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; j* J 1.1' VI*. . t , l*r . ; Set ■» •* JG Proudly Presents, Thx fdr ersonal. tmputer l r« Mm m CD-ROM EDITION TECHNOLOGY, TESTED! www.pcw.co.uk Why it's worth /A waiting for TALK MORE How to use a broadband connection to save money on your phone bill Over 30 services compared includina Skype Freetak & Tesco and Yahoo

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  BUSINESS SECTION 10 pages of features & reviews for small businesses It s easy, [heap and great fun! 770142 0231 06 F YOUR COVER D SC S M SS NG PLEASE ASK YOUR NEWSAGENT Offer ends 3rd May 2006 Dell got to number one Dell recommends Windows® XP Professional. M|| Shops We sell direct and save you money. Dell doesn't sell in shops, so we cut out the mid¬ dleman and pass sav¬ ings onto you. Compromises Our rigorous testing ensures you'll get a system that you can rely on. M|| Inventory ’ Every PC is built to order using the latest components. So you get the latest technology. Contest Compare our specs and prices with those in the high street. You'll find Dell offers fantastic value for money. Wonder Dell is the world's number one PC manufacturer*.

  IDC Q4 2005 results NO NO Dell™ Dimension™ 3100 • Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 630 with HT Technology [3GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB] • Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition • 512MB DDB2 BAM [Was 256MB] • 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive [7200 BPM] • Dell 17" Flat Panel Monitor [17.0" v.i.s] • Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator 900 • 16x DVD-BOM • 1 Year Collect and Beturn Service • Microsoft® Works 7.0 • Digital Music e-Learning Lite Pack FREE £349 £470 E-VALUE Code: PPUK-D04312 Further enhancements • 3 Year Basic Services Package £99 incl. VAT • Microsoft® Office Small Business Edition 2003 £212 incl. VAT • 160GB [7200 RPM] Serial ATA Hard Drive £35 incl. VAT Dell Inspiron™ 630M • Intel® Centrino® Mobile Technology with Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 [1 ,73GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB] • Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition • 512MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM [Was 256MB] • 40GB Hard Drive • 14.1" Wide XGA screen • Intel® GMA 900 shared graphics memory up to 128MB • Integrated 24xCD-RW/8xDVD Combo Drive • 56K Data Fax Modem with Superfast up to 8 Meg Wanadoo Broadband from £14.99 a month1 • Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 802.1 1 b/g MiniPCI wireless LAN FREE £399 £529 D0UBLE Excl. VAT, Shipping and Handling Incl. VAT, Shipping and Handling MEMORY E-VALUE Code: PPUK-N04631 Further enhancements • 3 Year Basic Services Package £153 incl. VAT • Belkin® 6 Socket Surge Protector3 £17 incl. VAT • Upgrade to 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM [Memory] £129 incl. VAT Accessories3 Dell 3400MP Micro-portable projector The 3400MP projector features 1500 lumens [max]2 brightness, 2100:1 contrast ratio, native XGA resolution and weighs only 1.09Kg. •£825” -£975” £705 £829 Excl. VAT. Incl. VAT. 3 Year Next Business Day Exchange £199 Incl. VAT Dell™ Axim ™ X51-520MHz with WiFi and Bluetooth® Intel® Xscale® 520MHz Processor. Microsoft® Windows® Mobile® 5.0. Brilliant 3.5" QVGA screen. 128MB Intel® strataflash BOM. Integrated Wifi and Bluetooth. £209- £24 fT £178 £210 Excl. VAT. Incl. VAT. 2 Year Next Business Day Exchange £44 Incl. VAT compromises... Dell recommends Windows® XP Professional. Our rigorous testing ensures Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 650 with HT Technology [3.40GHz, 2MB Cache, 800MHz FSB] Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition 1024MB DDB2 [Was 512MB] 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive [7200 BPM] Dell 15" UltraSharp™ Digital High Quality Flat Panel • Integrated Intel® Pro 10/100 NIC • 256MB PCI Express™ ATi® Radeon™ X600 HyperMemory™ • 16x DVD+/-RW Drive2 • 1 Year Collect and Return Service • Dell Enhanced Multimedia Wireless Keyboard and Mouse £599 £764 Excl. VAT, Shipping and Handling Incl. VAT, Shipping and Handling E-VALUE Code: PPUK-D04512 Further enhancements • 3 Year Basic Services Package £141 incl. VAT • Microsoft® Office Small Business Edition 2003 £212 incl. VAT • Genuine Windows® XP Professional £59 incl. VAT FREE DOUBLE MEMORY DelTDimension 9150 • Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 640 with HT Technology [3.20GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB] • Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition • 2048MB DDR2 [Was 1024MB] • 500GB Serial ATA RAID 0 Stripe [2*250GB 7200RPM] Hard Drive • Dell 19" Flat Panel Monitor • 256MB PCI Express™ nVidia® GeForce™ 6800 • 16x DVD+/-RW Drive2 • Media Card Reader Flash 13-in-1 • Dell Enhanced Multimedia Wireless Keyboard and Mouse £799 £999 Excl. VAT, Shipping and Handling Incl. VAT, Shipping and Handling E-VALUE Code: PPUK-D04912 Further enhancements • 3 Year Standard Service Package £188 incl. VAT • Microsoft® Office Basic Edition 2003 £106 incl. VAT • Kensington® Slim Microsaver Lock3 £25 incl. VAT FREE DOUBLE MEMORY Dell Dimension 5150C • Intel® Pentium® D Processor 830 [3GHz, 2x1 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB] • Genuine Windows® XP Professional • 1024MB DDR2 [Was 512MB] • 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive [7200 RPM] • Dell 19" Flat Panel Monitor • Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics • 8 x DVD +/-RW Drive2 • 1 Year Collect and Return Service • Microsoft® Works 7.0 • Dell Enhanced Multimedia Wireless Keyboard and Mouse £764 Incl. VAT, Shipping and Handling E-VALUE Code: PPUK-D045C1 Further enhancements • 3 Year Basic Service Package £141 incl. VAT • Microsoft® Office Basic Edition 2003 £106 incl. VAT • Dell All-in-One Photo Printer 9643 £130 incl. VAT FREE DOUBLE MEMORY ...AND MORE3 Dell 1100MP Micro-Portable Projector Incredible value that enables you to perfectly watch presentations on a large screen. We are offering a 20% discount on the Projector, a 1500mm Nobo screen and a Speaker set. £469 £551 ¥§«•' 2 Year Next Business Day Exchange £94 Incl. VAT Dell Laser Printer 1100 The Dell Laser Printer 1100 delivers crisp, sharp documents from a fast, small and lightweight laser printer. Perfect for your home or small office needs. £69" £8T £55 £65 Excl. VAT. Incl. VAT. 2 Year Next Business Day Exchange £35 Incl. VAT Dell Photo All-in-One Printer 964. Enjoy printing, scanning, standalone faxing and copying plus photo features with the Dell Photo All-in-One Printer 964. Excellent quality at an affordable price. £110 £130 Excl. VAT. Incl. VAT. ~ 2 Year Next Business Day Exchange £45 Incl. VAT Kensington® Notebook Dock Connects to desktop accesssories through USB port. Provides 5.stereo, parallel, serial ports and 3 USB 2.0 ports. Made for Inspiron Latitude XI and 110L. Optional Notebook stand also available. £59 £70 Excl. VAT. Incl. VAT. Dell Belkin® ADSL Modem with Wireless 802.1 1g Router The Belkin® ADSL Modem with Wireless 802.1 1 g Router allows you to connect to ADSL Internet £59 £70 Excl. VAT. Incl. VAT. Kensington® PilotMouse Mini Wireless Maximum user comfort with programmable buttons, a scroll wheel, integrated rubber grips and DiamondEye™ optical technology allowing tracking on virtually any surface with 800dpi. £25 £30 Excl. VAT. Incl. VAT. 0% Finance Available, Call for Details! Offer ends 3rd May 2006 Delrinspiron 1300 • Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 [1 ,50GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 400MHz FSB] • Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition • 256MB 533MHz DDR SDRAM • 40GB Hard Drive • 15.4" Widescreen WXGA [1280x800] • Integrated Direct AGP Graphics • Integrated 8x DVD-R0M/24x CDRW Combo Drive2 • 56K Data Fax Modem with Superfast up to 8 Meg Wanadoo Broadband from £14.99 a month1 • 90 Day Collect and Return Service6 • Dell Wireless 1370 802.1 1 b/g MiniPCI Wireless Card • Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology with Intel® Core™Duo Processor T2300 [1 ,66GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB] • Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition • 512MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM [Was 256MB] • 40GB Serial ATA Hard Drive [5400 RPM] • Intel® GMA 950 shared graphics memory up to 128MB • Integrated 8xDVD+/- RW Drive2 • 56K Data Fax Modem with Superfast up to 8 Meg Wanadoo Broadband from £14.99 a month1 • Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 802.1 1 b/g MiniPCI wireless LAN card • Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology with Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2300 [1 ,66GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB] • Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition • 512MB 677MHz DDR2 SDRAM [Was 256MB] • 60GB Serial ATA Hard Drive [5400 RPM] • Intel® GMA 950 shared graphics memory up to 128MB • Integrated 8xDVD+/- RW Drive2 • 56K Data Fax Modem with Superfast up to 8 Meg Wanadoo Broadband from £14.99 a month1 • Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 802.11 b/g MiniPCI wireless LAN card £279 £338 Excl. VAT, Shipping and Handling Incl. VAT, Shipping and Handling E-VALUE Code: PPUK-N04131 Further enhancements • 3 Year Basic Services Package £94 incl. VAT • 2nd 8 Cell High Capacity Lithium-Ion Battery3 £57 incl. VAT • Dell Deluxe Nylon Carry Case3 £36 incl. VAT FREE DOUBLE MEMORY £499 £646 FREE DOUBLE MEMORY E-VALUE Code: PPUK-N04641 Further enhancements • 3 Year Basic Services Package £176 incl. VAT • Microsoft® Office Small Business Edition 2003 £212 incl. VAT • Dell Leather Carry Case3 £47 incl. VAT £699 £881 Excl. VAT, Shipping and Handling Incl. VAT, Shipping and Handling E-VALUE Code: PPUK-N04941 Further enhancements • 3 Year Basic Services Package £200 incl. VAT • Microsoft® Office Small Business Edition 2003 £212 incl. VAT • Targus® Campus Backpack3 £27 incl. VAT FREE DOUBLE MEMORY Dell Monitor 1907FP This 19" LCD Monitor incorporates many advanced features for great performance and ease of use. .£279 £328" £223 £263 Excl. VAT. Incl. VAT. Dell Monitor E196FP 1 9" Active matrix - TFT LCD, 1 280 x 1 024 resolution, 300 cd/m2 brightness 8ms response time, VGA Analogue input. 3 Year Warranty .£219 £258" £165 £194 Excl. VAT. Incl. VAT. Dell PC Services Dimension™ / Inspiron™ Recommended Upgrades 3 Year Basic Service Package Protect against the cost of repairs and get your system up and running faster. Includes: • Access to our award winning technical support hotline • 3 years of parts cover • If necessary after phone based trouble shooting a next business day visit from an engineer. Prices from £94 Incl. VAT System Set Up and Installation Busy? We can un-box, check and set up your system making sure it is optimally con¬ figured. We can even connect it to your net¬ work and transfer the data [up to 3GB] from the old machine. Prices from £69 Incl. VAT Please ask our Sales Team to advise you. Dell Products, c/o P0 Box 69, Milbanke House, Western Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1 RD. Terms and Conditions of Sales, Service and Finance apply and are available atjwww.dell.co.uk or|on request. UK Business customers only. Subject to availability, prices and specifications are correct at date of publication and may change without notice. Systems promoted above were advertised at the "was" price/specitication [excluding promoted items] listed above on dell.co.uk for a minimum of 28 days ending on 29/03/2006. Since then they may have been subjected to other price and/or specification altering promotions. One GB = 1 billion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less. Dell Dimension desktops and Inspiron notebooks include Microsoft Works 7.0 as standard unless otherwise specified. Promotional Offers apply to a maximum order size of 5 systems. Shipping and Handling charge is £49.50 Ex VAT [£60 incl. VAT] per system. ’BT line needed. Existing line rental required. Fastest download speeds up to 1 Meg, subject to availability, compatibility and survey. 12 month contract. Seeb/ww.wanadoo.co.uk/terms.|2Discs burned with DVD+/-RW and DVD+RW, or DVD+/-RW drives, where featured, may not be compatible with certain existing drives. Shipping charges range from £3 Excl. VAT [£3.53 Incl. VAT] to £13 Excl. VAT [£15.28 Incl. VAT] per item depending on order size when purchased without a system. 4Based on ANSI/NAPM IT7 .228-1997 tests [using new bulbs] of between 34-305 units in 2002-4 [dependent on model]. Average Lumens at least 90% of max Lumens. Bulb brightness degrades with use - periodic changes recommended. 5Euro Collect and Return Service is available in limited countries and places. 6Dell service offerings do not affect customer's statutory rights. ©2006 Dell Products, Dell, the Dell logo, Dimension, Inspiron, PowerEdge, PowerConn6|fyi^[P^4^0^i,|a^|t^t,trycj^!af©prSyl|S]my[[jqs[pf Dell Inc. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the trademarks or trade names of other entities used to refer to them or their products. Microsoft, MS and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Celeron, Celeronmside, Centrino, Centrino Logo, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel SpeedStep, Intel Viiv, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, Xeon and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. *0% Finance is available from Dell Financial Services [CIT Group [UK] Limited]. Credit is available only to UK body corporate and subject to status. All amounts exclude delivery and VAT. Prices shown may vary without notice. Terms and conditions and written quotations are available on request. Credit scoring used. Those not qualifying for 0% may qualify for other finance offers. How a server can help your business: A server is especially designed to enhance network performance, giving you fast access to the Internet, files and other company resources. • A server gives you the ability to run centrally managed backups, deployment and maintenance. • You can protect your business-critical data by managing and controlling network user access. • A server acts as a library, making it possible to share valuable company resources, files and hardware. • You get improved collaboration and productivity for enterprise applications by using an operating system [such as Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003]. Servers Dell" PowerEdge™ SC430 SATA • Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 521 with HT Technology [2.80GHz, 1 MB 12 Cache, 800MHz FSB [was Intel® Celeron® D Processor 2.66GHz]] • Single Processor Only . 256MB DDR2 SDRAM [max 4GB] • 80GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive • Optional Adaptec U320 SCSI controller • Embedded Gigabit NIC • 1 Year Next Business Day Service £259 CPU UPGRADE Dell PowerEdge 1800 • Two Intel® Xeon® Processors at 3GHz, 2MB L2 800MHz FSB for the price of single one • Dual Processor Support with 800MHz FSB • 512MB DDR2 SDRAM [upgradeable to 12GB] • 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive • Optional CERC SATA RAID Controller • Single embedded Gigabit NIC • 3 Year Bronze Next Business Day Support Cache, £629 FREE Second Processor Dell PowerEdge PE850 SATA • Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 521 with FIT Technology [2.80GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB] [was Intel® Celeron® D Processor 2.66GHz] • Single Processor Only . 256MB DDR2 SDRAM [Upgradeable to 8GB] • 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive • Dual embedded U320 SCSI controller^^

  • Embedded Gigabit NIC • 3 Year Bronze Next Business Day Support “ * £469 CPU UPGRADE E-VALUE Code: PPUK4-SC044301 E-VALUE Code: PPUK4-PE41801 E-VALUE Code: PPUK4-PE48501 Everything you need to print3 Dell Laser Printer 1710n This printer is ideal for home and small offices requiring fast, durable and efficient monochrome laser printing in a space-saving design. £159 £187 Excl. VAT Inch VAT Dell Colour Laser Printer 3100CN This network colour laser printer is ideal for medium sized workgroups that require affordable, high quality printing. £289 £340 Excl. VAT Incl. VAT Dell Colour Laser Printer 5100cn The Dell Colour Laser Printer 51 OOcn offers powerful mono and colour printing performance at an affordable price. Up to 35 pages per minute [ppm] in monochrome, 25 ppm in colour A4 size paper - [Actual print speeds will vary with use]. £559 £657 Excl. VAT Incl. VAT To say 'No' to second best Home PCs 0870 353 click www.dell.co.uk/deals 3045 Business PCs 0870 353 3044 Call between 8am and 8pm weekdays, 10am to 4pm Saturday. Re-inventing Value. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx Centrino^ Duo

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  Computer World Contents 81 Budget audio-sequencing Low-cost virtual studios for budding musicians tested and reviewed 91 Miniature USB TV tuners Tiny Freeview tuners that enable you to watch digital television on your laptop any time, anywhere 57 58 59 61 62 63 64 65 66 Terratec Aureon 7.1 Trendnet TEW-429UB Components Enermax Laureate EB305C Hitachi 7K100 Nvidia Geforce 7900GT Passive HFX Silent Case Kit Software Onspeed Mobile AVG Free for Linux Roxio MyDVD Premier lolo System Mechanic 6 Avanquest Ghostsurf Platinum ACDsee Pro Photo Manager Intervideo Ivideo to go Games Star Wars: Empire at War Majesco Advent Rising & Toca 3 How we test 43 Contents Hardware 44 Mesh Pegasus 7800 SLI 45 Evesham Axis Dominator 79GT Chillblast Atlantis Crossfire 48 Mesh Pegasus 7800GTX Apple Mac Mini Peripherals 49 Eizo FlexScan S2410W Sony MFM-HT205 50 Samsung SP-P300ME 53 Logitech Cordless Desktop S 530 Laser for Mac Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 54 Kodak Easyshare v570 Plextor PX-EH40L 55 Brother MFC-820CW 56 Logitech Z-5450 57 Gigabyte GC-PTV-TAF Hawking HWU54DM GROUP TESTS 69 Entertainment PCs Fast, stylish PCs that look good in a living room and also perform well have not been easy to find until recently. But if you're looking for a system to use as an entertainment centre, don't miss this group test of 10 PCs to find out if they fit the bill YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 9 Editorial 188 Reader offers 191 Competition 192 Contact us & PCW on the web 193 In the next issue 194 Flashback | INTERACTIVE 26 Letters 28 The Adviser 33 Gordon Laing - Inside information 34 Barry Fox - Straight talking 36 Guy Kewney - Kewney @ large NEWS 14 Most exciting IT month for a decade? 1 5 Vista delay opens door for Apple 16 Cebit round-up: Ultra mobile design; 32GB flash drive enables solid-state laptop; First mobile Wimax products; 1 1 n congestion fears 22 IDF round-up with processor roadmap COYER DISC 11 & 181 Five full programs Expert PDF 3 Standard, Laplink Everywhere, Turbodemo Standard 5, ACD Fotoslate 3, Healthframe Explorer Lite 1 .0.3 and loads more REGULARS 6 kww.pcw.co.uk line 2006 BUILD A ROBOT Fun, cheap and easy to do 9 USB TV TUNERS Carry a telly in your pocket

  For daily news J updates, reviews and downloads www.pcw.co.uk 110 ENTERTAINMENT PCs Fast PCs for your living room Ulk Lti JjZXiD wlrCiD ■ ft I :!■ 105 OFFICE 2007 Why it's worth waiting for FEATURES 98 Talk more, pay less You can save money using broadband to make phone calls. We give you expert advice to get you started and compare over 30 services 105 Office 2007 preview Discover why the next version of Microsoft's office suite is worth waiting for in this in-depth preview HANDS ON - Practical how-to advice 131 Contents 132 Question time Our experts help find real-world solutions to your everyday problems 136 Hardware Upgrade a PC with a larger hard disk 138 Performance Install a new hard drive in an old PC 140 Windows Inside XP .ini files; plus customising Internet Explorer's privacy settings 142 Linux/Unix Solve Ubuntu screen resolution problems 144 Digital imaging & video Improve the tonal range of your photos 110 Build a robot Explore an affordable hobby that used to be the preserve of the rich or industry labs 114 Hidden XP tools There are more functions in Windows XP than show up in the Start menu. Learn something new as we reveal some useful Windows utilities 146 Word processing The Ascii character set and the benefits of the Unicode standard 148 Spreadsheets Linking lists; plus some Shift key tricks 150 Sound Time stretching and pitch shifting with the Audio Warp tools in Cubase SX3 152 Networks Installing and configuring a mail server 155 Databases How poorly designed indexes can slow queries; and a crosstab query answered 158 Visual programming Why dynamic languages are causing a coding revolution YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support BUSINESS r i NFW 117 Contents L lit f t 118 Safety first A small-business security checklist to keep your company data safe Reviews 120 Network Box SME 250 121 Zyxel Zywall 35 UTM 123 Tandberg 420LTO 124 Buffalo Terastation Pro 125 VMware Server 126 Human Concepts Orgplus 6 D-Link DKVM-8E KVM switch 127 MYOB Accounting Plus 15 Log Me In IT Reach BUYER'S GUIDES A listing of the best products PCW has tested, helping you to make the right decision when planning a purchase 161 PCs 162 Graphics cards Notebooks 163 Motherboards Digital music players 164 Hard drives DVD drives 165 Printers & TV tuners 166 Monitors Digital cameras Routers 167 Product index ] 7 June 2006 lwww.pcw.co.uk ASUS recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional CentrinoC^ Be there, wherever ASUS Notebooks are Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology Ready!! As the leading provider of high-performance notebook computers, ASUS presents you with 5 notebook series incorporated with the latest mobile computing platform. Offering the latest dual-core processor technology, the A6J, A7J, V6J, W5F and W2J provide increased computing performance for multitasking with longer battery supply by better power management. Wireless TV Broadcasting Anytime, Anywhere Built-in Webcam for Wire-Free Video Communication

  A7JC-R004M Intel® Centrino® Mobile Technology Duo Intel® Core™ Processor Duo T2400 [1.83GHz, 667MHz, 2MB L2 Cache] Intel® 945GM Express Chipset Intel® Wireless /PRO 3945 a/b/g MS Windows® XP Media Center Edition LCD TFT 17“ WXGA, Colour Shine HDD 100GB / 1024MB[512x2] DDR II SDRAM DVD Super Multi / ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB Video Camera Built-in [1.3 million pixels] Hybrid [Digital & Analogue] TV Tuner built-in Gigabit LAN/ 802.1 lg WLAN Bluetooth built-in £ 1,399 inc VAT A6Ja-Q024H Intel® Centrino® Mobile Technology Duo Intel® Core™ Processor Duo T2400 [1.83GHz, 667MHz, 2MB L2 Cache] Intel® 945PM Express Chipset Intel® Wireless/PRO 3945 a/b/g MS Windows® XP Home LCD TFT 15.4“ WXGA, Colour-Shine HDD 100GB / 1024MB[512x2] DDR II SDRAM DVD Super Multi Double Layer ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB Video Camera built-in [1.3 million pixels] Bluetooth built-in

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  £ 1,299 inc VAT A6JC-Q006H Intel® Centrino® Mobile Technology Duo Intel® Core™ Processor Duo T2300 [1.66GHz, 667MHz, 2MB L2 Cache] Intel® 945PM Express Chipset Intel® Wireless/PRO 3945 a/b/g MS Windows® XP Home LCD TFT 15.4“ WXGA, Colour-Shine HDD 80GB / 1024MB[512x2] DDR II SDRAM DVD Super Multi Double Layer NVidia GeForce 7300 256MB Turbo Cache Video Camera built-in [1.3 million pixels] Bluetooth built-in 802.1 lg WLAN £ 999 inc VAT uk.asus.com For reseller information, please visit our website: //uk.asus.com/products/notebook/all_list/wheretobuy.htm Limited twenty four month International Parts & Labour Warranty. Collect and service within UK orcly. Prices ard Specifications sub¬ ject to change without notice. Celeron, Celeron Inside, Centrino, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel SpeedStep, Intel Viiv, Intel Xeon, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, the Centrino logo, the Intel logo and the Intel Inside logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Rock Solid ■ Heart Touching EDITORIAL dylan_armbrust@vnu.co.uk n Talk more, pay less by joining the Voice over IP revolution Using the Internet to make phone calls is becoming mainstream and you save cash too , says Dylan Armbrust How do you know when a technology has become mainstream? When it starts being promoted by a supermarket. This may sound like an odd opening to the editor's column in a computer magazine, but it's one, I think, that's apt. My question refers to the fact that Tesco has decided to join the Voice over IP [VoIP] revolution with its Tesco Internet Phone service. Supermarkets aren't renowned for their risk-taking when it comes to what they sell, and this is even more true with any product that's remotely technical. So I was pleasantly amused, but not surprised, when Tesco announced it was getting into the VoIP game. It makes sense because, of course, it makes money. But more importantly it's an acknowledgement of two key trends. First, that broadband is widespread among its customers across the UK and to make good use of VoIP you need a decent broadband connection. The second trend, although this is perhaps more of a bet on Tesco's part, is that VoIP will overtake public switched telephone networks [PSTNs] - what we'd normally call a landline. Some may say it is a bit rich to make a prediction so early in the VoIP game, but you have to sit up and take notice if a player like Tesco aligns itself with what is effectively a nascent technology. The fact is that it isn't really mainstream. A recent Ofcom report found that with over 15.5 million Internet connections in the UK, only nine per cent of Internet users made use of VoIP. That's not a lot - yet. But awareness of VoIP is high. Ofcom's Interim Report into the UK's Communications Market found that 49 per cent of UK telecoms customers are aware of VoIP and it rises to 59 per cent of Internet users and 63 per cent of broadband users. Whatever way you interpret the figures, it is clear there is a new telecoms market to be tapped. It's only a matter of time before a tipping point is reached and we find a mass move to VoIP services in the home and at work. So it's easy to see Tesco's logic in offering the service. Tesco isn't the only one banking on VoIP being a money-maker. Ebay put up $2. 6b [£ 1.48b approx] to buy Skype last year, so there's a lot of confidence in the technology, even if there isn't a lot of revenue at the moment. And that's why our main cover feature Talk more , pay less [see page 98] is so relevant. I believe that even though relatively few people use the technology today, that will soon change for one simple reason: VoIP is cheap. All you need is an Internet connection, ideally a broadband one. Many services don't even require you to have a PC, as they provide an adapter that plugs straight into the phone socket. The reality is, however, that if you have a broadband connection you will most likely have a PC too, but that's not really the point, is it? Our comparison table on page 102 shows that the cost of calls is extremely competitive and there are real savings to be made. Of course, there are limitations at the moment, the biggest being that most services don't offer the ability to call the emergency services. Another is that sometimes call quality can be a bit ropey. But with the way things are moving I suspect it won't be that long before these issues are resolved. So if you're interested in VoIP, but haven't got around to giving it a whirl I recommend you do, as I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to use and you'll save money too. PCW 'You have to take notice if a player like Tesco aligns itself with a nascent technology' We are always happy to hear from you, email us at |e tters@pcw.co.uk x For daily news updates,

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  Editorial Tel 020 7316 9000 • Fax 020 7316 9313 Subscription enquiries Online via our secure website: |/vww.subscription.co.uk/help/vnu | Email knu@subscription.coAJl< 2jTel 01858 438 881 Back issue and cover disc orders Tel: 01858 438 883 For full contact details see page 192 YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support ] 9 June 2006 lwww.pcw.co.uk Intel] INTELLIGENT LIFE HAS LANDED Foxconn 975X7 AA-8EKRS2 • Supports Intel® Dual & Single Core processors • Intel® 975X + ICH7R, 1066/800MHz • ATi CrossFire™ support • FOX ONE® robust overclocking capability • Dual Gigabit LAN • 7.1 channel High Definition Audio Experience FOX ONE®, the new overclocking and system control tool from Foxconn. With a dedicated on-board FOX ONE® chipset and specialist control software working in tandem, FOX ONE® brings intelligent system controls to your PC. Now you can easily tweak your system performance with a range of Windows® and BIOS accessible controls, monitor performance and system temperatures, and activate preset performance modes. For more information visit our dedicated micro-site for the chance to win great prizes and to learn more about _ FOX ONE® - lwww.foxone.info WIN an Intel® Pentium® D Processor Extreme Edition 965 FOX ONE® is available now from selected retailers on the Foxconn 975X7 AA-8EKRS2 motherboard. ebuyer www.ebuyer.com Foxconn MORE www.scan.co.uk YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Supjort 5Vww.foxone.info DISC NOTES COVER D SC Let our workshops show you how to use some of the software on the CD and DVD see page 183 everywhere ■ ppyrhf iipni tw PC la hie iijtf ''ik:-. ■rrji ird h»c.^Iib it: hi J n • k 1 =-=- urc TurboDemo Standard S Xpert DF3 andard Ck- ik- it:iinLi Lu'il-q pdf douri ffik friih ast. ^Iiwnlmlif lrflF|jrxe« cli: .MlaLrtdE iKiri u>il Vtad see page 182 see page 184 see page 186 see page 186 see page 185 ON THE CD & DVD Expert PDF Standard 3 Create professional-quality pdf files from any application with ease For workshop see page 182 Laplink Everywhere 4 Remotely access emails, files, applications and more on your PC from wherever you are in the world For workshop see page 183 Turbodemo Standard 5 Make your sales or training message more effective by building stylish, animated presentations with commentary For workshop see page 184 ACD Fotoslate 3 Make the most of your digital images by using them in creative projects such as photo calendars, greetings cards, CD sleeves or T-shirt transfers For workshop see page 185 Healthframe Explorer Lite 1.0.3 Use this information manager to store details of your medical records See page 186 TO THE DVD new 8GB DOUBLE CAPACITY
• DVD Serif Mediaplus 1 Organise your digital images and make sure you can always lay your hands on your favourite shots by using this media manager See page 186 Linux and open source Try the following distributions: Fedora Core 5 Linux; Gentoo Linux 2006; SLAX 5.0.8; and Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.04 Flight 5 Plus Loads more useful programs and utilities; game demos including Black & White 2 and Sniper Elite PLUS MUCH MORE! Artwork for illustrative purposes only FOR A LISTING OF SOFTWARE TURN TO PAGE 181 YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support June 2006 lwww.pcw.co.uk 1 Start something entertaining MESH recommends Windows® XP Media Center Edition BUY NOW, PAY 2007 see terms’!" ■ Intel® Pentium® D 805 Dual-Core CPU with HT Technology [2.8GHz 64-bit CPU, 2x 1MB L2 Cache, 533 FSB] ■ Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 ■ ASUS P5RD2-VM PCI-X Mainboard, 6x USB, GB IAN ■ 512MB DDR2 533 Memory ■ 200GB Serial ATA hard drive with 8MB buffer ■ 128MB ATI Radeon X300 Integrated Graphics [SMA] ■ 19” AMW M196A TFT LCD Monitor, DVI & 16ms response ■ Sony Multi-Format 16x Dual Layer DVD Writer ■ 5.1 channel surround sound audio [on-board] ■ Built-in Stereo Speakers ■ Black Mini Tower Case with 250W PSU ■ Classic Warranty 1 - 3 Years Free Parts & Labour £549 INC. VAT £467 .23 EX. VAT For full details on Elite Series visit Www.meshcomputers.com I E-Direct e2010-06 Elite2 D805 Amazing value Intel® Dual-Core CPU with 19” TFT £750Ff Enjoy more of your favourite entertainment E-Direct el010-06 Matrix Inspire The ultimate best buy TFT flat panel PC offer E-Direct el030-06 Matrix2 Prestige Power PC with Dual Core CPU & 512MB graphics ■ AMD Athlon™ 64 CPU 3200+ with HyperTransport™ Tech ■ Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition ■ ASUS A8N-VM NVIDIA Nforce 410 PCI-X Mainboard ■ 512MB DDR 400 Memory [2x256MB] ■ 160GB Serial ATA hard drive with 8MB buffer ■ 128MB NVIDIA 6100 Graphics Accelerator [SMA*] ■ 19” AMW M196A Flat Panel TFT Display with DVI ■ Sony Multi-Format Dual Layer 16x DVD Writer ■ 5.1 channel surround sound audio [on-board] ■ Built-in Stereo Speakers ■ Logitech Desktop Keyboard and Optical Mouse ■ Classic Warranty 1 - 3 Years Free Parts & Labour ■ AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core CPU 3800+ HyperTransport™ ■ Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 ■ ASUS A8N-VM NVIDIA Nforce 410 PCI-X Mainboard ■ 1024MB DDR 400 Memory [2x512MB] ■ 250GB Serial ATA hard drive with 16MB buffer ■ 512MB ATI X1300 Pro PCI Express with DVI & TV Out ■ 19” ViewSonic VA912 Flat Panel TFT Multi Media Display ■ Sony Multi-Format Dual Layer 16x DVD Writer ■ 7.1 channel surround sound audio [on-board] ■ Built-in Stereo Speakers ■ Logitech Desktop Keyboard & Optical Mouse ■ Classic Warranty 1 - 3 Years Free Parts & Labour £499 INC. VAT £424 .68 EX. VAT £799 INC. VAT £680 EX. VAT Popular Upgrades EX. VAT INC.VAT Popular Upgrades EX. VAT INC.VAT ■ Upgrade from 3200+ to 3500+ CPU £25 £29.38 ■ Upgrade from 3800+ to X2 4200+ CPU £45 £52.88 ■ Upgrade from 512MB to 1GB Memory £50 £58.75 ■ Upgrade from 1GB to 2GB Memory £75 £88.13 ■ Upgrade from 160GB to 250GB Hard Drive £30 £35.25 ■ Upgrade from 250GB to 300GB Hard Drive £15 £17.63 ■ 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 7300GS PCI Express £45 £52.88 ■ Upgrade to 19” ViewSonic VA1912W Widescreen £35 £41.13 XSOOFP Matrix2 Vistra GT SM-t Cutting edge powerhouse PC with an array of features AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core CPU 4200+ HyperTransport™ Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 ASUS A8N-SLI NVIDIA Nforce 4 PCI-X Mainboard 1024MB DDR 400 Memory [2x512MB] 250GB Serial ATA hard drive with 16MB buffer 256MB GDDR3 NVIDIA 7600GT PCI Express - DVI, HDTV & TV Out 19” ViewSonic VA912 Flat Panel TFT Multi Media Display Sony Multi-Format Dual Layer 16x DVD Writer 7.1 channel surround sound audio [on-board] Built-in Stereo Speakers Logitech Desktop Cordless Keyboard & Optical Mouse Advantage Warranty3- 2 Yrs On-site + lYr B-to-B £999 INC. VAT £850.21 e Popular Upgrades ex. vat inc.vat Upgrade from 4200+ to X2 4400+ CPU £65 £76.38 Upgrade from 1GB to 2GB Memory £75 £88.13 Upgrade to 19” ViewSonic VA1912W Widescreen £35 £41.13 Logitech Cordless Keyboard & Rechargeable Mouse £20 £23.50 PC Features [unless otherwise stated] • Elite2 D805 & Inspire Black case with 250W PSU • Prestige & Vistra Black & Silver Midi Tower case with 550W PSU, 6x USB 2.0 & 10/100/1000 Network Connection • Floppy Drive & modem are optional • FREE Software: Microsoft Works 8.5 +60 Day Microsoft Office Trial, eTrust Antivirus v. 7 - 90 day Trial, CyberLink PowerDVD, Power2Go, PowerProducer3, PowerDi recto r3, PowerBackup, MediaShowSE, PowerCinema4 [OEM product] Please Read: Sales subject to terms & conditions [copy available on request]. Pictures shown for illustration purposes only - colours may vary. Operating System supplied is an OEM product - Full version. VM/Micro Case’s purchased with internal Card Reader benefit from only 4 free USB 2.0 ports. SMA [Shared Memory Architecture] allows for memory to be taken from RAM to supplement the graphics card requirements. All PCs carry a 3 Year Parts & Labour Warranty & includes 24x7 on-line support, system restore facility, national rate hardware support and premium rate software support - see terms. All monitors come with 3 years manufacturers swap-out warranty. All peripherals are supplied with manufacturers full warranty. Matrix Inspire, Prestige and Elite D805 cariy a back-to-base component only. Base unit Pick up & collection is available from MESH at £41 inc. VAT. All other PCs carry an On-site element - UK Mainland only. For full terms please call or go on-line. Warranty upgrades & extensions are available and full terms are provided separately. Notebook warranties - Our Asus series carry an international 24 months warranty to theAsus repair centre network. Carriage - On the UK Mainland this includes full Carriage and Return service. Outside the UK Mainland this is a back to base service to a local Asus repair centre to be paid for by the customer. All other Notebooks carry a Collect & Return, Parts and Labour warranty. Prices quoted for calls to MESHyyi^Jp^a PpHhtJ W]erPF',P'f^t§e y°Tl1i CLIVE AKASS AT CEBIT £350 ultra-mobiles are on the cards Samsung's Q1 Origami was the most sophisticated and expensive ultra-mobile shown at Cebit, with prices cited between $1,000 [£573 approx] to $1 ,500 [£860 approx]. It was also the heaviest, at 1 kg. But chip designer Via said ultra-mobile PCs using its new low-drain C7-M ULV [ultra-low voltage] processor could sell for $600 [£344 approx] or less, putting them in competition with PDAs. The C7 is a descendant of the Centaur x86 chip, which was bought out by Via. Keith Kowal, marketing manager of Via's chipset platform group, said the 1GHz C7-M ULV drains a maximum of 3.5w, and the 1 .5GHz version 5w, the maximum for the ultra-mobile's thermal design. At least three ultras using the Via chip were on show at Cebit, but unless the C7 goes dual-core it is hard to see it keeping up with Intel on performance per watt. Asus, Gigabyte and ECS all showed Intel-based Origamis. The Asus R2H had a built-in camera, enabling it to be used for video calls or taking snapshots - something likely to become standard for this format. It also has a Pal TV module and a fingerprint sensor. These three companies were remarkably coy about their ultra-mobiles at Cebit. You had to look carefully to find the machines: I spotted the Asus by accident. Not all reporters share my faith in tablets, so perhaps the companies feared a bad press. Not so Samsung, which flourished its Q1 at every opportunity. It has a DMB receiver [see page 14], a 7in screen and offers a choice of low-drain Celeron or Pentium M processors. It has a flipout support at the back so that it can stand on edge. Samsung has built a peripheral kit around it, including a keyboard and DVD drive, all packed into a small wallet. Connecting with peripherals such as this is the kind of task UWB links will be good for [see page 21]: low range, low power, high data rate and no wires so you don't need to plug things in. Q1 by numbers I Power switch; 2 Reset; 3 CFII card slot; 4 Ethernet port; 5 Pull-out DMB aerial; 6 VGA port; 7 USB2 port; 8 DC in; 9 Stereo speaker; 10 8-way joystick; II Auto-scaler for high-res websites; 12 Array mics; 13 Stereo speaker; 14 8-function user-definable key; 15 Enter key; 16 Menu key; 17 USB2 port [socket above for extra DVD drive power]; 18 Audio jack; 19 Volume; 20 Hold switch; 21 Hand strap connector What will be the making of a true portable? The truly portable computer is one of today's most fascinating design challenges, with aspects ranging from high fashion to nanoscale electronics. Fashion comes in because we may have to design bags or clothes around whatever turns out to be the most popular format: men's pockets have hardly changed since Edwardian times, when their size was dictated by that of a cigarette case or wallet. Fashion also influences the design of headsets, which allow you to listen to music or make calls via the computer and even control it, without taking it out of your pocket. The style of the mobile is something else. What is the ideal size? What physical controls should it have? What kind of screen? Can it fold? Can it bend? Can it scroll in and out? What inputs and outputs? My feeling is that it does not need an integral keyboard, although this may be a matter of taste. Careful use of handwriting recognition on the Origami interface is easier than texting using a mini-keyboard or number pad. It is good enough to answer emails on the move. Quicker still, you can email handwritten notes. For fast writing, you can always link in a separate keyboard. This is true of other peripherals. A smart machine in a smart environment [see box, right] will be able to access drives, large screens and other devices via the network. It is already very easy to get a Windows portable to act as a front end to an XP desktop. A small tablet is also an ideal control interface for home networks. Home networks will never go mainstream without a foolproof interface that hides their complexity and a tablet can provide this. Every hardware feature a mobile carries will have to be audited for weight, size, cost and, above all, power drain. But the trickiest and subtlest challenge of all will be the human interface and that will evolve as millions of us stab away at those screens. It will take time, but it is the one part of the design process that we will all be involved in. Clive Akass The ultimate mobile Origami has similarities to the 'ultimate mobile' or universal interface, I imagined five years ago in a PCW piece entitled Smart machine in a smart environment. This was just a set of ideas, but some of them are still relevant, and you can read it here: //images.vnunet.eom/l v5_static/pcw/pdf/Universalinterface.pdf. I'd be happy to hear how you imagine the ultimate mobile. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 16 j/vww. pew. co.uk line 2006 CLIVE AKASS AT CEBIT < NEWS Solid-state laptop on horizon The era of the solid-state notebook came a step closer with the announcement by Samsung of a 32GB flash drive that can take the place of a hard disk. The 15g solid-state disk [SSD] uses Nand flash and is only a quarter the weight of a 1 .8in hard drive, but reads data three times faster and writes 1 .5 times faster while using a twentieth of the electrical power. It also has the advantages of being silent, having no moving parts and it is more robust than a disk drive. Samsung would not release any prices after the announcement at the Mobile Solution event in Taiwan, but with flash costing around £17 per GB, the memory cost alone would be around £540. The price of Nand flash is expected to fall by around half over the next three years, though even this would still make it far more expensive per gigabyte than hard-disk storage. SD [Secure Digital] cards are also heading for 32GB capacities, according to Panasonic. It showed a 4GB SD card at Cebit that will be on the market by summer. Only slots supporting a new version 2 SD spec will be able to use it, though these will also take older SD cards. The new high-capacity SDHC cards will have transfer rates of up to 6Mbytes/sec. HD drives launch amid Blu-ray blues The rival high-definition recording camps were neck and neck after showing off their products at Cebit. Toshiba launched its HD-DVD player on 31 March to coincide with the release of the first movies in the format. Samsung said it would launch a Blu-ray player in late May, and Panasonic will ship one globally in the autumn. Samsung then showed us a PC Blu-ray drive that appeared to trump them all, being the first to offer burning in either format. It is 'triple write', which means it will also burn CD and DVD discs, and could be launched as soon as mid-May at a wholesale price of around $600 [£340 approx]. This is just $100 more than the reported price of Toshiba's HD-DVD player - and that cannot burn discs. Samsung's drive has two-speed burn capabilities and a transfer rate of 9Mbits/sec; but it had an IDE rather than a Sata [serial ATA] interface. A USB Toshiba's HD-DVD is unable to burn discs This Blu-ray drive from Samsung is 'triple write' external drive will follow shortly. A triple-write four-speed drive, and a slimline two-speed model for laptops, are planned for early next year with a four-speed slimline one in the second half of 2007. Blu-ray is, however, having teething problems. Ulead has withdrawn Blu-ray support from its DVD Movie Factory 5 software in order to allow the company to complete 'compliance testing'. HD-DVD support was retained. Meanwhile LG cancelled the early launch of its Blu-ray player and announced that it would launch another later this year - supporting both technologies. Third format enters the high-definition fray A third high-definition storage technology emerged at Cebit to complicate the format battle further. New Medium Enterprises [NME] pushed the Versatile Multi-layer Disc [VMD] format that it claims stores up to 40GB per disc using the same low-cost red lasers used in standard DVD drives. It plans to sell a player for $150, less than a third of the price of an HD player. VMD uses multi-layer recording and there were 20GB, 30GB and 40GB discs on show. NME spokesman Alexander Bolgar- Hagerty said 100GB VMD recording had been achieved in the lab. He said London-based NME is merging with E-World which owns EVS, a Chinese HD standard. NME owns a higher resolution [1 ,900 x 1 ,080] standard. Bolgar-Hagerty said: 'Because our technology is multi-layer, it can be adapted to blue laser when it becomes more affordable.' NME is not trying to compete with the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats head on. Bolgar-Hagerty said: 'We have to start somewhere and we have signed up Bollywood and the Chinese [film] markets, the two largest markets in the world.' YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Chic PC models and cool chips The exterior design of PCs and notebooks has become more innovative with the convergence of computing and consumer electronics and the fact that the latest cool processors permit smaller, slimmer models. Apple chic has also had an effect, though Macs have never had a monopoly on computing elegance. Pastel-coloured models from FIC were typical of one format being pushed at Cebit. Similar models, the size of a large book, were on show from companies including ECS and Gigabyte. Shuttle showed a mini xlOO design styled like a hifi unit. Some of the new designs were clearly aimed at women, such as a pink Asus notebook with a matching case [pictured above]. Ego computers showed the notebook pictured below. There were few examples of machines using BTX form factor motherboards, designed for easy cooling, Gigabyte had two or three BTX motherboards, and showed a gaming machine built round one. For more pictures and links go to |ittp://labs.pcw.co.uk/2006/03/| pc_designs_get_.html. ] 17 June 2006 lwww.pcw.co.uk evesham TECHNOLOGY e WORLD CLASS COMPUTERS Evesham Technology COMPUTER winner II WHAT LAPTOP Ik Best PC Firm 2004 Best PC Manufacturer 2001-2003 Company of the Year 2004 Best Computer Manufacturer 2001-2003 Best Laptop Performance Award 2003 & 2004 Best Service and Support 2005 PC AWARD tm Best PC Service & Reliability 2001-2003 Brand of the Year 2003 & 2004 Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology "Goes like a train" "The screen is fantastic" "Great value for money" PC Advisor, May 06 PC ADVISOR GOLD • 8 cell Li-Ion battery [life up to 3 hrs approx] TOLC-S'.'n / ^^2 MOSlLiry rteio.^asni • 4xUSB2.0, Firewire, VGA, TV-out, DVI, PCMCIA, 10/100/1000 LAN •Weight - 2.9kg, Dimensions - 354x284x35.2mm •Gold 3 year warranty - 1 st & 2nd year in-home service [parts & labour]. 3rd year return-to-base [parts&labour]. National rate telephone support & BigFix pre-emptive support. Voyager csso e- CODE: VY1 538 • Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology: Intel Core Duo processor T2400 [1.83GHz, 2MB L2cache, 667MHz] • Genuine Windows9 XP Media Center Edition 2005 • 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon XI 600 graphics • 1 5.4" WXGA X-Bright wide screen display [1280x800] • 1GB DDR II RAM, 667MHz [2x51 2MB] • 80GB hard drive • DVD/CD-RW/Dual Layer DVD-RW drive • Wireless Mini PCIe 802.1 labg [54Mbps] LAN • Built-in audio and speakers • 4 in 1 card reader [SD, MMC, MS/Pro] £1149 [£977.87 ex VAT] Fantastic low price Quest A215 e-CODE: QU1091 Upgrade to Silver 3 year warranty £29.99 • Mobile AMD Sempron processor 3000+ • Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition • Integrated graphics • 1 5" XGA display [1024x768] • 512MB DDR RAM 333MHz • 60GB 5400rpm hard drive • DVD/CD-RW drive • Wireless Mini PCI 802.1 1 bg [54Mbps] LAN • Built-in audio and speakers STOCK PC TAKE IT AWAY TODAY "Packed with features" AMD mrionf34 Radeon XI 600 Graphics Multi award winner Quest A420 e-CODE: QU1105 • AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology MT-30 • Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 • 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon XI 600 graphics • 1 5.4" WXGA X-Bright widescreen display [1 280x800] • 512MB DDR RAM 333MHz • 60GB 5400rpm hard drive • DVD/CD-RW/Dual Layer DVD-RW drive • Wireless Mini PCI 802.1 1 bg [54Mbps] LAN & Bluetooth • Built-in audio and speakers • 6 in 1 card reader [SD, MMC, MS/Pro, XD, SM] Voyager C720 I- CODE: VY1504 • Intel Centrino Mobile Technology: Intel Pentium M processor 760 [2GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz] • Genuine Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 • 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX graphics • 1 7" WXGA X-Bright wide screen display [1440x900] • 1GB DDR2 RAM 533MHz [2x51 2MB] • 80GB S-ATA 5400rpm hard drive • DVD/CD-RW/Dual Layer DVD-RW drive • Wireless Mini PCI 802.1 1 abg [54Mbps] LAN • Virtual 8 channel audio and speakers • Built-in media card reader [MS/Pro, SD, MMC] PC ADVISOR GC'LCi bctco i £599 r [£509.79 ex VAT] £899, r [£765.11 ex VAT] £1399 [£11 90.64 ex VAT] •6 cell Li-Ion battery [life up to 3hrs] «4xUSB2.0, VGA, PCMCIA, & 10/100 LAN •Weight - 2.9kg, Dimensions - 326x277x36.7mm •Bronze 1 year warranty - 1 year return-to-base service [parts & labour]. National rate telephone support. • 9 cell Li-Ion battery [life up to 3hrs approx] • 4xUSB2.0, Firewire, VGA, DVI, TV-out, PCMCIA, Express Card, IR, 10/100/1000 LAN • Weight - 2.9kg Dimensions - 358x259x33mm •Gold 3 year warranty - 1 st & 2nd year in-home service [parts & labour]. 3rd year return-to-base [parts&labour]. National rate telephone support & BigFix pre-emptive support. • 8 cell Li-Ion battery [life up to 2hrs approx] • 4xUSB2.0, Firewire, Serial, VGA, DVI, S/PDIF out, parallel, TV-out, PCMCIA & 10/100/1000 LAN • Weight - 3.8kg Dimensions - 397x293x44.9mm •Gold 3 year warranty - 1 st & 2nd year in-home service [parts & labour]. 3rd year return-to-base [parts&labour]. National rate telephone support & BigFix pre-emptive support. FREE Vodafone 3G/GPRS Mobile Connect data card* FREE on all Evesham Intel & AMD notebooks! • Send email, access the internet from almost anywhere • A simple user interface to get & keep you connected Subject to network coverage and availability **The 3G service may be affected by: The number of users accessing the 3G network in your cell. The strength of signal & your distance from the nearest antenna. Factors outside our control, such as atmospheric f conditions. Vodafone, the Vodafone logo and Vodafone Mobile Connect are trademarks of the Vodafone Group. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Price does not include delivery which is £34+VAT [£39.95] for PCs, FI6.98+VAT [£19.95] for notebooks, FREE for peripherals - UK mainland only. OEM software versiond, pre-installed on your new Evesham PC. Boxes are for illustrative purposes only. All systems and upgrades are subject to availability. Prices correct at date of publication. Price and specifications subject to change without notice. Finance is subject to status. Evesham's Terms and Conditions apply and are available on request. Actual products may not match photographic representations. Technical Support opening hours are Monday to Saturday 9:00 to 17:20. On-site warranty applies to UK mainland only, monitors are covered directly by the monitor manufacturer. Featured systems are based upon the original award winning specification. Bundled versions of video Evesham Technology recommends Microsoft8 Windows8 XP Media Center Edition •Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 CD/DVD creation, video editing and DVD playback software li Works ■ •BullGuard Internet Security Anti-virus with FREE 90 day updates - plus firewall & online backup. | - ^ •Microsoft Works 8 Word processor, spreadsheet and database applications "A beautifully balanced PC" PC Pro, A-List ★★★★ "Quality components throughout' The experts at PC PRO placed the Evesham Axis RD PLUS top of The Labs A-List £799 PCs. ni3U3'2Y P / WAftfiAMTV \ The Axis was the clear winner combining outstanding performance, features and comprehensive warranty. •Midi tower case [453x222x495mm] 6xUSB2.0 & 10/100 LAN •Logitech internet Pro cordless keyboard & mouse •Gold 3 year warranty - 1 st & 2nd year in-home service [parts & labour]. 3rd year return-to-base [parts&labour]. National rate telephone support & BigFix pre-emptive support. ATI CrossFire Multi-GPU Ready Keep ahead of fast-moving gaming effects and technology changes with CrossFire's advanced features Upgrade to 2nd ATI X800GTO CrossFire graphics £99.99 Axis RD A-List e-CODE:AX1251 Dual Core Processor • AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor 3800+ • Genuine Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 • lx 256MB ATI Radeon X800GTO CrossFire graphics • 1 7" ViewSonic VX71 2 flat panel TFT display [8ms response] • ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Crossfire motherboard • 512MB dual channel DDR RAM [PC3200] 400MHz [2x256MB] • 200GB Serial ATA hard drive with 8MB buffer • 16x DVD-ROM • Multi Format Dual Layer DVD Writer [1 6x]/CD-RW [40x] drive • On-board audio • Creative l-Trigue 3220 2.1 speakers • Optional floppy drive & modem £938.83 r[£799.00 ex VAT] Creative l-Trigue 3220 2.1 .PcnUuirr D Hi ft- Family, Home/Office SCREEN UPGRADE Was 17" Now 19" Mu It™ SampfonJ 17" TFT NVIDIA 7900 Graphics shown with VA1 91 2w widescreen TFT FREE DOUBLE MEMORY Was 256MB Now 5 12MB SAVE £200 Was £1599 Now £1399 Axis STR Axis sb Evolution Decimator e-CODE: AX1227 • AMD Sempron processor 3000+ 64 bit • Genuine Windows8 XP Home Edition • Direct 2D/3D graphics [on-board] • 1 7" flat panel TFT display • 512MB DDR RAM [PC3200] 400MHz [2x256MB] • 160GB Serial ATA 7200rpm hard drive with 8MB buffer • Multi Format Dual Layer DVD Writer [16x]/CD-RW [40x] drive • On-board audio • Optional floppy drive & modem £499 inc VAT [£424.68 ex VAT] Axis STR PLUS As Axis STR with: e-CODE: AX1528 • AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+ • Genuine Windows" XP Media Center Edition £599 inc VAT [£509.78 ex VAT] 0-CODE: AX 1254 • AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor with HyperTransport technology • Genuine Windows8 XP Media Center Edition 2005 • ATI Radeon Xpress 200 series graphics [on-board] • 1 9" ViewSonic VA902 flat panel TFT display • ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 chipset motherboard • 51 2MB dual channel DDR RAM [PC3200] 400MHz [2x256MB] • 200GB Serial ATA 7200rpm hard drive with 8MB buffer • Multi Format Dual Layer DVD Writer [1 6x]/CD-RW [40x] drive • On-board audio • Optional floppy drive & modem £699, [£594.89 ex VAT] e-CODE: EV1132 • Intel Pentium D processor 940 Dual Core [3.2GHz, 2x2MB cache, 800MHz] • Genuine Windows8 XP Media Center Edition 2005 • 256MB NVIDIA 7900 GT graphics • 1 9" ViewSonic VX91 2 flat panel TFT display [1 2ms response] or 1 9" ViewSonic VA1 91 2w widescreen flat panel TFT display or 1 9" Sony flat panel TFT display DVI [8ms response] • 1 GB dual channel DDR 2 RAM 533MHz [2x51 2MB] • 250GB Serial ATA hard drive with 8MB buffer • DVD-ROM [16x] drive • Multi Format Dual Layer DVD Writer [1 6x] / CD-RW [40x] drive • Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card • FREE Creative headphones* • Creative Inspire T6060 5.1 speakers Headphones • Optional modem with every X-Fi Evesham PC ^ **Limited availability while stocks last £1 399incVAT[£l 190.64 ex VAT] • Mini tower case [41 1 xl 75x365mm] 4xUSB2.0 & 1 0/1 00 LAN • Internet keyboard & optical wheel mouse • Bronze 1 year warranty - 1 year return-to-base service [parts & labour] National rate telephone support. • Mini tower case [352x1 80x365mm] 4xUSB2.0 & 1 0/1 00 LAN • Logitech keyboard & optical wheel mouse •Silver 3 year warranty - 1 year in-home service [parts & labour]. 2nd & 3rd year return-to-base [labour]. National rate telephone support & BigFix pre-emptive support. •Brushed aluminium case [510x205x457mm] 420wTagan PSU, 6xUSB2.0 & 10/1 00/1 000 LAN • Logitech Internet Pro cordless keyboard & mouse •Gold 3 year warranty - 1 st & 2nd year in-home service [parts & labour]. 3rd year return-to-base [parts&labour]. National rate telephone support & BigFix pre-emptive support. Call 0870 160 9530 To contact your nearest store call 0870 1 60 9800 YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Click www.evesham.com Bournemouth [Bristol [Cambridge [Evesham [Glasgow [ipswich | Leeds] London] Norwich Milton Keynes | Nottingham | Peterborough | Reading [Southampton | Swansea [Tunbridge Wells cards, sound cards and software are not full retail packs, and the software features on-line documentation. Hard disk capacities are quoted in thousands of millions of bytes and are prior to installation of operating systems and other applications. e2go models are those that we try to keep in stock for immediate despatch. As part of our staff training some telephone calls may be monitored. AMD, AMD Athlon and AMDTurion are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. Intel, the Intel Inside logo, Celeron and Pentium 4 are trademarks of the corporation. *NVIDIA® TurboCache™ technology shares the capacity and bandwidth of dedicated video memory and dynamically available system memory for turbocharged performance and larger total graphics memory. Featured systems available until the 31/05/06. E&OE. NEWS > CLIVE AKASS AT CEBIT PC that picks your brains Researchers are exploring ways to use EEG techniques, which measure electrical activity from different points on the skull, to allow the brain to 'talk' to a computer. You can generate a particular EEG signal by thinking about, say, moving a leg, without moving it; so this can be used to send a signal to a computer. Research teams have been working on this Brain-Computer Interface for some time, mainly with the aim of enabling disabled people to communicate. But users need weeks of training under current systems in order to be able to generate signals the computer can recognise. The system, demonstrated at Cebit, uses a new approach from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute and Berlin's Charite university hospital. This puts the onus on the computer to learn to extract, from the many signals generated in the brain each second, the ones associated with particular activities. Researchers believe this could be used to move a cursor on a screen, allowing a paralysed person to 'write' by picking out letters; it could also be used to control an artificial limb. PC tops 5GHz Asetek, Kingston Technology and Western Digital joined forces to create what was claimed at Cebit to be the world's fastest PC. The Dream Machine overclocked Intel's P4 3.8GHz processor to 5.46GHz, which was cooled by Asetek's Vapochill Lightspeed unit. The graphics card and chipset were cooled by Asetek's Waterchill system. Kingston supplied the HyperX KHX7200D2K2 DDR2 Ram and the unit used Western Digital's Raptor X 150GB hard drive. Airing for mobile Wimax Airspan showed a prototype USB dongle supporting mobile Wimax, in a bid to persuade operators to invest what is being billed as 'broadband on the move'. The company designed the 16eUSB device for a Japanese company called Yozan, which plans to set up a mobile Wimax infrastructure. It conforms to the IEEE 802.1 6e specification, which was approved in February. Airspan is currently involved in a Wimax trial with UK service provider Pipex, which owns spectrum in the 3.3-3.7GHz band. But that is for fixed Wimax, which was conceived as a way of filling in gaps in land-based web access. Mobile Wimax is seen as a potential rival to 3G cellular links. Paul Senior, vice-president of Airspan's product management, 16eUSB dongle for mobile Wimax admitted mobile Wimax would need considerable investment in base stations and dismissed suggestions, expressed by more than one vendor at Cebit, that it has little to offer that cannot be done with 3G. Each base station would have, as a conservative estimate, lOOMbits/sec to share out, which was three times as much as 'evolved' forms of 3G such as HSPDA. It had all the latest technology including Mimo, which uses multiple aerials to allow multiple data streams to share the same carrier frequencies. Individual users could expect to get rates of 9Mbits/sec downstream and 2Mbits/sec upstream, with low latency for gaming and quality of service provision for tasks such as web calls. 'Wimax is an IP-centric wide area communication technology. 3G is voice centric... IP has been grafted onto it over seven to 10 years bit by bit and it is not looking too healthy. You get half-a-dozen users using Skype and you start to get huge issues,' said Senior. The Airspan dongle is quad- band, covering all the frequencies likely to be used by Wimax across the world. Intel plans to embed Wimax in future motherboards. 11n links "will hog Wifi airspace" Top data rates in next-generation 802.1 In Wifi links will be achievable only by hogging bandwidth in channels already congested with 11b and 1 1 g links, industry experts warn. Existing flavours of Wifi use 20MHz channels and you can double the data rate by doubling this bandwidth. Proprietary turbo modes on some 1 1 g devices do this by 'bonding' two channels, which is like using two lines instead of one on a crowded switchboard. Controversy over this led some vendors to switch off turbo mode by default or to have it switch off when it detects other Wifi networks. Yet a late amendment to the 1 1 n draft spec allows for optional 40MHz channels, the equivalent of two existing ones. Masato Kato, Buffalo engineering manager and observer at the 1 1 n deliberations, pointed out this will leave only one non-overlapping channel at 2.4GHz where it is common to find several networks competing for airspace. Channel bonding is illegal in Japan. But 11n would be faster than existing Wifi even without channel bonding, partly due to Mimo [see above]. Vendors have talked of raw data rates of up to 600Mbits/sec, but Kato said real throughput could be 70-150Mbits/sec with the higher rate depending on channel bonding. Paul Senior, vice-president of Airspan product management, said no-one will know until certified 11n products appear. 1 1 n can use the less congested 5GHz bands as well as 2.4GHz and their speed is not the only advantage of the new spec. It will give Wifi a robust security model and has provisions that will improve the standard of VoIP calls. Panasonic launches SLR Panasonic showed off a single-lens-reflex [SLR] digital camera designed to operate as much as possible like a traditional SLR. The 7.5megapixel Lumix DMV-L1 has manual shutter and aperture controls and a new Leica- made D Vario-Elmarit 14-50mm zoom. Also launched was the 6megapixel Lumix DMC-FX01, said to be the smallest camera with the equivalent of a 35mm model's 28mm lens
• few compact digicams are good at wide angles. The Leica DC lens also incorporates a 3.6x optical zoom. 20 j/vww. pew, co.uk line 2006 YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support < NEWS 100Mbit links in pipeline Bluetooth links with transfer rates in excess of lOOMbits/sec could be available within two years, following the resolution of a spat over which wireless technology to use. The governing Bluetooth Special Interest Group [SIG] as selected the Intel-backed Wimedia Alliance flavour of Ultra-Wideband [UWB], rejecting a rival spec from the Motorola-backed UWB Forum. UWB can be thought of as a virtual wire with a theoretical throughput of up to 480Mbits/sec, over which any number of communications protocols may be used. UWB-based wireless USB is about to be seen in products [see below] and a 1394 [Firewire] version is in the pipeline. Extended-data-rate Bluetooth, the fastest available today, offers only 3Mbits/sec. Mike Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, said there will be some overlap between wireless USB and high-speed Bluetooth but they would be largely complementary. They are used in different scenarios and I think that will continue. I see Bluetooth as being very strong in peer-to-peer ad-hoc type of situations, whereas USB is strong in the host-to-peripheral model.' Foley said it was hoped to get to get high-speed power requirements down to those of today's Bluetooth devices. UWB was very good at bursting a lot of data in a very short time and Bluetooth was very good at minimising power use in sleep and standby modes. 'I think we can combine the two to get the best of both worlds.' Throughput will be about lOOMbits/sec across a room, but could be faster over shorter distances. The spec is expected to be finalised around autumn next year, with products appearing three to six months later. Stephen Wood, president of the Wimedia Alliance, said it hoped to pitch first-generation products at a cost of around around $10-$ 15 [£5.76-£8.64 approx] per device device, but this could drop to below $3 [£1 .73] in time. Clive Akass Wireless USB coming this year Chips such as this could enable the links to be embedded in mobile phones Cameras using Certified Wireless USB links rated at 480Mbits/sec could be on sale as soon as this Christmas, according to vendors at the Intel Developer Forum. A disk drive with the link, which used UWB wireless [see story above], was on also on show. The links could also be embedded in PCs and, eventually, mobile phones using chips such as the one pictured above from Staccato. USB2 dongles will be available to bring the technology to existing PCs to allow them to swap files quickly with peripherals. UWB, whether using Bluetooth or USB protocols, is designed for short-range device-to-device links; one aim is to use it to replace the mass of wires needed to link up home- entertainment systems. Rob Jones YYePG Proudly Prese June 2006 |w ww.pcw.co.uk 1 NO LIMITS - NO HANGOVER Simple, easy, effective. Nuance software packages are ready to be appreciated... Dragon NaturallySpeaking The Voice Interpreter that recognises your voice as well as your accent. You dictate; it writes and instructs your computer. . . PDF Converter The PDF Editor you can trust. You think; it creates, converts, annotates. . OmniPage The Document Converter that simplifies your life. You import; it converts and archives in PDF format. . PaperPort The Document Administrator that provides reliable back up. You produce; it organises, classifies and searches for your [e-] documents... Systran Translator The Translator [hat stays faithful to you. You compose; it translates your words as well as your ideas. IHSIJ ggbs Insight. v_buyer.com ama??„9;?°&. NUANCE.CO.UK NUANCE D Copyright 2006 Nuance Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Nuance, the Nuance logo, the PDF Converter Professional logo, the Dragon logo, OmniPage. PaperPort and Dragon NaturallySpeaking are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Systran and the Systran logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Systran. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. nts, Thx for Support NEWS > ROB JONES AT INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM Intel pushes mobile access Intel is trying to push the 'Martini model' of mobile computing, promoting access any time, any place, anywhere. The company said at IDF that it was working on pushing reliable computing on the move by improving the devices, networks and standards. Intel is looking at energy- efficient platforms, radio functionality built in the same Cmos technology used to create processors, antennas, low-power radio links and Mimo technology as used in the emerging 1 1 n standard [see page 20]. Challenges include getting more technology into smaller devices, and improving networks to handle the changing way they are used, particularly the demands on mobile networks from handheld devices. Intel is showing off some of the work done as part of a five-year Seamless Access Initiative to allow any device to access different types of network in a standard way. It has been working on the project with partners, using traditional wireless IP methods and 3G Sim cards for authentication. It will encompass Wimax networks [see page 20] in the future. The Cmos radio project stems from an effort to minimise the number of distinct pieces of silicon in a system. It will use less power and space, and will handle different radio standards more effectively. Intel researchers have built Cmos Mimo transceivers on 90nm silicon wafers that double the 802.1 1g Wifi data rate to lOOMbits/sec. The radio is still at an early stage of development, and Intel is having to address problems such as eliminating crosstalk: interference between signals on the closely spaced links within the chip. 'Even small amounts of crosstalk between the radio chain on the same chip will get you in trouble, because you get bleed- through. Anything that causes crosstalk reduces the effectiveness of the technology,' said Kevin Kahn, director of the Communications Technology lab. 'When you put multiple radios on a single chip it's very difficult to solve problems like crosstalk'. Uww.pcw.co.uk jJjne 2006 32nm chips expected in 2009 Intel, which is currently moving from 90nm to 65nm production, will move to 32nm processors in
• It is also investigating the use of carbon nanotubes to replace silicon transistors to maintain the pace of miniaturisation. All Intel's new chips [Conroe, Merom and Woodcrest - see page
• will be built on a 65nm process from later this year. The figure refers to the size of the smallest feature that can be defined on a chip and therefore how densely its transistors can be packed. Early next year the company will introduce 45nm processors, and will double the number of cores to four. The number will double again each time feature size is reduced, said Intel. The company hopes to offer 22nm in 2011 and 1 1nm in 2013. Intel has transistors in its laboratories at those scales, but faces the problem of how to manufacture them, a spokesman said. The new 45nm CPUs double the transistor density, putting over one billion of them on a single die. But as the feature size is reduced, there comes a point where electrons can no longer be efficiently moved around. So Intel is investigating a range of alternative technologies, including tri-gate and 3D transistors, and carbon nanotubes. These are single molecules of high conductivity and have been around since 1991 but were not fully investigated for 10 years. Intel believes they could solve the problem of producing nanoscale conductive materials. Paolo Gargini, who heads up silicon research at Intel, said the technology was on track for release between 2012 and 2015. By that time, in theory, Intel could be producing processors with 64 cores on a single die. Confused memory holds up terascale IT IDF began with a pre-briefing that put meat onto the bone of a concept Intel kicked off a couple of years ago - the era of Tera. As computers need increasing performance, the people using them want to interact with them in a more natural way and the processor giant is putting money and time behind the Tera Scale Computing Research program. Now a set of over 80 projects, it aims to develop technology allowing future software to have far higher performance capabilities, taking advantage of tens or hundreds of cores within a CPU. Justin Rattner, chief technology officer at Intel, explained: 'What's motivating the transition is that multi-core is an effective way of getting more performance using less energy. We see multi-core as giving us the ability to get back on the traditional performance growth line we had begun to shift away from.' The main challenges will be to develop memory bandwidth and learn how to program software that can dedicate individual processes to individual cores within the die. This means Intel - and programmers in the future - must understand how to design software to take advantage of so many threads. The projects are split into three main areas - silicon, platform and software - with a number of sub-projects within each group. One of the biggest problems that Intel is attempting to crack is finding a way to avoid data being corrupted when multiple threads share memory. Today this is done by locking memory for use by a single thread, forcing other threads to wait for access and reducing the benefit of processing them more or less in parallel across multiple cores. A Java-based project using a technology called transactional memory shows promise, Rattner said. It allows hardware and software to discover when there is a conflict, simplifies programs and removes many problems associated with locking memory. It also means programs and processes run faster as multiple cores are better used. Rattner said: 'We have to solve this problem if we are going to exploit the potential of high core count processors.' Intel's model had a swivel keyboard Intel shows Origami concept One aim of power-efficient computing is to create a truly portable PC or ultra-mobile, the concept that made Cebit - which happened at much the same time as IDF - so interesting [see pages 14 and 16]. IDF attendees looked at a selection of prototypes running Microsoft's Origami software. They ranged in weight from 450g to 650g, slightly lighter than most of the production models shown at Cebit. Details of the specifications were scarce but there was speculation that they were using clocked-down chips to keep with the 5w power limit. One of the Intel models, just visible in the picture [right], had a swivel keyboard. You can see more pictures at |/vww.pcw.co.uk/21 51 sTT] YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support ROB JONES AT INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM < NEWS Frugal dual-cores out soon Viiv goes with media flow Three dual-core processor ranges will be launched this year using Intel's new power- efficient core microarchitecture [see page 14] amid the usual confusion of codenames. Coming this autumn will be a new desktop processor, codenamed Crusoe, which is said to have 40 per cent better performance than today's fastest mainstream product, the Pentium D 950, while using 40 per cent less power. Due at much the same time is Woodcrest, for servers and high-end workstations. A third, Merom, will launch this year as part of a 'refresh' of the Napa platform, the second- generation Centrino notebook architecture designed around Core Duo processors. Intel said Merom will have three times the performance per watt of the original Pentium M notebook chip and will have more processing Intel senior vice-president Pat Gelsinger holds 12 of Intel's new dual-core chips at IDF power than current Core Duos. It will draw much the same electrical power, allowing notebook builders to use it in existing Napa products without modifying their thermal design. Napas have been on the market for only a few months. A third-generation of this platform dynasty, codenamed Santa Rosa, will be launched next year, probably under the Centrino umbrella brand [although Intel has not yet said so]. This will use the Merom processor and a chipset comprising Crestline, offering improved integrated graphics and security and the ICH8-M communications hub supporting 10 USB2 and three Sata ports. A module called Kedron will extend the current Wifi support from 802.1 1 abg to the emerging 11n standard. This is not due to be ratified until next year and so may dictate the Santa Rosa launch date. The new platform will also use a technology called Robson, using fast Nand flash memory [initially just 256MB to keep down cost] and clever caching to speed bootups and application loading. This should give laptops instant-on and -off capabilities making them suitable as home-entertainment systems. Many of the mobile Centrino innovations will migrate to Intel's Viiv platform for entertainment PCs, to help cut down on noise and heat. Viiv version 1 .5 will be launched later this year and will include digital-rights management to allow protected content to be pumped around homes. Don Macdonald, who is in charge of Viiv, said Intel had built several improvements into Microsoft's Windows Media Center software, including better power management, making it easier to access content on a hard disk without the host PC switched on. Intel argues that Viiv PCs are now quieter and cooler than many other living-room devices. Macdonald showed a chart of Viiv's heat and noise compared with other common devices. You can see it by following the links at tvww.pcw.co.uk/2151585] DrayTek Broadband Firewall/Routers vigorTaik Vigor2900 for DrayTEL www.dnytci. org DrayTek routers and firewalls provide a vast array of essential and advanced features, designed around users needs, The new Vigor2800 series provides compatibility with the latest ADSL2+ lines, as well as enhanced security, content filtering, VPN, 108MWs wireless and Voice-oveNP. Also available is the Vigor2900 series for cable modem users and the new Vigor3100 router/firewall for SDSL. The new Vigor3300V is a high performance firewall, VPN concentrator and VoIP [Voice¬ over-1 P] device. Stateful Firewall, load balancing, content filtering, up to 200 VPN tunnelsanduptoS VoIP ports. {Due March]. Vigor2800 Series DrayTek VoIP-equipped routers tel you use your broadband line to make and receive voice calls. Calls to any other VoIP-equipped users are completely free and you can make calls to regular phones via DrayTEL with national & international calls from just 1 p/rmin. Available from 020 0381 S500 VoIP ; BQQSOGf Jdraytal.org For full details of all models visit www.draytek.co.uk SfMcfcation lo chflfiga FrolllteB vewy ViBb modal. ] 23 YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support June 2006 |www. pew. co.uk VA1912w [19"]: Resolution 1440 x 900, contrast ratio 500:1 .response time 8ms, VA2012w [20"]: 1 680 x 1050, 600:1, 8ms, 300 cd/m2, 1407125° h/v VX2025wm [20"]: 1680x 1050, 800:1,8ms [gtg], 300 cd/m2, 1407125° h/v VP231wb [23"]: 1920x 1200, 500:1, 12ms [gtg], 250 cd/m2, 1767176° h/v brightness 300 cd/m2, viewing angles 1507130° h/v Expand your view with ViewSonic's widescreen displays. The 16:10 aspect ratio provides more productive space for multiple windows, high definition images and immersive gaming action. These feature-rich displays ensure crystal-clear images and crisp text. Upgrade your workspace while staying within your budget - choose a widescreen display from ViewSonic. For further information or to purchase from a ViewSonic authorised reseller go to lwww.ViewSonic.co.uk 1 YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support ViewSonic the choice of professionals TECHNOLOGY < NEWS Last call for mains adapters? Multiple power adapters could soon be a thing of the past thanks to an upgrade of technology that powers a device over the same Ethernet cable that delivers data. The IEEE 802. 3af Power-over- Ethernet [PoE] standard currently allows for the delivery of just 13w, enough to drive small low-drain devices such as webcams. It was approved only three years ago, yet already one in six new Ethernet ports are powered. Now an IEEE taskforce plans an
• 3 at standard that will deliver

  up to 45w. 'That's enough for a laptop or a motherboard plus memory,' said Igal Rotem, CEO of PoE pioneer Powerdsine. The standard, expected to be ratified late next year, will be the nearest thing yet to a universal DC Powerdsine offers 802.3af-compatible systems delivering up to 35w power supply. It falls short of the ideal, a plug-and-play system that simply delivers what a device says it wants - an idea, easily possible with existing technology, that has never gained industry momentum. Rotem said the 45w standard will have the same effect. 'I believe that soon you will go to any hotel, any airport in the world and power will be delivered over Ethernet. You will need one cable and a plug - the RJ-45 [Ethernet] jack.' Rotem said the RJ-45 is used on networked devices in every country, unlike mains and device power plugs. He thinks laptops could be PoE-enabled for as little as a dollar a unit. Powerdsine sells both midspan units [left] - which PoE-enable an existing switch - and chips that manufacturers use to embed PoE into switches. PoE sockets can be safely used by non-PoE devices. The company plans to offer 'pre-802.3at' 45w systems in 2007. Rotem said, as far as possible, they would be made upgradeable to the standard when it is approved. Organic transistors reach silicon speed A polymer that matches the electrical performance of amorphous silicon could lead to a cheap way to make electronic paper. Amorphous [non-crystalline] silicon is sluggish compared with the more structured form used in processors. But it is relatively easily to deposit over large areas and is commonly used to create the matrix of thin-film transistors [TFT] that drive most LCDs. Companies such as Britain's Plastic Logic have been developing organic [that is, carbon-based] semiconductors that promise less-expensive ways to do the same job. They can be made into inks so transistors and entire circuits can be printed out by inkjet or gravure even press. The new polymer, reported in the April edition of Nature Materials, is said to have six times the performance of any similar material previously reported. It was developed at the Merck labs at Southampton and at Stanford and other California establishments, lain McCulloch, project manager at Merck, said the main aim was to reduce manufacturing costs. The polymer is compatible with plastic substrates that could 'enable a new generation of flexible, lightweight and ultimately large area displays'. It is likely to be used first in disposable novelty items, followed by small reflective PDA displays or epaper, and posters. 'Further away are large, high-resolution displays such as active-matrix LCD or OLED [organic light emitting diode],' McCulloch said. Smart optical fibre follows its own logic Researchers have found a way to create smart optical fibre capable of performing tasks currently done by external electronics. They created a transistor in a fibre just five-millionths of a metre in diameter by injecting vapourised germanium at very high pressure to create a layer of crystallised semiconductor. The work done at Southampton University's Optoelectronics Research Centre in Britain, and Penn State University in the US, is essentially a proof of concept which should lead to more complex devices. Pier Sazio, a research fellow at Southampton and lead author of a report on the work in Science, said the technique could be used to create modulators, which translate an electronic signal into an optical one or switches. 'The leap forward is to engineer rich optoelectronic functionality inside an optical fibre,' he said. A basic building block of fibre links and the web, the erbium-doped fibre amplifier, was invented at Southampton in 1986; it allows optical signals to be amplified without the need for a slower electronic process. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Data link hits 2.5Tbits/sec Researchers have transferred data at 2.56terabits/sec over a 160km glass-fibre link - more than twice as fast as the world record of 1 .2Tbits/sec and the equivalent of sending the contents of 60 DVDs in one second. The new world record was set by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications in Berlin in co-operation with Fujitsu Laboratories. They point out that network traffic is increasing by more than 50 per cent a year, which will force the industry to make more efficient use of better optical fibre links. A Fraunhofer statement said: 'In today's systems only a fraction of the almost inexhaustible bandwidth of optical fibre is exploited.' PC dongle for wireless Skype UK-based Bluetooth pioneer CSR has developed a Bluetooth dongle kit for making Voice over IP [VoIP] calls wirelessly via your PC. The CSR Voice Dongle 1 kit is designed for manufacturers to build products around. It comprises all the components needed for a low- cost plug-and-play USB dongle that will let you make free Skype calls via a Bluetooth mono headset. It will automatically locate your Bluetooth headset and allow you to accept or reject calls, adjust the volume and mute calls. Headset specialist Plantronics plans to launch a dongle based on the chip soon. HD streamer D-Link is offering a home media streaming device that supports high-definition video. The £221 DSM-520 Media Lounge also streams music and photos, which it can access on a USB drive as well as your PC's hard disk. It can use a wired or 1 1g wireless link and has an HDMI [High- Definition Multimedia Interface] interface, as well as S-video and composite-out connections. June 2006 lwww.pcw.co.uk 1 25 Your views, our say LETTERS DIY PCs are best X Send your letters to The Editor, PCW,

  VNU Business Publications, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London. W1 A 2HG. Send your email to |etters@pcw.co.uk In a recent group test [£699 PCs, April
• you covered the pros and cons of

  assembling your own PC versus buying a prebuilt model. However, I feel that certain points were missed. I don't dispute that it's easier to buy a prebuilt machine. The machine comes preloaded with the software and warranties are all in place. For a novice or casual user this is the sensible choice. However, for the more experienced, buying a PC does not represent the cost- effective option that nearly everybody assumes. It is always presented in the media that assembling your own PC nearly always costs the same, if not more than a prebuilt option. Then on top of this, attention is drawn to the fact that your custom system doesn't have warranties and support. I find this to be missing the point. A self-built PC will still have some form of warranty on each separate component, usually for 12 months or more - for example, my hard disk has a five-year warranty. With regard to cost, building your own high-spec PC is not what I would consider to be 'expensive'. Once you have built your first PC, you use it as a base and perform major upgrades later on. For instance, my next major upgrade will only require me to purchase a motherboard. Ram, CPU and possibly a new graphics card. All other components will be utilised from my current system. So obviously it will cost less than a prebuilt PC. Add to this the enjoyment I've had in building and setting it up, plus its specification meets my requirements exactly. People will always buy from mass manufacturers, but the fact that building your own PC is always seen as the more expensive option, and less reliable, infuriates me. We all read PC magazines because we want to learn more about the technology, or simply because we're passionate about it. It's precisely us, and yourselves, who should be passing on the positive message that building a PC is a sensible option, that in many instances it's cheaper and it's far more enjoyable! Carl Barker Kelvyn Taylor replies: We do agree with most of your points and, to be fair, we did mention component warranties and the satisfaction you can get from building your own PC. But it's certainly not the cheap route to owning a PC that it used to be. IN THIS SECTION 26 LETTERS 28 THE ADVISER OPINION BB Gordon Laing 34 Barry Fox 36 Guy Kewney 26 POSTCODES Kelvyn Taylor replies: You 're right, FOR TOM TOM and we apologise for the oversight. Many thanks for the recent But Tom Tom doesn 't make it obvious round-up of sat nav devices in that this is the case and there's a your May 2006 issue. It confirmed specific FAQ on its support site about that my recent decision to buy a Tom Tom One was the right one. The Tom Tom One supports full However, on page 79 you state seven-digit UK postcodes in the table that the Tom Tom One only has partial support for UK postcodes. As a proud owner I feel I should point out that this is not the case. Full seven- digit postcode support is available by selecting the Postcode icon rather than the Address in the navigation screen. Only a minor error in an otherwise excellent article. Keep up the good work. Chris Lee YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx this. Why the full seven-digit search isn 't made available in the address search remains a mystery. MEMORIES OF COMPUTERTOWN UK I was interested to read John Bone's letter re Computertown UK [CTUK] in the April 2006 issue. Yes, John, there are still some of us about. I helped create CTUK Thanet in the early 1980s together with my colleague Jon Finegold. We had great fun putting computers in local libraries so that the general public could get some hands-on experience. That was in the days when libraries didn't know what kww.pcw.co.uk line 2006 LETTERS < INTERACTIVE

  1 Unless otherwise stated, letters sent to the Editor, PCW team or contributors will be considered for publication. Letters may be edited for clarity or length. computers were, either, but they were enthusiastic and keen to see what could be done. I remember having long telephone conversations with David Tebbutt which were sometimes interrupted by the demands of his small children. I wrote a piece about our Computertown Thanet activities for PCW and later helped organise and run a CTUK stand at the PCW Show in the Barbican Centre, London. Now, aged 70, I am still an enthusiastic PC user as well as a PCW reader. Much has changed but the wonder of it all continues to stimulate and delight. Peter Kiff TABLETS MISS POINT The tablet PC group test in April's PCW was interesting, but the machines seemed to miss the point in such a major way that I'm not surprised the tablet concept hasn't taken off. Surely the key thing about a tablet is that it is light and convenient to move about? To use it standing up, to have it in a meeting without looking like an idiot? When sitting at a desk the motivation becomes minimal. Doesn't this point to a detachable keyboard, and the CD /DVD drive in a docking station? Basically what would be nice would be something superficially like a laptop, where the screen part detaches and is usable as a tablet, and the other half holds the keyboard, optical drive and so on. OK, I can see there are balance issues, but I can also see ways round them. Is this what Microsoft's Origami will be? Seems not. Tom Richards BEWARE LIMITATIONS OF FLASH MEMORY I enjoyed your article in the April 2006 issue about putting software onto USB memory sticks. With the size of Flash memory increasing all the time, they have many uses. However, it might have been best if you included a warning about the life of this type of memory. Much of the Flash Ram is guaranteed to provide 100,000 read/write operations, after which it will malfunction or not work at all. This may seem like a very large number, but it would be very easy for a computer booting up into Windows to write to a specific address on the Flash Ram hundreds of times. In as little as a year, the memory could begin to malfunction if a computer is repeatedly booted up using one. There are ways around this: temporary files could be written to the hard disk and not the Flash Ram; the swap file located on the hard disk; the software written so that components needed during operation are transferred only once, rather than being loaded/unloaded repeatedly. When software and the Windows operating system are written in this way, then we will be able to use these USB memory sticks as a reliable means of keeping all our personal data/programs safe and transportable. Until then, it may be best just to use them for emergencies or for just having a bit of fun. Thanks for listening. Keep up the good work with your magazine. Tim Howarth Kelvyn Taylor replies: It's true that individual Flash memory cells have a limited lifespan , and we wouldn 't recommend using a Flash drive to run an operating system from for extended periods. BACKING A RACEHORSE Having struggled to run a small Internet business on an aged Dell Pentium 200 machine, I finally A detachable keyboard might make tablet PCs more convenient to use, and more popular upgraded to what the PC World salesman called 'a racehorse of a laptop, sir'. And initially it was. I installed new software and ran all my business phone calls through Skype. Then a cooling fan started rattling like a faulty Zimmer frame and the 'N' key stopped working. For two weeks my laptop disappeared into the parallel universe of the HP repair shop. I eked a living on the old Dell. I lost all my business phone calls and could not use my whizzy new software. The moral of the story? If you upgrade from a very old machine, make sure you have a suitable backup, and an analogue phone line, if you want to eat. Richard Barker BT BLACK HOLE I reside in a rural black hole of Surrey just 40 miles from Central London. Not only can I not receive any mobile signal; even from Orange which has a mast a mile away [behind trees], but we have also been deprived of broadband and had the distinction of being the last exchange in Surrey to be not connected. During the past three-year period, BT insisted it had 'no plans' to provide broadband as the number of subscribers was uneconomic. Campaigns by rural businesses eventually enabled the supply of broadband to be put to tender. Brilliant! However, BT won the tender. Following a successful breakfast meeting, with free croissants and coffee, the backwoodsmen and women were advised that the necessary black box would be installed in the local exchange in one week's time, and we should check with BT that the overhead copper wire supplying us was adequate to give YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support satisfactory bandwidth, then we could have the line tested and request connection. Following the meeting, a casual check on the BT website still indicated that BT had no broadband plans for our exchange. A lengthy telephone 150 enquiry [over one hour] involving multitudinous menus, salespeople, broadband specialists and anyone who the person answering the enquiry could pass me on to, led to the answer that BT had no knowledge of the impending enablement, it did not know that a tender had been held or that it had won it and all its current information indicated that there were still no plans to install it on our beleaguered exchange. I await 'D' day in three days' time with great interest and wonder whether BT should really have a monopoly on all our copper wire. I am still debating whether to use it as an ISP! David [surname withheld by request] Next month's prize for the letter of the month is a Pinnacle Soundbridge This sleek network music player is a true plug-and-play solution for enjoying all your digital music throughout the house via your existing Wifi router. It lets you control your music library from across the room using the remote control and plays a large selection of Internet radio stations, even when your computer isn't on. It requires no software installations, and supports audio formats including wma, aac and mp3, as well as a multitude of music services such as Itunes and WMP10. For more information on the Pinnacle Soundbridge, go to lwww.pinnaclesys.com] ] 27 June 2006 lwww.pcw.co.uk INTERACTIVE > READER WATCHDOG THE ADVISER PCW GIVES ADVICE ON YOUR RIGHTS X Send details of your dispute to |theadviser@pcw.coAii Protect brands and trademarks

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• it certainly looked much better than when I'd connected my Media PC directly to the TV. So far so good. This was exactly what I wanted from the Xbox 360 and I had visions of retiring the PC to a back room and using the console as the main client in the lounge. There was just one problem: noise. Microsoft may have cunningly allowed the Xbox 360 to slow down most of its cooling fans when working as a Media Extender, but it's still loud. In media mode it may be whisper quiet compared to the rocket-launch volume of the fans when it's playing games, but it's still considerably louder than my Media PC. For me that's a deal breaker. I was impressed by the functionality of the Xbox 360 and quality of its outputs, but the noise was too much for a discrete media experience. Microsoft clearly wanted a compact form factor for the console, but I'd have sooner had a larger box with more opportunity for quieter cooling. This won't stop the console selling in droves, but I reckon the perfect streaming appliance for Windows XP MCE PCs has yet to be made. PCW YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support ] 33 June 2006 lwww.pcw.co.uk INTERACTIVE > STRAIGHT TALKING I've got the multiformat blues Barry Fox explains why the new Blu-ray and HD-DVD standards could he dead in the water before they even launch The first blue -laser optical drives and players limp onto the market in a few weeks. Don't be fooled by the happy absence of regional coding. Image Constraint Tokens [ICT] and Digital Only Tokens [DOT] that stop American discs playing in Europe and disable or downgrade the quality of analogue viewing. The first players are being launched under an 'interim' licence from AACS-LA [Advanced Access Content System Licensing Authority], which controls the AACP [Advanced Access Content Protection] used by Blu-ray and HD-DVD. The final licence, due next year, will enforce ICT and DOT. The Blu-ray group says it will use regional coding as soon as possible. HD-DVD will have to follow suit. There will be three numbered regions; 1 for America, Japan and Asia, excluding China; 2 for Europe and Africa; and 3 for China The thought of a terabyte home recorder to download HDTV movies is very attractive' and Russia. It will be far tougher to hack than DVD's flimsy regional coding system. The blue-laser standards battle is not a re-run of VHS versus Betamax. When that war was declared, everyone wanted a video recorder
• it was just a question of which format won. Blue laser is a re-run of DVD-Audio [DVD-A] versus Super Audio CD [SACD]; or recordable DVD; or UMD [Universal Media Disc] movies for the Playstation Portable [PSP]. DVD-A and SACD were offered to people who were happy with CD and DVD. Most spent their money on Ipods instead, so Apple won that battle. There were five recordable DVD formats, six if you add the fact that DVD-RW blanks can be formatted in two different ways; DVD-VR mode for editing but no playback on most DVD players and video mode with no editing and better compatibility. DVD recorders now handle four kinds of blank. Only DVD -Ram is usually left out. The result is a pig's ear, with headache -making instructions on using all the format, edit and finalise options depending on your media type. In practice, this means VHS is being replaced by hard disk recorders - a terabyte home recorder is due soon. Sony dreamed up the UMD format, the non¬ standard read-only mini-DVD, as a way of pirate¬ proofing movie playback on a PSP. But although games are global, Hollywood regionally codes UMD movies. It is easy to copy movies from DVD to Memory Stick and then play them on a PSP - with no regional coding. So UMD movies are flopping. Sony already reads the writing on the wall. The company's latest hard disk recorder grabs broadcast TV in mpeg2 and mpeg4 at the same time. An hour of mpeg4 then takes only two minutes to transfer to the PSP memory via USB. Sony's Location Free TV is a new 'place -shifting' system that lets a PSP with Wifi Internet access tap into your home TV and video recordings. The control software is already available, ready for a summer launch of the base stations that connect a home TV to broadband. I recently watched BBC TV in a Tokyo cafe; if I had paid Boeing for inflight Wifi I could have watched it on the plane. Students in digs should be able to watch Sky Sports recordings. So who needs UMD movies? And who will choose one blue-laser format over the other and risk becoming the mug who bought Betamax? There is already talk of a blue-laser deck that takes both formats; it will cost more and confuse users just like a multi -standard DVD recorder. The computer companies tell us we need blue-laser drive for PCs. I'd certainly like a cheap removable disc that can run a full system backup, unattended overnight. But PC hard drives already far outstrip the 25 GB coming from blue laser. Both blue-laser systems use AACS copy protection. A player's encryption is automatically updated to defeat hackers, by using hidden code on new movie discs. But if something goes wrong or a hacker gets in, the player is rendered useless. AACS-LA has still not thrown AACS open to pre-launch challenge, as the music industry did with the Secure Digital Music Initiative [SDMI] protection systems. Princeton University, you will recall, hacked this and SDMI admitted defeat. AACS-LA ducks comment and remains 'not able to confirm who the appropriate contact is at this time'. A terabyte home recorder, downloading HDTV movies from the Internet or by satellite, looks more attractive every day. PCW YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 34 jvww.pcw.co.uk line 2006 its, Thx for Support POWERFUL • INTEGRATED • RELIABLE • SILENT Don’t just run windows, fly it with Panrix AMD Dual Core... Tel: 0870 027 1981 Fax:0870 027 1984 sales@panrix.co.uk Computer WoHd _ Full range of systems available at our website Panrix Ltd Unit 19 Sheepscar Street South Leeds L37 I AD AMD Athlon X2 www.panrixxo.uk £594.89 ex VAT £699.00 inc.VAT Panrix IQ Cube 3800X2 Panrix Magnum 3700 c32Htflr pONRIX £815.00 ex. VAT £957.63 inc. VAT Specifications: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800 + S939 Gigabyte GA KSNStCMF-S NF4 S939 PChE uATX DDR400 SATA 11582/1394 7JCh Audio 25GMb Sapphire PQ-E ATI X&D0GT GDDR3 VGA TV DVI Graphics Card 1GB Corsair PC3200 DDR400 300GB SATA Maxtor Diamondmax 6L300S0 Hard Disk Pioneer DVR- HOD DVD Wnter ViewSonic VX924 19in TFT 1.280 x 1.024 Aniec Ana MicroATX Cube Case Specifications: AMD Albion 64 3700 32/64 Eh[ CPU 3939 Ague ASN-SU , ATX. DDDR40Q, PCI-E, Gb4 Lan, USB 2.0. 1394. 8ch Audio. 4 x SATA. Raid nVidta GeForce 680€GTn28MB XFX PCI-B Graphics Card 1GB PC3200DDR4OO 250GB Samsung SP2504C Hard Disk 16X DVD+/-R Samsung SH-W162C DVD Writer LG L 1950SQ 8m 1ST 1260x1024

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  Ultimate Silent Performance Systems wvrntA SL1 INTERACTIVE > KEWNEY@LARGE ewne The problem with programming a house Guy Kewney thinks we won 't achieve fully automated homes until systems can integrate without irrational copyright harriers Suppose your home is a computer. How would you program it? To quote Deep Thought [the computer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ]: 'Trrrrrricky!' The problem is, there isn't a home -integration system. You'd want to be able to write commands such as 'open front door', 'move audio output from TV room to upstairs loo' or even 'lock bedroom door, dim lights, play Dire Straits'. More to the point, you'd want to be able to link the bedroom door to the security camera or allow the hob to send messages to the oven, or the TV to negotiate bandwidth with the cable modem. And if you bought a new fridge, you wouldn't want to have to rewrite all the code. In today's domestic environment, you have to deal with each device separately. If you have an 'e-fridge', it can indeed be programmed to read Automation is making us incapable of risk assessment in our private lives' barcodes off products and note use-by dates. But the average fridge can't communicate with your online supermarket account and find out how quickly they can deliver orange pimentos. You can get an idea of what this system would look like if you study Microsoft's Biztalk Server. It's almost impossible to get a sensible description of this product. Ask the experts and they retreat into gobbledygook. 'Business process management' they say, as if these three words conveyed meaning to anybody who didn't already know what they meant. But the idea is as simple as the 'home operating system' and just as complex to create. It's the idea of turning the whole business into a programmable entity. In your home office, for example, you don't have to rewrite your word processor if you sell the monochrome laser printer. You merely install the new drivers for the new colour inkjet - and suddenly all the printouts are in colour. A personnel department, of course, doesn't have drivers. If you sign a contract with a new building contractor, the contractor doesn't come with a standard interface to the purchasing office; instead, humans start printing out bits of paper and transferring data from one system to another; and 'automation' isn't possible. Biztalk creates the interface into which all business functions can be plugged, through which they can exchange data. Inevitably, it's huge, unwieldy and takes rather more time to explain than a 10-minute demo, but that's it in a nutshell. So when will we have a Hometalk Server? I was invited to see Home 2 at BT's research facility last month and it had all the things you'd want: a stereo TV, Ethernet on the mains cables and wireless webcams looking at the door. And none of it worked together. Microsoft has been looking the wrong way; it's been working on what it calls a 'media centre' computer concept. In fact, it's little more than a big flat- screen TV with Microsoft's copyright -enforcement software inside. I think copyright enforcement in the age of the Internet is doomed. You can make life difficult for people who use one medium, yet all that achieves is to make them use another medium. And copyright owners connive in this: providing things free so newcomers will discover and like their material and end up being prepared to pay for it. What isn't doomed is rational integration: the creation of a shared background intelligence. It has to know where you store your data, where to find things and which of them are compatible - and you don't. That's what automation is. Whether automation is good for us is another question. You can argue it is making us incapable of risk management and risk assessment in our private lives. In a world where it is proposed that hot water should be impossible to get out of a hot tap because someone might scald themselves, risk management is hard to learn. But automation is what we're trying to achieve. When a URL appears at the bottom of a television news item and I can click on it. I'll know someone has cracked it. But if the only fruits of integration continue to be stupidities such as Google's media player, which 'downloads' a video of 1KB that you can't play when you're offline because it needs to talk to the Google copyright server to play, then I'll know they don't see any profit in true automation. The sad thing is. I'll bet they don't make money out of their copyright-management stuff, either. PCW YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support 36 ivww.pcw.co.uk line 2006 Trusted tests from the UK's best Labs EDITED BY WILL STAPLEY WHAT'S NEW THIS MONTH The Mesh Pegasus SLI is one of a handful of new models to ship with two Nvidia Geforce Go 7800GTX cards. Unsurprisingly, it stormed through our benchmarks, leaving the majority of desktop systems in its wake. Of course, portability takes a bit of a knock and it's not the kind of notebook you'll be taking with you on a commute. Read the full review on page 44. Apple's Intel crusade continues with an updated version of the Mac Mini. It's more expensive than the previous model and Apple still hasn't addressed the 3D side - it still runs off integrated graphics. Find out what we thought on page 48. We also have a selection of group tests, including the latest entertainment PCs and a collection of miniature TV tuners. CONTENTS HARDWARE 44 Mesh Pegasus 7800 SLI 45 Evesham Axis Dominator 79GT Chillblast Atlantis Crossfire 48 Mesh Pegasus 7800GTX Apple Mac Mini PERIPHERALS 49 Eizo FlexScan S2410W Sony MFM-HT205 50 Samsung SP-P300ME 53 Logitech Cordless Desktop S 530 Laser for Mac Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 54 Kodak Easyshare v570 Plextor PX-EH40L 55 Brother MFC-820CW 56 Logitech Z-5450 57 Gigabyte GC-PTV-TAF Hawking HWU54DM Terratec Aureon 7.1 Trendnet TEW-429UB COMPONENTS 58 Enermax Laureate EB305C Hitachi 7K100 Nvidia Geforce 7900GT Passive Technologies HFX Silent Case Kit SOFTWARE 59 Onspeed Mobile 61 AVG Free for Linux Roxio MyDVD Premier OUR SCORING 62 lolo System Mechanic 6 Avanquest Ghostsurf Platinum: Identity Protector 63 ACDsee Pro Photo Manager Intervideo Ivideo to go GAMES 64 Star Wars: Empire at War 65 Majesco Advent Rising Toca 3 66 How we test GROUP TESTS 69 Entertainment PCs 81 Budget audio-sequencing software 91 Miniature USB TV tuners Prices include VAT unless otherwise stated Excellent ★★★★★ Very good ★★★★ Good ★★★ Below average ★★ Poor ★ OUR AWARDS Editor's Choice: The best product in a comparative group test. Anything that wins this award is of better quality than its competitors. Recommended: A product that combines great features, usability and value for money. Great Value: Not the best in class, but a product that has superior features and performance for the price. Editor's Choice Recommended Great Value 'Lightning-fast performance and whisper quiet, Chillblast's Atlantis Crossfire is a gamer's dream machine.' Read the review on page 45 ] 43 YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support June 2006 lwww.pcw.co.uk REVIEWS > HARDWARE SLI NOTEBOOK Mesh Pegasus 7800 SLI Nvidia's portable SLI technology redefines notebook gaming When Nvidia beat arch- rival ATI to create a dual-graphics card system back in early 2005, we were treated to some of the most impressive benchmark scores to date. Now, barely a year on, Nvidia has done it again with the SLI [scalable link interface] for notebooks. Various manufacturers are releasing notebooks that support this new technology. Evesham, Rock and, as featured here, Mesh, are all using the same Clevo M950K chassis. The notebook makes use of an AMD Turion 64 Mobile MT-40 processor with a clock speed of 2.2GHz. A total of 2GB of DDR400 Ram sits alongside the processor. But it's the graphics we're interested in. Inside the gargantuan case lie two Nvidia Geforce Go 7800 GTX cards, each with their own 256MB of dedicated Ram. We expected the Pegasus 7800 SLI to return some exceptional benchmark scores, and we weren't disappointed. The previous top-performing notebook to pass through the PCW Labs was Evesham's Voyager C720 [see |www.pcw.co.uk/214639ll], which notched up 6,885 in 3Dmark05 with its single Geforce Go 7800GTX. Although Mesh's SLI behemoth can't double this, it still managed to blitz to a score of 9,881 . Take it from us; this notebook will have no trouble running the latest games. Of course, there's no point having powerful graphics if you don't have a screen with a decent native resolution. Thankfully, the Pegasus 7800 SLI comes with a 19in display [the largest we've seen on a notebook] with a widescreen resolution of 1,680 x 1,050. Viewing angles are good and overall image quality is impressive, but we've seen better. A DVI port sits on the back of the chassis should you want to hook up an external display, but if you're likely to be using a separate monitor most of the time, you might want to consider purchasing a standard desktop and saving yourself some money. The 80GB hard drive is a little disappointing, but purchasing an external drive to use in conjunction with it won't exactly make much impact on the overall weight if you do need to shift it to another location. With such a large chassis, fitting in extra bits and bobs was never going to pose a problem. NEC's ND-6500A eight-speed dual-layer DVD writer sits to the left next to the audio outputs. Five USB2 ports and a single Firewire one, as well as a multiformat card reader are also available. Naturally, 802.1 1 b/g Wifi is present, while Bluetooth and infra-red are offered as alternatives. Whether this can actually be classed as a notebook is up for debate. At 6.7kg there's simply no way you'll be carrying it around on a regular basis. It will also start crying out for power if you try using it away from the mains for any length of time. It's best not to think of it as a notebook, but rather a portable all-in-one small form factor PC that you can carry in and out of different rooms in your home without having to unplug a monitor and detach the keyboard and mouse. Beating the majority of desktop PC systems in our 3Dmark05 benchmark, there's no doubt the Pegasus 7800 SLI has taken a massive leap in terms of notebook gaming. The Turion 64's performance isn't quite as impressive, but we fully expect to see a similar model with a desktop processor in the near future. Naturally, we're also looking forward to ATI's Crossfire response. Will Stapley YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Performance Sysmark 2004 SE: 182 0 ' 100 ' 200 ' 300 3Dmark05* 9,881 0 ' 5,000 ' 10,000 ' 15,000

  Tested at 1 ,024 x 768 in 32bit colour Details Price £2,199 _ Best price kvww.pcw.co.uk/bestprices | Contact Mesh kvww.meshcomputers.com ~| Specifications AMD Turion 64 MT-40 [2.2GHz/25w] • 2GB Ram • 2 Nvidia Geforce Go 7800GTX 256MB graphics cards • 19in screen [1 ,680 x 1 ,050] • 80GB hard drive • 5.1 surround sound • Dual-layer DVD writer • 802.11 b/g • Firewire • 5 USB2 • DVI port • Bluetooth • 4-in-1 card reader • 1.3megapixel camera • Windows XP Home • 3 -year warranty Verdict Pros Graphics; screen; 2GB of Ram Cons Processor; bulky and heavy Features ★★★★★ Performance ★★★★★ Value for money ★★★ Overall Expensive, but a giant leap forward for portable gaming ★★★★ 44 1/vww.pcw.co.uk line 2006 HARDWARE < REVIEWS DESKTOP PC Evesham Axis Dominator 79GT Performance Sysmark 2004 SE: 239 0 ' 100 ' 200 ' 300 A good value-for-money PC running one of Nvidia's latest graphics cards Evesham is the first to launch a PC with one of Nvidia's 7900-series graphics cards. Instead of going for the high-end 7900GTX version, however, Evesham has opted for the Geforce 7900GT. Performance isn't as good as the GTX or ATI's Radeon XI 900 XTX, but this PC is better value for money and, unless you're looking for top-notch gaming speeds, will be adequate. Fast graphics are backed up by a dual-core AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ and 1GB of Ram [two 512MB PC3200 Dimms]. Compared to the Decimator chassis of Evesham's Axis FX 60 Fireball, the Dominator 79GT's black panelling looks mundane. Under a small flap on the front of the case are two USB2 and a Firewire socket, plus audio connections. Two Sony drives [a dual-layer DVD writer, and a DVD- Rom] take care of optical storage, and you also get a 250GB 7,200rpm Western Digital hard drive. Viewsonic's VA1912 monitor is a 19in widescreen TFT with a 1 ,440 x 900 native resolution. The contrast ratio of 500:1 and 8ms response time are respectable. Although Windows Media Center Edition is included, there's no TV tuner to take full advantage of it. You could, however, add an internal or external tuner. The Dominator 79GT flew through our Sysmark 2004 SE benchmark and achieved a score of 239. Meanwhile, the Geforce 7900GT graphics card helped 3Dmark05 to 8,089 at the standard resolution of 1,024 x 768, which beats previous PCs we've seen with Nvidia's 7800GTX. Creative's l-Trigue 3220 2.1 speakers won't blow you away, but will suffice for general PC use. Evesham has included some of the latest technology in this PC while keeping the price down. It's not quite under the £1 ,000 mark, but it's still a good-value system. Will Stapley 3Dmark05 8,089

  0 ' 5,000 ' 10,000 ' 15,000

  Tested at 1 ,024 x 768 in 32bit colour Details Price £1 ,099 Best price [a/ ww.pcw.co.uk/bestp rices | Contact Evesham [/vww. evesham.co.uk | Specifications Athlon64 X2 4200+ • 1GB PC3200 Ram • 250GB hard drive • Nvidia Geforce 7900GT 256MB • ViewSonic VA1912 19in TFT • Sony DVD-RW & DVD- Rom • Creative l-Trigue 2.1 speakers • 3-year warranty Verdict Pros Powerful graphics and processor; reasonable price Cons 2.1 speakers; no TV tuner Features ★★★ Performance ★★★★★ Value for money ★★★★★ Overall A TV tuner would have been good, but it's still a powerful system at a good price ★★★★ DESKTOP PC Chillblast Atlantis Crossfire Two graphics cards, 800GB of storage, an overclocked FX-60 and water-cooling It only takes a brief glance at the specs to see why Chillblast is asking well over £3,000 for this monster. We expected to see a dual-graphics card setup and a fast processor, but we didn't anticipate that the whole system would be water-cooled. To highlight this, Chillblast has mounted the water reservoir at the front of the PC for all to see. The Atlantis Crossfire runs off an Athlon64 FX-60. When AMD released this processor, many were disappointed that it only had a core clock of 2.6GHz [200MHz slower than the FX-57]. Indeed, Chillblast decided to whack the core up to 2.9GHz with a 233MHz front-side bus and multiplier of 13x. Chillblast tells us it tried pushing the FX-60 further, but stability became an issue. ATI Radeon XI 900 XTX and XI 900 XT Crossfire Edition graphics cards link up to provide staggeringly powerful graphics. Both have a massive 512MB of Ram at their disposal. Two 150GB drives sit in a striped Raid array while another 500GB drive pushes the total storage to just 200GB shy of a terabyte. The end result of these high-spec components is a ludicrously fast PC. In Sysmark 2004 SE it scored an astonishing 320, while 3Dmark05 caused it no problems at all with a result of 14,279. Both are way ahead of any other system we've ever reviewed. You'll find full performance scores at |www.reportlabs.com] Both the CPU and graphics make use of the same Nexxxos Alphacool water-cooling system, which provides quiet and efficient cooling. Lightning-fast performance and whisper quiet, this is a gamer's dream machine. You can find a more in-depth review of the Chillblast Atlantis Crossfire on the PCW website at |www.pcw.co.uk/21 52952] Will Stapley YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support Performance Sysmark 2004 SE: 320 0 ' 150 ' 300 ' 450 3Dmark05* 14,279 0 ' 5,000 ' 10,000 ' 15,000 *Tested at 1 ,024 x 768 in 32bit colour Details Price £3,524.99 Best price ww.pcw.co.uk/bestp rices |

  Contact Chillblast 0845 456 7830

  i/vww.chillblast.com

  Specifications Water-cooled Athlon FX-60 CPU [2.9GHz] • 2GB Mushkin PC4000 Redline DDR-Ram • Asus A8R-MVP motherboard • Water- cooled ATI Radeon X1900XT-X 512MB & Crossfire • 2 NEC 4551 dual-layer DVD-RW drives • 2 Raptor 150GB hard drives [Raid 0] • Seagate Barracuda 500GB drive Verdict Pros Powerful; quiet; components Cons Overkill for most users Features ★★★★★ Performance ★★★★★ Value for money ★★★★ Overall Quiet, powerful and one of the fastest PCs around ★★★★★ ] 45 June 2006 lwww.pcw.co.uk PROFESSIONAL WEB Enhance your website with 1&1 If you have a business website and want to give it more appeal, or if you want to liven up your hobby or family website; then develop your internet presence by giving your customers the latest information from hot off the press. 1 &1 Dynamic Content lets you enrich your site with fresh content and real time news. Add valuable content from a large range of topics, at no extra cost. Seamlessly integrate web content onto your website quickly and easily with 1 &1 Dynamic Content. Select the topics of your choice and incorporate them via the 1 &1 Control Panel No HTML knowlege or programming is required and there is no software to install 1 &1 Dynamic Content is compatible with 1 &1 's intuitive site building tools and your favourite web editor. Once your modules are picked an automatic backend process will ensure your content is continuously updated. Leaving your website current and completely maintenance free. Add Dynamic Personal & Bu Modules included with the 1&1 Dynamic Content: ■ UK News ■ International News ■ Business News ■ Top Stories ■ Technology ■ Science/Environment ■ Celebrity News ■ UK Weather ■ Film & TV ■ Music British Airways to axe over third of its managers ■ British Airways [BA] chief executive Willie J Walsh ©AFP/British Airwavs/File I LONDON [AFP] - British Airways is to get rid of I more than one third of its managers over the next 1 two years under a restructuring programme that aims to slash costs across the group. The job cuts of almost 600 managerial posts, or 35 percent of the total, were set to save the airline 50 million pounds [73 million euros, 86 million dollars] as part of its drive announced in January 2004 to achieve a 300-million-pound cost reduction programme by March 2007, BA said in a statement Wednesday. The restructuring will see a total of 597 management posts lost by March 2008. The number of senior managers will be reduced by half to 207 and there will be a 30 percent reduc¬ tion in the number of middle managers to 91 1 from 1,301 . Hurricane Katrina to cost Lloyd's 1.9 billion pounds Residents wade through a flooded street in New Orleans E ©AFP/File James Nielsen i I LONDON [AFP] - Lloyd's, the world's biggest 1 insurance underwriting market, raised its . estimated pre-tax loss from Hurricane Katrina to 1.9 billion pounds [2.8 billion euros, 3.3 billion dollars] from 1 .4 billion. Lloyd's also forecast that Hurricane Rita would cost it 535 million pounds and that Hurricane Wilma would add 483 million to the total. As a result, the market said that chances of posting a profit for 2005 were weak. "The net loss from Katrina is now estimated at 1 .9 billion pounds," Lloyd's said Wednesday in an official statement. "This compares with the provisional estimate of 1 .4 billion given by Lloyds on 14 September which was based on the very limited information available at the time." T.j^uh Teni.j'rw 2 UJH ? Daya \ 1st March 200b Turn Fiscal urn W&athw t- cteudy wiE tog piatoh Wind. L>r« 5 mph 4 r ■ MW Qtajhu of PrftapriMHfi, UV Inaax BO% X'jf. 1 UK News Keep your visitors up to date with the latest political, economical and cultural news. Make your site the source to visit for up-to-the minute news. Business-News Present the latest business news on your website. Include the latest stock market results, currencies, and personal finance. Weather Display the local, regional or national weather forecast on your website. Show the temperature, 5-day forecasts wind direction and more. Member of r II Ok'/fiR