Week of June 28, 2009

The Radeon HD 4870 is not the newest available card from ATI; the HD 4890 replaced it earlier this year. Performance on the HD 4870 is still excellent for the price. Sapphire went the extra mile with the cooling on the card, rarely going higher than 68C even under the most stressful situations. 2GB of memory really shows off when setting anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, as the extra memory gets used in those situations. Sapphire offers an attractive package with the addition of 3DMark Vantage to show off your new card's potential. The performance is on the same scale as other HD 4870 cards in most situations due to the clock speed being the same. One big thing that this card has going for it, however is the ability to overclock with maximum overclocks of 790MHz for the core and 1100MHz for the memory which is the highest clock speed allowed by ATI's Overdrive utility. The card is currently available for $269 on Newegg, meaning that there is a $100 surcharge for the extra gig of memory. Overall this card is a very interesting specimen that qualifies for an Editor's Choice due to its cooling and 2GB of memory.

"Here at OCIA.net, we’re no strangers to power supplies. However, I’ve personally only had the chance to look at one BFG PSU before, the impressive “performance series” LS-680: a non-modular unit aimed towards the middle-of-the-line crowd. Today, we’re going to have a look at a higher end unit, the EX-1000, “enthusiast series” modular power supply weighing in at 1KW of power."

The Cooler Master Storm Scout is the second case to enter the ‘Storm’ series. Alike it’s big brother, the ‘Storm Sniper’, the Scout shares all the same characteristics which targets it at the gaming market. Masses of space, efficient cooling, good cable management and fantastic looks are all what makes a gaming chassis. But for a small price of just £70, is all this possible? Let’s put it to the test…

GMC are a Korean manufacturer who focus almost entirely on the design and production of HTPC cases. We have reviewed many HTPC and tower cases from them in the past, most of which we found to be high quality and competitive products. Today we will take a look at one of their more basic models, the G-50. The G-50 is a standard ATX midi tower case, designed to offer a classy appearance at the best possible price.

"The times are a-changin'. In the past for extreme overclocking cooling solutions your options were rather limited. You could pay an arm and a leg to a machine shop to make a one-off pot or turn to the handful of pot makers and wait till they had another batch complete. With Koolance things have been simplified to directing your browser to Koolance.com and swiping(typing in) your credit card. Within a week you could be up and running, easily pushing your processor beyond what is possible with air, water, or simple phase change cooling systems. Koolance's CPU-LN2 is a nickle plated copper pot designed to be used with dry ice and liquid nitrogen for extreme overclocking..."

"Asus has designed a card that uses what it calls the "Ultimate Armaments" to build a card that performs well not only at stock speeds but to push the envelope when overclocked. Lower RDS on MOSFETs that run cooler, solid capacitors for a longer service life, shielded DVI connections for improved clarity and covered chokes for cooler operation and better efficiency are the things that ASUS uses to separate its products from the reference design cards. Pricing on the reference HD 4770 cards runs anywhere from $99 to $119, which is right at the price point for many of the reference design HD 4850s, which could put a crimp in the sales of the 4770. Rumors of a shortage of 40nm chips may have prompted AMD/ATI to drop the price on the HD 4850 to keep the pressure on nVidia at this price point since really this is where the money is made for the most part. What you have in the Asus EAH4770 is a video card that performs above its price point when overclocked, delivers cooling performance without the noise penalty associated with AMD/ATI reference heatsinks and is built with high quality components for a price that won't break the bank."

While Blu-ray might have won the HD war, the platform really hasn't gained too much for use as a storage medium but is gaining some ground with high definition movies. With the PX-B310U you get an external DVD burner with a bonus, the added ability to watch Blu-ray discs. The included suite of PlexUtilities and Cyberlink BD Suite gives you everything you need to fully utilize DVD burning and Blu-ray watching right out of the box.

For true CPU cooling performance and silence, air cooling is not thought to be the solution. You need water cooling. It seems a scary concept – cooling your processor with water – which is why many enthusiasts steer clear of the idea. Moreover, it can be costly with an average kit easily topping the £100 mark.

Relatively unknown Maximo recently released their iM-590 earphones. Based on a 9 mm driver and boosting a metal exterior these earphones will undoubtedly turn some heads. The price of just $59 certainly will.

Roccat which is a well known brand on the market now, has made products like mice, mousepads, keyboards and more. They sent us their Tusko laptop travel bag for test, it seems to be a very safe and protective bag at first look however the 15-19 inch max monitor size worries me. Maybe we can push in something even bigger into this bag?

AM3 has never looked so good. With support for both DDR2 and DDR3 on the same CPU, the possibilities with this platform are endless. We have already seen quite a few good boards come out, either supporting one or the other technology and some with both. But one thing remains constant; a good price and a pretty good performing board and CPU combo for the outlay.

When CoolIT System first came on the market it was very obvious that this was not your mothers CPU cooling company. First they brought us the Freezone Elite and we were totally impressed by its performance. Now they are offering the Domino Advance Liquid Cooling System which has a MSRP of less than $100.00 USD. Come along as we check it out.

So far, our first impressions are good. The modular cable management system allows you only use the cables needed, and this in turn allows better air-flow throughout the system. What's makes the OCZ Fatal1ty 550W Modular PSU extremely more appealing is its affordability.

"If you're in the market for a new video card and wondering if Sparkle is a brand you can trust, I'd say the answer is yes. The company's card and bundle doesn't include any goodies or extras to wow or surprise, but the actual product is as stable a video card as one could ask for, and that's what ultimately matters. As for the Geforce GTX 275, it's a solid design that's generally a bit faster than its closest competitor, the ATI Radeon HD 4890. The GeForce GTX 275 is also a bit more expensive than its closest ATI competitor, so the price/performance ratio between the two is more-or-less consistent..."

CLICK HERE FOR GeForce GTX 275 Video Card PRICING & SHOPPING

" Today for review I’ve got the Eagle Arion ET-AR402IR-BK 2.1 iDock Speakers with Subwoofer, it’s an iPod dock, but most any audio source can be hooked up to it. When you first get the Eagle Arion iDock, the first thing you’ll notice is that it’s heavy and very well made with a nice subtle design to it. The design should fit in with most any decor, it looks very professional with clean lines, and a sleek look. Looks though aren’t everything, with an iPod dock, the sound quality is what we really care about, and with the Arion iDock, you’ll find the sound is very good with nice crisp highs and deep bass, thanks to the dual three inch full spectrum drivers and four inch subwoofer. It even includes a remote to adjust bass and treble along with controls for your attached iPod, in addition to the controls on the unit itself. One last thing is that the Arion iDock can get loud, and I mean very loud, I was very surprised at the volume this little dock can reach."

"The Evercool Buffalo HPFI7-10025 CPU cooler offers Socket 1366 compatibility in a small form 100mm fan setup. It is a good looking little heatsink that offers stunning value as the least expensive Socket 1366 performance cooler on the market. The question is, however: how well does it cool?"

The Maximus II GENE is targeting case modders, LAN gamers, and just about anyone who enjoys having a more compact system but who doesn't want to give up anything in the form of performance, multi-GPU support, overclocking, etc. Let's face the facts, aside from the DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS, all micro ATX motherboards on the market are quite boring, budget-oriented models with very little appeal to those who want compact but high-performance systems.

Five years ago back in 2004, IBM sold their PC business onto the Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group. Today we’re going to be taking a look at the Lenovo ThinkPad T500, a laptop which is said to withhold the qualities the industry has come to expect from the ThinkPad series.

CLICK HERE FOR Lenovo ThinkPad T500 Laptop PRICING & SHOPPING

"Thermaltake Element G (a.k.a. VL10001W2Z) is based on the same internal design used on Element S - seven internal 3 ½" bays, two internal 2.5" bays, etc -, but externally they are completely different products. Let's see what the differences between the two are and if it is worthwhile buying this case."

"For Maxcube's first case, I must say I am impressed with the features it brings to the table. Not only is the case sleek and stylish, but it has function as well. The case features two more front USB ports than most cases I've seen and is following with the new trend of bring eSATA to the front panel as well. Tool-free cases have been around for a while and Maxcube has integrated this feature into the Amoris. It even introduced a new concept to me, the external CMOS reset switch, which would be useful to any overclocker, as you wouldn't have to open the case to reset CMOS. Having the CMOS reset is nice, but it has been almost standard on high performance motherboard I/O panels for well over a year now. The case did lose some ground in the tests however, probably due to the fact it only runs on two fans. Nevertheless, for only having two fans, it kept up pretty well with the competition, which in the case of open air, had no fans, or with both the X-Fighter and Super Lanboy, had an average of three fans."

The computer mouse is one of the most overlooked peripherals, in my opinion. We often upgrade everything inside of a computer but overlook one piece of hardware that is frequently used. Choosing the right mouse is a challenge because you need to balance budget, comfort, and performance. And it's especially true if you are into gaming and want a mouse that has a fast DPI (dot per inch) and is comfortable enough so that you will not feel the pain on your wrist after hours of playing games.

"When it comes to PSUs, for years now the ATX unit has taken centre stage with little thought going into producing a different form factor. However, Antec have changed all this and decided that it is time for a revamp. Their new form factor, christened the CPX, is a lot bigger so as to allow more room for the guts and allow a less restrictive airflow. Electrically, it’s just an ATX power supply but unfortunately the size means that a limited selection of cases can take the unit – unless of course you’re into modding. Antec clearly hope the new form factor catches on and their first model is the CP-850, but is all the hype really justified? Let’s have a look..."

There are many components inside a PC which seem to be requiring increasing amounts of power as they seem to require huge wattages to function correctly. This is why the PSU market has advanced massively in recent years with PSU’s with wattages up to 1200 watts and beyond not uncommon. Most PC’s however will not require such a huge amount of power which is why there are many high performance, lower wattage PSU’s currently on offer. With this in mind I introduce the: OCZ Fatal1ty 550w PSU.

"New for 2009, Kingwin has replaced the RVT-12025 with a newer, updated tower cooler dubbed the XT-1264. Both models retain their machined individual copper heatpipe base with aluminum fin configuration coupled with a 120mm fan. The new cooler design is a few millimeters shorter than the old RVT but nearly 2½cm thicker for increased fin surface area. Heatpipe count has been increased from three to four for better performance and heat dissipation. Support for Intel's socket 1366 is also added."

" Last September I took a look at the Vuzix iWear AV920, and I found it to be a decent product overall, though not without its faults. Today I have the new Vuzix iWear AV310 Widescreen for review, and I’ve found them to be a great choice for someone looking for their own personal cinema or gaming experience. One of the great features of this product is that it can run for up to eleven hours on a single ‘AA’ battery, that’s more than enough for most any viewing needs. It comes complete with connections for iPod and standard A/V as well. The idea behind Vuzix products is privacy, they are small and lightweight allowing you to take them anywhere with you really. So read on to learn more about them.."

Today we’ll be looking at a rather unique case with some rather unique dimensions; the NZXT Panzerbox. Named after the German “Panzer” tank used in World War Two, the Panzerbox shares a similar wide tank-like stance and packs a lot of cooling power into a small space.

Today we’re going to be looking at another model in the HAF lineup, the HAF 922. The HAF 922 is effectively a brother to the 932 and offers a selection of the key features but in a smaller package at a cheaper price.

"Traditional camcorders have a basic style that hasn't really changed since the '80s. Oh, you'll see a few attempts at a vertical shape now and then, or some fun with body materials, like the new Samsung models that use the Touch of Color finish first seen on Samsung HDTVs. But JVC has taken a completely radical approach with its Everio X, a high-def video maker that looks like a chic clutch held by a Louis Vuitton model scampering down a catwalk. This is by no means all beauty and no brains, either. The AVCHD camcorder has a 10.3MP CMOS sensor and records at 24 Mbps, the best compression rate possible for the format. It even takes 9-megapixel stills, the current camcorder peak for native resolution. Like a legit Vuitton bag, you'll certainly pay for the style, since it's close to a grand for the package. Let's see if this camcorder is as much an object of desire as it appears to be on the surface."

EVGA commonly produces their mainstream motherboard products first, while in tandem, begins work on their high-end enthusiast product. It's taken roughly four months since the time EVGA launched their first Intel X58 motherboard (the more than worthy X58 3X SLI) to follow it up with their enthusiast-class product, which we'll be looking at today. That board is EVGA's new X58 3X SLI Classified motherboard. With a whopping $425 price-tag, $125 higher than their baseline X58 motherboard, EVGA is confident that they have a board which can out-class all others in order to demand such a price premium.

Benchmark Reviews recently called on the Antec ISK300-65 Mini-ITX HTPC computer case to complete our NVIDIA ION Home Theater PC project. The lightweight mITX case offers a 65W power supply and room for a slim optical drive and 2.5" SSD or HDD. The Antec ISK300 fits two 80mm fans along the side, which help exhaust heated air out of the enclosure. Enthusiast can stand the ISK300 case upright, allowing this HTPC enclosure to fit nicely beside other entertainment center electronics.

Recently, it has become common for many people to have an external hard drive enclosure, these generally speaking have been purchased with the HDD already installed for a greater price than an enclosure and a HDD. This means that there is money to be saved by buying the components separately and fitting them yourself. With that in mind I introduce the Vizo Saturno.

Sapphire's new HD 4730 is based on the RV770 GPU which is used on the HD 48xx Series. Such a choice had to be made because the availability of the HD4770 GPU is extremely limited at this time - while customer demand is up. Sapphire offers their card with 640 shaders and 512 MB GDDR5 memory at an extremely competitive price point of only $79. But is that enough to take over that market segment?

Recently I have been toying with the idea of using business class hardware in gaming PC’s to boost reliability and performance. We had a chance to look at Seagate’s ES.2 line of hard drives recently and found them to perform well in multi drive situations along with great reliability. Even though their performance was good, it wasn’t the extreme solution I was looking for. Seagate recognized that and sent me a trio of drives designed to complement each other in a server environment with high speed and high capacity storage. Today I will be taking a look at the Savvio 15K.2, Savvio 10K.2, and Constellation. All three are Serial Attached SATA drives in the 2.5inch form factor, perfect for packing them into small servers or in our case packing them into already packed gaming rigs.

CLICK HERE FOR Seagate Savvio PRICING & SHOPPING

Hello everyone, today we post our very first video review based on upgrading a 13'' Macbook Pro Laptop with and 80GB Kingston SSD and 4 GB of Crucial DDR3 8500 1066Mhz memory. This was a fun review to do as it takes us in a different direction than the standard written reviews you are used to seeing on motherboards.org. Thanks for all your support, we hope you enjoy this new video review format.

The Cooler Master Hyper N520 is a compact dual 92mm fan CPU cooler that utilizes five heatpipes to dissipate the heat through the cooling fins. Will it impress or will it leave us wanting more?

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master Hyper N520 PRICING & SHOPPING

AMD recognized the blood, sweat, and tears that extreme overclockers put into their hobby by creating a very special, limited edition processor made specifically for them. The Phenom II X4 TWKR Black Edition processor is a hand-picked CPU that performs above and beyond the normal parameters we're accustomed to seeing from the Phenom II line. Under the extremely low temps supplied by LN2 or LHe cooling, these chips are said to yield monster overclocks.

"For our liquid nitrogen testing we insulated the motherboard with a combination of artist eraser and Vaseline and mounted our K|ngp|n F1EE liquid nitrogen pot on top of the CPU with a dab of Arctic Silver Ceramique for the thermal compound. After pulling the pot down to around -188 Celsius we began our runs starting with 3DMark 2006. We were using a Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P with two Corsair Dominator GT 1866C7 2GB modules, two AMD HD4870x2 video cards at 822MHz core 950MHz memory, and a single Corsair HX1000 PSU powering the entire system. We had to push the vcore up to 1.8v to achieve the following 6.6GHz screen shot on the AMD Phenom II 42 TWKR Black Edition processor..."

"Based on the HDR-TG5V's diminutive size, some folks might be tempted to think of Sony's new ultra-compact HD Handycam as being little more than a Flip with an inflated price tag. But that's just not so. This little marvel of consumer-grade camcorder engineering has most of the same features found in Sony's portlier high-definition video cameras, including SteadyShot image stabilization, manual focus, and even a relatively large internal solid-state drive capable of holding hours worth of gorgeous, highest-quality 1080p video. Plus, it's got at least one trick up its sleeve that you're not likely to find in any other HD camcorder, ultra-compact or otherwise: GPS geotagging. Tantalized yet?"

CLICK HERE FOR Sony HDR-TG5V PRICING & SHOPPING

Back in March, we reviewed the Synology DS209+, an updated version of the highly acclaimed Synology DS207 series. We love the DS209+'s excellent transfer performance and its user-friendly interface that we have given the unit our coveted Golden Bear Award. Unfortunately, the asking price of the DS209+ may deter some users from spending $500 on a NAS where they may not need all of the features found on such expensive unit. Instead, some people maybe looking at more affordable unit which shares similar performance and features but at the same time, costs much less. Realizing such demand, the folks at Synology has recently launched the DS209 that would satisfy budget oriented customers.

CLICK HERE FOR Synology DS209 PRICING & SHOPPING

With an incredible number of netbooks available on the market, how does one compete? With ASUS and their 1008HA (Seashell), the simple answer is to make not a faster notebook, but a feature-rich netbook with a better design. The 1008HA delivers on both counts, with the best netbook design we've seen to date and other bonuses on the software front.

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Eee PC 1008HA PRICING & SHOPPING

Coolermaster is one of the most well-known cooler manufacturers in the world. Today we will have a look at their new Hyper TX3 cooler, which is compatible with most of current CPU-sockets including LGA1156.

"At about $260 street, Gigabyte's EX58-UD4P sits somewhere in the middle of the X58 pack, but that's only when looking at the sticker price. A glance at the spec sheet reveals anything but a mid-range motherboard, and this one tilts heavily towards the high end. In fact, all that really separates the UD4P from Gigabyte's pricier X58 models are two more SATA ports, an additional LAN port, and slightly improved cooling, positioning the UD4P at the cutoff point before diminishing returns kicks in. But while the UD4P offers best-in-class features at a mid-range price (by X58 standards), will it follow suit with best-in-class performance?"

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

Gamers love their fans, and the bigger they are the more impressive they are. PC chassis manufacturers are starting to add more and more fans to gamer cases and the only time they add less is when they are using the new monster 230mm fans. The new 20mm fans push an incredible amount of air through your case ensure that it stays nice and cool and your components last for years to come. The Thermaltak v9 Black Edition Gamer Chassis is one such case with a serious amount of cooling pumping through it.

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake V9 Black Edition PRICING & SHOPPING

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

"The MSI Wind U100-641US 10" netbook is pretty much what you would expect from an average netbook. It includes the typical Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 GB DDR2 RAM, Windows XP, a basic video card and low power consumption. It is also compact, light-weight and perfect for traveling. It is a typical netbook. When it comes to benchmarks, the MSI Wind U100 really stayed on par with the other netbooks we tested. It never outshined another netbook, but nor did it fall behind in anything..."

CLICK HERE FOR MSI Wind U100-641US PRICING & SHOPPING

Today we have the latest ATCS case released at a similar time to the HAF-932 which returns to the more classical breed of Cooler Master cases. The manufacturer will hope this particular enclosure can match the iconic level of some of their previous designs such as the Cosmos. However, can the ATCS-840 really match up to its predecessors?

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master ATCS-840 PRICING & SHOPPING

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

"Who doesn’t like large display monitors? Sure we do! Advances in product technology and quality have made an LCD display for your computer a given these days, it’s just a question of how much you can spend and which one to get. Responding to this surge in demand for quality 24-inch LCD displays, today we look at the Samsung SyncMaster T240, a monitor that comes with a respected pedigree, making big claims at a good price point. We’ll see if that holds true."

CLICK HERE FOR Samsung SyncMaster T240 PRICING & SHOPPING

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

"X-Fighter is a mid-tower case from In Win with its design inspired by the Star Wars movie franchise, giving this case an aggressive looks. Let's see what you should expect from this new release."

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

Acoustibuds are adapters that can change normal earbuds to fit in the ear canal, while also adding passive noise canceling. They fit a wide range of earbuds, allowing the owner to continue using their favorite pair with more functionality and less dropping out. We will try them out on several pairs of earbuds to see how they fare.

We all want more for less. That's why enthusiasts overclock, and that's why we build HTPCs. The PlayStation 3 game console has sold millions of units because of its ability to delivery realistic video game performance, but Sony has sold more units because of the PS3's Blu-ray Disc player capability than any other factor. Bringing personal computer technology into the home theater environment has just come one step closer, thanks to the NVIDIA ION platform. The synergistic effect of an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and the dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom process have delivered true high-definition performance beyond any HTPC before it. The Zotac IONITX-A-U packages the Atom N330 CPU and 9400M GPU on a Mini-ITX DDR2 motherboard. Benchmark Reviews discovers how nice it is to have native HDMI connectivity from the HTPC into the HDTV in this article.

CLICK HERE FOR ZOTAC IONITX-A-U PRICING & SHOPPING

NVIDIA has silently introduced a new revision of their GeForce GTX 295. The new version crams everything onto a single PCB. While the performance characteristics have not changed, thermals, fan noise and power consumption did change indeed. Is the new single PCB GTX 295 a success or just an unimportant product revision?

“Many of you may remember last year when we reviewed the NZXT Cryo LX Notebook Cooler and I proclaimed it an Editors Choice. Well that notebook cooler was best suited for notebooks in the 17" range. Today I have for you the newest notebook cooler in the Cryo series of notebook coolers; the Cryo S. This notebook cooler is best suited for the 10" - 15" range of notebooks. Otherwise the design and construction are almost identical sans a smaller scale.”

Today for review I’ve got the Kodak Easyshare Z915 Digital Camera, and it’s a great little product that most people will be able to pick up and use right away to take very good pictures. The Z915 has many features for both the amateur and semi-professional photographer like Image Stabilization, various shooting modes, 10X optical zoom and nice quick capture speed so you don’t miss those action shots. So read on to learn more about the Kodak Z915…

CLICK HERE FOR Kodak EASYSHARE Z915 PRICING & SHOPPING

Power supplies are everywhere and it seems just about every computer component manufacturer makes one or two. Adding to the mix of the total confusion, is what power supply do we get to use in our computers? The Power Supply Unit is the most important component that is in our computers. Unlike video cards, motherboards, CPU's, etc., if a power supply fails, it normally takes out one or two other important computer components along with it.

CLICK HERE FOR IN-WIN Comander 650 PRICING & SHOPPING

CLICK HERE FOR IN-WIN Comander 750 PRICING & SHOPPING

These docking stations are so convenient becuase it lets us easily transfer data and troubleshoot drives without having to open up our cases or perform lenthy installation procedures. I myself have suspended a temporary drive from the side of my case, flirting with disaster. These docks are not only easier to use, but make me look professional -- like I almost know what I'm doing. There's no need to copy large files to a slow USB key when a friend visits... just slap in a hard drive and copy as fast as the drive will let me.

CLICK HERE FOR iStar xAGE-N99 Hard Drive Docking Station PRICING & SHOPPING

In the end, I was very impressed with this heat sink's performance. Utilizing only 4 heat pipes in direct contact with the processor, it pushed ahead of its competition. My only concern would fall with the universal mount and the possibility of the excess material impinging on a protruding transistor or capacitor. Sometimes doing more with less isn't always a great idea.

"Today for review I’ve got the Synology DS209+II 2-bay SATA NAS server and while it’s sold as something for small and medium business users, it has many great features for home users as well. I’ve had the chance to take a look at a few NAS boxes in my time reviewing products, and I have to say that the DS209+II is the best of the bunch, not only for features, but for speed as well. So read on, I’ve got a lot of stuff to show you and tell you about this great little product… "

CLICK HERE FOR Synology DS209+II PRICING & SHOPPING

Just one look at the HD 4770 specs is enough to say the card is the perfect card to play all the latest games at decent settings without breaking the bank, so it would seem that the Asus 4770 Formula has its work cut out for it. Surely with the ability to cool the card better will lead to a higher overall overclock, thus increasing the cards performance even more. This is stacking up to be a tight competiton between this card, and its other ATI siblings, the 4670 and 4850.