The future is now: PC on your TV

Posted by Ted Pollak on May 18th 2011 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: gaming review

Imagine being able to launch an Internet browser (any browser) on your television screen from the comfort of your couch. Imagine being able to visit social and business networking sites, write a paper or letter in a word processor, create, review, and edit spreadsheets, view and edit family photos and video, watch stored and streaming hi-def video, and perhaps most important (personal bias injected), imagine being able to play PC games from your couch. Well you can right now, and it is amazing. And it does not require one of these new “internet enabled” televisions. In fact these new iTVs look…

ARMA 2 Review: A tale of wasted FLOPS

Posted by Ted Pollak on February 10th 2011 | Permalink
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For the uninitiated, ARMA 2 is widely known amongst Enthusiast PC Gamers as one of the most system intensive and realistic games on the market. This is so because the environmental effects are dynamic, view distance can be set to 10,000 meters and is affected by light, reflection, rain, and mist. As in real life if you are walking thought the forest with the sun in front of you, the terrain can take on a shadowed nightmare as your retinas struggle with both light and darkness. Additionally there is what is known as the "the sandbox element." Sandbox games can be…

The DoubleSight Smart USB Monitor

Posted by Ted Pollak on October 28th 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: gaming usb monitor voip

With the rapid expansion of VOIP services for video games things can get confusing. Gamers talk to other players within the game via the in-game voice system, which gives an on screen graphical display of who is yapping. However many gamers also communicate outside of the in-game voice system via Teamspeak, Ventrilo, or other VOIP applications. It’s really a testament to the brain training and multi-tasking elements of modern video games when gamers not only have to manage multiple voice channels but also determine who is speaking, which channels they are in, and whether they have muted certain channels. My Logitech…

Flying with the Blackbird

Posted by Ted Pollak on May 19th 2008 | Permalink
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The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. HP’s top of the line gaming computer, the Blackbird 002 LCi, is named after the king of all airplanes, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Although the airplane is a much higher achievement for mankind, I think the comparison is appropriate because HP and Voodoo took great care and spared no expense with the BB002 design and it is considered by many to be the pinnacle of high-end personal computing.The accompanying table compares the two machines and summarizes some of the critical elements of their construction and performance. Because benchmarking an entire system is such a relative science, and…

The ThinkPad X61 by Lenovo

Posted by Ted Pollak on April 7th 2008 | Permalink
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History and Design The Lenovo Thinkpad X61 WAN Edition (Source: Lenovo) The TrackPoint and cap selection. (Source: Lenovo) Before and After: The X61 is so small it fits in a day planner. (Source: Jon Peddie Research) The ThinkPad brand has a lot of history behind it, having been first introduced in 1992 by IBM and is recently celebrating its 15th anniversary under its new caretaker Lenovo Corporation, who purchased it from IBM in 2005. Its design inspired by a Japanese lunchbox, the first ThinkPad (Model 700) came with a 25 MHz 486 processor, 120 MB hard drive, weighed 6.5 lbs, and…

The Logitech G25 Driving System

Posted by Ted Pollak on February 11th 2008 | Permalink
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The Logitech G25 Racing System (Source: Logitech) In a previous review we tested the Thrustmaster Rally GT Force Feedback Pro and it was an excellent performer for its price. With an enthusiast's amount of use almost any force feedback racing wheel will eventually fail in some way, and the Thrustmaster eventually lost the use of one of the paddle shifters. Still, based on the amount of abuse it took we will reiterate a big “thumbs up” for the Thrustmaster. The next step up in quality from the Rally GT Force Feedback Pro is the Logitech G25. The G25 is a more…

The BMW 320 e21 Mod for rFactor

Posted by Ted Pollak on February 11th 2008 | Permalink
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Before computer managed engines, drive by wire controls, paddle shifters, and anti-lock braking systems, there was a time when racing was more raw and perhaps more authentic. In the late 1970's and early 1980's the BMW 320 E21 racing class was probably one of the final breeds in the era of non-wired motor sports. Known as the “flying brick” because of its boxy design this Beemer was powered by a Formula 2 engine tuned up to about 300 horsepower. A mod maker know by the programming handle dmatzies has re-created this racing class in Image Space Incorporated's sim racing title rFactor…

Edge Acoustics GX400 Competition Grade Gaming Headset

Posted by Ted Pollak on January 28th 2008 | Permalink
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The new headphones that have surfaced over the past few years with seemingly unrealistic high prices always seem a little suspicious. How can those things pack high fidelity with quality bass response into such tiny drivers? As it turns out, the answer partly lies with something that is quite simple, but not so easy to grasp even when trying out the technology first hand. In fact at first try, this reviewer took them off in disgust at the seemingly sub-par acoustic quality—until reading bold typed advice card labeled IMPORTANT. What’s important with these little guys is sound pressure, and good sound…

The art of mousing

Posted by Ted Pollak on August 6th 2007 | Permalink
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To all our feline readers: sorry this article isn’t about rodent apprehension techniques—it’s about a company whose products are devoted to making computer mouse use a better experience. This can range from better mouse control for everyday tasks to life and death virtual performance for professional or recreational PC gamers. Christopher Kahl, CEO of XTracPads, has some of the best mouse enhancing products in the world. He started his company in 1999 in response to his disappointment with the puny mouse pads that were available at the time. Kahl started making pads for friends and fellow gamers and produced his first…

Virtual airlines

Posted by Ted Pollak on August 6th 2007 | Permalink
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Tray tables up and buckles fastened, folks—thanks for flying as an imaginary passenger in a virtual airplane! A blogmate of mine is a big flight sim fan, but when he posted a video of himself piloting a large commercial jet from the cockpit (Figure 1) I almost fell asleep—that is until the radio crackled to life and a human air traffic controller (ATC) vectored him for an approach to Dulles Airport in Washington, DC. People are using Microsoft Flight Simulator in its various iterations on multiplayer servers where, according to Eric Matteson, head of Microsoft Flight Simulations multiplayer division, the record…

Cool down, Dude

Posted by Ted Pollak on July 16th 2007 | Permalink
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Taming noise problems and cooling. Thermaltake’s Max Orb, CoreTemp by Arthur Liberman It all started with a terrible buzzing coming from a fan in my computer during heavy game play; I couldn’t take it—it was similar to what a mosquito must experience from those ultra sonic repellant devices. I assumed that my twin ATI X1950XTX’s were running on a fixed fan speed so I concluded that the sound must be coming from my CPU cooler. Well I was wrong on both counts; but learned a little about heat and performance along the way. I first set a benchmark for the cooler…

rFactor encore

Posted by Ted Pollak on February 26th 2007 | Permalink
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Since downloading the top mods for the previously reviewed “rFactor” I find it necessary to continue. Fantastic is the only word that comes to mind. The mod community for this game is so strong that many of the top downloads register in the hundreds of megabytes, with thousands of hours being devoted to their creation. People all over the world contribute to this game—often modeling their local tracks from actual gps and elevation data. From the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Brazil to lesser known tracks like Cadwell Park in England and Kyalami in South Africa, they have built them all,…

So you wannabe a race car driver?

Posted by Ted Pollak on January 8th 2007 | Permalink
Categories: Software Review
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  Figure 1. Nick Heidfeld, Team BMW; and Ted Pollak. Team JPR. Formula One Grand Prix (F1) is the king of racing. It’s not necessarily the most competitive, but indeed it is the king. F1 hosts the fastest “turning” cars known to man. Unlike their open-wheeled Indy brethren, they are not mandated to use the exact same engine (currently Honda), and unlike the perplexingly popular NASCAR vehicles, they can turn sharply at speed … both ways, and do it in the rain. This is no slight against other race classes. Indy/CART is more competitive with multiple lead changes and, because of…