• Tag Archives Maximum PC

  • 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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  • Maximum PC (June 2001)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Maximum PC (or ‘boot’ in its earliest days) was my favorite PC magazine. It started life in the late 1990s and continued being published until just a few years ago. It was targeted towards PC enthusiasts. It was sort of like a PC version of the Macintosh dedicated MacAddict. The June 2001 issue includes:

    Regulars

    • In/Out – Letters from readers comparing PCs to cars, GeForce 3 performance results, game requirements, motherboards, and more.
    • Quick Start – Web controlled appliances, better quality MP3s, faster Duron, Athlon and Pentium 4 CPUs, Windows XP activation feature, Samsung’s new 24-inch LCD, a comparison of web based e-mail services, and much more.
    • Head2Head – A comparison of removeable media including MMC, compact flash, microdrives, SmartMedia, DataFlash, DataPlay, Memory Stick, and PocketZip.
    • Watchdog – Issues with Razer mice, results of a class action suit against Philips for its CDD2600 CD-R burner, trouble with a DPS Notebook manufactured by GVC, Winfire DSL issues, OnStream goes out of business, some 17-inch LCD monitors from HP may shock you (literally), and more.
    • Ask the Doctor – Questions answered about the TDK VeloCD and subchannel data, RAMdrives in Windows 95, using multiple soundcards, creating your own startup logo, and more.
    • How To – A guide to ripping MP3s from your vinyl collection.

    Reviews

    • Compaq Presario 7000 – This highly rated machine features a 1.33GHz AMD Athlon CPU 256MB DDR, a 64

    • Dell Inspiron i8000 – This highly rated notebook from Dell features an Mobile Pentium III CPU @ 1GHz, 128MB PC100 SDRAM, an nVidia GeForce2 Go video chip with 32MB, an 15-inch UXGA display, and more for a little under $3000.
    • Winbook X1 – This notebook features a Mobile Pentium III @ 1 GHz, 330MB of PC100 SDRAM, SiS graphics, a 12.2-inch XGA display, and aluminum construction for $3000.
    • Hercules Game Theater XP – A sound card with a breakout box with all the connections you could ever need.
    • Visiontek GeForce3 – This video card gets a perfect 10 here. If you were a gamer, this was the card you wanted.
    • Samsung and HP combo-drives – A comparison of the HP CD-Writer DVD Combo 9900ci ($349) and Samsung RW Combo SM-308 ($199).
    • Sony Vaio Digital Studio – This PC features a 1.5GHz Pentium 4, 128MB Rambus memory, an AsusTek V7100 video card, 80GB hard drive, and tons of I/O ports for $2199.
    • Lacie and Buslink mobile hard drives – The Lacie drive features both firewire and USB connections and can be had in 10GB ($329) or 30GB ($699) varieties. The Buslink drive is USB only and there are 20GB ($199) and 60GB ($399) versions to chose from.
    • Diamond Mako – A foldable PDA with keyboard based on the 5.01 release of Symbian EPOC OS.
    • Visor Edge – A PDA from handspring featuring PalmOS.
    • Mini-Reviews – Reviews of RumbleFX headphones, the USR 56K V92 modem, Logitech Cordless MouseMan Optical, and Pyro 1394 WebCam.
    • Black & White – From back when EA still occasionally made some truly unique and awesome games.
    • Starfleet Command Vol. II: Empires at War – A Star Trek strategy game from Interplay.
    • Scatter Shots – Brief reviews of Serious Sam: First Encounter, Star Trek: Away Team, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, and Fate of the Dragon.

    Features

    • Operation Retrofit – A guide to upgrading three older PCs. The first is a custom build PC featuring a 700 MHz Athlon processor which was upgraded by adding an additional 128MB RAM for a total of 256MB and replacing the Voodoo3 3000 video card with an AsusTek V7700 GeForce2 Pro. The second is a Dell Dimension V350 featuring a Pentium II 350 which was upgraded by replacing the CPU with a 500MHz Pentium III and adding an additional 128MB of RAM for a total of 192MB. The third is an HP Pavilion 8260 featuring a Pentium II 266 which was upgraded by upgrading the CPU to a Pentium II 333, adding a Hercules Prophet II MX AGP video card and upgrading the RAM from 32MB to 160MB. These machines also got optical and hard rive upgrades and in some cases cooling improvements.
    • Size Matters – A look at new big screen displays including those based on classic CRT tech, LCD projection, plasma, rear-projection CRT, and rear-projection DLP.
    • Gaming Awards – Gaming awards from maximum PC for categories such as weakest Diablo Rip-Off (Diablo II), Best Use of 3D Positional Sound (Thief II), Largest Gaming Environment (Project IGI), Best Set Design (No One Lives Forever), Most Powerful Weapons (The Thunderbolt from Mechwarrior 4), and much more.
    • Mastering Your PDA – Before the smart phone, PDAs were all the rage (you can think of them as smart phones without the phone part…and often without any direct networking connection at all). This article covers bot Palm and Pocket PC based PDAs and some of the best apps for both.

    …and more!


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