Norton Utilities' Shadow

I decided it was about time that I upgraded my old trusty version of Norton Utilities 2005 with the latest 2009 version. I bought it at my local PCworld shop as it was on offer for just £20. I am totally disappointed with this product which is now just a shadow of its former glory. Thank heaven that I didn't pay any more for it!

Gone are WinDoctor and SpeedDisk, CheckIT diagnostics, boot and run utilities from CD, etc. Instead is an installable and activation for just 3 PCs, which mostly consists of links to Windows own applets for performing system management, tune-up and diagnosis. From DOS days it was always the best set of tools to help you fix PCs. I still enjoy running WinDoctor from the CD on Windows XP systems, finding all the file and registry errors and then running the automatic fixer. It impresses my customers too. Why do the work yourself when you can get the computer to do it for you?

Anyway, I won't be using this latest version. I'll make a backup copy of the CD and put it in my bag just in case. I doubt if I'll be using it much though! Symantec does it again with a totally useless product release of what used to be the king of PC diagnosis and fix software!

Responsive PCs

Yet again I'm drawn to the subject of responsiveness. I've cobbled together a few parts recently and discovered a very responsive system. A Packard Bell minitower with a failed motherboard was the basis. I ordered a new Foxconn i846 chipset motherboard from Novatech for just under £25. Coincidentally a failed Novatech PC with an Intel Pentium 4 3.6Ghz gave me a replacement CPU.

Add 2Gb of PC5400 generic memory from ebuyer and suddenly I realised that I had a fast, responsive minitower computer on my hands. I replaced the Intel stock CPU fan with a cheap Akasa AK-956SF heatsink with fan from ebuyer which lowered the temperatures and noise levels.

This system is only a single core CPU with older technology motherboard, hard drive and memory yet it remains a very responsive computer system. It won't break any benchmarks yet it is still a responsive joy to use.

Cooling IT

As frequencies increase again for multicore CPUs from both Intel and AMD the importance of a good, efficient cooler becomes even more important. Though so called 'stock' air fan coolers that are supplied with the retail versions of modern CPUs are sufficient in cooling their associated CPUs at normal conditions, they are not the quietest or best cooling that can be used if you want to either overclock your processor or build an almost silent system.

I was confronted with both conditions for two different systems recently, one based on an AMD processor and the other an Intel, so I decided to investigate the technology of CPU cooling. There are definitely some weird and wonderful solutions out there including gas and water-based cooling for more money than you would pay for the processor itself. However in the more realistic world of air cooling fans the name of Zaalman was considered the best, but I could not bring myself to purchase beautiful copper cooling solutions for £50 or more when the price of the CPUs they were to cool were not that much more money.

In the region of £15 to £20 the name of Arctic Cooling came to the front, so I purchased one of these to try. I was amazed how much cooler and quieter the Intel system was! I quickly purchased the AMD version of the Arctic Cooler Freezer aluminium cooler. These seem the optimum price/performance solution as the CPU temperature and noise level dropped considerably when they were installed. Thoroughly recommended!