MaximumPC 2008 10

next month

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mumpc.com. Include your full name, city of residence, and phone number with your

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novISSUE

Ultimate BIOS

Tweak Guide

There’s something for every

reader in our BIOS-tweaking

guide. From the basics of

FSB speed settings to the

intricacies of memory tim-

ings, our guide has all the

information you need.

State of the Solid State

They’re here. Solid-state drives have

arrived for power users, and we’re

taking all comers into the Lab for the

full treatment. First we test. Then we

review. Finally, we verdictize. No stor-

age nut will want to miss the ultimate

drive-performance story.

My PC Can Do What?

Get your PC ready for the

ride of its life. We’re going

to show you how to unlock

your rig’s hidden poten-

tial with dozens of killer

tips and tricks that we 100

percent guarantee you’ve

never seen before.*

brilliance on the show (the
Adama Maneuver still gives
me chills), but between the
juvenile love triangles (do
I really care that Apollo’s
sleeping with Dee, even

though he still loves Star-
buck?) and the unrelenting
focus on Starbuck (is she
dead? Isn’t she dead? Who
cares!), the parallels with
Melrose are downright
obvious. I’m a big fan of taut
political thrillers, but BSG
has strayed too far from the
tried-and-true space-opera
formula. Answer me this
one question: How many
Cylon Raiders were blown
up in dogfights after the
fleet left New Caprica? I rest
my case.

two Rights Don’t
make a Wrong
OK, you’ve been doing
this for a long time and I’m
finally tired of waiting for
you to notice it on your
own: Fair Use does not let
you copy things for per-
sonal use (i.e. backing up
music to a computer, CD-R,
or MP3 player). Fair Use lets
you use copyrighted mate-
rial in a review or parody.
It’s what allows “Weird
Al” Yankovic to do song
parodies or Maxim to show

stills and quotes from mov-

ies. What you’re talking

about is the Audio Home

Recording Act of 1992.

Don’t get me wrong: I com-

pletely agree with you that

DRM has gone too far and

that we shouldn’t have to

fight encryption schemes to

copy a DVD to an iPod. But

using the wrong terminol-

ogy won’t help.

—Dustin Stevens

Deputy editor Katherine

Stevenson Responds: You

are absolutely right, Dustin,

and we stand corrected, even

if the spirit of our remarks

regarding consumers’ rights

is unchanged.

GPU vs. CPU: Fight!

I was very disappointed

with your review of the

Puget Systems Deluge-i

A2 (August 2008). There

was no need to jump on

the CPU vs. GPU drama

in this review of a clearly

overpriced system. It is

not unheard of in a gaming

system to shell out more

for the GPU than for the

CPU. The GPU:CPU cost

ratio in the Puget is 1.9:1

($380/$200). Your own

Dream Machine 2007 was

1.75:1 ($1,750/$1,000)—and

the GPU price was lim-

ited only by being kept

to two 8800 Ultras in the

680i motherboard. The

Overdrive PC Core2.SLI you

reviewed in September 2007

and gave a 9 verdict to had

two 8800 Ultras and just an

E6850 CPU. I’m not sure of

the prices then, but that had

to have been more than a

2:1 ratio.

I think the Puget review

should have focused on the

system’s lack of value; any-

one could have built that

computer for about $1,600

when you wrote the article,

so what does the other

$1,050 buy from Puget?

By the way, the PSU is a

Corsair, not a Cooler Master

(as listed in the specs box). I

can read it in the picture and

am familiar with that unit.

—Charles Glasscock

Senior editor Gordon mah

Ung Responds: I think

you missed our point. Our

problem was not that one

shouldn’t spend more on

a videocard than the CPU,

but one should not exclude

CPU performance as an

important factor. That’s

exactly what some GPU

companies are pushing

and what some consumers

actually believe. We don’t

think a company has to use

a $1,000 Core 2 Extreme,

but we believe quad-core

processing is a must-have

feature today and our

performance benchmarks

prove us right. Regarding

the PSU, good catch. It is a

Corsair.

LETTERS POLICY Please send your questions and comments to comments@maxi-

mumpc.com. Include your full name, city of residence, and phone number with your

correspondence. Letters may be edited for space and clarity. Due to the amount of

mail we receive, we are unable to respond personally to all queries.

http://www.maximumpc.com | oct 08 | MAXIMUMPC |&%3

tastes LIke

turDucken!

*Not a guarantee.

I’M CUrIOUS TO knOW The

ThOUGhT PrOCeSS ThaT

DefenDS SUCh a WIlD-aSS

STaTeMenT.