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- Raeon X1800XT Videocard
- Powerware UPS
- Aopen i945G Mobo
- AirCruiser Router
- PCstats Weekly Tips
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MSI Radeon X1800XT 512MB-Version
Hello,
When it comes to videocards, the entire industry is
constantly reinventing itself. What is a pixel-pushing videocard one
quarter, quickly becomes fodder for mainstream PCs the next... While the
Radeon X1900XT is enjoying a brief spotlight right now, the MSI Radeon
X1800XT with its 512MB memory shouldn't be overlooked. This 512MB MSI
videocard
offers quick gaming performance, at
about the same levels as nVidia's 7800GT.
Moving right along, this issue of the PCSTATS
Newsletter also looks at the 1000VA Powerware 5125
UPS (a great devices to have in the face of brown-outs) the home
theatre-friendly Intel Pentium 4 AOpen i945G
motherboard, and Gigabyte's internal wireless network
AirCruiser router.
Thanks for reading,
Max Page
Editor-in-Chief, PCstats.com
For hardcore gamers, there is no other component in a computer more
important than the videocard. Equip a state of the art AMD Athlon64 FX-60 or Intel Pentium Extreme Edition based
system with a low end videocard and frame rates will still crawl along...
On the flip side, a high end videocard can breathe new life into an aging
system even, and at the moment one of ATi's best video processing units
(VPU) is the Radeon X1800 XT. The MSI Radeon RX1800XT-VT2D512E videocard
that is the focus of this review incorporates Radeon X1800 XT GPU and
includes and extra 256MB memory above the standard amount, for a whopping
512MB GDDR3. The X1800 XT core hums along at 625 MHz, and the GDDR3 at a
remarkable 1500MHz. Continue Here>>
The
Powerware 5125 is a Line-Interactive 1000VA UPS, and with additional
Electronic Battery Modules (EBMs) can increase its overall power
capacity to 2200VA or thereabouts should your future requirements
increase. The Powerware 5125 1000VA UPS features Powerware's own advanced battery management
console, "buck and double boost" regulation to deliver constant voltage,
hot swap batteries, the ability to power up the UPS without utility
power, sequential shut down and load management, network transient
protector (surge protection), and the very handy X-slot communications
port. Continue Here>>
The AOpen i945Ga-PHS socket 775 Intel Pentium 4 motherboard is a pretty
well rounded platform, it even supports HDTV component output (Y, Pb, Pr)
by default! This is a feature that very few Intel motherboards can boast,
and the AOpen i945Ga-PHS is only able to incorporate component outputs
because is has a special chipset by Chrontel. Based on the Intel's i945G
Northbridge, the AOpen i945Ga-PHS motherboard supports Socket 775 Pentium
4/D/XE and Celeron processors running with a 533/800/1066 MHz FSB. The
four DDR2 memory slots can accommodate up to 4GB of PC2-6400 unbuffered
DDR-2 RAM, while running in a dual channel configuration. Continue Here>>
Today we're going to bring a bit of European
flavour to PCstats with a review of Gigabyte's AirCruiser GN-BC01 802.11g internal
wireless PCI router. This device incorporates a fully wireless home
router/Internet sharing device onto a PCI card which you install directly
into your desktop PC. It also comes with a nifty, blue-LED tipped magnetic
external antenna which is fairly high gain at 3dB. The internal form factor of the Wifi Router
AirCruiser GN-BC01 is new to us though, so we're interested to see how it
performs and what kind of range it gets compared to conventional external
wireless networking routers. Continue Here>>
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PCstats Weekly Tech Tips: Encrypting Instant Messaging Conversations |
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Instant Messaging has replaced email in a
lot of businesses as the most convenient way to ask colleagues
a quick question, pass on a link, or share
urgent information. Even if you're using instant
messaging (IM) to chat with your friends, sooner or later
private or confidential data will pass through your fingertips
into the dialog box. The IM software will dutifully
transfer those bits and bytes across the internet to
the other person's IM client. The problem resides
with the fact that the majority of instant messaging sessions
are unencrypted, so everything you type is being transferred as
clear text over the pipelines of the internet... With a packet
sniffer, access to your network, and any one
of several freely available programs (ie. Ethereal), that
data can be captured and instant messaging conversation
read in entirety. One possible solution for more secure
communication is to return to carrier pigeons... but if
you lack space for a coop, a 3rd party instant
messaging encryption ad-on will do the trick nicely.
:-)Applications like Secway.fr's SimpLite
and Networktwister.com's imTwister will encrypt
individual IM conversations from every major
player. Enterprise versions from both respective
companies offer network wide IM
conversation encryption that is better suited to
business environments. Irregardless of the software package
chosen, both parties will need to have the same IM encryption
software installed for the system to work. Once that's
done, a set of SHA-1 Hash keys will first need to be
generated, and
then it's just a matter of authenticating individual IM
users. Thereafter, pairs of authenticated users can have their instant
messaging conversations protected by RSH / AES-128 level encryption as the
information flies through the internet. An add-on solution like this is not as
straightforward as it would be had mainstream IM providers integrated information security into
their software already, but it is effective. On the plus side,
CPU load from the encryption / decryption process is pretty much negligible with
text conversations. The conversation on IM encryption
options continues here...
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PCstats Issue
No.205
Circulation: 184,915
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