Week of May 11, 2008

"Rocketfish and Dynex are two brands owned by Best Buy sold only on their chain of retail stores (and also on their website, of course). Today we are going to review Rocketfish 700 W, a power supply featuring two auxiliary power cables for video cards, active PFC and a 120-mm fan. Costing USD 165, is it worth the price? Can it really deliver 700 W? Read on."

Today Artiom looks at the famed Western Digital 150GB 10,000RPM SATA hard drive. Can it stand up to the 1TB Samsung drive? The answers may surprise you...

CLICK HERE FOR Western Digital Raptor 150 Gb 10K SATA Hard Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

The average gamer is typically the consumer of various portable gadgets. Many people today have at least one MP3 player, video player, or some other form of portable entertainment.

CLICK HERE FOR SteelSeries Siberia Neckband SHOPPING & PRICING

The A-DATA X-Series is available in DDR2 and DDR3 flavors. Their DDR3 1600 MHz is set at a solid CL7 and comes with graphite colored heatspreaders in a very elaborate package. If 1600 MHz is not enough, you may go for the 1900 MHz version instead.

"Chipset cooling has become a predominant factor in many people’s choices when purchasing coolers, and with many CPU coolers offering impressive collateral cooling for the chipset, it seems that not much more can be done to cool the sometimes inaccessible chipset. Enter Coolink, who have sent me the new ChipChilla to review. "

" ...Both the Adata S701 EeePC Edition and the OCZ Rally2 Turbo are very good ... but, because I'm a fashion victim ... there's only one choice really for me. "

"When I reviewed their luscious A5s, my own music, music that I leave playing all the time, music that I can play in my head *sans stereo*, I... it mesmerized me. There was so much I didn't know I was missing, so much that I didn't expect to be able to hear without some studio phones. I will test these smaller, "desktop" speakers against a high standard. I will test them on an Audioengine standard."

Well one thing is for certain, the OCZ PC2-8500 4GB Dual Channel Reaper HPC Memory is fully compatible with the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P and ASUS Blitz Formula Motherboards. The memory is definitely capable of exceeding it's rated specs. Given the complexities and obstacles associated with a 4GB kit, 1066 MHz is a worthy achievement in its own right. The 4GB Reaper kit remained completely stable throughout testing as well as passed several hours of further scrutiny from our trusty RST PRO 2 provided by Ultra-X. If there were any type of weaknesses in the memory, the RST PRO 2 would have definitely found them.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Reaper HPC PC2-8500 4GB Memory Kit SHOPPING & PRICING

Enermax is one of the world’s most reputable switching PSU manufacturers and their products are considered to be some of the best that money can buy. Recently they released two new product lines, the Pro 82+ and Modu 82+ series. Both product ranges contain units with maximum power output ranging from 385W to 625W and whilst a maximum output of 385W may sound insufficient with the availability of 1kW+ PSUs during the past year, it is more than adequate power for a modern system with a single GPU and numerous drives installed. Today we will take a look at the Pro 82+ 385W unit which appears to be using some industry leading features and technologies despite being it the least powerful Enermax PSU we have tested.

"The average improvement of the Albatron GeForce 9600GT-512X over the ATI Radeon HD 3850 for both the game and synthetic testing is over 40%. There is no way you can spin these results to the ATI Radeon HD 3850's favor! Looks like the Radeon HD 3850 is the Hillary Clinton of this matchup... it held up until the end, but the math is just not there to give it any victory..."

AMD and NVIDIA are now pushing towards a more power conscious chipset market with integrated features in order to boost their value. This can only mean good things for end users who not only get a more power friendly based PC (and in todays green market, this is big brownie points), but also features that weren’t previously added.

CLICK HERE FOR abit I-N73HD GeForce 7100 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

In my assessment, NZXT's claim that the Tempest is the "Airflow King" cannot be disputed. My hardware has remained cool, with temperatures of 27C for both processor cores, 32C for the system, and 39C for the graphics card. And despite having six fans installed to keep things so cool, the Tempest is one of the quietest cases I have used.

CoolIt Systems has a solution to tame those heat generating GPU workhorses that they call the Dual Drive Bay VGA Cooler NV Reference Series. It is a closed loop, factory sealed pre-filled system that offers maintenance free operation for SLI setups. They claim easy installation and they say that it's 'the perfect solution for any extreme gamer or overclocker that wants to push their nVidia 8800GTX, 8800GTX Ultra SLI VGA setup to the limits.' Let's see if this holds up. But first, let's delve into a little more detail as to what it is.

"Here is a common question. Do you splurge and get the shiny new model? Or hang back and look for something realistic for the current market?. The DFI Dark Series makes that question easy by featuring top of the line chipsets, high-end LanParty styling, and excellent BIOS features. All at a fraction of the cost, in a way this is what enthusiast hardware should be, all business and no fluff!"

CLICK HERE FOR DFI LanPartyDK X38-T2R Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"The TomTom XL S is the company's midrange GPS unit, and offers the same core functionality as the more expensive models while offering a few less features and a reduced price. It includes maps of the US and Canada, includes text-to-speech functionality for reading street names aloud, and offers a large database of Points of Interest as well. Though its functionality is primarily limited to driving directions (no music playing capability, for example), it's a highly capable and intuitive device that will serve most motorists quite well."

CLICK HERE FOR TomTom ONE XL S GPS SHOPPING & PRICING

"As a founding father in what's still considered a niche market, Alienware offers a range of custom notebooks and PCs, culminating with the Area-51. Built with gaming in mind, Alienware recently overhauled their flagship lineup to keep up with this ever evolving segment and sent us their Area-51 ALX, a water-cooled powerhouse sporting a quad-core processor and dual-GPUs. But it takes more than a spec sheet to impress us, and at $7K, we're expecting an out-of-this-world ride. Did Alienware oblige?"

"The temperatures are impressive, especially going up against the OCZ Vendetta, which performed very well in other reviews. With an ambient temperature of 25C, the DuOrb was the lowest, matching the air temperature exactly in the Idle Stock test. Even overclocked, the DuOrb kept things cooler, except for the Overclocked load test where the OCZ Vendetta 2 and the DuOrb tied. Not only did it keep the CPU cooler, but the Thermaltake DuOrb kept the surrounding area between 2C to 5C cooler than the Vendetta 2."

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake DuOrb CPU Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

Lian Li is known for well made products when it comes to stylish computer cases and functional chassis. They have been on the market for seven years now and Benchmark Reviews has been pleased to have the opportunity to review several of their items. This time we will be taking a look at the Lian Li PC-A09B Classical Series Mid-Tower Case to see if it stacks up to the others.

“Looking for a new external hard drive? Tired of reaching behind your computer to access USB or FireWire ports? Well the mini Hub 500GB USB 2.0 FireWire External Hard Drive is perfect for you. It offers the functionality of an external hard drive while providing 4 USB and 2 FireWire hub ports. This drive is a very sturdy hard drive and provides a unique design which makes it stackable with Mac Mini's. Read on further to see what this external hard drive is all about.”

"Today we get a look at our second Blu-ray ROM drive to hit our labs, and this time it is from Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions Corp based out of Taiwan. It actually came to us straight off the factory production line and we are excited to bring you the first review of the product. The first drive we tested was an internal SATA Blu-ray burner as we mentioned just before from ASUS, and while it was cheaper than standalone players, it still had a pretty high asking price.

Today we get down and dirty with the Lite-On DX-401S 4X Blu-ray ROM drive which connects to your Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista based computer via a spare USB 2.0 port. It is essentially a Lite-On DH-4O1S internal SATA Blu-ray ROM placed inside a stylish black and white plastic box with USB 2.0 port and external AC power supply."

"Unless you're into Japanese anime, you very well might have never heard of Gundam. It didn't gain much popularity in the west until it was introduced on Cartoon Network's Toonami in 2000. But it seems that In-Win is banking on their case buyers being familiar with Gundam Wing and appreciating the similarities enough to be interested in their new case design, the Metal Suit GD."

CLICK HERE FOR In-Win Metal Suit GD Mid-Tower Case SHOPPING & PRICING

"TruePower Quattro 850 W is a power supply from Antec featuring modular cabling system, four auxiliary PCI Express power cables for video cards, active PFC, efficiency above 80% and the very traditional ATX looks, with a small 80-mm fan on the rear side. The manufacturer promises that this unit can deliver its labeled power at 50º C. Sounds promising, but can this unit really deliver 850 W? Let's see."

CLICK HERE FOR Antec TruePower Quattro 850 W Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

Whenever the subject of vacuum tube amplifiers is brought up, it is most likely that someone is discussing expensive hi-fi audio equipment. SonicGear brought this category of amplifiers to the computer world. Their i-Steroid 2.1 system represents a unique attempt at integrating "old-fashioned" vacuum tubes into the cold electronics and high-tech world. The name itself is obviously an allusion to iPod players and that becomes even more obvious by taking a glance at the device itself.

Today, we’ll be showcasing one of the most significant developments to date, toward getting SAS (Serial-Attached SCSI) more frequently into the vernaculars of workstation/server buyers and maybe even a few enthusiasts - relatively cheap, high-capacity SAS storage – thanks to Seagate. Seagate currently offers 10,000 and 15,000 RPM disks with SAS interfaces at a fraction of the capacity versus SATA offerings and as such, much higher prices.

"... The Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD3870x2 Watercooled is an excellent gaming card that offers good gaming performance, and it's ideal for any enthusiast wanting to added something special to their current system. "

Every now and then, a titan is born from the flash drive industry. With its rugged good looks, 200m water resistance, anti-shock collar, and disgustingly awesomely large storage, Jason Dumbaugh tests out the new Corsair 32GB Survivor flash drive.

"Today for review I've got the Transcend microSDHC Class 6 Flash Card, it's your standard type microSD card and includes the adapter for standard SD cards as well. I't put it up against tow other brands of microSD cards I've got on hand, let's see how well it performs... "

The ML-1630 monochrome laser printer is another solid offering by Samsung. It was also never set out to be an all-in-one office work horse. Instead, the ML-1630 printer might be found in a much more domestic environment, such as the home.

CLICK HERE FOR Samsung ML-1630 SHOPPING & PRICING

Sunbeam has come out with a nice tool that solves the mystery of how to handle multiple formats of hard drives. The SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter can use 2.5" and 3.5" SATA and IDE drives and easily converts them to a USB 2.0 interface. Its compact size, flexibility and low price make it a nice addition to a tool bag or work bench.

"Two HeatpipeDirectTouch CPU Coolers from Xigmatek duke it our in this review. We compare the performance of these enthusiast heatsinks to the best out there to see how they compare. Available for a budget friendly price can they deliver the cooling performance required to be at the top? Let us find out."

"The good news is that the Foxconn 9800 GTX does indeed provide a nice bit of headroom above the stock clockspeeds of 685MHz on the GPU core and 1100MHz on the memory. So if you look at the final results as a percentage, the overclocking results are pretty impressive. The increase on the GPU core came in at 152MHz, or about 18.5%, and the increase in the memory speed amount came to 116MHz, or just over 9%. The performance potential is there, you just have to go look for it. At this point, Nvidia's driver package does not allow for the fan speeds to stay at 100% when manually changed. Having tried several utilities to do this, the results just did not stick. So maximizing the overclocking capability will mean requirig that driver issue be resolved."

Overall, the Vizo Mini Ninja is a well made little notebook cooler. It is fairly compact, light weight, and sturdy. Being made of a nice grade of aluminum, it is going to be structurally durable for an extended time.

“I liken Lian-Li to the Mercedes-Benz of the chassis design world. The Taiwan-based company designs its chassis with sleek, conservative style and hand-builds cases out of lightweight, yet durable aluminum. The chassis are generally not flashy, but are very, very conducive for high-performance cooling while overclocking. Lian-Li recently renewed its V series line-up with five new cases: PC-V2110, PC-V2010, PC-V1110, PC-V1000Z, and the focus of this review, the PC-V1010. ThinkComputers goes inside the Lian-Li PC-V1010 chassis in this review.”

CLICK HERE FOR Lian-Li PC V1010 Case SHOPPING & PRICING

Otterbox has made some hardcore cases, and this laptop case is no exception. If you love your laptop and are prone to banging it around (or having things bang into it), this case is your best bet for keeping your baby as safe as possible. That is, if you have the back and shoulders of a damn body builder.

"Silencer 750 Quad is a 750 W power supply from PC Power & Cooling featuring a single +12 V rail, four auxiliary PCI Express power cables for video cards, active PFC, efficiency above 80% and the very traditional ATX looks, with a small 80-mm fan on the rear side. The manufacturer promises that this unit can deliver its labeled power at 40º C and has a maximum peak power of 825 W. Sounds promising, but can this unit really deliver 750 W? Let's see."

CLICK HERE FOR PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

The ES-800 from BFG is an 800W power supply that comes with everything an enthusiast might want. It has support for up to four PCI-Express power consumers and features an unorthodox internal layout. In our testing we saw an amazing efficiency of 84.9%.

CLICK HERE FOR BFG ES-800 800W Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

" It has been a very long time since a graphics card has passed by the review bench of ASE Labs. Sapphire steps up to the plate with their release of the Radeon HD3870 Toxic Edition that hopes to earn some of your hard earned cash. With AMD's support of open source, the ATI partners are in a good position to conqueror the Linux market and the future to bright. Sapphire is the biggest producer of ATI cards and we will see how their product performs. "

Is power as important as good looks? Why not have both? Today, Artiom checks out the Kingwin 700W Mach 1 Power Supply. Can this chrome stallion hold up in testing?

Testing showed that the Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR2-1142 dual channel memory kit could put up some solid numbers, keeping pace with another comparable kit from Kingston. At stock speeds this kit is ready for action above and beyond the JEDEC standard speed grade of PC2-8500, and with some relatively easy overclocking it can soar past PC2-9600 speeds.

CLICK HERE FOR Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR2-1142 SHOPPING & PRICING

Taipei, Taiwan, May 14 2008 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA EPIA PX5000EG Pico-ITX board that features the extremely power efficient 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor, offering embedded developers an uncompromisingly compact, highly integrated board.

Building on the success of the VIA EPIA PX10000 Pico-ITX board, which took the embedded industry by storm last year as the world’s smallest mass production x86 board ever, the VIA EPIA PX5000EG adds the incredible heat and power efficiency of the 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor with its maximum power draw of just one watt. System designers of embedded automation and industrial control devices can now take advantage of a full x86 system that fits neatly into the most extreme space constrained, heat sensitive environments.

For many enthusiasts venturing into the world of PC building, selecting a case can be quite a challenge these days. Important factors to consider include quality, size, functionality, and now more than ever - style. Well-built enclosures with incredible features are important, but without a bit of flash and beauty, they might as well stay sitting on the warehouse shelf (and probably will!). However, there's also another aspect of case selection that's very important to many builders, especially those new to the game - price. Being on something of a strict diet myself when it comes to purchasing new hardware, I certainly appreciate a company that can combine all of the above mentioned features in a single product. Enter NZXT and the Tempest midtower case. Did they pull it off and create a budget-friendly winner? Let's find out.

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Tempest SHOPPING & PRICING

But as of late, Hiper’s claim to fame is the Anubis. A 6063 T5 Alloy case that boasts plenty of features that make air ventilation and water cooling an ease to setup. This case saw itself on the front page of a lot of well known websites. The Anubis received all kinds of awards for it superb construction, its ease to assemble, its roominess and its stealth features. We, here at Pro-Clockers, were not lucky enough to review the Anubis but we will make up for it today by reviewing the Osiris.

"Long gone are the days of skimping on a mouse pad. For the casual user a mouse pad is nothing more than a medium between the mouse and the desktop. For a gamer however, a mouse pad could be the difference between life or death! This life or death scenario is virtual, of course, but stings just the same. EVO-G claims their MP1 is "spectacular," a claim we plan to put to task. But who is EVO-G?"

When the budget is tight and you have to have a quality free flowing case for that next gaming PC you are building, who are you going to give your money to? Once again, Cooler Master has a new release for under $70 that looks to be jam packed with the features you are looking for.

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master Centurion 590 SHOPPING & PRICING

Perhaps Benchmark Reviews like to ride the edge of technology just a little too close, since we've tested more DDR3 and SSD's than almost everyone else on the web, but the bleeding edge is what where most enthusiasts like to live. OCZ allowed us to test their first Solid State Drive product, the OCZSSD64GB, and while the pricing very affordable the performance wasn't so impressive. Now just a short three months later, OCZ has returned with one of the industries very first SATA-II SSD products, the OCZSSD2. It would be a shame to give away the details, but it appears that the extra time at the design table was very well spent. OCZ's new Solid State Drive offers industry leading performance matched by ultra-affordable pricing, and sets a new record.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ SATA-II 32GB 2.5-Inch SSD SHOPPING & PRICING

"When you drop down the black air duct, you are able to reveal the hard drive cage that is completely covered by the large air duct. This is so that the hard drives that you may have installed are able to receive fresh air to be cooled with. When you take a closer look at the hard drive cage, you can see that directly in front of it a fan measuring in at 120mm size and colored bright yellow like the other fans. There is a tab that you are able to lift up that will allow you to rotate the cage a little so that you are able to remove the 120mm front air intake fan, as well as allow for a more convenient way to run any wires you need to hide."

CLICK HERE FOR In Win Metal Suit GD SHOPPING & PRICING

It seems we’re right on time for another pointless release of a graphics card that is slightly better or slightly worse than what is on the market already, whilst carrying with it a price tag pretty similar to that of what’s already available. Did that confuse you? - The thing is, these graphics card releases from NVIDIA are becoming nothing short of a joke.

"AcBel Polytech is a very well known OEM manufacturer, producing power supplies for brands such as Cooler Master. Now they seem interested in the retail market and today we are going to completely dissect their iPower 660 model (also known as PS2/660 or PC7016), which should reach the US market pretty soon, to see if it can really deliver its labeled power and what is its internal design."

"Toshiba's shiny M305 notebook packs a lot of performance and features into an extremely elegant and sophisticated-looking chassis. Despite its relatively low price it offers 3GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive and a Core 2 Duo "Penryn" processor in a light and portable package. Though it won't win any benchmark shootouts it's certainly adequate for web surfing and office productivity; the only downside is it includes the usual Toshiba bloatware, so know that you'll have to spend some time cleaning it up a bit to allow it to reach its full potential."

CLICK HERE FOR Toshiba Satellite M305 Laptop SHOPPING & PRICING

Very often short descriptions in manufacturer manuals for displays are: exceptional design and excellent performances which is the case with Samsung T220. If some monitor looks nice we can see that by ourselves when we take it out from the packaging, but when it comes to other manufacturer's promise (about performances) we need to check them by ourselves for its authenticity. Samsung T220 satisfied the first half of its description from the moment we put it on the table.

CLICK HERE FOR Samsung T220 SHOPPING & PRICING

"The OCZ Vendetta 2 heatsink features three large copper heatpipes that make direct contact with the top of the processor. This approach takes advantage of the superior heat conducting capabilities of 8mm diameter heat pipes to efficiently move heat from the processor to the cooling fins, without any intermediary steps. The technique is called Heatpipe Direct Touch, and as you've seen by the Top 5 Heatsinks chart... it's a winner."

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Vendetta 2 SHOPPING & PRICING

Conversations in some forums are calling the Lian Li PC-P80R the perfect gamers case and I will not be one to argue this point with them. If you take a few minutes to read our review you will see what all the fuss is about. This is a case where red aluminum never looked so good.

Known for tough, waterproof, unbreakable cases, Otterbox has expanded their product line to include a series of cases for the Apple iPod. The two lines they created, Defender and Armor, essentially cater to the same type of consumer, but with just enough variability to be separated into two different categories.The Armor Series provides a case that is not only indestructible, but is also waterproof.

You are stranded in the desert, forest, or on the road and need to make a call and find that your cell phone is dead. Just after you finish cursing your god of choice you remember you have the Solio H1000, plug it in and a short while later your phone is usable once again. This is the concept behind the Solio H1000, a hybrid charger that is billed as a flexible solar charger that will restore life to lifeless cell phones and other USB charged devices. We test the Solio and bring you the fact and the fiction.

"Our best suggestion to the hardware enthusiast is this. If you end up at Best Buy and have to buy a power supply then and there, you are best sticking to the brand names of Antec, BFGTech, and Thermaltake that Best Buy happens to carry. You will likely "over pay," but that is a far cry better than getting "under delivered" in terms of the power supply that you will have plugged into all that hardware that cost you your hard earned cash."

The Sapphire Toxic 512MB Radeon HD3870 graphics card offers strong performance right out of the box, but if you have any interest in overclocking you can turn it into a real powerhouse. There are really no negatives to discuss in terms of performance, quality, and overall appeal. The card performs well, it stays cool and quiet, and the bundle of accessories is generous.

The Everglide DKTBoard is an incredibly sturdy input device, intended for the hard core gamer. A very compact size, partial aluminum construction and backlight make it perfect for LAN parties.

"We've already established that the big selling point of XFX's GeForce 9600 GT Alpha Dog Edition is its clock speeds, and there are certainly some decent increases to be found here. Starting out with the board's core, this comes clocked at 740MHz, with a shader clock of 1850MHz, giving us factory overclocks of 90MHz and 225MHz respectively. Memory also gets a clock speed bump, with this board sporting GDDR3 RAM clocked at 1GHz against the 900MHz on a reference board - In other words, a 100MHz factory overclock."

Hypersonic's known for building performance PCs, so where did this sub-notebook come from? Don't worry, it packs a punch, with its 2.5GHz Intel CPU, 4GB of RAM and 200GB 7200RPM hard drive. After taking pricing and feature set into consideration, we have good reason to be impressed.

Sapphire has been around long enough to know how to put out a great video card. Just a few weeks ago we took a long look at the Toxic 3870 which is an overclocked 3870 with a single slot cooling system. Yeah that was a good one. But now we are here to take a look at the budget HD3650 from Sapphire. But this budget card has an added punch to its core and memory clocks as it is overclocked as well, just like the Toxic 3870.

"With looks based off the design concept of the B2 Stealth Bomber, this B2 enclosure has some features that are not commonplace. The big question, though, is whether it can handle the rigors of a high-end system and manage to not only give it a good home, but to do so in a cool manner.

We begin our tour of the B2 Stealth Bomber by noting the lack of a door on the front bezel. The bezel is made of plastic like many other enclosures, but there is not a door in the normal sense that we have come to expect. As implied by the name of this case, stealth is the key. Let’s take a closer look..."

CLICK HERE FOR In Win B2 Stealth Bomber Mid Tower Case SHOPPING & PRICING

CLICK HERE FOR TWEAKNEWS.NET'S REVIEW ON THIS PRODUCT

“Terabyte hard drives are becoming more popular with the need for more hard drive space. If you're looking to expand your hard drive capacity I think the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1TB External Hard Drive would be great for you. This drive includes USB and Dual FireWire interfaces with available capacities of 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB. The drive is jam packed with plenty of software to suffice the most avid external storage fanatics, while being easy to use for the everyday individual. Read on further to see what all this OneTouch drive has to offer.”

CLICK HERE FOR Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1TB External Hard Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

"The OCZ Technology 4GB Rally2 USB Flash Drive is the fastest flash drive I've had the opportunity to work with. The drive itself has a tough, durable feel to it given the chassis is made primarily out of aluminum. Thankfully, OCZ has one of the more classic types of logos, so the corporate branding doesn't over power the aesthetics of the device."

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Technology 4GB Rally2 USB Flash Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

"During testing, I noticed that my power LED was not working. It was not the motherboard pins, I tested the motherboard with a spare LED, which worked. I took apart the front panel to check to see if the power LED was hooked up correctly and found that the top Apevia circle logo also had an LED, which is hooked up to the power LED line (in parallel). Apparently, that logo was also supposed to be lit. Interesting that both LEDs would not work."

"As good as GTA IV is, in some areas, this reviewer has found it quite a let down in many others, so much so that I may not even finish the game; I haven't decided if I can soldier through or not. While some of the issues I raise might be just personal gripes of my own, many others have complained about the very same issues I'm commenting on. This isn't just an angry reviewer, taking a pot shot, these are legitimate problems."

The Corsair Voyager 32GB is currently the ultimate in flash portable storage with a massive amount of space. We test the Voyager against the Kingston DataTraveler for transfer speeds and bring you the results. If you are looking to carry the equivilant of 7 DVD's worth of information in your shirt pocket and want fast reliable storage then the Voyager just might be right for you.

CLICK HERE FOR Corsair Voyager 32GB Flash Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

"For this review I will be looking at a new product from the highly respected pc hardware manufacturer SilverStone. The product I will be looking at is a laptop hard drive enclosure, the SilverStone TS01B, but this is an enclosure with a difference it utilises RFID security."

"Making sure every possible niche is covered, Asus provides AMD users a high end, SLI capable motherboard with several unique features. The Asus M3N-HT Deluxe dishes out goodies like the brand new 780a chipset, 3-way SLI capability, Hybrid SLI, ESA, HyperTransport 3.0, PCIe 2.0 and the sexy Cool Mempipe. Is this the motherboard you've been waiting for? HardwareLogic straps the M3N-HT onto the test bench and drops the knowledge on you, raw and uncut."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

We have just released a review of 12 HDDs with up to 1 Terabyte (Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate, Western Digital), including new Single-Platter drives from Samsung. We did not just benchmark the I/O-Performance and the response latencies, but also the power consumption of each drive.

CLICK HERE FOR SATA HDD SHOPPING & PRICING

"With the semi-recent arrival of DDR3 memory, OCZ has had the chance to expand on a whole new line of products. Already, they have the full series available on their website: Reaper, ReaperX, Platinum, Gold, Titanium… the list goes on. Today, we have for review the 2x 1GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC3-10666 memory kit, rated at 1333MHz."

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Reaper HPC PC3-10666 2 GB Memory Kit SHOPPING & PRICING

Sunbeamtechs budget case, the Quarterback, is a standard ATX case with some rather interesting features. It has got a unique cooling option called the Core Fan Design that helps keep temperatures down. The case is also tool less and has plenty of room inside for today's larger video cards.

CLICK HERE FOR Sunbeamtech Quarterback Case SHOPPING & PRICING

Although they're built using the same GPU, these two cards are actually quite different. They have completely different coolers and memory, and are clocked differently as well.

CLICK HERE FOR Radeon HD 3650 SHOPPING & PRICING

"I was a bit surprised that Asus asked us to review their *flagship budget* -- it's weird just writing that -- 8600 GT TOP. It's new SKU for a card closing in on its end of life; the model being about a year old now. Just the same, with a hundred-dollar price tag, it's definitely got an audience, no matter what cards there are competing against it, or what cards have been released since. And it's a pretty highly-regarded card; go on any hardware forum and there's a dozen NVIDIA people extolling the virtues of the 8600 GTs when it comes to budget gaming. Now, I'm not saying that they're all wrong, but it is worth finding out if new drivers and some moderate factory overclocking can put value on an otherwise dated video card."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS 8600GT TOP Video Card SHOPPING & PRICING

Corsair has been taunting and teasing us for months now with the prospect of their very first foray into the 1kW jungle. And now, our waiting is over. Join me as I pit the HX1000 in a battle to the death against my hot box of doom and a SunMoon ATE.

CLICK HERE FOR Corsair HX1000 Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

The DT400 is a well made Flash Drive with very good read performance but its main strength is the bundled software and the functionality which it provides. Whether it is the MigoSync application which is ideal for office and remote office use or the SecureTraveler which means that the consumers data is protected the drive has real world benefits especially for those prone to loosing flash drives with sensitive data on them. Whilst the read performance of the DT400 is not as good as OCZ it should be taken into consideration that the Kingston model is still faster than most generic USB storage and as well as being ReadyBoost Certified is backed by a five year warranty.

CLICK HERE FOR Kingston DT 400 SHOPPING & PRICING

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Rally2 SHOPPING & PRICING

I often thought that US customers have such a narrow selection when it comes to the USB flash drives. Look at Far East counties, like Japan, Korean, and Taiwan, and you can see an array of flash drives in different shapes and forms. Of course, having a flashy looking drive really does not offer anything else as a flash drive is a flash drive. However, I do think that as long as a flash drive is able to deliver the performance, having an exotic and eye-catching looks is certainly a plus.

CLICK HERE FOR TWEAKNEWS.NET'S REVIEW ON THIS PRODUCT

For a DDR2 board the gaming performance is very good, outperforming even the Nvidia nForce 780i SLI board in all of our gaming tests. It can't keep up with the DDR3 boards, but buying 4GB of DDR2 is still a fraction of the cost of even 2GB of DDR3 – that alone will offer significant headroom for games as well.

"Having to test modules rated for 1000 MHz (2000 MHz effective) presents some unique challenges. First of all, you need a board that can push 1000 MHz+ on the northbridge. Second, you need a chip that can run speeds of 500+ MHz to run 1:1 when testing. Well, we have the next best thing. Since my poor Q9450 just won't let me play in the 500 MHZ range, I had to look at the alternatives. The modules are designed to run on an nVidia 790i SLI chipset based motherboard, so thats what I did. Because of FSB holes, or a poor divider, I was not able to gain any speed over 2000 MHz at the rated latencies of 9-9-9-24. So instead of going higher, I decided to try and see how tight I could run the latencies. 2000 MHz at the stock volts of 1.9 to 2.0 volts and 9-9-9-24 was a cake walk. Heck, it should be. Now it got a little interesting. First up was 9-9-8-24, good so far. Then down to 9-8-8, then 8-8-8 - I thought this looked promising. After a few hours of test and repeat, latencies of 8-8-8 were a reality at 2000 MHz. Hmmm, let me push my luck at 8-7-7-24. Surprisingly, this fell after another session of test and repeat benchmarking. "Can there be more?" I asked. Well, yes there was. CAS 7 was a no go at 2000 MHz, but 8-7-6-24 was good. However, it would lock up randomly in a few tests. With the voltage adjustments I had been successful with, they still would not allow it to happen. So, I figured I'd start low-balling the voltage to the DIMMs, and ended up at 1.82 volts for my game and benchmark stability."

"Palit are back again with another 9600GT. While this model is a Sonic variant, this one also sports 1GB of memory. What’s cool about this card is that more often than not you have two options when it comes to getting a card other than stock. You can get yourself one with more memory, which generally comes under the “Super” naming scheme; the other option is that you get yourself an overclocked model. This comes under the “Sonic” naming scheme for Palit. Today we’ve got ourselves a 1GB card which also happens to be overclocked.

Unfortunately Palit has called it the 9600GT 1GB Sonic; personally I think they should have called it the 9600GT 1GB Super Sonic which just sounds plain cool, and since the card carries with it an overclock and more memory, it’s more than appropriate."

Gigabyte being a leader in motherboards is making it easy on us to have the best when new chipsets are released. They have being right there, first to market, when Intel believed it was time for change. This used to be a position held by Asus. Gigabyte is the first to bring us the new X48 chipset to our rigs. This honor belongs to the X48-DQ6 and X48T-DQ6, DDR2 and DDR3 versions respectively. The DQ6 being the high end model for Gigabyte, it has all the bells and whistles. From complex cooling systems to high-end capacitors you can’t ask for more in a motherboard except for excellent overclocking. Can the X48-DQ6 accomplish what we achieved with EX-38 just a few weeks ago?

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte X48 DQ6 Socket 775 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

These are uncertain financial times we live in today, and the rise and fall of our economy has had direct affect on consumer spending. It has already been one full year now that DDR3 has been patiently waiting for the enthusiast community to give it proper consideration, yet it's success is still undermined by misconceptions and high price. Benchmark Reviews has been testing DDR3 more actively than anyone, which is why over fifteen different kits fill our System Memory section of reviews. Sadly, it might take an article like this to open the eyes of my fellow hardware enthusiast and overclocker, because it seems like DDR3 is the technology nobody wants bad enough to learn about. Pity, because overclocking is what it's all about.

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“Today I will be looking at the Palit 9600GT 1GB Sonic. The 9600GT is nVidia's latest mid-range GeForce card, and rather than the reference 512 gigs of DDR3 memory, Palit has opted to add a full gig of memory, along with a heatpipe cooler, to this card. How will it stand up against the last generation of GeForce mid-range cards? Continue reading to see...”

Razer is well-known for producing high-quality peripherals, but audio can be an entirely different bag. Our concerns over their new found venture can be set aside though, as the tag team effort between them and THX helped build an amazing 2.1 system that's actually worth its $400 price tag.

In our CES 2008 coverage of Lian-Li you saw the awesome Lian Li PC-P80 R AMD Spider Edition case. These cases are just now coming through manufacturing, and TPU is one of the first sites in the world to bring you a detailed look at this new case. It features nearly everything an enthusiast could want, but is it truly the dream of an ADM/ATI fan?

“Laptops are really becoming popular, especially when it comes to desktop replacements. Many laptops now are just as powerful as desktop computers if not more powerful. A lot of people now prefer laptops over desktop because they can easily take the laptop with them and they take up less space on their desk. One thing about laptops is they easily overheat, especially gaming laptops. That is where notebook coolers come in. Today we will be looking at the Cryo LX notebook cooler from NZXT, which looks like a pretty extreme notebook cooler.”

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Cryo LX Notebook Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

"The problem with all earlier forms of removable media is capacity. Even a 16 or 32 gig flash drive can be a little small for some uses, and they are pretty expensive. Think about it, you can pick up a 500 gig HDD for the price of a 16 gig thumb drive, or a 750 gig for the price of a 32 gig thumb drive. For that matter, you could get a RaptorX for the price of the 32 gig flash drive. Today, we will be taking a look at the Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock, an external solution for simple swapping of hard drives."

CLICK HERE FOR Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock SHOPPING & PRICING

PC keyboard technology has remained pretty much the same in its 30-year existance, so why is it that there are scores of new models coming out every year? I personally have gone through the rise and fall of the first IBM "tank" keyboards, quiet keyboards, ergonomic keyboards, media keyboards, and the latest gaming keyboards.

CLICK HERE FOR Razer Lycosa Gaming Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"Today I will be looking at the latest two products from LapLogic . The G800 Aerogel Extreme LapDesk & W800 Aerogel Extreme LapDesk are the newest members of the LapLogic family and these pads have some impressive technology behind them. These LapDesks incorporate Aspen Aerogels, which is a company that uses nano-technology for their insulation. This technology allows their insulation to provide protection from even the most extreme temperature ranges... "

"SilverStone is a company that needs no introduction. Although they have only been in business since 2003, in that time they have produced some great case designs. In the tradition of the Zeus and Olympia power supplies, with their single, large +12v rail, SilverStone now introduces the next generation of power supply built especially for enthusiasts, the Decathlon."