09> 0474470 81182 ® September 2006 • Vol 6 Issue 09 Frontside 6 What’s Happening 12 Digital Economy 13 The Saint Changing Times The Experts Alex St. John The Saint page 13 Alex “Sharky” Ross The Shark Tank Spotlight page 30 Anand Lal Shimpi Anand’s Corner page 28 Pentium’s End 48 Intel Core Exposed Something Old, Something New 55 Intel Core 2-Compatible Motherboard Roundup CPU’s Core 2 “Extreme Machine” Barry Brenesal Making The Fastest Even Faster The Cutting Edge 64 page 92 Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda Mike Magee The Department Shavings From Of Stuff The Rumour Mill page 83 page 98 Rahul Sood Wagging The Dog Copyright 2006 by Sandhills Publishing Company. Computer Power User is a trademark of Sandhills Publishing page 99 Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in Computer Power User is strictly prohibited without written permission. Printed in the U.S.A. GST # 123482788RT0001 (ISSN 1536-7568) CPU Computer Pete Loshin Power User USPS 020-801 is published monthly for $29 per year by Sandhills Publishing Company, 131 West Chris Pirillo Open Sauce Grand Drive, P.O. Box 82667, Lincoln, NE 68501. Subscriber Services: (800) 424-7900. Periodicals postage paid at Dialogue Box page 79 Lincoln, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Computer Power User, P.O. Box 82667, Lincoln, NE 68501. page 78 Did you find the hidden CPU logo on our cover? Turn the page for the answer. Hard Hat Area PC Modder 31 Tips & Tutorials 32 GeForce 7800 GT Voltage Mod Page 24 The Making Of A Mainstream Powerhouse 36 Mad Reader Mod Smokin’ Gets On Track Heavy Gear 38 Advanced Q&A Corner 42 X-Ray Vision: Nanocrystal Displays 16 Dream Hardware Next Big, Big Thing In Display Technology 44 White Paper: RuBee 17 A Cool, Dry Place PREY We Put Six Waterless Coolers Adding Flexibility To The RFID Market Tips & Tricks Page 87 To The Test Loading Zone 94 Software Tips & Projects 22 Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Remote Access On The Cheap 70 The Bleeding Edge Of Software 96 Warm Up To Penguins Inside The World Of Betas 23 Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 A Look At SuSE 10.1 & XGL 71 Up To Speed Upgrades That’ll Keep 24 Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP You Humming Along What’s Cooking HP LC3760N 37-inch HD LCD TV 70 Video Encoder Roundup 98 Shavings From The Rumour Mill Five Programs For Your The Desktop Is Not Dead, 26 Vantec NexStar LX NST 375LX File-Conversion Needs Long Live The Desktop Sunbeamtech NUUO Series 75 GoldSolution Software Driver Magician 2.8 99 Wagging The Dog 550W SLI PSU Atka Software Aura Intel Will Change The Way 76 Paragon Software Disk Wiper 7.0 It Does Business 27 Asus EN7950GX2 MoviX 102 Technically Speaking 78 Dialogue Box An Interview With Dr. Albert van 28 Anand’s Corner Muse, Sick Breemen, Leader Of Philips’ iCAT Intel Is Good Again 79 Open Sauce Robotics Project On The Internet, Someone 106 Under Development 30 The Shark Tank Knows You’re A Dog A Peek At What’s Brewing Got A Socket AM2? In The Laboratory Caught In The Web 80 The Web Finally Gets Mobilized Back Door Cell Phone Browsing Gets Real 108 Q&A With Jerry Bautista 83 The Department Of Stuff The Future Of CPUs & GPUs download.txt CORRECTIONS: On page 64 of the August issue, the second part Digital Living of the DDR2 memory chart should be labeled 84 Road Warrior “DDR2 At Various Clock Speeds & A CAS 5-5-5-2T Setting,” and not “. CAS 6-6-6-2T Setting.” New Samsung Digicams, Energizer Energi To Go, Mobile Gear In The Classroom & More 86 At Your Leisure Infinite Loops Page 27 Games, Gear, Movies & Music Strange stats and other oddball 92 The Cutting Edge items from computing's periphery Tell Me A Scary Story, Daddy. Tell Me About Computer Viruses. 82, 95, 104 Customer Service (For questions about your subscription or to place an order or change an address.) [email protected] Toll Free: (800) 733-3809 Fax: (402) 479-2193 Computer Power User P.O. Box 82667 Lincoln, NE 68501-2667 E DITOR’ S N OTE Hours Mon. - Fri.: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (CST) Sat.: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (CST) Online Customer Service & Subscription Center ast month we took an up-close look at AMD’s new Socket AM2 plat- http://www.cpumag.com form, which is laying the groundwork for some very big things to come. Web Services L Exciting stuff to be sure, but seeing as how AMD has been the perfor- (For questions about our Web site.) mance leader in the high-end desktop market for several years now, we’re not as [email protected] blown away by great new AMD tech as we are by this month’s spotlight sub- (800) 733-3809 ject: Intel’s Conroe CPUs. Authorization For Reprints Reprint Management Services Officially dubbed the Core 2 family of processors, these chips represent more Toll Free: (800) 290-5460 than just faster new CPUs; they are a tangible reassertion of Intel as a techno- (717) 399-1900 ext. 100 logical force to be reckoned with. People who have been following this industry Fax: (717) 399-8900 [email protected] for more than a couple of years remember when Intel was the de facto choice www.reprintbuyer.com for high-performance procs; we’ve wondered for a long time just when the Editorial Staff company would flex the muscle of its multi- [email protected] billion-dollar R&D budget and do Fax: (402) 479-2104 131 W. Grand Drive what it seems now to have done. Lincoln, NE 68521 Intel’s top dog, the Core 2 Subscription Renewals Extreme X6800, is a monster, but (800) 382-4552 consider this line from Anand’s col- Fax: (402) 479-2193 http://www.cpumag.com umn on page 28: “. the truly impressive part of Intel’s Core 2 Advertising Staff Toll Free: (800) 848-1478 lineup isn’t at the very high end, but Fax: (402) 479-2193 rather the 2.4GHz E6600. The 120 W. Harvest Dr. Lincoln, NE 68521 E6600 is faster than AMD’s flagship Athlon 64 FX-62, and at just $316 The Gang costs less than 1/3 as much.” Editorial Staff: Ronald D. Kobler / Christopher Trumble / Blaine Flamig / Trista Kunce / Corey Russman / Rod Scher / Calvin Wow. Clinchard / Katie Sommer / Kimberly Fitzke / Katie Dolan / Of course, we hardly expect Raejean Brooks / Sally Curran / Michael Sweet / Nate Hoppe / AMD to step quietly aside and Sheila Allen / Joy Martin / Linne Ourada / Ashley Finter / Holly Zach / Tara Simmons / Barbara Ball / Leah Houchin / Sarah let Intel bask in the glow of this Gabelman / Marty Sems / Chad Denton / Kylee Dickey / Josh achievement; AMD will be Gulick / Andrew Leibman / Vince Cogley / Sam Evans / Jennifer back, and we can’t wait to see Johnson / Nathan Lake Web Staff: Dorene Krausnick / Laura Curry / Kristen Miller Customer Service: Lindsay Albers what it has in store for us. For Subscription Renewals: Connie Beatty / Matt Bolling / Patrick now, though, enjoy our Core 2 Kean / Charmaine Vondra / Miden Ebert / Kathy DeCoito / coverage in this month’s Spotlight Stephanie Contreras / Nicole Buckendahl Art & Design: Lesa Call / Aaron D. Clark / Fred Schneider / Aaron Weston / Carrie section, starting on page 48, and be Benes / Ginger Falldorf / Sonja Warner / Lori Garris / Jason Codr sure to check out our usual lineup of / Andria Schultz / Erin Rodriguez / Lindsay Anker Advertising columns, reviews, and interviews, as Sales: Grant Ossenkop / Liz Kohout / Eric Cobb / Ryan Donohue / Bob Chester Marketing: Mark Peery / Marcy Gunn well. Have a great September; we’ll see / Kelly Richardson / Travis Brock / Jen Clausen / Scot Banks / you next month. Ashley Hannant / Lana Matic / Jeff Ashelford / Brynn Burtwistle Chris Trumble, Publication Editor, CPU Gotcha. Here it is. What’s Happening • Hardware Compiled by Steve Smith We’ll be sorely disappointed if Sony’s Wall Socket vs. Wi-Fi: ultra-packed, ultra-mobile wunderkind doesn’t show up somewhere in the 200Mbps & Counting next James Bond film. Before investing in that Pre-N Wi-Fi equipment, home networkers might consider just plugging their laptop network connectors into the wall socket. The new generation of powerline adapters push high-speed data via existing home electrical systems at a promised 200Mbps. Just plug one Netgear Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter ($129) into your router and wall socket to send a high-speed signal throughout your home grid. A second adapter plugs into any wall socket and sends the stream into any Ethernet device, whether a laptop, game console, or home media server. Netgear claims the latest iterations are 12 times faster than previous powerline techniques, and if they are any more reliable and consistent than some of the Pre-N Wi-Fi rigs we have been trying, then we’re willing to have a go. ▲ Sony’s Ultimate Micro Ever laugh at a spec sheet? Sony’s newly released VAIO UX180P ultra-mobile PC ($1,799) is redefin- ing miniaturized excess. The 1.2-pound, 6-inch wide XP Pro PC runs a 1.2GHz Intel Core Solo CPU (533MHz FSB) with 512MB DDR2 memory and a 4,200rpm 30GB hard drive. There’s a 4.5-inch SVGA LCD above and a pop-down 64-key QWERTY pad below. Not bad for a paperback- sized PC, huh? But that’s only the beginning; the unit packs two 1.3MP digital cameras and has both 802.11a/b/g and Cingular WAN connectivity. Oh, and Bluetooth, too. And like any VAIO, the 180P is fully video and MP3 playback-capable and is bundled to the teeth with multimedia software.