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- Common PC Deaths
- PDP PC3200 DDR
- Anti-Spyware
- Albatron 6600GT
- MSI Gigabit Switch
- Ultra X-Connect
- BTX Formfactor
- Corsair Flash
- Firefox Browser
- Belkin 802.11g
- PCstats Weekly Tips |
Most Common Ways To Kill a PC
Hello,
The recent introduction nVidia's SLI nForce4 chipset has been a well deserved boon
for Athlon64 users waiting to adopt PCI Express videocards. We're currently putting the
finishing touches on MSI and Gigabyte SLI board reviews, so keep one
browser glued to PCstats.com... Lots of
you have been sending in questions,
and PCstats has been busy answering them in the tech Q&A
section. The most recent tech questions are hiding a little further down the page;
see if
you can find them! :-)
This week, the PCstats Newsletter starts off
with the Most Common
ways to Kill a PC; a culmination of hundreds of tech horror
stories. After that, PDP Systems'
PC3200 DDR spends a little time on the test bench, followed by
in-depth reviews of Albatron's PCIe PC6600GT
videocard, an MSI Gigabit
Networking Switch, Corsair's Flash
Voyager, and Belkin's
802.11 G wireless print server. Also on the agenda is the bright green
Ultra
X-Connect modders powersupply, and a first look at the new Microsoft
beta spyware protection software.
In the last PCstats Newsletter, Clayton walked away with 1GB of Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC4000 DDR. For the rest
of us who didn't win, here's your second
chance...Gohere, and very carefully choose
"PCstats" from the list before submitting your contest entry.
Of course, PCstats Weekly Tech Tip is a good one, as is a reader
Q&A on HDD cloning over to the right. The February Shopping List, and much much more round out this issue!
PCstats guides you through the list of the most
popular ways by which you will eventually kill your PC, despite your good
intentions. This is a good primer for "what not to do"
folks.
Computers should be essentially
immortal right? Anyone who's ever owned a computer knows that this is
not quite true. Computers and their component parts do have a finite life
span, and just like us, they have a list of
afflictions that are most likely to claim their digital existences. A
few months ago the PCstats Newsletter asked its readership a pretty simple
question;"have you
ever killed your PC?" Hundreds of stories flooded in, encompassing everything from
standard computer failures to tales of blue smoke and fire.
Out of all these tales, one thing became clear;
sometime soon, one of your computers or one of its essential components is
going to get fried and
fail. So here are the most common ways this is likely to happen!Continue
Here>>
In
this article, PCstats will be evaluating one of PDP System's newest
Patriot Dual-channel DDR memory kits, the PDC1G3200+XBLK.
According to the PDP Systems the pair of 512MB PC3200 DDR memory modules
included in the PDC1G3200+XBLK kit are capable of
2-2-2-5 memory
timings at their stock 200MHz speed, and can run up to
266MHz at a loose 3-4-4-8 timing. Continue
Here>>
This Windows 2000/2003/XP only product, currently
named Microsoft Windows
AntiSpyware (beta) is up for its public test run. The version
available for download now is free and fully functional. According to the
license agreement, this beta
software will cease to function in June of 2005 so expect a commercial
version around that time. The spyware
scanning application itself contains the options you would
expect, including a scheduling feature and full and quick scanning
options.Continue
Here>>
The
Albatron Trinity GeForce
6600GT AGP is only compatible with 1.5V 4x/8x AGP motherboards and
it's physically impossible to insert this videocard into a 2x only AGP
slot. If you tried to force it, you'd only damage both the videocard and
the motherboard (and possibly yourself). The Trinity
6600GT AGP sports 128MB of Samsung BGA
DDR3 memory,
and uses a 128-bit memory bus; which is enough memory for today's most
demanding games. Continue
Here>>
The
MSI SW8G is a 8-port Gigabit
Ethernet Switch. It's intended for SOHO business/server operations,
but it can also be useful to home users who demand a lot of bandwidth. So
what exactly is a network switch? The main point of switches is that they
are not
limited to a single internal bandwidth of 10, 100 or 1000Mbps. Rather
each port has it's own personal
10/100/1000Mbps pipeline, and when two ports
communicate they form an exclusive circuit between themselves.Continue
Here>>
There's a good reason why we always recommend
consumers spend good money on a power supply, and skimp elsewhere, if
necessary, when building systems. The danger of a
cheap power supply blow up and destroying the rest of the computer is
more likely than you might imagine... In this review, PCstats will be
testing the Ultra X-Connect Green UV
PSU. It's not just pretty with its UV reactive
panels and fans, it's also the first 'modular' power supply on
the market. Continue
Here>>
First there was IE6.0, the next moment Mozilla's
Firefox 1.0 appeared seemingly fully formed in an instant, and gaining
momentum at a furious rate. Suddenly we have the potential for a browser
war again... we haven't seen anything like this since Netscape. Firefox
(like Mozilla) has been in development for a while, slowly perfecting
its browser technology
on both Windows and Linux
platforms, and it shows.Continue
Here>>
In this article, PCstats will be reviewing the new Belkin
802.11g 2-port USB
Wireless Print Server. This useful little device can support two USB
printers on either a
wired or wireless
network
(but not both, more on this later). It's intended for
small office environments and comes equipped with WEP
encryption to safeguard the privacy of your documents (and your ink)
when then are transmitted
over a 54Mbps 802.11g
connection. Continue
Here>>
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PCstats Weekly Tech Tips: |
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Windows Desktop Cleanup Wizard is annoying, let's face it. I like my icons the way they are, so luckily disabling that feature is not difficult.
Right click anywhere on the desktop (not on an icon though) and go to properties, that should pop up the Display Properties window. From there click the Desktop tab then the Customize Desktop button near the Ok button. That will open up yet another window called Desktop Items, go to the Desktop cleanup section and uncheck the "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days" and press ok, then ok again.
Now Windows will not prompt you to clean up your desktop every 60 days, great for those of you who keep everything nice and tidy. =D
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PCstats Issue
No.165
Circulation: 219,763
 |
| Cloning Hard Drives |
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This week we're touching on a question sent in by Larry via the PCstats
Feedback page. Remember to try our friendly forums for help too.
Q: "I have a 160GB hard drive containing both my current
system partition and a small recovery partition. I've purchased a 200GB
drive which I now want to use as my system disk. I'd like to clone
the system partition from the 160GB disk onto the 200GB disk, but not the
smaller recovery partition, which I no longer need. I've read
your article on disk cloning, and I was wondering how you thought I should
proceed."
A: If you really don't need the second partition on your 160GB drive,
the easiest way to proceed would be to delete the
partition completely from Windows using the storage manager before you
begin the cloning process.
As for the cloning procedure itself, using
either of the free utilities we outline in the article
will leave you with ~40GB of unpartitioned
space on your new drive which you can use for a second partition or add to
your system partition with a utility like Partition Magic. Otherwise,
Norton Ghost (and most commercial cloning software) will automatically
append the extra space on your 200GB drive to your system partition.
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Common PC Killers
26% PSU and power
23% Bad gear, negligence
13%
Heatsink related
15% Bad Assembly
10% Lightning / static
3% Computer cruelty
6% USB related
2%
Overclocking
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| This Issue By |
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Editor-in-Chief
. M. Page
Weekly Tips
. C. Sun
. M. Dowler
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