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July 2002 |
Wednesday Morning
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Wednesday, 31-July-2002 01:15:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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News posts might get a little intermittent over the next few days as I'm out of town.
Sick of receiving AOL CD's? Send them to No More AOL CD's.. who will send them back to AOL.. when they have a million of them.
Dan's been playing with more flashy things and pretending it's work.
VR-Zone has a news post up on how to turn your Dual Thoroughbred into Athlon MP by closing the last bridge of L5. After which, the BIOS and OS is able to detect Dual Athlon MP running.
Firemoth sent in this fishtank game which is pretty cool.
Flight spotted that Crucial, better known for their memory products, are now making Radeon-based video cards. Certainly seems that a lot of companies are jumping on the ATI chipset bandwagon, which can only be good for the currently nVIDIA-dominated market.
FrostyTech want to tell you about some basic heatsink theory.. starting with contact resistance.
Apparently the latest ZZZ Online is a double issue.. lucky us.
Michael has pics and info on his casemod project posted.. pretty cool.
Reviews:
Kiiro Muze MP3 Player on DeviantPC.
Thermalright SLK-800 heatsink (video review) on 3DGameMan.
USB Fan and Light on PC-Arena.
Samsung 19inch LCD screen on TechWareLabs.
MSI KT3 Ultra KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard on OCPlus.
FrozenCPU Blizzard 900 case on TechWareLabs.
MSI 8340 40x12x48 CDRW on PCStats.
CoolerMaster Alloy Mousepad on OCrCafe.
DesignComp DCi CM 42-BL DIY Acrylic Case Kit on MikhailTech.
Folding Giveaway Conclusion
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Tuesday, 30-July-2002 22:42:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The Grand Prize winner is joe_sixpack who won the duron folding box from Computer Alliance. DGROMS.com won the bonus number prize of a Duron 750 CPU donated by Falls.
Congrats to all who took home prizes in the 10 weeks the competition was running. Many thanks to the organisations that sponsored the giveaway:
Computer Alliance
GameDude
Inspect-a-Gadget
Below Zero
Low Noise PC
Cool PC
Adilam
Of course, much kudos must go to Bollocks, our resident Master of Folding, for organising the giveaway. He's made a thread about the conclusion of the competition here. You can't win stuff any more, but you can still help us regain the #1 position and more importantly help work towards a cure for various nasty diseases.. soooo.. get folding!
Tuesday Afternoon
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Tuesday, 30-July-2002 14:34:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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HardOCP have compared two GF4 Ti4200 video cards, from Abit and VisionTek.
HWZ have an article comparing AGP4X and AGP8X.
An interesting thread elsewhere from Evil Dude: Basically, some guy goes out to a bunch of places, like abandoned warehouses, weird tunnels, etc., and takes photos and videos of them. Doesn't sound too good here, I know, but the thread is good reading (all 35 pages of it at this time). The thread is here and it is quite intriguing, it's almost like playing Half-Life in the real world.
TheNakedReview (?) have an article about Vcore & Vmem modding an Iwill P4R533-N mobo.
Neeko says: There's a service called radiotext.ca where you can send various messages over the radio waves through the Radio Data System (RDS) implemented in some broadcasts on some Canadian radio stations. It's free and you can send almost any message (as long as it's appropriate) over the airwaves. No idea why you would want to, but now you can. :)
If tiny PC's is your thing, Mini-ITX.com is probably worth a look.. thanks stewpot.
Lujan spotted this Australian intelligent car. Slightly more high-tech (!) is the Volvo Safety Concept Car, thanks Alex.
From Trevor: hi, just thought i'd let you know the snowy ride is coming up again, this year promises to be even bigger, with a checkpoint on top of mt crackenback + bob sled rides! last year over 1500 riders raised over $130,000 for childrens cancer research, and had a excellent weekend. its on november 16th, but accomodation is always scarce, so it pays to book early!
Apparently an Intel fab was hit by lightning, with some loss of production the result.. $800M worth of chips lost? I don't think so.. thanks Mr Chilled.
CDFreaks have an article about blue lasers in CD technology.
RadiativeNZ have a Sound Card Roundup posted, while NeoSeeker checked out 40X CDRW drives.
Kasar spotted some NV30 sneak preview info.
Reviews:
Chaintech Apogee KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard on VIAHW.
Swiftech MCW462-UT Water Cooling Kit on MikhailTech.
Kingwin KT-436BK Black Aluminum Alloy Case on TweakNews.
Everglide Giganta, Mouse Skates etc on AusPCWorld.
Thermaltake Volcano 7+ on OCPrices.
APC Back-UPS ES 350 UPS on Tweakers.
Western Digital Caviar 1200JB Hard Drive Special Edition on BlargOC.
KoolPCMods Laser-Etched Window on AMDPower.
ABIT SILURO GeForce4 Ti 4200 64MB video card on HWZ.
Shuttle XPC SS51 barebones PC with AGP on Tech-Report.
AKASA Rounded "Glow in the Dark" Cables on ViperLair.
Albatron KX400+ KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard on OCNZ.
Nexland WaveBase Wireless 802.11b Router on AwareMag.
MPIO-DMK Mp3player on DesignTechnica.
Noritake graphic VFD little LCD on Bit-Tech.
ASUS V8420 GeForce 4 Ti DVI 4200 video card on GotApex.
Triplex Xabre Pro Graphics Card on TweakTown.
MSI KT3 Ultra2-BR KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard on Hexus.
This is one of the most well thought-out, best-presented watercooled PC's I've seen in a while. Nothing too revolutionary, but attention to detail has made the finished result excellent.
Click for the PCDB entry!
A couple more nice new PCDB entries.. Jaz's IBM XT case fitted with more modern components (including a security keypad for power-on!) and sir_veja's briefcase PC which takes an easier route than some others we've seen, by using a removable motherboard tray from a minitower case which fits inside the briefcase. This is a good way to solve the problem of having to create mounting holes for the motherboard and installed cards.
Andrew says: Using a search engine to locate stories on newspapers' sites violates European Union law and a bizarre rumor about Microsoft making sweeping changing to its Product Activation technology in Windows XP Service Pack 1 is completely untrue. Bricktop spotted 2 more sites saying it's not true, here and here.
Digit-Life have an article about iSCSI, a new standard for connecting storage devices to an IP network.
TweakTown have a WinXP Tweaking guide.
Can't afford to buy the latest games? Write your own. :) Kasar sent in this site with DirectX tutorials which look like a good starting point.
Or, perhaps designing AMD's next CPU is more your style.
From Ninsei: Microsoft has made Windows .NET Release Candidate 1 available through it's Corporate Preview Program. You can download it (for free?) or order the CDs to be posted to you for $10 AUD. There are RC1 versions of 32bit Windows .NET Standard, as well as both 32bit and 64bit versions of .NET Enterprise server. Links: Australia and USA.
Reviews:
Maxtor DiamondMax D540X-4G 5400RPM ATA133 HDD on PlanetSavage.
Griffin Technology PowerMate USB volume control on ExtremeCooling.
Abit IT7-MAX Motherboard (Intel 845E P4 DDR) (video review) on 3DGameMan.
EPoX EP-4G4A i845G-based P4 DDR motherboard on Hexus.
Thermaltake G4-VGA copper cooler on SystemCooling.
Netcomm InModem 56 PCI modem on OCPlus.
FrontX Port Extender on AusPCWorld, our review here.
Gainward GeForce4 PowerPack! Ultra/650XP "Golden Sample" video card on PlanetSavage.
EPoX 4SDA+ SiS645-based P4 DDR motherboard on OCOnline.
Chaintech Apogee 7VJL KT333-based SocketA DDR motherboard on TweakTown.
Abit Geforce 4 4400 video card on HouseOfPlus.
An article about asynchronous chips from Drayzen, who wonders How will we overclock when we have no more clocks?
Goofydave says this site has the latest 2719 beta bios for Epox 8K3A(+) boards.. hmm, a beta bios from some obscure site, not sure if I'd be game to flash my board with that one.
Cypher sent in another "stuff going bang" video that I've mirrored on our server here. It's larger (13MB) and was apparently made by "Legs and MrPinky", but credits a nonexistent GeoCities page here. This one apparently features hardware meeting 240v mains power and going spark spark bang etc, but I've only downloaded the first few seconds of it through my crummy modem link.
Hammer noticed that one of Shuttle's latest barebones boxes has an interesting heatpipe cooler inside. Japanese text but good pics.
Xbit wonder how a motherboard manufacturer can claim to have DDR400 support on an i845E-based motherboard. Techno-sleuthing here.
Jaren notes that modchips for PS2's may not be illegal in Australia anymore: courtesy of slashdot.. the Australian ABC reports that the Australian Federal Court has found that installing mod chips is not illegal, because Sony failed to prove that a copyright protection measure was installed in the PlayStation in the first place. Here is the full judgement. Interesting, but I think the chances of Sony letting it end there are probably zero.
More in a bit..
Reviews:
SiS648 P4 DDR chipset on VR-Zone.
Plextor PX-208T CDRW on CDRInfo.
ATI Reference Sample Radeon 9000 Pro video card on Guru3D.
Gainward GeForce 4 PowerPack! Pro/450 video card on DeviantPC.
MSI 845E Max2 P4 DDR motherboard on Active-Hardware.
Interesting project in the PCDB from MasterT: take a 1RU rackmount case (that's 44mm high) and squeeze 2 entire PC's into it. The pics in this entry show the step-by-step assembly of the unit.
Click for the PCDB entry!
Well, It's technically Sunday now. The reason it was late is because you can only post a 10,000 character post at a time. I feel honored I hit that barrier. :)
There is an upcoming tech show in most capital cities in Australia. Create and communicate draws the likes of Creative, Intel, Macromedia And SONY. Looks like you can win stuff for just showing up too! Thanks Anthrox.
To lazy to use your mouse? Try these hands free ones! "The headband is a small and lightweight unit that tracks the position of the head and monitors eye blinks. Also "The armband resembles a watchband and can track the position of the arm and monitor the tension of the muscles under the band. "
Shuttle has launched the new barebones pc with an AGP add-on slot, the XPC SS51.
Microsoft has gone back to the drawing board with Windows XP. "Microsoft is planning what could end up being quite a shock for the Windows XP warez world, and what currently looks to be one of the most amazing moves made by Microsoft since Windows Product Activation was introduced." Thanks Neill
There is a preview of the Radeon 9700 here. Thanks Nigel. Speaking of previews, there is an Unreal Tournament 2003 video trailer out which can be directly downloaded here (9mb) or have a look at the page. Cheers mrayner, looks impressive!
Abit have announced the IT7 MAX2, "based on the 845E chipset which now has serial ATA at 1.5Gps, USB2, firewire, ATA 100,RAID ATA 133, Onboard LAN and 6 Channel audio". Thanks Nobes.
Martinus sends word that part 4 of a huge read on CPU architecture in regards to the P4 and the AthlonXP has been released.
It seems that Friday was Sys Admin Day! Thanks Skit
OCMelbourne have constructed a very cool looking computer in a VCR shell for the purpose of home entertainment.
Apparently you shouldn't stand near a 64x CDRom drive unless it's encased in an explosion proof enclosure! Thanks MadMike
Also, the P4PB 266E Mainboard is the first to be Based on the VIA Apollo P4X266E Chipset.
JPEGs may become a thing of the past! "The ISO standards body will take the unprecedented step of withdrawing the JPEG image format as a formal standard if Forgent Networks, a small Texan company, continues to demand royalties on a seventeen-year old patent."
Well, this is certainly one way to promote your new company. "Stripped down to his birthday suit and a strategically placed cellphone, Branson declared he had "nothing to hide" as he introduced Virgin Mobile U.S.A... Dangling from a crane above Times Square on Wednesday, Branson whipped off his clothes and flung them at a leering crowd of New York tourists and reporters." Thanks Callan
You can win some AMD stuff here. "An Athlon XP, MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU, and a Swiftech MCX462 HSF. It's one winner takes all, and all that's required is registering in the forums and meeting the minimum post requirement."
On the topic of winning stuff, you can win a pair of Sennheiser HD 575 headphones. Not sure about the details, But my sennheiser HD 270's rock! Thanks Jason!
A few people sent in a link to a funny overclocking comic. Also, Grimwolge sent in a link to The Chonicles of George. Who appears to be an illiterate help desk operator.
For new PC's in old things, check out this site. It has PC's inside Amiga 1000's, Atari 2600's and even a NES! Cheers Col.
Apparently, Laser communications are crucial for space exploration. "Space missions currently being planned will collect several billion bits (gigabits) of data per second. Since the data can only be transmitted back to Earth for a short time every day or two, the satellites will need to transmit about 100 gigabits per second."
There is a guide up on how to do some dye modding to your case. Well, an Antec SX-830 anyway. Also, a guide on general PC cooling and airflow.
An article on why the buzz about the upcoming AMD hammers simply wont go away!
And finally, The July Geek Food Cook-off (Spuds) is ending soon. "Forum goers are requested to pop into the thread, follow the links to their favorite entries and rate the threads! The winner will be announced early in August. The Geek kitchen is also looking for an August cook-off topic."
Seeing as this post is so big, here are the reviews first.
Gigabyte MAYA AP128DG-H 128MB at HWZ
Zalman CPNS6000-CU heatsink review from OC's club
Abit IT7 i845E Motherboard Review at tweaktown
Power Cooler PCH610T Heatsink from tech fusion
ASUS V8420 Ti4200 Deluxe @ [H]
Vantec Tornado @ eliteHW
Thermaltake Aluminum Case Review from OC cafe'
Western Digital External Hard Disk Drive Review @ X-bit labs
Samsung Yepp YP-700H MP3 Player Review @ neo seeker
SOYO P4X400 Dragon Ultra @ tweakers
Plextor PlexWriter 40*12*40 Review at deviant PC
Shuttle SS40G BAREBONE from hardware test DK
Gigabyte 8IEXP & 8IHXP P4 Titan Review at vr-zone
MSI NVIDIA® GeForce4 G4Ti4200-TD64 from AMD world
Thermalright SLK-800 Copper Cooler from 3d Velocity
Sunbeam Tech Cold Cathode Kit Review @ 8Balls Hardware
VIA P4PB 400-FL Motherboard Review @ the naked review
Leadtek Winfast A250 TD Geforce 4 Ti4400 128MB Review @ explosive labs
Samsung SpinPoint SP8004H 80GB Hard Drive from bytesector
SOHO Router reviewed at burnout PC
LITE-ON External USB 2.0 LX24101A CD Writer @ HWZ
Charcoal Black 6919 Compucase@ Mod the box
Thermaltake Xaser II Plus Aluminum Case On overclockercafe
Zalman CNPS5100-Cu heatsink review @ OC club
NVIDIA NV3X Architectural Overview @ HotHardware
DIY Acrylic Case Review @ GideonTech.com
OCSystem Geforce 4 ti 4200 review from OC Club canada
Abit BD7-II RAID (i845E P4 DDR) Motherboard
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Friday, 26-July-2002 01:55:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Chainbolt has reviewed this P4 motherboard from Abit. His review focusses on the overclocking aspects of the board. Being from Abit it's no surprise that it fares well.. especially when he puts it into his Vapochill system. :)
Click for the full review!
Thursday Morning Gargantu-post
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Thursday, 25-July-2002 10:12:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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[H]ard|OCP have examined the BlueCooling BTMS watercooling system in some depth. Worth checking out, as they compare it to so many competing products it becomes more of a waterblock roundup than a single-product review. Just as well, given what they think of the product in question. :)
There's a car/bike cruise in Brisbane early next month.
Apparently there's another Matrix Reloaded trailer out, thanks Tiberio.
TheInq have some Intel CPU roadmaps posted, here and here. Apparently Intel's 3GHz chip is coming soon(er), thanks Mr Chilled. More info here, thanks Rage.
A roundup of roundups: PCStats have an Business Oriented Integrated Motherboard roundup.. lots of motherboards you probably don't want, unless you're like me and can't remember the last time you played a 3D game on your PC. There's probably a card you do want to own buried in Digit-Life's GF4 Titanium roundup, tho. Or perhaps DDR SDRAM (OCNZ) or New Radeons (Guru3D) are more your style.
Digit-Life also have an article on reverberation, for the audiophiles.
Info about Longhorn, the next Windows version, here.. thanks Karl.. and here's me still using Win2K.
Hexus take a PC and make it silent.. not by unplugging it. :)
Still time to win y'self a flight sim game over on 3DAvenue. Or, win yourself a new Holden by getting a few SMS's, thanks mjcrow.
Kasar spotted info on WinPE, which is a minimal Win32 subsystem with limited services, based on the Windows XP Professional kernel running in protected mode. It contains the minimal functionality you need to run Windows Setup, pull an operating system from a network share, automate basic processes, and perform hardware validation.
AllTechBox want to tell you how to protect your precious components from static electricity, or how to make an emergency win98 boot disk.
GreyWolfe says that this is a pretty good gun controller too, been around for a while but recently updated.
Creative is bragging about his 3DMark score again in the forums.. still, 14k's not too shabby.
X-Bit have a new HDD benchmark.. FC-Test.
Adam spotted the future of cars (maybe) on Wired.
Apparently we're all going to die! Again. Big rock coming to kill us all, thanks papillion and OZEight.
Reviews:
Thermaltake Copper GF4 Cooler on ExtremeOC.
Alienware Area51 pre-built PC on Bjorn3D.
Swiftech Quiet Power barebones watercooled PC on OCOnline.
Thermaltake Volcano 9 cooler on OCPlus.
ECS AG400 SiS Xabre 400 based video card on Active-Hardware.
Globalwin Aluminium Case GAT001 on Tobitech.
Trek 16MB Thumbdrive Smart USB storage on GideonTech.
ColourCases 101 X-Wing case on PCAbusers, thanks jas per.
OnStream ADR2 60USB Digital Tape Drive on TechnoYard.
DesignComp Acrylic Case Kit on SystemCooling.
ABIT KX7-333 KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard on AMDWorld.
HP dvd200e DVD+RW drive on HWZ.
CrazyPC Biohazard Case Mod on HotHardware.
Matrox Parhelia on AthlonXP.
Logitech iFeel Mouse on ViperLair.
Icemat Glass Mousing Surface on HardwareMasters.
NEC Multisync LCD1550V-BK LCD Monitor on EXHardware.
Abit IT7 MAX "legacy-free" P4 DDR motherboard on Tech-Report.
Shuttle XPC SS51 P4 mini-barebones system on VIAHW.
Nexland ISB SOHO Router on IPKonfig.
LSI's Ultra320 SCSI Card + Seagate 15k-rpm HDD combo review on GotApex.
D-Link's DI604 Router on TheTechZone.
PC Geiger PCI bus monitor wotsit thingy on DeviantPC.
Shuttle XPC SS51 P4 mini-barebones system on Hexus.
Triplex GF4 Ti4200 128MB and 64MB video cards on OCTools.
GeIL 256MB PC3500 (DDR 433) memory on IANAG.
Abit Media XP port relocator (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Hercules Radeon 9000 Pro video card on Digit-Life.
Trust 3000 Watt 5.1 SoundWave speakers on BurnOutPC.
Kingston PC1066 RDRAM memory on PCStats.
Cho Liang CB0315U17 cooler on FrostyTech.
Abit AT7 Max and Media XP socketA DDR mobo and port relocator on 3DVelocity.
OCAU is #1! (again)
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Wednesday, 24-July-2002 14:47:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Hitwise is pleased to announce that www.overclockers.com.au recently ranked No. 1 in the Computers and Internet - Hardware category. We consider this a very strong achievement.
Your site's ranking is based on the number of user visits it has received, which is measured in that category for the quarterly period 1 April - 30 June 2002.
Congrats to us! This now marks 18 months running that we have been in one of the top 2 positions. We also achieved a No. 5 ranking in the News and Media - IT Media category this quarter.
Thanks to our Major Sponsors: ComputerAlliance, Altech Computers and Plus Corporation and our gracious hosts AusGamers and COMindico for making it possible. Thanks of course to all of you, the OCAU community, for making it worthwhile!
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 24-July-2002 14:19:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Lombers has whipped up some KR7A, KX7 & AT7 modified BIOSes, which enable some hidden BIOS options and have a newer RAID BIOS inside, etc. Check out the details in that thread in our AMD Hardware forum.
One of the biggest local concerns regarding the WorldCom bankruptcy is that they own large Australian ISP OzEmail.. there are some concerns about their future.
VIAHW have a preview of SiS648, that company's new P4 DDR chipset.
NeoSeeker have their preview of the New Radeon chipsets from ATI. 3DVelocity have part 2 of their writeup about them. HotHardware have even more coverage about their performance.
BetaOne have some rumours about WindowsXP Activation and copyright control changes, thanks OZEight. If you're using XP but not happy, perhaps this tweaking guide will help.
X-Bit have an article all about Anti-Aliasing, for better image quality.
Dan added 3 more coolers to his gargantuan comparison.
ExplosiveLabs have a i845E Motherboard Roundup posted, for P4 CPU's and DDR memory.
NHD says that this is perhaps the smallest website on the net.. even though it has blogs and even pong.
The Shizz sent in this gun controller for games.. looks really good, but I bet the "gaming makes kids killers" brigade will be having kittens about it.
Interesting article on NewScientist about the psychology of spamming.. thanks Alex.
Munkiboy spotted more info on Hitachi's watercooled laptop. Not to be outdone, Ownt have info on a laptop with a removable, wireless keyboard and mouse from Toshiba.
HarBinger says there's a newish WCPUID out. Always good to keep up-to-date with this freebie CPU/chipset info utility.
VR-Zone want to tell you how to get the biggest 3DMark2001SE score for your system. They got 17230 which is, err, not bad at all.
These guys have been quiet for a while, but RMesler reminded me about Afrotech, an extremely "ghetto" hardware site.
MikhailTech modded a 1RU Cooler for use on a GF4.. cooler and quieter, nice one.
d0nk3yk0ng sent in this (hosted on OCAU) 1.9MB video of a internal modem in a microwave that he was emailed. No idea who the original creator was or why you would do this, but at least now we know for sure that it's a really bad idea. :)
Reviews:
Innovations RAMCheck memory tester on PCStats.
Taisol CEP426151A P4 cooler on FrostyTech.
Swiftech MCX4000T Heatsink w/TMD Fan (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Lian Li PC-72 SCA case on HeatSeekerz.
ECS AG400 SiS Xabre 400 video card on PCStats.
Arctic Cooling Super Silent 2500 cooler on Chillblast.
ECS K7VTA3 v3.1 KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard on MBReview.
Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition socketA DDR motherboard on TweakTown.
SOYO KT333 DRAGON Ultra Platinum Edition socketA DDR motherboard on Hexus.
Soyo Dragon KT333 Ultra Platinum Edition once again on OCPrices.
Akasa Luminous Round Cables on 3DVelocity.
AMD Athlon XP 2200+ socketA CPU on HardWareZone.
Auriga VF-2001GH case on TweakTown.
650-p Small Form Factor barebones P4 DDR system on VIAHW.
nVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4200 reference video card on BurnOutPC.
Folding Giveaway Grand Prize!
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Tuesday, 23-July-2002 10:33:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Last week's winner was --==L=a=N=c=E==-- and the consolation prize went to slick.
This week is the last week of the Folding Giveaway. The grand prize, provided kindly by ComputerAlliance, is up for grabs! It's a complete Duron 950MHz PC, perfect for folding and probably pretty good for anything else you wanted to do, too. All you have to do to win it is get folding and produce 5 points by the end of the week. Simple!
Tuesday Morning
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Tuesday, 23-July-2002 02:04:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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SiS have a new P4 DDR chipset, it seems.. the 648 NorthBridge and 963 SouthBridge, referred to collectively as SiS648. Coverage on Tech-Report and Accelenation.
If you're in a modding mood, Linchpin has an article about LED-modding the A4Tech Optical Mouse, while MikhailTech want to tell us how to put a blowhole in an Antec SX-830 case. GideonTech modded the DigiDoc5 that we reviewed a while ago here. Finally, NoCarrier spotted a modified BIOS for the MSI 845e MAX2 with a better RAID functionality.
PCHardware compared the Abit KX7-333 and Shuttle AK35GT2R DDR socketA boards. ComputerBase have a german comparison of 5 dual socketA motherboards - you might need this fish.
Extremely addictive little flash soccer game thing here, thanks to duncan. Don't say you weren't warned!
Reviews:
Palit Daytona GeForce4 Ti 4200 video card on PlanetSavage.
ThermalTake Volcano 9 cooler on M6.
Thermalright SLK-800 cooler on A1-Electronics.
Highpoint RocketRAID 404 controller on OCTools.
AOpen AX4G Pro i845G-based P4 DDR motherboard on Tweakers.
Black Icemat mousing surface on 8Balls.
Gigabyte AF64D-G Radeon9000 Pro video card on Digit-Life.
ThermalTake GeForce4 copper cooler on 3DVelocity.
V.L. System L.I.S LCD Indicator gadget on TweakNews.
SOYO KT333 DRAGON Ultra - Platinum Edition socketA DDR motherboard on HWZ.
Saitek P750 Digital Gamepad on LanAddict.
VINIX VX-3340 Xabre 400 on VR-Zone.
Quiet Power Water Cooled Case on SystemCooling.
Albatron GeForce4 Ti 4200P video card on GotApex.
Samsung ML-1450 Laser Printer on TheTechZone.
AKASA Silver Mountain 2Q cooler on ViperLair.
Dynalink RTA020 ADSL router on Tweakers.
Samsung SW-232 CDRW drive on IANAG.
WorldCom goes pop!
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Tuesday, 23-July-2002 01:11:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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OZEight sent this in: WorldCom files largest bankruptcy ever. With $107 billion in assets, WorldCom's bankruptcy is the largest in United States history, dwarfing that of Enron Corp. The Houston-based energy trader listed $63.4 billion in assets when it filed Chapter 11 late last year.
Why is this interesting? Well, apart from the massive financial ripples it will send through the global economy, WorldCom own the single biggest chunk of the Internet. WorldCom, which operates the world's largest Internet network, employs 60,000 people in 65 countries. However, The bankruptcy would have no immediate effect on its customers, according to statements from both the company and Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
"I want to assure the public that we do not believe this bankruptcy filing will lead to an immediate disruption of service to consumers or threaten the operation of WorldCom's Internet backbone facilities," Powell said.
You think I'm kidding, don't you? :) I'm not. Check out the PCDB entry:
Click for the PCDB entry!
A couple of new, detailed PCDB entries about some watercooled systems, from morphling1 and peterwayne1. Interesting radiator placement on that last one, using the Enermax PSU's bottom intake fan for airflow. Oraldlight's is pretty cool too - note the clear plastic "drip tray" under the CPU waterjacket.
BoBoTheMonkey sent in this huge page on NVIDIA.pl which has links to lots of useful programs.. looks like a bookmark for sure.
Another PC comic, this time from Mykl.
Reviews:
ZXMODS 4inch Cold Cathode case lighting on EliteHW.
Samsung SW-240 CDRW drive on DesignTechnica.
Kingwin KT-436b case on ClubOC.
Sunbeam Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp on TweakTown.
Omega Detonator Drivers for nVidia cards on TweakersAsylum.
Legend QDI PlatiniX 2E-6A i845E-based P4 DDR motherboard on Hardware-Test.
From Reuel: The Debian Project is pleased to announce the release of Debian GNU/Linux version 3.0. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system, which now supports a total of eleven processor architectures, includes KDE and GNOME desktop environments, features cryptographic software, is compatible with the FHS v2.2 and supports software developed for the LSB. Download here. Debian powers Thor, the server that is sending you this page.
Also from Reuel: Members of the Ogg Vorbis projecthave unveiled release 1.0 of their software, an open-source alternative to the MP3 format. The official release of the audio encoding and streaming technology has been widely anticipated by enthusiasts of open-source software. Ogg Vorbis is completely royalty-free, meaning companies can incorporate the technology into their software without cost.
Goofydave noticed that pimprig.com has an article on how to make a coffee machine/pc from scratch.
Another interesting PC here, the V8 Big Block.. in German but pics down the bottom.
PlanetSavage ponder cool and silent processing with VIA's C3 CPU.
From leperMessiah: China to build own version of Windows 98. Here and original story here. The plan is to break the "monopoly of foreign office software," which we believe may be code for 'Microsoft,' and to this end the Beijing IT Industry Promotion Center announced two initiatives, "Yangfan" and "Qihang," intended to produce a Win98 level OS within a year. Also, Forbes magazine did an article on Linux that is good, here. Seems anything non-MS is trendy these days.
AMDMB have an article about their recent server upgrades, and MikhailTech got on the radio.
5V line a little wimpy? ExtremeCooling have a guide that might help.. One of the best ways to get around this was to attach a direct 5v line into the motherboards voltage regulator, which is what i will show you how to do.
From Isengard, an article about some american company owning the rights to JPEG compression.. and wanting money for everything that uses the format.
Macase Galaxy ][ KA-280W mid-tower case on CaseJunkiez.
Cybercooler CC-290 & NK-360 system coolers on Active-Hardware.
ABIT BD7II-RAID P4 DDR motherboard on Hexus.
Taisol CEP426151A P4 HSF on FrostyTech.
VLsys L.I.S. LCD Indicator modding goody on AMD3D.
Nvidia Reference GF4 MX440 video card on AMD3D.
YAMAHA CRW-F1 IDE CDRW on CDRInfo.
Chaintech 7VJL Apogee KT333-based P4 DDR motherboard on ExplosiveLabs.
Antec PLUS1080B SOHO File Server case on G3D.
VisionTek Xtasy GeForce4 Ti4600 video card on Xbit.
Soltek SL-85DR2 i845E P4 DDR motherboard on PCStats.
Matrox Parhelia 512 video card (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Gigabyte MAYA AP128D-H3 RADEON 8500 Deluxe video card on Digit-Life.
Hoontech ST Audio DSP24 MKII Professional Sound Card on Digit-Life.
SunbeamTech Dual Inverter Cold Cathode case lighting on Monster-Hardware.
Pyramid I Fan Silencer on AusPCWorld.
Shuttle SS40G socketA barebones system on SystemCooling.
Here's another kind of custom PC we've seen recently - the foam blob. There's at least 2 of them out there - the construction of this one is explained in some detail in a PCDB entry:
Saturday Morning
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Saturday, 20-July-2002 01:42:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Another briefcase PC appears in the PCDB, from Tasmaniac. Asteroid has converted a clunky old PC into a cool DVD player and Tarrasque has a new clear PC. We've had a few new trends in modding over the last 6 months or so.. model-car PC's, suitcase PC's, clear PC's, hi-fi PC's.. kinda wonder what the next big thing will be. Maybe just plain beige boxes.. naah, too weird. :)
Price-comparison site RazorPrices is a year old now and to celebrate they have a new engine powering the site. TechWatch offer a similar price-comparison service, for parts inside and outside your PC.
Wired have a story about DJ's using iPod's, Apple's portable MP3 player (we reviewed one here), instead of the more traditional turntables. They also have an interesting article about crop circles. Another interesting crop circles site is here, they have pics of a lot of crop circles spotted this year.
From Reuel: PCmech.com have an overview on overclocking and a summarized history of the modern processor, starting from the first PC processor all the way up to today's Athlon XP and Pentium IV here.
If you're after German-language hardware info, PC-Max.de say they are back online after a month of downtime and a new design.
Azooma noticed there's another issue of ZZZ Online up. Smoke-ring guns!! Huge issue this time, some interesting stuff there.
Bit-Tech turned an old tube radio into a PC, thanks mence.
HotHardware updated their Radeon9000 coverage. 3DVelocity have their preview posted, too.
Apparently InGaming.com is a new Australia-oriented games site. Check out AusGamers for gaming news, too.
Graham says that McAfee's virus scanner DOES pick up the Klez virus, unlike as was reported earlier. Fair enough then. BTW, update your virus software! You can't do it too often.
PCPowerZone compared two 550W PSU's.. while Dan pulled apart the Just Cooler SP-300 silent PSU with 4 IEC outlets!
TransmetaZone have info on what Transmeta have been up to lately, with their coverage of PCExpo2002.
From Silent Remorse: Found a page of winners from the recent Star Wars Fan Film Awards - there a ton of great short movies on there from fans including the winners.
Reviews:
Vantec Tornado Case Fans on FrostyTech.
Abit MAX IT7 "legacy free" P4 mobo on Accelenation.
VIA EPIA 800MHz mobo+CPU on TechSeekers.. our review here.
Shuttle AK35GT2-R KT333 mobo on OCOnline.
Ajigo SF017011 copper HSF on FrostyTech.
Bluetake Bluetooth USB Dongle on JSIHW.
Iwill P4R533-N i850E P4 RAMBUS mobo on PCStats.
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card on ViperLair.
Clear QUAD LED 60/80mm Fan on OCAddiction.
Nickel Plated Copper Ramsinks on MikhailTech.
TDK CyClone 48x24x48x CDRW on HWZ.
Thermalright SLK-800 on OCrCafe.
Sunbeam Dual CCFL Kit case lighting on GideonTech.
ECS K7VTA3 Rev.3.1 SocketA motherboard on HWZ.
Lead Khan LK-CAA05 copper HSF on Tech-Fusion.
Asus P4T533-C P4 DDR motherboard on DeviantPC.
Mitsumi CR-480ATE CD writer on AllTechBox.
Win Stuff by Folding!
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Saturday, 20-July-2002 00:59:08 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The winner of last week's Folding Giveaway was Monkeymagic. Emit picked up the consolation prize, so congrats to them both. This week the prize is a Skyhawk Aluminium Midi Tower Case MSR4610 with a 400Watt Skyhawk Power Supply worth over $430 from CoolPC. Also included with the case is a Thermaltake 8cm Smart Case Fan donated by GameDude . There is also a bonus consolation prize of a Cherry keyboard donated by Adilam. How can you win that stuff? By Folding, of course! If you can download and run a program, you too could win goodies (and maybe help find a cure for cancer etc.)
Apparently, Quantum entanglement is stronger than suspected! If you don't know what that means, "The finding means the quantum linking of particles is far more robust than scientists thought and could help them develop new ways of making quantum computers." *collective oooohhhh*
On that note, there is an article on Asynchronous chips in regards to making circuitry faster. Thanks Osiris.
There is an interesting kit for unlocking the Athlon XP and the Thoroughbred. Looks nice.
Soon, Barracuda ATA V 7200-rpm drives will be among us. With larger platters and an all new interface. "Seagate is demonstrating its first Serial ATA hard drive at PC Expo/TechXNY with the help of a prototype Intel motherboard, and promises to be among the first hard drive makers to deliver the new technology, in products this fall." Thanks Ben.
X-bit labs has a roundup called Pentium 4 Chipsets Supporting 533MHz Bus.
From the guys who brought you the copper tube case mod's, here is the coffee table computer! Also, This is the coolest lego case I have seen yet. Thanks Papa Tony! :)
Funny comic about a noisy case fun. Cheers banshee.
Volcano 9 Contest at OC'ers club. "fill out the little form, submit it, and then you will be entered in the contest!" As usual, check the details for international entries.
A good read on the evolution and workings of the radeon 8500 drivers here.
Another in-depth look at Wireless LANs. It goes into all sorts of things like security, alternatives and implementation.
I hope you haven't been trying to send emails via yahoo mail with the word mocha in the body..."That's what users of the company's free e-mail service may be wondering if they try to send a message using the word "mocha" and discover that while in transit, "mocha" mysteriously changes to "espresso." Thanks Reuel.
SA LinuXbox team have successfully installed Linux on the Microsoft Xbox and are the official winners of the Xbox Linux Project. They get to take home a cool $200,000!
Reviews :
Epox 4G4A+ Motherboard (Socket 478) in Video Review #189
Everglide Giganta Mousepad @ casetest
TherMagic Thermal Compound @ OCIA
Samsung SYNCMASTER 152T "ultra thin" 15inch TFT LCD @ tw
Iwill P4R533-N Socket-478 motherboard @ HWZ
Samsung ML-1450 Laser Printer from iamnotageek
EA's 'It's Outta Here 2! ' Web Based Game Review from futurelooks
ToCools CPU Coolers Review at OC'ed cafe'
SiS Xabre400 Review @M:6
WinTasks 4 Professional Review from bjorn3d.
ATI's Radeon 9700 (R300) and 9000
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Friday, 19-July-2002 00:43:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Another big announcement this week: ATI's latest video chipsets. Coverage on AnandTech, Tech-Report, HotHardware, TheInquirer.. TomsHardware have 9700 and 9000 info. Previews of cards from specific manufacturers: Hercules on HardAvenue and Gigabyte (Radeon 9000) on AusPCWorld. There's commentary on slashdot, too. HardOCP have no less than 3 articles.. one about the 9000, a white-paper about the 9700 and a gaming experience article using the 9700.
From ATI themselves: There's a press release here and there's more info on their developer site.. but ATI's servers are getting hammered at the moment, so those links will come and go.
From first reports this chipset seems very quick - 50% faster than GeForce4 Ti4600 in some benchmarks. Some competition at the high end of the market will be good and just what we've been waiting for.. but of course, nVIDIA's NV30 is looming. There's a discussion here in our Forum.
Case-Modding in the spotlight
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Thursday, 18-July-2002 19:44:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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B5Lurker sent in a URL to the online version of the recent case-modding story in the Melbourne Age's Green Guide. Quite a few people from the hardware scene and our own forums rate a mention, including hosted site CaseJunkiez. Check out the article here!
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 18-July-2002 16:14:19 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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BlueSmurf pointed out this WRX PC.. nice project.
Brendon says that the ammo-case PC we linked a few days is nothing, his own ammo-case PC has been in the PCDB for ages.
Griff says that MBM has some new files that let you monitor HDD temp.. cool.
PowerLeap say they have a new web-based utility that can read your computer's vital statistics. It's an ActiveX control apparently, located here.
From Reuel: WETA buys 220 2.2GHz dual Xeon machines. Weta is the company behind the graphics in Lord of the Rings. Volvo's new safety car Sounds good and all but it runs windows 98.
SlCentral send word: Microsoft has identified a problem with running DirectX 8.1 on AMD processor-based systems. Some DirectX 8.1 programs may simply stop working on AMD PCs, and Microsoft has come up with a patch to fix the problem. SLCentral.com has posted the fixed .dll file as well as the entire hotfix. You can read more and download the fix here. You can also read more from Microsoft about this issue here.
OCNZ have a GF4 Ti4200 Roundup posted, while Digit-Life compare a few KT333 SocketA DDR motherboards.
Chainbolt posted info on a liquid-cooled laptop in the forums.
From Gaz: I bet 100s have already told you, but there is an article in the Melbourne Green guide about case modding. The
GTR PC gets a big mention....unfortunately you guys do not. That's despite gatherings for the article being organised via our forums and promoted several times on the news page. Lovely. (Update: Ok, they mentioned us but no URL. Less grumpy now. Not a bad article actually. URL would have been nice tho. :) )
Reviews:
KingMax DDR400 SDRAM on TweakTown.
Chaintech GT21 GeForce 4 Ti4200 128mb video card on OCTools.
Thermalright AX-478 HSF on ClubOC.
Bluetake 100M Bluetooth USB Dongle on OtakuPC.
MacWorld Mini-Report
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Thursday, 18-July-2002 14:48:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Barto thought we might like a little MacWorld roundup:
Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) was kicking MS in the balls this keynote. He said things like "We came up with iTools, MS copied us and called it .net. But we know what .net means, so we're renaming iTools .mac". Also stuff about how Apple is gonna shoot up in market share, and how everyone will adopt MPEG4 "except for MS of course".
"Move2Mac" was announced which makes transferring all of your old PC files to your shiny new Mac easy (and over USB).
iPod now works with MusicMatch (so windows users can officially use iPods now), has a 20GB hard disk, a trackpad/scrollwheel, calender and clock. OCAU's iPod review is here.
Mac OS X Jaguar was announced, and the box and the CD have Jaguar-spots on them :-/
Jaguar has OpenGL acceleration of the GUI, an AIM client, syncs a contacts list and calender (iCal) to your .mac internet/mobile phone/PDA/other macs. It has ZeroConf (which Apple is calling Rendevous), which makes your computer automagically aware of all services on a LAN. ZeroConf was demoed swapping MP3s (RIAA must be having fits), having all the printers on a network automatically show up, and building up a list of all "iChat", an AIM client", users on a LAN so you can chat to them.
The iMac is now up to 1GHz G4, has a GeForce 4 MX and the top-model has a 17" 1440x900 flat-panel display. That model is $4395 australian and has an 80GB hard drive.
iTunes 3 has custom "automatic" playlists, like 1GB of random MP3s which "I have given a rating of over 5 stars" or 500MB of MP3s in this genre which "I have played the least" etc etc.
So there you go. :)
3-Phase Power: Pavarotti, Choir Boys and Balloons
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Thursday, 18-July-2002 01:01:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Sean has sent along an explanation of what the mystical phrase "Three-Phase Power" really means. Many motherboard manufacturers list this as a selling point of their recent products and the general concensus is that it makes for a more stable motherboard - but I'll admit I wasn't really sure how it worked. Sean uses an interesting analogy to explain this feature.
Click for the article!
You can't get rid of me that easy!
Sabretooth spotted this story.. proof that some people don't know about the Internet yet. :)
It appears McAfee anti-virus is having trouble blocking the Klez virus. Don't you just love virus writers...
Victoria has launched the countries cheapest broadband offer yet. "Neighborhood Cable launched its latest prices Monday with a monthly access fee of $34.95 and connection for $99." Thanks Ric.
There has been a few articles floating around about people having trouble with GeForce4 cards in GigabyteGA-7VRX and GA-7VRXP motherboards. Cheers Keiran
Telstra is going to start calling for applications for its $25 million broadband fund this week. "The fund was announced earlier this year as a way of stimulating broadband take-up in Australia. Telstra wants to have a million broadband customers by 2005."
Do popup adds annoy the hell out of you as well? Well guess what, They're coming to TV! Thanks Reuel.
If you have some spare Playstation 2 parts and want a IR remote for your PC, then this is for you. Thanks Mr Toastz
If you run your own business and need to get your head around some marketing terms, have a look at this article.
Apparently, Gamespot's download accelerator program is lined with some nice spy-ware. What isn't these days. Thanks idosillythings... ?
America is trying to make one in every 24 people a spy. "The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups.". That's a lot of secret handshakes! Cheers Kris.
For another time wasting flash game, check out this weird bee on an arrow ... or something. "I have no idea what is going on it it, but it is quite amusing." Thanks Oliver.
Even more nForce stuff
Info at geekextreme
More at simhq
Reviews :
2003 Civic Hybrid review @ Ars
Samsung SW240 40-12-40 CDRW Burner from pcstats
Actiontec Cable/DSL Router from OCer cafe'
Compex Netpassage NP16 and WP-11A Wireless Access Point from gotapex
Actiontec Cable/DSL Router Review at the Cafe' again
Globalwin CAK488T Heatsink from systemcooling
ChoLiang CB0309Z17 P4 m478 Heatsink from frostytech
Hoorah SSH is back, which means I am aswell :)
In a fairly large story, Intel is set to cut 4000 jobs as its revenue drops. "The job cuts came as CEO Craig Barrett reported that Intel's revenues were down seven per cent on the previous quarter. Revenues were $6.3 billion for its second quarter."
Dan has been playing with security fingerprint scanners and has bypassed one without the use of jelly.
For another dose of crazy things, ZZZ issue 137 is out. This time we have A text-reading pen, Smoke ring guns and other toys, DIY vortex gun, and a mach 25 artillery shell, Emotional cars and a wingless F-15 landing.
There is a giveaway on here to win some free cool fans. But, I have a feeling it's for U.S residents only.
If you've run out of stuff to mod, try your PSU with a clear or colored cover.
I never thought I would live to hear that Processors are getting too fast! "... Pentium 4 may not see the light of day because Windows doesn't like it. Reports claimed that the speed of the chip causes Windows 2000 'to crash and burn.'" There might be a simple solution to that.. :) Thanks Mr Chilled
In a bizarre story, Williams revealed that they lost a new nose cone design when it was destroyed by the police. "Airport security found a neat aluminum box so they called in the bomb squad, strapped dynamite around it and blew the box to smithereens." Hah!, thanks Heist
Stroggos2k sends word that there is a new beta candidate of winamp3.
More nforce2 info :
nForce 2 Preview @ Viperlair
EPoX 8RGA+ nForce2 Information from tweaktown
Reviews :
Ajigo MF014021 Copper Heatsink Review at frostytech
Gainward GF4TI 4600 Ultra / 750XP Golden Sample review on overclockers.at
Inno3D Tornado GeForce4 Ti4200 Review from tweakersasylum
EMI Shielded ATA Cable Reviewed by gamingin3d
Abit MediaXP from active-hardware
Triplex Xabre PRO review @ Hardware Avenue
Blizzard 360 Ultra Quiet MarkII Review @ X-Treme PC TECH
Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A ATAPI CD-RW Review from bjorn3d
Arkua Socker 478 Cooler (868S-6M) Review @ AusPCWorld
TRENDware TEW-211BRP Review from hardwaremasters
Shuttle's SS40G mini-barebones system reviewed at TR
Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer Review from backup-source
Antec Performance Plus880 Case Review from neoseeker
AMS gTower Aluminum Mid-Tower chassis reviewed by viahardware
Mstar's DVR-A03 External DVD-RW at gotapex?
ASUS P4S533 Socket-478 motherboard @ HWZ
Forum-regular Rogue and his wife are now the proud parents of a bouncing baby boy, Jake. He made the announcement in this thread. Congrats to both!
Wednesday Morning
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Wednesday, 17-July-2002 11:39:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Some info on upcoming video chipsets on ExtremeTech, thanks Daniel.
LivePC have a video article about making a reservoir for watercooling.. and adding a case window.
Digit-Life compare professional 3d adapters in SPECviewperf 7.
Spodes have a couple of modding articles.. Computer inside an Ammunition Box and Adding Front USB Ports.
Interesting PC in a fishtank project.. in french, and using an annoying flash interface to show it off. But anyway.. I suspect it's a similar to Volenti's "submerged" PC, which caused quite a stir a couple of months ago.
If you're still in a modding mood, you could make an in-bay temperature display thanks to EliteHW.
Apparently some email security filters are changing the content of emails or websites and making up new words, thanks alx.
HardCoreWare checked out the PCXPO TechNY exhibition.
On the other side of the fence MacWorld is on in New York at the moment, and MacSpotlight have coverage if you swing that way. If you haven't decided yet, perhaps this Mac clone case for PC's could be a happy medium, thanks alowishes.
Speaking of all things Apple, Scott noticed that Quicktime 6 is now out, a 25MB download.
OneArmedMan spotted a MadOnion thread where someone claims that high core voltage can slowly kill P4's. I think he's probably overreacting, there's quite a few long-term high-voltage P4's in our forums.
Anthony says that this 30MB movie is the funniest thing I have seen in years.
Reviews:
Shuttle SS40G XPC barebones system on Active-Hardware.
Abit NV7M nForce (not 2) motherboard on MikhailTech.
Abit AX4B Pro-533 i845E-based P4 DDR motherboard on Processor-Emporium.
Intel Northwood P4 2.4GHz CPU on ExplosiveLabs.
Arkua 8568 P4 heatsink on FrostyTech.
Shattered Web Applique kit on GideonTech.
XFX GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB video card on 3DVelocity.
MSI 845E Max2 BLR P4 DDR motherboard on TweakTown.
IWill P4R533-N i850E-based P4 RAMBUS motherboard on HotHardware.
Flashing LG 32x10x40 CDRW to 40x12x40
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Wednesday, 17-July-2002 03:37:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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LoneWolf sent in a quick guide to flashing an LG 32x10x40 CDRW to 40x12x40. Not a bad little upgrade..
Click for the article!
Today is nForce 2 day, it seems.. or at any rate we'll be hearing a lot about it this week. You might remember back in December we brought you an early review of the first non-reference nForce motherboard, the MSI K7N420 Pro. nForce is a motherboard chipset made by nVidia, who we more readily associate with video chipsets - of course, it (usually) has onboard video. It was fairly impressive but for a variety of reasons didn't take off - largely because it didn't really fit anywhere into the market. Too expensive for the integrated-motherboard crowd, not fast enough video for the high-performance crowd. Anyway, nForce2 is here now, sporting AGP 8X, Twin Bank DDR400 support and Serial ATA, with hints of onboard GF4 MX video and FireWire for good measure. nVidia have an official nForce2 page as of a few hours ago, but there are articles springing up all over the net: TheInqirer, VIA Hardware, HardwareAccelerated, DigitalDomain (press release), HardOCP, Bjorn3D, EE Times, AnandTech, TheInq again, TomsHardware, AMDMB, 3DVelocity, Tech-Report, ExtremeTech, DeviantPC, FiringSquad and 3DGPU. Golly.
Words fail me.
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Wednesday, 17-July-2002 01:53:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Just spotted this in the PCDB:
Click for the PCDB entry!
Tuesday Evening
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Tuesday, 16-July-2002 18:26:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Nigel noticed this thread on whirlpool about a Broadband Advisory Group which is calling for public comment on issues relating to broadband in Australia. If you've got something to say, read the guidelines and make a submission. I have been looking at a few ADSL options today, there seem to be a few reasonable plans out there at last.
SilentSniper spotted a curious video card, apparently Dual Radeon.. for sale on eBay, that bastian of internet credibility.
BurnOutPC have posted the next chapter in their Koolance Lian-Li project.
HardOCP have reviewed the Asus Ti4600 Ultra Deluxe, which is the video-in/out-equipped and mega-bundle version of the V8460 Ultra I reviewed a little while ago. Major speed, major features and no doubt major wallet-deflating powers.
They took a beating lately, but online gaming fans MOS.net.au are back up and running again. You can also get a bunch of gaming news from our gracious hosts, AusGamers.
There's a LAN in Dubbo NSW this weekend. Apparently last weekend they had 651 people at Valhalla LAN in SA.. wow.
From Widowmaker: I saw your Posting on the news page about the Neon lights from autobarn. I went and bought a pair and when i was preparing them for use in a computer i made a small howto.
Interesting postcode utility over on FindMap.
From Wiam.. more proof, as if any was needed, that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In the same situation I'd be in the "where's my wallet gone?" crowd too. :)
Timewasters:
Top 10 Flash Timewasters on b3ta.com, thanks KT.
Detective adventure text game called Johnny Hellfire, thanks jas per.
Interesting Forum Threads:
P4 2260MHz @ 3068MHz in Overclocking & Hardware.
Performance between scsi single and ide raid 0 in Overclocking & Hardware.
Favourite Utilities/Programs 2 in Software Stuff.
Interpreting XP batch codes in AMD Hardware.
Homebrew tips and tricks in Geek Food.
Design Pics of nearly finished waterblock in Extreme Cooling.
Someone's desktop seen over cable tv in Overclocking & Hardware.
Boost gauge - how do you read it? in Motoring.
Reviews:
Abit BD7II-RAID i845E-based P4 DDR mothernoard on Tech-Report.
Logitech Cordless Optical Mouseman on TechFreaks.
Swiftech MCX-4000 P4 cooler on OCrCafe, thanks Andreas.
TDK Cyclone external USB 2.0 CDRW on HWZ.
Dynatron DY1206BH-638 HSF on Tech-Fusion.
VlSystem's Lost in Space LCD kit on BurnOutPC.
Swiftech MCX-4000 P4 cooler on FrostyTech.
AMD AthlonXP Thoroughbred CPU on PCStats.
Antec 1080 Fulltower Case on OCAddiction.
Woah, huge day. Been running around doing all kinds of stuff.. a relief to slump back into the comfy chair again.
Sabretooth sends warning of killer fish with lungs roaming around.. reminds me of the "land sharks" in a few custom Duke3D levels.
Calindor spotted this article from game publisher Vivendi, saying that broadband in Oz is dissapointing (no kidding) .. Interactive entertainment is key content that can contribute to the roll-out of broadband, but serious players are going to chew through the download caps.
More copyright law craziness in the USA, thanks Heist.
I knew it! Caffeine is good for you after all!
Reviews:
Corsair XMS3000 DDR SDRAM on OCrCafe.
Corsair XMS3000 DDR Cheese on ExtremeCooling.
DiskSavers cd cases on Monster-Hardware.
Yeong Yang Cube Case YY-B0221 on IQ-Hardware.
ABIT BD7II-raid i845-based P4 DDR motherboard on Hardware-Test.
Icemat mousing surface on BlargOC.
Samsung SV1204H HDD on MBReview.
Thermaltake Volcano 9 HSF on TweakTown.
Coolingflow ProtectorXP socketA shim on BurnOutPC.
MSI KT3 Ultra2-BR KT333 mobo with BlueTooth on HWZ.
MSI K7D Master-L dual SocketA mobo on ViperLair.
Thermalright AX-7, CB-7 and SLK-800 on IANAG.
It's been a while since I updated our Content Archive. Here's some recent reviews and articles I added today, in case you missed them:
Asus A7V333 KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard.
Consumer Electronics Show 2002 exhibition in Sydney.
VIA EPIA "Eden" 800MHz integrated mobo/CPU.
EPoX EP-8K3A+ BIOS Comparison article.
Soltek SL-75DRV5 KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard.
Remember, you can also view our Daily News Archive with coverage going back to mid-1999.
Sunday Afternoon
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Sunday, 14-July-2002 13:51:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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From Grimwolge: Just a quick message to let everyone know that the OCAU Genome@Home Team has hit 500,000 workunits!
Guru3D have a mirror of the DetonatorXP 30.30 drivers which have just been "leaked", as have so many versions before them.. drivers for your nvidia-based video card, of course. They're Betas, so Bad Things may happen if you use them. TweakersAsylum have a mirror too, apparently. If you want to overclock your nvidia-based card using the Detonators, read our CoolBits guide. TweakersAsylum compared the performance of the new drivers to earlier ones.
VooDoo sends word of Create and Communicate, Australia's Premiere Digital Content Creation and Communication Road Show in Brisbane soon.
Stanza found this backwards Google site.. bizarre.
OneArmedMan notes more people with rude words in their names being denied access to online services.
Some nice GeForce4 Ti4600 watercooling over on GeForceZone.
Brembo found this pic on Akiba which claims to be a Gigabyte KT400 motherboard.
Dan's playing WarCraft III and figures if he writes an article about it, he can call it working. Look for an article about fanging around on motorcycles here soon, then. :)
There's a LAN in Wollongong on the 3rd of April (err, that would be the 3rd of August.. kick.brain).
boky notes a new partnership in the Amiga market, would be nice to see some shipping products using the Amiga tech.
Digit-Life have a roundup of integrated graphics on motherboards.. comparing i845G to a few competitors.
alex says people are looking for hidden terrorist communications in web images.. hmm, sounds like paranoia to me.
From Bort: Autobarn's latest catalogue has 8" neons for $9.95, in blue or red. I got one myself, but found that the only downside was all the electronics are inside the car cigarette lighter plug - meaning some surgery is required to get them out of that or mounting a cigarette lighter socket in your PC. Or maybe even in your car :)
TweakTown have a short article comparing FireWire and Ethernet networking.
Raven spotted an article saying that video games probably don't cause brain damage after all.
ExplosiveLabs have a USB Flash Drive Roundup happening, with units from Soyo, Transcend, and EasyDisk.
Sick of having to get up from your PC to make coffee? If you had this PC you wouldn't have to.. thanks Andrew.
VIAArena have an article about their Envy24 onboard sound chip.
Yet another Mac vs PC article, thanks nutty.
Isometrix spotted that the Lord of the Rings II: The Two Towers trailer is now available for download.
Reviews:
Compaq Presario 722US 1.1GHz Duron notebook on AMDMB.
DFI NB76-EA i845G-based P4 DDR motherboard on PCHardware.
Abit MediaXP port relocator on AMD3D.
Radeon AIW 8500DV video card on TechnoYard.
Zalman ZM-NB32J HSF on M6.
Triplex Xabre 400 Pro video card on AusPCWorld.
Mobile HDD Racks on ClubOC.
Samsung 32X10X40 CDRW drive on GideonTech.
PC hardware giant Asus have a new subsidiary: With the new ASROCK brand name, Hua Ching’s motherboard products are set to target the low-price segment and are regarded by Asustek as the latest tool to expand its market share. Interesting info about the state of the motherboard and video card markets there, too.
LiamC has been Overclocking the Thoroughbred 1900+ (1.5V).. click the first link on his page for the article.
SilentSnipeR spotted an article about a Linux user going back to Windows.. with some thoughts about what, in the author's opinion, Linux needs to make it to mainstream desktops.
Mike from theInq says: We discovered that Intel would put its Northwood core into its Celerons today and we've a column on how Intel uses its marchitecture to fox users out of buying chips from the opposition.
Palladium, MS's proposed security standard / operating system continues to generate a lot of discussion. Entropy spotted this article on Salon.Com and there's a huge post here in the DeviantArt forums which collects a few articles and other info together, thanks Redefine.
Accelenation have an article titled Ghosts in the Machine which seems to be about refresh rates and frame rates.
Alex sent in an article about a internet ID system being proposed in competition with Microsoft's Passport system.
Lawyers patrolling online forums? Surely not.. :) But this seems to be taking things a bit far, thanks Manaz.
Phillip has had some trouble with Gigabyte's GA-7VRXP (KT333) motherboard and a GF4 video card.. he's sniffed around and it seems he's not alone, with similar experiences reported here, here, here and here. Dissapointing, because I've had no problem with Gigabyte's AMD761+686B (GA-7DXR) and KT266A (GA-7VTXE), both of which I've used extensively as testbeds for reviews (including GF4 reviews) over the last few months. There's mixed opinions here in our AMD Hardware forum, including some strong and vocal support for the board - but also info apparently from Gigabyte saying that 1/5 and 1/6 PCI divisors are not supported on that board.
Wired have had a few interesting articles in the last few days: an sms/hax0r-speak translator, the emerging chinese PC market is set to be dominated by Legend, self-repairing computers and smart (but creepy) dolls. Get back, it's a female Chucky!
Reviews:
Belkin Network Kit (8ports) on BurnOutPC.
EL Light Strip on BurnOutPC.
Antec LED Fans video review on 3DGameMan.
Saturday Afternoon
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Saturday, 13-July-2002 17:14:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Been away for 4 days.. now there's 1200 emails to sort through. Bah! I'm also off to a friend's 30th tonight.. but will hopefully be a real human again on Monday. In the meantime, have some reviews:
Reviews:
Visiontek Xtasy Ti4200 128MB video card on Hexus.
Thermaltake Volcano 9 heatsink/fan on OCersClub.
Matrox Parhelia 128MB video card on Digit-Life.
Packard Bell Fast Media Remote Control on MikhailTech.
Panasonic KX-HGW600 Network Camera Management system on DesignTechnica.
Chaintech 7VJL Apogee SocketA DDR motherboard on Hardwarezone.
TweakMonster Copper Ramsinks on SubZeroTech.
Swiftech Quiet Power barebones case on ViperLair.
Thermaltake Volcano 9 HSF on OCrCafe.
Acer FP751 17inch LCD monitor on AusPCWorld.
This PC Sucks!
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Saturday, 13-July-2002 16:59:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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We've seen quite a few briefcase and hi-fi PC's now.. could this be the next craze? The mysterious green object in the picture below is, of course, a vacuum-cleaner which has been converted into a PC case:
Click for the PCDB entry!
Sorry about the delay, Was enjoying a nice game of Warcraft 3 with RB and .CO. :)
Got a 'known problem' with your XP machine? No worries, just pay Microsoft $35 and they'll fix it. Yeah, right. Ta MoJoMaN
Looking for a new car? How about a laser armed Humvee! Thanks Alex, I hope you aren't buying one. :)
LAN coming up in Brisbane this coming Saturday. Checkout Lansmash for all the details! On that note, The Valhalla LAN is having another huge one, around 650 people for this weekend. Oh that's in SA if you didn't know.
The Sydney man who was behind the hacking of over 400,000 optus dial-up account's, has been charged.Thanks Griff.N
Some information about a new Microsoft OS that is in development. Thanks again Griff.N.
Nvidia have released a free program called Earthviewer3D which supposedly allows users to click down and view parts of the earth's surface in 3D! Haven't tried it myself, but it looks quite cool. Cheers Peter!
This is quite cool. Find out if the NSW government owes YOU money! There are claims there for literally thousands of dollars! Thanks TiGGz!
Here is an article that takes a look into Compact Flash Card's and the difference between brands.
In another interesting read, The apparent bug fix with the det 30.00 drivers steps into the spotlight in regards to 3d mark. Thanks Sanies
Having a bad hair day? Try brushing your hair with computer parts. Thanks SoVeReIgN
Oh yeah, Here's a stack of reviews!
Reviews :
Soltek SL-85DR2 mainboard @ active hardware
Evergreen technoligies TherMagic from monster hardware
ECS AG400 Xabre 400 review from vr zone
Albatron K400+ reviewed at vr zone
Shuttle SS40G Barebones AMD System Review at amdmb
PlatinumXP Silver Fancy Case Review @ OcPrices.com
Plextor PleXCombo 20/10/4012A CD-RW/DVD ROM Drive at hothardware
Kodak DX3900 Digital Camera from accelenation
AMS Electronics gBOX (P4 Barebones Mini-PC) @ littlewhitedog
Corsair XMS 3000 and 3200 DDR Memory in Video Review #186
AthlonXP 1600+ Review @ X-Treme PC TECH
Leadtek WinFast A250 LE TD 64MB Video Card @ HWZ
Compex Wireless Access(WP11A) from hardwaremasters
Hercules' 3D Prophet 8500 128MB graphics card reviewed at TR
Compex HPNA Home Phone Line Network from gotapex
Samsung YP-90S AM/FM MP3 Portable Digital Audio Player
Gigabyte's New 8IEXP and 8IGX from tweaktown
Creative Audigy Platinum EX from hardware testdk
XFX GeForce4 Ti 4200 from guru3d
Icemat Black & White Mousemat Review @ AusPCWorld
DiskOnKey @ Bjorn3d
Omega driver first impressions from monster hardware
Asus V8420 Deluxe review @ AMD3D.com
Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum Review at sourcemagazine
In an interesting article, evidence has been suggested that nVidia has some secret on-chip cache.
There is a huge June 2002 hardware digest up. Looks like a good read, Certainly has enough content.
Surfing for things you shouldn't be while you're at work? According to this survey, Sackings for porn surfing are on the rise. Thanks alex.
There are some funky never before seen gadgets posted here. Stuff like sound absorption kits and fans with hidden surprises.
Are Tablet PC's on the out? This article boasts some information about upcoming tablets and a few words from the all powerful Microsoft.
Vindaloo a forum regular has gone and put together a huge post about home brewed beer! From how to make it to where to get it. Nice work!
Here is a nice guide on installing LAN handles to your PC case.
Here is the second part of an article on liquid cooling your GeForce 4. I know for certain liquid isn't going anywhere near my Geforce 4 :)
Divx released their DivX Player Version 2.0 Alpha 5 for Windows which is compatible with the ATI All In Wonder Remote Control. Ta Smeg.
If you're out for a dose of crazy stuff, check out ZZZ issue 136. This time with An array of uses for a new speaker technology, including but not limited to: inflatable beer can speakers, translucent speakers, and the somewhat terrifying Michael Jackson silhouette speakers. Eye-tracking mice for hands free computing, Phase change clothing to keep you cool without having to lug around ice cubes in your pockets and a triple dose of airplane near-accidents.
To finish on a funny note, the Ten simple rules for dating my daughter.
Win Stuff :
5 copies of IL2-Sturmovik *World War II air combat sim* to win at 3davenue. As usual, might want to check the country rules to see if you are eligible.
Reviews :
Topower 520Watt PSU with 3 fans at iamnotageek
MicroTracker Mouse Pad reviewed by dansdata
Qtec 400 watt and 550 watt Power supplies from amdworld
Red Faction Review @ OcPrices.com
Nexland Pro400 Internet Security Box Review @ 8BallsHW
Samsung DVD-L100 Portable DVD Player Review at pcstats
Directron Hydraulic ATX Mid-Tower Review at gamingin3d
Colorcases X-Wing Case Reviewed at gaminging3d
Enermax Fan UC-8FAB from casetest
Cobalt3 Pyramid Temperature Controlled Fan Silencer Review @ Tweaknews
Evergreen Technologies TherMagic TIM Review by tweaktown
Jazz ROCCO 5.1 Dolby Digital/DTS Speaker System Review @ RADIATIVEnz
Designtechnica Reviews Ati's Fire Gl 8800 Video Editing Graphics Card @ designtechnia
Soyo Dragon Ultra Platinum review from viahardware
Legend QDI PlatiniX 8-A @ hawdware test
ABIT Siluro Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB from hexus
Samsung Tantus LTM1775W 17" Widescreen LCD TV Review @ The Tech Zone
Albatron PX845G Pro II review @ Hardware Avenue
The SeaSonic 350FS from digitaldomination
Samsung 181B TFT LCD Review from neoseeker
Antec TruePower 550watt Power Supply Review from tweaktown
Soltek SL-85DR2 mainboard from active-hardware
Not the best way to start off news, Developer of Gnutella, Gene Kan has passed away. Thanks Ben.
There is a guide up on putting linux on your Shuttle system. "But how does the SS40G really work out with Linux? Since I had wanted to use this as a Linux box myself, I decided that I would share my findings with everyone as I went through the steps of installing Linux and using it."
Apparently there is a free beta of Norton Antivirus 2003. It can be downloaded here. Follow the readme file that is included in the exe. Thanks DJ-Studd.
Interesting read about Understanding CPU Caching and Performance.
Well, It looks like Ebay have bought PayPal. It only cost them a mere $1.5B in stock. Cheers Quilb.
Got a spare old lunch box around? Why not dump a linux cluster in it! Thanks McGoff.
HardOCP have a tour of the Gainward plant.
Intel have begun to ship their Itanium 2 Processors.
There is apparently another way to unlock your T'Bred. "This method is just like pin modding the Northwood to get higher VCore voltage where you can either use a thin wire or conductive grease the connect the pins together."
The news box was a little thin tonight, So send in some more news :)
Reviews :
A three-pack of Ti 4600s reviewed at TR
Abit's AT7 & IT7 MAX Motherboards@ HotHardware.Com
Arkua 628M-6M-T from Tech-Fusion
Creative SB Extigy at techspot
Congrats to znipa-x who won Week 7 of the Folding Giveaway. The Consolation Prize winner is Strange1. This week's prizes are from CoolPC and Adilam, so get folding! Only a few weeks left to score yourself free stuff. In case you're wondering what the point of Folding@Home really is, our resident Master of Folding, "Bollocks", has written an article here with some info. We have recently dropped back into 2nd place, so every spare MHz counts!
Plenty of activity in the PC Database over the last few days. It's back up and working 100% now, so if you wanted to update or add your entry, now's the time!
Also, I notice a few international forums linking to the GTR PC lately, so it seems some people out there haven't seen this cool mod:
Click for the PCDB entry!
BTW, if you see this PC around anywhere, let myself or BlueSmurf know - as it was stolen from his home a couple of months ago.
Tuesday Afternoon
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Tuesday, 9-July-2002 13:19:08 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Congrats to forum-goers Cryogenic and SnotRag, who are going to be having a baby soon.. I guess I should reserve the forum account CryoSnot for him/her? :)
Wired have an article about supercomputers, focussing on the Earth Simulator which is due to come online soon. Also, apparently eBay will buy PayPal.
LanAddict have an article about the new America's Army game.. answers some of the questions we had about it and, despite some problems, sounds pretty cool.
Speaking of games, 3DAvenue post their Top 10 Most Wanted.. games they're hangin' out to see.
Draffa says in this thread that there's to be an "Antenna Workshop" in Brisbane in Sept, which provides an opportunity for meshers to come together to learn about, design and build antennas such as cantennas, simple omnis and modded galaxy dishes.
CDRInfo have an article about Mt Rainier, a new CDRW standard attempting to make "drag and drop burning" less dependent on proprietary applications.
HotHardware have pics of AthlonXP SFF or Small Form-Factor CPU's.. on their main page.
Ali_g spotted this Earth Observatory pics page.. including this interesting fires animation thing.
Resident Master Chef PostModern sends word of some goings-on in our Geek Food forum: The June Cook-off (Soups) winner was Iroquois with his Chicken and Sweet Corn soup, Runner up was HoldenAngel with her Asian Flavoured Pumpkin Soup. Links to all the June cook-off entries are in this thread. The July Cook-off is Potatoes!
Nice new logo on this page thanks to Darkness.. change is good.
Reviews:
Chaintech 7VJL "APOGEE" KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard on OCTools.
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4200 reference video card on DeviantPC.
HardCano2 HDD cooler video review on 3DGameMan.
Abit KX7-333R KT333-based socketA DDR motherboard on ExtremeCooling.
X-Micro GeForce4 Impact T4200 128MB video card on GotApex.
MSI 845E Max2-BLR P4 DDR motherboard on ViperLair.
Albatron GeForce4 Ti4600 video card on PCStats.
Sibak AC06725TH heatsink/fan on FrostyTech.
Audiotrak Maya44 Professional Sound Card on Digit-Life.
Thermalright AX7 HSF on PC-Arena.
WAITEC Sfinx16 DVD/CDRW "combo" drive on CDRInfo.
Gainward Golden Sample GeForce4 Ti4200 video card on TweakTown.
Typing this with a Band-Aid on my finger, took a chunk out of it with the northbridge heatsink on the A7V333. I suffer for my art. :)
SourceMag have an article about AMD edging into the server market.
G3D have a roundup of 11Mbit wireless networking bits.
PlanetSavage have an article about practical RAID.. we have a look at some options here and here.. and a completely impractical option here. :)
Typical.. the day I put up my A7V333 Review.. ZeUSS says: when i last looked, there was no mention in the downloads section, but on the main page at ASUS they mention the ASUS A7V333 v1008 bios update is available.
Tweakers have a bunch of WinXP Tips and Tricks posted.
DesignTechnica continue their article about Installing a Home Theatre.
Tech-Report compare the All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV vs. Personal Cinema.. on the video-editing side of things.
Tweaktown compared the Abit Siluro Ti4200 vs Triplex Millennium Ti4200 budget-performance video cards.
Interesting Forum Threads
New AthlonXP Barton Rating in AMD Hardware.
New System in Newbie Lounge.
CDROM's don't last! in Newbie Lounge.
Microsoft Recalls Optical Mouse in Overclocking & Hardware.
The Effect of Flow Rates in Extreme Cooling.
Now that NeverWinter Nights is out.. in Software Stuff.
V8 OCAU Car in Software Stuff.
JellyBean Article in Modding & Electronics.
10Gb Ethernet (802.3ae)- Want to know more? in Networking & Internet.
ADSL Broadband Provider Roundup in Networking & Internet.
Reviews:
Abit MediaXP port relocator (similar to the FrontX) on Hexus.
Prometia Cooling System on 3DVelocity.
ActionTech Wireless-Ready Gateway on GamingIn3D.
Hercules 3D Prophet 8500 128MB video card on HotHardware.
Samsung 181T TFT LCD screen on RatedPC.
Swiftech MCW40 GPU Waterblock on LiquidNinjas.
SiS Xabre 400 video chipset on HardWareZone.
Chaintech 7VJL Apogee KT333 motherboard on OCNZ.
Lazer LED case lighting on Monster-Hardware.
Samsung SP4002H 40GB HDD on FutureLooks.
ABIT IT7 P4 DDR motherboard on Hardware-TestDK.
Asus A7V333 Review!
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Monday, 8-July-2002 16:26:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I'm not exactly first out of the gate with this one, but I've been playing with an A7V333 for a while now and wrote up my results. This KT333 board is for SocketA with DDR memory, of course.. and also packs a heap of other goodies onto the PCB:
Click for the full review!
Approximately Midnight, Sunday evening
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Monday, 8-July-2002 00:44:23 (GMT +10) - by Manaz
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Well, it has been a long time, but I think I've still got what it takes to make a news post here. Let's see, shall we?...
Ever since the PCDB came back online fully, there's been a spate of new systems listed (and some old listings updated). Very nice watercooled setup from morphling1... CubeH20 and KungFuCamel's entries are not too shabby either...
Rumour has it (it's the Enquirer, OK?) that Gainward plan on releasing a "Golden Sample" GeForce4 Ti4200 video card, clocked at 270MHz/570MHz (core/RAM). That's getting RIGHT up there into Ti4400 territory. Thanks to goofydave for that link.
Speaking of rumours, Daniel let us know that DigiTimes are reporting that nForce 2 will be debuting on July 16th.
First there was Terminator, where Arnie was the bad guy. Then there was Terminator 2, when Arnie was the good guy. Now there's Terminator 3 - I don't know if Arnie's good or bad in this one, but you can view the trailer here on the Apple website. Thanks to Kaser for spotting that one.
Daniel Rutter (of Dan's Data fame) has decided to let people know how not to email him in his latest Ground Zero column. Read, pay attention, learn. He's also posted an I/O Letters column.
Tired of lugging your 17" or 19" monitor around when you go to a LAN? What about your mid or full tower system? Bjorn3D reckon they've got the answer.
Have you ever wondered how some of the fancier etched case windows were made? Ever wished you could have one? Systemcooling.com thought that you might like some instructions on doing it yourself...
You may or may not know what a trebuchet is - it was designed in medieval times for hurling large objects (like rocks/boulders/burning things) at people you really didn't like (who were holed up in a castle you wanted to get into for instance). I bet the original designers never imagined in their wildest dreams that their contraption would be one day be built as a functioning lego model though. Thanks to Icarus for that link - it may not necessarily be technical, or related to computer hardware, but it is cool...
Something else that's rather cool. TonyR let us know about the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day page.
And just when you thought you were safe from further Shockwave Flash games, Rage sent in this link. Multi-player mini golf and other fantastic time wasters await you there...
Reviews:
DFI NB73-EA (Intel 845E) Motherboard on Hardware Extreme.
Corsair PC-3000XMS DDR-RAM on ExtremeCooling.
Intel 845G & Pentium 4 2.53GHz on Tweakers Australia.
Logitech Z-340 Speakers on Virtual-Hideout.
Albatron Geforce4 MX-440 Video Card on Mikhailtech.
BitsModding Green 12" CCFL on GideonTech.
Albatron PX845G ProII Motherboard on SubZeroTech.
EPoX 8K3A VIA KT333 Motherboard on Planet Savage.
Akasa Luminous Rounded IDE Cables on BlargOC.
Added your PC to the PCDB since it came up and had trouble getting it to accept more than 1 picture? That bug is fixed now, thanks MWP! Some cool stuff added in the last few days, like martinus4, an attempt to build a very quiet router PC.
Silent Remorse has another news-blast for us: Nasty Klez variant expected to emerge on July 6, an NSA Security-enhanced Linux version, more talk on Palladium (MS's security thingo) and a startup company plans MP3 module for GameBoy. Here's 10 signs that you play games too much and a Samsung RDRAM roadmap. The IT industry could beat viruses by adopting methods used by the medical profession and a major Chinese satellite was hacked.
SR and Munkiboy spotted Microsoft may be selling PC's into the value end of the market, using VIA's C3 processor.
Digital-Silence compare the GeForce 2, 3 and 4 video chipsets.
daDude says this is a link to the latest beta of redhat linux, has openoffice and the new kde and gnome desktop as well as kernel ect... Beta, so be warned, stuff may break.
Nice Radeon 8500 watercooling over on Slo-Tech. Not in english, but pics tell the story.
alx-e sends word that Eric Corley, who operates the 2600 magazine and Web site, chose not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a ruling that ordered him to remove links to decryption software written by someone else. Corley's attorneys had unsuccessfully argued that publishing the program was free speech.
Interesting covert communications tool using stenanography (burying encrypted information in normal-looking images) to be released by "hactivists", thanks Alex.
Redback says: Im probably not the first person to tell you this, but the idea behind the new army game, is that the us army is hoping people will see what the army do and want to join up, or something.. hmm, I don't think playing an FPS game is going to make ME want to experience it for real.
We've seen this before, but it'll pass a few minutes.. a flash spank the monkey timewaster, thanks Tony. It's easy to cheat. :)
Interesting thread here about multiple users on Bigpond Cable and possible connection problems, thanks Mitch.
People using motherboard monitor under Win2K and XP might be interested to know there's a transparency patch for the dashboard now, thanks Ali_G.
Ben spotted inflatable speakers.. Wonder if they'd work as floaties in the pool. Could play music at the same time. ;)
BlargOC compare the OCZ and Samsung PC2700 512MB memory sticks.
Nobes noticed that VIA's P4X400 DDR chipset for P4 has been announced (and we haven't been seeing P4X333 boards for very long). I wonder if this means anything for KT400, the socketA equivalent. According to this site, some motherboards supporting Serial ATA (one of which is a KT400 board) will be available in June and August, thanks feral.
Spotted a pretty cool custom perspex case in the PCDB, with just a few HDD's tucked away inside..
Click for the PCDB entry!
Saturday Evening
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Saturday, 6-July-2002 17:49:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Been at the track all day and now I'm off to see Spiderman. Have some reviews. :)
Reviews:
Crucial PC2700 DDR memory on 3DVelocity.
Hercules XPS 510 speakers on DigitalDomination.
DFI NB73-EA Socket-478 motherboard on HWZ.
Chili Pro MicroATX case on OCrCafe.
DFI NB73-EA (Intel 845E) P4 DDR motherboard on HardwareExtreme.
Lian-Li PC50 case on NeoSeeker.
Asus V8170 GF4 MX440 video card on TheDDRZone.
PC2-C Koolance case on BurnOutPC.
DFI NB76-EC P4 DDR motherboard on Hexus.
eVGA e-GeForce4 MX 440 video card on BlargOC.
300 Watt Ultra-Quiet Power Supply video review on 3DGameMan.
Prometia Cooling System on BlargOC.
M-Audio Studiophile SP-5B Active Near-Field Monitors speakers on Digit-Life.
Evercool CUW1F-715 HSF on AMD3D.
Palit GeForce 4 Ti 4200 video card on VR-Zone.
ECS K7VTA3 SocketA DDR motherboard on Monster-Hardware.
Actiontec Wireless Gateway on HardAvenue.
DCi PC707-69 Slim Desktop Case on SystemCooling.
Friday Morning Gargantu-post
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Friday, 5-July-2002 01:54:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Woo, lots of updated PCDB entries.. that's what I like to see. :)
Tweaktown have some info about ATI R250, also known as Radeon 8500 MAXX. Some kind of leaked document, all very James Bond.
Some modding projects.. a cheapo digidoc on Monster-Hardware, baybus continued on Heatseekerz. A frozen lego man in a window-modded mouse from Deane pretty much tops them all. :)
Addicted to EverQuest? Here's an interview with the man responsible.. see what he's been up to lately. No doubt making more crack-like games. :)
If you are S. McCracken from somewhere in Oz, you won a prize on SystemCooling. Try your luck at winning a modified lian-li over on OCrCafe.
DaDude spotted an article about desktop Linux over on ratedPC.
From Icewind: Its been a while coming, but new Hercules Fortissimo II Drivers have arrived, fixing among other things a few bugs and performance issues.
LiamC has gazed into his crystal ball - the first link on his site is to an article listing quite a few up-and-coming technologies, what they mean and when they may be likely to appear. If you'd prefer to look backwards, Sin22 spotted an AMD historical roadmap.
PCStats went to PCExpo / TechXNY 2002 and want to tell you all about it..
Wolfy spotted a lightbulb that's been burning for 100 years.. *pop*
Xplora sent in this miniputt flash timewaster.
Argh.. beautiful cars going bang, thanks Gaz.
Apparently America's Army is a new game that's impressing quite a few people.. AusGamers Files are hosting a trailer and the first demo of it, thanks Anthony. Or.. hmm, maybe it's the full game? Some people are saying that the game is totally free and made by the real, actual, U.S. Army and they use it to train their soldiers. I've no idea and at 208MB or so I'm not likely to find out any time soon. :) It's also here and here, thanks Silent Remorse.
Reviews:
VisionTek GeForce4 MX440 video card on ModFactor.
Pioneer DVI-104 DVD-RW / CDRW drive on ModFactor.
VIA VPSD P4B-UR P4X333-based P4 DDR motherboard on Hexus.
Crystal Clear Fans with LED's on OCIA.
ABIT BD7II-RAID & BG7 P4 DDR motherboards on VR-Zone.
Vantec Silent Drive HDD cooler (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Hercules Prophetview 920 LCD screen on Digit-Life.
Vantec Iceberq chipset cooler on OCWareHouse.
Belkin n50 Speedpad and n30 gaming mouse on PC-Arena.
Sidewinder CCFL case lighting on GideonTech.
MSI K7D Master dual socketA mobo on VIAHW.
Sony CPD-G410R 19inch monitor on TheTechZone.
Sibak Copper heatsink on Tech-Fusion.
Creative Inspire 5700 speakers on Bit-Tech.
Logitech Z560 speakers on Hardware-TestDK.
Asus P4T533 RAMBUS P4 motherboard on AMD3D.
ATI Radeon 8500LE video card on LANAddict.
Gigabyte GA-8IGX P4 DDR motherboard on Hardwarezone.
Chaintech GeForce 4 Ti4200 video card on OCNZ.
Pioneer DVD-106S DVD/CD drive on EXHardware.
Inno3D Tornado GeForce4 Ti 4200 64MB video card on PlanetSavage.
Lian Li PC-50, PC-601, PC-6100 and PC-7B cases on DansData.
Lian Li PC-9300 on DansData, too.
After a couple of weeks of being read-only, the PC Database is back and fully-functional again! Many thanks to MWP who spent a fair bit of time tracking down and fixing the pesky bugs that were making it corrupt the database. Also thanks to several forum-goers who helped out with bug-hunting and other suggestions. We've restored the database as of the 16th of June, so if you've been waiting to update or add your entry, now's your chance!
If you haven't visited the PCDB in a while, check out the latest entries, as well as those voted as the Top 10 PC's in terms of looks, effort or overall.
Add your PC now!
Wednesday Evening
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Wednesday, 3-July-2002 19:46:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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HardOCP have taken a look at what dual-channel DDR could bring, in the form of a pre-release chipset from Intel.
Wired say that some mechanics are finding it hard to keep up with the pace of computerisation in cars.
Some more info about the Media Player controversy on NewScientist, thanks J.Rotten.
Bit-Tech squeezed a vapochill into a Lian-Li.. nice effort.
Gaming fans MOS have been hit by a huge DDoS attack unfortunately, info in this thread.
ReaX noticed that GameArena have a Neverwinter Nights server now. From what I've seen of Neverwinter Nights, it looks like a game I should never ever play or I'll be sucked into it for months.
Dan has added some more coolers to his comparison.. including the Thermalright SLK800.
Digit-Life have a roundup of 3 USB storage gadgets.
More LANs! Lanolot are having one this weekend in Ormiston QLD, thanks ToOkEy. If you're in Sweden there's apparently a huge one on right now, thanks ORG2000. This friday night in Sydney there's a short one organised by OCAU forum people, info here in the forums.
Reviews:
Xtreme DDR PC2700 memory on ViperLair.
Triplex GF4 Ti4200 video card on Tweakers.
Triplex GF4 Ti4200 video card also on DansData.
Soyo P4S Dragon Ultra Plus motherboard on PCStats.
CyberDrive DM166D 16x DVD-ROM drive on MikhailTech.
OCAU Trading Forums
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Wednesday, 3-July-2002 15:05:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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OCAU's trading forums went down for a couple of days. They're back now, in a modified form. It's been a busy week. :)
Wednesday Morning Also
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Wednesday, 3-July-2002 13:11:15 (GMT +10) - by YYK
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Things are a little weirder than usual with pre-schoolers attacking a man wearing a 7ft swan suit. Not sure which is more disturbing the attack or the suit.
Check out these cool pictures of a massive solar eruption, more than 30 times the length of Earth's diameter. Probably caused by the heated salary negotiation of Paramount and Patrick Stewart for Nemesis.
Check out the new Matrix 2 teaser poster. Nothing special.
Congrats to Steve Fossett after finally completing his record-breaking solo round-the-world balloon journey overnight. You know what they say, 6th time lucky.
More trouble in the Magic Kingdom with Mickey Mouse filing suit against Donald Duck. My bet is that it's probably got to do with that "no pants" issue.
This can't be good for Worldcom as Australian companies utilising them are being advised to run for the hills. As fast as they can with their lawyer in tow.
If you ever find yourself in a maximum security prison and you need to escape to prove your innocence, here's my advice: use two plastic spoons. That's what these two inmates did to escape a 19 million maximum-security detention facility.
You know you're asking for trouble when you shout the Irish soccer team drinks. Michael Flatley (yes, that Flately) got 20,000 pounds worth of trouble. And some funny quotes from the World Cup 2002
Incredibly bizarre is Kevin Sorbo, who is unveiling his new line of furniture. Err.. yay?
It will be legal to practice witchcraft and what not in the state of Victoria, with the decriminalisation of a 1966 law that bans sorcery and the occult. That labor party woman who used voodoo to remove Jeff Kennett from power, should be very happy. And who says that your local members do nothing for you?
Nothing like doing news 5 hours away from home. :)
Apparently there is a $200,000 reward for porting Linux to xbox! An anonymous donor... has announced to award at total of US$ 200,000 for the completion of various tasks on the Xbox Linux Project until December 31st 2002. The basic goal of the project is to find a simple and completely legal way to run Linux on the Microsoft Xbox.
There is a guide up at the Overclocking Intelligence Agency *riiiight* on how to make a kickass LAN case. On the topic of guides, here is a guide on 'Linux for the desktop'
For those of you who missed them last time and are in the market for some low level radioactive marbles? Pick some up on ebay if you want. Ta Zzapped
Interesting read here about satellite radio.
Edj sent in this interesting link to the history of Microsoft Windows. Dates back to Windows 1.0 all the way to .net.
Reviews :
AOpen GeForce4 MX420 & MX460 Overclockers Online
VisionTek's 48X CD-RW Drive at Bjorn3d
DFI's NB76-EA Reviewed @ HotHardware.Com
AOpen AX4B-Maxat OC' cafe
Morrowind Review @ RADIATIVEnz
Open AX4B Pro-533 & AX4G Pro Reviews at vr-zone
Wednesday Morning (just)
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Wednesday, 3-July-2002 00:11:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Wolfy spotted some time-sucking text-graphics adventure games here, while Sabretooth sent in a (possibly buggy) Battleships game.
Sciby notes that perhaps telemarketers can be a welcome voice sometimes.
Sniper spotted AthlonXP SFF CPU's being talked about on Xbit: The new Athlon XP supports Cool’N’Quiet technology, which allows changing the CPU core clock frequency depending on its utilization.
Digit-Life have a Radeon 8500 128MB video card roundup, while Hardware-TestDK compare KT333 motherboards.
Interesting article on Anandtech comparing a range of video chipsets and seeing how they fare in Unreal Tournament 2003.
CaseJunkiez tricked out their DigiDoc with some LED's.. our DigiDoc review is here.
Australian fans of the game Dark Age of Camelot should be happy to know there's a site for Australian players run by our own Manaz.
ZZZ Online have another issue posted with the usual crazy stuff.. actually, I think they've outdone themselves this time: SO.... imagine that you're a kid with a typical imagination, and by holding up a toilet seat... that this is a portal to another world. everything you see through the toilet seat is actually in another world, it's like a periscope opening to fridgemagnet-land... in the real world that tree you're staring @ is just a normal tree, but hold up the magic toilet seat portal and it is revealed to you what that tree looks like in fridgemagnet-land, it's actually a fridgemagnet tree, but this can only be seen through the magic toilet seat portal.... riiiiight.
Reviews:
Iwill MPX2 dual Athlon motherboard on 2CPU.
MSI GeForce4 Ti4600 video card on VR-Zone.
Tuesday Morning #2
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Tuesday, 2-July-2002 03:37:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Congrats to Tarrasque who won last week's Folding Giveaway prizes.. ZeonX took home a consolation prize, too. You know what I'm going to say.. if you want to be part of it.. get folding! This week's prizes are from GadgetMan, Below-0, CoolPC and Adilam.
Monster-Hardware have some pretty basic case-modding going on.. slapping a window and cold-cathode into their PC. Somewhat more fancy is this LED CPU Meter that works via your parallel port, thanks Dan. If LCD is more your thing, check out Wolfy's guide to hooking one up.
Kinda funny mini-conversation in the news box, Martin from ModFactor saying: ..Visiontek has made a big mistake in some of there GeForce 4 4600 video cards. .. I myself also have a DVi-D not DVi-I connection on my Visiontek GF4 4600 and as everyone knows DVI-I was advertised to be on the GF4 4600 and review sites had DVI-I not DVI-D so it has come to our conclusion that Visiontek made a mistake on some video cards or they ran out of DVi-I for a while and just decided to put DVI-D on the cards. To which Kyle from [H]ard|OCP replied: Yes, it is a mistake on Visiontek's part and they are aware of it. They have made efforts to bring back the cards that went out with the wrong jack. If you CALL their tech support line and explain the issue they will trade you out a card with the right connector on it. It really should be that simple. So there you go. If you have this problem, talk to your vendor or maybe email support@visiontek.com for info on the swap if it bothers you.
Apparently Thermaltake, known for their cooling products, have a sister company called Bluetake. Unsurprisingly, they specialise in Bluetooth (wireless networking) products.. Hexus have a review of one of their kits. Meanwhile, AMDWorld reviewed an MSI adapter.
Here's a cool projector project, thanks Mutanto. Grant suggests building a robot head if home theatre's not your thing.
TweakersAsylum updated their Detonator Performance database, comparing a few new versions.
PCHardware.ro compared GF4 MX440 cards from Abit and MSI.
JATHardware have some link pages you may be interested in: motherboard reviews, socketA CPU reviews and cooling/overclocking stuff.. should keep you busy.
Reviews:
Noblesse Case on Heatseekerz.
Gigabyte GA-8IEXP i845E-based P4 DDR motherboard on Tweakers.
CoolerMaster rounded cables on BurnOutPC.
Nexland ISB Pro800Turbo Load Balancing router on OCClub.
Cambridge Soundworks MegaWorks 510D speakers on OCPrices.
FUJIFILM FinePix F601 Zoom camera on Digit-Life.
FIC VC19 i845E-based P4 DDR motherboard on TweakTown.
MSI 845G Max-L i845G-based P4 DDR motherboard on HotHardware.
ATI Radeon 8500 AIW video card on ByteSector.
Xoxide C6 pre-modded case on ViperLair.
Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra socketA DDR motherboard on Tech-Report.
Samsung 181T TFT screen on DeviantPC.
Evergreen Thermagic thermal paste on Accelenation.
NatriumTech UltraDM Digital Rheobus on Virtual-Hideout.
Soyo Dragon KT333 Ultra socketA DDR motherboard on AMD3D.
Happy Birthday to Sniper (for yesterday)!
Interesting thread about rescuing a dead HDD by using your freezer in our Troubleshooting Help forum.
Catman found this site showing off the triple-monitor feature of Matrox's Parhelia, for surround gaming.
XtremeSystems have a guide to voltage modding the KX7-333R / KR7A / KG7 range of Abit socketA motherboards.
From MWP: New ver of Opera for windows is up on their site (cant get the exact location as i cant get on the ftp, too busy). Version 6.04. IMO its MUCH faster than previous versions. No more need to run IE :)
Paul spotted more info on the tooth phones.. also, they reckon there's been one billion PC's sold so far, and reminisce about the early days of PC's.
From THX1138: Australia is now in 8th place in front of France in the total country standings for seti@home.. nice one, guys.
Sin22 spotted this gargantuan article about processor history and P4 mistakes. You'll need the comfy chair and at least a coupla coffees.
Morgan sent in this article suggesting that the latest Media Player security patch may also install digial rights management software. leperMessiah spotted more info (and some ranting) on TheReg.
Apparently there'll be no DDR-II standard.. well, nothing called that, thanks VooDoo.
A few days ago I whinged about the lack of a single DVD writeable standard.. Ben notes that may be less of a problem with new multi-standard drives.
If you're a poet and you do know it, you can win a video card by making a haiku on Bjorn3D.
Sabretooth says: there's going to be a smallish LAN (~40 people) held in St Lucia, Brisbane on the Saturday 6th of July going from 10AM-2AM the next morning. Full details are here. Registration is here. It's only $10 and is right next to Coles, Subway, with a fair bit of parking behind the building. Richard says: the ACT Gaming Network is having their 220 person monthly lan on the 6th July.
Reviews:
OCZ Dominator2 and OCZ Goliath SE heatsinks on Radiative.
Lian-Li PC-35 Case on SystemCooling.
NoiseControl Silverado socket cooler on 8balls.
Rayovac's 1-Hour NiMH Battery Charger on Bjorn3D.
Albatron KT400+ KT333-based SocketA DDR motherboard on TweakTown.
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