Posted 07/28/08 at 07:02:40 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

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!

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Posted 07/28/08 at 03:12:13 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

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!

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Posted 07/28/08 at 02:06:48 PM by Norman Chan

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.

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Posted 07/21/08 at 01:32:48 PM by Quinn Norton

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!

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Posted 07/08/08 at 08:21:57 PM by Tom Edwards

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.

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Posted 07/08/08 at 07:08:37 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

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?

After the jump: Our experts' answers!

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Posted 07/08/08 at 06:40:41 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

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?

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

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Posted 07/08/08 at 03:17:39 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

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?

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

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