In This Issue...

- Internet Explorer 7 - Gigabyte 3D1-68GT - Asus 6150 Mobo - PQI USB memory - Corsair PC4000PT - Shuttle 173P Plus - Apache Webhosting - Shuttle SFF PC - Gigabyte RX18L256V - PCstats Weekly Tips

Hello,
Gigabyte have produced an amazing little device with two Geforce 6800GT GPUs on a single videocard! The aptly named Gigabyte 3D1-68GT is a massive PCI Express videocard, but it has the framerates to back itself up with.

The big story this issue is PCSTATS preview of the Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 browser. IE7 will compete with Firefox when it is released in 2006, and its features like integrated RSS feeds, tabbed browsing, and better security controls are certainly going to be welcome.

Also tested in this issue is the Asus A8N-VM Geforce 6150 motherboard, PQI Intelligent Stick Pro 170 USB flash drive, Corsair's PC4000PT DDR memory, the Samsung 173P Plus LCD display, and Shuttle's XPC SD11G5 small formfactor PC among a few other items of gear. Happy Holidays everyone!

To cut a long story short, Microsoft accelerated the development of the browser technology it was working on for Microsoft Vista. Essential features like tabbed browsing were added and it was announced in February of 2005 that Internet Explorer 7 would, after all, be released. We're going to look at the new features which Microsoft plans to bring to the table With Internet Explorer 7, and examine how the underlying functionality of the browser has changed to better protect your computer. Internet Explorer has the distinction of being the browser most targeted by all forms of spyware, malware, and other nasties, so more security is always good news. Continue Here>>

Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT Dual-GPU Videocard Review

Dual GPU videocards are nothing new, but they are pretty rare. The only recent examples that spring to mind are the original XGI Volari graphics cards, and the dual-GPU GeForce 660GT based Gigabyte GV-3D1 videocard from earlier this year. You can find the test report on that twin GPU Gigabyte GV-3D1 videocard here, but the gist of PCSTATS' findings are that two cores certainly show the potential of what a single slot SLI videocard can offer. The Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT videocard comes packing 512MB of GDDR3 memory, and with two GPUs the card is able to support up to four monitors simultaneously. Continue Here>>

PQI Memory Intelligent Stick Pro 170 512MB USB Flash Drive

What PQI has done with its Intelligent Stick Pro 170 is replace the standard metal-wrapped USB connector with a low-profile smart-card-esq connector pad. With a total size of just 43 x 18 x 3 mm, the PQI Intelligent Stick 170 is definitely one of the thinnest USB drives we've ever seen. The PQI Intelligent Stick 170 has a speed rating of up to 25MB/s when running through a USB 2.0 connection. The device is compatible with Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, Mac OS 9.x+ and Linux. Continue Here>>

Corsair TwinX2048-4000PT PC4000 DDR500 Memory Review

Corsair's new 2GB (2x 1024MB modules) TwinX2048-4000PT DDR500 RAM kit is rated to run at speeds of up to 250 MHz; who says you had to sacrifice speed for higher capacity? Each double sided module of DDR has sixteen DRAMs which give you a total of 1024MB of RAM on each stick. Officially, the TwinX1024-4000PT is designed to run mainly on highly overclocked systems and is rated for up to 250 MHz with 3-4-4-8 timings (at a voltage of 2.8V). Continue Here>>

Asus A8N-VM CSM GeForce 6150 Motherboard Review

The Asus A8N-VM CSM motherboard looks like the perfect workstation/HTPC motherboard at first glance; onboard graphics with analog and DVI-D monitor outputs, and nVidia PureVideo High Definition MPEG-2/WMV9 Playback acceleration. The A8N-VM CSM supports all Socket 939 AMD Athlon64/FX/X2 processors on the market, and is built around two recent nVidia chipsets, the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 & nForce 430. At the back of the Asus A8N-VM CSM are four USB2.0 ports, three audio headers, the Gigabit network and Firewire jacks, and Analog and DVI-D ports which connect directly to the Geforce 6 GPU. Continue Here>>

Samsung Syncmaster 173P+ 17inch LCD Display Review

The compact little 17" screen of the Samsung Syncmaster 173P+ boasts a native resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. Its industry standard dot pitch of 0.264mm makes for a crisper image from the a-si TFT/PVA panel than many 19" LCDs can muster. The Samsung 173P+ offers up a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and brightness value of 270 cd/m2. Viewing angles on the Samsung 173P+ break the barrier at 178 degrees horizontal/vertical. Continue Here>>

Beginners Guides: Website Hosting With Apache

PCSTATS recently published a much-requested guide to hosting your very own website using Microsoft's IIS (Internet Information Server) web hosting software. Fortunately, there are other options out there for web hosting, the most prevalent being the open source Apache web hosting program. In this Beginners Guide, PCSTATS is going to walk you through setting up a personal website on the web using Apache web server for Windows. We'll introduce you to the terms and concepts you need to understand in order to go through the steps of configuring Apache server and hosting a website. Continue Here>>

Shuttle XPC SD11G5 Small Formfactor PC Review

Shuttle recently introduced a line of SFF PCs that rely on the kind of CPU made expressly for notebooks. The mobile Intel Pentium M processor combines excellent performance characteristics with low power consumption and low heat output. Technically speaking, the Shuttle XPC SD11G5 SFF PC is based around the Intel 915GM and Intel ICH6M chipsets, and it supports socket 479 Intel Pentium M processors. Onboard goodies consist of a hardware 7.1 Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit sound card and of course an onboard Intel GMA900 videocard care of the i915GM chipset.Continue Here>>

Gigabyte GV-RX18L256V-B X1800 XL Videocard Review

Gigabyte's GV-RX18L256V-B Radeon X1800 XL videocard is a pretty nice single-slot PCI Express x16 videocard! The Radeon X1800 XL GPU is clocked at 500 MHz, and backed by 256MB of Samsung GDDR3 memory that hums away at 1 GHz. The videocard supports video In/Video Out and High Definition Television output. The software bundle consists of Xpand Rally, Counter Strike Condition Zero, Power Director and PowerDVD. Hidden under the Gigabyte GV-RX18L256V-B heatsink is an ATi Rage Theater chipset which gives the videocard its VIVO ability. Continue Here>>

PCstats Weekly Tech Tips: IE7 and Active X Controls The beta of Internet Explorer 7 is neat to play with but it has one quirky feature where it does not allow users to install unsigned Active X controls. Unfortunately since it's still beta, virtually all Active X addons (like Shockwave, Flash) are unsigned which means they cannot be installed by default. Trying to do so causes IE 7 to spit out an error message. Not all is lost however, if you load up the Internet Options (Tools -> Internet Options...), click the "Security" tab and in Internet security settings click the Custom Level... utton. In the "ActiveX Controls and plugins" section, find the "Download unsigned ActiveX Controls" option and change it from "Disable" to "Prompt". After that's done click the OK button and you're set! Now even unsigned Active X controls can be installed, of course at the user's discretion. All of the PCstats Weekly Tech Tips have been archived in the Forums for your reference.

Copyright © 1999-2005 PCstats.com, All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, in whole or in part is prohibited without express written permission.