[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Radeon 9000 Pro:

Them online Overclockers ( as opposed to overclockers with NO net connection ) have posted a review of the Radeon 9000 Pro.

First of all, I want to point out that the Radeon 9000 comes in two flavors: the Radeon 9000 and the Radeon 9000 PRO, which I am checking out in this review. The main difference is the clock and memory speed. The "PRO" comes with a core speed of 275MHz and a memory speed of 275MHz DDR (550MHz), whereas the plain version comes with a 250MHz core and 250MHz DDR memory (500MHz). The card has a total of 64MB DDR memory onboard, spread over eight memory chips. The memory is provided by Hynix and is rated at 3.3ns, which theoretically means the memory can run up to 303MHz. I'll get into that when we get to the overclocking section.

Get on the Fanbus:

All aboard, get on the fanbus ladies and gentleman. Well, maybe you can’t ride this bus, but they sure are hand to have if you have an assload of fans and you are trying to trim down the noise in your computer. Plus these just look cool too.

For the overclocker and case modder, fan noise is nothing new. This is the price that must be paid when one wants to obtain maximum cooling for their computer hardware. To overcome this, the fanbus/baybus was invented, to not only centralize fan wiring within the inside of a PC, but also to lower noise by allowing fans to be turned off when extra cooling was not needed. One probably doesn't need a >100CFM fan running while just listening to MP3s, and the noise from such a fan would probably detract from the musical experience. Soon, rheostats began to be used for fan control, as they were able to provide a variable resistor in the circuit that effectively was able to control fan speed, so instead of just being have on/off control, one could regulate the fan's speed with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

What The…?:

Sean McAndrew sent me this link to what sounds like something that is kept in a woman’s nightstand *cough* that requires batteries and lube….jeez…read the customer reviews. Like these

When my 12 year old daughter asked for this for her birthday, I kind of wondered if she was too old for it, but she seems to LOVE it. Her friends love it too! They play for hours in her bedroom with this great toy. They really seem to like the special effects it offers (the sound effects and vibrating). My oldest daughter (17) really likes it too! I reccomend this for all children.

ummm, yeah.