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| Wednesday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2003, 1:13:59 PM | | Author: BigDaddy |
D-Tek Pro Combo Radiator & Shroud @ SystemCooling
(c) 2003 SystemCooling
"We have a D-Tek Pro Combo to try out. The combo is comprised of their nicely painted Pro Radiator with their venturi shaped fan shroud. Shrouds are very important as they increase the distance between the fan hub and core, thus eliminating a dead area. They also help direct airflow through the entire 6” x 6” (152 x 152mm) core as opposed to just attaching a 4.75,” 120mm square fan directly to the core."
More information on this review can be found here.
CritiCool Powerplant Review @ Overclocker Cafe
"CritiCool has put out a product that directly addresses the very problem. The CritiCool Powerplant PCI Relay Card functions by a relay allowing AC power to go to your pump as soon as it detects the system is powering up. Fairly straight forward concept I’d say."
More information on this review can be found here.
VIA EPIA M9000 Mini-ITX Mainboard @ I Am Not A Geek
"The VIA EPIA M9000 may not be the answer for the person who needs the fastest components for game play, intensive business applications, or simple bragging rights, but it does not make any pretenses of being such a device. What it is does provide is a low power, low noise, low cost system ideally suited for rich multimedia, desktop, and internet applications. The miniature size and onboard integration of most of the peripherals allow the user the flexibility of endless installation opportunities. Whether it be in an office, a home entertainment center, a car, and so on, the practical uses and enclosure possibilities are really only limited to the owner's creativity."
More information on this review can be found here.
MSI FX5600-VTR128 Review @ Bjorn3D
"The MSI FX5600-VTR128 is a quiet card, of reasonable size, which does NOT need extra power or an adjacent PCI slot and it comes with an excellent bundle of goodies."
More information on this review can be found here.
eVGA NVIDIA Personal Cinema (GeForce4 MX 440-8X): New and Improved @ Explosive Labs
"While NVIDIA has been duking it out with its rival [ATI] progressively over the years, they have left one area largely untouched. For the past several years, ATI's All-In-Wonder cards have been the most visible occupying solution the multimedia/home entertainment niche. Over time, this niche has even come to accommodate applications in business and education, and since the next generation of graphics will at least dabble in home entertainment, this has developed into a very profitable demographic."
More information on this review can be found here.
TwinMOS PC3200 Dual Channel DDR Memory Review @ 8BallsHardware
"Having too much memory in your computer may not be a bad thing. As memory prices have become rather affordable as of late, this is a good time as any to stock up on memory. Also, with the recent ratification of DDR400 memory by JEDEC, memory manufacturers have been quick to produce their own brand of DDR400 or otherwise known as PC3200 memory. In addition to that, the introduction of Dual Channel memory capable motherboards such as the likes of nVidia's nForce2 chipset as well as Intel's i875P and i865P chipsets have given end users and enthusiasts alike a reason to go out and grab DDR memory by the bundle. Depending on the chipset of choice, the user would usually pick PC2700 (DDR333) or PC3200 (DDR400). In the cases of extreme overclockers and tweakers, they would go for PC3500 or PC3700 solutions offered by certain manufacturers, although those particular two specifications aren't ratified by JEDEC's official standards."
More information on this review can be found here.
Mushkin Enhanced Black 512MB PC3200 Memory Review @ Techseekers.net
"However the Mushkin stick itself performed very well, and not only matched its listed specifications, but exceeded it, at DDR440 at CAS2 2,2,5, with a little increase in DIMM Voltage up to 2.7V. Although not advertised as a dual memory pack, it worked fine in Dual Channel configuration on both the Canterwood and nForce2 systems. Recommended!"
More information on this review can be found here.
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB SATA Hard Drive Review @ GamersHell
"Maxtor has, by far, out-performed every hard-drive sent to us for testing. They have been firmly and aggressively pushing performance, stability and reliability in all their products, and when the Maxtor brand meets a standard like SATA, it delivers quality beyond what you recognize around the market these days. This is one of the few products that receives a silver award, and it is well deserved."
More information on this review can be found here.
TDK VeloCD 48x16x48x External USB 2.0 CD Re-Writer @ FutureLooks
"Portable CD-Writers used to be a last resort when it came to choosing between them an their internal counterparts. With USB 2.0 being common place nowadays, TDK has proved that slow speed is no longer a reason not to buy an external drive!"
More information on this review can be found here.
eluminX Illuminated Keyboard Review @ WildReviews
"With hundreds of different mods out there for your PC, why can't you have a cool keyboard. Well if it's a cool keyboard you are looking for look no further than eluminX. The future looks bright with eluminX."
More information on this review can be found here.
Zalman ZM80A-HP Silent VGA Cooler Review @ Hexus.net
"The Zalman ZM80A-HP cooler achieves its aims of cooling even the fastest of current GPUs passively. The clever engineering, large dissipation area, and excellent heatpipe ensures that we can run powerful GPUs fanless. Installation should take you no more than 30 minutes, even if you do go slowly. If you want to quieten your PC, an excellent start would be with the Zalman ZM80A-HP cooler. It does everything it promises and looks impressive doing it."
More information on this review can be found here.
Casewraps: The Cure For The Common PC @ Bjorn3D
"Got a case of the PC blahs? Beige got you bored? Try a Casewrap for a colorful quick fix! Bjorn3D just wrapped up a boring Antec case with a vinyl wrap from Casewraps and CrazyPC. Check out the results ..."
More information on this review can be found here.
Thermaltake HardCano 10 Review @ A1 Electronics
(c) 2003 A1 Electronics
"From our point of view we like the Thermaltake HardCano 10 because it gives a very handy and stylish fitting for you PC computer case while giving front panel access for your USB & FireWire ports and two very handy fan speed controllers with a temperature display to boot. Installation was easy leaving you only needing to adjust the Alarm setting with a small screw driver. And as the Thermaltake HardCano 10 is powered off your computer power supply you do not have a battery to keep replacing."
More information on this review can be found here.
Aerocool Deep Impact DP-101 @ Viper Lair
"Under load with the supplied fan, the Deep impact comes pretty close to the Aero7 scores, but what you also have to remember here is that the Deep Impact's supplied fan is only 24dB, virtually silent, and will certainly be drowned out by any other system fans."
More information on this review can be found here.
Monster Game Gamelink X-Link Cat5 Ethernet Cable Review @ Modtown
"Some may argue that this is just a simple Ethernet cable that they could make at home. In a sense they are correct, but there is no way that you would be able to emulate the same level of quality and performance of this product at home...
It would, in no way, look or perform as good as the Gamelink™ X-Link!"
More information on this review can be found here.
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| Tuesday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Tuesday, May 27, 2003, 3:48:13 PM | | Author: hitek |
Corsair Hydrocool 200 Water Cooler Review @ DWPG
"The overheat protection system is quite genious. Hydrocool 200 will shut down your computer before enything get fried. You can adjust these parameters, but keep in mind that the temperature is measured on top of the waterblock, not the processor core. Corsair estimates the deltaT to about 15 degrees Celsius or Farenheit, and we can confirm that this is pretty accurate."
More information on this review can be found here.
Swiftech H20-8500 Water Cooling Kit Review @ OCAddiction
"With all that in mind Swiftech released the H20-8500 built around their hugely successful MCW5000 water-block. The H20-8500 is designed to be installed in most mid-tower cases with minimal hassle. And obviously as a water cooling solution, it should provide excellent cooling performance with low noise. Now lets take a look at what you are buying when you order the H20-8500."
More information on this review can be found here.
Hydor Seltz L30 Water Pump Review @ GruntvillE
(c) 2003 GruntvillE
"I wanted to test the head volume of the units for myself. I got tired of everyone’s opinions on pumps and wanted to see for myself. This is not an exact test but it is extremely even and fairly accurate. I ran out and bought 10ft of cheap vinyl ½”ID tubing. I mounted the top portion of the tubing to the top rail of my deck and the bottom connected to the pumps top exhaust. The tubing was rearranged to make sure the pump sat on the bottom of the bucket and the tubing had as little movement as possible; vinyl tubing takes some work to get it back into shape after being on a roll. I marked the tubing every ft with neon orange paint and I poured 1 gal distilled water into the bucket. I also used a bright dye for the water to make it visible in the pictures."
More information on this review can be found here.
Performance-Pcs Aluminum Case Special Review @ System Cooling
"What we were looking for was an entry level aluminum case that would be light weight, compact, cool well, look good, with plenty of power and yes, even a couple of modded features and all for under $100.00 US. Did we accomplish our goal? You be the judge!"
More information on this review can be found here.
Chaintech A-GX21 GeForce 4 Ti4200-8X Review
"Today we're going to look at one of Chaintech's Ti4200 contenders, the A-GX21 GeForce 4 Titanium 4200-8X Special Edition. Quite a mouthful, huh? In the interest of saving several million keystrokes, we're going to refer to it from here on out as simply the GX21."
More information on this review can be found here.
Aluminium Lian-Li PC-0716-S Aquarium Casing Review @ Hardwarezoom
"The Aquarium Side Panel is for all Lian Li's users who are using PC-60x, PC-07x, and PC-8x series cases. The transparent window is made of high quality acryllic, the finishing is great, no sharp corners and the material is thick enough (about 5mm) to withstand some knocks. The surface of the acryllic window is protected by a plastic sheet. The whole acryllic aquarium is outside the casing, so if there is any water leakage, it will not get into the casing easily."
More information on this review can be found here.
Gold Member Discount Special @ E-Compuvision
"Purchase anything over $150 online or $100 in store (before taxes and become a gold member online. To become a gold member you must be registered online so we can set you up with the gold member status. Gold members will be able to receive discounted rates on all products in stock. Gold members also receive first word on all new products and future discounts pending. Becoming a gold member has its advantages and over time will save you money on all orders placed with us. As we grow to bigger and better things, we want to pass along this great promo for a limited time. This promo will expire at 12 AM EST Friday Morning."
More information on this offer can be found here.
ATI Radeon 9000 All In Wonder Pro Review @ Ascully
"The latest All In Wonder card from ATI. Priced at a affordable $199 this card has everything you could ever dream of, great gaming performance, TV Tuner, Remote Wonder and more Video editing features than you can shake a stick at."
More information on this review can be found here.
Athenatech A747 Mid-Tower Case Video Review @ 3DGameman
"The Athenatech A747 Mid-Tower Case is a great looking case which has some unique features. For example the adjustable duct and the dual locking mechanism at the side of the case, removable HDD rack & something I really like, tool-less drive insertion. Also, it has two USB2 ports, headphones and microphone connectors at the top front of the case. It's missing a removable mobo tray though."
More information on this video review can be found here.
Noise Isolator (SWFC-6-BK) Switch Fan Controller @ Overclockers Club
"The ability to turn fans on or off is always nice, add the ability to adjust fan speed as well and a few LEDs, and you've got yourself one fine fan controlling device. At 6W you can control most fans on the market, except the few monsters out there. The only real problem with the SWFC-6-BK is the switches are not evenly aligned, which can make your case look cheap."
More information on this review can be found here.
DFI Lan Party Intel (Canterwood) PRO875 Motherboard Review @ 3DXtreme
"With the Intel Canterwood 875P boards we have Dual Channel DDR 400 support, 800 mhz fsb CPU support, SATA, AGP 8x, Performance Acceleration Technology and all the bells and whistles that would be desired for the next few months at the least. If you're looking for a motherboard upgrade that will get you through the next few months, maybe even a year, the Intel Canterwood is the chipset hardcore performance enthusiasts will want to look at."
More information on this review can be found here.
Soltek SL-86SPE-L 865PE Motherboard Review @ Extreme Overclocking
"There are not many extra bundled features with the Soltek SL-86SPE-L. Included with the package are the basic bundled features like manuals, driver and utility CDs, IDE cable, and floppy cable. Two Serial ATA cables are provided but no power adapters for the Serial ATA drives like the IC7-G, 9CJS, and 8PE800 Ultra all have. No additional USB ports or audio jacks are present. This is a very stripped package. Since the motherboard only has two USB ports on its I/O configuration and the chipset supports up to eight, Soltek could have added a least a few more USB ports. Many devices are using USB such as hard drives, digital cameras, keyboards, mice, and 6-in-1 card readers. It is safe to say that most enthusiasts have over two USB devices and will be very disappointed that no more ports are provided."
More information on this review can be found here.
PC Toys MobileMaxx Removable Hard Drive Rack @ PimpRig
"Upon hitting the power switch the MoblieMaxx unit greets you with a nice bright green LCD, which displays a wealth of information for the user. A large part of the display is taken up by a temperature readout, which can be customized for both Fahrenheit and Celsius. You also have a Disk like icon on the screen which spins when the hard drive is being accessed."
More information on this review can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Monday News Editon.. | | Date Posted: Monday, May 26, 2003, 10:19:31 AM | | Author: hitek |
Iwill DP533 Motherboard Review @ Whining Dog
"The Iwill DP533 is an E7505 based motherboard that excels in the server arena by providing a stable dual XEON processor platform. What is unique about the DP533 is its overclocking features which are not normally present in high end boards such as these. Though you may not be able to fully push a pair of XEONs to extreme speeds, the DP533 does breathe new life into old processors that may be ready for early retirement."
More information on this review can be found here.
MSI K7N2 Nforce2 Motherboard Review @ PC-Arena
"When NVIDIA released its NForce chipset, it was amid much expectation due to them being the producer of the fastest graphics cards around at that time. However many people felt that it was somewhat an anti-climax when retail boards started appearing. Nevertheless, it was a good start for a company with a primary business in making graphics cards, and has provided a good base for NVIDIA to move on from."
More information on this review can be found here.
Albatron FX5800 Ultra VGA Review @ Overclockers New Zealand
"Ever seen the movie "The fast and the furious"? Well, the FX5800 Ultra is "The fast and the thunderous". Looking at the graphs above, the FX5800 Ultra is no doubt one of the fastest cards; however, the associated noise level is just too high for most people and so is the price."
More information on this review can be found here.
CorsairMicro HydroCool200 Kit Review @ IPKonfig
(c) 2003 IPKonfig
"The water block used on the HydroCool200 is very compact, and universal. Those running AMD K7 based processors will have an installation bracket, as will those using Intel Pentium 4 processors. Corsair decided it could relieve the consumer of paying for extra blocks, and figured it would be more considerate to build a block universal for today's processors. On the top of the water block is a temperature probe that plugs into the slot plate card."
More information on this review can be found here.
Chenming ATX-301KE Silver Aluminum Case Review @ Modsynergy
"Many people tend to think cases are all the same. Cases are just places to put your computer in right? Well when they come with their new case they begin to find faults and problems with it, thus they begin to regret their lack of proper choice. I still believe that cases are one of the most overlooked things in "build your own computer" land. With high-performance system's becoming widely available, cooling has been a major factor. Components like to run cool and not hot. Some cases provide cooling whether some cases have major problems in this area. We will see if the newest Chenming ATX-301KE Silver Aluminum Case looks to change that".
More information on this review can be found here.
XPDreamer Case Review @ PimpRig
"Laughing heartily at the wussy 350 Watt Turbolink PSU that came with the case, I slapped in a 550 Watt, tri-fan Directron TT PSU. I laughed right up until the point the fan in the rear of the PSU ran into the fan in the top of the case! I did a little shoe-horning to get that puppy in there, but it’s a little snug!"
More information on this review can be found here.
KoolCases Platinum XP Case Review @ 3DXtreme
"The price of this case ($51 USD) on KoolCases' website makes it quite attractive and a great price-to-performance value."
More information on this review can be found here.
Mushkin's PC 3500 DDR SDRAM Review @ Technoyard
"Mushkin Memory has always been one of the main front runners in the memory industry. Today we introduce one of their newest additions to their product lineup; PC3500 DDR SDRAM. By default these modules offer a speed of 433MHz, which is unquestionably an overclocked speed. Read on as we put these modules through their paces."
More information on this review can be found here.
Performance-PCs Custom Sleeved Ultima PSU Review @ Virtual Hideout
(c) 2003 Virtual Hideout
"Performance-PCs is spot on when they named this new line of Custom PSUs the Ultima Series. This is by far, THE Ultimate Custom PSU Package available in the market today. First and most obvious of all, you get the best of the best PSU around, the Antec TruePower 550W PSU. These babies are known for their stability and reliability so you can't go wrong with that. On top of that, you get the awesome sleeving work on the cables that Performance-PCs is famous for. And it's no ordinary sleeving, these are Flexo Pet Expandable UV Reactive Sleeves. You get the versatility of using only the number of connectors you need with their removable socket connectors. No more trying to hide the cables you don't use! Then you get the UV Reactive Acrylic PSU Cover, the Antec UV Reactive 80mm fan and a 92mm Blue Quad Led Fan."
More information on this review can be found here.
Chaintech Reloaded Event Report @ Overclockers Cafe
"The Handigator is a remote control that can operate you PC. You can't do text from it of course but pretty much everything else including mousing tasks. The quarter sized button at the top of the controller is for moving your mouse cursor. After the awkwardness of something new wore off, I became a big fan. I was having visions of a wireless keyboard on my lap along with the Handigator while lying on a sofa. Put a small fridge in arms reach and I'll be set!"
More information on this report can be found here.
Chaintech Reloaded Event Report @ BJorn3D
"During this event as far as video cards go, Chaintech chose to focus on the new GeForce FX 5600 Turbo they are producing. This card will go above and beyond a regular 5600 (and an Ultra version that will be much more than just a 5600 Ultra). They use an 8 layer PCB instead of 6 layers and FBGA memory instead of TSOP, which combined will result in higher stability for overclocking and a much higher default clock speed. The FX 5600 Turbo (Apogee FX61 Turbo -- Ultra version will be FX71) will also feature an upgraded layout design, a unique cooling system and a great bundle of games and accessories."
More information on this report can be found here.
AuraVision Eluminx Keyboard Review @ Madshrimps
"The first thing you'll notice is the similarity of the keyboard with that of a laptop, except for the numeric pad, which is hardly ever present on notebooks. This keyboard is ideal for people on the go or for use at a LAN-party. The size difference is quite striking and it does save space on your desktop!"
More information on this report can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Weekend News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Saturday, May 24, 2003, 8:43:42 AM | | Author: hitek |
Introduction to Comserver Water-Cooling Components @ System Cooling
(c) 2003 System Cooling
"Comserver is a small New Hampshire based company that's been in design and manufacturing for over 25 years. In those 25 years they worked on countless engineering projects, which ranged from robotics to custom metal work. It's this metal work that's attracted us to Comserver because they have entered the processor cooling arena."
More information on this tour can be found here.
Chaintech Reloaded 2003 Report @ Viper Lair
"Chaintech also elaborated on how exactly their product lines were designed. Quite simply, Zenith is the highest end product they make, Apogee is their best bang for buck, and Summit is their budget or "cost-effective" line. However, their high end VGA line is Apogee. Chaintech didn't have a rock-solid answer for their reasoning behind using Apogee instead of Zenith for the product naming of their high end VGA card."
More information on this report can be found here.
ATN-999 Black Mobile Rack Review @ Overclockers Club Canada
"Most users would agree that the once-not-so-hot hard drive is now possibly among the top 3 hottest components in a system, competing with the graphics card and CPU. Don't forget that the hard drive is also mechanical, so even the friction of air is enough to generate alot of heat from the spinning of the platters. While 50 degrees Celcius is considered to be "normal operating temperatures" for a typical 7200RPM hard drive, hardcore cooling enthusiasts will want to keep that number down. This is where a hard drive cooling rack comes into play."
More information on this review can be found here.
Asus V9900 GeForce FX 5800 Ultra Review @ Hardware Fushion
"Asus's V9900 Ultra graphics card is the latest high performance graphics card from this leading Taiwanese hardware manufacturer. Based upon NVIDIA's latest GPU, the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, the card aims to deliver the quality of CG cinematic films in real time form to the PC. NVIDIA's GeForce FX chipset is undoubtedly an overdue technology in today's video card market and now with ATI's persistent success this once dominating graphics card company is finding it even harder to pull away from the competing edge of company's such as ATI."
More information on this review can be found here.
ECS K7S7AG with Onboard Xabre 200 Review @ Spode's Abode
"With the CPU clocked to 1.75gig on a 166fsb, and the memory timings set to CAS 2t "ultra" I squeezed 7005 3dmarks out of it, putting it in the same sort of territory as the Radeon 9000, and destroying the mere 2935marks scored by the nforce2 onboard graphics (Albatron KM18G PRO motherboard, 1.75 cpu, 166fsb 166ram)."
More information on this review can be found here.
Kingmax DR-400 RAM Review @ Legit Reviews
"It seems that the stick of RAM that we have that bears the MPXB62D-68KX3 product label, does not meet the specifications given by Kingmax at all. In the very near future, the everyday PC user will be required to use PC3200 memory (DDR-400) and the motherboard will not allow you to use anything less than that speed. So if someone purchased this RAM in that scenario, their computer would not work at all; in fact, it would not even post! How is a user supposed to use a computer at DDR-400, if the RAM does not even run at that speed?"
More information on this review can be found here.
Vantec Spectrum UV Fans Video Review @ 3DGameman
"The Vantec Spectrum UV Fans are currently available in four colors(Orange, Green, Blue and Clear) and when placed next to an Ultraviolet light they glow brightly. These fans not only look great they are also very functional and spin at 2900RPM, push 39 CFM and are 34dBA. It's time to consider removing all those plain black fans with these wife approved UV fans."
More information on this review can be found here.
The Ant Farm Case Mod Project @ TechTV
"I've been racking my brain trying to figure out a case mod that will shock the mod community. I finally gave up and resorted to my backup plan: I decided to put an ant farm in my PC case."
This has to be one of the dumbest ideas that I have seen yet. More information on this project can be found here.
The "Pet ITX" Project @ Mini-ITX
(c) 2003 Mini-ITX
"For several years I have wanted to build a PC in a Pet case just for nostalgic reasons. Although the case could take a full size ATX board the timing of being able to get a PET at the right price and the availability of the EPIA series and a suitable 12" TFT made it all possible."
More information on this project can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Friday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Friday, May 23, 2003, 10:59:15 AM | | Author: BigDaddy |
Lian Li PC-6010 Chassis Review @ ExtensionTech.net
"While I've looked at some nice "budget" cases before, there is no denying that Lian Li makes some of the best aluminum cases in the world. The PC-6010 case is more aimed for budget users, but still packs a very good punch in ease of use, and actually value. With the new aquarium side panel put in as a combo deal with this case, it not only should be pleasing to most, but the inclusion of a normal side panel too is awesome. So even if you don't like your aquarium side panel, you aren't out buying a new side for it. I also have quite a movie lined up for this review, and a simple little mod that I haven't seen anyone else do so far."
More information on this review can be found here.
Shuttle SB61G2 Springdale XPC Review @ Hexus.net
(c) 2003 Hexus.net
"Performance-wise, the SB61G2 didn't disappoint with a discrete Radeon 9800 Pro hogging the AGP port. Performance was just where we'd have put it beforehand, that is, sandwiched between the Canterwood and i845PE (200FSB) chipsets. The very fact that such performance can be attained from such a little package is a bewildering thought. You can add whatever extra the cube doesn't feature by utilising the single PCI slot."
More information on this review can be found here.
Maxtop CSX-001 Mini PC Chassis Review @ BigBruin.Com
"One of the dominant trends in personal computing at this time is the mini pc. Whether for use as an everyday computer, as a component in a home entertainment system, or as an in-car computer... small is definitely in. The Maxtop CSX-001 Mini PC Chassis is a Micro-ATX format case, complete with three case fans and a 200 Watt power supply, that may be of interest to people looking to follow the trend and lose their behemoth tower cases."
More information on this review can be found here.
Criticool PowerPlant PCI Relay Card @ The Modfathers
"On the front mounting plate you have the power input socket and a toggle switch to allow you to turn the pump on or off independently of the PSU. This enables you to fire your pump up with the system turned off. Vital when it comes to bleeding your system and checking for leeks."
And while you are looking for relatives of the onion family in your case, you can look for leaks too!
More information on this review can be found here.
MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R Motherboard Review @ A1 Electronics
"Another well made high-performance motherboard from MSI with a bundle of the latest features such as Serial-ATA, Gbit LAN and super selection of software included in the competitive price. As before our usual gripe is that with all this that MSI includes and so many USB ports at the back of the motherboard why do MSI not include a front panel for reading smart cards and with say two USB ports. It would only a very small amount to the price and make a truly fully featured motherboard. We hold our hand up."
More information on this review can be found here.
Intel i865 "Springdale" Chipset Review @ Sharky's
"After a few kick-starts, we've finally posted our Intel i865 "Springdale" chipset review, including benchmarks against the high-end i875P, E7205 and nForce2 dual-channel DDR platforms."
More information on this review can be found here.
ABIT IS7 865PE Motherboard Review @ Extreme Overclocking
(c) 2003 Extreme Overclocking
"It has been almost a month since we first saw the Intel 875P (canterwood) chipsets on the hardware scene. Now, a few weeks later, we are reviewing our first 865PE (springdale) board, the ABIT IS7. There are a few differences between the 875P and the 865PE chipsets such as the lack of PAT (Performance Acceleration Technology) on the 865PE. The 865 chipsets will be aimed at the mainstream market since it is considerably cheaper than the 875P."
More information on this review can be found here.
XFX GeForce FX5200 @ Bjorn3D
"With all the talk about the high-end FX5800 and FX5900 it is easy to forget that NVIDIA also has released new low-end cards that will replace the GF4 MX cards. We have reviewed the XFX FX5200 card and compared it to a GF4 MX and a Ti4200 both in the usual benchmarks and in a bunch of the latest game demos."
More information on this review can be found here.
Crucial PC3200 DDR Memory @ I Am Not A Geek
"Crucial's PC3200 DDR Memory definitely offers great performance and bang for the buck, with a price tag of $44.99 (US) you can have high performing ram without a high price, not to mention the limited life time warranty."
More information on this review can be found here.
Antec TrueControl 550W PSU @ Legit Reviews
"Since a power supply with adjustable voltage rails is aimed at the enthusiast market, this review will focus on the needs and wants of the enthusiast. The current market has 350W PSU's aimed to the public, whereas 400W+ are becoming the standard of power users. Following the trend of Americans, bigger must be better, right. If this is true we should see more and more people picking up 550W+ power supplies to keep that top of the line paper weight running."
More information on this review can be found here.
3a Cooling Z-Bra Heatsink @ OCC
"The copper/aluminum construction isn't the only thing that sets this heatsink apart. As you can see the sink has a half round shape to it created by the cooling fins. While most heatsinks have fins that either flare straight up or off at an angle, 3a Cooler has designed the Z-Bra to curve away from the base and up to the fan mount."
More information on this review can be found here.
Remote Control Your Rig! @ Modasylum.com
"To fully understand remote controlling, let's figure a TV and VCR set with it's remote controls. The way the remote controls work, is generally using IR (Infrared). Infrared is light which is not visible to the human eye. The IR signal sent from the remotes to the devices (TV or VCR) are pulses of that "invisible" light arranged in a way the TV or VCR will understand, a little like your modem pulses electric signals to send/receive information with your ISP."
More information on this review can be found here.
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| Thursday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2003, 8:32:45 AM | | Author: hitek |
CritiCool PowerPlant Review @ Monkey Review
"For anyone who has set up a liquid cooling kit which utilizes an AC powered pump, you can relate to the pain in the rear that it can be, when forced to cut a hole in your new or used case to allow the power cord (w Ground) a place to escape to, the inside of the case. For those of you wishing an alternative to a hole in their tower, those of us looking for a little more control over our pump, or those of you who just have a hard time remembering to turn on the pump before the system, the CritiCool PowerPlant might be what you desire.
More information on this review can be found here.
Koolance PC2-601BLW Tower Liquid Case Video Review Part 2 @ 3DGameman
"This product makes it possible for anyone to install a water cooling system quickly and easily. There are water blocks available for your CPU, Chipset, Video Card, and Hard Drive, a large radiator, 3 fans, and a reservoir that houses the pump. It even has a backup pump. Also, the system layout is very tidy."
More information on this video review can be found here.
VoyeurMods Blue Aluminium Chenming Case Review @ Virtual Hideout
(c) 2003 Virtual Hideout
"Pre-modded cases aren't new to the commercial computer products market. Although there are many sites offering pre-modded cases now, it's nice to see a company who is willing to offer their product for inspection. I have examined every aspect of this case, and found all the good, and bad, features. Pre-modded cases may not spark your interest at first if you are a "hardcore modder", however I believe that using a pre-modded case as a starting point would save a lot of time and money. The results are guaranteed to look great, and you know you are getting your money's worth."
More information on this review can be found here.
VIA EPIA M9000 Mainboard Review @ Overclocker Cafe
"The modding possibilities with the M9000 are endless. As such, its appeal will be to one of two audiences. The first being the audio/videophiles as the foundation for home entertainment control or any number of media related jobs. The other group (meaning many of us) is the case mod folks looking to do something different. You can probably think of any number of hip mods off the top of your head. To be honest, I originally had planned on posting this review a number of weeks ago but I have been searching for a child’s lunchbox complete with superhero painted on it to serve as a case."
More information on this review can be found here.
ABIT IS7 Springdale Motherboard Review @ OCAddiction
"The only real difference between this 865 and it's bigger brother, the Canterwood i875, is the fact that the 875 features Intel PAT (Performance Acceleration Technology). While this is certainly a nice feature, it's anticipated performance gains appear initially to have been overstated a bit. When you look at this board and compare it to the ABIT IC7 you come to realize that the PAT is the only real difference between the boards and their $20+ price difference and it makes you have to wonder if it's worth it. But hey, we'll let you decide that for yourself in the benchmarks section of this review."
More information on this review can be found here.
AOpen AX4SG Max i865G Springdale Motherboard Review @ Techware Labs
"About seven months ago, nVidia released their nForce2 chipset that supported dual-channel DDR333. This gave AMD the edge over Intel's 845PE which only supported single-channel DDR333. Intel responded to that threat with the release of the Springdale chipset. Since then, Intel has split the Springdale into two different chipsets: the 865 (Springdale) and the 875 (Canterwood). The primary difference between the two chipsets is that the Canterwood features PAT, which is touted to improve performance. The Springdale will be the cheaper of the two chipsets, focused towards the mainstream market. With the announcement of the Springdale new, AOpen has released a brand new motherboard, the AOpen AX4SG Max. AOpen has pulled out all of the stops on this motherboard, which is representative of the quality that AOpen puts into all their motherboards."
More information on this review can be found here.
DDR Ram Guide II - Mushin and GEIL Update @ Overclockers New Zealand
"The Mushkin Enhanced Dual Black High Performance Level II 3200 512MB and 1GB have similar overclocking potential. The Mushkin Level II's performance is marginally lower the famous Corsair XMS range; however, given the price difference, Mushkin Level II would be a better choice for the price sensitive customers."
More information on this review can be found here.
Thermalright SLK900U HSF Review @ GruntvillE
(c) 2003 GruntvillE
"One of the other things that make the SLK-900U unique is that you can mount just about any type of fan on it, from a 70mm to 92mm. The "stock" fan that ThermalRight suggests is a Delta 92mm fan that moves an impressive 110.18CFM at a noisy 55dBA. However, most vendors on the web sell the unit without a fan so you can pick and choose which one suits your needs. For this review we will be using a ThermalTake Smart Case Fan-2 80mm fan which at full speed runs at 4800RPM, 48dBA, and moves 75.7CFM."
More information on this review can be found here.
Corsair Hydrocool 200 Review @ 3DVelocity
"The HydroCool200 uses patented cooling technologies from Delphi Thermal Systems, the world's largest manufacturer of liquid-based cooling systems. Corsair, using Delphi's unsurpassed expertise in thermal physics, has engineered a feature-packed product that sets new standards in water cooling integration and performance."
More information on this review can be found here.
TDK VeloCD 5200B 52x2448x Internal CD Re-Writer Review @ Futurelooks
"When you think about burners, the first companies that come to mind would be Yamaha, or Plextor, heck even Sony. What a lot of people don't know is that TDK has been making some great burners for quite some time now. Lately, TDK has been making a huge push to make the world that they make a pretty darn good burner, and we'll be sure to find out just how good."
More information on this review can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Wednesday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2003, 2:10:57 PM | | Author: BigDaddy |
Chenming 301KE Aluminum Case @ SystemCooling
(c) 2003 SystemCooling
"The Chenming 301 KE Aluminum Case begins a series of very affordable aluminum cases. Being economy models doesn't mean that they are not packed with the innovative features most computer enthusiasts want, they are. But, for the sake of economy they lack in only one area and that is, they do not have a slide-out removable motherboard tray."
More information on this review can be found here.
Maxtop CSX-7788KEB-Win Case @ OCAddiction
"So in the land of Pre-Modded cases, what makes this Maxtop 7788 case any different from all the others you see listed on the web or at your local PC Store? Well for one as you will see later in the review is the time taken to mod this case. The blow/suck holes are cut perfectly and with out any dangerous edges. The Paint Job is good, and the quality of the window and how it was secured in the case makes this one stand out just a little more than others in the same price range."
More information on this review can be found here.
Sneak Peak Inside the HydroCool200 @ ipKonfig
(c) 2003 ipKonfig
"Processing-heavy computing like serious gaming can fry your computer – literally. But now the power and expertise of two industry experts can help you protect your valuable system. HydroCool 200 is capable of removing up to 200 Watts of dissipated power from your computer – eliminating the need for loud and expensive heat sinks and fans. The Hydrocool 200 is a fully contained, highly efficient external water cooling unit for performance personal computers."
More information on this review can be found here.
Flexiglow Lazer Beam Kits @ ThinkComputers
"Case lighting has evolved from just the plain neon. Now you see all kinds of things multi-colored cold cathodes, sound activated cold cathodes, laser leds, and lighted fans. Everything has been evolving so quickly, especially case lighting. Today we will be looking at a new product from Flexiglow. I have never seen anything like them so lets take a look at the Flexiglow Lazer Beam Kits!"
More information on this review can be found here.
Coolermaster Cooldrive 3 HDD-Cooler Review @ TWINSBYTE.de
"Today, we have a new review on twinsbyte.de. We reviewed a HDD cooler from Coolermaster. It's a cooler with a very nice case."
More information on this review can be found here.
Lighting Products Reviewed @ myGamer
myGamer.com has just posted two indpeth reviews, the first of Sunbeam's Cold Cathode Light.
"Try as hard as i might i couldn't find a way to connect this product in any way shape or form to gaming, or the gaming business in general.
It really doesn't have much to do with hardware, or much to do with helping your hardware run more efficiently. But, with that said it's safe to say that it's a pretty strong and effective *light* add on or accessory and it has all the features it needs to have to make a very succesful dual lighting "system.""
Next is Flexiglow's Lazer Beam Kit
"All right, I think we all know that lighting isn't a very important thing when it comes to PC casing or whatever else this product might help you with, but speaking in the strictest view of the product it's self and how it's work and what it's mean to do, it's pretty good. After all, one can't really measure the efficiency of a bright florescent type of light that's mean to give you a better "viewing" experience, I suppose. However, if you're going to make a product that doesn't seem all that important in retrospect it's always best to make it as good as possible, and "Flexiglow Lighting" has done just that rather successfully."
More information on these reviews can be found here and here.
Flexiglow Lazer Beam Kit @ The Modfathers
“The 3 lights together produce a blinding amount of light, exact specs aren't available but they appear to be much greater than the 2200mcd LEDs that I have”
More information on this review can be found here.
Boogie DiscoNeons Review @ A1 Electronics
"This is a USB powered, sound activated or just on/off light with a total lenght of 10.5 inches long. Just plug it in, turn it on and there you go. Lights flashing to music or chatter."
More information on this review can be found here.
Asus P4P800 Deluxe Springdale Motherboard Review @ Hexus.net
"Our first foray into the performance Springdale chipset unearthed a few surprises. It seemed to be stupendously fast when set to SPD (DDR-400) timings at 200FSB, comfortably beating the Canterwood into second place. Secondly, it's an FSB monster. 285FSB came and went with utter stability; a testament to Intel's impressive engineering prowess. Fast and relatively inexpensive, just how we like it. Recommended."
More information on this review can be found here.
Intel Springdale Motherboard Reviews @ MBReview
"Well, it seems that the i865PE chipset holds its own very nicely when placed head to head against the i875P chipset. Since the i865PE is geared more towards the enthusiast market, while i875P is geared more towards a workstation environment, the minor performance losses we are seeing here do not justify heading out and throwing down the extra green on an i875P board unless you want the best of the best. From our benchmarks, we can see that Intel’s Performance Acceleration Technology does indeed have some effect on the overall performance of the system, but in the end it turned out to be fairly small."
More information on this review can be found here.
"As we have seen, both the i865PE and i865G chipsets hold their own quite nicely against the high end i875P chipset. It seems that as we progress into the more modern benchmarks which are more processor and graphically intensive, we see greater gains from the i875P chipset. As we expected, both the i865PE and i865G chipsets performed in unison throughout all the tests, as they well should. If you took a look at the scores of the Intel Extreme Graphics 2, you’ll know immediately that this isn’t something you’ll want to be doing any real gaming on, especially if it involves the more modern games."
More information on this review can be found here.
FIC Springdale Review @ OCAddiction
"Upon first inspection the board looks fairly impressive. We see the normal brown PCB however FIC has thrown some colors in with lime green DDR Slots and Blue PCI's, not to mention a few other colors sporadically placed around the board. I'm glad to see hardware manufacturers doing this type of "coloring" since the hardware mod community can take advantage of these sharp looks to show off in their windowed case. We also have been given word that the final production model will look much like its bigger brother, the P4-875P MAX Motherboard which has a nice red PCB."
More information on this review can be found here.
EPoX EP-8RDA3+ nForce2 Ultra 400 review @ Hexus.net
"The 8RDA3+ is still an excellent foundation on which to build an AMD powerhouse of a system. Its considerable merits outweigh the slight qualms we may have. It's fast, it's stable, and it literally begs to be overclocked. Pricing seems keen too. We've seen it available for less than £100 delivered. That's good value considering exactly what you'll be getting for your hard-earned cash. It seems as if EPoX can do little wrong with their nForce2 boards. Recommended."
More information on this review can be found here.
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 Pro @ Legion Hardware
(c) 2003 Legion Hardware
"There is no denying the performance abilities of the ATi Radeon 9800 Pro graphics engine are first class. Although, the chip featured on a particular graphics card may be the most important aspect of the card there are other aspects that will make such a card unique. For example; the card's bundle, overclocking abilities and design. Sapphire has done an excellent job incorporating a great deal of software into the Atlantis Radeon 9800 Pro package. Of course there are also quite a few cables and connectors the most impressive aspect of this package were the full version games and overclocking software."
More information on this review can be found here.
Samsung SM-352B Combo Drive Review @ Envy News
"The recent surge of SFF (Small Form Factor) computers have caused a bit of a stir in the optical drive market. Looking to be as small as possible, the cases arrive with only one optical bay. Most SFF owners I have met opted for a DVD-ROM drive, however most of these drives tend to have rather lackluster CD-ROM reading speeds. Oh, and you want to back-up something? Too bad, as these drives have no write capability. Unless you are willing to spend upwards of three hundred on a writable DVD drive, you are left out on the pasture to decide whether you want support for DVDs or CD-RW capability. Without a doubt, this is where the Samsung SM-352B Combo drive steps in..."
More information on this review can be found here.
Liteon XJ-HD166S 16x DVD Drive @ TechTastic
"If you want to watch movies on your computer your going to need a DVD drive. So Today we're taking a look at what liteon has to offer with their XJ-HD166S 16x DVD Drive."
More information on this review can be found here.
Seagate Cheetah 10k.6 SCSI 320 Reviewed @ Techware Labs
"Seagate is the largest producer of magnetic storage products, so it is no surprise that it is the leader in the production of high performance SCSI drives. Seagate is now on to their sixth generation of 10k rpm SCSI drives, which is no longer the fastest spindle speed. However, with a data density that claims 36 gigabytes per platter, the Cheetah 10k.6 series boasts a maximum storage capacity of 146 gigabytes - couple these specifics with claimed 4.7 ms seek times and an Ultra320 interface, Seagate has created an extremely attractive hard drive."
More information on this review can be found here.
Logitech MX Mice Roundup @ MrPCPro
"The MX line of mice has quite a surprising amount of technology packed into each mouse. Such technologies apparently allow mouse tracking with acceleration velocities of up to 10g’s!"
More information on this review can be found here.
Logitech MX700 Mouse Review @ OCIA
"The MX 700 is the most comfortable mouse I’ve ever held. It fits perfectly to my hand and none of the buttons are uncomfortable to use. It features eight buttons in all: the normal two buttons, a clickable wheel, a button above and below the wheel for scrolling, another button below the wheel for task switching, and two thumb buttons for forward and back commands."
More information on this review can be found here.
Altec Lansing Ultimate XA 3051 5.1 Speaker System Review @ FutureLooks
"Altec Lansing's Ultimate XA 3051 5.1 Speaker System offers your regular off the shelf STEREO Television set a kick in the pants in terms of sound quality and performance without the need for Home Theatre equipment."
More information on this review can be found here.
Guide: How to Build a Rheostat @ Overclockers Club Canada
A simple guide to building a rheobus using a drive bay cover and a project box.
More information on this guide can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Tuesday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003, 12:03:11 AM | | Author: hitek |
Antec Sonata PC Case Review @ BJorn3D
"Quiet is in, and so is style. As the PC leaves its desktop and beige past behind, our demands on it are increasing. It's not enough to be well-made and efficient, today's PC has to look good and fit in multiple environments. To that end, Antec has introduced the Sonata Mid-Tower PC case. The Sonata is designed to run quietly and cooly while looking good no matter where you place it. This is our first look at the new Sonata, future updates will reflect upgrades to the motherboard and CPU."
More information on this review can be found here.
Fun with AMD diodes: CPU mutilation, calibration, and testing @ Pro Cooling
"The traditional method of calibrating a temperature probe is to use a water bath and a second probe of much greater accuracy. One can then construct a calibration curve of "probe 1 temp" vs. "probe2 temp", fit an equation to this curve, and adjust their measurements accordingly. This is not at all straightforward when dealing with a diode reader that is soldered onto a motherboard and connects to the CPU diode via the ZIF socket."
More information on this review can be found here.
800 FSB 845PE meets Canterwood - Albatron PX845PEV-800 vs Soyo P4I875P Dragon 2 @ Overclockers New Zealand
"The introduction of the 800 Mhz Pentium 4 and Canterwood (875P)chipset bring enjoys to the enthusiasts. They are currently the best combos for a performance P4 desktop system. However, the same as the Granite Bay, Canterwood motherboards cost a lot more than any I845PE based motherboards. It is surely not an option for people on the tight budget. So what about the good old I845PE chipset? Some vendors extend the lifecycle of the old boy and stick an 800 Mhz FSB P4 support (via overclocking as they stated) on their new I845PE motherboards. This is exactly what Albatron did with PX845PEV-800 Limited Edition motherboard. How does the I845PE compete against the 875P? Read on, then you will soon find out."
More information on this review can be found here.
Cooler Master EAK-US1 Aluminum Keyboard Review @ System Cooling
(c) 2003 System Cooling
"As the first aluminum case was delivered, enthusiast's world-wide began to clamor for an aluminum keyboard, in forum after forum. Today, we are proud to share with you the Cooler Master EAK-US1 Aluminum USB Keyboard."
More information on this review can be found here.
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ Review @ A1-Electronics
"From our value for money thoughts we would rather have seen a faster AMD Athlon XP of 166MHz FSB version since this new 200MHz FSB Athlon XP need a new motherboard and DDR memory capable of running at this faster speed. Considering the next generation AMD Athlon 64 is just around the corner as such this increase in FSB knocks buying a faster processor and upgrading your AMD based computer on the head. This is the well established Intel route of getting you to buy one of their expensive motherboards every time they release a new processor speed."
More information on this review can be found here.
Plextor PX-504A DVD+RW Drive Review @ Ascully
"CD recorders are now a common part of today's computers. Only five years ago they were going for around $700 and were the stuff dreams were made of. The same can be said of home DVD-R burners. Until recently they were priced out of we mere mortals' reach. Something happened a few months back that made the prospect of owning a DVD recordable drive a little more appealing. They came down in price. We are going to take a look at our first DVD Burner here on Ascully.com and what a great way to start with the leader in optical technology, PLEXTOR. This internal IDE model the PLEXTOR PX-504A is a state of the art DVD+R model."
More information on this review can be found here.
Chenming X-Sonic Aluminum Mid-Tower @ GruntvillE
"The case itself is kind of deceiving At first glance the size and design are much like the Antec Lanboy. But the differences are quite apparent rather quickly first there is no door covering the drives and second a much more aggressive looking front grill area. In the grill is a spot for a case badge now normally people don't look at things like this but the case badge area is a spot with infinite possibilities and the low nature of this spot would make hiding wires for a mod quite easy."
More information on this review can be found here.
Trust 610 Card Reader USB Review @ Modtown
"It makes a change to see such a slim line versatile unit, most card readers are a rectangular box that take up loads of space. This one is such a very slim device that you can easily hide away when not in use. On the bottom of the unit there is two rubber feet, this stops the unit from marking."
More information on this review can be found here.
Thermaltake Volcano 11 Xaser Edition Review @ Envy News
"For comparisons sake, I pit the Volcano 11 against its older brother, the Volcano 7. Both are similar coolers, but once you apply them to a massively overclocked system, the Volcano 11 Xaser Edition really shows its true colors. Of course, massive cooling comes at a massive cost; but not in terms of pricing. The Volcano 11 is very noisy, but that is the name of the game if you are one that continually strives to push the envelope of personal computing."
More information on this review can be found here.
Antec True Control 550W PSU @ Viper Lair
"350W PSUs are the bare minimum I would even consider these days, with 400W+ being more the recommended. There isn't such a thing as too much power though, and power users pushing their PCs even harder, I suspect 500-550W PSUs are going to be the norm by 2004."
More information on this review can be found here.
LIUtilities SpeedUpMyPC Review @ ExtensionTech
"There is only so much that the fastest RAM, sweetest watercooling setup, and extreme overclock can accomplish for your computer. An aspect that is many times often overlooked in a good computer setup is the software. All the RAM in the world won't help you if your computer locks up at random intervals. Programs that are not written as tightly as they should be can steal your memory and keep it locked up, slowing your system down to a crawl. Today I'll be taking a look at a program by LIUtilities that puts these crashes and slowdowns into its sights, and optimizes the software side of things for a healthy, balanced system."
More information on this review can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Victoria Day News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003, 11:41:41 PM | | Author: BigDaddy |
Cooler Master ATCS 110B-SX1 Case Review @ Hexus.net
(c) 2003 Hexus.net
"A premium case from a company that know all about aluminium housings. There's a glut of cases, aluminium or otherwise, competing for your money. If you're looking at the high end of the market, you'll be robbing yourself if you don't at least consider the 110B-SX1."
More information on this review can be found here.
A+GPB BB4368 Galaxy Case Review @ Modsynergy
"Cases are one of the most overlooked things when building a computer. Sure you may not use it but a case contributes to the stability of your computer if you hadn't already known. It also helps if you have a good case when upgrading components because some cases are pains when installing and removing hardware. I have seen my fair share of cases throughout the years and they all have been the based on steel construction. Today we are going to take a first look at the Aluminum A+GPB BB4368 Galaxy Case."
More information on this review can be found here.
Epox 8RDA+ Motherboard Review @ OCIA
"Epox is a well known manufacturer of quality motherboards. Not only are they known for quality, but many enthusiasts also know that Epox makes some of the best overclockable boards on the market. Many of us had great success in our overclocking adventures with the Epox 8K5A2+, based on the VIA KT333 chipset. Next out from Epox was the successor to the 8K5A2+, the 8K9A2+, based on the newer VIA KT400 chipset. Around the same time as the release of the KT400, well known graphics card maker Nvidia decided to release their second revision into the chipset world, the Nforce2. Like many other manufacturers, Epox jumped on this new chipset and released the 8RDA+ board sporting this new Nforce2 chipset. Today we will be looking as this very board, the 8RDA+ in an attempt to see if Epox still holds the 'overclocking' crown among board manufacturers."
More information on this review can be found here.
Commell LV-670 Motherboard Review @ Hexus.net
"If you are after the fastest MiniITX board you can get your hands on this is definitely a board you should consider, however the high price means that very few will be able to justify it up against other Mini ITX solutions."
More information on this review can be found here.
Vantec Vs. Antec PSU Comparison @ Nexus Hardware
A power supply is a component that has seen little advancement since the early days of computing. Outside of increased wattage and extra fans, the power supplies of today are the exact same as those of yesteryear. However, today's power supplies can differ greatly in quality. For those who don't overclock, or have a slew of disk drives, a generic 350-400 watt power supply is usually just fine. However, for the niche that does overclock, power supplies are very important. Power supplies directly affect the overclocking capability of a computer. As a computer is overclocked, more current is drawn. If your particular power supply isn't up to the job, stability is compromised. Now, what classifies a power supply as being good or quality?"
More information on this review can be found here.
Vantec VA4-C7040 Review @ 8BallsHardware
"Having a good CPU cooler is just as important to the overall 'well-being' of your computer. While stock cooling solutions work acceptably, there are individuals who prefer putting their trust in third party cooling solutions. As times, there are also those who place importance on aesthetics; the looks and cool factor of the heatsink in question is as equally important as how well the cooler performs. Admittedly, there are many coolers out there that sport interesting designs, but more often that not their performance is sadly lacking. They look good, but cannot cope with the demands of today's powerful heat-mongering processors."
More information on this review can be found here.
Extreme AMD Air Cooling @ SystemCooling
"If you've been involved in the world of system cooling for any length of time, then you are no doubt familiar with the name Swiftech. Over the years, they have developed a well-deserved reputation for providing some of the finest air and liquid cooling systems on the market. Today, we are going to take the very first public look at the newest revision of Swiftech's flagship air-cooling solution, the MCX462+. What's that you're saying? The MCX462+ is nothing new? Well, that may be true, so perhaps they should have called this new version the MCX462+plus. Outwardly, the differences are subtle, but even subtle changes can make a considerable difference in cooling performance."
More information on this review can be found here.
Cold Cathode and Flexiglow Cable™ Kits @ The Modfathers
(c) 2003 The Modfathers
“the rich and vibrant red produced by the cathode is easily one of the best I have owned and one I have yet to see bettered.”
More information on this review can be found here.
Flexiglow Bubble Lights @ PC-Arena.net
"In the last 6 months there has been a proliferation of companies being set up who are aiming themselves at the PC modding market. Flexiglow is one such company, and they have sent me a selection of their PC lighting products.
The first product I'm taking a look at is the Flexiglow bubble light. These are available in a variety of colours, and I've been provided with blue, red, green and yellow units. Each one arrived bubble wrapped inside a strong cardboard tube, which is plenty of protection..."
More information on this review can be found here.
X-Trac ZooM Mousepad & Eels Mousefeet Review @ OCC Canada
"The X-Trac ZooM and Eels MouseFeet continue the trend, I am happy to report. It's official, I'm converted from a non-mousepad-user (find THAT in a dictionary) to a ZooMer. Even without the Eels, this mousepad fits all my needs, from gaming to surfing to everyday grimble. The Eels definitely add a great finishing touch to the experience."
More information on this review can be found here.
Spire SoundCTRL Review @ Modsynergy
"Do you strive to make your cold cathode do more than they're supposed to? Yes, you can leave them on, but why not make them do something more unique, something cool than just always on. Well today we are going to take a look at that product. We will be taking a look at a product that chooses to change that. We are talking about the Spire SoundCTRL!"
More information on this review can be found here.
SanDisk 802.11b WiFi CompactFlash Card Review @ Envy News
"In this review, we examine the SanDisk CompactFlash 802.11b WiFi Connect card on a Dell Axim X5 Pocket PC 2002 PDA. We touch on Wireless Security, Hotspot roaming, Wardriving and netiquette, configuring a Pocket PC 2002 PDA to use a WiFi card and connection, and applications that can be used on the PDA in a portable internet environment. All in all, a great read; chock full of information on this emerging community resource."
More information on this review can be found here.
| Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Weekend News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Saturday, May 17, 2003, 10:57:20 AM | | Author: hitek |
A day in the world of MSI @ Icrontic
"Come on down and check out what we have for you to see". The call came and we weren't about to turn it down. A rare chance to see the inner workings of one of the most respected manufacturers of computer components in the world. So we went behind closed doors at MSI to peek into cupboards, check out what really goes on at a branch office and ask a few questions along the way."
More information on this review can be found here.
Part 1: Koolance PC2-601BLW Tower Liquid Case Video Review @ 3DGameman
"This product makes it possible for anyone to install a water cooling system quickly and easily. There are water blocks available for your CPU, Chipset, Video Card, and Hard Drive, a large radiator, 3 fans, and a reservoir that houses the pump. It even has a backup pump. Also, the system layout is very tidy."
More information on this video review can be found here.
Memory Timings Analysis @ Techware Labs
"It's generally known that smaller and more aggressive timings combined with higher clock speeds leads to higher performance, but for the most part, the increase in performance from tweaking each individual setting is relatively unknown. Perhaps in a bit too ambitious move, I set out to examine the impact of each individual memory timing and clock speed on overall performance."
More information on this video review can be found here.
Weekend Special @ ADPMods
"MTB has received news from our good friends at ADPMods that they are currently having a Weekend Special which runs from Friday May 16th through to Sunday May 18th 9:00 pm EST. Here is a list of some items currently on sale:
- All Shattered Web Window Appliques are $10.
- Clear Rectangle Window Kit w/ Black Moulding - $ 22
- Clear Rectangle Window Kit w/ 1 x Blowhole and Black Moulding - $ 26
- Clear Rectangle Window Kit w/ Translucent Moulding - $26
- Clear Rectangle Window Kit w/ 1 x Blowhole and Translucent Moulding - $30
- Clear Square Window Kit w/ Translucent Moulding - $28
More information on this sale can be found here.
ABit IS7 i865PE 'Springdale' Review @ TheCrucible
"Canterwood's little brother is just about to hit the streets. Is it worth your hard earned cash to buy an i865PE or would you be better served waiting until the next big thing? We look at Abit's IS7 version of the i865PE chipset today. How does it fair against some of Intel's older chipsets? Read the review to find out."
More information on this review can be found here.
A+GPB 450W Triple Ceramic Fan Power Supply Review @ Modsynergy
"The power supply of a computer is often the most overlooked component of a system. A power supply is a component which powers up all of the things inside a system. Stability is maintained if the power supply can give off stable volt-rails. Some serious forms of fluctuation gives a signal that a better power supply is needed. I have experienced many problems where random restarts with a computer and other problems were fixed with a better power supply unit. Today's high performing computers require lots of power and A+GPB Inc. hopes that this can be achieved with their brand new power supply line. Offering great price, aluminum housing, and ceramic fan cooling, we will see if this has the guts to perform."
More information on this review can be found here.
How to set up a Cheap Home Network @ Computer Sphere
"After building my new computer, I decided to network the old Pentium III 550 MHz, and the new one together, so I could share an Internet connection, printers, and files. I thought it would all be quite easy, however, it was anything but. So incase I ever have to FDisk or what have you, I decided to write a tutorial 'How to set up a cheap home network'. So here is a step by step guide on how to set up a network, I will also explain: How to crimp RJ-45, Configuring your router, Configuring your computer(s), and configuring your router with a HTTP server."
More information on this guide can be found here.
Asetek Waterchill Kit Review @ Bit-Tech
"Asetek have provided the user with a much cheaper alternative to the vapochill with the same excellent quality we've come to expect from previous products. Water cooling itself is inherently better than air cooling for several reasons. First and foremost water transfers heat much faster than air, secondly water cooling solutions are generally very quiet compared with a high powered air cooling system and finally everything's interchangeable to provide the user with the opportunity to tweak the system for the best temperatures. A few companies such as Innovatek sell premade kits but generally the compromise for the good price is performance. Asetek have gone along a similar route in that they provide a complete kit with everything you'll need to get started. Where this kit differs is that it actually performs very well and it's available for a very reasonable price. All of the components in the kit have been designed by Asetek with simplicity in mind without sacrificing performance."
More information on this review can be found here.
Via Aqua 1300 Water Pump Review @ Monster Hardware
"Now let's get into what I hear persistently in my forum crawling. There are dogged mumblings of excessive EMI, noise, vibration and the dreaded "sudden death syndrome" This made it an excellent candidate for testing - we want to see if there are any truth to the rumors and "We Laugh at Danger!" - ok. I laugh at danger.the others just watch from a cautious distance."
I'm currently using this same pump in a current mini project. More information on this review can be found here.
The Home Entertainment PC: Part 4 Assembly @ Icrontic
"Home Theatre PC or HTPC is a popular term. Home Theatre implies that the PC will be used to play back DVD movie content with a PC rather than a stand alone consumer grade player. The HTPC isn't a "set-top box" either. A set-top box is a device which enables a viewer to become interactive with the television set. Set-top boxes may appear to be similar to PCs but they aren't."
More information on this guide can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Friday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Friday, May 16, 2003, 9:44:51 AM | | Author: BigDaddy |
GlobalWin GAT001 vs. NeoLec XBeam C400 Aluminum Case Comparison @ Casetest
The XBeam C400 from Neolec is a comparable product to the GAT001. This article covers the key differences and concludes which case has the best bang for the buck.
More information on this review can be found here.
Double Shot of SunBeam @OCAddiction
(c) 2003 OCAddiction
"The first thing you notice when plugging everything together is that the fan and CCFL have separate power leads. Now this is a good thing, as it allows you the option of fitting the fan power into a variable speed fan controller, thus ensuring that power to the CCFL remains unaffected whilst having the variable speed option at your finger tips."
The rheobus review can be found here, while the fan review can be found here.
Intel i875P "Canterwoord" Mainboard Roundup @ Hard Tecs 4U
An interesting look at Canterwood boards from Intel, EPoX, MSI, AOpen and Asus. Now, if only the Google translation was better...
More information on this review can be found here.
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra @ A1 Electronics
"With the increased memory bandwidth and using only DDR memory the performance is back to the GeForce levels everybody knows and loves. It is easy to make a slip when you are on top. Can we all remember the performance of graphics cards say 10 years ago. Competition between now NVIDIA & ATI are giving us the customers really super products and picture quality especially with this GeForce FX 5900 Ultra."
More information on this review can be found here.
Gigabyte Maya R9000 and R9000 Pro Graphic Cards Review @ Overclockers NZ
"Generally speaking, the R9000 Pro is slightly faster than Nvidia's latest offering, GeForce FX5200. However, FX5200 comes out on top if FSAA is used, due to its way of handling FSAA, i.e. lower image quality than the R9000. Things will get real interesting when DX9 games hit the market, as R9000 series does not have DX9 support."
More information on this review can be found here.
Maxtor 5000DV Review @ Designtechnica
(c) 2003 DesignTechnica
"The 5000DV is perfect for those that need a lot of storage and would like a level of portability. For the HTPC user or those that simply want to store a large amount of movies and music, the 5000DV opens the door to unlimited possibilities. The one touch backup works as promised and adds a nice touch to the already good performing drive. If an on/off switch was included and the drive put out less heat, Maxtor could possibly have an award winner in the 5000DV. We also would have liked to have seen a longer warranty but that seems to be how all hard drive manufacturers are heading. Overall the 5000DV is a solid performer and proved to be very reliable with our use and abuse."
More information on this review can be found here.
Samsung SM-352B CDRW/DVD Combo Drive Review @ MonkeyReview
"There is no shortage of read formats when it comes to the SM-352B. The drive specs that are listed on the box and from Nero clearly state that this drive will essentially read all media other than DVD+R/+RW. I was able to test this as I still had some of the media that I'd used from the Plextor PX-504A DVD burner review and I'm happy to say that I was able to read the DVD+R disk that we had made during our testing. Of course your mileage will vary as this is not an official supported format."
More information on this review can be found here.
Thermaltake Xaser Silent Purepower 480W @ SystemCooling
"Today I'll be taking a look at one of the newest entries to the ever growing PSU arena, the Thermaltake Xaser Silent PurepowerT 480W. It will not only prove itself to be worthy competitor on your next PSU shopping list but with it's extra features and stylish looks might very well be the winner."
More information on this review can be found here.
Antec True Control 550W PSU Review @ OCAddiction
"With the introduction of the True Control 550 Antec has made many extreme overclocker's dreams come true. Sagging voltage lines can be your worst enemy for those late night overclocking sessions where you know you can get that extra couple of MHz out of your system, but the voltage lines keep sagging and dropping the BSOD bomb on you. With the True Control 550, you can pretty much rule out sagging lines. The front control panel looks good, and is well laid out. Also being able to still utilize the bay for a 3¼" drive is a nice plus."
More information on this review can be found here.
Samsung SyncMaster 172W 17inch Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor Review @ Tweaknews.net
"Now the real surprise is gaming with this monitor. LCD monitor wise, I haven't played on a better monitor than the 172W. The colours are sharp and vibrant, the contrast and brightness are great and guess what, THERE IS NO GHOSTING! I personally like gaming on a widescreen TFT LCD as I have done in the past and I would recommend this one if you are into LAN parties."
More information on this review can be found here.
D-Link 4-port Ethernet Broadband Router (DI-604) Review @ ExtremeMhz
"As more consumers are turning to broadband services such as DSL & Cable, ethernet broadband routers are becoming more and more popular among home users. They are not only becoming easier to configure and manage, but are also quite affordable. With the growing number of households having more than one PC, there's no reason not to have one these days. D-Link is a long time manufacturer of networking products offering solutions for both home users and businesses alike. Today, we look at their 4-port ethernet broadband router targeted mainly for home users. The DI-604 is an small, easy to use router offering many features such as an advanced firewall and VPN support."
More information on this review can be found here.
Rose Electronics Vista-Mini PS/2 KVM Review @ TechSeekers.net
"I was quite happy with the results. Amazingly even at 1600x1200 @ 75Hz I could not tell the difference between the cards going directly to the 21" monitor or through the KVM. The text remained as sharp as it did before I connected the Vista Mini . The Apple monitor has a very high quality cable going from the KVM to the monitor, so loss here is at a minimum."
More information on this review can be found here.
Extreme P4 Air Cooling @ SystemCooling
(c) 2003 SystemCooling
"Leave it to the heavy hitters of air-cooling, Swiftech and Thermalright, both known for the extreme quality of their respective coolers and being rated #1 & #2 (depends on who does the rating) in the world when it comes to the cooling ability of their products, to deliver the first two coolers designed to use 92 mm fans."
More information on this review can be found here.
Connect a 240x128 LCD to a LPT-port @ Viper Lair
"When you decide to install PowerLCD, please take good note to the instructions of the programmers, since for Windows ’98 and higher Operation Systems you’ll need for example the extra program DLportI/O, in order to get direct hardware access to the LPT port."
More information on this guide can be found here.
The Home Entertainment PC: Part 4 Assembly @ Icrontic
"Icrontic digs up a few tricks and items to keep in mind for Section Four: Assembly. The HEPC is a smaller case and with that comes some tight squeezes. We cover assembly, power supplies, heatsinks and we even show you a way to mount a fan on shock absorbing material because there is also the noise to contend with and the last thing wanted is a PC drowning out high fidelity sound."
More information on this article can be found here.
PimpRig Contest: Desktop Theme Contest
"We are holding a contest for the swankiest desktop theme. The prize? A Black Vantec Nexus NXP-201 fan controller."
More information on this contest can be found here.
| Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Thursday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2003, 2:45:28 PM | | Author: hitek |
3-way Canterwood Comparison @ Hexus
"Barely three weeks have passed by since the Intel reference Canterwood was paraded before an eager public. In that time a number of big-name motherboard manufacturers have managed to get their Canterwood-based motherboards out to market. If your pockets are deep enough, you can currently buy a 3.0GHz P4 and a choice of retail, big-name Canterwoods. Buying the CPU is the easy part. The harder part is in choosing the correct board for you."
More information on this review can be found here.
KT400A vs nForce2 vs SiS746 @ Madshrimps
"A couple of months ago nVidia introduced the nForce² chipset for AMD. It outperformed VIA´s KT400 chipset by a considerably margin. Now VIA introduced a newer version, the KT400A. Is it a decent alternative for the Nforce2? And what about Sis? They have the Sis 746 that boasts 200Mhz FSB. I compared three motherboards based on these chipsets, and of course, overclocked them. Tested motherboards: Abit NF7-S v2.0 (nForce2) , DFI Lanparty (KT400A) and the ECS L7S7A2L (SiS746)"
More information on this review can be found here.
ABIT IC7-G (875P) Motherboard Review @ Extreme Overclocking
"Intel's latest release, the 875P/ICH5, has been generating quite a bit of press. The chipset's dual channel memory performance is excellent. Also official support for the latest Intel 800 MHz FSB CPUs makes it that much more appealing to the high end users. The performance gains from moving to the 800 MHz bus along with the dual channel memory are considerable. More average users are already making the move towards that newer chipset and CPU. Today we have the IC7-G for evaluation. The board, like most ABIT motherboards, has nice overclocking features along with an attractive bundle."
More information on this review can be found here.
GigaByte 7VAXP-A Ultra KT400A Motherboard Review @ Legion Hardware
"The 7VAXP-A Ultra sports all the features an enthusiast could hope for such as RAID, Serial ATA, AGP 8X, DDR400, ATA133, USB 2.0, LAN and 6-Channel Audio. While the board could feature a better audio solution and possibly Gigabit LAN the current list of features is quite adequate. The board’s performance and stability was also excellent however, the performance gains over previous 7VAXP boards are questionable."
More information on this review can be found here.
Logitech Cordless Elite Duo & Navigator Duo Review @ Virtual Hideout
(c) 2003 Virtual Hideout
"Because both of these cordless keyboard & mice combinations were produced at around the same time, they come from the same generation of technology and have similar features. The Elite Duo is the higher of the two, having slightly more features on both its keyboard and mouse; however the radio technology governing the two remains the same. The Elite Duo will appeal most to those looking for something different, as its sleek, black curves make it seem professional - and it'll match nicely with a dark coffee table for use with a HTPC. Both feature optical mice with the same sensor, but the Elite Duo's mouse resembles the MouseMan Dual Optical and has one more button (a thumb button) than the Navigator Duo's."
More information on this review can be found here.
BeanTech Igloo-9 Aluminium Case Review @ The ModFathers
"Over all a lovely case and could happily take a spot in my office, but firstly I would have to buy a new system to put into it bank manager isn't going to like me for that."
More information on this review can be found here.
Nexus KCZ-2700 Review @ X-treme PC Tech
"This product has some cool features that make this cooler perform well. The copper base of course is one of the most important reasons why this cooler performs well. This cooler is VERY quiet and is great for Home/Office computers. They are even good for servers, I have a couple and normally I could hear them all the time. When I tested the HS on them they became to a point were I didn't know if they were turned on or not. As you may or may not know Copper is the most thermally and electrically conductive next to gold."
More information on this review can be found here.
VLSystem MPP Plus Review @ Wild Reviews
"Fan controllers seem to be all the rage. They come in all different types, shapes, sizes, and most importantly, cost. This is the smallest one that I have seen. Overall its a great unit, and a very nice addition to any PC."
More information on this review can be found here.
Static Electricity - Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) @ Voided Warranty
"Most of the time ESD damage is a silent killer because most people can't feel static discharge until the voltage has reached between 2000 and 4000 VDC. The damage done by static electricity may not show up right away, but over time the damage caused will generate heat causing the damage to spread and eventually that component will fail. We are going to show you a few inexpensive ways to help prevent ESD damage."
More information on this article can be found here.
Xoxide Dual 6" Bubble Light Review @ BJorn3D
"I'm sure you've seen several cold cathode reviews out on the web, and maybe you're thinking, "Oh great, here's another one!" But this kit is a little different from what you're probably used to. This Dual Bubble 6 Inch Bubble Light kit comes from Xoxide and is supposedly one of the first dual six inch kits ever made! As you can see in the picture below, they look pretty darn cool, but are they really all that cool? Read on to find out."
More information on this review can be found here.
AOpen's AK79D Max Motherboard Review
"My overall experience with the AOpen's AK79D Max has been somewhat frustrating with a few highlights. The frustrating part was getting it and Windows XP and the nForce2 drivers to play nicely together. Since all that was settled, the board has been very stable and reliable - no lockups or other problems. It certainly is a feature-laden board due to its nForce2 chipset, and plenty of tweaks are offered in the BIOS, like one megahertz CPU stepping. Also, AOpen has done a nice job with extra software utilities that add a little flare to their motherboards."
More information on this review can be found here.
Z-bra AlCu1 Heatsink Video Review @ 3DGameman
"The Z-bra AlCu1 CPU Heatsink has a hybrid design (Aluminum + Copper) which has its advantages in keeping the weight and cost low, although it's not as effective as an all copper heatsink. It also has a decent clip layout for easy installation. Although, something that's troubling about this heatsink is the weak tension bar that could bend and result in a toasted CPU."
More information on this video review can be found here.
Vantec Nexus Rheobus Review @ DeviantPC
"After using the Vantec Nexus Rheobus for some time now I have come to understand that the increased price is fully justifiable considering the quality. The unique lighting characteristics will give any case a taste of originality. People might find this particular rheobus limiting as you cannot turn the fans off. You can only adjust the voltage between 12 volts (full power) and 7 volts (near enough half power)."
More information on this review can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Wednesday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Wednesday, May 14, 2003, 11:26:41 AM | | Author: BigDaddy |
Innovatek Innovaset 2 Liquid Cooling Kit Review @ MonkeyReview
(c) 2003 MonkeyReview
"As you can see from the results, the Innovatek muscled out the competition in our testing. The only place it could have done better was in the ambient tests while the system was idle. The system ran very quiet with the kit installed and that in itself is a bonus in my eyes. In all, I was able to push my AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.1GHz) all the way up to 2.45 GHz which is our best OC yet. I imagine someone with better oc’ing skills could push on for a bit better result. I should note, the temps for under load (prime 95) hung around 113 degrees Fahrenheit while at this speed."
More information on this review can be found here.
Athlon XP 3200+ Review @ Sharky Extreme
"From an overall performance standpoint, the Athlon XP 3200+ did exceptionally well, and has really taken it to the high-end of the Pentium 4 533 MHz line. This is especially impressive, in that the move to a 400 MHz FSB and synchronous dual-DDR400 memory has yielded performed greater than even the Pentium 4-3.06 GHz running on the ultra-powerful i875P platform."
More information on this review can be found here.
AMD Athlon XP3200+ review @ Hexus.net
"As a platform, I'm pretty impressed. 200MHz front side bus can't hurt and the DDR memory infrastructure has long been in place to support the move. nForce2 Ultra 400 takes things forward a little and provides a good home for the new CPU."
More information on this review can be found here.
Review of the SuperMicro X5DAE @ WhiningDog
"The winter of 2002 saw the introduction of the E7505 chipset from Intel which brought AGP 8x and dual channel DDR support to the XEON platform. This was definitely an exciting moment since up until the E7500 chipsets, we only saw Rambus support on the higher end XEON platform which usually meant higher prices for system builds. My P4DCE+ motherboard used the Intel i860 chipset and housed PC800 RIMMS. When SuperMicro unveiled the X5DAE motherboard featuring the E7505, I decided to make the jump to this new platform and also upgrade to 2.4GHz XEONs with the faster 533 front side bus."
More information on this review can be found here.
Startech 300 watt PSU reviewed @ BoPC
"As I approached the enemy base, I was suddenly surrounded by Iraqis, their AK 47s and RPGs all trained on my sorry ass. The sound of the appoaching Blackhawk sent a wave of relief through me, reinforcments were on the way! I hid behind some sandbags to await the calvary while bullets flew over my head. I searched the sky, but there was nothing. No helicopter full of troops coming to my rescue. Then I turned away from the monitor for a second, and noticed that the sound I heard was really my power supply. Crap!"
More information on this review can be found here.
Thermaltake 480w Power Supply Review @ A1 Electronics
"How often do you buy a power supply. So you want to buy one that you will be able to use for years. The Thermaltake 480w Silent Purepower does just that. Able to give up to 550w peak power and run all day long at 480w loading. With the Thermaltake 480w power supply you are buying a top quality power supply to last for years to come."
More information on this review can be found here.
Antec True Control 550W PSU Review @OCAddiction.com
"With the introduction of the True Control 550 Antec has made many extreme overclocker's dreams come true. Sagging voltage lines can be your worst enemy for those late night overclocking sessions where you know you can get that extra couple of MHz out of your system, but the voltage lines keep sagging and dropping the BSOD bomb on you. With the True Control 550, you can pretty much rule out sagging lines. The front control panel looks good, and is well laid out. Also being able to still utilize the bay for a 3¼" drive is a nice plus."
More information on this review can be found here.
Quick Look at nForce2 Ultra 400 and nForce2 400 @ Bjorn3d
"We see something a little different with the plain 400 system. The 400MHz FSB is certainly still there, but gone is the dualDDR, replaced by single channel DDR400. Plus, it is only a 64-bit memory interface and not the 128-bit interface that big bro has. Well, the features and the points above show clearly that this is much more of a mainstream PC's motherboard. You can also bet that these will be priced very aggressively to take over the mainstream market as much as possible. Only around $70 and up for 400MHz FSB and DDR400 support is pretty nice."
More information on this review can be found here.
Leadtek A300TD 128MB GeForce FX5800 VGA Review @ Overclockers NZ
"The aluminium enclosure does more harm than good, as it keeps hot air inside. The heatsink attachment mechanism is less than desirable. Lastly, the A300TD might be incompatible with motherboards that have ram slots close to AGP slot, e.g. Epox 8RDA+, as the back aluminium panel gets in the way."
More information on this review can be found here.
Auravision EluminX EL lighted Keyboard @ ASE Labs
"Even without the EL lighting, this slim keyboard is a dream to type on. How does it function as a lighted keyboard though? You'll need to read to find out. "
More information on this review can be found here.
Thermaltake Volcano9 Coolmod Review @ GruntvillE.com
"You may have noticed an enormous amount of wires coming off this unit in the contents pic. Well there are a lot of wires but you don't have to use them all. You can use the unit with a rheostat that allows you to trim the voltage at the turn of a small knob or allow heat to control the speed of the fan. It also has 4 pair of wires coming off the Coolmod grill. The grill is clear acrylic and has 4 LEDs, 2 blue and 2 red. The two pair of wires that run from the blue LEDs located at the top and bottom of the grill connect to your motherboard power indicator header. The other two pair of wires running from the side mounted red LEDs connect to your motherboards HDD indicator header. The end result is quite nice looking; giving you a nice cool blue look while idling and flashes of red from hard drive activity give it an eerie purplish glow. I can't imagine there are too many people out there that won't enjoy it's great effects and colors."
More information on this review can be found here.
Volcano 9 with CoolMod Review @ ExtensionTech.net
"Most people are concerned about CPU temperatures. So we'll take out or often meek performance retail heatsinks and replace them with high performance coolers. Voiding our warranties in the process, but isn't that the fun of it? Anyway, while the Volcano 9 CoolMod is nothing new on the market, especially with the new Volcano 11 out now, it's new to me. But new coolers mean the old ones go on sale right? I took some sound measurements with a microphone, slapped them in a movie, so you know what you are up against. Continue on as I put the Volcano 9 on the chopping block..."
More information on this review can be found here.
TwinMOS Dual Channel PC3200 @ Viper Lair
"Overclocking was something of a mixed bag. Clock speed-wise, the ram did well. I had expected a little better since these are 5ns chips, but the disappointment was with the SPD settings. We weren't able to finely tune the timings to Corsair's levels, especially when jacking up the clock speed."
More information on this review can be found here.
MMGear Multi-Channel Headphones @ systemCooling
(c) 2003 SystemCooling
"All this high level, high volume sound sure sounds good when you’re all alone in the house or enjoying it during the day. But what can you do to fully surround yourself with sound if loud noise from the speakers is unacceptable? For years the only answer was stereo headphones. But as with all headphones you would only hear two channels left and right. You would not be able to hear if a certain sound was coming from the front left, front right rear left or rear right. So the movie or gaming experience was not the same, until now enter MM Gear’s MCH-MMS100-B Real 3D Sound headphones."
More information on this review can be found here.
QVS - USB Cable with LED's @ systemCooling
"Every now and then a product comes along that just seems to grab our attention and the USB 2.0 LED Cable is just such a product. Somewhat unassuming in its blister packaging; it looks like any other high quality 6’ long Silver Braided USB cable and like any other high quality cable from QVS, it carries a lifetime warranty."
More information on this review can be found here.
RatPadz GS Review @ TechFreaks.org
"At only $10, the RatPadz GS is an investment everyone should at least consider. It makes your every day web browsing, game playing and graphic editing seem faster and smoother. And if you aren’t satisfied with your RatPadz GS, you’re only out $10. Overall, if want a simply better mousepad for a very reasonable price, pick up a RatPadz GS to see all of what you’ve been missing out on by using your current mousepad."
More information on this review can be found here.
Changing Keyboard LEDs (Guide) @ Modtown
"Tired of those boring green LEDs in your keyboard? Ever wanted to change them out for something more appealing, such as blue LEDs or any other colour of your choice to match your case or just for looks?"
More information on this review can be found here.
| Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Tuesday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2003, 4:24:53 AM | | Author: hitek |
NVIDIA GeForce FX5900 Ultra Review @ Hexus
"The NV30 was trumpeted as NVIDIA's performance saviour. Our brief discussion on the previous page highlighted some of the reasons why it failed to live up to general expectation. So what does the NV35 do right that the NV30 didn't, and what's still the same? We'll be looking at the differences on a hardware level."
More information on this review can be found here.
GeForceFX 5900 Ultra / Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB Reviews @ [H]ardOCP
"In our GeForceFX 5600/5200 preview, we had the opportunity to take a look at the NV31 (GeForceFX 5600) and NV34 (GeForceFX 5200) video cards. These chips are based on the NV30 architecture but with reduced performance to facilitate their price point. What we found out there, in a nutshell, was that if we spent the time to make sure we were comparing Image Quality (IQ) on and "apples to apples" basis, the GeForceFX line of cards performed horribly compared to their direct competition from ATI."
More information on this review can be found here.
NVIDIA FX5900 GPU's Preview @ Bjorn3D
"As has been said many times, NVIDIA has more than one team designing chips. So - even though the NV30 got delayed, the work on the NV35 (and probably NV40) moved forward as expected. This is why NVIDIA can reveal the FX 5900 (NV35) as their new high-end today. This preview will give you an idea of what the chip can do, as well as provide you with the first benchmarks. Can it compete with ATI's finest?"
More information on this preview can be found here.
Danger Den H20 Maze3 Setup Video Review @ 3DGameman
"The Danger Den H20 Maze3 Setup includes all the necessary products that will keep every hardcore overclocker very happy. The combination of quality blocks, pump, radiator, reservoir, large tubing, etc. equals performance and reliability not found in many other water cooling solutions. While this setup is excellent some know-how is required."
More information on this video review can be found here.
D-Tek Spiral Water Block Review @ IPKonfig
"Swirls are not just for puddin' and ice cream anymore, as you should know by now. Today's water blocks have hit the heights of quality and workmanship, but it seems there's always more to tweak, improve, and work on. In any case, water blocks are nothing like they used to be. Companies today put quite a bit into designing a water block, to ensure a leak-proof block that performs superbly."
More information on this review can be found here.
Modding the Sunbeam Acrylic Case @ Voided Warranty
"Trying to keep a neat uncluttered appearance while adding lights, fans, fan controllers, multifunction panels or other electrical items to an acrylic case can be a problem. We've got a few pointers on cutting down the number of visible wires running around from one end of the case to the other. Check out what we've stuffed inside this case."
More information on this project can be found here.
MadLights Case Lighting Review @ Overclocker Cafe
(c) 2003 Overclocker Cafe
"On each strand, are two banks of LEDs. The LEDs consist of a red, blue and green LED. As we mentioned earlier, depending on which lights are on, in what combination and at what intensity the color, the options you theoretically can display is almost limitless. From a practical standpoint, seven distinct colors are visible; a near white, green, red, blue, faint yellow, purple and aqua."
More information on this review can be found here.
Budget Buyers Guide @ RipNet-UK
"This is my guide to building a gaming capable computer on a limited budget, all prices shown will be in pounds sterling and the prices quoted will be the average of the three lowest I could find anywhere in the UK. In the interests of objectivity no suppliers will be named."
More information on this guide can be found here.
P4 2.4B-2.4C/865PE-875P vs AXP 2500+/nForce2 @ Madshrimps
"With the newly released Springdale (865PE) and Canterwood (875P) motherboards and 800FSB P4's, intel has taken a huge leap in both stock speed and overclockability. Will this crush the competition - the very affordable nForce2 + Barton combo - or are PAT, Hyperthreading, integrated S-ATA, and Gigabit lan just buzz words?"
More information on this review can be found here.
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ Processor Review @ Icrontic
"AMD comes charging out of the gate on the 400 MHz Front Side Bus Athlon XP 3200+. Frame rates are going to jump as AMD continues to push the performance envelope. The Athlon XP 3200+ is here and we took a unique twist to the round of benchmarks. Should the 3200+ be on your shopping list? A lot depends on what you have already."
More information on this review can be found here.
Gigabyte 8PE800 Ultra Motherboard Review @ Extreme Overclocking
"Intel has released their latest Pentium 4's that are designed to run on an 800 MHz FSB. With the new processor release also came the new chipset, 875P, that supports dual channel memory as well as 800 MHz FSB. Recently motherboard manufacturers have released motherboards based on the older 845PE chipset. These mainboards are supposed to be able to support 800 MHz FSB through overclocking. We tested the ABIT BH7 awhile back and it was able to use the new CPU by overclocking, since the 845PE chipset only officially supports 533/400 MHz FSB."
More information on this review can be found here.
Zalman CNPS6000-Cu Heatsink Review at Blynk.net
"What's that you say? I can't hear you, talk louder! Ah yes, a typical conversation you could expect around a noisy computer. Some people prefer a noisy computer that they can overclock better, but other people prefer a nice quiet PC. Zalman is known as the king of noise destruction in the PC industry. Today we'll be looking at their CNPS6000-Cu Heatsink, also known as the 'Flower Heatsink'. Maybe these products are quiet, but can they perform well? We will soon find out!"
More information on this review can be found here.
pcToys VGA Maxx Heatpipe Video Cooler Review @ PimpRig
"You can see that with both bases and large heatsinks on, it is a pretty massive piece of equipment. The heatsink alone is 400 grams which is about 14.1 ounces, when you add the weight of the card in, you have a video card that weighs over a pound. You will want to make damn sure that the screw holding the card in place is real tight. I also would not put this into a computer that gets moved around a lot."
More information on this review can be found here.
Window Tinting Guide @ Modasylum
"After trying (and failing) to tint my window before, I kind of gave up on the idea. That was until I was walking through the automotive department at my local Wal-Mart and came across some "Insta-Cling Limo Dark Window Film" made by Axius. I pulled it off the shelf and threw it in my cart. I figured it was worth a shot since it doesn't use any adhesive and could easily be removed, just like a vinyl cling on decal."
More information on this guide can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Monday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Monday, May 12, 2003, 8:36:10 AM | | Author: hitek |
Cooler Master ATC 220B Aluminum Case Review @ OC Addiction
"Cooler Master cases are a work of art. They have long been the Ferrari of cases, and the ATC 220B series has the 'look' to be one of the standouts. Cooler Master took the ATC 210B and added a back-lit etch to the front door, and BAM! instant AHHHH!! factor. Before we get too far into the goods, ATC stands for Active Thermal Convection. Cooler Master designs their ATC series cases with the mindset that the aluminum case itself is acting as a heatsink. With the thought being that an aluminum enclosure will dissipate internal heat quicker than a comparable steel case."
More information on this review can be found here.
Antec Plusview 1000AMG - SOHO File Server @ Ausmodders
"Once again we have more Antec goodies for you all to check out. The first is this lovely case right here. The Antec Plusview 1000AMG -SOHO File Server includes among other things, a large acrylic side panel window, room for airflow, and the ability to lock it up with your very own keys."
More information on this review can be found here.
Chieftec Matrix Series Pc Case & Power Supply With Matching Wireless Keyboard & Mouse Review @ Ascully
"We have looked at a lot of PC cases, mostly from Antec and Lian-Li, and when Chieftec approached me to take a look at there Matrix series of cases I was overjoyed. Chieftec have been around for quite some time now producing a lot of the cases you see for sale in the stores right now. They are most famous for the Dragon series of cases which quickly became the most popular case amongst modders and over overclockers due to its spacious interior and superior cooling power. Today we take a look at the Matrix series of cases, in particular, the MTX-C Midi Tower with clear side panel. Neo and Trinity would be proud."
More information on this review can be found here.
3RSystem Neon Light Design Case @ TWINSBYTE.de
(c) 2003 TWINSBYTE.de
"Today, we have a new review on twinsbyte.de. We reviewed a design case from 3RSystem. It's a Midi ATX Tower for low cost."
More information on this review can be found here.
Koolance Exos Watercooling Review @ Madshrimps
"A while ago, I tested the Koolance PC2-C watercooling solution. Today, the Exos system has landed on my desk. The PC2-C is a complete case with watercooling, but the Exos lets me choose my own case with the benefits of a complete watercooling."
More information on this review can be found here.
14 Mouse Pad Roundup @ MrPCPro
"I have seen many interesting products in my time, but I always thought of designer mousepads as a silly fad. In all honesty however, I was very curious about these mouse pads and decided to research them on the Internet. As I looked I found there were many individual mouse pad reviews, but no roundup that included most of the popular ones. Well, being as adventurous as I am I decided to take on the job myself."
More information on this review can be found here.
MSI FX5200-TDR128 Video Card Review @ Extreme Overclocking
"A while back we saw the release of the NVIDIA NV34 graphics processor. When the chip was released, it was not as fast as everyone was expecting. It still provides decent performance at a bargain cost and is designed to compete with other budget cards from ATI. However the competition is small since the 5200 is one of the only video cards in its price range that offers DirectX 9 support."
More information on this review can be found here.
Matrox Millenium P750 Video Card Review @ Icrontic
"Matrox quietly releases their new multi-monitor video cards: The Millennium P650 and P750. Icrontic has the only review sample released to tech sites and we take a close look at the Millenium P750. The PC users who bought the G450 and G550 in droves didn't buy the Parhelia. Somewhere between everything that the Parhelia offers and what the G450 and G550 delivered lay Matrox's new video card."
More information on this review can be found here.
FIC A95P Radeon 9500 Pro Review @ Techware Labs
"The advent of the ATI Radeon 9700 propelled ATI into their current state of close competition with their adversary Nvidia. With initial retail prices of up to $400, the Radeon 9700 offered the fastest 3D gaming performance. However, ATI left a void in their product line. This has all changed now with the introduction of the ATI Radeon 9500 and Radeon 9500 Pro."
More information on this review can be found here.
MSI FX5200-TDR128 Review @ Viper Lair
"The end result was a 296 core, and 285 memory (up from 250/250 stock). As you've probably noticed, this differed from our maximum OC of the core and memory accordingly. This is because one part ran stock, while we OC'd the other part. When putting the two together, we had various levels of success (or failure, depending how you view it), and the 296/285 OC was the fastest, and most stable video card overclock."
More information on this review can be found here.
MouseCaster FM Radio Mouse Review @ ExtensionTech
"While mice do go to "mouse heaven," you may have already had to replace your mouse at one point or another. Or perhaps you are building another PC and need another mouse. No matter what the circumstance, Logitech, Microsoft, and even Belkin, are probably doing great sales in replacement mice, but maybe you want something different? How about this? A mouse with a built in FM radio? Slick you think huh? Hell yes! Continue on as I'll take this mouse through the ExtensionTech.net chopping block!"
More information on this review can be found here.
Cremax Mobile Drive Racks Review @ Legit Reviews
"Many businesses are cracking down on data security and protection. These mobile drive racks improve both of those areas. It is secured by allowing the drive owner to remove the drive and "hide" it in their locked desk drawer or safe. It also protects the drive better by isolating it in your PC and cooling it to lessen the stress put on the drive caused by heat."
More information on this review can be found here.
Chenbro PC6112222 Case Review @ 3DXtreme
"Overall the Chenbro PC61122 is another solid case with some unique features. This is the second case we've reviewed from Chenbro and are admittedly we have been rather impressed with the build quality and little extras that Chenbro puts into their cases."
More information on this review can be found here.
Zippy EL-610 Mini Keyboard Review @ Mikhailtech
"There are no drivers and no installation issues. WinXP Pro detected the keyboard as a USB HID (human interface device). The light can be turned on and off at will so long as the PC has power. So far I've experienced no problems whatsoever. If you get very close to the keyboard (as in place your ear on the keys) you'll hear a slight whine, similar to that caused by inverters on lightstrips and older CCFLs, which leads me to believe that the illumination is probably of the former nature. Heat production is unnoticeable."
More information on this review can be found here.
Canadian Price Index May 2003 @ Price Network
"PriceNetwork.ca has compiled a Canadian index of prices for CPU, memory and video cards. If you're looking for a general idea of the prices this month, check out their index here."
More information on this report can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Weekend News Edition | | Date Posted: Saturday, May 10, 2003, 12:50:06 AM | | Author: hitek |
The Home Entertainment PC Part 3: Audio @ Icrontic
"In Part 3 the goal for the HEPC is to utilize a PCI sound card that would deliver the highest quality sound to a home theatre amplifier for playback of digital music files by way of a digital interface. Secondary to that was DVD and game sound. Everyone should ask themselves a few questions before asking questions of others. Properly assessing needs, desires and present equipment can save a sound card buyer from a wasted and useless expenditure. Specs aren't everything and what ISN'T listed is as important as what is."
More information on this guide can be found here.
Evercool Water Cooler WC-101 Review @ XtReMoDs
"Every geek (that I know of including myself) dreams of a computer that purrs like a kitten, yet has the power of a lion. Getting away from air cooling is the quickest way to help with noise; water cooling is a level above air cooling and is a good deal quieter. Water can absorb more heat, faster, then conventional fan cooling. The down side to water cooling is the risk of water leaking onto the electrical components of your computer. Water + Electronics = Bad News! In the past you had to worry about leaks and drips. Not anymore, Evercool has come up with a kit comes pre-built and contains everything in one container. The question is, will it do the job and cool the CPU better and quieter then a HSF (Heat Sink Fan)?".
I rated this product a 4 out of 10 in MTB's comparison review of the same system. You can get better performance by spending more money on reliable water cooling components. More information on this review can be found here.
Leadtek A340TDH 128MB GeForce FX5200 VGA Review @ Overclockers New Zealand
"Leadtek has always offered a very comprehensive package and the A340 is no different. In my mind, this is the best compromise between price and package. You do not want to bundle excessive games or accessories which may results in increased price."
More information on this review can be found here.
Overclocking the P4 @ Madshrimps
"We take a brand new Pentium 4 3ghz with a 800Mhz FSB, put it into the ASUS P4C800 and hook it all up to a Prometeia system. How does it perform in everyday applications? Find out in this article on future CPU power."
More information on this review can be found here.
Maxtop CSX-7788KEB-WIN Case Review @ Envy News
"When Maxtop approached us to review case gear, we were scratching our heads wondering who they were. Maxtop is a large case manufacturer for a majority of the inexpensive mod-case towers we all see out there - you know, the ones with bubble lights, case windows, blow holes, and funky front panels. Recently we reviewed some case lighting kits from Maxtop. Today, we take a gander at their CSX-7788KEB-WIN case which has started to pop-up all over the net on other review sites. This is a good low-cost case that has great potential for case modding."
More information on this review can be found here.
Enlight 420 Watt Dual Fan Power Supply Review @ BigBruin
"People wanting a pretty power supply may not like the plain appearance of Enlight’s 420 Watt Dual Fan unit, but power supplies are about performance first, and this one delivers. One highly functional feature of the appearance that I do like, and would now like to see more on other brands, is the internally mounted fan guards that are flush with the outer surface of the housing."
More information on this review can be found here.
ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9000 PRO Video Card Video Review @ 3DGameman
"The ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9000 PRO Video Card is packaged with a ridicules amount of goodies but still very affordable which makes it one serious bang-for-the-buck product. This product has great 3D performance, TV tuner, excellent Video playback, great 2D image quality and much more."
More information on this video review can be found here.
Zalman 400W Noiseless PSU Review @ WildReviews
"Adequate power may perhaps be the single most important component in any PC, sufficient power the damage to your system can become very expensive. Well Zalman has answered the call."
More information on this video review can be found here.
pcToys AeroMaxx TMD Socket A Heatsink Review @ PimpRig
"TMD fans have been available for about a year now, and were supposed to take the cooling world by storm. Oddly enough, they haven't made the splash that everyone expected. I have been wanting to get my hands on one of these fan/heatsink combinations for quite some time now, and pcToys graciously obliged. So let's see if it can perform up to par with traditional fans used for air cooling."
More information on this review can be found here.
Bandwidth Capping Article @ Viper Lair
"But bandwidth capping at ridiculously low limits isn't a solution for the long run since the majority of those who have limits don't seem to understand that with the speed of broadband it is entirely possible to use up your quota in few days with gaming, streaming media and entertainment. How many of you like surfing for wallpapers for your PC? Looking at a couple of hundred 1600*1200 bmps or jpegs can eat into your quota quite rapidly."
More information on this guide can be found here.
Samsung Msys-835P Digital Multifunction Printer Review @ Tweaknews
"Overall, this is a great product which should get your office up and running at peak efficiency in no time. All you have to do now is get your employees as efficient and problem free as your office hardware."
More information on this review can be found here.
ClearPC Acrylic Case up for Grabs @ Overclocker Cafe
"The Overclocker Café has finally got around to getting a new drawing up. This go ‘round they have a ClearPC Acrylic Midtower Case up for grabs. Folks may enter daily between now and Friday May 16th. Pretty straight forward, don’t miss out!"
Free stuff is always good in my books! More information on this contest can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Friday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Friday, May 9, 2003, 6:25:50 AM | | Author: BigDaddy |
Yeong Yang Announces New YY-5601 Mid Tower Case
(c) 2003 Yeong Yang Technology Co., Ltd.
"The YY-56xx chassis features the optimum requirement for drives with 4x5.25” & 6x3.5” bays with air conditioner like cooling fans for better ventilation in protecting the system from over-heating.
The YY-56xx design consists of control panel on top of the front panel for ease of use and access while other features are as follows:
1. Control panel on the top of front panel for reaching it easily
2. Air conditioner like for ventilation lifted up by 3 blades simultaneously; optional 2x12cm cooling fans, front & rear, for adding more ventilation
3. A dusty-free door
4. Screw-less CD-ROM,HDD & Add-on cards for a quick assembly
5. U-seam design for the EMI solution of next generation
6. Lockable side panel for a good security"
More information on this product can be found here.
Noise Isolator 3.5" Fan Controller @ Pimprig
"Whoever made the Noise Isolator fan controller must have read some of my previous reviews. One of my petpeeves is garish or extraneous graphics on the face of fan controllers. The Noise Isolator has absolutely no writing at all on the face...sweet. This baby would look at home in any aluminum case."
More information on this review can be found here.
EluminX Illuminated Keybard @ MyPcMadness
(c) 2003 MyPcMadness
"Look out boys, there's a new... um... keyboard on the market! You may be thinking to yourself, "What? A keyboard! What's so special about that. Well, this isn't your everyday keyboard. It's the new eluminX keyboard by auravision. It just arrived in the mail today, and now its 11:37 PM and there's not a single light on in my house.. yet I'm still typing as if I have my (now extinct) desk lamp on. The eluminX keyboard uses ElectroLuminescent Technology, a new lighting that only puts the light where its needed, on your keyboard!"
More information on this review can be found here.
Intel 3.0C 800MHz FSB Pentium 4 CPU Review @OCAddiction.com
"Obviously in order to utilize the benefits of this new 800MHz CPU Intel needed to introduce a new chipset, and thus the 875P Canterwood was born. The new chipset is fairly exciting and incorporates some of the latest industry standards you would expect with a top notch performer, such as AGP 8X, Native SATA support, Dual Channel DDR and a 200MHz FSB (800MHz Quad Pumped). Intel fans will no longer be left out whereas previously AMD users enjoyed the benefits of a higher FSB and AGP 8X. And while yes, Granite Bay did have DC and AGP 8X, it simply was not a chipset aimed at the desktop performance market."
More information on this review can be found here.
ATI All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro: The Middle "Child" @ Explosive Labs
"The newest ATI All-In-Wonder cards are the All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro, All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro, and the All-In-Wonder VE. All of which utilize the THEATER 200 chip. This brings the current generation of range of All-In-Wonder cards to the table with improved video and audio quality. The All-In-Wonder VE is intended for those limited by their wallet, while the All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro and the All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro brings a powerhouse type solution for those interested in performance and features.."
More information on this review can be found here.
Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 200GB ATA/133 Hard Drive@ MrPCPro.com
"The Diamond Max Plus 9 series of hard drives is basically Maxtor's current top end ATA drive, and our 200GB version of the drive is the very top end. Needless to say, the Diamond Max Plus 9 which we have in our labs is an exciting product; and its no wonder why its exciting with features such as 7200 RPMs, an 8MB cache, 200 GB of space..."
More information on this review can be found here.
Zalman ZM400A-APF 400W PSU Review @ Envy News
"Recently, we reviewed the CNPS 7000-Cu noise-reduced copper heatsink/fan cooler from Zalman. In our continuing trend, we take noise-reduction one step further by introducing you to the Zalman ZM400A-APF 400W power-supply unit. Equipped with an Auto Control cooling fan, excellent voltage rails, and a simple yet functional appearance - Black is beautiful, indeed."
More information on this review can be found here.
Enermax 460W Shielded PSU @ ipKonfig
"Enermax is well known for for its computer cases, and its power supplies. The latter are known as some of the best power supplies on the market when it comes to both power and stability. With processors getting faster, there's a bigger demand for higher end power supplies able to support them and other devices within the computer. The Enermax EG465P-VE (460W) power supply isn't just another high wattage device--it now provides EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) reduction with copper mesh shielding around the motherboard cables."
More information on this review can be found here.
ThermalRight SLK-800u Review @ Overclocker Cafe
(c) 2003 Overclocker Cafe
"See, I told you that this thing was the SLK-700's big brother. A whopping 550g of solid copper which is 40g more than the SLK-700. If you're wondering why there is a weight difference between the P4 and AMD specs, it's because to mount it to a P4 requires a few extras be added to the heatsink itself."
More information on this review can be found here.
Arkua 7428-7G HSF Review @ Legit Reviews
"Today we will be looking at Arkua's 7428M-7G. The first thing that I notice about this HSF is the design. This HSF has a very unique look. Legit Reviews is interested in more than looks, but now that many cases have windows, having a HSF that adds eye-appeal is always a good thing!"
More information on this review can be found here.
4 GlacialTech CPU Cooler Reviewed @ TWINSBYTE.de
"Today, we test four CPU Cooler from GlacialTech. One is a silentcooler and one a has 24K gold. You can read more in the review "
More information on this review can be found here.
Samsung 757MB 17" CRT Monitor Review @ ExtensionTech.net
"One aspect that definitely caught my eye was the dot pitch. The 0.20 mm dot pitch is the lowest I have seen yet. Usually monitors come with either a 0.297 mm or a 0.26 mm dot pitch, which to some people could very well be unacceptable. My old CRT has a dot pitch of 0.297 mm, and I assure you, the difference is definitely noticeable."
More information on this review can be found here.
irock Wireless Music Adapter @ TechTastic.ca
"The irock wireless music adapter is a portable battery powered FM transmitter that plugs into a CD/mp3/Cassette player and can beam music to your stereo on one of four preset frequencies."
More information on this review can be found here.
LANParty.com & DFI: Cyber Olympics Announced
"For the Case Mod contest alone, we have more than $7,500 in prizes, and more will be added soon! We'll give out prizes for six case mod winners every two months, and ten random winners from the voting public!
So, come browse the case mod section and get a chance to win some cool prizes!"
More information on this contest can be found here.
| Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Thursday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2003, 1:10:45 AM | | Author: hitek |
Prometeia Phase Change Cooler Part II @ DWPG
"If the Asus P4G8X Deluxe showed us some impressive numbers, the MSI NEO-LSR Canterwood board impressed us even more. After flashing the BIOS using the MSI Live Monitor, we ended up at a whopping 173MHz frontside bus(FSB) and 1.95Vcore, making the 4GHz mark close to touch. Alas, 3.98GHz was the closes we could get 100% stable during our extensive stresstesting. We did reach 176MHz FSB, or 4048MHz, but that also gave us an occational hangup and even a nice and shining Blue Screen Of Death."
More information on this review can be found here.
Antec Lanboy Case Review @ Viper Lair
"In terms of functionality, the case has some nice touches, such as the swinging door to cover beige drives, front mounted USB, thumb screws, and a storage compartment for excess screws. The drive rails are extremely handy, and it's something I wish more manufacturers would use."
More information on this review can be found here.
ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro Review @ 3DXtreme
"In my opinion, ATi has produced the best All in Wonder card in the world with the AIW 9700 Pro. This card is substantially more advanced than the last generation AIW."
More information on this review can be found here.
Evercool TC-A Thermal Fan Controller Review @ ExtensionTech
"How many of you have an obnoxiously loud CPU heatsink fan, and are really getting tired of the decibels it emits? Maybe when you purchased it you thought, "What the hell, it can't be THAT loud?" But soon after the initial power up, you find yourself regretting that logic."
More information on this review can be found here.
MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R P4 Motherboard Review @ Techseekers
"The 800MHz FSB P4s was a step that had to happen, and performs much higher than its 533MHz FSB siblings. As you can see the yet to be released 400MHz FSB Athlons will up a good fight, and just shows how much the P4 depends on that 800MHz bus. There are a few nice touches also. The signature red PCB along with the LED fan on the northbridge will appeal to those of you with window cases. The board is clearly laid out and colour coded making assembly much easier. The MSI 875P Neo FIS2R itself can support up to 10 ATA devices, 6 on the ICH5R and 4 on the Promise controller."
More information on this review can be found here.
Soltek SL-75FRN2-L nForce2 Motherboard Review @ Legion Hardware
"The original SL-75FRN-L retailed for under $100 US making it one of the cheaper nForce2 solutions out there. Since the SL-75FRN2-L has really only undergone a stepping change I wouldn’t imagine the price will greatly change. With that said I believe the SL-75FRN2-L will be an excellent value solution which also offers a great deal of performance for Athlon XP users. In any case we will certainly know whether this is true or not by the end of this review."
More information on this review can be found here.
Noise Isolator (RH-35) VR Fan Speed Controller @ Overclockers Club
(c) 2003 Overclockers Club
"The RH-35 was able to control my 4x 80mm Vantec Tornado fans with no problems, and at 13W per channel it could even handle the 12.5W of a 92mm Vantec Tornado. The blue LEDs put off a nice glow, and the fact that matches the Lian Li case so well is an extra plus. Another nice thing about this, is it's small and can fit in the now almost useless floppy drive bay, leaving your 5.25" bays open for things like LCD screens, HDD coolers, or other important things."
More information on this review can be found here.
Sunbeam Rheobus Kit #1 Review @ 8BallsHardware
"Sunbeam provides a solution to the problem with their rheobus kit. For the uninitiated, a rheobus is essentially a device that allows the user to control the amount of power going to a set of connected fans, giving control over the speed of those fans."
More information on this review can be found here.
3DGameman Celebrates 300th Video Review
"This is not a Video Review as such but rather a bit of fun at Rodney Reynolds's expense, bloopers style. Also included is a quick history on the introductions Rodney Reynolds has used over the years and there's more but you will have to turn in to find out."
More information on this video review can be found here.
Zalman Ultra-Quiet 400W PSU Review @ DeviantPC
"Although at first I was thoroughly skeptical that the Zalman PSU would make any difference to the noise that emanates from my PC, however I was glad to be proven completely wrong. The PSU is nearly what it claims to be, Silent. The difference in noise levels was more noticeable when all case fans were run at half speed."
More information on this review can be found here.
Plextor PX-504A DVD+R/RW Drive Review @ Mikhailtech
"For the DVD recording on DVD+R media I also had to purchase an extra DVD+R disk, RICOH made, rated 4X, because I wanted to see how long it takes to write at both 4X and 2.4X speeds. At 4X it took only 13:58 minutes to write the full 4.3GB of data on the DVD+R media, while 2.4X took 23:05 minutes. Same 4.3GB ISO was used to write on the Verbatim DVD+RW disk that comes with the drive, and this operation took exactly 23:10 minutes, just 5 seconds more than it took to write the same data, at the same speed (2.4X) on DVD+R media."
More information on this review can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Wednesday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Wednesday, May 7, 2003, 7:48:24 AM | | Author: BigDaddy |
Z40 Insight Case Review @ OCC
(c) 2003 Overclocker Cafe
"Both side panels are affixed with thumb screws with the left side panel having a preinstalled window. This window is quite a bit different than previous windows you have seen. To begin with, the 12" x 10" window has ridges in it making an oval with additional ridges perpendicular to its outer edge to the window sides. If it weren’t for the purplish hue of the plastic, it would have a decidedly antique look about it. But that purplish look isn’t because of the mood of the case designer; the window itself is UV reactive."
More information on this review can be found here.
Sunbeam Clear Acrylic Case Reviewed @ VoidedWarranty.com
"We're not going to bore you with the package contents, everything was there and in excellent shape. I will point out that the step by step instructions tell you the name of the parts and quantity required for each step. You can easily find the parts described because each bag is marked with the same description and quantity of the parts for that particular step."
More information on this review can be found here.
Xoxide Z-40 * NEW MODEL * Case Review @ XPC TECH
"Today I will be reviewing the Xoxide Z-40. This is the new version to the original Z-40. This case has some interesting and nice features I think you people will like alot. I have reviewed Xoxide's cases before and they never cease to amaze me. So read on to see if they kept up that little tradition... "
More information on this review can be found here.
Thermaltake Xview Review @ CaseModWorld
"I guess this is one of those love it or hate it products. Fitted to an Antec type case with closing door this would probably work quite well, as once the door was closed it would illuminate the cracks in the door. If you own an Xaser case then I guess you'd be quite happy if you bought it, the vertically mounted piece that you fit towards the bottom of the Xaser looks nice."
More information on this review can be found here.
Zalman Fan Speed Controller Review @ WildReview
(c) 2003 WildReview.com
"Noise Control has now become an important factor in the assembly of any PC. Zalman has come to the rescue with their ZM-MFC1 Fan Controller. This unit is very practical and works extremely well."
More information on this review can be found here.
Crazy PC EL Applique @ Pimprig
"All in all, it’s a neat little appliqué. The other styles are in red and green and include Nuclear, Biohazard and Alien images. It does bring more color to a window and my only real complaint was it’s size (it’s a little small)… but if you got a couple of fans modded into your window, size is going to be your enemy when it comes time to put the appliqué in anyway!"
More information on this review can be found here.
Auravision EluminX Sapphire Keyboard Review @ MonkeyReview
(c) 2003 Monkey Review
"Now, like any kid with a new toy I had to see how it looked in the dark, once I had the blinds pulled and the lights out I got an impressive eyeful of this guy in full action. Like the documentation states, the EluminX gets better as the environment gets darker. Now that we've come to the conclusion that the EluminX keyboard does in fact deliver the promised visuals, let's see how well it holds up during regular usage.."
More information on this review can be found here.
Biostar M7NCG nForce2 Motherboard @ SoundCardCentral
"It was just recently that if you wanted a micro ATX motherboard to run with your shiny new 333MHz front side bus Athlon XP processor you were left empty handed. This is not so anymore and in the past month we\'ve seen many nForce 2 offerings brought to retail for the micro ATX market. One of those solutions we\'ll be looking at today - Biostar\'s M7NCG based on the nForce 2 IGP with MCP-T southbridge."
More information on this review can be found here.
ATi Radeon 9500 Pro @ Viper Lair
"I was not able to overclock the 9500 Pro, at least not unless I did a BIOS flash. Considering my budget, and the fact that I purchased this card on my own dime, flashing the BIOS with a hack on a video card isn't something I had much desire in doing."
More information on this review can be found here.
PCToys 420 Watter Reviewed @ BurnoutPC
"Well you really have to hand it to pcToys, they have a hell of a product here. The looks of the PowerMAXX line is wicked. I have to say it look pretty nice in my Koolcases.com Panther case. There are enough Molex connectors to choke a horse, and the ATX power connector is long enough to hang it."
More information on this review can be found here.
Plextor PX-504a Review @ Blynk.net
"During the last year we have seen price drops in DVD writers that have made them more available to the general public. DVD media has many uses including mass storage and video editing because of its large capacity (4.6 GB). A number of companies are competing with each other to become the best in the DVD writing field. As we all know, Plextor has been crowned by many people as the king of CD writing, will it be able to hold it's title with DVD writing? "
More information on this review can be found here.
Aero 7 review @ Overclocker Warehouse
"The Aero 7 is not Cooler Master's first crack at a cool n' quiet CPU cooler. Several other attempts, including the recently reviewed XDream SE cooler, have all fairly successfully achieved their mandate, with usually only a few minor and petty flaws holding them back from excellence. The main area that these coolers lagged in was the actual cooling - sure, they looked cool and ran at barely noticeable volumes, but none of the coolers really cut it to provide the cooling necessary for speed-hungry overclockers."
More information on this review can be found here.
CoolerMaster Aero7 vs X-Dream SE @ Madshrimps
"Coolermaster Aero7 (Aero 7) tested and compared to the X-Dream SE. To finish it of we slap on a 80mm Delta and see how this baby performs compared to the SLK800/900 and the older Alpha PAL8045 and Swiftech 462-A!"
More information on this review can be found here.
| Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Tuesday News Edition | | Date Posted: Tuesday, May 6, 2003, 12:04:23 PM | | Author: hitek |
The Home Entertainment PC Part 2 @ Icrontic
"Icrontic continues our five part series guiding you on the path towards Home Theatre PC or Home Entertainment PC (HEPC) enlightenment. In part One Micro-ATX PC cases were examined, how they looked and what they offered. In Part Two the Micro-ATX motherboard is reviews featuring the latest NFORCE2 technology.
More information on this guide can be found here.
Innovatek Innovaset 2 Water Cooling Kit Review @ System Cooling
(c) 2003 System Cooling
"When I started water cooling, high flow systems with large radiators, hoses and powerful pumps were my choice to get the lowest possible temps. Full tower cases were needed to fit the components. Now I lean towards smaller, quiet and efficient systems that fit in mid-tower cases. That pursuit finally led me to an Innovatek H2O Kit."
More information on this review can be found here.
Wireless Networking Guide @ Spode's Abode
"The setup goes like this, you plug the access point into a hub/switch and it acts as just another part of the wired network except anything connecting to it will be wireless. The wireless network card just plugs into the laptop's PCMCIA slot and does the job of a normal network card except of course in a wireless way. I ordered this stuff from Ebuyer.com as I know them to be pretty cheap."
More information on this review can be found here.
EluminiX Illuminated Keyboard Review @ 3DXtreme
"Overall we found the EluminiX illuminated keyboard to be a solid product and a very high quality keyboard. The illumination is great for late night surfing or gaming and just looks damn cool!"
More information on this review can be found here.
Raidmax 12in Blue CCFL Review @ Mikhailtech
"Much sets this CCFL apart from the rest. For one thing, the case around the bulb is a lot wider, thicker and more resilient than that of Sunbeam's, meaning a slight bend won't snap the bulb within. Everything is sealed off so you don't have to worry about your light shorting out. If it doesn't stay in the position you want, you can always tighten the screws around the bulb to "lock" it in place. You also get a piece of double sided cushion-tape to mount the inverter, though velcro would have been preferable. The inverter one of the best I've dealt with. Heat output is minimal and there's absolutely no noise emanating from it."
More information on this review can be found here.
Cremax Moble Hard Drive Racks Video Review @ 3DGameman
"The Cremax Mobile Hard Drive Racks are available in a few different models but all are excellent for transporting data. Thankfully even large ATA Hard Drives are getting much cheaper and therefore it makes a very affordable removable solution. Also, Cremax offers USB2 models which means it doesn't tie up another IDE connection but still offers fast transfer speeds."
More information on this video review can be found here.
Chaintech 9CJS Zenith 875P Motherboard Review @ Extreme Overclocking
"A couple weeks ago we saw the reviews of Intel's latest chipset, the i875P. Most were astonished by the new features and performance gains of the i875P, and now motherboard manufacturers have started producing retail versions of their boards featuring the new chipset. Today we look at the Chaintech 9CJS Zenith. This board is packed with features and supports dual channel memory as well as a 800 MHz Front Side Bus for the new Pentium 4s."
More information on this review can be found here.
AOpen AX4C MAX Motherboard Review @ LegitReviews
"We have had a handful of the new Canterwood motherboards in house for a number of weeks getting a round-up together. However, with new BIOS's pending and a long list of issues, we are several days away from our main round-up. Although we are still a ways off from our round-up, we have received many e-mails wanting to know if these boards are overclockable with retail cpu's and not with the unlocked ES sample processors we have. Today we break out the retail Intel Pentium 4 2.53B processor and check out how "old" cpu's overclock on the AOpen AX4C MAX."
More information on this review can be found here.
Albatron KM18G-Pro nForce 2 IGP Motherboard Review @ Overclockers New Zealand
"From the benchmarks above, we can see that the KM18G-Pro is a bit behind in business and multimedia applications. However, it is as fast as its competitors under gaming situations."
More information on this review can be found here.
ABIT IC7-G Motherboard Review @ OCAddiction
"Here is where the IC7-G excels over all other current solutions. You can see that running in Single Channel mode the IC7-G is running only slightly faster than most solutions while the BH7 at a 4:5 CPU/Memory ratio is surpassing it in memory bandwidth performance. However once we kick into DC mode the IC7-G leaves everything else behind; by quite a bit I might add. Showing 5351/5353 in memory is nothing short of incredible. Clearly Intel has done their homework in implementing Dual Channel and it certainly shows here."
More information on this review can be found here.
Senfu Tech Station Review @ Explosive Labs
(c) 2003 Explosive Labs
"When you are a hardware analyst or enthusiast who is constantly swapping components in and out of a computer system, you know this task can become very time consuming. More specifically when it comes to replacing a motherboard. Unless you have a full tower or server case, it can get pretty cramped in today's systems with larger video cards, extra HDD's, and more cables to route. The majority of the readers here at Explosive Labs know that we have become very well known and respected for our large motherboard rounds."
I use one of these units in my office, very handy to have around. More information on this review can be found here.
Mouse MoD How-To @ GruntvillE
"The mouse, the little rodent that sits next to our computer. It makes our lives a million times easier. The little rodent also gives us the ability to play games. And, in this case, the little rodent is extremely ugly. When modders want to mod something, the mouse usually doesn't come to mind. It's always the case, the optical drives, or even the monitors. Mice are often left out of the picture, however."
More information on this review can be found here.
Keyboard Cleaning Article @ Voided Warranty
"The finished product, it doesn't look too bad. If you look closely you can see where I've applied the nail polish. You may prefer to coat the entire key with the polish. All that is left is to plug that puppy in and watch the sparks."
More information on this review can be found here.
Arctic Silver Ceramique Thermal Paste Review
"One noticeable difference of Ceramique is that it does not contain any metal or electrical conductive materials. Keeping with Voided Warranty tradition this review will be short and to the point. It will not provide complete application instructions, those can be found here."
More information on this review can be found here.
Cooler Master Aero7 Heatsink Review @ RadiativeNZ
"For many years now, desktop computers have been cooled by heatsinks mounted with axial fans. The obvious problem with axial fans is that they have a motor hub in the middle of the fan, which creates a deadspot in the center of the heatsink it is trying to cool. Today we will be taking a look at the Aero7, which breaks HSF tradition and comes armed with a "squirrel cage" fan."
More information on this review can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Monday News Editon.. | | Date Posted: Monday, May 5, 2003, 12:45:40 AM | | Author: hitek |
Koolance Exos Review @ Nexus Hardware
"Koolance rocked the water cooling world when it released its Exos. It was the first self contained, external water cooling kit ever. Since then, Corsair has hopped on the external cooling wagon as well. The benefit of self contained external water cooling is ease of use. Assembly is simple, and relatively painless. In a normal water cooling kit, installation and bleeding are time consuming tasks. In essence, the Exos is water cooling for the common enthusiast.
More information on this review can be found here.
Lian Li PC-6010 Aluminum Case with Aquarium Review @ Techware Labs
"The Lian-Li 6010 is a strong contender for the great case award. The PC-6010 has some very nice features that add to its appeal. Front bezel lighting that alternates colors in many patterns from red, blue, green, purple, light bluish green and back. All lighting is done using LED's that plug directly into a power molex from the power supply."
More information on this review can be found here.
AMK Computers Colour Changing LED Review @ Virtual Hideout
(c) 2003 Virtual Hideout
"This is a 5mm LED (standard size) that will easily replace most case LEDs, though some use 3mm LEDs. It's meant to replace one of your existing LEDs, specifically, the Power LED, but can be used for other purposes should you wish. I could not find any other specifications for it, such as current draw or operating voltage, but the LED is already wired for a 5v input, with a resistor already soldered into place."
More information on this review can be found here.
Soltek SL-FRN2-L Motherboard Review @ Modsynergy
"The original nForce motherboard was regarded to some as weak and not successful against the KT333 chipset at the time. I in the other hand picked up an Abit NV7-133R and believed it faired well. The nForce was stable, quick and NVIDIA's first dive into the competitive market. Will the Soltek nForce 2 make a big splash? Head over to find out."
More information on this review can be found here.
PCXmods X-Trac Zoom Review
"What is this you ask? What is the Zoom? The Zoom is PCXmods next portray into the high performance mouse pad segment which we are proud to review. It is the next X-Trac line of quality mouse pads made for the avid gamer. We will be telling you if this pad is slick or not worthy of your money."
More information on this review can be found here.
ASUS DRW-0402P Drive Review @ Legion Hardware
"ASUS have based their DVD burner on the DVD-RW format meaning there is no Lossless Linking technology supported on their drive. For general use I believe the DVD-RW format is faster and better than the DVD+RW format however, this isn’t the case for video use. The ASUS DRW-0402P is a multifunction ATAPI DVD-R/RW Drive supporting 4X DVD-R/ 2X DVD-RW/ 12X DVD-ROM and 16X CD-R/ 8X CD-RW/ 32X CD-ROM."
More information on this review can be found here.
Cooler Master Aero 7+ CPU Cooler Review @ System Cooling
"In their never-ending quest for improved cooling capacity and lower noise levels, heat sink manufacturers are constantly trying new and sometimes novel techniques. Sometimes these designs work, and sometimes they fail. Today we're going to look at one of the most recent releases from Coolermaster, a name synonymous with computer system cooling. The ASB-V73, otherwise known as the Aero 7, is the latest in Coolermaster's long line of heatsinks, and definitely one of their most innovative to date."
More information on this review can be found here.
Antec Side Window Panel Review @ Voided Warranty
"Many of you probably already have an Antec case or one like it. Antec is one of the more popular case manufacturers on the market. Hell, you don't even have to have an Antec case to have a use for a product like this because so many cases out there use the exact same design."
More information on this review can be found here.
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Internal Hard Drive Review @ SLCentral
"If you are need more space on your PC, the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Internal Hard Drives are inexpensive, offer high capacity and performance. We believe they are good value but is it worth paying extra for 8MB of Cache and how did they perform? Read on to find out in our official review."
I currently use two of these drives in a Raid 0 setup in one of my gaming rigs. More information on this review can be found here.
Logitech Cordless Comfort Duo Mouse & Keyboard Review
"Your keyboard and mouse are the main interface to your PC, but they don't last forever. If your going to replace them why not go wireless, the Logitech Cordless comfort Duo is sleek, comfortable and has a lot of hotkey's, also the mouse has 3 buttons. We believe they are good value but did we enjoy the hardware and is it worth the money? Read on to find out in our official review."
More information on this review can be found here.
Bytecc Zippy EL-610 Keyboard Review
"If you are looking for a keyboard that is less expensive and has more features than the Eluminx, is a lot easier to use than a flexible keyboard when you are on the go and want to do it in style, look a little closer at Bytecc's Zippy EL-610 Keyboard. Just make sure that your eyes are bigger than your hands as you'll have some issues during long-term daily use."
More information on this review can be found here.
Zalman CNPS 7000-Cu HSF Review
"The Zalman CNPS 7000-Cu is a stylish HSF combination that lives up to its claims of providing you with good performance and low noise. It's nice to have the option of dropping many Decibels of noise and not have to equate that to losing the same amount of cooling performance. While the Zalman CNPS 7000-Cu is not the top performing cooler I have used, it comes close and the reduction in noise pollution coming from my case makes this a cooler I plan to use for a long time."
More information on this review can be found here.
VIA KT400 Roundup @ Digital Daily
"The chipset VIA KT400A is KT400 with improved memory controller and an official support for DDR400. But in any case a performance of such system is less than of nForce II DC (Dual Channel). Gigabyte is the only company promoting boards on this chipset. And it`s clear -company has very difficult relations with nVidia and it can`t release boards on nForce II."
More information on this review can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Weekend News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Saturday, May 3, 2003, 4:07:09 PM | | Author: hitek |
The Home Entertainment PC @ Icrontic
"Icrontic begins a five part series to guide you on the path towards Home Entertainment PC enlightenment (HEPC). You'll learn the basics plus a lot more in order to make your own correct choices. You'll learn look past the packaging and the hype to clearly see how to arm yourself with the skills to know what delivers, what doesn't and what to expect. Section one begins with picking the PC case to suit the environment."
An excellent read for those of you interested in building your own. More information on this guide can be found here.
Modders Mesh Review @ The Tech Lounge
"Mnpctech is all about computer modding. Bill Owen, the man behind Mnpctech is what some of us would call a "mod god." His site contains a gallery of his works, tutorials, a small shop for different mod related items, and services he provides. I was looking at some of his Modder's Mesh to work with for my computer case, and Bill was kind enough to send some my way. So today, thanks to Bill, you all get to see me work with his Modder's Mesh, and hurt myself in the process!"
I've been looking to use some of this material on a few of my projects. More information on this review can be found here.
Spring Case Madness: 24 Of The Best @ Tom's Hardware Guide
"The tremendous feedback on our last case review helped us establish a firm procedure for this case review. We were able to collect 24 cases for this review. Cases included in this review are from GMC, Coolermaster, ACTS-Tek, Athenatech, Lian Li, Chenbro, Chenming, Chieftec, InWin, Compucase, Enermax, Kingwin, Case Arts, and Thermaltake."
More information on this review can be found here.
L.I.S Blue Platinum LCD Review @ WildReviews
(c) 2003 WildReviews
"VLSystem did very well with this LCD. It combines attractiveness with functionality to make it a very nice package. Overall I find this to be a great LCD, and I am quite pleased with it."
More information on this review can be found here.
SubZero4GT Thermo-electric Cooling Video Review @ 3DGameman
"The SubZero4GT Thermo-electric Cooling product is available for the Intel P4 478, AMD Athlon XP and Opteron K8. With CPU's getting faster and faster the need for effective, low noise cooling solutions is crucial and this product answers that call. It's easy to install, performs well, and is virtually silent."
More information on this video review can be found here.
HSF Preventative Maintenance @ Voided Warranty
"Have you looked inside your computer lately? Have you checked the CPU temperature lately? If your HSF fan guard has an accumulation of dust on it, chances are that it is a lot worse under the fan. With the higher speed CPU's, adequate cooling of the processor is manditory to prevent premature failure."
More information on this guide can be found here.
Changing PSU Fan with Tri-LED Fan
"Most of us can't justify purchasing a new power supply (PSU) just to get add some color to it. We have put together a short and to the point procedure for changing out that dull exhaust fan with one that has LED's. It is really quite simple."
More information on this guide can be found here.
Eksitdata 3.5" Drivebay Rheobus @ PC-Arena
"Noise control is currently one of the boom areas of the PC enthusiast market. Gone are the days when people are willing to put up with 60+dB fans just to gain that last few MHz. There are now more and more products being released whose aim is to reduce noise."
More information on this review can be found here.
Memory Giveaway @ OCAddiction
"Memory is one of those things that's kinda like money, ya just can't have enough of it! With that in mind, we're happy to announce a giveaway of not just A stick of memory, but 5 of them!"
Free stuff rules! More information on this contest can be found here.
Gainward Ultra/800 Plus GeForce FX 5800 VGA Review @ Overclockers New Zealand
"As you can see, Gainward's FX5800 is nearly identical to Compro's offering in every respect, performance, overclockability and package. In fact, most of the FX5800s would be identical, since Nvidia is the sole manufacturer. Hence, there would not be a clear "best" FX5800 choice in the mean time."
More information on this review can be found here.
Weekly Special @ The Cutting Edge
"The Cutting Edge has a few new specials this week for those of you looking for case modding gear to dress up that new rig. Here is some information on what is up for sale this week:
Sunbeam Lazer LEDs
(c) 2003 The Cutting Edge
"Sunbeam has come up with a great product at a great price. These lazer LED's come in 4 colors and have 3 very bright LED's in each unit. The middle LED faces straight out and the 2 outside LED's face at an angle outward to help spread the light over a large area. They come in UV, blue, red and green and the body of the assembly is chrome plated. Measures 1 1/2 x 5/8 x 3/8 inches and comes with a 4 pin molex with a pass through connector. This is a light that will fit just about anywhere."
More information on this product can be found here.
Galaxy Copper Braided ATA 133 Rounded Cables
"This Galaxy 24 inch dual device ATA 133 rounded cable is made very well. These are not the cheapies that are floating around. The copper braiding gives a awesome effect and if you want a single device cable you can slice off one of the connectors. It's 16 inches to the first connector and 8 more to the second and you can cut them in either direction. Pay a little more for quality."
More information on this review can be found here.
FriendlyNET USB Hub FB114 Review @ GamersHell
"Functionality is where the product excels, it delivers exactly what it advertises to be, a small, space-saving 4-Port USB hub, not only does it deliver the juice, but it’s highly practical for the mobile laptop user, as its terribly small and convenient for the mobile users amongst us."
More information on this review can be found here.
Hard Drive Window Guide @ GideonTech
"Well kids, here is the mod you have not yet seen posted on GT -- The Hard Drive window mod. I will take you through the steps so that you can mod your own hard drive and make it look real slick for those LAN-Parties."
More information on this guide can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| MTB Folding@Home Team | | Date Posted: Friday, May 2, 2003, 3:02:23 AM | | Author: hitek |
MTB Folding@Home Team Announced!
MTB has officially launched our very own Folding@Home Team run by resident staff member Mantis. We are currently looking for active members of the MTB community to join and help out a worthy cause. For those of you unfamilar with Folding@Home, it is a worldwide distributed computing project which studies protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases. All that is required is the installation of the Folding@Home client, a free computer and some bandwidth. MTB's Folding@Home Team ID is #32319 and the client can be downloaded from this location:
http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html
More information on our team statistics be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| T.G.I.F News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Friday, May 2, 2003, 12:27:57 AM | | Author: hitek |
Koolance PC2-C goes Air-cooled @ Madshrimps
"Aircooling your CPU in the Koolance PC2-C case after the water-cooling was ripped away from its belly. Watercooling style without the water"
More information on this review can be found here.
Swiftech H20-8500 Water Cooling Kit @ Viper Lair
"Performance-wise, we were quite happy with it. There are cooling setups that perform better (such as Swiftech's own Q-Power), but they don't offer the ease of use the H20-8500 has. A larger radiator and perhaps a reservoir would have improved performance, but it would defeat the purpose of the kit, which is to be compatible with most cases, be easy to install, and be very quiet."
MTB Labs covered the Swiftech H20-8500 a few months ago, here is our comparison review. More information on this review can be found here.
Asetek WaterChill Water Cooling Kit Review @ Hexus.net
"We've seen the steady emergence of complete watercooling kits recently. Providing everything you need to get going and guaranteed compatibility between components, these kits have sought to unravel some of the complexities involved in setting them up in your system. Asetek, perhaps better known for the Vapochill line of phase-change coolers, feel that they can apply their all-in-one knowledge gained from producing pre-configured phase-change systems to watercooling kits."
This is an excellent and well written review, definately a must see if your looking for an alternative all-inclusive kit. More information on this review can be found here.
Thermaltake XView Review @ Overclockers Club
(c) 2003 Overclockers Club
"When one thinks about Thermaltake, usually the first thing to come to mind is high performance cooling. Products like the Orb Series, the Volcano 7 and 9, and the GF4 Cooler, have ranked among the best cooling products. Today we'll be looking at a product from another side of Thermaltake, something that has absolutely nothing to do with cooling, the Thermaltake Xview."
More information on this review can be found here.
Corsair XMS3500C2 Memory Review @ GruntvillE
"The outside is pretty and all but what we're concerned about is under that heat spreader, so off it goes. Underneath the HS, to no surprise, is a beautiful set of Winbond 5ns chips. Last year Winbond developed a reference stick of PC3200 to show off their chips to manufacturers. The chips were utterly amazing! It was the fastest stick of RAM to ever grace a desktop. Lucky for us, Corsair and many others picked up on a good thing. Knowing Corsairs strict quality assurance policies and strict methods for choosing chips to use, Winbond seems like the perfect choice component to build the modules off of. Combine that with the gold plating and every other step Corsair takes in building the modules and you can understand why we went into the review considering it one of the best."
More information on this review can be found here.
Gigabyte GA-8PE800 Ultra Review @ MBReview
"Well, to sum things up, as always with Gigabyte motherboards, I'm putting the GA-8PE800 Ultra on my recommended list for those of you looking for reasonable performance, price, and a hell of a feature set and package. If you're looking to do some heavy overclocking, I doubt that this is the board for you, although as we mentioned we were indeed able to get this board running at an 800MHz FSB and slightly higher with our 2.66GHz P4."
More information on this review can be found here.
Samsung SyncMaster 241MP TFT LCD Monitor/TV @ Monkey Review
"The Syncmaster 241MP is the newest addition to Samsungs strong and versatile MP series. The target audience for this particular unit would most likely be someone such as myself who spends long days in front of their computers and would either like to also enjoy video/TV at the same time, or for the audience who would also like to use their TV as a monitor, of course Its also ideal for those just looking for a great quality large TFT LCD monitor/TV."
Impressive but $8000+ CDN? Ouch! More information on this review can be found here.
UV New Hyperlight Review @ MikeOck
"I was quite excited to finally see this product, it is a novel form factor for lighting. We have all seen Cold Cathode tubes, LazerLEDs, EL Cable, and the like. But these are small square plates, about 1.5" (3.75cm or so) on a side, and they project light outward from the flat surface."
More information on this review can be found here.
Icy Dock Plug and Play Mobile Rack Review @ Overclocker Cafe
(c) 2003 Overclocker Cafe
"However, if you are like me and simply may need to pop an extra drive in to work with temporally then this is the only way to go. No rebooting as with traditional racks; the Icy Dock really is plug and play. As you could see in our benchmarks the transfer rates were quite high. High enough to quell most all criticism about it."
More information on this review can be found here.
Cooler Master Cool Drive 3 Review @ PCReviewSpot
"Every day, modern hard drive development teams at high-end manufacturers such as Maxtor, WD, and other are pumping out ever faster, bigger hard drives. Oh, and not to mention hotter. Generally, the quicker hard drives get, the faster they spin, and the more heat they generate. Take of example the new WD Raptor drive, which spins at a whopping 10,000RPM. The majority, if not all hard drives are designed to operate in environments with fairly little amounts of airflow; however, putting your drive in an area where it will receive a decent amount of air circulation can have a positive effect on prolonging the life of the drive."
More information on this review can be found here.
May Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide @ Sharky's Extreme
"While $4000 is a significant amount of money to spend on a performance gaming system, there are still real-world limitations inherent with the $4000 boundary. As much as we'd love to include an extravagant display such as the 24 Inch, widescreen Samsung 240T TFT, the heavy premium on one of those displays would hurt the balance of high-end components in the computer. However, we're confident that this guide will include many, if not all, of the top components that would make the most discerning gamer proud."
More information on this review can be found here.
Antec PlusView 1000AMG Case Review @ Moddin.net
"The styling will be familiar to you if you've ever used or seen a Chieftec case - it has obviously been inspired by their best selling range. The case is 20.6" (H) x 8.1" (W) x 18.6" (D) and comes in at 27 lbs so it's obviously going to be heaver than most folk would want for a LAN system but there again it sure is sturdy."
More information on this review can be found here. | Discuss in Forums | Top Menu
| Thursday News Edition.. | | Date Posted: Thursday, May 1, 2003, 12:54:06 PM | | Author: BigDaddy |
Zalman ZM-MFC 1 Multi-Fan Speed Controller @ SystemCooling
(c) 2003 SystemCooling
"I know you've seen plenty of fan controllers and you must have read your share of reviews about them. There are those that have knobs and those that have toggle switches. Maybe you thought that it would be really cool if you could combine those to different types of controllers to make one unique unit. Well if those were your hopes then Zalman is rises to the rescue."
More information on this review can be found here.
Coolermaster CoolDrive Reviewed @ BoPC
"This was an interesting product. You really have to hand it to Coolermaster, always coming out with new and interesting products. This Enclosure will be one that I am going to keep, I like the way it looks in my case. Its simple, it looks great, and its quiet. There is only one thing missing - Thermal monitoring would be nice. Maybe one with a blue-backlit LCD - Maybe I am just picky.. Overall Great product."
More information on this review can be found here.
IcyDock Bodyguard Review @ Overclocker Cafe
"While the concept of a HDD cooler isn't exactly new, Cremax has attempted to incorporate several other features into the unit as well. The look is very streamlined and pleasing. However they do need to pay attention to not just the aesthetics of the unit, but also the functionality of it."
More information on this review can be found here.
New Chenming Cases @ VoyeurMods
  
"The new Chenming 301KE Series LAN style cases feature dual USB/FireWire on Front Panel. A side panel see through window and sliding external drive assembly. All drive bays are tool free along with a lockable side door."
More information on these new cases can be found here.
New Contest Announced!
Starting May 1st, we will begin our "Forum Giveaway Program". Each month Voyeurmods.com will be giving away a sweet ass prize to one of our forum members. The prize for the month of May will be an "Entry Level Water-Cooling Kit" which includes the following parts:
- 1/2 "Noise Isolator" Radiator
- 1/2 AMD or P4 Block
- Hydor L20 Water Pump
- 1/2 ClearFlex 60 Tubing
- 10 x 1/2 Clamps
- 5 1/4 Bay Reservoir
- 120mm Blue UV Fan
The retail value for this kit is $175.00USD
More information on this contest can be found here.
ASRock K7S8X Athlon Motherboard Reviewed @ TechSeekers.net
"Looking at the board from a system builders point of view, the board provides excellent value, with 6 Channel sound and onboard networking. Combine this with a Geforce FX 5200 and you have a very cheap modern stable PC. However looking at it from a customers point of view, you must realise that this is certainly not the fastest AMD solution available, in fact is performs below the older KT400 and the nForce2 you can expect up to a 10% performance hit when compared with those chipsets. "
More information on this review can be found here.
Powercolor Xabre 600 Pro @ Techware Labs
"As the spotlight focuses on the battle raging between Nvidia and ATI for the top slot in the high-end video card competition, the release of middle-of-the-road, affordable cards, that don't occupy an AGP slot, and render the neighboring PCI slot useless, often slip by unnoticed. SiS would like to believe the Xabre 600 is on the line between the enthusiast, extreme performance market and the mainstream, quality performance markets, allegedly making it a worthy contender for press attention, especially as they lead the GPU market to the 0.13u process. Are the technical feats achieved in the Xabre 600 enough to warrant your money?"
More information on this review can be found here.
Zalman CNPS7000-CU and CNPS7000-ALCU Coolers Video Review @ 3dGameMan
"The Zalman CNPS7000-CU and the CNPS7000-ALCU are virtually identical except the CU model is all Copper and the ALCU model is Aluminum and Copper. They both offer near silent cooling while keeping the temperatures down. Also, these coolers can be used on the Socket 478 (Intel P4) and 754 (AMD Athlon 64)."
More information on this review can be found here.
Lamps Electronics Cold Cathode Fan Grill Review @ DV Hardware
(c) 2003 DarkVision Hardware
"Everyone who regulary visits Hardware/Case modding sites will have already seen a couple of Cold Cathodes, and most of you will have one or maybe even more in your cases. Cold Cathode fan grills also aren't new anymore, they already excist for a few months. But now Lamps Electronics comes with a much cooler looking version of the Cold Cathode Fan, they bring us the Cold Cathode Fan grill with 2 CCFL's in it!"
More information on this review can be found here.
PCXMods X-Trac Zoom @ Viper Lair
"The surface itself is smooth enough to allow for a low coefficient of static and kinetic friction (which is the amount of force required to overcome friction to get an object moving, and to keep an object in motion, respectively.) I have found the design printed on PCXMod's pads to be unique, as I have never seen a pattern quite like it on any other mouse pad, or anywhere for that matter."
More information on this review can be found here.
Sharkoon UV CCFL Round-Fan (RED) Review @ TWINSBYTE.de
"Today, we test a UV Fan with a round ColdCathode. The fan is a product of Sharkoon and is very interesting for PC modder."
More information on this review can be found here.
Gaming System Guide April 2003 @ ASE Labs
" Check out the budget, mid-level, and top notch gaming system reccomendations for this month. "
More information on this article can be found here.
April's Canadian Hot Deals Roundup @ PriceNetwork.ca
"As the month of April passed, the deals just kept getting hotter! We had many great deals but only one stood out the most. That was the Dell Axim deal. Potentially, the deal could have been better due to a typo made by Dell. However, Dell refused to honour their pricing error. Alternatively, Dell offered a discount that made the deal still worthwhile. Read on to see the top deals of the month and Dell's offer."
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