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- 400GB WD Caviar
- 3D Aurora Case
- Albatron 915-SLI
- Epox 8NPA SLI
- Foxconn 761GX mobo
- Nexstar GX
- Matrox DualHead2Go
- Little Known XP Tips
- PCstats Weekly Tips |
400GB Drives, SLI Upgrades & Watercooling Cases
Hello,
VIA Technologies launched its new AMD Athlon64 K8T900 chipset today, and among its notable features are
HD Audio and NCQ support. In other news, PCSTATS has a look back
at the little known features of WindowsXP for you. First though, we have the
massive 400GB SATA Western Digital hard drive on the test bench. The capacity of this drive is huge, and it boasts a 16MB cache too. Next is the popular Gigabyte 3D Aurora water cooling case, followed by the Vantec NexStar GX
external hard drive enclosure. We also look at some of the technical
features of Matrox's DualHead2Go system. Albatron surprised us with an
Intel Pentium 4 i915-chipset motherboard that incorporates support for SLI
videocards, called the PX915SLI. Epox have produced a compelling SLI motherboard for AMD Athlon64 socket 754 users, and that board is the EP-8NPA-SLI.
Last but not least is a review of the Foxconn Winfast 761GXK8MC motherboard. Colin's Weekly Tech Tip is a good one... now with more 'Wow' and less 'Group Policy Editor' ;-)
The Western Digital Caviar SE16
WD4000KD hard drive supports the 150MB/s Serial ATA I standard, and
sports a mammoth 16MB on board cache buffer! The Caviar SE16 is rated to
have average read and write times 8.9ms and 10.9ms. Average latency is
4.2ms, while track to track seek time is
just 2ms. The drive is rated to burst up to 150MB/s data, and comes
with a three year limited warranty from the manufacturer directly. Inside
the Caviar SE16 WD4000KD are four 100GB
platters with a total of eight read/write heads. Despite its
relatively high rotation speed and complex 4-platter nature, the
manufacturer lists the Caviar SE16 as generating just 28 dBA of noise on
average.Continue Here>>
Gigabyte seems to have a hand in every conceivable
PC market these days, and cases are now no exception. Today we'll be
looking at the company's first stand-alone computer chassis, the high-end
Gigabyte 3D
Aurora aluminium case which is designed to especially accommodate
watercooling systems. While it is considerably taller
than your average computer case, it weighs less than you might think, due
to its (almost) all-aluminium 1mm thick construction. When the case is
installed and powered on, an internal blue LED shines down through a transparent
window on the bottom of the case, displaying the '3D Aurora' logo on
the ground. Air intake grills include a fabric filter, while the
side vent uses a plastic grill to keep out larger particles or insects.Continue Here>>
nVidia's Scalable Link Interface (SLI), just three little words that until recently have
separated top of the line graphics performance, and AMD and Intel
platforms. Albatron is one of the more innovative motherboard
manufacturers, and its team of engineers has actually figured out a way of
running SLI on the budget Intel 915PL chipset! We will get into how
the 915PL is turned into an SLI chipset in just a moment. Since the
Albatron PX915SLI is based on the Intel 915PL chipset, the motherboard
only supports Socket 775 Pentium 4 processors that run on a 533/800 MHz FSB. The two DIMM slots will handle a maximum of 2GB of PC3200 DDR RAM
which will run in a dual channel configuration. Continue Here>>
With an nForce4 SLI chipset hidden below that
golden heatsink, the Epox 8NPA SLI
supports all Socket 754 Athlon64 or Sempron processors on the market.
The green motherboard only comes equipped with two DIMM slots and supports
a maximum of 2GB of PC3200 DDR memory. Other onboard goodies, some new to
Socket 754 are nVIDIA's Serial
ATA II RAID controller, Gigabit LAN, and 5.1 channel audio. My
personal favorite is the Port 80 diagnostics card. Expansion possibilities
are numerous with the boards two legacy 32 bit PCI slots, two PCI Express
x1 slots for high bandwidth devices, and two physical PCI
Express x16 slots for dual
videocard goodness! Epox have certainly built a lean green
motherboard here.Continue Here>>
The Foxconn WinFast
761GXK8MC-S motherboard we're testing out in the course of this review is based upon a new chipset from SiS which has a couple media-friendly assets. The SiS 761GX chipset includes
SiS' Mirage 1 graphics
core, accessible through the analog video jack nestled into with all the other motherboard inputs/outputs. The
SIS chipset is being positioned as a good alternative to the nVidia 6100 series
IGPs which recently launched. Elsewhere on the WinFast 761GXK8MC-S motherboard are two DDR memory sockets
for up to a maximum of 2GB of PC3200
DDR memory. The microATX board includes one PCI Express x16 slot and three
32 bit PCI slots.Continue Here>>
The Vantec NexStar GX
(NST-370GX) is the ideal solution for anyone looking for more flexible
external HDD space. The small grey unit comes with a three port USB hub
embedded into the back of it. The Vantec NexStar GX supports a single 3.5"
IDE hard drive, and connects to the computer via a 480Mbps USB 2.0
cable. The NexStar GX is larger than a traditional external HDD
enclosure, but not by too much. The Vantec NexStar
GX is basically built to look like the Apple
Mac Mini, and it can rest under or above that mini-computer quite
comfortably. Continue
Here>>
The Matrox
DualHead2Go is black box about the
size of a paperback book that enables laptop and tablet PC users multi-display
functionality from twin side-by-side 17" or 19" LCD monitors. The DualHead2Go works off of the analog video output from an approved list of notebooks at resolutions of either
2048x768 (60, 75, 85 Hz) or 2560x1024
(60Hz). The device takes the
novel approach of splitting that double-width video signal in half, with
one portion of the screen going to monitor A, and the second portion going
to monitor B. The end result is that two
monitors will act as a single screen, yet with just one monitor cable plugged into the host
computer.Continue Here>>
As WindowsXP is based on Microsoft's line of server
operating systems, it is undoubtedly that which provides it with a rather
pleasing lack of crashes. Compare WindowsXP to Windows
98, where the
daily reboot
has pretty much been accepted as a feature of the operating system, and you can see
why it has been embraced so well. This same sever-OS-origin also provides
XP with a deep layer of configurability. Not necessarily tweaks as such,
but tricks to
getting a grip on what is happening behind the scenes for those with
an interest. Call it... Zen and the art of
WindowsXP Maintenance if you will. In this PCstats Guide, we will explore some of the
little-known features and abilities of Windows XP Home and Professional
Editions, with an eye towards providing a better understanding of the
capabilities of the operating system, and the options available to the
user. Continue Here>>
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PCstats Weekly Tech Tips: Overclocking Selections |
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While overclocking the processor is 95% luck, enthusiasts can increase their chances by specifically picking out a good processor to start with instead of getting simply what's on the shelf. Both Intel and AMD have stepping, revision numbers and manufacturing dates printed on the processor core and on the box, you just have to learn how to cherry pick the right one.
Before the next processor is bought, do a bit of homework in the PCSTATS forums and find out which stepping/revision are hot. For instance in the AMD market, the hot Athlon64 stepping right now is 'CABNE' and finding one of those can mean a chip that can do 3GHz stable on air. Lesser steppings can have difficulties hitting 2.7 GHz so as you can see, doing your homework can definitely pay off!
All of the PCstats Weekly Tech Tips have been archived in the Forums for your reference. |
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PCstats Issue
No.197
Circulation: 190,004
| This Issue By |
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Editor-in-Chief
. Max P.
Weekly Tips
. Colin S.
|
PCSTATS Q & A:
Send in your tough tech
questions today! |
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