Headsets And Other Gaming Equipment

For the testing of PC gaming headset, Planet Quake used between four and eight PCs, with varying types of processors ranging from an Intel(R) Pentium(R) 90 up to an Intel(R) Pentium(R) II 450. Network cards and hubs were tested in both homogenous and heterogeneous environments. In the homogenous setup, all the devices were from the same manufacturer.

In the heterogeneous setup, products from different manufacturers were mixed to determine the level of interoperability. With both types of setups, Planet Quake gathered regular and measured ping measurements along with cumulative packet loss figures. Based on the findings, the SOHOware Fast Ethernet system received the best overall rating.

“We were encouraged by the extent to which Planet Quake evaluated all the competitive products,” stated Chang. “They applied comprehensive scientific methods to back up their findings.”

According to Ratcliff, playing Quake is a lot like NASCAR -- the gamer who comes with the best equipment has a pretty good chance of winning. “NDC's SOHOware Fast Ethernet system definitely gives gamers the edge in terms of better speed, which allows them to hone their skills and become better players,” added Ratcliff.

In addition to the SOHOware Fast Ethernet LAN adapter card, Planet Quake uses the SOHOware Plug-n-Switch 10/100Mbps Autosensing Switch to connect multiple LANs together on its network. The SOHOware Plug-n-Switch product alleviates potential network congestion with five- and eight-port 10/100Mbps autosense switches that provide up to 1Gbps/1.6Gbps aggregate bandwidth.

The SOHOware Fast Ethernet Convenience Pack (model no. SFE100B) carries a U.S. list price of $ 49 and a street price of $ 39. The pack includes a SOHOware autosensing 10/100Mbps PCI Fast Ethernet adapter card and a color-coded 25-foot UTP category 5 cable. The product is currently shipping at select retailers.The 5-port SOHOware Plug-n-Switch (model no. NSH500S) carries a U.S. list price of $ 400, with an estimated street price of $ 340.

The 8-port SOHOware Plug-n-Switch (model no. NSH800S) has a list price of $ 540, with an estimated street price of $ 480. Both products are now available through select retailers. The complete line of SOHOware networking products is available through retailers including CompUSA, Fry's Electronics, J&R Computer World, Micro Center, and Datavision as well as mail-order catalogs such as CompUSA Direct. All SOHOware products come with a lifetime limited warranty, toll-free live technical support and free software upgrades.

Based in Costa Mesa, Calif., the officials at Battle Command administer the internationally recognized Planet Quake Web site, which contains news, popular links, and gaming information for players of the game Quake. Among the attractions of the Planet Quake site is the Quake League where as many as 1000 gamers from around the world come to play Quake competitively in tournaments.

NDC Communications is a leading worldwide supplier of small office/home office and small business networking products, workgroup networking solutions and wireless LAN connectivity products. The company's SOHOware product family was developed to provide consumers with the most user friendly networking products available on the market today and embody the SOHOware slogan -- More net. less work.

SOHOware products provide an easy-to-use and, in some cases, intelligent network setup to ensure the utmost convenience and enable consumers to maximize the networking power of the Internet and corporate intranets for their own business applications.

Gaming PC