MaximumPC 2008 11

94 | MAXIMUMPC | NOV 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

Iounding off about

Dream Machine

I’ve been a reader since the

dawn of Maximum PC and

have always waited anx-

iously for the Dream Machine

issues. I have one bone to

pick that has been brewing

for some time: Why do you

pick a “gaming” soundcard

(i.e., a Sound Blaster) every

single year? Since computers

are now considered the best

media boxes, why wouldn’t

you pick a soundcard

armored with a huge arsenal

of chips and components

that hook to a home enter-

tainment system for media

enthusiasts? No gaming card

is equipped for superior

Blu-ray playback on a block-

buster surround system. Last

time I checked, this wasn’t

“Dream Machine Gaming

Series ’08.” Maybe next time

you guys could go with two

soundcards to satisfy both

genres of nerdery?

—Tannar Frampton

Ienior Editor Gordon Mah

Kng Responds0 It’s true

that Creative’s cards have

been featured prominently

in Dream Machine over

the years because of their

strength in gaming—Creative

is the only soundcard vendor

directly supporting games,

and in many titles, you need

an X-Fi to turn on the high-

end features. Fortunately,

these days, there’s really

no reason to buy a second

card for other media chores.

Creative’s X-Fi Titanium

supports optical SPDIF out,

which lets the card pump

out Dolby TrueHD audio.

The card also now supports

real-time Dolby Digital Live

encoding of game audio,

so you can even play your

games on your big-screen TV.

IID Is MIA

How can the best PC ever not

have a single SSD (“Dream

Machine” September 2008)?

Yes, they are expensive. But

so is $6,000 for a paint job

and funky case. A $17,285 PC

should have at least one SSD.

—Stephen Cargill

Associate Editor Dave

Murphy Responds0 Our

reasons for not including a

solid-state drive in Dream

Machine 2008 are simple:

These drives offer low capaci-

ties for their price, and their

write speeds are inadequate

for a machine of the DM08’s

caliber. These are the greatest

hindrances of modern-day

SSD technology, as we’ve

detailed in this month’s SSD

feature on page 40. We’d

much prefer Velociraptors in

a RAID 0 array at this point in

the storage game.

Aeeping the Dream

Machine Cool

Just got my copy of the

September issue, and I have

to say I’m very impressed

with this year’s Dream

Machine. One question,

though: With the reservoir

mounted sideways in the

case, how do you refill it?

—Terry

Associate Editor David

Murphy Responds0 Actually,

that’s the tricky part. Refilling

or topping off the reservoir’s

fluid levels—which we would

expect to do once every three

to five months—requires us

to remove the water blocks

from the CPUs and pull the

whole enchilada out of the

case. It’s just that tight of a

water-cooling loop. And since

we’ve mounted the reservoir

sideways, there’s no way we

could fill it up, or even open

the fill hole, were it to remain

in the case.

This month, in the How To section of MaximumFC

.com, we’ll tell you how to repartition your comput-

er’s hard drive without the hassle of formatting and

nuking, using a killer free tool called Farted Magic.

Check it out at http0%%tinyurl.com%,oxvst.

NOW ONBINE

Repartition Your Hard

Drive on the Fly—

for Free!

We tackle tough reader questions on...

Dream Machine 2008

Best PSU?

Dream Machine 2008

Best PSU?

Dream Machine 2008

Home Automation

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The Gateway P-7811 system reviewed

in the October issue does not include

Bluetooth or a fi ngerprint reader.