Tech News
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DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B Review @ HardwareZoom
Published: Monday, December 29, 2003 | By: Dennis"We guess the formula that DFI took is to set a theme, and then throw in all the right "ingredients" to support that theme. After that, they just wait and hope for the best. Fortunately, they didn't need to wait very long because it proved to be a winner in its own ways."
I can agree with this statement, the LanParty series from DFI is by far the most cohesive motherboard package around. Keep an eye out the Ninjalane review of this board is in the works. -
Albatron KX18D Pro II Review @ Bjorn3D
Published: Saturday, December 27, 2003 | By: DennisHere is one of the only Albatron motherboards with the floppy connector in a decent location.
Based on the board layout the KX18D seems to be one of their stripped down models but who knows for sure.
"I was looking for a FSB in the 210+ range with an 11.0 multiplier. Not happening on this occasion. No combination of voltages and speeds and so forth would let me get the FSB up on this board. Even cranking the multiplier down to 10.5 did not yield too many positive results." -
Corsair TWINX1024-3700 Review @ Viper Lair
Published: Saturday, December 27, 2003 | By: DennisWhen it comes to DDR memory you have a ton of speeds to choose from though it is not always clear as to what memory is right for your particular situation. PC3700 memory is kind of an off size between DDR433 and DDR500 that comes with very relaxed timings.
"The TWINX PC3700 was an average overclocker. Forget about running at CAS2 at 233FSB, as the ram just could not do it. CAS2.5 did work though, but things were a bit shaky at 250FSB. I was able to run the ram at 250FSB at 2.5-4-3-7, but after 15 minutes at 2.8v, the system would still crash. -
Hitachi 7K250 Serial ATA Raid 0 Review @ Envy News
Published: Saturday, December 27, 2003 | By: Dennis"Is this the set of drives you’re looking for to build your file server, storage box, or just to power your main machine? For most applications, I’d recommend building a RAID_0 array with the 7K250 hard drives without reservation."
We have started using these drives on our test bench as well. For those of you that don't know Hitachi bought the Deskstar HDD line from IBM and started making drives under the Hitachi Deskstar name. Like the original the new Hitachi drives are super fast and easy to use. -
Did you do well?
Published: Saturday, December 27, 2003 | By: DennisAnother Christmas has come and gone and regardless of what you think Christmas is about the presents are most memorable.
Now back to the regularly scheduled tech news postings as deemed worthy by me. -
Happy Holidays
Published: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 | By: DennisHello everyone, considering the pending holiday I have decided to suspend news postings until the 27th. In the mean time feel free to send in whatever news you have, it will remain in the news cue until I return.
Be safe out there, and if you are traveling be extra careful. -
Thermaltake Aquarius III Review @ Overclocker Cafe
Published: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 | By: DennisNeed a double shot with that watercooler? I though so.
"We were very impressed with the Aquarius III unit. The only downside of it, is its price tag. We did not detract points for this as that most all other high quality water cooling kits are priced in the same ball park. Whatever kit we would look at, anything priced at this level needs to stand out and we feel that the ThermalTake unit does just that."
It also doesn't have the capacity to cool overtly well due to the small diameter tubing and waterblocks. -
Altec Lansing VS4121 Review @ NextGen Electronics
Published: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 | By: Dennis"Altec Lansing is a company that is world renowned for quality in speaker systems for computers. Their latest offering is a high quality 2.1 speaker system that offers small size and loud sound."
Finding the right set of speakers is sometimes a difficult task. Take for instance the 4.1 configuration. The problem is that unless you have someplace to position the rear fill speakers the extra speakers are pretty much worthless. On the other hand it is also virtually impossible to find a good set of speakers in a 2.1 configuration.
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Chaintech 7NIF2 Review @ GruntvillE
Published: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 | By: DennisThis board is a mATX nForce2 from Chaintech, as many of us already know mATX boards are only limited by their form factor so we can expect most everything else to remain the same.
" For the benchmarking and testing portion I basically wanted to compare the performance of the 7NIF2 with that of your more traditional size ATX board and show you what can be had with very little space." -
Defense sector warns of Chinese laser-cannon threat
Published: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 | By: Dennis""The US' airborne laser was designed to have a range of between 200 and 300km. If the system could strike that far from an aircraft, it should be able to reach much further launched from land," Chang said."
I can agree with what Chang said, with access to more power you can indeed get more range from an energy weapon. There are a couple of problems though, curvature of the Earth, and line of sight. These things combined make it fairly difficult to hit something at considerable distance without the use of an airborne mirror.
