MaximumPC 2004 09

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IT IS POSSIBLE TO SEND

UNTRACEABLE E-MAIL

MOZILLA? WHATEVER.

TRY OPERA

What’s the deal with the

gushing outpouring of love

for Mozilla’s Firefox browser

(August’s “Browser Booster,”

page 34)? Sure, it might be better

than Internet Explorer , but why

have you consistently ignored

the Opera web browser? Opera

has been around longer than

Mozilla. Plus, nearly every cool

thing that Firefox does, Opera did

years earlier.

—TIM HOSKINS

TECHNICAL EDITOR WILL SMITH

RESPONDS: There’s one simple

reason: Firefox is free. Opera costs

money. People aren’t going to pay for

a web browser, especially one that

has problems consistently rendering

web pages, as Opera does.

DUAL-LAYER DISCREPANCY?

I’m confused. In the August

issue, you laud the Sony DRU-

700A as “the first consumer-level

burner to offer DVD+R dual-layer

recording,” but weeks before I

got the issue I saw the NEC ND-

2510A at Newegg.com for just

$80. How can the Sony drive,

which has the same specs, be

noteworthy at nearly three times

the cost?

—BEN SCHWAID

FEATURES EDITOR LOGAN “DOC

OPTICAL” DECKER RESPONDS: I

checked the NEC ND-2510A dual-

layer burner you speak of, and it’s

what’s known as an OEM (original

equipment manufacturer) or “white

box” version. OEM hardware is

meant to be sold to PC manufactur-

ers in vast quantities for inclusion

in their PCs. But often resellers

buy OEM equipment and sell them

directly to consumers at what is

often a substantial discount.

The drawback to buying an OEM

part is that it’s extremely unlikely

you’ll receive any software with

your purchase—sometimes you

won’t even get the necessary driv-

ers. Additionally, OEM parts are

generally not supported or covered

by the manufacturer’s warranty.

That’s why these OEM

versions are so much

cheaper than their retail

counterparts.

OEM products are

often a great bargain

(in this case, you might

already have a disc

burning application

you’re happy with and

don’t need the software

that comes in a retail

package). But make sure

to confirm whether or

not the store or web site

you purchase an OEM

product from offers tech-

nical support or, more

importantly, a warranty.

DON’T BLAME VIA

FOR EXTERNAL

DRIVER REQUIREMENTS

In your August issue review of

Asus’ A8V Deluxe Motherboard,

I noted the following statement

in paragraph five: “...sadly the

VIA chipset still doesn’t support

native SATA devices. You’ll still

need a floppy drive and ‘F6’

drivers to install Windows XP.”

I think you are making a

mistake in blaming VIA for the

requirement of external drivers.

I believe the real problem is

that the Windows XP installer

kernel does not come with SATA

support and requires that you

load a kernel module that will

allow it to interface with your

SATA controller. Unfortunately, I

believe that you will be installing

“F6” drivers until Microsoft

releases a new Windows installer.

As a side note, most Linux

distributions based around the

2.6 kernel support SATA “out of

the box” without the need for a

third-party kernel module.

—ALEXANDER J. MAIDAK

SENIOR EDITOR GORDON MAH UNG

RESPONDS: Actually, I think it’s

quite fair to blame VIA for not imple-

menting its SATA support so you

don’t have to load additional drivers

to get Windows XP working. You are

correct, Windows XP doesn’t native-

ly support SATA storage devices, so

you would have to load drivers to

use, say, a Silicon Image SATA con-

troller. However, Intel’s and nVidia’s

chipsets with native support are

implemented so you don’t have to

load F6 drivers. As a side note, we’ll

be running a how-to next month that

walks you through the creation of a

slip-streamed version of Windows

XP so you can include all the drivers

you want for your installer.

YOU ARE NO TREKKIE, SIR!

I just received the August 2004

issue of Maximum PC and was

considering taking keyboard in

hand to write a congratulatory e-

mail on another fine issue, when

suddenly, on page 57, disaster

struck. While it was pleasing to

note that the whiteboard has

been erased of the bogus physics

formula that has twice disgraced

the pages of your magazine,

at the bottom lurks the most

heinous errors ever to see print

in Maximum PC : You spelled

Picard with more than one c!

—EARL EVERETT

EDITOR IN CHIEF GEORGE JONES

RESPONDS: We’re truly sorry about

the error, Earl. To rectify the problem,

we identified the offending editor

and forced him to watch each and

every episode of Star Trek: The Next

Generation.

SERIAL-ATA PLEXY?

In the last issue, you guys did

a review of the PlexWriter PX-

712A DVD burner. However, on

Plextor’s web site and in other

advertisements, I have also seen

a PX-712SA Serial-ATA version.

Could you perhaps do a review of

that, or better yet, a side-by-side

comparison?

—BRETT DUTRO

FEATURES EDITOR LOGAN DECKER

RESPONDS: As both the IDE and

Serial-ATA buses provide way more

bandwidth than an optical drive

could possibly hope to gobble up,

there should be no performance

difference—and no performance

improvement—using one instead of

the other. However, like you, we’d

feel better with numbers to back this

up. So we’ll ask for both versions

when Plextor delivers its next DVD

burner. Stay tuned!

PCI EXPRESS QUESTIONS

Ever since Intel dropped the

LGA775-expansion explosion

on the PC community, everyone

from ATI and nVidia to Alienware

has gone crazy promoting PCI

Express x16 Graphics, 925X,

DDR2, and LGA775. Through all

this hype I haven’t heard a thing

about PCI Express x1 expansion

cards. I have a couple questions

that I bet are not bugging just

This is in response to the August issue’s

“PC Urban Legends” story. The author

argued that it’s impossible to send an

untraceable e-mail. I disagree—here’s

how to do it. Put on a fake beard, funny

hat, and dark sunglasses. Go to the

nearest Internet cafe. Pay cash to use a

PC for a half-hour. Go to Yahoo. Sign

up for free e-mail. Send your love letter,

death threat, terrorism tip, whatever.

The e-mail can be electronically traced

to the café—but not to you. This also

works at public libraries (no cash

needed!), airports (put cash in the

Internet terminal, not your credit card!). The physical disguise is for the

omnipresent surveillance cameras.

—TOM WELSH

EDITOR IN CHIEF GEORGE JONES RESPONDS: That’s a great solution, Tom—and

we have to agree that sounds pretty airtight, although we wouldn’t recommend

wearing a disguise to the airport these days. We also wouldn’t recommend

looking too suspicious... Senior Editor Gordon Mah Ung “went away” for a few

weeks after donning the dubious disguise pictured above.

08 MA XIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2004

Senior Editor Gordon Mah Ung

takes Tom Welsh’s suggestion

for sending untraceable e-mail

a step further by typing with a

rubber chicken to avoid leaving

fingerprints.