In This Issue...

- Mach II GT - P4-540 CPU - SF-565P - ECS RS400A - RSS Guide - Yepp YH-925GS - Bravo X700 - 17" 730B LCD - PCstats Weekly Tips

Hello,

This weeks Newsletter starts off with some very specialized computing cooling equipment which allows an overclocked Athlon64 or Pentium 4 processor to speed along at minus-30 degrees Celsius! Called the Prometeia Mach II GT phase change cooler, it does what no heatsink can - very cool indeed. Pun intended.

Up next is a review of the Intel Pentium 4-540 processor, the ATI Xpress200 chipset-based ECS RS400A motherboard, and Powercolor Bravo Radeon X700 videocard. If you run your own SOHO, pay special attention to PCSTATS' reviews of the Samsung SF-565P Fax/Laser Printer, and 17" Syncmaster 730B LCD monitor. Also on the test bench is a nifty HDD-based MP3 player called the YH-925GS.

RSS Feeds are the topic du jour for PCSTATS most recent Beginners Guide, and new this week we're also experimenting with an RSS-delivered edition of this very Newsletter. Grab the RSS feed here, and let me know what you think.

Prometeia Mach II GT Phase Change Cooler Review

For anyone who isn't familiar with the name "Prometeia," it is special device that chills an Intel or AMD processor down to an operating temperature of between -20°C to -30°C, with the end goal being better overclocking. PCSTATS will be stepping away from the normal bounds of motherboard and videocard reviews you know us for, and over the following pages testing out an ECT Prometeia Mach II GT phase change cooler - tooled for an AMD Athlon64 processor no less. With an atypical 200W heat load, the cold head on the Mach II GT can sustain a -30°C evaporator temperature. Minus 30 degrees Celsius seems like such a nice temperature to run an overclocked Athlon64 4000+ processor at, don't you think?Continue Here>>

Intel Pentium 4 540 (3.2E) Socket LGA 775 Processor Review

The Pentium 4 3.2E LGA775 (Land Grid Array) Socket 775 processor is based on the same 0.09 micron manufacturing process as its Socket 478 Prescott cousin. Actually, the CPU is based on the same 'Prescott' core as is found within Socket 478 CPUs; and includes the 31-stage pipeline which is 50% longer than that found in the 'Northwood' core Pentium 4 processors, with a 16KB L1 cache and a large 1MB L2 cache. The Socket 775 Pentium 4 3.2E still incorporates the integrated heat spreader (IHS) to help protect the underlying silicon core from physical damage. It is made from nickel-plated copper and presents a larger surface area for heatsinks to work with.Continue Here>>

Samsung SF-565P Multi-Function Fax/Laser Printer

There should be few devices more essential for a small office than a multi-function printer. The Samsung SF-565P not only sports the copying, faxing and document scanning features you'd expect from an MFP, but it also features a fully-fledged monochrome laser printing engine. The Samsung SF-565P's major selling points are its claimed 17ppm laser printing and copying speed, speedy 33.6k fax modem and spacious 250 sheet paper tray. All of these are features that will gladden the heart of potential users, especially those with a lot of paper to chew through. Let's see how this Samsung MFP measured up in our test lab.Continue Here>>

ECS RS400-A Motherboard Review

ATi's entry into the motherboard chipset market has been well... muted to say the least. With its videocards, we're use to experiencing a lot of hype and excitement in the days and months leading up to a product launch, but with ATi's motherboard chipsets, there has been almost literally nothing. In this review we'll be testing out the ECS RS400-A motherboard, which supports 800MHz FSB LGA775 Intel Pentium 4 processors and offers up PCI Express functionality. Other onboard goodies consist of a 10/100 network card, onboard graphics care of the Radeon Xpress 200 chipset, support for either DDR or DDR-2 memory, and 7.1 channel audio through the 'SB400' IXP400 southbridge. Continue Here>>

Beginners Guides: RSS Feed Setup & Subscriptions

The Internet is most often characterized as a web of information, but in some senses it can be thought of as a restless ocean, full of waves representing various trends. In this guide, PCSTATS will be looking at what RSS feeds are, how they work and what they offer to the average user and site administrator. We'll also create a basic RSS feed to illustrate just how easy it is to use this web-syndication tool for your own needs. Let's start by looking at what the acronym stands for. 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>>

PowerColor Bravo X700 Videocard Review

Equipped with quiet or fanless cooling solutions which are friendly to the ear, mainstream is going silent.... just like the PowerColor Bravo X700 videocard. This card uses the Radeon X700 core with 256MB of GDDR2 DRAM memory modules. Like all X700-based cards, the Powercolor Bravo X700 is PCI Express x16 compatible. What makes the Bravo X700 special is it's fanless heat-pipe cooling solution as well as the fact that it's one of the few dual-DVI mainstream videocards on the market. Since it can operate in a low noise situation, the Bravo X700 is great for HTPCs with its HDTV support too. Continue Here>>

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>>

PCstats Weekly Tech Tips: Power Up, Power Onward What can you do when you want a computer to stay on 24/7 no matter who's using it? Easy, take away the ability for other users to shut down the computer. ;-) This is actually quite easy to do in WindowsXP but before we show you how to do that, you must have administrative access. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Settings and in the right hand window expand the Local Policies branch then click on the User Rights Assignment tab. On the right hand window now find the "Shut down the system policy" and double click on it that will open up a new window. Now simply add or remove the user groups that you want to have shut down power and you're set! If you have problems with this tip, or have questions, stop by the PCStats Forums Beginners Q and A section. All the cool kids are already there, so go! ;-)

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