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December 2001 |
Can't get into forums?
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Monday, 31-December-2001 11:43:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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If your account was created between about a week ago and the 19th of September, you will need to re-create it. This is due to a hardware failure at our host. For more details, read the Site Discussion forum after you've signed up again. :)
Remember, we don't allow free email addresses (like Hotmail or Yahoo) when you're signing up for the forums. This is due to problems with abuse by people using those services in the past.
Sunday Night
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Sunday, 30-December-2001 21:11:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Gareth noticed this hardware hacks site which has been recently translated into English. Quite a few interesting little projects there, including mounting a fan inside your mouse to keep your hand cool. :)
Bit-Tech modified a DigiDoc. We reviewed the original unit here a fair while ago now.
Apparently there's a newish version of SpeedFan out and they've updated the list of supported motherboards, thanks Ben.
AcidHardware have compared 4 heatsinks, from Zalman and Fortis.
Kazashi noted the TuxBox project, which aims to be an open-source gaming console.
leperMessiah spotted an interesting thing in OCOnline's recent Abit BD7-RAID review - The divider for the AGP and PCI busses is variable as well ... These are the options: 3/1, 4/1, FIX PCI 33, FIX PCI 37.5 and FIX PCI 40 - fixed PCI? Neato.
TechJunkie have an article about the suitability of Linux for a desktop/gaming PC.
Dan has been playing with some trebuchets. That's right, medieval seige weapons. These are desktop sized, though, so you can't actually fling cattle etc with them.
Tweak3D have a guide to making a quiet but fast aircooled PC, thanks Hadamona.
Wokket noticed trial versions of .NET available for download from Microsoft.. dialup peeps need not apply, but handy for those studying the technology.
Digit-Life have an article on the nForce MCP, covering the audio and video features of that chipset. I reviewed the first non-reference motherboard based on that chipset, the MSI K7N420 Pro, a few weeks ago.
Sniper sent word of a LAN in Adelaide soon.
Apparently this 20mb archive contains new drivers (dated 21 Dec) for the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card and work with the Videologic Sonic Fury, thanks Radix.
GameHard have a neat little LCD temp monitor mod posted.
The AMD AthlonXP 2000+ has appeared in Japan.. dang, too late for you to buy it for me for Christmas. But hey, my birthday's in January. :)
Timewasters: Silly ant city flash game from SPG (pretty sure we've seen it before) and loop labs digital sampler for aspiring DJ's, thanks OneEyeDogMan.
Reviews:
Abit KG7-RAID AMD760-based SocketA DDR motherboard on MikhailTech.
Crucial PC2100 DDR memory on 3DVelocity.
Crystal Orb chipset cooler on OCOpolis.
Rounded Cables on SLCentral, a local option here, cheapy option here.
Altec Lansing ADA890 THX speakers on EXHardware.
Hercules 3D Prophet GF3 Ti500 video card on Hexus.
Visiontek Xstacy video cards on 3DSpotlight.
FDS 828 2.1 speakers on Digit-Life.
Heatseeker Case (watercooled Lian Li) on OCOnline.
GlobalWin YCC-61F1 aluminium server case on OCrCafe.
Saturday Evening
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Saturday, 29-December-2001 20:46:48 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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A heap of people sent in word that internet provider XIS.com.au are requesting expressions of interest in an unlimited ADSL plan. Check it out and put your details down if you reckon you'd be interested. Apparently Whirlpool.net.au have info that they need 2500 interested people before they'll pursue it further, but that site seems to be down at the moment.
D F posted pics and info on his Poota Pack project in the forums - squeezing an entire PC into an external SCSI drive housing.
OCNZ have a DDR RAM guide with a few sticks compared.
V8R points out this interesting e-ink technology that could be very big in the future.
Sniper notes that, just as NSW braces for the worst ever day of bushfires, this man was allegedly found lighting bushfires in Armidale. I hope someone burns your bloody house down, idiot.
Reviews:
Dr Thermal socket cooler on TweakTown.
Macro 4D optical mouse on CoolHardWarez.
Cyber Cooler P8100 socket cooler on MikhailTech.
Matrox Marvel G450 eTV video card (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Enhance 460W PSU on Ripnet.
Shuttle SV24 mini PC on DSLWS.
Abit KR7A-RAID SocketA DDR motherboard on TweakTown, our review here.
Samsung Syncmaster 170t LCD screen on NeoSeeker.
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 28-December-2001 15:17:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Email seems to have sorted itself out.
Apparently there is a huge security problem with WinXP, thanks Manaz. This one is so serious that the FBI have become involved and issued a warning. The good news? There's a patch available that apparently works well.
Xbit-Labs claim to have a lot of info about NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce4 video chipsets.
A few people have sent their feelings about Acer Communications & Multimedia's recent name change to "Benq". The main emotion seems to be confusion tinged with a hint of "are they kidding?" disbelief. Apparently Benq stands for "Bringing Enjoyment 'N Quality (to life)". The main Acer corporation will still be called Acer. Anyway, more info in an interesting article here, thanks Hans. I tried looking for more info on AcerCM.com.au (and benq.com.au) but there seem to be a lot of 404's and references to the old name, so I guess they're still in transition.
TheInquirer have posted "year in review" articles for the two CPU giants, Intel and AMD. Interesting stuff.
There's a LAN in Perth soonish.
AkibaPC have pics of a 4-way P4 Xeon system and the new 2.2GHz P4 chip.
A quick roundup of roundups: P4X266 P4 DDR motherboards and IDE HDD's on Digit-Life, 32x CD-RW drives and 16X DVD-ROM drives on CDRInfo.
There's a RAID tutorial on VyW.
We now have an NVIDIA Hardware Forum, for discussion of that company's motherboard and video chipsets.
Speaking of which, MSI have released a new BIOS for their K7N420 Pro (nForce 420D-based) motherboard I reviewed last month here. One cool thing is that it now apparently supports multiplier changing in the BIOS. Immy notes: Remember that you have to now use memory banks 1+2, not the old 1+3. I did check it and 1+3 is now compatibility mode (slower sandra scores). I got slightly faster memory benchmarks with the new bios:
| Bios (Ram slots) | 2.0 (1+3) | 2.1 (1+3) | 2.1 (1+2) | | Int ALU | 898 | 712 | 904 | | Float FPU | 953 | 743 | 962 |
I'll be looking at this new bios tonight hopefully.
Reviews:
CoolerMaster HHC-001 heatpipe socket cooler on IPKonfig.
Ramsinks on BurnOutPC.
Visiontek Xtasy 6964 GF3 Ti500 video card on SourceMagazine.
Abit KR7A-RAID socketA DDR motherboard on PCHardware, our review here.
AMD PCNET network cards on RizeNet.
Dragon silver case on BurnOutPC.
Shuttle SV24 mini-PC on AnandTech.
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV video card on HotHardware.
WindowsXP Pro operating system on EXHardware, our review here.
ATI Radeon 8500 and 7500 video cards on SourceMagazine.
Crucial PC2100 DDR memory (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Fuji Finepix 2300 digital camera on NewsForge.
OCZ Goliath socket cooler on TweakTown.
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 27-December-2001 15:09:52 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Looks like a sci-fi movie outside! Very smoky, eerie yellow glow, the sun is an orange pinpoint up there. Keeping the radio on today, that's for sure. Going out to see Lord of the Rings soon, tho.
Unique-Hardware reviewed the Antec SX1030 fulltower which looks suspiciously like the Macase Champion series of cases - we reviewed their fulltower and midtower versions recently.
Upaboveit noted an interesting thread on the 2CPU.com forums which indicates that, contrary to earlier rumours, AthlonXP's will work in SMP on the Asus AMD760MPX-based dual SocketA motherboard. That's good news.
3DGameMan have a video article (for the non-bandwidth-impaired) about unlocking AthlonXP chips.
BSoD checked out some Titan products including the Majesty Twin cooler we reviewed here a while ago and didn't think much of. BSoD felt similarly.
On a similar note, we had one of the first reviews of the CPU Radiator Zen heatpipe-based socket cooler a few months ago. Now, TS Electronics (who make it) have come forward, presumably in response to our review and the many others expressing similar concerns, with a Flash animation showing the correct way to assemble + fit the cooler. Well, that's nice, but it's not going to bring back all the crunched CPU's and scratched motherboards, is it?
Here's some cool high-speed photos spotted by Matex.
Reviews:
KingMax PC2400 DDR memory on OCAddiction.
Pen Drive and Flash Dio USB storage on TechnoYard.
ThermalTake Memory Cooling Kit on MikhaiLTech.
Altec Lansing 621 speakers on TemplinTech.
Coolermaster DP5-6I31C socket cooler on BurnOutPC.
MS Wireless Intellimouse Explorer on NeoSeeker.
Arctic Silver Alumina thermal epoxy on MikhailTech.
Retro Window Kit on JSIHW.
ATI Radeon 7500 video card on Bench-House.
Creative Labs GF3 Ti200 video card on 3DSpotlight.
Enermax Manual Adjust Fans on SLCentral.
Innovision Tornado GF2 Ti video card on OCOnline.
Thursday Morning
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Thursday, 27-December-2001 11:08:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Well, that was a Christmas to remember. :) No power, smoke everywhere, driving back from the South Coast through smouldering, charred bushland and being stopped by emergency vehicles etc. I know a lot of people are still caught up in it and worst of all many homes have been destroyed. There's a lot of pictures and accounts from people in our Media & Current Events forum. Kaan is collecting pictures on his site, too. I have friends who are close to being evacuated and others who are actually fighting the fires at the moment. Good luck to you all.
My email has been screwy the last couple of days, so if you sent me something and I haven't replied, don't panic. I think the news-box emails are not getting through, either. Hopefully it's all queueing somewhere and will come through in a big dump later.
Tonight I'm going to see the new Lord Of The Rings film. A few people in IRC have seen it already and I've yet to hear a negative opinion of it. JimX made the bold statement that it's the best film he's ever seen. For those of you who've already seen it (or don't mind a few plot spoilers), there's a couple of "quick impressions"-type reviews, one in our forums and one (longer) here on AusGamers. Don't read those if you don't want to know about the film! There's some desktop images from the film on Wireplay.
A few sites that reviewed the ATI Radeon 8500 have gone back and re-reviewed it with new drivers. Drivers have traditionally been the weak spot with ATI but it seems this latest revision unleash a lot more performance from this chipset - how does a "free" upgrade of 500 3DMarks at 800x600 sound? [H]ard|OCP are the latest to offer a re-review of this particular videocard.. same card, new drivers.. they compare it to a GF3 Ti500 card, with impressive results.
A couple of heatsink comparisons, here on Max3D and here on PlanetSavage.
DesignTechnica checked out a normal-looking stereo that can play MP3's and even stream audio from the internet. AtlantaOC have a project to build your own hardware MP3 player.
Haroc points out this game which seems the express route to RSI of your clicky finger.
There's a LAN in Brisbane.. tomorrow. :)
A slightly delayed ZZZ Online this week.
Reviews:
Chaintech GF3 Ti200 video card on Digit-Life.
Palit Daytona GF3 Ti200 video card on Digit-Life.
OCZ Implosion full-tower case on Rizenet.
Lian-Li PC71 aluminium full-tower case on PlanetSavage.
MSI 845 Ultra ARU P4 motherboard with DDR on Hexus.
AOpen AK77 Plus SocketA DDR motherboard on BlueSmoke.
ATI DV Wonder video capture card on IANAG.
Power COoler PCH155 socket cooler on CoolerHut
Well, it's about 10am on Christmas morning here in Sydney - my family have just done the big present-opening thing, and now there's a lull in proceedings until the traditional, big, extended-family lunch. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas on behalf of the Overclockers Australia team. I (we) hope that Christmas is a good day for you all, and that it brings you happiness.
Take care all, and enjoy the day.
Archive Updated!
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Monday, 24-December-2001 12:37:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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It's been a while since I updated the Article and Review Archive - here's what was added:
Macas KA-230 Midtower case review.
Macas KA-130 Fulltower case review.
Australian Game Developer Conference coverage for Nov 2001.
ST Fan Controller review.
Radial Blower Mod article.
MSI K7N420 Pro nForce-based SocketA DDR motherboard review.
Abit KR7A-RAID KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard review.
TwinMOS PC2700 DDR SDRAM review.
Thermal Paste Comparison article.
MS Wireless Explorer mouse review.
Right, now I'm definitely off. Have a good Christmas!
Monday Morning
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Monday, 24-December-2001 11:02:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Right! Got the news stuff sorted out. Many thanks to Jason at AusGamers for his help and hard work during this difficult period.
I'm going away for a few days in about an hour, but hopefully some of the other newsmonkeys will take a break from the festivities to post some news during that time. If not, no big deal, you should be stuffing yourself with food and spending time with your family (or just playing with your new toys) anyway!
Reaper noticed an article claiming that VIA Chipsets slow down PCI access. They claim this is an issue when you start using heavy-usage PCI devices like ATA-133 controllers.
That timewasting pong game has reappeared, thanks Groomy. Wokket sent virtual bubblewrap for the truly bored.
Brett spotted this watercooled SK6 copper heatsink, interesting idea but unfortunately no results yet.
Kazashi notes that the full Quake 2 Source Code has been made publically available, great news for budding game developers.
The Northwood 2GHz P4 Xeon chip, manufacturered on a .13 micron process, has appeared in Japan.. so has the non-Xeon part, it seems.
PlanetSavage have a 3-way socket cooler shootout.
On the more bizarre side of things, a weird new squid has been spotted in the watery depths, thanks Ungrateful Ninja. Apparently the US Military and NASA are tracking Santa Claus this year - this might actually be a cool site to keep an eye on if you have kids. :) Rik says the Matrix 2 filming currently going on in Sydney might involve blowing up a landmark. Firemoth sent in this funny article about Star Wars and Lord of the Rings combining in a way that George Lucas won't be too happy about.
Reviews:
VIA P4XB-S P4X266-based P4 DDR motherboard on OCNZ.
Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler on Unique-Hardware, our review here.
Chenbro Jr Server Chassis on AMDMB.
Thermaltake Smart Case Fan on OCPlus.
Everglide Giganta and other products on Bit-Tech. A heap of their products reviewed in our archive.
Vantec Silver Rounded Cables on OverclockersClub.
Swiftech MCXC370 socket cooler on 3DVelocity.
Mini Cold Cathode case-modding light on JSIHardware.
Enermax EG365P-VE FCA PSU with manual fan speed on Mikhailtech.
Shuttle AK31r3.1 KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on VyW.
Power Magic Radeon 7500 video card on PlanetSavage.
Arkua socket coolers on SoundCardCentral (of course).
The PCDB data is intact and unaffected by the outages, but it's not set up on the temporary server. When we move to our new super-grunty server in a week or so, the PCDB will reappear.
Forums are back up!
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Sunday, 23-December-2001 18:56:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Righto, the good news is that the forums are back up. The bad news is that we had to restore the database from an old backup - the 19th of September. So any changes since then will not be reflected in the current forum. If you changed your password, avatar, sig etc, or only signed up during that period, you'll need to do it again. Also of course, all messages posted between then and now are gone too.
Obviously this isn't a great situation, but the forums are now back up and there's been some lessons learned about backing up data. I'm sure the forums will be back up to speed in no time, so get back into it!
As predicted, OCAU had some downtime while we changed servers. However, the AusGamers server we moved to had a major hardware failure at about noon yesterday which took out the entire AusGamers network, the OCAU site body and the OCAU Forums. They're busy working on it now and we hope to have most things back and working by this evening.
I'll get some normal news happening when I work out where the news emails are going. :)
Friday Morning
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Friday, 21-December-2001 10:05:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Gainward are set to release a "Golden Sample" version of their GF3 Ti200 video card with 128MB of 4ns SDRAM onboard - there's a press-release on 3DVelocity and info here on TheInquirer, thanks Iroquois. We reviewed the GS version of the older GF3 core here.
Dan's played with some cheap digicams and written a tome and a half about them.
ARP have an IDE RAID Optimization guide posted.
Barto and decryption sent in this cool modded Mac G4.
Reviews:
Asus A7V266-EA KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on DDRZone.
Creative Inspire 5.1 speakers on OCPrices.
Arkua 6258 socket cooler on 8Balls.
GF3 Ti500 video cards from Hercules and Gigabyte on Digit-Life.
Microsoft Explorer Trackball and Optical video review on 3DGameMan.
Leadtek Titanium video cards on xbitlabs.
Creative 3DBlaster Ti500 video card on 3DVelocity.
GeForce3 Ti500 reference board on AMDMB.
Abit KR7A SocketA DDR motherboard on TemplinTech, our review here.
Cyber Cooler P-20000 socket cooler on MikhailTech.
Evergreen Fireline firewire adapter kit on GameHard.
Mate Mid-Tower video review of a case on ExtremeOC, maaaate.
Compaq iPac PM-1 MP3 player on TheTechZone.
Asus P4B266 DDR P4 motherboard on xbitlabs.
Creative Inspire 5300 speakers on AtlantaOC.
Dynatron DC1206BM socket cooler on TemplinTech.
GlobalWin CAK-II38 and SAK38 socket coolers on PlanetSavage.
VIA C3 866MHz Socket370 CPU on PCHardware.
CoolerMaster DP5 series of socket coolers on Digit-Life.
Dr Thermal socket cooler on GideonTech.
For all you case modders out there, GameHard has a guide to painting the blades of your case fans, a method they reckon is the easier way.. as apposed to the harder way, which I've not heard of :)
YYK points out that Microsoft has announced retirement dates for it's superseded operating system lines.. Support for Win2K ends early 2004, with NT4 and Win98 being axed mid 2003.
ViaHardware has posted an updated version of the PCI Latency Patch that can fix problems you're having with audio on your VIA-chipset based board. I'm pretty sure it's just an easier-to-apply version of the WCPSET fix you can use to make Aureal-based cards work properly under Win2K. If you're having audio problems you might want to check it out..
Wokket points out that a LiteStep Themeing Standard has been developed, which will (with time) reduce the problems in changing your LiteStep theme down to simple PEBKAC errors.. which can only be a good thing for the popular alternative shell.
MrE points out this ITNews article which talks about the X-Box being a target for virus coders.. and I can see a good gibson-ish point made in that article.. with the always-on nature of the X-Box and it's Broadband capabilities, a well-written piece of replicating code could create a nice DoS-host base with a few infected X-Boxes.
Tech-Report has posted an interview with nVidia's chief scientist, Dr David Kirk.. it's a fairly interesting read and they cover a few hot topics like the DX8.1 pixel shaders.
Finally, Kaliban points out this alternative folding@home stats page, created especially for the Number One OCAU team. Most of us already use the StatsMan page, but it is always good to have alternatives.
Reviews:
GlowWire Lazer LED and Case Mod Kit video review on 3DGameMan.
CyQve RW8080A external CD-RW on CDR-info.
Game Boy Advance and FlashLink on CDR-info.
AthlonXP Unlocking Kit on AMDPower.
Klipsch Pro Media 5.1 über speakers on VyW.
Hoontech SoundTrack Audio DSP24 value sound card at Digit-Life.
Cooler Master ATC-201 aliminium case at EXHardware.
Chenbro Genie server case on Hardware Pub.
Goliath Copper hs/f on FrostyTech.
Kodak DX3600 digicam and dock on ClubOC'r.
SB Audigy MP3+ on DesignTechnica.
JazzPiper MCD650A at CoolHardWarez.
Digisette DUO-64 MP3 Player at Neoseeker.
KT266A Board Roundup at HotHardware.
Low Profile Socket A/370 Cooler Roundup at AnandTech.
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 19-December-2001 13:44:52 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Interesting article on Wired about Autism or, more specifically, Aspergers Syndrome, and how there's been a dramatic increase in cases of children with the Syndrome in the geek community.
TomsHardware have a roundup of 21 GeForce Titanium based video cards - they also check out Intel's i845D chipset, which is simply i845 but using DDR now. AnandTech have a roundup of motherboards using that chipset while SharkyExtreme reviewed it and compared it to a few other configurations and chipsets.
Apparently RuneScape is an online adventure game to help you waste your day, thanks Steve.
Chris noticed that AMD760MPX seems to have a USB1.1 glitch so at least one manufacturer will be including a free USB2.0 card.. which is nice.. but would be nicer to have a free PCI slot and working onboard USB. :) AnandTech reviewed the chipset too.
AwareMag have a roundup of 6 socket coolers.
More info here about the US Department of Justice's recent campaign to stop international internet piracy syndicates, thanks Minion. Kinda disturbing, sounds like the Feds created a Warez site and allowed trading on it for 2 years while collecting info on the suspects and arranging search warrants. Very sneaky!
Iroquois spotted this Car MP3 Jukebox with 9000 song capacity.
Some very cool Modded PC's at a recent CPL event over on HardOCP.
Reviews:
NoiseControl Silverado socket cooler on TemplinTech.
ProLink PixelView GeForce2 Ti video card on OCOnline.
MSI i845 Pro 2 P4 motherboard on Hexus.
SMC Networking gear on Icrontic.
Logitech Z-340 speakers on G3D.
MSI G3Ti500 Pro-VTG video card on Digit-Life.
Abit KR7-RAID SocketA DDR motherboard on OCNZ, our recent review here.
Epox EP-8KHA+ socketA DDR motherboard on Processor-Emporium.
Abit BD7-RAID i845D-based P4 motherboard on OCOnline.
QuietPC 300W PSU on MikhailTech.
CoolJag socket coolers on PlanetSavage.
Hercules 3D Prophet 4000XT video card on ThinkTechie.
ThermoEngine V60-4210 socket cooler on BSOD.
Now that Monday is out of the way you can waste some time with a flash air hockey game emailed to me from Wokket.. and from his weird files comes news of a robot that eats slugs, and then powers itself from their decomposing bodies.
Also from Wokket is this little USB Hard drive packing a 1Gb storage capacity.. and it's packed tight, it comes in one of those new key ring form factors. When you go to buy one you might want to make sure that all the $100 notes are packed tight into your wallet as well, because I reckon you might need a few of them.
If you found the pop-up on that site annoying (and if you didn't, seek medical advice) you might be interested in this cool little program: StrokeIt. It uses gestures to perform every day tasks in windows, it's free, and it's highly customizable. I'm becoming quiet a fan of it, I just need to work out how to add new commands.
Reviews:
Tt Crystal Orb chipset cooler on Bit-Tech.
1COOLPC Video-2-60 card cooler on MikhailTech.
OCH LCD MicroView on 2FastCPU.
Alpha PAL8045 on the Hardware Pub.
Shuttle AV40-R on OConline.
MSI 845 Pro2 on PCHardware.RO
DGI NB72-SR i845 board on Hexus.
Modding with the Light Strip on BurntOutPC.
AOpen AK77Plus on Max3D.
Mouse LED Mod on GameHard.
Lian Li PC65USB on AcidHardware.
Shotgun Case Mod video on LivePC.
Handspring Treo Communicator 180/180G on DesignTechnica.
SB Audigy Player on 3DSpotlight.
MSI 845Ultra and DFI NB70-SC on HotHardware.
MSI K7T Turbo LE on 8Balls Hardware.
Samsung Yepp YP-30S MP3 Player on RatedPC.
Swiftech MCX462 on 2FastCPU.
Akasa Silver Mountain on TemplinTech.
Monday Night
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Monday, 17-December-2001 23:25:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Special greets to CharlieAnt, the 10,000th OCAU Forums member. Not a bad effort, considering they were only opened on the 27th of June.
There's a zillion pics of the Brisbane OCAU BBQ here, more discussion here. Looks like not a bad little turnout despite bad weather.
Our Genome Team continues to climb, details on joining it here in the Team OCAU forum.
Sniper noticed some info about SMP SocketA and AMD's plans here and here on xbit-labs.
There's some info on portable game console on this site, thanks Anthrox.
Bit-Tech have part 2 of their Project Crystal modded PC posted.
Long-standing hardware site Guru3D is closing its doors after 5 years and many millions of pageviews per month, a shame to see another long-standing site exit the market. Good luck in your future endeavours, Hilbert!
Enfz spotted an article claiming that DDoS attacks may be a thing of the past soon..
BitBoys, who have long been branded as producers of only vapourware, have come closer to actual silicon and fulfilling their promises of new graphics technology. Some discussion on AcesHardware and here on FiringSquad.
We're a little late reporting this, but one of the Intel-VIA lawsuits (against VIA) has been dropped.
Tech-Report have compared four DDR P4 motherboard chipsets.
A1-Electronics have compared some thermal pads and pastes.
TheDDRZone have a review of VIA P4XB-RA P4 motherboard which I believe is VIA's first go at making a full motherboard.. they also have a mini-ranty thing about Sandra benchmarking.
Reviews:
WD Caviar WD1200BB 120GB IDE HDD on BlueSmoke.
Tyan Trinity S2266 P4X266-based P4 motherboard on LostCircuits, thanks Wokket.
AMD Duron 1.2GHz SocketA CPU on SharkyExtreme.
Millennium Thermal G-Lite socket cooler on Icrontic.
GlobalWin CAK2-38 socket cooler on Unique-Hardware.
Intel i845D DDR P4 chipset on Digit-Life.
Globalwin YCC-8870 case on JSI.
Copper RAMsinks on OCrCafe.
Memory Heat Spreaders on Mikhailtech.
Wokket points out that our Genome team is now 21st overall and still climbing, heading for the top 20 in the next few days. Anyone who is not running folding should have a squiz at Genome, it's along the same lines and it's not a half bad cause.
Mongy points out an interesting thread over on Slashdot about an Australian getting raided for copyright violation.. more specifically, for having a heap of DiVX movies.. owch.
Hardware Avenue has updated their guide to building a Value or Performance PC.
Uhh, it'll be Monday.. soon. Which means new ZZZ Online.. in this weeks dosage they cover bomb-proof curtains, underwater gliders, soldier refrigerators, and gesture recognition software.
Finally tonight, the Brisbane BBQ went off this afternoon in the Roma St Parklands.. it was a rather rain soaked Brisbane afternoon and I don't think the turnout was as big as expected.. I had work so didn't manage to get along, but Driver managed to snap a pic..
Click to enlarge!
Maybe if the next one is a little bit more planned (and if the weather is a bit nicer) there might be a bigger turnout. Talk of the event in the forums here
Reviews:
TerraTec SixPack 5.1 sound card on Bench-House.
Asus V8200 GF3 on OCrCafe.
Neng Tyi NC02 hs/f on ClubOC.
Seagate Bararacude ATA-IV 60Gb HDD on SLCentral.
Vantec CCk-6027D on SLCentral.
Artic Jungle I MP3 player on NeoSeeker.
Asus A7V266-E KT266A board on RadiativeEnz.
Nintendo GameCube Video Review on 3DGameMan.
Kanie Type 'W' V Glaciator II hs/f on Hexus.
Tt Crystal Orb chipset cooler on ThinkTechie.
Bluetake Bluetooth USB Dongle on OCclub.
GlobalWin SAK38 on GideonTech.
Saturday Night
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Sunday, 16-December-2001 01:07:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Dmitry Skylarov, arrested in the US for making a program to bypass software copy protection, has been set free at last.
Scriion might have some bad news for people excited about the AMD 760MPX chipset - the upcoming SMP SocketA chipset everyone's looking forward to. According to this thread on StorageReview, motherboards using the chipset are required to detect if AthlonMP or AthlonXP chips are being used and only work with the MP units, even though XP's seem to work fine in SMP. Sounds like something that could be sorted with a modified BIOS, tho.. fair bit more info in that thread.
There's an interview between Bill Gates and a 15yo girl here BBC News. She's not afraid to ask some tough questions but he seems to have all the answers.
A few people pointed out this gaping security hole in Internet Explorer. Methinks you want to download/install that patch..
There's a new WinZip out, for your compressing and decompressing pleasure.
David found some little fridges for sale in Oz, just the right size for a watercooling reservoir, apparently. Also in the forums, Dave (different person) built a serial-port IR transceiver recently.
There's been some warez busts in Sydney recently, info here from Tizeyboy and here from YYK.
Garry sent word of a new demo of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, which is either a sequel or an add-on for Serious Sam, I'm not sure. If you've been waiting for it then you probably know what it is and will want to download it from one of these mirrors: AusGamers, Gigex or 3DGamers.
Spankyofoz spotted this article on /., about tiny piezoelectric fans. He quotes: The concentrated circuits in a semiconductor computer chip can generate more heat per square centimeter of chip area than an area of equal size on the sun's surface.. which is kinda mind-boggling if true.
Qaz spotted something interesting over on Harvey Norman's website.. note the CPU in the 2nd laptop from the top on this page. 1GHz Athlon 4, not a bad bit of mobile power..
Brisbane BBQ
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Saturday, 15-December-2001 17:11:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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This is news to me so short notice, but hopefully some of you Brisbanites are already aware of it:
It's on sunday, 1ish, Roma St Parklands....
Bring own food, booze (no glass, moderate consumption only), and entertainment (cricket gear, frisbees etc)
Can you remind the peeps about this..
Thanks
Wokket (I'll be there)
I've been busy over the past few days.. among other things I bought that Pulsar I mentioned a few posts ago and have proceeded to clock up the k's on it.. it goes well!
Jason noticed these snap-on heat sinks for BGA chips.. seems like a rather novel idea, as most motherboard chipsets are BGA-type chips. I doubt it is high performance, but it appears a quick and easy upgrade from a stock cooler.
YYK points out this article which talks about US Federal Agents raiding computer networks at American Universities for illegal copyrighted material. Hmm, I wonder how much UQ.ICSN will be around? :)
From Wokket, it appears the US state of Oregon is proposing to legalize the collection (and consumption) of dead animals from the roadside (i.e. road kill).. and this bloody crazy machine gun capable of firing over 2,000 rounds per minute. Finally, found in the forums here is this interesting editorial on bloatware, hardware growth, etc.
Radix points out this amusing guide to making your PC go faster.. and in most cases you won't even need to take the case off!
PiedPiper found this crazy P4 overclock.. the Japanese (I presume) user got the chip up to 2.9GHz and benched it at 2.6GHz.. those be AMD-beating figures!
Dan has had a look at PC plugs, sockets and you. More specifically, ATX extension leads and that sort of stuff. If you're adding extra gear to your PC, it might be something you want to check out.
Finally, if you've been wondering what proper IDE RAID is like, not just the tacked-on-to-motherboard stuff you might want to check out Digit-Life's review of the Promise FastTrak100 TX4 ATA/100 RAID controller.
Reviews:
PC Fair 2001 on RojakPot.
E-D Glasses at TTZ.
1.4GHz 'C' Athlon AYHJA on EXHardware.
Swiftech MCX462 at Icrontic.
ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder 8500 DV on RivaStation.
AMD AthonXP 1900+ on TemplinTech.
Asus P4B i845 board on Hexus.
Inno3D Tornado GF3 Ti200 on PlanetSavage.
Silver Rounded IDE Cables on GideonTech.
Mini FOCZ 674cfm case at Icrontic.
Cooler Master HCC-002 hs/f on ClubOC.
SuperGrace Radeon 7500/8500 on Digit-Life.
Abit KR7A-RAID Review!
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Friday, 14-December-2001 04:11:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Chainbolt, ever on the lookout for new and interesting things, has taken a look at Abit's newest offering - their KT266A motherboard for SocketA CPU's and DDR memory. No extra silliness like onboard sound here, but the on-board ATA133 RAID controller is interesting. Does it live up to Abit's reputation as overclocking-friendly?
Click for the full review!
Thursday Night
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Thursday, 13-December-2001 21:21:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Kim pointed out this interesting ruling where a court decided someone in Australia wasn't guilty of downloading porn because he wasn't aware that it was porn.
Dan's been playing with more blinky flashy things.
Apparently there's a lot more dark matter floating around the universe than previously thought, thanks McDaddy.
Digit-Life have a roundup of Titanium video cards from Asus.
Reviews:
Epox EP-8KHA+ KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on HardOCP.
RotoKiller gaming mouse on ViperLair.
Mouse Bungee (video review) on 3DGameMan, our review here.
Atomic Fan Grills on G3D.
Iwill XP333R socketA DDR motherboard on 3DVelocity.
Gainward GF3 Ti200 video card on MikhailTech.
Swiftech MXC462 socket cooler on Icrontic.
Thermaltake Volcano 7 socket cooler on OCdCafe.
Intel i845D DDR P4 chipset on Xbit.
AMD AthlonXP 1800+ socketA CPU on NeoSeeker.
Hercules 3D Prophet Ti200 videocard on Mgon.
Wednesday Night
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Wednesday, 12-December-2001 22:42:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Well, I'm back on dialup. My ADSL contract finished and at the new prices there's no way I'm renewing it. Now it feels like one of those dreams where everything is soooo slooooww.....
A few new entries in the PCDB - EJCRUZ has some serious watercooling happening while DrE's sports an eerie green glow. Danzilla's is a tricked-out fulltower and MWP has added a 300mm fan to the top of his dual-motherboard custom case.
AMD is proud to be leading the way in certain aspects of chip fabrication, thanks Sniper.
SLCentral have an editorial about Segway, the scootery wotsit. They also have an article about tablet PC's.. hmm, little PC's you can swallow, that's handy.
Another editorial, this time on DesignTechnia and about what's next for PC's..
Digit-Life have their Monthly Storage Digest for November posted.
Derek notes that AthlonXP.com have preview pics of the Asus A7M266-D, their dual socketA board. I have it on good authority that 2 of the Asus distributors in Oz have samples right now..
Speaking of new interesting stuff, Hexus have a review of the MSI nForce board I checked out a couple of days ago here.
Arachnadactly notes that warez may be being taken more seriously in Oz, more info here on Yahoo.
There are some new 4-in-1 drivers for VIA motherboard chipsets, version 4.36v.
Ken brought up a worrying idea.. the FBI are working on a trojan for logging keystrokes (but only of the Bad Guys, of course).. the anti-virus companies are wondering if they should treat this as a normal virus and put detection code for it in their products. Info here and here.
Mitch mentioned this fan-controlling SpeedFan software.. we've seen it before, not had a try of it myself yet, but it sounds pretty useful.
There's a Sydney LAN happening in Chatswood on the 12th of Jan and OCAU peeps are invited.. only 80 spaces tho, it's going to fill up pretty quick!
Timewasting games: Uplink (blame C_Dawg), Ted Air (blame Vindaloo) and SFCave (blame Spectral).
Oddball stuff: computer-scented perfume (blame Wokket), an everything-proof vest (blame DeezNuts) and a car like no other for sale on eBay (blame Tarrasque).
Reviews:
Epox 8KHA+ KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on OcOnline.
Epox 8KHA+ KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on 3DSpotlight.
ECS K7VTA3 Rev2 KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on AMDMB.
Epox 8KHAL KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on PCPowerZone.
Soyo K7V Dragon Plus KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on SLCentral.
Nanotherm thermal epoxy on 3DVelocity.
Samsung SV8004H 80GB IDE HDD on PCStats.
Vantec Chipset Cooler Bundle on MikhailTech.
DFI WT70-EC P4 motherboard on IANAG.
NVIDIA Personal Cinema on SLCentral.
Iwill XP333-R ALi MAGiK1-based SocketA DDR motherboard on VR-Zone.
Belkin Nostromo n50 & n30 mouse and pad on NeoSeeker.
Dr Thermal socket coolers on OCrCafe.
Thermaltake Volcano 7 socket cooler on Icrontic.
Blizzard see-through case (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 60 IDE HDD on PlanetSavage.
Arkua 6228 socket cooler on 8balls.
Thermaltake Memory Cooling Kit on GideonTech.
Maxtor 5T060H6 IDE HDD on PCStats.
Spire 5E055B1H3R (nice and easy to remember) socket cooler on FrostyTech.
Spire 5R057B1M3R (totally different, obviously) socket cooler on FrostyTech.
Prolink PixelView multimedia card on TweakTown.
Intel i845 Ultra DDR P4 board from MSI on VIA HW.
AMD AthlonXP 1900+ SocketA CPU on Tech-Report.
Early Wednesday Morning
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Wednesday, 12-December-2001 02:04:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Quite a few people responded to the "What was Australia's first webserver?" question. Most people suggested that life.csu.edu.au is the one, it claims to be so on the front page and has a reasonable explanation of its history, so in the absence of any other plausible candidates I guess that's the one! Phil, who's email is @justice.tas.gov.au, you were first to suggest that server so drop me a note with your postal details and I'll send along some minty goodness ASAP. Thetron suggests this History of the Internet in Australia page which, while interesting and full of info, doesn't seem to list the first Oz webserver, as far as I can see.
The people who own the big-fan-equipped PC's in the pictures below have come forward too - the Volkswagen-fan PC belongs to Paul AKA eXplague and it has its own page here. Alan says: My friend and I own and made these cases that are posted on your site. Mine (GTiR), the black one, is a Duron 800 @ 920 cpu runs 31 and motherboard runs 23 (without aircon), and my friend (Cambo) the blue computer is a P3 1000 @ 1300 cpu runs at 34 and motherboard runs at 26 (without air con) We call ourselves TBF (Team Big Fan) as a bit of a joke :) we are also in the [RiCE] clan... my (GTiR) fan is 30cm and Cambo's fan is 29cm.. we are planning on doing a server computer with 2x 290cm thermo fans.. should be interesting.... 290cm. I'm hoping that's a typo! Monkit jumped on the big-fan bandwagon with his effort, but that's cheating. :)
Mike noted an interesting Game AI story on Xtravision. Apparently Virtua Fighter 4 will attempt to learn your fighting style so that it can mimic you. Then, you can save that character, upload it to the net and let other people play against a virtual you. Hmm, imagine that technology applied to a driving game, or even something like Counter Strike.
Voodoo spotted this HyperOS thingo that lets you run several copies of windows on one PC.. not like a dual-boot though, it's a bit more clever than that. Dunno if it lets you run Linux or something else too, tho.
One area I will sadly admit my Kung-Fu is not the strongest in, is soldering. Ex-Hardware have a guide to soldering bits of wire together that looks like it might be a big help. Just the thing you need to help you tackle things like Wolfy's DIY LCD project.
Sniper noticed that Arnie will be back in a Terminator 3 movie.
Heatsink-Guide have a neato little thermal control circuit project, to automatically control your fans according to a measured temperature and hence keep the noise down. We had a similar thing here a while ago and there are a few more options in our archive, mostly in the Hardware Hacks section.
In my wanderings I discovered this new(ish?) Usenet Archive on google. 20 years of archived newsgroup discussion, with highlighted posts of interest such as the first mention of Microsoft, Linus Torvald's original Linux announcement as well as many "real world" events.
Here's an interesting thing from Mr Bill, a huge solar-power tower to be built in Victoria. It will be the world's tallest man-made structure, at 1km tall.
Digit-Life have posted their monthly 3D Digest for November.
Modded PC's @ QGL
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Tuesday, 11-December-2001 18:27:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Roving reporter Sabretooth has once again found some interesting things at QGL. All pictures will enlarge when clicked of course..
 
Unfortunately we're not sure who these belong to, there weren't any nametags stuck to the PC's as there usually are at LAN's.
 
This last one is apparently using a fan from a Volkswagen. :) And at right is a nastily crunched Tbird 1.4GHz core, the unfortunate owner being Daemon from TechWatch.
 
Tuesday Afternoon
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Tuesday, 11-December-2001 15:30:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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SilentSnipeR spotted a funny thing over on Tech-Report, where a site was ripping off their content. You'd be surprised how often it happens, even to us - these days it only seems to be foreign-language sites using the excuse of translating it.
Seems the longest continuously-running IRC server is going to be shut down soon.
Matex noticed that Bleem, the PlayStation emulator, is no more. As he puts it, it's been a real David and Goliath battle and in this case Goliath, in the form of Sony, have won. More info here.
Interesting article on the first american webserver over on CNET. I wonder what the first Australian webserver was? First person to find out (with proof) and let me know wins a tin of caffeinated peppermints. :)
THX1138 sends word that Team OCAU SETI@HOME have broken into the Top 200 Teams in the world! Nice one.
Reviews:
Asus A7V266-E KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on HardOCP.
Cambridge Soundwords speakers of some kind on SoundCardCentral.
Abit KR7A-RAID KT266A-based socketA DDR motherboard on Bench-House.
Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum sound card on SourceMagazine.
Intel Celeron 1.2GHz socket370 CPU on PCHardware.
Early Tuesday Morning
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Tuesday, 11-December-2001 01:43:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Did a silly thing today. The bearing on the Blue Orb I've got cooling the GPU on my GF2U video card is on the way out and is very noisy.. I tap it every now and then in an attempt to get it to shut up, sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Tapped it today, perhaps a little too firmly, there was a loudish bang and then silence. Boy, that worked well, I thought.. until I saw it'd snapped a fan blade off which was jamming it and stopping it spinning. Certainly made it quieter, shame the card won't be too happy without a fan on it.. back with the retail cooler for now. :)
Manaz noticed the game Grand Theft Auto 3 is close to being banned from sale in Australia.
Digit-Life have a roundup of professional video adapters.
Torana notes this article about a controversial Victorian vendor re-appearing in South Australia.
VR-Zone have some voltage mods happening on Shuttle motherboards.
Nelson found a way to connect your N64 controller to your PC. Still on the console side of things, Icrontic compared the XBOX and GameCube.
Compaq has recalled about 5000 modems, thanks Thomas.
YYK notes that NT4 Server will be retired in July 2003.
Who else but Wokket would find an article explaining how belly-button lint gets where it does.. good to see the Aussies leading the world in another field there. Also, Casey is taking his kazoo to a new level.
Reviews:
OnStream ADR2 60GB IDE tape drive on TechnoYard.
Titan Fan Alarm on MikhailTech.
Dr Thermal socket cooler on DanzDomain.
PWM Fan Controller on Bit-Tech.
Dr Thermal socket coolers on IPKonfig.
Microsoft Xbox gaming console on FutureLooks.
Swiftech MCXC370 copper socket cooler on FrostyTech.
LiteON 24/10/40 IDE CDRW drive on CDFreaks.
Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers on Hardware-Test.
Iwill XP333-R socketA DDR motherboard on OCNZ.
8-port Fan Power Block on ThinkTechie.
Sunon High Output 80mm fan on ThinkTechie.
Logitech Z-560 THX-certified 4.1 speakers on HotHardware.
Shuttle AB30R i845-based P4 motherboard with SDR on Tech-Report.
IceMat mousing surface on IPKonfig.
Monday Night.. late.
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Tuesday, 11-December-2001 00:14:52 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Bit late with the news today, what with the nForce thing and battling nasty virii on my new machine (don't ask).
JAB spotted this article listing a few things to fix after installing XP, with fixes.
Bern noticed this guide to HTML Hell, things to avoid doing in website design.. probably broken a few rules here.
Don't forget we are trialling a price-check website at the moment. It's managed by a separate company who say they will be improving and updating it regularly, doesn't seem to be changing much to me. Anyway, check it out at overclockers.ozpricecheck.com.
More news in a little while..
Reviews:
Arkua 7228 socket cooler on 2FastCPU.
Inno3D GeForce3 video card on NeoSeeker.
Global WIN WBW76 Abit KR7A-RAID KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on Icrontic.
Zalman ZM17CU passive cooler on ModdingZone.
nForce review!
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Monday, 10-December-2001 17:13:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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One of the best things about running a hardware site is that you get to play with cool new toys sometimes. Over the last week or so I've been using an MSI K7N420 Pro - a SocketA DDR motherboard using the new nForce 420 chipset from NVIDIA. Unsurprisingly, I've got quite a bit to say about it. :)
Click for the full review!
Dan has checked out a mouse for people without hands ... it's an IR camera and a packet of reflective dots that you can affix to stuff, and then it works in a similar fashion to a mouse. Named the trackIR, it'd work alright if you couldn’t use a mouse.. but you probably wouldn’t want to use one otherwise.
Jason notes that VIA has released an add-on for their chipsets to allow the use of 64bit/66MHz PCI cards, moving their motherboard solutions from the budget-server category firmly into Intel's home turf.
Wokket points out that people in Beijing are showing porn to pandas and giving Viagra to tigers. Maybe they should suggest the male panda puts the toilet seat back down and that the female panda wears some sexy undies? He also points out this list of what gestures mean in various countries.. amusing from the Aussie list is When drinking in some Australian pubs, you can signal that you can win a fight with anyone in the bar simply by finishing your drink, turning the glass upside down and placing the glass squarely on the bar. .. I'll have to remember that :)
Over on GamePC they have apparently found a compatibility configuration for nForce boards which allows people to use any type of (non-certified) DDR ram they want at the expense of memory speed, meanwhile Slot-A has a review of the A7N266-E nForce board. Thanks to John for both those links.
Digit-Life have this month's edition of their Hardware Digest up.
Finally, BSOD has some amusing info about 'how to tell if your son is a computer hacker'.
Reviews:
Logitech Z-560 4.1 speakers on SourceMag.
Aritic Alumina thermal goop on BSOD.
Feeling PC Ice Hole on GideonTech.
NEC MultiSync LCD1830 on PC-Arena.
EPoX Ep-4B2A2 RAID P4 Socket 478 i845 mobo in video review on 3DGameMan.
GW CAF12 Card Cooler on MikhailTech.
Ultra Silver II thermal goop on ThinkTechie.
Tt Dragon Orb 3 on PCFusion.
Robert from Lucky-Star sent us a (very) brief press-release:
Lucky Star Technology CO., Ltd
Proudly announces:
KTVA333
The first motherboard based on VIA’s KT-333 Chipset.
Product Spec:
VIA KT-333 Chipset
ATX Form factor
DDR333
ATA-133
AC-97 Sound
AGP 4X
Mass Production – March 2002
Bit of an interesting one, out of the blue..
Saturday Evening
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Saturday, 8-December-2001 19:01:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Freaek posted this amusing Confessions of an AOL Tech link.
Tony sent word of this soundcard test program, an open-source audio benchmark.
Chainbolt posted some pictures of a new Green AthlonXP in the forums - originally seen here on AkibaPC. VR-Zone have some more pics, as do PCStats.
Also hitting the streets in Japan, motherboards based around Intel's i845D chipset, a P4 chipset supporting DDR SDRAM.
Iceman notes that a new version of Trillian, the alternative all-in-one instant-messenger program, is out.
Reviews:
Gigabyte GA-7VTX socketA DDR motherboard on NeoSeeker.
Nintendo GameCube console on AnandTech.
DIY Case Badge kit on BlueSmoke.
Abit KG7-RAID socketA DDR motherboard on 3DSpotlight.
SiS 645 P4 DDR chipset reference motherboard on EXHardware.
Dr Thermal socket cooler on 8balls.
Swiftech MCX462 socket cooler on AtlantaOC.
Silver round IDE cables on ViperLair.
Friday Night / Saturday Morning
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Saturday, 8-December-2001 01:01:04 (GMT +10) - by alchemy
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I've been busy the past couple of days car hunting.. Went for a trip north of Brisbane today to look at a '91 N14 Pulsar Q with a SR20DE (2L 16V SSS donk) lurking under the bonnet.. And I hope the mechanic gives it the all clear, it was pretty quick :) To anyone buying a car I strongly recommend getting a pre-purchase inspection done by a reputable specialist of your cars make, it can really be the best ~$100 you spend.
YYK points out this Wired article about battling online games addiction, most notably EverSmack. It seems DAoC is going to be the "next" EverSmack, at least it has all the makings for it.. Incidentally, Wokket points out this EQ bug that is leading to naked players.. heh.
A reader over on VR-Zone has pushed the FSB on his EPoX 8KHA+ VIA KT266A board all the way up to 221MHz FSB!, and no, that is not just DDR 110.5 - in DDR marketing numbers that is 442MHz! Pretty darn extreme overclock, go and check it out!
Leon points out news that news that Mars was once covered in water.. lots of water, in fact, more water than now covers Earth. As most of us know, water and air are the two building blocks for life.. leading scientists to suggest that life may of once existed on the red planet.
Zed has found this computer-in-a-keyboard ala C64 style.. looks innovative, although I highly doubt it will catch on.
SLCentral has taken a rather interesting look into the History of case modding.. where it has come from, and where they (and others) think it's going. Most interesting are the interviews with "old-school" case modders, who are of the opinion that case modding is about being different.. which increasingly gets harder with more people doing it.
Finally, VyW has taken a look at a neat bit of gear.. a clip-on voltage mod for most socket-a motherboards. Instead of soldering SMD components you (obviously) just clip it onto the board, twist the potentiometer and up goes your voltage! Cool..
Reviews:
Artic Alumina thermal compound on RojakPot.
PC Mods LCD Screen on Bit-Tech.
Mitsumi 480ATE 32/12/40X (32X write!) burner on CDRinfo.
10,000rpm SCSI Drive Roundup on X-Bit Labs.
Jazz Speakers 6508 on Digit-Life.
Silver Round IDE Cables on ViperLair.
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 7-December-2001 18:20:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Thetron noticed that Servex, a big distributor of PC goodies here in Sydney was robbed a couple of days ago. The thieves went to the trouble of knocking a wall down then made off with only $50,000 worth of gear from a warehouse holding $2M in stock.. strange.
One less legally problematic way to get free stuff would be to enter CDR-Info's new contest.. walk away with a free CDRW drive for the cost of an email and telling them if you like the drive after you've had it a while.
Iroquois dug up an answer I'm sure you've all been wondering about..
Someone calling themselves tHe iNformer noticed that Asus have updated their website with a new design.. seems a bit less cluttered than before.
Apparently The Queen's website is no longer hosted on Linux, no doubt a shock for geeks and royalists everywhere, thanks KyocEr@~*.
Al says there's a new opera out.. no, not fat ladies in pointy helmets, it's version 6 of an alternate and free(ish) web browser.
Xoverclocker has been playing with a 1.2GHz Celeron.. 1.74GHz, not too shabby at all.
Accelenation have put a PC in their livingroom and now call it the Media Cube.
Reviews:
DFI AD70-SR KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on HotHardware.
Tyan Trinity 510 P4 motherboard on VIAHW.
Thursday Night
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Thursday, 6-December-2001 23:35:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Information super-site HowStuffWorks have an article on the mysterious Ginger AKA Segway AKA "IT".
HotHardware went crazy and reviewed the entire range of Asus GF3 Titanium cards.. 4 or 5 of them.
Gary_J spotted this guide over on TomsHardware about making video using some new MPEG-4 codecs.
TheDDRZone have an article about The Infinite Loop.. no, not some new program starring Scott Bakula, it's actually a problem many people are apparently reporting with their systems. DDRZone think they have the answers. Update: Unfortunately their own site seems to be stuck in some kind of infinite loop at the moment..
SourceMag checked out some hard drive coolers.
OCNZ compared the Ati 7500VE and Leadtek GF3 Ti200, while Tech-Report have an in-depth comparison of ATI's Radeon8500 vs NVIDIA's GF3 Ti500.
Digit-Life have posted Part Four of their 700MB CDR media comparison.
Dan checked out some little magic boxes that turn a 2.5 inch laptop hard drive into a portable storage device.
Reviews:
Alpha PAL8045 socket cooler on CaseJunkiez.
AVC Sunflower P4 cooler on HardAvenue.
EPoX 4T2A3 P4 motherboard on TweakTown.
Microstar GeForce3 Ti500 Pro-VTG video card on Hardware-Test.
Speeze Bigrock socket cooler on SystemLogic.
Plextor 24x10x40a CDRW on SystemLogic.
ATI Radeon 7500 video card on NeoSeeker.
Terratec MP3 player on NeoSeeker.
Pioneer 505HD 50 inch plasma display (fnarr fnarr) on DesignTechnica.
Sony G420S 19 inch monitor on TheTechZone.
MouseMan Dual Optical mouse on Mgon.
CoolJag socket cooler on TemplinTech.
Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling Kit on TemplinTech.
Gold Anodised Thumbscrews on ThinkTechie.
Delta 120mm 152CFM fan on ThinkTechie.
Thermaltake Crystal Orb chipset cooler on OCTools.
Abit KG7-RAID socketA DDR motherboard video review on 3DGameMan.
Thermaltake Crystal Orb chipset cooler on OCdCafe.
Abit Siluro GF2MX400 video card on NeoSeeker.
Plextor PlexWriter 24x10x40 CDRW on ExtremeOC.
TI Dr Thermal socket cooler on IPKonfig.
DFI AK70-SR KT266A-based SocketA DDR+RAID motherboard on PCHardware.
Soyo SY-P4IS2 i845-based P4 motherboard on Processor-Emporium.
Fan Bracket on JSIHw.
Intel PRO/1000T desktop LAN adapter on Digit-Life.
Wednesday Evening
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Wednesday, 5-December-2001 18:37:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Interesting thread over on AMDZone's forums, where a power connector has fused itself to the motherboard.
TheEnq have a quite detailed look at an nForce reference motherboard posted.
In what seems to be yet another bizarre IT-related decision by the Australian Government, they recommend employing people overseas because they're cheaper, thanks Boney. Its Indian workers were taken to Australia to see an AFL game and took home copies of the video "The Castle" to help them develop the right accents and understand the customers they would be dealing with over the phone.
Sonic found this interesting analysis of the internet's past and possible future.
Overclockers.de have an (English) guide to unlocking AthlonXP processors, with an interactive settings assistant.
Funny site Acts of Gord has been updated.
Boky notes this info-packed communications reference page with an Australian focus, covering everything from test phone numbers to power-supply symbols.
If you're thinking of trying some different Detonator versions, those being drivers for your nVidia-based video card of course, you might want to check out G3D's Detonator Dbase first.. it has comparative benchmarks etc.
From the oddball news brigade: Dicey found a video of a naughty pengiun, Andrew found the world's wimpiest bankrobber (and here's the stupidest) and Sonic notes Playstations don't mix well with water.
VR-Zone say there are some performance issues with how SiS's 735/745 chipsets deal with 166MHz memory. Apparently it affects the ECS K7S5A we reviewed here a little while ago.
Yaleman says there's a few interesting updates for WinXP available via Windows Update.. including new drivers for AMD CPU's? Odd.
ViperLair want to tell you how to tidy up the inside of your PC.
Soc noticed what seem to be (in German) instructions for turning on bots in RTCW.
Spingo says there's (yet) another virus doing the rounds, info here and here.
FrogBoy sent in this cool shockwave thing.. help a cow make a rock video.. hehe, lots of fun.
Reviews:
Lian Li PC70 fulltower case on VyW.
Soyo SY-K7V Dragon KT266A-based socketA DDR motherboard on Hardware-Test.
Enermax EG465P-VE power supply on OCClub.
Creative Audigy Player cheapish soundcard on 3DVelocity.
Abit KG7-RAID socketA DDR motherboard on EXHardware.
OCZ Dominator II socket cooler on HardwarePub.
Macase KA-130 Full-Tower Case
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Wednesday, 5-December-2001 02:39:19 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Yesterday I looked at the KA-230 Mid-Tower from Macase and was quite impressed. Today I'm looking at what superficially seems to be simply "the full-tower version". However there are quite a few differences that affected how I felt about it..
Click for the full review!
Bad news for customers of Austar Internet from TheTron... as a part of their restructure (thanks Ben) they will be moving all their dialup customers over from their old/acquired eisa network to Comindico's POP's (who, through Ausgamers, host the forums). It'll also mean the end of the Austar Wireless Broadband network and 400 jobs. Ouch.
Turtle Beach have released new drivers for their Santa Cruz / Sonic Fury sound cards.. thanks Radix.
Finally tonight, if you've been wondering why stuff from Wokket has not been finding it's way onto the news page it's not because it's degenerated into complete crap, rather because he's been on holidays. Weird stuff for tonight includes the answer to the lifelong question: do Bond villains employ dwarves? The answer to a question a lot of nerds have probably asked themselves.. is a caffeine high good aerobic exercise, and finally if you've ever wondered what your Viking name would be, here it is.
Reviews:
OCZ Goliath video review on 3DGameMan.
Akasa Silver Mountain hs/f on OC'dCafe.
Intel Personal Audio Player 3000 on SystemLogic.
KyroII Tweak Guide on 3DSpotlight.
Belkin Nostromo n50 SpeedPad on OC'dCafe.
P4 1.7GHz on IANAG.
CyberNet Zero-Footprint PC on Designtechnica.
Gainward GeForce2 Ti/500 XP on Digit-Life.
Switctech MCXC370 on VyW.
As some of you no doubt saw (and some of you no doubt did not), there has been a short promotional video of Ginger transport device released. I must say, that thing looks extremely cool. If you missed the videos or want to see them again, Wiretapped has a mirror of the videos here. They are in Quicktime, Windows Media and Real Media formats in both broadband and modem friendly sizes.
Tuesday Morning
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Tuesday, 4-December-2001 10:30:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Dan's managed to dig up another 13 coolers for the cooler comparison that will not die. I'm beginning to suspect him of constructing "coolers" from things he finds lying around at home. If you see any novelty salt-shakers in that roundup, let me know.
ExtremeOC are giving away a bunch-o-stuff. Good news: they'll cover shipping anywhere in the world. Bad news: 2. Start participating in the forums by posting messages. The more messages you post, the better your odds are of winning. TheTechZone have a similar forum-posting contest, not sure if non-US peeps can enter. Anyway, ClubOC are giving away some stuff too, no forum posting required but I'm not sure about the international status of that one either. The entry form does have a Country field which is a good sign.
Xbit have some interesting pics and info about Creative GF3 Titanium video cards, thanks DSH.
Tech-Report compared a couple of 24X CD-RW drives.
VIAHW have a preview of VIA's P4XB-RA motherboard. This one uses the P4X266A chipset.
NVIDIA have released version 23.11 of their Detonator drivers, thanks Volnhar.
THX1130 found another handy use for Apple cubes.
Early January will apparently see Australia's Biggest LAN, or so they claim.. from the state where everything's big, WA. 800 people, is that really the biggest?
Reviews:
Merconnet PAL-Mate PDA on CoolHardWarez.
Dockers Mobile pants (yes.. pants) on RojakPot.
Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling kit on ExtremeOC.
Soyo K7-Dragon Plus KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on AwareMag.
Thermaltake Volcano 7 socket cooler on TweakTown.
Rotokiller gaming mouse on VyW.
Enermax 431 powersupply on OCAddiction.
Senfu Copper Fin socket cooler on ThinkTechie.
Thermal Integration V77 socket cooler on GideonTech.
CPU Radiator Zen socket cooler on FrostyTech, our review here.
ATI Radeon 8500 and 8500LE video cards on xbitlabs.
Titan Majesty Twin socket cooler on 2FastCPU.. our review here and I suggest you read ours before buying that cooler.
Macase KA-230 Champion Mid-Tower
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Monday, 3-December-2001 16:17:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I checked out this mid-tower case from Taiwanese manufacturer Macase. It's more expensive than a generic case, but cheaper than the really high-end ones. So how does it stack up..?
Click for the full review!
Spotted by Admiral, this article over on Time.com explains the device. I haven't read it fully yet, but skimming through it had me checking my calendar to make sure it really wasn't April 1st. This thing sounds almost "too big to be true", if you follow me. If you see any more info out there, let me know and I'll update this newspost.
Update: Ok, I've read it fully now. This has the potential to be huge. I want one. :)
Slashdot have a story with more links and some healthy skepticism, thanks Phil.
Interesting discussion in #overclockers last night concerning Wireless LANS.. Pace pointed out this guide to modifying an old Galaxy/Foxtel/Austar antennae to work with Wireless, meanwhile Miken pointed out that WaveLAN cards are about the best around and V8R highlighted his WLAN project. All quite interesting stuff.. thanks to McNugget for sending in the URL's.
Mike points out this link also seen on slashdot about modifying your Mac Cube to accept a second processor.. however, with the original cube already running fairly warm (the CPU is passively cooled I believe) it might be a rather brave mod.
New site OCLabs has a rather heroic Athlon overclock posted.. a 1GHZ AYHJAR running at a massive 1708MHz. The article is in Italian, but the pictures and graphs tell half the story, and if you want the other half there is always the 'fish.
SG points out that over on SourceForge there is a petition happening requesting Creative to release the source code to the Aureal 8830 drivers. I reckon it'd be really awesome if Creative did so, and with A3D pretty much dead I don't see any harm in them doing so.. but I still don't think it'll happen too quickly.
OverclockerCafe is giving away an Asus V8200 GeForce3 to one lucky reader for Christmas.
As we reported a while ago, Radeonic has decided to close their virtual doors.. they've now reopened under their new banner of 3DVelocity.
Reviews:
MSI K7N420 nForce board on GamePC.
UATA/133 vs USB2.0 vs Firewire also on GamePC.
Multifunction Access Panel on ClubOC.. similar to FrontX Ports we reviewed.
Tt Volcano 7 on Radeonic.
Kanie Hedgehog Type W on BSOD.
CyberCooler Copper Shim on MikhailTech.
Tube Modding the LightStrip on BurntOutPC.
CompuNurse Thermal Probe also on BurntOutPC.
MSI K7N420 on BenchHouse.
SiS645 P4DDR Chipset on Digit-Life along with other P4DDR Chipsets.
10k and 15k SCSI HDD Roundup also on Digit-Life.
AthlonXP 1800+ on PCStats.
Artic Alumina thermal goop on HWGN.
Sunday Afternoon
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Sunday, 2-December-2001 17:40:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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My flu seems to have mostly abated.. how is it that such tiny little microbes can know when it's the weekend?
Speaking of small things, Wired say that nanotechnology is not evil (unlike flu bacteria, which definitely are.)
TheDDRZone has given us some "first looks" at the Asus A7M266-D, a dual SocketA motherboard based on the 760MPX chipset.
TargetPC compared a couple of new thermal pastes.. Nanotherm Blue vs Arctic Alumina.
AcidHardware have compared 5 sets of headphones.
ModdingZone are getting into the Christmas spirit in a way only casemodding geeks could.
Templintech have compared a few Detonator versions.. drivers for nVidia-based video cards, of course, thanks Iroquois.
Gamespot have more Return to Castle Wolfenstein info than you could shake a flamethrower at.
Reviews:
Everglide Attack Pad mouse surface on PC-Arena, our review here.
Thermaltake Volcano 7 socket cooler on Radeonic.
IWill XP333 socketA DDR333-capable motherboard on Accelenation.
PC Tote carrying handles on MikhailTech.
AMD AthlonXP 1700+ SocketA CPU on PlanetSavage.
Saturday Afternoon
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Saturday, 1-December-2001 17:44:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Ex-Beatle George Harrison has died. Some tribute messages here in our forum. Redback noticed a story in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Mitch spotted these cool but frighteningly expensive cases on 3DCool.
Mibberz has guide to making a (very) cheap hard drive mounting kit in our forum.
ProCooling have part one of a modified Yeong-Yang Cube case project posted.
Watercooling seems to be the current trend in the PCDB with new/modified entries from Avidin, C.D, edwardnott and Sciflyer.
KaZaa, like Napster in many ways, is copping legal heat like Napster did, too.. thanks Dicey.
Apparently Microsoft is to blame for the current spate of email virii. Sonic found an article saying the latest BadTrans virus can capture keystrokes which could lead to passwords and credit card details etc being recorded/exposed. I'm still getting loads of those emails every day.. have you updated your virus software yet?
There's an interesting waterblock design over in Slo-Tech's forums.
Patdman noticed this new SBLive driver for Win2K/XP.
Back in March we heard a lot of rumours about "Ginger", a new transport device. That story got blown out of proportion, but apparently in a few days we may have more details, thanks YYK. Or maybe we're just blowing it out of proportion again. :)
Alchemy noticed some funny speed-camera photos that appeared here in our forums.
Scentists have made a transistor consisting of a single molecule, thanks Ropable.
Apparently the spike in RAM prices we've all seen over the last week or so is trickling into other parts of the market. I've heard from a couple of sources now that video cards are starting to spike too - because, of course, they contain a lot of RAM. YYK noted that P4's may be in short supply while Sonic found an article saying that Intel and AMD are suffering shortages.. so that may affect CPU pricing. It's all cyclical though.. things go down, things go up.
Reviews:
Dr Thermal socket cooler on 2FastCPU.
Antec 400W power supply on PCHardware.
Swiftech MCXC370 socket cooler on Icrontic.
ATI Radeon 8500 video card on Guru3D.
Actiontech Wireless Gateway on HWDaily.
Max Payne game on BurnOurPC.
Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum sound card on OCPrices.
Titan TTC-CUV1AB video cooler on M6.
Global Win YCC-8870 aluminium case on OCrCafe.
Asus P4T i845-based P4 motherboard with SDRAM on TweakTown.
AMD AthlonXP 1900+ CPU video review on 3DGameMan.
Alpha 153 video cooler on TweakMax.
Leadtek GF3 Ti500 video card on TweakTown.
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