Tech News
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ECS PF5 Extreme @ techPowerUp
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: DennisECS has been known to make some pretty strange boards over the years and something about this one seems familiar, not in functionality or editor complains but in color and style.
"When I first hooked this board up to the test bench, I was surprised to see the PSU switch on an off repeatedly in fractions of a second, even though I never touched the power button. Usually this is caused by a short circuit. The PSU detects the short and turns off, then it turns on again, and so on."
Strangely enough I still have the board in question despite Soltek quickly killed it off for technical reasons. -
Running high VDIMM & low VCORE you risk to killing your Athlon 64 CPU
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: Dennis"Here's quote from Tony from OCZ who made the information public after he received the info from AMD themselves:"If you run a high vdimm and a low vcore with E die (revE, aka venice, san diego, manchester, toledo, newark, lancaster, denmark, venus, ..) you are running the risk of killing the cpu's. So if you have OCZ VX (or others) and you
are not raising the vcore on your cpu you stand a chance of pumping a lot of current into the memory controller and causing permenant damage."" -
Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000 @ TechFreaks
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: DennisWe’ve been hearing good things about this keyboard. Strange thing is when Microsoft introduced the "Natural" keyboards back in the 90's the public was all pissed off saying they were not natural and in some cases were worse than a standard straight keyboard. Personally I like the style and even find it difficult to switch between the natural normal versions.
"You can not benchmark a keyboard. When it comes to purchasing a keyboard, especially an ergonomic one, people are looking for comfort. Sure, price and fancy buttons may play a role, but it all falls back to the feel of the keyboard. This is where Microsoft Natural keyboards excel. Naturals have always had, as their name would suggest, a more natural feel over regular keyboards. Microsoft's latest edition to their Natural line, the Natural Elite 4000, takes comfort to an entirely new level."
The 4000 series is split, dipped, and curved to provide better key access and comfort. I would tend to agree. -
Chieftec BH02 Black with 400W PPU @ TweakPC
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: DennisNice Case!!. Might have to look into getting me one of these.
"Geliefert wird das Gehäuse in einem blauen, im Vierfarbdruck gestalteten Karton, auf dem neben dem Tower selber auch die Besonderheiten des Gehäuses dargestellt sind. Das Gehäuse selber ist in eine Plastiktüte eingepackt und wird von zwei Schalen aus gepresster Pappe im Karton stabilisiert. Dem Gehäuse liegt neben einem Kaltgerätekabel auch noch ein Ferritkern, zwei Schlüssel und ein Beutel mit Schrauben und Abstandshaltern für das Mainboard bei."
uhhh, ya no clue what that says, for all I know it could be a cookie recipe. -
TTIC NPH WB K8-1 CPU Water Block Review @ Madshrimps
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: DennisFor a waterblock this one does indeed look cool. Not as cool as the Ninjalane line of block we started to develop last year but cool enough.
"It was fun having this block inside my case, it has got "the looks" and it delivers stunning performance. This new water block from nPowertek proved its capabilities with the heat column design which can handle an enormous amount of heat.
There’s just one possible catch, nPowertek asked me to test the block with a powerful pump, because this block is very restrictive and a slower pump might not be able to get fresh water through the block fast enough."
This is a common problem with "micro fin/channel" waterblocks. The channels are small to promote heat transfer but require more pressure to work efficiently. -
Foxconn NF4SLI7AA-8EKRS2 Review @ Overclockers Online
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: DennisThere is nothing like a sexy red motherboard to brighten the day. Actually the only thing better than a red motherboard is a super sweet red video card to complement the offering. Sadly the "new" Gainward kind of blows and MSI needs to play katsup. I guess that leaves ATI branded cards, sheesh what is the world coming to.
"The layout of the board is good. The 24-pin ATX power connector is in a descent spot away from the socket area. Those installing long video cards may need to be wary of the caps next to the DIMM slots; the 6800GSs used in testing were long enough to pass by them, but they sit rather close, so be careful when inserting/removing long video cards. Something that's missing that I really like seeing are the color coded front IO jumpers. "
As if you need to access the jumpers after the board is installed, I mean really why bring Gigabyte into the picture when this is a Foxconn review. -
NL: Review Block - More memory
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: DennisIf I'm not careful Ninjalane will become the memory hub of the internet.
- Corsair 2GB Twin2X XMS2 @ Hardware Hell
- Corsair TWINX-2048 3500LL PRO Memory @ Viperlair
- Corsair TwinX2048-4000PT Evaluation @ techFEAR
- OCZ EL DDR2 PC2-4200 Gold GX XTC @ TechPowerUp
- OCZ 1024MB EL Gold GX XTC PC3500 @ Big Bruin
- OCZ PC2-5400 EL Gold Review @ Link Force Corner (or something)
- Corsair 4000PT 2GB DDR500 @ Future Looks
- John Beekley of Corsair Memory @ Legit Reviews Interview
- Crucial Ballistix 1 GB Kit @ Pro-Clockers
Of course we have our own memory reviews and opinions as to what is best. -
News Coming
Published: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 | By: DennisHey everyone thx for your ongoing support. I've been working my tail off here in the Ninjalane Labs abet sadly not on Ninjalane things.
It saddens me to see review hardware just setting next to my primary workstation just begging to be turned on. (not to mention 300 plus news emails all wanting to be posted)
Things will get better, and I'll post some news in the AM.
As for now, its sleepy time.
Oh and if you are curious about what hardware I'm speaking of, check out this forum thread. -
How Manufacturers Test Heatsinks @ FrostyTech
Published: Friday, January 13, 2006 | By: Dennis"Testing a heatsink with an actual CPU is perhaps preferable in several respects to some, because the uneven heating characteristics of a CPU die are what you'll actually find in the system. It's an extremely costly and unpredictable method once 'loading & stressing software' enters into the mix though."
We've always used real processors in our heatsink reviews; this is good in that the tests are done using real-world methods in a real-world environment. The only deviation is that our testing is done open air environment to reflect the best case scenario if in fact your particular case is well ventilated. -
Thermaltake Big Water 745 @ techPowerUp!
Published: Friday, January 13, 2006 | By: DennisThis would be a pretty sweet watercooling kit if it didn't look like a carry over from the early 80's.
"The Big Water 745 comes with a 240 mm external radiator along with the 120 mm radiator. The dual 120 mm rad is external only, but with the single 120 mm it can be installed inside the case or outside. The external 240 mm radiator is exclusive to the Big Water 745 in the fact that it comes with stands to mount the radiator."
I do like the dual radiator approach. This might have to be incorporated into my next casemod.
