• Tag Archives Maximum PC

  • Maximum PC (February 2002)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Maximum PC was my favorite PC magazine (and its incarnation as ‘boot’ before it). It covered PCs from an enthusiast point of view for those that liked to build or upgrade their own machines, gamers, those who liked to edit video, etc. The February 2002 issue includes:

    Regulars

    • In/Out – Letters from readers about RAIDs, the Xbox, emulation, nVidia history, speakers, and more.
    • Quick Start – Intel releases its first DDR based Pentium 4 motherboard (D845BG), new 3D chip technology, bendable displays, CMOS cameras, and more.
    • Head2Head – Comparing Wolfenstein-3D to Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
    • Watchdog – Problems with IBM’s 75GXP series of hard drives, the lack of driver support for the Guillemot Maxi Studio ISIS card in Windows XP and 2000, high restocking fees, and more.
    • Ask the Doctor – Questions answered about ACR slots, configuring multiple broadband connections, wireless peripherals, Outlook attachments, Athlon XP chipsets, four Pentium IIIs vs. two Athlon MPs, and more.
    • How To… – A guide to adding drive capacity to your Tivo.
    • In The Lab – A look at Intel’s new Northwood Pentium 4 CPU.
    • Rig of the Month – A custom horror themed custom desktop case inspired by H.R. Giger featuring an overclocked Duron (700MHz to 1 GHz), 512MB of PC133 SDRAM, and a GeForce2 MX 32MB video card.

    Reviews

    • Dell Inspiron 8100 notebook – Featuring an Intel Mobile Pentium III-M @ 1.2GHz, 256MB PC133 SDRAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 w/ 64MB DDR SDRAM, IBM Travelstar 48GB hard drive and more for $2925.
    • Devastator 9908 arcade controller – A two player arcade controller featuring two sticks, 16 buttons, a trackball, spinner, etc. for $450. Great for emulating those old arcade games.
    • HP dvd100i CD/DVD burner – Early DVD writers were expensive. This rather average one would set you back $600.
    • Bantam BA350 MP3 player – Apple may have had the best known MP3 players with the iPod line but there were tons of other interesting options including this 128MB model with MMC expansion.
    • Sure Thing CD labeler – A device for sticking labels on CDs.
    • AfterBurner CD labeler – A much better device for sticking labels on CDs. I always just used a Sharpie myself.
    • U.Are.U Personal fingerprint recognition – A $69 fingerprint reader that connects via USB.
    • Face Lock security software – Software that provides security for your PC via face and voice recognition.
    • Adobe Illustrator 10 – Another incremental upgrade for the classic graphics app.
    • Return to Castle Wolfenstein – A solid sequel to the classic original.
    • Four mini game reviews – Brief reviews of Comanche 4, Dark Age of Camelot (one of only two MMORPGs I’ve ever played), Silent Hunter II, and Codename: Outbreak.

    Features

    • Heal Your PC – A look at 18 utilities to help you diagnose and fix PC problems. These include Norton SystemWorks 2002 Professional, PC-Doctor Service Center 2000 2.3, TuffTest-Pro v.3.52F, Quick Tech Personal, SpinRite 5, EZ-Smart 5, CD-R Inspector 1.2.3, CD Rata Rescue 1.1, Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility 3.9, Super Pi 1.1e, DocMemory 1.45a/2.0, RST Pro 1.31, PowerStrip 3.10.228, DisplayMate Professional for DOS 1.23, Modem Doctor for Windows 2.0.0.21, QuickTech USB, and more.
    • PC Showdown – Reviews of nine systems from smaller vendors including NextGen’s AMD XP (featuring an Athlon XP 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM, and Leadtek GeForce3 Ti 500 for $2600), the Element PC Patriot 1900 (featuring an Athlon XP 1.66GHz, 512MB RAM, and Leadtek GeForce3 Ti 500 for $2600), the XDream Nightmare (featuring a Pentium 4 2.0GHz, 512MB RAM, and Leadtek GeForce3 Ti 500 for $2570) and a bunch of other similarly configured mostly Athlon XP based systems.
    • 3D Splendor – A look at twho of the first games to make use of pixel and vertex shaders, Aquanox and Ballistics.

    …and more!


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  • Maximum PC (April 1999)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Maximum PC was my favorite PC magazine. It was also one of the last major PC magazines to survive in print form. This was a magazine for PC enthusiasts with an emphasis on things like custom builds, overclocking, etc. The April 1999 issue includes:

    Features

    • Operation: Overclock – A guide to overclocking. In this article are attempts at overclocking the P200 MMX, Celeron 300A, Pentium II 266MHz, and TNT Videocard. Plus a look at various cooling solutions.
    • AMD K6-III: Third Time’s a Charm – The K6-III was faster than at least the early versions of the Pentium III at the same clock speed. The big advantage of the K6-III over the K6-2 was the built-in cache. Not only was it faster than motherboard cache but it also eliminated the memory restrictions of motherboard cache.
    • Interrogation: nVidia – A look at nVidia’s next gen video card, the TNT2.

    Voices

    • Ed Word – The death of one of Maximum PCs editors.
    • Comm Port – Letters from readers on improving modem performance, multiple magazine covers, Direct3D, identifying rebranded monitors, and more.
    • Fast Forward – This month’s future technology is eXtensible Markup Language (or XML).
    • On the Line – MP3s and the threat they represent to the music industry.
    • Game Theory – Piracy and its threat to gaming companies.
    • The Saint – The mass hysteria surrounding the Y2K bug.

    News

    • Inside Sources – Users who use an OS other than Windows seek refunds from PC vendors. It seems something in the Windows 98 license promises that.

    Tech Files

    • Watchdog – 3D Distribution goes out of business; EPS also goes out of business; Stargate 2000 owner pleads guilty to fraud; problems with a Micron laptop; and more.
    • Ask the Doctor – Questions answered about hard drive speeds and upgrading a Pentium II, reducing windows resource consumption, virtual memory, floppy drive alternatives, TCP/IP, overclocking, and more.
    • Terminator – A glossary of technical terms.

    Products

    • Peripheral Vision – The Voodoo3 from 3Dfx was a huge disappointment and the beginning of the end of the Voodoo line. 3Dfx would be purchase by nVidia.
    • Previews – Early looks at 3Dfx’s Voodoo 3 and System Shock 2.
    • Reviews – Reviews of the Sony VAIO PCV-E518DS (PC featuring a 500MHz Pentium III, 128MB SDRAM, Matrox G200 video card with 8MB SDRAM, 17GB hard drive), Compaq Presario 1900 (laptop featuring a 366MHz mobile Pentium II, 64MB SDRAM, NeoMagic MagicMedia 256AV AGB with 2.5MB SGRAM, 1024×768 display), SGI 320 NT Workstation (workstation from SGI featuring dual Pentium III 500MHz CPUS, Cobalt video, 512MB ECC SDRAM, 10GB hard drive), Shark Multimedia Leopard Pocket USB, Multi-Tech MultiModem USB, U.S. Robotics 56K Voice Faxmodem Pro, Kenwood 52x TrueX (a CD-ROM drive so fast it sometimes made CDs explode), AOpen CD-948E 48x, Plextor UltraPLEX Wide, Iomega Zip 250, Addonics Pocket SuperDisk, Diamond Rio PMP300 (before the iPod, the Diamond Rio line was probably the most popular MP3 players), Director 7, Partition Commander with System Commander, PartitionMagic 4.0 with BootMagic, Lumiere Video Studio, Video Studio 3.0, VideoWave II, Avid Cinema, Hip Hop eJay, Acid Music, Studio Pro, Music Maker Deluxe V2000, TurboTax Deluxe, European Air War, WWII Fighters, Combat Flight Simulator, Grim Fandango, and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

    …and more!


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  • Maximum PC (February 2004)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Maximum PC was my favorite computer magazine. It had a pretty long run starting as ‘boot’ in the late 1990s. The last issue was published just a few years ago. The February 2004 issue includes:

    Regulars

    • In/Out – Letters from readers about hyperthreaded Pentium 4s, batteries in iPods, benchmark scores, and more.
    • Quick Start – An on-hand look at the removeable graphics card in the Alienware Area-51m laptop; Phoenix looks at possible BIOS replacements; and more.
    • Head2Head – A comparison of the benefits of 802.11g wireless networking vs. gigabit ethernet.
    • WatchDog – The latest on a lawsuit regarding the IBM 75GXP hard drive
    • Ask the Doctor – Questions answered about the Temp directory in Windows 98, viewing .dmp files, removing the password in Windows 95, swap file contents, CD burning problems, clock speed discrepancies, Radeon 9800 Pro issues, and more.
    • How To – A guide to installing Linux on your PC. This guide uses Mandrake.
    • Rig of the Month – A custom built PC with a case made with lego.

    Reviews

    • Hy-Tek Panel 300 desktop PC – An all-in-one PC with a 30-inch display featuring a 2.4GHz Pentium 4, 512MB DDR266 RAM, ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro, and more for $6495.
    • Screamworx Hysteria 64-FX desktop PC – A PC featuring an AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 (2.2 GHz) CPU, 2GB Registered DDR400 RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 XT videocard, and more for $3650.
    • Monarch Computer Systems Hornet Pro mini-PC – Features Socket 754 Athlon 64 series CPU support, one 8x AGP slot and three PCI slots, and a 250 watt power supply.
    • AOpen XC Cube mini-PC – Features Socket A Athlon XP CPU support, one 8x AGP slot and one PCI slot, and a 220 watt power supply.
    • FIC Ice Cube IC-VL67 mini-PC – Features Socket 478 Pentium 4 CPU support, one 8x AGP slot and one PCI slot, and a 220 watt power supply. I was never really a fan of the small form factor PC. I deal for LAN parties I suppose but too much heat, wimpy power supply, limited expandability, etc. always made it a poor choice for a primary PC.
    • Fujitsu Lifebook P5020D notebook PC – This laptop features a 1GHZ Pentium M, 512MB DDR266 RAM, and a 10.5-inch 1280×768 display with Intel Extreme Graphics for $2000.
    • Creative Labs Gigaworks S750 7.1 speakers – A decent 7.1 speaker set for your PC for $500.
    • Logitech Z-2200 2.1 speakers – One of the best 2.1 PC speaker sets you could get for $150.
    • Sapphire Radeon 9800 XT videocard – One of the fastest GPUs you could get at the time but it would set you back $500.
    • Western Digital 740GD Raptor hard drive – This 74GB 10,000 RPM drive gets a perfect 10 from Maximum PC and was probably the fastest consumer drive you could get.
    • Steganos Security Suite Generation 6 – Highly rated software for encrypting your hard drive.
    • Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 4.0 mouse – Maximum PC gives this mouse a perfect 10.
    • Sony DRU-530A 8x dual-format DVD burner – A DVD burner that could burn both DVD+R and DVD-R media.
    • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – This classic Star Wars RPG gets a perfect 10 from Maximum PC. I can’t believe it’s been this long since this game was released.
    • Secret Weapons Over Normandy – A mediocre World War II flight simulator.
    • XIII – A relatively obscure and mediocre first person shooter.
    • Deus Ex: Invisible War – Maximum PC calls this open world FPS the best designed PC game of the year.

    Features

    • Windows Tips – A detailed guide for improving the performance and usability of Windows XP.
    • PC Rights – Your rights as they relate to the Digital Millenia Copyright Act (DMCA).
    • Games of the Year – Maximum PC’s first gaming awards. There are awards in a variety of categories including Game of the Year (Planetside), Single-Player Game of the Year (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic), Technical Excellence (Deus Ex: Invisible War), and more.

    …and more!


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