• Motorola Stock Hits 10-Year Low
• Sendmail downloads hit by random hack
• The Microsoft protection racket
• ATI seals deal for graphics chipset
• Maxtor works to simplify data backup
• Jamming camcorders in movie theaters

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My goal is to make the best tweak guide on the net, a free and easy to use guide for all. Toward that aim I am asking for you to please submit tweaks and suggestions. Your name/handle will go next to the submission. The tweaks should be beneficial to a majority of users and should come with some documentation from a reliable source that it actually works.

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I do believe that I am trying to simulate everyday use, I have everything installed, from hooking sound up to my sub and listening to a little Floyd to having the computer on the net. All the computers are fully functional, nothing is turned off or uninstalled to make the computer faster (why would anyone do this, fast is good, but it isn’t' a representation of everyday use). Let's get to the tests.

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Unlike the Radeon 9700 Pro, the Radeon 9000 Pro comes in both 64 and 128 Meg versions. Our review sample came equipped with 64 Megs of 275MHz DDR RAM. The 9000 Pro core runs at 275MHz as well and features Quad-pipe architecture, Programmable Pixel & Vertex Shaders, High-Performance Anisotropic Filtering and Dual Display Support. While it fully supports DirectX 8.1 the 9000 Pro doesn't have support for the upcoming DirectX 9.0. However you have to consider that the 9000 Pro will be competing against the nVidia GeForce4 MX line of video card.

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A few months ago, I had no idea how to begin the process of overclocking my machine. It was painful even trying to figure out what questions to ask. I still consider myself a newbie. Therefore, this guide is far from complete and will contain errors, but hopefully it helps those just beginning.

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The mouse supports both USB and PS/2 connections (on both PC and Mac), convenient for those who do not have a free USB connection. With the cool hovering effect caused by the ominous red glow emanating from the optical light, the mouse glides effortlessly across most smooth surfaces. (Yeah, you can ditch that nasty old mouse pad, unless of course, it is a sweet Simpson’s pad!) The mouse has the typical 3-button layout: a right and left button with a scroll-wheel in the center which has the ability to act as a third button.

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On Monday, September 30th, Outcast (yes, here at our very own Monster-Hardware) gave me a call; he let me know that Outpost had placed some Intel Celeron 900Mhz retail boxed processors up for sale at $9.90 each. Obviously, this was a great deal! I occasionally build simple computers for friends, family, etc. and thought that having one or two of these on the shelf wouldn’t be a bad idea since I had a couple of builds coming up.

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As you can see, the heat sink is made from a skived-fin design. These ultra-small fins have been proven to dissipate heat very quickly and efficiently, thus are now becoming quite popular. We have already reviewed several skived heat sinks here, but none of them have been manufactured from pure copper. This should prove to be quite interesting, since the thermal conductivity of Copper is 402 W/mK, which is almost twice of Aluminum, 226 W/mK. The only other [semi] practical metal that bests copper is silver, with a slightly higher thermal conductivity of 422 W/mKl.

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As you can see, the heat sink is made from a skived-fin design. These ultra-small fins have been proven to dissipate heat very quickly and efficiently, thus are now becoming quite popular. We have already reviewed several skived heat sinks here, but none of them have been manufactured from pure copper. This should prove to be quite interesting, since the thermal conductivity of Copper is 402 W/mK, which is almost twice of Aluminum, 226 W/mK. The only other [semi] practical metal that bests copper is silver, with a slightly higher thermal conductivity of 422 W/mKl.

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Another addition to the IT7-MAX2 is the inclusion of 2 Serial ATA150 ports. Although true SATA drives are very few and far between, only Seagate comes to mind, Abit does supply a single connector to hook a regular parallel ATA drive to a SATA port. Serial ATA is quickly becoming a common inclusion on new boards, Abit as far as I can tell though are the only manufacturer to add Serial ATA RAID to the list of features on the IT7-MAX2. It does allow for future flexibility and means the board will not be out of date in 2003 when serial ATA comes to the fore in the market.

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Our plans for this case include adding a top 80mm blowhole, as well as modding out the front bezel to allow for better airflow. Myself and playa-k took a trip to Striker777's house to do the modding, as he is the official "tool owner". The first logical step is to remove all of the hardware from the case (metal shavings + system inside = NO NO!).

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"The Promise FastTrak SX4000 RAID Controller is excellent for both server or home environment because it offers performance at a reasonable price. Also, there is no doubt this card is very flexible with RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD array options. Watch the Video to find out more..." ~3dGameMan.com

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Plextor, the leading manufacturer of high reliability CD/CD-RW drives, today enters the highly competitive CD media market by launching a range of its own CD-R media. Available in packs of 10 and 50, the discs are high quality and high speed, capable of recording up to 48x.

Using its extensive experience of building high quality CD-RW hardware, Plextor is ideally positioned to produce complementary media.

Patrick Peeters, sales and marketing manager at Plextor, explains: "CD recording has become the personal storage of choice for all types of data, photos, music and back-up. Plextor CD-RW drives are synonymous with premium quality and superior reliability ­ and we have designed the CD-R discs to the same tolerance.

"While the CD-R packs carry the premium Plextor brand, they are aimed at everyday end-users and as such will be priced very competitively in the high street."

Features
- High speed 48x
- Capacity of 80 minutes (700 MB)
- Outstanding write quality
- Superior reliability and accuracy
- Suitable for all CD formats (data and audio)
- Disc surface coating to protect against scratches
- Compatible with Plextor and all other CD-recorders

Pricing and availability
Plextor media will be available from mid-November from retailers nationwide in the following packs:10-pack (slim case) and 50-pack (spindle). Prices are tbc.