Reviews
OCTOBER 2004 MA XIMUMPC 73
Best of the Best As of October, 2004
After last month’s major hardware regime change, October is relatively uneventful. PCI Express graphics
cards are still hard to come by so we’re not recommending one for now. And, while we had originally
scheduled a review of a Socket 939 nForce3 Ultra board this month, technical issues necessitated its
delay. We’re working with the maker to resolve the problems, but we realize we can’t delay a recom-
mendation in this category any longer. So for now, Asus’ A8V with its VIA K8T800 Pro chipset (which
received a 9 verdict in August 2004) is our pick. And Klipsch is back—its 2.1 speaker rig has overtaken
Logitech’s. Finally, we’ve also added both analog and USB headset picks to our list—thanks to readers
for writing in on that one.For the “Gaming PCs” story this month, we
purchased a truck load of surplus crates
on the cheap from the U.S. government.Crate Expectations
Our current gaming favorites : Doom 3, Bad Mojo, Ground Control II: Operation Exodus,
Planetside, City of HeroesOn closer inspection, it turned out
the crates were from a military base
somewhere in New Mexico.Once we opened the crates, we discovered
that 3D shooters accurately simulate reality:
Huge-ass crates really do contain small
packs of ammunition!High-end videocard:
nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra
Budget videocard:
ATI Radeon 9800
Do-everything videocard:
All-in-Wonder Radeon
9800 Pro
Soundcard:
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
ZS Platinum
Serial ATA hard drive:
Western Digital 740GD
Raptor
Parallel ATA hard drive:
Maxtor DiamondMax 10
DVD burner:
Sony DRU-700ALCD monitor:
Dell 2001FP
High-end CRT monitor:
NEC FE2111 SB
Socket 478 Pentium 4
motherboard: Abit IC7-MAX3
Socket 939 Athlon 64
motherboard: Asus A8V
Deluxe
Athlon XP motherboard:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Rev. 2.0
Portable MP3 player:
Apple iPod 40GB
Photo printer:
Canon i9900Pocket PC PDA:
Dell Axim X30
Palm OS PDA:
Palm Tungsten C7.1 speakers:
Creative Labs 7.1
Gigaworks S750
5.1 speakers:
Logitech Z-680
4.1 speakers:
Logitech Z-560
2.1 speakers:
Klipsch GMX A-21
Analog headset:
Sennheiser PC-150
USB headset:
Plantronic DSP-500&WireWeight Your Mouse
If you’re still a wired-mouse kind of person, you’ve no doubt become
annoyed, frustrated, and even emotionally distraught by the fre-
quency with which your mouse cord gets jammed and tangled like a
garden hose.
WireWeight’s unique solution lets you keep that cord where it
belongs. And it looks cool, too. The 8-ounce brass weights—which
come in black, chrome, and nickel finishes—sandwich the cord like a
yo-yo and let you set the amount of cord slack you want. One word of
warning, though: Keep the weight away from the edge of your desk
or face the peril of the device being yanked from your machine. $12,
http://www.wireweight.com
HP Bluetooth Folding Keyboard
No matter how far handwriting recognition advances, and no
matter how cute ‘n’ convenient built-in keypads get, neither
technology can approach the utility and familiarity of the
classic keyboard. Toting around your
old Microsoft Natural Keyboard may be
out of the question, but not so with HP’s
Bluetooth Folding Keyboard. Only slightly
larger in its folded state than a couple
of Pop-Tarts, the keyboard opens into a
comfortable typing surface that’s just shy
of full-size. Nice touches are the inverted-T
arrow keys, and a handful of hotkeys for
launching applications. Although the fold-
out tray was designed by HP for its own iPaq, the keyboard will work
with any Bluetooth device. In fact, the hotkeys worked just fine with our
Dell Axim X30. The best part, naturally, is that there are no wires. $130,
http://www.hp.com