MaximumPC 2006 03

MA XIMUMPC

Quick Start Intel adopts a new

slogan, and a new business plan ........... 8

Head2Head We pit a big, bad

gaming PC against the Xbox 360 ......... 16

Watch Dog Maximum PC takes

a bite out of bad gear ............................. 20

How To Build a media server ............ 49

Ask the Doctor Diagnosing

and curing your PC problems .............. 52

Contents

R&D What you should know

about biometric security ................... 54

In the Lab Is your SLI connector

bridge hurting performance? ............ 58

In/Out You write, we respond ....... 102

Rig of the Month Japanese

tea house meets PC ......................... 104

FUTURE US, INC
4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080
http://www.futureus-inc.com

PRESIDENT Jonathan Simpson-Bint
VICE PRESIDENT/CFO Tom Valentino
VICE PRESIDENT/CIRCULATION Holly Klingel
GENERAL COUNSEL Charles Schug
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/GAMES Simon Whitcombe
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/MUSIC AND TECH Steve Aaron
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Dave Barrow
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/TECHNOLOGY Jon Phillips
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/MUSIC Brad Tolinski
DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL SERVICES Nancy Durlester
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richie Lesovoy

Future US Inc. is part of Future plc.
Future produces carefully targeted
special-interest magazines for
people who share a passion. We
aim to satisfy that passion by creat-
ing titles offering value for money,
reliable information, smart buying
advice and which are a pleasure to
read. Today we publish more than
150 magazines in the US, UK, France
and Italy. Over 100 international
editions of our magazines are also published in 30 other countries
across the world.

Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange
(symbol: FUTR).

FUTURE plc
30 Monmouth St., Bath, Avon, BA1 2BW, England
http://www.futureplc.com
Tel +44 1225 442244

NON EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN: Roger Parry
CHIEF EXECUTIVE: Greg Ingham
GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR: John Bowman
Tel +44 1225 442244
http://www.futureplc.com

REPRINTS: For reprints, contact Ryan Derfl er, Reprint Operations
Specialist, 717.399.1900 ext. 167
or email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES: Please email maxcustserv@cdsfulfi ll
ment.com or call customer service toll-free at 800.274.

EDITORIAL
EDITOR IN CHIEF Will Smith
MANAGING EDITOR Katherine Stevenson
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Michael Brown
SENIOR EDITOR Gordon Mah Ung
SENIOR EDITOR Josh Norem
SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR Steve Klett
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Claude McIver
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Norman Chan, Gord Goble, Tom
Halfhill, Brian Lam, Thomas McDonald
EDITOR EMERITUS Andrew Sanchez

ART
ART DIRECTOR Natalie Jeday
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Boni Uzilevsky
PHOTO EDITOR Mark Madeo
ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHER Samantha Berg
COVER ARTIST Oliver Wolfson

BUSINESS
PUBLISHER Bernard Lanigan
646-723-540 5 , [email protected]
SOUTH WESTERN AD DIRECTOR Dave Lynn
949-360-4443, [email protected]
SOUTH WESTERN AD MANAGER Issac Ugay
562-983-8018, [email protected]
NORTH WESTERN AD DIRECTOR Stacey Levy
925-964-1205, [email protected]
EASTERN AD DIRECTOR Anthony Danzi
646-723-5453, [email protected]
EASTERN AD MANAGER Larry Presser
646-723-545 9 , [email protected]
ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jose Urrutia
415-656-8313, ju [email protected]
MARKETING MANAGER Cassandra Magzamen
MARKETING COORDINATOR Tara Wong

PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richie Lesovoy
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Dan Mallory

CIRCULATION
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Stephanie Flanagan
FULFILLMENT MANAGER Angela Martinez
DIRECT MARKETING SPECIALIST Janet Amistoso
NE WSSTAND COORDINATOR Alex Guzman
BILLING AND RENEWAL MANAGER Betsy Wong

Departments

Reviews

Videocard ATI Radeon X1800 XT

CrossFire Edition ...................................... 60

Desktop PC AeonCraft Lexa .......... 62

Videocards Asus N7800GT;

eVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX ................... 64

D-SLR camera Nikon D50 ............ 65

A/V streaming unit Acoustic

Research Digital MediaBridge ............... 65

Air-conditioned case

Sytrin Nextherm CS 8200 ML ................ 66

Keyboard Microsoft Natural 4000 .... 68

30-inch LCD Dell 3007WFP ........... 68

Hard drives WD Raptor X;

Hitachi Notebook Upgrade Kit ............... 70

CPU cooler Cooler Master

Susurro ..................................................... 72

MARCH 2006 MA XIMUMPC

GPU cooler Thermaltake

Tide Water ................................................ 72

Speakers M-Audio StudioPro 3 ....... 74

Headphones Alienware Ozma 7 .... 74

iPod streamer Xitel HiFi Link ........ 76

Digicams Sanyo Xacti C5;

Konica Minolta Dimage X1 ..................... 78

Image-editing apps Adobe

Photoshop/Premiere Elements ............. 80

7

82

Gun .......................................................... 82

City of Villains ....................................... 82

Need for Speed: Most Wanted ........ 83

The Matrix: Path of Neo ..................... 83

Gaming

74

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78