Week of August 24, 2008

"Heatsinks for low wattage energy efficient processors have been the topic of the last couple Frostytech reviews. The trend continues today with Glacialtech's new Igloo 5063 Cu Silent E heatsink. As such the Glacialtech Igloo 5063 Cu Silent is potentially suitable to low profile media center type computer systems. The heatsink has a maximum design spec of 95W, but as we've been seeing, this family of Glacialtech heatsinks are best suited to sub-85W processors in the 65W and 35W range."

The All in Wonder HD is an interesting jack of all trades video card. The good points include the ability to playback and record live TV on the PC, decent gaming performance in the form of the HD 3650 and the ability to run FM Radio. If gaming is your primary concern it would be better to buy a HD 4850 and a HDTV tuner if that is the route you want to go but the A-I-W HD is targeted for the home theater crowd not the hardcore gamer. For the casual gamer wanting to watch TV or listen to FM Radio, the A-I-W HD is definitely an excellent buy as you get much more than just a video card. For the Home Theater crowd, the A-I-W HD fits the bill in spades with the ability to watch HDTV, and HD content like Blu Ray discs without another card or additional software.

CLICK HERE FOR ATI All-In-Wonder HD Video Card SHOPPING & PRICING

Scorch your screen with blazing hot graphics, at least thats what we would all like to do but without having to pay a small ransom to do it. Justin takes a look at the Radeon HD4850 which promises to do just that. Does the Sapphire card churn out hot frames and equally hot performance? Read Justin's review to find out.

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 SHOPPING & PRICING

"Today we are going to examine two High-End coolers from Thermaltake -- BigTyp VP and MaxOrb EX. Both are actually overhauled versions of their famous predecessors (Big Typhoon and MaxOrb), which formed a positive image in our reviews. So it will be very interesting to see how far these new products have gone in the highly competitive layout of forces of High-End coolers, including other Thermaltake products."

"The Gigabyte GA-EG43M-S2H motherboard is a good all-rounder. Using Intel's GMA X4500 integrated graphics, it offers all the necessary features required to satisfy any HTPC user or system integrator. "

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte GA-EG43-S2H Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

Most performance mice, which gamers tend to use, are normally manufactured by one of two companies: Logitech or Razer. Both these companies are widely known in the gaming industry. However, many more manufacturers, such as Genius, are making their show in the performance gaming mouse market. The contender we have for review today is the Genius Ergo 555 Laser, a ‘Professional laser gaming mouse with OLED graphics effect’. Let’s see how it performs.

The Western Digital My Book has been around for a few years and has several versions in its product line. Prices range from just under 100 Dollars for the My Book Essential 160 GB to just under 600 Dollars for the Studio Edition 2 TB and features eSATA, USB 2.0 and FireWire connections.

CLICK HERE FOR Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition External 2TB HDD SHOPPING & PRICING

"Is the Twelve Hundred the "Unbeatable Gaming Case" that Antec says it is? Well, it has all the good things and corrected most, if not all, of the flaws of the Nine Hundred. If you liked the Nine Hundred, you will love the Twelve Hundred. As for the rest of us who have not been face to face with a Nine Hundred, the Twelve Hundred has a lot of nice style to it and it is very easy to work with and in. It also lends itself to be more user tailored than any other case I have used in a long while..."

CLICK HERE FOR Antec Twelve Hundred Gaming Case SHOPPING & PRICING

Over the years we have seen the 7000, 8000 and the now current 9000 series. What we are going to review today is not the beginning of the 1xxxx series but a miniature 9xxx called the CNPS9300AT. The little brother boasts some numbers that are more impressive than the bigger brother. Smaller but faster fan. And on load a little louder. Now that we got the numbers out of the way time to see how this little booger does on the test bench.

CLICK HERE FOR Zalman CNPS9300AT CPU Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

Ever been in that late night gaming session and find that mysterious red glow coming from your mouse had annoying? Tired of trying to pick from 13 programmable buttons to reload your weapon? Do you just need a Basic two button with scroll wheel mouse that gives you accuracy without all the bells and whistles to many overpriced Mice offer?

Palit is one of the few companies that sell both ATI and NVIDIA cards. Though their rocket-launcher armed frog has only become popularly recognizable in the past year or two, they were in fact founded a whole 20 years ago in 1988. As you know, that’s quite a while in tech years. With ATI’s new HD 4xxx series of cards, Palit has geared up to add one more PCB to their arsenal, the HD 3850 Super +1GB videocard, which we have for review today.

Setting up an HTPC is the easy part. Making it easy to use on your TV is slightly more difficult. Controlling your HTPC is the hard part. The nMedia HTPCKB wireless keyboard and remote make controlling your HTPC that much easier. A 2.4ghz radio connection and 10m range allow you to control your computer anywhere in the livingroom without any of those pesky line of sight problems with other remotes, while keeping things simple using a driverless USB dongle to connect. Here at Benchmark reviews, we'll get the bottom line on the nMedia HTPCKB and all its wireless goodness.

The Gigabyte 9800GT has some game. The little 9800GT is no doubt helped by the Zalman cooler that keeps temperatures down. I figured I might as well go for broke with the added voltage offered in the Gamer HUD and pushed the needle to 1.4 volts. The clock speeds kept scaling upwards until I finally landed at 787MHz on the core (up from 600MHz), 1075MHz on the memory and 1863MHz on the shader cores. These clock speeds are higher than any of the 8800GT video cards that Overclockersclub has tested and represents increases of 24% on the GPU core, 16% on the memory and close to 20% on the shaders. Not too bad if I say so myself. At this level of performance, there were nice increases in all of the benchmarks used. Why the comparison to the 8800GT? Because the 9800GT is the basically the same card.

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte 9800GT SHOPPING & PRICING

"Just when I thought that I would probably never review a DVD player gain, Toshiba introduced their new XD-E500 1080p up conversion DVD player. Toshiba, who was one of the co-inventor's DVD technology, and also the creator of the now defunct high-definition HD DVD optical disc, is coming back to the DVD marketplace with a new upconverting DVD player. Why? While still licking its wounds from the loss of its high-definition optical disc format, Toshiba has unveiled a new video processing technology called 'XDE,' which stands for 'Extended Detail.' According to Toshiba, XDE offers enhanced picture performance from standard definition DVDs. Toshiba has also realized the folks are not quite ready to give up their DVD players just yet in favor of Blu-ray players either, and are still quite fond of their DVDs. So, the idea of XDE was born in hopes of breathing renewed life into the DVD format. The new model XD-E500, which is housed in a sleek and very slender black cabinet, is priced at $149.95 retail. I expect it to be $99 by the Holidays."

CLICK HERE FOR Toshiba XD-E500 SHOPPING & PRICING

For a retail price of $230, the 9950 is an interesting choice from AMD. This has driven the price of the 9850 Black Edition down to the $200 level in 1000 unit quantities. The 9950 performs higher than the 9850 across the board as to be expected from a CPU that doesn't have any architectural differences than the higher clock speed over the older CPU.For those wanting performance, but at an affordable cost the 9950 does well for the target area its aimed at. It plays games, runs Photoshop and works with all media without a problem. Not the fastest CPU in the world, but neither is it a lag dog.

CLICK HERE FOR AMD Spider Platform 9950 Black CPU SHOPPING & PRICING

Power Line adapters utilize the existing cables in your home to establish a network where Wifi is not an option. The Airlive HP-3000E is the company's newest offering of such a system, it promises up to 200 Mbps of bandwidth.

Today we look at another DDR2 solution from Asus, they still keep pushing out motherboards for the DDR2 market since DDR3 still might have not got the recognintion it should. This new Maximus 2 board is filled with various new features that might come in handy when overclocking, playing, and even just surfing the net. No more crap talk lets get this review on the road.

CLICK HERE FOR Asus Maximus II Formula Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

As many in the gaming community already know, Uwe Boll has been working on a movie about the immensly popular PC Game 'Far Cry', which pits an ex-marine against an entire army of baddies and genetic experiments. I was fortunate enough to speak with one of the actors in the upcoming film, Gareth Von Kallenbach. Gareth offers a unique perspective as he is an established film critic, and gave me a behind-the-scenes look at the set, and also describes what it is like to work with director Uwe Boll.

“I really like the overall look and feel of the Nexstar MX. It’s one of the best little drive enclosures I’ve used. I don’t know if adding eSata is worth doubling the price from the previous version, but it does allow for much more than a doubling of speeds. I have been loading the MX on my PC using eSata, which takes very little time, then I access it on my laptop via USB 2.0, as my laptop does not have Sata, let alone eSata. Since I am not going to be transferring all the data off to my laptop at once, the USB 2.0 is fast enough for things like movies and even games.”

CLICK HERE FOR Vantec NexStar MX eSATA Dual HDD Enclosure SHOPPING & PRICING

"Today's motherboard is a full-size solution (which already makes it attractive for universal PC builders) featuring two graphics slots as well as an integrated graphics core that supports CrossFire and Hybrid CrossFire modes."

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte MA78G-DS3H Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"ATP Electronics is a 17 year-old company best known for their EarthDrive recyclable USB flash drive, which is not only made of recycled materials but also has part of the proceeds go towards rainforest protection. They also make memory products for both enterprise and home applications in addition to various types of removable storage. Today, ASE Labs has the ATP ToughDrive 4GB Camo edition."

CLICK HERE FOR ATP ToughDrive 4GB Camo USB Flash SHOPPING & PRICING

Palit hasn’t just bumped the clock speeds up, though, they’ve also decided to change it by removing the boring reference cooler that we’ve been seeing for so long and adding their own design. Before we check out the cooler and the clocks the new HD 4870 Sonic from Palit offers, we’ll quickly take the time to have a look at the package to see if there’s anything inside the box to get excited about.

CLICK HERE FOR Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Graphics Card SHOPPING & PRICING

Mike takes a look at the slick aluminum Posidon 310 case from Gigabyte and what he likes about it. For the low pricetag it's a sure winner for your next rig. Check out the review to see why we and happy to endorse the Posidon 310.

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte Poseidon 310 SHOPPING & PRICING

In the end, the G70 isn’t a bad laptop but it does suffer from being stuck in the middle a little bit. The hardware isn’t really enough to blow your socks off and though the performance is adequate it does carry a few technical compromises. The design is effective, if a little polarising when it comes to eliciting a reaction from customers, but the cost balances this out easily and places the G70 awkwardly in the middle ground of the market where it can tread water in the sea of other gaming laptops.

CLICK HERE FOR Asus G70 SHOPPING & PRICING

Today we are going to take a look at a 2 X 1 Gig kit of Patriot Viper DDR 2 1150 (PC-9200 5-5-5-15) which is just one step below Patriot's fastest kit (of DDR 2) which is the Viper DDR 2 1200 (PC-9600 5-5-5-12). With a little effort we are betting we can attain speeds exceeding it's more expensive cousin and attain the nirvana only afforded to those that care to venture into the realm of the Overclocker.

CLICK HERE FOR Patriot Viper DDR2 1150 2 X 1 Gig Kit SHOPPING & PRICING

"NZXT has been on a roll as of late, designing some of the best enthusiast-level enclosures on the market today. This is evidenced by the new Kaos full tower chassis, as well as the NZXT Rogue, a SFF mATX enclosure made entirely of aluminum. Today, however, it is all about the NZXT Tempest, the newest addition to NZXT’s Crafted Series lineup of enclosure solutions. Boasting a design that is similar to the Antec Nine Hundred, the Tempest offers a few twists to keep things fresh. Can the NZXT Tempest be able to compete directly with the Antec Nine Hundred? Will it claim the throne as the mid-ATX enclosure champion? HardwareLogic is going to find out!"

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Tempest Case SHOPPING & PRICING

"The ASUS Rampage Extreme is a hell of a motherboard and the likes of it is being used to break some pretty big overclocking records. We think that these X48 chipsets are being handpicked for these "Extreme" motherboards, and you of course know whether or not 500MHz+ FSB speeds will benefit you or not. If you have access to sub-zero temperature chambers, maybe you will see 645MHz too!"

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS X48 Rampage Extreme SHOPPING & PRICING

"Without a doubt, motherboards are the most complex and essential part of the modern PC. With this in mind, it's surprising to learn the amount of work and machinery involved in manufacturing a single motherboard. As PCSTATS recent trip to Gigabyte's Nan-Ping factory in Taiwan showed us, there's a lot more to it. In fact, producing and testing a single motherboard involves a mind-boggling host of automated machines, people and processes; follow along and we'll show you how things are really made."

If you're in the market for a new router, you will find you have a lot of choices to pick from. There are literally dozens of manufacturers producing and selling them, and they nearly all look alike too. So when shopping for a new router how does one company go about differentiating their router from a sea of others that all look alike? Well, first of all, they stand it upright, give it a sleek black glossy finish and add an LCD screen on it. Had I not seen the word "router" next to the picture of the Belkin N1 Vision (and maybe the antennas) when I first saw it, I probably would not have known what it was. It was certainly intriguing as it instantly captured my attention. Here at Benchmark Reviews we have on hand the Belkin N1 Vision wireless N router for review.

CLICK HERE FOR Belkin N1 Vision Wireless N Router F5D8232-4 SHOPPING & PRICING

"If you are a PC gamer you know how helpful it is to have a proper gaming mouse. Style, Comfort, and Precision are pivotal to ensure a lasting gaming experience. Let’s face it if you are unable to accurately move, aim, and shoot you’ll be fragbait in a matter of seconds."

"Now, this mouse is far from being bad - it does have some great advantages over its competitors. The ability to change the speed and DPI of the mouse on-the-fly just by the touching a button was awesome - no need to pause your gaming session just because you realize you forgot to switch the mouse's software to a faster setting. For general browsing, 800 DPI has a very good feel, and when I Alt-Tabbed back into game (I do it a lot), I could just switch back to 1600 or 2400 and quickly get into the action again! Also, being able to get up to four continuous shots in a single click has definitely proven useful in many situations."

CLICK HERE FOR WolfKing Trooper MVP Gaming Mouse SHOPPING & PRICING

Today the need to have some means of external storage to not only backup your system but also to serve as a media server or FTP server is in high demand. A few years ago this type of storage was out of the reach of today's computer users. The Thecus N3200 Network Attached Storage (NAS) Device that we are reviewing today allows the user to configure the system in a number of different ways. For example it can be a file server, iTune or media server, FTP server to name just a few. So come on along as we put this device through it's paces and explore the bevy of options it does provide.

CLICK HERE FOR Thecus N3200 NAS Device SHOPPING & PRICING

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

"Glacialtech's Igloo 5063 Light E heatsink stands 67mm tall and comes with a fixed speed 80mm fan that rotates at a quiet 2600RPM. Being all aluminum, the heatsink weighs just 341 grams. Glacialtech's Igloo 5063 Light is compatible with Intel socket 775 CPUs outputting 95W heat or less, and ships with a convenient pre-applied patch of good quality Shin-Etsu thermal compound applied. "

Anyone who is in to gaming, multiplayer or single player, will know the difference a decent headset can make to overall gameplay satisfaction. Being able to pin point certain in game audio can dramatically improve your overall frag fest and can mean the difference between victory and defeat. So the question is, when purchasing a new headset, does forking out for the most expensive set going to guarantee quality performance?

CLICK HERE FOR SteelSeries 5H V2 USB SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4 is an incredibly solid and stable workhorse of a motherboard that has all the features a new motherboard should have, and at a nice price. Running your DDR2 RAM at 1066MHz should not be an issue and we are seeing many folks around the Net returning overclocking results of 3.1GHz+ with "Black" processors."

"Over the last year or so, the price of DDR2 memory has completely bottomed out, meaning many gamers and hardware enthusiasts have stuck with it, and by and large ignored the newer technology, DDR3. However, as prices of the new range start to come down, people are taking more of an interest. Today I have a kit from a little known company called as CSX, who've been kind enough to let us test their Diablo kit. A 2GB, 2GHZ pair of sticks, that come with a huge heatsink, with D9 chips underneath. Can they reach their rated 2000MHZ speed? Let's find out."

" The Gigabyte Geforce 9800GT is competitively priced, and comes with a pre-installed Zalman cooler which really adds great value to the whole package. All-in-all, I think it's definitely worth considering."

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte Geforce 9800GT SHOPPING & PRICING

"The idea of building an inexpensive PC on a full-size integrated motherboard with a digital monitor output is getting increasingly popular. ECS is well aware of requirements of budget PC buyers. At least, judging by the abundance of motherboards with this very market positioning. Let's see what the company has to offer this time."

CLICK HERE FOR ECS GF8200A Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

When we looked at the 9800 GTX+ for the first time the other week, the ASUS TOP version did impress us to a degree. As mentioned in our review, the 9800 GTX+ is pretty much an overclocked 9800 GTX, while an overclocked 9800 GTX+ is just an extremely overclocked 9800 GTX.

CLICK HERE FOR XFX GeForce 9800 GTX+ Graphics Card SHOPPING & PRICING

Today it is time to look at one of the best computer cases Akasa offers, the Omega BKCSE-05. The Omega is a super midi tower aluminum case with very promising specifications and several features designed to appeal mostly to hardcore enthusiasts and modders.

The Tagan El Diablo Super Mid-Tower case is an excellent starting point for those wanting the ultimate in airflow on their new computer system. The 360mm side fan and 250mm front fan are the best in their class. The El Diablo A+ case has two minor flaws, the water cooling holes and a few cabling issues. Other than those two issues the Devilish case warrants a Hot Product award for innovative cooling, and the ability to run long PSUs in a Super Mid-Tower case. The other features I really liked were the tool less installation design meaning that you can install the drives, and expansion cards without screws and the aesthetics being part of the functionality of the case.

"To start off the overclocking on the Corsair XMS2 DHX memory, I started pushing the frequency up by changing the memory dividers on the motherboard BIOS. I was able to get the memory to 1000MHz by loosening the memory timings to 5-5-5-15 and keeping the voltage at 2.1v. I did try to get the RAM to go to 1066MHz by raising the voltage to 2.2v, however it would not remain stable at 5-5-5-15. I was able to get them stable at 6-5-5-18, but the scores were lower than at 1000MHz (5-5-5-15) so that is what I stuck at. The overclocking tests will be run then at 1000MHz with timings of 5-5-5-15 at 2.1v which is a 20% overall overclock for these modules."

CLICK HERE FOR Corsair XMS2 DHX DDR2 800MHz SHOPPING & PRICING

"The GTX 260 is exceptionally powerful, quiet, even power-miserly. It too has dropped in price--you can find them for around $200 (!) with a rebate, anyway--although EVGA's FTW is... more. However, I believe that the price premium is totally fair with the Step-Up Program, warranty, and ridiculous overclocking potential. If the 280 is a heavyweight, then the 260 is a ninja. And everyone knows that ninjas are cooler."

CLICK HERE FOR EVGA GeForce GTX 260 SHOPPING & PRICING

Today we will be looking at one of AMD's latest weapon in winning back the faithful who had lost their way and have been debating stepping into Intel's camp. The weapon that we are referring to is the bug fixed X4; or to be more precise the 2.4ghz 9750 X4 in its B3 revision. In this review we are going to put the X4 through its paces, both in Windows XP and Vista to see what this new processor is made of and compare it against the venerable Q6600.

CLICK HERE FOR AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core CPU SHOPPING & PRICING

"When Western Digital launched their first 10,000 RPM consumer desktop drive, enthusiasts quickly took note. Now in its fourth generation, the Western Digital Raptor Series is still unchallenged and dominates the enthusiast and performance user markets.

10,000 and even 15,000 RPM hard drives started long before the Raptor Series but have been exclusively built for workstation and server environments utilizing SCSI and its successor, SAS connectivity. SATA and later SATA II bridged the gap between consumer ATA and SCSI standards and arguably the biggest performance gains came from Native Command Queuing, but the Raptor Series did not utilize this technology, not until now."

CLICK HERE FOR Western Digital VelociRaptor SHOPPING & PRICING

Vantec's new coolers are named after their best selling cooler to date the Aeroflow 2. The new Aeroflow FX 92 and Aeroflow FX 120 are based on the ever popular tower design which all the top coolers share. Even with the similarities of these coolers they also had their differences. Whether it is size, number of heat pipes, number of fins or the number of fans it supports they all have characteristics that make them stand out from one another. The Aeroflow models boast the vastly becoming popular Heat-pipe Direct Touch Technology and a sweet white cooling fan. But is this enough for Vantec to become a real player in the air cooling market? We will put it up against the several other coolers to see where it ranks.

"Until now, these two worlds have gone surprisingly separate ways with their cases and peripherals; the flashy-type modders had their bright, intense LCD screen fan controllers, while the classier of builders had the plain vanilla, brushed aluminum rheobus. Today, however, we have for review NZXT’s Sentry LX fan controller, which hopes to break that divide. Inset in a classy, brushed aluminum faceplate is a bright, detailed screen. This has potential to be the best of both worlds."

"Its always refreshing when a manufacturer brings something different to the table and tries to raise the bar of the current gold standard. With each new model, motherboard makers have been doing their best to one up each other as onboard reset / power / clear CMOS buttons, fault displays, LEDs and integrated water cooling have all found their place among high end mobos. Gigabyte has another trick up its sleeve with their new EP45-Extreme motherboard that features 1600 FSB, Crossfire support, holds up to 16GB of DDR2-1200 and the most radical chipset cooling ever made. Leave it up to HardwareLogic to find out if this "Extreme" motherboard can live up to its name."

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte EP45-Extreme Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"The ECS P45T-A is a fantastic price/performance motherboard and I have faith that it will continue to run at stock speeds until the end of time. This board is perfect for a budget gaming board, a secondary LAN board, or even an office workstation. Couple this board with CrossFire HD4850's and 4 gigabytes of DDDR2 and you are looking at a strong gaming platform..."

CLICK HERE FOR ECS P45T-A Black Series Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

Last week they has take a look at the Asus Rampage Extreme DDR-3 mainboard with Intel’s X48 chipset. This board was specially designed for overclockers. This is also the most important theme in this article, overclocking.

CLICK HERE FOR Asus Rampage Extreme DDR-3 Mainboard SHOPPING & PRICING

Looking for high end performance on a low end budget? We take a look at the new 790GX chipset from AMD which promises features that allow your system to grow with you if you find yourself in need of more agressive performance over time. Is the 790GX worth considering for your next rig? Find out what Matt had to say about this board from Asus.

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS M3A78-T AMD Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"Acer isn't Samsung, but its small, sub-$200 X193W+BD should get a serious once-over by the gaming portion of the market. The size difference means fast-switching .243mm pitch pixels (in this case, smaller is better) that betray the municipal looks of this panel. At 19", it's a versatile, high-resolution display that excels in value."

CLICK HERE FOR Acer X193W+ 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor SHOPPING & PRICING

"I've got quite a bit of experience in CCTV security systems, I've installed systems that costs upwards of $40,000 so I know a bit about working with them and what's good and what isn't. What I've worked with is professional quality equipment, but with society being ever security conscience there are kits and systems that are aimed at the regular person, they aim to do what professional systems can do but at a fraction of the price. These kits offer peace of mind and can act as a deterrent against crime, but are they any good? Swann Security has sent me over their BlueAlert Security Kit for review, it includes a DVR that records to a standard SD card, and one wireless camera with infrared capabilities built in. The BlueAlert DVR is a tiny box, about the thickness of a DVD box, and half as wide so it can be discreetly placed wherever you need it. Is it any good? Well if I compare it to professional kits costing 100 times more then I can say no, but for what it is and what it costs it's well worth the security and peace of mind that you can get from owning it. "

“There were only few of us who could only guess that CPU air cooler GeminII will get its S version, just like it was the case with Cosmos case. GeminII S is possible to mount on every, at the moment, popular platform but we didn’t expect anything less from Cooler Master. That implies support for Intel LGA 775 or AMD 939/940/AM2 sockets. What we really liked is traditional metal black plate that we saw on Hyper Z600 model (frankly it was necessary for previous GeminII model)…”

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master GeminII S SHOPPING & PRICING

"Recently purchased by computer peripherals giant Logitech, Ultimate Ears has been at the forefront of the in-ear headphone revolution for years, especially with their forays in to earbuds with 2, 3, and 4 microspeakers per bud. The super.fi 5 -- not to be confused with the super.fi 5 Pro or EB models -- fills a gap in UE's lineup between the super.fi 4 and the 5 Pro, hitting the $170 price point. For an extra $20, you can get the super.fi 5vi, which has an inline module that sends/ends calls and controls music and video on some cell phones, including the iPhone."

CLICK HERE FOR Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 Ear Buds SHOPPING & PRICING

“Overall, the OCZ Elixir is a solid keyboard at a very good price. ($30 retail) The minor layout issues we had were just that - minor nitpicks. We're very picky about our keyboards. Compared with most keyboards, $30 is about average - though the Elixir is anything but average, with the plethora of additional functionality provided. True, it may not have the same level of features as the Logitech G15, but it's also far cheaper. For those that don't feel like paying too much for a keyboard, the OCZ Elixir is a solid buy.”

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Alchemy Series Elixir Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"The three fans equipping it perform well. They could have been spinning a bit faster, but noise would have increased. They are incredibly quiet at their speed, and they still beat a faster fan setup like in the Thermaltake Xaser VI VH9000BWS. But there is also a small problem having a third fan on the side. This one leaves little room for larger heatsinks such as my Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU cooler. I have to force a bit to get the panel closed, therefore pushing on the motherboard. However, if you plan on watercooling, you won't have any problems. The Guardian 921 even allows you to pass tubing to an external radiator by two holes at the back, especially made for that purpose. Moreover, a great feature which adds to both watercooling and air cooling setups, is the temperature reader with three probes. You can stay aware of any temperatures, simply by looking at the LCD in front of the case."

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Guardian 921 SHOPPING & PRICING

Though it may appear that the X200 is an offshoot of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X300, the ThinkPad X200 is actually more of a successor and direct descendant of their ThinkPad X61 line. This is clearly evident both in the X200's design and its specifications. Lenovo’s X300 tries to be as compact and feature-rich as possible, sacrificing raw computing power to present a fully featured notebook in an amazingly compact frame. However, the X200, just like the X61 before it, takes the opposite approach, sacrificing some size and features to preserve compute power.

CLICK HERE FOR Lenovo's ThinkPad X200 SHOPPING & PRICING

The Eee PC 1000 is a very interesting product, especially to someone like me who still uses the original Eee PC 701 regularly, but the issue with it is that Asus are obviously struggling on ways to upgrade the older models without losing the focus on web browsing and general office tasks.

CLICK HERE FOR Asus Eee PC 1000 SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Saitek Cyborg keyboard lands somewhere squarely between pretty and gaudy. No, this getup is not business appropriate, but it is ironically the most aesthetically customizable keyboard we've seen. And still, it doesn't look like the kind of design you would see on an adult's desk, unless you adorn your monitor with Voltron toys. Read on to find out why we think this keyboard really needs some TLC in a number of departments."

CLICK HERE FOR Saitek Cyborg Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

For Topower's first showing here at Overclockers Online, they have done a great job. The PowerBird series combines the best of performance, features, and of course, affordability. For the $200 dollar range, Topower has its audience sorted out. While the PowerBird isn't a value oriented power supply, for the price, it's a solid contender in the high end power supply market.

QPAD|UC is the name of a brand new cloth based mouse pad from QPAD. The mat is available in four different sizes and the shape is similar to that of the hard QPAD mats. It is QPAD's first attempt at making a soft cloth based mat, see how this giant performed in the review.

"A funny thing has happened to CPUs, their not as hot as they used to be. In some cases, Intel Core 2 Duo processors are pushing out as little as 65W, while some Celeron chips output just 35W of heat! It's quite a change from the long standing belief that newer processors will always output more heat. Glacialtech's Igloo 5058 Light E heatsink stands a squat 55mm tall and comes with a fixed speed 80mm fan that rotates at a quiet 2600RPM. Weighing in at a feather 263grams, the Igloo 5058 is compatible with Intel socket 775 CPUs outputting 95W heat or less."

"Continuing on with reviews that bring you news regarding the new digital television standard ATSC, today we take a look at the AverMedia AVerTV Bravo Hybrid PCI-Express Card that claims to be the best TV mate for your home theatre PC. Being able to receive ATSC, NTSC signals and digital cable signals through its Clear QAM support, we’ll see if this ATSC tuner card should be the one on your shortlist."

CLICK HERE FOR AverMedia AverTV Bravo Hybrid PCI-E ATSC Tuner SHOPPING & PRICING

Ladies and gents, I give you the Pinnacle Dazzle DVD Recorder. Now you can take all those old crappy movies of you making a mess with your birthday cake as a kid and put them on a DVD for no one but you to enjoy. You could probably even include special features, like your Dad finishing off a bottle of whiskey before beating you that night to congratulate you on becoming a man. Okay, maybe that was a little over the top. But really, I didn't grow up with you and I have to assume that you had your values beaten into you.

CLICK HERE FOR Dazzle DVD Recorder SHOPPING & PRICING

"Known for its memory chips, OCZ is gradually entering the gaming market niche with products like the Equalizer mouse (which we already tested). Now they've released their first gaming keyboard, the Elixir, part of their Alchemy gaming oriented line. At first glance, it resembles the Razer Tarantula keyboard (which we haven't tested yet but know from Razer's catalog). Let's see how well OCZ fared following Razer's lead."

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Elixir Gaming Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"In the end, it almost always comes down to price and performance. You can buy this video card right now for $429.99 USD after MIR. The ASUS ENGTX280 TOP is one of the fastest pre-overclocked video cards available, based on the fastest single-GPU available."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS GeForce GTX 280 TOP Graphics Card SHOPPING & PRICING

The Antec TruePower Quattro 850W comes complete with racing stripes and our testing of this electrified monster shows these stripes may be well earned. So buckle up, insert key, and lets turn on this engine to see how she performs. Read our review, sit back and enjoy the ride.

CLICK HERE FOR Antec TruePower Quattro 850W SHOPPING & PRICING

" This is the second product from Icy Dock to pass by the Labs of ASE. In the previous review, we saw that Icy Dock knows how to make an excellent product. Will the trend continue with the internal version of the screwless hard drive enclosure? The Icy Dock 3.5" Screwless SATA Internal Enclosure (MB672SKGF) hopes to earn a valuable 5.25" slot in computer and it did on mine. "

With all the advances and new releases in the computer industry this summer, it's easy to overlook the smaller things that often play excellent support roles. One of these devices in particular happens to be a fan controller. Not just any fan controller, but the NZXT Sentry LX. Today we'll have a look at whether NZXT has delivered a winning product or one that you can live without. For those of you that don't know, NZXT has been around for a few years now, focusing their efforts primarily on cases. This is the second fan controller to come from NZXT, following the Sentry 1.

"It was only going to be a matter of time ‘till ASUS strapped some mean clocks onto the GTX 280 and put it under its TOP naming scheme. Well, that day has come and it’s time to see what happens when the GTX 280 gets, for the most part, an unnecessary but much loved speed bump.

The tumbling GTX 280 prices over the past few weeks make the card more and more affordable for people wanting to get a top gaming experience. While we all know that for the most part the new AMD HD 4870 X2 is the faster single card on the market, NVIDIA still hold the crown of the fastest single cored card."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS GeForce GTX 280 TOP Graphics Card SHOPPING & PRICING

One of the more exciting third-party demonstrations we saw at Intel's 2008 Developer Forum was by a little-known company called Lucid, who promises highly-efficient multi-GPU performance scaling via their unique "Hydra Engine" technology. We take a look at Hydra Engine, and what it means for ATI's Crossfire and NVIDIA's SLI.

We're in sunny San Jose where NVIDIA's mega-event, NVISION 08, will soon be in full effect. The event is bringing gamers and developers from all over the world to create what NVIDIA hopes to be the first true visual computing convention. We stepped behind the scenes before the official opening to see how things are being set up.

"BFG Tech is one of those companies you expect quality products from, no matter what you’re buying. While most famous for their graphics cards, they make a range of products, including motherboards, accessories, and power supplies. BFG has a few lines of power supplies, from modular to energy efficient, and has recently started advertising their 550W and 680W LS power supplies. A few weeks ago, our very own Zahn had a look at the 550W version and was generally impressed with the quality and performance versus the price. Today, I’m going to have a look at the 680W version to see if it’s true to their slogan, “efficiency and performance meets affordability.""

CLICK HERE FOR BFG Tech LS-680 Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

"The picture shown above with the big screen TV and the PC game title Race Driver GRID is part of the 3D Stereovision Demo that will be shown during the event. This demo shows off the new stereoscopic 3D hardware and software that has never been shown publicly before. You can play some of the hottest new games with new 3D glasses that are sycn'd with brand new Mitsubishi and View Sonic LCD displays. We took a second to try out GRID and found it to be really fun and the 3D glasses worked great and were much nicer than ones we have seen over the past year..."

“Before we tell you anything concrete about ASUS P5QL-E we should clarify differences between Intel P45 and P43 northbridge. If you followed up IT scene in last couple of months you should definitely know that Intel’s P45 is the first chipset made in 65nm technology and that it introduced to us with few new technologies and higher overclock margin. One of most important new possibilities that were implemented into P45 was ability to divide PCI Express line into two x8 lines…”

CLICK HERE FOR Asus P5QL-E SHOPPING & PRICING

“The crucial link in the chain for getting the best performance from the Patriot Viper PC3-16000 2GB Memory Kit is whether or not your motherboard and processor can handle Front Side Bus increases. If your Nvidia or Intel chipset based motherboard can't give you something upwards of at least 1600 MHz FSB, then you won't really be tapping in to the bulk of the memory's potential. Nvidia 790i users can at least expect great things from the BIOS memory and CPU Bus Link option. A quick change to a memory setting or two and you're running at 2000 MHz. But, again, you'll get much better results if you at least tap in to your processor's 1600 MHz FSB potential.“

CLICK HERE FOR Patriot Viper Memory SHOPPING & PRICING

"The 80 PLUS certification requires the Tuniq Potency to run at greater than or equal to 80% efficiency at 20%, 50%, and 100% of rated power output. While the specification has been met at 20% and 50%, the power supply failed to hit the 80% mark at 100% load for both 110VAC and 240VAC input. The power supply did, however, meet the ATX12V minimum required efficiency, and I have therefore given the power supply an overall pass in this section."

CLICK HERE FOR Tuniq Potency 550W SHOPPING & PRICING

It is not often we review a Macintosh product on DriverHeaven and although we are late to the table we felt it would be an interesting novelty for our readers to have a look at probably the sexiest laptop ever made, the MacBook Air.

CLICK HERE FOR Macintosh MacBook Air SHOPPING & PRICING

Travagan's Green is a small headphone and speaker amp. It has an integrated DAC and can be hooked up to your PC via a USB cable. Besides the Green we also received a pair of 2" mini speakers. The set looks stylish, its main objective is to provide you with a good listening experience both with mini speakers and headphones.

If we look back in time just a few years ago we see that the GPS was still quite basic with simple instructions and graphics on how to drive. These days the GPS holds high end graphics, FM transmitters, music players, Bluetooth and video playing functions just to mention a few so we can really see that they have gone forward. Today we are going to look at the TomTom GO 930 which is one of the latest badboys from TomTom. With a pricetag of 500$ this unit better perform extremely well so lets take a look.

CLICK HERE FOR TomTom GO 930 SHOPPING & PRICING

We have just released a Review of the Zotac GeForce GTX 280 (ZT-X28E3LA-FSP), including 3DMark Vantage Benchmarks in different Presets, HDTV CPU-Load, power consumption, loudness, temperatures and many more details.

CLICK HERE FOR GeForce GTX 280 SHOPPING & PRICING

Beyond a few small snags the Gigabyte EP45 has some very nice features and is widely available online. Gigabyte has released a full slate of P45 motherboards including the EP45-DQ6, the EP45-DS4, the EP45-DS5 and more. Across the board performance was ok, and as expected from a P45 chipset motherboard, with performance equal mostly within the separate run parameters of other motherboards in this caliber. The Gigabyte EP45-DS4R is a good solid motherboard just not anything too over the top or really that far apart from other P45 boards we have seen...

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte EP45 DS4R Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"For review today I've got a Micro SD / T-Flash Card Reader from our friends at USBFever and it's possibly the world's smallest card reader on the market today. A little while ago I reviewed the SuperTalent Pico-C Gold USB drive and this reader is actually a tiny bit smaller than the Pico-C Gold so it's a very portable and very useful little gadget. Throw a microSD card into it and you've got the making of the world's smallest USB drive! "

Whether you use Vista or not, 'Vista Annoyances Resolved' is an article that has something for everyone. It provides a range of working solutions which put to bed quite a few of the annoyances people often cite as being the reasons they dislike Vista. It arms you with information so that you can start to better understand what Vista is doing and why, and how you can alter it to suit your tastes. It also takes a factual look at the Vista debate, giving everyone some food for thought from an unbiased perspective. It even provides you with a range of practical reasons and examples why you might want to consider using Vista if you don't already.