God Bless America.

News Archive: September 2002

September 2002

Cooler Master ATC-710 SX1 Server Case Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:42 PM EST

"The ATC-710 SX1 is a well built case, weighing close to 13kg lbs with dimensions measuring 205 mm (W) x 522 mm (H) x 455 mm (D). The case does not ship with a PSU which is a bit of a disappointment, but most users are very selective in their PSU requirements and can purchase this option separately. The eye candy for this particular model is the inclusion of a highly refined aluminum front bezel. The front bezel is accented with sleek indented curves which gives the case an overall futuristic type appearance. The top and side panels are constructed of zinc coated steel and have been painted a variation of dark charcoal grey."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

Vantec Copper Round IDE Cables @ Viper Lair
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:40 PM EST

"Let's get a couple of myths out of the way about rounded cables. To begin with, they do not improve access speeds to your hard drive, or do anything for performance, in fact, poorly designed rounded cables can be detrimental. Secondly, they do not do much for case cooling if you're neat about cable management. Well, I guess I kind of contradicted myself there, as they will help if your cables are dangling all over the place, blocking airflow, but all it'd take is some tie wraps and some creative routing and you'll be fine."

Check it out at: Viper Lair

Case-Mods.Com UV Accessories Review @ VH
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:39 PM EST

"When I first saw this "PSU mod cover" thingy hit the market, I dismissed it as a candy cane mod. I really didn't think it had any serious authenticity in the mod market. However, I just had to get one up close and take a real good look at it. Well, my initial thoughts were confirmed. I think they could be much better designed. First, it really urks me that the acrylic covers don't even reach all the way down the sides of the stock PSU, nor is there an kinda connection from the new covers sides to the psu itself. It just kinda hangs there. Not good. You know how you grab your stock PSU, it feels like a brick, nice an solid? Well, once you install an acrylic cover like this, your PSU will now feel like a toy and very weak. Again, the sides of the acrylic cover ARE NOT CONNECTED......they flop in the wind....heh."

Check it out at: Virtual-Hideout

First page of Wannabe Geeks Guide on building a computer *Series* @ Geekshelter
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:37 PM EST

Geekshelter has started a new series. This one is about building a first time computer with a guy. We will follow up on him as he builds his first computer. He will hold back nothing and will tell you all his mistakes. He starts off talking about the case. Here is a quote from him:
"Hello, my name is Moe (Wannabe Geek) and I'll be taking you along with me on my first journey into the world of building a super gaming pc. I decided that my current system is just getting too old and no longer is capable of handling the requirements of todays demanding games."

Check it out at: Geekshelter

Zalman CPU Cooler CNPS6000-Cu Review @ Geekshelter
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:35 PM EST

"Zalman has done it again making the new CNPS (computer noise prevention system) CPU coolers. Zalman has made many CPU coolers with many technological features. The one I am reviewing is the Zalman CNPS6000. It is one of their latest CPU cooloers and it is a great improvement in their line of coolers. As soon as I opened the package I was amazed to see the most creative cpu cooler I have ever seen. I just knew that this thing will work for me, and it will add another great part in my PC."

Check it out at: Geekshelter

Asus V8440 Geforce 4 Ti4400 Review @ MonkeyReview
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:30 PM EST

Well I think most of you know that I am happy with this card, yet I am not thrown back by the features or perhaps the lack of, but again, I knew what I was buying and can’t hold it against the card. I would have liked to see Video In, but you need to go with the V8440 Deluxe in order to get that feature. All in All it’s a good performing card without the overly high price, that’s where the good part lies. Asus did a good job on this guy and aside from the lack of video in and newer games it’s a great purchase and a good showing from Asus.

Check it out at: MonkeyReview

Ahanix Iceberg Watercooler Review @ OcPrices
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:26 PM EST

"Effective cooling and acceptable noise levels seems to be an increasingly mutually exclusive requirement in these days of super-fast, super-hot CPUs. Watercoolers promise the best of both worlds, but they are tricky to put together if you build one yourself. There are now however, a number of kits available that make life much easier. Today we are looking at the Ahanix Iceberg Watercooler provided by the nice guys at FancyCase.com. This is quite literally the simplest watercooling kit I've handled to date. Ahanix provides you with the all the tools and accessories needed to assemble the watercooler without a hitch for both AMD (Socket A) and Intel (Socket 370/478) CPUs . Before we analyse this cooler in detail lets take a look at the manufacturers specifications."

Check it out at: OcPrices

Let's Tidy Up Your Power Supply Wiring (Article) @ SystemCooling
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:24 PM EST

"There are many different methods of tidying up your power supply wiring, but the most outstanding way to me is using expandable loom material. It can be a bit labor intensive, but the results are well worth it. The first time I saw this material on a PS was on the motherboard harness of an Enermax power supply. Expandable loom is available in many colors and some links will be provided where to find it at the end of the article."

Check it out at: SystemCooling

Lycoris Linux review @ ASE Labs
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:20 PM EST

What is Lycoris Linux? Take the power of Linux and the ease of use of Windows, and you almost have Lycoris. This review will show you every step of the install and boy does the OS look like XP.

Check it out at: ASE Labs

Nexland PRO 400 ISB SOHO Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 30, 2002 at 9:19 PM EST

Today we will be looking at the Nexland PRO 400 ISB SOHO (Small office, Home office) broadband Internet router. Nexland is known for providing high quality networking products in the past, so lets see what the SOHO has to offer.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Dual colored cold cathode review @ OCModShop
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 3:05 PM EST

Cold cathodes are the best source for case lighting I believe and we have all seen the standard one colored ones. For a long time if you wanted to have 2 colors in your case you would have to buy two different cold cathodes and have them both running, this is not the case anymore. Xoxide sent over a dual colored cold cathode which is made by Sunbeam Technology.At this time the dual colored cold cathode is only available in blue and red combinations but I am sure in the future more will be offered. When I first saw these I wanted one because not often does a new innovative product come into the market like this one.

Check it out at: OCModShop

Zalman CNPS6500B-AICu CPU Cooler Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 3:03 PM EST

"The eye catching feature to Zalman coolers is the unique styling of the heatsink itself. The fins are arranged in a wedge pattern, which lends to the “flower” moniker. To get more heat dispersion through surface area, Zalman has perforated each fin with five slits. Copper has been known to conduct heat better than aluminum therefore the fins positioned in the center are made from pure copper. The copper fins sit directly above the processor in order to conduct more heat off the core. The rest of the pedals are made from pure aluminum and are held together with hex head bolts and acorn nuts. Each fin of the cooler has been stamped with the Zalman logo."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

Samsung YP-700H 128MB MP3 Player Review @ OnePC
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 3:01 PM EST

"Ever wondered what the Swiss army knife of MP3 players would be like? Check out Samsung’s YP-700H: loaded with 128MB of memory, SmartMedia card expansion, voice recording, an FM tuner and dual power sources, this thing’s loaded!"

Check it out at: OnePC

Kazan USB 2.0 Drive Enclosure Review @ envynews
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 3:00 PM EST

Today, we take a look at Lava Computer’s Kazan USB 2.0 3.5" hard drive enclosure. Lava Inc makes quite a few USB 2.0 and FireWire products; the Kazan drive enclosure is perhaps their most visible product on store shelves. It’s a product that can be found at numerous parts and system resellers since it offers both a compact size and relatively affordable solution to mounting a hard disk externally to your system.

However, this ain't a bed of roses - don't let USB 2.0 nomenclature fool you...

Check it out at: envynews

ViewSonic VG700 17-inch TFT Display Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:57 PM EST

"The Viewsonic VG700 should be of great interest to anyone looking for an LCD display on a budget. With its' 17" screen size, the unit retails for a competitive $700USD. CRT displays of equivalent size will always be less expensive than their LCD counterparts, but there is just something so nice about working on an LCD that makes the switch worth every penny. Displays like the VG700 tend to be easier on the eyes after an extend period of time writing, or doing other types of work on the web or in office applications."

Check it out at: pcstats

Antec Performance Plus 1080 AMG Case Review @ Tweaknews
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:56 PM EST

"It looks sleek. Has just the right colour. Is roomy. Keeps cool. Is silent. I will show that the case can do all of that and much more. How's that for an introduction? Sounds like a sales pitch but kinda is. When I first spoke to Antec about doing a review on this case I pointed out that a lot of people said I coudn't keep my SCSI drives cool and that no case was able fit all of my junk. I disagreed and so did Antec Inc."

Check it out at: Tweaknews

SanDisk Ultra 256mb CompactFlash Review @ envynews
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:54 PM EST

“About a year ago, we set out to review all the best CompactFlash and Flash memory on the market. We sought out products that excelled at both digital camera write performance and portable storage solutions. Since digital cameras write compressed image data to flash memory, we established the fact that the flash memory in question had to have a high write speed with both theoretical and real-world benchmarks. As with portable storage solution options, both write and read speeds are important. In this review, we pit SanDisk's Ultra 256MB CF card against other makes with USB 1.1, FireWire, and real-world camera tests. It's our most comprehensive Flash memory review yet!”

Check it out at: envynews

ATI and FIC Radeon 9700 Video Card Video Review #218 (Part 2): @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:51 PM EST

"The Radeon 9700 is currently the latest and fastest 3D gaming Video Card on the planet. Supporting bleeding edge technologies like 8X AGP and DirectX 9 it will last some time before your next video upgrade. Also, driver support from ATI is now excellent. If you need a blazing 3D gaming card, then drop what you are doing and get one! Watch the Video to find out more..."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

Chieftech/Chenming Aluminum Dragon Case @ OCIA
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:48 PM EST

"When we opened the box it was nice to see the case was packaged quite well. It arrived with no scratches or dents. The large side window was covered with a protective film and the edges were covered with a plastic filmy tape like substance that when removed left no residue. I was impressed. For a relatively inexpensive case it was surprisingly well packaged. I immediately was impressed with the color. The front plastic bezel had a slightly different shade of green than the green anodized body but  it still looked good."

Check it out at: OCIA

Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo Review @ OCAddictions
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:47 PM EST

"The first thing that springs to mind is what a difficult task Epic and Digital Extremes had producing this demo. Hampered by legions of fans on 56K connections, Epic made the decision to limit the download size to 100MB. Now that's a hefty chunk of data to be sure but by the standards of today's games it really isn't a lot. Some things had to be sacrificed in order to make it under the 100MB bar. High resolution textures were probably first onto the chopping block, followed by extra player models and a Domination 2 map.

The end result is a Demo that is not representative of the retail game since so much has been left to the imagination. The final game features 35 Levels, a plethora of character models, superb high resolution textures and that all important extra play mode."

Check it out at: OCAddictions

Thermaltake 360W PSU review @ OCModShop
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:46 PM EST

Thermaltake, well known for their line of Orb CPU heatsinks and chipset coolers such as the infamous blue orb, have recently ventured out into other markets, namely the power supply market. The power supply market is flooded with companies, but only a few really stand out as top performers for enthusiasts, such as Antec and Sparkle. In this review we'll find out if Thermaltake performs with the best of them or suffers from problems that plague most cheap PSUs.

Check it out at: OCModShop

Dell Inspiron 8200 P4-M 2GHz @ HardwareZone
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:44 PM EST

The Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor – M have arrived. In this article, we take a look and dissect the Inspiron 8200 notebook from Dell. The Inspiron 8200 is a desktop-replacement and is our first notebook featured with the new 2.0GHz Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor.

Check it out at: HardwareZone

Cooler Master ATC-410 Aluminum Case Review @ Icrontic
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:42 PM EST

"One of the best characteristics of the ATC-410 is that it can be converted into a rackmount-style server case. The conversion is simple - after removing the 5.25" cage all you need to do is lay the case on its side and put the cage back in so that the bays are parallel to the floor. You have the option of closing and locking the front bezel door too if it suits your needs."

Check it out at: Icrontic

Spire SkiveStream Review @ Icrontic
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 2:41 PM EST

"Unfortunately, aluminium is no longer sufficient to yield high levels of performance when applied to CPU cooling. As such, many heatsinks now feature copper cores - as the Skivestream does. Having used a number of coolers recently with a copper core, I have to say that the Skivestream's core is impressive. It is much larger than most, and more than ample to cover the core of the processor. No doubt the larger core will improve thermal performance somewhat."

Check it out at: Icrontic

MSI KT4 Ultra-FISR KT400 Motherboard Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 9:13 PM EST

"Before we get into that, you should know that the KT4 Ultra-FISR is based on the brand new the VIA KT400 chipset. The KT400 chipset supports AthlonXP processors at FSB's of 100MHz, 133MHz, and the tantalizing 166MHz. Now even with on board IEEE1394 and bluetooth support, it is really those two small Serial ATA 150 connectors which manage to draw our undivided attention. Serial ATA is the new spec for connecting devices like hard drives, and marks the end of a long history with IDE. As you will see, Serial ATA cables are really tiny and operate on a point-to-point topology (the drives are not yet available so we can't offer any benchmarks at this time unfortunately). Looking around the cramped PCB on the MSI KT4 Ultra-FISR, we can say it's easily the most equipped motherboard we've ever tested!"

Check it out at: pcstats

IOSS Cooling After Review @ DeviantPC
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 9:11 PM EST

"Enter IOSS with a completely different angle, and if you thought about what they have to say we would all probably scratch our heads and think, "oh yes, never thought of it like that before". The Cooling After kit actually helps cool your critical components after you turn your system off."

Check it out at: DeviantPC

Mafia Review @ OcPrices
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 9:09 PM EST

"Only a few months ago Grand Theft Auto 3 blew us away with its violence, its humour and it’s well crafted, utterly believable game world. It was only a matter of time before someone else decided to take a pop at Rockstar’s majestic Crime-Simulator and Mafia appears to be the first real contender to the throne. But can it hold it’s own against the savage monster that is GTA3?

Set in a world of vintage cars, Canadian whisky, Tommy Guns and Goodfellas, Mafia takes us through the life of Tommy Angelo and his meteoric rise through the deadly Salieri crime family. As he journeys through the underworld he becomes embroiled in a contest of strength between two deadly rivals where life is cheap and anyone is for sale (Just like in my life. No really.)"

Check it out at: OcPrices

Ultimate HOTAS: CH Fighterstick and Pro Throttle USB Review @ OcPrices
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 9:08 PM EST

"The gameport F-16 Combat stick and Pro Throttle I have, which are I can’t even remember how many years old, work as well as the day I took them out of the box. The price of entry may be a bit high, but put simply, these sticks are built to last. Unfortunately however, Microsoft took the ability to program through the keyboard port out of the NT based operating systems, which includes 2000 and XP. When I made the switch, my beloved Combat stick and Pro Throttle couldn’t come with me. I asked the very nice people at CH for some new USB models, and they sent me their current top of the line setup, the USB Fighterstick and Pro Throttle, which is what we’ll be looking at today."

Check it out at: OcPrices

Three Drive 48x CD-RW Shootout @ GamePC
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 9:07 PM EST

Today at GamePC, we've taken a look at three hot new 48x speed optical burners which have just hit the market. In our shootout, we look at drives from Plextor, Lite-On and MSI in the categories that really matter to most of us. How fast can I burn a full CD? How fast can I rip this entire CD to mp3? How well will this drive handle a CD-R disc compared to a pressed media disc? We go over all these categories and more in our shootout.

Check it out at: GamePC

Introducing Sky Hawk's Jupiter Aluminum Case (Review) @ SystemCooling
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 9:06 PM EST

"Sky Hawk USA is well known for economically priced Aluminum Computer Cases designed with the average and/or new computer enthusiast in mind. At the same time, many of its cases have caught the eye of both Overclockers and Modders; the Jupiter is bound to cause a stir in the industry! In today's world, it's not only important that a case be functional and cooling friendly, it needs to look good, and look good the Sky Hawk Jupiter does. From the specially designed shipping carton (to reduce possible transport damage) to the elegant, stylish and innovative case itself, anyone would be proud to own one of these beauties."

Check it out at: SystemCooling

EPoX 4G4A+ i845G P4 Motherboard Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 9:03 PM EST

But the bright side is that the CPU socket is placed horizontally, so when installing the cooler you won't hit those capacitors near the socket, like on other boards. Not even the Northbridge heatsink will get in the way, although it may seem kinda close to the socket. Notice the small MOFSETs near the socket, 6 in total. They are part of the new 3 phase power regulation that EPoX developed for this board, and these MOFSETs are very small as you can see, because they're from a newer generation. This new power regulation scheme not only saved some space around the socket, but also made it possible for EPoX to power the CPU without the need for that famous P4 12V connector. The northbridge is cooled by a large passive heatsink, which seems to do the job just fine although it heats up quite a bit even when the system bus is not overclocked.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Ontrack In-Lab Data Recovery Service review @ Explosive Labs
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 9:00 PM EST

Most people have encountered, viruses and or software incompatibles that could corrupt their hard drive, at one time or another.  In which case, you are most likely going to find yourself reformatting your hard drive and starting from scratch.  However, there are those unlikely catastrophes that aren't software related, the most common of which is power outage/surge.  Believe it or not, the problem is not the outage or surge itself.  Rather, it is the return of power.  Why?  Well, prompt power fluctuations cause electrical components such as read/write heads to fail.  When they do, the hard drive is still running with failed components, which in turn can corrupt the data stored.  Aside from power related problems, other common problems are caused by abrupt head failure, water, and impacts.

Check it out at: Explosive Labs

Samsung Syncmaster 171p LCD Review @ GideonTech
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 8:59 PM EST

"What do you think of when you hear the word Porsche? Fast cars, exotic locations and computer monitors.  That was not a typo, F.A. Porsche is the mastermind behind the design of this beautiful monitor. Just like the 911 car models, Porsche design spared nothing in putting together this model."

Check it out at: GideonTech

Samsung Yepp-90S MP3 Player Review @ TechwareLabs
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 8:58 PM EST

"As this new age of digital audio evolves with technologies like the MP3 being invented consumers now have the opportunity to be able to carry large amounts of music with them on a single sleek device. The portable MP3 player has changed the way we are able to store, listen and carry tons of music with ease. Not to mention how sleek most MP3 players are but some stand above others. One MP3 player that accomplishes this is the Samsung Yepp 90S portable MP3 player. This MP3 player is very compact and stylish and is sure to satisfy the digital audio player enthusiast."

Check it out at: TechwareLabs

Antec True Blue Power Supply Review @ ReviewNation
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:55 PM EST

"Antec is well known in the industry for their high quality computer cases. They also make great power supplies that rival the likes of Enermax, Raidmax and Sparkle. Founded in 1986, and headquartered in Fremont California, Antec has been diversifying its product line to include computer cases, power supplies, rack mount enclosures and their popular LED-lighted fans. Today's review is centered on Antec's 480 Watt true blue power supply..."

Check it out at: ReviewNation

ATI and FIC Radeon 9700 Video Card Video Review #217 (Part 1): @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:54 PM EST

"The Radeon 9700 is currently the latest and fastest 3D gaming Video Card on the planet. Supporting bleeding edge technologies like 8X AGP and DirectX 9 it will last some time before your next video upgrade. Also, driver support from ATI is now excellent. If you need a blazing 3D gaming card, then drop what you are doing and get one! Watch the Video to find out more..."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

AOpen AX4B 533 Tube Motherboard review @ Active-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:50 PM EST

The AX4B 533 Tube, which, as its name indicates, incorporates audio-out capabilities that are tied-in with a good old-fashioned vacuum tube. That's right, a vacuum tube. Surprising as it may seem, this innovation (sic) will come as quite a delight to high-fidelity audio enthusiasts, who swear by the capabilities of the little bundles of glass -- a subject we'll be exploring during our analysis.

Check it out at: Active-Hardware

MyIE2 browser reviewed @ RipNet-UK
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:48 PM EST

RipNet-UK have just posted our latest review, of a little known freeware browser that could well make a big impact - MyIE32 is a lightweight browser that still manages to pack a punch. Built around the IE core it adds an impressive feature set, including tabs, a pop-up killer, proxy features, skinning and groups (and in this case these really are features, as opposed to bugs by another name!)

Check it out at: RipNet-UK

World Exclusive: HWZ reviews the MSI MX440-VTD8X 64MB Review @ HardwareZone
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:47 PM EST

The first card featuring NVIDIA's latest NV18 core which is AGP 8X compliant. Based on the same architecture as the previous GeForce4 MX 440 GPU, there's more to this card than just an increased AGP transfer rate.

Check it out at: HardwareZone

Belkin Nostromo N30 Mouse Review @ BurnOutPC
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:46 PM EST

"The last time that I reviewed a mouse was back when I first started Burnoutpc.com last year, since the various server crashes, HDD failures, we seem to have lost that review. In light of that I asked Belkin to send me their latest gaming mouse on the market today"

Check it out at: BurnOutPC

NEWS:PC Guardian 2000 review @ Alltechbox
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:44 PM EST

"As I've already said system recovery operation takes place during the PC boot: all I had to do was to reboot the PC to have Windows 98SE loaded correctly after I've wrecked it out on purpose."

Check it out at: Alltechbox

Macase Galaxy II KA-280W Case Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:43 PM EST

As you know the first item you see when you take a look at a PC is the case. Today we have a look at yet another terrific case from Fortunetec Australia named the Macase Galaxy II KA-280W, featuring front USB, firewire connectors and more.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

MacPower Digidoc 5 Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:41 PM EST

Today we take a look at the MacPower Digidoc 5. This neat device, monitors temperature, turns on your fans when its needed, and looks very cool! Lets see what this neat gadget can do.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Vantec 1U CCK-6012 @ Viper Lair
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:40 PM EST

"As expected, the CCK-6012 is badly outperformed by the larger heatsink. At 55C, the processor is far from the danger zone, but still a little warmer than we'd like. In a server environment with controlled ambient temperatures, the heatsink should be good enough. For performance enthusiasts looking into low profile cooling, well, I suppose you can make use of it as well, but I can't think of any power user with a low profile case. I certainly wouldn't replace the heatpipe cooling in the Shuttle boxes with this cooler."

Check it out at: Viper Lair

Performance PC3200 & PC3500 DDR Review @ hardware-test
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:39 PM EST

"With this module I was very surprised positively, since they could be overclocked a great deal. I haven't seen that since we tested Corsair 333MHz, which was able to run at 400MHz. This indicates that this Performance RAM could go even higher. I am very confident that you should be able to reach 500MHz at CAS2.5 with this RAM. ."

Check it out at: hardware-test

Computuning MODRainbow Kit Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:38 PM EST

"The Mini Printed Circuit Board (PCB) drives the whole unit and is composed of seven LEDs, fourteen resistors and seven dip switches to control the LED brightness. At the end of the circuit board there is a 2-pin connector which connects directly to a standard molex connector. A jumper installed behind the power connector allows you to turn on the unit when the case is powered or you can replace the jumper with the supplied switch to control the entire configuration as you see fit."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

Hitachi CML190SXWB 19-inch TFT Display Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:32 PM EST

"Boasting a roomy screen size of 19" and a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels, it seems like a waste to use anything but the DVI port, but for the late bloomers the 15-pin analog connection is a welcome sight I suppose. The display features a 500:1 contrast ratio, brightness of 250 nits and wide viewing angles of 170 degrees horizontal/vertical. Overall, I'd have to say we are very satisfied with this latest display from Hitachi. The previous LCD monitor we reviewed from this manufacturer fell below the line of what we believe they are capable of producing, so it was reassuring to see that CML190SXWB set the trend straight once more."

Check it out at: pcstats

Zalman NPS6500A-CU HSF Review @ OCAddiction
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 7:25 PM EST

"The CNPS6500 comes in a couple of flavors.  There are two variations with heatsink material—the aluminum copper hybrid or the pure copper.  Then there are two variations in mounting system—through the motherboard holes via screws or with the use of the socket 478 heatsink bracket that comes with all motherboards.  We were fortunate enough to receive the CNPS6500A-Cu.  The “A” denotes the mounting system, which in this case, was mounted through the motherboard holes.  The “B” would mean that the heatsink mounts through the use of the socket 478 heatsink bracket.  The “Cu” denotes that the heatsink is all copper while the “AlCu” denotes the aluminum copper hybrid."

Check it out at: OCAddiction

Switched baybus review at RipNet-UK
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:41 PM EST

"How long does your PC spend working at 100% load, and hence generating all the heat that those fans are there to displace? If the answer to that question is 'not much' then you may well be putting up with earache for no reason. Ideally we want to be able to have the fans running at max when the system is working hard and pumping out heat energy, and then rein them back to a lower setting (or even off) when the work-rate is decreased..."

Also worth a mention that the baybus has 20% off right now, and so is retailing for just $15.99US.

Check it out at: RipNet-UK

Matsonic MS9068E socket 478 mainboard Review @ Active-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:40 PM EST

The Matsonic MS-9068E is the latest motherboard from the German manufacturer that many Europeans know and respect. It is a Micro ATX form-factor board that comes with a complete collection of integrated components. Like many other boards in its category, the MS-9068E includes a variety of legacy ports -- PS/2, serial, parallel -- as well as support for USB 1.1 and USB 2.0.

Check it out at: Active-Hardware

Coolermaster TLF-R82 Blue Neon Led Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:38 PM EST

Your just not cool if you don't have a coloured neon fan in your PC. As most companies these days have released coloured neon fans such as Antec's Tri-lite we find other manufacturers of fans also doing same. But with a difference. Today we take a look at Coolermaster's TLF-R82 Blue Neon Led fan. Why is it different you ask? Lets have a look.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Antec True Blue 480W Power Supply Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:37 PM EST

Neons, Neons, Neons. We all love coloured Neons, we have seen coloured case fans, LED's, cold cathode's and more. And many of us have even thought about modding a power supply. But why do it yourself? When Antec has released its 480W True Power True Blue Power supply featuring two bright blue LED's and also being super quiet and able to power all those devices in your PC with ease.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Upping the Ante : Intel’s 2.6 and 2.8 GHz Xeon Processors @ GamePC
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:36 PM EST

Today at GamePC, we've taken a good long look at the latest members of Intel's Xeon processor family, clocking in at 2.6 and 2.8 GHz. We test these new chips against AMD's Athlon MP and Intel's own Pentium 4 family to see how they stack up in a variety of workstation-class applications. We also run some tests with and without Intel's Hyperthreading technology to see what performance impact this new feature has.

Check it out at: GamePC

Everglide Optical Mouse Pads Review @ Voided Warranty
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:35 PM EST

"Today we are reviewing Everglide's awesome line of mousing surfaces. I know what you are thinking; this is just another mouse pad! Right? To my surprise the answer to this question is no!"

Check it out at: Voided Warranty

ASUS A7V8X Motherboard Review @ lostcircuits
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:33 PM EST

VIA's release of the KT400 chipset for the AMD platform at QuakeCon somewhat started off on the wrong foot. In addition, the name KT400 is really a misnomer in that there is only rather limited support for DDR400. On the surface, this paints a rather odd picture of the new chipset. Under the hood, however, is much more than meets the eye. Dedicated support for 333 MHz FSB, AGP X8 and VLink X8 for a 533 MB/sec interconnect between North and SouthBridge are just the barebones. Hand the potential of the chipset over to ASUS and let them work their magic and you'll get the A7V8X, one of the hottest boards that ever roamed the Socket A platform. What is it that got us going on that board and where are the shortcomings?

Check it out at: lostcircuits

SC.com's Modified Cooling Machine - Conclusion @ ipkonfig
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:31 PM EST

"In "Part 1" of this article, we showed you the physical modifications we asked Andrew Smith of www.designcomp.com to perform on the Lian-Li PC-68 Aluminum Mid-Tower Case. In "Part 2" we'll populate the PC-68 with the hottest stock system we can put together at this time, based on the AMD AthlonXP 2100+ CPU. What we alluded to in Part 1, but didn't really come out and say, was that what we really wanted to accomplish were both quiet and performance along with good looks; only you will be able to tell us if we succeeded!"

Check it out at: ipkonfig

Vantec 470W Stealth Powersupply Review @ frostytech
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:29 PM EST

"It's pretty rare these days to look at a powersupply and be impressed with its appearance. Now granted, what's on the inside of a powersupply is ten times as important has how the equipment looks, but with case modding and highly detailed systems out there it seems like a shame to install just another well made, grey , powersupply. As consumers, we should have the option of going for something with the power, and class, to make a full aluminum case - all aluminum! Vantec must have heard the call, because they have recently released the black anodized aluminum VAN-470A powersupply. With 470 watts of power, an armful of connectors, and some low-noise features the unit seems to have an impressive rap sheet. Add to that three fans with wire grills, and a mesh wrapped set of 24-pin ATX power cables and you have something pretty interesting in your computer."

Check it out at: frostytech

Lian-Li PC-7323B Server Case Review @ ThinkComputers
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:27 PM EST

"As time goes by and the industry changes, we can only expect constant designs changes of computer cases. My search for the ultimate computer case still continues to this day. The case that I have before me today was provided to ThinkComputers from Lian-Li. Many people know how well known Lian-Li is for there fantastic aluminum computer cases. They have everything some small desktop case's to server cases, and if it has the Lian-Li name on it you can be guaranteed quality. The case that I have for review today is the PC-7323B... "

Check it out at: ThinkComputers

Corsair XMS PC3200 DDR400 Memory Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 7:26 PM EST

"When one wants premium quality memory, there are only a few names that come to mind first; Mushkin, Crucial and Corsair. A few other companies also consistently delight overclockers, but their availability is not always a sure thing (OCZ, Xtreme DDR and GeIL). Today we're going to be reviewing a 256MB stick of Corsair XMS3200 CAS2 DDR400 to see if it is as good as everyone says it is. So why do overclockers & enthusiasts hold Corsair in such high regard? Well, Corsair has been around since 1994 and they've been producing and delivering some of the best overclocking memory from our experience. They're always among the first manufacturers to deliver new speeds of overclocking memory. They released their XMS2400 right after JEDEC approved the PC2100 standard!"

Check it out at: pcstats

The Abit SR7-8X with the SiS 648 Chipset Reviewed @ Hot Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 23, 2002 at 7:10 PM EST

Today we have a review of the latest offering from Abit that incorporates the SiS 648 chipset, the SR7-8X motherboard.  This is an economical motherboard that shows major promise with both features and performance.  It would seem that SiS has been hard at work trying to develop a cost effective product that would hit a homerun with both OEMs and users alike.  The combination of the 648 Northbridge and 963 Southbridge brings a long list of features such as USB 2.0, AGP 8X, ATA133 and a host of other features that help it stand out from the crowd.  Click a link and see how the SR7-8X performed when we put it to work!

Check it out at: Hot Hardware

HighPoint RocketRAID 1520 Serial ATA Controller Video Review #216 Review @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 23, 2002 at 7:06 PM EST

"The HighPoint RocketRAID 1520 Controller supports the latest Serial ATA Hard Drives, all major Operating Systems and RAID 0, 1 and JBOD. This product includes two RocketHead 100 converters just in case you do not have Serial ATA Hard Drives. As with all Highpoint controllers, driver support is excellent and performance is great as well. Watch the Video to find out more..."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

Palit Daytona Geforce 4 Ti 4200 Graphics Card Review @ 3dXtreme
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 23, 2002 at 7:03 PM EST

"Today 3dxtreme takes a look at the Palit Daytona Geforce 4 Ti 4200 graphics card. This card is based on the best selling Geforce 4 GPU chipset by nVidia. Although nVidia has a few higher performing video cards on the market, the Ti 4200 is the most popular due to it's incredible price to performance ratio. The Ti4200 delivers the consumer nVidia's latest technology and speed at a price that is very affordable for users on a budget. In addition to the value of the Ti4200 series, this card has all the features of the flagship GeForce 4, including Dual Vertex Shaders and Advanced Pixel Shaders to support future games. Let's take a look at the company that makes this card and the performance it delivers."

Check it out at: 3dXtreme

Asus P4T533 Motherboard Review @ insideproject
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 23, 2002 at 7:00 PM EST

"The P4T533 offers some of the features that are expected of current motherboards. It includes 4 USB 2.0 (and two USB 1.1) ports, onboard IDE RAID, and 6 channel onboard sound, as well as legacy connections (parallel, serial, PS/2, etc). However, it lacks some of the cutting-edge features that competitor’s boards have. These missing features include onboard Ethernet and ICH4 (the P4T533 uses ICH2) (which in and of itself includes USB 2.0 and Ethernet). "

Check it out at: insideproject

Corsair PC3200 (DDR400MHz) CAS2 Review @ hardware-test
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 23, 2002 at 6:57 PM EST

"I wasn’t able to overclock the RAM any higher then 440MHz. This is due to a lot of things, since I personally think it can go just a little faster. It started to get some errors when the processor has to go up to 3GHz."

Check it out at: hardware-test

PCMods Power Down Protector Review @ GideonTech
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 23, 2002 at 6:55 PM EST

GideonTech takes a look at the Power Down Protector from PCMods. It keeps fans on even after system power down preventing damage to equipment. We took it for a spin and ripped it apart to see what makes it tick.

Check it out at: GideonTech

Plextor PleXCombo 8/8/24-8U Review @ HotHardware
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 23, 2002 at 6:54 PM EST

Our man on the west coast, Chris Angelini, has reviewed Plextor's newest USB 2.0 external drive, the Plextor PleXCombo 8/8/24-8U.  This drive combines the quality of a Plextor burner, with the ability to read DVDs.  If you think any of your readers are in the market for a quality external drive, they may find this product interesting.

Check it out at: HotHardware

Lian Li PC-7323 Review @ Overclocker Café
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 23, 2002 at 6:51 PM EST

“While Dean has always been a fan of the mid-tower cases, I like the full towers. Mainly, because there is more room to work with inside the case.  So, when the people at Lian-Li contacted us to review their new line of server cases, I jumped at the chance. Little did I know that I would have to build an addition onto my house to put it in.“

Check it out at: Overclocker Café

Act-Labs USB PC Light Gun Review @ Voided Warranty
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 23, 2002 at 6:49 PM EST

"At this point I am starting to think that there is no way a product would ever be designed to act this way. That's when I decided to email tech support. I emailed them from two different email addresses, none of which were from the VoidedWarranty.com domain."

Check it out at: Voided Warranty

Titan TTC-D5TB(TC) review @ phlux
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 22, 2002 at 10:24 PM EST

"Not only does the fan look good but its also Thermal Regulated. This is a very big selling point for the heatsink and a very useful feature as when your pc is idle and not doing anything you don’t need all your fans on full blast creating a lot of noise. The thermal probe slows the fan down when the CPU is cool and then speeds it up again when the CPU starts to produce more heat."

Check it out at: phlux

Lian-Li PC-6085B case Review @ M:6 Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 22, 2002 at 10:23 PM EST

"The inside we see 5 Vertical HDD bays (3.5”), 3 Horizontal floppy bays (3.5”) and 4 Horizontal CD-ROM bays (5.25”). The edges are all smoothed, with the sharpest edge (which I tested wasn’t very sharp at all) has a plastic cover to prevent any possible cuts. Centrally you can see the power connector for the purge fan (80mm). You can see the rear 80mm exhaust fan. On the bottom are the Front USB leads and HDD LED/Power LED/Power On-Off/Reset/Speaker pins which are detachable, allowing you to remove the mother board without having to take these pins off (saves a lot of time putting them back on)."

Check it out at: M:6 Hardware

TwinMOS 512mb PC3200 DDR400 Memory Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 22, 2002 at 10:21 PM EST

PC3200 modules have got to have a very good PCB in order to achieve such high speeds, 200MHz DDR, so the TwinMOS PC3200 RAM makes no exception. The PCB is designed with 6 layers instead of the usual 4 layers that other manufacturers use for their lower clocked models. The extra 2 PCB layers ensure the signal traces are cleaner and the memory will perform as it should. The DIMM I got did not come in a retail box, but in an antistatic bag.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Stomp Inc. My Sound Studio Review @ winhq
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 22, 2002 at 10:17 PM EST

"The interface of My Sound Studio is superb and aesthetically pleasing. Despite the cool GUI, it's hard to use this program without some assistance. It took me a while to learn how to get around the program and use the various features. My Sound Studio isn't exactly the easiest program..."

Check it out at: winhq

DION USB Memory Drive Review @ ICEHardware
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:57 PM EST

"How annoying is it when you need to transfer files that wont fit on a floppy but are relatively small and you have to waste a CD-R on them. I find this very annoying, thats why I am a great fan of this product, it allows you to transfer files quickly and easily, and is small too."

Check it out at: ICEHardware

Setting up an Apache Web Server Article @ Monster Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:56 PM EST

"A webserver can be a great solution as an interface to content or resources sitting on a LAN for any sized network: a networked home up to a corporate sized company. You can use widely available html editors to whip up the web pages in no time and and direct users to content. From personal experience a well organized web interface requires zero training to your users, which is always a major plus. As you will see setting up restrictions access rights for the various users is a breeze. Regarding access from the outside into your intranet, one has to be very cautious and take security issues well into consideration before doing so."

Check it out at: Monster Hardware

Ahanix Iceberg 1 Water Cooling Kit Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:55 PM EST

"The water block is composed of 95% aluminium and 5% copper alloy. Its dimensions are 69 (W) x 12 (H) x 62 (D) mm. While Pentium 4 users should not be concerned with the size of the unit due to the design of the Socket 478 retention mechanism, the overall width and depth of the unit provide a small profile which should handle even the most cramped of socket installations. The unit has two 3/8 fittings, positioned at opposite ends of the block. Since the unit is completely sealed, it was impossible to inspect the internal configuration of the water block. A cross section of the block, however, can be seen on Ahanix web page. The product shot shows dozens of small channels running the length of the block. The overall performance of the block will be limited by this design, since coolant is run across the processor, picking up heat before it reaches the center of the core, where the most heat is generated."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

Monitor buying guide @ RipNet-UK
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:53 PM EST

"Your eyes are very important, and a small cheap 15" monitor will strain your eyes after a long stint in front of the screen. Good quality monitors are becoming easier to get hold of without spending large amounts of cash, TFT's are still too new and a little out of the general reach of Joe public..."

Check it out at: RipNet-UK

BlueTake BlueTooth Kit Review @ BurnOutPC
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:52 PM EST

"The ability to connect multiple devices wirelessly was, in the past, very expensive. Your only choice was 802.11b wireless networking. Even a small network of 3 computers could cost you (on the cheap side) 300USD. I do not care who you are, 300 bucks is a lot of cash. What has been on the table for the last year or so is a standard that would allow a user to connect multiple devices together, without the hassle of wiring, and do so with out spending a fortune. This is what we are looking at today. BlueTake's Solution for Bluetooth networking. BT007 and BT009 Bluetooth devices."

Check it out at: BurnOutPC

Zalman ZM300A-APF PSU Review @ OCAddiction
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:50 PM EST

"Getting stats on a PSU isn’t as easy as firing up Motherboard Monitor, or your proprietary monitoring software that came with your motherboard. There are many different variables that come into play. What sensor is being used on the motherboard, the length of the motherboard traces, the length of the PSU ATX, and power cabling. I am including shots of MBM 5.1.9.1 (since that’s what I use for everyday monitoring) but for true voltage performance I will be stating measurements taken with a Beckman Industrial Digital MultiMeter."

Check it out at: OCAddiction

Window Appliqué From ShatteredWeb Reviewed @ Voided Warranty
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:46 PM EST

"I spoke with the owner and he told me that the application tape will slide with the appliqué. Some of the tape stays on the white backing, so you have to use the credit card to smooth it down again."

Check it out at: Voided Warranty

AOpen AX4G Pro mainboard Review @ Overclocker Café
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:44 PM EST

“The strength of the AOpen AX4G Pro lies in its broad based appeal and pricing.  At the time of this writing, the board can be had for around $110.  That is an extremely attractive deal for business.  A mainboard, sound, video, and NIC for just over 100 clams will definitely get the attention of many a company purchasing officer.  For the gamer, the performance is there at a significantly lower price than many of the other P4 boards around.  Adding in your own VGA card removes the only detractor of running this board as a stand alone mainboard solution.”

Check it out at: Overclocker Café

Xtreme DDR PC3200 Review @ pimprig
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:43 PM EST

"Xtreme DDR is a relatively new RAM manufacturer in the world of DDR RAM. With a name like Xtreme DDR it's hard to not be curious about whether or not their claims of being "Gamers Memory" is justifiable. After exchanging some emails with the guys over at Xtreme DDR they were rather proud to point out that their PC3200 memory was approved for the new Abit AT7 Max2 motherboard."

Check it out at: pimprig

Albatron GeForce4 Ti4200P-Turbo 128MB Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:41 PM EST

"Even though the GeForce4 Ti line of videocards are no longer the fastest on the market, the GeForce4 Ti4200 is still easily the best value GPU around. To start things off, the Albatron GF4 Ti4200P Turbo uses the same 8-layer PCB design as GeForce4 Ti4400/Ti4600 videocards. It has a very impressive and well designed GPU heatsink (which we'll get into later), some flashy memory sinks, TV-Output (using the Phillips 7104E) and finally a DVI output. It seems that Albatron has taken a liking to the blue PCB's, and I for one say they look pretty awesome! The Albatron GeForce4 Ti4200P-Turbo is a tad pricer then the average Ti4200 at $270 CDN ($185 US) but that's to be expected. After all, the 8-layer PCB is more expensive to produce and it also uses higher quality 3.3ns BGA DDR RAM of which there is 128MB in this version."

Check it out at: pcstats

Design Comp CM 42-RDDCi all acrylic Computer Case Kit Video Review #215 @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:38 PM EST

"The Design Comp CM 42-RDDCi all acrylic Computer Case Kit is very easy to assemble and made from very high quality parts which fit together extremely well. You will be hard pressed to find a case as functional and awesome looking as this product. Watch the Video to find out more..."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

Corsair 256MB XMS PC3200 DDR @ Viper Lair
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:35 PM EST

"What can we see of the XMS memory?  It seems that Corsair has a very nice stick of RAM here, as it easily hits 200MHz at standard SPD settings, and even goes higher when the voltage is turned up.  At turbo settings this memory reaches a very nice 186MHz at standard settings, at 3v it easily reaches 200MHz and even goes higher reaching into the 210+ range at 2-2-2 1T."

Check it out at: Viper Lair

Yet more letters! @ dansdata
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:34 PM EST

This one features rudeness about computer fan "turbo timers", reasons for intermittent game-jerkiness, another reason to dislike brand name computers, USB networking options, drive partition twiddling, a whole bunch of free RAM, and The Domain That Is Not Alive, Yet Not Dead.

Check it out at: dansdata

Project: [RICE:CASE] @ M:6
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:32 PM EST

"Ever heard riced cars? How about riced computer? Yes, you heard it right.. I'm ricing my case!!! For those who don't know what rice is (not the type of food:) ) check www.riceboypage.com for more information. If you're too lazy to click the link, heres the snip:"

Check it out at: M:6

Thermalright SLK-800 heatsink review @ OCModShop
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:29 PM EST

I am thoroughly impressed with this heatsink and can say that it is the best that I have ever tested. Thermalright has again produced a high quality heatsink which can perform really well. This heatsink has a lot to offer especially because it can hold a 60mm, 70mm, and regular 80mm fan, not to mention the huge 80mm fans. The clips that hold the fan on are excellent and are very easy to use, I really like how you can quickly changes fans and don't have to use screws. The heatsink is protected with a plastic bag and the base has a plastic strip to keep it from getting scratched and the finish on the bottom is great. The only thing I do not like about this heatsink is the clip part of it. I really like that it uses all 6 tabs but like I said before the part for your screwdriver is horrible and will not make it easy for you to install this without it slipping off. I really think that Thermaltake should have fixed this problem because it was evident in the AX-7.

Check it out at: OCModShop

Leadtek GeForce 4 Ti4600 Video Card (Review) @ ipKonfig
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:26 PM EST

"Leadtek has been around for quite some time, but not until recently has it broken into the retail market and really started making its own little niche.

In past times most passed its products off as low end OEM, though there were in fact many performance cards. Now Leadtek enters a new era with a new attitude, based on a full line of retail Geforce 4-based cards. Today we will be looking at the Geforce 4 Ti4600, the current graphics leader."

Check it out at: ipKonfig

MSI 645E Max Motherbaord Review @ ReviewNation
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 5:21 PM EST

"For many of the readers frequenting Review Nation, the lack of Intel/Pentium 4 products had been troubling. Well that is all going to end now. MSI has been in the business of hardware for a long time. They are quite good at it, and they know how to best utilize your computer's resources. But, I suppose the largest part of why MSI has gained so much popularity as of late, is due largely to the small price put on products of extremely high quality. It's a bargain, it works and it lasts. This seems to be the motto of MSI, and it rightfully should be. But is this motherboard for you? Well it's a socket 478, Pentium 4 ready, brilliantly red piece of hardware. Its features are simply awe inspiring considering its price. Not to mention the ability to utilize DDR RAM instead of RDRAM, this is a welcome change for Pentium 4 users. And of course the board also comes with your standard motherboard fare..."

Check it out at: ReviewNation

CoolerGuys Custom Chenming ATX-601AE @ OCIA
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:20 PM EST

"Chenming classifies this case as an Entry Server case when you go to their website. I would have to agree with that classification 100%. The locking features and ample drive bays, amongst other things, make for a great entry level server case. First, I will list the specifications and features of the case as they are directly from the Chenming website. Next, I will list the Customizations that have been added by CoolerGuys.com"

Check it out at: OCIA

Netscape 7 reviewed at RipNet-UK
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:19 PM EST

"The NS7 browser is an MDI (Multiple Document Interface) application using tabs, making it easy to have multiple websites open in a single window. You can set a "groupmark" to open a group of tabs at once, making it easy to create a group of all your favourite hardware sites - including RipNet-UK of course! and open them with one click! The tabbed interface works well..."

Check it out at: RipNet-UK

CoolerMaster Aluminum MousePad Reviewed @ BurnOutPc
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:18 PM EST

"With a company that needs no introduction here at Burnoutpc.com, Coolermaster is enjoying their 10th anniversary, and to celebrate they are releasing a collector item that will surely peek your interest."

Check it out at: BurnOutPc

ClearPC acrylic case review @ phlux
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:17 PM EST

"Well that’s enough looking at it, its time to get a system in their and see how it looks. It’s best to install the HDD’s and CD drives first and then replace the drive cage. The acrylic spacers are used on the screws to stop you from over tightening the screws for your HDD’s and therefore damaging the case. Its simple but it works."

Check it out at: phlux

Zalman 300W ZM300A-APF Quiet Power Supply Review @ frostytech
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:16 PM EST

"When was the last time you gave more than a passing thought to your power supply? If it works, good. If it can supply 300 Watts, super. If it makes noise.... you live with it right? The answer to that last question doesn't always have to be no, and in the case of the Zalman ZM300A-APF the answer most certainly is "quiet." From the outside there is no difference between this power supply and any other you can see except for the lack of a 115V-250V selector switch (this power supply has circuitry which doesn't require it). The ATX 2.03 compatible power supply is Pentium 4 compliant and supplies a healthy 300W of juice to the computer."

Check it out at: frostytech

D-Link USB Radio Review @ ICEHardware
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:12 PM EST

"BigPockets have provided us with a small, very light external PC Radio that fits into your USB port. They describe it as "the funkiest product we have seen" and comes with MP3 conversion software so you it is possible to save radio transmissions as MP3 files. Produced by the well known D-Link (often associated with networking equipment) this radio costs a mere £5.99."

Check it out at: ICEHardware

MaXXXpert Miro1 Watercooling Kit Review @ DeviantPC
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:10 PM EST

"One of the main concerns for anyone dabbling in watercooling is of course the quality of the pump used. I am in two minds whether MaXXXpert should have included a pump with their kit. On one side it is supposed to be a one-stop watercooling solution and should in principle supply the user with everything he or she needs to get started. On the other hand the quality of the pump is critical; if MaXXXpert had included a pump would it have been of high quality? Anyway it would have certainly made the kit more expensive."

Check it out at: DeviantPC

Dr.Thermal Ti V86N cooler Review @ BurnOutPC
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:09 PM EST

"Man has rediscovered copper.  Copper is one of the worlds oldest metals, and has been in use since its discovery.  While the beginnings of copper may have been in crude tools, the tools it is used in today are a lot more specialized, and definitely not as crude.  Some CPU’s are using copper within their dies, allowing for speeds faster than aluminum allows for.  And heat sinks using copper are sitting on top of these CPU’s, providing better heat transfer than aluminum as well."

Check it out at: BurnOutPC

Sound Dampening Material Shootout @ Monster Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:08 PM EST

"That’s right, a 115v 6" diameter Fulmar model 5915PC-12T-B30 fan... 35 watts and 220 cfm of raw air moving power! (grunt-grunt!) It has a metal hub and blades enclosed in a cast aluminum open frame with a grill on the input side. The rating for this fan in regards to sound level is 56db, to which I reply - either the test engineer was smoking crack that day or they definitely used a bad sound meter - it has a particularly nasty whine. With an ambient sound level of less than 60 db in my shop, the fan measured a noise output of about 80 to 84 db depending on the angle of the sound meter."

Check it out at: Monster Hardware

Avoiding electrocution Article @ dansdata
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:07 PM EST

Lots of people don't understand basic electrical theory, and as a result are unreasonably afraid of low voltage. This column explains why you shouldn't be worried.

Check it out at: dansdata

Thermal Compounds: A Definitive Guide @ insideproject
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:05 PM EST

This is the first part of a multi-series of reviews designed to help computer users of all skill levels understand certain functionalities, and to maximize their potential towards building, repairing and/or upgrading their PC. This particular section concerns the thermal conductive properties of some of the most popularly used thermal compounds on the market today, and a few of the lesser known ones as well. This review has literally taken several months to honestly test within a controlled environment (for reasons explained shortly), and yes - certain pieces of hardware were dutifully sacrificed in the process*. This review was meant to be totally comprehensive in scope, so because of a hardware failure after 3.5 months of testing, the entire process had to be completely redone from scratch, in order to preserve its complete unbiased integrity. Please note that no one is or has ever been paid anything for this review - this is a completely honest, unbiased showdown - and simply the rock bottom line.

Check it out at: insideproject

VIA's P4X400 Chipset for Pentium 4 @ GamePC
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:02 PM EST

Today at GamePC, we've finally taken a good solid look at VIA's P4X400 chipset for the Pentium 4. With boards based on the chipset finally hitting the market, we've grabbed a new board from Soyo to see how it holds up against the competition. With DDR-333, AGP 8x, and USB 2.0 functionality, the chipset holds its own on paper, but how will it score in the benchmarks? We test it against DDR and RDRAM chipsets from Intel and SiS.

Check it out at: GamePC

The Shattered Web Coloured Window Appliqués Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7:00 PM EST

"The Shattered Web Coloured Appliqués arrived in a small padded white envelope. Inside the review package were three sample designs: The Punisher Logo, Counter Strike Logo and the Mortal Combat Logo. The standard sizes for most of the appliqués offered measure 7 1/2", which is the perfect size for a side panel window. The same appliqués designs can also be reproduced in smaller sizes measuring 3 1/2", which are perfect for cases with top mount windows. To assist with the installation, a one page reference sheet is included as well as a plastic blue squeegee."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

Palit Daytona GeForce 4 Ti4200 (Review) @ ipKonfig
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 6:58 PM EST

"Palit Daytona is a company that too many may either be unheard of, or just a small OEM. Today we are here to find out why this is not the whole story, and what makes the Palit card prime competition against mainstream products like Asus, MSI, and many others.

Palit has broken the mold with its marketing strategy, and instead of trying to lure you into buying its product with a large software and/or hardware bundle, it just gives you what you want and are paying for: a top end graphics card, drivers and a box."

Check it out at: ipKonfig

Stomp Inc's MySoundStudio Review @ Tech-Dreams
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 6:56 PM EST

"Have you ever wanted to mix your own music? Create audio buttons for your flash website? Or simply edit an mp3 track that overlaps to another song? If you answered yes to any of these questions than you might want to go over to Stomp Inc.'s website and check out there new software, MySoundStudio. Yes, I do know there are many different types of audio editing software available today, but are they easy to use? I've played with a few in my time, and some are truly complicated, so when I installed Stomp Inc.'s audio editing software I was pleased of the fact I did not need a manual to get started using the basics of this program. With that being said, let's get on with the review."

Check it out at: Tech-Dreams

Kingston 512mb SODIMM Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 6:54 PM EST

The stick itself is comprised of eight modules, each one 64mb in size (64x8=512). So why are 1GB DIMMs stacked? And why don't we see 2GB sticks? And what's the density limit per module? Who knows. But at least one reason why we don't have higher capacity DIMMs is the same reason a 512mb SODIMM costs about three times as much. At this stage, it's simply not economical. Back to the sample at hand, mine came with a pre-attached heat spreader, though I doubt its effectiveness.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Soyo P4X400 DDR400 Mainboard Review @ Active-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 6:52 PM EST

Ever since the introduction of the "Dragon" series of mobos, Soyo has been taken with the idea of producing boards with a wide variety of features and functionality. The new Platinum Edition P4X400 -- for its part -- comes in a silver finish, and can boast of support for DDR400 memory, ATA133 drivers, a RAID 0+1 controller, a six-channel C-Media 8738 sound-card, and integrated SPDIF connectors.

Check it out at: Active-Hardware

ASUS 8420 Geforce 4 Ti 4200 @ Riva3d
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 6:50 PM EST

"The V8420 Deluxe is Asus's latest addition to the Geforce 4 Ti series, and is designed for the mid-range 3D market. Using the latest Geforce 4 Ti4200 GPU from Nvidia, it's the lowest of the Geforce 4 Ti range, but offers incredible value for money and performance at just $210 USD."

Check it out at: Riva3d

Arkua 848X-6B 1U Pentium 4 Heatsink Review @ frostytech
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:43 PM EST

"When was the last time you said to yourself "I need a 1U heatsink for my Pentium 4 server" and came up empty? Well, this week we are examining a few 1U and 2U heatsinks for the socket 478 form factor. These heatsinks are being manufactured with the intention that they will be used to cool down server chips, but in this day and age it seems more likely that these active heatsinks will get mounted into a Small Form Factor PC. In those small aluminum cases, space is at a premium just as it is in servers. The goal in each instance is to optimize the thermal performance of the heatsink."

Check it out at: frostytech

Actiontec 802.11a 54Mbps Wireless Gear Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:42 PM EST

"The Actiontec PCMCIA cards which house the 802.11a components are compatible with 32-bit Type II PC Cardbus slots and will fit in just about any notebook on the market today. Below the black plastic part which pops up to a little over twice the height of the rest of the card sits an Atheros AR5000 WLAN chipset which operates at between 5.15 and 5.35GHz. That signal range puts the 802.11a way out of the range of interference created by microwaves, cellular & cordless phones, Bluetooth and even good old 802.11b. The FCC licences 5.25 - 5.35 / 5.65-5.85GHz to high power radar systems which is about the only thing left to possibly cause interference from what we can tell."

Check it out at: pcstats

AOpen AX4B-533 Tube Motherboard (Socket 478) Video Review #214 @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:40 PM EST

"The AOpen AX4B-533 Tube Motherboard has some very interesting features like Vacuum Tube onboard Audio, Dr. Voice II, Watch Dog Timer, USB 2, etc.. There is no question that this is a very high quality product; however, with the current BIOS this motherboard has very little overclocking potential. Watch the Video to find out more..."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

Plextor Plexwriter 40/12/40U Review @ InsideProject
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:39 PM EST

"As in our earlier Plextor internal 40x review we tried Burn-Proof technology, we tried it this time too. We burnt the same 300mb image file from HDD to CD while copying files over network, multitasking and watching DivX movie! Burn-Proof technology was used, but Plextor managed to burn the cd completely with no errors on the disc."

Check it out at: InsideProject

Tweakmonster Glowing Light Tape Review @ insideproject
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:32 PM EST

The world of PC mods continues to offer new options to the enthusiast looking to do something new to his case. Among the more recent additions is that of light tape. Light tape is essentially an electroluminescent material with a sticky backing. Attached to an inverter, the tape can be given power from a computer's 12 volt power supply and made to glow brightly. It is made in a variety of colors, by a number of manufacturers. Today we'll be looking at the product made by Tweakmonster, sold by Highspeed PC. This is Rev. 2 of the light tape.

Check it out at: insideproject

UV Sensitive Fans, PSU Mod and Rounded Cables Showcase @ OCIA
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:30 PM EST

"As with the case fans and the rounded cables, our newest "mod toy", the PSU replacement cover, has evolved. In the beginning we had your standard color covers. Case-Mod.com has taken this as well as the two above mentioned products and taken them one step further by adding UV sensitivity to each product. In this article we will take a look at each item and show you what type of results you can expect from them."

Check it out at: OCIA

Nexland ISB SOHO @ Viper Lair
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:29 PM EST

"In today's world of increased computer use, households on average now have at least 2 computers. Internet access has almost become a necessity, and broadband is now more popular than ever. Yet how is one to distribute a connection between the computers in one's household? The simple answer is to get a router and use ipmasq to create an internal network."

Check it out at: Viper Lair

DFI AD77 Infinity - KT400 Preview @ hardware-test
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:28 PM EST

"Now let's take a look at the KT400, which is one of the newest chipsets available. The Northbridge is called VT8368. One of the biggest changes is the increase in bandwidth that's between the North- and Southbridge. It has been increased to whopping 533MB/s, which is exactly double of what the KT333CE had. The KT400 also supports AGP8x, which is something that we are going to see more about in the future. "

Check it out at: hardware-test

Corsair 512MB XMS3200 review @ OCModShop
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:27 PM EST

Corsair has once again made an outstanding product and my thoughts of the company is still the same as it was from when I reviewed their XMS2700. They are continuing to make superior products which can outperform almost any other in the market. This is the best stick of RAM that I have come across so far and it is very high quality. I really love the fact that this stick was able to run at 2-2-2 1T @ 200 FSB because that's faster than its specifications. I really need a KT400 motherboard because I want to see how high I can get this stick of RAM on a motherboard that can actually utilize the full potential of it. If a KT333 motherboard can do DDR400 2-2-2 1T a good KT400 motherboard should own. This stick of RAM is going to cost you about $200 which isn't cheap but the quality and performance that you are going to get from it are more than worth the money.

Check it out at: OCModShop

How To Article: DVD to DivX Backup @ bitbender
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:26 PM EST

"In other words, DivX makes your DVD backup look good, damn good, just as MP3 did to CD backups (well, for most people at least). What we're going to do today is backup your precious DVDs, which you bought at your favorite store, so in case your pet (includes, cat, dog, significant other) scratches the dics beyond repair, throws it in the dumpster, or chews it up, you'll still have a backup of your favorite movie - Grease."

Check it out at: bitbender

The Akasa AK-821 Heatsink (Review) @ SystemCooling
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:24 PM EST

"No, it’s not a typo. I’m reviewing another Akasa. Last time I ran a comparison review of the Akasa AK-824 and my MCXC370 paired with the screamin’ Delta 60mm. It was more of an apples and oranges test. This week we pit the brothers against each other in a no-holds-barred cage match. As is my custom, I started my prep work by researching this unit on the net. I searched for costs, specs and previous reviews. I certainly didn’t want to foist a simple regurgitation of an existing work on you where we would both be done a disservice. I hope I bring a fresh look to reviews that are both informative and interesting."

Check it out at: SystemCooling

OCAddiction reviews OCSystems Overclocked P4 System
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:22 PM EST

"Some of the little things other PC assemblers may take some short cuts on OCSystem did not.  The Enermax 465 is a great power supply that regardless of any fans or additional drives you add will perform very well.  The Coolermaster and especially the Swiftech heatsinks are outstanding.  Swiftech has been kicking ass in the heatsink market for awhile now.  The Thermaltake Tiger1 helps keep the Abit IT7-Max's chipset cool and is a nice upgrade over the rather cheap aluminum, passive heatsink Abit put on it.  Also, the Thermaltake GeForce4 Copper Cooler is again the best off the shelf video card cooler on the market and the addition of the RAMsinks make the card look better and give it better stability on those hot summer days.  Additionally, OCSystem will add a 5th fan to the top of the case and give you a choice of several quality fans.  They installed the Blue LED fans in the review unit I used, which look very nice in a dim or dark room."

Check it out at: OCAddiction

PNY Quadro 4 900XGL Profession MCAD Graphics - Review @ HotHardware
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 7:21 PM EST

Tonight we are straying a bit from our typical fray and stepping into the Professional MCAD Graphics scene.  Our in-house CAD-Man John "tool." Fiegener took an all new PNY Quadro 4 900XGL, based on the GeForce 4 Quadro GPU, for a spin tonight.

Check it out at: HotHardware

Highpoint hard disk controller RocketRAID 1520 Review @ Active-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 7:16 PM EST

Serial ATA is an easy-to-implement drive connection standard that, according to manufacturers, is designed to scale from the current speeds of ATA133, all the way to ATA800. This particular article will be dedicated to testing one particular Serial ATA controller -- the two-channel RAID 0+1 Highpoint RocketRAID 1520.

Check it out at: Active-Hardware

RocketRAID 1520 reviewed @ dansdata
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 7:12 PM EST

You can buy Serial ATA controllers right now. You can't buy Serial ATA drives, though. This situation is not as silly as it sounds, and I explain why in my review of HighPoint's RocketRAID 1520 SATA controller card.

Check it out at: dansdata

Sony SDM-X82 LCD Monitor and IDF 2002 Tech Showcase at GamePC
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 7:11 PM EST

Today at GamePC, we're bringing you two new pieces of content to chew on. First off, we've taken a look at Sony's second-generation 18.1" LCD display, the SDM-X82. The SDM-X82 boasts sleek new styling, 1280x1024 resolution, and dual monitor inputs. Can it satisfy the needs of gamers too? We take it for a test drive.

Check it out at: GamePC

Xoxide X300 Super Mid-Tower Case (Review) @ ipKonfig
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 7:09 PM EST

"Today we are going to have a look at a unique modded case from Xoxide.com. Xoxide has managed to do quite well in its somewhat brief time in the market, and that is due to the quality of its cases. This is proven by the fact that you always get what you pay for in perfect condition, exactly as ordered. There are companies out there that don't achieve that; in some cases I've gotten a case with a window half fallen out, and others with modded hardwiring that didn't work. This nonsense is quite upsetting to the customer, but is non-existent with Xoxide."

Check it out at: ipKonfig

Nexland Pro100 Internet Sharing Box Review @ Voided Warranty
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 7:07 PM EST

"Well with some doubt I heeded off to the T-1 line to setup the Nexland Pro100 ISB. I plugged in all the stuff and it was off to the races."

Check it out at: Voided Warranty

AMD AthlonXP 2400+ Processor Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 7:05 PM EST

The Athlon has always been a very capable processor, often able to rival Intel's flagship processors for the performance crown while maintaining an excellent level of value. It seems though that AMD has hit a snag with their 0.13 micron manufacturing process. Going down to a 0.13 micron manufacturing process is quite difficult and more than a few other FAB's, like TSMC for example are having difficulty with the process. With the first revision Thoroughbred hitting a top speed of around 1.9-2 GHz things didn't weren't looking to good for AMD in the battle against Intel. So what exactly did AMD do to turn things around?

Check it out at: pcstats

Samsung SyncMaster 171P @ MonkeyReview
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 7:04 PM EST

The stylish design of the SyncMaster 171P will make you the envy of all your friends, family and co-workers. It looks good from all angles and will compliment any office desk. Unfortunately, the stylish design and quality comes at a price of 999$ US. This price, for most, is a lot to spend on a 17 inch monitor. If price wasn’t a factor, this monitor would be sitting in front of every computer that I work on.

Check it out at: MonkeyReview

APC 500VA Battery Backup @ ReviewNation
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:19 PM EST

"You've spent hundreds on your new PC, installed all your favorite software and its running perfect. Then one day while playing your favorite game, the electricity goes out. When you reboot you discover your favorite saved game is gone! It's a fact of life, sometimes we lose data, but this could have been prevented with the right equipment. This scenario is typical to most power companies across the country, especially now since we are using computers more than ever. For this reason we will be looking at American Power Conversion's APC500 VA uninterruptible power supply. APC is a market leader in computer battery back up systems and surge protectors..."

Check it out at: ReviewNation

Zalman CNPS5700D-Cu Ducted P4 Heatsink Review @ frostytech
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:18 PM EST

"When the Zalman CNPS5700D-Cu arrived I have to admit there was a bit of a "whoa" factor to contend with. The heatsink and air duct are not like anything we have seen on the cooling market before, so it was a treat to see first hand. The clear blue air duct also posed some interesting questions about case cooling efficiency. Now, add in the fact that we've just finished a review on some of Akasa's LED fans and you can see how the next step evolved pretty quickly. Before we even tried to test out the CNPS5700D-Cu for its thermal performance we started playing around with it, and the results look pretty cool under the right light."

Check it out at: frostytech

Vantec CopperX Socket 478 CCK-7025 Cooler Video Review #213 @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:16 PM EST

"The Vantec CopperX 478 CCK-7025 Cooler has one of the quickest on and off clip designs to date which means easy installation and removal. Also, the heatsink on this cooler is all copper and with a quiet fan is the perfect choice for that quiet CPU cooling sensation! Watch the Video to find out more..."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

Nexland ISB 800 Pro Review @ Monster Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:15 PM EST

"The ISB pro 800 is not only a proposed solution for ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) but also offers many other simple to complex configuration options such as a NAPT Firewall, Unlimited IPsec Tunnels, an ISDN/Analog Backup RS232 Serial Port, DHCP  server, group protocol restriction administrating and more."

Check it out at: Monster Hardware

MSI GeForce4 Ti4600-VTD MS-8872 Review @ hardware-test
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:14 PM EST

"It very easy to see where the raw power comes from…the MSI card! It outperforms the others without problems because of its high frequencies, yet to be outperformed by the overcooked Ti4200 a couple of times that is. In overclocked mode there’s no doubt…MSI rules. It’s a fast card, no doubt about that.

The software package combined with the low price and the high performance will have many people choose the card as their new graphics card. The money you save, would be a good investment in better cooling, which will give this card a positive kick as to overclocking possibilities.  "

Check it out at: hardware-test

Unreal Tournament 2003 demo tweak guide @ TechSpot
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:12 PM EST

Unreal Tournament 2003 is the PC sequel to Digital Extremes & Epic Games massively successful Unreal Tournament. After a few months of delay, the demo of this already popular multiplayer shoot ‘em up has now been released, hopefully with many improvements over what we could have got around July when it was first supposed to come out.

As expected with this new FPS release we are also getting a completely revamped graphics engine; fast paced action combat combined with superb animations will require a fast machine so you will want to make sure everything is fine tuned for best visuals and improved 3d audio with a minimum performance loss.

Check it out at: TechSpot

Dual Voltage 6 Port Baybus Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:10 PM EST

"All six of the 3-position switches have been clearly labelled from S1 to S6, with the numerical value representing each individual fan channel. One single switch is capable of handling 8W per channel up to a maximum of 14w compared to the PCMods Baybus, which is limited to 6w per channel. As previously mentioned, this baybus utilizes a series of voltage regulators aligned with yellow trimmer pots, which allow the minimum and maximum output voltage specifications for a fixed value (i.e. 12v) to be adjusted from 0v all the way to up 11.25v. Depending on the type of fan used, by changing orientation of the trimmer pots, users can increase or decrease the amount of voltage applied to a standard case fan."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

AMD Socket A - MCX-462+ (Review) @ SystemCooling
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:08 PM EST

About ten days ago we showed you a preview of the new MCX-462+ and called it the latest and greatest 80mm AMD (socket 462) Athlon cooler ever to hit the marketplace-and, with testing complete, we haven't changed our minds! We also said that over the last few years there has been a war raging around us-not for land, but for the ultimate prize: Power-Users and Overclockers hard-earned $$$ and the title "The World's Best Cooler" or, as some would put it, "King of the Hill".

Check it out at: SystemCooling

1CoolPc.com's Clear LED Fan Review @ Voided Warranty
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:06 PM EST

"If you match this up with a blue cold cathode, or the cathode that matches your led fan, then it should make an awesome combination for modding your pc."

Check it out at: Voided Warranty

Seagate Barracuda SATA V (serial ATA-150) Review @ lostcircuits
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:04 PM EST

Mass storage media are currently pushing the envelope of parallel interfaces. Cable properties, connector legacies and signaling protocols have reached a point where trading off one potential problem spot against another has left no more room for technical and design navigation. Cross talk, ground bouncing and signal ringing, along with too tight timing windows have left no margins for improvement beyond ATA PI-7 (UATA-133) and, thus, the industry is confronted with the paradox that the actual storage media such as hard disk drives outperform the connectivity. Other issues like lack of hot swap capability and difficult trace routing on the PCB have done the rest to call for a radical change of guards. Within the next few weeks / months, we will experience a somewhat radical transition from parallel to serial ATA that will deliver higher speed, improved reliability and easier installation along with the introduction of some other nifty features like tagged command queuing to the commodity drive world.

What are the real pitfalls of parallelism? How can serialization address the issues and what can we expect in terms of the industry supporting the new kids on the block? Time to put on those big reading glasses and the thinking cap (it may get a bit technical at times) ....

Taking theory to the testlab, we have dissected the Seagate Barracuda SATA V and show you the first prototype of the next generation of drive including some mindblowing performance. Any problems with it? You are about to find out.

Check it out at: lostcircuits

Samsung 40X12X40 CDRW Review @ GideonTech
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:03 PM EST

"Just like it's younger brother, this 40X12X40 CD-RW incorporates similar technology.  To prevent buffer underuns a hefty 8MB buffer is used by the drive.  If that was not enough, also include is the Super Link technology.  When Super Link is used, it monitors the buffers and slows/stops burning when incoming data buffer is empty. It then resumes when the data catches up later on.  This helps in preventing burning 'coasters'.  The drive also incorporates DVA(Dynamic Vibration Absorber) which helps dampen the noise level of the drive during operation."

Check it out at: GideonTech

12" Multi-Color Cold Cathode Kit Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 7:01 PM EST

All was well and I was done with this review, ready to post. Then hunger kicked in, so I went to grab some munchies and left the system running. I come back 30 minutes later and notice the light went out. There's also a stench in the room. Something burning. Uh oh. So I turned off the system, unplugged the light and sniffed my way to the source of the odor. Though the cathode doesn't get too warm, the transformer is another story altogether. Apparently this thing got so hot in a mere 30 minutes that it managed to melt the velcro covering. Not sure what happened after that. I removed the plastic covering and all the wires still seem to be intact. My guess is that it just overheated, varying the resistance and in turn frying something somewhere.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Adminmod / Metamod Setup for Windows Guide @ Geekshelter
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 6:59 PM EST

"So now, you have your CS server set up, you want to set up AdminMod, a unit of organization for "admins" for your server. Admin mod allows you to have people say "timeleft" and "nextmap" on your server, and also allows you to add specific admins by wonid/name, to your server. They would access their admin priviligdes in game, by typing in "admin_password password". We will go over more in-depth later on in this guide, do not worry. This will go over Windows AdminMod/Metamod setup. There are a bunch of plugins for AdminMod, that you can add later. For example, a admin_vote_gravity script, where if you are admin, you can start a vote for your clients to change gravity. Pretty neat, Huh!"

Check it out at: Geekshelter

Corsair 256MB PC2700 DDR @ Viper Lair
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 6:57 PM EST

"So what can we see from the overclocking results?  First we see that the generic RAM can't even reach 166MHz, even using the slower 'fast' settings.   It seems more like a good batch of overclockable PC2100 RAM and not the PC2700 RAM it's supposed to be.  The Corsair memory fairs better, as it manages to reach or pass the 166MHz 'barrier' in three of its four tests.  Unfortunately, it 'should' have been able to pass 166MHz without a problem even at the Turbo settings at default voltage."

Check it out at: Viper Lair

MySoundStudio 6 review @ Bytesector
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 16, 2002 at 6:56 PM EST

My Sound Studio is a great sound editing tool and recording tool for the average computer user. It offers stereo multi-track recording, as well as editing existing sound files. Offering 6 channels of high quality recording, it can handle layered songs with many tracks.....

Check it out at: Bytesector

Setting up your Computer System with Raid Configuration and Installing The Operating System @ Geekshelter
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 7:29 PM EST

"Alright most of the time I see a lot of guides talking about people setting up SCSI controller’s with also duel SCSI hard drives. If you didn’t realize by now those things are so darn expensive for the normal guy to go out and give away all that money. If you’re like me you want a lot of speed and performance out of your machine but you really don’t want to spend the money for SCSI configuration (I have money just don’t like to blow it all on computer parts all the time heh) then this guide is right thing for you to read."

Check it out at: Geekshelter

Soldering guide @ Alltechbox
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 7:28 PM EST

"For precision jobs, like modding your motherboard, it's better to have a pen-like iron with a heat output inferior to 20W in order to reduce electronic components overheating risk."

Check it out at: Alltechbox

Shuttle XPC Athlon XP Mini system Review @ Shuttle XPC Athlon XP Mini system Review @ OcPrices
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 7:26 PM EST

"Even the smallest PC cases are still, well, quite large to be honest. Ideally, I have always wanted a PC that will sit happily in a front room and replace the Hi-Fi, DVD player, games console etc. A PC game piped through TV-out, even at just 800x600, looks a hell of a lot better than even the swankiest PS2 or X-Box game. Provided you have a good graphics card, that is. Laptops are all well and good, but they have zero upgradeability, zero functionality, and they also cost well over two thousand dollars for one with desktop-class specs."

Check it out at: OcPrices

Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo Review @ OcPrices
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 7:22 PM EST

"In the gaming community there have been three games that have had quite a lot of coverage on them, almost to the point of over kill. These games are the eagerly awaited Doom 3, Unreal 2 and Unreal Tournament 2003. The first to hit our screens will be the latter due for release in October.

Check it out at: OcPrices

Coolermaster Neon LED Fan Reviewed @ BurnoutPC
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 7:20 PM EST

"You ever get your hands on a product that makes all the others look lame? Or make you feel like a moron because you just spend your hard earned $ on a cheap replica? Well Coolermaster has come through again, first with the Silver braided rounded cables I reviewed earlier this year, and now with their Neon LED fan."

Check it out at: BurnoutPC

Samsung SP8004H 80G and SP4002H 40G HD Review @ techwarelabs
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 7:18 PM EST

"Now a days many people neglect the importance of a high quality HD and just seem to care about the capacity which is also important. The Samsung Spinpoint 40G and 80G HD's introduce some great new technology and features to make themselves stand above others. What we all know and hate about HD's is the fact that they can get very noisy and hot. Samsung though has thought long and hard on how to get rid of these problems without sacrificing performance. Remember that the most common HD's in today's home computers spin at 7200rpm which tends to cause some vibration therefore producing unwanted noises from our computers. Well Samsung has introduced 2 new technologies that are supposed to help quiet down a HD, NoiseGuard and SilentSeek."

Check it out at: techwarelabs

After Dark Icemat @ OCIA
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 7:16 PM EST

"I was impressed and somewhat surprised at how seriously the makers of the mousepad took their product, even to the point of the box it was shipped in. I decided to bring the Icemat to work with me and get the reaction of my fellow programmers so I boxed up the contents and off to work I went. Upon arrival at work I opened the box and got the "Oh no Jim has another toy" reaction I was accustomed to receiving when I drag something with me to work."

Check it out at: OCIA

Meblin's Mods IR Receiver review @ phlux
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:53 PM EST

"Well after seeing how impressed everyone was with the receivers they had been delivered I got in contact with Meblin and ordered one. With in 2 days of sending payment I got my IR receiver. There are several different packages you can opt for when you order; Full Package (this includes a fly lead, receiver and remote), remote and receiver only, receiver and fly lead only and finally receiver and remote. I choose to go with the full package with a 1 metre long fly lead. The fly lead is basically a wire which the actual infra red receiver is attached to. This allows you to position it further away from your computer."

Check it out at: phlux

AOpen AX4B-533 Tube Mainboard Review @ hardware-test
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:51 PM EST

"This is probably the most interesting about this mainboard; the vacuum tube. The tube is a 100-year-old invention, which in recent times has been replaced with transistors. There are still HI-FI fans of this technology. They swear that you get a fuller and warmer sound. This hasn’t been proven and transistor fans say that the transistor is superior. This, also, hasn’t been proven. Never the less there are a few tube fans at AOpen that decided to make a mainboard with the tube technology.

AOpen has really made a special mainboard that isn’t made for everyone. Instead it is for those people that want an extra dimension for their PC. Sound-fanatics can finally get detailed sound out from their PC. Unfortunately the board comes at a very high price, which could hold some back from making this their next investment for the computer. But the sound is without a doubt the best I have ever heard from a PC. "

Check it out at: hardware-test

Albatron Geforce 4 MX440 64Meg DDR Videocard Review @ Tweaknews
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:48 PM EST

"Do you like great gaming, great features, TV-out, Optional DVI output, and a pretty good software bundle, well, I might have an option for you. The Geforce 4 MX440 is the upper end of the budget based Geforce 4 lineup and isn't a slouch in the performance for value ratio. To aid in exposing a great budget lineup of cards, Albatron was kind enough to supply the Tweaknews staff with a sample of their Geforce4 MX 440 64Meg DDR graphics accelerator. Does it perform? Read on....."

Check it out at: Tweaknews

Computuning PC-Rider Kit Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:46 PM EST

"The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) drives the whole unit and is composed of 12 Resistors, an Interface Controller, Counter and a Divider. Each plays their own critical role in order to achieve both the Knight Rider effect as well as the Hard Disk access effect. For those of you not familiar with the Knight Rider TV Show or effect it is best explained as a series of lights that scan from right to left. The necessary headers along with the above stated components are machine soldered onto the PCB and neatly labeled accordingly."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

Alpha Ramsinks/GPU Cooler Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:45 PM EST

It's a shame these aren't as popular as the spiffy looking tin-plated coppers, but that's exactly why: they don't look as nice. However, as you're about to see, they are significantly cheaper and perform on par, if not better, since they tackle the principle of cooling just as well as copper ramsinks deal with aesthetics. Anyway, I got a big batch of Alpha's W45 parallel wing fin heatsinks. These are offered in sizes ranging from 30x30mm to 100x100mm and heights from 10-45mm. While not as densely packed as Alpha's new Z-series (which look like 1U versions of the PEP66 but with more fins), these are something. The different sizes currently being sold are all based off a 45x45mm design, 10mm high. They either ship in full size, 22mm squares or 22x45mm strips. I'm not sure if they're cut by hand or at some factory, but the edges are pretty smooth so it's probably the latter.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Belkin Regulator Pro· Silver Series 650AV Ups Review @ Bopc
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:40 PM EST

"Picture this: Your playing Neverwinter Nights, and have not saved for like 2 hours. You’ve gained levels, killed bosses, and almost have enough money to buy that magic sword.  All of a sudden, *BLACK SCREEN* Then the tears come."

Check it out at: Bopc

Vantec Stealth Power Supply (520watt) Video Review #212 @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:38 PM EST

"The Vantec Stealth series power supplies are simply of the highest quality and most functional I've ever seen. With three adjustable/auto fans, an AC outlet, aluminum housing and well priced, it's impossible to beat. Watch the Video to find out more..."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

Kanie Hedgehog Type W HSF Review @ Monster-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:36 PM EST

"The Hedgehog is quite a distinguished looking Heatsink. All copper, weighing it at the better part of 1.3 lbs, this baby is BIG! Without a doubt this is be biggest and heaviest heatsink I’ve ever used. It was within a couple of millimeters from my PSU. When I first picked it up I was amazed at how heavy it was. I was a bit nervous about mounting it on the ZIF socket instead of directly to the motherboard tray, but all went well."

Check it out at: Monster-Hardware

Case Clean Up Guide @ The Tech Zone
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:35 PM EST

Is the inside of your comp a rat’s nest of cables and wires? Are you ashamed to open your case up at a LAN party because of the mess inside? Then cheer up because The Tech Zone's Case Clean Up Guide is here to help. They'll show you the step by step on getting the inside of your case looking neat, clean and ready to LAN with the best.

Check it out at: The Tech Zone

CoolerMaster ATC-710 @ OCIA
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:33 PM EST

"The front bezel is very stylish and professional looking. We see a door with lock that covers the drive bays and the front filter for the intake fans. One thing lacking from this case is a reset button and hard drive LED. These basic features are found on nearly every case and I wonder why they aren't present on the 710."

Check it out at: OCIA

Create a Home Computer Rack for Little Cost @ bitbender
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:31 PM EST

"The problem was compounded somewhat by the fact that the bedroom being employed as the "office" was one of the smaller rooms in the dwelling, thus limiting some solutions. As I planned, I organized the computers by usage, and accessibility, within the area I have available. By using a shelf/rack solution, I could eliminate at least two pieces of furniture in the room, that were currently used to support desktop units, and keep them off the floor. That would open the room up considerably, and allow for consolidation of all the desktops, and categorization by use, and proximity to the KVM switch."

Check it out at: bitbender

Peltier Power Supply Preview @ ASE Labs
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:28 PM EST

But what is a peltier? Basically it is an array of diodes sandwiched between two ceramic plates that when a voltage is applied will transfer heat from one ceramic plate to the other. By placing the 'cold' plate adjacent to a heat source (CPU most of the time) it is possible to transfer the heat away from the heat source. Since a 'cold' surface may also cause condensation it will be necessary to protect the circuitry of the computer from this condensation by insulating any possible cold surfaces.

Check it out at: ASE Labs

Canton LE Series Home Theater Speaker Review @ Designtechnica
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:25 PM EST

We have just put up a review on the new Canton LE Series Home Theater Speakers. It consists of a pair of LE 109 floor standing speakers ($1000/pair), a pair of LE 103 bookshelf speakers ($500/pair), an LE 105 CM center channel speaker ($400 each), and an AS 25 powered subwoofer ($600 each). All together the system costs $2500, which falls into the boundary between budget and mid-level price home theater speaker system.

Check it out at: Designtechnica

Intel Celeron 1.8GHz Processor Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:23 PM EST

"Intel's new line of Celeron CPU's are based on the older 0.18 micron Williamette core that was originally released two years ago and not the newer 0.13 micron Northwood core. The reason behind this is that Intel still has a vast 0.18 micron manufacturing process up and running, and it only makes sense for them to keep that operational while Intel is slowly moving everything down to 0.13 micron. Now that we know the new Celeron's are based on the Pentium 4 architecture, how are they different from their more expensive bretheren? Actually the only difference between a Pentium 4 Williamette and the new Celeron Williamette is the amount of L2 cache."

Check it out at: pcstats

Plextor External USB 2.0 PlexWriter 40/12/40U review @ Explosive Labs
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:22 PM EST

"Typically, there has been a race to introduce the best and most advanced computing solutions.  CD-RW drives are no exception.  Based in Silicon Valley, Plextor has made a name for itself in performance and CD solutions.  While there are quite a few companies offering CD-RW drives, Plextor is definitely one of the big boys in the game, being in the top five if not top three.  At the time of this review, Plextor's external 48x (PX-W4824TU) had just come out.  This leads me to expect full maturity.  Hopefully, the companies specializing in CD technology will shift more to the DVD area.  Though the DVD solution is still in its early stage, it shows great promise and probably will be used as much as CD-RW, as soon as it becomes cheaper."

Check it out at: Explosive Labs

Nexland ISB SOHO Review @ Dreddnews
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 7:20 PM EST

"It's becoming increasingly common in this day and age for many households to have more than one computer, even more than two. Say, you have your home office PC, the kids' PC, your everyday laptop, and even possibly a gaming/fileserver(*wink*). Now, wouldn't it be nice if all of these computers were able to share data? And what is the #1 reason that MOST users even use a computer? Duh, the internet! With new, faster ways to get online, it would be rediculous to have multiple PCs and only have 1 connected to the internet at a time(assuming the fact that all of the computers are used often). But, how do all of the computers share data, and an internet connection with only 1 Cable/DSL modem? And how do we know our files are safe from malicious users? In steps Nexland's ISB(Internet Sharing Box) SOHO(Small Office Home Office)."

Check it out at: Dreddnews

Logitech Keyboard Painting Guide @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:20 PM EST

I’m sure that most of you have seen color morphing paint at some time or another. Maybe driving down the street you have seen a car that changes color depending on the angle you view it from. I saw one a few days ago and I thought it would be great if a system was modded in the same style. The first step is to paint the keyboard. Any keyboard will work for this mod, but I wouldn’t spend too much on one solely to paint it. The model used here is a Logitech Corded Deluxe Access keyboard. I picked it up at Best Buy a few months ago for around 15 bucks, so it won’t hit your wallet very hard. The paint is Mirage and is marketed under the Dupli-Color brand. This paint or similar versions can be found at your local automotive retailer. I chose Magenta and Gold, but there are several other color choices such as purple and green, or purple and gold.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

M-Systems DiskOnKey 128MB @ Viper Lair
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:17 PM EST

"At the end of the day, it does the job it was designed for extremely well and is worthy of a Viperlair recommended award on its own merits. I can't give it this award however as it is simply too expensive for what you get. If you can justify the price and are looking for some portable storage medium then this is something you should take a look at."

Check it out at: Viper Lair

Chieftec Dragon full tower case review at RipNet-UK
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:16 PM EST

"Although the Lian-Li PC7 that my main system lived in is an excellent case it was beginning to get a little crowded, and when I got my hot little hands on some new goodies to add on I decided it was time to find a new home for the RipNet-UK box. It was going to have to be a full tower - weight wasn't really a consideration as the computer was not going to be moved very often, so a steel case would be fine (allowing me to spend far less than an aluminium full tower would have cost...) Factors I was interested in included available drive space, cooling provision, potential for future modification, and last but not least - looks. You're probably going to see quite a lot of your computer case so buying one that is something of an eyesore is not a great idea! A swift browse around the web led me to the Chieftec Dragon series..."

Check it out at: RipNet-UK

ECS L4IBAE Mainboard Review @ Active-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:15 PM EST

Today, we'll be reviewing a sample of ECS' L41BAE -- an i845E-based motherboard that we've had sitting in our "inbox" for quite some time, and which may likely be the last i845 board we ever recieve for testing. Contrary to their usual habit, ECS chose to load the L41BAE with a number of extras. Not only did they decide to include a Promise PDC20265R RAID 0+1 controller, but also USB 2.0 ports, and a Realtek RTL8100B network controller.

Check it out at: Active-Hardware

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos @ OcPrices
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:11 PM EST

"Hyped as one of the best strategy games the PC has to offer, taking over two years to produce, and the successor to the classic Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III takes us back to the land of Azeroth and all the swords and sorcery shenanigans that entails.

Check it out at: OcPrices

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast @ OcPrices
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:10 PM EST

" Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast Posted by: Core on 11th of September 2002 With Star Wars Episode 2 now upon us, like me you may have gone a little Star Wars crazy a few months back. You might not have got to that stage where you don a dark cape, helmet and start practicing your heavy breathing skills, but you might have got to the phase where you walk around going wrrrrrrrrooooooooom lightsaber style. Fear not, as Jedi Knight II can be the perfect solution to you're lightsabering cravings!"

Check it out at: OcPrices

Third Times The Charm : Asus’s P4S8X SiS 648 Motherboard @ GamePC
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:07 PM EST

Today at GamePC, we've taken a look at the first motherboard based on the new SiS 648 DDR chipset for the Pentium 4, the Asus P4S8X. The SiS 648 is the first shipping AGP 8x ready chipset for the P4, and boasts an impressive feature list including DDR-333 support, integrated USB 2.0, Firewire, and Ultra-ATA/133 disk transfer. We critique and benchmark the new Asus P4S8X motherboard to competing DDR and RDRAM chipsets on the market.

Check it out at: GamePC

Belkin USB 2.0 5-Port PCI Card review @ Envy News
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:05 PM EST

“With the official release of Windows XP Service Pack 1, Microsoft has finally provided us with a non-beta and final version of their USB 2.0 Host Controller drivers. When I first received this product from Belkin, the USB 2.0 Host Controller driver was in an early beta form and known as ‘B0’ at that time. It had expired, and I couldn’t even run the card properly on my system. The time was late-fall 2001, and I didn’t even have a USB 2.0-compliant product. Well, it’s been almost a year, and now we have both of these products readily available – USB 2.0 final drivers and USB 2.0 peripherals.”

Check it out at: Envy News

Belkin USB 4-Port Switch review @ Envy News
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:03 PM EST

“Ever had a USB device that you’ve had to cycle back and forth between several of your home or office PCs, but are growing tired of bending down and under your desk to plug and unplug continuously? Like a Digital Camera transfer cable, flatbed scanner, 35mm Film scanner, USB CD-RW drive, inkjet printer, or force-feedback joystick? Introducing Belkin’s USB 4-Port Switch – the easiest to use and quickest to install solution for sharing up to 127 USB devices on up to four computers.”

Check it out at: Envy News

MTB Exclusive: ExoticPC Landrover Server Case Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:01 PM EST

"The Landrover Server Case includes a swing out front panel door which is a nice feature for those individuals who don't want to stealth or paint stock beige coloured drives. The door encompasses the entire front bezel effectively hiding all the drive bays. Once the door has been opened, consumers will be pleased at the amount of expansion room available in this case. The Landrover has a total of 8 x 5.25" external drive bays, with 3 located on the top and 5 positioned on the bottom. Towards the center of the case is 1 x 3.5" external drive bay, Power and Reset switch."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

Tom's Hardware 3.3GHz and 3.6GHz article a fake??? @ HotHardware
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7:00 PM EST

We're not directly accusing Tom's but mearly posing some serious questions about their article.  We of course welcome any insight the Tom's team can provide regarding this issue.

Check it out at: HotHardware

OCSystem's Enhanced GeForce4 Ti4200 @ OCAddiction
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 6:57 PM EST

"A couple of things you'll notice right away about this card is it doesn't have the cheapo GPU heatsink and RAMsinks you'll find on most video cards you buy.  That's right, OCSystem has already outfitted this puppy with probably the best air cooled heatsink for a video card, the Thermaltake GeForce4 Copper Cooler.  Next you'll notice the have protected the card's precious RAM with optional Tin-Coated RAMsinks, aluminum heatsinks are the standard option.  And of course all this looks hella-sweet on the red PCB."

Check it out at: OCAddiction

Quakecon 2002 Article @ Tech-Dreams
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 6:55 PM EST

"If you were lucky enough to be able to go to Quakecon 2002, I hope you found me and said hey, If not, oh well maybe next year. Quakecon 2002 was full of everything Quake, from idiots to nubes, l33t mofo's and.. okay well there weren't any h4x0rs that I found, but that's not to say they weren't there. Oh yeah and there was this little thing that id software was showing off called 'doom 3'.. I don't know if you heard of it but it looks like it might be so-so. I was lucky enough to go down with Laser[X-D] and hang with Clan X-D, one of the nicest 'kick your butt in a game' group of guys one could meet. All joking aside, Quake 2002 was a blast. While the drive down wasn't as much fun as the event itself, it was worth it just to get your game on with 1200 other Quakers."

Check it out at: Tech-Dreams

Highpoint RocketRAID 404 Review @ ReviewNation
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 6:53 PM EST

"With the advent of large size/low cost hard drives, RAID is becoming more of a viable backup solution for end-users. What is RAID you say? Well it stands for Redundant Array of Independent (Inexpensive) Disks, a standard created in the 1980's at UC Berkeley. The idea is to replace a single hard drive with multiple drives with fault-tolerant data redundancy, invisible to the end-user. What used to be a server-only option is now available to the masses, at a low cost to the consumer. A prime example of this is the Highpoint RocketRAID 404 controller supplied to us by Highpoint Technologies..."

Check it out at: ReviewNation

3DForce Xabre400Q 128MB Video Card Video Review #211 @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 at 8:44 PM EST

"We all know about ATI and nVidia, but what about SiS and their new line of Video Cards? Breaking into the 3D gamers Video Card market is no small feat but thankfully this card has dual display support, 8X AGP, performs good in 3D games and is well priced. Watch the Video to find out more..."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

FIC VC19 Advanced i845e motherboard review @ TechSpot
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 at 8:42 PM EST

With this particular board, I did notice a few things that I really liked. The first thing is the CMOS battery holder. I have never seen one like this, and now that I have, I want them all to be similar. Changing the CMOS battery on this board is the easiest I’ve ever seen. As you can see from the picture, the chip sits vertically, and is removed by simply pushing back the retaining clip. Nice stuff. Something else I noticed was the AGP locking mechanism. It slides freely and feels very slick, and is real easy to use. These may be little things, but to me these show that the manufacturer is going for the extra mile in order to make a good product even better.

Check it out at: TechSpot

Lian LI PC-6099 @ eliteHW
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 at 8:39 PM EST

"Aluminum cases have made a huge impact on the computer enthusiast market. Everyone wants to get their hands on a case with great cooling, light weight, and great looks. Lian Li is at the front of the pack with a huge selection of aluminum cases. Out of the selection I got my hands on something a little different. In fact, it is something I’ve never seen reviewed before. I have owned one other Lian Li, the PC-86. The 86 was a stellar performer, and hopefully the 6099 will do just as well."

Check it out at: eliteHW

ABIT SR7-8X SiS648 Motherboard Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 at 8:37 PM EST

"It's nice to see that manufacturers are quickly adopting the SiS 648 chipset as an alternative to Intel's i845D/E/G DDR chipsets. Competition is good, and this will only drive prices down further. We were rather impressed by the overall "stock" performance of our first SiS 648 motherboard, the MSI 648 MAX but it was not for really built for enthusiasts. With Abit (long known for openly adopting overclockers as their own) producing a SiS 648 motherboard, things are certainly starting to get interesting..."

Check it out at: pcstats

Cooler Master TLF-R82 Neon LED Rifle Bearing Case Fan Review @ hardcoreware
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 at 8:35 PM EST

Cooler Master is using Rifle Bearings in this fan, and I hope the trend continues with other fans in the future. Read the review to see why!

Check it out at: hardcoreware

Xoxide X300 Super Mid-tower Review @ Geekshelter
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 8:23 PM EST

Xoxide has been making pre-modified cases for sometime now. They just started selling this pre-modded case. It is called "X300 Super Mid-tower". It is an awesome case with a nice sleek design, has great cooling, and it is most of all cheap! It comes with a stylish fan and a sound activated neon light (for limited time only). Right now it is on sale for $88.99. To read more about this fan please hop over to Geekshelter and read the review they have on it.

Check it out at: Geekshelter

Marvel Comics™ Laser Sculpted Custom Fan Grills Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 8:22 PM EST

"The grills themselves are laser cut stainless steel. Where colouring is required, the grill is powder coated, and then finished with an extremely high gloss clear coat. This gives the Spidey grill a rich, almost blood red colouring, and makes the Punisher™ grill stand out nicely, even against an aluminium background. One nice feature of the grills is that that have an identical finish on both sides. Should your grill suffer a scratch or other visual handicap, simply flip the grill over and reinstall. Needless to say, my initial impression of both grills was quite positive, and I immediately found myself thinking of installation options for them."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

How to Install Windows XP @ Tweak3D
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 8:20 PM EST

As we all know, this is a very simple task. However, we at Tweak3D realize there are still millions of users out there that tremble at the thought of installing an OS. We've written the guide with these people in mind, but we also include tips to boost performance along the way.

Check it out at: Tweak3D

Performance Without Limits : ATI’s Radeon 9700 Pro @ GamePC
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 8:18 PM EST

Today at GamePC, we've taken a look at ATI's new 3D graphics performance king, the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. This new monster graphics card boasts ATI's new R300 graphics architecture, which has an incredibly fast new 256-bit memory architecture along with eight rendering pipelines, which allows for incredibly fast graphics performance in every benchmark that's thrown at it. We test out an off-the-shelf version of ATI's 9700 Pro card against nVidia's GeForce4 Ti and Matrox's Parhelia.

Check it out at: GamePC

Evergreen Thermagic CSS liquid cooling Review @ MonkeyReview
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 8:17 PM EST

Well I have to say I am extremely pleased with the Thermagic CSS, for my first experience with Liquid Cooling, I must say that Evergreen Technologies really did a great job of making it a pleasurable one. The installation was easy, performed better than a High End HSF, and took no time to install, what more could I have asked for? For the $99 MSRP I couldn’t have asked for anything more, shy of having Evergreen install the unit for me =). If you’re new to Liquid Cooling or want a unit which won’t require you to cut up your nice new Aluminum Tower, then I strongly suggest taking a look at the Thermagic CPU Cooling System.

Check it out at: MonkeyReview

ZERO Halliburton DZ5 computer case review @ Envy News
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 8:15 PM EST

“Now, we all know that aluminum is a soft and pliable metal that is not only susceptible to scratches, but also rather brittle. How did Erle Halliburton transform an aluminum case into a high-strength enclosure? Well, for starters, each case is composed of aircraft-grade aluminum, pressed into shape using 440 tons of pressure and then heat-tempered, boasting a tensile strength of nearly 50,000 pounds per square inch, to give it exceptional strength and rigidity at just one-quarter the weight of steel. Since aluminum effectively dissipates heat and cold, the case’s contents are kept from reaching temperature extremes no matter what the environment. Have I got your attention now?”

Check it out at: Envy News

PSXAmp Remote Control Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 8:13 PM EST

The product comes in a small simple package. There are no specifications or any kind of information written on the box, except PSXAmp’s logo and few words here and there. The product is labeled as “MP3 Card Remote Controller”. You might be wondering if there’s a relation between the PSXAmp and the Sony Play Station (a.k.a. PSX). Well, there is. This product is actually designed for the PSX platform, not for computers. As we’ll see later on, the infrared receiver looks similar to Sony’s memory cards. The remote control, however, can be used with any serial IR receiver, and should work without any problems on your computer.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

VIA KT333 Motherboard Roundup @ Explosive Labs
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 8:12 PM EST

"I'll start off with a quick run through of the general aspects that this particular chipset offers. The VIA KT333 chipset obviously supports DDR333 (PC2700) memory and can reach a peak bandwidth of 2.7GB/sec, 25% greater than the KT266A. Other key features include AGP4X, ATA-100 (ATA-133 in the VT8233A), integrated six channel advanced audio through the C-Media 8738 chip, six USB ports, LPC bus, and integrated 10/100Mbps ethernet and home PNA, AC-97 audio."

Check it out at: Explosive Labs

Samsung MFP SCX-5312F and Msys 835P Review @ Bytesector
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:50 PM EST

Today we will examine some high-end Multi-Function Products (MFP’s). These two units are almost an identical pair of MFP’s with only one major physical difference and a few very subtle technical and performance differences. Samsung, we think, has gone as far as possible with these MFP’s; they have incorporated anything and everything a home or SOHO user could possibly need. . .

Check it out at: Bytesector

Palm m515 Review @ Bytesector
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:48 PM EST

Newer gadgets, mobile devices, and little thingamabobs are popping out from store shelves more frequently than ever before. At a revolutionary age, such as the one we’re living, everyone seeks total mobility. The question is; what’s more portable than your Palm?!

Check it out at: Bytesector

FIC VC19 Advanced Motherboard (Socket 478) Video Review #210 @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:47 PM EST

"FIC might be new to many, however, they were founded in 1980 and it is one of the world's leading companies in the hardware industry. With onboard RAID, audio, NIC, and USB2 the FIC VC19 Advanced Motherboard has it all, is very stable and performs well. Watch the Video to find out more..."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

DDR400 Prizematch Review @ Overclocker Café
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:44 PM EST

“The last time we had some Corsair in out test box we raved about having a stable ceiling of 176MHz.  How does 194MHz for the XMS3200 C2 stick grab you?  Someone hand me a paper bag to breathe in.”

“Opening the settings even more to 2.5-3-3 2T gave us some action higher than Tommy Chong.  And finally, we see the XtremeDDR break 200MHz.  But only for the 512 stick.  The 256 stick is left sucking wind as it hits the wall at 191MHz.”

Check it out at: Overclocker Café

Thermaltake Volcano 9 Review @ Viper Lair
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:42 PM EST

"Upon first glance, the Volcano 9 appears very much like the Volcano 7. Ok, let's be frank, it is a Volcano 7, except it isn't blue. The Volcano 9 has 23 aluminum fins, just like the Volcano 7, and it has the same copper insert as its older brother. Personally, I think they should have stuck with the same all-copper design as the Volcano 7+."

Check it out at: Viper Lair

Robanton LP-6100F (600W PSU) Review @ lostcircuits
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:41 PM EST

Power Supply Units are amongst the mission critical components in any computer setup and often are the single component that decides over reliability of a system. A relatively unknown newcomer, Robanton offers some high quality products from the low to the highest end in the consumer space. We grabbed their top unit, ran some of the standard voltage monitoring and then shorted it on a dual CPU system running under full load to test the claims about safety features. The results were, ..... don't read on on an empty stomach ...

Check it out at: lostcircuits

802.11b Wireless LAN Networking Roundup @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:39 PM EST

"Wireless LAN's are gaining in popularity with a speed that is eclipsing the rate at which Ethernet's were originally adopted by home users. Many homes received their first taste of an Ethernet with the introduction of DSL and Broadband and wired LAN's were after all, fairly easy to setup and maintain once the wires were in place.The chance to "split the cable" as it were and share one high-speed internet connection over an entire home Ethernet brought about a surge in Broadband routers to make the process simpler.

Now, with wireless coming into the spotlight we are faced with multiple choices, features, and useability. The 2.4GHz 802.11b standard is even being challenged by 802.11a and the upcoming 802.11g which will bring more bandwidth to the table. The real question right now for users accustomed to simple-to-setup Broadband connections is whether or not the cost of going wireless is justifiable."

Check it out at: pcstats

How to Build a PC Guide @ Tweak3D
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:38 PM EST

Today we've posted a guide on building your own PC. The guide is designed with the 'screwdriver shaking newbie' in mind, but many of the tweaks and tips suggested could apply to a more advanced audience.

The article includes tons of pictures to aid users with the assembly of their PC, and has specific installation instructions for Pentium IV and Athlon XP CPUs and their cooling devices, and of course for DDR-SDRAM and RDRAM memory.

Check it out at: Tweak3D

CAE Sound Dampening Sheets review @ Monster-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:35 PM EST

"Most every fan I tested measured at least 10 to 12 DB higher than the manufacturer stated specs. After testing several different fans from various manufacturers, the only conclusion I can draw from this is that most manufacturers are simply lying about how many db's their fans produce."

Check it out at: Monster-Hardware

Antec Performance Plus660 Mini Tower Case Review @ OnePC
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:34 PM EST

"Antec’s original Performance line of cases impressed us with its lockable case entry handle and removable drive cages. Now with the Performance Plus, Antec throws in front USB and Firewire ports and the impressive TruePower power supply."

Check it out at: OnePC

Kyle Bennett Interview @ OCIA
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:30 PM EST

"Pheenix: My best overclock was a peltier cooled Celeron II 600@1052. What was your overclocking best?

Kyle: Well, if you are talking percentage-wise if I remember correctly we have a vapor phase cooled Celeron 300 running in the 700MHz range. As for yesterday, we had an air-cooled AMD 2600+ running at 2.47GHz with not much effort which is certainly hella sweet as well.

Pheenix: What was the most useless piece of crap (defective product, etc) that the big [H] has laid their eyes on?

Kyle: You want the condensed list? :) It is not uncommon for us to get in boards and cards that are not in working order. As for worthless crap, it had to be BlueCooling.com’s “BTMS” water block. It amazes me that they even try to sell that to anyone, but that is just my opinion of course."

Check it out at: OCIA

Windows XP Service Pack 1 Preview @ The Tech Zone
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:28 PM EST

Microsoft will release the long awaited Service Pack 1 for Windows XP on Monday Sept. 9th. One of the most talked about feature is the new Product Activation Changes designed to shut down illegal copies of Windows XP. The Tech Zone takes a look at this new Service Pack and find out if it's really worth downloading.

Check it out at: The Tech Zone

GF4 Ti4200 Shoot-Out: Updated @ HotHardware
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:26 PM EST

Tonight on HotHardware.Com, we've updated our GeForce 4 Ti4200 shoot-out with our take on two more cards, a 128MB MSI G4Ti4200 and a 64MB Best Data Arcade FX Ti4200.  We were very impressed with MSI's 64MB card the first time around, and this is the first chance we've had to test a product from a new player in the video card market, Best Data.  We ran all of the same benchmarks with these two new entrants, drop in and see how they fared against some stiff competition!

Check it out at: HotHardware

Voyeurmods Bad Ass Case Review @ OCA
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:25 PM EST

"They take the aluminum Chenming full tower cut the Lag window into the side, and pop two clear fans in the window to finish off the look. They also replace all the case screws with thumbscrews to ease maintenance of the case."

Check it out at: OCAddiction

EPoX 8K5A2+ KT333 Motherboard Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:23 PM EST

Even though the socket placement and orientation has remained the same as on the 8K3A, the power circuitry has changed very much. First of all, the board uses the same 3 Phase Power cooling, but now there are no more MOFSETs on the back of the board, all have moved to the upper side. The number of capacitors has changed and now bigger ones are used for increased power stability. And EPoX succeeded in making the power scheme on the 8K5A even better than anything before, the CPU voltage is now closer to the nominal value and more stable, thus making for better stability even if the CPU is heavily overclocked. Even the 5V line is now more stable and the voltage on this line is higher that it was on the old 8K3A.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Samsung ML-1440 Laser Printer Review @ Tweaknews
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 8, 2002 at 7:08 PM EST

"Imagine, you are a university student, working on your 500 page thesis to graduate at Harvard and all you need to do is print it. You have two options, the inkjet that prints at about 4ppm and prints it in about 2 hours and runs out of ink half way through, or upgrading to a laser printer and have the same document done in half an hour with sharper text. I think the choice is pretty clear."

Check it out at: Tweaknews

TwinMOS PC3200 DDR400 RAM Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 8, 2002 at 7:07 PM EST

"TwinMOS 512MB PC3200 memory uses Winbond DRAM which has a "5"ns speed rating. As you probably read in our TwinMOS PC2700 DDR RAM review Winbond is making some awesome memory. Specifically, overclockers have been having a lot of success overclocking the Winbond "BH-6" DRAM modules. Well the 512MB PC3200 memory was using "BH-5" DRAM so I was getting pretty excited in terms of overclockability. Would this stick of memory be able to impress us as much as the 256MB TwinMOS PC2700 DDR did? Those are pretty big steps to fill."

Check it out at: pcstats

FrontX review @ Geekshelter
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 8, 2002 at 7:05 PM EST

"The FrontX is one of those great usefull products that at first glance might not be much but once you start using it it becomes extremly usefull. This product is definetly a must have for anyone that needs front ports for your joy stick or just when you need to hookup your headphones quickly and easily. I find it very usefull for LAN parties since I cannot carry my monitor around that has built in speakers and headphone ports."

Check it out at: Geekshelter

ABIT KX7-333R Motherboard Review @ Envy News
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 8, 2002 at 7:04 PM EST

“Hey, it's upgrade time once again. I have been using this Soyo K7VTA-B motherboard for far too long - I'm in the need of something refreshing. Thankfully, along came a spider named KX7, and it found a home in my office. Based on the VIA KT333 chipset, the KX7-333R brings to the table the stability and attention to detail that ABIT is reknown for. Being one of my all-time favorite motherboard manufacturers, I was quite eager to get this gem into my system and feel the raw power and performance of a KT133 to KT333 upgrade.”

Check it out at: Envy News

Antec Trilite LED Case Fan Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 8, 2002 at 7:02 PM EST

Well if you havent seen the Antec Trilite Case fans, who knows where you have been. Today we take a look at one of case modding's coolest must haves.. the Antec Trilite Case Fan! This fan definitely has to be seen to be truly appreciated.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Dual Voltage 6 Port Baybus w/Two Color LED's (Review) @ SystemCooling
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 8, 2002 at 7:00 PM EST

"They go by many names and use various methods of controlling your case fan's output. Some are external, some are internal, requiring you to open your case to make adjustments, and some are built right into the fans, changing speed and output as the heat inside your case increases or decreases. In this article we'll be looking at what we believe is the very best of the external units designed to control the output of case and CPU Cooler fan(s)."

Check it out at: SystemCooling

Mitsumi Black Multimedia Keyboard Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 8, 2002 at 6:59 PM EST

Let me preface this by saying that this keyboard works, exactly as it was meant to. So there's nothing really wrong with it. And that means it'll work for most people just fine. But for some it might not be such a happy tale. And that's why I suggest you keep reading, unless you're one of the majority. Keyboards are, for the most part, identical between manufacturers. Sure, some have pretty wild notions about hotkey placement and others are keen on integrating some sort of dial, usually for volume adjustments. But they're still built the same way. They're all QWERTY and use rubber domes. I haven't exactly seen DVORAK boards being mass produced and membrane keyboards are pretty rare.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

XtremeDDR PC2700 review @ OCModShop
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 9:35 PM EST

This being my second encounter with XtremeDDR. I must say that my thoughts on the company has not changed. I still find them to be a great company that produces high quality, fast, and overclockable RAM. This PC2700 DDR was almost able to reach PC3000 speeds which is considerable. The fact that the KT400 chipset is coming out makes PC2700 less desirable because it is now time to get PC3200 and faster to really utilize the new chipset. If you are a devout overclocker and want the fastest thing on the market I would suggest getting some PC3200 or PC3500 (I will have a review on the PC3500 soon) rather than this PC2700. However if you have just upgraded to a KT333 motherboard and are satisfied with it but want a little more performance out of it this PC2700 will help you do that. The market for PC2700 is going the way of PC2100 but it still has a lot of life left in it so don't be afraid that you will left behind in the never-ending pursuit for the fastest computer because unless you have a ton of money to spend you will always be obsolete.

Check it out at: OCModShop

Cybex KVM Review @ Unique Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 9:31 PM EST

"Here is the unit in all its glory pretty much setup and ready to go. The bottom LED indicates if the computer is on and the top LED indicates what port you're connected to. Like I said earlier setup is easy using the standard ps2 and VGA cables. However one of my systems here does not use ps2, its an old AT/serial system. No problem Cybex said! I thought great, they sent me out another cable but this time it had some funky adaptors with it."

Check it out at: Unique Hardware

Irock 520 Portable MP3 Player Review @ M:6
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 9:29 PM EST

"The player is a great value at $99USD for what you are getting and great for the everyday user. The long battery life, great sound quality, bass and Smart Media Card Expansion in it self is worth the money. If you are a night owl or have bad memory of your play list, this player is lacking a back light and a play list title info display."

Check it out at: M:6

Vantec Fans (Article) @ SystemCooling
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 9:28 PM EST

"When it comes to cooling, the discussion invariably ends up with fans; from the outrageously loud, to the whisper quiet and everything in between. Fans to one degree or another have been made necessary by the ever increasing heat generated by modern CPU's and computer equipment; even liquid cooled systems depend on fans to cool the solution running through their systems.

We are not going to get into a dissertation of the proper positioning or number of fans required cooling a system; because all computers are not created equally in that we all have different mixes of hardware thus different levels of generated heat and we all have different perceptions as to tolerable noise levels."

Check it out at: SystemCooling

Swiftech MCX4000 HSF Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 9:26 PM EST

Now you think you have seen a heatsink? You obviously haven’t seen the MCX4000 Socket 478 Cooler from Swiftech. This would have to be one of the coolest looking heatsinks I have ever seen, with its patented Helicoid design Lets take a look and see if this is the most superior Socket 478 cooler."

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Mousemats! Reviewed! @ dansdata
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 9:24 PM EST

Everglide have released a line of mousemats that're supposed to extend battery life in cordless optical mouses. That's their minor feature. Their major feature is that they're all pretty and glittery. Meanwhile, Lian Li are selling some natty little mats made of aluminium.

Check it out at: dansdata

Warcraft III Collector's Ed. @ eliteHW
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 9:22 PM EST

“Now Blizzard has brought out the newest of the Warcraft series, Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos, the long awaited continuation to the story of Warcraft. It took 3 years after announcing the coming of Warcraft 3 for Blizzard to put the game on the market, with that long wait rumors come and go and the game gets lots of hype. I am happy to tell you that the 3 years were worth it and the game lives up to the Warcraft quality. Blizzard decided to make a special collector’s edition of Warcraft 3 that has a few extras in the box.”

Check it out at: eliteHW

ECS AG400T8-D64 Xabre Video Card Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 9:21 PM EST

"Today, thanks to the folks over at ECS, we have a chance to look at their Xabre 400 video card. Based on SiS’s new chipset. Compared to other video card vendors today, (Nvidia & ATi) SiS is relatively unknown for providing graphics solutions for average home users. All this is about to change with the release of the Xabre400"

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

MSI K7T266Pro-R KT266 Motherboard Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 9:19 PM EST

From all the K7T266Pro family, the Pro-R is the only motherboard with AGP Pro. I really doubt anyone will ever require this feature, mainly because the AGP Pro standard hasn’t been popular and as a result most video card manufacturers kept using the regular AGP standard. Notice the yellow seal on the top part of the slot; you should only remove this when installing an AGP Pro card. Some of you might wonder about the square power connector right next to the AGP slot. This, too, is for AGP Pro cards only. Most video cards of this type require additional power which the AGP slot cannot supply, so they have extra wires that plug into that square connector (similar to how the Radeon 9700 requires more power from an external Molex connector).

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Abit Siluro GF4 Ti4600 Video Card Video Review #209 @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:49 PM EST

"With so many good 3D Video Cards on the market the nVidia Ti4600 based cards are still in the lead with excellent gaming performance and most importantly, very stable drivers. The Abit Siluro Geforce4 Ti4600 incorporates that and is also very overclockable."

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

Cambridge Soundworks 210D Review @ Tweak3D
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:47 PM EST

"Today's PCs are extremely powerful. 3D graphics have risen to a level that some never thought we would see, and CPUs, now pushing the 3-gigahertz boundary, continue to push at the very fabric of Moore's law. Advances being forged in PC audio have also been exciting, the latest of which being the truly innovative inclusion of a tube for controlling sound on the new Aopen AX4B-533 Tube motherboard, which I will be covering in an upcoming review."

Check it out at: Tweak3D

Epox 8K5A2+ Bluetooth Motherboard Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:37 PM EST

"If the motherboard is from Epox we will have high expectations. Hehe... I'm a very impatient overclocker, I usually try for a high target first off and if I don't succeed, I'll go lower. I first tried 166 MHz FSB and as expected, we didn't have any problems. Next was 180 MHz and the memory started to max out. Upping the DIMM voltage to 2.8V solved that problem. The board was then bumped up to 200 MHz FSB and everything was still running perfect. 205, 210, 215 MHz still no problems! The max speed I could reach was 219 MHz with the most aggressive memory timings! Not too shabby!"

Check it out at: pcstats

Keyboard Roundup - Internet Style @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:36 PM EST

"I don't have to sit here and type in just how important it is work or game on a keyboard which is responsive, comfortable, and quick. A 'fast' keyboard with a sharp return, and well spaced keys is almost as important as a keyboard _here the "w" _orks properly. Badly made keyboards are hard to type on, and can cause serious medical problems after prolonged use. Today we will be looking at three keyboards which seek to broaden your horizons by offering not just 104 keys, but possibly many other functions like CD-player control, power on, and web browser shortcuts."

Check it out at: pcstats

Zalman CNPS6500B-Cu Pentium 4 Heatsink Review @ frostytech
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:34 PM EST

The Zalman CNPS6500B-Cu is frankly one of the largest Pentium 4 heatsinks on the market, weighing in at 898grams. That is frighteningly close to 1 kilo! Bu, putting the high weight factor aside, all that copper, and all that surface area conspire to make one very effective low noise heatsink. With the CNPS6500B revision Zalman have changed around how the heatsink mounts to the Intel Pentium 4 processor. In the past, the heatsink was attached via a series of screws and nuts which basically meant that you had to first remove the entire motherboard from the case before you could install the heatsink.

Check it out at: frostytech

ABIT SR7-8X SiS648 Motherboard Review @ Hexus
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:33 PM EST

"If you\'re after a motherboard that is to be run at its rated FSB, and are looking to build a value Pentium 4-based PC, the SR7-8X would be a reasonable option. If, however, you like your extras and need to have the ability to run high FSBs, you\'d be best off looking elsewhere.

Check it out at: Hexus

Steel VS Aluminum Article @ MonkeyReview
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:31 PM EST

In choosing between the two, it really comes down to price and aesthetics. If you rate functionality over looks, then the Antec case will serve you very well. If you really like the look and lightness of aluminum and are willing to pay for it, the PC-75 will fit the bill. To be fair, other Lian-Li alumimum model are available that cost less, but expect to pay at least $100 more than you would for the Antec case, plus the cost of a power supply. In either case, both will provide……

Check it out at: MonkeyReview

Crucial PC2100 DDR 256MB RAM Review @ Crucial PC2100 DDR 256MB RAM Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:29 PM EST

Crucial is known for being one of the industry leaders in PC Memory. The Company provides all types of memory for many different machine types and models. Today we take a look at Crucial’s PC2100 256MB DDR module.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Connect Playstation Joypad to PC @ Alltechbox
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:25 PM EST

"The Kiky Joy PS is a Playstation joypad to USB adapter that is compatible with Playstation 2 and PSOne controllers too. [...] Thanks to the Kiky Joy PS you can enjoy all the features of Sony joypads including ForceFeedback, two analog controllers and 12 buttons.."

Check it out at: Alltechbox

Matrox Parhelia Review @ Designtechnica
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:23 PM EST

We have decided to review the Matrox Parhelia from a workstation stand point including tests from Adobe premier and Autocad. We did run 3Dmark to give some benchmarks.

Check it out at: Designtechnica

Antec Performance Plus660AMG case review @ OCModShop
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:21 PM EST

This was my first experience with an Antec case and I have to say that I couldn't have been much more impressed. This case has so many different features to offer its amazing. I really like this case because it has to much to offer, a lot of cases on the market today look good but they are built really poorly and without consideration to the customer. Antec has made sure that the customer has been taken care of. The paint on this case is the best I have ever seen on any case, all of the fan grill cutouts allow for a low of air to flow through. The case comes with front USB and firewire, multiple hard drive LEDs and a really nice power supply. There are no sharp edges in this case and all of the features for installing drives to this case make it a big contender in the case arena. The only thing I don't really like about this case is the fact that it doesn't have a removable motherboard tray which is a must in my opinion and it would have been nice to see thumbscrews on this case, they left no stone unturned as far as everything else goes why not finish it off with a few thumbscrews? I also like the fact that Antec made their new power supply quieter than the old one because the old one was really loud.

Check it out at: OCModShop

Seasonic PSU Blue LED Fan Mod @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Friday, September 6, 2002 at 10:18 PM EST

Since I was unable to paint the housing with the plug assembly still attached, it was off to the workbench to remove the bland pressed grill of the PSU. This has to be one of the easiest mods I have ever done on a piece of computer hardware. All I had to cut were the four connections between the grill and the housing and then grind the areas smooth. This took about five minutes. It actually took me longer to get my work area set up and then torn down than it did to do the actual cutting.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Meblin's Escher Mod @ phlux
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 8:14 PM EST

"Well I considered several methods for doing the etch. The first method was to use the stencil and spray clear frosting onto the window. I quickly rejected this as I thought it would look a little naff. The second method was to use my trusty Dremel-a-like and use the lizard shapes as a template and fill in the gaps once it was fixed to the window. However, this would mean that the etched grove would be on the outside of the case and we cannot have that!"

Check it out at: phlux

MSI Champion Edition G4Ti4600-TD Videocard Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 8:12 PM EST

"We really liked the original MSI G4Ti4600-VTD but probably its biggest downside was a rather plain looking appearance (if you can call that a flaw). Style plays a key role in today's computer hardware market and the older plain green G4Ti4600-VTD is the technical equivalent of bell bottoms. To be honest it was a bit surprising to see that MSI's first GeForce4 Ti4600 was using the green PCB - after all their previous flagship videocard the G3Ti500-VTG was a rather spiffy red, and so are most of MSI's motherboards."

Check it out at: pcstats

Linux kernel patch article @ RipNet-UK
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 8:10 PM EST

"After SkyNet was re-built, it was time to review the feature requirements of the Linux kernel. I had to make sure that I had drivers available for the hardware I intended to use.

I already had a heavily customised kernel source tree that I have standardised across my whole network. This kernel was based on the latest v2.2 release (v2.2.21 at the time of writing), and included the following patches..."

Check it out at: RipNet-UK

MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB VIVO Review @ hardcoreware
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 8:09 PM EST

MSI takes what is probably the best overall video chipset ever made, and turns it into an awesome product with cool features and an insane game bundle. Check out this 128MB (which runs at higher speed than most 128MB Ti4200's) Ti4200 card that has one of the lowest prices around, AND video capture capabilities...

Check it out at: hardcoreware

Big Scale Racing Review @ Monster-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 8:07 PM EST

"You earn 1 medal per race regardless of your final rank. Earn 3 medals and you advance to the next level. This means after 3 rounds you will advance to the next level regardless of your driving skills or sobriety."

Check it out at: Monster-Hardware

Samsung SM-332 32x/10x/40x-12X Combo Drive @ Hardware Extreme
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 7:40 PM EST

"Samsung Electronics has been a hot competitor on the current computer electronics market. Its products have shown the innovative and digital life styles which encourages the public in purchasing their products. The key features other than the combo capabilities, Ultra DMA, JustLink Buffer Under Run Free technology, a whopping 8MB buffer memory, 1MB flash memory, and more are equipped into this high-performance Optical Disk Drive. "

Check it out at: Hardware Extreme

TwinMOS PC2700 DDR333 RAM Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 7:38 PM EST

"Looking at the stick of memory got me excited. Rumors around the web are, DIMM's using Winbond "BH-6" DRAM are killer in terms of overclockability. I've seen people on the web with this type of memory claiming 210 MHz and higher FSB's while maintaining the most aggressive memory timings! We recently looked at a stick of 256MB Kingston PC2700 DDR that used this DRAM and it allowed us to hit an amazing 205 MHz FSB on the Epox 8K3A+ so the hype and expectations were building! =)"

Check it out at: pcstats

ATI Radeon 9700 PRO review @ chillblast
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 7:36 PM EST

"While we are not particularly technically au fait here at chillblast, we do know that if you can get more pixelly things on the screen at once, then that’s GOOD. More pixelly things mean it looks sharper (although with the brown whites of our eyes it makes little difference). Another thing we have noticed, that the more pixelly things you have on screen at once, the slower things become."

Check it out at: chillblast

HighPoint RocketRAID 404 Review @ Techware Labs
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 7:34 PM EST

"IDE Raid is becoming more and more popular as a user-end solution for those who demand better hard disk performance or better data security at a low cost. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, coined from a paper written in 1987 at the University of California Berkeley. The author suggested the use of smaller, inexpensive disks to replace single, larger disks to implement "fault-tolerant data redundancy." Up to five standards were originally defined, and the two of these which are actually used today are RAID 1 and RAID 5."

Check it out at: Techware Labs

Y.S. Tech TMD Fans Recalled World Wide @ ipKonfig
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 7:32 PM EST

"When ipKonfig reviewed the revolutionary tip magnet fan, the Y.S. Tech TMD, we were concerned because it spun up to about 20% higher RPM than rated. We were also curious and a bit frustrated that the 60 and 80mm models were still unavailable, despite repeated assurances that release was immanent. But now seems..."

Check it out at: ipKonfig

Laptop Buying Guide - Power User (Editorial) @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 7:30 PM EST

When choosing a hard drive capacity is just half the story. This is where you can potentially save some money. There's no reason why you'd need massive drive space; anything over 40gb is a waste. Your batteries won't last long enough to play through even 1% of that space in MP3s and external media will take care of the rest. What you should inquire about, however, is the spindle speed. Most laptop drives come with a default 4200rpm drive, while the "high performance" models ship with 5400rpm HDDs. The latter is quite a bit faster and if it's not offered as an option you might as well find another store. After all, it doesn't matter how fast your CPU is or how much RAM you have; if your HDD blows it'll take the rest of the rig with it.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Antec HD Cooling System Review @ OCAddiction
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 7:27 PM EST

"The packaging is adequate for a product of this sort, and instructions are on the paper wrapper inside of the clear plastic box. The unit also comes with mounting screws and small bits of tape for applying the thermal probes to their respective hot points, although they are small and rather weak so you may want to use a thick strip of electrical tape instead. The 40mm fans are of the larger sort, which makes you think Antec was careful about which ones to include with the cooling system. On the last pic above you see the unit from the top. Very reminiscent of car stereo amplifiers which are constructed in such a way as to passively dissipate heat from their internal components."

Check it out at: OCAddiction

Exclusive! MCX-462+ (Preview) @ SystemCooling
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 7:17 PM EST

"You are about to see the latest and greatest AMD (socket 462) Athlon cooler to ever hit the marketplace (at least that's what initial tests are showing). While not yet available at retail, it will soon be at resellers world wide, including many of SystemCooling.com's sponsors.

Over the last few years a war has raged around us…not for territory, but for the ultimate prize, Power-Users and Overclockers hard-earned $$$, and the title "The World's Best Cooler"--or as some would put it, "King of the Hill".

A full review of this latest masterpiece from the stables of Swiftech will be forthcoming in about a week. Preliminary tests have been completed on four heatsinks that have been playing musical chairs in top spot, and we'll show how each of them performed against the MCX-462+."

Check it out at: SystemCooling

Volcano 9 Review @ MonkeyReview
posted by Babylon5 on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 7:14 PM EST

Well things just keep getting better and better in this line of HSF’s and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us the next time around! If your looking for a good copper/aluminum based HSF the Volcano 9 couldn’t be better, if you’re looking for great temps though, I would have to recommend the 7+ over the 9. Keep in mind were dealing with a difference of only a few degrees but those do add up and when your working with an Overclocked processor, I would rather the louder 6000RPM Fan on the 7+ over the 4800RPM fan found on the 9. I only wonder if there will be a 9+ with a full copper base.

Check it out at: MonkeyReview

Zalman ZM17-CU Video Card Cooling Kit Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:39 PM EST

"As stated above, the Zalman ZM17-CU Video heatsink is a passive cooling system. The main feature of passive cooling systems, such as the Zalman ZM17-CU, is their ability to cool very well with little to no noise. However, for the higher end Radeon and GForce DDR based video cards the FB165 is required. The FB165 is a fan bracket that mounts onto the side of a PCI slot and aids in the dispersal of the greater amount of heat generated by these cards. The FB165 was not included in the package, forcing users like myself to purchase the bracket separately or remedy this issue in a DIY manner."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

Crystalfonts 634 LCD with Black Faceplate Kit Review @ PimpRig
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:37 PM EST

"I used to think of LCD screens as just a luxury item similar to a cold cathode... eye candy. After using one for a couple weeks now I have to say that this will be a must have for all my pc systems from here on out. I use this thing ALOT. I can't count how many times I glance over at it to check out a certain stat... especially the email screen and temps screen."

Check it out at: PimpRig

X Gaming Ultimate Arcade Controller Video Review #208 @ 3dGameMan
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:36 PM EST

"This product is one seriously hardcore authentic controller that puts most other so-called game controllers to shame! Remember what a real arcade control panel felt like? Well this is exactly the same, except you are at home!"

Check it out at: 3dGameMan

Power Cooler PCH610T cooler reviewed @ BurnOutPC
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:34 PM EST

"Many different innovative heatsink designs have been created over the past few years. From the original orb coolers, to the fan-like Zalman coolers, we have seen very strange deviations to the standard designs."

Check it out at: BurnOutPC

Zalman CNPS6500B-AlCu Pentium 4 Heatsink Review @ frostytech
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:33 PM EST

"The recipe card for the CNPS6500B-AlCu reads like this; take 8 copper fins and 44 aluminum ones, place them all in a machine that squeezes everything together with a tremendous amount of pressure, and finally bolt in place with stainless steel screws. To ice off this thermal cake, mill the base razor smooth, and perfectly flat. The B series of the CNPS65000-AlCu model differs from the original only in how they are mounted to socker 478 motherboards."

Check it out at: frostytech

MSI KT3 Ultra2-BR Bluetooth Motherboard Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:32 PM EST

"The KT3 Ultra2-BR has all the goodies we've come to expect out of a motherboard - onboard USB 2.0, 5.1 audio (software codec), five PCI slots, three DIMM's and now even Bluetooth! Looking at the KT3 Ultra2-BR motherboard we can see that it uses the same layout as the original KT3 Ultra and we're not at all surprised. It was a good layout then, and it still is now. Basically all MSI did was replace the old VT8233 southbridge and remove the NEC USB 2.0 chipset on the original KT3 Ultra and replace them with the new USB 2.0 compatible VIA VT8235 southbridge and bluetooth adaptors (basically a USB 2.0 header). The KT3 Ultra2-BR still has some other goodies like onboard 5.1 audio, and onboard Ultra/133 IDE RAID."

Check it out at: pcstats

Abit AT7 Max Review @ ViperLair
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:30 PM EST

"The best overclock I could get was 1.533 with the multiplier at 9 and the FSB at 170. Going to 171 on the FSB with 9 on the multiplier was possible but not stable enough to run 3DMark or PCMark every single time. As I stated earlier I had already raised the DDR voltage to 2.65v and further increases didn't help me in my overclocking endevours."

Check it out at: ViperLair

CoolerMaster HSC-V62 AMD Cooler Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:29 PM EST

"I have to admit that I have been one to skimp on CPU coolers in the past, usually opting for the cheaper all-aluminium models when putting together a new AMD setup. However, after trying out CoolerMaster's latest skived fin, auto-sensing, copper HSC-V62 never will I skimp again!"

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Samsung SM-332 32x/10x/40x-12x Combo Drive Review @ The Tech ZOne
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:26 PM EST

When combo CDRW/DVD drives first came out, they were plagued by poor performance and buggy hardware. Thanks to strives made by companies like Samsung, these drives have come back from obscurity to become a serious consideration for you next upgrade. The Tech Zone takes a look at Samsung's latest foray into the combo drive market, the SM-332 32x/10x/40x-12x.

Check it out at: The Tech ZOne

Asus A7V8X VIA KT400 Motherboard @ GamePC
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:25 PM EST

Today at GamePC, we've taken a good look at the newly launched Asus A7V8X, which proves itself to be beyond a doubt, the most advanced Athlon XP motherboard platform on the market. Based on VIA's KT400 chipset, the A7V8X boasts such features as AGP 8x, Gigabit Ethernet, Serial ATA/150, USB 2.0, Firewire, and Digital S/PDIF Audio, all integrated right on the motherboard. We test out this new board against another KT400 platform as well as competing KT333 and nForce motherboards from other manufacturers to see how it stacks up.

Check it out at: GamePC

AM-2000 Crystal Optical Blue LED Mouse Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:23 PM EST

Although the company claims this to be a revolutionary design, there's actually nothing special about it. The AM-2000 is put together the same way as one those transparent Mac mice, only it has two "sensitive spots" instead of one. Basically, a normal mouse has two buttons, below which are a pair of vertical rods that trigger a small button when depressed. Instead of using two buttons, ADOMAX simply made a smaller mouse, then put a secondary shell on top and put springs on the two rods, so when you tilt the top portion left, it left clicks, and when you tilt it right, it right clicks. Nothing revolutionary here, but definitely out of the ordinary.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

MSI 648 MAX-L Motherboard Review @ pcstats
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:22 PM EST

"I was really excited about sitting down and testing this SiS 648 based motherboard. From what I've read the SiS 648 chipset is supposed to be a full-blown i850E/RDRAM killer and I really wanted to test this out first hand! In terms of feature the motherboard has onboard 5.1 audio albeit from the AC-97 codec; 8X AGP, Gigabit LAN (10/100/1000), six USB ports (four rear, two USB 2.0), six PCI slots, and three DIMM's that support upto 3GB of PC1600/PC2100/PC2700 officially and PC3200 (DDR400)... unofficially that is! The SiS 693 Southbridge supports UDMA133 as well, but not IDE RAID is not an option here."

Check it out at: pcstats

iWill P4R533N Mobo Review @ ReviewNation
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:21 PM EST

"IWill has been making great products since 1989, including quality motherboards and SCSI solutions. This motherboard is based on the Intel 850E chipset and supports the new Rambus PC1066 memory. (The N at the end of the motherboard model means that this board has built in Ethernet.) Let's have a closer look at this mobo, (or motherboard for you newbies). This is the very first Pentium 4 system I have used or built, but don't worry, I did not jump ship. I still have my AMD box and plan on using both of them in the near future..."

Check it out at: ReviewNation

Sound Activated Cold Cathode @ eliteHW
posted by Babylon5 on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 9:19 PM EST

“I have dealt with many, many different cold cathodes. I have personally used seven separate units. All of them have had pretty much the same characteristics: Extremely bright, small in diameter, and put out very little heat. Today however, I will take a look at something a little different. A sound activated cold cathode provided by Sharka Corporation. The sound activated cold cathode combines the huge light output of a cold cathode with a sound activated strobe effect. I must say I am a bit excited about this product. It is very cool sounding. Let’s see how it performs.”

Check it out at: eliteHW

Globalwin CDK38 Copper Heatsink Review @ frostytech
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:54 PM EST

"Globalwin are one of the cornerstones of the cooling industry who have always focused on practical, high-volume production heatsink designs which offer good cooling for the price. One such heatsink from this venerable cooling company is the little 60mm CDK38. The fan is a 25mm thick 60mm high RPM Delta fan so the 'little' Globalwin CDK38 packs in a big punch for a relatively small footprint. Or so we hope to see, first we have to put this little solid copper heatsink through a few sets of tests!"

Check it out at: frostytech

Lian Li PC6085T Reviewed @ BurnOutPc
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:53 PM EST

"Our friends at Lian Li sent me over a few items of beauty to tell you about. It is made of the lightweight material that they are famous for: aluminum and there are plenty of extras. So sit back, relax, and check out the next generation of product from Lian Li: The PC6085T."

Check it out at: BurnOutPc

Computuning Space2000+ Watercooling Kit Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:52 PM EST

"One of the highlights of the package is the all copper Space 2000 SE+ waterblock. The waterblock is comprised of two separate pieces; a top and bottom portion which are secured by 4 screws. Two valves (inlet and outlet) exist on the top portion of the copper plate and utilize the one touch fitting system. The construction of the waterblock was completed using high precision CNC production methods. The formations of the walls enable the waterblock to efficiently distribute water above the core of the CPU and effectively cool at lower temperatures. The base of the waterblock is polished and reflective which will ensure great heat transfer. As an extra precaution, Computuning has included a small package of Loctite sealent which aids in waterproofing the waterblock should leaks occur during the testing phase."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

Lian-Li PC-60xx cases reviewed @ dansdata
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:49 PM EST

Lian Li's PC-6087, PC-6089 and PC-6099 cases have that company's usual aluminium construction, easy-access features, and steep price tags. But they also feature see-through front _doors_. And side windows that are, as standard, covered with a metal plate.

Check it out at: dansdata

Verax GmbH P14 Silent Heatsink Review @ frostytech
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:47 PM EST

"Verax Ventilatoren GmbH of Villingen-Schwenningen Germany make one the most unique zero-noise fans in the marketplace, and accomplished this feat by tossing out convention, and starting over with a completely new impeller design. So quiet is the Verax CAIRdB fan that you literally have to hold it up to your ear to hear it - there is almost no discernible noise signature. The trade off however comes in terms of cost, and in measurably lower airflow to that of standard hi-RPM axial fans. The revolutionary impeller design works by accelerating the air within the fan evenly, over a substantially longer distance than with standard axial fans."

Check it out at: frostytech

M-Systems DiskOnKey Review @ Icrontic
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:45 PM EST

The DiskOnKey is available in seven different capacities - 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 and 512MB. M-Systems plans to offer a 1GB version later this year. The device interfaces with the computer via the USB port. DiskOnKey is fully USB 2.0 compatible. Connecting the device to a computer is as simple as plugging it into a USB port. There is no separate power supply or battery needed, and the unit is fully plug and play; there is no driver required, except for Windows 98 (driver provided by M-Systems). Not only does it just "work" on Windows machines, it also works on Linux (2.4 kernel) and Mac OS.

Check it out at: Icrontic

Lian Li's LCD Review @ dansdata
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:43 PM EST

Lian Li's T-3 and T-3B dual display LCD thermometer modules look nifty, at first sight. Small 3.5-inch-drive-bay form factor, funky backlit displays, no silly little batteries to worry about. Decent accuracy, too. Unfortunately, they're not actually very good.

Check it out at: dansdata

Terratec TerraCam USB Pro review @ Alltechbox
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:40 PM EST

"Terratec TerraCam USB Pro is a small very light webcam, thanks to it's dimensions and its weight is perfect to be used with a notebook, also because you can change the base of the camera if you use it attached to a notebook monitor or on a desk."

Check it out at: Alltechbox

ECS L4IBAE Socket 478 Motherboard Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:38 PM EST

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) was established in 1987 as one of the first motherboard manufacturers in Taiwan during a period of rapid growth in the world's IT industry. Today we are looking at their latest motherboard the ECS L4IBAE and to try and find if ECS has what it takes to become one of the leading motherboard manufacturers in the world.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Liquid Cool PC Review @ The Tech Zone
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:36 PM EST

The Tech Zone got some liquid cooling action for you today! The Koolance PC2-C is an easy to assemble liquid-cooled case kit. As one of the most sophisticated product of its kind, the PC2-C offers many unique features found nowhere else in the realm of computer cooling. In addition, you can expect to get all the advantages that water cooling offers.

Check it out at: The Tech Zone

iRiver SlimX CD player Review @ Designtechnica
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:35 PM EST

Today, you have 2 options when it comes to purchasing an MP3 CD player: buy an expensive portable MP3 CD player with a few features, or buy a cheap one with almost none. Where's the middle ground? Right here. The iRiver SlimX has a great price and complete feature list. But how do those features stack up in real world use? Find out in our latest review.

Check it out at: Designtechnica

PCmods Power Down Protector (Review) @ ipKonfig
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:33 PM EST

"Every now and then, we get an opportunity to review a product that stands above and beyond any other of its class, and we have that chance again. This product is so simple you'll ask yourself why you didn't think of it yourself. In fact, we see something very like it being used all the time. Cars should be the first thing to come to mind with this feature: cool-down after shutoff.

The most common use of the PCPDP would be for CPUs, plus possibly a case fan. I, on the other hand, had a different problem to solve. As some of you know, I had reviewed the Swiftech Q. Power case a while back on SystemCooling.com. Since then I've been using this same case for testing and pleasure."

Check it out at: ipKonfig

Thermalright SLK-800 Review @ Monster-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:29 PM EST

"It would be an understatement to say that Thermalright is on somewhat of a roll lately. With their last few products like the SK-6, AX-7, SLK-600. I would have to put Thermalright at or near the top of the air cooling market right now."

Check it out at: Monster-Hardware

Compad Speed-Pad Review @ Overclocker Café
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:29 PM EST

“The Speed-Pad is offered in black, translucent colors of blue, green, yellow, or clear.  Having a choice of colors to choose from is always a hit around here.  The flip side of the other Speed-Pads is see through colors don't work with all mice.  Compad is very forth coming about this and has a compatibility list on their site here.”

Check it out at: Overclocker Café

How To: Rename/Remove the Recycle Bin from your Dekstop in Windows XP @ Bitbender
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:24 PM EST

"The Recycle Bin, how about a different name for this necessary evil? This is a very easy tweak, if you follow along, we're going to have a little fun and learn to change the Recycle Bin's name by way of a registry 'hack'. If you are a beginner into the murky world of the registry, this is an ideal way of getting your feet wet....

Some of us like a clean desktop without icons, but miss having the Recycle Bin handy. This tweak will illustrate how to create the Recycle Bin on the Taskbar and rename it to whatever you desire. All this can be accomplished without the need to mess with the dreaded "Registry". "

Check it out at: Bitbender

WarCraft 3 Review @ OCAddiction
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:22 PM EST

"The first thing that caught my attention in the single player mode of the game was how the Heroes (as they are called), had experience points. This leads me back to the RPG-ish style that was added into the game. Not only does each mission move the story along at a rapid rate but it also makes the single player game much more interesting. The missions are not the usual find the enemy and destroy the base.  They are usually more complex, not to mention Blizzard threw in a lot of “optional quests” to help you increase your hero’s levels. Even though Warcraft 3 has shed many of its RPG characteristics that it was supposed to have when it was announced to be an RPG/RTS hybrid, WC 3 still manages to combine the two very well!"

Check it out at: OCAddiction

333 MHz FSB for the Athlon Article @ lostcircuits
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:19 PM EST

Increasing the EV6 bus interface frequency of the Athlon processors to 166 MHz clock / 333 MHz data rate has been a rather controversial issue in the media spot lights over the past few weeks. Resource considerations, feasibility studies, legal aspects and, most importantly, performance gains are just a few of the buzz words being thrown around here and there. We went a bit behind the scenes, did some performance profiling for different applications and include a Q & A session at the end to get over some preconceptions or were those misconceptions?

Check it out at: lostcircuits

CD-ROM LED Mod Guide @ techwarelabs
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:18 PM EST

"Want to add that little bit of extra coolness to your modded case? Why not replace that dull LED in the front of your CD-ROM with an ultra-bright LED and make your friends stare in awe when you spin a CD. Ultra-bright LED's are the latest craze in the computer mod world and can spice up any case or component that might use them."

Check it out at: techwarelabs

Case Wire Cleanup Guide @ techwarelabs
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:16 PM EST

"Have you ever looked inside your case and wondered how you could make that mess of wires more organized? Well here is one way to make your wires look professionally finished while still staying under a $10 budget."

Check it out at: techwarelabs

Lian Li PC-6087a Aluminum Case Review @ Tech-Dreams
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:14 PM EST

"In the land of computer modders, overclockers, and the overall computer enthusiast, 60% or more own or want to own a Lian Li Aluminum case. For those unfamiliar with or do not own a Lian Li your probably asking why? What makes Lian Li cases so special? And why do they rank higher than other cases on the market? Well, I at one time asked myself the same questions, and upon reviewing the Lian Li PC-6087a, I was able to find some answers. Hopefully, we can answer some of your questions in this review. If you still have questions afterwards, be sure to check out Lian Li."

Check it out at: Tech-Dreams

Shattered Web Window Appliqués Review @ GeekExtreme
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:12 PM EST

"Case moding, one of the many forms of expression for a geek.  Taking an otherwise ordinary case and transforming it into a unique work of art.  But no case mod is complete without SOMETHING on that nice new window kit you just installed.  Today we're look at a couple of appliqués from Shattered Web, a small company in Yelm, Washington who offers an easy way to order quality window appliqués online."

Check it out at: GeekExtreme

Blue Cold Cathode Light (Review) @ SystemCooling
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:10 PM EST

"Anyone searching for the right product to do the right job is faced with a number of good ones that will suffice, and one or two that will stand up heads over the competition. So I wasn't surprised when that happened with Cold Cathode light kits. I looked at no less than eight different kits, including two at my local Automobile supply store. What I was looking for was a no-hassle kit that I could just plug in and let beautify our "SystemCooling Modified Cooling Machine"."

Check it out at: SystemCooling

irock!500 Series Digital Players Review @ Geekshelter
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:08 PM EST

"I absolutely love the design of this player. It is a very user-friendly interface and so small. This is great if you like to run and have music, but if you have a CD player it skips and takes up a lot of room. This sleek player fits right into your pocket and it never skips."

Check it out at: Geekshelter

MaxPoint CS-305 Pre-Modified Case Reviewed @ ReviewSource
posted by Babylon5 on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:07 PM EST

There is a new case manufacture on the rise, their name is Maxpoint. They're making high quality, pre-modified cases, with neon lighting included. I've taken a look at their CS-305 series case, and I've got some amazing results! How ever there were also a couple negative issues.

Check it out at: ReviewSource

Codegen "Real McCoy" Server Case Review @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:42 PM EST

Probably the best feature, however, is the one that's seen least: the wheels. These are heavy duty castors that are attached to the bottom using four screws a piece. Each one can be locked using the switch to prevent the case from moving. What's even more intriguing is the weight that can be supported. I come in at 160lbs and my first desire was to sit on top and ride around the room. Which worked out quite well. After installing all the components which added nearly 80lbs of weight I was still able to sit on top without the case warping or the wheels breaking. This time I didn't roll around though.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Xoxide Crystal Blue Led Fans reviewed @ BurnoutPC
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:35 PM EST

"Fans, even the name sounds boring, especially for a review item. Well what we have up on the BOPC workbench is not your ordinary 80mm fans. Crystal Led fans, are becoming quite the rage among modders and check it out, we got our hands on a few!"

Check it out at: BurnoutPC

Geil DDR400 and DDR433 Review @ Active-Hardware
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:34 PM EST

Great Overclocking requires great memory -- memory capable of transferring information at higher clock speed and higher performance. One of the newest companies to offer high-performance memory is an outfit by the name of Geil. Geil has, for some time, offered such products as PC3200 DDR400, and PC3500 DDR433 DDR-SDRAM memory modules

Check it out at: Active-Hardware

Everglide Optical Mousepads Review @ iamnotageek
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:32 PM EST

Everglide is well known for their mousing surfaces, as well as other cool things such as LAN gear and PC Totes. They released the excellent Attack and Giganta pads, so let's see what they came up with for us optical mousers.

Check it out at: iamnotageek

Choosing the right home for your computer @ MonkeyReview
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:30 PM EST

Most vendors want to avoid drawing any attention to the cases they sell with their computers because they are often of inferior quality. Cheap cases with even cheaper power supplies are the norm in many cases (no pun intended).The irony is that your computer case, once considered to be the least important, can play a critical role in how well your computer operates. Poorly designed power supplies on PCs can lead to unexpected crashes of your operating system as key components like the CPU, are starved of clean power.

Check it out at: MonkeyReview

NVIDIA Detonator 40 Driver Eval and Benchmarks @ HotHardware
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:27 PM EST

Good morning folks!  We took sometime over the long weekend here, to put NVIDIA's new Detonator 40 Drivers through their paces.  Chris took a look at these new drivers, their incremental performance over previous releases, as well as a quick take on some of the new features.

Check it out at: HotHardware

Powerleap PL-iP3/T - Slot 1 to Socket 370 Adaptort Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:26 PM EST

The guys over at Upgrade Yourself Computers have given us the chance to review Powerleap’s PL-iP3/T – Slot 1 to Socket 370 Adaptor. This device allows you to update that old Slot 1 processor up to the newer Socket 370 format, increasing performance, without having to fork out the cash for an entire new system.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

PC-Look round IDE cables @ phlux
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:24 PM EST

"With more people getting in to modding a lot more people now have windows in their cases. This means that people want to make the inside of their case look as good as the outside of the case. The first thing that people tend to replace inside their cases is the ide cables. Normal ide cables are flat, grey and rather unsightly. Also due to the large size of the cables they can prevent you from having good airflow in your case which could affect the temperatures inside your case. Rounded ide cables are the best alternative to standard ide cables and PC-Look were kind enough to send me two rounded red ATA 133 ide cables."

Check it out at: phlux

Braided Copper Cables @ eliteHW
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:21 PM EST

"Last week, I took a look at a set of Vantec silver cables. I found them to be very high quality and excellent looking. Today I have a set of cables sent by Sharka Corporation for review. Now obviously, rounded cables cannot be that different from the rest of the field. However, slight differences in workmanship and design can make for an overall better cable. Let’s see how Sharka’s version of these compares to the Vantec units."

Check it out at: eliteHW

Detonator comparison @ Geek Extreme
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:19 PM EST

"Today we take a look at the new Detonator drivers from nVidia, version 40.41, and run them up against the previous 30.82 dets and see how they perform on a Geforce 3 Ti 200."

Check it out at: Geek Extreme

Vantec's HDC-502A HardDrive Cooler Review @ VoidedWarranty
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:18 PM EST

"What will this item do for me? Well if you have a pretty decent hard drive that runs at 7200 RPMs or better, then this fan should substantially improve the performance of your hard drive, and extend the hard drives life."

Check it out at: VoidedWarranty

Jaton Xabre 400 64MB review @ ASE Labs
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:16 PM EST

'Since the introduction of the SiS Xabre 400 Video Chipset, I have been intrigued by the price/performance of it. I knew that it was targeted towards the ultra budget market, and mostly as an upgrade from the integrated video offered on some motherboards (of course with an AGP slot as well). Late July, Jaton sent me their latest card based on the SiS Xabre 400 chipset.'

Check it out at: ASE Labs

AZZO Computers CCFL Kits Review @ GideonTech
posted by Babylon5 on Monday, September 2, 2002 at 6:13 PM EST

"The dual CCFL comes with a lot of pre-installed components. Most notably the black split loom, which keeps all the wires nice and neat. Also, you can see that they took the extra step and covered the 3 inch long inverter with a thick rubber heat shrink to protect from accidental shocks, which is easily removed in case you want to change the CCFL's that are connected."

Check it out at: GideonTech

Thermalright 80mm heatsink roundup @ phlux
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:37 PM EST

"One of the big producers of 80mm heatsinks is Thermalright. From their original AX-7 heatsink that I reviewed there was a huge success, a great number of sales and a large media response from overclocking sites. So Thermalright decided to release a few more 80mm models, which brings us to the focus of this review, a roundup of 3 of their finest 80mm socket A heatsinks; the AX-7, the SLK-800 and the CB-7."

Check it out at: phlux

GigaByte GA-6VTXDR-C dual server board and ACME SI-121A-BK IDE hard drive racks Review @ Ripnet-UK
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:35 PM EST

"GigaByte boards have a reputation - especially their server boards. They are boring, with few or no tuneable features. They are also among the most stable and reliable boards. It is this stability that made the choice for me. The lucky thing about this motherboard is that everything seems to have been perfectly designed, almost suspiciously with particular case that I bought in mind..."

Check it out at: Ripnet-UK

Chieftec DX-01BD Case Review @ CaseFreakz
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:29 PM EST

"When you improve a computer system, most people will try to improve the speed of their system by buying more ram or upgrading their processor or video card. Most people never upgrade their computer case. You can have a really fast PC in a ‘crappy’ case. It takes time to realize the disadvantages of a bad case, and to realize that a new case can really improve your system a lot. A good case can last a few hardware generations and has other advantages as well."

Check it out at: CaseFreakz

EPoX 8K5A3+ Motherboard Review @ hardware-test
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:27 PM EST

"This EPoX also has some possibilities that are rarely seen. It is possible to increase the voltage for the CPU all the way up to 2.200 volt. Most, well pretty much every mainboards out there has a limit of 1.850 volt. I didn’t have the guts to increase the voltage all the way up to 2.200 volt since I only have an ordinary fan cooler. I went up to 1.900 volt, which resulted in 148MHz on the FSB."

Check it out at: hardware-test

CoolerMaster AMP-U01 Aluminium Mousemat Review @ AusPCWorld
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:26 PM EST

We have plastic mouse mats, rubber mouse mats even glass mouse mats. But who would have thought about making a Aluminium mouse mat. Who else but CoolerMaster. CoolerMaster have released only 5000 pieces of this limited edition mouse mat celebrating Coolermaster's 10th Anniversary.

Check it out at: AusPCWorld

Black Cold Cathode Light & Vantec Rounded IDE Cables Review @ 3dXtreme
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:23 PM EST

"Today 3dXtreme will be looking at Jab-Tech's cold cathode black light and Vantec's UV sensitive Rounded cables incorporating both products into a single review. While the Vantec rounded cables could be a review by themselves, half the reason I received them was for their UV sensitivity and to show off the reason for moving to a black light Cold Cathode."

Check it out at: 3dXtreme

Trillian 1.0 Review @ Icrontic
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:21 PM EST

Also in that picture you can see I have the weather plug-in on. Some other plug-ins that come with Trillian will let you see your stocks, read the news, read your POP3 e-mail, and use a mini-browser that basically adds HTML to AIM profiles. They even have a plug in where you type /clip view and a dialog box will appear showing 10 things you have added to your clipboard (in case you don’t know that’s what words are saved to when you copy them).

Check it out at: Icrontic

MSI 845Ultra-ARU Review - And it's NOT pretty...@ PCExtreme
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:16 PM EST

"The MSI 845Ultra-ARU has been on the market for about 9 months now so it isn't a new product, but it is an outstanding overclocking platform. I originally started this review in June of this year, and it started out looking very good for this motherboard. The performance and overclocking options are outstanding, and the extras this board packs make it stand out among some of the best motherboards on the market. But since I started the review, I have run into some major problems, and I feel it is my duty to report them. Whether they are design flaws or not remains uncertain."

Check it out at: PCExtreme

Frames Per Second: Fact & Fiction Editorial @ Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:14 PM EST

One day I got to thinking about all this FPS (Frames Per Second) business. There is so much talk about what's right, what's wrong, what can be and can't be seen. Considering I knew next to nothing aside from personal experience, I thought I'd do a little research and give a little fact and fiction. Many people argue about what makes a difference and what doesn't, specifically what the human eye can perceive. Some claim 24fps, others 30, some 60, some 200, some even upwards of 2000 and above. Feel free to add any numbers in-between. The truth of the matter is, every one of these people is right and wrong in their own respect. Why? Because that's not how the brain works.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

Seasonic 300, 350, and 400watt PSU Roundup @Mikhailtech
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 11:11 PM EST

The next set of tests involved using Prime95, 3DMark2001 SE, and PCMark2002 in 20 minute sessions in that order. By now the temperature of the 300FS had stabilized around 53 degrees, and I still hadn’t come to the conclusion that there was a problem, even with writing down the temperatures every five minutes. It is too bad I didn’t have any marshmallows, or some S’mores would have been in order.

Check it out at: Mikhailtech

KoolPCMods Laser Etched Window Kit & Custom Case Badges Review @ MODTHEBOX
posted by Babylon5 on Sunday, September 1, 2002 at 10:54 PM EST

"The custom window that was received in the review package measures approximately 12" x 12", which makes it perfect for larger size server tower cases. One side of the window was still sealed with brown paper backing. My initial impressions, after removing the protective bubble wrap were very postive. The level of detail in the laser etching process is phenomenal, considering that initial image was conceived in a graphic editor. KoolPCMods can covert just about any image but it must be in vector or raster image format."

Check it out at: MODTHEBOX

 

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