In This Issue...

- Yepp YH-925GS - Guide to Upgrading - Homeplug Network - Soltek SFF PC - Efficeon CPU - Website Hosting Guide - Samsung 730B LCD - Chaintech VNF4 Ultra - Sony VAIO T140 - PCstats Weekly Tips

Hello,
If you liked last weeks Beginners Guide to hosting your own website, then don't miss this weeks Guide to the fundamentals of upgrading a PC!

Speaking of upgrades, gamers should take note of the Samsung's new 17" Syncmaster 730B LCD display and its quick 8ms pixel response times... Can you say "buh-bye ghosting?"

Are you interested in cryogenically refrigerated Athlon64 processors overclocked to the hilt? Keep one eye peeled towards the next issue... because PCSTATS is testing out a Prometeia Mach II GT chiller!

Making up this issue are brand new reviews on the Soltek QBIC EQ3501-300PW small form factor PC, Actiontec Homeplug networking kit, and Samsung YH-925GS MP3/photo portable music player - that last one is pretty neat. In case you missed them before, we're highlighting our reviews of the Sony 1.1GHz Centrino VAIO T140/P notebook, Chaintech Zenith VNF4-Ultra motherboard, and a couple other articles too.

If you work in a remote cubical forest somewhere off in the corporate jungle, we want to hear from you! Tell us what you would like to see PCSTATS cover, or let us know the Top 5 technology issues causing you a headache at work right this second.

Samsung Yepp YH-925GS Photo/MP3 player

Samsung has had reasonable success with its Yepp line of portable audio players and has recently tried its hand at making larger capacity hard disk-based MP3 players. The Yepp YH-925GS hard disk MP3 player/photo viewer contains a 20GB hard drive and sports a nice bright 1.8 inch, 260K colour LCD screen with a resolution of 160x128 pixels. 10 hours of audio playback come care of a 3.7V Lithium-ion rechargeable battery. As you'd expect, the YH-925GS can automatically function as a USB-based HDD storage device with any Windows 2000/XP computer as well.Continue Here>>

Beginners Guides: Fundamentals of Upgrading a PC

Upgrading a PC is easy, and will extend the useful life of your investment. There are a couple fundamentals of how to upgrade, like knowing what new parts will work with the existing hardware. Once you have got the idea of upgrading into your head, the next step is to figure out how to go about it. This article is intended to help you recognize the range of upgrades that are available to you given your current hardware, how to perform those upgrades yourself, and the potential difficulties involved. This is an essential first step and in order to know what upgrades are available to you, you have to know what hardware your PC is built with currently. Continue Here>>

Actiontec HomePlug Networking Kit Review

The Actiontec HomePlug Ethernet adaptor kit uses the HomePlug 14Mbps technology and comes with a pair of 14Mbps power plug Ethernet adaptors, allowing users to network two PCs together, or connect a single PC to a wired router or Internet gateway some distance away. At first glance, it might seem that power-line networking offers no advantages over wireless Ethernet technology. Wireless connections can offer higher bandwidth (with the 802.11g standard) and are not dependent on a nearby power plug.Continue Here>>

Soltek EQ3501-300PW QBiC Mania SFF PC Review

The Soltek's EQ3501-300PW QBiC Mania SFF PC is a flashy 'hot-rod' of good looks. The QBiC can be used in a variety of situations and unlike first-generation SFF PCs, is a truly viable desktop replacement. The EQ3501-300PW QBiC Mania is built around an Intel 915G motherboard which supports 800 MHz Pentium or 533 MHz Celeron D Socket 775 processors. It will handle 2GB of PC3200 DDR RAM, and comes equipped with onboard video courtesy of Intel's GMA 900. A PCI Express x16 slot is available for faster videocards. Continue Here>>

	Transmeta Efficeon Mobile CPU Series The Efficeon was in the works before the then-codenamed Intel 'Banias' was launched, but it has yet to have the same effect on the market. Recent years have seen much of Transmeta's long-battery-life thunder stolen by Intel's vastly improved mobile chips. While the (toasty hot) Intel Centrino has finally proven that consumers can have an Intel processor-based notebook with excellent battery life, had the world not first experienced the Transmeta Crusoe this mobile processor renaissance may never have even occurred...Continue Here>>	Beginners Guides: Website Hosting From A Home PC Obstacles like IIS and dynamic IP addresses can make the process of running a website off a home broadband internet connection complicated... There are several tricks you'll need to know to get it working, so follow along and get clicking! If you want a website badly enough, you can have a website of your own quickly and easily. But why pay someone else to host your website for you when you can easily do it yourself on the home computer over a broadband Internet connection? In this guide, PCSTATS will explore the process of hosting a website from your home computer using a broadband Internet connection. Continue Here>>

Samsung SyncMaster 730B LCD Monitor Review

The 17" Samsung SyncMaster 730B LCD display is a good example of a display intended for mainstream budgets; it boasts an 8ms pixel refresh rate, 600:1 contrast ratio, 0.264mm dot pitch, 300nits brightness value, and 160°/160° (Horizontal/Vertical) viewing angles. Environmentally, since we should all do our part to use less energy (and pay less subsequently), it's comforting to know that a display like the Samsung 730B LCD consumes as little as 34W; less than half of what a conventional 17" CRT draws. Continue Here>>

Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra Motherboard Review

There's little doubt that if you're thinking about buying a new system or parts right now, Socket 939 Athlon64 + PCI Express is the way to go. Chaintech is one of the few manufacturers to produce an entry level motherboard for the socket 939 AMD Athlon64 processor, and from what we've seen, its Zenith VNF4 Ultra has been scooping up a lot of sales. Expansion is provided by three standard PCI slots and a pair of PCIe x1 connectors. Continue Here>>

Sony VAIO VGN-T140P/L Notebook Review

The navy blue and silver Sony VAIO VGN-T140P/L laptop is the size of a hardcover book and weighs only a little over three pounds. It packs a weighty list of features, beginning with a DVD/CDRW combo drive and a massive WXGA (1280x768) resolution on its tiny, shiny, 10.6" widescreen LCD. The VAIO sports a 1.10GHz Pentium M '733' Ultra low voltage processor. 512MB of DDR memory comes standard, 64MB of which is shared with the onboard video. A smallish 4200RPM 40GB hard drive provides storage and the integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 engine provides excellent image quality and DVD playback, along with mostly theoretical 3D support. Continue Here>>

PCstats Weekly Tech Tips: High Security Passwords WindowsXP Pro is pretty lax when it comes to passwords. If you're a security buff there's a way to make WinXP Pro a bit stricter on its password policies. First we need to get to the Local Security Settings (you must have administrative access and Administrative Tools enabled) by pressing the Start button then go to Control Panel and from there open up the Administrative Tools Folder. Double click on the Local Security Policy icon and that will open up a Local Security Settings window. From there open up the Account Policies folder then clock on the Password Policy folder. On the right hand side you now have a whole host of options. You can force new passwords at a timetable you'd like, specify a minimum character length for passwords and even force passwords to be complex (making passwords case sensitive, requiring a number or graphic sign)! While this might be a bit of an annoyance, it's definitely a good idea for anyone who has sensitive data on their computers!

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