Computer Power User Volume 11 Issue 1

84.4 MB·English

by  Sandhills Publishing

January 2011 | Vol 11 Issue 01
48 Perfect ’10 66 Hardcore Software
CPU’s Year-Sized Review Of The Best In Tech The Best Apps For The Job
50 The 2010 CPU All-Star Team 72 Best Of The Next
The Parts You Care The Most About We Know What You’ll Want Next Summer
60 Extra-Special Extras
Your Ports Demand These Peripherals
Frontside Heavy Gear
8 What’s Happening 20 Better With Age 32 Nvidia GeForce GTX 580
16 Digital Economy Two Years Later, X58 Is Still Fermi Shows Its True Colors
Intel’s Champion 34 Sapphire Radeon HD 6850
24 LaCie d2 USB 3.0 Toxic Edition
Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 Mukii TransImp SATA/IDE to
25 Antec LanBoy Air USB 3.0
Scythe USB Foot Switch Triple
28 Zalman ZM-MH200 US Dual HDD
Docking Station
Zalman ZM-PCM1 & ZM-VPM1
30 Gigabyte Aivia K8100
OCZ IBIS HSDL SSD 240GB
31 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 480 SOC
Patriot Memory Viper
Xtreme 4GB
Copyright 2011 by Sandhills Publishing Company. Computer Power User is a trademark of Sandhills Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material
appearing in Computer Power User is strictly prohibited without written permission. Printed in the U.S.A. GST # 123482788RT0001 (ISSN 1536-7568) CPU Computer
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page 93
Hard Hat Area Loading Zone Digital Living
PC Modder 76 The Bleeding Edge Of Software 88 Mobile Wars
36 Mad Reader Mod Inside The World Of Betas The Battle Over The Next Great
Cobra-Matic 77 Up To Speed Computing Platform
Upgrades That’ll Keep 93 At Your Leisure
38 Advanced Q&A Corner
You Humming Along PC & Console Games & Gear
40 X-ray Vision: Tips & Tricks
80 Sony Creative Software ACID
The Radeon 6800 Series
Music Studio 8
New Display Options Highlight 101 Software Tips & Projects
Acronis Drive Monitor
AMD’s Latest Graphics Cards Group Policy Editor:
84 Open Sores
42 White Paper: Toshiba Toggle Experience Tweaker Nirvana
Pinguy OS: Linux For Dummies
Mode NAND Flash
What’s Cooking
Samsung, Toshiba May Open
More Markets For NAND
105 Technically Speaking
An Interview With Sezmi
Infinite Loops
CMO David Allred
Strange stats and other oddball items from Back Door
computing’s periphery. page 102
110 Q&A With Jack Wang
Shuttle USA’s President Thinks
Inside The Box
Editor’s Note
A
s PC enthusiasts, we are almost always looking forward. We have our eyes
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to what our next CPU, graphics card, or mass storage unit might be, and
we have a permanent itch to get the latest browser, the latest game, or the latest
iteration of our favorite productivity app downloaded and installed. Customer Service
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Compiled by blaine Flamig
Two Entirely Different
Small PCs Verbatim Shrinks Its
MediaShare NAS Server
As parents, we wince every time our kids use
our laptop. PeeWee PC’s PeeWee Pivot 2.0
“Would you like that NAS media server
could help tame our nerves. Not only does
with or without storage, sir?” That’s the
the $599 netbook-looking Pivot 2.0
question you’ll need to ponder if shopping
feature Windows 7, 15 educational
for a NAS media server at Verbatim. With
titles, and an Intel Atom N450,
the recently released MediaShare Mini
but it also sports such features
($90), the company is now providing a
as a 180-degree rotating
non-storage alternative to its previously
touchscreen, water-resistant
released MediaShare unit. The MediaShare,
keyboard, non-slip grips, hard plastic exterior, and two
meanwhile, comes with up to 1TB of
security suites. Taking the “peewee” theme to the adult level is the intriguing
onboard storage ($199). If you go the
Xi3 Modular Computer whose aluminum sides measure less than 4 inches
mini route, you’ll have four USB ports at
each. The Xi3 needs less than 20W to run, comes in 10 color options, and
your disposal to plug in your own drives.
supplies six USB 2.0 and two eSATA ports; DVI, VGA, and HDMI; a choice
As with the MediaShare, you’re getting
of three AMD CPUs (including 2.2GHz Athlon 64 4200+); up to 4GB
remote Internet support; file accessibility
DDR3 RAM; and 1080p playback. Perhaps most alluring are the rig’s three
from an iPhone, iPod touch, Android, and
swappable boards, including one that contains the CPU, graphics chip, and
other smartphones; Facebook and Flickr
RAM and another with video, input, and USB connections. “We reject the
integration; and streaming through the PS3,
concept that computers Xbox 360, and DLNA-compliant adapters. ■
should have a useful
life of only two to four
years,” says Xi3 CEO
Jason A. Sullivan. Sans
input devices, the Xi3
starts at $849 with Linux
Suse included. ■
Watching the chips Fall
CPU Released Original Price Company Pricing* NewEgg.com Retail Price*
Here is the pricing
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T (Black Edition) 4/27/2010 $295 $295** $229
information for AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 4/27/2010 $199** $199** $179
various AMD and AMD Phenom II X4 965 (Black Edition) 8/13/2009 $245 $165** $165.99
AMD Phenom II X4 955 (Black Edition) 4/23/2009 $245 $145** $155.99
Intel CPUs.
AMD Phenom II X4 945 11/4/2009 $165** $145** $135.99
AMD Phenom II X2 555 (Black Edition) 1/25/2010 $105 $93** $91.99
AMD Phenom II X2 550 11/4/2009 $93 $93** $87.99
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad-Core 640 5/10/2010 $122** $99.99** $99.99
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad-Core 645 9/21/2010 $122 $122** $117.99
AMD Athlon II X3 Triple-Core 445 5/10/2010 $87** $76** $73.99
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition 3/11/2010 $999** $999** $999.99
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition 6/2/2009 $999** $999** $979.99
Intel Core i7-970 7/18/2010 $885** $885** $879.99
Intel Core i7-930 Q1 2010 $294** $294** $279.99
Intel Core i7-875K 5/28/2010 $342** $342** $329.99
Intel Core i5-760 7/18/2010 $205** $205** $204.99
* As of November 2010
Intel Core i5-750 9/8/2009 $196** $196** $199.99
** Manufacturer’s Intel Core i5-655K 5/28/2010 $216** $216** $179.99
estimated price
Intel Core i3-550 Q2 2010 $138** $117** $129.99
per 1,000
Intel Core i3-540 Q1 2010 $133** $117** $119.99
8 January 2011 / www.computerpoweruser.com
Creative Joins The 1080p Web Cam Party
If you thought Microsoft and Logitech were the only gunslingers in
town firing 1080p bullets out of their Web cams, think again. Creative
has entered the fray with its new Live! Cam Socialize HD 1080 ($89.99),
which in addition to doing true 1080p video captures at up to 30fps, sports
integrated dual adaptive array mics with noise-cancellation and Live! Scan scanning
software with touchscreen and multitouch support. Elsewhere, Creative recently also
announced the Creative ZiiO 7” (starts at $278) and ZiiO 10” (starts at $332) Pure
Wireless Tablets in 8GB and 16GB sizes both running Android 2.1 and including
Creative’s X-Fi technology and ZMS-08 processor, which reportedly has ties to the
1GHz ARM CPU. Creative states that apps for the tablets are available in its ZiiStore. ■
H a r d w a r e M o l e
Mice, Mice & More Mice
SSD, Flash Drive
No matter where you turn these days there’s seemingly a new, flashy mouse scamper-
& External Drives
ing on the scene, including Asus’ puckish, tilting, 2.4GHz WX-DL ($80) with touch-
For The Taking sensitive pad. Elsewhere, there’s the Elecom 800/1,600dpi Bluetooth 3.0 Lazer (about
$52) and
Another month, another batch Tt eSports’
of new storage options for your Azurues optical
consideration, including the gaming mouse
MiniStation Stealth and Drive- (pricing still
Station Axis LED external drives to come) with
from Buffalo Technology. The 4.5 x 400/800/1,600dpi options, “weight-in” design, and black rubber exterior for better
3.03 x 0.55-inch MiniStation comes gripping in FSPs. Really piquing our interest, however, is Roccat Studios’ Kone [+]
in capacities of as much as 640GB (about $110). This monster of a gaming mouse gives you direct access to 22 functions
($104.99) and draws its power from via a built-in EasyShift [+] button (one of 12 onboard buttons), 6,000dpi Pro-Aim
one USB cable. The DriveStation Laser Sensor with built-in TDCU (tracking and distance control), five profiles you
Axis LED, meanwhile, will start can save to the 576KB of integrated memory, and a slick four-LED system you can
shipping in January at a top 2TB configure with various effects. ■
($159.99) capacity and include a
built-in LED-drive capacity meter. New Headsets Are Here, You Say?
Also in storage news, beyond a
new 480GB UltraDrive MX SSD
Sure, you can technically game without chatting, but having a headset, whether you
(reportedly $1,200; 250MBps read
use it to talk a little junk or a little strategy, makes the experience that much more
and 180MBps write) with dual
satisfying. To that end, it’s out with the old and in with the new at Sony, which is
SATA II and mini-USB interface,
replacing its 2008-released Bluetooth Headset for the PS3 with a more streamlined,
Super Talent recently made available
30% smaller model (that costs $49.99) with dual mics, automatic PS3 pairing (via
a USB 3.0 Express Duo flash drive
USB cable), mute button, charging cradle, LED in-game indicator, new noise-
in 8GB and 16GB sizes for a mere
cancelling ability, and three-way calling and call-waiting support. Sennheiser,
$14 and $29, respectively. USB 2.0
meanwhile, is also gifting gamers with new headset options via a new headset line
backward-compatible, the stick
led by the flagship PC 360 ($299.95) with Open-Aire acoustics technology. The PC
can surpass 67MBps reads when
163D ($209.95) and PC 333D ($239.95), meanwhile, both pack Dolby Headphone
slipped into a USB 3.0 port, Super
technology for 7.1 virtual surround sound. Finally, the PC 330 G4ME ($169.95)
Talent states. ■ provides a nice automatic muting ability when pushing the boom mic upward. ■
CPU / January 2011 9
BullGuard Gives
A Security Nod
To Gamers
Seeking an Internet security suite
that protects without denting sys-
tem game performance? BullGuard
believes it has the answer via the
Game Mode it includes in its new
Internet Security 10 ($59.95),
which offers 5GB online storage
and such new features as Behav-
ioral Detection technology (rated
to snag 65% more malware than
standard virus apps), Safe Browsing
(alerts you to registered, unsafe sites
in search results), and Inspector
(tracks down outdated software).
Game Mode was actually added in
Internet Security 9 to filter system
resources toward gaming perfor-
“Don’t Send The Wrong Message”
mance, thus “ensuring maximum
performance without compromising
According to Lymbix, the maker of such products as TweetTone and ToneFilter, a study
safety.” In 2009, BullGuard worked
from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology indicates people misinterpret
with SteelSeries on a BullGuard
email messages 50% of the time. (We’ll leave it to you if the stat still holds up consider-
Gamer’s Edition, for which it con-
ing the study is from 2005.) To that end, Limbix offers the ToneCheck, a free beta
ducted a study of 2,000 gamers. In-
plug-in that promises to “stop email confusion before it happens” by evaluating and
terestingly, 20% claimed to not use
flagging words and phrases “for the intensity of eight primary emotions.” Compatible
any security while gaming, while
with Outlook 2003/2007/2010, ToneCheck is said to work as easily and intuitively as
roughly half of the remaining 80%
a spell checker. Features include an Editor, an Alert that notifies of potential “uh-ohs”
cited complaints about security soft-
upon pressing Send, Tolerance tool for adjusting what you deem tolerable, and a new
ware hindering gameplay. ■
Ignore Function to manually add terms to an Ignore List. ■
SugarSync Sweetens
Its Free Storage Offer
A recent announcement from online storage provider SugarSync
is a win-win situation for current users and those who have
yet to tap into the company’s backup and file-sharing service.
Previously, SugarSync offered anyone 2GB free online storage
to keep and manage their goods from any device, including An-
droid, Apple, and BlackBerry mobile gear. The company more
than doubled the offering to 5GB in mid-November, however;
citing the limit as the “most generous, free sync-and-share of-
fering for the personal cloud.” Those already signed up for 2GB
plans were upgraded to 5GB, as well. “Statistics show people’s storage needs double every two years
so this larger plan is better suited for today’s mobile consumer,” says Laura Yecies, SugarSync CEO.
“This is by far the most robust free, cloud-based service for consumers on the market.” ■
10 January 2011 / www.computerpoweruser.com