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Where Lies the Point of Diminishing Returns?

Will Smith — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:55:33 -0500

In the July issue, I tested HP’s Mini-Note—the small, cheap notebook is HP’s answer to the subcompact, sub-$500 Asus Eee PC. HP’s tiny notebook got me thinking about the point of diminishing PC returns—the point at which adding more hardware oomph doesn’t deliver a perceptible performance boost to the user.

I didn’t have any major complaints with its performance in my most common activities: web browsing, checking email, writing documents, and listening to music. Is this Mini-Note’s 1.2GHz VIA C7-M CPU fast enough for me?

Hit the jump for my conclusions.

Psst! Want to Hack Your Hardware? Here's How!

Norman Chan — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:15:45 -0500

As much as we would love for our computers to work perfectly, the fact is that PCs and gadgets are complex devices that often fall short of exactly what we want. When confronted with this fact, we’re reminded of the old saw that says if you want something done right, it’s best to do it yourself. And who are we to doubt that kind of wisdom? As power users, we’re not content with hardware the way it comes out of the box; we have an insatiable need to hack our electronics in ways that will improve performance, functionality, and ease of use. And there’s no doubt about it, modifying your hardware will increase your productivity and make your life that much simpler.

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How To: Create a Custom Internet Radio Station

Will Smith — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:03:43 -0500

Your IT department won’t let you copy MP3s onto your work PC, and your iPod won’t hold your massive music collection, but you need to listen to tunes while you toil away at the day’s labor. What’s an audiophile to do? The answer is simple: Stream the collection you have stored on your rig at home to your PC at work.

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Alienware Area-51 m15x

Katherine Stevenson — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:49:22 -0500

It’s easy to be seduced by Alienware’s m15x notebook. From its handsome
silver-gray case to its cool-yet-tasteful LED accents to its
comfortable lap weight of less than eight pounds, this 15.4-inch
machine had us at hello. Of course, only excellent performance would
keep us interested.

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Fast Forward: VIA's new Isaiah Processor

Tom Halfhill — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:22:10 -0500

Exciting times for mobile PCs as VIA introduces its new low-power-consumption x86 mobile processor, code-named Isaiah.

Maximum PC's Sixth Annual Softy Awards

The Maximum PC Staff — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:40:43 -0500

Yes, it’s that time of year again when we pay tribute to software. For without it, our badass rigs would have nothing to do to but look pretty. Indeed, it’s the programs we run that show us what our machines are truly capable of. The challenge, of course, is in deciding which applications and utilities are most deserving of special honor, not to mention a coveted silver-esque statue.

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RAID Controllers Compared!

David Murphy — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:17:20 -0500

In the November 2007 issue, we took an in-depth look at RAID—short for Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks—and broke down the pros, cons, and most importantly, speeds of the various RAID permutations you would find on a typical multidrive setup. Here we’ll examine the medium itself: the RAID controller, which tells the drives in a RAID setup how to interact. As you’ll see, there are RAID controllers of differing types, technologies, and price points, and we want to learn whether these variations translate into performance differences. After all, even the fastest RAID configuration ultimately depends on the performance capabilities of its physical host.

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Daniel Klus' Jan Henryk Dabrowski's Castle

Tom Edwards — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:00:31 -0500

Daniel Klus melds the best of the new school with the best of the old school with rig built inside a castle.