Maximum PC July 2008 RSS Feed

July 2008: PC Hardware Hacks

The Maximum PC Staff — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:02:40 -0500

In the PDF archive of the July 2008 issue, you can find:

12 DIY Hardware Hacks
Budget Case Roundup
Midrange GPU Deathmatch
How To: Organize and Tag Your Videos
Awesome Product Reviews, including the excellent Thermaltake Duorb
Ask the Doctor
Rig of the Month
The Watchdog
And a whole lot more!

Click the big giant cover image to the right to download the PDF archive today!

Steady Dell Decline

The Maximum PC Staff — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:12:13 -0500

I’m stuck with a Dell laptop that now fails to boot after just two weeks of normal use. I can accept the fact that I will probably fight with Dell technical support for six months before they do anything to help. What I can’t accept is that I can’t figure out what is wrong with this box.

Quite simply, using the laptop for an extended period results in incredibly slow performance, which leads to a lockup or blue screen, which leads to Windows no longer booting on the next cold restart. The ensuing error messages are varied and too numerous to list. After a clean install of Windows, every single diagnostic from the Dell CD comes back perfect. Memtest86 returns no errors.

I’ve swapped out hard drives and CD drives. But after two weeks, the result is exactly the same: no boot. I’ve tried other “unsupported operating systems” (read: Ubuntu), but they crash and burn just the same. If a Dell technician tells me to reinstall XP Home one more time, I may go postal!

—Jay Minard

Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Norman Chan — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:06:48 -0500

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 looks and plays like a rehash of last year’s original. Put both action shooters side by side and you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish between them. This doesn’t mean Vegas 2 is terrible—the first game was a righteous shoot-’em-up that melded quick pacing with exciting firefights. The follow-up fleshes out the story and completes the plot lines left unfinished in the last go-round, but it falters from the same tiresome action sequences that are more frustrating than challenging.

Getting Away (from DMCA)

Quinn Norton — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:32:48 -0500

Who doesn’t love a Caribbean island? Imagine yourself on a beach in Antigua with a drink that comes in a hollow coconut. Beautiful women walk by. The sun begins to set, and you’ve just finished importing your DVD collection to a hard drive. It's good to be free from the DMCA.

Hit the jump for more fair-use vacation ideas!

We Love the Weighted Companion Cube Case, Not Sure If It Loves Us Back

Tom Edwards — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:21:57 -0500

Scott Dacus is such a big fan of Portal his ringtone is the game’s theme song, “Still Alive.” However, an even bigger fan of the game commissioned Scott to build this case as a gift for his wife. We think this man is a genius or headed for divorce court—either way, he’s our new hero!

Hit the jump for an up-close look at a case which will never threaten to stab you, and in fact cannot speak.

Powerful PC Protection

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:08:37 -0500

How much antivirus and firewall protection do I need? I just purchased a laptop that comes with Norton Security 2007. I had also planned on using Webroot AntiVirus, which includes a firewall and anti-spyware protection. I also thought about using ThreatFire after I read about it in Maximum PC (February 2008), as well as Spybot Search & Destroy. Is all this overkill? What do you recommend?

—Evan Jr. Valdez

After the jump: Our experts' answers!

Help! My Drive Disappeared!

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:40:41 -0500

I built an Intel-based system that’s running on a Gigabyte 945P-S3 motherboard. I’m chugging on three SATA hard drives—a 120GB, 250GB, and 500GB. The processor is a Core 2 Duo E6300 running at 1.86GHz, along with 4GB of 667MHz memory and a GeForce 5800 Ultra Extreme 512MB graphics card.

So what’s my problem? The system runs OK with 64-bit Vista Ultimate SP1, but I have a problem with the 500GB drive disappearing. It doesn’t show up in any of the installed diagnostic programs, Windows disk management, or anywhere else. If I swap the power supply connector around, the drive will show up for a while, but then it disappears again. (The power supply is a Thermaltake 800W unit that’s about a year old, and it has swappable plug connectors.)

Most times a reboot shows the disk in the BIOS as “BzBzBzBz...” What’s going on?

—Frank Buttell

Hit the jump to see what Frank's options are!

Going Wireless on a Desktop

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:17:39 -0500

Hey Doc,

I’m looking to build a desktop computer for home use. I want to go as wireless as possible—wireless keyboard and mouse, wireless headset, etc. The only thing that should be plugged in to my computer is, of course, the power supply. Do you know of any Intel Core 2 Duo chipset–based motherboards that feature built-in Wi-Fi for smooth wireless home computing?

—Castlevaniaxx

Good question, Castlevaniaxx! Hit 'Read More' for the answer!