The operating system itself is Linux based. Bout 256Mb big I believe. And is stored on an on-board chip, unless of course you happen to have Express Gate SSD which comes on a 512mb – 768mb flash add in. The OS lets you boot up into the Internet, Skype, Instant Messenger, Photo Viewer and depending on which motherboard you have you get music playback to.

The main reason I’m reviewing V1.4.4 (Asus P5QL-E version) is because it was gob-smackingly wonderful. The 300mb file (which Asus let me have a 20Kbp/s, cheers for that) intrigued me as usually the new update were pushing 70 – 100Mb. So I downloaded it and expected to see no visual improvement so I didn’t rush to restart my PC to have a gander. But after I finally did I was gob-smacked, the new layout is not far off vista’s cleanness, and is much better layed out than the previous versions. I’ve also noticed a slight improvement in load times, Firefox (splashtop browser as its called) loaded a lot faster than it used to as did the photo viewer but I was a bit disappointed to see the messenger side of things a bit worse off, Skype taking slightly longer to sign in as the messenger program (which does like to throw up contacts missing errors every now and then).

But overall I have to say the new major update has made me think of not bothering to boot into vista as I don’t really need to now unless I want to play a game. The only thing stopping me from doing this is the lack of music and video playback (oh and maybe a torrent app) but because I payed £63 for this motherboard I’m not expecting the best, I suppose you get what you pay for. Most of Asus new motherboards which display the Ai lifestyle sticker or which have the P43 chipsets (and upwards) include it now, apart from the gaming series motherboards, which is a shame as it’s a fantastic feature.

All in all Asus have shown real initiative in making the time to put this in. This is mostly aimed at people who are in a rush and don’t wish to wait a long time for XP/Vista to boot just so they can read their emails or make last minute plans over Skype/MSN. One thing that I am a little disappointed about is that at the moment there is no version for PC’s running the Windows 7 Beta/RC even though its in its very early stages most companies have seemed to make at least some effort in porting drivers over to it and Asus should to as it seems to be the “Leader in hardware”

For those interested I’ve taken some pictures of Express Gate.

Hope you enjoyed my review and stay tuned for the next one.

A little note, if you want to install this onto windows 7 then put the installer into compatibility mode for Vista SP2.

Also you may like to know that MSI have made something similar called WINKI, stupid name I know but if it’s like Express Gate then you’d put up with it.

Have you spotted any additional features that are missing? Please post any feedback below.

Windows as of late seem to be focusing on safety but the tools they have implemented to do this cripple the OS, for example UAC (User Access Control) it’s there to keep you safe but just become an annoyance, so the first thing we are going to disable is UAC, now if you have decent internet security on your machine (not Norton or McAfee) then chances are it’s safe to turn it off.

Second thing we are going to turn off is the Search Indexer, it is there to speed up file finding but if you keep everything tidy in the first place then it’s not needed and can be disabled to free up some memory.

Third Thing you can do if you have a small amount of total memory is use vista’s and windows 7′s “Ready Boost”. This allows you to use any old pen drive you have lying around as RAM. Any size will do 128mb all the way up to 8Gb.

Forth thing to do is turn off Aero if it’s crippling you system. Aero is the flashy yet resource heavy theme that comes with Vista and Windows 7, if you have small memory and/or an old graphics card then it may improve system performance to turn it off and use the Basic theme.

Fifth thing to do is tell Vista or Windows 7 to use more than one core and more memory on start-up this can be done by typing msconfig in the search bar and going into the boot section then advanced options, there you will have the option to use 1 to #cores you have and the amount of memory it can have. The best option to use it all the cores you have and half the memory (don’t worry it wont use half all the time, just at boot-up)

Sixth thing to do is get rid of unwanted start-up programs anything like messenger or MS office. Stopping these speeds up the login and desktop loading times.

Lastly if you have Norton or McAfee as your internet security I strongly urge you to uninstall it and get something like Kaspersky (if you want to pay for it) or AVG/Avast Free edition. The main reason is Norton and McAfee use up an un-needed amount of memory and CPU resources.

Now we dive into special programs that do all the hard stuff for you, the program we are going to use is TweakNow WinSecret. This program is free and very easy to use but I will still be using some visual tools to smooth the process.

The first thing you will need to do on Windows 7 is put it into compatibility mode for Vista SP2 because for some reason even though Windows 7 is supported it can’t read the memory and bottle’s out.

First thing you’ll want go into is the Windows Core area which is shown below:

Then you’ll have a new window with the following options:

Windows Prefetch – you’ll want to leave that alone and just empty the prefetch using the button at the bottom.

Windows Time Out – You can set the number to whatever you feel but the best option is clicking the “Recommended” button at the bottom.

Cache – This gives you the option to keep data in the RAM rather than the Page File, this is supposed to speed things up but I found it hogs a lot of memory on long uses, nearly filling my 6Gb, so we leave this option alone.

Miscellaneous – This gives you three options Automatic Restart, NTFS File System and Library files. We leave the first two alone and just check the “Force Windows to unload DLL’s after program close”

Security – This gives you the option to unload the page file on shut down, this doesn’t do much other than make your PC shut down take 3 times as long so we leave that unchecked.

You then save and close the sub window.

We now go onto the Network and Internet Button back on the main screen.

We are now met with 3 sub-tabs.

On the “General” Tab just check the “SACK” option.

We leave the “MTU” tab alone

We then go to the “Others” Tab and check the MTU Auto Discovery box as well as putting the number of connections of HTTP 1 and 1.1 to 10. Save and then close the sub window.

Well that’s it for this article, if there is any other tips you have and want me to add just drop a comment and I’ll put it in.

The Tetrad brings something different to the PC experience.

The Cyro Tetrad is a member of the High Performance Designs family where it is simply the best when discussing value for money. The high performance power PC is aimed at power users and game addicts.

When unboxing the Tetrad monster, it is all so boring since you have to unravel your way through huge levels of packaging and then coming to a huge dull, black Lian-Li case. However, from then on it all becomes exciting because when you have finished attaching all the wires and press the power button, its quite invigorating.

If you look inside the computer, you will envisage that all the wires are elegantly put together, perhaps to help have clean airflows. The dominant computer lights up, the Cryo logo turns neon blue and the mesh underneath does so also, what a sight!

In addition to the lighting effect, when connected all it up, there is a small LCD screen standing on top of the PC which shows the systems information i.e. the date and time of start up.

Booting Vista up is really quite rapid for this leading gaming PC unit, but you must customize your package from the website before purchasing because you could be let down by the less developed graphics card, which could ruin your pricy experience.

Product Features

• Revolutionary Intel Core i7 920
  with Cryo Boost @ 3.8GHz
  (4 cores + Hyperthreading)

• Intel X58 chipset
  QPI 4.8GT/s (Boost 6.4GT/s)

• Fast and powerful graphics with Cryo NVidia GTX 260+ Core216 – Cryo Boost OC

• High Memory Performance  with 3GB 1600MHz DDR3 and latency Cryo Boost overclocked.

• Flexible 1TB (1000GB) SATA-II RAID0

• Enhanced Performance Air Cooled added efficiency.

• Lian-Li P60 case in Black

• Realistic HD Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer sound

• 650W Power Supply Unit

Get the full specifications here.

For more of Cryo products visit here.

Our Opinion

Pros

• Unique small gadgets such as fan speed controller.
• Huge processing speed with 8 cores each 2.67GHz.
• New Core i7 processor technology.
• Built-in SAS RAID for high speeds.

Cons

• Less RAM than other cheaper models.
• GeForce GTX260 Graphics card could be much higher since it is the ultimate gaming pc
• £1595 bit too much for something a normal consumer will use for perhaps less than 4 hours daily.

Verdict

Overall, I feel this is a great gaming PC but it does have a large price tag which, during these difficult economic times, will put off consumers. Nevertheless, other consumers such as gamers will most probably be enticed into this deal since the specs are mouthwatering. However, Cryo could have included further components for example a Blu-ray drive would have gone nicely, since we are paying a huge sum. Thus, the Cryo Tetrad is definitely aimed at the top end of the market and to those who don’t fear spending £1000′s on one single PC.

Ubuntu 9.04 includes the latest 2.6.28.8 kernel as well as many other features

Ubuntu sponsors, Canonical , announced the release of Ubuntu 9.04 destop version that can be downloaded for free now!

Ubuntu is an open source operating system with the intention of supplying an up-to-date, stable operating system for the normal computer user. In addition to stablility Ubuntu try to target ease of use and installation. Ubuntu can be used on almost anything including Desktops, Business PC’s, Notebooks and many others that are able to support x86 CPU or ARM CPUs, this has only been adapted in the 9.04 version.

One standard, but remarkable (because it outdoes Vista) feature of Ubuntu is the Compiz Fusion 3D desktop, which has enables some really cool effects. Of course, for this feature to function you need a 3D accelerated graphics card.

In terms of ease of use, Ubuntu outshines Vista without a doubt. But it is arguably limited when it comes to software. Most applications written for Windows have not been ported with Linux, and therefore you may not be able to get your favourite programs running on Ubuntu. However, I don’t think this is much of a problem, as there is a whole world of open source out there, which sometimes provide even better functionality.

An ideal alternative is VMware. They have created a server version of their software which is free. It essentially allows you to run multiple operating systems at the same time, by creating a virtual machine. So, you could have Vista and Ubuntu running at the same time, which can improve efficiency greatly, if you have to use both OS’.

Canonical Jane Silber who is chief operating officer quoted,

“With every release, we see Ubuntu Desktop Edition make significant steps forward in appealing to mainstream computer users. With access to the latest office productivity suite, support for Skype and Adobe Flash, and faster boot times, we’re confident that Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition will see more people join millions of others and make the switch to an open platform.”

Product Features- Ubuntu 9.04 includes the latest 2.6.28.8 kernel, and a multitude of features. Here is a taste:

• OpenOffice 3.0
• Latest Skype
• Latest Adobe Flash
• Faster boot times
• Gnome 2.26
• Brasero 2.26 (all-in-one CD burning application)
• More intuitive multi-monitor support
• X.Org server 1.6
• More uniform notifications and system messages
• Ext4 file system support
• A Netbook Remix version, which offers:
  • Even faster boot speeds
  • Enhanced power management
  • Easier network switching
• A Server Edition

Get the full technical overview here

Read Canonical’s press release on Ubuntu 9.04 here

You can download Ubuntu here.

Our Opinion

Pros

- Includes OpenOffice 3.0, which has been vastly improved

 - Can read/write to all Windows hard drive formats

- Easy to use and install

- Vastly improved boot times

- Evolution PIM and mail client now features even better Microsoft compatibility

- Variety of Versions

- Trouble free operations

- Ubuntu’s notorious ‘wiry fonts’ have been changed- now the font makes for more solid glyphs

- Significant server platform developments

Cons

- Not enough new features

- Lack of Game support

- Program on the System –> Preferences menu which was supposed to allow control over the notifications is not included in the final release for unknown reasons

Conclusion

To be honest, this is probably the least ground-breaking release of Ubuntu so far. There just aren’t enough new features. The netbook remix of Ubuntu 9.04, however, offers significant improvements over previous releases, and is worth a try if you use a netbook. Having said all this, Ubuntu is still miles ahead of any other desktop version of Linux, and this release does have some significant server platform developments. Personally, I think Ubuntu is on the same level as Windows and OS X. We’ll just have to wait and see where Ubuntu goes from now on.

Ubuntu 9.04 Screenshots

Better colour scheme, font and overall interface for the desktop

So much cleaner and more efficient than Vista...

Installation page finally allowed to go full screen!