Week of July 15, 2007

"With high hopes for some impressive performance gains I ran the program and was greeted with a slick and concise overview screen, telling me to perform a system scan to identify areas for optimization. Turns out quite a lot of junk had built up during this machines boring day to day email checking/web surfing role. The scan also identified that my Internet settings needed optimizing and my privacy needed protecting (cookies, history, etc.)!"

The world of the PC enthusiast as we all know, is a fast moving place. It was not a month ago that we reviewed the then fastest DDR-3 kit of Supertalent's line-up, a kit rated at 1333MHz with 9-9-9 timings. This is now already "slow" compared to what we have in store for you today. The latest and fastest DDR-3 kit from SuperTalent is not only rated for operation at 1600MHz, but they also operate with 7-7-7 timings at that speed. Despite the current low demand for DDR-3 RAM, SuperTalent has just released the fastest 2GB RAM kit available.

Unless you've been hiding in a cave or unless you’re brand new to the world of video games you'll be better off with just about any other title. However, Driver – Parallel lines does offer 3 original things: 1 – a brand new game for $20, 2 – a game where cops enforce speed limits, traffic lights and driving on the wrong side of the street, 3 – a kick-ass mod shop for your rides (for the game’s genre).

CLICK HERE FOR Driver Parallel Lines PC SHOPPING & PRICING

"A simple and stylish enclosure is what Thermaltake has provided its customers once again. Personally, I love the High-gloss Piano finish and so do my greasy fingerprints, but that is something I can live with. On the inside of the bezel is a filter to help reduce the amount of dust that enters the enclosure, but this is counteracted by the use of side intakes fans."

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake SopranoRS 101 Enclosure SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Canon PowerShot SD1000 digital ELPH is an ultra compact camera no bigger than the size of a pack of cigarette. In Europe and Asia it is known as Canon IXUS 70. Designed as a point and shoot camera, it contains some features suitable for some tuff tasks in its price range. Let´s find out how this little guy performs"

CLICK HERE FOR Canon PowerShot SD1000/IXUS 70 Digital Camera SHOPPING & PRICING

To OEM or Not to OEM. It's a valid question that often doesn't get approached very well at enthusiast sites. You need to know the pros and cons before you make the purchasing leap.

This is the first time I have had the opportunity to look at an enclosure from Eagle Tech Computers, and they have sent over two different 3.5" hard drive enclosures to review. One is a IDE/SATA to USB hybrid enclosure from their T-Series, and the other is a SATA to eSATA/USB enclosure from their M-Series.

Wow, what a difference a few months makes. In February, you couldn't purchase a 2GB DDR2-800 memory kit for less than $250. Nowadays, with the prices of memory decreasing almost every day, you can easily buy a 2GB DDR2 kit for almost $200. These price drops shouldn't make consumers think that these more "affordable" RAM modules are packed with any less performance though. To the contrary, Crucial's 2GB Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 memory kit not only packs a punch at 1066MHz, but will also look amazing with its array of color LEDs on the top and bottom of each stick!

CLICK HERE FOR Crucial 2GB Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 Memory Kit SHOPPING & PRICING

This latest in the long line of ‘My Book’ external hard drives from Western Digital takes a different approach, giving you a full NAS solution by means of a Gigabit Ethernet connection and the ability to access it from anywhere in the world.

CLICK HERE FOR Western Digital 500GB My Book World Edition SHOPPING & PRICING

Logitech has produced a very solid mouse in the MX Revolution. The free spin mode on the MicroGear scroll wheel is an absolute blast to use, and the overall size and shape make for a very comfortable experience. The rechargeable internal battery has its pros and cons, but overall, I'm quite pleased with how everything went during the trial period. Logitech should definitely include some sort of mechanism to prevent losing the USB micro receiver, however.

CLICK HERE FOR Logitch MX Revolution Laser Mouse SHOPPING & PRICING

“PC cases are all basically the same. They are the same shape, they have the same inside design, and most features are the same. The things that set them apart are color and outside design. The Tagan Black Pearl not only sets it self apart in outside design, but inside it is something that I have never seen before. It has to be one of the most unique cases I have seen. So let's take a look...”

"In some tests over the last couple of days and some searching of the official Folding@ Home forums, I’ve discovered that anyone who’s wanting to fold on Windows Vista may have some issues with the current versions of the software (the 5.03 Standard Graphical version won’t run through the setup process on most installations of Vista, and you need to adjust some settings to get the 5.04 Console Only version to run fully)."

The Logitech G11 is an overall outstanding keyboard that is very feature rich. That said, I am not sure if I would have named it a Gaming keyboard exactly. It's almost what I would consider a full gaming keyboard. While the Windows Key switch and the amazing G keys and that it's backlit with a cool blue light most definitely help the gaming cause, as I said earlier, you still have to deal with WASD in their regular, not so gaming friendly setup.

CLICK HERE FOR Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"When DFI comes out with a new motherboard, the enthusiast community is always listening. And when DFI goes a step further and introduces their first NVIDIA based Intel motherboard, they've certainly got our attention as well. Is this the definitive 680i nVidia board that overclockers have been waiting for? We test the DFI 680i LT-T2R overclocking potential with Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad CPU to find out."

CLICK HERE FOR DFI nForce 680i LT-T2R Overclocking Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

If you're in the market for an 8600 GTS, there are plenty to choose from, including BFG Tech's new OC2 model. As one might expect, this card comes factory "overclocked," boasting respective core and memory speeds of 720MHz and 1110MHz. Those clock speeds are higher than any other 8600-series card we've tested, which is an achievement in itself. The OC2 has another ace up its sleeve, though: BFG's new ThermoIntelligence cooler.

CoolJag's new Falcon 92 Cu CPU cooler comes with wide compatibility for all current sockets. As the name suggests the cooler is made from Copper - a cheaper Aluminum version is available as well. During our testing we came to the conclusion that this extremely quiet cooler has no problems keeping up with the other heatsinks we tested so far.

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

We have just finished testing a new abit mainboard that made a great impression. Looks like the well-known company is really coming back: its mainboard on Intel P35 Express chipset makes us believe that the times when abit was the best choice for hardware enthusiasts are really coming back.

CLICK HERE FOR Abit IP35 Pro Socket 775 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"There are quite a few Rhoebus and Fan Controllers out there that will allow you to control your fan speeds. I don't know of any that can do what the Zalman ZM-MFC2 Multi Fan Controller can do. Not only does it provide you with the ability to control your fans, but it can also report your system's temperatures, and how much wattage your system is using. And, it looks nothing like any other unit out there."

"We were able to crank up the FSB on the Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 all the way to 460MHz without even touching the voltages on the board. After increasing the CPU voltage to 1.4500V the FSB was able to be increased 20MHz higher to 480MHz FSB or a quad pumped speed of 1920MHz, which is more than we expected to hit. This is an overclock of 1169MHz, an overclock of 44%, on a processor that comes at a lucrative price point..."

Recently we at Bjorn3D received a press release from a company that we were at the time unfamiliar with, Coolink. Coolink was touting the the results of their new cooler the Silentator. An excerpt from that press release stated: 'While developing the Silentator, we could build on the basis of Noctua's award-winning Ultra-Low-Noise coolers, which are manufactured in our factories', explains Timothy Chu, Coolink CEO. 'We've revised the layout of the cooling fins and optimized it towards maximum performance and lower weight. Linking top-notch performance, quality and efficiency, the Silentator is a true Coolink product!' Given the extremely favorable results we had experienced previously in reviewing Noctua products we decided to review this product in hopes that one of the best technologies available would only get better.

"At the top of the ram we have the gap for the activity lights in two rows, these are really just for appearance but as I mentioned earlier those buying these sticks over the regular Ballistix will be purchasing them because of this. Let us move on and see how they fair up in the performance stakes shall we."

CLICK HERE FOR Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 SHOPPING & PRICING

"Are you ready to take a "Ride on the Wild Side"? Thats what Abit would like you to do with this board. Abit has created a trilogy of P35 chipset motherboards with this model, The IP35 Pro being the enthusiast level board. Since this motherboard is at the top of the food chain, performance is expected to eclipse the other two in the trilogy(IP35-E, IP35). This motherboard boasts many features, such as support for the latest 1333 FSB and quad core processors, HDMI ready sound, 100% Japanese solid state capacitors, Silent OTES cooling technology and 7.1 Realtek sound. With such an abundant set of features and the touted performance of Intel's P35 chipset, this should be one wild ride indeed."

CLICK HERE FOR Abit IP35 Pro Socket 775 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

Planar offers the very competitive PX2611W - a 26 inch widescreen LCD monitor that is ideal for most PC's, including web browsing, photography work, and especially gaming. It features a 1920x1200 WUXGA native resolution with 8 bits of color per pixel (as opposed to six), has DVI-D with HDCP and analog VGA inputs, a wide color gamut, and is using the same internal LCD panel as the high-end NEC 2690WUXi. Benchmark Reviews will analyze the quality and value behind the Planar PX2611W 26-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor.

CLICK HERE FOR Planar PX2611W 26-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor SHOPPING & PRICING

There are many companies that exist for the sole purpose of helping your PC keep it's cool, but Noctua believes they do that better than anyone. So, we are putting their 80mm fan, 120mm fan and chipset cooler to the test, to see if they live up to the hype.

"The market for external storage has really started to heat up over the last couple of years. As greater capacities are becoming commonplace, people are finding even more stuff to store. As I have written in the past, the more space a person has, the more they will find to store in it, in the real world as well as the digital one. Some people can buy that 500 GB, 750 or 1 TB drive and slap it in their computer, but others want more complicated solutions. And the more you have to store, the more you have to lose. It is this increased awareness of data protection as well as storage needs which have given the NAS (network attached storage) market a boost. Light years ahead of the external hard drive, network attached storage brings with it a huge feature set, from remote accessibility, to automatic backups, and hardware failsafe systems. What is even more amazing is that these feats don't require a second mortgage. Today's NAS contender is the Cube Station CS407 NAS, from a newer company (founded in 2000) called Synology."

"While the HD-DVD initially seemed to be the winner, things look a lot different nowadays. Just like in box matches, Blu-ray pushed its opponent in the corner and started to inflict hit after hit. Today we're looking at LaCie's d2 Blu-ray drive that brings writing to Blu-ray discs on PC platform. Is it time to upgrade?"

CLICK HERE FOR LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive Recorder SHOPPING & PRICING

"Abit AN-M2 is a socket AM2 motherboard with on-board video based on GeForce 7025-630a chipset from nVidia, competing directly in both price and functionalities with motherboards based on AMD 690V and AMD 690G, thus targeted to digital entertainment PCs. Let's take a look on the performance and features of Abit AN-M2."

CLICK HERE FOR Abit AN-M2 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

There is something good to be said for a near-silent pc, but I don’t have one. Even as I write this, the steady hum of my computer fans drone on. My friends can’t stand my computer room for more than a half an hour. The sound drives them crazy. It doesn’t bother me personally. I used to work with children for a living and I can ignore pretty much any sound. Not to mention, I’ve always set performance over comfort when it comes to cooling. However, for the sake of friendship, I decided to look into silent or near silent PC cooling. Coincidentally, Sunbeamtech have sent a Silent Whisper CPU cooler for review. The Silent Whisper is a supposedly near silent CPU cooler for the budget minded enthusiast. At $19.99 on some online stores, the Silent Whisper is very affordable, but how does it perform?

Most of us who travel, or use the notebook away from our desk or table tend to position the notebook on our laps (hence they are also referred to as "laptops"). Although the current generation of notebooks run both cooler and use less power, several studies have been published pointing out the dangers of positioning the notebook on your lap. While some point out the chance of developing testicular cancer (in men.....duh), most studies suggest notebooks can cause sterility by raising the temperature of their testes, as well as the unnatural posture most assume to use the notebook on their lap.

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake iXoft Notebook Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

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

“ASRock has been gaining recognition in the motherboard market with quality budget boards that are very stable. A few months back, I reviewed the ASRock ALiveNF6G-DVI which had some decent overclocking ability to it. This time around, I'm going to be reviewing the AliveNF5-eSATA2+ which uses the nForce520 chipset. The motherboard supports the AM2 line of AMD processors from FX, X2, 64, and Sempron, and supports overclocking. Printed right on the motherboard is Dual Core CPU and Dual Channel DDR2-800. Some of the other features will be gone over in the review, so sit back and enjoy the ride.”

CLICK HERE FOR ASRock ALiveNF5-eSATA2+ ATX Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

The videocard itself was plain jane, but it's Sigma-Gate overclocking software was very unique. Arguably the most versatile videocard overclocking utility from a vendor, Biostar's Sigma-Gate and V-Ranger software allowed us to push that videocard to its max. Literally. The key to our overclocking Zen was adjustable GPU and memory voltage options. Sadly, Biostar's V-Ranger software only works with its Sigma-Gate videocards.

"In this article we test and compare 8 different VGA coolers from Zalman, Gigabyte, Vantec, Coolermaster, ZEROTherm, Arctic Cooling and Titan. The models range from completely passive no-noise solutions to multi heat pipes equipped cooling monsters. Read on to find out which one(s) offer the best performance/noise balance."

"Notebook coolers are an invaluable component for today's laptops. With built-in four silent 70 x 70 x 10mm fans, the G4T Magic Pad is still lightweight and is able to provide high cooling performance to keep your notebook cool. And with its extensible pad this one of the few coolers out there than can support notebooks from 12? - 17?

It is hard to review a computer case and only find one thing about it you did not like, but that is exactly what happened to use when we reviewed the new Cooler Master Cosmos 1000. You will have to read the review to find out what the one dislike was.

The list of features and specifications for these two CoolIT Systems products make claims that testing has proven to be on the money (for the most part). Both the RAM Fan and the PCI Cooling Booster provide effective cooling for the components they were designed for, cooling these components can lead to better overclocking, and other system features in the area will benefit from the additional air flow washing over them.

CLICK HERE FOR CoolIT Systems RAM Fan SHOPPING & PRICING

CLICK HERE FOR CoolIT Systems PCI Cooling Booster SHOPPING & PRICING

"The most prominent feature is of course the most frivolous: the dimmer-controlled, multi-color back-lighting. The colors are a manly blue, a macho red and nice, frilly pink. Okay, I know it's supposed to be purple, but trust me...it's more pink than purple. I mean really, would Obi-Wan Kenobi carry a pink light saber? At least the lady gamers will have something to go with a Power Puff Girls case mod. Frivolous or not, the lighting looks cool and it actually comes in handy in low light settings such as LAN parties. And the back-light combined with the laser-etched keys is much more aesthetically pleasing than the pale blue of many lighted keyboards."

CLICK HERE FOR Saitek Eclipse II Illuminated Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

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

Tripp Lite markets the SMART1500LCD as the rack-ready battery backup solution from their SmartPro Digital UPS line of products. They claim that this 1500VA 900W line-interactive UPS for personal computers, workstations, home entertainment systems and media centers will offer enough protection to corrects brownouts as low as 75V and overvoltages to 147V back to 120V nominal levels. Overall it seems very promising, but Benchmark Reviews will have to test their marketing mettle before we buy into it.

“HEC is a Taiwanese company that focuses primarily on the OEM market. However, HEC does have some products for enthusiasts, and the Zephyr 650W power supply unit is one of them. HEC claims the Zephyr is very stable, so ThinkComputers flies with the Zephyr in this review.”

Good fan controllers can be an excellent addition to any PC, but it's hard for companies to differentiate their own controllers from the others. Zalman tackles that problem with their MFC2, which in addition to controlling your fans, can also tell you how many watts your computer is hogging.

When is a laptop bag, not a bag? When it's a fold-out workstation, courtesy of Quicksilver.

The Sunbeam Tuniq tower is one of the largest heatsinks around, with a 120mm fan sandwiched between two rows of aluminum fins. The three U-shaped copper heatpipes carry away the heat from the copper base, and the included fan controller allows the user to dial in the fan speed and noise to their liking. The Tuniq Tower goes on the test bench to see what kind of performance this monster can give.

More and more PC and notebook users are performing “do-it-yourself” upgrades on their systems. The ability to buy the parts they need online, as well as being able to follow self-guided installation tutorials are some of the main reasons for this new trend. The other main reason is cost. Instead of having to pay some computer store technician $40 an hour to upgrade a computer, users can have the part shipped to them so they can install it for free. One part we are going to be upgrading on our Macbook today is the optical drive. FastMac.com has sent us a Matshita UJ-857 Superdrive, which will give us the ability to burn single and dual-layer DVDs as well as standard CDs.

"With the third iteration of its immensely popular Sonata line, Antec introduces a newly redesigned mid-ATX form factor enclosure. With an abundance of new features and technology, the Sonata III is primed to follow in its predecessor’s footsteps of offering enthusiasts an affordable, yet feature rich enclosure. Can Antec’s newest offering do justice to the venerable Sonata line, or will the Sonata III fall short? Let’s put this enclosure through its paces and find out!"

CLICK HERE FOR Antec Sonata III Case SHOPPING & PRICING

"What we intend to find out today is whether or not these cards are worth looking at. Can the HD 2600 series from AMD battle against the 8500 and 8600 series from Nvidia?

While we focus on that we also see what Palit have done with these particular models."

There are several concerns that immediately come into play when taking this step, however. Many of these concerns have been addressed with a variety of products available on the market. When traveling with your laptop, you are constantly worried about keeping it properly protected against the occasional bump, bruise, or spill and that's where something like this Gigabyte-branded notebook sleeve comes into play.

"The week of the fourth of July is all about celebrating freedom in the United States. This year, however, I was able to celebrate in a unique way, with Logitech's FreePulse Wireless headphones. The headphones are meant to be used on the road in conjuction with an MP3 player or other portable device. However, they can also be used with any computer or other audio player, as long as a quarter inch headphone jack is present. These headphones boast that they are lightweight, comfortable and of course, wireless. Will these headphones let freedom ring?"

CLICK HERE FOR Logitech FreePulse Wireless Headphones SHOPPING & PRICING

“Aside from the very cool blocks, radiators, and components, Danger Den also realized that they needed some kind of enclosure or case that would provide a better presentation. Since, most water cooling users like to show off their systems, it seemed only fit to create a clear, acrylic line of enclosures would be developed that had an original look over the contemporary square tower cases. Among their current cases are the Water Box, Water Box Plus, Danger Den Air Box, and Torture Rack. Being that I love a good, useful computer case, Danger Den has been gracious in sending VH the Torture Rack to better show you some of its great benefits and features.”

“SteelSeries has surely created a mousepad that has surpassed all of their other mousepad's. It can't be compared to any other professional gaming surface available today. The newly released Steelseries SX precision gaming mousepad is composed of fiber polished aluminum with anodized oxide coating, allowing for an uber smooth gaming surface for precise wrist action in all of your games. The SteelSeries SX was designed for the hardcore gamers who really want to experience a different feel to communicating with your computer.”

abit is well known for their graphic cards and motherboards, especially to the enthusiast crowd. However, network cards was a new one on us, but that changed now that we've taken a look at their reliable PCI-E WiFi card. The best part : It's currently available for $6 after MIR at one popular e-tailer.

CLICK HERE FOR abit AirPace WiFi PCI-E Card SHOPPING & PRICING

"The test beds for this review will be my Konica Minolta DiMage Z5 5 Megapixel digital camera and a SanDisk 12 in 1 Flash Memory Card Reader/Writer. To measure speed and performance on the computer I used HD Tach RW v.3.0.1.0. As you can see from the chart below at the lowest resolution and picture quality this card will hold an amazing 14,323 pictures and even at the highest resolution and quality it will hold 773 shots. That's the equivalent of more than 21 rolls of 36 exposure film. Please keep in mind that these numbers are calculated and can vary as you take pictures. Video ranges between 23 minutes to over 1 hour."

Western Digital has recently made available a 250GB 2.5" Serial ATA notebook drive which makes it one of the biggest on the market. We take a look and compare its performance to some other popular notebook drives.

CLICK HERE FOR Western Digital Scorpio 250GB SATA 2.5" Hard Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

"With a street price of around $350, this camera has 10-megapixel resolution, a 3.5x zoom, optical image stabilization, 3200 ISO and other goodies."

CLICK HERE FOR Nikon Coolpix P5000 SHOPPING & PRICING

"With an outdoor range of 100 meters ORtek’s wireless VOIP phone system is another one of many wireless VOIP phone systems out there. With 100% compatibility with SKYPE it’s a feature rich phone and gives you more freedom than their wired alternative."

"Almost universally, playing Monster Madness is maddening indeed. The gameplay is bipolar and is made all the more frustrating by a horrible checkpoint save system; for example, if you have to step away from the game without reaching the end of a level, you're forced to start from the beginning, regardless of how many checkpoints you reached. Stupid."

"The Akasa AK-975Cu is a compact little Intel socket 775 heatsink that stands no more than 77mm tall. It comes with a 70mm PWM fan that varies in speed from 1000-3500RPM, and a convenient patch of pre-applied thermal compound on its base. The cooler is based on a copper block with aluminum fins and a pair of copper heatpipes to help distribute the heat to stubby cooling fins. All joints are soldered to lower thermal resistance."

To say the MSI P35 Platinum motherboard overclocks well is an understatement, it's the fastest Socket 775 motherboard that PCSTATS has tested to date! It's the first board to break the 500 MHz FSB mark with a Core 2 Duo processor, and that is fantastic if you ask me. The Intel P35 Express overclocks like a monster, it's certainly an exciting time to be an enthusiast! Just remember to disable Intel EIST in the BIOS before trying to reach for the stars.

CLICK HERE FOR MSI P35 Platinum Intel P35 Express Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"Compro Technology is the leading company to develop and market PC graphics and multimedia products. With highly motivated and experienced engineers, innovation is the main focus at Compro. Throughout the years Compro has put a high focus on high-end TV cards and USB boxes with superior picture quality and powerful features. Including since some years a whole new digital TV product line from PCI digital TV cards, USB digital TV boxes to the most convenient hybrid digital and analog TV cards. With the VideoMate TV Gold Plus II card we got a decent analog TV and FM tuner with a full scale of recording features at an excellent price tag."

'Introducing the NZXT HUSH, a chassis designed from grounds up to be quiet while having ample cooling. Game and work without all the noise, thanks to the sound dampening foam that is used on the top, side, and bottom panels of the case. Worried about cooling? Not to worry, the HUSH is equipped with two 120mm fans running at low speeds while still achieving high levels of air flow. High end gaming requires faster hard drives and power supplies, so we've installed rubber padding near fans and hard drives to further reduce the sound level. The HUSH also ships with USB 2.0, Firewire, and HD audio support. Bring more silence to your gaming experience with HUSH.'

Here are some of the latest new processor reviews from Intel. Tweaknews is also reviewing this processor and will be releasing its coverage within the next week.

Due to a lightning strike which took out my DDR3 and videocard, I was left with a dead testbed last Tuesday until I could get the components replaced.

Stay tuned, we will release a review on this ridiculously fast processor.

Digit-life
Driverheaven
Xbitlabs

Asrock has kindly sent over the Conroe1333-DVI/H, a board that easily fits into the categories listed above. Asrock proudly displays the Vista compatible logo on the box but it has a whole of other extras that make for an outstanding media center rig as well as a reliable workstation.

CLICK HERE FOR Asrock Conroe1333-DVI/H SHOPPING & PRICING

"If Michael Jordan were to choose a mouse, the Logitech MX Air would certainly be it. This is the HTPC controller you have been waiting for."

"Remember going to the arcade and spending all the quarters you could find in your house? Asteroids, Centipede, Pong, Defender, Space Invaders and Super Breakout are just a few of the most memorable arcade games that most of us have spent countless hours playing. Wouldn’t it be nice to relive those memories but save all those quarters? Now you can with X-Arcade’s Tankstick. The Tankstick has been dubbed “The Ultimate Arcade Gaming Experience”. Let’s see if this product brings the arcade into the comfort of your own home."

CLICK HERE FOR X-Arcade Tankstick SHOPPING & PRICING

Intel today is announcing their 1333FSB Core 2 line-up, which consists of three dual-cores, including the E6750 we previewed a few weeks ago, and also the 3.0GHz quad-core that we are testing out today. Read on as we explore all of what Intel's latest flagship processor has to offer.

True to its plan, Intel has officially taken the wraps off of a new lineup of Core 2 processors, most of which are intended to run at 1333MHz front-side bus speeds. They're cheap, too.

“It took a small voltage bump to 1.45V in the BIOS to hit 3.73GHz. To achieve this, we raised the FSB to 466MHz and dropped the multiplier to X8. Once we hit our highest, stable clock speed, we were surprised how stable things were even with a relatively low cost standard HSF cooler. We used an Artic Cooling Freezer 7 cooler to achieve these results.”

"We received from Intel a Core 2 Extreme QX6850 engineering sample, which is now the most high-end desktop CPU available on the market today, featuring four cores, running at 3 GHz internally and 1,333 MHz externally - a new clock rate that will be officially introduced tomorrow morning. Since our engineering sample had its clock multiplier unlocked, we were able to increase its clock multiplier from 9x to 10x, simulating a future quad-core CPU running at 3.33 GHz - a "Core 2 Extreme QX 6950". We compared this new CPU to several other CPUs from Intel, check it out."

“Saitek is most well known for its input devices: joysticks, keyboards, chess devices, and mice. The company recently dived into the headset market with its GH30 Vibration Headset, a USB or battery-powered, stylish set bound to shake up the competition, or will it? ThinkComputers proudly presents the review.”

CLICK HERE FOR Saitek GH30 Vibration Headset SHOPPING & PRICING

"Most of potential customers are faced with simple question "Which graphics card to buy for 100EUR and get reasonable gaming performance?". While 100EUR doesn't seem to be enough for most of today's graphics cards, we've decided to test PowerColor's HD 2600 XT 256MB GDDR3 and see if it's possible to get decent frame rate in popular games. With overclocked C2D E6300 processor, we managed to get surprisingly good frame rate in most of games we've played with PowerColor's card."

There is no doubting that XFX make truly impressive graphics cards, here at Driver Heaven we have found their 8xxx series cards to be the best in each of the market segments, they have in fact won more "Heavenly Hardware Gold Awards" than any other graphics card manufacturer. As well as making stellar hardware XFX always supply their products with great presentation and incorporate the highest engineering standards. So when they sent us a review sample of their latest high end Nvidia 6 series motherboard we were extremely interested to ascertain if this tradition of great performance and specifications was to continue.

Today’s review product is XFX’s 680i LT SLI motherboard, a product which takes the performance of the full 680i chipset and combines it with a more affordable set of features. The main differences being that the LT board lacks an extra GB lan port and a 3rd PCIe 8x slot.

CLICK HERE FOR XFX nForce 680i LT SLI Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

While I've been water cooling CPU's for some time now, this is just my second venture into using my Exos II to cool a video card. I started cooling cards with my 7950 GT O/C, and was very pleased with the results. But, there is a dark side to water cooling cards. They are very restricted as to which water jacket can be fitted to and work with which card. Usually, no more than three or four cards can use any given water jacket. The VID-280, supports only one, the 8800 GTS, and it does support SLI.

DirectX 10, the latest version of the DirectX suite of multimedia application programming interfaces (APIs), puts gamers and multimedia buffs on the leading edge of PC graphics performance DirectX 10 features heavily enhanced 3-D graphics-rendering capabilities and helps noticeably improve your computer's performance in games and high-end 3-D applications. DirectX 10 empowers games to present a new generation of visual effects, and deliver more visual
detail per frame than ever before providing a standard 3D development platform for Windows-based PCs, it also provides software developers access to powerful hardware features without the need to write hardware-specific code. For gamers and video enthusiasts, this translates to reliable, higher-performance graphics when you're playing games on your PC.