Most of you have read the first and second part of my series on Second Life where I have covered everything from Avatar design to the kinds of places and people you’ll meet. From Svarga to Sumos, Miki Tiki to Molestation Station — there’s been a lot of places, and Athena has rocked them all. Problem is, with becoming known as the Journalist within a vast world of people needing a voice, everyone wants to give you theirs. More often than not, you’re being accosted by furries with vendetta against those who scornfully view their races. Not just that, but the people of different factions of websites that have their own Sims and are noticing the cyber-blood war start to take off. What do we do in this case? Real life situations are heating up where we thought they’d never even enter and for what? To be able to stake your claim on a simulated piece of the “World” according to Mr. Linden?

My situation began when a person introduced me to a place owned by the popular web site, “SomethingAwful.com”. When I was introduced, a few interesting characters (One of them being Steven - Pictured) lead me around and showed me that they have themes sometimes twice a month where they recreate the sim based on the new theme. The current theme is “Masaland“, a land that they say takes it’s inspiration from the Care Bears and goes absolutely ballistic once the main designers get their hands on it. Once I was lead around and introduced to the main people that inhabit this Sim, I decided I liked it. Sure, their humor was crude and their behavior bordering the world of the Griefer - but that just made it all the more fun. There, you could do all those obnoxious things that you couldn’t in other Sims because there was no code, no moral obligation to be a good Avatar and do what you’re told.

This came with frustrations though, such as meeting someone whom definitely made me laugh on many occasion - but seemed to have their own set of issues outside of Second Life. Once I started to become more regularly introduced around the Sim, we spoke more and ink droplets of their life were getting dripped onto the personal messages that popped up on my screen. Suddenly I knew more and more about this person, yet their behavior did not change in the actual Sim. Confessions of sadness and depression, significant others that had wronged them and were caught roleplaying on Second Life SO much that they felt neglected. Was Second Life becoming a more artificial yet strangely more real version of the Everquest scare? Were people getting so wrapped up in their avatars lives that they were ignoring their real life partners?

If you take a moment to talk to people who take up the space in Second Life, they’ll relay to you that the world their avatars live in is exactly that - a world. This isn’t just some chat window that people design in, this is their world and with every ping - they’re breathing in the air of whatever Sim they’re standing in. So far, the simulation that “SomethingAwful” created made the most sense. They were using Second Life as a sandbox to design in, where they send their ants in to dig deep and mysterious holes in the matrix of code and maybe, just maybe they come out on the other side.

As proven by my raptor-headed, afro-wearing friend, sometimes that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes you have to quit Second Life like any other habitual drug; cold turkey. Would my journey prove the same thing? Where would I go after this? What would I do? What else is there to find in Second Life? I have no clue, but I’m down to find out.

Today has been a very busy day here at TEK. When I got up this morning, I didn’t expect that I’d have to work this hard. Actually, I didn’t really expect to work at all. But that’s okay! Why? Because today I’m able to review some really cool computer peripherals from CoolIT Systems. While I still have the review of the CoolIT Systems Freezone in the works, I’d like to right now direct your attention to this little active cooling solution by CoolIT, known as the PCI Cooling Booster.

The PCI Cooling Booster is a fan peripheral situated in a clean looking aluminum frame. The frame screws in to the top and bottom brackets of your standard 7 slot add-in card section at the back of any normal computer case. The fan rests inside your computer case and blows air onto your PCI card bays so you’ll get direct airflow onto the hot components of your computer case, especially with today’s video cards putting out 60 degrees Celsius and up worth of heat. Needless to say, the PCI Cooling Booster works wonders on any case with decent airflow by directing some of that air onto the PCI slots and chips around that area. If your case does not have a side-panel fan, the PCI Cooling Booster could mean the difference between a decent overclock and no overclock.

As you can see in the above shot, the PCI Cooling Booster only has a two-pin fan lead which doesn’t allow fan-speed monitoring on this device. A lot of modders and overclockers are big on fan speed monitoring so we hope that CoolIT Systems adds this into their next revision.

The PCI Cooling Booster mounts directly on the top and bottom (expansion slots 1 and 7, effectively) expansion slots at the inside back of your case. It can mount on these slots even if they are occupied by a PCI card because of the unique “riser” thumb screws that just screw into the mount holes. The PCI Cooling Booster also supports large size video cards by prividing four “riser” thumb-screws that mount of top of each other, just in case your video card’s board is a bit larger than the norm. This is a very welcome addition to the unit, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to mount it inside some cases due to some ATi Radeon card’s bulk (like mine).

And now, on to what you all want to know. Does the PCI Cooling Booster actually boost PCI Cooling? And the answer is: most definitely! After taking the side intake fans off my side panel, my video card (an ATI Radeon X1950 PRO 256mb PCI-E card) clocked in at 48 degrees C. Not bad, you may think. But after I added the PCI Cooling Booster, the same card ran at a full 5 degrees C cooler; at 42 degrees C. While this may not seem like a lot to some, it actually is. Being able to achieve even a few degrees cooler could mean the ability to push every iota of performance out of a chipset. It also means cooler ambient temperatures inside the case.

So, all-in-all, the PCI Cooling Booster definitely cools the hot PCI components of a motherboard and it does so with very little noise. The included fan may be small but it moves good air with a very decent noise ratio. It also lights up with cool blue LEDs for all of you who love to pimp out your computer cases with un-natural lighting effects (I’m one of you, I admit it).

So, if you’re looking to get the lowest temps from your video card without water cooling of gigantic 14-lb heatsink units, then the CoolIT Systems PCI Cooling Booster is for you. It will keep your PCI cards and, more importantly, your graphics card cool. If you are overclocking your video card and need some extra active cooling, then this is a product that performs; and one you should definitely look into adding to your system.

Here’s something neat that’s been received at AMN Tek. CoolIT Systems brings us the CoolIT Beverage Chiller. This little gadget promises that it’s built-in cold plate chills to 45 degrees F and “keeps beverages at a cool drinking temperature”. Cold beverages and PC or console gaming sure go good together, right? So let’s take a look at the Beverage Chiller and see if it does what it was made to do.

Here we can see the actual blue “cold plate” with the CoolIT Systems logo. The cold plate resides in a white plastic case with a USB cable; which means that the beverage cooler can be used with desktop computers, laptops, your Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PS3, or anything with a powered USB port. Talk about convenient! The cold plate is big enough to place normal size cans of Bawls, soda cans, bottles, or mugs and glasses on it with no problem. But good luck if you drink like a racehorse and absolutely must have a 32 or 48 ounce bottle of Gatorade on hand at all times (like myself). Upon testing the unit with a tall glass of (sugar-free) iced tea for 45 minutes with my parched mouth waiting to get its drink on, I’ve come to the conclusion that the CoolIT Beverage Chiller does exactly what it’s made to do; and that is keep your favorite beverage frosty cold while you’re in the heated battle of a Quake 4 deathmatch or just simply watching your Sims run around and do stuff.

All-in-all, I’d say that the CoolIT Systems Beverage Cooler is a great, little gizmo, that does exactly what it was meant to do. It keeps your drinks cold in case you are in the middle of a game or if you need to run out for a little bit. Just place your beverage container (provided it fits) on the beverage cooler and let stand. When you get back, your drink will be just as cold as you left it.

We did find one little problem with the Chiller. If the room’s ambient temperature is scorching hot, the Chiller really won’t make a difference. So if you live in the middle of the desert or any place with high ambient temps, you can help the Beverage Chiller do it’s job by keeping your air conditioner running.

If you do a little searching at online stores, you can find the Beverage Cooler can be yours for anywhere between $18-24 USD. That isn’t bad at all for the amount of cooling this little guy does for you. Besides, have you ever tasted warm Bawls? It’s just as bad, or worse, than any other hot sugary soft-drink.

If you’re a gamer and you absolutely must have a cold drink nearby in the middle of frag fests, then the CoolIT Systems Beverage Chiller is something you might want to take a look at.