MaximumPC 2005 H

MaximumPC 2005 H, MaximumPC

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//-->ContentsEd WordIBuildingforKatrinaPlease send feedback and caketowill@maximumpc.com.’m sure I’m not alone, but this last month, I’vebeen unable to really concentrate on anythingbut the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrinaon New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. It’s the worstnatural disaster that’s occurred in the U.S. duringmy lifetime, and it’s unbelievable to me.The one good thing that’s come out of it is theincredible display of homegrown generosity. Peoplearound the country are opening their homes to GulfCoast refugees, helping them find work, and givingof themselves in ways that I wouldn’t have believedthree months ago.Even the kids are helping out. Our publisher’sdaughter, Elizabeth (aka Liz), set up a charitylemonade stand in front of her home and sold morethan $300 worth of lemonade in one afternoon. Wemay not be lemonade-making masters, but we cansure as hell build kick-ass computers. Thus, we’rebuilding a pair of very special PCs—a lightning-fastmid-tower rig and a super-silent small form-factormachine—and selling them, with the proceeds goingto Katrina relief.That’s right, for the first time, you’ll be ableto buy a rig built by the editors ofMaximum PC.They’ll be available on eBay in a few weeks, andwe’ll donate 100 percent of the proceeds to two ofthe charities helping victims of the hurricane—theSalvation Army and the Red Cross.The specs aren’t final yet, but I want to giveyou a hint of the goodness inside these boxes. Themid-tower rig will feature an Athlon FX-57 processor,a pair of GeForce 7800 GTX boards in SLI, a giantRAID 0 array, and a ton of memory. The quiet rig willinclude a Pentium M and a single GeForce 7800 GTboard, both tweaked to run silently. We’re rippingthese ready-to-burn hardware configs straight fromthe pages ofMaximum PC.Both machines will feature one-of-a-kind paintjobs from Smooth Creations (the best case painterswe’ve worked with) and will be hand-built, custom-tweaked, and signed by the editors. Truly, these areone-of-a-kind machines, and this is your shot toown a piece ofMaximum PC.Now, we couldn’t dothis alone. We’ve lined up a ton of sponsors, whowere kind enough to donate hardware, software,and time to our project. In next month’s issue,we’re going to profile both machines, and give youa close-up look under the hood, so you can seeexactly what’s on offer. As soon as the hardwareis finalized, we’ll post pics, a full spec list, and theauction info onwww.maximumpc.com.Stay tuned.MAXIMUMPCHoliday/05FeaturesFace it—appearancesdo matter. We shake down 10 high-end cases to see if they’re as usefulon the inside as they are pretty onthe outside.38Case Race24UpgradeNo tears. No expensive boo-boos.No grief counseling. Just step-by-step instructions for upgradingevery component in your PC theright way.After a gruelingmonth plowing throughacres of gadgets, we reporton the best gifts for thegeek in your life—even ifthat geek is you.HOLIDAY 200550Gift GuideMAXIMUMPC5MAXIMUMPCEDITORIALEDITOR IN CHIEFWill SmithMANAGING EDITORKatherine StevensonEXECUTIVE EDITORMichael BrownSENIOR EDITORGordon Mah UngFEATURES EDITORLogan DeckerASSOCIATE EDITORJosh NoremSPECIAL PROJECTS EDITORSteve KlettEDITORIAL ASSISTANTClaude McIverEDITOR EMERITUSAndrew SanchezCONTRIBUTING WRITERSTom Halfhill, Thomas McDonaldARTART DIRECTORNatalie JedayASSOCIATE ART DIRECTORBoni UzilevskyPHOTO EDITORMark MadeoASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHERSamantha BergCONTRIBUTING ARTISTSMorgan McDermottBUSINESSPUBLISHERBernard Lanigan646-723-5405, blanigan@futurenetworkusa.comSOUTH WESTERN AD DIRECTORDave Lynn949-360-4443, dlynn@futurenetworkusa.comSOUTH WESTERN AD MANAGERIssac Ugay562-983-8018, iugay@futurenetworkusa.comNORTH WESTERN AD DIRECTORStacey Levy925-964-1205, slevy@futurenetworkusa.comEASTERN AD DIRECTORAnthony Danzi646-723-5453, adanzi@futurenetworkusa.comEASTERN AD MANAGERLarry Presser646-723-5459, lpresser@futurenetworkusa.comNATIONAL SALES MANAGER, ENTERTAINMENTNate Hunt415-656-8536, nhunt@futurenetworkusa.comADVERTISING COORDINATORJose Urrutia415-656-8313, jurrutia@futurenetworkusa.comMARKETING MANAGERKathleen ReillyMARKETING COORDINATORTara WongPRODUCTIONPRODUCTION DIRECTORRichie LesovoyPRODUCTION COORDINATORDan MalloryCIRCULATIONCIRCULATION DIRECTORStephanie FlanaganFULFILLMENT MANAGERAngela MartinezDIRECT MARKETING SPECIALISTJanet AmistosoNEWSSTAND COORDINATORAlex GuzmanContentsDepartmentsQuick StartAre entertainmentexecs warming to the web?................10R&DDirect3D’s Shader ModelIn the LabWe benchmarkexplained............................................66ATI’s long-awaited responseto SLI. The number don’t lie..............70Head2HeadATI and nVidia puttheir dual-card technologies inthe ring...................................................16a bite out of bad gear.............................20host of cool extensions.........................61WatchDogMaximum PC takesIn/OutYou write, we respond .......110Rig of the MonthOld partsearn new dignity as art....................112How ToCustomize Firefox with aAsk the DoctorDiagnosingand curing your PC problems..............64ReviewsVideocardGigabyteGV-3D1-68GT ..........................................72Desktop PCPuget SystemsCustom PC ..............................................7472FUTURE NETWORK USA150 North Hill Drive, Suite 40, Brisbane, CA 94005www.futurenetworkusa.comPRESIDENTJonathan Simpson-BintVICE PRESIDENT/CFOTom ValentinoVICE PRESIDENT/CIRCULATIONHolly KlingelGENERAL COUNSELCharles SchugPUBLISHING DIRECTOR/GAMESSimon WhitcombePUBLISHING DIRECTOR/TECHNOLOGYChris CoelhoPUBLISHING DIRECTOR/MUSICSteve AaronPUBLISHING DIRECTOR/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTDave BarrowEDITORIAL DIRECTOR/TECHNOLOGYJon PhillipsEDITORIAL DIRECTOR/MUSICBrad TolinskiDIRECTOR OF CENTRAL SERVICESNancy DurlesterPRODUCTION DIRECTORRichie LesovoyFuture Network USA is part ofFuture plc.Future produces carefully targetedspecial-interest magazines forpeople who share a passion. Weaim to satisfy that passion by creat-ing titles offering value for money,reliable information, smart buyingadvice and which are a pleasure toread. Today we publish more than150 magazines in the US, UK, Franceand Italy. Over 100 international editions of our magazines are alsopublished in 30 other countries across the world.Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange(symbol: FUTR).FUTURE plc30 Monmouth St., Bath, Avon, BA1 2BW, Englandwww.futureplc.comTel +44 1225 442244NON EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN:Roger ParryCHIEF EXECUTIVE:Greg InghamGROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR:John BowmanTel +44 1225 442244www.futureplc.comREPRINTS:For reprints, contact Ryan Derfler, Reprint OperationsSpecialist, 717.399.1900 ext. 167or email: futurenetworkusa@reprintbuyer.comSUBSCRIPTION QUERIES:Please email maxcustserv@cdsfulfillment.com or call customer service toll-free at 800.274.3421CPU/VGA coolerZalmanResorator 1 Plus ......................................76CPU coolerZalmanCNPS9500 LED........................................76NotebookGetac M220 .....................78SE 16 400 .................................................80Silverscreen ..............................................8084Music streaming boxSlim Devices Squeezebox 2 ..................81DVD burnersSony DRU-810A;Compact digicamsCasioHard driveWestern DigitalLite-On SHW-1635S ................................82Media playerLaCie 40GBEX-S500; Nikon CoolPix S1;Canon Powershot SD500; SonyCyber-Shot DSC-T7 ...............................84Gaming headsetSteel Sound5H USB .....................................................81MiceApple Mighty Mouse;Logitech G5..............................................86MP3 playersPhilips Shogbox;Mobiblu DAH 5001; ArchosGMINI XS 100 ...........................................87GamingQuake 4..................................................88Black & White.......................................89Fable: The Lost Chapters.................90Darwinia.................................................9088MAXIMUMPC7HOLIDAY 2005quickstartTHE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALLGet Your Kicks withFridayNight FixAs the Cartoon Network airs freestreamed broadcasts over theInternet, Maximum PC wonders:Are content providers finally seeingthe benefits of digital distribution?ree broadcasts streamed over theInternet? It almost sounds like a trap.Yet that’s exactly what’s going on over atthe Cartoon Network, where the channel’sinsanely popular Adult Swim program block,which runs from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Saturdaythrough Thursday, will be streamed over theInternet on Fridays, for those who can’t bearto go a day withoutAqua Teen Hunger Force.It’s called Friday Night Fix, and it’s oneexample of how the entertainment indus-try is beginning to acknowledge how theInternet can help television networks, musicPut the kids to bed, and then kick back withAquaTeen Hunger Forceon your laptop.Flabels, and Hollywood studios bag newaudiences for their content and build moreloyalty among current fans. Paul Condolora,vice president and general manager ofCartoon Network New Media toldMaximumPC,“[Friday Night Fix] is intended to at-tract a new group of users to our site,who will then experience other aspects ofAdultswim.com, like games and our newsocial network dubbed the Fan Collective.Finally, we suspect there may be peoplewho do not have cable TV, but might beable to access our shows on this platform.”It’s not as ifthe entertainmentindustry has beenunaware of the waythe Internet can beused to promote andgauge the popularityof content, however.One of the record-ing industry’s dirtylittle secrets is acompany calledBigChampagne,which monitors file-sharing networks andreports on what’sbeing traded themost. What’s more,BigChampagneIn addition to the usual Adult Swim fare, the Cartoon Networkgathers as much de-intends to premiere new shows on Friday Night Fix.HOLIDAY 2005mographic information as is possible fromthe shared folders on users’ hard drives—inessence, gathering valuable marketing datafrom the same file-sharing networks that theindustry is actively trying to eliminate.Wouldn’t you know, there remains avocal segment of the entertainment in-dustry that’s unhappy even with the legiti-mate distribution of creative work on theInternet. When the UK’s BBC began makingBeethoven symphonies available for freedownload over the Internet—a hugely popu-lar program that netted 1.4milliondown-loads in a single month—recording-industryrepresentatives whined that the downloadsmight cut into their commercial sales.Ultimately, the entertainment industryis battling for the attention of audienceswho are turning to the Internet in increas-ing numbers for their kicks; the result isa melting away of irrational fears aboutInternet distribution and free stuff. AsCondolora put it, “At Cartoon Network, webelieve in letting fans be as big of fans asthey want to be.... We understand what it’slike to be a fan, and we try to encouragethat behavior on all media platforms.”Friday Night Fix began airing onSeptember 16, and is streamed fromAdultswim.com every Friday eveningbeginning at 11 p.m. (EST). You’ll needWindows Media Playerand parental per-mission to watch.10MAXIMUMPCFAST FORWARDTOMHALFHILL32GB Compact Flash Cards?It sounds wild, but Samsung has devel-oped a new ultra-high-density flashmemory that could make such wildlyaudacious memory cards a reality inthe near future. The new NAND chipsachieve a staggering 16-gigabits-per-chip density, which is double that ofthe company’s current highest-densityNAND chips. The chips will go into pro-duction in 2006 and are made using a50-nanometer process.Back to theFuturentel’s next-generation microarchitecture for futurex86 processors resembles an old-generation micro-architecture—but that’s OK. As expected, Intel andother companies are retreating from their recklesspursuit of high clock frequencies, and in some waysare reverting to designs reminiscent of the 1990s.Note that amicroarchitectureis a design for amicroprocessor chip or processor core. Before Intelannounced the next-generation microarchitecture,Internet rumors suggested that Intel would reveal anewarchitecture,which is nuts. Intel’s crown jewelis the x86 architecture, which was born in 1978 andmight outlive us all. Specific implementations of thex86—such as Intel’s Pentium 4 or AMD’s Opteron—have their own microarchitectures. Intel’s next-gen-eration microarchitecture will debut in processorscode-named Conroe (desktops), Merom (notebooks),and Woodcrest (servers) in the second half of 2006.An important microarchitectural feature isthe number of stages in the instruction pipeline.Generally, the deeper the pipeline, the higher themaximum clock frequency, because each stagehas fewer logic-gate delays. In addition, the pipe-line depth influences other design points, such asbranch-prediction accuracy, misprediction penalties,overall complexity, and power consumption.The Pentium 4’s NetBurst “hyperpipeline” hasgrown from 22 stages at introduction in 2000 to31 stages today. In contrast, Intel’s next-generationmicroarchitecture has only 14 stages. The Pentium Mhas 12 stages, the Pentium III (1999) had 11 stages,and the original Pentium (1993) had five stages.Clearly, the days of pipelines on Viagra have ended.But just because the new microarchitecture has onlya 14-stage pipeline doesn’t mean it isn’t potent.Although the shorter pipeline won’t reach theorgasmic 10GHz clock speeds once predicted for2011, it’s simpler and wastes less power, so thechip runs cooler. Those characteristics are crucialfor multicore processors, and multicoreisthefuture. Furthermore, the new microarchitecture isbetter in ways that conventional benchmarks don’tmeasure. It supports 64-bit extensions, Vanderpoolevirtualization technology, LaGrande security, andnew manageability features. Unfortunately, Intel jet-tisoned Hyper-Threading, which isn’t incompatiblewith multicore design but does add complexity.The 14-stage pipeline might seem like a stepbackward, but it’s still deep by most standards.Intel’s next-generation microarchitecture will bringus highly efficient chips with two, four, or moreprocessor cores.Tom Halfhill was formerly a senior editor for Byte magazineand is now an analyst for Microprocessor Report.IBye-Bye, BTXIntel’s move to lower clock speedscould be the death knell for its fledg-ling BTX formfactorntel’s recent announcement of itsimpending move to a low-wattage mi-croarchitecture is good news for fans ofquiet, cool-running PCs, but it begs thequestion: Where does this leave Intel’smuch-touted BTX formfactor?Though BTX was designed to makecommunication between the northbridge and south bridge chips moreefficient, its biggest boon has beenimproved airflow over the CPU area—a major concern with Intel’s super-hotPrescott processors. Because Intel’snew chips are designed to run muchcooler (and because AMD was nevergoing to embrace BTX), will the form-factor simply die a slow death? RahulSood, president of Voodoo PC, cer-tainly thinks so.IIntel’s new low-wattagemicroarchitecture will probablyrender the honkin’ BTX coolingapparatus obsolete.“I always thought BTX was awaste of time and energy,” says Sood.Speaking of Intel’s switch, he remarks,“It shows that Intel has re-evaluatedits technologies and probably realizedthat AMD was going to roll them upand smoke them for the next year ortwo.” Neither Dell nor Intel—both BTXsupporters—responded to requests forcomment as we went to press.SATA II Confusion Nipped in the BudA new SATA spec consolidates new features into one easy-to-understand nameIf you’re confused about whether SATA II is a drive or a feature, or both, you’re notalone. The ridiculous naming conventions for SATA drives and their associated fea-tures have caused widespread bafflement among the industry, and so the organizationin charge of this stuff has announced an all-inclusive SATA spec dubbed SATA 2.5.The new spec rolls all the previous specs—including those from SATA 1.0, 1.0a,2.0, and beyond—into one. SATA 2.5 includes support for NCQ, port multipliers,QuickConnect cables, and so forth. The move makes it easier on drive manufactur-ers, who will now have only one spec to deal with for all the new SATA features.Unfortunately, a SATA 2.5 drive won’t necessarily feature all the features listed in thespec, so be sure to read the fine print before you purchase a drive.HOLIDAY 2005MAXIMUMPC11quickstartGAME THEORYTHE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALLTHOMASMCDONALDNeed A Display? RollYour Own!Philips fast-tracks the flexible screenhe folks at Philips Research in the Netherlandsrecently demonstrated a working prototype ofthe “Concept Readius,” an electronic-documentreader featuring the world’s first “rollable” display,which lets manufacturers roll a giant, full-size displayinto a tiny device.The 5-inch screen displays four gray levels, andcurrently runs at a resolution of 320x240, usingtechnology licensed from Massachusetts-basedE Ink Corporation. The image is made up of thou-sands of microcapsules—each about the diameterof a human hair—that are dark on one side and lighton the other. These microcapsules rotate as neededto create the image.Although the Concept Readius is only a referencedesign at this point, it’s a good sign that the flexibledisplay may arrive sooner than anyone had anticipatedand breathe new life into PDAs and e-Book readersoverburdened by the size, weight, and power require-ments of their screens.To PC orNot to PCspent the past month doing my annualGame Immersion Ritual, in which I leapinto a pile of games and swim throughthem like Uncle Scrooge going for a dip in hismoney bin, emerging with a list of the top 100releases for the year. The PC-exclusive titlesthat made the list are few enough to repeatin full:SWAT 4, Battlefield 2, Empire Earth 2,Act of War, Knights of Honor, Silent Hunter III,Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich,andGuildWars.Frankly, we could have done withoutevery one of them.Oh, the games were great, but we’d havedone almost as well playing last year’s versions.In some cases, we’d do better.Battlefield 2,forinstance, took the wonderful, smooth experienceof the oldBattlefieldand turned it into a pain-ful bout of expensive hardware upgrades, withfrankly nebulous net benefits.My disappointment with this year maysimply be a matter of timing. Warming up forlate release isCivilization IV, Age of EmpiresIII, F.E.A.R., The Movies, Black & White 2, StarWars: Empires at War,andCity of Villains,allmandatory PC titles, at least for the foresee-able future. Of these,AoE 3, Civ 4, B&W2,andCity of Villainsare all strong, at least in theirpreview versions, and are known quantities.No real surprises.F.E.A.R.is shaping up to bethis year’sHalf-Life 2,an ambitious FPS witha creepyRingvibe.Empires at Warmay finallybreak the curse of theStar Warsstrategy game,but I’ve said that before. As forThe Movies,itlooks good so far, but Lionhead games usuallypreview well, and often wind up less-than-bestin the gameplay department.Some other big games in the making—StarWars: Battlefront II, King Kong,andQuake IV—are multiplatform, with the Xbox 360 versionsperhaps delivering better performance thantheir PC counterparts. This of course will leaveus once again wondering: Is this the year weforgo the $1,500 PC upgrade and simply crossover to the console dark side? I don’t think so,but we’ll know for sure in a few months.TIntel AdoptsSLI andCrossFirein Next-GenChipsetIf you’re considering mak-ing the move to a PCI Expressmotherboard, but aren’t surewhether to spring for one sup-porting ATI’s CrossFire dual-card tech or nVidia’s SLI, Intel’snext-gen chipset—dubbed975X—will reportedly supportboth platforms.According to an article inDigiTimes,Intel has reachedlicensing agreements withboth nVidia and ATI to use theirrespective dual-card technolo-gies, a surprising developmentgiven the hyper-competitivegraphics-card market. The arti-cle quotes sources at Taiwanesemotherboard makers, thoughIntel, ATI, and nVidia aren’t talk-ing about the 975X at this time.Intel’s new chipset willreportedly be paired with itsnew “Presler” core, which willbe used in the Pentium ExtremeEdition 955. This dual-coreprocessor will be made using a65-nanometer process and willsupport a 1066MHz FSB with2MB of L2 cache per core.IThe rollabledisplayarrivessooner thanexpected,but still toolate for theiPod Shuffle.Close Up: iTunes 5Apple’s slick media player gets a high fiveSteve Jobs appears tobe cracking the whip:Apple just debutediTunes 5,an updateto the company’sfree media player,which now allows PCusers to sync theiriPods with contactinformation fromOutlookandOutlookExpress. iTunes 5alsoadds folder supportfor playlists, and amore random-behav-ing “Smart Shuffle”feature. (Free, www.Thomas L. McDonald has been covering games for 15years. He’s currently Editor-at-Large of the old-schoolgame and puzzle mag Games.itunes.com)12MAXIMUMPCHOLIDAY 2005 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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