Release
Notes
Contents 0 6.
REGULARS
8 In/Out
You write, we respond14 Quick Start
Big news, small articles18 Head2Head
This month: Mini flash MP3 players22 WatchDog
Maximum PC takes a bite out of bad gear57 How To...
This month: Protect your digital data from
evil thieves62 Ask the Doctor
All your PC problems, so lved66 In the Lab
A behind-the-scenes look at product testing96 Rig of the Month
It’s amazing what a person can do
with a PC!REVIEWS
GAMING
78 Brothers in Arms : Road to Hill 3079 NASCAR SimRacing79 Track IR Pro game controller80 Silent Hunter III80 Empire Earth IIJUNE 200 5 MA XIMUMPC 5
T
he first home I networked was my own. I
bought what the realtor called a “fixer-upper,”
and like any hardware hacker steeped in the
DIY work ethic, I did most of the remodeling myself.
In addition to refinishing the floors, installing new
carpet, and adding a bathroom, I spent an afternoon
running Cat5 Ethernet to each room. It was an easy
job, and the mess was minor compared with the
crown-molding mess, the insulation mess, and the
“I think I just drilled into a water line” mess. But as I
discovered this month while working on our stream-
ing media cover story, installing network wiring in a
perfectly finished home is a whole ‘nother story.
Natalie, our brave art director, was kind enough
to volunteer her 110-year-old San Francisco
Victorian for the networking portion of the fea-
ture. The job seemed pretty straightforward: Drill
through the floor into the basement, and run Cat
to each room. Easy enough, right?
Drilling through the floor of your own home
isn’t for the faint of heart. Doing the same in a
friend’s home—especially a beautifully preserved
Victorian—is downright terrifying. When Mike
Brown drilled the first pilot hole in the baseboard
trim, Natalie seemed a tad nervous, but I was first-
day-of-junior-high-school scared.
I had no idea how dense Victorian floors are. After
about 20 minutes of drilling, I realized that Natalie’s
floor was significantly thicker than the flimsy ply-
wood sheeting in my first home. After 40 minutes,
the hole was actually smoking. At 50 minutes, the
drill bit broke, and I knew we were screwed. (Natalie
was the one with the jacked-up floor, but I was the
one catching the frightened looks.)
The broken end of the bit was wedged more than
a foot into the hole, well beyond reach. I had decid-
ed to hire a professional to repair the hole, when I
noticed a tiny metal tip poking out of the basement
ceiling. The hole was perfect! Five minutes of work
freed the bit, and we were back in business. We fin-
ished wiring Natalie’s network, and were on our way.
The moral of this tawdry tale? Every how-to
article you’ll ever read in Maximum PC is bound
to present some unforeseen problems. Even the
most innocent-sounding project can blow up in
your face. But just remember, everything’s fix-
able—with enough replacement parts, licensed
contractor visits, insurance settlement checks,
conflict-resolution therapists....—WILL SMITH68 Desktop PC: Polywell Poly 939N4-SLI69 Desktop PC: iBuy Power Gamer-X70 2.1 speakers: Tascam VL-S70 Double-layer DVD burner:
Samsung Writemaster72 Small formfactor PCs: FIC Piston;
Aopen EY 855-II XC Cube74 RAID drive cage: Accordance ARAID 200074 PC enclosure: Cooler Master Praetorian 73075 Wi- Fi routers: Links ys WRT54GX;
US Robotics USR 546177 Surround-sound emulator:
Xitel SoundAround77 Gaming mouse: Logitech MX 518Enraging Your Art Director
ccordance ARAID 2000Cooler Master Praetorian 73025762696REVIEWREVIEWSS
Putting mini
music players to
the test.
p. 18Adapting to
the new 24-pin
ATX PSU.
p. 63Upping the
ante
on Wi-Fi
speeds.
p. 16