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- Acer Ferrari
- ECS KN1-Extreme
- Gigabyte 8I955X
- Writemaster 16x16x
- Aopen 700W PSU
- Intel P4-D 840
- PCstats Weekly Tips |
Ferrari 2GHz Turion Notebook Reviewed
Hello,
A trickle of
information is starting to flow on the upcoming Intel 975X chipset; it is
expected to support both nVidia's SLI and ATI's Crossfire with twin PCI
Express x16 slots (x8 lanes each), and will apparently release in tandem with the dual
core Pentium D 900-series CPU. If history is any indication, where there
is an Intel 975X, there should also be a 965 too... The big news this issue is a little 64-bit AMD
Turion based Acer Ferrari
4005 notebook that recently made its way past the PCSTATS test
bench, so be sure to take a look through that review. On the
motherboard front we have test reports for the ECS KN1 Extreme
and Gigabyte GA-8I955X
boards. Colin's also spent some time testing out a 700W power
supply from Aopen and Samsung's Writemaster
16x16x External DVD-burner.
Starting with the AMD Turion
Athlon64 mobile processor purring away at 2GHz, the Acer Ferrari 4005
WLMi represents the state of the art in notebook technology, including
its own carbon
fiber panel and Ferrari emblem behind the 15.4" LCD
screen. The notebook is includes 1GB of DDR-333 system memory, an
integrated ATI Mobility Radeon X700 video card with 128MB of dedicated
video memory, 100GB hard disk, Gigabit Ethernet adaptor, 802.11G
wireless, and Bluetooth. The
Turion64 provides compatibility with both 32-bit and 64-bit operating
systems and programs.Continue Here>>
ECS
has been trying hard to improve its retail image and win back some of the
market share for value-oriented consumers that it has lost to rival ASUS'
no frills ASRock motherboard division. In the first salvo we find the ECS KN1 Extreme
nForce 4 Ultra motherboard, a concise example of how far ECS is
willing to go; hardware features on the socket 939 AMD Athlon64 ECS
KN1 Extreme include an additional Serial ATA/IDE RAID controller, IEEE 1394a,
a 5.1 channel audio codec and two network cards (one Gigabit, one 10/100).Continue Here>>
The
Gigabyte
GA-8I955X Royal motherboard is a dual core Pentium 4 processor compatible platform, built around Intel's very
own 955X chipset. The Intel 955X
Northbridge supports up to 8GB of
dual-channel DDR II memory
installed. A single PCI Express x16 slot provides the graphical
interface. Onboard peripherals include a Silicon Image
SATA/RAID controller, a GIGARaid IDE/RAID
controller, a pair of BroadCom
Gigabit LAN adaptors and 7.1 channel Intel 'High Definition'
sound.Continue Here>>
The
Samsung
WriteMaster SE-W164 is a USB 2.0 only device and sports a rather
impressive maximum writing speed of 16x for single layer DVD media, 8x
DVD+R DL burning, and 4x for DVD-R DL
burning. That is
smoking fast even when compared to today's internal DVD burners.
One thing to
consider is that while the drive is USB 1.x backwards
compatible (it is USB2.0 itself),
burning DVD media is out of the question since USB 1.x can only move a
maximum of 11Mbps.... way to slow. Continue Here>>
The AOpen Prima Power
AO700-12ALN is a rather plain looking power
supply, but one which has the ability to deliver a massive
700W
of power and four separate 12V rails! To sweeten things, the
AO700-12ALN is also very quiet thanks to the large 120mm fan generating
28.4 dBA at maximum RPM. The most impressive feature of the AOpen Prima
Power AO700-12ALN are its quad +12V
rails, all four of which have a maximum rating of 15 Amps. The +3.3V,
+5V and the four +12V rails can output a maximum of 680W and the total
peak output of the power supply
is 700W at an internal temperature of 35 degrees Celsius. Continue Here>>
The flagship Intel Pentium
D 840 processor, clocked at a respectable 3.2GHz and built on the
90nm process uses a pair of Prescott cores running at 16 x
200MHz to bring multi-processing to the desktop in a LGA775 pinless package. The Intel Pentium D 840 has a maximum power requirement of 130Watts (as opposed
to 169million transistors and 115W for the 3.8GHz P4 670). Each
core has access to its own L1 and L2 cache memory, 16KB
and 1MB respectively. Continue Here>>
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PCstats Weekly Tech Tips: WinXP and WHQL |
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There is a reason why Microsoft forces all hardware manufacturers to pass its WHQL tests, non-certified drivers can cause compatibility problems. WindowsXP will by default allow users to install non-WHQL certified drivers, but if you are worried about them screwing up your machine, you can disable that ability completely.
First click the Start button then to go run, type secpol.msc and click the ok button. From there expand the Local Policies folder and select the Security Options folder. In the right hand window search for the "Devices: Unsigned driver installation behavior" option and double click on it. From there change the option to "Do not allow installation," click the OK button and you're set.
From now on, users of that particular computer will not be able to install non WHQL certified drivers.
All of the PCstats Weekly Tech Tips have been archived in the Forums for your reference.
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PCstats Issue
No.188
Circulation: 195,205
| This Issue By |
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Editor-in-Chief
. M. Page
Weekly Tips
. C. Sun
. M. Dowler
|
PCSTATS Q & A:
Send in your tough tech
questions today! |
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