MaximumPC 2004 12

You write,

In/Out we respond

IS THAT WHY THEY CALL IT A CLEAN SUIT?

The line saying, “Chipmakers often go commando under

their bunny suits,” on page 57 of your “Birth of a CPU”

article (November 2004) was PRICELESS. I practically fell

out of my chair laughing—try explaining that to your co-

workers! I wondered how many people noticed?

—DAVID RENNICH

EDITOR IN CHIEF GEORGE JONES REPLIES: Congrats on being the

first to e-mail us regarding our little Easter egg, David. As a reward,

we’re going to send you a copy of each of our recently released

Maximum PC books— Maximum PC 2005 Buyer’s Guide, Maximum

PC Guide to Building a Dream PC, and Maximum PC Ultimate PC

Performance Guide. We’re also going to throw in a copy of our

recent 3D Gaming special issue. All items are on sale now.

08 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2004

“BUILD IT” Q&A

In your November 2004 “Build

It” cover story, you recommend

the Klipsch 2.1 speakers for the

midrange system, and Logitech

2.1 speakers for the low-end

system, but they both cost

$120. Why not recommend the

Logitechs for both?

Also, can you comment

on the use of metal standoffs

versus plastic? I’m concerned

that metal standoffs provide an

unanticipated and hazardous

ground to the motherboard

through the case given the metal-

edged holes on the mobo.

—JOHN L. CASEY

TECHNICAL EDITOR WILL SMITH

RESPONDS: You raise a couple of

good points. First, both the Klipsch and

Logitech 2.1 speakers received a 9 ver-

dict and Kick Ass award. For all intents

and purposes, they’re interchangeable.

As for using metal motherboard

standoffs, we wouldn’t use anything

else. Today’s hardware is heavier than

ever before, and we don’t think plastic

standoffs have the strength to hold

heavy CPU heatsinks and videocards.

Furthermore, because the main ground

for the motherboard is connected to the

power supply, which is grounded to

the case, there’s nothing fundamentally

dangerous about using metal standoffs

to connect the mobo to the case.

A sidebar in your “Build It” article

touched on BIOS/memory timing

changes. It stated, “Manually

tweaking your memory settings

can yield big performance gains,”

and mentioned MemTest86 as an

application that can test memory

stability. However, no app was

given to measure the performance

gain. I tried the suggested changes

on my gaming PC, and while my

system was stable, I’d like to know

if the changes made my system

faster. I ran the time demo in

Doom 3, but there doesn’t appear

to be any change.

—RICH BRENNAN

SENIOR EDITOR GORDON MAH UNG

RESPONDS: A good free test for

memory bandwidth can be found in

SiSoft Sandra (www. sisoftware.net).

Don’t rely solely on synthetic

tests, though—you need to

measure real-world results.

You can verify the immediate

impact of lower-latency RAM

by running the Quake III Arena

time demo at a low resolution

before and after you make your

memory timing changes. We’ve

found Doom 3 to be primar-

ily videocard dependent, and

because systems can’t run it

all that fast, we have yet to see

any difference in RAM timings

with the game.

Generally your how-tos are spot

on, but your “Build It” story

conflicts slightly with what I’ve

found to be the best order to

install components when build-

ing a PC. Namely, you suggest

installing the mobo in the case

and then installing the CPU and

RAM. In my experience, it goes

much smoother if you install

the CPU, heatsink/fan, and RAM

prior to installing the mobo into

the case. Once the motherboard

is in the case, getting the CPU in

is a snap to be sure, but placing

the heatsink/fan inside the case

can be problematic at best, and

impossible at worst.

—KELLY WHITE

TECHNICAL EDITOR WILL SMITH

RESPONDS: This is one of those

situations where sometimes it’s

right to do things one way, and

sometimes it’s right to do them

another. We specifically chose to

tell people to install their memory

and CPU heatsinks in the mobo after

they screw the mobo into the case

for one reason alone. With quite a

few cases—especially those that

use slide-out mobo trays—installing

the mobo after the CPU heatsink is

installed is impossible. Furthermore,

installing the CPU heatsink, then

wrestling the board into place in a

cramped case can put as much or

more stress on the mobo as would

installing the heatsink and memory

once the board is inside the case.

DRM: WE’RE

GETTING SCREWED

Thanks for your very

informative article about

digital rights management

(“Deciphering DRM,”

November 2004). Let’s see if

I’ve got this straight: I can

buy songs from iTunes but

I might have to ask some

server’s permission to listen to

them. I can buy a DVD-video

disk but I have to be an expert

on the DMCA to know that

it’s illegal to use decryption

tools. I can buy songs in the

WMA format but my player

may not support its use, and

usage permissions vary from

vendor to vendor. I can buy

a CD, but might not be able

to play it on my PC, and the

copy protection technology

might crash my system if I

try. I can buy a game but if I

try to use it on a virtual drive,

chances are it won’t work. It

does seem a little strange that

the RIAA can’t figure out why

sales are dropping like a stone!

Personally, my purchasing has

dropped by at least 80 percent.

—RICK MCDANIEL

FEATURES EDITOR LOGAN

DECKER RESPONDS: Let’s see...

you forgot one more gripe: The

most popular music downloading

services all use different audio

compression formats, and there’s

no digital audio player out there

that supports them all.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but

for now all we can do is let our

wallets express what kind of

digital rights management we’re