Week of August 26, 2007

“Menacing. That's the word NZXT uses to describe its Lexa Blackline performance gaming chassis. The massive beast, black skinned and glowing red, is a quiet monstrosity perfect for a water-cooled rig. Its ominous appearance is glossy, yet symmetrically contoured like a stealth jet. A temperature display crowns the head of the beast, allowing a user to prevent the case from reaching his or her own evil number of degrees. Will the NZXT Lexa Blackline measure up to its counterparts, the HUSH and ADAMAS? ThinkComputers bears the meter stick in this review.”

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Lexa Blackline PC Case SHOPPING & PRICING

"Today we’ve seen a lot more stuff and we’ve focused our attention mostly on notebooks, but there’s also a whole lot of other stuff to read about.

Let’s start on the same note as we ended yesterday’s coverage with a UMPC. Amazingly enough, the Kohjinsha SA1F00 wasn’t the only AMD Geode powered UMPC at the show, we found another one too. This time it looks a bit more like an overgrown PDA though."

"Ever wondered how to recover or reset a forgotten password in WindowsXP? In this guide, PCstats will explore the various methods that can be used to password protect computer systems, and how to defeat them if you lock yourself out. We'll start with non-user account related passwords, like the computer BIOS password and Internet Explorer passwords, and proceed on to methods of breaking into your system again if you manage to completely lock yourself out."

“Well, for years after that I was a true diehard AMD fan. That is, until the tides recently turned and the tsunami of C2D arrived on the shores. Recently, Intel has been dominating the processor scene with its new line of Core 2 Duo's. Well, once again Intel has stepped up to the plate by literally stepping up the FSB from 1066 to 1333. This new line of CPU's have a model of Exx50 which represents the 1333FSB. This bump on the CPU will now match the Front Side Bus of some newer motherboards. The new processor under the microscope is the new Intel Core 2 Duo E6850, which is 3.0GHz, has 4mb of cache, and is using the 1333MHz system bus. With all these numbers floating around in my head, I just can’t wait to test the processor.”

CLICK HERE FOR Intel E6850 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo 1333FSB CPU SHOPPING & PRICING

"In this article we shall have a look at a barebone of the standard form-factor (if the term "standard" is at all applicable). A "cubic" computer chassis with integrated graphics, but not without an additional slot for a fully-fledged graphics card."

Tuniq launches a new thermal compound that should be available September 10, 2007. We put it to the test against Arctic Silver 5 and the older TX-1 compound to see how easy it is to work with, how easy it cleans up and how well it performs.

"When it comes to choosing a PSU there are many manufacturers to choose from, who all claim to have the ideal power solution for your high powered system. Post people won't bother searching around and will go for a tried and tested brand or the most well known one. Today I have with me a PSU from Kingwin who might not be the biggest and baddest company out they are trying to make a big splash with their latest range of PSUs aimed at gamers and enthusiasts alike. Let's see how their 800w Mach1 fares."

CLICK HERE FOR Kingwin Mach 1 ABT-800MA1S SHOPPING & PRICING

"ASRock is ready for a new series of board using Intel P965 chipset meeting Quad Core demands. ASRock 4Core 1333-ViiV packs with eSATAII, 6-SATA ports, Firewire, CrossFire & ViiV ready, Raid 0, 1, 10 & 5, and bundled with DeskExpress Card. We feature this review with a mainstream CPU, the Intel E4400 Cheap CPU plus more. Let's find out what kind of performance this entry level combination of board & CPU can deliver."

It’s fast enough to completely saturate a high performance system from yesteryear like the Dell 9150 it was tested on, and it will survive and serve you well far into your next motherboard and CPU upgrade.

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS 8800GTS SHOPPING & PRICING

In the quest for more and more silence without compromising airflow some people will go to great lengths to keep their PC quiet. Some people even have the PC in a different room of the house and run cables to it for the sake of silence. Fans get bigger, CPU's shrink and time marches on. Today we have Tagan's newest addition to their line of A+ cases. Named the CS-A380, the name may not roll of the tongue quite as smoothly as Black Pearl but what it lacks in title it surely makes up for with a monstrous 250mm front fan. With the great success of the Black Pearl Tagan has set a high standard for itself. Can the CS-A380 match the level of the Black Pearl and more importantly, the scrutiny of our readers or will it crash and burn?

First off let me say that both these systems are great and owning either one is a privilege as they exceed the normal standards of what most home users need to accomplish their daily tasks. IF you are looking for more than just an awesome gaming rig the Intel V8 platform is an excellent choice for the user who wants to be able to have excellent gaming, and the ability to maximize their efficiency in the workstation arena as well. AMD's 4X4 platform is a very nice platform for those who want fast gaming and the ability to run most 3D applications at a very good rate.

The portion of the Wind Tunnel's side panel that houses the two 25cm fans protrudes from the side of the case to compensate for the depth of the fans, so there won't be any issues with clearance between your components and the fans. There are also some ventilation holes on the top part of the side panel to let heat escape from the case.

"A lot has changed over the last couple of months with OCZ taking over PC Power & Cooling and them becoming part of the OCZ technology group. I think this was a smart move by OCZ as a lot of enthusiasts and hardware types already have praise for most Power supplies that come from PC Power & Cooling. Today we are looking at the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 quad a Power supply that promises to be a winner straight from the off. Based on and older model from them that was solid in its own right, this version of coarse has the upgraded Graphics connectors."

CLICK HERE FOR PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad PSU SHOPPING & PRICING

Ever since Intel released the 3 series chipset, DDR2 has had the wind taken from its sails so that DDR3 could make waves. This was meant with the best intentions, but as DDR3 was released to public it didn't take long for people to realize it was still too immature to compete against DDR2 in regards to performance. This put the weight of the world back on the shoulders of DDR2, which has just earned a repreive from execution. But now that manufacturers are tooling up for DDR3 production, there are only few names remaining on the shrinking list which are still releasing high-performance system memory for the DDR2 platform. Winchip still knows that DDR2 has performance potential left in it, and offers the 1200MHz PC2-9600 2GB DDR2 RAM Kit to Benchmark Reviews for testing.

Last Friday, we took a look at one of the first DDR3 kits on the market, OCZ's DDR3-1333 Platinum. This week, we are continuing that theme with Kingston's DDR3-1375 CL7, also one of the first kits available. How does this one compare to our OCZ kit? Read on to find out.

CLICK HERE FOR Kingston 2GB HyperX DDR3 SHOPPING & PRICING

“Good RAM wouldn't be good if it didn't have rows of flashing lights under its heatspreader. Wait, that makes no sense. RAM is good when it, and, therefore, your computer, blazes. It should be about lower latencies and higher bandwidth, not Blinken- and ground lights. But are the two mutually exclusive? If we apply rice theory, spinners and lights may be added to any vehicle (import or domestic--although it's pretty hard to be impressed by a pimped-out Taurus) and imply, but are not evidence of, high performance. OK, so hear me out--there's a place where that metaphor comes back to fit, fer rills. Real racecars don't have lights and junk. That's heavy. Can high-performance RAM have lights? Will the extra stuff and/or heat weigh down the memory just as surely as would a tail fin lovingly crafted from Bondo?”

"The SD850 IS looks just a shade better than the zillions of silver-bodied aim-and-forget digicams for sale. "

CLICK HERE FOR Canon PowerShot SD850 IS SHOPPING & PRICING

TTGamer have today posted a review of BioShock for the PC. Does the "spiritual successor" to the System Shock series live up to the hype? Perhaps the better question is, just how easily does it eclipse it?

CLICK HERE FOR BioShock PC SHOPPING & PRICING

Next month Zaward will be releasing a new CPU heatsink called the Vivo. This new cooler is based on a 92mm fan and uses exposed heatpipes that contact the CPU heatspreader directly. Add to that the Dimple Technology Golf fan and a unique fan shroud, the Vivo's compact size really packs a punch.

"Along with a couple of mid-range models based on Intel P35 chipset MSI has provided us with a Platinum-version based on the renewed platform. As is usual during initial release stage this particular motherboard was a pre-sale sample. Later, after the testing of the newly-released chipset had been done, the selling version, based on PCB revision 1.2, has made its way into our lab. However, the new revision wasn't any different in terms of appearance and functionality, therefore let's think that MSI engineers had worked on improving layout of power supply and signal lines."

CLICK HERE FOR MSI P35 Platinum Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"USB drives are so prolific that they are now beginning to be given away free promotionally. There are literally thousands of different makes, models and capacities; all of which operate at different speeds. Of recent, the focus has been moving away from sheer storage to the speed at which you can fill the provided space, with people becoming ever more impatient.
With the 4GB barrier broken a long time ago, there have been more and more devices falling into this bracket of size. They are mostly the same and rarely have differentiating features, and most come with an encryption program to stop an opportunistic thief running off with your important documents.

Today I have the Lexar JD Secure II 4GB which has a nifty little feature that separates it from its other 4GB cousins. "

CLICK HERE FOR Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 4GB SHOPPING & PRICING

"A Geforce 8500 GT equipped with 256Mb DDR3 memory chips, a copper heatsink with heat pipe and factory overclocked, can this Leadtek differentiate itself from the reference 8500 GT design? Let's find out."

"Intel’s platform design has usually been behind that of the retail market, Intel’s onboard graphics are quite basic and can’t really handle much in the way of 3D applications; not to mention they’re also a a memory hog, stealing as much bandwidth as possible.

With the Intel 3 series chipsets, things have changed; thanks to Vista new features are required to get a motherboard certified for Vista validation, and Intel is definitely one to strive for this. The G33 chipset is the latest instalment from Intel, and it’s designed for the Vista environment using its onboard graphics system, the GMA3100."

I have yet to figure out exactly what grabbed my attention with the NZXT Lexa Blackline Performance Midtower ATX Case, but the sleek design of a black case with red accents really appealed to me, and I had to check it out. From my previous experience with a case from NZXT I was pretty sure that I would not be disappointed, and the Lexa Blackline lived up to my expectations. In fact, while I normally prefer full tower cases, I have now decided to use this as my primary case.

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Lexa Blackline Performance Midtower ATX Case SHOPPING & PRICING

Last week we took a look at the Sony Vaio VGN-N38E/W laptop. This week we are taking a look at its older brother, the Sony Vaio VGN-N31M/W. This core 2 duo T5300 based system with 1GB of ram and 120GB of hard drive space has upon initial looks great specs for a really good price (￡549.99). The Sony Vaio comes with all the standards, 802.11gb wifi, Vista Home Premium, a 15.4″ TFT display etc. But how does the Sony Vaio VGN N31M/W do in a review?

Over the years notebooks have dropped significantly in price and according to recent market data from research firm IDC notebooks are on course to take the lead over desktops by 2011. Notebooks have become more powerful but one of the biggest problems is still the relatively short battery life. Firms like Samsung are working on this problem by developing fuel cells which will give your notebook a battery life of several days/weeks but it will still take a few more years before fuel cells will be commercially available..

"Starting out with the basics, the Radeon HD 2400 XT is based around AMD's 180 million transistor, 65 nanometre manufactured RV610 core, and is basically a further shrunk and reduced version of the R600 and RV630 cores that power the company's flagship Radeon HD 2900 XT and mid-range Radeon HD 2600 XT parts respectively. Compared to the 320 shader processors which make up that current high-end part, RV610 features 40 shader processing units, split into two arrays of twenty processors (compared to four arrays of eighty in R600, and three arrays of forty in RV630). The number of texture units and ROPs are also reduced to one of each respectively against four and four in AMD's flagship core, and two and one in RV630. Finally, RV610 finds itself shorn of the ring bus memory controller found on other Radeon HD 2000 series parts, instead utilising a lesser 64-bit crossbar controller."

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire Radeon HD 2400 XT Videocard SHOPPING & PRICING

Today I'm reviewing the Apevia X-Telstar Black Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case. You might know Apevia from their many other products or particularly their very nice X-Navigator cases. The X-Telstar's prominent features are: large see-through side window panel; and a front LCD display; twelve drive bays; solid aluminum chassis; and three 120mm (large) fans. It is marketed as a gaming case however I'm sure you could load up Photoshop or a web browser up if your computer was inside, too. I wouldn't go so far as to say that any accounting or legal/law related programs would open on a computer in this case.

CLICK HERE FOR Apevia X-Telstar Black Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case SHOPPING & PRICING

"Intel's newest P35 Express chipset brought along support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory modules. As DDR3 modules are still not widely interesting because of their high price, ASUS decided to celebrate its 18th birthday in a specific manner by introducing P5K3 Premium/WiFi AP motherboard which has 2 GB of DDR3 memory - integrated!"

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS P5K3 Premium / WiFi AP SHOPPING & PRICING

"Character models are what you'd expect from a contemporary top-tier shooter: detailed creatures with believable and varied animations. Splicers move fast, but cornering one (or gazing at a corpse) reveals accessories such as hats and handbags. Big Daddies are the real visual treats, though. Observe one as it steadfastly and slowly shadows a Little Sister, and you'll note the intricate details and fluid animation. Without speaking, these creatures communicate more through movement alone than the most loose-lipped of characters in other games. When provoked, however, all subtleness is cast aside; when on the offensive, a Big Daddy is a fast-moving and lethal killing machine."

CLICK HERE FOR BioShock (PC) SHOPPING & PRICING

"Reclusa feels like a 'just another keyboard'. It has a good 'feel' for long typing sessions. It's silent and it has enough shortcut keys which are quite nicely located around the keyboard. It doesn't have any big flaws either but all the small mistakes put together make the whole product look bad."

CLICK HERE FOR Microsoft Reclusa Gaming Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

Today at HotHardware, we have one of the largest 2.5” hard drives on the market, the 250GB Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS. At 5400RPM, it may not be the mobile speed king, but this 2.5" SATA hard drive offers a plethora of nice features, like an 8MB cache and WD's WhisperDrive and ShockGuard technology. Plus, the benchmarks might just surprise you about how well a 5400RPM mobile drive can perform…

CLICK HERE FOR Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS SHOPPING & PRICING

"The main feature of the V1 is its garish, or even bizarre design. The heat pipes seem to be explored through and through, a lot of designs are engineered - from traditional tower-like heatsinks to cunning radial solutions. So it's nearly impossible to invent something really innovative. But Thermaltake engineers brushed aside stereotypes, plucked up courage, and came up with a very interesting device!"

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake V1 Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

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

In the last months there were speculations in many forums regarding the Micron ICs used on the very inexpensive Crucial PC2-4200 DDR2 memory modules. At ocinside.de we've already published several reviews of Crucial PC2-8500, PC2-8000, PC2-6400 and PC2-5300 memory modules, whereby we've recently also tested a 2GB PC2-4200 ECC kit. However, the ECC kit was equipped with Elpida memory chips instead of high overclockable Micron D9GMH ICs. Who order the memory modules in online shops, has usually no further information regarding the module assembly and can only trust reviews or experiences of other buyers.

CLICK HERE FOR Crucial DDR2-533/PC2-4200 2GB Kit SHOPPING & PRICING

"Another memory competition but this time it's a kit of OCZ PC2-6400 2gb Flex memory. This kit has inbuilt water cooling capabilities and huge air cooled heatsinks. Designed to be the overclocker's dream, these modules are not something to be scoffed at."

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Flex 2gb PC2-6400 CL3 SHOPPING & PRICING

As one of the hottest products to hit the market today, the ZeroTherm BTF90 is classified as a high end CPU cooler solution geared for enthusiasts. Sporting a massive copper base, eight heat pipes, and copper fins, the BTF90 looks and feels to be the end-all CPU thermal cooling solution. Or is it? Let’s take a closer look at this behemoth cooler and find out!

CLICK HERE FOR ZeroTherm BFT90 CPU Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

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

We have reviewed NorthQ products before and their range is diversing consistently as they try to gain more and more market share. Today we will review one of their latest and greatest power supply units clearly aimed towards enthusiasts, the Giant Connector 850W. The Giant Connector 850W is not only a powerful unit but it is also a modular one.

Western Digital may not be able to toot their horn for being the first to the 750GB plateau, but unless you have a time machine and want to go back 15 months, does it really matter at this point? The Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB Hard Drive is one of a very few options at this capacity or higher, and it is well worth consideration by anyone looking for a big drive.

CLICK HERE FOR Western Digital Caviar SE16 750GB SATA 3 Gbps Hard Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

Did you ever have a laptop go bad and you forgot to backup the precious data? Professional data retrieval could cost a significant amount of dollars. A simpler solution would be to purchase a 2.5'' external/internal storage enclosure which would allow you to connect the hard drive to a desktop for data retrieval. For a retail price of approximately $20, it would be an invaluable investment when it comes to data rescue. Here at Bjorn3D, we have previously looked at ICY Dock's 2.5 IDE internal/external enclosure and today, we are going to take a look at ICY Dock's 2.5'' SATA internal/external enclosure.

The Games Convention 2007 had some very interesting hardware product launches. We have scoured the halls, snapped pictures and collected information on all the interesting new releases at the show.

We’d say for budget minded individual looking for an in-expensive DX10 upgrade, or simply wants to experiment with a HTPC the ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro will not disappoint and surely will not break the bank.

Ultra has been in the business of producing good looking products which are known to perform well, and still not cost a fortune. We recently reviewed the Ultra ULT33186 Chilltec TEC CPU Cooler, which offered a unique blend of technologies into one product. Equally as unique is the Ultra X-Pro 800W Aluminum PSU ULT33185, which matches a very attractive power supply chassis with high-performance electronics previously found in mission critical components. Offering 800 watts of power gives the X-Pro a very wide range of applications: from pedestal servers to hardcore gaming systems. Benchmark Reviews has seen plenty of power supplies that look good, and they often promise more than they deliver. Ultra's X-Pro 800W will need to prove that function still comes before fashion.

CLICK HERE FOR Ultra X-Pro 800W Aluminum PSU ULT33185 SHOPPING & PRICING

Looking for the ultimate gaming mouse? Logitech's latest G9 offers a lot... and then some. Included is a switchable body, color-changing LEDs, 3200 DPI capabilities, MicroGear scroll-wheel, braided cable and much more. The question: Is it worth your $99?

CLICK HERE FOR Logitech G9 Laser Gaming Mouse SHOPPING & PRICING

"Squeezebox offers you the widest choice of listening options beyond your digital media collection. The product includes a directory of thousands of internet radio stations and features Pandora’s personalized music service and Rhapsody’s 2 million song collection. All internet music streaming services are even available when your computer is turned off."

"This water pump comes with a power cord that measures just over three feet. With that kind of cord length, mounting this pump in a large case presents no problems; there is enough length to reach across pretty much any case on the market. Mounting the pump can be accomplished two ways; using the supplied velcro or mounting it to the case with screws and rubber washers to isolate the vibration from the pump."

"Performance meets silence," states Cooler Master on the Cosmos' packaging. Ah, the mantra of the modding junky and power user. The goal may not be as lofty an ambition as traveling the stars, but it often seems just as difficult to achieve. As one who was driven to learn the ways of water by the unholy scream of high RPM fans, it's a goal I am all to familiar with. At first glance the lack of front, side and obvious top fans hint at how Cooler Master might achieve "silence", but the only hint of "performance", comes from the louvered top-rear section of the case. Sitting between the rails and looking like afterburners on a tail end of a Lucas inspired star fighter, they give the impression the case is about to jump to light speed."

In the quest for silent performance, users are looking toward heatpipes for most of their cooling needs. Today we are looking at the new fanless chipset cooler from Zaward, called the Twin Towers. This chipset cooler has two heatpipes, one of which can rotate around the other to reduce compatibility issues. We put the Twin Towers to the test to see what kind of performance comes with its silence.

Today we will examine one of the strongest power supply units available today, the OCZ ProXstream 1000W. The best consumer available power electronics technology is implemented inside, allowing it to significantly exceed the power specifications and efficiency of its predecessors. The 1kW rating is more than enough to power any hardware configuration right now, however the question we will be answering today is if the power can be properly controlled as well.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ ProXstream 1000w Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

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

"This roundup will compare modern 160 GB PMR 5k4 models and 100 GB 7k1 drives from Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate, and Western Digital. We'll do it on the eve of their successors, 250 GB models with PMR of the second generation. This article will analyze all of them plus another model - Seagate Momentus 5400.3 SATA. It appeared a lad later than its UATA modification, demonstrating higher performance."

Antec has recently hit a couple of home runs in the chassis department with their P190 and P-180 cases. Both of these cases offer excellent noise dampening qualities as well as providing huge amounts of storage. The one little secret that everyone seems to have forgotten about is that Antec also has a outstanding power supply division.

CLICK HERE FOR Antec True Power Quattro 850 Watt Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

Ultra Products has came up with a little solution that will not only allow you to easily add USB devices to your computer easily, but it will also allow you to connect the Hub to a second computer so you can share the devices between the two computers.

CLICK HERE FOR Ultra 7 Port USB Buddy Hub SHOPPING & PRICING

When taking pictures with a digital camera, by default the
picture will be in color. Most point and shoot cameras along with a few DSLR offer a black and white mode. This is great if you’re looking for low contrast and flat pictures. To get the most range from an image, take the picture in color and convert it to black and white with Photoshop or other imaging programs.

CLICK HERE FOR Photoshop SHOPPING & PRICING

Coming from one of the most consistently innovative and exciting developers out there: Irrational Games (now 2K Boston), Bioshock is, on the face of it, a conventional shooter. Compared to games like STALKER with its A-Life AI and open-ended structure, Bioshock's confined environments and set-pieces might look old fashioned and tired. You might also consider the 5 or 6 distinct enemy types boring and a bit stingy. With most shooters you'd be right, but Bioshock transcends all of these concerns by being the most compellingly immersive shooter since HL2.

CLICK HERE FOR Bioshock (PC) SHOPPING & PRICING

CLICK HERE FOR Bioshock (Xbox360) SHOPPING & PRICING

Uber cool or no? Enermax’s new full tower version of their Chakra case hosts great cooling and lots of expansion capability for quite a reasonable price. Today at OzHardware we take an in depth look into Enermax’s new flagship tower case.

"Coollaboratory’s Liquid Pro and Shin Etsu’s X23 have been fighting for the lime-light for the past few years, but only tested by a few American (or other English speaking language countries) review sites. Everyone seems to get different results, all with a “clear winner,” which brings into question the idea that thermal compounds really do differ from one another. Today, we’re reviewing Coollaboratory’s Liquid Pro to see for sure if this difference exists."

“The iOne Scorpius P20MT 2.4GHz MCE Keyboard with Optical Trackball certainly lends a helping hand whenever it comes to using your HTPC. In today's world HTPCs are becoming more popular than ever. We are starting to see more companies emerge to help us enhance our home theatre environment. We have seen this from our previous review of the Scorpius N2T. The P20MT has some different features including the capability of easily recharging the device, a power button, and an even slimmer design. Let's take a further look to see what the Scorpius P20MT has to offer.”

"The Olympus Evolt E-510 is a 10MP digital SLR that's great for novices or those without an extensive lens collection."

CLICK HERE FOR Olympus Evolt E-510 SHOPPING & PRICING

"Seasonic power supplies have gotten a bit more stylish over the years, but we don't judge them by the outside. It's the circuitry on the inside that really matters. The Seasonic S12 II 500W power supply PCSTATS is testing today is exactly the same as the S12 model that came before it, except for the addition of a single conductive polymer aluminum solid capacitor on the all important 12V rail. The company hasn't replaced every single electrolytic capacitor in the unit with this type, just the one voltage rail where reliability is likely to matter the most."

CLICK HERE FOR Seasonic S12-II 500W Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

Like the other members of HIS’ IceQ Turbo family of graphics cards, this Radeon HD 2600 features an oversized, near silent cooler and it’s overclocked right out of the box.

CLICK HERE FOR HIS Radeon HD 2600 Pro IceQ Turbo 512MB SHOPPING & PRICING

One very portable and attractive player is Transcend's T.Sonic 820. This 2GB device is miniature in stature, but makes up for its small size with a host of features like voice recording, FM recording, and e-book reading via text files. But, that's just the tip of the iceberg for this multi-functional device. Our review will dive into every feature available on the T.Sonic 820, and also evaluate each one to make sure it will meet the consumer's demanding expectations.

CLICK HERE FOR Transcend T.Sonic 820 2GB MP3 Player SHOPPING & PRICING

"Unfortunately, we encountered some problems in the process of testing single-core Athlon 64 processors for the old AMD Socket 939 platform. On the other hand, we already have test results of single-core Intel Pentium 4 processors. So we decided to sugar the waiting pill with an article devoted solely to single-core processors from Intel. Single-core processors from AMD for Socket 939 will be analyzed in Part 4."

"AMD have got their whole mid-range lineup well and truly going now and we had a look at Palit and their HD 2600 cards the other week; now it’s time to have a look at the Sapphire HD 2600 XT and HD 2400 XT.

The question is though, is it enough for us to recommend them over the 8600 series? Well at the time of writing about the Palit cards, almost! Since then a new driver set has come out in the form of the Catalyst 7.8 and some serious speed increases were seen for the mid-range cards. This could be enough for them to be the card of choice for users on a budget."

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire Radeon HD 2400 XT SHOPPING & PRICING

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire Radeon HD 2600 XT SHOPPING & PRICING

Today we're taking a look at the Samsung SM226BW 22inch widescreen monitor, suited for both home and businesses.

Unless in a noise critical workplace every PC needs a set of speakers and really the only decision to be made is whether the system needs 5.1 or 2.1 sound. Chances are many people will not have the space for a 5.1 system so this really makes the choice easy.

Altec Lansing have been making audio products since the 1920’s and have developed quite a reputation for producing great sounding hardware for the home, car and in recent years PCs. For everyone’s budget they have a product which suits and the same goes for specification. Let’s see what they offer for the 2.1 audio market.

CLICK HERE FOR Altec Lansing FX4021 Speakers SHOPPING & PRICING

When INTEL released the P35 chipset, many people were wondering what the big deal was. In all honesty, its a marginal upgrade form the immensely popular P965 chipset it replaced, at least in many instances. But for those who overclock, the P35 chipset provides a pretty significant upgrade over its predecessor. Those who had the pleasure of using one of Gigabyte's many P965, especially the P965-DQ6, will tell you that they are fantastic overclockers. So does that mean we can expect a similar performance boost from their P35 offering? With INTEL set to unleash the X38 catering to the extreme enthusiasts in less than a month, should users look to the Gigabyte P35-DQ6, or should they wait? Read on to find out....

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte P35-DQ6 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"We take a look at the performance numbers of 9 DDR2 2x1Gb Kits from OCZ, Kingston, Mushkin, Team Group and Corsair on the Intel P965 platform. Join us as we try to determine who's got the fastest and most overclockable kits out there in Part 1 of our summer DDR2 Roundup."

CLICK HERE FOR DDR2 Memory SHOPPING & PRICING

After running wild search patterns through the halls of Games Convention Germany we are proud to present you the finest collection of booth babes from Europe's biggest gaming show. You will find 300 high-res photos to get an impression of what you missed.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. You may have heard this saying spoken throughout history and while those who have uttered these words may have been referring to periods of great struggle I am sure seeing the current state of video cards this quote applies here. As GPU's continue to hunger for more and more power they will continue to generate more and more heat. Gone are the days when a simple piece of metal would suffice. Even mid-range cards such as the 8800GTS require a dual-slot cooling solution to tame the beast within. What is an enthusiast to do? Sure you can get a nice large cooler if you can live with the noise it generates. What about water cooling? Ya know, that stuff you're NOT supposed to bring near expensive electronics. Before you decide me mad and click that little red 'X' what if I told you that you need not be so desperate to try water cooling. That a company with higher quality standards than most car manufacturers has a waterblock that destroys the competition and keeps your video card nice and chilly. With no more ado I give you the MCW-60 from Swiftech, a waterblock that delivers were it counts.

CLICK HERE FOR Swiftech MCW-60 SHOPPING & PRICING

Once you fire up the game, it takes very little time for you to be hurled headlong into 'Rapture', the world in which BioShock is set. The game begins with a brief introduction as to when and where you are (1960, in case you're wondering), but the next thing you know the plane upon which your character is travelling is plunged as a flaming wreck into the Mid-Atlantic. From here, it's a case of swimming for your life to the conveniently placed monolithic structure in the middle of the ocean - A building which leads to a door, which leads to a capsule, which leads deep under the sea... To Rapture, the creation of a man known as Andrew Ryan.

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“One thing you find after you install iWork '08 is that, when you start, you're offered quick tutorials. If you have time, I'd strongly recommend the initial tour of iWork '08, as well as the video tutorials on basic features and, also, the various features that set the iWork '08 applications apart from their competitors. Apple offers a 30 day free trial of iWork on their website. So how do the new versions of Pages and Keynote compare to their '06 counterparts? How does the suite stack up against Microsoft Office for the Mac?”

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"The P35T-A is a full size ATX motherboard that features the Intel P-35 Express chipset. Among other things in this view, you will note the purple color of the motherboard PCB. Something to distinguish this ECS product from many of the other motherboards on the market. While most of the P35 motherboards on the market feature some type of heatpipe cooling for the chipsets and power management circuit, this board does not."

“There's no denying that you have a lot of options when it comes to selecting an LCD monitor to accompany your computer. Some of these monitors are designed to attract your attention with their exceptional refresh rates, contrast ratios, or viewing angles, whereas others attempt to grab their segment of the market by tossing a mediocre panel into the most attractive-looking package possible. The Samsung SyncMaster 940UX is a 19-inch standard ratio LCD that boasts a feature you probably won't find on most other monitors: it can connect to your computer using USB.”

Backing up your computer is important. Don't be the sucker who loses important files and has to deal with it afterwards! In this how-to, you will learn about using rsync and lftp, writing your own scripts and adding them to crontab and of course, backing up to your external storage, NAS and also a remote server running Linux.

With all of the hype around HDTV's and the high definition market exploding as much as it is, it only seems natural that the home theater market is tailing along not far behind. Of course home theater systems have been around for years but with people buying up expensive big screen displays, most of which only come with "decent" speakers, it only makes sense that there is a want to buy a fancy new speaker system to really get the most out of the experience.

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“ASUS has been one of the leading manufacturers of motherboards for a number of years, and is the preferred board of the VH staff. The motherboard under the scope this time around is the P5N32-E SLI Plus, which uses the 650i chipset - a lesser version of the 680i which means a lower retail price. Although this is a newer motherboard using a less powerful chipset, they did make some changes to it and got dual x16 PCI-E SLI support. Another cool feature is the Stack Cool design which helps pull heat away from the components around the CPU. Another heat reducing feature are the heatpipes that cover each of the chipset chips separately. With so many features let’s get on with the review and see how things work out.”

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"The Ultra Grid is an affordable mid tower case with two 120mm set up front and back, the side panel features a fancy window, which give you a look inside at the tool less features for HDD and Optical drives. Large enough to fit a Geforce 8800 GTX let's see if it can keep an overclocked Core 2 Duo running cool."

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"Well we are glad to finally been able to partner with Sapphire, which earned as a company already a great name within the ATI community. So we will take you on a journey to show a bit more on what Sapphire is all about and which products they are currently offering on the market. The wait is finally over. Not so long ago AMD released the Radeon HD 2900 series and along with that introduction came as well the low-end and mid-range products to go up against NVIDIA. Now that we are a couple of months further the Radeon HD 2600 series are available. Sapphire brings is the GDDR4 edition of the Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics accelerator."

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The Zalman GT 1000 certainly does raise the bar. The truly tool free optical and 3.5" drive mounting systems were the best I have EVER seen. Aside from ease of use, the HDD mounting on the floor and in the cage itself was lush with vibration dampening that did it's job well under power. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I think Zalman has a nice mark set. This is accomplished by making the thick aluminum walled construction easy to pick out which says solid, high end craftsmanship.

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Some of you may (or may not have) heard of Uwe Bolls. If the name doesn't ring a bell, then his movies certainly do (especially if you're a gamer). He has directed or produced alot of movies based on video games, and as most of you already know, the whole video game to movie translation doesn't work out so well most of the time.

Postal is based on the controvertial 10-year-old franchise by Running with Scissors games, in which a deadbeat from a trailer park goes on a shooting spree that's filled with macabre and sick humor. Regardless of its qualifications in taste, Postal has been a cult classic video game, and has fueled policital debates about video game censorship.