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February 2002
Thursday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 28-February-2002  02:19:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg

From the PCDB: shoxa's PC uses a blower from a kitchen range hood to generate some serious airflow while nemaste has constructed an extractor (like from a car engine) to duct the exhaust up and away from his machine.. clever idea for monitoring ambient temp with his digidoc, too.

Hexus have a case mod project of their own.. nothing too revolutionary, but looks pretty cool overall.

AnandTech have Day 2 of the Intel Developer Forum covered.

Torana spotted this watercooling for P4 notebooks by Toshiba.

TweakTown have a BIOS Tuning guide.

Apparently RAMBUS is really fast now, thanks Simon. Seems it's too late tho, as Intel have finally wised up and dropped RAMBUS in favour of DDR SDRAM for future chipsets, thanks papasurf.

Soul spotted the announcement of a Federal Broadband Advisory Group for Australia.. Mr Howard said the broadband advisory group was to be a joint government-industry body.

Interesting article from Morgan about communications airships that stay aloft for 5 years, 20km high.

Mothug found over on xbit that AthlonXP 2100+ is due next week and ELSA is bankrupt, leaving NVIDIA in a lurch in Europe.

A roundup of roundups: Digit-Life have a few 120GB HDD's in a comparo.
OCtools have compared three mouspads while VIAHW have a 3-way DDR PC2100 shootout.. if you want something a little more bleeding-edge, try our PC2700 reviews here and here.

Reviews:
Visiontek Xtasy GeForce4 Ti4600 128MB video card on GamePC, thanks Owen.
Abit KR7A-RAID KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on PC-Arena, our review here.
Abit BD7 P4 DDR motherboard on PCHardware.
Custom GPU waterblock on Digital-Explosion.
ACorp 4D845A P4 DDR motherboard on PCStats.
Thermalright AX-7 socket cooler on OverclockersOnline.
Phoebe Micro TV Master + FM tuner card on SLCentral.
Logitech Z-540 speakers on G3D.
Plextor PlexWriter 8/8/24U USB CDRW drive on FutureLooks.
Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling kit on Tweakers.



Hammer Time! (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 28-February-2002  00:44:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg

You have no idea how long I've been waiting to use that as a news title. Anyway.. AMD's new 64-bit Hammer processors have been the stars of the show at Intel's Developer Forum this week, which I'm sure impressed Intel no end. Here's the first few sneak peeks:

AnandTech
TomsHardware
PC Watch
AMDMB.com (press release)



Wednesday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 27-February-2002  03:18:53 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Jobbers found an interesting article about internet access in schools in Australia.

cruro02 sends word of a new commercial phase-change cooling system.. seems quite a bit cheaper than the major players but doesn't look quite so hardcore.

Reeves sent in this link to high-resolution true-colour satellite images released recently by NASA.

DesignTechnica have a guide to Digital Cameras.

IBM have made a new ultra-fast comms chip, thanks kryz.

Afrotech have squeezed a PSX into a PC, thanks Jaw174.

AnandTech went to the Intel Developers Forum and want to tell you all about Day 1.

Tobitech slapped some aftermarket cooling onto a video card.

AMDWorld.UK have taken a more detailed look at nForce memory performance.

Tony spotted that NVIDIA will release DVD software soon. NVDVD is a new software-based DVD player/decoder architected specifically for NVIDIA's family of graphics and multimedia processors.

The Xbox is coming soon to Australia, but you won't be able to buy one at Harvey Norman, thanks Decker.

Rainwulf hacked a window mod into his LAN switch.. neato.

FutureLooks have an article about post-internet relationships.. The socially inept are getting a new lease on life, albeit a virtual one. .. hmm, whatever.

Reviews:
Xbags carrying systems for PC and Monitor on DansData.
Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling kit on OCIA.
Globalwin WBK socket coolers on Tweakers.
Case Lite modding wotsit on BurnOutPC.
Neon Light Case on TechnoYard.
CH Combat Stick and Throttle controllers on OCPrices.
CodeGen 1701 Midtower case on MikhailTech.
Glaciator II socket cooler on TekSector.
Thermalright AX-7 socker cooler on ClubOC.
LiteOn 24/10/40 CDRW on ViperLair.
Belkin Wireless Networking stuff on AwareMag.
IBM T560 LCD monitor on DesignTechnica.
Enermax FS-710BB pre-modded case on IANAG.
Badge Light kit on xtremetek.
Laser LED's on ExtremeOC.



Tuesday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 26-February-2002  02:52:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Well, it was a big night in the forums last night. I had an ulterior motive for posting those "interesting threads" on the newspage - I wanted to make the usual Monday-night forum spike as big as possible to gauge the effect of PHP Accelerator which I have recently installed, after talking to Eva2000 our resident PHP/MySQL expert. PHP Accelerator is a pre-compiler for PHP scripts which reduces system load and page build times - note that the time at the bottom of this page won't shrink because that only starts counting after the script is compiled. Anyway, the old "Users currently online" record in the forums was 344 people.. we screamed past that, right up to a whopping 404 users at 10:22pm. Server load was not alarmingly high and the forums felt only a touch slower on my dialup connection. Hooray for Thor! Of course, thanks also to AusGamers, our kickass host.

Also, as Sabretooth spotted, we had our 10,000th member sign up (again.. ahem). The actual 10,000th was obviously a fake account :) so I think the real honour goes to "tastymick".

Check this PC out - it uses the frame of the custom case as a reservoir for water-cooling. If that doesn't impress you, you may as well put your PC into a toilet.. thanks Dexter.

Talking_goat spotted this laptop with GeForce4 440 Go.. just a preview article so no benchmarks sadly, but hints at some very decent portable graphics.

Xizor notes an interesting auction.. a super-grunty PC and the gold master CD of DivX 5.0 when it comes out.

Zoltrix spotted someone proving that AthlonXP's run hot enough to fry an egg.. literally.

Hoe found some people using liquid nitrogen.. but not for cooling.. what a waste. :)

3DVelocity have taken a trip back in time and are playing with SlotA Overclocking. In case you missed the whole SlotA thing, I wrote an article at the end of their era called SlotA Showdown which covered the different types of SlotA CPU's etc.

AnandTech have an article about Intel's E7500 Chipset: Dual Channel DDR for Xeon.

Christian spotted this nice cartoon in memory of Chuck Jones, Warner Bros cartoonist who died recently.

Reviews:
Epox 8K3A+ KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard on HardwarePub.
Logitech WingMan Formula Force GP wheel on PlanetSavage.
Shuttle AK35GTR KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on OCOnline.
Cold Cathodes case lighting from PC-Extreme.
P4 Northwood 2.0A CPU on HardExtreme.
Coolermaster 201C S21 case on Heatseekerz.
Case Ace Gear Grip carrying-handle on SubZeroTech.
Philips MMS305 Multi-Channel Flat Panel speakers on OCAddiction.
Terratec Soundcards on VyW.
Thermalright AX-7 socket cooler on MikhailTech.
AthlonXP shim on Elite-Hardware.
OCZ PC3000 DDR memory on Tech-Report.
IXOS DJ1001 Headphones on FutureLooks.
Suma GF3 Platinum video cards on Digit-Life.
Asus GeForce3 V8200 T2 Deluxe video card on Tweakers.
Sound Blaster Extigy sound gadget on MGON.
Multiplaycity EL Case Badge on TheTechZone.
Abit BD7-RAID i845D-based P4 DDR motherboard on OCTools.
Belkin Wireless Adapter on Virtual-Hideout.



Picking at Threads.. (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 25-February-2002  18:59:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg

I haven't done this in a little while - but here's some interesting threads from the Forums. Unless you regularly check all forums you may have missed some of these. If you do regularly check all forums, you have way too much time on your hands. :)

Don't forget we have an Australian Online Vendors List accessible via www.overclockers.com.au/vendors - pretty easy to remember, but you need to be a forum member to view it. Other interesting threads:

Case modding FAQ in Modding & Electronics.
Heater Core info for watercooling in Extreme Cooling.
Useful Links in Networking & Internet.
NVIDIA Chipset Specifications in NVIDIA Hardware.
Intel CPU S-Spec Codes in Intel Hardware.
Deciphering Intel CPU Product Codes in Intel Hardware.
Caution about Celeron "A" type: 1.0A GHz and 1.1A GHz in Intel Hardware.
VIA Latency Patch in VIA Hardware.
VIA Drivers, recommended versions in VIA Hardware.
Hot sauce in Oz? in Geek Food.
Snacks you wish were sold in Oz in Geek Food.
RC car pics in Other Toys.
Calculating HDD size in Newbie Lounge.
List of Abbreviations and Terms in Newbie Lounge.
Team OCAU Rankings in Distributed Computing.
Processor Listing in Overclocking and Hardware Discussion.
Case Sides On or Off? in Overclocking and Hardware Discussion.
Windows Update and other useful links in Software Stuff.



Sunday Night/Monday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 25-February-2002  02:23:05 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

VR-Zone have posted some interesting findings that by flashing the BIOS of the AK35GT/R into the AK31 v3.1, it can be turned into the Shuttle AK35GT/R! This is certainly good news to those people who are stuck with a Shuttle AK31 and wished to have the overclocking features of the AK35GTR.

An updated version of the "Nvidia BIOS editor" has been released and is available for download from here. Remember though, if you decide to use this and your video card comes alive and devours your family, (or something equally disasterous, like your video card dies) then it isn't our fault. :)

Chuck Jones, creator of some of Warner Bros.' most famous characters including the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepe Le Pew, died Friday at the age of 89. Read the whole story here.

As reported exclusively by ARN, Microsoft has confirmed that Australia Post will be handling the ordering and logistics services for Microsoft's long-awaited gaming console, Xbox. Does that mean that your new XBOX either won't get there at all, be damaged on the way or will be sent to Scandinavia by mistake? :) Thanks Sniper1G.

F1DarkFlash sends word that 3 new security flaws have been found in Microsoft products, the last one being particularly nasty.

Reviews:
Lian Li 70 case reviewed by OverclockersClub.
Chenming 601 Full Tower Server Case review on TekSector.
Gigabyte MAYA AP64D-H RADEON 8500 review from Digit-Life.



Monday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 25-February-2002  02:06:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Happy Birthday to Stewart "VooDoo" Paternoster! I won't reveal how old he is, but suffice to say: old. :)

Some impressive new machines added to the PCDB in the last couple of days: jamiCON's watercooled box with keyboard LED's and various other mods, WiZE_GUY's peltier and water-cooled box with home-made VU meter and berger's fully-custom wooden fulltower.

Boky spotted that Amiga are providing the O/S for the new Nokia Mediaterminal, a new "infotainment" device.

Interesting thing on Digital-Explosion, where they construct a HDD watercooling cage.

Moddin.net take the HDD window mod a step further, with LED's too.

Apparently this program uses your monitor to broadcast music which you can pick up with an AM radio, thanks Grant.. I'm sure there's a reason why you'd want to do that.. is it the ultimate in cheap (and nasty) sound cards? Or just bored Linux geeks. :)

JAB spotted this list of videoconferencing software you can download via the net.

From Slashdot via Brembo "www.whatisthematrix.com has been "reloaded" today. Click on the keyboard twice, and enter the password "reload" to get to the new material. There's QuickTime VRs, on the set shots and most likely a slew of new hidden stuff. Happy searching."

Some forum-goers got up to some rollerblading craziness on the weekend.

Tobitech have a quick guide to installing the Senfu Digital Thermometer into a drive bay cover.. pretty basic stuff.

LivePC have a video review comparing the GF2MX and GF4MX.

Grant notes that Abit have an nForce motherboard now, with ATA133 RAID, too. My review of the first non-reference nForce board (MSI's K7N420 Pro) is here.

Finally.. the Sydney BBQ was on today and I dropped in for a couple of hours, a nice group of people, fun was had. Also, a few OCAU readers got together in the Adelaide hills for a "Car Cruise".. I guess in SA "cruise" means something different to NSW:

  
Click images to enlarge!

Apparently nobody was hurt, thankfully..

Reviews:
Gigabyte GA-8IRX i845-based P4 DDR motherboard on OCNZ.
Titan Alarm Cable on G3D.
KingWin Mobile HDD Rack on OCrCafe.
TEAC PowerMax 2000 Active 5.1 speakers on Digit-Life.
Easydisk USB storage on HWExtreme.
Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling Kit on G3D.
RAM Heatspreaders on IANAG.



KingMax PC2700 DDR333 SDRAM (0 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 24-February-2002  23:56:48 (GMT +10) - by Agg

I checked out this latest stick from KingMax. A default speed of 166MHz (or 333MHz DDR) should make most overclockers interested, but how much higher than that could we get it..?


Click for the full review!



Saturday Afternoon #2 (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 23-February-2002  16:04:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg

We reviewed the ECS K7S5A DDR + SDR motherboard a little while ago - now, OCWB have some mult + vcore mods for it.

TheTechZone have been overclocking the P4 1.6A.. like everyone else. :)

VooDoo spotted this crazy multi-monitor flight-sim setup.. I can feel the tumours growing from here.

Dan's checked out a couple more lian-li cases.. a black pre-windowed midtower and a little baby mATX.

3-way Mouse Roundup on Teksector.

Offtopic: timetravel and wormholes from daDude, dragon indigestion from hoe.

Reviews:
Hercules GameTheatre XP sound card/box on AusGamers HW.
GlobalWin TAK68 socket cooler on OCrCafe.
Crucial PC2100 DDR SDRAM on GideonTech.
Thermaltake Crystal Orb chipset cooler on SLCentral.
Belkin N50 Speedpad controller on Mgon.
Soyo Dragon Ultra DDR P4 motherboard on TechnoYard.
Thermalright AX7 socket cooler on Subzerotech.
Laser cut fan grills on BurnOutPC.
Philips cBright projector on SourceMagazine.
Philips DVD+RW on SourceMagazine.
VIA P4XB-RA P4X266A-based motherboard on PCStats.
ECS K7S6A SocketA DDR motherboard on AMDMB.
Zeus Silver Midtower case on ClubOC.
eVGA GeForce4 MX440 on MBReview.
eVGA GeForce4 MX440 on 3DVelocity.
Logitech Optical Cordless Desktop mouse + kb on Bit-Tech.
ATI Radeon 7500 AIW (video review) on 3DGameman.



Saturday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 23-February-2002  14:32:56 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Game developers Blizzard have upset quite a few people over the last few days. Apparently, they invoked the DMCA law to shut down bnetd, a website and server system that parallels their own "Battle.net", allowing people to play their multiplayer games without using Blizzard's own servers. From that website: Blizzard's claim is that because bnetd doesn't and can't impliment the CD-KEY check, which battle.net servers do, that we are circumventing their online piracy checks, and encouraging people to pirate their CD-KEY protected games. Sounds fair enough, but maybe sharing the CD-KEY checking code would be a better option than whipping out the corporate lawyers.. unless they're concerned that would allow people to generate false keys. Anwyay, bnetd is an open-source project and hence has strong community support. Michael was first with the news but plenty of others followed, some with promises to boycott Blizzard's future products. There's a thread with more info here. I've even heard from one Sydney-based retailer who, despite Blizzard's DiabloII product and add-ons being their biggest selling games, will no longer be stocking or selling any Blizzard products due to this action.

Nice watercooled system in the PCDB from Nobes.

Interesting article from Deus_Horribilus sbout a system designed to get around internet censorship by distributing content to non-censored sites. The system aims to allow unrestricted anonymous internet access to people inside countries who's Governments heavily censor what can and can't be accessed such as China and Saudi Arabia.

AMD's "Hammer" processors have come one step closer with the release of the AMD-8000 series chipsets which are intended to support the new CPU's, thanks Mr Grimm.

Accelenation wonder if unlocking an AthlonXP is as simple as some suggest.

MrW notes that WinXP PowerToys have been delayed again.

Apparently a big problem with clustering macs is that they're the wrong shape and can't be rackmounted..

I don't normally link this stuff as it's been done a zillion times and it's not really content in my view.. but a heap of people have sent this one in so why not: these people have discovered how to remove the multiplier lock from an Intel CPU.. with a hammer. Now that you've caught me in a "compromising my principles" mood, here's some people destroying some speakers, too. :)

Reviews:
OCZ PC3000 DDR366 RAM on PCStats.
Lacie 60GB External Firewire HDD on Tweakers.
Intel Xeon processor on Digit-Life.
Tin-Coated Fan Bracket on G3D.
Tualatin-core Celeron CPU on Bench-House.
Antec SX1240 fulltower case on TweakTown.
Thermaltake P4 Tiny Fin P4 cooler on Viperlair.
Compex Wireless Broadband Gateway on HotHardware.



Friday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 22-February-2002  01:44:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Bort sends word that our Genome@Home Team has jumped 2 spots up into 17th place.

Ben says there's an Australian Palm User Group. I still have a Palm III around here somewhere.. ultimately it turned out to be something else for me to forget to put appointments etc into, sigh.

IceHardware have a guide to inverting an LCD.. if you're wondering how to hook up an LCD, check out Wolfy's excellent guide to using your parallel port.

xbit decided to see if the Celeron 1.0A is any good for overclocking..

Apparently Media Player 8 logs stuff that you might not want it to, thanks Davester (and /.).

Sneak screenshots from Grand Prix 4 over on AlphaF1, thanks fishman_71.

Over in Icrontic's forums there's a quick DDR memory tweaking guide.

Offtopic: olympic oopses from Wokket and lobster hermit man from Stephen (it's art, no, really).

Reviews:
VIA P4PA P4X266A-based P4 DDR motherboard on VR-Zone.
Highpoint RocketRAID 404 ATA133 RAID card on PCHardWare, our review here.
FujiFilm FinePix 2800Z digicam on PCStats.
Lian-Li T4 LCD thermister on DansData.
Antec SX1030B File Server case on PCStats.
Thermalright AX-7 socket cooler on OCPrices.
3R System Santafe case on MikhailTech.
TEAC CD-W28PU external CD writer on CDRInfo.
ASUS CRW3212 and TDK CyClone 321040 32x CDRW drives on CDRInfo.
Enermax Temp-Monitoring Drive Rack on TechnoYard.
Coolermaster HHC 001 HeatPipe socket cooler on Tobitech.
Thermaltake Volcano 7+ socket cooler on ComputerChaos.
AOpen CRW1632 & CRW2440 CDRW drives on OCOnline.
Coolermaster Rounded Cables on TemplinTech.
Yamaha CRW2200EZ 20x CDRW on SubZeroTech.
PC Light Strips on HardwarePub.
Sony VAIO PCV-MXS10 multimedia system on DesignTechnica.
Enermax EG365P-FMA PSU on ThinkTechie.
Coolermaster ATCS 600 case on Hexus.
Kingmax PC2400 DDR memory on IPKonfig.
MSI 645 Ultra P4 DDR motherboard on Accelenation.
Coolermaster ATCS 210 case on XtremePC.
Light Strips rev2 from MikhailTech.



Updates.. (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 21-February-2002  19:02:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg

D4rKn355 tracked down a niggling problem with the new site design in Netscape 4.x which made it display the main text in black, very hard to see. That should be fixed now according to some testers but I guess if you use Netscape 4.x you will have realised that already. :) Also, Panadol has updated the news archive script with better searching and highlighting of search terms. Thanks guys!


Early Thursday Morning #2 (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 21-February-2002  01:59:14 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

My apologies to Wokket. It would appear I deleted his message before making sure that the link worked, and now I don't know what the link was....If you could send it again Wokket, it would be appreciated..

Ever wanted the extra cooling of a second PSU fan but don't want to drop the big bucks for an Enermax power supply? Then this power supply mod may be just what you need. (Of course, any scorching of fleshy bits is entirely your responsibility :) )

Matthew sends word that SMS is now supported by ICQ for the Telstra, Vodaphone and Optus telco's. Cool. No link was provided, but I would check out icq.com for more info.

Futurelooks checks out a new security device for your PC, called the Aladdin eToken. Just the thing for protecting your valuable stuff :)

James Brown sent us a link to Max Payne in 3D Flash. Looks cool ....

Anyway, I'm off for some *BINK* *BINK* Counterstrike.... :)

Reviews:
ECS K7VTA3 Version 2.0 motherboard review from Planet Savage.
Arkua 7528 HSF review over on OCIA.
Vantec 6035D HSF review from TekSector.
VIA P4XB -RA 266A motherboard review by the guys at TechnoYard.
Thermaltake Volcano 7+ HSF review by TweakTown.
Shuttle AK35GTR review from HardCoreWare.
Tt Memory Cooling Kit review from Tweakers.Com.
Inflow Direct's Blue Cold Cathode Kit review from OCIA.
Vantec Rounded IDE Cable review over at OverclockersOnline.



Early Thursday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 21-February-2002  01:54:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg

VIA have announced their KT333 chipset, the first to bring DDR333 memory support to SocketA. Reviews/articles on (deep breath) HardOCP, Tech-Report, xbitlabs, AnandTech, VIAHW, Digit-Life and AMDMB so far.

An interesting spam-baiting experiment over on DSLReports, thanks Mike. I've been getting a heap of spam over the last few weeks.. pretty much the same messages over and over, too. If I didn't buy it 30 emails ago I'm definitely not going to buy it now, guys.

IANAG have a PC2700 Shootout posted.

GameSpy have a preview of the game everyone's talking about, Warcraft 3, which came out in Beta recently.

AnandTech have a preview of nVIDIA's Quadro 4, their professional video chipset based on the GeForce4.

TomsHardware have announced their Readers Choice Awards for 2001.

GamePC have a Clash of the Duals, Xeon vs AthlonMP.

Interesting stuff going on out there in LAN-land. NGL have a notice on their front page with information about how the BSAA have taken an interest in the amount of software piracy that allegedly occurs at LAN parties. It seems the organisers of LAN's (not just NGL) will need to be a little more proactive in their attitude towards stopping piracy at their events. I know a lot of people will be up in arms about this as "leeching warez" is a major part of some people's LAN experience - but to my mind it's not all bad. I've been to a few LAN parties over the years (again, not singling out NGL, never been there) and it seems lately that the leeching has been more important than the gaming. A shift back to a focus on the gaming sounds like a good thing to me - I just hope that nobody cops a fine as part of that process. Thanks to ViPeR-7 for pointing that notice out.

Reviews:
AOpen RW5120A DVD+RW drive on DansData.
ATI Radeon8500 All-In-Wonder video card on SourceMagazone.
Pentium IV 2.0GHz CPU on PCStats.



Enermax Speed-Adjustable Fan (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 21-February-2002  01:06:53 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Baker reviewed this funky fan from Enermax, more famous for their excellent PSU's. This seems like a normal 92mm fan, but it lets you manually adjust the speed with a little remote knob. Oh, and it's "Barney the Dinosaur" purple. :)


Click for the full review!

Not a bad couple of days for new content.. now, LoneWolf and I will do a little tag-team news for you and get back up to speed with what's going on out there.



Wednesday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 20-February-2002  13:06:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg

MWP has organised an Car Cruise for OCAU peeps near Adelaide on Sunday 23rd Feb.

HardOCP have a watercooled Xbox project.

Widowmaker has put up an interesting article about making a audio-controlled modulator for your case neons.

HotHardware have pitted 2 P4 DDR motherboards from Soyo against each other.. SiS645 vs Intel i845D.

Digit-Life have reviewed the 3 GF4 MX chipset cards from MSI.. GF4MX420, GF4MX440 and GF4MX460.

A new optical media may be on the way, called the Blue-Ray Disc, very catchy. 27GB for a single-layer, single-sided disk.. thanks Mothug. More info here from Sabot68.

SilentSniper sent in a pong game he describes as really odd. Haroc sent a Flash drag-racing game. If those are a little fast-paced for you, Tarrasque suggests you try your hand at cheese racing.

Reviews:
Gainward GF4 MX440 video card on MikhailTech.
DFI AD73 KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on VIAHardware.
Visiontek Geforce 3 Ti 200 video card on Monster-Hardware.
MSI 845 Ultra-ARU P4 DDR motherboard on PCStats.
DTI 3D LCD 15" display on 3DSpotlight.
Microtek C783GM 17" LCD screen on HardCoreWare.
ABIT Siluro GeForce3 Ti200DVI 128MB video card on EXHardware.
DangerDen GeForce 2/3 WaterBlock on PureOC.
Gainward GeForce3 PowerPack !!! Ti/550 XP Golden Sample video card on GotApex.
FeelingPC Ice Hole (snigger) fan adapter on BurnOutPC.
SOYO K7V Dragon Plus KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on Tweakers.



Apple iPod MP3 Player Review (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 20-February-2002  03:44:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Sciby has checked out this neato little gadget. It's small, lightweight, easy to use and lets you carry around 5GB of MP3's. And it's made by Apple.. but read the review anyway. :)


Click for the full review!

Hmm.. should probably go to bed now.



Leadtek WinFast GF3 TDH Review (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 20-February-2002  01:51:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Leadtek WinFast GF3 TDH

With the more recent GF3 Ti and (soon!) GF4 cards, the classic GF3's are easily overlooked.. but that could be a mistake. Sabretooth found that Leadtek's card overclocked to GF3 Ti500 speeds. Could be quite a bargain if you can find one tucked away on a shelf or on the 2nd-hand market..


Click for the full review!



Tuesday Midday (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 19-February-2002  12:27:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Our Folding@Home Page has a new look! Also, there's a new sub-team in our F@H team called SlackNet.. it's apparently for SETI@Home users who want to help with our current battle to remain the #1 folding team in the world. Info in this thread, thanks Col.

There's a LAN near Penrith (Sydney) this weekend. However that seems like poor timing because this weekend also boasts the OCAU Sydney BBQ, location/time details in that thread. If you're going to come along, vote in this poll so the organisers get an idea of numbers.

Vindaloo sent a link to pics of the recent Perth OCAU BBQ/LAN.. don't be confused by the first couple of pics being of the GTR PC. Also, pics of a recent lan.. err, somewhere else.. here. Being thrashed by a kiddie is bad at the best of times but being beaten by a 5yo would be too much. :)

If you're using one of these Intel chipsets you might want to check out this new Intel Application Accelerator, thanks Greg. Apparently it provides Faster Boot Time via Accelerated Operating System Load Time and Accelerated Disk I/O for Games, Graphics Applications, Disk Utilities, and Media Authoring Applications among other stuff. Might be worth a shot.

We're getting towards the end of Summer now.. a Cray supercomputer may be just what you need to keep y'self warm at night, thanks Qaz. I'll just snuggle up to the nice rack I have at home. :) If you're still itching to eBay you could buy this very expensive GeForce4, thanks Mike.. it's for a good cause, so they say. That note to email a hotmail address at the bottom of the sale adds a touch of dodginess to the whole thing, though.

VyW have Part 3 of a RAID tutorial posted.

ExtremePC were at the GeForce4 launch in Europe.

If you're bored, you can tie this vector man in knots.. pretty cool, thanks Dink. I think we saw this before, I ended up pulling one of his arms off.. :)

Reviews:
IO Magic Hurricane Extreme sound card on Guru3D.
Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer mouse on TweakTown.
Arctic Silver 3 thermal paste on VR-Zone.
Thermaltake Smart Fan on ThinkTechie.
Noblesse Mid-Tower case on OCIA.
Zalman CNPS6000-Cu socket cooler at ICE-Hardware.
Intel Northwood P4 CPU's on OCPrices.
Mitsumi CR-4809TE 24x12x40x CDRW on AllTechBox.
GlowWire on Digital-Explosion.
NoiseControl Hard Drive Cage (video review) on 3DGameMan.
MSI 845 Ultra-ARU P4 DDR motherboard on xbit.



Monday Night (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 18-February-2002  23:31:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Talking_goat spotted some potentially big news, a Sydney man has been charged with hacking into a telco database recently.

HardwareZone have an article about recovering data with a program called FinalData.

Dink notes that the Australian Govt is targeting spam.. will be interesting to see if they can be effective in blocking it. Also, Telstra are apparently abandoning East Timor after more than 2 years as the only telecomms carrier there.

Viperlair have a Thermal Compound Shootout posted, comparing 9 products, it seems.

Furfle sends word of FNQGL, a LAN coming up in far north Queensland soonish.

It’s Monday night, which means another issue of ZZZ Online.

Reviews:
Light Tape Kit on SerialAddiction.
VIP Mobile Power Rack HDD rack on TweakTown.
Sound Blaster Audigy sound card on PCScoop.
Zalman Fan Mate fan controller on MikhailTech.
OCP Silver Pro Gamer case on IANAG.
Sandisk 1GB CompactFlash memory card on DesignTechnica.
Koolance PC2-C watercooled system on ClubOC.
Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers on FutureLooks.



Monday Midday (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 18-February-2002  12:18:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Interesting (and presumably home-made?) watercooled rig in RonnieG's PCDB entry.

Denis spotted another buttonless mouse in this PDF file.. :)

TheRegister compared a 1.2GHz AthlonXP with the 2GHz Northwood P4 in Linux and Windows and came away with some interesting results, thanks Nathan.

Teksector have an article on case windows and cold cathodes..

VR-Zone have updated their Northwood P4 overclocking results database. There's also quite a few entries if you search the PCDB, the highest speed being Woofer3's Vapochilled 2.2GHz at 2.8GHz and the biggest overclock being LorenBlair's 1.6GHz at 2.64GHz with a Swiftech air-cooler.

Tobitech have an AthlonXP Unlocking guide.

Not that you would anyway, of course, but Ben spotted these comments: There is a Windows XP Keygen Floating around....DO NOT BUY THIS HYPE!!!! This thing is bugged with a Trojan.....i don't know which one as the second i used the keygen all 3 of my harddrives were wiped out!!! I rebooted in Recovery Console to discover that the directories were still intact, but there was nothing inside!!! over on a site called IntenseGhetto.

Apparently there's new ASPI drivers for SCSI and certain other devices under all current versions of Windows, thanks Kola.

3DVelocity have awarded several products their Gamers Choice awards.

HotHardware have pics of some new P4 coolers from Thermaltake.

Wojee spotted someone with WinXP Pro in their car.

Reviews:
Philips Acoustic Edge sound card on Digit-Life.
Belkin OmniView KVM switch on JSI.
Iwill P4D I845D P4 DDR motherboard on OCNZ.
Creative GeForce 3 Ti200 video card on ExtremePC.



Sunday Afternoon #2 (0 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 17-February-2002  20:44:54 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

Apparently, there is a "Windows XP Keygen" out and about, that actually produces real, usable product keys. I can't see Microsoft letting this one slide, can you? Thanks Fire.

Good news for penguin lovers, Nvidia has released a Linux nForce driver. Check it out here. Thanks LookTall.

And for all you folders, Drayzen lets us know that F@H version 2.19 Beta is out, and available for download.

There is a LAN called "ThunderLan" happening on Saturday 23rd of February, at St Mary's Memorial Hall, I presume in Sydney. Here are further details for that.

And lastly, Rickboy sent us a couple of links, firstly for a Buttonless Mouse, and secondly one for a Finger Mouse.

Reviews:
Dr.Thermal TI-V77L Heatsink review from MikhailTech.
Leadtek WinFast A170 DDR T review over at HardWareZone.
GlobalWin YCC-8870 Case review at Tweakers.com.au
Corsair Micro Cobra 266LE System review from Amdmb.com.
GlobalWin CAK-II 38 & 68 reviews, from Tweakers.com.au.
ATi Radeon 8500 video card review from the gang at ExplosiveHardware.
Logitech Wheel Mouse Optical Special Edition review from CoolHardwarez.
ASUS nForce 415 motherboard reviewed at the Bench-House.
Rounded IDE/Floppy Cable review from TekSector. Our own review is here.
Lazer LEDs review from the guys at IPKonfig.
Antec Reference High-Performance Heatsink review from MikhailTech.
Volcano 7 Heatsink review from OCPlus.



Sunday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 17-February-2002  17:42:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Freaky weather in Sydney lately.

I spotted over on AusGamers a game-review site called RobotStreetGang.com and was impressed by their reviews. They don't so much focus on the technical details of the games, more on the experience as a whole. They also seem to have pretty good writers contibuting, for example their Driver 2 review which is one of the very few reviews I've read from start to finish without skimming.. and I include my own reviews in that. :) Might be worth a cruise around on a Sunday afternoon..

Firemoth spotted this cool hard drive speaker thing which.. I can't really explain, you just have to go look at it. :)

Wired reckon that this guy invented hyperlinks, not BT as they have recently claimed. I wonder what Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the WWW) thinks about all this?

Here's a "must-see" watercooling project from Chunks.. nice. Ignore the questionable case aesthetics and focus on the actual watercooling system.

Accelenation have an interview with Scott Thirlwell, who used to be the PR person for Abit but has recently moved over to DFI.

A judge has ordered Microsoft to reveal source code.. wow.

Thanks to Matt who spotted and helped test the fix to a problem we had with the banner software today..

Reviews:
Iwill P4D i845D-based P4 DDR motherboard on OCTools.
Vantec blue HDD cooler on OCClub.



Quantispeed Calc Update (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 16-February-2002  12:03:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Win98 users who have had DLL problems using the Quantispeed Calculator should download this DLL file which is now linked from an update on the QS Calc page. Put the file in your C:\windows\System folder and it should fix your problem..

Update: A couple of things: firstly Sabretooth suggested a way to register the DLL in case just downloading it didn't fix it. Also, mpot has made a completely web-based version which is now set up on the page. As long as you're online you can use it, so you probably don't need to bother downloading the windows program.



Friday Night News (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 15-February-2002  23:40:57 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

Apologies to you guys. This has been my first week in a new job, and I have been a bit slack on the news side of things lately. But never fear, things will pick up from now on (So put your voodoo dolls and pins away) :)

Ok, on with the news.....

First up, Yamaha has announced a new technology that allows "drawing" on CDR's. Check out the full scoop right here.

According to John Carmack of ID Software fame, DON'T buy a Geforce 4 MX if you want to play the new Doom. Cheers Ben.

If you reckon you would like to see the history of ID Software, through the eyes of HardOCP, check this out.

Bit of late notice, but there is a LAN in Mildura (my home town) tomorrow. It's at the Alfred Deakin Center in the Benetook Room and kicks off at 9am. Taa Tigger.

Australia's computer systems are at risk of being completely wiped out by a serious flaw in the internet and networking infrastructure, warns a US watchdog, and authorities have yet to develop an action plan. Check out the full story.

The Tech Zone has some case modding action for you. "UnionBro" decided to build out a rather kick ass rig, and along the way decided that it not only had to be powerful, but also uniquely his.

Check out rager's boxen in the PCDB. Not a bad looking rig at all. /me is seriously thinking about water cooling.....

WARNING! Bit of harsh language in this animation, but it's a killer :) Loved it ... Thanks dink.

Excession lets us know that Winamp 3 BETA 3 is out, and available for download. Cheers.

Reviews:
Lian Li PC-70 Tower Case in video review on 3DGameman.com.
Vantec Rounded Cable review from MikhailTech. Our own article for this is here.
Intel P4 1.8GHz Northwood CPU review by the team at OCAddiction.
VIA's P4XB (P4X266A) motherboard in review from HotHardware.
Cooler Master HHC-001 "Heat-Pipe" Heatsink & Fan reviewed at ClubOC.
Antec SX630 Mini Tower review on ViperLair.
Dr. Thermal EXTREME heatsink being reviewed on EXHardware.
FIC AN11 Stealth KT266A reviewed by the gang at 3DSpotlight.
MSI GeForce3 Ti200 Pro-TD reviewed on IPKonfig.
Intel P4 1.6a Ghz Northwood CPU at GideonTech.
OCSystem XDream OverClock System on IAmNotAGeek.



Stereo PC! (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 15-February-2002  23:14:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Daemon pointed out this cool PCDB entry. Looking like an integrated stereo it blends in nicely in the livingroom.. but lurking within is a full DivX-capable PC. Nice little project from Scrappy. :)


Click for the full entry!



Friday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 15-February-2002  13:16:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg

If you've got a Radeon 8500 then you can use these sexy-looking demos and screensavers. The rest of us can just drool at the screenshots. Michael says there's new Radeon drivers too, btw.

CmdrTaco (of slashdot.org fame) successfully proposed to his girly.. on slashdot, of course. Good luck to them both. :)

Dan checked out a couple of cool cases by Atlas.

Scientific American have an interesting article on a worldwide operating system theory, thanks Christian.

THG compared 4 5-megapixel digicams.

There's a walkthrough of a watercooling project over on Gibtek.

Andrew noticed that the demo for Command & Conquer: Renegade is out today on FilePlanet. I lost a sizeable portion of my life to C&C.. and Red Alert.. and Dune 2.. and SimCity 2000.. and Quake.. damnit.

Looking for O/S updates? 3DSpotlight might have what you need in a new section on their site. If you're after DetonatorXP drivers, try TweakersAsylum.

Check out this watercooled setup in a Macase K10, the first case I ever reviewed.

Turns out StorageReview isn't dead after all. Hurrah!

Reviews:
Gainward GF3 Ti200 128MB video card on HardOCP.
MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on OCOnline.
ENMIC Radeon 8500 LE video card on Tobitech.



Friday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 15-February-2002  01:07:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Well, the PCDB just passed 3000 entries - congrats and thanks to MWP who created and maintains what has become such a big part of the site. ToranaGuy put in an entry for every PC in his house I think in a last-minute effort to get the magic number and his girlfriend's PC was the one but has no cool pics, sadly. Some interesting entries from the last few days: Banshee777's very cool blue glowing PC, looks like it's full of water, nemaste's cardboard duct among other mods and agur's videocard cooling overkill.

DesignTechnica have a quick article on choosing heatsinks.

Chris says that the cool animated TV show Futurama is being cancelled.. aww. There's a petition you can sign if you think it'll help dull the pain.

If you thought Telstra was rude.. just be happy you don't get bills like this one from Telecom NZ.. thanks James Brown.

Martinus has written a guide to lapping coppermine CPU's.. some hardcore stuff there. One of the very first articles I wrote for OCAU, back in mid-1999, was this Celeron lapping guide. Similar technique, good to see the hardcore stuff still going on out there. I've mellowed in my old age. :)

BlueSmurf is organising a group buy of 2-pack paintjobs for cases in the forums.

The ArsMasters have checked out Microsoft .NET.. good or evil?

Jaw174 spotted some lighted fan mods here and here which look pretty cool, also a hamster cage PC.

Mothug sent in some interesting tidbits about future AMD CPU's including the mention of a metal heat-spreader being standard on the Hammer chips. There's some pics of these new chips here on VR-Zone.

Pike found this thread wondering if thermal paste is really needed.

AcesHW have a SocketA Shootout, nForce vs KT266A, thanks statix.

F1DarkFlash says that this page has some cool Flash stuff on it, but it's huge and I'm on dialup and in a rush so I have noooo idea what it does.

TweakTown have an article titled IBM GXP Problems: The Truth Exposed and Possible Fixes.. certainly been a lot of controversy about those hard drives over the last year.

EETimes are reporting widespread problems with DDR333, thanks Mike.

Ungrateful Ninja sent in this article about nasty popup and tracking software that you may not even realise is installed.

Apparently TomsHardware are saying that a 128MB GF3Ti has little to no advantage over a 64MB one.. details here, thanks Sphinx.

klif-e spotted the world's smallest webserver.. very cool.

Wokket sent in fun things to do with your microwave. He wanted to make it clear he's not responsible if you blow up your microwave or house or cat or whatever. That goes double for me. :)

This PCDB entry is a converted and modded 386 case.. I'm sure I had a couple of those here years ago, looks like the old AST cases.

New Oz site Tweakers have been going crazy, popping out reviews of the Globalwin iStorm HDD cooler, Globalwin TAK68 socket cooler and Thermaltake Crystal Orb chipset cooler.

Reviews:
Soyo P4S Dragon Ultra SIS645-based P4 DDR motherboard on VIAHW.
Crucial 64MB CompactFlash card on ViperLair.
AthlonXP Unlocking Kit on ThinkTechie.
Radeon 8500DV video card on IANAG.
Logitech Z-560 4.1 speakers on TheTechZone.
Swiftech MCXC370 socket cooler on SubZeroTech.
Intel 2.2GHz Pentium 4 Northwood CPU on Bench-House.
PIONEER DVR-103 DVDRW on DVDWriters.co.uk, thanks Firemoth.
Lian Li PC-86 USB case on ClubOC.
Sound Blaster Audigy sound card on Tecnation, thanks Embattle.
LuckyStar P4SAD SIS645-based P4 motherboard on PCHardware.
Abit BD7-RAID i845D-based P4 motherboard on Hardware-Test.
Nanotherm thermal paste on OCdCafe.
Tin coated copper ramsinks on OCIA.
Swiftech MCX462 socket cooler video review on 3DGameman.
Innovatek Watercooling Kit on Tobitech.
Swiftech MCXC370 socket cooler on Tobitech.
Logitech Z560 speakers on TemplinTech.
Aphanix C47 Mini-server case on IPKonfig.
Logitech Dual Optical Mouse on Elite-Hardware.
GlobalWin CAKII-38 socket cooler on MikhailTech.
Prolink GeForce4 MX440 video card on TweakTown.
Dr Thermal socket cooler on SLCentral.



Thursday Evening (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 14-February-2002  18:45:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg

SLCentral have an editorial about RAID Craziness. We had a recent article about ATA100 vs ATA133 in a RAID0 Shootout and a little while ago looked at a Storage Area Network that takes RAID to a whole new level.

Matt noticed that Popular Mechanics magazine is now 100 years old.

From Creative: There are a HEAP of new nvidia drivers for download in the past week or so and they can be downloaded from here.

Retail AMD CPU's will apparently have new packaging soon, thanks Scott.

More flashy light things on DansData.

Matt spotted that the PCDB passed 1 million database views today.. not far away from 3000 entries, too. Check out the latest entries with pictures here.

On the bizarre front: A kidnapped dog sends holiday photos from Mike, Growl Karaoke from Speewa, a soccer juggling flash game and filtered undies from Wokket. Becoming famous for your fossilised vomit, lack of sunlight causing schitzophrenia in your kids and grow your own baby in an artificial womb, sounds like a perfect summer project, from Gaz. Finally, Shockwave Bowling from Sabrtooth.

Reviews:
Thermalright AX-7 socket cooler from AMDMB.
Crystal Orb chipset cooler on OCIA.
Shuttle AK35GTR KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on HotHardware.
AOpen AX4D P4 DDR motherboard on Processor-Emporium.
Senfu Tech Station on TechedOut. It was called "DIY House" back when we reviewed it.
Tyan Tiger MPX dual SocketA motherboard on OCNZ.
IWill XP333-R DDR SocketA motherboard on ClubOC.
PleXWriter PX-W4012A 40x12x40 IDE CDRW on CDRInfo.
ColorCases Eclipse S case on LittleWhiteDog.
Shuttle AV45GTR P4X266A-based P4 DDR motherboard on PCStats.
Senfu Watercooling Kit on PureOC, our review of their earlier kit here.



3DMark2001 Second Edition! (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 14-February-2002  18:06:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg

A heap of people (Creative first, I think) pointed out that 3DMark2001 SE has been released. This is apparently a new version with new graphics.

Support for Microsoft DirectX®8.1. A new DirectX8.1 feature test showing Vertex Shaders & Pixel Shaders 1.4. Fully tested and supported under Windows® XP. Featuring 3 game tests plus a 4th game test using DirectX®8.0 hardware accelerated features. Directx8.0 feature tests showing Vertex Shaders, Pixel Shaders 1.1 and Point Sprites. DOT3 and Environment Mapped Bump Mapping tests. Support for Full Scene Anti-aliasing and Texture Compression. Optimizations for the latest Intel® and AMD® processors. Two game tests use Ipion real-time physics An awesome demo which features an original soundtrack and is guaranteed to push your system to its outermost limits.

The official mirrors are listed here but I had a lot of trouble finding one that worked. When I eventually did (in Brasil no less but the file is in English) I made a mirror here so you guys don't have to go digging. Should be faster than any international mirrors for you, too. It's 42MB so dialup people (like me) beware!

OCAU 3DMark2001 SE Mirror


If you can't wait for it to download, OCPrices and Tweakers have articles about it.

Garry had a problem with it saying he needed MMX (on an Athlon CPU, which obviously does have MMX), but found a solution: The problem seems to be solved on A7M266 motherboards with a simple BIOS upgrade, you need at least 1005A BIOS to run 3DMARK2001 SE! People that are using an XP processor will already have this BIOS version so they won't have the problem. If like me you own an older Tbird Athlon, you need to flash to 1005A but you must also change the S2K slew rate setting in the BIOS to 3. If you don't the PC will crash at any speed over 1GHz.



Thursday Midday (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 14-February-2002  12:24:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Response to the new design seems mostly very positive. :) Let's get some news happening for you guys..

TweakersAsylum have an article about overclocking the P4 1.6a, which seems to be the next big thing for overclocking.

Digital-Explosion gave a watercooling guide posted.

Digit-Life have a big SiS 645 roundup, P4 DDR motherboards.

Neverborn notes that it seems Wireplay or GameArena as they're now known won't be mirroring any new ISO's.. this includes Linux distributions etc. It might just be a misunderstanding, but more info in this thread on Whirlpool.

Apparently One.Tel may be somewhat reborn in the form of TeleOne, thanks McDermott.

Gyrotweak have an article about cordless mouse issues and whether you should be using the ones with tails instead.

Interesting notes here from John Carmack of iD Software talking about high-end video cards, mostly the Radeon 8500, from a programmer's perspective.. thanks Techie68.

TomsHardware have some Dual SocketA action happening, thanks Sniper.

Apparently TI have managed .09 micron fabrication which puts them ahead of some larger players in the race to shrink componentry.

HardDiskInfo have posted a 5-way 40GB IDE roundup.

Win y'self a cool CD organiser thingo on ClubOC.

Reviews:
Fan Hole Molding on CaseJunkiez.
Chieftec Black Dragon fulltower case on 3DVelocity.
Globalwin SAK38 socket cooler on MikhailTech.
Titan TTC-MT3AB socket cooler on FrostyTech.
Lian-Li PC35 mini case on IANAG.
AMD AthlonXP 1800+ socketA CPU on BlueSmoke.
3DCool Hellstorm 3000 case on HardWarePub.
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro on Mgon.
Creative Audigy Platinum eX sound card on PCParadox.
Inno3D Tornado GF4 MX440 video card on EXHardware.



New Look! (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 13-February-2002  22:05:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg

In case you missed it :) we've launched a new site design for OCAU. After nearly 3 years of our cutting-edge retro-1997 homepage look, it's time for something a little more professional. Many, many thanks to Darkness and Panadol who handled the graphics, layout and back-end trickery of the new design.

It's more than just a pretty face though, it's now database driven which makes it a lot easier to update and maintain. There's even a working search engine in the news archive now. :)

For the moment the old articles and reviews haven't been converted, but they're next on the list.

Comments, problems, feedback.. in this thread please!



Quantispeed Calculator (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 13-February-2002  18:36:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Avidin has sent in a program useful to owners of AMD CPU's. As you're probably aware, AMD have started labelling their CPU's with a "Performance Rating" rather than the actual clock speed. This calculator converts between the Quantispeed rating and actual MHz - and vice versa.


Click for the full article!



Tuesday Night (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 13-February-2002  01:36:34 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

PHEW! BIG news box tonight! Way to go guys.....

Apparently we linked to this site a while ago. A guy set it up to collect hits and prove to his GF that he loves her. So far, he has over 11 million hits...Far out.

Hehe. Got sent this link by HyDrA. Sit there and watch it with the lights off and the sound turned WAY up :)

Lucas Arts "StarFighter" has now finally been ported over to the PC. Is it a solid arcade shooter? Find out here.

The dream of teleporting atoms and molecules - and maybe even larger objects - has become a real possibility for the first time. The advance is thanks to physicists who have suggested a method that in theory could be used to "entangle" absolutely any kind of particle. Thanks Anthrox.

BT Group PLC will appear in a New York federal court on Monday to try to enforce a patent it says covers all hyperlinking. BT claims it invented the hyperlink in 1976, and anyone who uses the World Wide Web owes them money. Thanks again, Anthrox. Bah! Now I owe them money :(

Miniature devices that mimic the motion of a Chinese fan could be used to prevent computer chips overheating, say engineers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

A new type of low-power battery that does not require a case and is thin enough to be printed on paper will soon be making its debut in shops. The last two courtesy of Anthrox again.

mIRC version 6.01 has been released, with a few bug fixes and what-nots.

Restoring a computer to its original state has often involved reformatting the harddrive and reinstalling program after program. Software "cloning" and backups have for a long time been one of the best aids during such operations,
but now it's getting rivaled by hardware solutions like the "PC Guardian".

Also from Scott, it would appear that Elsa are in a bit of deep cah-cah. Oh no....

Jaren Havell from the US says these pictures, here and here are of a mouse mod he has underway, using optical fibre to light parts of a Microsoft mouse. Most likely would look better in the dark.

That's it from me tonight .... Time for nigh nigh's :)

Reviews:
Asus P4S333 review from the guys at DDRZone.
GlobalWin Tak58 heatsink review over on BurnoutPC.
Thermaltake Crystal Orb review on EXHardware.
Hercules MuseXL review from the gang at Guru3D.
Thermaltake Volcano 7+ HSF review from Tweakers Australia.
EagleTec combo-card-reader reviewed on DansData.
Arctic SIlver 3 Thermal Paste review over on Overclock Intelligence Agency.
Globalwin YCC8870 Aluminium Case review from GideonTech.
KSM-GOLD Case review at ThinkTechie.
Xoxide's Pre modded enlight breeze review from BurnoutPC.



Monday Night News (Such as it is) (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 11-February-2002  21:09:22 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

Wow! Bugger all messages in the mail box. Either Agg has been a busy lad, or you guys have slacked off and not sent anything in :) Either way, send all your news to news@overclockers.com.au (you'll find a link on the left hand side of this screen) and we'll see that it gets the recognition it so rightly deserves ... Or at least, we'll post it :)

Anyway, first up tonight is a few links from our resident madcap, Wokket. Here is the equation for the perfect pancake and for those that have had a bad day, visit "Die Screaming With Sharp Things In Your Head", a collection of modded gnomes :)

Almost as absurd as the idea of Intel backing out of their IA-64 development in favor of x86-64 is the unfortunate perception that the world’s largest desktop microprocessor manufacturer is not driven by engineering but rather by marketing. Hmmm. Read the full story on AnandTech.

Reviews:
Totally clear ATX case from the crew at TheTechzone.



Monday Evening (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 11-February-2002  19:47:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Anthrox notes that the ACCC is protecting the rights of Playstation owners. The ACCC fears that if Sony are successful in the court action, consumers stand to lose money on games purchased overseas at significantly cheaper prices by being denied the right to use them in Australia. This is interesting because it's part of the ACCC's stance against Region Playback Control as seen in DVD's etc. RPC aims to prevent Australian users from purchasing DVD's overseas. The ACCC believes that overseas markets give Australian consumers access to a wider range of competitively priced film titles, with special features not otherwise available in Australia.

The latest rumour over at TheInquirer is that one of Gigabyte's co-founders is forming a new company specialising in video cards and motherboards, thanks Scott.

Here's a happy eBay user, who discovered the broken Voodoo5 6000 he picked up cheap was fixable.

RadiativeNZ have a guide to choosing a monitor.

VR-Zone have been quick with a GeForce4 to Quadro4 mod.

HotHardware have updated their GeForce4 review with more benchmarks and overclocking info.

Sciencewhiz noticed that our forums passed the 250,000 post mark today.

Finally, there's a new issue of ZZZ Online, full of oddball techie stuff as usual.

Reviews:
GlobalWin CAKII-38 socket cooler on BurnOutPC.
Dr Thermal socket cooler on TweakersAsylum.
256MB Crucial PC2100 on SubZeroTech.
ABIT Active 5.1 SP-60 speakers on Digit-Life.
Thermaltake Volcano 7 socket cooler on OCTools.
Intel Pentium 4 1.5 GHz CPU on PCStats.
Chauh Choung DTA-478 heatsink on FrostyTech.
Tyan Tiger MPX dual SocketA DDR motherboard on AMDMB.
Gigabyte GA-8IRXP DDR P4 motherboard on TweakTown.
VIA Eden platform on VIAHW.



Updates.. (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 11-February-2002  02:18:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg

I updated our Archive with some recent content:

Case-Cutting on the cheap - making blowholes with common tools.
Lian-Li Window Upgrade Kit pre-modded side panel review.
Apple Cooling Techniques including pics of the dual 1GHz G4 and GF4 video.
NewMotion USB HDD enclosure review for portable storage.
RAID0 Shootout with ATA-100 and ATA-133 HDD's.
Dosfix version 3 was released, providing Real Mode DOS support for WinME.

We also recently launched the OCAU Forum Monitor, a handy thing that sits in your toolbar and shows you the latest forum threads. To install it:

Firstly, visit the help page to see what you can configure in it before installing.

Then to install follow the following:
Right-Click your taskbar and go Toolbars -> Add Toolbar.
Then, in the text box enter the url that you have from the help page.


Don't forget we have a new Team OCAU Folding@Home Page maintained by Bollocks who's doing a great job - I've made our Folding link on the main menu at left point to that page now. Note that, while we're still #1 in the world, our position is very much under threat and will be lost soon if we don't ramp up production. So if you've been thinking about joining, now's the time!



Sunday Night (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 11-February-2002  01:03:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Not had enough GeForce4 news yet? Have some more from nVidia, nV Max, nV News and Bjorn3D.

Electronics giant Philips seems to be the only corporation fighting to allow people to copy CD's.

Sigma have a new REALmagic card which supports MPEG 4, thanks Scott. Our review of their Hollywood Plus DVD decoder card, which must be a couple of years old now, still draws a fair bit of traffic to the site.

Apparently Microsoft have been making recommendations to the Australian Government about IT industry policy, thanks Troy. The wide-ranging blueprint, released to the media at the same time as it was shown to the Government, caught Communications Minister Richard Alston by surprise and earned the company a rebuke.

LivePC have a video article about running Glow Wire from your PSU.

NeoSeeker have a roundup of 17 and 19 inch monitors.

Fellow Aussie site TechWatch have posted a thermal paste comparison.

Must be thermal paste day, 'coz Gyrotweak have put 9 thermal pastes to the test too.

Interesting vertical HDD's mod in Mikkaz's PCDB entry.

Draebor notes that NVMax, a popular video card tweaking program, has been updated again.

Apparently in Stockholm, people are running around like a real-life FPS, winning points by shooting each other with their mobile phones.

Sun Microsystems have announced broad support for Linux.

BlargOC have reviewed Gainward's "Golden Sample" GF3 Ti500 video card. We reviewed the non-Ti GF3 version here a few months ago and were very impressed.

x-bit have their monthly hardware digest for February 2002 posted, which is clever given we're not even halfway through the month yet.. ?

Xoverclocker have a Northwood P4 voltage mod translated from a Japanese site that lets you raise the vcore to a toasty 1.85v on boards that don't otherwise support voltage changing.

PCPowerZone have been making their own memory cooler, thanks Iroquois.

Seems the future of Kyro video chipsets may be grim, with ST Microelectronics deciding the PC graphics business is not where they want to be anymore. The technology is for sale, be interesting to see who picks it up, thanks Andrew.

ZeonX says he found Detonator 27.42 Beta drivers on an Italian site. I've lost track of which are the latest betas but if you've just gotta be on the bleeding edge and haven't tried those, there you go. If your PC (or head, or house, or cat) explodes, don't say I didn't warn you.

Reviews:
Everglide Bungee Crystal Pro err.. mousing surface apparently, on TweakTown.
Blizzard Z4 Watercooling Kit on IPKonfig.
Thermaltake Volcano 7 socket cooler on MikhailTech.
Silver Rounded Cables on ClubOC.
Server Tualatin CPU on Digit-Life.
Thermaltake Volcano 7+ socket cooler on ExtremeOC.
Magic-I Databank keyring storage on IceHardware.



Saturday Night (0 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 10-February-2002  01:11:08 (GMT +10) - by Agg

I'm selling one of my motorcycles, a Yamaha YZF-R6. More details in this forum thread or, if you're not a forum member, the text file in this directory.

If a new or used car is more what you had in mind, check out one of our new sponsors, AutoWeb.com.au.

In the meantime, have a few reviews..

Reviews:
DGTEC DH-2000A HDTV set-top box on DansData.
Taisol 50CFM Socket Cooler on ThinkTechie.
Vinyl Image casemod kit on ExtremeOC.
KingMax DDR333 on TweakTown.
Arctic Silver 3 thermal paste on ClubOC.
Thermaltake Volcano 7+ socket cooler on OCrCafe.
Window with fans kit on SLCentral.
Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers on EXHardware.
Z4 watercooling kit on Heatseekerz.
AthlonXP Adonised Shim on Mikhailtech.
Chieftec DA01BD server tower on DWPG.
Pentium4 Northwood CPU on Accelenation.
GlobalWin CAKII-38 socket cooler on OCIA.
MSI GF3 Ti500 Pro-VTG video card on AMDMB.
MSI GF3 Ti200 video card on Tech-Planet.
Abit KR7A-RAID socketA DDR motherboard on OCdCafe, our review here.
Arkua 7528 socket coolers on OCPlus.
IBM 120GXP 80GB IDE HDD on xbit.
Zalman CNPS6000Cu socket cooler on TweakTown.
Compucase 9106 case on VyW.
Asaka Rounded Cables on Tweakers.
BAFO 7-port hub on ClubOC.
Everglide Giganta mousepads on SubZeroTech, our review here.
Lian-Li PC35 case on OCOnline.
Epox 8KHA+ socketA DDR motherboard on Icrontic.
Corsair XMS2400 DDR SDRAM on HWExtreme.



Friday Night (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 8-February-2002  23:07:02 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

Well. It's my birthday, I am sober, I started a new job today and I am doing news ...... Talk about no rest for the wicked :)

Free Radio Linux is an audio distribution of the Linux Kernel, the basis for all versions of Linux operating systems. Each line of code will be read by the computerised automated
voice - a speech.bot built by ra d i o q u a l i a. The speech.bot's output will then be encoded into an Open Source audio stream (using the codec, Ogg Vorbis), and sent out live on the internet.

Hmmm. Apparently there is a fake notice of recall for the ABIT BD7-RAID spreading on the net. Here it is :

"Dear valued customer, we were recently notified of your purchase of an Abit
BD-7 RAID motherboard. Unfortunately the Abit BD-7 RAID motherboard in under
recall for an abnormal rate of inflammability. Please DO NOT connect to the
Abit BD-7 RAID to a power source of any kind as injury and or death may
result."

"Please contact the vendor from which you purchased the Abit BD-7 RAID
motherboard and obtain an RMA number to return this item."

"Have a nice day."

"Steven Tyler
RecallSspecialist


Obviously, if you receive this message, ignore it. :)

Robert sends us a link that contains fairly indepth and quite amusing stuff, about the teletubbies and their communist links. :)

Just in case you didn't know already, Day of Defeat Beta 2.0 has been released and is available for download. Cheers Shad0w.

HotHardware have slapped up a few candid photos from the NV GF4 Launch Event hosted on Tuesday in San Francisco at the Palace of the Fine Arts. nVidia sure knows how to put on a show. Check it out.

GideonTech has updated their Visitor Projects section. They're up to 200+ entries of cases from visitors alone. I'm sure you'll find something you've never seen before.

That's about it from me tonight. Excuse while I go curl up with a beer and watch some TV :)

Reviews:
Aluminum AL4377D-SL SkyHawk case review from OverclockersClub.
Corsair Cobra 300GT Gaming System review over at ViaHardware.
Samsung 52x Max CD-ROM at IAMNotAGeek.
ASUS A7N266-E nForce 420-D Chipset review from the gang at GotApex?
Cordless Freedom Optical Keyboard and Mouse review over on the TechZone.
ATI RADEON 7500 review at X-bit labs.
Below Zero 'Jaguar' SocketA HSF review at Tech-Planet.
AMD Athlon XP 1900+ review from the guys at PlanetSavage.
Intel Northwood 2.2GHz review at HardwareMania.
Taisol 50CFM Cpu cooler review from ThinkTechie.



Thursday Night (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 7-February-2002  21:23:31 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

First day at the new job tomorrow, so a short news post then off to bed for me. :)

Kharn83 sends word that a new version of "Optuse5" is out. Get it here. According to Sticks, it's a stats counter that lets you keep tabs on your netstats and calculates it to the amount you've actually downloaded so as to give you an idea of how much you can leech. It's a zip file from someone's webspace, so make sure you virus scan it first etc.

There's a beta test for some MMORPG going on atm called El Kardian. It's an anime based MMORPG for those interested, about 70mb worth to download and the server is based in singapore so a cable connection is probably reccomended. Everything
is in english as well so theres no worry about not understanding something going on on the server! Thanks akura.

The Mirror (that's his name, honest) tells us that AMD are to sponsor a Ferrari f1 team, and that Mr PotatoHead has turned 50. (But he doesn't drive an F1) :)

In case you don't already know of this, it's pretty neat. It's Star Wars in ASCII. Thanks edj.

Scott sends this link that proves maybe there is a time, when case modding goes too far. :)

Robert tells us that the new 27.30 beta detonators are available for download, right here off MediaXplosion.

If you haven't had your fill of GeForce4 news, here's some more. GameSpot has GeForce4 Ti and MX coverage : Details, Tests, and Videos.

Dan at Livepc.tv has finished yet another excellent video "howto". This time, he shows you how to build a light which pulses to music.

VoidYourWarranty just got their hands on a 1.6 GHz. Northwood, and so far have been able to get 2.24 GHz. out of it with stock cooling (not even fully pushing it). There's a lot of speculation on how far these bad
boys can go, and even with stock cooling it looks like you can get an impressive overclock. Read the whole deal here.

Reviews:
Lian Li PC61 USB case review on tekSector.
Samsung 171S LCD TFT review from RatedPC.
Turtle Beach Sonic Link review over at MrPCPro.
AVGS Cybercool Case review by JSIHardware.
Super Micro 400Watt PSU review from the gang at OverclockersNZ.
Akasa Silver Mountain2 HSF review on IPKonfig.
Shuttle AK31 V3.1 review available on OCAddiction.
Abit BD7-RAID Motherboard in video review on 3DGameman.
MultiPlayCity DIY Case Badge review from the guys at ViperLair.
DFI NB70-SC Motherboard review from TweakTown.



RAID0 Shootout with ATA-100 and ATA-133 (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 7-February-2002  02:42:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Today on OCAU we have.. a GeForce4 review! Heh, only kidding, I'm sure you've read enough of those already. :) No, we have something entirely different, a look at a few RAID controllers in the popular RAID 0 configuration. Chainbolt focusses on the new HPT 374 controller which allows up to 8 drives using the new ATA-133 standard. He takes an in-depth look at performance differences between some ATA-133 and ATA-100 drives, how much difference RAID 0 really makes and a few other things..


Click for the full article!



Thursday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 7-February-2002  02:31:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg

As expected, the GeForce4 reviews are starting to pop up.. here's a few links to info, they could be reviews, previews or just press-releases, no time to check them all: Tech-Report, HotHardware, TomsHardware, GamingIn3D, Digit-Life (thanks Deadman Inc), HardOCP (thanks Grill), PCPop (chinese), Tbreak, 3DCenter.org (german, thanks Acid), Chip.de (german), AnandTech, Guru3D. It's very busy in our nVidia Hardware Forum at the moment. :)

A tip from Mikkel about restoring from a corrupted registry in Win98: If you get a corrupt registry, simply restart in command mode, (press F8 at startup, choose "command prompt only") and run scanreg.exe, this will then allow you to restore from one of the last five successful registries!

My Dad spotted this cool Am I Right? site which has lots of mis-heard lyrics from songs.. pretty funny. Also has real lyrics and song parodies and stuff.

Some sort of interesting cooling experiment going on in Stoodoo's PC. That looks like.. err.. a bucket of iced water with the video card heatsink stuck in it!

Sabrtooth spotted this review of Asus's A7V333 which seems to be the first KT333 motherboard review out..? It's a german site, but in english.. kinda.

Gyrotweak have a 9-way microfin copper heatsink shootout posted.

Boky spotted AmigaOS for the PC.. cool.

Finally, a pic from Sciby, who bought some RAM on behalf of Central Qld Uni. 401 sticks of 256mb PC133 Corsair RAM. Yummy.


Click to enlarge!

Reviews:
Shuttle AV45GT/R P4 DDR motherboard on HardCoreWare.
Prolink GF3 Ti200 video card on MikhailTech.



Wednesday Night (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 7-February-2002  00:53:32 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

Morjo sent in this link showing that Australia is not the only 1st World country having probs getting affordable Broadband. Ireland is in a much worse position than us. They have one ADSL company which monopolises the Market like what Telstra does but worse. www.eircom.com has 3gig plans like what Telstra offer, but they cost around $200AUD per month!

Extreme Overclocking have posted up a "how-to" for wiring in a switch to the fan on the Thermaltake Volcano 7.

Via has decided to formally launch its KT-333A chipset now at the big memory meeting it's holding on the 20th February, with the KT-333 becoming just a figment of our imagination. Thanks Adam.

Igor sent in this waterblock roundup he spotted in the ProCooling Forums. Our own Extreme Cooling forum in of course, here.

Having a hard time seeing your keyboard in the dark? Well Heatseekerz comes to the rescue. They have a new article on how to light up your keyboard using LEDs.

ZZZ's 115th issue is up, for your reading pleasure.

VoidYourWarranty.net have updated their site again, this time with an article showing you how to make those ugly beige drives look sweet in new aluminum cases.

From Scott, more on the G4 duel 1GHz. "This is a great write up.. And it still shows that the Mac's are Faster than most PC's"

Over the years, there have been more than a few misconceptions about Macs. Let¹s take a look at some of the most popular ones. Taa again, Scott.

Marketing and sales people at ATI are likely to be reaching for their bottles of Prozac this week as major rival Nvidia prepares a massive attack to pull-through its customer base.

nVidia are talking about turning on anti-aliasing, (now known as Accuview Technology) now replacing HRAA (High-res anti-aliasing) and leaving it on for good. That's right, anti-aliasing with no performance drops. Furthurmore, nVIDIA is now supporting LCDs and dual monitors on all
their video card solutions as well as not one, but 2 programmable vertex shaders. Besides mentioning that the memory speed was also cranked up [obviously], can you say yum? Read all about it here.

And finally tonight, some rather radical pictures from one of our "Extreme Cooling Club" members, Stoodoo.

Reviews:
Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse review from PsychoHardware.
Acorp 4PX266A motherboard review from the guys at Accelenation.
Blizzard 540 Case review from the team at OverclockedCafe.
Kingwin Hard drive Mobile Rack review over at OverclockersClub.
Magic Fleece Noise Killer in video review at 3DGameman.
Tt Crystal Orb review from ClubOC.
ASUS A7V266-E Socket A motherboard review over on TweakersAustralia.
Everglide Gaming Mat review from the crew at SLCentral.
Gigabyte 8IRXP P4 Titan review from VR-Zone.



Wednesday Midday (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 6-February-2002  12:07:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Happy Birthday to Tim "Daemon" Butler from Techwatch!

OCAU was pretty busy yesterday, those pics of the dual 1GHz G4 and GF4 are attracting some interest. Quite a good article/review coming up for you a little later today, too..

Rackful of CPU grunt for you, Sir? Certainly.. we have the cool-running 280-server VIA C3 option, or the rather toastier 264-CPU AthlonMP option.

Our Genome Team have stepped up from position 20 to 19, way to go guys, thanks Turbo.

Western Digital have announced a 120GB HDD with an 8MB cache and HardWareZone have the press-release.

CDRInfo have a 5-way 32x CDRW Drive roundup posted.

Reviews:
Enermax FS-710BB server case on MikhailTech.
Multifunction Transfer Panel on OCClub.
Gainward Ti450 GS GF3 Ti200-based video card on BurnOutPC.
Arctic Silver 3 thermal compound on EXHardware.
Cable Clamp on FutureLooks.
Arctic Silver 3 thermal compound on Tech-Planet.
Iwill XP333-R SocketA DDR motherboard on SLCentral.
Enermax EG465P-VE(FCA) PSU on Icrontic.
Gigabyte GA-7DXR+ AMD761-based SocketA DDR with ATA133 RAID on PCHW.



MSI 8861 (GF4 MX440) (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 6-February-2002  11:06:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg

From Chay: I've received in to our lab today a MS8861. This is the MSI version of the Geforce4 MX440. It is dubbed the NV-17. Attached are two pics of the card. It is a 64MB With bios version 4.17.0024. The included driver version is 2.7.2.0. I won't have a chance to grab detonators just yet. I won't be able to set this up to run it through a test until either later this week or next week.

 

Nothing too exciting to look at sadly - looks like every other video card out there at the moment. The extra power connector is a nice nod to the "rip the default cooler off" crowd, though.

Of course, today marks the official launch of the GF4 chipset. No doubt as midnight rolls around to the USA we'll see a flurry of reviews from them and we'll keep you posted, but in the meantime there's some nontechnical blurb on ZDnet, thanks HaRm.



Tuesday Night (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 5-February-2002  23:47:43 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

This month, BlueSmoke are taking a closer look at some serious copyright problems taking place right under our noses, the tense race between gaming and technology, and the invasion of the new and promising game developers emerging from the heart of Russia.

It would appear that Gigabyte have announced the world's first, KT333 Motherboard. OCWorkbench have all the juicy details on it.

Here is a logo making competition in which you can win a free water-cooling rig! Break out your favourite graphics program, and head on over.

MADMAX has sent info of a game called Urban Mercenary. Made with the Quake1 engine, its a free download, and when you play online, you play for real money.......the prize money is split between the winners. 66 meg download. :)

Digit-Life have a 'Pentium 4 and Athlon XP: Thermal Conditions' article up for your reading pleasure.

Hmmm. I'll bet this guy wishes he had of received ice skates for Christmas, instead of a car. :) Thanks Zoltrix.

Interested in clothing that lets every other geek know, that you are a geek yourself? Visit the OverclockersClub online store if that's your thang. (Of course, you should have bought an OCAU t-shirt while you had the chance)

TheInq have an article up, claiming that Intel are going to demo a fanless, 5GHz chip! .. /me starts a savings account now.

GyroTweak just finished their latest article. This time they compare the performance of DDR200, DDR266, DDR300, and DDR333.

Want a laugh? Check out the "Preppy Hot Stuntaz" from Icrontic. Funny stuff....

New York Times have news of an Intel 10GHz CPU, but unfortunately you have to sign up to read it, and sadly, I just don't have the time at the moment.

Cruro02 sends us a link to pictures of the Koolance case (PC2-601), looking remarkably like an Enermax 710.

Tweakers Asylum have just updated their Windows 2K Detonator Driver Database with all of the 20.xx/21.xx/22.xx/23.xx Detonators. This brings the total number of drivers featured to over 25.

Reaper sends us this story that claims Window's is more secure than Linux.

Reviews:
Laserbay review on CaseJunkies.
Speeze HSF units in a round up/shootout over on GideonTech.
ATI Radeon 8500 128MB Video Card presentation in video format on 3DGameman.
Vulcan Gas Soldering Irons in review from DansData.
FrozenCPU's Dual Switched baybus from the gang at BurnoutPC.
Soyo Dragon Plus! motherboard review over on OCPrices.
Thrustmaster Dual Power Force Feedback gamepad reviewed on MGON.
Creative GeForce3 Titanium 200 review from the crew at Noticias3d.



Monday Night/Tuesday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 5-February-2002  00:36:52 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

Well, after leaving QGL and having a really good, long sleep, I now feel fit enough to do some news :)

If you want to know just where we are up to in A.I development for games, have a look here.

Here is a serious water cooling rig, named "The Ugly Box". Looks neat, although luggin it all to a lan could pose a problem.

Remember the "Dumbarse Database" we linked to a while ago? Well, it's now been updated and improved, with more dumbarses than you poke a stick at.

Scott sends word that some XP users running a restricted user account with fast user switching, may experience games not working correctly. A fix for that is here.

Also from Scott, is this link for some of the cool eye candy associated with nVidia graphics cards. Have a look-see.

Here's a page where you can perform "rice" mods on your beloved PC. I want my CDROM to go "PSSSSSHHHTT" when I open the tray :)

A neat little game that is entirely pencil drawn.

James Brown sent in this cool cricket game. My record is facing 22 balls for a total of 28 runs. :(

Bit-Tech have an article up offering a fix to the cold boot problem associated with a few boards out there.

A new Nvmax is out bringing it up to version 4.00.31, which includes support for nVidia's 'Accuview' antialiasing. Taa Draebor.

Krim tells us that Britain's largest Telco, BT (British Telecom) will halve the cost for its broadband service from its current price of $AUD84 to just $42. Hope Ziggy is reading this......

VR-Zone have posted a screenshot taken from the Mad Onion ORB (Online Result Browser) showing a Ti4600 performing under the 3DMark2001 benchmarks. 11565 3D Marks sounds good to me :)

Hardware Extreme have scoured the web looking for the coolest and newest gadgets available. And it appears they have found quite a few.

Pics and information on the Intel McKinley from ... OH LOOK...It's from me :)

Dan's Data have road tested some thermally controlled fans to see how much power they draw with the sensor cold and with the sensor hot, and just how cold and hot the sensor has to be for minimum and maximum grunt.

~Syntech sent in this site called legodeath.com but I couldn't get it to load ... Grrrr@dialup :(

PC-Extreme.co.uk have just put up an article explaining how to mod the LEDs on your keyboard and exchange them with different LEDs of a different colour.

XG8 tells us that Wireplay.com.au will be soon known as "Games Arena", Telstra's new gaming service. Wonder if the free usage will still apply.......More info here.

For everyone that doesn't know, mIRC 6.00 is out. Looks very "XP-ish". Thanks Xizor.

LWD have just posted a follow-up article to their guide on How to change the Windows 2000 Boot Logo. They also have stacks of boot logo's to choose from.

overlOad has sent in this funny Star Wars Gangsta Rap link. If you are on dialup like me, it takes a while to load, but it's worth the wait.

Couple of links from the same person. Firstly, a voltage mod for northwood p4's, a UK firm that has apparently been hacked out of business and is clustering powermacs easier than pc's?

Reviews:
Global Win Cak2-38 VS Cooler Master Heat Pipe available here on OC Plus.
Dynatron DC1206BM-0638 & DY1206BH-625 review at 8BallsHardware.
Silverprop Cyclone 2 (waterblock) & Silverstorm 2 (radiator) review over on MikhailTech.
IBM 120GXP Deskstar Series Hard Drive Review on BlargOC.
Abit Siluro GF3 Ti200 review from 3DVelocity.
Super Duper Slot Fan review on ThinkTechie.
Actiontec USB 802.11b Wireless Adapter on The Overclocker Cafe.
Chauh-Choung DTA-15 Heatsink review from the crew at FrostyTech.
Philips 150P2M LCD Monitor review at The Tech Zone.
Future Power 400w PSU review from the gang at OCAddiction.



Monday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 4-February-2002  17:54:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg

There was a bit of OCAU socialising going on this weekend.. a BBQ in Canberra, more pics here.. and another one in Melbourne. Here's a cool pic from the Canberra one:


Canberra BBQ action :)

Bit-Tech have a guide to planning your perspex case. The trick is to remember to leave room for the drives, I think.

Jaani spotted some interesting old electronics ads.

MWP noticed a new LCD display which can monitor up to 32 thermal sensors and 4 fans as well as displaying the usual messages. Sounds like a cross between the DigiDoc and a normal LCD (but serial).

Tweakers have an article about overclocking the AMD AthlonXP 1600+.

Makaveli found an article about teaming ethernet adapters together in order to speed up your cable internet. I imagine this is only useful for "uncapped" cable, of course.

VIAHW have an 11-way KT266A roundup.. socketA DDR motherboards.

plasticsurgeon and Mikeling have a couple of nicely tricked-out boxes in the PCDB.

Reviews:
MSI K7D Master dual SocketA DDR motherboard on Bench-House.
Everglide Mousepad 4-page review on Tweaktown.
Enlight EN-7237OX3C4 midtower case on ExtremeOC.
Gigabyte GA-7VTXH socketA ddr motherboard on ViperLair.
Altec Lansing 4100 speakers on TemplinTech.
Directron SF-201-B black aluminium case on AtlantaOC.
Case Window and Neon Light kit on BlargOC.



Apple Cooling (updated!) (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 4-February-2002  13:04:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg

I've updated our Apple cooling article from a few days ago with some new pics from Scott. Page 2 now has pics of the cooling used on the Dual 1GHz G4 PowerMac and a couple of pics of the GF4 video in that machine, too.


Click here for the new page!



Sunday Midday (0 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 3-February-2002  11:51:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg

VansHardware have some info on AMD's new Thoroughbred chips. Also some interesting cooling stuff down the bottom of that article.

Seems there's still confusion over Australian net censorship laws.

Sticks warns of a very suspicious email that claims to be from ICQ and asks you to enter your username and password.

Tech-Report have pictures of the results of some freaky weather. An "ice-storm", kinda like a snowstorm, but leaves a thick, even layer of ice over everything. Check out the BBQ, it's almost surreal.

Morjo notes a briefly-stated petition against Telstra price rises.

Seems AMD and UMC are partnering up to build a chip fab in Singapore, thanks DSH.. info here and here.

Pencils aren't just for unlocking Tbird AMD chips.. apparently there's a voltage mod for the Radeon8500 that simply requires the use of a pencil, too.

Win yourself a Swiftech MCW462-U waterblock by telling a clean joke in the AOAForums.

Huron spotted this Linux for Playstation 2.. official, from Sony and everything.. interesting.

Seen on SlashDot, this lego tape changer robot.

OCClub have a guide to speeding up WinXP by turning off stuff you don't need.

If you're feeling like doing a little bidding, head over to eBay and get yourself a Voodoo5 6000 128MB (4 GPU's) or your very own hardware site..



Sunday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 3-February-2002  02:43:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg

There's apparently a cool dual swivelling LCD thing on that site, but I can't get to it.

Dan has been playing with some wireless goodies. 802.11b can be very secure, but as it's implemented by most people, you might as well be dangling live Ethernet cables out of your office windows with "Please h4XX0r our b0XX0rz" signs attached.

HardCoreWare compared Intel's Pentium 4 2.2 GHz, and AMD's AthlonXP 2000+, top-end CPU's from the big boys. Slautech compared the Western Digital WD400 40GB and the Maxtor D740X-6L, both 7200rpm 40GB IDE drives.

Mike spotted this 40X CD burner from Plextor.. the mind boggles. Good luck finding media that work at 40X! :)

Several people noted that there's a new version of Trillian out, the combination IRC, ICQ, IM etc etc client. I haven't used it myself, but some people swear it's quite the bee's knees.

There seem to be a heap of reviews out there lately..

Reviews:
CoolJAG JAC012C socket cooler on AtlantaOC.
Monitor HO-Fan monitor cooler on AtlantaOC.
Hyundai Imagequest F790D CRT screen on Tweakers.
Microsoft USB Wheelmouse Optical mouse on Tweakers.
AudioTrack MAYA sound card on NeoSeeker.
Shuttle AS40GTR SiS645-based P4 DDR motherboard on VR-Zone.
Antec Reference CPU cooler on Icrontic.
Abit KR7A-RAID KT266A-based SocketA DDR motherboard on AMDMB.. our review here.
CodeGen 350W PSU on MikhailTech.
Cooler Master ATC-500 MicroATX case on Slautech.
Lian-Li PC60 USB case on TechnoYard.
Nanotherm Thermal Compound on TweakTown.
Hellstorm 2000 pre-modded case on GideonTech.
Click and Burn CD software on Icrontic.
VIA P4XB-RA P4X266A-based P4 DDR motherboard on Accelenation.
Corsair Cobra 300GT gaming system on Accelenation.
Tyan Tiger MPX dual Athlon motherboard on Accelenation.
AVC Copper Skived heatsink on HWDaily.



Dosfix v3 (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 2-February-2002  19:29:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg

WindowsME users will be happy to hear that Simon has released a new version of Dosfix. This program hosted by OCAU enables Real Mode DOS support under WindowsME, allowing the use of programs that require it to work properly. These include certain system utilities and games. This third revision of the program is a total rewrite including a new GUI. More info and the download link here.


Lian-Li Case Window (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 2-February-2002  14:02:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Got a Lian-Li case? Want a window, but are afraid to hack into that nice shiny aluminium? Lian-Li feel for you.. they've released a range of pre-modded case sides with windows already in them. Doesn't get much easier than that. Manaz checked out one for the PC-10 midtower:


Click for the review!



Saturday Midday (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 2-February-2002  12:33:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Special greets to everyone enjoying QGL today.

Daemon was the first of many to spot this GeForce4 MX440 review over on Tbreak. Site seems very slow for me, perhaps a slashdotting.. or perhaps the rush of lawyers to their site for (I assume) breaking the NDA which lifts later this month. :)

Bah, you can't trust anyone on the internet lately - even the scams aren't really scams anymore!

Reviews:
Sony Mavica MVC-CD300 digicam on NeoSeeker.
Clear & Shielded Rounded Cables on ExtremeOC.
Inno3D GF3 Ti500 video card on OCPrices.
Soltek SL-75DRV4 KT266A+ATA133 SocketA DDR motherboard on RadiativeNZ.
Battle Chair gaming-oriented ass-parking device on OCClub.
Winfast GF2MX video card on PsychoHardware.
Logitech Mouseman Dual Optical mouse with 2 sensors on GamersDepot.
Swiftech MCX462 socket cooler on MikhailTech.
Asus A7N266 nForce-based socketA DDR motherboard on OCNZ.
VIA VPSD P4XB-RA P4X266A-based P4 DDR motherboard on TweakTown.
Gigabyte GA-7VTXH KT266A-based socketA DDR motherboard on ViperLair.
Iwill DVD266u-RN dual Tualatin motherboard on VIAHW.



Megadrive PC (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 2-February-2002  10:57:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Take a Sega Megadrive casing and the guts from an old notebook and what do you get? "Blackbird", the new project from Saraiva, he of the Antonov II I linked a few days ago. No shots of it powered up unfortunately so it may just be a throw-together but looks like an interesting idea..


Click for the PCDB entry!

Update: TheGibbon found this homepage for the Antonov II and this one for the Blackbird. Functional or just mockups? You decide. :)



Briefcase PC's! (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 2-February-2002  00:25:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Someone asked today for links to suitcase or briefcase PC's, for ideas for their own project. I of course pointed them to our PC DataBase because I remember seeing at least one in there. A quick search revealed 5 and there's probably more..

SilverBack's big wooden box.
Alterops_PDC's silver case.
Burn_Server's black leather briefcase.
Plasmaboy's cool silver case.
[RAG}the_Bitch's camera case with key-start!

A popular project it seems and it's interesting to see how people dealt with the combined problems of shockproofing and airflow. I was surprised how many people have done this.. hmm, I've got an old leather briefcase around here somewhere..



Early Friday Morning (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 1-February-2002  01:35:15 (GMT +10) - by LoneWolf

Overclockers Online has a new CPU cooler roundup for you guys. This time, they take a look at the ZEN CPU Radiator, a bunch of new Zalman heatsinks, the Volcano7 from Thermaltake, the MCXC370 and MCX462 from Swiftech and many others.

Microsoft have released the Windows 2000 Security Rollup Package, January 2002 this morning. Windows 2000 Security Rollup Package 1 (SRP1) includes all of the security updates that have been released since the release of Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Thanks Zoltrix.

OCWorkbench have received a photo of a motherboard, but no explaination of what it is, or even if it exists yet....(Could be another Athlon 3000+ though, so be wary).

Scott sends word that Club Overclockers are still giving away a Digidoc 5. I didn't look, so I can't tell you anything about it.

News from Sphinx, about AMD's and Intel's latest price cuts. Check that out here.

Wanna waste lots of time? Those old enough to remember Lunar Lander can now play this cool flash version to while away many hours while your suppose to be working. Thanks Paul.

Telstra's Internet price hikes have angered the Queensland Government and may have taken it out of the running for a major Internet service contract in northern Queensland. Cheers Sabretooth.

3D Spotlight have a guide that will take you through configuring Windows 9x, Me, 2000 & XP to load as quickly as possible & also have the benefit of loading with more memory available for use.

Digital DJ'ing is made easy by this cool product from APZU Inc. The DM2 (Dynamic Music Mixing Studio) offers a turntable style controls and easy to understand software that will turn you into a super DJ in no time.

HandSpring today announced retail availability of the company's new integrated wireless products, the Treo 180 and 180g, to customers in Singapore. Treo is a compact communicator that combines the functions of a mobile phone and a handheld computer with Web browsing and text messaging. Treo can be purchased for SGD 968.00 (with a two year service plan) at SingTel retail locations and select IT stores. So expect it to hit our shores sometime soon-ish...

Reviews:
Western Digital WD400 40GB vs the Maxtor D740X-6L drive review on Slautech.
Swiftech MCX478 review on ClubOC.
3RSystems NEON Light Case review at Elite-Hardware.
Dr.Thermal TI-V77N HSF review from the guys at TweakTown.
Targus Handcam PDA Digital Camera review over on SLCentral.
IWill's dual Socket370 DVD266u-RN motherboard review at Accelenation.
NeoSeeker have a bunch of reviews...AVC Copper Skived Cooler, Samsung SyncMaster 1200NF Review, and a RCA Kazoo review.
Kingwin KF-21-IPF Mobile HDD Rack review from MikhailTech.
Soltek SL-75DRV4 motherboard review on RadiativeNZ.
VIA C3 CPU review from Unique-Hardware.




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