Content and news by Rob Williams

Some of you may not know the name Commodore, but for me it brings back many memories. I really got my start in all this computer stuff with the Commodore Vic-20; I can say that it changed the way I looked at computers and how I felt about them. Sure I used and owned other computers, but when I got the Vic-20, that’s when my love for computers became an obsession. Today we had the chance to take a look at the ‘new’ Commodore company. Bob and Alex, being much younger than I, really couldn’t appreciate or understand my excitement and enthusiasm at going to the meeting with the Commodore reps for our private little showing of their newest products. I’m sure some of you out there that are reading this can possibly understand how I felt about this meeting.

I had no idea that Commadore still existed, but the name sure does bring back memories to me blowing up my Commadore 64. This is a great article showing some very different products which will hopefully help keep the company name alive. Check it out Think Computers.

The section of the block that sits over the core is griddled to aid the water to pick up the heat better, this has two side inputs and a outlet, this ensures that water is always over most of the GPU area then gets drawn to the middle outlet.

Check out the full article at Xtreme Computing.

From this angle, we have a much better look at the 3.5mm male headphone jack. If you notice, there is a gap to the right of the headphone jack. The entire headphone jack unit can actually slide from either the left or right, depending on what is convenient for the device you are connecting to. Logitech provides a small locking mechanism to keep the jack in place.

Check out the full review over at OCIA!

In this article,
we explore what can we do to avoid lag, stuttering, and performance –
memory wise.
It looks like 2 GB is a must if you want to run games at the highest
details, but we think the
major improvement of having 2 GB (or even 4 GB) of memory is not performance
or lack
of stuttering. It’s game loading time – far shorter for newer games.

Check out the full article right at Tech-Hounds.

None of us are strangers to the Thermaltake name. They have being around for a decent amount of time now. They have their name on everything from cases to water-cooling kits. But today we will be looking at one of their products from their heatsink lineup. In my quest to build a quiet for yet powerful SFF machine, the one thing that I knew I would need was a good heatsink that cooled well and did not make much noise. Enter the Thermaltake Silent 939 K8 cooler. Will it do the job let’s see.

Some TT coolers are pretty wild looking, but this one has a touch of class. To see how well it does in some tests, check out the review at Pro-Clockers.

The Digital Experience is the second press only event prior to the opening of the show on January 5th. Some of the most innovative companies gather at this event to get the attention of the attending press members at CES. Here’s what we saw…

Check out some great new products at Future Looks.

AMD Zone has many Day 1 pictures up today, which you can check out here. There are *many* products I can’t wait to learn more about here, especially the OCZ Phase Change.

Dell have thought up a use for that massive 30 inch TFT of theirs. They’ve teamed up with NVIDIA at CES to showcase the biggest thing to hit PC graphics since SLI… Quad SLI.

Can anyone say overkill? Read about it at Hexus.

OCZ, best known for their high performance RAM products, is entering the performance cooling market with its new phase-change cooler, the Cryo-Z. HEXUS can exclusively reveal details on the new product.

Wow, this is quite a spin from memory! Check it out at Hexus.

LAS VEGAS — CES — Jan. 4, 2006 — Logitech (SWX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI), the world’s leading manufacturer of cordless computer peripherals, has introduced the Logitech® Cordless Desktop® S 530 Laser for Mac, a cordless keyboard-and-mouse combination that accentuates the elegant simplicity and style of today’s best-selling Mac® computers and provides premium controls
to enhance the experience of using a Mac.

Check out the full press release here.

There’s lots of great reviews going around today. If you are into bizarre products, then you may want to check out Overclockers Online because they are reviewing a mouse with a microphone in it. You heard right, and yes, it’s wierd. Byte Sector is taking a look at the new P XE 955 which rolls in at a stock 3.46GHz. He didn’t manage to get a huge OC out of it, and for the price you would hope you could.

Rojak Pot is taking the new 4GB Corsair Voyager drive for a spin, which we also tested last month. For a good CrossFire board, check out Bit-Tech today for their review of the MSI RD480. The board is pretty good overall, but requires you to use S-ATA drivers to install Windows! If you are looking for a killer racing wheel, then head over to TweakPC for a roundup for four.

Cases & Enclosures
• CaseBuy AI-02 series PC Case – Mod Synergy
• Cooler Master Stacker 830 – NeoSeeker
• Enermax Laureate 3.5 HDD Enclosure – Gideon Tech
• Raidmax Pure Color 02 Case w/420W PSU – 3D Gameman
• Thermaltake Big Water 745 Watercooling – Technic 3D
• XG Dragon ATX Case – Viper Lair

Cooling
• Aerocool High Tower Series HT-102 CPU Cooler – 3D Xtreme
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro – Virtual-Hideout

Memory & Storage
• Corsair 4GB Flash Voyager – Rojak Pot

Motherboards & CPU’s
• Intel Pentium XE 955 – Byte Sector
• MSI RD480 Neo2 – Bit-Tech

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Act-On MicMouse – Overclockers Online
• Cooler Master 550W SLI Real Power – TC Magazine
• Das Keyboard v. KeyTronic – Pyro CPU
• Enermax Liberty EL620AWT 620W PSU – Tweak Town
• Logitech G5 and G7 Gaming Mice – Geek Extreme
• Thrustmaster Wheel Roundup – TweakPC

Video Cards & Monitor
• Gigabyte Radeon X1800XT – Legion Hardware
• Sapphire Radeon X850 Crossfire – AMD Zone

Etcetera & Contests
• How Manufacturers Test Heatsinks & Thermal Compound – Frosty Tech
• HP Color LaserJet 3000 – Trusted Reviews
• Samsung SPP-2040 Colour 4″x6″ Photo Printer – PC Stats

A Clinton-based Internet service provider was awarded an $11.2 billion judgment against a Florida man for sending millions of unsolicited e-mails advertising mortgage and debt consolidation services.

The lawsuit, filed in 2003 by CIS Internet Services owner Robert Kramer III, also prompted earlier judgments against companies in Florida and Arizona worth more than $1 billion.

Wow this is not a small number! How screwed is this guy? Check out the full release here. Source: Hard|OCP.

Taipei, Taiwan; January 3rd, 2006 – ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (ASUS) and Automobili Lamborghini today announced a comprehensive partnership that merges advanced information technology and automobile heritage. The result is the stunning Lamborghini Notebook Series that inherits all the striking traits of a true Lamborghini.

Available in both yellow and black, the Lamborghini Notebook Series is the ultimate representation of technology and automobile fusion and a true mobile computing revolution. With design details and special mirror painting finish, the Industrial Design team at ASUS has successfully produced an exceptional innovation that, with the look alone, exudes power, speed, strength and beauty.

The small teaser shots are certainly not enough; I can’t wait to see full fledged images of this. Check out the full PR right here.

CES is now in full swing, so we should be seeing many reports as the days pass. Already some websites are posting information of what’s new, so be sure to scour through them. In reviews today though, including a fan controller over at Bjorn3D. It looks like it can do it’s job well, but despite being a fan controller… there is not much controlling to be had. Also in the modding dept. is the Matrix MX610 LED display. With this, you can display system temperatures, fan speeds or anything else you can think of. If you are looking for a killer mousepad to support your gaming habits, you may also want to check out Got Frag today for their roundup.

Cases & Enclosures
• Cooler Master Stacker 830 Full Tower – System Cooling
• Raidmax Sagitta Gaming Case w/450W PSU – 3D Gameman

Cooling
• Coolink U8-120-1600 CPU Cooler – PC Modding Malaysia
• Thermaltake TideWater–Fool proof VGA cooling? – Xtreme Computing

Memory & Storage
• Maxtor DiamondMax 200GB Hard Drive – OC Mod Shop

Motherboards & CPU’s
• ASRock 939NF4G-SATA2 – PC Stats
• BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.7.1 – Rojak Pot

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Buttkicker Gamer Ass Speaker – R&B Mods
• Game Mousepad Roundup – Got Frag
• Matrix Orbital MX610 – USB PLED Display – Extreme Overclocking

Video Cards & Monitor
• ATI All In Wonder 2006 PCIe – Motherboards.org
• PowerColor X800GTO 128 MB PCI-E – Tech-Mods
• Sansun Thermal Monster Fan Controller – Bjorn3D

Etcetera & Contests
• Epson Stylus D88 Photo Edition inkjet printer review – A1 Electronics
• Gateway CX200X Tablet PC – Design Technica
• Novell Raises the Bar for Linux Collaboration and Development – Full PR

Four years ago next month we built the world’s first water cooled Xbox. At the time, a lot of people asked us why we would want to water cool an Xbox, mostly because they didn’t understand the motivation behind it. The fact of the matter was that the standard heat sink on the 700MHz Intel processor would barely get hot under normal use and surely didn’t warrant the performance offered by a custom water cooling kit. At the time, we did it simply because no one else had done it and “because we could.” That was our motivation then and that is partially our motivation now.

This is a great article for all you DYI’ers and is definitely easy to follow. If you don’t want to wait for a commercial solution, check out the guide at Hard|OCP.

Some exciting news about the GeForce 7800 GS which has been previously reviewed here. It seems that the owner of this card is selling it on eBay. Now you have a chance to buy a card that isnt suppose to exist on the market.

Check it out at NGOHQ.

The Nautilus 500 consists of an external unit which sits on top of the computer’s case, along with a CPU waterblock and retention brackets. Installation of the waterblock doesn’t require the removal of the motherboard, which will appeal to both watercooling newbies and those who just can’t be bothered faffing about taking their board out.

Now this is a great looking system. Check it out at Hexus.

Well CES is only a day away now, but there is a special press only event called CES Unveiled. This event gives manufacturers a chance to showcase new products before the big event. There are only a handful of companies that chose to exhibit at this event, and there is free complementary food and drinks, which makes it even better. So today we will be showing you some of the cool new products that were showed at this event.

The article is down at the time of writing, but what I did get to read seemed great! Check it out (if the Slashdot effect passes) over at Think Computers.

In the 1998 movie, “Enemy of the State”, actor Will Smith’s personal privacy is invaded by his own government using high technology devices planted in his home, office and even on his person. Sounds far fetched? The technology does exist to do everything portrayed in the movie and much more. The only difference between the movie and real life is that unlike the movie where government agents physically entered the home and office of Smith, this is not necessary to breach the privacy of any citizen.

Check out the full article over at BTX Form Factor.

Pfäffikon/ Switzerland, 03.01.2006: Swiss cooler manufacturer ARCTIC COOLING launches
new series of Graphic card coolers named Accelero (X1 for NVDIA 6800/ 7800 Series and
X2 for ATI X1800/ X1900 Series). Vibrations caused by the rotating fan are absorbed by a
patented vibration muffler. Complex airflow simulations were conducted during development
of the fan, the results were incredible cooling performance at extremely low noise levels as a
result of to 6 heatpipes. ARCTIC COOLING offers for this series a 6 year limited warranty.