76 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC| JUN 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
LAB NOTES
IN THE LAB^
HANDS ON WITH THE LATEST HARDWARE AND SOFTWAREForget gold, old PC parts are the hot investment
KATHERINE STEVENSON
DEPUTY EDITORI’ve never been a huge
fan of fancy LED lights
in computers, but that
changed once I started
messing around with
the AlienFX lighting
in Alienware’s m15x
notebook (see page 80).
I spent so much time
changing the colors of
the rig’s various LEDs
that I was late turning
in the review.MICHAEL BROWN
EXECUTIVE EDITORLook online for
my reviews of the
Slacker Radio Player
and the Ibiza Rhap-
sody. The Slacker is
like carrying Last.fm
or Pandora in your
pocket. The Ibiza
Rhapsody explains
why Rhapsody
didn’t reach out to
Sansa Connect own-
ers who got burned
by the demise of
Yahoo Music.WILL SMITH
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFThis month, most of
my time has been
spent working on
a secret project,
which I’ll be able
to talk about more
next month. In
my free time, I’ve
been perfecting
my movie-ripping
technique, making
the switch from
Xvid to H.264 using
Handbrake. I love
that DVD-quality
video!DAVID MURPHY
ASSOCIATE EDITORI broke the plastic
locking tab on the
end of a network
cord, and boy, does
that suck. Pushing
the connector all the
way into my mobo’s
Ethernet port does
nothing, so I spent
most of my month
wiggling the cord in
and out just to get on
the Interweb.TOM EDWARDS
MANAGING EDITORFor the last few
weeks I’ve been
walking around with
5,000 songs and an
album full of photos
in my pocket—test-
ing the latest high-
capacity fl ash drives
from a number of
manufacturers. To
fi nd out who makes
the best pocket-size
storage device, check
out my reviews at
MaximumPC.com.GORDON MAH UNG
SENIOR EDITORWould you pay $300 for a 7900 GTX?W
e’re always told that old technol-
ogy is worthless, but my experi-
ence with this month’s upgrade
story tells me otherwise. I naturally
assumed that I’d fi nd parts that were a year
or two old in the bargain bin and thus be
able to make more aggressive upgrades. In-
stead, I found that a two-year-old GeForce
7900 GTX will set you back $300—while
a new 9800 GTX costs just $340. Huh?
How about $200 for a 3.4GHz Socket 478
Pentium 4? Or $360 for a Socket 939 2.6GHz Opteron 185?
What the hell? These aren’t classic 1966 Shelby Mustangs,
people—they’re computer parts. Old computer parts. Why are
prices so high? Part of it is due to dwindling supply. Once the fabs
turn off , they’ll never turn on again. That’s what causes DDR to cost
100 percent more than DDR2. Whatever the reason, all I know is
that maybe it’s time to start socking away my old PC parts with my
mint Star Wars cards and action fi gures.Cheaper, My Ass!
LAB NOTES
Cheaper, My Ass!
LAB NOTES
Cheaper, My Ass!