MaximumPC 2006 06

MA XIMUMPC

FUTURE US, INC
4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080
http://www.futureus-inc.com

PRESIDENT Jonathan Simpson-Bint
VICE PRESIDENT/CFO Tom Valentino
VICE PRESIDENT/CIRCULATION Holly Klingel
GENERAL COUNSEL Charles Schug
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/GAMES Simon Whitcombe
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/MUSIC AND TECH Steve Aaron
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Dave Barrow
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/TECHNOLOGY Jon Phillips
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/MUSIC Brad Tolinski
DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL SERVICES Nancy Durlester
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richie Lesovoy
Future US Inc. is part of Future plc.
Future produces carefully targeted
special-interest magazines for
people who share a passion. We
aim to satisfy that passion by creat-
ing titles offering value for money,
reliable information, smart buying
advice and which are a pleasure to
read. Today we publish more than
150 magazines in the US, UK, France
and Italy. Over 100 international
editions of our magazines are also published in 30 other countries
across the world.

Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange
(symbol: FUTR).

FUTURE plc
30 Monmouth St., Bath, Avon, BA1 2BW, England
http://www.futureplc.com
Tel +44 1225 442244

NON EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN: Roger Parry
CHIEF EXECUTIVE: Greg Ingham
GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR: John Bowman
Tel +44 1225 442244
http://www.futureplc.com

REPRINTS: For reprints, contact Ryan Derfl er, Reprint Operations
Specialist, 717.399.1900 ext. 167
or email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES: Please email maxcustserv@cdsfulfi ll
ment.com or call customer service toll-free at 800.274.

EDITORIAL
EDITOR IN CHIEF Will Smith
MANAGING EDITOR Katherine Stevenson
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Michael Brown
SENIOR EDITOR Gordon Mah Ung
SENIOR EDITOR Josh Norem
SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR Steve Klett
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Michele Foley
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tom Halfhill, Thomas McDonald
EDITOR EMERITUS Andrew Sanchez

ART
ART DIRECTOR Natalie Jeday
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Boni Uzilevsky
PHOTO EDITOR Mark Madeo
ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHER Samantha Berg
COVER HAND MODEL Vincenzo

BUSINESS
PUBLISHER Bernard Lanigan
646-723-540 5 , [email protected]
SOUTH WESTERN AD DIRECTOR Dave Lynn
949-360-4443, [email protected]
NA TIONAL SALES MANAGER, ENTERTAINMENT Issac Ugay
562-983-8018, [email protected]
NORTH WESTERN AD DIRECTOR Stacey Levy
925-964-1205, [email protected]
EASTERN AD DIRECTOR Anthony Danzi
646-723-5453, [email protected]
EASTERN AD MANAGER Larry Presser
646-723-545 9 , [email protected]
ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jose Urrutia
415-656-8313, ju [email protected]
MARKETING MANAGER Cassandra Magzamen
MARKETING COORDINATOR Michael Basilio

PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richie Lesovoy
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Dan Mallory

CIRCULATION
FULFILLMENT MANAGER Angela Martinez
DIRECT MARKETING SPECIALIST Janet Amistoso
NE WSSTAND COORDINATOR Alex Guzman
BILLING AND RENEWAL MANAGER Betsy Wong

Quick Start Physics takes a

front seat with ATI, nVidia, and Ageia .... 8

Head2Head Smartphone vs.

Pocket PC phone —fi ght! ...................... 16

Watch Dog Maximum PC takes

a bite out of bad gear ............................. 20

How To Back up and restore your

hard drive, the quick and easy way ..... 53

Ask the Doctor Diagnosing

and curing your PC problems .............. 56

Contents

R&D DLNA provides a common

language for all your gear .................. 60

In the Lab It’s time for new

benchmarks and zero-point rigs ....... 62

In/Out You write, we respond ....... 102

Rig of the Month

Paul Gunnels’ tribute to AMD .......... 104

Departments

Reviews

Desktop PC Velocity Micro

Gamer’s Edge DualX ................................ 68

Notebook PC Hewlett-Packard

nc6320 ..................................................... 70

High-end videocards

Sapphire Radeon X1900X XTX;

XFX GeForce 7900 GTX .......................... 72

LCDs Samsung 970P; Dell 1907FP;

NEC 90GX2; Xerox XG-91D .................... 74

GPU coolers Zalman VF900-CU;

Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus .................... 76

Videocard eVGA e-GeForce

7900 GT CO Superclocked .................... 78

Hard drive Western Digital

Caviar SE 16 500GB ................................ 78

Audio streaming box

Slim Devices Squeezebox 3 .................... 80

JUNE 2006 MA XIMUMPC

CPU cooler Coolit Freezone ........... 80

iPod accessories

Altec Lansing InMotion IM11;

Kensington Entertaiment Dock 500;

Logitech Wireless Music System ............ 82

7

84

Condemned: Criminal Origins ......... 84

The Lord of the Rings: The

Battle for Middle Earth ...................... 84

Gaming

76

78

82