01> 0 74470 81182 4 ® Janurary 2008 • Vol 8 Issue 01 Frontside 6 What’s Happening 14 Digital Economy 16 The Saint Whoa The Experts Alex St. John The Saint Page 16 Spotlight Alex “Sharky” Ross The Shark Tank Page 36 Anand Lal Shimpi Anand’s Corner Page 35 56 The Great (CPU) Debate Penryn & Phenom Make Their Pitches 58 Phenom Explained AMD Tries To Reclaim The High End Barry Brenesal 62 The Power Of Penryn The Cutting Edge The Details Of Intel’s New Core 2 On The Block Page 95 Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda 66 Multicore Slugfest Mike Magee The Department A Challenger Rises, But Can It Unseat The Incumbent? Shavings From Of Stuff The Rumour Mill Page 87 70 DDR3 Dash Page 100 Five Bandwidth-Busting Kits Strut Their Stuff Rahul Sood Wagging The Dog Copyright 2008 by Sandhills Publishing Company. Computer Power User is a trademark of Sandhills Publishing Page 101 Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in Computer Power Useris strictly prohibited without written permission. Printed in the U.S.A. GST # 123482788RT0001 (ISSN 1536-7568) CPU Computer Pete Loshin Power UserUSPS 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 83 Lincoln, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Computer Power User, P.O. Box 82667, Lincoln, NE 68501. Page 82 Did you find the hidden CPUlogo on our cover? Turn the page for the answer. Page 22 Hard Hat Area PC Modder 38 Tips & Tutorials Heavy Gear 40 Uncommon Liquid-Cooling Mods Go Beyond Your CPU & GPU 17 Dream Hardware 44 Mad Reader Mod Page 91 Biomechanical 18 Surround-Sound Headphone Brawl 46 Advanced Q&A Corner Home-Theater Systems That Fit 50 X-Ray Vision On Your Head Idemix: Keeping Your Personal Information To Yourself 24 Beyond Dual Displays 52 White Paper Desktop As Far As The Eye Can See Technology Super Bowl: Football Concussions vs. 26 Palm Centro Simbex’s HIT System XFX GeForce 8600 GT Fatal1ty Loading Zone 28 StarTech.com WiFi Detector Tips & Tricks Sling Media Slingbox SOLO 74 The Bleeding Edge Of Software Inside The World Of Betas 96 Software Tips & Projects 29 Asus P5E3 Deluxe & Gigabyte 76 Up To Speed Moving Pictures GA-X38-DQ6 Upgrades That’ll Keep You 98 Warm Up To Penguins A Pair Of X38 Boards Duke It Out Humming Along The Down & Dirty Details Of Linux 77 Spy vs. Spy Network Configuration, Part III 30 Asus Eee PC 701 4G When It Comes To Antispyware, What’s Cooking The More, The Merrier 32 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB 80 Advanced Directory Comparison and 100 Shavings From The Rumour Mill Synchronization (ADCS) 1.21 Time To Take The New PC Plunge 33 Ridata 1.8” IDE Solid State Disk SmoothWall Express 3.0 101 Wagging The Dog AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition 81 Norton AntiVirus 2008 Where’s The Soul? Norton Internet Security 2008 103 Technically Speaking 35 Anand’s Corner 82 Dialogue Box An Interview With Brad Wardell, Kitty Musings: Leopard How I Learned To Live With A Leopard CEO Of Stardock Systems 83 Open Sauce 106 Under Development 36 The Shark Tank OpenID: What It Is & Why It Matters A Peek At What’s Brewing Nvidia’s Impressive GeForce 8800 GT In The Laboratory Caught In The Web Back Door 84 The Web’s Deep Treasures Exposing The “Invisible Internet” 108 Q&A With Gary Elsasser 87 The Department Of Stuff Gateway Senior Veep On Innovation, badapps.txt Gateway One & The Future Of PC Cases Digital Living 88 Road Warrior Palm Centro, Garmin Mobile XT, Infinite Loops Blaupunkt Goes High-Tech & More 90 At Your Leisure Strange stats and other oddball Games, Gear, Movies & Music items from computing's periphery Page 24 95 The Cutting Edge The Floppy Disk 85, 97, 99 CCuussttoommeerr SSeerrvviiccee (For questions about your subscription or to place an order or change an address.) [email protected] E D I T O R ’ S N O T E Toll Free:(800) 733-3809 Fax: (402) 479-2193 CCoommppuutteerr PPoowweerr UUsseerr T he next big chip offerings from AMD and Intel are finally here, and P.O. Box 82667 Lincoln, NE 68501-2667 we couldn’t be happier; head to page 56 to see how they run. We also HHoouurrss have a number of interesting product reviews for you this month, in- Mon. - Fri.: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (CST) cluding our official take on AMD’s 5000+ Black Edition (p.33) and a look at Sat.: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (CST) Online Customer Service & Subscription Center Sling Media’s SOLO, the latest member of the Slingbox family (p.28). www.cpumag.com The SOLO, like all of Sling’s products, is very cool, and I like the fact WWeebb SSeerrvviicceess that it goes beyond giving you real-time access to your cable or satellite pro- (For questions about our Web site.) gramming and lets you play stuff from your DVR or DVD player. If you’re [email protected] like me, though, a more compelling gadget is one that lets you take your PC (800) 733-3809 and the stuff on itwith you wherever you go. There are a few ways to skin AAuutthhoorriizzaattiioonn FFoorr RReepprriinnttss Toll Free: (800) 247-4880 this cat, as you well know, but I got to thinking about this and decided to Fax: (402) 479-2193 try one I haven’t looked into for a while. EEddiittoorriiaall SSttaaffff Have you seen these little portable, external drives that come with pseudo- [email protected] VM software? Hockey-puck-sized USB/FireWire hard drives are cool enough Fax: (402) 479-2104 131 W. Grand Drive as it is, but some of these little gems let you install your favorite software to Lincoln, NE 68521 them and then use it on any Windows PC you plug them into. The idea is SSuubbssccrriippttiioonn RReenneewwaallss that you can take yourDesktop, with all your apps and configs intact, with (800) 382-4552 you wherever you go in a pocket-sized drive and use it without futzing with Fax: (402) 479-2193 lengthy installs or worrying about leaving sensitive data behind on computers www.cpumag.com you borrow or just find lying about. AAddvveerrttiissiinngg SSttaaffff Toll Free:(800) 848-1478 I contacted the folks at Seagate, who were kind enough to loan me a Free- Fax: (402) 479-2193 Agent Go so I could kick the tires. (There are few better jobs for a gadget hound 120 W. Harvest Dr. than mine.) I’m impressed; the FreeAgent Go and its attendant software work as Lincoln, NE 68521 advertised. Just plug it into your PC and install your stuff, then unplug it and TThhee GGaanngg go. It requires two USB 2.0 ports (one for data and one for data and power), but EEddiittoorriiaall SSttaaffff::Ronald D. Kobler / Christopher Trumble / aside from that you are free to roam. Portable vir- Michael Sweet / Vince Cogley / Corey Russman / Calvin Clinchard / Katie Sommer / Katie Dolan / Raejean Brooks / tualization is hardly a new concept, of course, Nate Hoppe / Sheila Allen / Joy Martin / Linné Ourada / but my FreeAgent loaner is a 160GB drive, so Tara Simmons / Ashley Kumpula / Leah Houchin / Patrick Kean / you’re talking about more than simply carrying Heather Hoffart / Marty Sems / Blaine Flamig / Kylee Dickey / Josh Gulick / Andrew Leibman / Jennifer Johnson / Nathan Lake / a browser and an email client around with you. Tessa Breneman / Seth Colaner / Lindsy Mercer / Chris Dunker For most people, a 160GB drive is more than WWeebb SSttaaffff:: Laura Curry / Kristen Miller / Jessie Danekas sufficient to carry around a full PC install, minus SSuubbssccrriippttiioonn RReenneewwaallss:: Connie Beatty / Charmaine Vondra / Linda Miner / Miden Ebert / Kathy DeCoito / hefty media file archives and such. Stephanie Contreras When you are done and you unplug the AArrtt && DDeessiiggnn:: Lesa Call / Aaron D. Clark / Fred Schneider / drive, the only traces it leaves behind are Carrie Benes / Ginger Falldorf / Sonja Warner / Andrew Arkwright / Lori Garris / Jason Codr / Andria Cogley / a Registry key or two for apps you used. Lindsay Anker / Amber Edwards No data files, no passwords, nothing. I MMaarrkkeettiinngg:: Mark Peery / Kelly Richardson / would imagine such a device would be Chad Hanthorn / Scot Banks / Lindsay Albers / Jeff Ashelford / Thomas Trumble / Holly Hopkins / Jacqelle Lane / indispensable for a World of Warcraft Brittany Gallagher / Katie Shanahan / Jaime Link / Carrie Schardt / degenerate who doesn’t want to cross his Cole Bulas / Thippy Nguyen / Matt Engler / Tori Nelson company’s IT staff by installing the game BBuussiinneessss DDeevveellooppmmeenntt:: Bob Chester AAddvveerrttiissiinngg SSaalleess:: Susan Miller / Matt Bolling / Marcy Kremer / on a corporate laptop when traveling— Julie Lausterer / Eric Cobb / Jen Clausen / although of course I can’t say for sure. David Bartholomai / Matt Johns / Andrew Kelly / Johanna Bohrer / Jon Sims / Jeff Kassmeier Chris Trumble, Publication Editor, CPU Gotcha. Here it is. W h a t ’ s H a p p e n i n g (cid:127) H a r d w a r e Compiled by Blaine Flamig Sony Packs Its Photos In A candy bar seemingly costs more than a giga- byte of storage these days. Maybe that was the reasoning behind Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-T2. Although the 8MP DSC-T2 has a slot for Mem- ory Stick Duo cards, it’s hard to imagine anyone needing it, considering the T2 has 4GB of inter- nal closet space—enough to store about 1,000 shots at 8MP each or about 40,000 VGA images. And if for some reason you keep 40,000 shots around, Sony built in an internal photo album to organize and view them on the DSC-T2’s screen. Look for the camera in December for about $350. ▲ Forget About Whistling While You Work . . . Walking is where it’s at these days. Dr. James Levin of the Mayo Clinic spent years studying the relationship between our daily activities and the energy we expend doing them. His research led him to joining manufacturer Steelcase to design and recently release the WalkStation: part workstation, part treadmill. The idea is to get you off your duff to stroll along at 3mph max while you’re analyzing that net- work bottle- neck. Levin seems to believe his enthusiasm for the WalkStation will be addictive. “I think it’s the next iPod. Everybody is going to want one,” he stated. Look for the WalkStation via Steelcase’s Details ($4,000 to $6,500; www.details-worktools.com) division. ▲ 6 January2008 /www.computerpoweruser.com What’s Happening (cid:127) Hardware SanDisk Takes Over The TV Few companies get more mileage out of the USB port than SanDisk flash drives, MP3 players, card readers, you name it. Now, SanDisk is taking USB to the TV with its TakeTV. The package includes a recorder component with USB connector, cradle with S-Video or composite ports, and remote. Connect the recorder to your PC; drag and drop MPEG- 4, DivX, or xVid files to it; stick the recorder in the TV-connected cradle; and you’re watching 720 x 576 max video. Networks need not apply. SanDisk also recently launched the Fanfare BETA video download service. Downloads were free to $1.99 at press time with mostly CBS and Showtime content available. 8GB ($149.99; 10 hours video) and 4GB ($99.99; five hours) TakeTVs are available. ▲ HH aa rr dd ww aa rr ee MM oo ll ee Governors Go Green Give it up to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. The state leaders announced in early November intentions to buy only computers for gov- ernmental offices that meet Energy Star ratings and have more efficient power supplies. Minnesota buys roughly 4,000 computers a year, while Kansas buys 4,500 to 5,000. The governors also declared their states will work to better use sleep and hibernate modes in older PCs in an effort to reduce energy consumption. Pawlenty went so far as to say he hopes his state can cut computer-related power con- sumption by 50% in four years. “The cleanest and cheapest energy is the energy we don’t use,” he said. “If all states adopt these approaches, the combined impact would be very substantial.” ▲ Long Live The PC HD DVD Pricing Sinks To A New Low According to recent numbers from IDC and Gartner, Even before Thanksgiving had passed, Wal-Mart was sprinkling on the PC is doing just fine, thank you. Bolstered in the Christmas spirit by dropping the price on Toshiba’s HD DVD large part by portable PC sales, IDC cited 66.9 mil- HD-A2 player from nearly $200 to $98. Best Buy soon followed lion global shipments of PCs for Q3, nearly 9 million suit, reportedly selling its HD- over the same period last year. Gartner cited ship- A2 supply out in a jiffy. Wal- ments of 68.5 million, up from 59.8 million over Q3 Mart’s “special” one-day HD- 2006. Data from the analyst firms also puts HP A2 sale was widely viewed as (19.6%, IDC; 18.8%, Gartner) still above Dell an effort to empty inventory (15.2% IDC; 14.4% Gartner) as the leader among before Black Friday to make room for the newer and more expen- manufacturers, although Dell is still the leader in U.S. sive HD-A3, which should carry a still-friendly sub-$200 price. At sales. Bringing up the global pack are Lenovo, Acer, the least, the moves paid off for Toshiba, which reportedly sold about 90,000 players in one weekend. ▲ and Toshiba. ▲ CPU/January2008 7 W h a t ’ s H a p p e n i n g (cid:127) C h i p W a t c h Compiled by Dean Takahashi DS2 Introduces 400Mbps Data Transfer Over Electrical Wires Home networks will soon be able to transfer data at a rate of 400Mbps over the electrical wires of a home, according to DS2, a chip maker based in Valencia, Spain. The company says that its next-generation technology will be double the speed of its cur- rent 200Mbps power line chips, which use signal processing technology to send Internet data over electrical wiring. That speed will be enough to enable new high-definition multimedia applications, such as multiple- channel delivery of HD-IPTV signals from one room in a house to another. Other applications include networked digital video recorders and the ability to transfer five video streams at the same time over a single electrical wire. The company did not say exactly when it will deliver the chips, but it has demonstrations of the technology working. The Diffusion Group estimates that home networks will need to transfer at least three HDTV and two SDTV video streams inside Samsung Unveils the home as early as 2009. ▲ First 30nm Flash Memory Chips Atheros Makes Very Low-Power Wi-Fi Chips To Enable Smallest Devices Don’t worry about whether the iPods of the future will have Power consumption has been one of the big hold-ups for putting Wi- enough storage to keep up with Fi wireless networking into a wide range of mobile devices. But Ath- your mobile entertainment eros Communications hopes to change that with its new Atheros needs. Samsung said it has fabri- AR6002 family of Wi-Fi chips. Atheros says the AR6002 family uses 70% less power than the cated the world’s first 30nm best chips on the market today. The company says a device could download 200GB of data 64GB NAND flash memory before depleting a 3.7-volt battery in a gadget that uses the AR6002. That means that gadget chips. A set of 16 such chips designers may start putting Wi-Fi into more smartphones, personal media players, digital still could be used to make a 128GB cameras, gaming handhelds, and other devices. The company will ship several versions of the flash memory storage card. chips using different versions of Wi-Fi in the first quarter of 2008. ▲ That’s enough storage for 80 DVD-resolution movies or Watching The Chips Fall *Retail price 32,000 MP3 music files, the ** Manufacturer's price per 1,000 units company said. The chip de- Other current prices, if indicated, are lowest OEM prices Here is pricing information for AMD and Intel CPUs. available through Pricegrabber.com pends on manufacturing tech- CPU Released Original Last month’s Current nology that can create circuits price price price on chips with a width of just AMD Turion TL-56 1.8GHz 1MB cache 1,600MHz HyperTransport bus 5/3/2007 $184** $159 $189* 30nm. It was only seven years AMD Turion TL-60 2GHz 1MB cache 1,600MHz HyperTransport bus 5/3/2007 $220** $251 $251 AMD Turion TL-64 2.2GHz 1MB cache 1,600MHz HyperTransport bus 5/3/2007 $354** $257 $251 ago that Samsung made its first AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 5600+ AM2 only 12/12/2006 $505** $137 $139 1GB NAND chip with a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 6000+ AM2 only 2/20/2007 $464** $157 $163 AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 6400+ AM2 only 8/20/2007 $251** $209 $228 100nm manufacturing technol- AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 11/30/2006 $599/pair $364 $323 ogy. Samsung said it used a new AMD Athlon 64 FX-72 11/30/2006 $799/pair $316 $280 AMD Athlon 64 FX-74 11/30/2006 $999/pair $274 $307 process called “self-aligned dou- Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7100 1.8GHz 4MB cache 800MHz FSB 5/9/2007 $209** $214 $212 ble patterning technology,” Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7300 2GHz 4MB cache 800MHz FSB 5/9/2007 $241** $251 $249 which it called a pivotal advance Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7500 2.2GHz 4MB cache 800MHz FSB 5/9/2007 $316** $252 $339 Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7700 2.4GHz 4MB cache 800MHz FSB 5/9/2007 $530** $322 $538 beyond the charge trap flash Intel Core 2 Extreme Mobile X7800 7/16/2007 $851** $851** $851** that Samsung developed for Intel Core 2 Duo E6540 7/16/2007 $163** $256 $160 Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 7/16/2007 $163** $169 $168 NAND flash last year when it Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz 4MB cache 1,066MHz FSB 65nm 7/27/2006 $316** $204 $204 introduced a new material, sili- Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz 4MB cache 1,066MHz FSB 65nm 7/27/2006 $530** $309 $279 Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 7/16/2007 $183** $193 $216 con nitride, in the chip-making Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 7/16/2007 $266** $271 $273 process. Samsung expects to Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 2.93GHz 4MB cache 1,066MHz FSB 65nm 7/27/2006 $999** $994 $843 begin shipping the chips in Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 1/8/2007 $851** $269 $271 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 7/16/2007 $530** $534 $529 2009, and it has applied for 30 Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 11/14/2006 $999** $778 $712 patents on it. ▲ Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 7/16/2007 $999** $944 $829 Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3GHz 8MB cache 1,333MHz FSB 65nm 7/16/2007 $999** $944 $1,035 8 January2008 /www.computerpoweruser.com