Week of April 20, 2008

The new Stinger from Cyber Snipa shares the weight system of the Logitech G5 and G9. This was enough to make me want to review it. This is not the only similarities between the two but can Cyber take the similarities and take it a step further?

"Earlier this week we tested out the Stinger Gaming Mouse from Cyber Snipa. During this time we've also been using Cyber Snipa's Sonar 5.1 Headset as well. With a USB connection, eight speaker sound and adjustable boom mic, the Sonar 5.1 looks to have a lot going for it as well."

The Siberian Tiger water cooling system is a sealed CPU water cooling system that takes a lot of the headaches out of water cooling. You don't have to worry about filling or draining the system every time you need to pull your rig down.

Noctua has come up with another uniquely designed fan, the NF-P12. Although some might mistakenly think these are similar to their NF-S12 fans due to the colors used. They are completely different in design.

The AMD 780G chipset is all the rage right now for micro-ATX socket AM2+ motherboards. Today, we take a look at the ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI motherboard. It features DX10 compliant integrated ATI RV610-based graphics, which supports dual VGA outputs including DVI/HDMI interfaces with HDCP. It also incorporates AMD's UVD with hardware acceleration of H.264, VC1 and Mpeg2 used in HD DVD and BluRay disks. Is this board the right choice for your next HTPC or PC?

"Bytescout Watermarking Software is an easy to use and very inexpensive solution to most of your watermarking needs. There are many choices for styles of marking and numerous customizations options as well. For under $20 I can easily recommend you getting this product for quick and easy watermarking of your photos. "

"SilverStone has several power supply lines ranging from 350 W to 1,200 W and we were very curious to review a product from this manufacturer. For our first review of a SilverStone product, we decided to take a look on a mainstream product, Strider ST50F, which is a 500 W power supply costing only USD 67 at Newegg.com. How this product compares to other units from this power range we reviewed so far? Can it really deliver its rated 500 W? Is this a good product for Average Joe? Let's see."

CLICK HERE FOR SilverStone Strider Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

“The Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P Motherboard is an aggressive, extreme, yet efficient platform. It's a shock to see this board do so well and do it even better at more extreme frequencies. It's more affordable than most P35 overclocking motherboards and has plenty of the top end features a power user could want. There is a large void out there for energy conscious users who still want real power. This is absolutely the best choice for those on a budget who didn't think they could afford extreme performance.”

CLICK HERE FOR GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3P Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"Performance-wise, the P5E3 is a mixed bag. Running DDR3 memory at the same timings as comparable DDR2 kits did not really cause a performance loss per se, but once the memory speeds and CPU clockspeeds are increased, the board just comes alive with performance increasing at leaps and bounds. If you count the overall wins and losses, the board does not fare as well as some of the boards tested. Performance against another X48 board shows comparable performance, so on that front repeatability is a big factor. Overclocking on an X48 chipset comes with its own set of rules despite the fact that it's cousin, the X38, offers similar performance."

CLICK HERE FOR Asus P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP@n SHOPPING & PRICING

“Gigabyte was one of the first two computer hardware companies that I was aware of, along with Kingston memory. More than a decade before I decided to build my own rig, I had seen Gigabyte's name associated with motherboards. They have been around since 1986, the dawn of the era of the PC. Today I will be looking at my first Gigabyte motherboard, the X48T-DQ6. This board is presently Gigabyte's flagship motherboard. It sports a ton of features, natively supports DDR3-1900 memory and 1600FSB, along with CrossfireX, and looks sharp to boot. Will the Gigabyte board end my current love affair with motherboards by a four-letter word? Read on to see.”

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 Intel X48 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

The art of overclocking has led to many advancements throughout the computer industry. From higher quality components used on motherboards to faster RAM capable of keeping up with the CPU, overclocking is at the very heart of advancement. It is because of overclocking that we have after market coolers that can cope with the extra heat output from CPUs which brings me to the point of this article. There are many different methods for removing heat from your CPU which helps to lengthen the processor's life as well as increasing your overclocking headroom. There are high-end air coolers for the enthusiasts, water-cooling for the hardcore crowd and phase-change cooling for the extreme users. Each of these methods have distinct advantages and disadvantages. While water cooling offers lower temps than air cooling it is often an order of magnitude harder to setup and maintain. The same goes for phase-change cooling over water cooling, which brings us to the Freezone Elite from CoolIT systems. The Freezone Elite promises better cooling than water while being as easy to setup as a high-end air cooler. Trying to be all things to all people is always a risky path to take but one that can prove to be extremely lucrative if implemented properly. Does the Freezone Elite have what it takes to earn a spot in your gaming machine or is it just smoke and mirrors? I intend to find out.

CLICK HERE FOR CoolIT Freezone Elite SHOPPING & PRICING

When people think of energy efficiency they may have the misconception that it has to equate to a lack of power and excitement. In terms of automobiles, perhaps thinking that all hybrids are like a Prius. But what we have with the P5K PRO is a sporty, high performance model that just happens to have a smart design capable of saving energy.

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS P5K PRO Intel P35 Green ATX Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

MSI have long been known for their motherboards and graphics cards but more recently we have seen them come up with some unique features which set them apart from other manufacturers. Their Stirling engine based Northbridge heatsink (fan that uses heat and pressure to power itself, no electricity from a fan header) is a prime example of some great out of the box thinking.

It seems as if the folks at Western Digital have been working late night in their R&D department as the new Velociraptor takes the Raptor series to the next level. The Raptor series of drives were already a hall of fame winning product and with new drives with basically twice as fast overall performance levels these new Velociraptors will take their rightful place alongside their predecessors. The new Velociraptor is also very quiet running; you can barely hear it when engaged, always a good thing. Games were accessed faster, files transferred quicker and Music ripped seamlessly.

Head-Direct has just released their RE1 earphones which are quite different compared to all the other in-ears on the market today. The special thing about them is that they are based around some very unique performing drivers that scale particularly well. The better your amplifier is, the better their sound, leaving the competition behind in the dust - if you have a good amp.

"The Samsung SyncMaster2263DX provides a more reasonable balance between screen size and price by offering an enormous 22-inch widescreen monitor coupled with a more modest 7-inch side display to handle the screen overflow. Like the heads-up display in a car, the 2263DX gives users a convenient way to keep an eye on a handful of side programs without distracting from the main task at hand."

Thermalright is a company with a long history in the enthusiast PC market and they have created some of the best, hardcore CPU coolers over the last decade. Today we will have a look at two of their greatest CPU coolers, the Ultra-120 eXtreme and the IFX-14. The Ultra-120 eXtreme is an updated version of the extremely successful Ultra-120, while the IFX-14 has quickly became famous because of the monstrous size.

CLICK HERE FOR Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme SHOPPING & PRICING

CLICK HERE FOR Thermalright IFX-14 SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Alienware High Definition Media Server is not the Cadillac of media servers - it's more like a Maybach. If you have to ask how much, you probably can't afford it, but once you drive one everything else is pretty much crap. In a world that is moving towards complete home integration, Alienware has drawn first blood and set a high standard for others to beat..."

" OCZ may be best known for their memory products such as low latency and high speed RAM, but they also provide other products with enhanced speed and performance. Their line of cooling products as well as flash memory provide excellent performance in today's market. Today, ASE Labs has the OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4GB USB flash drive for review. Even flash can be dual channel. "

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

Jason checks out the unique iButton aimed at enhancing your image and company by giving you some flair. This multi-functional device works as an MP3 player, video player, picture viewer, and more. We show you why we feel the iButton is an iFlop and cover some fatal flaws in this gadget gone wrong.

" It's very interesting whenever we test Biostar motherboards with integrated graphics, especially when they are based on new chipset. This time we have tested new Biostar model from "T-series" based on GeForce 8200 chipset. GeForce 8200 is single chip solution aimed for AM2 and AM2+ platforms and it integrates complete south bridge and graphics accelerator. This integrated GPU has full support for HD video resolutions up to 1080p and has interesting options for connecting more than one monitor. With this chipset you can create hybrid SLi which means that you can insert another graphics card in PEG slot and create SLi system with integrated graphics card."

Recently we received two DDR3 kits, one from OCZ Technology and one from Patriot Memory. The kit from OCZ was their 4GB DDR3 12800 (DDR3 1600) Platinum Enhance Bandwidth product and Patriot sent us their 2GB Viper DDR3 15000 (DDR3 1866) kit. Both of these products were used in our recent review of the ASUS P5E3 Premium motherboard. We saw some rather interesting phenomena with both of these memory kits in that review so we have decided to review both of these kits comparatively in much more detail using the same test rig. Our goal is not only to give you a complete review of these two memory products, but to also answer the questions we alluded to in the beginning of this introduction.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ DDR3-12800 Platinum SHOPPING & PRICING

"While it may not be the most comprehensive list of tweaking options we've ever seen, in reality is should be enough for all but the most hardcore of overclockers, offering up every option you should need with a decent range of settings to choose from to boot, as befitting of an enthusiast level motherboard."

CLICK HERE FOR XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"Getting your hands on this device should solve your problems when it comes to flexible mobile storage with fail-safe protection. This is Enhance Technology’s T4H CR. The unit comprises a very nicely built enclosure with handles for easy mobility, four HDD eSATA bays, a built-in LCD display for setup and configuration, and last but most certainly not least, a RAID controller with levels 0, 0+1 and 5. An independent PSU and rear mounted case fan is also resident.

“Some organizations-or people-need serious storage. Sometimes a simple server running Windows 2003 or Linux might not be sufficient, in terms of storage space, redundancy, or cost for all of these. The Buffalo TeraStation Pro II series of network-attached storage devices aims to please users and administrators who need a large amount of redundant storage, automatic backups to other units, gigabit networking, and the ability to increase the capacity. ThinkComputers takes a look at the one terabyte rackmount version in this review.”

CLICK HERE FOR Buffalo TeraStation Pro II 1TB Rackmount NAS SHOPPING & PRICING

Antec is never stopping with the introduction of new cases. If seems like every 3 months or so there is a new case to drool over. That new case today is the tiny brother case of the P180 which is simply labeled the P180 Mini. The Mini carries many of the features of the P180 but in a smaller shell. The only thing that is lacking is the spacing of the P180. But the compartments and cable management systems remain in place. But what the Mini has over the regular size P180 is lighter weight and somewhat portability. It is definitely one for the person that is lacking room to house a bigger size tower but is it one for the LAN goers? This is what we will find out.

CLICK HERE FOR Antec Mini P180 mATX Case SHOPPING & PRICING

Targeting newer photographers, the Nikon D60 is priced right and includes a fantastic feature set. On top of the 10MP sensor, the D60 includes an automatic sensor cleaner, a vibration reduction kit lens, fast 3FPS performance, high ISO modes and a lot more.

CLICK HERE FOR Nikon D60 10.2MP Digital-SLR Camera SHOPPING & PRICING

"Like I mentioned above, the Gigabyte HD 2400 XT uses a unique cooling method called "Screen Cooling". This takes a fan-less heatsink and extends it past the width of the PCB, making the card essentially a full size ATX card. This gives the video card a wider and thicker look, while effectively cooling it with zero noise level, from the lack of fans. This design also protects the VGA connection, which uses a ribbon cable to extend the port on the PCI bracket, from snagging or damage. By removing the outer connection bracket we can get a better look at the fins of the heatsink and the holes which allow air flow from the case to pass through them and cool the card."

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte Radeon HD 2400 XT SHOPPING & PRICING

Inheriting a design from the HDT-S1283 it is derived from, Xigmatek's Red Scorpion S1283 offers some additional glamour to the already market-proven cooling solution. With Nickel-plated copper heat-pipe rods and a transparent orange fan with four white LED lights, the Red Scorpion not only performs well but also looks very attractive. Benchmark Reviews has long since been a believer of the excellent performance Heat-pipe Direct Touch coolers have offered, and since the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 has been a fan favorite for almost a year it will be interesting to see how the nickel plating will impact performance.

What could possibly be more manly than the Humvee; one of the biggest and baddest of all-terrain vehicles? Would you be intrigued to learn of a PC case modelled after one of these marvels of mechanical engineering? Ultra thinks so, and they've created their m998 case to complement your masculinity.

CLICK HERE FOR Ultra m998 Case SHOPPING & PRICING

I've used several of the Razer products over the years and every time I see a box from Razer coming up the side walk I get excited because none of their products have ever disappointed me in any way. Their attention to detail, well thought out designs, and cutting edge technology have never ceased to amaze me.

CLICK HERE FOR Razer Lachesis Laser Gaming Mouse SHOPPING & PRICING

"Noctua have a justified reputation of silent, yet powerful cooling. Partnering with the Austrian Institute of Heat Transmission and Fan Technology(!) allows some serious science behind their products, and as seen in the performance of their NT-H1 thermal paste we reviewed recently it seems to work. So it is with piqued interest that I will be looking at their 120mm-fan based cooler; the NH-U12P."

Mushkin's new XP-800AP power supply offers enough power for even the most demanding rigs. The shiny black paint looks great and the connectors are numerous. One special feature is Rail Fusion which lets the user select if the whole PSU should run with one big rail or in Quad Rail mode.

"With so many computer 2.1 speaker systems on the market today, it's easy to be turned off from anything starting at under $100. But at the Consumer Electronics show earlier this year, the buzz was all about Edifiers new E3350 lifestyle speaker systems. People were assuming that with such rich sounds, and well built speakers, they would be in the $250 or higher price range. Coming in at just $99.99, the new E3350 speaker system combines award winning design with practical affordability."

"The Cyber Snipa Stinger is a laser mouse, which provides much more precise movement than a standard LED optical mouse, and supports multiple dpi settings including a default 400/800/1600/2000 with continually adjustable sliders up to a max of 3200. With as high as 1000Hz (1ms) report rate, the Stinger gives you over 7,000 frames per second with a tracking speed of 45 inches per second. There are nine buttons with six of them being programmable using the included macro editor."

CLICK HERE FOR Cyber Snipa Stinger Gaming Mouse SHOPPING & PRICING

With plenty of good Cooler Master experiences behind us we were given the opportunity to review their latest budget case, the Centurion 590. We actually bought one of the original Centurions a few years back and it is a solid model which has proven to be hard wearing over years of heavy use.

"Cosmos S (internally called RC-1100 by Cooler Master) is a big full-tower case featuring aluminum body, ten 5 ¼" bays, a big 200-mm side fan and several other features. Let's take an in-depth on this new case from Cooler Master."

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master Cosmos S Case SHOPPING & PRICING

“After several weeks of using the Lapworks Attaché I found it to be a solid and stable piece of equipment. The adjustable foot was secure and didn't have much slop in it whatsoever. The rubber pads kept the stand from sliding around on a smooth surface. With the aluminum and plastic construction, the Lapworks Attaché is extremely light to carry around; however, it's not meant to be something you lug around in the laptop bag due to its shape. Instead, it's meant to sit on your desk and act like a docking station, raising the elevation of the screen to keep the user from craning their neck and causing undo strain. The fans are 5 volts and get their power from the laptop. With the curve of the Attaché stand and fans blowing air on to the bottom of the laptop, proper ventilation is achieved.”

Here is a collection of reviews of AMD's new processor from around the net. Seems to be a popular review today.

Motherboards.org
Overclockersclub
Viperlair
Hothardware
Legitreviews
Icrontic
Techwarelabs
Tweaktown
Techreport
Bjorn3d

Both the QX6700 and the QX6600 got the axe with the faster being dropped by 50% and the 6600 getting dropped 18%.

Getting a QX6700 for US$266 or a little higher is a great deal and shoul have a lot of new people buying fast quad-cores in the upcoming months.

CLICK HERE FOR INTEL PROCESSOR SHOPPING & PRICING

San Jose, California – April 23, 2008 -- Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of DRAM memory modules and flash storage solutions, today launched a DDR3-1800 4GB kit (2x 2GB) in their extreme performance Project X family.

Super Talent’s Project X memory is widely regarded as the world’s most advanced DDR3. “This represents another major first-to-market milestone for Super Talent”, commented Super Talent Marketing Director, Joe James. “While competitors are only able to produce 4GB kits up to DDR3-1600, we’ve engineered a kit that performs at elevated clock speeds while still supporting aggressive latencies.”

This Project X kit is built with the fastest available, hand selected Micron DRAM chips, and is stress tested as a matched pair on a dual channel Asus® Striker II Extreme motherboard.

Model#: W1800UX4GP
Description: DDR3-1800 PC3-14400 4GB Kit (2x 2GB) 8-8-8-24 1.9V

Project X memory is developed in Super Talent’s Silicon Valley Engineering Labs to deliver the highest attainable DDR3 memory performance. Project X memory combines blistering fast clock speeds with aggressively tuned latencies.

The EECS (Enhanced Easy Connecting System) modular cables are definitely the unit's most unique design feature. Modular cables are nothing new, but the ability to customize the length, as well as what connectors are found on each cable, is definitely interesting. Installation was quick and cable management was about as easy and neat as possible.

"If you simply want the best performance in the most shader intensive games, like Crysis, this is a solid solution that will provide a very enjoyable gameplay experience. If you already have GeForce 8800 GTX SLI though, keep it, this is hardly an upgrade. GeForce 8800 GTX, longest lasting video card ever? It is starting to look like it. Unfortunately it just simply has not been properly replaced just yet. That all said, when looking at the big picture that includes the "3 Ps" (pricing, performance, & power) the 9800 GTX is certainly a worthy competitor that will would make almost any gamer happy, and two of them should make you twice as happy, right?"

CLICK HERE FOR XFX GeForce 9800 GTX SLI SHOPPING & PRICING

Today were fortunate enough to have the Toshiba X205-SLI-4 gaming laptop to review for you. This laptop is an amazing piece of technology that offers a range of features that you will be hard pressed to find in any other single computer pre-assembled Desktop or Laptop.

CLICK HERE FOR Toshiba Satellite X205-SLi4 Gaming Laptop SHOPPING & PRICING

While we have reservations about any drive named after a fruit, Jason Dumbaugh takes a look at the SimpleTech 2.5 inch Signature Mini Portable drive weighing in at 250GB. Nicknamed the "Kiwi" this little storage monster comes loaded with some very useful software that covers backup of your PC to the drive as well as to an online source. We test this drive to show you if its a speed demon, a snail, or somewhere in between.

CLICK HERE FOR SimpleTech 250GB Signature Mini Portable Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

"Tagan’s latest foray into the computer enclosure market comes in the form of the Black Pearl. No, this isn’t a rerun of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”. Rather, this is a computer enclosure that Tagan is dubbing as the most qualified water cooling ready chassis that an enthusiast can buy. With features galore, the Black Pearl seems ready to take to the high seas in its quest for ultimate chassis domination. Will the Black Pearl succeed, or will it walk the plank? HardwareLogic sets sail to find out! Yaargh!"

"Today we focus on the SST-MS05 from Silverstone which is the latest in their external drive enclosure line which includes an internal docking bay (requires a free 3.5inch external bay or a 5.25inch bay adapter)."

"First and foremost, if you're playing at extreme resolutions of 2560x1600 a single ATI Radeon HD 3870 is clearly not going to cut it. It is able to provide playable frame rates in some situations but is bested by the Nvidia 8800 GTS in most of those same situations. When it comes to performance compared to a standard 3870 with 512MB, our 1GB version really didn't show much improvement in our short battery of test, but I believe that the performance is being held back more by the actual GPU than an increase in memory bandwidth and size can help. Our testing at such a high resolution should have given the Diamond 3870 1GB a chance to shine..."

CLICK HERE FOR Diamond Radeon HD 3870 1GB Video Card SHOPPING & PRICING

I am back and this time we take a plunge into the blood bath that is Dark Sector, recently released for the Xbox 360 and PS3. A third person shooter with a dark and eerie twist, Dark Sector has the potential supply hours of on the edge of your seat fun. Published by D3 Publisher of America we will be evaluating the Xbox 360 version.

CLICK HERE FOR Dark Sector SHOPPING & PRICING

"In terms of modding the Centurion 590 is a great starting point for any project. While we don’t have many cooling related enhancements the case material and construction will support just about anything you wish to do. Whether it be a custom watercooler or an insane amount of windows and lights, the Cooler Master Centurion 590 will likely hold up to the task."

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master Centurion 590 Case SHOPPING & PRICING

“Tuniq is a performance chassis and power supply purveyor subsidiary of cooling, lighting, and chassis maker Sunbeamtech. Tuniq is in the "fashion business" of the computer industry, making cases, power supplies, and other products with style and durability in mind in addition to performance. ThinkComputers received its Ensemble 1200W power supply, a sleek powerhouse which operates at a minimum efficiency of 82.3%, and an average efficiency of 86%. Read on for the review...”

CLICK HERE FOR Tuniq Ensemble 1200W Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

"So what do we say about the ASUS M3N-HT? It performs as well as, or sometimes better than, AMD's flagship chipset, the 790FX. The scores were marginally better for the newer 780a chipset. The option for AMD processor users to finally have a great choice of motherboard chipsets and designs is a plus. No longer are you stuck with certain options, like only being able to use Crossfire. Now you can run that NVIDIA SLi rig with your Phenom X4 and kick some serious butt. The ASUS M3N-HT has many upgradable options such as the ability to run triple SLi if you have the cards available, or Dual SLi if you do not want to spend that much on GPUs."

"The more I play with this thing, the more I’m reminded of the Phasers that they used in Star Trek; it’s uncanny. I can almost pretend I’m Patrick Stewart dashing about in a well fitted uniform, barking out orders to my number one in a fine English accent.

It feels very natural to hold in the hand, and obviously Logitech have spent a good chunk of money on the ergonomics of this thing alone. It’s not often one has to pick up a mouse and wave it around, and they have certainly made sure that it feels pretty natural to do it."

CLICK HERE FOR Logitech MX Air Cordless Mouse SHOPPING & PRICING

Choosing a good keyboard and mouse is one of the most difficult choices I ever make and in so being I rarely switch my input devices. Using the MX5500 Revolution has made me quickly forget my old trusty mouse and keyboard. The keyboard is comfortable, responsive and customizable. The MX Revolution mouse is comfortable and precise and like the keyboard very customizable. The added bonus of Bluetooth wireless connectivity eliminates cables and has not showed flaky connectivity of Bluetooth units in the past.

CLICK HERE FOR Logitech MX5500 Revolution SHOPPING & PRICING

Today we have an interview with one of the key figures in the hardware scene. Franck's CPU-Z and ClockGen applications are legendary and part of every overclocker's toolbox. He explains how he made first contact with computers and what made him write CPU-Z. Also he talks about current projects and his future.

The GeForce 9800 GX2 combines the two GeForce 9800 GPUs in a single graphics solution, which offers 256 processor cores and a frame buffer of 1 GB (512 MB per GPU). It also allows a user to take advantage of the second-generation Quad SLI technology.

CLICK HERE FOR NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 SHOPPING & PRICING

“These mini flash drives come from A-DATA’s “Nobility” and “Classic” lines, and are available in storage capacities up to 8GB. The three up for review today are the Nobility PD17, the Classic PD18, and the Nobility PD19, all of which are the 1 GB capacity sample versions. Let's take a look at what sets these drives apart from the crowd, as well as from each other.”

CLICK HERE FOR A-DATA Flash Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

"With an MSRP of $279 the Corsair HX1000W is not only one of the best performing 1000w+ power supplies we have seen to date but certainly the best built consumer 1000w power supply in this price range, if not overall."

Here are some new reviews on a new fast hard drive out on the market. Let's see how it did on its initial release day.

Hothardware
Techreport
Legitreviews

This month Super Talent added 8GB models to their Pico USB stick lineup, the firm claims these USB sticks are the smallest 8GB USB drives you can buy on the market. There are three different versions of the Pico drive, they are available in capacities from 1GB to 8GB and they all have their very small form factor in common.

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

Now the current trend is focusing on energy more than ever, regardless whether to cut costs at the end of the month or the simple knowledge that over half of the United State's energy is produced from coal, therefore lower energy consumption translates into less coal pollution. When many consumers are penny pinching wherever they can, companies like Gigabyte and ASUS have decided to begin marketing energy saving motherboards not to a niche market, but to the masses.

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte EP35-DS4 SHOPPING & PRICING

"Interestingly, rather than going down the usual route of having a copper base or similar that all of the heatpipes attach to, OCZ have chosen to have the three heatpipes used by the Vendetta make direct contact with the surface of the CPU itself. In theory this should actually improve the transfer of heat away from the processor somewhat, although the design used here does leave ridges rather than a completely smooth surface on the base of the cooler, which can make applying thermal compound tricky - In this case, it's easier to apply the compound to the cooler before installing it rather than spreading it on the CPU itself."

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Vendetta CPU Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

Noctua has gone and improved on an old favorite. The U12P offers some improvements that were most needed over its predecessor, the NH-U12. These improvements range from better performance to easier mounting. And if that isn’t enough how about a better fan included in the package. If you can recall, the original cooler was a big hit with enthusiasts all over. With these tweaks who knows what the future has for those of us wanting it all from the newest CPU. Does the U12P have what it take to beat our reigning king, the Thermalright Ultra-120?

CLICK HERE FOR Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

“The B2 Stealth Bomber case is really what you might think it is, a case that looks like the B2 Aircraft. The B2 case, like the aircraft is surely an advanced case. This newly released case comes equipped with two eSATA ports, auto-sensing mechanical front door, shock-free railing system, dual fan VGA turbo cooling system, water-cooling friendly, and with a design inspired by the B2, this case is surely not something your grandma will understand. Read on further and see a video of the mechanical front door in action.”

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

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

At 2.53GHz and $133 USD, the E7200 promises to become the new Dual-Core budget superstar. After taking a hard look at the upcoming offering, we would have to readily agree. Overclocking only sweetens the deal further, with 3.0GHz on stock voltages being more than possible.

"When you take the protective plastic off of the Sunbeam Quarterback, you can see that the case is constructed to be very simple by not having too many things going on and just colored using two very simple colors, black and silver, which go very well together. When taking a look at the rear of the Quarterback, you are able to see that it has been constructed like many other cases out on the market. There are the expansion slots at the bottom, while at the top there is the designated place for the power supply and right under this by the rear IO panel is the 120mm fan blowing warm air out of the case. On the main side of the case there is a clear window, which has a single 120mm fan on it, that allows you to see the innards of the system you build in the Quarterback. The fourth side of the case is very simple and plain, which is very common between all cases."

"OCZ has never been a major player in the CPU cooling industry, but lately they have moved in strong. CES 2007 was their big opening, where they showed off preliminary models of their Cryo-Z phase change cooler, as well as some of their soon-to-be-released air coolers. A little more than a year later now, they have released four air coolers: the Vanquisher, the Vindicator, the Vendetta, which we reviewed back in November, and the Vendetta 2, which we have for review today.."

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Vendetta 2 CPU Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

"Pentax makes a comeback with the new K200D D-SLR camera which turns out to be a solid performer."

CLICK HERE FOR Pentax K200D D-SLR SHOPPING & PRICING

Over the past several months, I have read an unreasonable number of discussion forum posts which offer inaccurate and often times incorrect information. It's not really all that surprising to read poorly conceived information on the Internet, which seems to be a anonymous means of passing off opinion for fact. As a general rule we don't let too many things go untested, and the advice of wanna-be experts is not doing the hardware enthusiast and overclocker community any good. In this article, Benchmark Reviews dispels myth and establishes fact on the topic of proper application of Thermal Interface Material.

Klipsch Image is the name of a brand new set of high-end earphones. They feature a radical new design and come with an excessive bundle. Besides being extremely good looking they also have a special sound characteristic that appeals to a large crowd.

CLICK HERE FOR Klipsch Image Earphones SHOPPING & PRICING

"With the Geforce 9600 GT pricing reaching new lows, it becomes interesting to see if pairing up two of them can get you more bang for the buck compared to the more expensive Geforce 9800 GTX. In this review we use two Leadtek 9600 GT Extreme cards and run our battery of game tests to find out what performance you can expect."

"As 2,5" laptop drives already range up to 320 GB in storage space, in worst case scenario they can contain virtually endless amounts of classified material that in wrong hands can lead to huge problems. Silverstonetek has come up with a nice product aimed at the markets of secure external hard disks - RFID protected TS01B 2,5" hard disk enclosure."

"Rosewill decided to send over one of their 3.5" USB & eSATA external enclosures for a review. I received the RX81-CW-US-BLK, which you can probably guess from the model name, is black. This unit also comes in a silver version if that's your fancy. Let's see how the hot plugging features of the USB and eSATA work out."

"Today I have one of Sans Digital's newer enclosures for review, the MobileSTOR MS2UTN+. Utilizing the SIL 5744 chipset, the MobileSTOR offers the typical dual drive configurations such as JBOD, Spanning (BIG), RAID0 and RAID1, but also something I haven't seen before, SAFE33 and SAFE50."

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Todays storage solutions are much more flexible, smaller and more suited to todays needs. External units of days gone by typically weighed in at several pounds including a bulky AC to DC brick that had to go every where the external did. If your looking for true portability, with massive storage potential with out all the baggage associated with it there are many options in todays market. The Icy Box 290 might fit the bill and not break the bank!

"I recently took the MTRON MOBI 3.5 inch desktop SSD for a test drive and found the performance of the latest SSDs to be breathtaking, but costly. At this time, SSD for the desktop feels like a long way away due to high costs, but there is one market that is adopting the technology at a rapid rate.

The notebook market has been begging for low cost SSD technology for many years, and for the last three they have started to implement the drives into their flagship products. Mid-priced models are starting to see SSD technology in the upgradable options list and the price is coming down."