MaximumPC 2006 10

MAXIMUM

PC

’s

MEMORY

CHALLENGE!

Is low-latency memory faster than

high-bandwidth memory? And what’s

more important, latency or clock

speed? Find out next month!

ONLINE

MORALS?

Is it illegal to steal Wi-Fi? Can you be

sued for libeling someone in an online

forum? We answer all your burning

morality questions!

TOP-SECRET

HARDWARE!

We have a piece of hardware that’s

so top-secret it’s stored in a suit-

case handcuffed to an editor’s wrist.

Believe us: This is one hardware pre-

view you do not want to miss!

COMING

NEXT

MONTH

IN

october 2006 MAXIMUMPC 119

MEET yOu a

T

THE

TOsTITOs

LeTTers PoLICy: MAXIMUM PC invites your thoughts and comments. Send

them to [email protected]. Please include your full name, town, and

telephone number, and limit your letter to 300 words. Letters may be edited

for space and clarity. Due to the vast amount of e-mail we receive, we cannot

personally respond to each letter.

seArChIng For MAxIMuM PC
In a recent article on Vista (June 2006), you
discussed the new search capability. As an
example, you mentioned you’d be able to
search for the number of times the word
“asstastic” has appeared in Maximum PC.
Is there a way the readers can use
current desktop searches to get this same
functionality, or is this ability largely due
to the fact that you have every copy of
Maximum PC in a file on your computer? If
every reader could access this kind of infor-
mation it would help us get the maximum
out of Maximum PC.
—Jesse Bright

edIT or In ChIeF WILL sMITh resPonds:
dozens of readers asked this question.
unfortunately, it only works because we
have a copy of every piece of edit that’s
gone into the magazine over the last
six years on our office file server, and
I added that directory to my desktop
search app.

LooPI ng WATer And you
I wondered about something I saw in your
“Do-it-Yourself Guide” (July 2006). You
recommend configuring your water-cooling
loop in the following order: reservoir to pump
to radiator to cooling blocks and back to the
reservoir. For the best performance for CPU
cooling, especially for the Danger Den TDX
kit shown in the photo, you should run from
reservoir to pump to the blocks, then to the
radiator and back to the reservoir.
Configuring the loop this way should
provide the best flow to the CPU block.
Danger Den recommends the same loop
that I described.
—Jason Ennis

senIor edITor Josh noreM resPonds:
you’re correct, Jason. While most kits
use the pump>radiator>block configura-
tion, danger den does indeed recommend
having water go directly from the pump
to the CPu water-block inlet in order to
maximize the flow rate. For our review,
we tested the kit using the recommended
configuration. But we also tested the
danger den kit using our standard config.

With the kit configured our way, we

saw no difference in cooling perfor-

mance from the danger den recommen-

dation. We asked danger den to explain,

and our rep said that having the pump

go directly to the block is only impor-

tant when using the more restrictive

“inserts” in the block, to increase water

pressure. our block uses the stock

insert, so it stands to reason that we

didn’t notice a performance difference

between the two loop configurations.

VIdeoCArd TesTI ng

CLArIFICATIon

On page 26 of the August ’06 issue, you

state “...and beginning with this story,

Maximum PC is switching its video-

card testing procedures from a screen

resolution based on a 4:3 aspect ratio

(1600x1200) to one based on a 16:9

aspect ratio (1920x1200). However, in

that same issue—and the subsequent

September ‘06 issue—you continue to

state in the “How We Test” sidebar (In

The Lab) that you are running Quake 4 at

1600x1200. I don’t have the horsepower

to run Q4 at its uberscheisse settings, but

I have always been under the impression

that it supports a 16:9 aspect ratio. Am I

missing something here?

—Rolf Hawkins

exeCuTIVe edIT or MIChAeL BroWn

resPonds: The “how We Test” sidebar

that precedes the magazine’s reviews

section describes how we test systems.

We use different methods for testing indi-

vidual components, including videocards.

At the risk of confusing your further, we

erred in reporting that 1920x1200 was a

16:9 aspect ratio; it’s actually 16:10.

Quake 4 supports these and many other

resolution levels; it also supports all three

aspect ratios, but you must manually edit

its configuration file to enable less com-

mon resolutions (including 1920x1200).

We chose that setting because it’s the

native resolution of the 23-inch

Viewsonic VP2330wb display we’re

using to test videocards.

NOVEMBER

ISSUE