King of the price-conscious laptops

Subject: Mobile | November 29, 2005 - 05:25 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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AnandTech bought 5 $600 dollar laptops, and tested them to see which was king.  While you are waiting for MIT to release the $200 dollar one, take a look at these 5, and see if one of them might fit your budget and performance needs.

"We've rounded up a total of five notebooks, each priced at $600 and put them through their paces

- trying to find a winner. An interesting point to note is that most of the manufacturers we

reviewed here today didn't actually want their notebooks reviewed.

Still stickin' to the old school controllers?

Subject: General Tech | November 29, 2005 - 04:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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With all the Gaming mice and keyboards coming out, the old gamer's standby has fallen by the wayside.  Think Computers picked up the slack, and they have a review of the Saitek ST90 Joystick.  If you have the urge to pick up a flight or space sim, this review is for you.

'Saitek makes some great products, not long ago I reviewed the Cyborg Evo Force joystick. The

Cyborg would be considered high-end. Today I have what some would consider low end, not cheap but

lower priced.

The sweet sound of silence

Subject: General Tech | November 29, 2005 - 12:01 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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If you are wondering what exactly these noise cancelling headphones that everyone is on about, Bona Fide Reviews can answer your questions.  First up would be the difference between reduction and cancelling, and from there they move onto the applications you can use them in.

"Noise-cancelling headphones use tiny microphones that identify the noise or sounds outside the

headphones and then work to cancel out the sounds.

Slay those start up annoyances

Subject: General Tech | November 29, 2005 - 11:54 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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If you are annoyed by some of the programs that start at the same time windows does, and can't find the option to turn them off, then The Tech Zone can help.  They've posted an article about a handy tool which will let you control the programs that lauch startup, without you having to manaully edit .ini's or find Microsoft's msconfig, if you are running Win2K.

"Some of the kinder and well written programs are configurable and allow you to change the

settings that starts them up.

AMD To Present At A.G. Edwards' Computer/Microprocessor Technology Conference

Subject: General Tech | November 29, 2005 - 11:39 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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 SUNNYVALE, Calif. - November 28, 2005 -AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced that Marty Seyer, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Commercial Business Unit and Performance Computing, Microprocessor Solutions Sector, will present at the A.G. Edwards' Computer/Microprocessor Technology Conference at 9:10 a.m. ET (6:10 a.m. PT) on Thursday, December 1, 2005 in New York City.   Forward-looking and other material information pertaining to AMD may be discussed during the presentation.

Logitech has a flash of inspiration

Subject: General Tech | November 28, 2005 - 06:45 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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According to CoolTechZone, Logitech has reversed their previous stand on the tracking problems in their G5 and G7 mice.  If you are having problems with your G5, head on over to read the article, and get the update.

"There's finally some good news from Logitech in regards to laser technology in its G5 and G7

laser mice, and the surface tracking issues they were prone to. On November 24th, Logitech issued

a firmware upgrade for G5, the wired counterpart to the cordless G7.

Extreme Air Cooling

Subject: Cases and Cooling | November 28, 2005 - 06:15 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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ClubOC has a look at the AeroCool AeroEngine II, a case with turbine enhanced cooling.  If you aren't getting the cooling you need, and don't want to get your feet wet with liquid cooling, this might be the solution.

"For those who think they need something close to a jet engine to force enough air through their

case to keep their cool, but don't want their machine to look like Frankenstein's monster in the

process, AeroCool presents the AeroEngine II."

Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:

Good graphics on a budget

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 28, 2005 - 04:13 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP has posted a review of the XFX GeForce 6600 DDR2 (256M).  While the DDR2 certainly gives this card a boost, it doesn't really benefit from the amount of memory, as it just can't process the graphics with a high enough quality setting to make it worth it.  However, as it doesn't really make this card more expensive, you just might want this in your box.

"There have been a lot of new announcements, launches, and evaluations to do in the video card

arena as of late.

Crucial's take on DDR2

Subject: Memory | November 28, 2005 - 12:58 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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DriverHeaven has posted a review of Crucial's Ballistix PC2-8000.  While it might be a little early to plan an AMD rig around it, there are plenty of Intel systems just begging for these sticks. 

'It took quite some time for DDR-2 to take a considerable piece of the market, but eventually it did. Although AMD seems unwilling to support it up to today, most Intel based systems seem to require it, especially after the release of the latest chipsets which do not support DDR at all.

Tech Style Goes Tactile

Subject: General Tech | November 28, 2005 - 12:40 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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SANTA CLARA, Calif., and NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2005 — The laptop PC is finally ready for its close-up. Previously confined to a world of monotone grays and blacks, touchable laptop PCs are now poised to break into the fashion spotlight.

Duel of the Dual-Cores

Subject: General Tech | November 28, 2005 - 11:59 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Inquirer reports on a showdown hosted by News.com between AMD's and Intel's dual core CPUs.  The results were a little one sided.

"News.com pitted AMD versus Intel dual core CPUs and tested areas including day to day computing,

gaming, multitasking, photo editing, MP3 encoding, video encoding and bangs per buck, or price

performance as others call it. That's seven rounds of the "prizefight".

According to this, out of a total points of 100, AMD got 100 and Intel got zero.

Asus and ATI, high power without the high price

Subject: Motherboards | November 25, 2005 - 05:21 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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AnandTech received a nice surprise whe reviewing the entrance level ATI chipset based A8R-MVP from Asus.  While this board is farily inexpensive and targeted at entrance level users, the features on the mobo and it's overclocking ability are impressive.  The likely suspect in this case being the use of the ULi M1575 southbridge.

"If we always went with our assumptions, there would be no reason at all to test motherboards, and

thankfully, our first opinions are often proven wrong in the actual testing.

A case of design clarity

Subject: Cases and Cooling | November 25, 2005 - 03:49 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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MODTHEBOX has a review of the& Mountain Mods Bob Slay Acrylic Cube Case, one of the most unique pre-made cases I have sen recently.  Not only does it have the looks, the setup allows for very efficient cooling.

"The Bob Slay is an American made laser cut 1/4" cast acrylic custom case. It features a stainless

steel carry handle for portability, and has ample room for all your full size components.

Friday Game Roundup

Subject: General Tech | November 25, 2005 - 02:23 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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"I bought the retail version of NFS:MW today and finally got the chance to update my Need for

Speed: Most Wanted Tweak Guide. If you haven't read it yet, I definitely think you should give it

a try.

A DVD that will be hard to fill

Subject: Cases and Cooling | November 25, 2005 - 11:44 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Imagine being able to do a 1:1 backup of your main computer onto one DVD.  The Inquirer has found that Ricoh is developing a 200GB disk, which won't be ready for a few years, but will certainly make backing things up much easier.

"Japanese firm Ricoh believes it will be able to release a 200GB optical drive by 2008, according to today's Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

The technology will use eight layers rather than the two promised by Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD tech."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the

Play your Xbox for more than 360 seconds

Subject: General Tech | November 25, 2005 - 11:36 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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A simple workaround to the crashes on the Xbox360 has been discovered, and The Inquirer is there to tell you about it.  The power is once again a problem, though hopefully not to the extent of the original release.

"Dan, from Duluth, or 'goldeneyemaster' as he is known, told the game spot forum here that he

thinks the main reason that the xBox 360 freezes is because the power supply overheats.

Crossfire's got legs!

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 24, 2005 - 06:57 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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VR-Zone has some news about ATI's Crossfire, as it applies to mobility chipsets.   Any guesses how long before Alienware starts putting out new notebooks?

"ATi has something up their sleeves and is going to challenge SLI on mobile front with their

mobility Crossfire.

New ATI card, possible 2006 release

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 24, 2005 - 05:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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There is a new ATI GPU coming, hopefully in the first quarter of 2006, and hopefully about the same time as the motherboards, according to DigiTimes.

"ATI Technologies is currently in the final stage of testing its R580 graphics processor units

(GPUs) with customers, sources at Taiwan graphics card makers indicated, adding that the graphics

chip vendor expects to launch the flagship chip in early 2006.

ATI will also be enhancing its entry-level GPU product line on the 80nm production node, with new