• Tag Archives Maximum PC

  • Maximum PC (September 2000)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Maximum PC – September 2000

    Another issue of what was my favorite PC magazine. It was among the latest survivors in the magazine world as well. This magazine was generally targeted at those who were power users. People that build their own PCs, do PC gaming, overclock, etc. The September 2000 issue includes:

    • Commport – Letters from readers about the Voodoo 5 5500 AGP, color temperature calibration, the demise of Psygnosis, computer heat, AOL and privacy, the KX133 chipset, turning off the task scheduler, and more.
    • Inside Sources – Low power CPUs shown off at PC Expo including Transmeta’s Crusoe, a low power 600 MHz Pentium III, and AMD’s K6-2+ at PC Expo; the DVD-RAM / DVD+RW war continues; and a look at the new bluetooth technology.
    • Watch Dog – Philips settles lawsuit regarding defective CD-R drives; problems with Access Micro PC, getting Klipsch speakers in Canada, Aureal files for bankruptcy, and more.
    • Peripheral Vision – A look at new tech toys including the Casio Freedia FZ-500P Super-Compact Printer, Creative Video Blaster WebCam GO Plus, and Olympus Eye-Trek FMD-150W-US.
    • Fast Forward – A fair price for MP3a and the future of music consumption.
    • Dream Machine 2000 – Every year, Maximum PC editors built the ultimate PC that could be built. In 2000, that was a desktop featuring dual 1 GHz Pentium III CPUs, an Intel OR840 motherboard, a pair of 256MB Kingston RDRAM modules, a Hercules 3D Prophet II 64MB video card, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Platinum + Live Drive II, Sigma Designs Real Magic Hollywood Plus MPEG Decoder, Plextor Ultraplex 40x Max CD-ROM, two Plexwriter 12/4/32 drives, Pioneer DVD-115 16x DVD-ROM, two 18GB Seagate X15 SCSI drives, a 75GB IBM 75GXP drive, an Adaptec 39160 Ultra 160 SCSI card, an Iomega 100MB Internal IDE ZIP drive, a Sony F500 monitor, Klipsch ProMedia V.2-400 speakers, Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro USB, Logitech First Mouse Wheel, and a PC Power and Cooling Solid-Steel Tower. All for the low, low price of $11,987.
    Dream Machine 2000
    • Hands Down: The 25 Best Palm Apps – This list of best Palm Pilot apps includes things like Unitconv (an app for converting units), Cruisecontrol (an overclocking app), Arranger (an organizer app), Moon Phase (will give you the phase of the moon for any date), and lots of others.
    • Thunderbird’s A Go-Go! – A detailed look at AMD’s new iteration of the Athlon CPU. The big changes were to the cache architecture which also allowed it to go from slot based back to socket based.
    • Whitepaper – A talk with Matrox regarding its OpenGL driver.
    • Ask The Doctor – Questions answered about using Premiere with a Compaq Presario 7970, problems with IE 5.5, problems with ripping MP3s, DMA issues, using SoftFSB, and more.
    • Hardware Reviews – Reviews of the Polywell Poly A30k7-1000 system, Diamond Rio 600 MP3 player, Hercules 3D Prophet II 64MB graphics card, Elsa Gladiac GeForce 2 32MB graphics card, Hercules 3D Prophet II 32MB graphics card, OnStream 30GB tape drive, Dell XPS8100R Special Edition digital studio, Samsung SM-304B CD-RW/DVD drive, Toshiba SD-R1002 CD-RW/DVD drive, and Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 350CBi mobile color printer.
    • Game Reviews – Reviews of Diablo II, Deus Ex, MDK2, SimCity 3000 Unlimited, StarLancer, and Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption.

    …and more!


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  • Maximum PC (August 2005)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Maximum PC – August 2005

    Maximum PC, which start its life as boot, was my favorite PC magazine. It was oriented towards ‘enthusiasts’ such as gamers and those who like to build their own PCs, overclock, etc. It was published up until a a few years ago. The August 2005 issue includes:

    Regulars

    • In/Out – Letters from readers about choosing a video card for Quake 4, video card benchmarks, Quake III on a multi-core CPU, the Pentium D, DVD-R vs. DVD+R, and more.
    • Quick Start – ATI introduces crossfire; ATI releases 10 new drives including internal, external and portable models; Windows Mobile 5.0 released for PDAs and smartphones; DisplayPort standard announced; Athlon 64 X2 series replaces single core models; and more.
    • Head2Head – A look at the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ vs. the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840.
    • WatchDog – Maximum PC investigates industry issues including D-Link router problems, counterfeit copies of Windows XP, motherboard warranties, and more.
    • How To – A guide to protecting yourself from Phishing and Pharming.
    • Ask the Doctor – Questions answered about USB ports on the A7V333 motherboard, ethernet on the Asus P4P800 motherboard, power supply issues, case filters, and more.
    • In the Lab – Testing the 64-bit version of Windows XP.
    • Rig of the Month – A PC custom designed to look like something recovered off of a derelict space ship in Alien.

    Reviews

    • Desktop PC: MMC Modular PC – A modular PC that requires a docking station to work. It includes 1 GHz Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 CPU, 512MB of DDR RAM, 20GB hard drive, Silicon Motion 3DR graphics processor, and more for $1900.
    • 512MB videocards – A look at both the Sapphire Hybrid X800 XL and XFX GeForce 6800 Ultra 512MB. At the time 512MB video cards to offer much advantage over 256MB models.
    • Water-cooling Kit: Koolance Exos 2 – This liquid CPU cooler includes a unit with radiator, fans ad digital display that mounts on top of your case.
    • PDA: PalmOne LifeDrive – The unique features of this Palm based PDA was the 4GB internal hard drive.
    • External Hard Drive: Seagate 400GB – A highly rated and very large for the time external drive.
    • Video Editing Suite: Turtle Beach Video Advantage USB – A USB device and software that allows you to capture analog composite and S-Video with stereo audio.
    • Personal Video Player: Ovideon Aviah 5GB – A portable video player with a 2.2″ OLED screen, 5 GB of storage, and built-in TV Tuner.
    • Digital Cameras – Reviews of the Kodak EasyShare Z740 and the Leica Digilux 2.
    • Wireless Headphones: Sennheiser RS140 – A mediocre pair of wireless headphones.
    • MP3 Player: Gateway 6GB MP3 Photo Jukebox – A 6GB MP3 player that could also store and display digital photos.
    • USB Keys – A look a couple of USB thumb drives including the M-Flyer TravelDrive and CryptoStick USB 2.0.
    • DV Disc-Mastering Suite: Easy Media Creator 7.5 – One of the most popular pieces of software for mastering CDs.

    Gaming

    • Cold Fear – A port of a console survival horror game.
    • Guild Wars – A very popular MMORPG.
    • Pariah – A first person shooter with questionable AI.
    • SWAT 4 – A squad based game in which you command a SWAT team.

    Features

    • Heal Your PC! – Reviews of 23 utilities to prevent and cure viruses and other malware.
    • Picture This! – A review of 11 LCD monitors including the BenQ FP19V+, Eizo L778, Formac, Hewlett Packard L2035, LG L1980Q, Norcent LM-960, Philips 190P5, Planar PX212M, Samsung 193P, Sony SDM-HS95P, and Viewsonic VP191b.
    • Taming the SATA Beast – Understanding the differences between SATA 150, SATA II, and SATA 3G.

    …and more!


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  • Maximum PC (January 2006)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Maximum PC – January 2006

    Maximum PC was my favorite PC magazine. It had a pretty long life with the first issue being published in September 1998 and the last print issue coming in April 2023. Unlike some magazines, it maintained a fairly consistent quality. It limped on another couple of years as a digital only magazine but the last issue in that form was published last month. Sadly, Maximum PC is officially, completely dead. The January 2006 issue includes:

    Features

    • Versus – In this feature, Maximum PC determines the best AMD chipset (nVidia nForce4 SLI x16), best Pentium chipset (nVidia nForce 4 SLI x16), best midrange dual-core CPU (AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+), best high-end dual-core CPU (AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+), best high-end single-core CPU (Athlon 64 FX-57), best mobile CPU (Pentium M 740), best high-end videocard (nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB), best midrange videocard (Leadtek Winfast 7800 GT TDH Extreme), best budget videocard (AOpen Aeolus 6800 GT), best high-capacity hard drive (WC Caviar SE 16 400KB WD400KD), best recordable DVD media (Fujifilm), and best fast LCD (Samsung 940BF).
    • MP3 Challenge – A listening test with MP3s enconded with different encoders and bitrates.
    • DV Cam Roundup – A digital video camera buyers guide. Most video cameras at the time relied on miniDV tapes though some also used hard drives, 3-inch DVDs, and even flash media though capacity was limited. Cameras covered here include the Samsung SC-X105L Sports Cam, JVC Everio GZ-MG70U, Canon Optura 50, Hitachi DZ-GX20A, and Sony DCR-HC42 MiniDV Handycam.
    • $300 PC – This $300 computer includes an AMD Sempron 2800+ CPU, MSI RS480M-IL motherboard, 512MB of generic PC3200 memory, 80 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA hard drive, and Lite-On 16x double layer optical drive.

    Departments

    • Quick Start – A look at the top technologies of 2006. Some of these include dual-core GPUs, physics accelerators, new socket from AMD, DDR2 memory for AMD and DDR3 for Intel, among others. Also, Sony includes malware with every CD, Sanyo releases new rechargeable batteries, Firefox gains on Internet Explorer, Plextor releases 18x DVD burner, and more.
    • Head2Head – Comparing speakers with headphones. In this case, Sony’s MDR-DS8000 Digital Surround Headphone System is comapred with Logitech’s Z-5500 Digital speaker system. Spoiler, the speakers win.
    • WatchDog – Maximum PC’s consumer advocate investigates WinFixer (adware), WinAntiVirus Pro (sketchy antivirus software), EZInkjets.com (a company that took orders but seemingly never delivered), and more.
    • How To – A guide to installing Linux. This tutorial uses Ubuntu.
    • Ask the Doctor – Questions answered about burning a BartPE disc, a randomly restarting computer, a Dell XPS 600 and its use of proprietary parts, lock ups on the Sony Vaio VGNFS760 notebook, hard drive ticking sounds, and more.
    • R&D – A white paper on Virtual 3D Audio and an autopsy of an LCD display.
    • In the Lab – A look at high-end thermal paste performance and an evaluation of the new nForce 4 chipset.
    • In/Out – Letters from readers about Intel adopting AMD64 extensions, LaCie external drives, driver updates, camera testing, 64-bit Windows XP driver problems, the WD Raptor, and more.
    • Rig of the Month – A reader puts a custom build PC in his RX-8.

    Reviews

    • Pc Enclosure – A look at the Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 case.
    • Desktop PC – A review of the S1 Digital Media Center featuring a Pentium 4 @ 3.2 GHz, 1GB Geil DDR2-533 RAM, 320GB Western Digital hard drive, nVidia GeForce 6600 GT video card with 128MB, 350 watt power supply, and more for $2500.
    • External Water Cooler – A review of the Thermaltake Symphone External Water cooler which includes a cooling tower that sits outside of the PC case for a pretty steep $400. This is designed more for those with HTPC systems that have small cases.
    • Wirelss 5.1 Speakers -A review of Logitech Z-5450 Digital speakers. They had the convenience of being wireless but were also relatively noisy.
    • Mid-size Case – A review of the Silverstone Sugo SG-01 case.
    • PDA – A review of the Palm TX. Before iOS and Android took over the world with smartphones, your choice was a Palm or Windows Mobile based device without phone capabilities.
    • Streaming Boxes – A look at the Pinnacle ShowCenter 200 and Olive Musica Wireless Music System.
    • Mp3/Video Player – A reviews of the Apple 30GB iPod.
    • VGA Coolers – A review of the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencers.
    • Cordless Mouse – A review of the Logitech G7 Mouse.
    • Antivirus Apps – Reviews of McAfee VirusScan 2006 and Norton Antivirus 2006.

    Gaming

    • Age of Empires III – A review of this classic real-time strategy game from Microsoft.
    • Call of Duty 2 – A review of this classic first person shooter. Not really much of an improvement over the original but why mess with success?
    • F.E.A.R. – A horror themed first person shooter.

    …and more!


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