Week of July 19, 2009

"If the Phiaton brand isn't exactly on the tip of your tongue when it comes to high-end audio, we'll forgive you. Phiaton (pronounced fee' ah ton) emerged not long ago from South Korea's equally low-key Cresyn corporation as a retail name to peddle its own high-end audio products. Between the chic Moderna series products and fashionable Primal series, nothing the company makes sells for below $200. The $250 carbon-fiber-studded Moderna MS 400 'phones occupy the middle of the line, between its $200 MS 300, and PS 500 and PS 300 NC, both marked at $300. They promise audiophile-pleasing sound from a package that looks slick enough to bust out around town, and folds down neatly into a carrying case to bring them out of the studio."

CLICK HERE FOR Phiaton Moderna MS 400 PRICING & SHOPPING

“Foxconn is one of those brands that, willingly or not, you have to respect. Since Foxconn is manufacturing a lot of components (such as DIMM slots, PCIe slots, connectors etc) that are used by companies such as ASUS, GigaByte, DFI etc, you could say that every motherboard is one part made by Foxconn. Foxconn didn’t pay too much attention at high-end motherboard models and almost all Foxconn motherboard models were very much like an OEM product. Times have changed, gamers and overclockers got very demanding, and a lot of dust got kicked up by this IT population. Obviously, Foxconn needed strong sub-brand for that market segment, much like ASUS ROG (Republic Of Gamers). So, Foxconn Quantum Force was created, and this time we got BloogRage GTI X58 model in our test lab. This motherboard has “aggressive” name, and there is a good reason for that…”

CLICK HERE FOR Foxconn BloodRage GTI PRICING & SHOPPING

Net books are starting to take a serious chunk of the mobile computing pie. With more and more power being stuffed into a tiny enclosure it is understandable that heat is starting to become an issue. Even though the atom processor is not a push over when it comes to stable temperatures additions like better integrated gpu’s and wi-fi adapters make your net books over all temperatures a serious concern. What is another drawback to owning a netbook over a laptop? A resounding response to this question is easily the lack of USB ports this is where the Choiix Air-through netbook cooler jumps ahead of the the competition and not only gives you the cooling you deserve but also the use of extra port built right in. Let’s get a good look at this masterful piece of technology:

CLICK HERE FOR Choiix Mini Air Through Netbook Cooler PRICING & SHOPPING

Today we are going to take a look at another Core i7 processor from Intel. We got ourselves a 920 to play around with and use in our test system. Comparisons will be between this and the new AMD Phenom 2 955 which is the fastest AMD processor on the market right now. We are going to see what type of performance we can get from this unit that is supposed to be taken out of the Intel inventory to make room for cheaper units named Core i5.

CLICK HERE FOR Intel Core i7 920 CPU PRICING & SHOPPING

"PC Power & Cooling Silencer 910 uses internally the same design as Seasonic M12D, thus being manufactured by Seasonic. This design is based on a DC-DC converter on the secondary, i.e. Silencer 910 is basically a +12 V power supply with two small power supplies in charging of converting the +12 V output into +5 V and +3,3 V. This is the same concept used on power supplies series like Signature and TruePower New from Antec, M12D from Seasonic, UCP from Cooler Master and HX (750 W and above) from Corsair. These other models proved to have an above-the-average efficiency. It is important to keep in mind that other models from PC Power & Cooling Silencer series use a different internal design. Let's see how the performance from PC Power & Cooling Silencer 910 is."

CLICK HERE FOR PC Power & Cooling Silencer 910 Power Supply PRICING & SHOPPING

I remember when I first discovered thermal compound. I had no idea that working on computers could be as messy a job as changing the oil in an old Nissan. My mentor told me, and I quote, �There is no better paste than this right here.� He said this as he handed me a tube of Arctic Silver and a broken piece of a Big Lots gift card to apply the paste with. He then fell asleep playing his 27th straight hour of Everquest 2 and left me to put the computer we had taken apart back together myself.

Thing was, even in his sleepless stupor, he had been right. Arctic Silver really had no contenders back then. It was THE thermal paste, and no one argued with the fact. But over the last few years, a few other challengers have stepped into the ring, determined to take Arctic down a peg or two. Today, I'm reviewing one of those contenders. Gelid has delivered the GC1 High Performance Thermal Compound. No, really. They delivered it. I saw the birth certificate.

A full-fledged X58 motherboard for under $170 was just a dream a year ago, fully realized with the ASRock X58 Extreme motherboard. ASRock offers most of the features of the X58 SuperComputer with the exceptions being 3 full length PCI Express slots instead of four and better BIOS options. Performance is on par or better than that of the X58 SuperComputer which is much more expensive but has an additional PCI Express slot for another video card and supports the Tesla video cards from NVIDIA. ASRock has really done an outstanding job with this motherboard offering the performance of the more expensive X58 boards on the market and virtually all of the features you would expect from this chipset, making this a solid Editor's Choice for this price point.

CLICK HERE FOR ASRock X58 Extreme Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

In this review, we'll be taking a look at the Lancool PC-K58 Midi Tower Chassis (Dragon Lord K series). It's constructed from CECC steel (Cold-Reduced Electrolytic Chromium/Chromium Oxide Coated Steel) which is basically the same as SECC steel. It comes in a completely tool-less and screwless design. All the internal installation of add-on cards can be done without tools, and features a unique "lock n' load" system. The front bezel and top panel is plastic while the rest of the chassis is steel.

There are other models available. It all depends on your tastes. Some come with a side window, while others have extra fans for cooling. For example, Lancool's higher-end model ... the PC-K62, comes with a black interior as well as LED fans. It just means you pay more for the extras ;)

It will be interesting to see if Lancool can establish a foothold within this fiercely contested market. It won't be an easy ride, especially when you have Antec, Coolermaster, Thermaltake and others, already busy battling it out.

"Thankfully Rebit implemented similar features from Time Machine for use in their PC-centric devices. While the user interface is not as polished as the Time Machine’s, it performs almost all of its functions plus a little more. Rebit allows the average PC user to easily backup and restore files with minimal difficulty. “Ridiculously Simple Backup” is not just a slogan; it’s the way the Rebit works. "

CLICK HERE FOR Rebit 500 GB Multi-PC Backup Appliance PRICING & SHOPPING

So you just bought a plain old case, and you decided that you want to modify it. Give it a custom paint job, a CPU snorkel, and your own case fan mods as well. Well as we all know the fans that come with these low budget cases are never the best, so now you are looking for the best bang for your buck when replacing these cheep little fans, so how do you know which to choose. Well that’s why we are here to help by doing the foot work to try and find out which fans are going to give you the best deal for cooling vs. cost. Let’s take a closer look as this round of fans, the SilenX Ixtrema 120mm Red LED fans:

CLICK HERE FOR SilenX Ixtrema 120mm Fan PRICING & SHOPPING

The newest addition to the Razer headset lineup is the USB powered Megalodon headsets. Featuring an all new USB sound card developed by Razer called the Maelstrom sound engine. Depending on user preference you can run in either 2.0 or 7.1 mode.

CLICK HERE FOR Razer Megalodon PRICING & SHOPPING

"You've read our squawks about the endless search for the perfect two-in-one imaging device (good pictures and videos in a single package). For the most part we've concentrated on camcorders since they start out with fine video. Unfortunately other than a few Canons we've been generally disappointed with these supposed hybrids since they really can't grab quality still images. Panasonic is flipping this formula on its head, starting off with a solid camera and adding high-quality movies to the mix. In this instance, the Lumix DMC-ZS3 is the first digicam with AVCHD Lite, a lesser quality codec compared to the AVCHD used in most high-def camcorders. Rather than 1080I, Lite records 720P at 60 frames per second, which in theory should be far better than 1280 x 720 30 fps clips taken by many 2009 cameras. In fact we just reviewed the Canon PowerShot SD970 IS with this feature and weren't too thrilled with the video results. Now will AVCHD Lite be a heavyweight or a bust? Time to check it out."

CLICK HERE FOR Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 PRICING & SHOPPING

"Samsung SE-S084 is a slim external dual-layer DVD writer targeted to netbooks that don't come with an optical unit. Besides being very compact, it doesn't need an external power source, as the required power is pulled from two USB ports. Let's see if it is worthwhile buying this product."

CLICK HERE FOR Samsung SE-S084 External DVD Writer PRICING & SHOPPING

I can see the Startech.com KVM Console to USB 2.0 crash cart adapter as an invaluable item in an IT professional's tool kit, providing an easy way to access terminals, industrial computers, headless servers, and other applications where you might not keep a keyboard, mouse, and monitor installed at all times.

CLICK HERE FOR Startech.com KVM Console to USB 2.0 Crash Cart Adapter PRICING & SHOPPING

There are many users out there who do not need a full ATX case. Whether it be because you only have one graphics card, or just a lack of case space, a micro ATX board is just what you have been looking for. Currently there is not much selection, with just one more high end oriented micro ATX board. Today we have MSI's X58M, a micro ATX board for the masses. This happens to be the cheapest X58 board currently, certainly putting it as at least worth a look for many users.

The hard part about being the cheapest board is low expectations. The cheapest generally means that it will not be nearly as good as something more expensive. MSI hopes to rid its users of this thought by providing a top quality board for a basement price point. They certainly have me onboard, but I have doubts as to how well this board will overclock or how it will handle with large amounts of RAM. If MSI has engineered a truly great board, we should see great performance in both of these fields.

CLICK HERE FOR MSI X58M PRICING & SHOPPING

"So what does the Sapphire HD 4890 Vapor-X 2GB do well? Well, for one it offers up excellent cooling without the noise penalty that the reference cards present when you push the fan speed toward the max level. This card was barely audible three feet away from the case and was not heard over the white noise in my test room. The temperatures delivered by this card are almost identical to those of the Vapor-X 1GB card I tested. With the clock speeds at the factory default 870/1050 settings and the fan controlled by the driver, I measured 48 degrees Celsius at idle and 75 degrees Celsius while under load. Much lower than the reference cooling, and again it is dead silent in this configuration. Once overclocked and bumping the fan speed to 100%, I measure 43 Celsius at idle and 70 Celsius under load. Both better than the driver controlled numbers at the default clocks and leaps and bounds ahead of the reference cards. Having run through a few HD 4890 cards, the limits are relatively easy to reach without resorting to BIOS or hardware tweaks. The 1GB model reached 970MHz on the core and 1195MHz on the memory. The 2GB model reached very similar clock speeds of 950MHz on the core and 1200MHz on the memory, no slouch in the overclocking department even with the additional memory. That looks like some pretty close binning."

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire HD 4890 Vapor-X 2GB PRICING & SHOPPING

“Today we’re going to be looking at the Asus W90Vp, a multimedia notebook full of features such as an 18.4” 1080p display, a Blu-Ray drive and a powerful dual core CPU with overclocking capabilities paired with two of ATI’s mobile 4870 cards in a Crossfire configuration.”

CLICK HERE FOR Asus W90Vp Laptop PRICING & SHOPPING

With the recent spat of memory recalls from certain manufacturers, some enthusiast products have been brought under close scrutiny. Luckily, OCZ seems to have been sheltered from the issues and their high end memory kits are still going strong. In this review we take a look at their highest-clocking tri-channel kit: the OCZ Blade PC3-17000. If the stars align, OCZ may have another winner on their hands.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Blade PRICING & SHOPPING

"HTPCs are great products, but they can be costly and take up a bit of room, there are alternatives though in the form of external hard drives with multi-media capabilities. One such product is what I have for review today, the Cirago CMC1000 Multimedia Center which is essentially an external 3.5″ hard drive with the functions of an HTPC built-in. The CMC1000 features a remote control, HD output including HDMI and Component, wireless and wired network connections and the ability to act as a DVR. It all sounds great right? Well read on to find out what it’s really like…"

CLICK HERE FOR Cirago CMC1000 PRICING & SHOPPING

Nexus, one of the largest computer cooling peripheral manufacturers in the world sent us their newest invention TDD-9000 liquid laptop cooler. TDD-9000 doesn't have any fans in it and is based on liquid cooling. There are something special in TDD-9000:s cooling mechanism so let's have a look if it does what Nexus has promised.

"Patriot Convoy XL (a.k.a. PCXL25SR) is an aluminum-made 3 ½" HDD enclosure that holds up to two 2.5" HDDs or SSDs (solid state drives), with a built-in RAID controller. It can be installed on a floppy disk drive or hard disk drive bay from your case and connected to the motherboard using a standard SATA connection or can be used as an external device, being connected to the PC using an eSATA or a USB 2.0 port. Let's take a look on this product."

CLICK HERE FOR Patriot Convoy XL PRICING & SHOPPING

"When it comes time to spend your money on an upgrade, many people really want to feel they got their money's worth. With the N260GTX OC V3, MSI has hit a home run when it comes down to price as well as performance. Currently you find this card for 159 bucks online after a $30 rebate. A factory overclocked card with a massive heatpipe cooler that works for well under $200, is a heck of a deal. In fact I saw few reference cards far enough under the $159 mark to really pass up the value that the N260GTX OC V3 presents. As a factory overclocked card, the expectation is that it will out perform the reference versions - no surprises that it does this and does it well. In 34 out of 36 tests it performed better than the reference versions and in two the performance was even. When the card was overclocked even further, it started to play well above its price point. Speaking of overclocking, the N260GTX delivered an increase of 101MHz over the 'standard' 655MHz on the core, 104MHz on the shader clocks and 174MHz on the GDDR3 memory. All in all, pretty decent increases across the board."

CLICK HERE FOR MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC V3 PRICING & SHOPPING

Benchmark Reviews has seen Solid State Drive products from every angle, and while SSDs have overtaken hard drive products in terms of speed, there still remains the giant task of beating HDDs in price. That's exactly why OCZ has created the Agility Solid State Drive. Identical to the popular OCZ Vertex SSD in every aspect except NAND selection, the Agility SSD series offers the same Indilinx 'Barefoot' controller and 64MB of DRAM buffer allowing a fast 230 MBps read speed. Benchmark Reviews tests the reaction time and bandwidth performance for the 120GB Agility OCZSSD2-1AGT120G model against over two dozen other storage products in this article.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Agility MLC SSD PRICING & SHOPPING

We have a preview of a new case that promises that rare combo of premium features and affordability in one package. Lancool's Dragon Lord K-Series should hit retailers for about $80 if rumours are true. Score one in the affordable column there. But what about features, design, quality? After spending some time with the Dragon Lord, we think Lancool may just slay most mid-towers with what's included here, if that's any indication."

"Eagle Tech has been a trusted supplier of OEM based external memory solutions as well as other PC based component solutions for some time now. With many years experience in OEM manufacturing Eagle Tech were able to start thinking outside the box and have expanded their product range through the use of several subsidiary companies such as 'Arion', who's name adorns the box I have just received.

Given that this system has been produced with rather mild specifications, I'm not predicting any window shattering sound pressure or earth shattering bass. However, for many smaller single user environments this could be more than ample, so let’s see how they perform."

CLICK HERE FOR Eagle Tech ET-AR504LR-BK 2.1 Soundstage Speakers PRICING & SHOPPING

The Lian Li PC-9, successor of the Lian Li PC-8, is another
mid-tower with a plain and simple but beautyful design. The hole case is made of black and brushed aluminium with a high manufacturing quality. The range of features like hot swap HDD cage, fan-controller, ODD mounting kit, liquid cooling compatibility and more, makes the very proud price of CHF 246.- worth it.

CLICK HERE FOR Lian Li PC-9 PRICING & SHOPPING

"Zowie Gear is a relatively new company, especially in the states, they specialize in gaming gear like mousepads, headphones, skates and mice. They sent me over their new IO1.1 Professional Gaming Bundle for review which consists of a mouse carrying bag, large mousepad, skates and a re-painted Microsoft Intellimouse. The Intellimouse is an optical mouse that is very popular with gamers, touted as one of the best out there from what I’ve read, so I was curious to get to try it out."

As power supply reviews continue here at Hardware Canucks, we have come to the point where we needed to take another look at one company that has been leading the field for some time now: Corsair. Their TX850 may not be the newest unit on the market but its price point is low enough that it is a serious consideration for everyone from enthusiasts to newcomers to the PC scene. Let’s hope that it can perform up to our expectations.

CLICK HERE FOR Corsair TX850 850W PRICING & SHOPPING

"We reviewed Akasa Nero CPU cooler, which fits sockets 1366, 775, 939, AM2, AM2+ and AM3 processors, have three U-shaped heatpipes and a 120 mm fan. Let's compare its performance to Thermaltake BigTyp 14Pro we recently reviewed."

"As much as I’m fond of feature-rich devices, dense with macros and custom binds, and as much as I love a sexy peripheral, Razer keeps me loyal with one simple feat: their mice--as this is my first Razer keyboard--never get in my way. They are extensions of me. Razer’s Arctosa keyboard promises that the same thing that’s true for my right hand can be true for my left. That I can puppet my avatars as though there was no input device at all."

CLICK HERE FOR Razer Arctosa Gaming Keyboard PRICING & SHOPPING

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

“ASUS continuously expands its, already big, Eee product portfolio. Newest addition in Eee family, that we got in our test lab, is Eee PC 1004DN and it actually has few peculiarities that will make him stand out from the crowd. ASUS Eee PC 1004DN has optical drive and new Intel GN40 chipset with X4500M integrated graphics card that should be faster compared to GMA950 that can be found in most netbooks. Biggest news is that Atom CPU in combination with new GN40 chipset supports reproduction of HD video which was one of the biggest drawback of “old” netbooks…”

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Eee PC 1004DN PRICING & SHOPPING

"In order to meet the requirements of the 80 Plus Bronze standard, the power supply must run with a power factor of 0.9 at 50% loading and an efficiency of 82% at 20%, 85% at 50% and 82% at 100% loading. All 80 Plus testing is done at 115VAC and 60Hz, probably due to the fact that it is a USA-based organization and all power supplies I have tested at 115VAC/60Hz will usually result in a pass at 230VAC/50Hz. The Xigmatek doesn't quite make the mark following the OCC testing methodology, but it's close, missing the 80 Plus Bronze requirements by two percent at 471W loading at 110VAC. I would expect most good quality power supplies to maintain their power factor at or above 0.9 for any load above 20% of their rated maximum. It's disappointing to see a power factor of 0.88 at 110W loading on 230VAC, but it meets the ATX12V V2.2, so technically speaking it's still a pass."

You don't have to be an audiophile to appreciate the enhanced surround sound effects from Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio found on most Blu-ray Disc movie discs over the standard Dolby Digital or DTS formats found on standard DVD movie discs. The lossless audio compression formats and/or the two extra channels of sound output really adds a significant amount of realism to the whole movie watching experience. The problem is most HTPC owners don't have the ability to experience these enhanced formats due to a lack of sound cards on the market that can support these formats. Benchmarkreviews has the ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 Slim sound card that does just that. Benchmark Reviews have put it through a series of tests and have determined whether HTPC owners can rejoice or not.

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim Sound Card PRICING & SHOPPING

We've taken a look at an almost countless number of computer cases over the years, but the X-Fighter is unlike many of them in various ways. The most noticeable feature is its design, which is very sci-fi inspired. Past that, there's been a lot of thought gone into the chassis' cooling-ability, and that proves to be one of its nicest features.

CLICK HERE FOR In Win X-Fighter PRICING & SHOPPING

Ok I admit it, I am a media junkie. There is nothing else i would rather do in my free time than lounge on the sofa and fire up my computer to watch the latest downloaded films and tv shows - the shape of my body is almost burned into the leather recliner as if to verify the point.

Phantom are set to answer the call of many a media fan with the release of their Phantom Lapboard which combines a rather unusally styled keyboard with a laser mouse that can be used on 'a lap' with a home theater PC.

Remember when Batman Begins came out? He was having to run across the city and was getting his ass kicked by every building he scrambled down. And then... that tank thing came along. The best piece of butt-kickery to grace a superhero with no powers. How awesome would it be to run around the city in something that looks like that? Well, there's not a flaming chance of you getting to sit behind the wheel of that tank, but at least you can have a case that looks just as hardcore.

NZXT, those moguls of awesomeness, have delivered unto us the Beta Steel Mid Tower. No wussified mini-ATX case here, this thing is a titan. The best thing to me is that even though it's a budget gamer case, priced at under $50, it still offers so much more than many of the cases that cost twice as much. Here's a little information to get us started in showing what this thing is really made of. You know, steel. It says so right in the name.

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Beta PRICING & SHOPPING

The high-end graphics market has grown stale with flagship products from Nvidia (GTX 295) and ATI (4870 X2) now old news. So while we wait for each camp to bring new GPUs to the market, Gigabyte opted to send us a mid-range 9800 GT, but unlike any other 9800 GT you've ever seen before. Rather than stick with the reference cooling solution, Gigabyte's Silent Cell version earns its moniker with a monster-sized fanless heatsink, making it the only passively-cooled 9800 GT in existence.

But that isn't the only thing the Silent Cell has going. Following the 'more is better' mantra, Gigabyte doubled the amount of GDDR3 memory found on most 9800 GT videocards to 1GB and slapped not one, but two HDMI ports onto the Silent Cell (one integrated, on via a DVI-to-HDMI adapter). Will these extras be enough to drum up excitement over a last-generation part?"

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte 9800GT PRICING & SHOPPING

"The ASUS Eee PC 1005HA was king when it came to battery life. What else can we say when a battery lasts a whopping 10 hours and xx minutes at idle by just unplugging. We didn't alter the default monitor brightness at all. ASUS seems to have found a very low power consuming LCD screen for the 1005HA! Benchmarks were also another strong point for the 1005HA Seashell. In almost all tests, the 1005HA performed slightly faster than its 1000HE predecessor. Both feature an Intel N280 Atom processor that runs 60MHz faster than the other netbooks with the N270 processor. The only test that the 1005HA didn't come out on top with was..."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Eee PC 1005HA PRICING & SHOPPING

The release of Intel’s i7 architecture has seen thermal solutions increase in size with more fans, fins and heatpipes in order to try and counter the massive 130W TDP. Many products have tried and failed to really stand out when it comes to working with a Nehalem rig and could simply not keep up with the heat levels produced.

Asus have impressed us in the past with their cooling solutions and their latest product from the ‘Triton’ range features a twin-pillared design with a centred 120mm fan as well as coming LGA1366 ready. So how will it shape up atop our i7 920 processor? Let’s take a look…

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Triton 88 LGA1366 PRICING & SHOPPING

Although the worldwide economy may be shrinking, our needs as consumers to store large amounts of data continues to grow at a breakneck pace. Whereas only a few years ago it was uncommon for most PC users to have more than just a few digital images or media files, today virtually every aspect of our lives has some sort of digital component. Our mobile phones now take pictures, shoot video, record audio and handle e-mail. it seems like everyone has a vast MP3 collection. We all create numerous documents, presentations, etc. And high-resolution, multi-megapixel digital cameras are prolific--and all that data has to go somewhere, if you want to save it, that is.

While consumers have a seemingly insatiable need for data storage, the data storage needs of small business and enterprise users are consistently growing as well. In addition to all of the aforementioned data types, SMBs and the enterprise have to contend with large databases and a myriad of backup data necessary to comply with local, state, and federal regulations, among numerous other things. As such, a class of high-end NAS (network attached storage) devices targeted at a broad range of consumers and professional users has emerged, that are both extremely powerful and easy to manage.

One such device is the Thecus N7700 NAS Server. The N7700 can accommodate 7 internal SATA hard drives, it supports multiple RAID configurations, it had dual Gigabit Ethernet jacks that support load balance and fail over functionality, and it has an easy to use browser-based interface that's simple to manage. Click the link below and check it out...

CLICK HERE FOR Thecus N7700 NAS PRICING & SHOPPING

"We couldn't pass up the chance to review the Fujifilm FinePix Z30. It is a point-and-shoot camera that bucks the trends. The Z30 has a really unique style. It has a smooth and curvy metallic surface and comes in several bright colors including a bright fuchsia pink, an intense bright orange and a vibrant purple."

CLICK HERE FOR Fujifilm FinePix Z30 PRICING & SHOPPING

"Colorado-based manufacturer Able Planet specializes in audio devices designed for people intent on preserving their hearing. To that end, their new True Fidelity PS500MM multimedia stereo headphones are geared specifically for gamers who want to be able to hear those crafty Call of Duty players sneaking up behind them, but would rather not blow out their eardrums with explosive machine gun fire the rest of the time."

CLICK HERE FOR Able Planet True Fidelity PS500MM PRICING & SHOPPING

"The ZEROtherm Core 92 is a small package that beats the stock Intel cooler into the ground. Installation is very simple; the user only has to apply thermal paste, snap the cooler onto the motherboard mounting holes, and plug the fan in. The directions are clear and cover the details well, like how to operate the push-pins and mounting. The product is simple and so is the installation procedure. The heat sink itself looks cool with the fin design and blue glow, and should fit in most cases. The mounting system leaves a little to be desired. The heat sink was getting poor temperatures because it wouldn't get enough pressure to stay on the CPU IHS evenly, so I had to bend the arms slightly. Once that was done, the temperatures dropped and it worked perfectly fine. The fan looks great inside the heat sink and the push-pins work as well as they can. The heat sink looks great and performs equally good. The compact form factor also makes this much more accessible to people, allowing this heat sink to fit in most situations - although the fan may hum too loudly for a dead silent PC or HTPC."

CLICK HERE FOR ZEROtherm Core 92 PRICING & SHOPPING

The ISGC-300 from Thermaltake is the biggest of the five coolers under this series. The ISGC-300 is based heavily on the commonly used tower design. Granted the tower arrangement offers the best cooling to date when it comes to air and the ISGC-300 should fall in there with this belief. But what else this cooler offer is a new take on fan and fan blades. All new fan motor and redesign blades is what the ISGC series is all about. And we get to take our first look at one.

"Today for review I've got the OCZ Neutrino 10" DIY Netbook, I've taken quite a bit of time with it and compared it to the Acer Aspire One D250 that I recently reviewed as well. The Neutrino is a superior netbook in most all aspects, but that's only my opinion, continue on to learn more about it, see lots of pictures, check out the tests, and learn what goes into finishing the product... "

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Neutrino PRICING & SHOPPING

Another AMD processor reached our mailbox a week ago, it's the Phenom 2 905e which is supposed to be a mid range processor. You can get this for around 180$ so it's not to badly priced if the performance is decent. We are going to compare it vs the high end Phenom 2 955 and mid end 940 from AMD to see where we can place this processor performance wise.

CLICK HERE FOR AMD Phenom 2 905e PRICING & SHOPPING

When Gateway launched their UC series less than three months ago, the UC7807u retailed for $799. Today, the exact same model and configuration sits at $599. We'll tackle the reasons as to why inside, but let's just say, for $599, the UC7807u is one heck of a notebook, thanks to both being feature-packed and great-looking.

CLICK HERE FOR Gateway UC7807u Notebook PRICING & SHOPPING

"In the first Preview on eTeknix we are proud to introduce the first LGA-1156 motherboard in the UK, the Asus P7P55D Evo, which is designed to use the new Lynnfield processors that Intel will hopefully be releasing in a few months time. The first of these should be Core i5 750 clocked at 2.66 GHz and confusingly we should also see i7 1156 socket processors in early 2010 with the 860 and 870 clocked at 2.8 GHz and 2.93 GHz respectively. It's worth mentioning before we get started that this preview is based on a pre-production motherboard, so some of the specifications may be altered before it goes in to mass production ready for a September release to coincide with Intel’s i5 launch."

"With the N275GTX having a little bit of a factory overclock the expectation was that the Twin Frozer cooling system would help reach an overclock that was a bit higher than the other cards I have looked at. I was not disappointed. I started out by increasing the fan speed to 100 percent using Riva Tuner 2.24 to allow the cooler to remove as much of the thermal load generated by the GPU and memory as possible. We all know that cooler running parts will in most cases deliver higher clock speeds. To bump up the clock speeds I used a tool called GPUtool. I started out with the clock speeds delivered by the ASUS ENGTX275 I recently looked at and the N275GTX passed through some preliminary testing without a hitch. Unfortunately the GPU clock and memory clock did not really move much higher and maxed out at 742MHz on the core and an even 1300MHz on the memory. Nothing to be ashamed of there on air. Now where the Twin Frozer took off was on the shader clock speeds. Just over 1500MHz was the barrier on the last 3 GTX 275's we have looked at so I was not expecting to pull 1600MHz out of this card but it kept scaling up to this level. All said and done 742/1600/1300 were the clock speeds reached for day to day operation. This level provided performance increases across the board in each benchmark and resolution tested. The final test was doing some Folding @ Home testing on the card to see if it could run at this level 24/7. This it did!"

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"I'm actually quite a fan of PC3-12800 memory. I feel that it's a good speed for people who are hoping to get a bit more power from their memory modules without having to spend the massive amounts of money that PC3-16000 modules tend to carry with them.

Priced at just over $100 U.S., the Patriot PC3-12800 6GB kit which sits in the Gamer Series lineup from the company is what we're going to be looking at today. What we intend to find out is if you can still get some serious performance from your RAM without having to spend the massive amounts of money that tends to come with ultra low latency modules or extremely high spec’d 2000MHz kits."

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If you have a lot of spare hard drives laying around that you want to see if they work and what they contain, but dont want to take the effort to install them in your desktop, Sunbeamtech has a solution for you. This device is also a perfect fit for an IT person to use as a data recovery tool. The device I am referring to is the SATA and IDE to USB Adapter. Benchmark Reviews is pleased to give you a closer look at this device, and just what we can expect from a tool like this. It boasts USB 2.0 high-speed tranfer rates, and the ability to access files on drives both 2.5" and 3.5" in size. So, if you are an IT professional, or just someone who has a lot of spare drives laying around that you want to see what is on them, check out this product from Sunbeamtech, and the review from Benchmark Reviews.

In our new article we are going to introduce to you a new 4-bay NAS from Thecus. With powerful new RAID options, a built-in LCD, and improved data throughput, the N4100PRO promises increased usability, functionality, and performance.

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

So you have been looking at some of the many mainstream cases coming out that sport multiple fans coming in over 200mm, yet none are quite what you’re looking for. Some have multiple massive fans, some have just one or two but have eye catching LEDs, and then there’s the Thermaltake Element G Gamer Chassis. With two 230mm fans, one 200mm fan and a 120mm you have the monster fans that you where looking for, also with this case there is a toggle switch to cycle through the six different LED states that are available with this case. So in other words, if you’re looking for a quite case with multiple large fans and bright vibrant LEDs than follow me and come take a closer look at this great case:

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Lowry Digital transformed Marlon Brando's The Godfather, Richard Burton's The Robe, and now Buzz Aldrin's 1969 moon walk into modern viewing formats.

"Today for review I’ve got a budget prices set of very nice quality speakers, the Eagle Arion 2.1 Soundstage Speakers with sub-woofer. These speakers are well worth the cost, coming in at around $50, they feature a tweeter and dual mid-range speakers in each satellite, and a separate sub-woofer with LCD display on it with everything being able to be controlled with the included remote."

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Lian Li has built up a reputation over the years for their cases and the ARMORSUIT PC-P50 certainly carries on that legacy. The PC-P50 packs some quality tool free designs that make swapping components a snap. You also get the quality aluminum build and finish we have come to expect from Lian Li cases.

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Elixir commonly refers to medicine, which I hopefully will not need when overclocking this RAM kit. I know the Mushkin I had would not get to 1802 stably on this board, but maybe Nanya has a trick up their sleeve which gave them just the edge they need to acheive this high RAM clock. At that speed memory bandwidth is extremely high, especaly with the RAM running in triple channel. Such high memory bandwidth will be a big help in server, and heavy encoding environments. These speed boosts will undoubtedly vastly increase production, but if your not into such professional tasks, then there are always games. Games take advantage of the added RAM in a system, but enough talk about the RAM, lets see what this RAM can do!

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Corsair gets their feet wet again, after close to 3 years they have introduced another water cooling product, the previous one being the Nautilus 500 back in 2006. This time around they’ve also opted for an all-in-one kit, but build inside the case, fitted onto the exhaust fan, a case with 120mm exhaust is a requirement, a large wallet is not! The Corsair H50 will be introduced at price of ~€/$70 which is pretty much on par with high end air cooled heatsinks out there! So can an all-in-one kit impress us? Let's find out!

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