[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

EPoX 8K9A2+ Review:

Hexus has reviewed the EPoX 8K9A2+ KT400 mainboard. This board has been rather low profile since we heard of it, lets see what the Hexus crew thought of it:

I've been quietly impressed by this motherboard. It performs admirably, although we, as yet, don't have enough motherboards to directly compare its performance. It's got a number of useful features that should satiate the needs of those looking for frills and speed.

800MHz System Bus?:

We reported Intel’s desire to go to a 800MHz and how it might ruffle a few feathers . Here is a little more detail on the effects this will have on VIA, SiS, and others.

Instead of the original 677MHz FSB (front-side bus) speed and dual-channel DDR333 memory architecture, Intel on November 15 informed its motherboard clients that its upcoming Springdale chipsets will support an 800MHz FSB and dual-channel DDR400.

The Coming Week:

Apparently we need a full News.com story to know that the week ahead is going to be ultra slow. Imagine that. Whew…thanks to News.com for helping us to realize that!!

We're talking turkey here. Activity for events and economic news will be rather light next week, as the nation gears up for the Thanksgiving holiday.

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

Vcore Volt Mod:

OCInside has put up a guide to volt modding their CPU. This mod is done on an ECS board, but if you use your noggin, getting the same principle results can be done on other boards.

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It's very easy to increase the Vcore of the Elitegroup (ECS) Mainboards K7S6A, K7S5A, K7VZA and K7AMA by soldering just one resistor to the right point to allow your CPU much higher frequency. Of course it's necessary to be very careful if you're soldering something on your mainboard in order not to killyour board. And of course your warranty void if you solder anything on your mainboard !

VGA Cooling Mods:

Take a Thermaltake Copper VGA cooler an LED and a few minutes of your time and you too can be a super modding genius. O.K., not really, but it was fun while it lasted.

Today we are going to look at the latest graphics cooler from Thermaltake. This cooler is very similar to the GeForce 4 Highest Performance Cooler that we reviewed before. The only real difference is that this cooler has a blue LED that has been mounted on to the clear plastic that covers part of the heat sink.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition

AMD Business Plans:

AMD deciding that speed is no longer the key is deciding to put more emphasis on “other” venues as a source of income. What this means at this point, who knows.

AMD said on Tuesday that it would embrace a strategy of developing processors for a wider range of products outside computers and called on the industry to focus on user needs rather than creating "technology for technology's sake". "We have become interdependent on each other for success," Hector Ruiz, AMD's president and chief executive, said in a speech at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas. "I urge you to demand that those companies who are currently serving you today begin developing technology not for its own sake, but in line with what you are really trying to do," Ruiz said.

Airplane Parachutes II:

Last week we all joked about airplane parachutes, well a number of you sent me the link to a site that has all the info on it, as well as pictures of the chute in action, so I thought I’d post a follow up.

Copper VGA Orb:

A little copper cooling action for you videocard. Easy reading in this one page review of the copper vid card / chipset orbs.

This heatsink has it's good points, for a start its made from copper which is much more conductive than your normal aluminium heatsink. It also looks good which is important to some people, although in reality you don’t see much of it unless you have a case window. It's also very cheap and will defiantly out perform your bog standard heatsink provided with your graphics card.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition

Two Innovatek Reviews:

3DXtreme had some hands on action with one of Innovatek’s water cooling kits. A few down points with this kit, but an overall good verdict was handed out.

Even for some of you long time water cooling veterans, this kit would is perfect. The only flaws that I could find with this kit is with it's PVC tubing which can bend easily causing disturbance in the flow of water throughout the kit. Also notice it's price tag which is a hefty.

Not to be left out, Mod The Box has a review an Innovatek kit, that has basically has the same concerns as other sites have pointed out, but they too like the kit overall.

I really appreciated the 6-point clipping mechanism, although the risk of crushing the core is still something that draws concern. The reservoir/pump setup is great for having a hybrid inline/reservoir based system, and priming the system with coolant was effortless. I would have liked to see higher quality tubing included in the kit, as well as some form of user installation guide.

Pump Relay “How-To”:

Need a water pump relay? The ModFathers have a little “How-To” posted so you can make your own relay switch for your H20 set up. It is a one page review

More H20:

Hardwareluxx has a review of the Go-Cooling kit, which is another of the small diameter hose setups like the Innovatek units. This is one of the few kits I have never actually tried, so I’ll be reading this one right along with you. Not in English, but graphs and pics don’t need to be.

Lapping:

Something that seems to be forgotten in mainstream channels anymore is the fine art of lapping your heatsinks, water blocks and CPU’s. Personally, I still make sure everything I own is tested for flat mating surfaces before I used it in one of my rigs. A simple test to check the surface of the item is to mark the face of the item with a black marker making an “X”, then make a few passed on the flat sanding block. You will see black markings left in the low areas. Here is what your P4 can look like with a little effort.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

ABIT BE7 Review:

The ABIT BE7 is reviewed by the AMD3D crew. Even with the Granite Bay boards hitting the shelves soon, 845PE boards like this are still great performers, and will no doubt be pushed down in price when the new boards come out. Here is a clip from the review:

I was quite impressed with Abit BE7-Raid motherboard. At first, it didn't look that impressive ... I mean the package was a little dull, but it's the motherboard that counts. There have a absence of Abit motherboard reviews here on AMD3D.com for a while, so it's nice to see that they have brought out a motherboard that we could enjoy.

Big Heat Pipe:

But this heatpipe is for your video card. Spode’s Abode is looking at that monster-sized Zalman ZM80-HP VGA heatpipe cooler that has been getting a lot of attention. Check out some of the specs on this thing.

The bases (plates) all consist of aluminum (6063T5), while the heatpipe is a gold plated copper tube. Total unit weight is up to 385g, so it is no light cooling solution. Heat dissipation area is (according to Zalman) 1000cm2. The cooler is fanless, so it is completely silent. Instead of fans, it uses its heatpipe to move the heat from the base on the GPU onto all the other aluminum plates.

Mugshots:

Nothing to do on the weekend? Flip through page after page of celebrity mugshots. It is actually pretty damn entertaining to see T.V. celebs, Sports stars, Rock stars in their booking photos. Well, it sure beats seeing your own mugshot…that’s for sure.

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

Digital Privacy Stuff:

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

Mmmm, Shiny:

PCStats has the Albatron PX845E Silver mainboard in house for testing. Certainly Albatron is gaining in popularity among enthusiasts, the cool silver look is an added bonus that case modders can appreciate.

If you're into case modding and want a motherboard that has killer looks, the Albatron PX845E fits the bill! In terms of performance, the board is very fast considering the memory only runs in PC2100 mode.

3D Glasses:

3Dgalsses make a return appearance at 3DGameman. I am actually surprised at how long 3D Glasses have actually been around. The “wow factor” is there, they are getting really cheap, and sometime even bundled with video cards…but are they all that? Let’s ask Rodney.

The eDimensional wired 3D Glasses add a whole new thrill to games, pictures and even DVD's on your CRT monitor. Also, with this model you don't have to worry about batteries, however, those who dislike cables might prefer the wireless glasses. Whichever model you prefer they will both offer the same amazing 3D effect.

I like to wear mine when I am watching Rodney’s review, I can almost reach out and touch him…..hmmm, now where is that lovely assistant of his?

Heat Killer:

OCAddiction has the Chinese fan looking Zalman CNPS6000-Cu on the grill. Can it stand the heat? Were about to find out.

The CNPS6000-Cu is not a bad heatsink at all. Using this heatsink to run stock speeds on your cpu is satisfactory and will even be very pleasant since it'll be very quiet--silent actually. Although AMD says that their processors can reach temperatures of 90c and above, I would never let my cpu get that high.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition

V8 Modded Case:

We posted this case a while back while it was still being completed. Check this guys case our and tell me this isn’t extrememly ass kicking. Thanks Lasse.

VIA P4PB:

The P4PB Ultra steps up to the plate with an Xtreme package of features that include AGP 8X, high bandwidth DDR Memory, ATA/133 RAID, 6 channel audio, and a premium accessory. Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today launched the P4PB Ultra Mainboard, VIA's premium-level Pentium® 4 processor mainboard solution aimed at tech savvy PC enthusiasts who demand the latest cutting-edge performance, connectivity features, and premium level accessories.

Sock Review:

You can ALWAYS tell when things start to “dry up” in the PC industry. Sites find it increasingly harder to get product, with some sites having to review things like screensavers and thermal paste, just to have content up. But I have never heard of a SOCK Review…ever that is, until now.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself "Alright self, bring lets skip to the pictures and benchmarks"... well, hold on there... since I'm not rich, I can't really just go out and buy the latest hardware to review, and since I'm not popular no one in their right mind would give me hardware to review, so I was forced to use something that I had already.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

MSI 845PE Max2-FIR:

MSI’s 845PE Max2 board is getting the once over at PCStats. Seems like everyone had a Max2 board out, let’s see what make the MSI unit different.

Performance of 845PE Max2-FIR was excellent, and as you can see by the benchmarks the board has a wild side to it. Users who decide to overclock will be happy to find a full set of tweaking tools in the BIOS to help them along. In our tests, the MSI 845PE Max2-FIR wasn't the best overclocker we have ever tested, but it did perform towards the higher end of the scale - reaching 165 MHz FSB with a P4 2.66B processor and stock heatsink.

More Max2:

More Max2, different mainboard PC Hardware reviewed the IT7 Max2 right here. If you want to get your Max action on, here is another option for you to do just that. This does remind me of when everything had an “XP” added to the name.

There is only one thing I can say: I liked a lot Abit IT7 MAX2. It’s not very common for me to simply like a motherboard, but in this case my statement is based on facts. IT7 MAX2 is not a low cost motherboard, in fact it costs quite a lot for a desktop board. Fortunately the features justify the cost because the number of additional devices which you will have to buy will be also lower.

OUCH:

All I want to know is what laptop burns you through your pants….so I don’t buy one!! The guy says it will not effect his love life, but after they caught his wife driving home that night…I think we might just see why it never effected his love life. Thanks to everyone who sent me those two gems today.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition

Abit IT7-Max2:

The Tech-Report got busy with the IT7-Max2 today. This board seems to be getting a lot of attention lately, no doubt thanks to the good performance and feature set. Let’s see if the TR guys like it too.

ABIT HAS CHANGED the tone of its MAX line of motherboards. The message behind the original MAX amounted to flag waving for a new legacy-free platform that brushed aside PS/2, serial, and parallel ports in favor of gobs of USB and Firewire ports. Now, with the MAX2 series, serial and parallel ports are still out, but PS/2 ports are back. Now, Abit is focusing on integrating loads of peripherals instead of pushing a legacy-free agenda.

Corsair XMS3500:

Extreme Overclocking has their hands on some killer Corsair memory. For those of you who don’t know, XMS_3500 is the latest and greatest memory coming out of Corsair and they stuff we use around here in our test rigs.

Corsair has been a leading and well-respected memory manufacturer for years now. They have provided some of the highest quality memory modules available on the market and have made quite a name for themselves. This year they started their Extreme Memory Speed (XMS) line. These modules are made for people who really need the speed such as gamers. These modules are the top of the line in speed and performance out of all the Corsair modules.

8Ball And A Speeze:

More HSF craziness from the guys with 8 Balls. And before you ask…we have no idea how they got that way either.

Temperature wise, the EagleStream doesn't do all that bad. Its main crippling factor, if you could call it one, is its fan. Spins rather fast, but doesn't push as much air for it to be very effective. 47C on load isn't shabby, as it still keeps the processor well below dangerous levels. Plus, this is in hot Malaysian weather, so those who live in cold countries can't go wrong with this cooler.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition - Blair Tech Ed

Ambulance Radios:

High-Tech Cheating:

Two Columbia University undergraduate students were arrested Monday for allegedly using high-tech transmitters and walkie-talkies to cheat on the Graduate Record Examination. Bryan Laulicht and Sasha Bakhru, both seniors, were arrested after an administrator at a Sylvan Learning Center in Garden City, N.Y., found one of the students acting suspiciously in a room where the test was offered. That Sylvan administrator then called the police.

Big Servers:

Hunkin’s Experiments:

This is a full list of all the cartoons in alphabetical order. Most cartoons feature two experiments. All the experiments work except for one trick experiment! If you think you've found it, let us know at hunkinsexperiments@hotmail.com Some of the experiments are harder to do than others. We keep a list of the difficult ones based on feedback from visitors.

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

Comdex Coverage:

AMDMB did a little Comdex coverage this year, giving their opinions and insight into what kind of show it was this year. Kyle doesn’t seem to be the only one who thought the show was lacking.

There just wasn’t any new technology for attendees to gawk and stare at. While the many LCD and plasma screens were nice to see and admire, most of them were still months away. I am personally looking forward to the tablet PCs when they launch, though they may be underpowered as far as performance goes to replace my everyday laptop. Overall, Comdex looks to be falling by the wayside.

Ti4600 Extreme:

If you aren’t one of the few that can run out and buy the newest video card every time a new one is announced, chances are you will want to look at this super mod by Monster Hardware that lays out what needs to be done to max your GF4. If none of this works…you are in trouble for sure. Standard disclaimer follows:

OK... I admit it, I suck at soldering... but I found a way to solder IC’s without screwing up too bad... I isolate legs not to be soldered with Liquid Paper... solder does not stick to it so I can slop it on there and not worry about cross shorts. NOTICE / DISCLAIMER: This is a dangerous and quite likely terminal mod to do to your card... goofing up can result in the total and complete death of your videocard... and that is a bad thing.

Radeon 9500:

Technically, if you are Beyond3D….wouldn’t that make you 4D? Or at least 3.5D?? You’d thing so…regardless, the Beyond3D crew have reviewed the Radeon 9500 today. I have provided a link for your viewing pleasure.

Whether DirectX9 support is worthwhile right now or not, both ATI and Sapphire should be congratulated on bringing hardware support for this new API to the sub $200 price bracket so soon with the ATLANTIS Radeon 9500.