The Megahertz Myth
posted: January 10, 2002 @ 6:32 EST by: ryan
Megahertz, the good old, ever effective, marketing tool has been under fire from a number of manufactures as of late. HardwareAnalysis takes a look at how Apple, AMD and Intel use clockspeed as a marketing tool to sell their products.
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Echo Audio MONA Review
posted: January 10, 2002 @ 6:30 EST by: ryan
ExHardware takes a look at Echo Audio's MONA, a digital studio interface with it's own PCI card that allows you to turn your computer into a professional digital audio workstation (DAW). What exactly is a digital studio interface? Think of it as a REALLY powerful soundcard with lots of high-quality inputs and outputs that puts even the Sound Blaster Audigy to shame. Here's a snip:
"This time around, we take a look at the Echo Audio MONA Digital studio interface which is, next to your PC, the most important piece of equipment. The MONA is basically a very powerful add on similar to a very high end sound card that adds a whole load of flexibility to your studio. The MONA comes in two parts, an external interface box that is the main hub of the studio with preamplifiers and lots of input/output capabilities and a PCI card that goes into your PC providing a link between the MONA box and the PC."
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Aopen AK77 Plus Review
posted: January 10, 2002 @ 6:29 EST by: ryan
The Overclocker Café has just finished up their review of AOpen’s bid in the latest chipset wars. The AK77 Plus (A) is of course based on the KT266A chipset and showed itself to be a solid performer and the rock of stability.
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Flat Panel Buying Guide
posted: January 10, 2002 @ 6:28 EST by: ryan
ArsTechnica has posted up a nice guide to flat panel displays.
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Best Hardware of 2001
posted: January 10, 2002 @ 6:27 EST by: ryan
Another year gone by and certainly tons of crap was dumped on unsuspecting buyers...but what about the good guys? [H]ard|COP has posted up their thoughts on the 2001.
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Corsair Made Computers
posted: January 9, 2002 @ 6:56 EST by: ryan
[H]ardOCP has posted up http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/misc/cobra/index.html">their review of the new Corsair made computers.
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Tweakmonster Ramsinks
posted: January 9, 2002 @ 6:53 EST by: ryan
MIkHailTech takes a look at the very popular Tweakmonster ramsinks. These CNC machined nickel plated copper beauties are quite the performers. Now if only they didn't cost so much. Here's a quote:
"In case I forgot to mention, the TM ramsinks are very shiny. If they were any bigger you could easily use them mirrors. Although they have slight imperfections (probably due to handling after manufacture), overall each piece is extremely flat and requires no lapping. Doing so would get rid of the tin coating anyway. TM claims that they're flat to within 0.0002 of an inch - I assume that's an overall rating for an entire plane. While really meant for DDR (the greater heat producer of the two), these ramsinks will also work perfectly fine with SDR since the modules are the same size. The dimensions of each piece are perfect for covering an entire block, no more, no less."
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GeForce2 Ti Shootout
posted: January 9, 2002 @ 6:52 EST by: ryan
Hexus.net has slapped up a bit of a GeForce 2 Ti shooutout for you today. The 2 cards in the review are the Sparkle SP6600Ti and the Prolink PixelView GeForce2 Ti.
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Enabling Sony Dig Cam Recording
posted: January 8, 2002 @ 7:01 EST by: ryan
Many digital camcorder manufacturers disable recording from external sources such as the FireWire port. This article provides an in-depth how-to guide on enabling recording on Sony digital camcorders.
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Building a simple IC
posted: January 8, 2002 @ 7:00 EST by: ryan
VYW has a new article posted about building a simple IC that connects to a motherboard's SMBus header and that can accurately read the internal CPU temperature from the diode on AMD XPs, MPs, and Morgan core Durons. This is a way to reproducibly know the TRUE CPU temperature for SocketA systems, so true computer nerds as well as anyone who tests heatsinks and cooling should I think be interested:
"The internal diode is apparently accurate enough to allow comparison with die simulations and presumably from user to user. This is a great thing for readers, but this accuracy may prove a problem to reviewers though, as many issues in testing methodology can appear that have previously been masked by the poor accuracy of motherboard CPU probes. Take for example the application of thermal paste."
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Rotokiller Mouse Review
posted: January 8, 2002 @ 6:59 EST by: ryan
SLCentral.com has posted a review of the Rotokiller mouse. Good Work Systems is trying to change the way we play games by coming up with a totally unique approach to the mouse. See what surprises the Rotokiller RTR-720 has in store. Here's a quote:
"One item that plagued users of the Boomslang mice was their construction, being too fragile. Good Work Systems wanted to get it right the first time, building the Rotokiller by hand with polycarbonate cases and rubber gasket buttons to prevent dust and other crud from getting inside. The axles that track the movement of the ball are made of stainless steel and are held by strong polycarbonate bearings."
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2CoolPC Plus and Turbo
posted: January 8, 2002 @ 6:58 EST by: ryan
OverclockedCafe has finished their review of 2CoolPC's Plus and Turbo models. Both models are similar, the largest difference lying in the fans used - Plus model uses a 50cfm fan, and the Turbo model uses a 60cfm fan. A nice inexpensive duct solution for case circulation. Both are very easy to install, and maintain:
"I've preached in the past about good air circulation in a PC case, even systems with water cooled CPU's still need to keep all the other components cooled, and this almost always requires some form of air cooling. The "ideal" scenario is to blow cool air into the lower half of a case, and extract the hot air from the upper half of the case. The trick is moving this air efficiently, enter the 2 Cool PC product line."
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AMD Athlon XP 2000+
posted: January 7, 2002 @ 7:09 EST by: ryan
PCStats has posted up their review of the AMD Athlon XP 2000+ System.
"Now it's time to get into the details and start looking at benchmarks! Both processors will be tested on PC2400 DDR based systems for the best possible "apples-to-apples" comparison. As such, the P4 will be slightly handicapped as we all know it performs its' absolute best with the i850 chipset and RDRAM. However, RDRAM is not exactly popular with consumers, and so DDRAM is quickly gaining market supremacy. Conversely, we will not be testing the XP200+ against a SDRAM based P4 system because that really wouldn't be much of comparison would it?"
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Intel Northwood Processor
posted: January 7, 2002 @ 7:08 EST by: ryan
HotHardware has also posted up their take on the new Intel Northwood processor.
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CPU/Memory Watch
posted: January 7, 2002 @ 7:06 EST by: ryan
SLCentral.com has posted an update to their CPU/Memory Watch for 1/7/02. This week big movers are retail AMD Durons and Athlon MP's/XP's in processors. Memory stays surprisingly stable while DDR prices boost up quite a bit again.
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Northwood Vs. AthlonXP
posted: January 7, 2002 @ 7:05 EST by: ryan
X-bit labs has posted an article called "Intel Pentium 4 (Northwood) 2.0AGHz and 2.2GHz against AMD Athlon XP 2000+".
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EPoX 4SDA+ Review
posted: January 6, 2002 @ 10:06 EST by: ryan
Tweaker's Asylum has posted up their review of the EPoX 4SDA+ (SiS 645 Chipset) Intel P4 Motherboard. Quote:
“The EPoX 4SDA+ has quite a few useful features and options for you performance hungry consumers. If overclocking is what your looking for, EPoX has you covered from top to bottom. I will say this about the 4SDA+, it is by far the most overclockable Intel Pentium 4 based motherboard ever tested in the Tweakers Asylum's labs.”
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Hercules XPS510 Review
posted: January 6, 2002 @ 10:04 EST by: ryan
TweakTown has just posted a review of the Hercules XPS510 5.1 Speaker System. Here's a snip:
"With all their success in the audio market, Hercules has recently decided to introduce their new range of speakers. These were named the XPS510, XPS210 and XPS200, with XPS standing for eXtended Personal Sound. We were able to obtain Hercules' high-end, yet low priced speaker system, the XPS 510. At first we were very critical about the performance of this system due to it's low cost, however, as you will see when you read on, first impressions do not always last."
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Cooler Master HHC-001
posted: January 6, 2002 @ 10:04 EST by: ryan
Reviewmakers has posted up a review of the Cooler Master HHC-001 Heatsink.
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Abit KR7A-RAID Mobo
posted: January 4, 2002 @ 7:06 EST by: ryan
The Tech Zone has posted a review of Abit's new KR7A-RAID motherboard. Abit's newest high end offering for SocketA Athlon systems sports VIA's newest KT266a chipset for improved memory bandwidth, as well as a new revision of Highpoints excellent IDE RAID controller, the HPT372, which now offers support for ATA 133 RAID!
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Enermax Whisper PSUs Rv.
posted: January 4, 2002 @ 7:05 EST by: ryan
Virtual-Hideout.Net has just posted a review of the Enermax Whisper Series FCA PSU. Here's a snip:
"Gone are the days when a 235W or 250W PSU would do just fine in providing your system with a source of power for your system. Todays' PC and hardwares not only need power, but a clean and reliable source of it. There are many PSU manufacturers out there that has between them, provided a long list of reliable PSUs and one of them is none other than Enermax. They first caught the attention of the end-users with their 351, 451 and 651 series. Over the years they have worked on several other models, namely the FC series and they recently make use of that success and released their latest models, the FCA Series. It's basically an upgraded version of the FC Series, with a few changes. Does the new series live up to the well-known Enermax name? Let's find out!"
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Windows XP Tweaking Guide
posted: January 4, 2002 @ 7:04 EST by: ryan
TweakTown has just posted Part 2 of their Windows XP Tweaking Guide. Here's a snip:
"TweakTown has just finished Part 2 of their popular Windows XP Tweaking Guide. Quite a few tweaks have been discovered since the first article, so join them as they show you even more tips and tricks for Windows XP!"
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Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
posted: January 4, 2002 @ 7:03 EST by: ryan
SLCentral.com has posted a review of the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz soundcard. With so many sound cards sounding alike, what makes the Santa Cruz sound different? Read the review to find out what it is and why it won their editor's choice award. Here's a quote:
"As for A3D testing in Unreal Tournament, the audio outputted was similar to a Vortex 2 SQ2500 sound card using the same API. CPU usage and FPS hits were also similar, no improvements to A3D unfortunately. On the bright side, it's pretty hard to improve a discontinued API such as A3D, no matter how good it is. When testing with EAX, the Santa Cruz showed lower numbers and higher performance hits than the SoundBlaster Live, it could be the drivers but obviously something was wrong, the sound quality, although, was very similar. Games remained playable without a doubt. I'd say that this card performs up to par and past it at times when it comes to games, it's universal API support is a good feature when it comes to choosing a single card for today's machines."
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Thermaltake Volcano7 Review
posted: January 4, 2002 @ 7:02 EST by: ryan
VYW is back with their first review of the new year, a look at the Thermaltake Volcano7 hs/fan. This is supposedly a high performance heatsink, but we had less-than-stellar results with it:
"The utility of a thermally controlled fan that has its probe on the side of the fan rather than embedded into the heatsink should be questioned. Even with relatively cool intake air (24-25C), the CPU is still running extremely hot (74C if you trust AMD's technical document), but even with the CPU close to meltdown, the Tt fan is still poking along at minimum speed. One would have to get the ambient temperature another 10-15C to cause the Volcano7's fan to spin at full speed."
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Titan TTC-CUV1AB Cooler
posted: January 3, 2002 @ 7:07 EST by: ryan
The Overclocker Café has just finished up its review of the Titan TTC-CUV1AB chipset cooler. Quote:
“Thermaltake has ruled the high performance chipset market with their Blue ORB and now the Crystal ORB. The Titan folks saw an opportunity and felt it time to lay siege to Thermaltake’s crown. Enter the Titan TTC-CUV1AB VGA cooler. Solid copper construction AND it not blocking a PCI slot if it is on a video card are a good receipt for success.”
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Remote Serial Display
posted: January 3, 2002 @ 7:07 EST by: ryan
The Tech Zone reviews a new Remote Serial Display from PCMods that allows you to view all sorts of info about your computer. Stuff such as your system temps, core voltages, or even what song you happen to be listening to! Intrigued? Check the full review http://thetechzone.com/display.asp?i=105&p=1">out here.
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ASUS A7n266-E Review
posted: January 3, 2002 @ 7:06 EST by: ryan
[H]ard|OCP has posted up their review of the ASUS nForce based motherboard, the A7n266-E.
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Compaq iPaq 3635 PDA
posted: January 3, 2002 @ 7:05 EST by: ryan
SLCentral.com has posted http://www.slcentral.com/reviews/hardware/pda/compaq/ipaq3635">a review of the Compaq iPaq 3635 PDA. As compact computing becomes mainstream, there are new players to the market dominated by Palm, is the iPaq a worthy competitor? Here's a quote:
"Other features are an expansion sleeve for CompactFlash Type I and Type II cards, this is usually not included with Ipaq handhelds (the 3650 and the 3630 are identical to this one but don't come standard with the sleeve) but come standard with this model. This sleeve allows extra capabilities and expandability with CompactFlash media, I like this sleeve but it does have its disadvantages. I noticed that with the sleeve on, the battery life would go down a bit (to be expected) and also it makes the Ipaq considerably more bulky in terms of thickness and width. But it does fit well and also gives the Ipaq some protection over normal day to day wear and tear."
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LiteOn FS020 Mid Tower
posted: January 2, 2002 @ 7:02 EST by: ryan
Virtual-Hideout.Net has posted a review of the LiteOn FS020 Mid Tower Case. Here's a snip of the review:
"Over the past few years, aluminium cases has really gotten off and their popularity has sky-rocketed. Not only are they light-weight, they're also sleek, cool looking and with them, they bring new features. But it's easy to forget that they all have the same roots and origins and that's the good 'ol all-steel case. They have existed long before the aluminium cases made it's debut and there are many manufacturers out there who between them, have a long list of good designs. And one of them is the LiteOn FS020 Mid Tower. I first saw the LiteOn in late 1999 and at the time, it's one of the cases that has the overclockers/modders in mind in it's design. With 3 stock 120mm fan spots and plenty of room for expansion and modding, it quickly got me drooling and sends a burst of ideas into my head! But it has eluded me as it's hard to find here in Singapore and also because of the shipping charges....until now!"
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Waterblock Roundup
posted: January 2, 2002 @ 7:00 EST by: ryan
Procooling has posted a roundup of waterblocks. This is the start of a series of roundups covering watercooling gear.
"Overall I think its impossible for me to say "X block is the best" because there are a few that have different targets and different advantages. I do feel confident that there is enough data here in this review to help you make a better decision when you do go out to buy yourself a lil piece of drilled copper :)"
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Fortissimo II Review
posted: January 2, 2002 @ 6:58 EST by: ryan
GideonTech.com is back after a small vacation with a sound card review. This time around, we're taking a look at the Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II.
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InnoVISION GF3 Ti200 Review
posted: January 1, 2002 @ 5:11 EST by: ryan
Overclockers Online have slapped up another videocard review. This time, they have a GeForce3 Titanium 200 card from InnoVISION on the testbench. QUOTE :
"The Inno3D Tornado GeForce3 Ti200 comes with a sexy looking black PCB. I really love black or blue PCBs for my motherboards and videocards. If you have a window mod and neon lights in your case like I have, you can really show off at a LAN party with these colored PCBs. ... Because our Inno3D GF3 Ti200 comes with 64MB of 5ns DDR RAM running at 400MHz by default, Inno3D made a wise decision and installed RAM sinks on top of the memory chips. These blue RAM sinks should also contribute to a much better overclocking result later on. Maybe we can even clock this Ti200 close to a more expensive Ti500 ;)"
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DFI AD70-SR KT266A
posted: January 1, 2002 @ 5:09 EST by: ryan
HardwareAnalysis has posted up their review of the DFI AD70-SR KT266A Motherboard.
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Happy New Year!
posted: December 31, 2001 @ 4:53 EST by: ryan
yes!
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Memory Cooling Kit
posted: December 31, 2001 @ 12:40 EST by: ryan
MikHailTech has reviewed the Thermaltake memory cooling kit and were a little disappointed with the performance increase. Well, strapping on a 40mm fan with the new active kit (reviewed today) proved to yield some very impressive numbers. Here's a quote:
"At first sight (and previous knowledge of Thermaltake's strategies) I thought the included fan was going to be one of those super high output models that dwarfs even a Delta screamer in the noise race. Much to my surprise this fan came out to be completely silent. I have a test 250watt AT power supply with an "optional" fan. When I powered it up with the fan turned off the Tt model was barely audible. 23dba is very quiet; you can fall asleep easily with this fan next to your ear. And I'm not joking either. Of course the airflow isn't all that much either, but 5.1cfm for cooling down system memory is more than sufficient. The model is by Everflow (the same fan brand on the Dragon Orb 3) and has one of those huge motors compared to the fin size."
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