Week of January 31, 2010

So my most reasonable option would be to build my on drive enclosure. This way I can pick whatever enclosure style I like. And I can load the enclosure with any drive I want. Yeah....I like this option better. Silverstone has a new enclosure that will help me accomplish my goal. The new DS221 dual 2.5" drive enclosure is a stylish unit that can house two laptop size drives that can be insert without having to tear apart the box. And if that doesn't get you excitement level up how does it support for RAID 0, 1 and even JBOD.

If you're gaming at 1920 x 1200, the HD 5770 is the card I would recommend in a heartbeat, especially if you want to protect yourself a little bit for future titles. It offers us consistent performance at 1920 x 1200 with the detail level set high.

As always, though, we appreciate some extra performance. Last year we saw MSI attach the GT 240 from NVIDIA with its Afterburner software. Outside of just giving us normal abilities like overclocking the core and memory, it also gave us a chance to increase the voltage on the core. What this ultimately meant was that we could achieve an ever higher core clock.

As a video card for the enthusiast gamer this does not fit the bill. On the other hand such a gamer will not likely spend $50 to buy a video card but there are other markets than the hardcore gamer. The Home Theater PC owner with a low-profile case this card is the perfect fit. It offers much higher performance than the latest integrated graphics technology from Intel or AMD, draws less power, has no active cooling and has the ability to run three monitors on a PCB that is the same size as the previous generation HD 4350 card which has the same specs in terms of Stream Processors.

The Kingston MobileLite G2 card reader makes for a nice travel companion for those using one of the variety of cards it supports. If you are compact flash card user, you are out of luck here but that's hardly surprising given the reader is near the same size as a compact flash card. I don't have any real complaints about the reader or the accompanying SDHC card. There was the minor issue with the amount of play with the retractable cover on the card end of the device but this was minimal and at no point was I concerned that it may break or become stuck. For reassurance, Kingston offers a 2-year warranty on the G2 reader and a lifetime warranty on the SDHC card...

CLICK HERE FOR Kingston MobileLite G2 USB Card Reader PRICING & SHOPPING

Kingston one of the premier names in memory business has released the HyperX 1600MHz 12GB Triple Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K6/12G). This set is designed for those using an X58 LGA 1366 motherboard in conjunction with the Core i7 series. The kit is composed of six 2GB sticks of DDR3 memory designed to operate at 1600 MHz.

CLICK HERE FOR Kingston HyperX 1600MHz PRICING & SHOPPING

Today we have two sets of memory from G.Skill on our test bench, the high performane Pi series DDR3-2200 and a 1.35v set from the Eco series running at DDR3-1600.

Today we tested Thermaltake SpinQ VT CPU cooler, which has a unique design with a centrifugal fan inside a cylindrical heatsink. Will this fancy design translate into a high performance? Let's see.

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

Performance at stock was right about where it should be, there weren't any surprises. The 1GB of memory helped out in some games at 2560x1600 while others the card was just too weak. Once the big overclock set in though, this card was a performer! It wasn't ground shattering, but it did help the 5750 catch up to the other cards and made it feel less like a low-midrange GPU.

CLICK HERE FOR Radeon HD 5750 PRICING & SHOPPING

Zalman. The first thing that comes to mind for most people when they hear that name is 'CPU heatsinks'. Since 1999, Zalman has been providing great products designed to keep PC components cool, especially CPUs. The Zalman CNPS10X Extreme and CNPS10X Flex continue the Zalman tradition of providing great cooling components for CPUs. While the Flex allows you the flexibility to choose your fan setup, the Extreme provides a controllable PWM fan for immediate installation.

CLICK HERE FOR Zalman CNPS10X Extreme PRICING & SHOPPING

AZZA have taken a few steps away from what is considered conventional with the Solano 1000R (model: CSAZ-1000R) and gave it an extreme bright red interior. The AZZA Solano also boasts "maximum thermal management with fans installed everywhere" to keep your high end hardware cool. In sum, a total of two 230mm fans, two 140mm fans and one 120mm fan work in harmony to provide you maximum airflow. This full tower case supports E-ATX, ATX, and Micro ATX motherboards and the thumb screw design allows for easy installation of seven PCI expansion cards. A plethora of drive bays, including up to ten 5.25" and eight 3.5" bays, allow you to grow your system over time. All the bays have a thumb screw design for easy assembly as well. Are you looking for a new case? Join Benchmark Reviews as we examine the Solano 1000R ATX full-tower ATX case.

"The board is definitely original, but at the same time practical enough for a home theater. It has a complete set of peripheral interfaces, high-quality integrated audio, up-to-date graphics core, and, finally, a universal remote."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS M4A785G HTPC/RC Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

NZXT, a company built on realizing the dreams of gamers worldwide, is proud to announce its new line of premium cables and performance fans for PC enthusiasts. The new lineup premium cables consists of VGA, PSU, and HDD cables that are individually sleeved in a black enclosure to provide a sleeker look that seamlessly integrates into the case’s interior. The additional benefit from incorporating these premium sleeved cables into your rig is enhanced cable management which is crucial for optimal airflow. NZXT’s line of high performance fans includes a 120mm, 140mm, and 200mm version. Each fan has rifle bearings and 9 blade fins.

“For the avid PC enthusiast, effective cable management is a significant, yet time consuming stage of the build” said Johnny Hou, Chief Designer at NZXT. “Our new line of premium cables eliminates the need to sleeve cables on your own and provides a simple solution that will enhance aesthetics, improve cable management and increase airflow so internal temps remain low . Additionally, our new high performance fans provide our enthusiast community additional options when choosing effective airflow for their rig.”

Solid state drives (SSDs) are now somewhat affordable for the user that wants to boost the performance of his or her computer. Today we are going to review the latest release from five different manufacturers (Intel, Kingston, Mushkin, OCZ and Patriot), with prices ranging from USD 200 to USD 300.

CLICK HERE FOR 64 GB Solid State Drive PRICING & SHOPPING

ECS has taken the 785G chipset, and added a few features not found on many motherboards including Special ACC, eJiffy and 15 micron gold plating. This results in a better motherboard for overclocking versus the 785GM-M board which is similar in many respects. Performance on the 785GM-AD3 is stellar with higher overall performance is excellent for this chipset. ECS Black Series boards now have a new addition with 3x the gold plating of previous boards. Overclocking was ok with over 3GHz attained on this board and ECS including a Special ACC for higher clocks.

This 2.6GHz quad core chip has as all the Phenom II features that you expect: 2.6GHz quad-core design based on the "Deneb" microarchitecture, 6MB of shared L3 cache and 512KB of L2 cache per core, and a 4GHz HyperTransport 3.0 processor-to-system bus. Clearly, AMD seeks to shift that tide with the introduction of the energy efficient AMD Phenom II X4 910e processor for socket AM3.

"Today we will be running Sapphire’s version of the card through a selection of real world gaming scenarios as well as GPU computing tasks and media playback tests. Read on to find out how the card compares to the main competitor in the same price range."

Gigabyte has sent us their version of the Radeon HD 5450. The HD 5450 is in direct competition to the Nvidia Geforce 210. But cards will set you back less than $50. Neither card is going to make you run out and buy them. But if you are in the market for a ultra quiet better than iGPU than I would suggest you take a look at this new card from Gigabyte. Today, we will give you a head start at seeing just what the HD 5450 has to offer.

Low profile cards are not the most easy thing to come by especially in the video card area. Sapphire has just released the Radeon HD 5450 and it comes with low profile brackets. This is the card to use in a HTPC once the drivers for GPGPU get settled. Read our preview to get our thoughts.

If you have used Silverstone Power Supplies in the past, then you know Silverstone had their older Strider Series power supplies ranging from 350W to 1500W. These PSUs also ranged from non-certified PSUs to 80Plus Silver Certified on the 1500W power supply. This time however, Silverstone decided to release their new Strider Plus Series power supplies ranging from 750W to 1000W in a full 100% modular design. All of these power supplies already come 80Plus Silver certified, which means that you will have high quality, low heat, and a more efficient power supply.

The new model from MSI is a special edition based on Intel´s latest Pinetrail platform to celebrate the sale of one million 10-inch U100 Wind netbooks.The special edition is available in either blue or red.

CLICK HERE FOR MSI Wind U135 PRICING & SHOPPING

I always make the effort to make sure every card that comes into my lab gets a review. It's the least I can do for a company that has made the effort to send it. So ATI managed to send off a HD 5450 in time for launch, but we thought that since we had a full retail model on hand as well, we would put that one up first.

We like to have reference temperatures and power figures on hand, though, and AMD did make the effort to send the card over so we thought why not CF these two budget cards, have a bit of fun and see if we can get something that's playable.

Taipei, Taiwan, February 4, 2010 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced its latest technology platform for fleet management device designs. The VIA EPIA-P710-D is a Pico-ITXe expansion module that allows system integrators to easily create cutting-edge fleet management devices that incorporate a range of the latest communication and intelligent management technologies.

Designed for easy integration into the dashboard of any vehicle, this new fleet management hardware platform provides the advanced x86 backbone necessary for today's advanced fleet and logistics management applications including fuel management, active scheduling, advanced routing, asset monitoring and the latest emergency, safety and rescue features.

"The VIA EPIA-P710-D can be used to create a range of incredibly versatile and full featured in-vehicle devices that can communicate and increasingly make intelligent management decisions," said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. "The Pico-ITXe standard also offers a uniquely modular approach to platform design, facilitating faster time-to-market and design cycles."

This past fall, AMD launched its latest graphics generation with the high-end HD 5870, and today, it looks to the opposite end of the spectrum with its $50 HD 5450. Though inexpensive, the HD 5450 has a surprising amount of spunk. Coupled with its passive design and full media capabilities, it looks to be the ideal solution for your HTPC.

Here is a list of websites covering the new HD4540 budget DX11 card.

benchmarkreviews
overclockersclub
hothardware
hardwarecanucks
legitreviews
tweaktown

Before I re-write the About Us page for Noctua let’s get into why we are here today. Noctua was generous enough to send other their latest cooler, NH-D14. The D14 as we will call it is the largest cooler we have seen from Noctua to date. This new cooler weighs in at 1240 grams with two fans attached. This alone is scary enough but due to the SecuFirm 2 mounting system weight should be the last issue on your mind. Lets get into the review before I reveal anymore secrets on the D14.

Sapphire's HD 5770 Vapor-X features their exclusive cooling solution which promises to reduce temperature, fan noise and increase overclocking potential. In our testing we confirmed that the card does indeed run quiet, cool and offers the highest overclocks we saw on a HD 5770 so far.

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire HD 5770 PRICING & SHOPPING

There are several things to consider when building a new system and your choice in memory can have a profound impact on system performance. Needless to say, choosing the right module is rather important. Ideally you want the fastest module you can afford, but speed goes beyond the rating on the package.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Reaper Triple Channel PC3 15000 6GB Memory PRICING & SHOPPING

Corsair has been known for a long time for their great RAM. When they entered the power supply market, they established themselves as a force to be reckoned with. Recently they entered the case market with their Obsidian 800D to equal accolades. Today we’ll be looking at the Hydro Series H50, their attempt at breaking into the CPU cooling market.

CLICK HERE FOR Corsair Hydro Series H50 PRICING & SHOPPING

So here I am a few months later back with what you could call part 2 of this comparison article. This one is truly all 32bit operating systems, yes I spent many hours installing and testing these operating systems to get a better idea of which really is the better choice. I used the exact same hard drive for each operating system to make sure it was truly comparable, fresh installs each time and of course it’s the exact same hardware for each as well. I’ve actually expanded the testing a bit to include networking, video encoding, and gaming and even how they handle things like USB drives or removable storage. This is probably the most comprehensive comparison out there today in terms of what was tested and all of the tests that were run on these operating systems, so I hope you learn something from it…

CLICK HERE FOR OPERATING SYSTEM PRICING & SHOPPING

The Black Edition has a higher GPU Clock with 765 MHz and a Memory Speed of 4500 MHz not really much higher. What about the performance, can you feel the slight increase?

CLICK HERE FOR XFX Radeon HD5850 Black Edition PRICING & SHOPPING

ATI has always released video cards for just about everyone in every possible price bracket. This normally entails having the most up to date Direct X capabilities on every one of their price bracketed video cards. We all know that Direct X 11 is going to be a reality in our games. Unlike Direct X 10, Direct X 11 is very well optimized and brings to the table a whole slew of newer and exciting features we never have seen before in our games.

Thermaltake designed a stylish PC enclosure with original illumination. The rest is just an addendum to the exterior, but it doesn't mean that the rest is poor. The design of this PC enclosure and its technical solutions ranges from satisfactory to good. The case utilizes certain elements typical of lower-end solutions, but those might not be noticed right away, especially if you upgrade from a regular $50 case.

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake Element G Mid Tower Case PRICING & SHOPPING

Known for their very impressive cooling products, Tuniq some time ago set out to conquer the world of high wattage power supplies. Their first attempt is the Ripper. A very fitting name for a high-end power supply capable of supporting multi-GPU rigs often geared towards gamers. Beside high wattage numbers these rigs also requires high amps numbers on the 12 volt rails and the Ripper has that too totaling 100 amps across the four dedicated rails.

The XPort 251 is very compact and goes for the functional, understated design. Cooler Master also goes the extra mile to add a pouch to it, to add further protection for your precious data. The question remains, if the Xport 251 manages to turn heads or go down in the crowd of other, similar enclosures on the market.

Microsoft may be selling Windows 7 exclusively on DVD's, but did you realize that it takes very little effort to create a bootable thumb drive and install from that? We're taking a look at two popular methods of accomplishing this, and as you'll see, it couldn't be easier to install Microsoft's latest OS onto a PC with no DVD-ROM. It's faster, too!

CLICK HERE FOR Windows 7 PRICING & SHOPPING

Cell phones are practically ubiquotous in today's modern society. A natural response to new technology are laws to make that technology safer. Most people use their cell phone as an extension of their physical being, and as such talk and text in the car, which have caused many unnecessary accidents. It is not advisable to talk on the phone while driving at all, but if you must then a Bluetooth handsfree device is the way to go.

Bluetooth handsfree car kits have been around for a while. You would think they would have fairly straightforward features such as a good speakerphone, noise cancellation, caller ID, and overall intelligence, but many of them do not. Thankfully NitroX enters the fray and stands out from the crowd with their X835 handsfree kit.

High MB video cards of course have their place in the high end segment and so does CrossFire and SLI in that same segment, but these days we seem so content that more is better and we forget to look at the 1s and 0s of the situation.

Following something that I was once told, "If you can't beat them, join them". I'm here with my second HD 5670 1GB GDDR video card and today we're going to place it with our other one to see what kind of performance this budget CrossFire setup can get us.

ECS is known for having less expensive products than their competition and the ECS H55H-M motherboard is a perfect example of using a mainstream chipset without all of the bells and whistles of the competition to deliver a motherboard that costs less than $75. The ability of the H55 chipset to use the Clarksdale CPU for integrated graphics means that you can have a real system at a very low cost of ownership as you only need to drop the CPU into the Socket, add memory, a HDD and an optical drive and you have the makings of a nice Home Theater PC.

If your looking for a graphics card to use in an HTPC the ECS GeForce GT 240 would be ideal as the Arctic Cooling heat sink does a great job of keeping the card cool. The best part is that it's nearly silent in operation and would not be distracting at all in a quiet room. While we don't have an official statement from NVIDIA, we have it on good authority that the GeForce GT 240 will support 3D Blu-ray. The only thing keeping it from being the perfect HTPC card is the lack of bit streaming HD audio...

Today for review I’ve got a nifty little wireless IP camera from the folks at Airlive, it’s called the WL-2000CAM, no special name, none needed really. This camera is wireless and it offers many of the features you’d see in a higher end professional surveillance camera and even a bit more like the ability to see and talk to the person in front of the camera. So read on to learn more…

Since the launch of the new CPUs from Intel, nicknamed Clarkdale, we have seen a fair share of overclocking attempts; some people even breaking world records, pushing the a Clarkdale over 7Ghz. We have read reports from overclockers who had issues with pushing the BCLK higher when the IGP was enabled. In this article we will explore possible solutions to help circumvent this limit, so you can enjoy high BCLK while using the IGP.

The indigo-blue chassis glistens in the sun while Asus G60J slowly appears from the darkness to enter the testing track. The lit-up “Republic of Gamers” logo clearly states whom G60J is destined for. It’s run by one of the most powerful engines currently in production – the quad-core Core i7-820QM, and it is unmatched in the wealth of its
accessories. Mentioning only some of that wealth should suffice: GeForce GTX 260M, 4 GB DDR3-1066, 2x500 GB HDD… It’s clear that Asus G60J is a sport machine that takes the breath away, taking the lead from other competitors on the track with ease…

Today HardwareHeaven continue their trend of Alienware exclusives by reviewing one of the first M11x samples. With the M11x Alienware take advantage of the new GeForce GT 335M GPU with the intention of building the worlds first 11" gaming system. In this article we will be finding out if they have achieved this goal of allowing us to game on the move at 720p as well as running the system through a number of tests including 1080p playback and GPU computing tasks to establish if the system is more than just a gamers dream.

CLICK HERE FOR Alienware M11x Notebook PRICING & SHOPPING

GX is the new mainstream power supply series from Cooler Master that is arriving on the market today, so far featuring 550 W, 650 W and 750 W models. Let's see if the 750 W model is a good buy.

A peek at the label of these PC3 15000 modules gives us a little more information about them - As you'd expect, this 4GB dual channel kit comprises of two modules sporting 2GB of DDR3 memory each, while these modules are designed to run at the low voltage of 1.65v in line with Intel's latest chipsets and CPUs. Timing wise, the key ratings of these modules are 9-9-9.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ 4GB DDR3 PC3-15000 Platinum PRICING & SHOPPING

Today we are going to review ATI RADEON HD 5760 (formerly codenamed Redwood) -- the company's latest offering which supports all recent innovations. Priced a bit cheaper than $100, this solution succeeds RADEON HD 4670, providing higher performance and richer features.

CLICK HERE FOR ATI RADEON HD 5670 PRICING & SHOPPING

Vantec brings us the NexStar TX 2.5" SATA USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure. With a wide variety of different kinds of storage mediums on the market at different prices and craftsmanship a decision on a somewhat simple device is not always easy. Let's see why the NexStar TX enclosure may be right for you and what sets it apart from the rest.

With Intel's recent Clarkdale processor launch, the itch to build that new HTPC is no doubt greater than ever. Not only does Intel offer a wide-range of processors, but motherboard vendors are currently offering an incredible amount of H55 models. We're taking a look at two here, Intel's own DH55TC and ASUS' P7H55D-M EVO.

Gigabyte has a half dozen boards built around Intel's P55 Express chipset on the market right now, the flagship model being pitched as the ultimate companion to Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 800-series processors. However, with strong competition from the likes of ASUS' P7P55 Premium and MSI's P55-GD80, what really makes the companies' flagship Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 motherboard stand out from the crowd? In one word - features.

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 Intel P55 Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

As SSDs continue to gain popularity, the questions about how to properly set them up have become more frequent. To make matters worse, there have been so many sources of bad information published on the web. Even worse, a few companies have sold software that “Enables up to 50 times extra performance from your SSD”. When tested, the software actually slowed down disk performance.

Today we are going to cut through all of the hype and discuss proven methods that will allow you to get the most out of your high performance desktop or notebook. We have a lot to cover today, so let’s get started.

CLICK HERE FOR Solid State Drive PRICING & SHOPPING

The SilverStone SG05 Mini-ITX/DTX computer case is one designed for minimal space and maximum flexibility. Unlike other small-form factor cases, the SG05 attempts to provide users with options by supporting large video cards, larger heat sink fans, and an 80-plus 300 watt PSU. The large 120mm fan provides ample cooling while the included IDE-adapter and bezel replacement part serve as excellent examples of SilverStone's well-thought out design and dedication to pleasing owners...

So you picked up your shiny new copy of Microsoft’s latest OS offering – Windows 7 and want to install it on your (cue dramatic music)…….. Intel based Mac. Mac fans will view this as blasphemy and Windows lovers will probably ask; “why didn’t you get a PC if you wanted to run Windows”. Well there are numerous valid reasons for having Windows 7 installed on one’s Mac and today we will guide you through the set up. My personal retort is because I can.

CLICK HERE FOR Windows 7 PRICING & SHOPPING

Intel continues the tradition of releasing of weaker models of their current CPU generation right after a serie of the most representative models, so now we finally have Core i3, the weakest but the most attractive CPU of the Nehalem architecture. As before, when after a serie of expensive Core 2 processors, we got a serie of weakened models for the masses, now we have the latest derivatives which differ significantly from the strongest i7 series, but are perfect for most needs of an average customer…

CLICK HERE FOR Intel Core i3 PRICING & SHOPPING

P55-GD85 (a.k.a. MS-7585) is the most high-end motherboard for socket 1156 processors from MSI, featuring USB 3.0 and SATA-600 ports plus a lot more goodies like points for measuring voltages from components, two Gigabit Ethernet chip and a PLX PCI Express switch chip to make sure your system will keep up its performance even when you try to use all of its features at the same time.

The XFX Radeon HD5850 Black Edition 1GB graphics card is part of ATI’s new DirectX 11 range of cards, featuring the latest stream technology, ATI Eyefinity and giving fantastic results whilst maintaining a low power output with only one PCI-Express power connector.

CLICK HERE FOR XFX Radeon HD5850 Black Edition PRICING & SHOPPING

Titan recently launched the TTC-G9TZ notebook cooler that is both stylish and portable. It is a three in one multi-functioning notebook cooler that can be used on a desk or on your lap. It's foldable board design makes it ultra portable and can keep your lap safe from laptop heat.

CLICK HERE FOR Notebook Cooler PRICING & SHOPPING

Today we will be bring you a cute little review. This review will be on the Coolermaster Choiix Accu-Mouse. When I first since the two little booger the first thing that I could think of is how cute. If you noticed I did say two. Choiix make a standard cordless and a wireless model. And we receive them both. Choiix designed them for those that work with smaller portables like netbooks and ultra portables. Who knows you may be using one with the new Apple IPad.

The FiT 500 is a new external disk storage unit from AXUS Microsystems, a subsidiary of ASUStek. The FiT500 supports all the common RAID levels – RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 3, RAID 5 and RAID 10, as well as non-RAID configurations, Now the question is can the FiT 500 deliver on the promises its proud parent makes?.

Taipei, Taiwan, February 2010 - QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today expanded its Turbo NAS lineup with two new mid-range NAS servers targeted at SMB and corporate customers. The new TS-239 Pro II (2 drive model) and TS-439 Pro II (4 drive model) incorporate the new Intel® Atom™ D410 single-core processor, which delivers up to 8TB of high performance, highly reliable networked storage coupled with the business-essential features of QNAP's ultra-high performance Business Series NAS servers.

The TS-239 Pro II and TS-439 Pro II NAS servers are compatible with VMware's vSphere4 (ESX 4.0) virtualization platform, ideal for departmental file sharing, storage, and advanced server applications in the office environment. VMware's vSphere is the industry's first cloud operating system that offers a way to reduce IT costs and increase responsiveness. Shared networked storage is an essential component of a Cloud Computing infrastructure. SMB and corporate users are able to enjoy the interoperability between VMware virtual machines and QNAP high performance, low power consumption certified storage.

CLICK HERE FOR QNAP NAS PRICING & SHOPPING

Towards the end of December we saw PC3-17600 show its face. What you had was 2200MHz DDR modules with some pretty relaxed timings. Then in waltzes Corsair, strutting their stuff with a PC3-18000 kit that carried with it a default clock of 2250MHz DDR and some impressive timings to boot. If that wasn't enough, the fact that we then got another 100MHz+ DDR out of the kit with the same timings was just awesome.

Geeks.com has sent me over the HP DeskJet F4480 for review and it costs about $53, not including shipping. The F4480 is considered an all-in-one printer as it can scan, copy and print for you, but there’s no fax so to me it’s not really an all-in-one. The F4480 though is small and it looks decent, it comes with a flat-bed scanner as one might expect since it can copy, it’s also quiet and fairly fast at printing. So is an inexpensive printer worth it or should you just save your money and get one that costs more?

CLICK HERE FOR HP DeskJet F4480 PRICING & SHOPPING

The mid tower case market is cluttered with products all vying for your attention but Silverstone's new Fortress FT02 dares to be different by incorporating a new "stack cool" design for component placement. This innovative layout can either spell disaster for this $200 ATX case or will put it in a league of its own.

Today for review I’ve got the Thermaltake DuOrb VGA cooler. The DuOrb is nice looking product, it’s copper and it has blue LEDs in it for a little color in your case. I’ve got a Diamond ATI 4870 1gig that has a stock cooler that works fairly well, but it can get rather loud under load so I had high hopes that the DuOrb could keep my card cool and quiet at the same time…

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake DuOrb VGA Cooler PRICING & SHOPPING

Throughout the years, tech heads like us often treat ourselves with latest gadgets or electronics. But, during this Valentine's Day, we thought it might be a good idea for you to treat your special someone to something unique. Whether it's your parent, spouse or even tech hungry teenager, they will love a brand new computer. The best part is the system will be brought to you free by Thermaltake and our awesome industry partners at ZOTAC, Western Digital and Patriot Memory.

We are giving away not one, but three complete systems based on Thermaltake's popular small form factor chassis, Element Q with 200W power supply. And, to celebrate this great occasion, each Element Q chassis has been uniquely painted to reflect your love and affection.

This is not just your average do-less nettop PC. With the collaboration from our industry partner, this system comes complete with ZOTAC ION platform motherboard. The motherboard combines high-performance NVIDIA ION graphics processor with a power-efficient Intel ATOM processor for the ultimate eco-friendly computer that has no problem handling HD video playback and other productivity tasks.

From the maker of best memory, flash cards and solid state drives, Patriot Memory has generously provided Extreme Performance Low Latency line of memory in 2GB (2 x 1GB) configuration that features operating speeds of up to PC2-6400 (800Mhz) at timings of 4-4-4-12.

Last but not the least, our good friends at Western Digital has generously provided their top-of-the-line WD Caviar Green hard drives in massive 2 Terabyte capacity to satisfy all of your storage needs! The drive is extremely popular in applications that demand extremely low footprint in noise and heat output. On top of that, WD Caviar Green hard drives also runs on much less power comparing to conventional hard drives.

Each of three computers will be fully equipped with all of above as well as a DVD-RW drive so all you need to do is install your loved one's favorite operating system.

The Silverstone NT07-AM2 is 1U low profile skived aluminum heatsink that is actively cooled by a small top-mounted 80mm fan. The entire heatsink measures just 36mm high, making it ideal for 1U, slim-line and book-sized PC cases. It weighs just 330 grams and operates very quietly. Although it's 80mm 1500-2500RPM PWM fan isn't much to get excited about, when used to cool an energy efficient AMD processor having a TDP of 65W or less, the Silverstone NT07-AM2 is sufficient.

Gigabyte's GA-P55-UD5 socket-1156 motherboard is an enthusiast grade Intel P55 Express platform with a ton of extra features packed into it. Along with the obvious support of Intel Core i5 and Core i7 800-series socket 1156 processors, the GA-P55-UD5 board features three physical PCI Express x16 2.0 slots that support both ATI Crossfire and NVIDIA SLI modes.

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte GA-P55-UD5 Intel P55 Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

ASRock is a manufacturer targeted to the entry-level market, competing with ECS on this particular segment. It's been a while since we've last took a look on their motherboards, so we were really curious to see their H55 solutions. So far they released four H55-based motherboards. Let's take a look on H55DE3.

Today HardwareHeaven bring you a review of a power supply unit from a newly established company, Jersey. Jersey is a sister company to Acos GmbH who are a large German computer components distributor that offers computer power and cooling related products.

There are many motherboards out there to chose from. One of the biggest questions out there is, which motherboard should I chose if I'm looking for a reliable, stable, and powerful motherboard for audio, video, 3D modeling/animation and photo editing? These tasks are usually very demanding on all parts of the system from the CPU to the memory to even the hard drives.

Today we have the opportunity to look at the Diamond Radeon HD5750 OC video card. There are a few features about this card that break away from the reference design. The first thing I noticed when looking at the card is that it uses a bright red PCB. Possibly the most important feature, though, is the speed of the card. It comes overclocked from the factory. It also uses a third party cooler in order to reduce noise and temperatures...

CLICK HERE FOR Radeon HD 5750 PRICING & SHOPPING

There are two angles to comment the performance of the Celeron from. On the one hand, we can see it's not that bad. It's the level of dual-core Athlon X2, not the lowest-end at that. However, from the other point of view, you can get much more in the low-end segment for a similar price.

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Patriot, being the memory company, has sent over their Valkyrie NAS box. It's a good NAS box as it is one that provide you with a lot of other services, besides just being a holder data from random PC backups. The Valkyrie provides you with multiple server applications for iTunes, media and printer server, just to name a few. The Valkyrie provides you with all this and much much more. These can be setup from a very easy to use GUI. So read along as we take a tour of the Valkyrie and its long list of features.

When it comes to listening to your favorite music through earphones, you want the best possible sound quality, a comfortable fit and minimum background noise. So try the Arctic Sound E351-WM earphone (by Arctic Cooling) now and forget about sore ears later.

Normally we would get our reference ATI product in time for the launch, but I think with holidays and the fact that we already had a retail version ready for the NDA lift, along with the fact that the model probably doesn't draw the same attention as some of the higher end ones, it came a little later than normal.

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