Getting more out of your videocard

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 20, 2006 - 06:08 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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One the ways to get more FPS out of an old videocard is to replace the manufacturers cooling solution with a new, more powerful one.  Virtual-Hideout has a review of Arctic Cooling's Accelero X1 VGA Cooler, which is an inexpensive cooler that may help you get a few more Mhz out of the GPU or memory.

"With an expected availability of around the end of February 2006 and a proposed MSRP of around

$33 USD, I think it's a pretty good value.

The Raptor gets an upgrade

Subject: Storage | January 20, 2006 - 03:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The 3rd generation of Raptors has appeared, and HotHardware has managed to trap one, and test it.  These new drives are bigger, and also faster than the older 74Gig Raptor that held the SATA speed record, until now.

There's no denying WD's WD740 Raptor series of performance desktop and enterprise drives have

earned a solid reputation in the enthusiast community as some of the fastest SATA drives on the

market.

Evercools new thermal goop makes a great bundle

Subject: Cases and Cooling | January 20, 2006 - 03:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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While the Evercool STC-01 that Overclockers Online reviews make not be the top performing thermal paste on the market, it is a very solid product.  Hopefully we will see it in heatsink bundles soon, and on store shelves.

"After an interesting battle among the thermal interface gladiators,
we have a verdict. Evercool has earned its place in the thermal interface
market. Though not the best performer, the Sidewinder STC-01 is hardly a
loser.

Rocket Bikes for everybody!

Subject: General Tech | January 20, 2006 - 12:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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MAKE:Blog has found a guy who runs Bad Brothers Racing, and has an interesting project on the go, combining a Yamaha YR-50 motorcycle, and a turbine engine.  Cheer them on, it may be the quickest way to get your own jetbike!

"For many years now, I have tinkered with all kinds of interesting projects, and have found a lot

of fun in the realm of DIY gas turbine engines. These engines are based around turbochargers, but

are in every sense real jets.

Call of Duty 2 stands for inspection

Subject: General Tech | January 20, 2006 - 11:53 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Guru of 3D has done a full dress inspection of Call Of Duty 2, and presents the results for your approval.

"Developer Infinity Ward obviously doesn't believe in small things, but rather aims towards grand

scale of epic proportions. The first Call of Duty did this for the most part with some of the most

immense battles and a scale and level of intensity never before witnessed on a PC.

This has helped set the Call of Duty series above the rest of the crowded World War II genre.

MESH puts together a killer system

Subject: Systems | January 19, 2006 - 06:16 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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HEXUS reviews a great system from MESH, their new Titan X1800 FIRE.  As you might guess from the name, it is based around a pair of x1800's, running in Crossfire mode.  The performance is amazing; it is a fairly expensive system, but you certainly get your moneys worth.

If you are more into building your own systems from scratch, the PCPerspective Hardware Leaderboard was updated recently, drop by and get some ideas for great hardware to put into your next system.

"MESH, pu

New Catalysts for the New Year

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 19, 2006 - 06:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Neoseeker checks out the new 6.1 Catalyst release, and they even find some nice surprises.

"Since the RELEASE NOTES didn't mention any performance improvements, we got curious and have

worked up a quick run of benchmarks for ATI's Catalyst 6.1 release compared to the 5.13.

EVGA's newest motherboard

Subject: Motherboards | January 19, 2006 - 02:18 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP reviews EVGA's latest s939 motherboard, the K8-NF41, a very feature rich board.  Give them a moment of your time, and see just what this board can do.

"The K8-NF41 is EVGA's latest motherboard for the Athlon 64 socket 939 line of processors.

Intel Board Adopts Majority Vote Standard for Election of Directors

Subject: General Tech | January 19, 2006 - 01:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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ANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 19, 2006 — Intel Corporation announced today that its board of directors has amended the company's bylaws to adopt a majority vote standard for the election of directors in uncontested elections, beginning with the next election of directors in May. The new standard, which requires each director to receive a majority of the votes cast with respect to that director, further underscores Intel's focus on corporate governance and provides for a greater level of accountability of directors to stockholders.

Intel Declares Regular Cash Dividend

Subject: General Tech | January 19, 2006 - 01:09 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 19, 2006 — Intel Corporation's board of directors has declared a $0.10 per share quarterly dividend on the company's common stock. The dividend is payable on Mar. 1, 2006 to stockholders of record on Feb. 7, 2006.

In November the company announced a 25 percent increase in its quarterly dividend, to $0.10 per share.

Intel's Pressroom has more info.

Another format war come and gone?

Subject: Storage | January 19, 2006 - 12:14 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The battle between BluRay and HD DVD seems to be drawing to a close, with a whimper and a draw.  There is no clear resolution in sight, so the 2 sides have agreed to try to combine the formats into something that combines both.  No word on what that will really do to expected production times, but CoolTechZone can give you a lot of other info.

"With many Blu-Ray and HD DVD supporters agreeing to support both formats as o

Fixing a soggy mistake

Subject: General Tech | January 19, 2006 - 11:57 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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MAKE:Blog has posted a link to a very handy How To guide, one on fixing electronics after they've gotten soaked, and get to dry on their own, leaving all sorts of interesting mineral deposits everywhere.  If this has happened to you, you will appreciate the info, and if it hasn't ...

CrossFire vs. SLI

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 18, 2006 - 06:16 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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ATI's second go at Crossfire, with X1800's has seen a better reception than the first run.  Now that the drivers and hardware have improved, and it is actually possible to find a Master card to use in a Crossfire setup, it is time for a rematch against nVidia's SLI.   Head to Legit Reviews to see how they stack up.

Don't forget to look at Ryan's sneek peek of the 7300 GS, either.

"While ATI's first generation Crossfire platform proved ATI could offer a dual video c

AMD REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER

Subject: General Tech | January 18, 2006 - 05:33 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Jan.

Portable power from ASUSTek

Subject: Mobile | January 18, 2006 - 03:56 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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ASUSTeK's A6JA 'Napa' Notebook undergoes a close examination at HEXUS, give them a couple of minutes of your time and maybe have a new notebook to dream about.

"When judged in relation to benchmarks that are single-threaded, the supplied A6JA's Intel

Centrino Duo T2500, humming along at 2GHz, and thanks to a dual-core architecture that's been

enhanced in the transition over from single-core Dothan's, together with the use of a faster FSB,

performs in the general vicinity of, say, a Pentium M 780 (2.2

Non-modable keyboards are so passe

Subject: General Tech | January 18, 2006 - 02:06 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Techzone grabbed Ideazon's ZBoard Customizable Gaming Keyboard, and tried it out on a few games.  Read the review, maybe you'll be tossing your old keyboard out later on today.

"Ideazon has a great idea here, and one that has held up well since its introduction. The Gaming

Keyset supports a surprisingly large number of games, and keymaps are easily accessible from the

menu.

Thankfully, we still don't need a PSU with a kilowatt of power

Subject: Systems | January 18, 2006 - 12:13 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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CoolTechZone takes a minute to bust the bubbles of those who thought we would be using a PSU with 1000 watts in order to power SLI rigs by 2006.  While the PSU's overall power keeps growing in importance, we haven't quite reached the extremes that we could eventually need.

"Ever since NVIDIA's SLI debuted, we've been hearing about high powered power supplies, which were

supposed to have surpass the 700W+ limit in order to support the power hungry SLI setup, b

Cool it!

Subject: General Tech | January 18, 2006 - 12:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Out of the wild, wacky world of USB devices, The Tech Zone has grabbed a USB powered drink cooler.  If you switch your intake from warm caffeine to cool caffeine at some point in your day, this little doohicky will help keep your drinks cooler for longer.

"We all know that USB is very versatile and can be used for anything from transferring data to

powering a laptop light. However, this is the first time we've seen USB used for keeping your

drink cold.