ReviewsOptoma Pico PK101
Posted 07/02/09 at 07:30:19 PM by Michael Brown
Optoma picked an appropriate moniker for its Lilliputian-size video projector. The Pico PK101 isn’t just small, it’s almost inconceivably tiny. It measures just 1.97 inches wide by 4.06 inches long by 0.59 inches thick, and it weighs only four ounces.
Texas Instruments’ DLP (Digital Light Processor) technology deserves much of the credit for making such a product possible. DLP projectors create an image by bouncing light off microscopic mirrors arranged in a matrix on a semiconductor. Each mirror represents a pixel in the image and swivels to either reflect light through the lens or to an internal heatsink. Toggling these two states on and off creates a grayscale. Color pixels are created by using either a color wheel or a colored light source. Optoma uses a non-replaceable LED for its light source, which it claims should last for 20,000 hours. There’s a tiny speaker and a 0.5-watt amp onboard, too.
Ask the DoctorAsk the Doctor: The Neverending Memtest
Posted 07/02/09 at 07:00:03 PM by The Maximum PC Staff
I downloaded memtest86+ 1.65 (on the recommendation of your magazine) and tried it out on one of my systems. I cannot get past the “auto” running memtest86+ to finish booting to Windows XP Pro. My system is an AMD 2.2GB dual core with 2GB of RAM on a TForce 550 SE mobo. How can I stop memtest86+ from automatically starting every time I boot? I assume there is an autoexec.bat file that is running. Memtest86+ ran for nearly 48 hours non-stop without ever finishing the tests. Is this normal? Should I have let it run to completion?
—Dave
Click for Dave's answer, after the jump!
ReviewsPremiere Elements 7.0
One thing we hoped for that’s definitely not present: three full upgrades’ worth of new features and improvements. Adobe continues to use its dumbed-down interface, which we initially viewed with disgust. Oddly enough, the more we’ve used it, the more forgiving we’ve become; we’ve grown quite fond of the newb-friendly front end, despite the fact that it’s basically unchanged. The menus and titling in the consumer video editor continue to be top-notch, as well.
Posted 07/02/09 at 11:59:25 AM by Gordon Mah Ung
Get Robert Stack on the phone! In what could be the greatest tech unsolved mystery since the disappearance of Intel’s Tejas, someone has kidnapped Premiere Elements 5.0 and 6.0!
Just kidding. There’s no crime here unless you believe that it’s flat-out wrong for Adobe to jump from version 4.0 to version 7.0 just to ensure that Premiere Elements matches version numbers with Photoshop Elements 7.0.
One thing we hoped for that’s definitely not present: three full upgrades’ worth of new features and improvements. Adobe continues to use its dumbed-down interface, which we initially viewed with disgust. Oddly enough, the more we’ve used it, the more forgiving we’ve become; we’ve grown quite fond of the newb-friendly front end, despite the fact that it’s basically unchanged. The menus and titling in the consumer video editor continue to be top-notch, as well.
ReviewsHP TouchSmart tx2
Posted 07/01/09 at 08:00:00 PM by Michael Brown
We’re unabashed fans of HP’s Touch-Smart desktop machines, so we were really looking forward to getting our digits on the new technology in a convertible touch-screen notebook PC. But our eager anticipation only made the reality of the TouchSmart tx2 all that more disappointing.
This is the first convertible touch-screen PC designed for the consumer market, and its underlying hardware—which in our review unit included AMD’s best mobile CPU—delivered enough horsepower for this machine’s touch-screen elements. Benchmark performance, on the other hand, was dismal (more on that later).
You can use the TouchSmart tx2 as a conventional notebook PC or rotate its 12.1-inch screen 180 degrees, lay it flat, and use the machine’s tablet functionality. The 1280x800 touch screen uses active digitizing technology and supports the use of either a fingertip or a digital pen (as opposed to the simple stylus that HP shipped with its first-generation TouchSmart desktops). The digital pen delivers hover feedback (it doesn’t have to touch the screen to activate user-interface elements, such as tooltips) and considerably more precision than a fingertip.
ReviewsDFI LAN Party UT X58
Posted 07/01/09 at 10:39:52 AM by Gordon Mah Ung
Motherboards can’t just sit quietly in your case and service your parts anymore. Today, motherboards also must advertise to the entire world that you have one badass system. Hoping to outdo all others, DFI’s LAN Party UT X58 Core i7 motherboard features a massive heat pipe appendage, called the “Flame Chiller,” that juts out the back of your case.
The idea is to transport heat from the heatsinks attached to the board’s power regulators and chipset to outside the case, where it can be cooled by the exhaust from the case. Does it work? The concept makes sense, but we’re a bit skeptical of the small contact patch the heat pipe makes with the board. The external heatsink never got hot in our tests, but we typically don’t overclock test boards far enough to overheat voltage regulators. The Flame Chiller looks cool, though!
This board’s not all about flash and panache, however. The board’s tri-SLI implementation is certainly better than on other X58 boards we’ve tested. While other boards’ x16 PCI-E slot arrangements force you to either buy a specific case enclosure or hack-saw off a portion of your videocard to get a tri-SLI configuration up and running, the LAN Party UT X58’s tri-SLI will work in most cases.
Ask the DoctorAsk the Doctor: Play It All
Posted 07/01/09 at 10:00:00 AM by The Maximum PC Staff
Doc, I need some help! Using what I learned from your mag, I built a small home theater PC. Everything is good, except when I want to watch a movie I have ripped (I use SlySoft AnyDVD). I don’t know how to get the movie to run in one piece. I have to play the movie in sections. I have Nero 7 and PowerDVD but it happens the same way with either.
—Denny Morris
Click for Denny's answer, after the jump!
ColumnsGame Theory: Grassroots Gaming
Posted 07/01/09 at 09:33:01 AM by Thomas McDonald
PC gaming began on mainframes and research computers. It moved to personal computers when independent developers put their games on floppy disks, sealed them in Ziploc bags with Xeroxed art, and sold them in hobby stores. If it is going to have a future that is not yoked to console design paradigms, we are going to have to recapture those roots and start paying closer attention to the small developers who are designing with us, and not 14-year-old console gamers, as their primary market.
Continue reading after the jump!
Features9 Essential Steps to Disaster-Proof Your PC
Posted 06/30/09 at 11:00:00 AM by Paul Lilly
Stop whatever it is you’re doing. We know your time is valuable, and what you’re about to read could save you hours, if not days, of damage control. What could be so important? Your work documents, for one thing. And then there’s your entire digital collection of family photos cataloguing every birthday, vacation, and other special occasion over the past several years. Common PC pitfalls don’t just affect your digital files, either. Should disaster strike—say a power surge or a hacker attack— you could be looking at hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars of damaged hardware—or even worse, damage to your good name and credit if someone manages to steal your identity.
Are you thoroughly spooked yet? You needn’t be, not if you follow our nine-step guide to disaster-proofing your PC. On the following pages, we show you how to prepare for everything from acts of God to hacker attacks, and every other mishap you’re likely to encounter as a power user. And if you’re an old pro who already knows how to disaster-proof your PC, then treat this as a checklist of things you know you should be doing, but probably aren’t.
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