:05 PM - Evening edition

Gigabyte GA-8S655FX

The SiS655FX chipset offered several new features, mainly dealing with that of the available memory configurations that the i875P and i865PE chipsets do not. Not only can you use different sizes and types of RAM with the 655FX chipset, but you can also retain some form of dual channel operation while doing so, something that is currently impossible with the i875P or i865PE chipsets offered by Intel"

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November 16, 2003 2:52 PM - Afternoon edition

Radeon 9800XT & 9600XT

A new article over the fire-current Asus Radeon 9800XT and 9600XT diagram maps

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November 15, 2003 9:59 PM - Saturday Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

IC7-MAX3 Review
gets some reviewage over at Short-Media. I think this snippet says it all.

If it's been said once it has been said a million times; the ABIT IC7-Max3 is one great motherboard. The Max series of motherboards have always been the flagship products for ABIT. The IC7-Max3 is no exception and carries on the tradition in fine form.

Pretty much an opinion we share as well.

BIOS How-To
I'd imagine most of our readers are adept at BIOS flashing, but wasn't something I was familiar with.

You are all familiar with term 'flashing the BIOS', right? But what about hot flashing? Don't know? Don't worry! Today, we will explain what hot flashing is all about and show how you to do it!

Cases and Mods

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Bytesized Bits

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November 14, 2003 11:58 PM - Evening Edition

PC4000 Review
myWorld looks at some . Blazing fast stuff, though a tad expensive. Here's our review of some High Performance BLack for comparison.

Mushkin Enhanced Memory modules, especially High Performance Black, are made with overclocking in mind. It came with a nice heatspreader, whereby color may vary from the time when you purchased. For our case here, Mushkin has sent us a stick of memory module with blue colored heatspreader.

Actually, a reliable contact at a major memory manufacturer mentioned to me heatspreaders do nothing for heat (actually makes it worse), but do protect the ram from electronic noise.

nForce 2 Review
I knocked an earlier KT600 Gigabyte review earlier, but the wouldn't be a bad choice if you're sticking with the Athlon XP.

Today we'll be taking a look at Gigabyte's mid-range nForce2 board, the 7N400 Pro. While lacking some of the more advanced features of its bigger brother, the Gigabyte 7NNXP, the 7N400 is a capable board at a price that won't break your wallet.

Cooling and PSUs

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November 14, 2003 5:38 PM - Afternoon Edition

Winner Announced
Congrats goes out to ricercar in winning this month's contest. Stay tuned as I got a super easy contest on the way next week.

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

Bytesized Bits

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Cooling and Etc

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November 14, 2003 8:51 AM - Morning Edition

PolarFLO Blocks
Impressive to look at, but how does the perform? I got a couple of these in the labs now, so I'll give you my take soon.

It is a thing of beauty, and performs like a true champion. It's really incredible that a perfectly flat and smooth finish can make a difference of 2-3°C (3.6-5.4°F) over the original PolarFLO block which was also a champion in it's own right.

On the topic of watercooling, MTB looks at the .

9800XT Review
Lost Circuits review the current 3D champ, the . How does the ASUS brand compare against the rest?

One of the most earth-shaking turnarounds in the graphics adapter scene has been the announcement by ASUS to support the latest graphics cores made by ATI. Needless to say that ASUS as the number one graphics card manufacturer in the world (in volume) can also throw in a wealth of experience with respect to hardware and driver customization.

KT600 Review
would not be my first choice, as I would look towards an Ultra version of the nForce 2 if I were sticking in the world of 32-bit.

While AMD's Athlon 64 has taken much spot light over the past while, AMD 32-bit central processing is far from dead. Read on as we take a look at the Gigabyte GA-7VT600-1394 motherboard based on VIA's KT600 chipset.

FX5900 Review
Outside of the odd names, the should satisfy your 3D gaming needs. It also has the fancy watercooling to keep cool if you need to squeeze more out of it while overclocking.

Gainward transformed a good GPU from Nvidia into a great card, capable of fighting head to head with the high-end ATI card, Radeon 9800 Pro. The Image Quality is very good, and the performance is just great, both of them make this product a great choice.

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Cooling, and Case Related

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November 13, 2003 3:24 PM - Afternoon Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

nForce 2 Review
Neoseeker takes a look at the . One of the few mobos I've seen with fan control.

There are several settings included; fixed fan control makes sure that the fan is always spinning at a constant rate regardless of heat, Smart Fan Control allows the fan to kick in at a specified temperature, Multiple Level Control allows the user to set the fan speed for a given temperature, and lastly there is the AOpen Recommended Setting.

Bytesized Bits

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November 13, 2003 8:37 AM - Morning Edition

nForce 3 Review
I still don't see a whole lot of nF3 reviews, but AMDZone just took a look at the . Looks to be a decent OCer as well.

Biostar has put together a nice combination of features including SATA RAID, Firewire, 802.11b, Gigabit Ethernet, and the options for more SATA ports. They also include a nice suite of system utilities, and a good software bundle.

H20-8501
ipKonfig looks at A64 cooling performance with the . This is an updated version of the kit we looked at earlier this year.

The 8501 cooling kit offers a few enhancements, especially for the enthusiast who loves to heat up the cooling--like dual radiator hookup. This isn't your normal cooling kit from Swiftech, but the same high quality liquid cooling blocks are always supplied.

Bytesized Bits

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November 12, 2003 10:47 PM - Evening edition

Bytesized bits

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November 12, 2003 4:39 PM - Afternoon Edition

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

nForce 2
The pissed off techs at Furioustech look at the . Grrr.

If you are wondering where you want to spend your money for a K7 nForce 2 solutions then you want to take a look at the Albatron KX18D Pro II. This mobo is fast, stable, with a ton of features and will not break your bank.

Bytesized Bits

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November 12, 2003 9:08 AM - Morning Edition

Springdale Review
Hardcoreware takes a look at the , which is argueably one of the best Springdale boards you'll find. At least, that is our opinion.

Based on the Intel 865PE chipset, this board has a plethora of tweaks and overclocking features, including the ability to enable "PAT" thus effectively making it an 875P board in every way but name.

K8T800 Review
It's looking to me that the K8T800 seems to be the most popular board for the A64. is another entry into this growing market, but does it have the tools to succeed?

FIC has a strong offering in the K8-800T that has proven to be the best performer of the K8T800 bunch we have tested thus far. With SATA RAID, GigE, and Firewire they cover the basics, although they can not match the Asus or MSI board feature to feature.

AIW 9800 vs 9700
I had originally thought yesterday that only Hercules offered an AIW solution outside of ATI. Guess I was mistaken, as the at OC-Zone.

For the reasons I just wrote, and for the experience I had with both Powercolor cards, I will give them the Editor´s Choice Award. These are the best choice for people who want to combine a TV with a Personal Computer, also having an high-end graphics card, and not even one PCI slot is lost!

9800XT Review
Guru3D reviews the today. Ready for HL2 and Doom 3? I won't say until I see working copies of the games, but it handles todays stuff great.

What you are looking at is a refresh product, a faster clocked and better cooled Radeon 9800 Pro with a very nice cooling solution as topping.

Bytesized Bits

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November 11, 2003 10:18 PM - Evening Edition

nF2 Ultra
The chimps at MonkeyReview take a look at the . If you haven't made the jump to the A64, then the nF2 platform is your best bet.

The first thing I wanted to do was see how far we could push the FSB. As mentioned, anything above 184MHz required us to loosen our memory timings. With that being done, I was able to get stable operation with a FSB of 234 / 468 MHz.

BIOS Stuff
If you haven't been following Rojak Pot's BIOS guides, you really should, as their guide is one of the best on the 'net. , so checkout some of the changes.

Ever peeked into the BIOS and got your brains scrambled with all the mumbo-jumbo? Maybe it's time to check out the most comprehensive guide on more than 170 BIOS options!

Bandwidth vs Latency
... what's the 411? PC Stats has a nice article outlining things you'll need to know.

With a DDR memory controller now capable of running dual channel, the Pentium 4 was no longer to be bandwidth limited as it had been with the i845 series. Those single channel DDR chipsets, like the i845PE for instance, could only provide half the bandwidth required by the Pentium 4 processor due to its single channel memory controller.

TV Wonder
If you'd prefer an addon card, rather than an All-In-Wonder, the isn't a bad choice. Even if you have an AIW, add this, and you'll get dual tuners, which is handy if you want to record one channel while watching another.

That is why ATI has released the TV Wonder Pro with enhanced TV playback and capture features. Unlike its predecessor, the ATI TV Wonder VE; the PRO version is equipped with a modified Remote Wonder and also contains elements of the 8500 AIW.

Memory Watch
Here's something you don't see everyday... . I'm not replacing my Mont Blanc with this, but it'll be a great way to impress chicks. Well, maybe not.

This unit is a combination of the usual USB memory drives but encased within a watch, this although may seem quite novel it does reduce the chances of forgetting your usual USB drive, I have often forgotten to take my drive out of my jacket or trouser pocket and then not realised till the next day at the office, having it on your wrist may well appeal to you.

Bytesized Bits

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November 11, 2003 3:02 PM - Afternoon Edition

Registered PC3200
If you got yourself an A64 FX, this will be of interest. Legit Reviews takes a look at a gig of the stuff.

It is obvious that Kingston went along with the JEDEC standards and thus became the only "officially supported" memory module at the time of the AMD Athlon 64 FX processor launch.

K8T800 Review
is the subject of todays review at the Crucible. OTES cooling made its way to the A64 platform with this board, though all is not well.

For overclockers KV8-MAX3 (as well as any board with the Via K8T800 chipset) will suffer slightly due to the lack of PCI/AGP bus locks. According to the documentation I have seen the K8T800 chipset is limited to a 1/6 divider. That means that even at the small overclock we achieved here out PCI bus is at 39MHz already. Since I corrupted my hard drive twice while trying to find the maximum stable overclock I would have to say that there definitely is no 1/7 or 1/8th divider and that the PCI bus is not locked.

TV-Tuner Box
That's basically how the looks to me. If you don't have an actual TV set, or TV-Tuner, this may do the job for you.

It's been three weeks, and I have used the device with a happy mind. It's not a miracle we're talking about, but it's no waste of metal and plastics either. The system specifications promise one TV-tuner which uses your PC-monitor in advantage, and that it does with success.

Patch for 3DMark03
that you might want to grab, as only benchmarks with this build will be counted with their official stats.

Saratoga, California USA - November 11th, 2003 - Futuremark Corporation announced today the immediate availability of a patch to the 3DMark03 benchmark suite. 3DMark03 is the worldwide standard tool for easily and objectively measuring and comparing PCs' 3D performance.

Cooling and Case Related

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November 11, 2003 11:14 AM - Why Remember?

We'd like to take a moment to thank those who fought, and are still fighting the good fight. They sacrificed everything so that we don't have to. Though November 11 is Remembrance Day in Canada, in the US, it is Veterans Day, but in the end, it is the lives of soldiers in the free world who are responsible for giving us the freedom many take for granted. So, we here at VL would like to give the brave men and women our thanks.

We must remember. If we do not, the sacrifice of those one hundred thousand Canadian lives will be meaningless. They died for us, for their homes and families and friends, for a collection of traditions they cherished and a future they believed in; they died for Canada. The meaning of their sacrifice rests with our collective national consciousness; our future is their monument. (Heather Robertson, A Terrible Beauty, The Art of Canada at War, Toronto, Lorimer, 1977.)

November 11, 2003 9:13 AM - Morning Edition

EPIA Review
gets some coverage over at Tweaknews today. I am loving mine, despite the fact that I can forget about gaming with this. This review should tell you why.

VIA's latest EPIA offering is an excellent office alternative to the the multimedia HTPC targeted M10000. With the digital audio and video removed and an additional LAN and two USB 2.0 ports added, the CL10000 has every feature and enough power needed for an inexpensive file server, firewall or corporate office PC.

K8T800 Review
I'm wrapping up my MSI review, but if this doesn't make it clear, I will... it's fast. Plain and simple.

With the fresh taste of enthusiast friendly motherboards in our minds, you can imagine that expectations are quite high for the brand new Epox 8HDA3+, a VIA K8T800 and VT8237 based motherboard.

Cheap 9800?
It's still expensive, but is one of the cheaper models on the market. Still has the performance we expect though.

With a good video card costing anywhere from $300 to $500, you really want the biggest bang for your buck. One of the best choices is the Radeon 9800 Pro. Crucial, a division of Micron Technology, has sent over one of their 128mb Radeon 9800 Pro video cards for our reviewing pleasure.

9800 vs 9700
are pitted against each other in this showdown. From my experiences, the fight is a lot closer than you may think.

The home PC user's number one reason for upgrading is games. Video cards continue to turn up the frame rates and pack on the onboard memory but how is this "bigger, better, faster" benefiting you and how much?

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AIW 9800SE
Hexus takes a look at the . Hercules is the only company I know of that makes the AIW, other than ATI themselves, so let's take a look at what Hexus thought.

However, with them missing the boat in terms of the promised new RemoteWonder upgrade and with just a couple of extra features that the market demanded (such as dual head output) since the last round of AIW's, you can see why Hercules decided a 9800SE based part might be worth a shot.

OCZ Reviews
Tech-Dreams review some . Our experiences have been positive with this ram.

This RAM is from the same series of RAM that I reviewed earlier this year. This time I'm looking at the single stick as opposed to an optimized dual channel kit.

And, if you're too lazy to read, you can catch this video review.

November 10, 2003 4:53 PM - Bathroom Reading

Free Mags
IT professional? Simply a cubicle drone? Eitherway, may be worthwhile.

November 10, 2003 4:17 PM - Afternoon Edition

Crazy PC
They shouldn't need any introduction, but as official sponsors, so please give them a look. Nick and the gang have treated us well in the past, and you'll be a happy camper shopping there. They also wanted us to mention that they carry the nVentiv Prometia Mach I and II Vapor Coolers.

NEO2 Giveaway
We're going to be giving away a MSI 865 NEO2-FIS2R. If you're eyeing a Springdale for your P4, this is your chance to snag one for free.

IC7-Max3
OCPrices review the . This is the board with OTES technology, and it's easily the best Canterwood board we've tested.

Abit's IC7 series of boards are already some of the top overclocking 875 boards on the market, so one has to ask whether we needed a new revision so soon. However, Abit is confident that the IC7 Max 3 bring enough new stuff to overclockers to make it a worthwhile upgrade.

Waterblock Orgy
The LiquidNinjas have gathered waterblocks from and give you the 411 on what comes out on top.

Waterblock designs seem to be getting very complex lately. My first waterblock was nothing more than a chunk of aluminum with three holes drilled through it. These days, waterblocks are often multi-layered devices which give CNC operators nightmares. The old "maze" designs remain popular, but this year we saw some new designs being mass produced, such as water-jetting impingement designs and micro-channeled waterblocks.

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November 10, 2003 8:51 AM - Morning Edition

9800 XT Review
Our bud Joel checks out ATI's latest, the ATI Radeon 9800 XT. Pretty much the fastest card you'll find now, though the new stuff is on the way... as it always is anyhow.

The Radeon 9800 XT isn't a completely new card, but rather, it is a revision of the R350, which ATI has named the R360. The major changes are the ability to have faster clock speeds on the card, 412 MHz core and 730 MHz DDR memory, as well as a radically different cooling design than previous ATI boards.

Video History
FastSilicon goes retro, and takes a look at in the video card world. Funny, they start at 1996, but it's quite amazing when you realize how much has changed.

The Voodoo card was simply a 3D graphics accelerator, which was plugged into a regular 2D video card; known as piggy backing. (Oh the days of piggy backing, I remember them well. Having that black chord sticking out of the back of your case was especially annoying).

Mini-PC
Hardware Analysis has a look at the . Doesn't look like much, but it does have one of those overclocking dials that makes OCing easier considering no shutdown is needed.

In the good old days, overclocking pioneers had to pull their systems apart to adjust jumpers. Not long ago, Abit pioneered BIOS-based overclocking. So what's the next step? What if you could overclock without even closing your applications?

Opteron Barebone
isn't something that will appeal to home users all that much, but IT admins may take an interest in it.

2-way rackmount systems of such a form factor are hard to come by, and even more precious when it can replace your current servers running on 32-bit x86 applications while having the built-in flexibility to upgrade to 64-bit when needed.

KT600 Review
The Overclocker Café has just posted up their review of the . Not exactly a nForce 2 killer, but it does perform fairly well, and it's relatively cheap.

ABIT has put out their version of the KT600 in the form of the KV7 board. ABIT, long known for high quality and performance products seems to be aiming the KV7 at a more cost sensitive audience.

Speaking of the nForce 2, Planet 3DNow! has for those looking to get the most out of their box.

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November 9, 2003 7:12 PM - Server Move Progress

We'd like to apologize for the downtime over the weekend. As many of you know, we moved our server facilities in order to accomadate the increase in traffic, and to move forward with VL's growth.

Things are almost back to normal, and we should be back to full speed by early this week.