• Tag Archives Pentium 4

  • PC World (August 2005)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC World – August 2005

    In 2005, PC World was already in decline. It was covering more computer adjacent things such as digital camcorders and phones by this point. It wasn’t terrible…yet, but you could see where it was headed. The August 2005 issue includes:

    Cover Story

    • Reinvent Your PC – Computer upgrade tips including adding a SATA drive, using a RAID, increasing RAM (to at least 512MB!), upgrading to a dual-core CPU (at least if you are already using an Athlon 64), adding USB 2.0, adding a faster wi-fi card, upgrading to a better graphics card, and more.

    Features

    • Wireless Networking: Faster! Farther! – A test of six new wi-fi products including the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router and Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router and Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network Card, the Netgear Pre-N Wireless Router and Pre-N Wireless PC Card, the D-Link Super G MIMO Wireless Router, and more.
    • PC in a Browser – A look at various services that allow you to access your computer remotely including MyWebEx PC Pro, Citrix Online GoToMyPC 4.1, 3am Labs LogMeIn Pro, Laplink Everywhere 4, Pro Softnet RemotePC 3, and O1 Communique I’m InTouch 4.

    Top 100

    • Spotlight: DV Camcorders – A look at the latest in DV camcorders including the Sony DCR-DVD403 DVD Handycam ($840), Sony DCR-HC42 MiniDV HandyCam ($560), Panasonic PV-GS250 ($850), Canon Optura 60 ($730), Hitachi DZGX20A ($750), and the JVC GR-DF550US ($450). With the exception of optical zoom, the cheapest modern smartphone is far superior for recording video.
    • Top 15 Desktop PCs – The top “power system” this month is the Alienware Aurora 5500 featuring a 2.6 GHz Athlon 64 FX-55, 256MB ATI Radeon X800 Pro graphics, 320 GB hard drive, 19-inch NEC LCD monitor and more for $3500. At the top of the “value system” list is the IBM ThinkCentre A51p featuring a 3 GHz Pentium 4 530, 160GB hard drive, 64MB ATI Radeon X300 Pro graphics and 17-inch ThinkVision LCD monitor for $1592.
    • Top 15 Notebook PCs – The top “desktop replacement” laptop this month is the Acer TravelMate 8100 featuring a 2 GHz Pentium M 760 for $2299. The top “all-purpose” laptop is the HP Compaq Nc8230 featuring a 2 Ghz Pentium M 760 for $2244, and the top “ultraportable” is the Dell Inspiron 700m featuring a 1.8 GHz Pentium M 745 for $1567.
    • Top 10 DVD Drives – The top internal DVD drive this month is the Plextor PX-716A for $125 and the top external drive is the Plextor PX-716UF for $230.
    • More Reviews – The top PCI Express graphics board is the MSI RX850XT-VT2D256E with the top nVidia card coming in at number 4 with the PNY Verto GeForce 6800 GT. The top LCD monitor is the Sony SDM-HS95P.

    Departments

    • Up Front – Google’s index has reached 8 billion web pages and counting…back when an editor could say things like “To its credit, though, Google has a history of treating its users’ data with respect.” with a straight face.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about hardware torture tests, permission-based filtering, spyware, and more.
    • Hassle-Free PC – Tips for becoming invisible on instant messaging services, sending files through e-mail that get blocked, and making sure you have all the video codecs you need.
    • Full Disclosure – Strategies for making sure you have your important files backed up.

    News & Trends

    • Longhorn Roundup – A preview of what would ultimately become Windows 7.
    • Apple/Intel: The PC Perspective – News on Apple’s switch to Intel processors.
    • Low-Cost Broadband From Cities Blocked – Cable and DSL providers square off against cities that want to offer broadband access to residents.
    • GPS Phones: New Ways to Find Places – Modern smartphones still weren’t a thing yet but devices such as the BlackBerry, Motorola i830, and others were starting to include GPS capabilities and mapping services.
    • Plugged In – Info on what will be in Office 12 (Office 2007), the ECS PF88 Extreme motherboard which supports both Intel and AMD CPUs, new internet radio services, and more.

    New Products

    • Anti-Spyware Utilities – A look at the latest spyware protection including CounterSpy 1.5, Spy Sweeper 4, and ZeroSpyware 2005.
    • LCD Monitor – The Samsung Syncmaster 242mp, a 24-inch LCD monitor featuring a TV tuner for $1700.
    • HP’s First 64-Bit-Ready Business PC – A look at the HP DX5150 featuring a 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 3500+ CPU for $915.
    • Online Calendar – The OneCalendar online calendar from Trumba.
    • Photo Printer – Epson’s PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition photo printer.
    • Web Browser – Netscape 8.
    • Online Music Service – Yahoo Music Unlimited.

    Digital World

    • TV Recorders – Modern ways to record your favorite TV shows, including DirecTV DVR with TiVo, DVR from Comcast, the MOXI set-top DVR cable box, and more.
    • Digital Audio – New satellite radio devices such as the Sirius Starmate, Tivoli Audio Model Satellite, Pioneer AirWare, Tao XM2go, and more.
    • Gadget Freak – All about becoming a podcaster.

    Here’s How

    • Hardware Tips – Tips for making a backup of your hard drive.
    • Internet Tips – Creating a mobile internet suite on a flash drive.
    • Windows Tips – Fixing bad folder behavior in windows file explorer.
    • Photo Printer Tips – Tips for getting good photo prints cheaply and keeping your photo printer running smoothly.
    • Answer Line – Questions answered about preventing viruses from disabling your protection, reading CDs that have become unreadable, and more.

    …and more!


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  • Digital Archaeology: eMachines T5088

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    eMachines were known for their bargain basement priced computers. Unfortunately, while they were certainly cheap for their time, you got what you paid for. The T5088 was their middle of the road model but there wasn’t much in the way of price or features that separated the three desktop models they had on the market at the time (2007). This model retailed for $450 which was $50 more than the lowest end model. For the extra $50 you got a slightly lower clocked but hyperthreaded Pentium 4 with a larger cache (which was slightly faster overall) and a somewhat larger hard drive. The stock hardware includes:

    • CPU: Intel Pentium 4 HT 641 @ 3.2 GHz (Cedar Mill)
    • RAM: 512MB PC2-4200
    • Video: Intel 82945G Express
    • Hard Drive: 160 GB

    Check the output of CPU-Z or HWiNFO for more hardware details.

    Mine has been upgraded to have 1.5 GB of RAM and even that really seems insufficient for the Vista Home Basic OS that it came with. I can’t imagine running with only 512MB. Otherwise, my T5088 seems to be completely stock with even the original hard drive and recovery partition which it looks to have been restored with before I got it.

    There do seem to be some upgrade options. While officially there is not much of an upgrade path, I found at least one claim that flashing to the latest stock Intel BIOS for this board (D945GCCR) will allow the use of up to a Core 2 Duo E4600. Moving from a P4 to a Core 2 Duo and having two real cores to work with is a pretty substantial upgrade. This will also allow installing up to 4GB of RAM which may or may not work with the eMachines BIOS (2GB is the official limit).

    You can also install a video card as there is a PCI Express x16 slot. However, you should really upgrade the power supply first which is a 300 watt model. Upgrading the power supply is good advice for the T5088 anyway as eMachines of at least this era have a rather poor reputation when it comes to power supplies. They tend to fail in a destructive manner that can take out the motherboard, CPU and/or other components. As far as I know, the one I have still has the original power supply so I am living on the edge. In any case, a standard power supply and motherboard layout seems to have been used with this model which makes upgrading easy in that regard. That isn’t always the case with OEM systems.

    I don’t know how many eMachines T5088s are left in the world but there will probably be one fewer when I am done here. Although it is in nearly mint condition and even includes the original hard drive with an original OS restore, it just isn’t that interesting of a machine. For Pentium 4 based machines I would be far more interested in something Socket 423 or 478 based. Socket 775 is really a Core 2 Duo socket with the Pentium 4 being made for it to have a budget processor for that platform. It makes little sense to upgrade such a machine to a Core 2 Duo CPU especially when OEMs make it intentionally difficult. I will most likely repurpose the hard drive and RAM and possibly sell off the motherboard, CPU and maybe even the power supply for those that might be looking for such spares. The case will probably get recycled. In the past I might have upgraded it just to see how far I could push it but I have better Pentium 4 and Core 2 Duo machines and I’ve accumulated too many overall and am trying to reduce a little. This one is a prime candidate for downsizing my collection.

    For the moment, I am typing this on that machine as it processes various tasks for BOINC. It can still crunch tasks at least for Einstein@home, World Community Grid, Asteroids@home, and possibly MilkyWay@home and others. You can also check out how it is doing over all at FreeDC.


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  • Maximum PC (December 2001)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Maximum PC – December 2001

    Maximum PC was by far my favorite computer magazine. It also survived longer than most with publication only ceasing a couple of years ago. When it was first introduced (in 1998 I believe) it was called boot. It was a magazine for enthusiasts and it reminded me a bit of MacAddict which was a similar sort of thing for Mac users. The December 2001 issue includes:

    Regulars

    • In/Out – Letters from readers about Hot Tamales (the candy), teen stereotypes, overclocking videocards, the G550, Windows XP, online privacy, gaming as a driver of the PC industry, and more.
    • Quick Start – How September 11th changed PC gaming; IBM’s CPU of the Future, the dual core POWER4; Windows XP optimization tips; Intel’s plans for a 20 GHz chip; new Treo phones; wireless print server device that turns HP printers into wireless printers; mobile Pentium 4 to be introduced at 1.5 GHz and use DDR RAM; and more.
    • Head2Head – A detailed comparison of the Pentium 4 2GHz and Athlon XP 1800+.
    • Watchdog – IBM 75GXP hard drives seem to experience a high rate of failure; MaxGate stops responding to customers; some vendors refuse to support existing hardware with Windows XP drivers; Compaq recalls notebook power adapters; and more.
    • Ask the Doctor – Troubleshooting a supposed Thunderbird Athlon identified as a Palomino; compatibility questions with the Asus A7V motherboard, Elsa Gladian 920 and Sound Blaster Live 5.1; troubleshooting vertical green lines on the screen; intermittent DSL disconnections; overclocking a Pentium III; and more.
    • How To… – A guide to hosting a LAN party. Includes steps for insuring you have enough power, preparing ethernet cables and other networking gear, setting up a server, and more.
    • Rig of the Month – A custom built machine featuring a Chinese “air” theme built around an ASUS CUV4X motherboard, Pentium III 733 (overclocked to 854 MHz), and AOpen GTS Pro PA256 Deluxe II 32MB video card (also overclocked).

    Reviews

    • Dell Dimension 8200 desktop system – A highly rated $3000 system from Dell that includes a 2GHz Pentium 4, 256 MB RDRAM, nVidia GeForce3 Ti 500, and more.
    • Falcon Northwest Mach V system – A nearly $4000 gaming machine featuring an Athlon XP 1800+, 512 MB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce3 Ti 500 64MB DDR, and more.
    • TDK veloCD 16/10/40 external CD-RW drive – If you needed an external CD writer then this one was a good one to have.
    • VisionTek Xtacy 6964 videocard – A highly rated video card using the GeForce3 Ti 500 chipset.
    • OCZ Titan 3 videocard – Also highly rated but using the original GeForce 3 chipset.
    • ATI Radeon 7500 videocard – A great card if you were looking for something on a budget.
    • Sony DSC-S85 4.1 megapixel digi-cam – Digital snapshot cameras aren’t as popular as they once were but at the time they were far superior to phone cameras which barely existed.
    • Olympus C-4040 4.1 megapixel digi-cam – Both this camera and the Sony model above were pretty average examples of what was available.
    • Cambridge Soundworks Megaworks 210D 2.1 speakers – A decent set of 2.1 PC speakers.
    • Philips MMS305 4.1 speakers – Another decent set of speakers but this one has a rear channel too.
    • 3Com Bluetooth Wireless PC Card – A way to add bluetooth capability to your laptop which was not yet a common built-in feature.
    • APC Back-UPS CS 500VA UPS – A highly rated UPS battery backup. APC is probably still the biggest name in UPSes today.
    • Allen KEYKatcher device – A PS/2 passthrough device that captures keystrokes.
    • Pocket Pyro PyroPro MP3 player – An MP3 expansion device for Palm devices that apparently was not well implemented.
    • Red Faction – A pretty average first person shooter.

    Features

    • Gear of the Year – Some winners include the AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (CPU), Cooler Master ATC-101 (case), nVidia GeForce 3 (3D accelerator), Tyan Tiger MP S2460 (motherboard), Plextor PlexWriter 24/10/40 (CD-RW Drive), Pioneer DVR-A03 Recordable DVD/CD Combo (DVD Recorder), Creative Labs Nomad II MG (MP3 Player), Sony Clie PEG-N760C (PDA), Falcon Northwest Mach V (desktop system), Dell Inspiron i8000 (desktop replacement notebook), Sony F520 (monitor), May Payne (game of the year), and lots more.
    • Rigs of the Year – A look at 15 machines custom built by readers with case mods.
    • PC Gadget Guide – A look at some of the latest gadgets including the Microsoft Sidewinder Strategic Commander, DM2 Digital Music Mixer, Homer Simpson Dot-Pal Desktop Sidekick, Pentax Optio 430 Digital Camera, AfterBurner CD Labeling System, and more.

    …and more!


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