I’m not usually one to endorse a Microsoft product, Windows Media Player 11 is an exception. When I first executed the new version I was extremely pleased to see that it utilized some of Vistas new GUI (Graphical User Interface) design and ultimately matched my current XP theme Zune Remixed (black). That doesn’t say much in the way of usability or functionality however, so let’s get into that. I loved the new layout for the “library”. There are three different optional views for displaying your library of songs and albums inside WMP 11, they are icon, expanded and details. I chose to leave it at default (expanded) when adding my song folders this was a benefit down the road.

I kept the “expanded” view for a few reasons, I liked the how it displayed the album cover (if applicable) along with all of the other information that “icon” displayed, only lacking a couple bits of info that “details” provided like “composer” and “Release Year”. Adding your songs is a breeze! Just click and drag the folder containing your songs into the WMP 11 Library screen it will automatically catalog all of your songs for you. It catalogs songs into artist and album. This worked out great for me considering I have about 10 folders containing a total of about 5000 songs, none of which are really organized by year, artist or album, Media Player takes care of that.

At this point it was time to burn a CD, since all of my songs are now organized, this makes it incredibly easy to scroll through and select the songs I wish to burn. Just click the “Burn” tab at the top of the screen and notice a new window pane will appear to the right. You will now click and drag the songs from your library into the “burn” pane and click the “start burn” button below.

It’s actually really THAT simple. So what are the drawbacks to WMP 11? Well, I can tell that on most systems running anything below 1GB RAM and a decent video card, WMP 11 might operate a little sluggish. Also, for reasons still unknown to me, when burning a CD, WMP 11 TAKES FOREVER! It STILL goes through and verifies each song, then “converts” and then “starts the burn process” like in previous versions of WMP. I invited my sister over to burn a couple cd’s to verify the usability for a normal/novice pc user. I was embarrassed at the fact it took about 45 minutes to burn 2 music cd’s. That is too long! There is quite possibly a way around this, but so far NERO blows WMP 11 out of the water when it comes to the actual burning process, WMP 11 wins over usability. All in all I give WMP 11 4 out of 5 stars because I feel it functions the way a Media Player should, It’s usability is supreme over competing players and It has some valuable added features. It lacks the fifth star only because of the slow burning process”.

PRICE: RETAIL- $44.99

The release of the XBOX 360 brought a sigh of releif to the PC gaming community hoping make use of it’s controller under the Windows platform. This controller uses a standard “USB” connector and will install under Windows using the proper drivers supplied by Microsoft. The controllers sleek design is slightly smaller than the original XBOX “S” controller and also sports a softer feel. The black and white “thumb” buttons on the original XBOX controller were replaced by two extra triggers on the 360 version, these are programmable as most buttons are via the controls menu in the majority of games. This controller operates pretty well in most games post calibration in “start/control panel/game controllers”. For games without support for gamepads there are several third party tools like Pinnacle which allow you to create custom game profiles and map keyboard commands to the controller. I have tested and confirm this controller works excelent under: NBA LIVE 06,Tiger Woods 06, NHL 06, Need For Speed Underground 1+2, HALO PC, Harry Potter - Chamber of secrets, Harry Potter - Goblet of fire, All Lord Of The Ring games and Track Mania Sunrise. Not to say that this controller won’t work excelent under other games, though these are which I have tested.

Now for those “not so great” aspects of this controller. The pretty silver “X” in the center of the controller takes you to the XBOX LIVE menu on the 360 console. However, this button has no function as of yet for operation on the Windows platform. The “X” Lights up for aproximatly 3 seconds if it’s connected during the PC’s boot sequence. One of the biggest downfalls of the controller is the lack of “rumble” while operating under Windows. I have yet to find support for this even with third party tools. That is a big no/no. The lack of support for the issues I’ve mentioned come from the drivers Microsoft has provided for this controller. I have written them several times about these issues and will keep writing them until I see some progress, But you know Microsoft! All in all I give this controller 4 out of 5 stars simply because It has EXCELENT design , feels comfortable and operates as a “game pad” under windows far better than any I have come across as of yet. The reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is for the two main Issues I stated above, The lack of Rumble and support for the guide “X” button. Come on Microsoft! Release new drivers/fixes so I can hook you up with that extra star!

PRICE: 5.99 - OEM

As most hardcore PC enthusiasts, Modders or technicians will tell you creating stable system temperatures is a vital aspect when building a new system or over-clocking a processor. I purchased this product from NewEgg along with several other items including an ASUS motherboard, ASUS DVD BURNER (see review), AMD PROCESSOR and various other items. As always NewEgg shipped it to me lightning fast!
Thermal compound is designed to be applied conservatively between the CPU and the heat sink. Since the top of the CPU (processor) and the bottom of the heat-sink contain microscopic valleys the compound is designed to fill those valleys and thus create a consistent transferal of heat. I’m not able to give you specific temperatures your CPU should operate at because it comes down to the “core” of your specific Processor. How ever, AMD and INTEL have in depth information on all of their CPUs/CORES on their websites. Ideally lower temperatures are best, although too low can be just as dangerous as too high. An overall good range of temperature is “25-55c” for modern CPUs. (AMD claims some of their processors are stable with temperatures up to “75c”!!) Arctic Silver 5 has a some what smooth metallic consistency. After anywhere from 50-200 hours of application the substance thickens slightly but DOES NOT act as an adhesive. I applied arctic sliver to the following:

AMD 64 3000+ CPU (Processor)
AND
eVGA 6660 GT GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)

The temperatures for the “AMD 64 3000+ CPU (Processor)” prior to arctic silver application were as follows:
Idle = 34c
Load = 45c
The temperatures for the “AMD 64 3000+ CPU (Processor)” after the arctic silver application were as follows:
Idle = 29c
Load = 41c
The temperatures for the “eVGA 6660 GT GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)” prior to arctic silver application were as follows:
Idle= 49c
Load = 61c
The temperatures for the “eVGA 6660 GT GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)” after the arctic silver application were as follows:
Idle= 47c
Load = 60c
(Remember that GPU’s are a different than CPUs and are designed around operating at higher temperatures)

Overall I give Arctic Silver 5 out of 5 stars simply because it cost only around 6 bucks and lowered my CPU/GPU temperatures by a few degrees. That might not seem like a lot, but to me it’s worth the money, especially without adding any noise or special cooling.

PRICE: OEM-$37.99

ASUS Is a company that has been manufacturing PC systems and components for decades. In 2005 ASUS sold over 52 million motherboards worldwide. ASUS is a well known company in the computer technology field and they are also considered one of the best motherboard manufacturers. A month ago I purchased the “1608p2″ to place in a new system build. This is my first time using an ASUS optical drive first hand and I am impressed. The drive sports: 16X DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 8X DVD+R DL, 16X DVD-R, DVD-ROM 16X, DVD-RAM 2X DVD-ROM 40X CD-R 32X CD-RW 40X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With 2X DVD-RAM Read.

This is a standard IDE drive and is supplied with either a black or beige face plate dependant on your selection. I have used this drive to rip DVDs to my HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and make video backups by burning the *.VOB files to VIDEO_TS flawlessly. I have also used this drive to backup many large image files as well as web content, documents, saved games and such. I’ve been burning on Memorex 8x DVD/R’s at 7,550KB/s consistently. This drive also supports the use of DVD/RAM which is NOT DVD/(Random Access Memory) but is DVD/(Read-And-Write Memory) Similar to how a hard disk works, You can read and write memory to a DVD/RAM disk without the use of burning software like Nero. Keep in mind DVD/RAM will not be as fast or stable as your computers hard disk drive. Overall I am happy with the combination of price/speed and compatibility of this drive. However I have had what we nerds call a couple “coasters” which is just a failed burn and results in the loss of a DVD/R disk. I would say that this drive is 96% efficient. Because this drive isn’t a top model and does have a few VERY MINOR issues I still cannot bring myself to give it a 5 out of 5. I’m looking forward to seeing how ASUS does in the future in the way of optical drives.