Week of September 21, 2008

The first name that comes to mind when pondering a new chassis isn't likely to be Zalman, but with the few enthusiast models they've released so far, it's easy to see they mean business. We're taking their brand-new GS1000 for a spin to see if its features and size make up for the $199 price tag.

CLICK HERE FOR Zalman GS1000 Full-Tower Chassis SHOPPING & PRICING

One of the first companies to release their non-reference cards is always Palit Multimedia and when it comes to the HD 4870, they came to the table with all guns blazing. They have released their HD 4870 512MB Sonic Dual Edition which not only sports a custom dual slot, dual fan heatsink but it also features a unique dual BIOS setup.

CLICK HERE FOR Palit Radeon HD 4870 512MB Video Card SHOPPING & PRICING

The Rogue is high-end SFF case that is built of thick sheets of aluminum and can support large processor heat sinks and longer video cards. These are some things that we have never heard of when it some to such small cases. And if that isn't enough it can also hold a standard size power supply which is needed to support that overclocking motherboard and gaming GPU. It seems this is a great time to pick up a small form factor case.

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Rogue SFF Case SHOPPING & PRICING

“In the beginning of era of integrated sound cards, they weren’t for any recommendation because of many troubles. Even though the sound quality on certain models was satisfactory, by purchasing quality speakers, you could notice difference in sound quality compared to quality nonintegrated sound cards. There were even some relatively “bad” models of C-media nonintegrated sound cards with better sound quality. Beside sound quality there were also some problems with too big noise, as also sound interruptions during reproduction of audio contents (if someone remembers well known “integrated” PC-Chips motherboards in their own time)…”

HIS' latest HD 4670 card comes equipped with the VGA Silencer made by Arctic Cooling. It also features an extra 30 MHz core clock. Even though it is factory overclocked we saw another 10% overclocking potential on both core and memory.

CLICK HERE FOR HIS HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512 MB SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Igloo 7321 Silent E is a moderately compact AMD K8 heatsink, made just of extruded aluminum and an 80mm fan. The Glacialtech Igloo 7321 Silent E is rated for a maximum load of 89W, and is very quiet. The heatsink stands 71mm tall and comes with a fixed speed 80mm fan that rotates at a quiet 2000RPM."

"Gainward is one company that we didn’t think would ever release an ATI based graphics card, but with Palit acquiring the company a while ago and bringing them in under that massive umbrella, it seemed weird that Palit wouldn’t capitalize on the strong Gainward name.

We first saw Gainward dip into the ATI pool in the HD 3800 series of cards. With that said, though, they didn’t do a whole lot. Jump forward to the next generation of cards, which have quickly become some of the hottest on the market and Gainward have taken the time to attack the cards and introduce two of the new HD 4800 series variants under the Golden Sample naming scheme."

"The market is currently flooded with P45 motherboards at every price point and it's tough for consumers to make a confident choice since a lot of products share similar specs and performance. Foxconn makes its presence felt in the budget P45 Express circle with the new P45A-S motherboard featuring Penryn 45nm processor support, a 1600MHz front side bus, 100% solid capacitor design, PCIe 2.0, eSATA, CrossFireX support and up to 16GB of DDR2-1066. If you're in the market for a new motherboard, you should definitely check out this review as HardwareLogic throws this board on the test bench to see if it can stand out from the crowd and possibly become the foundation of your next build."

CLICK HERE FOR Foxconn P45A-S Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"OCZ have produced a very good PSU with excellent build quailty and stability. Its powerful single +12V rail @ 80A, capable of upto 1000W of power will definitely draw the crowds. It's certified 80 Plus and SLI-Ready, with an impressive 5 years warranty ... what more do you want? "

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ 1000W EliteXStream Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

So all in all, the Silver Power SP-S850 is a bit of a no frills but essentially solid PSU - it does what it says on the tin and falls around mid table in an efficiency list mostly made up of PSUs that are more expensive and/or lower power. The styling has a quirky retro-esq feel that to some might be a little too plain, but we kind of like the way it tries to be different. Not everyone will want the flashy blue LEDs though and some way to turn these on or off would have been nice.

The initial release of the GTX-2XX series of GPU's is still fresh in our memories and variants are already hitting the market. Usually we see a full blown variant and a less expensive little brother. Seldom do we see the full blown version, the little brother, then a ramped up version of the little brother. Recently NVIDIA released the GTX-260 MaxCore, a revamped version of the GTX-260 that has 216 processing cores instead of the 196 run-of-the-mill cores that the GTX-260 contains. This places the GTX-260 MaxCore smack in the middle of the GTX-260 and GTX-280 where processing cores are concerned. When we found out BFG was offering the GTX-260 OCX MaxCore in their GTX-2XX lineup, we knew we had to drive one of these beasts to see how much more performance we could get than with a normal GTX-260.

CLICK HERE FOR BFG GTX-260 OCX MaxCore SHOPPING & PRICING

Today we will have a look at the Dark Power Pro 1200W unit from Be Quiet, a product optimized for the best possible acoustics performance despite its monstrous power output. The Dark Power Pro P7 series 1200W is the most advanced and powerful unit Be Quiet currently produce and it has some remarkable specifications.

“Just when we thought everything that could have been created for a multimedia home entertainment system had been, here comes ASUS with the My Cinema-PE9400 Combo, an all-inclusive PC multimedia package. Not only can you now use your PC for playing, editing and burning DVD/VCDs, editing home movies, listening to MP3 music or sorting videos and photographs, or monitor your home. With the My Cinema-PE9400, you can view digital and analog TV programs, schedule recordings, record 2 channels at the same time, and listen to FM radio as well, and still be able to surf the Internet. You can even watch 2 channels side by side, or as a picture within a picture.”

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS My Cinema-PE9400 COMBO PC TV Card SHOPPING & PRICING

Nearly every home office or small business needs some sort of central data server, which is one reason why NAS units have been flying off the virutal shelves lately. Many of these networkable storage units are little mini-servers that not only keep your data safe, but offer multimedia capabilities (like TwonkyMedia and iTunes support). Does having a dedicated web server, print server, or BitTorrent server strike your fancy? If so, then you should look at some of these flexible networked appliances.

CLICK HERE FOR QNAP TS-409U 1U NAS SHOPPING & PRICING

"We can sum up the ASUS Triton 85 heatsink in one line, avoid it entirely. The Asus Triton 85 heatsink FrostyTech is reviewing today ships with a 120mm 800-1400RPM PWM fan, and weighs around 520 grams. The heatsink is uses four 6mm diameter copper heatpipes to support a 120x120mm aluminum fin array above the CPU block. This orientation directs fan exhaust down towards the CPU area to cool adjacent motherboard components, chipset heatsinks and VRM circuitry."

CLICK HERE FOR Asus Triton 85 Heatsink SHOPPING & PRICING

In the case of todays review product we have something a little different as although the cards do have enhanced clockspeeds it is the configuration of the core which has changed from the model originally released by Nvidia. The new GeForce GTX 260 increases the number of shader processors and should provide a very competitive alternative to the Radeon 4870. Today we will be finding out how well it compares in a selection of the latest games, including Crysis Warhead as well as demonstrating how well it handles Blu-Ray acceleration and PhysX processing.

CLICK HERE FOR BFG GTX260 MaxCore SHOPPING & PRICING

With Intel’s dominance throughout the CPU market, many users are making the obvious decision of choosing the big ‘I’ over AMD. Also with the success of ATI’s latest graphics cards, most enthusiasts are going for either an ‘Xx8’ or ‘Px5’ series of motherboard.

"If you're looking for a serious looking gaming chassis with plenty of cooling features, the Coolermaster HAF-932 is your answer. It's attractively priced and comes with very good build quality and solid construction."

"What’s so great about the TOP line of cards from ASUS is that they’re actually overclocked to a level where a decent performance can be seen. So many companies these days offer an overclock, but a few MHz on the core and a couple MHz on the memory doesn’t really equate to that much of a performance increase; all it tends to do is constantly just put it ahead of a reference based card.

The TOP line of cards aren’t like this, though; ASUS seem to put a bit of time and effort into the overclocking process and really find out what exactly the cards are capable of, which in turn tends to make them some of the fastest cards on the market in their category."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS GeForce GTX 260 TOP Graphics Card SHOPPING & PRICING

I was extremely pleased with the GELID Silent 12 TC and PWM. They seem to be designed very well and perform exceptionally. The performance to noise ratio is also excellent, making these fans worthy of having "Silent" in their names. The installation is easy, thanks to the rubber mounting posts which I prefer over screws. Even the MSRP for these fans is attractive at $10.80 for the TC and $10.50 for the PWM.

OCZ's PC2-9200 Flex II modules can be used with both air and watercooling. They are designed for 1150 MHz DDR2 at CL 5 with 2.1V. In our testing we could easily push the modules above DDR2-1200 without an extra voltage increase.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 Flex II 4 GB SHOPPING & PRICING

These panels attach to the main cooler via some provided screws, which in turn allows them to be adjusted dependant on the size of your own notebook - A handy feature to have to ensure that the notebook sits safely and comfortably on the Ninja HS. Aside from seeing those two fans a little better from the rear of the cooler, we can also see that it features a couple of rollers to allow you to easily move the notebook around on a desk.

"The extremities of the case are then protected with the top handle 'rails' being wrapped in foam, and the bottom 'rails' and front panel shiny plastic covered in yet more protective plastic. I can't quite place my finger on it, but there is something very sleek and sexy about the Cosmos S, I adore the styling and it's a case I could easily fall in love with."

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master (RC-1100) Cosmos S Case SHOPPING & PRICING

The K10N78-1394 is a full sized motherboard built around the 8200 chipset. It isn't too common to see a full sized motherboard with built on graphics. Well, you are looking at one now. Asrock realized that most people that want a home theatre motherboard would opt for a mATX board. And that is who the board is aimed at. But there is another crowd the board would like to take aim at and that would be the gamers also. Chances are not many gamers will fall for a small form factor motherboard. The K10N78-1394 goes the best of both worlds.

"With the Dominatrix, OCZ definitely went a few steps ahead of its competitors. It really fits the needs of the vast majority of gamers, if not all of them. It has a very comfortable shape so you can keep gaming for hours and still be able to feel your right hand after you take it off the mouse. Unfortunately, only right handers will be able to put it to good use. There is no doubt this mouse is a fast one and once you've tweaked its weight system to your liking, it really becomes your own accurate weapon. Even though it didn't have any revolutionary features, OCZ managed to attain a level of customization rarely packed into a single mouse."

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Dominatrix Laser Gaming Mouse SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Igloo 7312 Silent E is a moderately compact AMD K8 heatsink, made just of extruded aluminum and an 80mm fan. The Glacialtech Igloo 7312 Silent E is rated for a maximum load of 89W, and is very quiet. Glacialtech's Igloo 7312 Silent E heatsink stands just 70mm tall and comes with a fixed speed 80mm fan that rotates at a quiet 2000RPM. Weighing in at a light 371 grams, the Igloo 7312 Silent E is compatible with AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2 processors of 89W TDP or less. Frostytech tested the heatsink up to 125W, and the results weren't just satisfactory."

"The inexorable march away from tapes and discs has picked up steam in Camcorder Land-and this trend will continue until MiniDV and DVD home video makers take their place on the obsolete shelf next to Walkman cassette music players and analog televisions. This won't happen overnight, but it's happening right in front of our eyes as flash-based and hard disk drive camcorders win-over the public and take share from competing formats. Basically, it's the iPod Phenomenon dramatically reshaping the camcorder biz. According to industry execs, tape and DVD cam sales are dropping while the new-and definitely cooler-formats take over. Almost all of the recent releases were memory card, flash or HDD based. And many of them are high-definition. I'm a big fan of high-def hard drive camcorders because their storage capabilities can't be beat. It's great not worrying if you have enough blank tape or DVDs for saving memories. And the small size and weight of flash-based models is also a winner. Finally, a high-definition camcorder is the only way to go, even though they're much more expensive than SD ($799 USD is still about the cheapest, compared to $250 USD for MiniDV). With these preferences on the table, I was happy to test a new JVC HD Everio with a 120GB HDD. This high-def camcorder saves up to 15 hours of best-quality AVCHD video plus it performs several other unique tricks we'll disclose on the following pages. Is it worth 1,300 clams? Read on, read on."

CLICK HERE FOR JVC Everio GZ-HD40 120GB Camcorder SHOPPING & PRICING

Some 9 years ago, I was introduced to the USB Flash drive; who at the time, coming in a rather excitable review from publication Maximum PC, was billed as a replacement for the floppy drive. Granted, the sticks of this time were slow, expensive, and tiny - with a paltry 32mb module weighing you down into the hundreds. Coming with this was a downright inconvenience - these drives worked natively - albeit only for operating systems past Windows 98SE; a little fact that made the drive horribly impractical for doing service on any systems that had even minor problems. But it showed promise; and that's probably what's important.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Spyder 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

Without expansion potential with data retention, this might upsell you further to a four disk TS-409 should you want some breathing room, the problem is with this argument is that you need a pair of disks as a minimum for RAID expansion or migration anyway, so you're still buying two drives regardless. The only other option for expansion from a single drive upwards is a Drobo and its network adapter, but that's far more limited in its application (storage only, no extra features) unlike the QNAP NAS boxes.

CLICK HERE FOR QNAP's TS-209 II Turbo NAS SHOPPING & PRICING

The BFG Tech line of power supplies consists of several models that offer a variety of interesting features and power ratings from 550W to 1000W. In this review we will be taking a look at the LS-680, a 680 Watt unit that features desirable items such as quad 12V rails, four PCI Express graphics card connections, and a typical efficiency of 85%.

Pointing devices are very important to us all during every day use of a PC. Advances in technology have made them extremely accurate, quick to respond and great for gaming. The optical mouse was a great innovation and a change for the better. The advent of the laser engine gave us much more accuracy, faster response times and no more cleaning. The laser mouse has become a "must have" for any serious gamer in these current times. Benchmark Reviews has been afforded an opportunity to examine one of these devices, the Wolf King Trooper MVP Laser Gaming Mouse.

CLICK HERE FOR WolfKing Trooper MVP Laser Gaming Mouse SHOPPING & PRICING

Almost two years ago we had a look at the 900 Ultimate gamer case which we liked very much. But things have changed a lot since December -06 and more powerful hardware has been released, emitting more heat than ever before. The 900 was called the Ultimate gamers case back then and now the 1200 is here to take on that role.

CLICK HERE FOR Antec Twelve Hundred Case SHOPPING & PRICING

"This guide has shown us many things, first and foremost is the fact that more expensive doesn't always mean "a better gameplay experience." Our gameplay testing and apples-to-apples testing have both proven that sometimes the cheaper video card is the one that actually lets you play at higher in-game settings thus improving the gameplay experience. In every price grouping, we found at least one video card that was less expensive than another, and allowed the same or better experience."

The Aerocool Hi-Tech 7 Pro features a huge 400 mm fan which is the biggest ever seen on a computer case so far. Also included is a fan controller and thermal monitor up front. We fire the turbine up to see how that monster fan performs.

"Today HardwareLogic has in its labs Cooler Master's newest enclosure, the HAF 932. While we're not sure what the 932 stands for (lucky lotto numbers?), the HAF designation means High Air Flow, and not Hot As F**k, which is what you might find yourself muttering if you dig the rugged appearance. But will the aggressive styling combined with attention to airflow add up to a winning combination, or does Cooler Master's latest case simply blow hot air?"

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master HAF 932 Case SHOPPING & PRICING

I give to you the Antec Neopower 650 Blue. The high efficiency modular power supply that will get you through hordes of zombies, and then some. The ultimate combination of high power, high efficiency and cool style for today's high performance PC systems. 650 watts of pure power, with 85% efficiency, cable management, and dedicated circuitry with a super-silent 120mm blue LED fan. Figured out why they call it the 650 Blue yet? I thought you would get it quickly. You're so smart..

CLICK HERE FOR Antec NeoPower 650 Blue PSU SHOPPING & PRICING

"NZXT introduces the first gaming mouse from their award winning design team. As with all of NZXT's PC accessories, Avatar is designed to provide gamers with the ultimate crafted gaming armor to emerge victorious in the gaming arena of choice. Featuring an ambidextrous and smaller form, the Avatar mouse is versatile and ideal for gamers."

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Avatar SHOPPING & PRICING

The V14 Pro is a redesign of the Thermaltake V1 we reviewed back in December 2007. At the time the V1 proved to dominate the retail coolers from both AMD and Intel and even outperformed the Thermaltake MAX by a small margin in load testing. Since then, Heatpipe Direct Touch (HDT) coolers have emerged as the next great cooling technology and Thermaltake needed to increase performance to stay competitive in the highly contested CPU cooler market.

SLI mode on the 9800GTX+ was easy to enable and performance of two of these cards is faster than a single GeForce GTX280 card installed in some situations and nearly as fast in others. The power requirements are more but you get the performance of a faster card for a lower price. Performance of two 9800GTX+ cards in SLI in fact exceeds that of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 card from ATI meaning that two of these cards are as fast as any single card on the market today. The GeForce 9800GTX+ is a fast card, faster than the original 9800GTX. There are already 9800GTX cards that are overclocked higher than this however, and the target of this card the HD 4850 has healthy competition with this card. The wildcard is hardware acceleration for PhysX games which can make a huge difference in frame rate in supported applications.

CLICK HERE FOR XFX 9800GTX+ SLI Video Card SHOPPING & PRICING

One common concern among analysts and users of AMD's latest flagship GPU has been heat, however. Virtually every evaluation of a reference Radeon HD 4800 series cards makes some mention of the extreme heat radiated by the cards. But PowerColor may have an answer. We recently got a hold of PowerColor's PCS+ HD 4870 card that features a completely redesigned cooler, with multiple heat-pipes and a dense array of aluminum heatsink fins, which the company claims can lower GPU temps by upwards of 10'C. And for good measure, PowerColor also pre-overclocks the cards and packs on 1GB of GDDR5 memory, double that of the initial lot of reference cards. Considering the relative popularity of the Radeon HD 4870, we were eager to see what this custom variant had in store...

"Asides from the simple act of operating as a motherboard, the ASUS Rampage Extreme looks like a work of art and could almost be a coffee table centerpiece. Factor in the incredible possibilitles available with TweakIt, the discrete audio X-Fi solution, and the massive overclocking potential, it's hard to not want the board. Once again though price becomes an issue, for $400 you can purchase a board and processor. If you are in the market for the best of the best though, the Rampage Extreme is it..."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Rampage Extreme X48 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"Of course right now there are many companies out there producing gaming mice, and they all are different in one way or another, which one is the best? I'm not sure really, but today I've got one that I consider one of the best. It comes from a company that's well known for quality made products, NZXT, it's their first foray into the mousing arena. Is it worth your money? I think so… read on "

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Avatar SHOPPING & PRICING

“Kingston HyperX modules are made with selected series of memory chips which are usually soldered to quality 6-layer or 8-layer PCB circuit board. Multilayer PCB reduces noise in communication with memory controller, which is very important during overclocking. In this situation, things are very simple – if signals are pure and clear in communication between memory module and chipset, than it’s possible to attain higher working speeds…”

CLICK HERE FOR Kingston HyperX DDR2-1200 Dual Channel Kit SHOPPING & PRICING

"There's one thing as right as summer rain: once a year, Apple revises its line of iPods. They gain new formats, colors and features that become the stuff of dreams of thousands of gadgets aficionados like us. Among the new faces presented by Apple in early September there is the new 2nd generation iPod Touch with its sleek design and touch-sensitive interface. Playing music is just one of its features - and one of the less important ones, actually - since it doubles as a PDA, being able to browse the web, check e-mails, play games and watch videos and photos. Let's review all these capabilities and see what's different from the first generation."

"Apple's latest iPod nano continues to loom over the heads of its competitors despite players with better sound and more features from companies like Sony and Microsoft. The redesigned body almost seems like a brush of nostalgia, though it definitely improves on the previous generation and keeps the device current. We're more impressed with the new firmware, which provides the best level of polish yet on Apple's non-touchscreen devices, and the on-board accelerometer adds some pizzaz to a player some consider to be getting stale."

CLICK HERE FOR Apple iPod Nano 16GB SHOPPING & PRICING

And it's clear to see why - the significantly improved cooling and massive overclocking potential unlocked by the excellent Zerotherm GX810 is certainly worth the price premium if you're confident enough to overclock which, thanks to the improved support in Catalyst Control Center, is made almost insultingly easy.

Before the review started I didn't know what to expect from for the Rosewill RX630-S-B Xtreme Series 630W power supply. The published features and specifications were strong, and from what I had read elsewhere on the web the general opinion seemed positive. I just wasn't sure that a Rosewill power supply priced under $90 was really going to impress, and I worried that too much of that small budget had been spent on the aesthetics.

"4GB DDR2 memory modules are not exotic anymore, their prices have dropped from the sky-high level. Workstation modules with ECC support are still the most widespread products in this category, but you can also get this much memory for your desktop as well."

Today we will have a look at the NRP-MC851, a very high performance product with a maximum power output of 850W. This "No Rules Power" series PSU boasts some remarkable specifications which should easily catch the attention of any enthusiast browsing for a good product. We will see if the MC851 unit can perform as well as Xigmatek claims it does in this review.

Tired of having to be home to watch that show you like? Now you dont have to. Its the VOX TV-R. Small, portable, and sporting a plethora of handy features, the TV-R not only lets you record shows off of your television, but playback digital movies, view pictures transferred from your computer and much, much more.

We don't normally post rumors, but this one comes from a rather credible source. The word is that VoodooPC is planning to close shop and are circulating layoff e-mails throughout the company. We've verified that certain vendors are receiving their product back from VoodooPC, although HP nor Voodoo have commented on the layoff/closing rumors.

A few short years ago a 500 watt power supply was considered more than you will ever need. However as technology advances so does the power requirements. With today's Quad core processors, dual and quad graphics cards and of course the array of water pumps, fans and drives, 500 watts just won't do.

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake Toughpower 1000Watt Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Silver Power SP-SS500 PSU may not be to everyone's tastes. But if you're a system builder or mainstream user who's on a budget, then it's definitely worth considering. At the end of the day, it's affordable, reliable and stable with decent build quality and performance."

The Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 has all of the features you would want from a motherboard based upon the Intel P45 and more. The board is so feature-laden in fact that I would have to say it's a bit over the top compared with most of its competition. Having Ten SATA ports, 8 USBs on the rear IO and four Gigabit LANs would make this the most feature-rich P45 I've ever seen. The addition of features like DES and the multiple settings in the BIOS make this a serious contender in the marketplace. From a performance point of view the board is right up there with other P45 chipset making this board an Editor's choice as the features bring it to the next level.

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"It's clear that the shortcomings are all Netflix-based, the greatest of all being selection. They don't have a lot of recent content, and they have a lot of content rated three stars and worse. Often with TV shows, they will have some but not all episodes of a season. But they're adding things constantly, and generally expanding as fast as they can afford to. By the time I thought I'd watched everything I thought was worth my time, I checked again and found an equal quantity of media gems. (Like Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter. How can that possibly go wrong!) Of course, even that's not entirely up to Netflix, they have to prove to the developers and owners of the content that streaming is the way to go; there's a real "we're all pulling together" sense about this stuff. There's potential."

"Today for review I've got the Verbatim 160GB FireWire/USB portable Hard Drive, it allows you to take large amounts of data with you and remain portable at the same time. The enclosure itself is plastic so it's lightweight, and as the name suggests, it can be used with either USB or FireWire connections. The drive come pre-formatted for the Apple file system, but it can be easily formatted to be used with a PC as well."

CLICK HERE FOR Verbatim 160GB FireWire/USB Portable Hard Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Olympus SP-570UZ (Ultra Zoom) is an unusual breed in the camera lineup. Because it doesn't have interchangeability of lenses like a SLR (single lens reflex) camera, it is technically a point-and-shoot camera. Yet it offers many features that are commonly found in more expensive digital SLR cameras. We set out to find out whether a half-breed of this type would be valuable."

CLICK HERE FOR Olympus SP-570UZ Digital Camera SHOPPING & PRICING

“In today's market, the "big idea" behind having multiple hard drive comes with a certain niche attached - convenience, security, or cost. Naturally, the convenience of being able to quickly replace a dead drive and return the array to working order, the security of being able to take the data with you, or the cost of effectively having multiple computer systems, with only the hard drive being changed. Call this last notion bygone if you will, but some of the people I spent my past college days with followed these ideas to a T. Take for example, one of my classmates - outside of the classroom, he designed and maintained databases. In that respect, having two hard drives, with the interest of always having a working machine, and avoiding the inevitable debacle, when a classroom coding experiment goes horribly wrong. In that spirit, these two products received today - the T5-SS Hard Drive Reader and xAGE-N99-SAU/US HDD Docking Station will be viewed as a complete solution - or what you can utilize to have the freedom of two systems, but maintain the data portability of having a partitioned drive. Let's start simple, with the T5-SS.”

Today we take a look at another vital part of every computer, the case. It's what holds it all together. In days gone by, a case has been a matter of function over form. As time goes by however, more and more people get involved in modifying or 'modding' their computer cases; some for looks, some for performance gains. Manufacturers have certainly taken notice and it seems that every day we see another new case enter the market. LED's, side windows, and front panel cutouts have all seen increases in popularity. One of the primary concerns of modern computer enthusiasts is, and will likely remain, heat and the ways to deal with it efficiently.

Compared to the likes of Netgear's ReadyNAS NV+ the QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo is significantly cheaper - over £150 - but the Netgear has upgradable DDR2 memory, bigger flash memory, a bigger (and potentially quieter) fan, a small LCD screen and basically looks better. The Netgear X-RAID similarly corresponds to the RAID migration and expansion on the TS-409 and if you don't care about upgrading it or how it looks - grab the TS-409 Pro and save yourself a ton of cash.

CLICK HERE FOR QNAP's TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS SHOPPING & PRICING

Today we will be throwing a few of the latest and greatest gaming titles at the 9500 GT XXX as well as some PhysX processing and media playback to ascertain whether this product really is the card of dreams for a budget minded consumer.

"The Everest 700w has poor voltage regulation, is only barely in specification on DC Output Quality, has high exhaust temperatures, and a mediocre build quality. While the Everest 700w did pass testing none of the unit's performance metrics make it award worthy at the current selling price of $124.99 after MIR."

We got our mitts on the latest card to the Toxic line, the 4870 Toxic. And if you are one of those that have had a Toxic card before you haven't seen anything yet. The last Toxic we had here was the 3870 model that had a single slot cooling system based around the Vapor-X cooling system. While Sapphire took this Toxic in a whole new direction. This time the cooler coves the entirety of the card which is like the latest Nvidia lineup. I can't give you all the details of the new card in the introduction of the reviews so you must read on to find out more about the Sapphire HD 4870 Toxic.

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire HD 4870 SHOPPING & PRICING

Priced under $200USD at time of review, this card offers great bang for your buck. It rivals the once popular 8800GT and it's safe to say ATI is making a comeback in the graphics industry. This card comes with a fabulous set of features and should definitely be at the top of your list when considering a graphics upgrade on a tight budget.

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire HD 4850 SHOPPING & PRICING

When the time came to design the Rampage Extreme, ASUS' R&D went right to town. The X48-based board proves to be the most feature-packed one we've ever come across, and also one of the most overclockable. Aside from the robust design, water-cooled Northbridge and LCD Poster, the board even includes overclocking controls right on the PCB.

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Rampage Extreme SHOPPING & PRICING

"Modding is one way to make your technological device different. However, physical modification of an electronic device can be precarious and time consuming. Fortunately, GelaSkins has the solution to protect ones device from scratches and make it stylish at the same time. "

“It’s been a while since nVIDIA introduced nForce 780a i.e. 750a chipset. These chipsets have GeForce 8200 IGP that offers good IGP performances but still a little bit below those that offer AMD 780G and 790GX chipsets. Also introduced is nForce 730a chipset, as derivative of those and with the same graphics core. nF750a and nF730a are single chip solutions with the difference of nonexistence support for SLi for nF730a, therefore it’s attended for cheaper solutions but with possibility of Hybrid SLi support…”

CLICK HERE FOR Asus M3N78 Pro SHOPPING & PRICING

First appearing at CES 2008, the RAVEN looks like it should be on many gamers' shortlists. Having the ability to fine tune and customize every mouse movement is a start, add a lightning fast mouse sensor capable of 3200dpi and we may have the complete package we have been waiting for. The RAVEN can handle up to 50G of acceleration, and allows for independent X and Y axis dpi adjustments, perfect for fine tuning to match users' preference.

"Overclocking the ASUS P5 Premium was a breeze. For starters, all I did was adjust the CPU VCore and the memory voltage and lower the memory strap to keep under the 1000MHz memory speed and started to up the Front Side Bus little by little until the system would become unstable or not boot. With each 5Mhz raise of the FSB I would run MEMTEST 2.0 until errors started to appear. Then I backed it down to where there were no errors and booted into Windows. I then ran benchmarks to test stability and again would drop the FSB by 5MHz increments until I could boot, run and pass all of the benchmarks with no errors. With a 1.45v VCore I was able to push the Q9450 CPU to 460MHz from the stock 2.66GHz to obtain 3.680GHz stable. That is a 1000MHz increase over stock just by raising only the VCore and tweaking the minor voltages. While everyone will never get the same results on various systems, I am very please with this boost in "free" performance."

When everyone thought AMD was sinking into a dark abyss, ATI unvieled their Radeon HD 4000 series and proved the critics all wrong. The Radeon HD 4870 is their current single-GPU flagship, and it's earned a high level of well-deserved distinction. Palit has followed-up this pattern by adding some stand-out features of their own. Benchmark Reviews tests the Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic edition video card from Palit. This RV770 graphics solution offers factory overclocked perfomance and a new cooling solution.

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In terms of use anybody with some tech savvy will love this machine. The applications alone are just incredible, throw in RAID support and gigabit network access and you have a fully featured network server at a fraction of the cost.

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If you have ever bought a Logitech product you know that they make large variety of diverse products for your computer. I have for a long time been impressed with their keyboards and mice and today we got a combo kit to review from Logitech. We got their latest Cordless Desktop Wave Keyboard and Mouse combo that really seems to have all the necessary features to make it your number one choice. Lets have a closer look a the features this kit has.

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When you think cool, you think of Zalman. Or you think of Prince. Either way you have one Killer Chiller. Today my subject is none other than the Zalman CNPS9500. When you take the classic Zalman flower design and combine it with an ultra-quiet fan, a unique heat pipe array, and a little LED bling, you know that you're going to have the coolest CPU temp in the room, with a little extra flavor.

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Lexar's new FireWire 800 CF Card Reader uses the powerful interface to offer unprecedented bandwidth with allows you to optimally use the latest CF card technology. While the traditional USB interface is limited to a maximum of about 30 MB/s, the FireWire interface goes up to 100 MB/s. Clearly a difference if you move a lot of files to and from your CF card.

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"Having previously reviewed the K1 case from GMC I was excited to get hold of their next model; the K2. In my opinion they have made the case even more attractive and the buttons on the front of the case easier to use. On the K1 I didn't like how the bottom USB (etc) cover wasn't spring loaded to lock shut, but on the K2 GMC have sorted that out with a much better cover system."

"Through the DDR and DDR2 days Mushkin kits came thick and fast with high speed, high capacity and low latency modules designed for both Intel and AMD platforms. Now we have the dawn on the DDR3 revolution coming and it won’t be long before we really start to see DDR3 hit its peak.

The kit we were supplied with contained two pieces, 1GB in density. The modules are designed to run at PC3-16000 or 2000MHz using 9-9-9-24 timings at 1.9v. These are the specs for use on 790i SLI chipsets and not guaranteed to run on the Intel chipsets. However, we aren’t content to just follow the rules here."

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