Week of October 26, 2008

"Thermaltake is a widely respected company that provides much support to enthusiasts offering enclosures, power supplies, cooling products and other accessories. When it comes liquid cooling they provided some complete prebuilt systems with their BigWater series of units. Thermaltake is now tossing a new series in to the arena and we have been testing the mettle of this ProWater 850i."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

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

"Overall I feel that the ATI All-In-Wonder HD is a great card for the casual gamer that is looking to upgrade their aging video card and would like to add HD content playback to their system. The bundled software is wonderful for anyone not planning to use Vista Media Center. There is little to dislike about the card, it is very quiet in operation and under the highest HD mode of operation the system uses less than 125W. Since so little power is used the video card stays nice and cool..."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

" Last Friday I took a look at the Pantech Matrix, this week I've got another Pantech phone, the C610 Lena . The C610 is a flip style phone with quite a few features that most people will like, it's got Bluetooth stereo, still and video camera, video sharing, to name a few of the features. "

Recently, we have come across a very nice external storage enclosure from Eagle Tech, the ET-CS2LSU2-BK. This is an enclosure that will house a 2.5'' SATA hard drive. It features a USB port and a nice sleek look. Today, we will put this cool-looking enclosure to the test and see if its performance can match its elegant look.

While its performance isn’t world beating, the ATCS 840 is still undoubtedly one of the best cases we’ve seen for a long time - it has thoroughly impressed us during our time with it. Combining gorgeous looks, fantastic build quality and unmatched attention to detail throughout the entire design, Cooler Master has produced a case of the highest quality that thoroughly deserves your hard earned cash. It might be expensive, but it’s most definitely worth it!

The Sapphire HD4650 is a low price GPU based on the 55nm fabricated die that has all the features of the higher priced cards but just not to the extent of the others. Two of the main features of the card is the overclocked 650MHz core and 320 Stream Processors. This is more than enough to support your favorite high def video at a resolution of 2560x1600. And all this can be had for a mere $80.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

No matter your need for graphics power, the choice of GPUs right now is fantastic. Where high-end gamers are concerned, two popular options are the HD 4870 1GB and the GTX 260/216. We're taking a look at XFX's latest release of the latter, which features such an impressive factory overclock, it manages to keep up to the GTX 280.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

The Extreme Performance Enhanced Latency modules are designed to operate at 1066MHZ with 5-5-5-15 timings. They utilize Patriots Viper Heat Shields with integrated ACC (Aluminum Copper Composite) technology. They are designed for maximum performance and stability under extreme overclocking conditions.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

With an industry-leading fifteen P45 motherboards in their roster, Gigabyte made it abundantly clear that they were strong supporters of this new chipset, and few would have begrudged the company for resting on the laurels of their impressive lineup. However, during our stay in Taipei for the Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship 2008 event, they unveiled the new Ultra Durable 3 motherboard series, which surprisingly contained three new P45 models: the EP45-UD3, EP45-UD3R, and the EP45-UD3P.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"The ASUS My Cinema TV Tuner card has proved to be part awesome and part let-down. The software included with the card was the main disappointment and cast a shadow on a card that otherwise shined. With the ability to pull down clear signals on analog cable and FM radio, the thing that really matters, the hardware itself, really stood out. There are plenty of inputs, and the ability to receive both digital and analog TV signals which will be very important once the FCC mandated switch occurs."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"Highnote, the nom de plume of Samsung's latest Sprint phone (officially the SPH-m630), is sort of a double entendre. The clever moniker implies that the Highnote is both a musically-oriented phone and that it's a superior phone. But ironically, the thing - this EV-DO handset with access to Sprint's TV services and A-GPS - does least well is audio playback. Actually, that's not an entirely true statement - the reality is that it handles catchy tunes fine. Rather, it's the machinations you have to weed through to get to your music that strikes a sour note. On the bright side though, if you're unconcerned with music, the Highnote is an otherwise attractive, highly-customizable (albeit not great-sounding) full-featured cell phone with some clever design and interface elements. You also get it all for only $99.99 after the usual contract stipulations."

The Scythe Musashi VGA cooler is unique in it's design featuring a pair of 100x100x 10mm fans and dual heatpipe cooling which is usually reserved for CPU heatsink. Scythe has applied this proven cooling method to VGA cooler that takes only one slot from your computer when installed, but it is well worth the minor inconvenience.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

“It seems that “masters of the coolers” decided to cover all users’ needs for power supply units and we got on test UCP (Ultimate Circuit Protection) series that brings several innovations. The present state on the computer market confirms that multi CPU and GPU systems are not science fiction anymore. If you have Quad Core CPU with SLi or CrossFire GPU system in your computer case, soon you’ll realize that PSU is one of the basic things that you should choose very carefully for your configuration. Cooler Master promoted itself to a new level with its Real Power series, earning very enviable reputation…”

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

" The recently launched Radeon HD 4830 is basically a capped Radeon HD 4850, running at lower clock rates and having less graphics processors available, but offering a far more attractive price tag than its big sister. Does this new video card provide a good cost/benefit ratio like its big sister? Let's see."

The Intel P45 Express chipset has been amazingly competitive within the market the true successor to the P35 chipset that preceded it. Every major motherboard manufacturer with the obvious exception of AMD and certain NVIDIA partners that use NVIDIA chipsets only such as EVGA and XFX has at least 3 P45 motherboards in their lineup. Gigabyte is a Tier-1 motherboard manufacturer based in Taiwan and is a favorite among the hardcore enthusiast crowd due to their tweaking options on their boards. A couple of years ago Gigabyte introduced the Ultra Durable brand of technologies to lower power usage and increase overclocking capability. Ultra Durable 3 the latest generation of these technologies was introduced last month. Today I'm reviewing the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P motherboard based upon their Ultra Durable 3 technology.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

It’s hard to avoid making comparisons to Apple’s iPhone when you mention the HTC Touch Diamond. Although they are very different phones running on different operating systems, the Touch Diamond is arguably one of the closest competitors in the U.S. market today to the popular iPhone in terms of unique touch controls, an attractive looking user interface, power and versatility.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"GPS navigation devices have become quite popular these days, so why not get one yourself? The Garmin Nuvi 755T includes some excellent features, including 3D navigation and free lifetime traffic updates. Check out TechReviewSource.com's full review for more information about the Nuvi 755T from Garmin."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

“On the deck today, is the Gladiator Max - a heatsink which takes on the lineage afforded by a rather interesting slug of copper which took on heating duties back in the K7 days. Granted, back when this would have been a dime-a-dozen cooler, so my opinions coming into this review are mixed. Considering the four thick pipes riding the heatspreader, a good fan, and a huge mass of fins, though - there may be some hope.”

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"Anyone can slap on an aftermarket heatsink and call it a day but Palit's implementation of two BIOS chips on this video card was a welcome improvement. I am notorious for killing video cards and I've had my fair share of video cards that I've bricked from bad BIOS flashes so having two BIOS chips on the card doesn't immediately render it useless after a bad flash. Palit features two BIOS profiles, one with stock clocks and one slightly overclocked. The stock clocks are 750MHz on the core and 950MHz on the memory. Palit bumps this up to 775MHz on the core and 1000MHz on the memory for a modest and safe overclock..."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"We haven't taken a look at any CPU coolers in a while, so today I've got the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler for review. As the name suggests, the heatpipes are in direct contact with the top of your CPU to supposedly provide good cooling performance. The Core Contact Freezer is a lightweight cooler that appears well made and offers up some decent performance numbers when compared to other on the market today, so continue on to learn more about this cooler... "

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Far Cry 2 has been hyped as realistic and open sandbox shooter where you can let it rip in a realistic African conflict with amazing visuals. The final product? At least the amazing visuals are there and the game world is huge, but as for the rest... well, Ubisoft has a very good marketing department. Talk is cheap - it's much harder to actually live up to all that was promised.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Ranging in wattage from 350 to 850 watts, the SilverPower series is a no frills, non-modular cable offering that should appeal to those wishing to save a little money on a PSU that will provide them with enough power for their PC that is both adequate and economical. Though no MSRP has been anounced as of yet in the U.S., the SilverPower SP-S850 under review today is selling for about £80 (Including VAT) in the U.K. That's about $135 USD (no VAT). No VAT? No value added tax. Also note that there has been no official word yet on the U.S. warranty, but more than likely it's going to be three years parts and labor like its siblings from Tagan

When you look at the Radeon HD 4830 in isolation, only comparing it to what Nvidia has on the market at the moment, it's a pretty good buy if you only care about frame rates in games, but unfortunately the world doesn't work that way. There's a certain card called the Radeon HD 4850, which is not only at least 15 percent faster (and more often than not the margin is greater than 20 percent) in games, but is also available for just over £100 including VAT, making it only £10 more expensive.

"I'd love to spend some time discussing the technical details of how Advanced Clock Calibration works - Except we don't actually know. How ACC does what it does is a well-kept secret at the moment, but the general consensus is that this functionality uses six previously unused pins on the southbridge to perform some kind of additional tweaking to the CPU. These changes allow for some supposedly significant improvements (AMD quotes in the region of an extra 200MHz) to the overclocking potential of Phenom CPUs, making the use of an SB750-equipped system with a Phenom Black Edition processor a particularly exciting prospect - Needless to say we'll be taking a look at how ACC affects overclocking with just such a configuration during the course of today's review."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Well, today we are taking a long look at a new case from Antec. Antec's slogan for their new offering is "Think outside the box". And that is just what they were thinking when they came up with the Skeleton. An open air structure that will house a full system and have some sides at all just four 'legs'. The Skeleton can be looked at from two different angles. The first is a house to hold all your beloved components or as a test bench to torture your beloved components. Which ever way you decide to lean I can say one thing and that is the Skeleton is one very interesting case. Read along to come to your own conclusion.

Looking to build a new machine on a budget? Then look no further than choosing Gigabyte's EP45-UD3P as your choice for motherboard. It may not offer a lot in the area of bling, but it includes a solid design, lots of connectivity options (including 8 USB and S-ATA), fantastic overclocking potential and best of all, it comes in at an average price of $115.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

When the HIS HD4850 IceQ 4 TurboX finally arrived, I knew I was in for a treat. It comes overclocked from the factory by a hefty margin without increasing the heat on the card or the noise. Compared to my Sapphire Toxic and 8800GT OC2, this card is whisper quiet. I wasn't even sure if the fan was working properly because it was so quiet. It sounds cliche, but with every aftermarket cooler or stock cooler I've tried, they always end up being louder than I thought they would be. Not with the IceQ 4. HIS engineers have done a fine job at perfecting this cooler.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

With HTPC's gaining more and more in popularity, various input devices and peripherals for them are becoming a more integral part of the market. With many options to choose from for keyboards, mice and the combination of both, it's hard to come to a conclusion on what suits the HTPC best. Vidabox may have an answer with their Vidabox Premium Wireless Keybaord w/ laser trackball as an all in one solution.

"Wireless really is one of the buzz-words in the business at the moment. It seems like anything wireless is cool nowadays. Sure wireless hardware will cut down on the cable-clutter that we often find on our desks, but will this come without a cost?"

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"The Vantec Aeroflow FX 92 heatsink is the little brother to Vantec's Aeroflow FX 120, though hardly a weakling. Vantec's Aeroflow FX 92 (model VAF-9225) heatsink makes use of four white rubber vibration absorbing posts to hold the 92mm PWM fan in place, a trend we're seeing used widely these days. The fan spins anywhere from 1025-2800RPM and the heatsink weighs 432 grams."

FarCry 2 Gameplay Performance - We play FarCry 2 and find the best gaming experience served up by seven video cards from AMD and NVIDIA. A2A testing is done as well with all seven video cards. We spell out what GPU you need to get the FarCry 2 gaming you want. New drivers are used too!

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"Zalman recently sent us the new CNPS9300 AT that they tout as an "ultra quiet" cooler. We were glad to slap it on our test bench to see how it performs. Not only are we going to check on the acoustics, but we want to see if this still offers the same chill to our CPU that most Zalman products offer. Stick with us to find out."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"The JayBird JB-200 Stereo Bluetooth Headset is one of the best Bluetooth stereo headsets we have tried here at Legit Reviews. The JayBird engineers designed a very capable headset for those looking to keep the music going while enjoying their favorite activities..."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"A little while ago I took a look at an excellent all-in-one printer from Epson, the Workforce 600, today for review I've got another, this one is from Brother, it's the MFC-790CW. It's almost as feature packed as the Epson, but the Brother has a phone built in, LCD touchscreen and voice messaging center as well, something the Epson did not have. "

Primarily a PC case, power supply unit and cooling solutions manufacturer, Silverstone is treading new waters with the launch of its first input device. The Silverstone Raven is a gaming oriented mouse, not to be mistaken with the upcoming Silverstone Raven case which has what some might call, "a questionable design"

If all you’re looking for is total silence from your CPU cooler then the Cooler Master Z600 is certainly worth considering, as long as your hardware fits the bill. As we’ve seen, using the Z600 to try and cool certain chips just results in the cooler struggling to deal with the increased heat load and keeping the CPU at dangerously high temperatures, even in a well ventilated case, but if all you’ve got is a dual core processor from the Intel E6xxx or E8xxx families than the Hyper Z600 is certainly enough to keep your CPU stable, although still nowhere near as cool as competing high performance heatsinks.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

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

Just yesterday on my monthly journey to Fry’s, I noticed several retail boxed Patriot Warp Drives in a locked cabinet. The 128 GB model like the one we are looking at today was on sale for 369.00 U.S.D., around 20 Dollars more than the Newegg price. For many the high cost will be a big turn off and the Warp will not enjoy the same commercial success that a VelociRaptor will, but a 128GB SSD just a few months back would have set you back 1100 Dollars or more.

This review will be taking a look at a provocatively named new mouse from OCZ Technology that includes features like on-the-fly resolution management, adjustable mouse weights, and an ergonomic design. Just this short list of items makes the Dominatrix laser gaming mouse sound promising; just don't expect this dominatrix to bend you over a table and give you a spanking!

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

The mid-range video card segment has been booming lately compared to just a few years ago when the HD 2600 and GeForce 8600 series were launched by ATI and Nvidia respectively. There was a huge gap then between the mid-range cards and the much more expensive high-end cards. This hole is being filled currently with the ATI HD 3670 and HD 3650 along with the 8800 GS, 9600 GT, and 9600 GSO from Nvidia. Now, ATI has engineered more cards to fill this gap with the HD 4650 and the HD 4670. Today we have the HD 4670 by MSI. This card hopes to keep money in your pocket while giving you great gaming performance.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Corsair has been one of the biggest players in the PSU market lately. They currently produce only 7 units but each one of them excels in their respective categories. We reviewed many of these units in the past and it is clear they are extremely focused with their range, they are not flooding the market with a plethora of supplies, just high quality units with maximum quality. Today we will have a look at the TX750, a high output PSU designed to offer great electrical performance at the best possible price to performance ratio. Corsair released the TX750 several months ago but it still is considered to be one of the best choices anywhere close to its retail price. We will stress it to its limits in this review.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Just a few weeks ago Crucial released some new DDR3 modules under the Tracer line. The modules came rated at a mere 1333MHz but at a industry low 6-6-6-20 timings. One may look upon this as great when it comes to such low timings but not so great when it comes to the low speed rating. Well this is a kit from Crucial and you can beat it has plenty in the tank to give some very respectable numbers in the overclocking department. Read along to see just how high we got with this new kit.

"The Accelero Twin Turbo was the winner in every test. The factory heatsink was clearly outmatched by a far more superior product. The temperature differences between the two products were as high as 36 degrees in some tests. At its best, the factory heatsink got within 6 degrees of the Twin Turbo. In addition, the Twin Turbo fans were much quieter than the factory fans at every speed setting. At any speed above 50%, the factory fan was simply unbearable. AIso, I decided not to test the stock heatsink at an overclocked load with only 25% fan speed, in fear of damaging the card."

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

"Sunbeamtech has given us an opportunity to see the evolution in action with the Core-Contact Freezer heatsink. This new design removes the plate that separates the heat pipes from the processor so now the heat pipes have direct contact with the processor. Is this a more effective way to cool these new multi-core processors? We will be testing this to find out."

“Last month we tested model 1535 from new Studio series of notebooks from Dell and this time we got another model from same series but with slightly bigger dimensions. For all of you that missed that review we will say that Studio series is intended for home users. Dell Studio 1735 belongs to DTR category (DeskTop Replacement) of notebooks and because of that, most of its characteristics are predetermined. When we took Dell Studio 1735 out of the box we experienced a déjà vu which was expected because the only differences in design from 1535 model are bigger dimensions and presence of numerical keypad…”

"SanDisk's slotMusic Initiative attempts to resuscitate physical media by substituting microSD cards preloaded with music for conventional CDs. While the distribution network might be shaky, the $20 slotMusic MP3 player designed to work with it actually functions as an admirably simple microSD MP3 player, whether you buy your music from SanDisk or not. On the bang-for-the-buck scale, it's hard to contest a solid player cheaper than dinner or a night on the town, but more advanced users eying the player on price alone might be better off looking elsewhere."

"The Thermaltake MaxOrb EX is almost an entirely copper heatsink based on a novel three-fin-segment circular design, featuring a half-dozen copper heatpipes and speed controlled 120mm fan. The radial heatsink resembles a few Zalman coolers, but the construction is completely different. Each heatpipe is given its own individual copper or nickel plated aluminum fin array, so essentially every fin is put to work evenly."

The Scythe Kama Bay Amplifier is made for all of you who want to use a pair of efficient passive speakers along with your PC without having to shell out the big bucks. Priced at only € 50 this amp could easily become an integrated part of your rig offering very solid performance for its price.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"Thanks to advancements in technology and reductions in manufacturing costs over the last 10 years, TFTs have become more and more prevalent to the point where you can pick up a 22" for just over £150. In contrast to that, the highest end ones, are still damn expensive with the benchmark of 24" monitors often being the Dell Ultrasharp models costing around £400. However, to buck the trend even more, NEC have released their latest high end 24" iteration, the 24WMGX3 costing around £650. Think it could be worth it? Let's find out."

"In the time I've had to spend with this card, I haven't really found much to dislike about it. The card has performed well in Folding@Home and in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Of course, I didn't try to push the card to ridiculous resolutions, as gamers that own 24" or 30" monitors probably aren't looking at sub-$120 video card to run them. Even with Crysis Warhead, where I thought the card could stumble and fall, as many higher priced cards did with the original Crysis, the 9800GT from MSI was able to play the game fairly smoothly at 1280x1024."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"Welcome to the world of Gainward, a world beyond your senses! Gainward is a world leading producer of high-quality, high-end 3D accelerators for the personal computer market. Wasn't it really a great period the previous six months? Who doesn't recall the introduction of the GeForce 9 series graphics cards? Cause if you look back on some months ago the GeForce 9 series did get a very fast successor with the newly GeForce GTX 200 series. The Gainward GeForce GTX 260 did come out as a very well priced version and we could take this card further than we expected to hit a final top of 702/2304MHz on our overclocking exercise. One great experience with stunning overclocking and gaming interaction."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Today we are looking at the Cooler Master Hyper Z600R, the first product in Cooler Masters revised arsenal that is ready to battle flagship processors from Intel and AMD. The Hyper Z600R is a large cooler with premium packaging and the ability to add a second 120mm fan. From the looks of the design the cooler screams high efficiency with low acoustic interference. Overclockers will like the coolers ability to add a second fan and average users will like the quiet nature of this beast.

As CPU thermal output is on the increase, heatsink companies are continually seeking new and improved thermal solutions. This time, Thermalright has sent us a TRUE Black 120. The TRUE Black 120 certainly doesn't disappoint in the looks department; with its shiny black finish and admirable towering posture, it doesn't cease to amaze. But no matter how good it looks, we certainly can't forget the most important aspect of an HSF: cooling performance. So does the performance hold up to the looks?

With overclocking becoming more popular than ever before among PC users the need for cases with optimal airflow is a must, and full towers are the obvious choice when building a high end system. Today were going to take a look at the SilverStone TJ10B-WNV, a full tower case based on the TJ09. Hopefully after our disappointing encounter with the NZXT Khaos chassis recently SilverStone can raise the bar.

“To put it simple, I'm pleasantly surprised by the Antec Notebook Cooler 200. Given the limited cooling benefits of the common cooler, it's nice to see it actually make a difference worth noting. There are a couple other nice things noticed as well. While the notebook was crunching away, the battery remained cooler to the touch as well as the entire chassis. And being that the testing was performed at a LAN, the cooler got a lot of attention since it's one of the newest products from Antec. Plus, it definitely has a unique design which further perpetuated the onlooker's questions. The comments were all positive. There was even one that I'm sure (as Antec reads this) would be worth looking in to, if they already haven't.”

Over the past few years, gaming on the PC has transformed from a niche hobby to a market in and of itself. More and more gaming-grade devices come out each year. Some accessories are just hype or a means to squeeze a few extra dollars out of unsuspecting customers whereas others genuinely make the gaming experience that much better. At the same time gaming hardware has also come to be synonymous with expensive hardware as gaming hardware frequently pushes the current norms and standards to their limits of usability, functionality and style (or taste in the worst case scenario). The Microsoft Sidewinder X6 tries to be the keyboard for the gamer's gamer. It features the ability to program 90 macros using 6 proprietary buttons, the number pad, and 3 banks. It has backlighting for playing the dark, cruise control, on the fly macro programming, large knobs for volume and backlight control and audio shortcut buttons. It features keys designed for quic! k presses and fast action. Does it deliver?

"Pushing an overclocked card past the limits of the factory clocks can sometimes prove fruitful. The Zotac Amp Edition GTX280 is a well clocked card to begin with so the low lying fruit had already been plucked. That being said I was able to pull another 38MHz out of the GPU core and another 156MHz out of the memory. Both of these increases delivered improved results with one additional cost, an increase in the fan speed. That cost however, depends on how high your noise tolerance is. 100% is fairly loud from outside the case while around 65% is more along the level that is acceptable for me. Pushing past 65% did not show any clock speed gains so that's where it was left. The clock speed increases represent a 5% increase on the GPU and 12% increase on the memory. Not a huge increase on the GPU but the memory went over 1300MHz , a rarity for a non volt modded card."

Boston, MA, USA, 27 October 2008 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and embedded platform solutions, today announced it will be demonstrating the first VIA Nano processor-based Mini-ITX board this week at the Embedded Systems Conference, Boston, MA in booth 914.

The VIA VB8001 board is a full featured Mini-ITX board using the eagerly-awaited 1.6GHz VIA Nano processor, which boasts support for up to 4GB of DDR2 memory, Gigabit LAN and two Serial ATA ports, delivering exceptional 64-bit performance within a rigidly low thermal envelope, while a mini-PC slot can extend connectivity to wireless broadband.

The VIA CN896 digital media IGP chipset provides for a rich multimedia experience, with its integrated Chrome9™ graphics accelerator for DirectX 9.0 3D graphics, and support for VIA Vinyl 5.1 Audio and popular add-in graphics cards through the 16-lane PCI Express slot, opening up a new realm of optimized and small form factor desktop PC designs.

"While the MacBook Pro hasn't grown a metallic shell from its plastic roots like its tiny little brother the MacBook, the grandfather of Apple's signature notebook line hasn't grown a year older without an update, either. The Pro picks up a bigger version of the one-piece aluminum shell that little brother also gets, along with faster hardware, an LED-backlit screen, and the biggest news, an enormous multi-touch trackpad with zero exterior buttons - the whole thing depresses to act as one giant button. Read on to see why the retooled 15-inch MacBook Pro is quite possibly Apple's finest notebook yet. We can't wait to see what suprises Apple has in store for their next revision of the 17-inch MacBook Pro."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500 is a 10.1-megapixel point-and-shoot camera that has plenty of features in its arsenal. When we saw the Leica 5x zoom lens with a 25mm wide angle focal length and the large 3" touch sensitive screen, we were happy to investigate further."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

“Today we're looking at NZXT's new mid-sized tower, the Guardian 921. NZXT is looking to take a winning formula in the original Guardian and improve upon it, promising gamers a case that offers solid design, construction, and features for a very modest price. Targeted towards the budget conscious PC enthusiast with a futuristic and aggressive design aesthetic, we tackle the Guardian 921 and see if it indeed fits the bill.”

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Another day another review and today we got Asus latest 9800GT Matrix card on the bench with DirectX 10 support and 512 mb DDR3 video memory so this should be a interesting review as we are going to compare it vs some other high performing cards on the market right now.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"The Vantec Aeroflow FX 120 heatsink features a special base plate with three exposed 8mm diameter copper heatpipes, just like Xigmatek's very high performing "Heatpipe Direct Touch" technology. The heatpipes transfer heat directly to a large aluminum fin cooling tower above, and aside from a fairly quiet white 120mm fan the Aeroflow FX 120 is a simple and effective heatsink. "

"This motherboard meets all office requirements. Along with its good integrated graphics core, it has two video outputs, VGA and DVI. In our opinion, it must become the standard these days or, to be more exact, the minimal requirement for any motherboard with integrated graphics."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Today we are reviewing the "Antec NSK 6580B Mid-Tower Case", this case comes from Antec's "New Solution" catergory. We found this case to be very well built and overall extremely quiet thanks in part to the fact the included 430w Earthwatt power supply is nearly silent and the supplied fan is the Antec Tri-Cool three speed adjustable fan. So come on along as we check this case out.

A few months back, Intel released the P45 Chipset, which at the time was considered to be their mainstream offering, playing second fiddle to the X48 Express. With official support of a 1333MHz FSB, PCI-E 2.0, ATI CrossFire, and support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory, there's a lot of roads to go down with the construction of one of these motherboards, and MSI went down all of them. MSI fleshed out a complete top-to-bottom assortment of boards, which means that they have a P45 motherboard that suits just about every potential buyer's needs.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Enlight are a Taiwanese company who produce some unique all in one systems as well as Power Supplies and PC chassis. In this review we will be focusing on one of the latter, a recently released model which goes by the name of EN-2413. Enlight market this case in the £50 range and claim it is designed to house cool high specification processors and components so as well as looking at the product in detail we will also test the thermal performance as part of this review.

"When you've worked with enough motherboards from enough manufacturers you quickly learn to expect certain things out of certain board lines or from specific board builders. While ordinarily I expect Gigabyte motherboards to overclock well, I never expected the outstanding results I got with the Gigabyte EP45T-Extreme. Bar none this is the most overclockable motherboard I have ever worked with. That's not to say that overclocking with the board is not without its challenges, but generally speaking the board is extremely overclocking friendly and the results I obtained were fairly easy to obtain."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"Now Intel has the CPU of choice and with that comes support left, right and centre. While Intel has a huge array of chipsets for its own processor, support also comes from another source, that being from the biggest 3D chipset maker, NVIDIA.

While Intel has the best enthusiast chipsets out for the platform, Intel’s integrated graphics platforms simply can’t compete with the likes of NVIDIA’s IGP based setups. This is simply because NVIDIA has all of its 3D chip technology to call on for integration into its chipsets, keeping it ahead of chipzilla."

With the advent of HD, the markets for TVs and monitors have merged. Plasma and LCD displays that are sold as TVs can often be used as PC monitors because many come with D-Sub and DVI inputs. The two markets have meshed in such a way that even modern computer video cards will output an HDMI signal that is compatible with HDTVs. The T220HD is simply approaching the market from the other direction, i.e. primarily as a computer monitor, but with the added capability of being a television.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"Today for review I've got a PC Case from our friends at AeroCool, it's called the AeroRacer Pro and it's certainly a case that sets itself apart from all of the others out there today. The AeroRacer features a large power button labeled 'Engine Start', and while that's a cool little feature, what really makes this case stand out is the fan used to cool the case. The fan for the AeroRacer is a whopping 40cm in size, it takes up most all of the left side panel, and it's fairly silent as well. It claims to be the biggest side panel fan in the world and I believe it, at least I haven't seen anything quite like it out there yet. "

From what we've so far, almost all AIB partners are opting to use custom cooling solutions in conjunction with their Radeon HD 4830 offerings, and this is certainly the case with Sapphire, who use the same rather fetching cooler recently seen on their Radeon HD 4850 part with custom cooling, comprising of a dual-slot cooler which covers the GPU core while also offering a certain amount of cooling to memory modules.

Let's face it, DDR2 memory, while it's been a reliable product, is getting a little long in the tooth. Many of us have been looking to DDR3 for the next evolution of DDR. When the new Intel processors arrive, if you want to drive one of those bad boys, DDR3 is your only option. Though it took a while for DDR2 to be accepted and fully utilized, DDR3 is on a little faster track. When the Intel Integrated Memory Controllers in the new Nehalem chip make their entry into the market, DDR3 will come of age and be all the rage.

"Color reproduction on this screen is fantastic and these photos don't do it justice. I can easily say that it is far better than my two current Chimei screens. HP screens are well known for their superior image clarity and color reproduction and this unit does not disappoint."

And if you are one of these people that don't need the biggest baddest video adapter on the market just something that will get you by and play your videos at a clean crisp rate then the Sapphire HD 4550 may be up your alley. The HD 4550 is no bottom of the line GPU but a card that boasts 512MB of DDR3 memory at 900MHz and a 600MHz core. At $60 you will not have to settle with just what will get you by as the card supports Crossfire and HDMI with 7.1 audio support. But with all this being said how will the HD 4550 stack up on the ladder of other cards offered by Sapphire and ATI.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

The choice in netbooks used to be slim, but that's far from being the case today. With all the competition, companies have to be creative in how they design their product, and in the case of Smooth Creation's Smoothbook Slice, how they differentiate themselves is in the look. So if you ever wanted a netbook with a very unique paint job that defines who you are, read on.

"You know the drill-HDD and flash memory-based high-def camcorders are hot as blank tape and disc models fall out of favor. Recently we reviewed two newly introduced hard disc drive editions-the JVC GZ-HD40 and Canon Vixia HG21. Now it's Panasonic's turn for a new AVCHD high-def model but this one only records to SDHC cards. Since there's no drive, disc or tape mechanism it's incredibly compact and lightweight (13.4 ounces loaded versus 19 for the HG21). And after getting a world of grief from reviewers including yours truly, the company has moved from a trio of CCD chips to three CMOS sensors. Hopefully this will bring Panasonic back into the game but there's a lot more to camcorders than imaging devices. Let's see if our friends from Osaka have something to cheer about-or if they have to go back to the drawing board."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

“The fact is that nVIDIA these days lives on its reputation, considering that except for GTX280 and GTX260 (their place is reserved for the top of offer), nVIDIA doesn’t have anything new to show. Besides, trend of renaming the products becomes a bit irritating habit, cause real new product from “sub 250€” class isn’t introduced for a long time. G92 chip is still promoted even though it was “de facto” incredible product one year ago and that is for IT industry too long. Perhaps it wouldn’t feel that long if competition isn’t hyperactive, but as this became ATi’s new business policy, it’s quite evidently that nVIDIA isn’t held in high esteem…”

"This board was a pleasure to work with. It was very stable and overclocks very easily with either the dip switches, via the BIOS, or using the AMD overclocking utility. The scores speak for themselves this board was built for gamers in mind. The 790GX and SB750 combination provide the power needed to run any system and MSI takes that combination and puts it in a very solid platform for your computing pleasure. The Circu-Pipe heatsink design keeps the DKA790GX Platinum at safe operating temperatures even while overclocked as far as I had it. Not once did it get too hot or did I need to add extra fans to cool it down. Having the memory on the outside slots also helped keep the air flowing well. I was kind of scratching my head as to why they place four of the SATA ports at 90 degree angles and not the fifth one. With large video cards this could pose a problem. This board is a very stable platform for any gamer or power user and with a great chipset you could not go wrong."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

The Lian Li PC-A7010 takes many of the features found in the Armorsuite or X2000 and wraps it into a sophisticated, but understatement clean look. Every feature within the case aims for ease of use, reliability and to deliver a quiet computing experience.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

Has the OP1000-Evolution lived up to the original OP1000's good name? You bet. All around, the new OP1000-E is a solid performer. Line regulation is top notch, the unit is incredibly quiet, the lines are sleeved and finished. There is a large number of connectors and the unit is now conveniently sized, unlike its lengthy predecessor.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

“It used to be that a high-performance chassis could only be found in the full-tower form factor category. Consumer demand has dramatically changed that reality. Earlier this year, Thermaltake introduced a chassis that has the versatility and performance characteristics of a full tower while physically being a smaller, more manageable package: the Armor+ MX. From Thermaltake: Armor+ MX: Beyond the past, Exceed the present, Surpass the competition. Sounds like they expect a lot from their product line, which is not suprising coming from Thermaltake. They had created the Armor series to allow consumers to fully utilize advanced graphics technology. After the success of their Armor Plus series of chasses, Thermaltake engineers went to work on a new and improved version. The result is our next item up for review: the Thermaltake Armor+ MX VH8000BWS.”

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

" A couple days ago I took a look at the Super Talent Pico-C USB Drive, today of review I've got the Pico-D 8gb USB Drive for review. It's a small sized USB drive, though not as small as the Pico-C , but it's close. The Pico-D is a swivel style drive, the outer casing is metal and the actual USB drive is plastic and it swivels out from the metal and just like the Pico-C, the Pico-D is water resistant as well as rugged and durable."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

On thing to note about the Phenom X4 9950 BE is that AMD has two versions of the processor with a thermal envelope of 125W and 140W. The processor we have received is actually the newer 125W version of the X4 Phenom 9950 BE with label HD995ZXAJ4BGH. There is a 140W version available on the market for about $10~$15 cheaper with the label HD995ZFAJ4BG.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING

"It is impossible to be indifferent to Skeleton. It uses a complete different design, being completely opened for a better airflow. Our news editor, Cássio Lima, thinks it looks like a portable stove. We think it looks like a spider. This is one of the unusual products that you will either love it or hate it. Unfortunately we are in the second group. Find out why."

CLICK HERE FOR THIS PRODUCT'S PRICING