Quick Start
Pentium M
Conversion Kit Arrives
Adapter breathes new life into
aging mobosW
e don’t have to tell you that the
hot upgrade these days is from an
older Pentium 4 to a cooler, quieter
Pentium M processor. The formerly “mobile
only” processors generate less heat than
standard P4s while still offering blazing
speeds in apps and games. The problem is
that there are only two Pentium M moth-
erboards on the market these days, and not
everyone has the stomach
for a complete mobo
upgrade. Withthis in mind, Asus is offering owners of its
Socket 478 mobos a simple adapter that
enables Pentium M support.
The CT-479 CPU Upgrade Kit includes
the adapter and a cooling fan made spe-
cifically for the Pentium M processor. As
of press time, the adapter is designed to
plug into the Asus P4P800 SE and P4P800-
VM motherboards only, though Asus says
more boards will land on the compat-
ibility list as soon as they undergo testing
(check http://www.asus.com for the latest version
of the list). In order to get the adapter up
and running, you’ll also have to down-
load a BIOS update from the Asus website;
updates are available for each board that
supports the adapter.
The Pentium M processors supported
by the CT-479 kit are the Celeron Ms
from 1.2GHz to 1.7GHz, the Banias core
from 1.3GHz to 1.7GHz, and the Dothan
core from 1.5GHz to 2.26GHz. Asus
hasn’t finalized pricing, but you should
expect the adapter to ship soon and cost
about 50 bucks.Drop this puppy into select
Asus Socket 478 boards
and— bam! —you’re ready to
run a Pentium M processor.FUN-SIZE NEWS
JUST WHAT WE NEED: ANOTHER
ESRB RATING
Dissatisfied with the gaping
chasm that exists between
the games rating E (for
everyone) and T (for teen),
the Entertainment Software
Ratings Board recently added
a new category to its rating system—E10+.
The new rating indicates the game is inap-
propriate for people under 10 years of age,
and will be applied to “racing games with
extreme crashes” or “fighting games with
super heroes.”FAREWELL SOUNDSTORM
The “drip, drip, drip” noise you hear is the
sound of our Colt 45 40 oz. tapping the pave-
ment in honor of nVidia’s recently deceased
Soundstorm
audio technol-
ogy. According
to recent
statements
by former
Maximum PC
editor and current nVidia PR guru Brian Del
Rizzo, Soundstorm audio was just too costly
to integrate into motherboards, especially
compared with boards sans onboard sound.
Plus, consumers are generally skeptical
of onboard audio; and nobody complained
when nVidia took it away, so the company
figures it won’t be missed anyway.ROBOTS 0, TEENAGE GIRL 1
Several robotic manufacturers were feel-
ing a little frisky recently, and decided to
hold a “man vs. machine” arm-wrestling
to see how their one-armed contraptions
would fare against flesh-and-blood. They
certainly didn’t expect 17-year-old high
school student Panna Felsen to show up
and whoop every robot’s ass. Felsen beat
the first robot in 24 seconds, the second
robot in four seconds, and the third robot in
three seconds. The robots all use electro-
active polymers (EAP), which are plastics
that change shape when triggered chemi-
cally. The tech is supposed to emulate real
muscles, but it’s clearly years away from
rivaling the strength of a high-school girl.GAME DEVEL OPER QUOTE OF
THE MONTH
“Through our own research we know that
most gamers want in-game advertisements
to heighten the sense of realism.”
— Funcom14 MA XIMUMPC MAY 2005
The PhysX accelerator’s
custom-designed processor
can handle 100 times as
many physics calculations
as today’s fastest CPUs.J
ust when you thought gaming PCs
couldn’t become any more outlandish,
expensive, or over-the-top, along comes
the announcement of the industry’s fi rst add-
in physics accelerator, due to arrive in time
for the 2005 holiday season. Like the original
3D accelerators, it will fi ll an expansion slot
in your PC and take on the increasingly
heavy workload of calculating physics
behaviors, including object collisions, particle
effects, the animated “bones” in characters,
and more.
Named PhysX, the
add-in board will most
likely boast 128MB of
GDDR-3 memory and
will be offered in both
PCI Express and PCI
interfaces. According to
Ageia ( http://www.ageia.com ),
the company producing
the technology, the
addition of a dedicated
physics accelerator to
handle in-game physics
will help shoulder the
burden currently handled
by already overstressed
CPUs. For example,today’s fastest CPUs are only capable of
crunching the numbers for several hundred
bones at one time. Ageia claims that with
a physics accelerator, you could possibly
perform calculations for up to 50,000 bones
simultaneously, making massive Lord of the
Rings -style battles and even more advanced
effects like lifelike clothing, tissue, and hair
simulation possible.
Ageia has reportedly already signed up 15
development teams to integrate its physics
API into upcoming A-list
games. The most notable
signatory thus far is Epic
Games, which has integrated
PhysX technology into the
eagerly anticipated Unreal 3
engine.
At press time, little
information was available
regarding specifi cs of the card,
but a company representative
gave a price range of $
to $400, and availability is
slated for the end of 2005.
As soon as we can get our
grubby hands on the product,
we’ll be sure to run it through
the Maximum PC wringer.Introducing the World’s First Physics Accelerator
Is the added performance worth emptying gamers’ pockets?
everyone has the stomach
for a complete mobo
upgrade. Withfrom 1.3GHz to 1.7GHz, and the Dothan
core from 1.5GHz to 2.26GHz. Asus
hasn’t finalized pricing, but you should
expect the adapter to ship soon and cost
about 50 bucks.Drop this puppy into select
Asus Socket 478 boards
and—
run a Pentium M processor.