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January 2006 |
Harley-Davidson Inspired PC
(4 Comments)
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Tuesday, 31-January-2006 23:37:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of their motorcycles, but you have to admire the effort that's gone into this PC. A superbly finished project:
Click for the PCDB entry! (14 pics)
Tuesday Afternoon Review-o-Rama
(2 Comments)
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Tuesday, 31-January-2006 16:27:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Targus ChillHub Laptop USB2.0 Cooling Pad on LaptopLifestyle.
Titan Vanessa CPU coolers on Driverheaven.
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro on DriverHeaven.
Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus VGA cooler on Phoronix.
Noctua U9 and U12 CPU coolers on PCApex.
Global Win Super Conductor CPU cooler on Hi-TechReviews.
Input Etc:
Logitech MX3100 Desktop on Designtechnica.
Logitech MX518/MX1000 mice on Phoronix.
Logitech Bluetooth MX5000 Laser Desktop on Bytesector.
Logitech MX610 cordless laser mouse on CyberWizardPit.
Audio / Visual:
HP L2335 Widescreen LCD on PenStarSys.
LG Flatron M1910A LCD TV/Monitor on TrustedReviews.
Diamond Multimedia Xtreme Sound 7.1 sound card on PCPerspective.
Creative Zen Vision:M mp3 player on GadgetFlash.
Blueye Cyclops Bluetooth Stereo Headphones on HWZone.
Bose QuietComfort 2 Noise Cancelling Headphones on LaptopGamers.
Oakley Thump2 1GB MP3 Sunglasses on BonaFideReviews.
Mad Catz iPod Nano Case on Bytesector.
Apple iPod Nano mp3 player on Bytesector.
Video Cards:
PowerColor X800GTO16 on OCOnline.
Sapphire Radeon X800GTO2 LE on HotHardware.
Motherboards & CPU:
ASUS A8R-MVP CrossFire board on TechReport.
Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS A64 board with video on PCStats.
Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 LGA775 CPU on MBReview.
Storage & Memory:
Team Group Memory Roundup on MadShrimps.
Corsair Voyager 4GB USB Flash Drive on ThinkComputers.
160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3 2.5" HDD on BigBruin.
Toshiba 512MB TransMemory flash drive on ARP.
Corsair 2048 MB XMS 3500 LL Pro memory on 3DXtreme.
Mushkin Redline XP4000 DDR 2GB on OCPrices.
Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO DDR on ExtremeOC.
Mushkin Xtreme Performance XP2-5300 DDR2 on LegitReviews.
Cases:
Cooler Master Centurion 540 mATX on ViperLair.
NZXT Lexa case on XYZComputing.
Cooler Master CM Media 250 HTPC case on BigBruin.
Thermaltake Bach and Mozart HTPC cases on XbitLabs.
Sansun SN-C001 "Bat" midtower on Virtual-Hideout.
Power Supply:
Antec Phantom 500W on Techgate.
Thermaltake ToughPower 500W on RBMods.
Silverstone Strider STF60 600W on Hi-TechReviews.
Software:
SLAX Standard v5.0.7 LiveCD Linux distro on Phoronix.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Build 5259 preview on ExtremeMHz.
Strategy First Cuban Missile Crisis game on BIOSMag.
Microsoft Antispyware beta on PCMech.
Misc:
Cordless Gas Glue Gun on Chargin.
Orange SPV M5000 - 3G Smartphone on TrustedReviews.
ZyXEL Prestige 660HW wireless ADSL modem/router on TrustedReviews.
Act-On Optical MicMouse & Earphone combo mouse and VoIP phone (?!) on A1-Electronics.
NEC Versa S5200 Centrino Duo Notebook on HWZone.
Should keep you busy for a while.. :)
Voltus sent in these pictures - click to enlarge:
  
 
There's no real info in the email, so I don't know much about them. They may even just be prototype mock-ups. Still, we have seen this kind of projected keyboard before, if not so nicely presented. Cool gadgets, anyway.
Monday Midday
(8 Comments)
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Monday, 30-January-2006 12:56:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Acid notes the Oz Xbox360 launch has been pushed back 3 weeks due to supply issues. The console will now be officially unleashed at 12:01am on March 23 2006.
PenStarSys have their thoughts posted about Conroe, Intel's upcoming CPU family. There is no doubt that these will be better performing than anything that Intel has out today, and it will certainly be a lot cooler and more efficient than the current Pentium 4’s.
TheTechZone have a quick article on making Windows shut-down quicker. Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop' and double click on the 'AutoEndTasks'. Change the value to 1 and click on OK.
PCMech highlight some cheap software to get you started with video editing. If you just bought a DV camcorder and want to show the world or your family what it's seeing, you need video editing software.
HWZone cover Intel's Centrino Duo "Napa" mobile technology. Despite having two execution cores on one die, Intel claims the battery life is on par, if not better than previous generations of Centrino platforms.
Designtechnica have a quick look at the PowerSquid surge protector. Six flexible arms connect to a base which has a single male plug that goes into the wall.
TheTechZone report on some unusual ways of making a living in MMORP games. In one survey, 20% of MMORPG players said they regarded the game world as their "real" place of residence; Earth is just where they eat and sleep.
Tech-Hounds had a bit of a play with SLi. I just picked up a 7800GT as part of my foray into PCIe-based gaming. It plays BF2 at 1600x1200 at maximum detail and 4x AA, butter-smooth. Leaves me wondering why you'd need a 7800GTX or even two of them in SLi..
eCoustics have some thoughts about digital rights management. One thing is certain: A few more incidents like Sony's "rootkit" flap and consumers may revolt.
XYZComputing wonder if 2006 will be the year of the HTPC. They highlight a few stylish HTPC cases.
UKGamer meanwhile checked out Intel's VIIV, their new "entertainment PC" standard.
Video Card
Sapphire Radeon X1800XT 512MB on Hardware Zoom.
Asus EN7800GT Top Silent on Trusted Reviews.
ASUS EAX1300PRO on Phoronix.
ATi Radeon X1900XT on VR-Zone.
Sapphire Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB on Hardware Zone.
Case & Power Supply
Spire RockeTeerV 500W on 3D Xtreme.
Zalman ZM460-APS on Overlockers Online.
Antec P180 on Bit-Tech.
Cooling
Thermalright HR-01 LGA775 Passive HS on 3D Game Man.
PCToys System Maxx Fan Controller on OC Mod Shop.
Noctua NH-U9 on Pro-Clockers.
Vantec Vortex 2 HDD Cooler on Tech Gage.
Input Devices
Ideazon Z Board on XS Reviews.
RedOctane Afterburner Metal Dance Pad on Driver Heaven.
Multimedia
XFX NVTV PCI TV Tuner on AMD Review.
Sony PSP on Laptop Gamers.
PowerColor Theater 550 Pro PCI Express TV Tuner on Hot Hardware.
Thermaltake CircleFire Panel on Mikahail Tech.
Creative Zen Vision:M "iPod Killer" on T-Break.
Icemat Siberia USB Combo Headset on Velocity Reviews.
Storage & Memory
Thermaltake Muse eSATA HDD Enclosure on Velocity Reviews.
Corsair Secure Digital 133x Memory Card on Phoronix.
Corsair 2GB XMS 4000PT on Virtual Hideout.
Miscellaneous
GAIM v2.0.0 BETA 2 on Phoronix.
Tally Genicom 9022 Laser Printer on Trusted Reviews.
SPAMfighter 4.3.0 on NGOHQ.
AC Ryan Backy SATA - E-SATA adapter on Think Computers.
Mio Technology's A201 Sat-Nav PDA on BIOS.
Sunday Afternoon
(6 Comments)
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Sunday, 29-January-2006 16:55:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Happy lunar/chinese new year. :)
Big news from the last few days is that ABIT is merging with USI. It's difficult to know exactly what this will bring, but ABIT has had some financial concerns recently while still making popular products, so hopefully this will stabilise things a bit. OCW have an interview with ABIT PR about their perspective on it. We have never heard of USI. Tell us a bit more about them.
Amazingly it's been 20 years since Challenger exploded with the loss of all seven crew. The seven astronauts of shuttle Challenger, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, perished in an orange-and-white fireball nine miles above Cape Canaveral. Debris rained into the Atlantic Ocean for more than an hour.
HWZone talked to Seagate about storage. We discussed the future of hard drives and talked about Seagate's plans to dominate more than 97% of the storage market space.
Bit-Tech checked out the results of AMD and Ferrari teaming up for F1. Ferrari launched its new Formula 1 car this week. Designed and tested with AMD processors, we were there to get the lowdown on the technology collaboration straight from the IT guys themselves.
Intel have demoed 45nm SRAM chips. Achieving this milestone means Intel is on track to manufacture chips with this technology in 2007 using 300mm wafers.
Abug spotted this Japanese-themed case. Stumbled across this on an Australian woodwork forum.
Driverheaven overclocked their Radeon X1800XL. The Radeon X1800 XL is an often underappreciated but still great card, with a great feature set, and even greater performance.
Tech-Report spotted some image-quality issues in 3DMark06 with the new Radeon X1900. Pixel shader programs are compiled in the graphics driver, of course, so ATI should be able to fix the problem with a driver update, and that's exactly what they expect to do.
EclipseOC have a long ramble about some things that have happened recently, covering the performance of a 3200+ Venice, some issues with DFI Nf4 motherbaords, some ramsinks, and a quick hint of what's coming.
GideonTech detail a plexy PC case project. In this article, we will cover: drive mounting, cutting fan holes, and finish work.
From IntelInside: Effective June 30, 2006, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me will transition to a non-supported status. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide any incident support options or security updates.
Sony are putting an end to Aibo, their robotic dog product. The search for a more appealing, walking and talking robot for the household will continue elsewhere, however, as domestic bots still have the potential to revolutionize humans' daily lives.
Video Cards
Powercolor X1300Pro Bravo Edition on Byte Sector.
Connect3D X1800XT 512 on Tech-Mods.
GeCube Radeon X1900XT on Tweak Town.
Palit 7800GT Blitz on Hardware Zone.
PowerColor X1300 on XYZ Computing.
NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.8310 on NGOHQ.
Cooling
Cool-Trek Vostok Watercooling Kit on SG Overlcockers.
12 heat-pipe CPU coolers on CowCotLand. (in French)
Multimedia
X-Micro Video MP3 400 1GB on Think Computers.
Icemat Audio Siberia Headphones on Pen Star Systems.
Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Deluxe on Laptop Lifestyle.
CoolerMaster Musketeer 3 on PC Modding Malaysia.
Plantronics Pulsar 590A Bluetooth Headset on Hardware Zone.
Sony CDX-DAB6650 In-Car DAB Head Unit on Trusted Reviews.
Gateway FPD2185 21-inch LCD TV/Monitor on Design Technica.
Motherboards
Gigabyte 8N-SLI Quad Royal LGA775 on Tweak Town.
ASRock 775XFire-eSATA2 on Phoronix.
Case & Power Supplies
Coolermaster Stacker 830 on RB Mods.
PC Power & Cooling 1KW on Bjorn 3D.
Input Devices
Saitek Gamers Keyboard on Overclockers Club.
Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 on The Tech Lounge.
Miscellaneous
Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX N520 with Navigon Mobile Navigator 5 on Trusted Reviews.
Dell Inspiron XPS M170 Gaming Laptop on BIOS.
Titan Power Inverter HW-150 on A1-Electronics.
Video Cards
ASUS & Gigabyte Geforce 7300GS PCI-E 128MB on 3D Avenue.
ATI Radeon X1900 family on Bit-Tech.
Club-3D 7800GT on Viper Lair.
ATI Radeon X1900 XTX on Xbit Labs.
Multimedia
Altec Lansing XT1 Laptop Speakers on Laptop Gamers.
Squeezebox Wireless Media Player on Hot Hardware.
Altec Lansing iM616 Headphones on Think Computers.
Sony Bravia KDLS40A12U 40.1" LCD TV on Trusted Reviews.
Input devices
Speedlink SL-646 & KeySonic ACK-720WK Aluminium Keyboards on Cooling Station (In German).
Logitech G5 vs. Razer Copperhead on Tech Spot.
Saitek Eclipse Illuminated Keyboard on XS Reviews.
Software
Corel's WordPerfect Office X3 on BIOS.
Ridge Racer 6 on Trusted Reviews.
Nero 7 Ultra Edition on TechGage.
Miscellaneous
Samsung ML-3561N Laser Printer on XYZ Computing.
Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus VGA Cooler on Pyro CPU (seems broken).
Targus Urban Series Messenger Laptop Bag on Laptop Lifestyle.
Palm LifeDrive on Design Technica.
Thermaltake Max 4 Hard drive Enclosure on 3D Xtreme.
Nexus 350W Silent NX-9003 SFB Power Supply on 3D Game Man.
OCAU now has a specific motoring news page called OCAU: Drive, to complement our busy Motoring Forum. It's only just getting off the ground but should be interesting.. check it out, and check back, if you're after motoring news. Send any motoring news you have to drivenews@overclockers.com.au too. If you'd like to be involved with running OCAU: Drive, drop me an email..
Thursday Afternoon
(4 Comments)
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Thursday, 26-January-2006 15:16:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Nitrov8 sent in this video of an amusing take on the national anthem.
TheReg report on a flying car spotted near Perth in Google Earth. Fortunately, our forums have the explanation.
TechReport have checked out the Gigabyte i-RAM storage device. Just populate the card with memory, plug it into an available PCI slot, attach a Serial ATA cable to your motherboard, and you've got yourself a solid-state hard drive.
Prohardver have an interview with ATI's "3D Architect and Design Manager".. actually that's from December, but still interesting. Beyond3D meanwhile have another interview with ATI, about R580 / X1900 architecture.
Google's top execs are still only being paid $1 a year.. but they have made some money on their stock holdings. As a result, his total wealth in shares is roughly $6.3 billion.
AMD have claimed their highest market share in years. AMD now accounts for 21.4 percent of all desktop, notebook and server processors using the x86 instruction set that were shipped during the fourth quarter, Mercury Research plans to announce next week. They also dropped CPU prices a few days ago. ProcessorBlog have their thoughts posted and also cover AMD's secret weapon from Innovative Silicon.
From hmsv: The ASX Stock Exchange Game opens for registrations on the 30th of January. This OCAU thread gives more information.
Gary_J noticed microsoft's high-definition content showcase has been updated with a few more videos.
Apparently there'll be no booth babes at this year's E3 conference. TheTechZone have their take on this news.
ArsTechnica consider the Google video store progress. The Google Video Store may have launched more than two weeks ago, but it's still clearly not ready for primetime.
We've seen this before but it's quite fun, a website that will guess the dictator or sitcom character you're thinking of. It got 3 from 3 for me.
From Darkness: "Project Offset" (working title) is a game like no other first person shooter to date. We wanted to make an FPS set in a epic fantasy world. A game where you can choose one of many character classes. A game where clans can combat over mission based objectives and be ranked accordingly. A game where you can play alone, coop, team based objective or deathmatch. Here's the download page for the movies and here's info on the game. Readers MUST download the trailer video as it is simply astonishing.
Triple J have started playing their Hottest 100 songs of 2005. They're streaming it on the net too, links etc on that page. They'll also have streaming coverage of the Big Day Out which is on today.
Now, bring on the cricket!
Happy Australia Day!
(25 Comments)
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Thursday, 26-January-2006 09:16:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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In light of all the recent hubbub over whether or not the Australian flag should be shown at public functions and so on, I have this to say:
Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.
Case & Power supply
Zalman ZM460-APS 460W Quiet PSU on 3D Game Man.
SilverStone Strider 600w ST60F on A1-Electronics.
Raidmax RX-9 Gaming Case on Big Bruin.
Xion II on Future Looks.
iTuner PICO-PSU on Epiacenter.
SilverStone SG01 SFF mATX case on Overclockers Online.
SilverStone LC09B HTPC Mini-ITX on Virtual Hideout.
Kingwin SK-523 on Club OC.
Cooling
AMD Athlon 64 New Stock Heatsink on Mad Shrimps.
Coolermaster Susurro A64 Heatsink on Mad Shrimps.
Scythe SamuraiZ on Hardware OC.
Noctua / Coolink Tower Heatsinks on Silent PC Review.
Video Card
XGI Volari 8300 on Adrian's Rojak Pot.
MSI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB on Hardware Zone.
Sapphire Radeon X1800 XT 512MB on Hardware Zone.
ATI RADEON X1800 XT CrossFire Edition.
Multimedia
SanDisk Sansa m230 512MB MP3 Player on XYZ Computing.
X-Micro Stereo media phone on RB Mods.
Motherboards
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe on OC Prices.
ECS PF5 Extreme on Tech Power Up.
Storage & Memory
X-Micro Mini DisGO 20GB on Think Computers.
Crucial Ballistix GB DDR Dual Channel Kit on Pro-Clockers.
Samsung Writemaster SE-W164C External DVD±RW Drive on Silent PC Review.
GeIL DAViD 100 Series Dual Channel USB Pen Drive on Techniz.
Digital Photography.
Nikon D200 DSLR on Hardware Zone.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5 on Trusted Reviews.
Miscellaneous
BlueTake BT510 Bluetooth Mini Mouse & BT009Si USB Adapter on Laptop Lifestyle.
Logitech diNovo Laptop Keyboard & Mouse on Laptop Gamers.
Website Pros' NetObjects Fusion 9 on BIOS.
ATI Radeon X1900
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Wednesday, 25-January-2006 02:20:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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To nobody's surprise, ATI announced their Radeon X1900 family of products today. With the most advanced and complete set of features, PCI Express(R) add-in-cards based on the Radeon X1900 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) will, without question, be the cards of choice for gamers looking for the best performance and for multimedia enthusiasts looking for a high-performance, high-quality digital media experience.
Coverage on Beyond3D, Bjorn3D, DriverHeaven, EliteBastards, Guru3D, HardOCP, HardWareZone, Hexus, HotHardware, LegitReviews, NeoSeeker, NGOHQ, OCWorkbench, PCNews.ro, PC Perspective, T-Break, Tech Report, TheTechLounge, TrustedReviews and TweakTown.
There's a thread about the reviews here and another larger thread about the cards here.
Tuesday Midday
(1 Comments)
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Tuesday, 24-January-2006 12:35:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Apparently some Australian plasma-screen-owning sports fans are annoyed at channel 7 and 9 about the effects of their static on-screen logos.
TGDaily have an interview with AMD about their current rate of growth and what Intel can and can't do about it.
ARP meanwhile cover an NVIDIA conference call about their future developments in 2007.
BFR report on what it's like to play Fatal1ty, the professional gamer.
TrustedReviews wonder if 2006 will be BTX's year. Certainly seems to be very little interest in moving from ATX at the moment, but Thermaltake have some BTX-compatible cases now.
Mudgie sends word that the multiplayer mod for GTA: San Andreas is available on Ausgamers.
NordicHW wonder if undervolting a laptop might be the key to heat and battery life issues.
Sudhian have a SFF Micro-ATX case shootout, comparing the Aspire X-Qpack, Silverstone SG01, and the revised SG01 Evolution.
More letters from Dan: LED grow lights, the world's cheapest smoke machine, portable amps, and some poor fool presses my Talk Button about mercury in fish.
Tweak3D have a guide to removing spyware, adware etc from your PC.
From Smegger: I don't know if this has been pointed out or posted yet but on May 25th, 2006, and I quote, "You sass that hoopy Douglas Adams? Now there's a frood who knew where his towel was. You are invited to join your fellow hitchhikers in mourning the loss of the late great one. Join in on towel day to show your appreciation for the humor and insight that Douglas Adams brought to all our lives. Carry your towel with you throughout the day to show your participation and mourning."
Tuesday Morning Reviews & Threads
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Tuesday, 24-January-2006 02:00:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboards:
Foxconn 6150K8MA A64 S939 mobo with video on OCrCafe.
Tyan Tomcat i7230A S5160 Intel server board on Phoronix.
DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR CrossFire board on XbitLabs.
Video Cards:
Asus AX1800 XT TOP on PCPerspective.
HIS X1600XT IceQ Turbo DL-DVI on Bjorn3D.
ATI Radeon X1800XL All-In-Wonder on ByteSector.
HIS Radeon X1800 XT 512MB OC Edition on HWZone.
Gigabyte GV-RX18T512V-B Turbo Force Edition X1800XT 512MB on HWZone.
ATI Radeon X1300 PRO and X1600 XT on Hexus.
ATI X1800XT CrossFire on TBreak.
Power Supply:
SilverStone Strider ST56F 560W on Phoronix.
SilverStone Zeus ST56ZF on PCModdingMy.
Cooler Master Real Power 550W on Phoronix.
Cooling:
AzenX Evo-Jet 2in1 Heatsink on Pro-Clockers.
Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU cooler on XyzComputing.
Audio / Visual:
Ministry of Sound StikAx mixer on ThinkComputers.
Tsunami Ice-1 Media Manager on OCOnline.
Creative Zen Vision:M portable media player on ExtremeMHz.
Logitech Z-5450 Wireless Speakers on LaptopGamers.
Apple iPod 5G on WindowsAtoZ.
Memory & Storage::
Corsair TwinX2048-4000PT on TechFear.
OCZ EL DDR2 PC2-4200 Gold GX XTC on TechPowerUp.
OCZ PC2-5200 EL Gold DDR2 on LinkForceCorner.
SanDisk Cruzer Titanium USB drive on LegionHW.
Case & Modding:
Logisys LED Lazer Lights on Techgage.
Lian Li PC-V2000B Plus Full Tower case on 3DXtreme.
I-Star Nitro S-10000 workstation tower on MadShrimps.
Software:
LGP X2 The Threat (BETA) linux game on Phoronix.
UFO Aftershock game on ThinkComputers.
Misc:
Asus WL-550gE Wireless Router on TrustedReviews.
Nokia N90 3G Handset on TrustedReviews.
Interesting Forum Threads:
OCAU Opera Goodies in General Software.
Presler EE Eng Sample Runs in Intel Hardware.
955 EE + 975X overclocked! in Intel Hardware.
PET bottle "tripod" in Photography.
Australian Customs Laws Revised in Current Events.
Why doesn't Australia have nuclear power? in Current Events.
Just a quick post to say Happy Birthday Agg !! :)
Sunday Afternoon
(6 Comments)
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Sunday, 22-January-2006 13:18:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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TechReport have their thoughts on 3DMark06, as well as the new GeForce 7300GS. More 3DMark coverage on TrustedReviews and NGOHQ.
ArsTechnica follow the money to see how Subway ads appeared in Counter-Strike without Valve's permission. How did it happen? Who was involved? And who's liable?
Hexus looked at DivX streaming on Xbox360. This is not a mod solution or an Xbox 360 hack. This works purely using the extensibility points of Media Center and freely available tools from MS. Handy for us in, when is it again, March?
Coverage of the new 6.1 Catalyst drivers on TweakTown and NeoSeeker.
LaptopGamers cover preventing laptop theft. Over 400,000 laptops disappear each year, leaving their owners wondering where they went, what is happening with their data and what to do next. They also have tips for 5 tips for buying a laptop.
BTXFormFactor have a fairly basic article about keeping Windows clean. Protecting Windows and keeping it clean from malware (malicious programs) is a full time job these days.
XYZComputing have an interview with Martin F. Kraft, author of a recent "The Debian System" book. The importance of Debian on the open source software community should not be underestimated- in addition to being one of the most secure and stable distributions available, it has also been the foundation for Knoppix, Ubuntu, and Xandros.
There's a bit of leaked info about Radeon's X1900XT. OCW have some 3DMark06 scores from one. Seems we're only a few days off an NDA lifting.
ProcessorBlog reckon the gloves are off between AMD and Intel, while PenStarSys consider AMD's Q4 results.
AMD has licensed Z-Ram (zero capacitor) technology for use in its CPUs. It could also provide a means to help AMD put distance between itself and PC processor rival Intel Corp. which, so far, has said it does not see a need to go to SOI technology. ExtremeTech report on how this will affect Athlon caches.
PCStats have a beginner's guide to converting videotape to video files, while building your first PC is covered on ABXZone.
From Arasta, regarding a recent story about a gamer's suicide: i read the story as AFP ran it originally and thought it was sad. now it turns out most of the story was fabricated by one of Agence-France-Presse's journos. it was quite a widely reported story so that to now hear it was 85% or better a fabricated story and not true is both an insult to the family of the deceased but also to gamers who have once again, been painted in a less than healthy light. sadly the part of the story that WAS true is that the bloke did suicide.
nVIDIA GeForce 7300GS
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Saturday, 21-January-2006 20:44:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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nVIDIA announced their GeForce 7300GS earlier this week. It's a value product but also their first 90nm chip. The latest addition to the Company’s award-winning GeForce 7 Series line up, the GeForce 7300 GS boasts the video and gaming features of today’s most advanced GPUs to deliver stunning, high-definition video—up to 1080i resolution—and ultra-realistic gaming effects at mainstream price points without compromising performance.
Coverage on Anandtech, Bit-Tech, PC Perspective and Viperlair.
There's a thread here in our Video Cards forum.
Saturday Afternoon
(4 Comments)
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Saturday, 21-January-2006 17:34:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Final CES stuff: Blu-Ray and HD-DVD on TheTechZone, a Hype List on ThinkComputers, general coverage on TargetPC, home video wrapup on Designtechnica and the main show floor part 2 on TheTechLounge.
According to a recent study, there is no raised cancer risk from using mobile phones. She added that the results were consistent with the findings of most studies done in the United States and Europe.
Radar spotted these Mythbusters behind the scenes videos on Discovery.com.
Dan has a bendy lens and other photography oddities in his latest article.
From Ambush: During the Nebula Awards - the Science Fiction Writers of America awards for excellence - Fictionwise is offering free ebook downloads of selected stories from the list of preliminary nominees.
There's some concern growing, following the US Govt's orders for search engines to turn over records about their use. Google tried to work with the government, according to press accounts, but ultimately refused to hand over the data, citing privacy and protection of trade secrets as its reasons.
HWSecrets has specs charts for all Sempr0n and Turion 64 CPUs.
Tech-Hounds continue their quest for stutter-free gaming, this time looking at the storage subsystem.
Eroda sent in a video comparing iMac G5 vs Intel iMac boot times.
OCW have info on a new ASRock mobo with the rear-panel eSATA2 connectors. It allows one to connect external SATA II HDD through external harddisk box. This dramatically improves the SATA II performance compared to conventional boxes which uses USB 2.0 or 1394 transfer.
Saturday Afternoon Reviews
(6 Comments)
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Saturday, 21-January-2006 14:52:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Wax on, wax off..
Cooling:
Arctic Cooling Accelero X1 VGA cooler on Virtual-Hideout.
Evercool STC-01 thermal paste on OCOnline.
Scythe Ninja CPU cooler on ViperLair.
Titan Robela Watercooling Case on InsaneTek.
Video Cards:
GeForce 6800GS vs Radeon X800XL on LegionHW.
GeCube GC-X1800XTD-VEI3 X1800XT 512MB on HWZone.
ASUS EAX1800XT TOP X1800XT 512MB on HWZone.
Leadtek PX6800Extreme 6800GS on Bit-Tech.
Sapphire X1800 XT on PenStarSys.
GeForce 6800 GS 256MB on Guru3D.
Memory:
OCZ EL DDR3500 Gold GX XTC on ByteSector.
Input Etc:
Logitech V200 Laptop Mouse on LaptopGamers.
Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse on OCClub.
Storage:
X-Micro Mini DiscGo 20GB on RBMods, our review here.
Vantec NexStar 3 3.5" HDD enclsure (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Vantec NexStar 3 with eSata HDD enclosure on ThinkComputers.
Western Digital Raptor WD1500 and Raptor X 10,000rpm SATA HDD's on HotHardware.
Power Supply:
Sansun Arctic 450W on TechPowerUp.
picoPSU-120 12V DC-DC ATX PSU on BigBruin.
Printers:
Monochrome Laser Printers Roundup on XbitLabs.
Lexmark X2350 Multi-Function Printer on TrustedReviews.
Misc:
Samsung i300 Windows Mobile Smartphone on TrustedReviews.
Datacolor ColorFacts Professional 6.0 colour calibration software on XYZComputing.
Video Cards
ATI All-in-Wonder X1800XL on Sudhian.
ATI X1800 CrossFire on Legit Reviews.
ATI v8.21.7 Display Drivers on Phoronix.
Gigabyte GeForce 6800GS on Legion Hardware.
Motherboards & CPU
EPoX EP-5LDA+GLI on Hot Hardware.
EPoX EP-8NPA SLI on OC Inside (German).
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 S939 CPU on HWZone.
MSI K8N Diamond Plus on TBreak.
Storage & Memory
SanDisk 1GB miniSD Memory Card on OC Mod Shop.
Swissbit Cirrus WHITE USB 512mb Drive on Think Computers.
Thecus YES Box N2100 NAS on Hexus.
Lite-On LightScribe DVD burner on BIOSMag.
Multimedia
iRiver U10 on Trusted Reviews.
Creative Notebook WebCam Live on UK Gamer.
Sony Walkman NW-A1000 on Hardware Zone.
Logitech Z4 2.1 Speakers on Case Mod God.
Samsung 40" LNR408D LCD TV on Byte Sector.
Compro Videomate X50 TV Tuner on PCModdingMy.
Cooling
Titan Robela WaterCase on Virtual-Hideout.
Noctua NH-U9 on A1 Electronics.
Input Devices
Saitek Eclipse Special Red Edition Illuminated Keyboard on 3D Xtreme.
Maxtill Mouse Pad Roundup on Pro-Clockers.
Miscellaneous
Gadget Brando SOS Rotary Torch on PC-Base.
AMD Athlon 64 FX60 on UK Gamer.
Ultra X-Finity 600W PSU on 3D Game Man.
Samsung ML 2010 Laser Printer on Bonafide Reviews.
180s Tek Fleece + JVC Ear Buds on Design Technica.
LGX X2 The Threat v1.4 BETA 3 Linux game on Phoronix.
There is also a Macworld 2006: "The Expo" roundup on Hardware zone.
Futuremark's 3DMark06
(30 Comments)
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Thursday, 19-January-2006 04:28:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Futuremark have released 3DMark06, the latest version of their long-running series of gaming-oriented 3D benchmarks. A more comprehensive and unrestricted benchmark than previous versions, 3DMark06 includes an array of 3D graphics, CPU and 3D feature tests for overall performance measurement of current and future PC gaming systems. With this broader design approach, 3DMark06 will be the benchmark of choice for all PCs with top-of-the-line graphics hardware and CPUs. Futuremark predicts that 3DMark06 will emerge as the most complete 3D graphics benchmark for Windows XP, paving the way for new benchmarks targeted at future OS environments such as Windows Vista.
Some coverage on EliteBastards, Guru3D, Hexus, PC Perspective, Planet X64, Techgage and Tweak3D.
We have a general discussion thread and a results thread where you can compare your scores.
There's download sites listed here. We do have an OCAU mirror of the ~600MB free version, but for the sake of our server the link is in the comments thread for this news story. Enjoy!
Cooling
Titan G3T notebook cooling pad on A1-Electronics.
Thermalright V-1 Ultra VGA Cooler on Think Computers.
Case & Power Supply
Thermaltake Tai-Chi on Xbit Labs.
Antec P180 on XYZ Computing.
NZXT Lexa on DV Hardware.
Ultra X-Connect X2 550W on 3D Game Man
Software & OS
MailWasher Free on PC Mechanics.
Red Hat Fedora Core 5 Test 2 on Phoronix.
Horizon Datasys Drive Vaccine on ABXzone.
Video Cards
XFX GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB on Hardware Zone.
ASUS EAX1800XT TOP on Hexus.
Miscellaneous
Opteron 165 Upgrade to X2 on Madshrimps.
CoolIT USB Beverage Chiller on The Tech Zone.
MSI RD480 Neo2 on T Break.
Corsair 4000PT 2GB DDR500 on Future Looks.
Fujitsu Siemens LIFEBOOK P7010 on Xbit Labs.
On a personal note. those of you who read my thread in the pub will know that I have been wheelchair bound of late. As of today I can now walk again, all be it with the aid of crutches but walking I am.
nVIDIA's New Chipsets
(2 Comments)
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Wednesday, 18-January-2006 17:45:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Nathan sent in a 1MB PDF article he's written about the new nVIDIA chipsets. It's got some nVIDIA-provided benchmark numbers, specifications, details on the features and plenty of other info. Check it out:
Click for 1MB PDF!
Wednesday Afternoon
(1 Comments)
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Wednesday, 18-January-2006 17:14:53 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Quite a few people sent word about 3DMark 06 being announced on Gamespot, but there's not much to see yet.
Apparently there's an LCD price drop on the way.. pretty much as expected, they've been falling for a while now.
OBM spotted this gallery of high-speed photos of things being hit with hammers and bullets etc.
The US Navy has launched their latest Nimitz-class carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, and according to this thread it will arrive in Brisbane later this month. Speaking of military hardware, the F-22A Raptor has been cleared for combat duty, 20 years after inception, and there's a thread about it here.
Designtechnica checked out a few new camcorders at CES.
From FreeyM: free full mmorpg golf game almost motion capture(or might be), 260mb client here's a link. perfect for a time waster or serious golfers alike.
New nForce4 Intel Chipsets
(0 Comments)
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Wednesday, 18-January-2006 11:47:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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NVIDIA have unveiled their NVIDIA nForce4 SLI XE and NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra motherboard chipsets today. Together with the award-winning NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 MCP already available, NVIDIA is now providing its system builder and do-it-yourself (DIY) communities with two, new, lower cost, discrete motherboard solutions for Intel® PC platforms. All three are compatible with all currently available Intel dual-core CPUs, including the new Intel Pentium® Extreme Edition 955.
Coverage on ARP, Bit-Tech, OCW and PC Perspective.
New Horizons
(5 Comments)
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Wednesday, 18-January-2006 00:55:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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NASA are scheduled to launch their New Horizons mission tonight our time. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moon Charon. No spacecraft has ever visited the planet, and not even the Hubble Space Telescope can spot details on its rocky, icy surface. Even travelling at record speed, it won't reach its destination until 2015. Links to NASA TV and other details are on the website.
Video Cards
XFX GeForce 6800 GS on PC Perspective.
Inno3D GeForce 6600 DDR2 on AUS FX.
Powercolor X1300 Pro Bravo Edition on OC Workbench.
Inno3D GeForce 6800GS SLI on PC Modding Malaysia.
ATI Radeon X1600 XT and X1300 PRO on Beyond 3D.
Motherboards
MSI P4N Diamond on Hard OCP.
MSI RD480 on Pro-Clockers.
VIA VT310-DP Mini-ITX dual processor on Epia Center.
Asus A8N-VM CSM + onboard Geforce 6150 on Trusted Reviews.
Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal on Bjorn 3D.
Prebuilt Systems
Evesham Technology Silver EDGE 300NH Server on Trusted Reviews.
Polywell MiniBox 939NP Media Center PC on Viper Lair.
MESH Titan X1800 FIRE on Hexus.
iMac 17" Core Duo on Ars Technica.
Monitors
HP LP2065 20.1" LCD on Design Technica.
Acer Ferrari 20" widescreen LCD on Bit-Tech.
Case & Power Supply
Thermaltake Eclipse DV VC6000 on DV Hardwre.
Antec Neo HE 550W on Driver Heaven.
PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW on XYZ Computing.
NZXT Lexa on Club OC.
Antec NeoHE 430W on Overclockers Online.
Cooling
Thermalright V1-Ultra GPU cooler on RB Mods.
Zalman VF700-Cu LED GPU cooler on Pure Overclock.
Gigabyte G Power Lite on Club OC.
Thermalright HR-01 on Legion Hardware.
Storage & Memory
Corsair 2GB XMS-3500LLPRO on Adrians Rojak Pot.
Gskill F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ 2Gb on VR-Zone.
Seagate Momentus 5400.3 - 2.5" Perpendicular Recording Launch on Big Bruin.
Anthology Solutions P400T Yellow Machine NAS server on A-Vault.
Input Devices
Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000 on Tech Freaks.
Trust's Predator GM-1200 USB Gamepad on BIOS.
Ideazon ZBoard Customizable Gaming Keyboard on Tweak News.
Corepad Magna Glass Mouse Pad on The Tech Zone.
Miscellaneous
Logisys Black Remote Multifunction Panel on Pro-Clockers.
Evesham Voyager C550 Napa Notebook on Trusted Reviews.
M-Audio Studiophile LX4 2.1 Professional Studio Monitor Speaker on Tweak News.
Hawking Technologies HBB1 Broadband Booster on Future Looks.
Call of Duty 2 on Guru 3d.
Onkyo DS-A1 Interactive Remote iPod Dock on Trusted Reviews.
Sunbeam LED Case Feet on Gideon Tech.
Samsung SPP-2040 Digital Photo Printer on Future Looks.
SDI iHome iH5 iPod Alarm Clock on Design Technica.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 Digi-Cam on Trusted Reviews.
Beavy's "Darko" Watercooled Shuttle
(1 Comments)
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Tuesday, 17-January-2006 20:25:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I've been keeping an eye on this internally-watercooled mini-PC project, and it's finally got interesting externals to match the innards:
 
Click each pic for the PCDB entries!
Note that there's actually two PCDB entries, showing the project in different stages. There's a worklog thread here in the forums.
Tuesday Midday
(7 Comments)
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Tuesday, 17-January-2006 12:20:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Jamie sent in this page listing five download disasters from SiteAdvisor, which serves as a warning about free programs full of extra ad/spyware. I actually had to de-spyware my own PC after a mate installed some dodgy software on it recently, and I spent much of last Sunday disinfecting one of my neighbour's PC's. Ad-Aware and SpyBot are two programs I recommend you use in parallel, but I also found HijackThis and the sister program "StartupList" good for killing off the really stubborn stuff.
Speaking of useful software, I generally recommend AVG Antivirus as a good free solution.. PyroCPU report that they now have a version for Linux available.
Bit-Tech have some info on upcoming expansion packs for Battlefield 2. As is suggested by its name, Armoured Fury will focus on large, mechanised battles which hark back to the El Alamein-style maps in Battlefield 1942. Cool, we were just remarking in IRC last night that what BF2 really lacks is the huge desert tank-battle maps from BF1942 and Desert Combat. Shame it costs extra, tho.
I think I've mentioned this before, but it's pretty cool.. Pandora.com is like your own personal DJ - good for finding new music etc, thanks rulke.
HWZone have their Top 100 Products of 2005 listed.. and surprisingly, this article isn't just a big PriceGrabber linkfest.
Seagate has some large notebook HDD's on the way, using perpendicular recording. What's not so standard however is that the Momentus series will be introduced with a flagship unit sporting a capacity of 160GB -- the largest capacity for notebook computers ever.
VIAArena report on some bug-inspired robots. The biologically inspired robotics lab at Case looks at how animals function in real life and tries to emulate their behavior and physical systems in robots.
LegitReviews chatted to a co-founder of Corsair Memory. Let's talk about the future of computer memory in 2006. It looks like we are going to see DDR3 and FB-DIMM's enter into the market space this year. Which should enthusiasts be more interested in?
Think algae is pretty boring? HAVIC noticed some green slime that we might be seeing a lot more of in future. Bolted onto the exhaust stacks of a brick-and-glass 20-megawatt power plant behind MIT's campus are rows of fat, clear tubes, each with green algae soup simmering inside.
TheTechZone have picks and pans from CES 2006, while Futurelooks focus on Philips and OCZ's Cryo-Z. ASUS, Dell and Pioneer are covered on XYZ, and they have mixed feelings about two big product launches at CES. Finally, Anandtech report on Motherboards, Memory, Cooling and a few surprises from CES.
KatatonicKwan sent in this link about HDCP: In short, even if you have bought one of the rare HDCP monitors on the market (the probability is low except if it includes an HD Ready sticker) it wouldn´t be capable of displaying protected HD videos because your current graphic card isn´t compatible.
MAXKNOTT spotted this cool video of a very easy to park car.. click the "download server" button to get the file.
It was kinda weird to discover FeedAgg.com during my wanderings. Not sure what I expected to be there. :) Speaking of which, must be lunchtime..
Digit-Life have a 2005 summary of storage technology. 2005 went out with all the five major manufacturers of 3.5" ATA-drives having finally switched from 80-GB platters to those of a higher capacity.
GamePC (who seem to have become a PC vendor, hmm) have an article about WD's new Raptor in RAID 0. Reports around the web have already shown that this new Raptor is a speed demon - however, we wanted to take it one step further.
TGDaily comments on AMD's upcoming M2 CPUs and 200GB laptop HDD's from Fujitsu.
HWSecrets have a guide to applying thermal paste and installing CPU coolers on a few different sockets.
HWZone have coverage of Macworld 2006, which will no doubt be of interest to people in our new Apple Forum.
The Stardust space capsule was successfully retrieved with its payload of comet dust. The canister entered Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 46.000 kilometers an hour, the fastest speed any human-made object has achieved entering the atmosphere.
Mozilla have released Thunderbird 1.5, the latest version of their free email client. The improved Thunderbird offers such new features as a built-in "phishing" detector and support for listening to podcasts. The program has also improved its spam and filtering control. mjcrow suggests installing into a new directory, or at least backing up first, to avoid unnecessary panic. :)
NGOHQ consider the Radeon X1800 very overclocker-friendly because the GPU/DDR voltages can be adjusted without modifying the hardware.
From m@: Running half-life2 on a Geforce 2 - it can be done - and it looks good! See here. Thread here.
Havic spotted a report on TGDaily about Intel dropping the Pentium brand and also an EXT2 installable filesystem for Windows. It installs a pure kernel mode file system driver Ext2fs.sys, which actually extends the Windows NT/2000/XP operating system to include the Ext2 file system.
Graham sent in some new tech concepts for 2006, according to PopularMechanics. This spring, Lexus models in Japan will be available with a camera mounted on the steering column that uses facial-recognition software to determine whether you're watching the road.
I think we've seen this before, but here's a PC to give you nightmares from sutto. When finished this case will be a tribute to Clive Barker's HellRaiser.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
(2 Comments)
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Monday, 16-January-2006 15:01:48 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Memory:
Crucial Value PC3200 1GB on 3DXtreme.
Crucial Ballistix 1GB DDR400 on Pro-Clockers.
Storage:
Vantec NexStar 3 HDD enclosure on Techgage.
LG External Super Multi DVD ReWriter GSA-5169D on BIOSMag.
Gigabyte i-RAM DDR SATA RAM drive on ClubOC.
BenQ DW1655 LightScribe 16x DVD+-RW DL Writer on ExtremeMHz.
Video Cards:
ASUS Extreme Dual N7800GT on TrustedReviews.
Gigabyte X1800XL on AMDZone.
Sapphire Radeon Family roundup of 7 ATI cards on Digit-Life.
ATI Radeon X1800XT CrossFire on HardOCP.
Cases:
3-way Shootout with Antec, Raidmax and Dynamax on AnandTech.
ASYS Freedom tower on Techgage.
Sunbeamtech Silent Storm on BigBruin.
CM Stacker full tower on ExtremeOC.
Newance Triplecone speaker-like case on DriverHeaven.
Motherboards:
MSI P4N Diamond LGA775 P4 board on HotHardware.
SUS P5ND2-Sli Deluxe LGA775 P4 board on TechFear.
MSI K8N Diamond Plus Limited Edition with "hi-fi" on HWZone.
Portable:
Gaming Notebook Roundup on TrustedReviews.
Samsung Q30 Plus notebook on XbitLabs.
ASUS A6JA 'Napa' Notebook on Hexus.
Audio / Visual:
BlueGears/HDA X-Mystique 7.1 sound card on PenStarSys.
Sunglasses MP3 Player on HWZone.
XSPC LCD Display mini-LCD on Pro-Clockers.
Logitech mm50 Speakers for iPod on BonaFideReviews.
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi sound card family on Xbit.
Cooling:
VoyeurMods PC Ice coolant fluid on GruntVille.
TTIC NPH WB K8-1 CPU waterblock on MadShrimps.
Zalman FS-V7 "Fatal1ty" VGA cooler on HardCoreWare.
Thermaltake BigWater 745 watercooling kit on OCrCafe.
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU cooler on VelocityReviews.
Misc:
OKI C5250n colour laser printer on TrustedReviews.
Antec Neo HE 550W PSU on DriverHeaven.
Email Working
(0 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 16-January-2006 13:34:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Righto, email seems to be working again, but some will have been dropped over the weekend. If you sent an important mail to an @overclockers.com.au address (such as my email, or our news email) between Friday evening and now, please re-send it!
Let's get some news sorted out.. if you've seen anything interesting out there, drop a note to news@overclockers.com.au with the URL and some info.
Lazy Saturday Afternoon
(4 Comments)
(link)
Saturday, 14-January-2006 15:59:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Seems to be a problem with the mailserver, but I'll see what news we've got..
More from CES: PCPerspective have some video coverage. We look at Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, ATI, Asus, DFI, MSI, Creative Labs and many more. ExtremeMHz meanwhile have some readers choice highlights. TheTechZone cover the parties while Futurelooks focussed on Targus, SanDisk and DFI. TechReport have their show recap posted too. ThinkComputers consider Microsoft's keynote address, while CoolerMaster, MSI and Zalman are covered on XYZComputing.
HAVIC sent in a lengthy read about hyperspace being a possibility. Forget spending six months or more holed up in a rocket on the way to Mars, a round trip on the hyperdrive could take as little as 5 hours.
UKGamer have an interview with ATI about some software topics. I think application specific optimizations are a good thing as long as they do not affect the experience in any way, or reduce the image quality.
PCMech have a guide to making video tutorials. Ever wanted to show someone how to do something on the computer, but can't find an easy way to say it? *Record what you want to show instead!
HardOCP reviewed a couple of prebuilt systems, one they liked and one they didn't.
Sciby spotted an article on DansData detailing at some length his new PC. Remember: Friends don't let friends buy Dell desktops. Laptops yes, monitors yes (or, as I'll explain shortly, possibly "Yes! Yes! Oh, God, YES!"), desktops no.
Pretty much overnight, a massive Battlefield 2 section of our Wiki has sprung up. Grenade!!
Reviews:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 HDD on TechWareLabs.
Asus A8R-MVP CrossFire motherboard on TrustedReviews.
ARMARI Pantheon-FX prebuilt A64 FX-60 system on Hexus.
Gigabyte Radeon X1600XT Silent-Pipe II video card on LegionHW.
Thermaltake ToughPower 550W PSU on TechPowerUp.
Cooler Master Aquagate Mini R80 CPU cooler on ClubOC; our review of the R120 version is here.
LCD Monitors
ViewSonic 19" VX924 on UK Gamer.
Acer 24" AL2416WS on Trusted Reviews.
Cooling
Thermaltake Blue ORB II on Mad Shrimps.
Thermaltake Blue Orb II on Overclockers Online.
Video Cards
Powercolor X800 GTO 16 on Tweak PC.
HiS Radeon X1600 XT ICEQ iTURBO on Guru 3D.
HIS X1800XT OC DL-DVI VIVO 512MB on 3D Game Man.
Storage and Memory
OCZ PC4000EB 2GB on OC Prices.
LG GSA-2166D 16x External Dual Layer DVD/CD Writer on PC Hardware.
Corsair TwinX-2048 3500LL PRO on Viper Lair.
Multimedia
Nikon Coolpix S3 on Byte Sector.
Sennheiser PC 160 Gaming Headset on Design Technica.
Logitech mm50 iPod Speakers on Bonafide Reviews.
Cases
Newance TripleCone on Driver Heaven.
Skull and Crossbones Theme on Insane Tek.
Miscellaneous
Alienware Aurora 7500 on Bit-Tech.
IndLinux Rangoli v1.0 BETA on Phoronix.
Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse on Gamebiz.
Motherboards
DFI NF4 SLI Infinity on Pro-Clockers.
ASUS P5N32-SLI on Tweak Town.
Thursday Evening
(10 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 12-January-2006 18:40:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I found this cool zoomable picture of the Orion Nebula in my wanderings, thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope. Meanwhile a new galaxy has been spotted nearby. This galaxy is so big, we couldn't see it before.
Can't decide on your next mod? Maybe a 24-carat gold plated Lian Li will inspire you.
NordicHW have a Pentium Extreme Edition 955 overclocked to 6609MHz! Using liquid nitrogen, naturally.
From Sutto: Came across this and thought some people may be interested ;) The site trys to see what the lowest spec pc they can get XP running on, They end up getting it down to 20mb ram and 20mhz CPU clock (Albeit Very Slow)
ArsTechnica have posted their thoughts on the new Intel-based Apple Macs.
From Alex: I was checking to see the status of that awsome optimus keyboard and from what I can tell on there website it should be available sometime in febuary. Thought it might be interesting news.
JAB spotted this 39 million pixel digicam from Hasselblad. Meanwhile Nikon are exiting the 35mm film camera market.
HWSecrets have spec sheets for all A64's and all Opterons if you want to compare the various models.
BFR have info on the NextGen home from CES, while SFF mini-PC's were the focus at SFFTech.
From usbmausii: The $119.95 iBuzz is a new adult toy that hooks up directly to any MP3 music player and synchronises its vibrations to the beat and volume of the music.
PenStarSys have an editorial about the various goings-on of the last week or so. FX-60, Intel and Apple, etc.
EPIACenter have details and pics of some upcoming mini-motherboards from VIA.
From BurningFeetMan: We all played with lego. We all loved lego. Now we can all play with and love lego again. Awesome little proggy!!!
RBMods have a Star Wars case mod, which is basically just a case with some logos on it, as far as I can see, buried in all the ads on those pages. Bah, that's not a Star Wars case mod.. now THIS is a Star Wars case mod. :)
CES 2006 Wrapup
(0 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 11-January-2006 20:13:48 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Bill Gates's keynote attracted some interest. HardCoreWare have general coverage of the event posted, while HotHardware have a photo report and DesignTechnica have a podcast. XYZComputing found a tiny PSU, as well as Antec and Silverstone products. TheTechZone cover booth babes and scoring free stuff. Hexus looked in more detail at OCZ's Cryo-Z cooler, as did LegitReviews. Hexus also have pics of a new watercooling kit from Corsair. Futurelooks report on the cars and babes, with car audio on TheTechLounge. Techwarelabs have day 4 coverage, while XYZ had some CES awards to give out. Driverheaven had interviews with Corsair, AMD, NVIDIA and Samsung. Futurelooks checked out ECS Elitegroup, Sandisk and AVerMedia.
Miscellaneous
IceMat Siberia MultiHeadset on Oz Case Modz.
A Quiet PC for Torrid Thailand on SPCR.
Single Disc 3.5" HDDs, Round One: Seagate & Hitachi on SPCR.
Sony Ericsson W900i 3G-enabled Walkman Phone on Hardware Zone.
Gigabyte nForce MPC 430 GA-K8N51PVTMT-9 Integrated Geforce 6150 motherboard on Club OC.
Canon EOS 5D Digital SLR Camera on Design Technica.
Func sUrface1030 Archetype on Techgage.
Case & Power Supply
High speed PC Tech station Large on Tech Powerup.
Zalman ZM460-APS Power Supply on SPCR.
Cooler Master Stacker 830 on BIOS.
Cooling
Thermalright HR-01 Multi Platform Passive Heatsink on SPCR.
AMD Athlon X2 Stock CPU Cooler
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 reviews:
Nordic Hardware stuck one in an Asus A8N32-Sli and pit it against 4 different cpu's.
Legit Reviews ran it on an Asus A8N32-Sli Deluxe and pit it against an Intel Pentium 955.
Sharky Extreme put it in a DFI NF4 Ultra-D and pit it against an Intel Pentium 955.
Tech Ware Labs stuck theirs in a DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR and overclocked it to 3.1 GHz on stock cooling!.
PC Stats put theirs into an Asus A8N-SLI Premium and pitted it against a 4800+ and a Pentium D 840.
Trusted Reviews did a rundown of the new Alienware Aurora 7500 FX-60 based gaming machine.
Intel-based Apples
(11 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 11-January-2006 12:01:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Apple have unveiled their Intel-based iMac and MacBook Pro. This is about 6 months earlier than everyone was expecting. Both machines are based on Intel's "latest and greatest" dual-core chips, branded the Intel Core Duo, Jobs said. He said each core in the new chips is faster than the G4 or G5 PowerPC chips they replace.
There's some comments on MacWorld, and we have a thread here. In a different thread we have pics of the high-end cooling used by their quad and dual PowerMacs (not these new Intel-based systems).
In fact, I think it's time we tidied up the issue of Apple threads being scattered across our forums, and gave them a home. So now we have an Apple Hardware & Software Forum for those so inclined.
AMD's Athlon 64 FX-60
(4 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 11-January-2006 00:15:51 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD have announced their Athlon 64 FX-60 CPU. This is their new flagship processor, the first FX model with dual cores, operating at 2.6GHz with 2x1MB L2 cache. Providing exceptional PC performance on games, digital media and intense applications, the new AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 dual-core processor will allow enthusiasts to experience the next generation of multi-core supported games and applications using AMD’s most powerful PC processor ever released.
Coverage on AMDZone, Anandtech, Bit-Tech, Bjorn3D, FiringSquad, Hexus, HotHardware, LostCircuits, Neoseeker, PC Perspective, T-Break, Tech Report, TrustedReviews and Xbitlabs.
There's a thread for this new CPU here in our AMD Hardware forum.
Cooling
Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 VGA Cooler on NGOHQ.
Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 VGA Cooler on Tech Powerup.
Zalman Fatal1ty FS-V7 VGA cooler on Tweak News.
Corsair COOL Water cooler on Overclockers Online.
Arctic Cooling Fans 9cm and 12cm on Driver Heaven.
PrimeCooler MegaCool 8 on A1-Electronics.
Multimedia
SupportPlus Q-BE MP3 player on Trusted Reviews.
eDimensional Force Feedback Headphones on BIOS.
Thermaltake Bach Media LAB HTPC Case on 3D Gameman.
Miscellaneous
D-Link DSL-G624M Wireless aDSL Modem/Router on Trusted Reviews.
Sun Hoods for your Digi-Cam or PC on Swemod.
ATI PowerPlay Benchmarked on Pyro CPU.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Technology Overview on Beyond 3D.
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro SLI on OC Inside.
Roomba: Robot Vacuum on PC Mechanics.
Xploder V5 Cheat System on Klik Games.
Logitech MX3000 Cordless Desktop on TechGage.
Thermaltake ToughPower 550w on Overclocker Cafe.
Storage & Memory
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB on Trusted Reviews.
OCZ PC2-4200 1GB Gold GX XTC on Phoronix.
Arc's watercooled CM Stacker
(0 Comments)
(link)
Tuesday, 10-January-2006 20:55:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's an interesting watercooled CM Stacker from Arc. It looks plain on the outside, but inside is a neat perspex housing for the watercooling gear, shown below:
Click for the PCDB entry!
There's a thread for this project here.
Tuesday Afternoon
(12 Comments)
(link)
Tuesday, 10-January-2006 13:00:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Asteroid sends word of a Perth BBQ meet for OCAU'ers at King's Park on Sunday the 15th. That's this Sunday!
MadShimps have a 120mm fan roundup, while a large pile of heatsinks are compared on FrostyTech.
Your pets are microchipped, so why can't you be, some people think. With a wave of his hand, Amal Graafstra, a 29-year-old entrepreneur based in Vancouver, Canada, opens his front door. With another, he logs onto his computer.
LegionHW ponder the continuing Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD war. They are both aiming to deliver feasible HDTV recording options, larger memory capacities with increased performance, as well as a more secure media format.
HAVIC spotted this editorial on ArsTechnica about Intel's major weak spot. One of the worst pieces of news to come out of Intel's October roadmap reorganization was the fact that the introduction of the company's long-planned Common System Interconnect technology would be postponed. CSI is the "HyperTransport killer" that's supposed to let Xeon and Itanium processors share the same system hardware.
Here's something odd, a strange chemical reaction video. Pretty cool effect, anyone know what's reacting in it?
Tech-Hounds are on a quest for lag-free gaming. In this article, we look at what we can do to eliminate memory-related stuttering and what's the best solution to have a lag free gaming rig.
Will sent a reminder that there's a lot of fake eBay emails going around. The old "someone used your account to make fake bids, so you need to confirm your details", as well as a few from people pretending to ask you questions about items you've probably never even heard of. Check emailed URLs very carefully, some of them look like ebay URLs but aren't. Personally I ignore these emails completely, even though I do do a little eBaying occasionally.
CreativeMods have a new modder of the month with an interesting "field telephone" mod.
Eroda sent in this tongue-in-cheek video pointing out similarities between Windows Vista and OSX.
NASA has made a deal with the Russian Federal Space Agency for flights to and from the ISS. While NASA has only contracted for six months of services at this point, Mathews said Russia has agreed to honor the $21.8 million per seat price through 2011.
Maxtor has a few new external hard drive products, including a one terabyte model. However, the fate of the OneTouch line remains in doubt, given that rival Seagate agreed to buy Maxtor for about $1.9 billion in December
HWZone.il have articles about the new Centrino and some interviews with Intel, here, here and here.
Cooling
Titan Eagle Aluminum & Copper VGA Cooler on Techniz.
Zalman CNPS9500 LED Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler.
Titan Eagle Aluminum & Copper VGA Coolers on Overclockers Online.
Power Supply
Spire Rocketeer III 500W on Techniz
Nexus NX5000 500W on Pro-Clockers.
Enermax Liberty 500 on Case Mod God.
Coolmax Fanless 400W on Byte Sector.
Video Cards
Gigabyte GeForce 6600 DDR2 on AUS FX.
Power Color X800XL 256MB on Phoronix.
Gigabyte GeForce 6600 DDR2 256MB SLI on PC Modding Malaysia.
PowerColor X1600 XT & X1300 PRO on Bjorn 3D.
Miscellaneous
Galaxy TVisto Multimedia Center on A True Review.
Palm Treo 700w Preview on Windows A to Z.
Storage & Memory
Maxtor Diamondmax 10 200 GB 16 mb on RB Mods.
Corsair 2GB Twin2X XMS2 DDR2 on Gamers Hell.
Crucial Hi-Speed USB 12-in-1 Card Reader on Techniz.
Kingston's microSD Flash Memory Card on Legit Reviews.
Motherboards
ECS KN2 SLI on T-Break.
Gigabyte GA-G1975X on Hardware Zone.
Albatron K8SLi on Viper Lair.
Western Digital have unveiled the second new member of their 10,000-rpm Raptor hard drive family: the WD Raptor X. Aimed squarely at the enthusiast, this model boasts a clear window in the top of the drive.
click to enlarge
Of course, enthusiasts have been performing this mod on their own drives for a while now, but it's a fairly neat gimmick. There's more photos here and the "new Raptors" thread continues here in the forums. LegitReviews have some more info and mention a windowless version is available for slightly less.
Sunday Afternoon #2
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Sunday, 8-January-2006 17:51:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's an interesting tidbit from Gary_J - this $1 coin on ebay is worth a mint (ho ho) because it was mis-printed on one side with the 10c die. There's only a few thousand in circulation.. maybe you've got one in your pocket? :)
From Voltus: ASUS puts the graphics chips on the reverse side of the card, and x1800xt needs a redesigned pcb to stabilise the clock speeds.
Acid sends word that Apple have removed the eMac from their Australian lineup. I didn't even know they were still making them.
Brett spotted this odd one: COUPLES are turning to the laboratory to create "biojewellery" - bone rings grown from their DNA as a token of their love. He also sent in a story about a new Nissan concept car, that seems to be a gamer's dream.
Hexus have a sneak peek of a new phase-change cooler from OCZ. The Cryo-Z features a copper base to its compressor head and an 'industrial grade compressor' according to OCZ. Xcalibur meanwhile spotted a watercooling system using a water chiller instead of a radiator here. Warning, page has annoyingly loud music on it.
Boyd noticed that the world's longest concert has played another note. An abandoned church in eastern Germany is the venue for the 639-year-long performance of a piece of music by American experimental composer John Cage.
HWZ have a preview of an interesting dual swappable GPU video card from MSI. It seems that MSI has found a way to put two MXM modules together in an SLI configuration without the need for any complicated hardware modifications on the MXM modules. More pics and info here on HotHardware.
From TiMOiD: Microsoft are releasing a new version of msn messenger called Windows Live Messenger (I was invited to participate in the beta) Apparently it's a component of www.live.com which im guessing is microsofts attempt at emulating google. There's a bit more info in this thread and this thread in our forums.
ThinkComputers have a blast from the past, in the form of a Commodore Navigator Combo. Are you keeping up with the Commodore? :)
Interesting Forum Threads:
250W AT PSU converted to Bench Supply in Modding & Electronics.
975X & Crossfire up and running in Intel Hardware.
Presler & Yonah start selling in Intel Hardware.
30yo and trying online FPS in Games.
Sunday Afternoon
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Sunday, 8-January-2006 13:12:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Microsoft have released their official patch for the WMF exploit receiving a lot of press lately. Patch installed ok here on XP Pro with no ill effects.
HWSecrets have a focus on the Pentium M today, with a list of models and a look inside the architecture. Since all new CPUs from Intel will use Pentium M’s architecture, studying this architecture is very important to understand the architecture of forthcoming CPUs like Yonah, Conroe and Woodcrest.
TweakGuides have updated their Tweaking Companion to version 3.0. It is now possibly the most comprehensive free Windows XP/System guide available.
Timbot sent in a list of 13 things that don't make sense, and another list of 100 things we didn't know this time last year. 53. It takes 75kg of raw materials to make a mobile phone.
Plasticbastard has been working on a Photography Jargon Buster in the Wiki.
We haven't heard much about Rambus in a while, but they've signed a deal with AMD for patent licensing. Ashmore said Rambus expects licensing payments of $15 million a year.
AusGamers Files have the World of Warcraft 1.90 patch, as well as a 1.84 to 1.90 version.
Frostytech have an article about how manufacturers test heatsinks and thermal compounds. It's rare for any heatsink manufacturer to show off the test platform used for validating prototype heatsinks, but at a recent trade show in Taipei, FrostyTech was shown one such platform for Intel Pentium 4 LGA775 heatsinks.
Dan has more letters. He's also pretty annoyed about an ebay scammer, thanks Paul.
From Darmok: After 6 years, there's finally a new programable lego set out. Good story about it here. Official Press Release here. Some new features include bluetooth, an ultrasonic sensor, a sound sensor, and more powerful motors. Not out until August... can't wait!
Quad SLI from NVIDIA and Dell
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Sunday, 8-January-2006 11:26:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Something from CES that has caught everyone's eye is Dell's XPS 600 Renegade pre-built gaming PC. A Dell PC that comes with an overclocked CPU is surprising enough, but this one sports quad SLI, with two dual-GPU 1GB 7800 SLI video cards, a nice flamey paintjob and lots of other goodies. Imagine that coupled with their new 30" LCD, also released at CES.
Coverage on Hexus, LegitReviews and PC Perspective. There's a thread here in our Video Cards forum.
The Consumer Electronics Show is currently running in Las Vegas. ThinkComputers have CES Unveiled coverage, as do TheTechLounge. Day 1 is covered on Futurelooks and TechWareLabs. Day 2 reports on Futurelooks (and an Antec profile) and TechWareLabs. Hexus have lots of articles, as do Engadget. Bytesector report on the Samsung Digimax i6 camera. Two related events are the Lunch@Pieros and the Pepcom Digital Experience, both covered by TheTechLounge.
Sunday Morning Reviews
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Sunday, 8-January-2006 01:31:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Evercool CopperMan LGA775 CPU heatsink on OCModShop.
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro on DriverHeaven.
Thermaltake CL-P0200 silent S939 CPU cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Thermaltake BigWater SE watercooling kit on Virtual-Hideout.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS A8N32-SLI S939 A64 board, overclocking review, on TweakTown.
Smithfield 840 and Presler 955 XE LGA775 CPUs on TweakTown.
Storage:
Enermax Laureate 3.5" HDD Enclosure on GideonTech.
Corsair Flash Voyager 4GB USB drive on RojakPot.
Corsair Flash Voyager 1GB USB drive on TechPowerUp.
Maxtor DiamondMax 6B200R0 200GB HDD on OCModShop.
Input Etc:
Das Keyboard vs KeyTronic keyboards on PyroCPU.
Icemat 2nd Edition Black mousepad on OzCaseMods.
Power Supply:
Sintek 500W SLI on TweakTown.
Enermax Liberty 620W on TweakTown.
Audio Visual:
Slim Devices Squeezebox3 audio gadget on ABXZone.
Canon PowerShot A620 digicam on WindowsAtoZ.
Logitech Wireless Headphones for MP3 on OCIA.
Steelsound 5H Headphones on OzCaseModz.
Multimedia
Zotac Bomba 100 MP3 Player on Legion Hardware.
Matrix Orbital MX610 USB PLED Display on Extreme Overclocking.
Buttkicker Gamer on RB Mods.
Samsung YP-T8Z 1 GB MP3 Player on Tech Tastic.
Cooling
Coolink U8-120-1600 on PC Modding Malaysia.
Sansun Thermal Monster Fan Controller on Bjorn3D
SHS-X500 on GameBiz.
Cooler Master Susurro K8 Cooler on Tech-Mods.
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro on Virtual-Hideout.
Aerocool High Tower Series HT-102 on 3D Xtreme.
Cases & Power Supplies
I-Star D-Storm Series 3U Rack mountServer Case on Madshrimps.
Raidmax Sagitta Gaming Case w/450W PSU on 3D Game Man.
Raidmax Pure Color 02 w/420W PSU on 3D Game Man.
Cooler Master Stacker 830 on Neo Seeker.
XG Dragon ATX on Viper Lair.
Miscellaneous
Gigabyte g-smart MS mobile 5.0 PDA TV phone on OC Workbench.
Conex Led USB Cables on Tech-Mods.
Motherboards
ASRock 939NF4G-SATA2 on PC-Stats.
Intel Pentium XE 955 on Byte Sector.
MSI RD480 Neo2 on Bit-Tech.
Software
Quake 4 on Byte Sector.
Battlefield 2: Special Forces on Trusted Reviews.
Laptops
Gateway CX200X Tablet PC on Design Technica.
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi Dual Core Notebook on Trusted Reviews.
Digital Photography
Panasonic VDR-M55 Digital Camcorder on Byte Sector.
Samsung Digimax L55W Widescreen Digital Camera on Trusted Reviews.
Canon Digital IXUS i Zoom on BIOS.
Printers & Scanners
Samsung SPP-2040 Colour 4"x6" Photo Printer on PC-Stats.
Epson Stylus D88 Photo Edition inkjet printer on A1 Electronics.
Fujitsu fi-5220C Workgroup Image Scanner on Hardware Zone.
Brother MFC-9420CN Laser Multi-Function Center on Tech-Mods.
HP Color LaserJet 3000 on Trusted Reviews.
Video Cards
PowerColor X800GTO 128meg PCI-E on Tech-Mods.
Gigabyte Radeon X1800XT on Legion Hardware.
Input Devices
Logitech G5 and G7 gaming mice on Geek Extreme.
Act-On MicMouse on Overclockers Online.
Cooling
Corsair Nautilus 500 Water Cooling on Hexus.
Thermaltake Silent Water on 3dXtreme.
PrimeCooler MegaCool 7 LGA775 heatsink on A1 Electronics.
Corsair COOL Water Cooling Kit on Bjorn 3D.
Asetek WaterChill Xtreme 12V Pump-Reservoir on Pc Modding Malaysia.
Thermalright V1 Ultra VGA Cooler on Big Bruin.
Cases & Power Supplies
Zalman ZM460-APS on OCIA.
Enermax Liberty 620 Watt on Guru 3d.
Photography
Gregwired Panosaurus Spherical Tripod Head on XYZ Computing.
Canon PowerShot S80 on Design Technica.
FinePix S9500 on BIOS.
JVC GZ-MG50EK Digital Camcorder on Trusted Reviews.
Software
SmartPC Software on The Tech Zone.
Microsoft Works Suite 2006 on Trusted Reviews.
Kanotix v2005-04 on Phoronix.
Mobile Phones
Nokia n70 3G Mobile Phone on OC Work Bench.
T-Mobile Sidekick II on Trusted Reviews.
Miscellaneous
NetGear DG834PN - Wireless ADSL Router with MIMO on Trusted Reviews.
OCZ 1024MB EL Gold GX XTC PC3500 on Big Bruin.
Saitek P2600 Rumble Gamepad on Future Looks.
AVerMedia AVerTV Hybrid+FM Cardbus TV Tuner on Hardware Zone.
Norcent LT-2722 27 Inch LCD Television on XYZ Computing
ECS RS480-M on Overclockers Online.
HIS X1600XT IceQ Turbo DL-DVI on 3D GameMan.
Western Digital Raptor WD1500
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Wednesday, 4-January-2006 13:36:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Kasi spotted this review over on StorageReview. It's the first review I've seen of the new 150GB member of WD's 10,000-rpm Raptor family of hard drives. With the WD1500, the manufacturer finally moves the Raptor series to a native SATA implementation complete with NCQ. Like the server-oriented Caviar RE2, the Raptor features a standard first-generation 150 MB/sec interface rather than the 300 MB/sec conduit found on many newer units. WD feels that electronics capable of negotiating at 300 MB/sec are sufficiently proven for its standard consumer-oriented drives but not quite mature enough to mate with enterprise-class products.
Our thread on the new Raptor is here, with comments on this review near the end.
Watercooled XBOX 360
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Wednesday, 4-January-2006 12:54:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Quite a few people sent in this watercooled XBOX 360 article on HardOCP. Little did we know that not only will this water cooling project be more fun than the original, but it may even be practical. Imagine that. With reports of heat related issues and a heat sink that can get almost too hot to touch after marathon gaming sessions, the Xbox 360 water cooling project now had a sense of purpose.
Wednesday Morning
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Wednesday, 4-January-2006 02:19:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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A security warning from Reemul: In it, Microsoft has recommended turning off the Windows Picture Viewer by un-registering the shimgvw.dll file temporally until a fix is released. Basically there is a vulnerability in Windows Meta Files .WMF files (16 bit image file) that can allow exploit code execution. That’s a problem because Windows Picture & Fax viewer will automatically open graphics file (and hence execute the infected code), without the user having to click on the file (either from email or website). Infected files don’t necessarily have to have the .WMF extension, but can be renamed to other graphic file types & Windows will still auto-open them. One site said there were 73 variants detected already. Update your Antispyware & Antivirus programs folks!
ArsTechnica take a look back at 2005, the year in gaming. Sit down, pour yourself a cup of Hot Coffee, and read about the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2005, along with the game of the year.
LegionHW looked at overclocking the Celeron D 336 CPU. Particularly when overclocked the Celeron was very difficult to distinguish from the Pentium 4 without starting up a very processor intense program.
Punk spotted some new Shuttle boxes over on Sudhian. As shown below, the design for the P2 reaches back to the G5 chassis for inspiration, resulting in a clean faceplate with similarly stealthed drives.
Hexus checked out the Intel "Paxville" Xeon DP 2.8GHz CPU. Less than 4GiB/sec to share between the better-performing four cores is pretty measly, with each Opteron core enjoying roughly twice that with interleaved accesses to a shared MC on 2-way dual-core Opteron.
T-Break checked out a few 2GB memory kits from Corsair, OCZ and TwinMOS. Corsair seems to offer the tightest timings out of the box with an SPD value of 2.0-3-2-6 while both the OCZ and TwinMOS stand at 2.5-3-3-8. The speed at which these modules are tested by their respective manufacturers is 438MHz for Corsair, 500MHz for OCZ and 400MHz for TwinMOS.
French site Overclex have an interesting watercooled case (translated link). Firstly, which types with the eye, it is the green serpentine which traverses the front face. It acts of Glycol + of antifreeze. Nice pics tho.
Techspot have a guide to tweaking WinXP's memory subsystem. For the most part this guide will be targeting the Hard Drive, CPU, and RAM, optimally configuring these along the way, and clearing up many of the placebos surrounding memory management in XP.
ATI had a presentation in Israel recently, and HWZone covered it, including an interview. In the article you can find information about ATi's plans in the graphic cards, chipsets and home entertainment markets, and its relations with Microsoft in the development of the XBOX 360.
Tech-Hounds continue their deeper with the GeForce 7 series article. This is a short article looking at transparency antialiasing on the GeForce 7 series cards using 2xQ.
ARP have a short interview with Seagate about their acquisition of Maxtor. It's possible some of the branded solutions/retail products may maintain some Maxtor branding, but it's too early to tell. They're very strong in this space. We will retain the Seagate brand for all other products.
Tech Report have their 2005 Awards posted. Today we'll be handing out our Best Hardware of 2005 awards to the most compelling enthusiast-oriented products of the year.
Software
Firefox 1.5 on PC Mechanics.
Panda's Platinum 2006 & Panda's Titanium 2006 Anti-virus on Tech-Mods.
Nero 7 Ultra Edition on ThinkComputers.
MediainLinux v4.0 RC5 on Phoronix.
BeleniX LiveCD v0.3 on Phoronix.
Cases & Power Supplies
Coolermaster Centurion 5 on PC Mechanics.
Enermax Liberty 400W on Driver Heaven.
Antec P150 Mini-Tower on Hardware Zone.
Sunbeam Silent Storm on Virtual Hideout.
Kingwin SK-523 Overclocker Cafe.
Protocase SL100 Mini-ITX Case on Epia Center.
Multimedia
iPod Shuffle on Creative Mods.
VR-Fidelity USB Speakerphone on ThinkComputers.
Shure E3g Gaming Ear Buds on Design Technica.
Proporta SD MP3 Player on Future Looks.
MicMouse & Steelsound Headset on 3D Velocity.
SteelSeries SteelSound 5H Headphones on Tech Fear.
Cooling
Thermalright SI-120 on Pro-Clockers.
Vantec Vortex 2 HDD Cooler on 3D GameMan.
Evercool GT-365 after shudown cooling system on OC Mod Shop.
Cooler Master NanoFusion thermal grease on Overclockers Online.
Swiftech MC14 BGA Memory Ramsinks on OCIA.
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro on PC Modding Malaysia.
Thermaltake Big Water 745 on Tech Powerup.
Input Devices
Wacom Graphire4 4x5 Tablet on Windows A To Z.
Bluetake Bluetooth Adapter and Mouse on Techniz.
Microsoft Optical Mouse 3000 & 4000 on Hardware Pacers.
Storage & Memory
OCZ EL PC-4000 2GB Gold GX XTC on Phoronix.
Revoltec Alu Book External 2.5", 3.5" & 5.25" Drive Cases on Driver Heaven.
OCZ Gold pc3200 XTC GX on Elipse OC.
Coolmax CN-550 Network Attached Storage on Hi-Tech Reviews.
Motherboards
ASRock 775i915P-SATA2 Intel 915p Express Crossfire compatible motherboard on Hardware Zone.
Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9 s939 Motherboard with integrated Graphics on Oc Work Bench.
Miscellaneous
X1800XT Crossfire on Driver Heaven.
HP DeskJet 6840 on Data Fuse.
Check Your Smoke Alarms!
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Tuesday, 3-January-2006 14:43:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Fwoar sent in this NSW Fire Brigades page about smoke alarms, but it's useful info for all Australians. Bushfires are a concern at this time of year, but remember house fires can happen at any time. So, it's worth remembering to check your smoke alarm batteries. Research indicates that failure to properly install and replace smoke alarm batteries is a frequent cause of smoke alarm failure.
In NSW, from May 1st 2006, all residential accomodation will be required to have at least one working smoke alarm. Failure to do so risks a fine of up to $550, not to mention the more serious dangers of fire itself.
Even if you're not in NSW, get a smoke alarm, and make sure the batteries are good. It's not worth the risk!
Sorry about that, had to reboot the database server and do a little maintenance to keep things happy. We should have some news and reviews ready for you soon..
OCAU Loses #1 Folding@Home Spot
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Monday, 2-January-2006 20:55:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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From Bollocks, our Folding@Home Team Captain: Congratulations to the [H]ardOCP Folding@Home team on regaining the top spot once again. It's been an awesome run to get there over the past few weeks. They have wiped off our lead of 2.84 million points in 29 days, ending our reign at the top which lasted for 231 days. I'm sure they will give us something to chase over the next month or two.
A big well done to all our members new and old that have worked flat out to help hold the charging [H]orde at bay as long as possible. We will gather our forces once more in the New Year and make a bid to regain the Relic Trophy. It will be a mighty battle and whoever wins will hold sway for the majority of 2006.
We need your help to regain the top spot and the Duck once again, why not join the team and help with a great cause as well. Check out the OCAU Folding page for more information and drop into the DC forum to say hello and have a chat.
Whirlpool are running their annual broadband survey, where you can let the world know what you think of the state of internet access in Australia.
Apparently internet addiction is a serious problem in China. According to the director of China's first officially licensed clinic for Internet addiction, people treated there have a hard time distinguishing between real and virtual worlds.
Galileo is a European system which aims to replace GPS. Because it has a more penetrating signal that can work indoors (which GPS rarely does), offers better coverage of northern Europe and assesses its own accuracy, supporters believe it will usher in a new range of safety-critical services, such as aircraft and emergency vehicle guidance systems.
TheTechZone look back at 2005 and ponder what 2006 holds. MadShrimps have a similar article.
BigBruin experimented with thumb drive raid. But why? For one, owners of mini-ITX systems that boot from a flash drive might be interested in the sizable speed burst a RAID 0 array could provide.
NordicHW report that "Crotale" has reached a 203% overclock, while "Kinc" has a go at overclocking AMD's dual-core CPUs. For more, see their Swedish Performance Championship update and some more info here.
There's another Intel Extreme Edition 955 CPU review on 3DVelocity, while LegionHW compared the Intel 975X Express and NVIDIA nForce4 X16 SLI motherboard chipsets.
TheTechLounge checked out a few compact flash cards. I have rounded up 8 CF cards from various vendors with various speed-ratings, as well as 4 different card readers, and I’m ready to put them through their paces.
From Scott: According to experts, in January 2038 many computers and electronic systems will come across a new date-related problem. This will create havoc among many systems around the globe. I'll be 63, which is an even scarier thought.
The statistics for December 2005 are up on Project:Asgard. I got 12th overall for lines spoken and Turophile (steakthemoocow) got top place with 14391 lines for the month. Go there and see where you ranked.
If you don't already know you can go here for info on how to get on to the channel and talk with all the rest of us geeks.
Oh and by the way
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY
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