MaximumPC 2007 06

19 Upgrades

32 MAXIMUMPC JUNE 2007

TEMPERATURE MONITOR

SMOKE SHOULDN’T BE THE FIRST INDICATOR OF COOKING COMPUTER HARDWARE

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here’s no nice way to say it, so we’re just going to say it

straight: By default, most case-temperature monitors just

aren’t sexy. Period. They’re little dials or boring LCD text

screens that do but one thing—tell you the temperature of

something in your case.

AeroCool’s PowerWatch ($75, http://www.aerocool.us), on the

other hand, is a most tantalizing device. It isn’t just a tempera-

ture monitor; it’s a complete and total front-panel package.

We love the device’s

brightly lit indicators

that show tempera-

tures and fan speeds

from four different

areas of your PC. And the PowerWatch’s two USB ports and

four card-reader slots are damn handy. To quote the Teen Girl

Squad, “Sooooooooo good!”

Do not stare directly into the

PowerWatch.

STREAMING AUDIO DEVICE

PC IN THE DEN, HI-FI IN THE LIVING ROOM

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ast year, Logitech acquired Slim

Devices lock, stock, and Squeezebox.

Smart move on its part: The third-genera-

tion Squeezebox ($300, http://www.slimdevices.

com) is one of the sweetest-sounding

audio streamers on the market, and it’s

considerably cheaper than our other

favorite in this category: the multiroom

Sonos Music System ($1,000 for two

rooms, http://www.sonos.com).

You could build a multiroom system by

deploying a bunch of Squeezeboxes, too,

but if you’re going that far, we think Sonos

has the better solution. The Squeezebox,

meanwhile, can be hard-wired to an

Ethernet network or tied into any 802.

Wi-Fi network. The little box with the big

display streams music in nearly any format,

including FLAC, and it supports Rhapsody

and Internet radio, too.

The Squeezebox is one of the

best-sounding audio streamers on

the market.

AGP VIDEOCARD

THE BUS THAT REFUSES TO DIE

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ooking to squeeze one more upgrade cycle from your

AGP rig? Ignore Nvidia’s offerings: In our benchmark tests,

VisionTek’s Radeon X1950 Pro XGE AGP ($240, http://www.visiontek.

com) positively destroyed BFG’s GeForce 7800 GS OC AGP

($210, http://www.bfgtech.com).

The 16-pipe 7800 GS is the best Nvidia offers AGP custom-

ers, and BFG runs this one’s core at 400MHz (versus 375MHz

stock) and its 256MB of memory at 625MHz (compared to

600MHz stock). ATI’s best AGP offering is the X1950 Pro. It

has just 12 pipes, but with three pixel-shader units attached to

each one. This design helped VisionTek’s card dominate BFG’s

card, despite its stock clock speeds of 575MHz for the core and

690MHz for the 256MB of memory.

Our AGP rig is based on an Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard

(using VIA’s K8T800 Pro chipset), with a 2.6GHz Athlon 64 FX-

CPU and 2GB of DDR400 memory. To make this a fair fi ght, we

dialed our benchmarks back to the native res of a 19-inch LCD:

1280x1024. But the 7800 GS struggled with even that low expec-

tation, delivering Quake 4 at just 47.4fps and FEAR at 29fps.

The X1950 Pro chewed up our benchmarks, spit ’em out,

and asked for more. We obliged by retesting at our usual

1920x1200, and the card held its own against a similarly

equipped PCI Express zero point. Its Nvidia-based competitor,

meanwhile, wheezed and coughed its way to the fi nish line.

In addition to delivering impressive frame rates, ATI’s part

can perform high dynamic-range lighting and antialiasing at the

same time. Nothing in Nvidia’s 7-series lineup is capable of that.

ATI’s GPU supports HDCP, too, rendering it compatible with

Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives; Nvidia’s GPU does not.

Sticking with AGP architecture means you may never be

able to play DirectX 10/Shader Model 4 games, and you’ll never

be able to take advantage of either CrossFire or SLI dual-vid-

eocard technology. But if your budget limits you to an AGP

upgrade, ATI’s X1950 Pro will take you the farthest.

AGP: The one category in which ATI absolutely crushes Nvidia.