MaximumPC 2006 03

102 MAXIMUMPC MARCH 2006

We tackle tough reader letters on...

PThe Speed of Light PWater-Cooling

PAGP L egacy PThe Best Speakers

3.0 X 10^8

Congratulations guys on breaking the biggest news

story of the century (“IBM Slows Light, Paving the Way

for Optical CPUs,” January 2006). It was a nice touch

doing it so discretely, too. The scientific community

must be reeling, what with having to now re-write the

laws of physics.

Personally, I’ve never really been able to accept

Einstein’s theories as absolute truths. It’s good to hear

that IBM has blown them out of the water.

It was previously held that even the incredible

gravitational forces of a super-massive back hole

were not enough to slow light, to hear that IBM has

done it (and not by a small margin either—1/300th of

it’s speed is astounding), using less energy than that

used by a normal PC’s CPU.

I really would like to hear more on this. Please

could you provide us details of exactly how IBM has

slowed the speed of light thus proving that it isn’t the

constant that Einstein claimed it was, and that the

current laws of physics are based on bogus info. (I

can just imagine all of the astronomers now running

around recalculating all of the astronomical measure-

ments previously assumed.)

Again, kudos, to you and your team on breaking

this incredible story!

—Michael Fowler

EDITOR IN CHIEF WILL SMITH RESPONDS: I’m

definitely not a physicist, but from what I remem-

ber of physics in high school and college, what

you’re saying is incorrect. Nothing moves faster

than the speed of light in a vacuum. And, accord-

ing to Einstein, nothing can go faster than the

speed of light. However, light passes through dif-

ferent types of matter at different speeds. When

light moves through air, glass, or water, photons

scatter as they hit individual molecules, and the

perceived speed of light decreases.

IBM created a material that slows light

considerably, at room temperature, which is one

of the stumbling blocks that has prevented the

development of a microchip that uses photons in

place of electrons.

I will agree that the original headline isn’t

100 percent accurate. We could have said

“IBM Develops Material that Has Insanely High

Refractive Index at Room Temperature,” but

that doesn’t have quite the same appeal. I’m

just going to claim artistic license on this one

and move on.

MAXIMUM PC LIED – SAY IT ISN’T SO!

You recently reviewed the Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT,

and gave it a pretty solid review. I was interested

in the card, but had thought it would only work in

Gigabyte motherboards. But there in your article you

state that the board is compatible with any nForce4

mobo. Naturally, I bought it, but the install procedure

directed me to flip a “3D1” switch, which is only

located on Gigabyte boards!

The manual had a one-sentence blurb stating

that this board could only be used in conjunction

with Gigabyte K8/P4 SLI mobos.

So did I make a purchase based on bad infor-

mation from your mag, or is there something I

missed? In the past four years as a subscriber this is

the first time you have steered me wrong; your help

and response is appreciated.

—Chris Wachter

EXECUTIVE EDITOR MICHAEL BROWN RESPONDS:

We tested the GV-3D1-68GT with an Asus A8N

SLI Deluxe motherboard, so we know it doesn’t

Water-Cooling

Maintenance

I would like to comment on your

Head2Head article in the February

2006 issue, “Air-Cooling vs. Water-

Cooling.” There should be one addition-

al category: maintenance. Water-cooling

requires a refill of coolant once a year

while air-cooling requires none. I consid-

ered water-cooling before, but the annual

coolant-refill scared me off. The coolant

is not cheap ($20/bottle), and it’s such a

hassle to refill the coolant once a year.

—Macsen Wong

SENIOR EDITOR JOSH NOREM RESPONDS:

We don’t know where you are getting this

information from, but it’s incorrect. We’ve

never heard of a water-cooling kit that

needs to be flushed annually. You might

need to add a smidge of water to a kit once

a year, to make up for evaporation, but that

process takes just a few moments.

For example, the Cooler Master

Aquagate Mini (shown here) comes prefilled

and does not need fluid replacement for

two years. The Koolance Exos 2 requires the

fluid to be replaced every two to three years,

and the Corsair Cool calls for the fluid to be

examined every six months, and replaced

only every two years if the fluid is murky or

looks contaminated (not a likely event).

We agree with you that if you did

have to replace the fluid, it would be

difficult. But 90 percent of the required

“maintenance” is simply adding fluid to

the system, and for the majority of kits on

the market that’s a very simple operation.

Considering the superior cooling perfor-

mance water offers, we think spending two

minutes a year to check your fluid levels is

hardly a burden.

in outYOU WRITE, WE RESPOND

CUTCOPYPASTE

In the January 2006 issue we reviewed the NV Silencer

5, but mistakenly labeled it the NV Silencer 2. D’oh!