Week of November 29, 2009

Today we are taking a look at a motherboard from MSI, they sent us a sample of their socket 1366 board which they've named the X58M. It has some cool features such as; Live update, APS power saving function, etc. We decided to run the board vs a high end Asus board in our tests so lets take a look at how it can perform in both normal benchmarking and overclocking.

CLICK HERE FOR MSI X58M Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

This year, give your loved one a little space. Storage space, that is. Christmas is just around the corner, and there�s no better gift for that nerd in your family than external storage for all those downloaded episodes of Heroes that are cluttering up precious hard drive space. Verbatim has once again outdone themselves on space and simple coolness with the InSight Portable Hard Drive. This sleek piece of blackness comes in sizes of 350GB as well as 500GB and features Always On display technology. I�ll get into that in a few minutes, but right now let�s get a better look at the HDD itself and what it brings to the storage table.

CLICK HERE FOR Verbatim InSight 500GB USB Hard Drive PRICING & SHOPPING

The long road to DirectX 11 and Windows 7 from DirectX 10 and Windows Vista, has meant that ATI and NVIDIA have released many video cards on their DirectX 10 architectures. The XFX HD 5850 Black Edition is an overclocked HD 5850 showing performance differences in every benchmark. Feature-wise the card supports DirectX 11, Eyefinity and improved FSAA. The card sells online for $359.99 which is a $20 markup from the reference card. The Black Edition is $50 less than the least expensive 5870, but offers excellent performance for the 5850 series of cards.

"Vi-On from Thermaltake is a hard disk drive enclosure with a suspension mechanism for the hard drive, a sheet of rubber foam to reduce the noise produced by the drive and a temperature-controlled fan. It is available in two versions, with eSATA port and without this port, and two choices of color, black or white. Let's take a look on the black eSATA model."

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake Vi-On HDD Enclosure PRICING & SHOPPING

"Today for review I've got a pair of new fans from Noctua, they're called the NF-P14 FLX fans. They're 140mm fans making them fairly large of course, these 140mm fans are special in that they have round frames. The round frames make the fan essentially smaller, or at least the frame is smaller. The mounting holes in the frame will fit where any 120mm fan will fit, thus the end user can easily replace a 120mm fan with a 140mm fan for even more cooling ability. You can use the NF-P14 though in a 140mm space since Noctua has included adapters to help you do this. So read on to learn more... "

Since 1999, we have been developing the BIOS Optimization Guide, affectionately known as the BOG. From a meagre beginning of a single page, it now covers over 400 BIOS options. As old BOG readers will know, we started offering two editions of the BOG since Revision 8.0 - a simplified edition and the complete edition.

ATI recently jumped ahead of their closest rivals nVidia by releasing their latest generation of GPUs upon the market, just before the launch of Windows 7 in an attempt to cash in on the early adopters of Direct X 11. However, like always the first run of cards made available were mind blowingly expensive, so what's a mid-ranger looking for an upgrade to do? Fortunately it wasn't long before the slightly more mid-range options were made available, the 57xx series.

CLICK HERE FOR ATI HD 5770 PRICING & SHOPPING

“Anyone who’s been in the market for a case in the past couple years has probably heard of the infamous Antec Nine Hundred. Today we have a chance to look at the redesigned Nine Hundred Two, which offers the same features of the original, but with further improvements. Improvements include a complete black interior, built in fan controllers, and better quality materials. Read on further to see what else the redesigned Nine Hundred Two has to offer."

CLICK HERE FOR Antec Nine Hundred Two Mid Tower Case PRICING & SHOPPING

If on the lookout for a budget processor, whether it be dual, tri or quad-core, there's no better place to look than AMD. The company recently released eight new models, and in total, nine current Athlon II's retail for under $100. We're taking a look at two such models here, the X3 435 and X2 240e, to see how much bang can be had for so little buck.

"This is the kind of case designed for someone who wants to build a computer fast, make changes without hassle, and even kick it around a little. The HAF can take it. But it's not for someone looking to show off anything but the games the machine inside it plays."

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master HAF 922 PRICING & SHOPPING

SilverStone has done an admirable job with the SG04-FH case. They took an already awesome SG04 case design and added the handle for easy portability to LAN parties and other events. The case is one of the few on the market with a small form factor that supports dual full length video cards like the HD 5970 cards that are 10.5” in length, while supporting full 1500W PSUs. The case was easy to work with and installation of the system build occurred without a hitch.

" Their second method to increase their market presence is the release of their first affordable stand alone music system – the Sonos ZonePlayer S5. Priced at $399 it is still somewhat expensive but with the S5 the user gets a single portable receiver and speaker solution. The S5 can be easily integrated into a Sonos enabled home or work as a solo device for the Sonos newbie."

CLICK HERE FOR Sonos ZonePlayer S5 PRICING & SHOPPING

The Asus Eee Top ET2002 is an all-in-one desktop computer that provides the basics for everyday computing as well as multimedia entertainment in a space-saving design. It features a large, 20-inch 16:9 widescreen display and a 1.6GHz dual core Intel Atom 330 processor. Perhaps one of the coolest new features of the ET2002 is the fact that it is one of the first all-in-one computers from Asus to feature NVIDIA Ion integrated graphics for additional multimedia processing horsepower and perhaps even a bit of light gaming.

"Seasonic have released a brand new line-up of units, dubbed the X-Series. Boasting even higher performance than the M12D series, a full modular design and an 80Plus Gold certification, these might be the best performing power supply units money can currently buy. With this is mind we look at the 650w unit in their new range today."

This time we tested Cooler Master Hyper N620 CPU cooler. This model has a tower design, six heatpipes and it is one of the few coolers on market that comes already with two fans. But does it have a good performance? Let's see."

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master Hyper N620 PRICING & SHOPPING

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

"Using this drive as an OS drive proved every bit as pleasing as when I used the 64GB version, without stuttering and hangups. Early SSDs got a bad wrap for the performance degradation that manifested itself as you used the drive and got close to full capacity. Patriot has available a Wiper utility that will clear all of the blocks of memory that have been written to, so performance can be kept at peak levels - helping eliminate this obstacle to disk performance."

CLICK HERE FOR Patriot Torqx 128GB SSD PRICING & SHOPPING

Once again we are finding companies optimizing their already proven hardware. For video cards, companies on average just change out the GPU cooler, up the clock speeds, to maybe changing the rear IO ports on the video card itself. With an occasional make over we see, for instance the 295GTX went through a complete make over from the screwy sandwich design that Nvidia originally used, to a single PCB design, too doubling of the video memory on the 285GTX video card. All the while the smaller yet still very powerful video cards the 260GTX, 275GTX video cards get no change at all.

Somewhere between the speed of Solid State Drive technology and the reliability of value-priced Hard Disk storage is the Seagate Barracuda XT. The industry's first SATA 6GBps HDD features 2TB of data storage capacity, and is also the first product to receive compliance with the third generation SATA controller interface. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the Seagate Barracuda XT hard drive against a cross section of competing storage products using the ASUS P7P55D Premium (Marvell 88SE9123) and Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 (Marvell 88SE9128) motherboards, comparing the model ST32000641AS hard disk on the both SATA-6G controllers as well as Intel's P55/ICH10 SATA-3G chipset.

CLICK HERE FOR Seagate Barracuda XT SATA-6G PRICING & SHOPPING

"Today we shall review a motherboard that has maximum PCIe-related features (for a P55-based solution), but lacks heatpipes, additional disk drive controllers -- everything that would prevent it from being reasonably priced."

"Back in September Intel released the Core i5-750 and i7-870 along with their latest midrange chipset, the P55. At launch we were very impressed by the excellent value for money offered by the i5-750, especially when Turbo Boost is enabled and there was no shortage of P55 boards to combine with it. Since then Gigabyte and Asus have been expanding their P55 range and between them they have now 36 different models for users to choose from."

CLICK HERE FOR P55 Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

The exterior of the PSU features a bold design with bow-tie inspired cutouts and mesh inserts. These large mesh panels have several purposes including air circulation, basic decoration, fill with light when the fan LEDs are activated.

Too much attention is paid to the CPU when we discuss aftermarket coolers, maybe because removing the VGA cooler can void the warranty on some graphics cards, or maybe because we take for granted the cooler placed on video cards by the vendor. Unfortunately the truth is that most stock VGA coolers don't perform very well. So now we need a solution - The Xigmatek BiFrost VD1065 - Xigmatek's first 5-piece 6mm Heatpipe Direct Touch VGA cooler product. It occupies two expansion slots, but at the same time gives extreme performance. Ximatek adds two powerful 100mm Fans to accomplish the "Perfect Product", and plate it with black nickel and utilise two transparent fans so as to become one of the spotlights in your PC-System. With the marketing speak out of the way, we'll move on to what it takes to make or br! eak this product - real world testing. We all know H.D.T. works well for multi-core processors with heat spreaders, join Benchmark Reviews as we test the Xigmatek Bifrost and see what it can do for your exposed GPU die.

The 1TB Seagate FreeAgent Go performs respectably, with transfer rates you might expect from your typical USB hard drive. The slight differences in benchmark performance might not really matter though, because during the real world file transfer testing there was never more than a one or two second difference between drives.

CLICK HERE FOR Seagate FreeAgent Go 1TB PRICING & SHOPPING

Even though the high and mid ranges of the CPU cooler market may seem to be cluttered with products, there is always room for more competition. Competition is just what Titan is hoping to offer with two of their newest CPU coolers: the Fenrir and the Skalli. While they may be targeted at different price ranges, they form the heart of what Titan hopes will be their answer to some of the most popular CPU coolers on the market today.

"At nearly two feet tall and weighing in at just under 30 pounds, the Cooler Master HAF 932 High Air Flow Chassis is an imposing full tower ATX case, marketed towards gamers and overclockers with an array of fans, cooling options, and lots of space for large components. Every possible surface that could be covered with a fan has a grating on it, and you'll find three 230mm fans installed in the front, top and side panel as defaults, along with a spare 140mm in the back to boot."

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master HAF 932 PRICING & SHOPPING

A gamers’ case is undoubtedly more than just a metal chassis to house all the circuit boards and components. The styling and aesthetics are very important giving particular rig uniqueness as well as being a way for the enthusiast to express themselves. However, with the cost of high-end gaming chassis pushing well over the £100 mark and money much tighter due to the economic status, manufacturers are starting to react.

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Beta PRICING & SHOPPING

It may seem like a given that personal data should be kept secure, and for the most part, achieving that goal on a home PC isn't too difficult. But, what about a thumb drive? Kingston's DataTraveler Locker+ is designed in such a way that if someone ever finds your thumb drive, they'll never be able to access the data. Ever.

CLICK HERE FOR Kingston 16GB DataTraveler Locker+ PRICING & SHOPPING

“The lack of a Northbridge means the elimination of the hottest chip on the motherboard and the need for cooling that chip, along with the associated traces, etc, which means building a P55 motherboard costs less. Apparently the motherboard manufacturers have passed those savings along to the consumer, the average price of a P55 board is about $100 less than the average price of an X58 board. The processors are less expensive too, the release price of the LGA 1156 Core i7 860 was a little less than $100 below the release price of the LGA 1366 Core i7 920. And it’s given that a dual channel memory kit will cost less than a triple channel kit with the same specifications, so expect to save $200-$250 when building a new LGA 1156 rig as compared with a new LGA 1366 rig in the early part of this year. Today I will be looking at one of Asus’ new P55 motherboards, the P7P55D EVO. It is in their EVO family of motherboards, sporting the EVO look and Asus TurboV EVO overclocking. It has tons of other features, after all, it is an Asus board. Read on to check out the Asus P7P55D EVO Motherboard!"

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS P7P55D Evo PRICING & SHOPPING

The Sapphire Vapor-X HD5750 has a look all its own. Though, looks aren't what the Vapor-X is all about; it's about performance. Using their patent pending Black Diamond Chokes they can offer a card that is 10% cooler and offers 25% more power efficiency than other cards that use the normal chokes. To keep things even cooler this card uses the Vapor-X cooler. A key point for me aside from performance (which the Vapor-X has plenty of) is the noise, or lack thereof. Throughout the testing I never heard a peep out of the fan. The test I was sure I would hear the fan on was the power consumption test. I disabled all the other fans in the system so that they wouldn't fluctuate speed and power, and I still couldn't hear the fan on the Vapor-X while it was set on auto...

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 PRICING & SHOPPING

"Today for review I’ve got the new Verbatim CLŌN 320GB portable hard drive. It’s a 2.5” drive encased in a black plastic shell, it’s one of the smallest I’ve had the please of reviewing and one of the fastest as well. Included on the drive is Nero BackItUp 4 so you can easily, quickly and even automatically perform your backups. I’ve put it up against two other portable hard drives I’ve got on hand for comparison, and I found that the Verbatim CLŌN drive is the fastest of the bunch, and also the smallest, so read on to learn more.. "

“Canon with model PowerShot SX200 IS finally changed the design of whole PowerShot series. Despite changed looks and new feature in form of ability to record HD 720p videos, new PowerShot SX200 IS does not introduce any other new and significant feature…”

CLICK HERE FOR Canon PowerShot SX200 IS PRICING & SHOPPING

Crucial's Ballistix & Ballistix Tracer memory modules are their enthusiast / high performance memory lineup. Today we will be taking a look at the 6GB DDR3 1600MHz triple-channel memory kit. Crucial also offers a 6GB DDR3 kit running at 1333 MHz.

CLICK HERE FOR Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 PRICING & SHOPPING

The GeForce GT 240 is a derivative of the GT200 GPU that powers the GeForce GTX 280 and the GeForce GTX 260. It is a slimmed-down version that features 96 stream processors and 8 ROPs. At the official core speed of 550 MHz, it is capable of processing up to 17.6 billion texels and 4.4 billion pixels per second.

"It might have been called the Bold Mini had it been born in Cupertino, but those logical Canucks at RIM stuck to numbers. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 takes the stylistic cues and capabilities of its flagship Bold 9000, and scales them down to a more pocket-friendly form factor. The result: BlackBerry bliss."

"Today for review I figured I’d post another NZXT case review, this time it’s the Gamma. I really like the aesthetics of this case, it looks very nice and has an interesting profile look to it. Inside you’ll find quite a bit of room to install a system, and spaces for six fans, with one pre-installed for you already. The build quality is what we’ve come to expect from NZXT, it’s very good overall, the case is sturdy and designed well. So read on to learn more about the Gamma from NZXT… "

The Silverstone Temjin TJ10 chassis comes in many different styles. Depending on what the user prefers, some of the most known models are the Black and Silver TJ10, which are named TJ10B and TJ10S respectively. These models come with either a windowed or solid closed side panel. Many of the reviews written in the past have taken a look at the TJ10 with the window side panels and just some of their features, so we here at Bjorn3D, decided to take it one step further and try to build a killer gaming rig from the parts that we gathered over time. To accomplish this, our goals were to have an internal water cooling system that will cool the CPU, but also try to install AcoustiPack Ultimate Soundproofing Kit and AcoustiPack Acoustic Noise Reduction Foam Blocks to fight the annoying noise some of the latest computer systems make.

NZXT is on a roll. Their line of sub-$100 computer cases brings features to this market segment we haven't seen before, including fully finished interiors, rolled metal edges, and cable management, just to name a few things. The NZXT Lexa S Mid-Tower computer case is one of the more recent offerings in their "Crafted Series" line of cases. Festooned with a sleek black front door with integral LED lighting and fan controllers, this case would look great on your desk. But as a starting point for a new system build, how does LEXS-001BK model stack up?

"For one of the cheapest boards on the new chipset, this one looks very decent. If you don't need 6 expansion slots and fully-fledged SLI/CrossFire, then ASRock P55M Pro is a nice choice for an inexpensive machine based on a Core i5 CPU (or future Socket 1156 processors)."

Lancool is a new brand and they're trying to get foot in the market for gaming cases. Therefore the K62 comes with a relatively cheap steel chassis, high quality Lian Li features as well as a stylish design and blue LED fans.

"The Thermaltake Element T gaming case has its cons as every case does with less than $100 for a price tag, and at $59.99 plus shipping, I can say that it clearly fits in that category. However, the amount features definitely outweighs the amount of flaws, and I can honestly say that it was a blast to set up a system in this chassis. With the Element T you can get what every gamer wants at a price point most anyone can afford..."

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake Element T PRICING & SHOPPING

Given the performance and efficiency of large fan coolers we should anticipate seeing more products adopt this design. One such product is the Thermaltake Massive23 CS gaming laptop cooler (manufacturer model CLN0008). The Massive23 CS builds around one large central fan to provide all cooling needs. But good cooling requires more than just a big fan. Benchmark Reviews has tested similar products and unveiled some of those factors. In this review we can see some of those factors at play by testing the performance of the CLN0008.

“When it comes to external hard drive enclosure’s the 2.5-inch market is not that popular. Mainly because so many people use older 3.5-inch drives with 3.5-inch enclosures. The thing about 3.5-inch enclosures is that they are large and not easy to carry with you. The MB668U-1SB 2.5-inch enclosure from ICY DOCK is not only small and light it also allows you to install a hard drive with no tools at all. Another interesting thing about this enclosure is that not only does it have a USB connection it has an eSATA connection as well."

EVGA hasn’t always been known for their motherboards. Rather, their NVIDIA GPUs have always been the bread and butter of the company but that has changed in the last few years. With the advent of their FTW and Classified series of boards, EVGA has taken the reins at the forefront of the enthusiast segment. In this review we take a look at their new P55 FTW.

CLICK HERE FOR EVGA P55 FTW LGA1156 Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

Today on the Bigbruin.com test bench we have the TrickleStar PC TrickleSaver. The concept is pretty straight forward... Plug the unit into the wall, attach a power strip, plug "stuff" into the strip, and attach the USB cable to your PC or Mac. When you turn you computer off, the "stuff" doesn't consume any electricity. Seems simple enough.

"I must say ThermalTake has added yet another impressive case to its Element Series lineup. It contends with the competition in performance and is even able to support some server motherboards through support of EATX which is a nice bonus. The case is also still expandable by adding on another top 200mm fan. It also supports a large amount of whatever combinations of 3.5" and 5.25" devices you want to throw at it."

"The Evercool HPK-10025EA heatsink uses a simple arrangement of swagged aluminum fins over four 6mm diameter copper heatpipes, connected by a short distance to the CPU. The entire heatsink stands 65mm tall and weighs a feathery 320 grams. The four heatpipes are exposed at the base of the heatsink, which although now a common technique is a first for such a low profile heatsink. The stubby aluminum fins rest below an Arctic Cooling style, red 110mm fan that rotates at a moderately audible 1800RPM."

"AMD's excellent upgrade paths mean the Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H motherboard will support AMD Athlon II, Phenom II processors in socket AM2/AM2+/AM3 flavours. The GA-MA785GMT-UD2H is equipped with four DDR3 memory slots that can accommodate up to 16GB of DDR3-1066/1333/1666(OC) MHz memory when paired with a 64-bit operating environment. Beyond broad CPU compatibility, the real power of the Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H is the AMD 785G chipset and Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics."

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

The "new" trend among computer users is to get everything as wireless as possible, we have wireless electricity coming soon but in the meantime we have to try to focus on the network atl east. We recieved a sample of Trendnets latest Mini USB adapter for a "N" network.

CLICK HERE FOR Trendnet 150Mbps Mini Wireless N USB Adapter PRICING & SHOPPING

NZXT has taken the Tempest chassis and updated it with numerous small and large improvements. Now called the Tempest EVO it does not only feature design updates but new additions in fuctionality as well. All this, while keeping the same introductory MSRP as the original.

"The cards we are going to review today are more affordable and less performing than the recently examined RADEON HD 5870. Still, they have all the features of the latter. Welcome RADEON HD 5770 and RADEON HD 5750."

CLICK HERE FOR ATI RADEON HD 5770 PRICING & SHOPPING

"Today for review I’ve got another case from NZXT, this time it’s the Panzerbox Aluminum Chassis PC case. This case features two 190mm fans, one on the top and one in the front to make sure your system stays cool. The Panzerbox is a case that’s smaller than others, but you’ll still be able to fit most any system in there. The case features a removable motherboard tray, it’s very well made, like a tank, and it features an all aluminum construction to help keep the weight down. The Panzerbox would make a great home for any gaming system, and being small you should be able to take it with you easily if need be. So continue on to learn more: "

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT PANZERBOX PRICING & SHOPPING

Lian Li are well known for their flush designed cases, with smooth elegant styling and high construction values. Once again we have one that seems to tick all the boxes at first look, but will it live up to our testing? The B25F on the surface seems pretty standard Lian Li, but it comes with some interesting features that should peak the interest of more than a few.

CLICK HERE FOR Lian Li Case PRICING & SHOPPING

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

An external hard drive is great if you're looking for something to interchange between computers, but what if you're looking for a more permanent solution to your 2.5" hard drive problems? Sure, you can take a dock with you pretty much anywhere you go, but it is another piece of equipment to worry about, and at times you may find your LAN bag about to bust open the way it is. Regardless of the reason, making the jump to an internal SATA rack is a reasonable option, but how and where do you start? VIZO has offered us an answer with their 2.5" hard drive rack from the Arius line, the Arius II.

Do you have one of the new i7 or i5 processors yet? You do? I guess you're probably going to overclock it too. That's why you bought it, right? Our next review sample, the Titan Fenrir, is ready to take your air cooling on head first. "But, wait. Who is Titan? What is the Fenrir?," you ask. Titan is a new kid on the cooling block and they've been making some noise with the performance on their Flagship Cooler, Fenrir. Taking its name after the Norse demi-god wolf who bit the hand off the God Tyr, the Fenrir has turned out to be quite the cooler among some air cooling enthusiast circles.

It obviously wasn’t an insurmountable problem, as we saw DDR3-2000 triple channel kits not long after the release of the LGA 1366 i7, and I found that not only did they do DDR3-2000 at that voltage, they were all able to be overclocked beyond that. Now that the LGA 1156 has been released, we need dual channel kits utilizing that same low voltage requirement. That obviously was no problem, the memory was already there, they just needed packaging that held only two modules rather than three. Today I will be looking at one of Corsair’s low voltage dual channel kits, the Corsair Dominator DDR3 -1600 i7/i5 4GB Dual Channel kit. It is XMP enabled, sports Corsair’s Dominator cooling fins, and timed at 8-8-8-24. Of course its Vdimm is 1.65v. Will the Dominator dominate? Read on to see!

CLICK HERE FOR Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 PRICING & SHOPPING

"HP first came out with their MediaSmart server line of computer running Microsoft Windows Home Server a few years ago and since then, they have been slowly upgrading and adding new features every few months and releasing a new model. The latest model, the HP MediaSmart EX495, offer speed boosts due to upgraded hardware and improved networking support. HP also altered the user-interface of the administration area to make things more easily accessed by the user."

CLICK HERE FOR HP MediaSmart EX495 PRICING & SHOPPING

In the time I've been reviewing power supplies here at jonnyGURU.com, I've tested big power supplies, little power supplies, and just about every power supply in between. Until today, I've never gone looking to completely max out my testing equipment. But that's about to change. Dear readers, I give you one of only two power supplies currently on the North American market capable of over 1500 watts of output. I give you the Silverstone Strider Series ST1500.

For most consumers, Intel might not be the first name to come to mind when building a new PC, but the company offers a rather robust line-up of boards for each chipset it releases. We're looking at the $140 "mainstream" DP55WG, which has an simple overall feature-set, but includes support for IR and also NVIDIA's SLI.

Lynnfield boards are now starting to come out thick in fast. Even before Computex 2009 went underway we were hearing model numbers and names being thrown around as well as seeing early images of certain boards. And weeks before launch we were even given a couple of boards for preview. The ASUS P7P55D Deluxe was one and GIGABYTE kindly sent early samples of its UD4 for a quick lookover as well.

The choice of buying a $99 card or a slightly more expensive card with more features and performance is always hard to make, but this card does the job it is supposed to and the argument about spending a little more money is always hard in these economic times. Gigabyte has followed the reference design in terms of clock speeds and the card is really close to the reference designed cards by ATI with the addition of their own fan assembly. The lack of any SLI support is the one true negative of this card as trading SLI for DX 10.1 is not a great tradeoff for most gamers, due mainly to the fact that hardly any games are out that even support 10.1, while SLI is a solid feature. You can however use this card as a dedicated PhysX card in lieu of an SLI add-in.

"The GeForce GT 220 video card's 48 processing cores do not really provide enough horse power to play today's popular game titles with some of the eye candy turned on. With twice as many stream processors the EVGA GeForce GT 240 SuperClocked video card is able to better play games and our testing showed that in certain scenarios this video card can nearly double the performance of the GeForce GT 220. If you don't use anti-aliasing and use resolutions of 1280x1024 or 1440x900 for gaming then this card is a very good choice. For those looking for a budget graphics card that is overclocking friendly, we found this retail boxed card to overclock very well. Overclocking core from 550MHz to 665MHz and the stream processors from 1340MHz to 1810MHz was a much higher overclock than what we expected, but we'll take it and run. For a single slot graphics card these are very impressive numbers and the 400+ MHz increase we got on the stream processors is what really made a noticeable difference in games and applications. If you happen to be running applications like F@H you know how big of a performance difference this overclock will make!"

“At first sight, ASUS Eee PC 1008HA looks like any other netbook made in piano finish, where shiny black plastics dominates its exterior. In case you take this netbook outdors and take a good look at its surface under intensive sunlight, you will notice small details on its surface. Small dots (in our case blue dots) can be visible, and those are making effects similar to sand shimmering under the bright sunlight on some beach. This can sound as a tacky detail, but actually, it isn’t - on contrary. Except this rather nice effect, this is still netbook with piano finish surface, which is magnet for fingerprints and nightmare for users that like to keep their portable companion clean…”

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Eee PC 1008HA PRICING & SHOPPING

Today we have the latest model in the Vapor-X family on our test bench, the 5750. We will be taking a look at how it compares to the reference model in areas such as thermal performance, overclocking, GPU computing and real world gameplay. Can the Vapor-X 5750 live up to the reputation of the previous models?

"When it comes to the Sapphire Pure 785G motherboard, I have mixed feelings. When I reviewed its 790GX-based board earlier this year, I felt Sapphire made great improvements in most of the areas that count on motherboards. However, with this board, I feel like the company took a step back. Sure the board runs decent when plugged in at stock speeds, but it is still lagging when compared to another mainstream 785G-based motherboard. When it came to overclocking, there was not much there."

Being around for a decade, Thermaltake is well known as a dependable manufacturer for performance computer parts, particularly chassis. Thermaltake has a tendency to go the one extra step in innovation to make sure its name stands out from the others. With their latest 'created for pros' Element line, this attribute definitely stands true.

Here is a list of the news submitted on Tweaknews for November 29th, 2009. Click the links to read in more detail.

Buffalo DriveStation HD-HXU3 USB 3.0 External Hard Disk Review @ Tweaktown
Thermaltake TMG IA1 CPU Heatsink @ APH Networks
ECS A785GM-M Motherboard Review
ASRock M3A785GXH/128M AMD Socket AM3 DDR3 Motherboard Review