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Hardware

Hardware Block 62

Posted by michael from the run-on-sentence dept.
Zygo writes "The Swiftech MCX462+T at 3dGameMan, a very solid and beautiful Antec case over here, Coffee and maybe even some ram at OverclockerCafe, the Logitech Cordless Optical MX700 over here, the DFI AD77 Infinity KT400 mobo over at PC stats, Coolermaster ramsinks at Mikhailtech, the Canon S230 here, another case review, the Tyan Tachyon 9700 Pro, 19" ViewSonic monitor, Vantec's Nexus NXP-101 A True Review, Freecom FX-1 USB-2 CD-RW at Blagged-HW, the Nexland Wireless ISB Router at LanAddict and to end the Icemat."
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  • Intellesting.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13, 2003 @05:35AM (#5071228)
    They re-review the Icemat purely because a new coloured version was released? Them Apple review sites must be pretty cluttered..

  • Glass Mouse Mat??? (Score:4, Funny)

    by md81544 ( 619625 ) on Monday January 13, 2003 @05:36AM (#5071229) Homepage
    Hmmm... a glass mouse mat?? Am I the only person who slams his mouse down in frustration when everything in Windows suddenly stops? Hey! Bonus! Automatic wrist slitting when using Windows. It would certainly force me onto my Linux box more frequently.

  • You forgot a link in that quagmire! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Motherfucking Shit ( 636021 ) on Monday January 13, 2003 @05:46AM (#5071252) Journal
    The word "Coffee" should have pointed to www.starbucks.com...

  • ISB Router (Score:5, Insightful)

    by packeteer ( 566398 ) <packeteer@@@subdimension...com> on Monday January 13, 2003 @05:48AM (#5071258)
    This router, in fact, is not actually a wireless router. It is a wired router with wireless ability added in using external hardware. I was not pleased with this, it felt like a hack of their wired router rather than a router designed with wirless in mind.

    Wow, what an uninformed reviewer. When the reviewer noticed that the router had a PCMCIA slot in the back where a card plugs in to give it the wireless abilities he got scared and thought it was low quality. If you open up many other wireless routers you will find the same thing only you dont have the option to switch in a better card. Any home access point will basically be a wires router with a PCMCIA card with a coax cable running to the external antannea. Personally i would prefer it if on an AP gave me the option of switching out the card to one with a better antannea or if it broke.

    Its really sad to see the current situation of internet review sites. Most of them are done by people with a bit of knowledge about computer but not much more than anyone else. The reviewer really should give more than just the opinion of any other end user. I realize that end users need to be heard otherwise the real consumer would not know what to expect but im tired of sites slamming or paising hardware because they dont know how good or bad it really is.
    • The reviewer really should give more than just the opinion of any other end user. I realize that end users need to be heard otherwise the real consumer would not know what to expect but im tired of sites slamming or paising hardware because they dont know how good or bad it really is.
      Quite. The barriers for entry into the hardware review biz are negligible now and a lot of the small ones tend to be bands of friends blagging hardware on the pretense of reviewing it.

    • Re:ISB Router (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mrpuffypants ( 444598 ) <.moc.liamg. .ta. .stnapyffuprm.> on Monday January 13, 2003 @06:14AM (#5071300)
      no kidding, about 5 or 6 hardware review sites open up every week it seems

      and with the internet blocking their real identity i'll bet that most of them are run by people still reading dickens in high school english classes.

      as a journalist myself on some level, it sickens me that real journalists now have to compete with "jimmy @ 3Xtr3m3 h@rdware" for credibility.

      • Re:ISB Router (Score:3, Informative)

        by Max Romantschuk ( 132276 )
        The poor quality of hardware review sites is fortunately something some sites are aware of [mikhailtech.com]...

        Also some follow-up here [mikhailtech.com].

      • Re:ISB Router (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I work for a small [anandtech.com] review website. I would have to agree, with the exception of mikhailtech [mikhailtech.com]. most of these websites are incredibly poor operations. Several of them except money to do hardware reviews and almost all of them are indescriminate about "editor's choice" awards.

        With Tom's Hardware in the situation is it, (Tom cannot enter the united states without getting arrested. Apparently he never paid any American advertisers over the last 4 years), HardOCP and AT are the last large, decent review websites left.

        If you want to read about some low quality hardware a 16 year old got for free, check out V1p3r'Sup4Caf3H4rdw4re. If you want to read actual unbiased reviews, try a big name hardware site. Hell, you might even learn something.

        AnandTech.com Editor
      • This lack of good reviewing makes me upset. Although there ar good sites out there its not a good situation untill i can read several well written reviews of one product on different sites. As a 17 year old student of High School i can understand that i am not the best person to review this hardware so i dont do it. If i want someone who doesn't know anything to tell me about computers i would ask almost any kid who has a computer in my school. In my science classes they have always forced us to use the scientific process and now i understand why. If only these review sites would use some type of controlled process to evaluate their hardware i would trust them much more.

    • Re:ISB Router (Score:4, Informative)

      by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Monday January 13, 2003 @06:55AM (#5071354) Journal
      Personally i would prefer it if on an AP gave me the option of switching out the card to one with a better antannea or if it broke.

      I don't see how that would be possible.

      More than just drivers, to be an AP, you must send the special, ``magic" code to the Wireless card to tell it to do so. So I don't see how an AP could even potentially allow swapping of cards.
      • The card in the picture looks like a normal Lucent/Buffalo card. Adding an extra antenna requires you not to remove the card, but to simply plug one into the mini-socket that you can uncover by removing a tiny dust cover in the middle of the exposed block.

        I've got a big 'lightsabre' type antenna plugged into my Airport at home (which also uses a lucent card.) I had to prise the nice Apple case off to do that (It now looks considerably less well designed ;-) ). At least with the reviewed router there's no unscrewing or removing of pannels to do something similar

    • Heck, most PCI wireless cards are a PCMCIA card socketed onto a PCI board.

      --
      Evan

  • Logitech MX Series Mice (Score:5, Informative)

    by fishbert42 ( 588754 ) on Monday January 13, 2003 @05:59AM (#5071281)
    Tom's Hardware [tomshardware.com] has a decent review [tomshardware.com] of the new Logitech MX series of mice (MX300, MX500, MX700). About as in-depth as you can get with something as simple as a mouse, I think.
    • I managed to score one of the MX-700 for chrissy. A very nice mouse indeed.

      Great for gamming too!

      Course I still suck at CS. :( And now I can't use my mouse as an excuse.
    • I bought one of those MX500's with some of my Christmas money this year. It's a very nice piece of hardware, very responsive and smooth. The drivers, however, as mentioned in the above review, in a word, suck.

      If Logitech could turn out a set of drivers to allow you to program all 8 buttons that would work in games, this would be a nearly flawless device. As it stands, you pretty much have to sacrifice 3 of them and not install the Logitech button programming driver in order for games to work properly. The latest version of the drivers do tend to play better with games but just because they have a routine built-in to disable the button mapper driver (em_exec) when it detects a program requesting DirectInput.
  • but all i lust for in terms of hardware now is that amazing iBook with a 17" LCD...

    _THATS_ a cool piece of hardware. and the best part, it already comes with Unix, so I don't even have to bother instaling linux...

  • Help! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Monday January 13, 2003 @06:46AM (#5071342) Journal

    MCX462+T? DFI AD77? KT400? S230? NXP-101?! FX-1!?! ISB!?!? NNNGGGHHHH!!!! TECHINICAL BUZZWORDS!!! %$#^$%!!! *toot*

    Connection reset by nice men in white coats.

    • troll v.,n. To utter a posting designed to attract stupid responses or flames.

      Not to totally nitpick or anything.... but the bold part would in fact make this a verb... ;)

      • GACKFRAPFNACGRNNNNGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        Ok... just notice the v. part. My bad.

        Friends don't let friends post before their fifth cup of coffee I guess.....

  • The Antec / Chieftech / Chenming cases are all manufactured by the same folks. Good stuff, however. For building boxes, this is my standard non-rackmount chassis. No sharp edges, solid structure, good ventilation and fan placement. If you watch, these things go on sale often... The last chassis I picked up was for my bride - with 420w PS and a window, $75USD. Lots of color options out there too.

    Not sure if this will link, but her are some better photo [newegg.com] from newegg.

    http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=11 -1 25-132-01.JPG/11-125-132-02.jpg/11-125-132-03.jpg/ 11-125-132-04.jpg/11-125-132-05.jpg/11-125-132-06. jpg/11-125-132-07.jpg

  • What kind of Reviews are these? (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I dont mean to pick hairs here, but these are some very poor quality reviews.

    First of all, I have no idea why you picked the Ahanix Romeo case for linking. This case is almost 2 years old and on top of that it is an incredibly poor design. I am familiar with Ahanix's business tactics and I would not be surprised if Ahanix/ExoticPC simply paid for that review.

    Second of all, what makes the Nexus 101 review so special? It is consistant with the other 200 reviews that rate the overpriced gargbage "very good". Vantec does not sell quality products, but they do not sway reviews unlike other companies. I have no idea why no one mentions the serve disapointments in the Nexus line. Personally, I think the 201 is a much nicer device.

    Ok well, I suppose I better rip on the "brand new" antec case. This is a first generation Chenming case that has also been on the market over 2 years. Chenming is actually working on another revision of this case which should be out mid Q1. Why anyone insisted on reviewing hardware that is older than the website doing the review is beyond me.

    Incredible.

  • Um, er, oh (Score:4, Funny)

    by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 ) on Monday January 13, 2003 @10:44AM (#5072758)
    "The Swiftech MCX462+T at 3dGameMan, a very solid and beautiful Antec case over here, Coffee and maybe even some ram at OverclockerCafe, the Logitech Cordless Optical MX700 over here, the DFI AD77 Infinity KT400 mobo over at PC stats, Coolermaster ramsinks at Mikhailtech, the Canon S230 here, another case review, the Tyan Tachyon 9700 Pro, 19" ViewSonic monitor, Vantec's Nexus NXP-101 A True Review, Freecom FX-1 USB-2 CD-RW at Blagged-HW, the Nexland Wireless ISB Router at LanAddict and to end the Icemat."

    Does anyone else think this blurb looks like the decription of one of the prop computers in the Sims?

    'Zwoop Macrotic 1349/k GigaProcessor at 14.2 Ketaflops with Super HypWire MonstraDrive, Insana3 Radio-centric Flux Tachyon Coprocessor, Renticular magneto-sensing thermoptic camoflage, and 128X ZCDVD-RW.'

    Right. Mine's grape.

  • FWIW, I have two of these pieces of hardware, albiet slightly older versions. My Antec case is the same, but without the whiz-bang pretty features (panels, lights, whatnot). It's sweet - big, easy to work with, tons of drive bays.

    I've also got 2 of the ViewSonic P95f monitors. The ones reviewed are P95f+ models, which are capable of a higher resolution, but with a slightly lower refresh rate for all other resolutions (stupid, IMHO). These are great screens, especially for the price. Perfectly flat, exceptionally clear and crisp.
  • It seems odd to me that the Logitech Optical mouse was only said to last about 3-4 days. I remember reading on other cordless opticals that they can last weeks or even months, but perhaps this is because they aren't using rechargable batteries. With NimH (sp) batteries I would have expected better performance.
    Can somebody verify this? I was actually quite interested in this mouse due to the recharging basestation, but if it dies a lot quicker than others I'll just go with a non-recharging mouse on a Lithium-Ion battery.
    • I have one and love it. I only had the batteries run low once, but I can't remember how long it had gone without charging. Many days, at least. Anyway, I just drop it in the charger once in a while, and it's always charged up. Usually when I go to bed I put it to bed too, but if I forget it's no problem the next day. Great mouse overall, only thing I don't like is the wheel is hard to press down. I ended up using the button behind the wheel for double-click instead of the wheel button.
  • Excuse me, do you know what time it is? I think I just missed the Rapture.

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