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Core 2 Mobo Shootout!

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The Fastest PC Ever!

This quad-core beastslayed our benchmarks!

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NEXT-GENPC GAMING!

MINIMUM BS • JANUARY 2007

Your PC Problems Solved?

Virtual machines can maketroubleshooting simple!

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PC graphics that surpass EVERY console! First DirectX 10 card – Tested & reviewed! 5 cool technologies that revolutionize gaming!

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than one hour!

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The Ofﬁcial Verdict

Windows Vista

REVIEWED:Nvidia'sGeForce8800 GTX

40

Vista Reviewed!

Find out how Microsoft’snext version of Windowsstacks up.

TheGoodand BadofIn-Game Ads

Contents

Ed Word

Please send feedback and anything but fruitcaketo

will@maximumpc.com.

JANUARY 2007

MAXIMUM PC

05

I

was ﬂoored by the deluge of feedback I receivedabout my

Battleﬁeld 2142 review

(December 2006).It turns out that you guys really don’t like in-game adsin any form—at least you don’t think you do. You guysare even talking about boycotting every game thatuses in-game ads. But not all in-game ads are bad.The problem with the game industry is thatdevelopment costs are skyrocketing. A triple-A,single-player title shipping this holiday probably cost$20 million to create. Games that include copiouscontent—like MMOs—can cost twice that. Anddevelopments costs are only going up in the future.To break even on a $20 million game, thedeveloper needs to sell more than 400,000 copiesat $50 a pop. (To keep the math simple, I’m going toskip the retailer’s cut of the proﬁt, marketing costs,packaging and distribution, and the rest of theincidentals). Now 400,000 doesn’t sound like a lot ofcopies, but it is—especially for a single-platform title,and especially if that platform is the PC. To put thenumber in perspective,

Half-Life 2

is one of the best-selling PC shooters ever, and it’s only moved 4 millioncopies since 2004.While the cost of game development hasskyrocketed over the last 10 years, the price of gameshas remained relatively steady. We’re just now makingthe jump from $50 to $60, and only for PS3 and Xbox360 games, so far. Although games are selling morecopies, developers and publishers still have to recoupmassive development costs—not to mention thelosses on failed games.To cover the gap, some companies haveembraced subscription models, where you pay amonthly fee to play. Other publishers have boostedrevenue by selling small add-ons that enhance thebase game. But in-game advertising isn’t anythingnew. Companies have been placing ads in theirgames for several years. These ads aren’t all bannersor billboards; there are pop soundtracks and in-gameproduct placements too. As the trend continues, there will inevitably besome offensive in-game ads, but most are inoffensive,and won’t hurt us (or our hobby). Here’s my rule:

In-game ads shouldn’t distract me from the gameI’m playing.

They should ﬁt in with the setting.They shouldn’t be animated or use a distractingcolor palette. And they shouldn’t collect any moreinformation about me than a similar web ad would.If in-game ads let developers make moreinnovative games, without passing the added costto me, then I say, “Bring ‘em on”—as long as theyfollow my rule.

48

Get Virtual

Learn to use virtualmachines to maketroubleshooting yourPC easier!Next-gen consoles be damned! Thelatest hardware and software willknock your socks off!

26

This isDirectX 10 Gaming

Features

MAXIMUM PC

01

/

07

MAXIMUM PC

EDITORIAL

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Will Smith

MANAGING EDITOR

Katherine Stevenson

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Michael Brown

SENIOR EDITOR

Gordon Mah Ung

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

David Murphy

SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

Steve Klett

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Norman Chan, Gord Goble, TomHalfhill, Cameron Lewis, Paul Lilly, Thomas McDonald

EDITOR EMERITUS

Andrew SanchezART

ART DIRECTOR

Natalie Jeday

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR

Boni Uzilevsky

PHOTO EDITOR

Mark Madeo

ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHER

Samantha Berg

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Sandra SilbereisenBUSINESS

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Anthony Danzi646-723-5453, adanzi@futureus-inc.com

SOUTH WESTERN ADå DIRECTOR

Dave Lynn949-360-4443, dlynn@futureus-inc.com

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER, ENTERTAINMENT

Isaac Ugay 714-381-3419, iugay@futureus-inc.com

NORTH WESTERN AD DIRECTOR

Stacey Levy 925-964-1205, slevy@futureus-inc.com

EASTERN AD MANAGER

Larry Presser646-723-5459, lpresser@futureus-inc.com

EASTERN SALES MANAGER

Kristin Kelleher646-723-5491, kkelleher@futureus-inc.com

ADVERTISING COORDINATOR

Jose Urrutia650-238-2498, jurrutia@futureus-inc.com

MARKETING COORDINATOR

Michael BasilioPRODUCTION

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Richie Lesovoy

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Dan Mallory CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION MANAGER

Peter Kelly

NEWSSTAND MANAGER

Elliott Kiger

PRINT ORDER COORDINATOR

Heidi Hapin

FULFILLMENT MANAGER

Peggy Mores

Quick Start

AMD’s new 4x4platform and CPUs unveiled! .................

08

Head2Head

Intel’s mobile CPUsface off....................................................

16

WatchDog

Maximum PC takesa bite out of bad gear .............................

22

How To

Build and host your ownblog, in less than an hour! ......................

55

Ask the Doctor

Diagnosingand curing your PC problems ................

58

Contents

R&D

How Voice over IP (VoIP)telephony works ..................................

60

In the Lab

Vista test beds;USB thumb drive benchmarks ............

62

In/Out

You write, we respond..........

94

Rig of the Month

Brian Carter’sBoeing 737 mod ..................................

96

DepartmentsReviews

Gaming rig

Maingear F131..............

64

Videocard

Asus EN8800 GTX .........

66

Motherboards

Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H; Asus P5N32-SLI Premium;EVGA nForce 680i ...................................

68

Videocard

BFG GeForce8800 GTS ..................................................

70

Videocard

HIS X1950 ProIceQ3 Turbo ............................................

70

Network storage

BuffaloLinkStation Pro ........................................

72

Streaming device

RokuSoundBridge Radio..................................

72

USB thumb drives

CorsairFlash Voyager; Patriot Xporter XT;Kingston DataTraveler Secure .................

73

JANUARY 2007

MAXIMUM PC

07

74

Splinter Cell: Double Agent

.............

74

Reservoir Dogs

.....................................

75

Sid Meier’s Railroads

.........................

75

Gaming

73

FUTURE US, INC

4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080www.futureus-inc.comPRESIDENT

Jonathan Simpson-Bint

VICE PRESIDENT/COO

Tom Valentino

VICE PRESIDENT/CIRCULATION

Holly Klingel

CFO

John Sutton

GENERAL COUNSEL

Charles Schug

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/GAMES

Simon Whitcombe

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/MUSIC AND TECH

Steve Aaron

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Dave Barrow

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/TECHNOLOGY

Jon Phillips

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/MUSIC

Brad Tolinski

DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL SERVICES

Nancy Durlester

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Richie Lesovoy

Future US, Inc. is part of Future plc.Future produces carefully tar-geted special-interest magazines,websites and events for peoplewho share a passion. We aim tosatisfy that passion by creating titlesoffering value for money, reliableinformation, smart buying adviceand which are a pleasure to read orvisit. Today we publish more than150 magazines, 65 websites and agrowing number of events in the US, UK, France and Italy. Over 100international editions of our magazines are also published in 30other countries across the world.Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange(symbol: FUTR).

FUTURE plc

30 Monmouth St., Bath, Avon, BA1 2BW, Englandwww.futureplc.comTel +44 1225 442244NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN:

Roger Parry

CHIEF EXECUTIVE:

Stevie Spring

GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR:

John Bowman

Tel +44 1225 442244www.futureplc.com

REPRINTS:

For reprints, contact Ryan Derﬂer, Reprint OperationsSpecialist, 717.399.1900 ext. 167or email: futurenetworkusa@reprintbuyer.com

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