MaximumPC 2004 04

Release

Notes

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Is your

Apple iBook

acting up?

APRIL 2004 MAXIMUMPC 3

Contents 04.

A

s I write this, I’m listening to a car alarm that’s
been going off for almost three hours. The blar-
ing siren sounds like the videogame Pac--an,
right after the little yellow guy eats a power pellet.
The part of me that loves intricate conspiracy theories
can’t help but wonder if some PC or component maker,
seeking vengeance against us for one of our brutally
honest reviews, has decided to punish us psychologi-
cally with this torturous noise. After all , my own little
personal conspiracy argues, since when do car alarms
continue to blare for more than 10 minutes?
The irony is that if Maximum PC were to test people, this
is exactly the type of prolonged audio exposure torture test
we’d perform. Exploring the upper range of performance,
speed, durability, or even volume, is one of our primary
missions. It’s what sets us apart from the other and I would
say softer magazines we compete with.
In my first four months as editor in chief, I’ve seen
lab tests that would make the technologically faint
of heart cringe, including: a USB torture test in our
*anuary issue that subjected USB keys to a two-story
drop and the rigors of a washerdryer cycle a set of
.1 speakers that literally blew apart at the apex of our
0Hznto nkHz sweep in the -arch issue and this
month’s construction of an extraordinary and quite
powerful 1-subwoofer edifice see page 0 .
Outside of our weekly psychological experiments
on the interns—and the emotional and gastrointestinal
repercussions of a daisy-chained 1-subwoofer tower
of sound played at maximum volume and close prox-
imity—we don’t perform tests on people, so our lab
work shouldn’t alarm the Humane Society. But every
now and then I get a reader e-mail that asks: Is it fair to
subject devices intended for mundane circumstances
to such extreme levels of testing
I say, yes, absolutely, with the reason being that if
you’re going to maximize the performance of your PC
or any of its components, it’s imperative to know how
much headroom you have. And the only way to know
how much room for improvement your videocard, PC,
USB key, hard drive, or speakers will allow is to stress-
test the upper limits of those parts.
That’s where we come in. A great example of our
high-end curiosity is this month’s power notebook
roundup on page . We expected great performance
from these laptops, so we shucked our normal suite of
laptop benchmarks in favor of more strenuous tests.
Ditto the subwoofers: Our curiosity drove us to see
how scalable they really are. Alas, the speakers are no
longer for sale, but we were able to determine something
extremely important: They definitely drown out the
sound of a car alarm.
—GEORGE JONES
[email protected]

REGULARS

REVIEWS

To the Threshold

72 Desktop PC: iBuyPower Gamer Extreme

74 External soundcard: Philips Aurilium

74 External soundcard: Creative Audigy 2 NX

76 LCD dual-display: DoubleSight 15-inch

77 Dual-format DVD burner: Lite-On 8x

77 DVD burner: Memorex True8X

80 PC case: Chenbro PC6166 Gaming Bomb

80 PC case: SilverStone Nimiz

82 Optical mouse: Nyko AirFlo

82 Ball mouse: Sniper Boomslang 2100

84 Slide show software: 3D-Album

84 Slide show software: MemoriesOnTV 2.

84 Slide show software: PhotoStory on

CD & DVD

86 Lords of Everquest

86 Beyond Good and Evil

87 Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

Page 13:

Easter Eggs

in games

6 In/Out

See the winning tips of our Windows Tips

contest, and other illuminating tidbits.

11 Quick Start

PC previews, news, factoids... and a revolu-

tionary way to display digital information.

20 Head2Head

Will your next color printer use “lasers”?

We pit an inkjet against what has now

become an affordable alternative.

22 WatchDog

Internet fraud, porn pirates, Athlon

tampering, product recalls... We let the

dog out!

62 Ask the Doctor

Our Doc’s not a real doctor, he plays one in

this magazine... and so far there have been

no lawsuits.

66 How To...

Make Word work for you by exploiting

some of its hidden tricks and treasures.

104 Rig the Month

In the most unlikely of alliances, case-

modding and romance pair up to win a

woman’s heart.

Page 20:

Inkjet vs. laser

PC case: Chenbro PC6166 Gaming Bomb

Slide show software: MemoriesOnTV 2.

Page 22:

Is your

Apple iBook

acting up?

Page 13: