2008

PC Pitstop OverDrive Beta

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Long time no see. What? It’s past Ground Hog’s Day? Man, I feel like I’ve been buried in a hole. The reason is because I have been working non stop on a (w)hole redesign of our world renowned Full Tests. We are renaming the service, PC Pitstop OverDrive Beta. Our plan is to run the beta for as long as necessary to weed out any last bugs. The product has already undergone substantial testing, but it is not possible to foresee every situation without a formal and public beta period. Once that is over, our plan is to move our signature Full Tests to OverDrive. Vrooom!

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New Box Blues

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All Brand New and Ready to Roll

Yep, when I plunk down $500.00 to $1200.00 or more, I’d like to think I’m getting the latest and greatest. We all know electronics become outdated faster than potato salad at a Texas picnic, but I would at least expect to get the darned thing out of the box before having to update it. Our recent comparisons found just the opposite.

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Firewire Ready PCs

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FireWire origins date back to the mid-1980’s when Apple Computer devised a high-speed data transfer technology for Macintosh internal hard drives. In 1995, the IEEE announced the IEEE 1394 spec which is sometimes called the FireWire400. In 2002, the IEEE came out with a updated standard called IEEE 1394b which allowed for a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 3.2 Gbps. Apple soon released a subset of the new standard under the title of FireWire 800. In December 2007, the 1394 Trade Association announced the FireWire S3200 that will soon be available and that will support the full 3.2 Gbps transfer rate.

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Windows SP3: The Long Journey

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Fact and Fable

Unlike a lot of sequels, Windows XP SP3 is better than the original. Any day now the official release is due to hit the streets. Rumors of 10% performance increases crowd my Googled results. My mind travels to increased scores for benchmarks. Microsoft’s favored son is rising to the position of SUPER HERO. “WINDOWS XP CONQUERS….” Oh, sorry, I’ll get back to earth now.

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