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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pc, soundproof, budget, hardware hacks, $100 cases, supercharge, media reader, thermaltake duorb

Posted 07/28/08 at 02:55:19 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Details about Dell’s Studio Hybrid mini PC are in dearth as the company is keeping everything under wraps and all information is coming through leaks and sketchy sources. Now Engadget is reporting that an internal customer service page carries precious little details about the diminutive PC. The Studio Hybrid mini PC is codenamed Nausicaa as a tribute to a Greek mythological character. The internal page has revealed that the Studio Hybrid will ship with a wireless mouse and keyboard. The report further hints – quoting anonymous sources - that the mini PC will come with an in-built Blu-ray drive and user-changeable color panels; and possibly hit store shelves in the next fortnight.

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pc, hardware, build a rig, dell studio hybrid

Posted 07/26/08 at 01:51:59 AM by Paul Lilly

Call it an end of an era or a move that was long overdue, but no matter how you label it, Gateway will soon stop selling PCs through its website. Instead, the company will transition to a 100 percent indirect sales model focusing exclusively on brick and mortar stores, e-tailers, and channel partners.

Gateway had struggled in previous years to compete with Dell and other OEMs, but their fortunes looked to change after Acer acquired the company last year for $710 million. The acquisition turned Acer into the world's third-largest PC vendor overnight, while also giving both companies a boost in the North American market.

In a press release, Gateway claims the change in its business model will "deliver significant cost savings, ultimately resulting in an improved value proposition for consumers." Exactly how much the company thinks it will save wasn't disclosed, nor was the amount of job cuts that would result from the shift away from online sales.

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pc, online, hardware, Gateway, OEM, rigs, pre-built

Posted 07/22/08 at 06:55:39 PM by Paul Lilly

It seems like every company is jumping onto the recent Netbook craze, but will it turn out to be a passing fad? No one knows for sure, and it's because of this uncertainty that AMD will sit this round out.

"We are not saying it's not an important segment and we're not saying it's not a growing segment. What we are asying is that we are a smaller company and we have to focus on what we do well at this point. We are watching that segment rather than playing in it, but as it matures we'll see where it goes," said Nigel Dessau, AMD's chief marketing officer.

Dessau's comments fall in line with AMD's recent commitment to refocusing its business strategies, but could the company be preparing to strike? Hit the jump to learn more.

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amd, pc, notebook, laptop, OEM, ultraportable, build a pc, rigs, netbook

Posted 07/22/08 at 02:51:37 PM by Chris Moody

The guys at CruchGear want to design a web tablet that would cost $200 and they want your help to do it. I’ve always liked the idea of a tablet for doing little things like surfing from the sofa. With netbooks catching on, can a net-tablet be far behind?

They pitch this basic idea; make it as thin as possible, run low end hardware, headphone jack, a built in camera for video, low end speakers, microphone, wifi, USB port, a built in battery, 512 RAM, and a 4Gb solid state hard drive. No keyboard, input is via a touch screen. It will run on some flavor of Linux or BSD.

The extra twist is they want to build a few and then open source the specs so anyone can create and improve on them. I like the idea! You can read about the mock up here, and the article that started it here. 

I see it as handy item for browsing the web and reading email, but with it's only interface is a touch screen, don't expect to write a book the size of War and Peace on it.

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pc, Build, tablet, consumer, netbook, cloud computing

Posted 07/22/08 at 07:43:04 AM by Chris Moody

Just how green can we make a PC? Pretty damn green, although the Cherrypal isn’t very pretty or particularly cheap, although $250 isn’t really bad as far as computers go.

On the technical side it can best be described as the 90 pound weakling. The CPU is a 400 MHz Freescale MPC5121e mobile GT triple-core processor, originally developed to run devices like navigation systems in cars. It has 256 MB DDR2  memory, 4 GB of NAND flash memory which contains a Debian Linux-based operating system and the Firefox web browser. It also sports 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, two USB ports, an Ethernet port, VGA out, and Audio out. It’s just enough to fulfill its purpose -cloud computing.

Basically it allows you to surf, email, watch YouTube, watch Flash animations, and create documents/spreadsheets. Something that does bother me is the claims that the device is secure, because it accesses the Internet through the Cherrypal Cloud. I don’t like that all my data goes through one company like that. There are also many “what ifs” to be answered on that point.

We’ll have to see how this compares to the netbooks when they are actually shipping, Netbooks after all at least look cool. From the picture the Cherrypal looks like a bar of black soap.

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pc, hardware, cloud computing, netbooks, cherrypal, computers, thin client

Posted 07/21/08 at 11:27:21 AM by Chris Moody

Anyone that has used a smart phone for browsing the internet knows that those little screens are just too small to be really comfortable to use. We also know that we don’t like to tote a notebook PC around on the chance that we need to use the internet for something.

The industry has known we needed something between a notebook PC and a smartphone sized device. It has taken several stabs at it, but nothing has quite stuck until a new breed of device has started to hit the market, called netbooks. These power sipping, devices are made primarily for checking email and surfing the internet at a low cost, some selling for $300. The PC industry is set to sell tens of millions of these devices. Good deal for the PC industry, right?

Maybe not. The NYTimes.com reports that industry analysts say that the emergence of this new class of low-cost, cloud-centric machines could threaten big market companies like Microsoft, Intel, HP, or Dell. “When I talk to PC vendors, the No. 1 question I get is, how do I compete with these netbooks when what we really want to do is sell PCs that cost a lot more money?” said J. P. Gownder, an analyst with Forrester Research.

Why are these tiny PCs a threat? Make the jump to find out!

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pc, dell, hp, asus, consumer electronics, eee, notebooks, netbooks

Posted 07/17/08 at 05:08:36 PM by Paul Lilly

Say what you will about Best Buy's Geek Squad and Circuit City's Firedog computer repair centers, but no matter what amount of ridicule each one might receive in tech circles, those without access to a next-of-kin techspert find themselves using the oft overpriced (and sometimes overzealous) services offered by each. Now Wal-Mart wants a piece of the fix-my-PC pie too.

According to the mega-chain, Dell is testing a repair and installation service for electronics in up to 15 of its stores in the Dallas area. The "Solution Stations" will not only offer PC repair, but HDTV and home theater installation, wireless support, and other electronic services.

"For Wal-Mart, the program provides an opportunity for us to understand more about what our customers need and expect in home installation and technology services, within a specific market," the company said in a statement on its website. Wal-Mart also indicated that the program is a small pilot and that there are currently no plans to expand outside of Dallas beyond the 15 select stores.

And what about pricing? According to the Dallas Morning News, memory installation will run $29 in-store, or $99 if making a house-call. To install a wall-mounted TV, connect cables, and integrate three video components, it is charging $289.

So it's official; you can now get everything and the kitchen sink at Wal-Mart, and that includes PC repair. But would you want to?

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computer, pc, dell, repair, geek squad, hardware, wal-mart, best buy, rigs, build a rig