Week of December 20, 2009

The characters are all well played. The setting is pretty cool. It’s an extract bottling plant where the workers have their own little culture, as is the case with any working environment….

We've reviewed quite a few Nexus powersupplies in the past. This time we will take a look at their newest product RX-6300, which is a 630W power supply cooled with a single 135mm fan. Let's have a look how it succeeds in our tests.

If you own a Wii and never managed to play Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil Zero, then now might be an ideal time as it has been ported across from the Gamecube version. The game has underwent some changes however as the controls have been adapted to take advantage of the Wii configurations.

We have just released a Review of the mySN QXG7 High-End-Gaming-Notebook. The Notebook is equipped with Intel Core i7 Desktop-Processor, 6 GB DDR3-SO-DIMM and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M Graphics card.

The ASRock ION 330HT-BD packs a BluRay drive along with a few other unique features usually absent from an ION platform. We pull the unit apart to see what makes it tick and even kick it into overdrive - yes we even overclocked this puppy.

Not everyone needs a particularly flashy or super powerful power supply unit. The Thermaltake TR2 series caters to users who need functionality, but have no need for bells and whistles beyond modular cabling and 80PLUS certification. The TR2 RX subseries delivers the modular cable management savvy users expect these days. ThinkComputers checks out the TR2 RX 750W in this review.

A few key observations on the Crossfire of two HD 5970s need to be made. First, if you don’t have a powerful CPU, two of these video cards will likely not be GPU bound in any way shape or form but CPU bound. The HD 5970 is a powerful card by itself; two of them in CrossfireX mode are the most powerful solution on the market today, bar none. Two HD 5970s require a big PSU, with a maximum power requirement of 588 Watts just for the video cards alone. ATI has a list of Certified Power Supplies on their website and I would suggest a minimum of 850W for two of these 5970s. The Cooler Master 1000W PSU we use for testing worked like a charm with consistent performance across tests without power problems. If you are in the market for the best performance, features and aren’t concerned about the cost or availability, two HD 5970s in CrossfireX mode IS the solution for you today.

Today we are going to look at the Aerocool V12 fan controller that can control up to four fans and monitor four different temperatures simultaneously. It does this through a touch-screen panel occupying two of the 5.25” bays in the front of your machine.

For those that haven't seen the commercials on TV, the Powermat is a charging mat that allows you to wirelessly charge up to 3 electronic devices simultaneously. It also allows you to reduce the number of cords needed for charging and is a great conversation piece as you are charging your devices wirelessly.

Today for review I've got a rather unique mouse, one that you can wash with soap and water! It's a product that might be considered a gimmick, but it comes from a rather well known company. Actually it's two products the Washable Travel Mouse and Pouch Pad from Belkin. Since it's washable there's no scroll wheel for obvious reasons, it's been replaced by a unique touch sensitive strip. So continue on to learn more about it...

"Sony is definitely a "big player" when it comes to home multimedia systems, and their latest Blu-ray player, the Sony BDP-N460, offers a whole bunch of new streaming features and functionality. It now offers streaming similar to players from other competitors, like Netflix Instant and YouTube streaming. The lower price point is another thing that Sony hopes will attract users to this new model."

CLICK HERE FOR Sony BDP-N460 PRICING & SHOPPING

The Vapor Chamber cooling kept the Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X down at 64 degrees Celsius under load during my overclocking testing with the fan speed at 90%. Letting the drivers control the fan speeds at the stock clock speeds the core temperature never hit 75 degrees Celsius under load. During this testing the fan speeds reached only 56%. This kept the temperatures as well as the noise in check. So you have a win/win situation where you get lower temperatures with much less noise than the reference cards.

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire HD 5770 PRICING & SHOPPING

Memory these days comes in just about every speed, shape, color and price. Recently we have taken a look at memory with LED's, and even memory with a platinum finish. Today I'm taking a look at a triple channel kit from Patriot from their Viper Series, designed specifically for i7 rigs. We are going to find out how well they performed compared to the kits we have tested in the past. Will the Viper Series come out on top?

CLICK HERE FOR Patriot DDR3 Viper Series PRICING & SHOPPING

QNAP’s network attached storage devices are known for stability, versatile features, and great support from the few-year-old Taiwanese company. This time around, we’re reviewing TS-439U-RP, a 1U rackmount, dual power supply, dual NIC, dual OS, and four bay NAS aimed at the small business and corporate sector. It can serve up files via SMB, AFP, NFS, FTP, and a variety of other alphabet-soup protocols. It can stream audio and video to gaming consoles, backup to cloud services, and so much more. ThinkComputers has the review.

As prices for quality power supplies fall, products that were once out of reach are now accessible to consumers who are on a budget. With the ever-increasing power demands of the most modern components, 850W PSUs have become one of the “sweet spots” for the current market. Today we look at nine such units; some offer a budget friendly solution while others are uncompromising in every way.

CLICK HERE FOR 850W Power Supply PRICING & SHOPPING

Computer hardware always evolves, and in the interest of making lives more productive technology continues to advance. Gigabyte has recently launched their P55-A series of motherboards on the Intel P55-Express chipset, which incorporate a new 3-3-3 theme of features: Super-Speed USB 3.0 and 3x the USB power output, as well as SATA-3.0 for 6Gbps bandwidth. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 and inspects the new SATA-6G functionality in-depth. Performance will be measured between the Intel Core i7-860 fitted to the LGA1156 socket on the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 motherboard and the Core i7-920 equipped GA-EX58-UD4P. Testing a Core i7-860 against an i7-920 might not seem fair, and it's a little biased to compare P55 against X58, but the final outcome might just surprise you.

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

"Before the holiday I’ve got a large review for you. Last week I reviewed the Droid from Verizon Wireless, this week I’ve got one of their netbooks to review. It’s the HP Mini 311 and it’s one of the first netbooks to feature the Nvidia ION chipset in it. I was a bit excited to get this as I was very curious as to the performance of the ION compared to the Intel chipset. So I’ve put it through it’s paces over the past couple weeks and I like it overall. I decided to see how it compares to my Acer Aspire One D250 in terms of performance as well, so I’ve got a lot of tests for you. This review turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected it to, so sit back, relax and read on to learn more… "

The Xtreem Series from Team Group marks the company's high-end line-up of memory for the newest plattforms available. We rip apart, bench and push the memory to the limit, to see how it ticks below the surface of the thick, high quality heatspreaders.

"Today we are going to test another low-cost CPU cooler, Evercool HPH-9525EA, which has a horizontal heatsink, three heatpipes and a 95-mm fan with blue LEDs. Let's check its performance!"

With the fan out of the way we can get a look at the heat sinks and capacitors inside the XFX 850W Black Edition Power Supply. All of the capacitors are high quality Nippon Chemi-Con. Those who are really into power supplies just "ah ha". For those of us who are not, what we are looking at is Seasonic M12D guts in an XFX wrapper. This same platform drives the PC Power and Cooling Silencer 910 as well. With this many names of big companies known for quality parts this should be one sturdy PSU.

CLICK HERE FOR XFX 850W Black Edition Power Supply PRICING & SHOPPING

A while ago we looked at the ASUS ENGT240 512MB GDDR5 video card, but this time we are taking a look at the new ASUS ENGT240 1GB DDR3 video card. The difference between the two cards is their memory type, size and the memory speed. It will be a very interesting comparison to see which one will perform better. The GT 240 that has 1GB but slower DDR3 memory or the 512MB card that has a faster GDDR5 memory.

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS ENGT240 PRICING & SHOPPING

Gaming PCs have long since reached a point where multiple fans of different sizes and RPM are necessary to adequately cool the hardware it uses. With such a variety comes the potential of tweaking each individual fan to a certain speed, in order to preserve power when not needed and control the airflow of the rig. If you are using standard fans connected to a power supply alone, this is impossible. The solution to all these problems is a fan controller, in this case a 5.25" expansion bay and hardware that, at the very least, controls multiple fans. The interface of a controller, how it controls the speeds, style, and capacity are but a few things that set models apart from one another. NZXT has sent us the Sentry 2 to see how it performs.

The ASUS (M4A785TD-V EVO), Gigabyte (MA785GT-UD3H) and Sapphire (PURE AM3RS785G) Mainboards with AMD 785G Chipset arrived Technic3D. We check the three Mainboards in a Roundup on Windows 7 and Kubuntu 9.10

CLICK HERE FOR AMD 785G Mainboard PRICING & SHOPPING

Ultra's latest PSU series, the X4, consists of no less that 7 units with an output ranging from a meager 500W up to a mind blowing 1600W. The X4 series is the successor to the very successful X3 series which has been Ultra's flagship range of products for several years.

Television-connected media players from pretty much any company outside a Fortune 500 technology player are hit and miss some get popularized via hype and excellent marketing campaigns, while others are half-assed devices which get the job done but are beyond frustrating to use. The Masscool MP-1371RS Media Player may have a very generic name, and look like it probably falls into the half-assed category, but I assure you, it does not. ThinkComputers reviews this sleeper contender and gives it rave reviews.

Kicking off our hard drive coverage begins with a look at Western Digital's Caviar Black 1TB. As an affordable "high-end" consumer drive, this model includes all of the important features, and performs quite well throughout all of our tests. It also happens to win the contest for having the lowest overall acoustic levels, and by a fair margin.

CLICK HERE FOR Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB PRICING & SHOPPING

The recent release of Dirt 2 had me itching to play and see what the cards could do as well as look at the visuals first hand. Its the little things that you notice that really make the visuals better. It would have been nice to see the game included as part of the bundle with the packaging artwork showing off a rally car as the predominant feature. Diamond has the game available on select 5 series cards, just not this one. Overclocking the Diamond HD 5750 yielded gains in performance across the board with increases of 100Mhz on the GPU core and 145Mhz on the GDDR5 memory.

CLICK HERE FOR Diamond Radeon HD 5750 PRICING & SHOPPING

So where do I stand when it comes to evaluating the QNAP TS-419U as an overall unit? For users who want high speed data transfer over their network through RAID 0, they may not be getting the best bang for their buck.

CLICK HERE FOR QNAP NAS PRICING & SHOPPING

Xigmatek a well known manufacturer of various computer products in Europe and have now released a new case which they'ved named Midgard. We are going to look at this mid class case and see what features it posesses and how well it performs in comparison to the the price.

Today for review I’ve got a printer, and I realize I’ve never reviewed just a printer before, they’ve all been the all-in-one types that I’ve looked at. The printer I had for review today though isn’t just any printer it’s the Epson WorkForce 1100 Wide-Format Printer. The 1100 can handle paper 13” wide by 19” long, and actually can handle longer paper as well. Since it can handle such large paper, the printer itself is rather large so you’ll need quite a bit of space to set it up to use. So read on to learn more about a printer than can print some really big stuff for you…

CLICK HERE FOR Epson WorkForce 1100 PRICING & SHOPPING

The introduction of Intel's i7 platform coincided largely with the release of DDR3 memory bringing with it the prospect of triple channel setups. As a result, many memory kits have been produced specifically for the X58 motherboard generally of the order of 6GB (3 x 2GB). Typically, 1066MHz or 1333MHz DRAM has been used by the average users with higher frequencies seemingly classed as more “enthusiast” memory.

The AXLE 3D GT 240 we have here is a fairly standard GeForce GT 240, having the same clocks and specifications as the NVIDIA reference design, except its high performance Arctic Cooling heatsink and fan with the unique fan shroud found only on AXLE 3D's version. AXLE also offers a GDDR3 version in addition to the GDDR5 version we have today, with identical specifications aside from memory bandwidth.

CLICK HERE FOR GeForce GT 240 PRICING & SHOPPING

We have looked at Seagate's FreeAgent Go series a few times in the past and were very impressed with the Free Agent Go Dock that goes along with them. You wouldn't think Seagate would be able to improve on a simple dock too much but surprisingly they did. With the new Dockstar, they included an Ethernet port to help share your files over your network and over the Internet. What kind of difference can one lowly ethernet port make?

CLICK HERE FOR Seagate FreeAgent Dockstar PRICING & SHOPPING

While XFX have kept their eyes firmly on clock speeds and performance, Sapphire's Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X board sees only a token 10MHz core clock speed increase in this discipline to mark it out from the pack. Instead, the real highlight of this particular part is the presence of Sapphire's custom-built vapour chamber cooling solution, as you can see below.

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 PRICING & SHOPPING

CLICK HERE FOR XFX Radeon HD 5770 PRICING & SHOPPING

We have been reviewing Antec cases for quite some time here at ThinkComputers. While most Antec cases are revolutionary and have many features you just don’t find on other cases they really are plain cases in the sense that they are not that flashy or stylish at all. Well Antec has a case that is anything but ordinary. This case looks nothing like any other case out there and it seems weird coming from a company like Antec, but remember most of their cases really are revolutionary and this one sure is. So without further ado I present the Skeleton Case from Antec!

CLICK HERE FOR Antec Skeleton Case PRICING & SHOPPING

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

We have reviewed a handful of refurbished computer monitors from Geeks.com over the past few years, and overall we have been quite pleased. This time around we will be taking a look at a refurbished 23" LCD monitor from Hannspree. With HDMI connectivity and 1080p support, we'll see if their model number HF237HPB is worth consideration.

CLICK HERE FOR Hannspree HF237HPB 23 Inch HDMI LCD Monitor PRICING & SHOPPING

The Panzerbox's pure aluminum design makes it a light and luxurious option for travel and LAN parties and the welded chassis enhances strength and support.

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Panzerbox PRICING & SHOPPING

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

Up on the review block today I’ve got the Noctua NH-U9B SE2 CPU Cooler. The SE2 at the end just means it’s now compatible with new socket styles like the 1156 I’ve got. I’ve installed the NH-U9B on my Corei5 750 and ran some tests, both stock speeds and overclocked speeds, and I’m pleasantly surprised by the results I got. Don’t let the small size of this cooler fool you, it’s big on performance…

It's been a while since I last took a look at a motherboard that I knew I wanted in my own machine, but EVGA's P55 FTW ended that drought. The board lacks S-ATA and USB 3.0, but it has everything else, from great aesthetics and design to impressive overclocking, along with a handful of useful features not often found on the competition's boards.

CLICK HERE FOR EVGA P55 FTW PRICING & SHOPPING

It’s been a long time since I’ve reviewed any CPU Coolers here, so let’s just jump right back into it with one for the Corei5 Socket1156. Today I have the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooler for review. It’s essentially the same as the original NH-U12P but now is compatible with more socket types, including the 1156 Corei5 CPU. Noctua is well know for their products, the design, build quality and performance are all excellent. They’ve won many, many awards for their products, so it was natural that they come out with newer versions of their products for the newer CPUs and socket styles. I’ve installed it on my Corei5 750 CPU, and tested it both at stock speeds and overclocked, so read on to learn more…

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

Today we are going to look at the Abyssus Optical gaming mouse which is Razer’s latest attempt at an ambidextrous mouse. It is similar in shape and design to the other mice we have tested from Razer recently and is equally impressive in terms of aesthetics.

CLICK HERE FOR Razer Gaming Mice PRICING & SHOPPING

Present for this review are products from ECS, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI. ECS represents the budget option with their P55H-A which has a budget price but enthusiast features. MSI steps up the price with their P55-GD65 which sits closer to the average price, quality and feature-set for a P55 motherboard. EVGA bumps the price up into the enthusiast price-range while offering a board geared primarily towards overclocking enthusiasts in the EVGA P55 FTW. Finally, Gigabyte sits on top with price and features and is the only board to feature USB3.0 and SATA-III connectivity with the P55A-UD6 motherboard.

CLICK HERE FOR P55 Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

The Cooler Master V8 Heatsink arrived Technic3D. See you in the following Review the V8-Series compared with many other Cooler on a Intel Core i7 920.

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master V8 PRICING & SHOPPING

"A little over a year ago I reviewed the Cooler Master HAF 932 full tower case, and awarded it the OCIA.net Seal of Approval for its rugged good looks, great features and reasonable price. Cooler Master cases are always top quality and the HAF 932 is no exception. However, the HAF 932 may seem a bit plain in aesthetics, being mostly just black upon more black. If any future owners out there happen to be looking for some alternative to spruce up your HAF 932, Cooler Master may have just what you're looking for in the AMD Limited Edition HAF 932. Sporting a different color scheme along with AMD Phenom II logo and Dragon Fusion graphics, the AMD LE HAF 932 is sure to be a hit among the AMD crowd."

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master HAF 932 PRICING & SHOPPING

"This is a classic top model, as its status is maintained primarily by the lavish set of peripheral interfaces. Indeed, one can hardly add anything else to the abundance of interfaces on the rear panel."

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

XFX knows that gamers want unmatched performance from their hardware, which is why they now supply ATI Radeon desktop graphics as well as NVIDIA GeForce products. There's no better time for AMD-designed video cards than now, as the Radeon 5800-series has climbed to the top of gamers' most-wanted list. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the XFX Radeon HD5850 HD-585A-ZNFC video card against a large cross-section of modern graphics accelerators and explore the visual quality Microsoft Windows 7 will deliver with DirectX 11. Armed with 1440 shader cores, the 40nm Cypress GPU HD5850 is positioned to offer an excellent value for the upper mid-range and hits the sweet-spot for DX11 gamers.

The Vapor-X series is one of Sapphire’s main lines when it comes to offering performance graphics cards. With the main focus being on cooling thanks to a completely new cooler, when compared to the stock one we've seen the series perform well, not only recently but ever since its introduction.

Recently we had a chance to look at the HD 5750 and HD 5870 Vapor-X models. After looking at both of them there was a clear hole in the middle with the much loved HD 5770 and HD 5850 not being part of the lineup. Today we'll have a look at how the Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X performs against its little brother, the HD 5750 Vapor X.

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 PRICING & SHOPPING

If you consider Intel's design execution over the past 12 months or so, you'd have to admit it's nothing short of impressive. Not only did we see the launch of a new desktop chip with the Core i7, but Intel then ramped up clock speeds, introduced lower cost mainstream variants of the platform, and then drove that technology down into the mobile market with the introduction of Clarksfield, otherwise known as Core i7 mobile. Of course all of that execution was centered around more powerful computing platforms with larger form factors and the thermal and power budgets that go with them. These products, though huge contributors to Intel's bottom line, didn't cater to the ultra-mobile set of device Intel affectionately calls "Netbooks" and "MIDs" (Mobile Internet Devices) - the now cash-cow that Intel CEO, Paul Otellini holds near and dear to his heart, along with the company's investors.

The benefits of an SSD drive are clear with high read speeds, extremely high random access times and high sustained performance across the board. The Crucial SSD drive is available for $719.99 from Newegg today, making it a pricey but worthwhile purchase for those wanting the highest sustained performance at this price point and there are other drives in this series with lower storage capacities but the same technical specifications to meet your needs if you want a drive with a point. SSD drives are quickly becoming the drive of choice for hardcore enthusiasts wanting the fastest performance out of their system to boot up and wanting the fastest read and write sustained transfer rates.

CLICK HERE FOR Crucial M225 RICING & SHOPPING

While I did get a bit more of an overclock on the ECS A785GM-M motherboard than I did on the Sapphire 785G board, the overclock was still very limited. I was not able to push either the multiplier, or the reference clock very far, no matter how much voltage I threw at the system. I know the Phenom II X4 965 has a lot more headroom to go, so the limiting factor is the motherboard which is hit or miss. This overclock, while stable, was not very impressive when it came to the scores.

Gigabyte has a long-standing tradition of manufacturing some of the most reliable motherboards on the market but reliability is just one of many necessities when competing in the P55 market. Their new P55-UD6 board has something for everyone in terms of features but can it match or surpass the performance of similarly-priced boards from MSI and ASUS?

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte P55-UD6 PRICING & SHOPPING