Week of August 31, 2008

In terms of function, the NZXT Sentry LX is one of the best fan controllers I've ever used. It allows unparalleled control with its ability to support 5 fans and monitor 5 temperatures. I was also very pleased with the ease of use. Even a beginner will find that setting up and using the Sentry LX is very intuitive. Also, the black brushed aluminum finish along with the blue lighting scheme is very stylish and should complement most cases.

Today we’re looking at one that comes from ZOTAC. It’s an all-in-one system that’s strapped to one of NVIDIAs higher end cards, the 9800 GTX+. While a bit of a pointless model and designed just to cause a bit of trouble for AMD, plenty of companies are offering some pretty good variations of the card.

CLICK HERE FOR ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ ZONE Edition Graphics Card SHOPPING & PRICING

I'm of two minds on the 790GX chipset in general. Yes this is the fastest integrated graphics on the market period. Yes, it features the new SB750 Southbridge which adds RAID 5 functionality to the chipset, and yes, the chipset supports CrossfireX in 2 x8 modes. The problem becomes what is it competing against at the $150 price point? The 780G chipset offers many of the same features besides ACC as the new GX one does, but it has a lower clock speed. Is it better to save the $60 and buy a discrete graphics card to get better overall performance? The other end of the spectrum in the chipset is the competition from the 790FX chipset. 790FX motherboards are available for the same price point as the 790GP-DS4H board, meaning that the user will likely have to compare whether ACC and the HD3300 is worth the difference between the ability to run four cards in CrossFireX mode at full speed.

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

With an 8.9" screen that's full "web width", an Intel Atom processor, and battery life of nearly eight hours, the Eee PC 901 is a more capable computer than the first Eee PCs. But how good is it? Can it stand up against a wave of netbook competitors?

CLICK HERE FOR Asus Eee PC 901 Netbook SHOPPING & PRICING

Being an avid AMD/ATI fan I was finding the almost daily newws of Nvidia releasing video cards that were faster than ATI's almost to hard to handle. With the release of the 3850 and 3870 and 3870 X2 video cards things began to look up for us die-hards. When the 4800 series and the 4870 X2 were released you could almost hear the cheers from ATI/AMD camp. So today we have the pleasure of checking the 4870 X2 out for ourselves, so come on along.

CLICK HERE FOR Sapphire 4870 X2 SHOPPING & PRICING

"It shouldn't take too long to guess that this is the same card as an 8800 GS, right? I mean, same clock speeds, same memory bus, same wonky 384MB of RAM. Yep, it's just a re-badged GS. There aren't any updates or added features, either, not a hint of HybridSLI; it's an attempt by NVIDIA to consolidate their three different video card series. Can you hear my head shaking? It totally is. Given that this is an old, cut down card, can it be worth it? First, yeah, 'course someone's going to like it, and it's one of the cheaper GSOs, too. And Leadtek's is special, with its factory overclock and stylin' custom cooler. But it's results are the real interesting bit: for a budget card, it's future-proof."

CLICK HERE FOR GeForce 9600 GSO SHOPPING & PRICING

"Enthusiasts looking for a DDR3 board with the P45 chipset should look no further for a top tier performance motherboard. Given how DDR3 prices have plummeted lately, adopting this new platform isn't restricted to solely those who competitively benchmark or have deep pockets. The GA-EP45T-Extreme lives up to its Extreme name and gives the consumer another option in the high-end motherboard arena..."

The GeForce GTX 280 is undeniably the top performing single GPU product on the market and currently it is priced very competitively which makes even the highest specification models a very attractive purchase.

CLICK HERE FOR BFG GeForce GTX 280 OCX SHOPPING & PRICING

Most of us try take advantage of a fast CPU or a ton of RAM, but we seldom remember what sits at the base of our system, remembering all of our operating system data - the hard drive. Today Jason Dumbaugh looks at one of the best performing drives on the market - the VelociRapter by Western Digital. With a 10,000 rpm spindle speed crammed into a 2.5 inch drive we are looking at blazing fast seek times with no compromise in storage space. Could this be the ultimate gaming drive of choice? The only question we are left with is whether or not this hard drive can survive Jason.

CLICK HERE FOR Western Digital VelociRapter Hard Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

"USBGeek carries the UNITEK eSATA/SATA One Touch Backup Multi-Dock, which allows the use of SATA drives as hot swappable and plug and play. Plus it allows the SATA drive to run at native speeds when attached via a eSATA connection. It even supports SATA II allowing transfer rates of up to 3 Gbps. Don't have an eSATA connection, don't worry, Unitek provides a eSATA connector bracket which can be installed inside your PC. If you are lacking a SATA connector, the dock also works with a USB connector. However, this does limit transfer rates to up to 480 Mbps."

The Mirrorbox is an all-in-one card reader, able to handle every card you throw at it. It has a stylish black housing with compact dimensions and everything to get access to those holiday images on that memory card.

"The AMD 780G chipset itself lets motherboard manufacturers stand out even without researching user requirements and competition, because having a remarkable integrated graphics core, this chipset allows to install dedicated video memory, which makes this motherboard an independent graphics device."

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte MA78GPM-DS2H Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

The Mapower MAP-TB32 dual SATA RAID enclosure is a very well constructed enclosure with a clean and appealing appearance. This enclosure's primary method of connection should be via eSATA to take full advantage of its capabilities, as its below average USB 2.0 performance is disappointing. Minor issues and poor documentation aside, performance on the SATA bus is good and gets even better when configured to operate as a RAID-0 volume.

While Optical, Laser or Infrared mice can operate under those grueling conditions, we, and perhaps we alone, hear their cries of agony. Crying out into the glow of the LCD, 'Help us our feet hurt, Help us Help you PWN'. When Razer contacted us about testing their new Goliathus High Speed Edition Gaming Mouse Pad, we heard the cries of thousands of mice begging for relief and we were glad for the chance to be the voice of all those tortured souls.

CLICK HERE FOR Razer Goliathus Speed Edition Mouse Pad SHOPPING & PRICING

"Your first time doing something is never easy and you never know exactly if you're doing it right or not. So is the Avatar a hit? NZXT definitely got most of it right, not a perfect shot, but nobody can truly achieve that. When it came to speed, not only was it the fastest, but it also allowed for a great level of customizability including four different speed settings, in 600 DPI increments. The Teflon feet might not seem like a big deal, but, surprisingly, it does make a noticeable difference. There is so little friction that it seems like the mouse is hovering over the surface and that gave it a boost on both the precision and comfort scale."

When it comes to silent computing, Nexus is one of the brands that easily comes in mind. Nexus is a maker of wide range of computer products. However, they have got great publicity with their silent products. This time we will have a look at their Clodius case, which is their newest invention of silent computing.

Today's PC gaming enthusiast is always on the lookout for the edge that will put him or her above other players. A performance gaming keyboard is at the top of the list of products that can certainly make a difference. Today Benchmark Reviews takes a look at what could possibly be an edge that some players are looking for, the Wolf King Timber Wolf gaming keyboard.

CLICK HERE FOR WolfKing Timber Wolf Gaming Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

Today we take a look at the Ballistix series RAM from Crucial. Is this 2GB DDR2-800 kit a weapon of mass distruction? Or is it just a wimpy pellet gun? At an online price starting at a mere $50 could this be the best ram you can stick in your rig. Find out.

CLICK HERE FOR Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 SHOPPING & PRICING

"Zalman's new CNPS9300AT heatsink is the companies latest CPU cooler, launched this past June at Computex Taipei where Frostytech first got a glance at it. The CNPS9300AT is constructed from many 0.2mm thin copper fins strung together around two copper heatpipes that are formed into a figure-8 shape. The upper half of the heatsink cradles the fan, the bottom mounts to the processor. It's an elegant thermal solution, and well finished."

CLICK HERE FOR Zalman CNPS9300AT Heatsink SHOPPING & PRICING

On the following pages, we thought we'd level-set the features, performance and pricing landscape for you with respect to the current state of SSDs. Today, we have a look at four different SSD offerings, two from OCZ, one from Mtron and another from Super Talent. Is a Solid State Disk in your future? We'll try to help you answer that question in this full performance evaluation and showcase.

CLICK HERE FOR Solid State Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

“ To dual or not to dual? - that is the question. Yes, yes, I can hear you all yelling, "DUAL DUAL DUAL," and to a certain extent I agree. So maybe the real question should be, "To dual with single GPU's or dual GPU's." The EAH3850 X2 1GB may be a reason to consider a dual GPU card. The main feature is that Crossfire has already been enabled onboard and is ready to go out of the box. The 3850 GPU has a core clock of 668MHZ and the DD3 memory runs at 1.65GHz. This combination allows DVI resolution to reach 2560x1600, which means it's time for me to get a new higher resolution monitor.”

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS EAH3850 X2 1GB Graphics Card SHOPPING & PRICING

"Beautiful and silent coolers almost always come at a price, be it money or performance you will never find a cooler that's a looker, quiet and performs well, all for a reasonable price. That said I have a cooler today that professes to have all of these things, looks, good performance and low noise levels. But is this all worth the price?. Introducing the Zalman CNPS9300 AT."

CLICK HERE FOR Zalman CNPS9300 AT SHOPPING & PRICING

The kit in question features two 1GB sticks of PC3-14400 (1800MHz) DDR3 memory rated for 8-8-8-24 timings at 1.9V. While slower kits showed that they could be overclocked to perform nearly as well as this Kingston HyperX 2GB DDR3-1800 dual channel memory kit, if you are looking for plug and play performance at 1800MHz (and above), this kit is worth considering.

CLICK HERE FOR Kingston HyperX 2GB DDR3-1800 SHOPPING & PRICING

The Dominatrix is OCZ's newest dive into the gaming mice market. It offers features usually found on much more expensive mice at an entry level price point and comes in a stylish blue and black color. You can store your profiles in the mouse so they are available on any PC, even without the mouse software.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Dominatrix Gaming Mouse SHOPPING & PRICING

Zalman is back at it again with a new gaming case called the GS1000. The difference between the GS1000 and the GT1000 are as obvious as day and night. The GS1000 is a made of a combination of aluminum, steel and a little plastic. Before we determine what category it falls in we will tell you a little bit more about the case. The case is full size and boasts incredible cable management possibilities and impeccable cooling options. Trust me there are several other features that are unique to the GS1000 but you will have to read on to find out what they are.

CLICK HERE FOR Zalman GS1000 Full Tower SHOPPING & PRICING

"Thermaltake DuOrb CPU cooler dares to violate the general principles: its ideological prototype was a dual-head DuOrb cooler designed for graphics cards. But why not? Let's examine today's original solution and try to determine how justified this unusual concept of Thermaltake engineers is."

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake DuOrb CPU Cooler SHOPPING & PRICING

Today we will have a look at three of the most popular CPU coolers Xigmatek currently offer; the HDT-S1283, the HDT-RS1283 "Red Scorpion" and the HDT-S1284 "Achilles". All three of the coolers are based on the same design and Xigmatek's Heatpipe Direct Touch technology, but each one targets a different user group. We will thoroughly examine all three of them in this review.

"Unless you've been hiding under a rock, most people know that the Core 2 Duo 45nm dual core processors from Intel are high FSB screamers. Normally, this setup runs Quad core processors and overclocks them quite well. I knew slapping in the E8400 would bring out the higher clock speeds. I was not disappointed. After seeing the high VID this chip had I was a little skeptical about just how high I could get it to run. 500x8, no problem. It just took a little more CPU core voltage - 1.343v - than I had hoped. Things are looking up at this point. Getting above 500 was not too much of a big deal either. Just bump the vcore and move to the next level 5MHz at a time till it fails to POST. Above 500MHz I needed to adjust the MCH voltage, VFSB and the skew settings to get to 525MHz. Hoping to get higher, I was stymied by the the board or chip. Not sure which yet. To get that 525 x 8 level stable it took 1.45 volts to be Prime 95 stable. The maximum I could pull from this E8400 CPU on air cooling was a cool 4.5GHz. Unfortunately, it required 1.55 volts to the CPU core, but at this speed it was able to run Super Pi, which is good enough for the benchmarking crowd. Next stop, some P45 action. All in all, 525x8 or 4.2GHz, is a 1.2GHz overclock. 1.2GHz worth of performance increase ON AIR."

CLICK HERE FOR Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 SHOPPING & PRICING

The 9500 GT hasn’t had the best of starts; the Leadtek we looked at offered some pretty poor performance and a price tag that was really too high for what it was. Fortunately, Point of View came in, strapped a HDMI port to the card and made the card stand out a bit more from the pack. We finally began to see a card that we could actually recommend to people.

So now that the 9500 GT is beginning to look a little better, today we’ll see if what ZOTAC has done can make the card stand out even further. We won’t hold our breath for the plain fact that the card is still a 9500 GT, but we might get lucky.

Today Nitro takes a look at the Thermaltake DH-101 Home Theatre PC Case. Home theatres are more and more prevalent now-a-days and Thermaltake wants to make your HTPC look good. With smooth edges, a brushed aluminum front and a black piano finish, the Thermaltake DH-101 is bound to be an eye-catcher. Now the question remains, is it practical?

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake DH-101 Home Theatre PC Case SHOPPING & PRICING

One company that we have not reviewed an enclosure from is Coolmax. We all know that Coolmax has an eye for making pretty good power supplies. But there knowledge of enclosures is just as big. That knowledge spreads over to their latest line of enclosures which is the 250 series. The series consist of three different models: B and L which both have eSATA and USB ports and there is a B model that just has a single USB port. We will be concentrating on the eSATA models which are more future proof.

The new "Turbo" Compact Flash card from A-DATA raises the bar from 266x to 350x performance. It also adds Ultra DMA capability and uses SLC flash memory to attain insane speeds never seen before. If you are looking to build a solid-state HDD using CF Technology then this is one of the cards you should definitely consider.

CLICK HERE FOR A-DATA 16 GB 350x Turbo Compact Flash Card SHOPPING & PRICING

"SkullCandy have in my opinion have a great headset here, not only does it sound good, it comes with the best warranty in the market, come on do you think any of the other brands would replace the unit at 50% of the cost if you jump up like a lunatic to celebrate and snap the cable? I think not, and you just would be silly to ignore that kind of warranty!"

CLICK HERE FOR Skullcandy Headphones SHOPPING & PRICING

"While the Razer Lycosa's superb configuration versatility and clever WASD lighting option overshadows its flaky touch-panel by a wide margin, there might be no better value in the gaming board market than the OCZ Alchemy Elixir. The only thing holding this keyboard back, in my opinion, is the software. If OCZ could manage to work in mouse events with the macros and beef up the maximum keystrokes, it would make it an unbeatable value."

CLICK HERE FOR Gaming Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"Over the past few weeks we have looked at a couple of products from TRENDnet, including the 200Mbps Powerline AV Fast Ethernet Adapter Kit as well as the 300Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router.

Both are pretty good products and overall we were left thinking quite good things about TRENDnet and what they had sent us to review. Today we have another review of a TRENDnet product and this time it is the TEW-624UB (version B1.0R to be exact) 300Mbps Wireless N USB 2.0 adapter. It is designed to add wireless capability to your Windows 2000, XP or Vista desktop PC or notebook or as an upgrade over a slower wireless connection such as 802.11b."

CLICK HERE FOR TRENDnet TEW-624UB 300Mbps Wireless N USB 2.0 Adapter SHOPPING & PRICING

"It's an unfortunate thing that the 9800 GTX doesn't quite live up to a souped-up, though no longer available, 8800 GTX. I mean, it's definitely a better card in most respects. It consumes less power, is much better at video playback, and though it's relatively louder, the 9800 GTX costs one third today what the 8800 GTX cost yesterday. So for the same kind of dough, you can go SLI (with its inherent drawbacks of power and motherboard costs). Which isn't clearly an advantage with Intel CrossFire boards being as ubiquitous as they are. Nobody's saying it's a bad card, it just hasn't lived up to its expectations. As a card by itself, it's not bad, and if you're limited to one card, it's really the way to go. And while it does beat an HD 4850, it does cost more--I'd say they're equal on that front. If not for the massive difference in power consumption, choosing a 9800 GTX over an HD 4850 would just be a matter of preference. Adding the GTX+ to the equation further weighs against this card, as it'll improve on the performance quite a bit--although the plus is reported to use just as much power and it will definitely cost more. If you're looking for the next amazing card that will last two years and still look its successor in the eye, you'll have to turn to the GTX 200-series."

CLICK HERE FOR PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8 Video Card SHOPPING & PRICING

“MSI is well known to most of us as motherboard manufacturer or more accurately, MSI is present in that area of IT industry for a long time. Still, company had certain problems in this segment. You must likely imagine that those were some sort of technical problems but truth is that competition started to use better quality BIOS on their motherboards (especially in era of P35 chipset models). We don’t say that MSI didn’t know what’s important to implement into BIOS chip of motherboard. Problem actually reflected in “disobedience” of those options. Frankly, problems were eliminated in later BIOS versions yet impression of incompleteness existed for a while…”

CLICK HERE FOR MSI P45 Platinum SHOPPING & PRICING

The raison-d'être of the 9800 GT is a bit of a mystery considering it is being offered in two distinct flavors of core architecture: 55nm and 65nm. With the recent deep price cuts to the 8800 GT cards, it is safe to say that the 9800 GT has come into being to try to liquidate yet more 65nm GPU cores so Nvidia can fully move their lineup to the more efficient and higher profit margin 55nm manufacturing process.

CLICK HERE FOR GeForce 9800 GT Video Card SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Xigmatek HDT-S1284EE heatsink is an extension of the Achilles model, built on the same great frame but with a new fan that offers identical performance and just about the same noise values. At full tilt the HDT-1284EE barely purrs at 44.2dBA, while the Achilles hums away at 42.7dBA. The Xigmatek HDT-S1284EE heatsink features an "exposed heatpipe base" that stacks up very well in the competitive world of AMD and Intel processor cooling."

"The Geil Ultra DDR3 fared very well against the other kits of DDR3 memory that it was put up against, while also looking very well while it was doing it. With stock speeds of 1600MHz, the Geil Ultra features an XMP profile to allow the memory parameters to be set by just checking the XMP profile in your motherboard's BIOS. This, of course, is easier than setting the parameters manually, which some less avid overclockers will surely make use of. I was very impressed with the performance of the Geil Ultra modules even when they were underclocked to 1333MHz (DDR3 JEDEC spec) and the scores that these speeds were able to produce."

CLICK HERE FOR Geil Ultra DDR3 2x1GB SHOPPING & PRICING

Since the GTX 200 series' launch, NVIDIA has revamped their whole current line-up of graphic cards. They have shifted to 9000 series and GTX 200 series, with the GTX 200s sitting on the top of the performance bracket and the 9000 series occupying the mainstream and budget market. Their new budget card is the GeForce 9500 GT. This card will initially be manufactured with 65 nm fabrication process but soon NVIDIA will move it to the 55 nm as do all of the current NVIDIA cards.

The Sapphire 4870 X2 is a fine example of the card and is available at a very competitive price that right now sets it apart from the competition. The included bundle is solid, and inclusions like 3DMark Vantage are certainly very welcome, giving new owners that much needed score to help them justify the massive wedge of cash they've just spent on playing Crysis a bit faster.

It used to be that if you wanted to overclock your hardware, you ran the risk of voiding a warranty. Supposing that you dared to accept that risk, your options were still limited by the cooling equipment available to you. So it stands to reason that ZOTAC is making huge strides with their ZONE series, which combines a silent liquid-cooled system to a 55nm GeForce video card. The AMP! Series is already a fan favorite because of the extreme speeds at which they are factory overclocked, and the ZONE series adds to this a dramatically improved water-cooling solution for the best performance with no worries of heat or noise. Benchmark Reviews tests the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ ZONE Edition G92 video card against a comprehensive collection of competitors in this article.

CLICK HERE FOR ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ Video Card SHOPPING & PRICING

How does a watercooled, overclocked Q9550, ATI HD 4870 X2, 4GB of DDR2 ram, 750 GB Sata II HDD with a 780W PSU all running on an Asus P5Q Pro P45 motherboard sound? What if they sweetened the deal by throwing in the gorgeous Hiper Anubis Case?

"Unfortunate for AMD, but good for us, NVIDIA is pushing back hard and cutting prices. In doing so NVIDIA has created a better value in price and performance with GeForce GTX 260 SLI in comparison to Radeon HD 4870 X2. The caveat is you must already own an SLI enabled motherboard. If you don't , the cost of GeForce GTX 260 SLI goes up quickly likely negating the option considering we will soon see non-NVIDIA SLI motherboards with upcoming Intel Nehalem systems."

“Well, we're finally here. First, the short of it - is this a good product? Yes, but. It features high quality components, good quality cabling, a quiet, intuitive design, fairly stable voltage rails, and almost the same amount of connectors found on the recently reviewed BFG ES800 - a much more expensive and robust unit. But, I feel that this power supply is over-rated in terms of wattage. The performance is just as indicative of this as the ratings chart is - in effect, I would feel much, much more confident calling this unit a sober 500w, than an eager 650w.”

"Corsair is popular among PC enthusiasts, in particular, because of its high-performance memory modules. Power supplies of this company are somewhat less known. To fill this gap, we are going to review a number of its PSUs of various series. The first product that we have obtained is Corsair HX620W. The company positions the HX series as advanced high-performance power supplies for PC performance enthusiasts."

CLICK HERE FOR Corsair HX620W Power Supply SHOPPING & PRICING

"The Xigmatek NRP-HC1001 does in fact pass HardOCP's stringent testing suite. While this unit is far from being a "bad" power supply, it falls just short of being one that we consider award winning. The Xigmatek NRP-HC1001 does represent what many will find to be a good value in the 1000 watt power output market."

CLICK HERE FOR Xigmatek NRP-HC1001 1000w SHOPPING & PRICING

Traditional hard disk storage is living on borrowed time. We know it and storage manufacturers know it. Solid state drives, which use non-volatile memory chips instead of rotating metal discs for storing data, are simply a better medium in the long run. They consume less power, create nearly zero heat, and produce no noise – but best of all, there are no moving parts to wear out over time. The technology and prices aren’t quite there yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Take a quick look through any tech-oriented forum and you will likely run into folks proclaiming the death of traditional platter based storage. For the most part, they're right - but there is a twist to the story as platter based storage manufacturers are fighting back.

Today PC Freaks & Geeks are going to be taking a look at another Graphics card from the company known as Palit. Established since 1998, Palit have made their mark as one of the top PC component manufacturers. The product we are going to be getting up close and personal today, is one that we requested from one of their press releases a couple of weeks ago, introducing the Palit 9800 GT Sonic 512mb.

Two 9800GTs beat a GeForce GTX280 which is pretty amazing considering the performance of that card. Palit 9800GT Super+ 1GB is available online today at a price of $170, meaning that two of them would cost you less than a GeForce GTX 280 which they would outperform and be a better value. Palit has released three versions of the 9800GT including the reference clocked one, this card which offers better cooling and 1GB of memory and the 9800GT Sonic card which has a higher clock speed. The addition of PhysX enabled software allows the card to improve frame rates up to 20% as it offloads the physics to the GPU from the graphics card. This is a serious Hot Product as in SLI mode you get one kick ass pair of VGA cards that can almost just plain wallop the GTX280 standard edition card.

"The Republic of Gamers line represents the best of the best that ASUS produces and always features cutting edge specs. The latest ROG product to hit the streets is heavily anticiapated Maximus II Formula motherboard. This board makes its presence felt quickly in the enthusiast market by bringing the heat in every possible way with the new P45 Express chipset, 1600MHz front side bus support, CrossFire compatibility, PCIe 2.0, eSATA, 16GB of DDR2-1200 support and an X-Fi sound card. Very nice! Keep reading as I throw the Maximus II Formula on the test bench for some sexy time and to see if this is one motherboard that can live up to the hype."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Maximus II Formula Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"P45 not only supports true Crossfire thanks to its twin x8 PCIe slots, but it also manages to support DDR2 and DDR3 along with the latest ICH10R Southbridge and PCI Express 2.0 support. The best thing is that all this falls into the mid-range PCs price point. Who could argue with that?

Today GIGABYTE has sent us their latest high-end offering, based on the P45 chipset. This baby is dubbed the EP45-Extreme and we will show you why soon."

CLICK HERE FOR GIGABYTE EP45-Extreme Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

"When it comes to the PowerColor HD4870 video card, the main thing that comes to mind were the amazing scores the card was able to produce in the 3DMark06 benchmark. The stock overclocked scores were amazing but when the card was overclocked further, wow! The price for this amazing piece of computer hardware is just about perfect, I was very surprised to see that the card only cost around $290 USD, and when you compare that to the price of the other HD4870s out on the market, they come very close but when you get into the prices of some of the nVidia cards, you are going to be expected to pay quite a bit more for less performance. The simple fact that I was able to get the core of the card up past 850MHz was another added bonus, I was expecting to only get an extra 25-30MHz, not 60MHz, on the core and 200MHz on the memory! The cooling solution that PowerColor has added to its HD4870 was able to keep the card quite cool; during full load the card was only reaching 55°C, which is lower than some of the HD4850s that were clocked lower than this!"

"ATP have produced a very good USB flash drive that features excellent build quality and rugged construction. It's Windows Ready-Boost ready, water-proof, shock resistant and offers very good read/write performance. "

CLICK HERE FOR ATP ToughDrive Camo (8Gb) USB Flash Drive SHOPPING & PRICING

Using a headset is becoming more of an everyday occurrence, with the increased popularity of MMOs and VOIP. Why not upgrade the experience with a high quality headset? Today we’ll be looking at the latest headset from CyberSnipa, the CyberSnipa Sonar 5.1 Headset. We have reviewed products from them in the past and have been impressed by their attention to detail and high quality product. Read on to find out if this headset continues that tradition.

CLICK HERE FOR CyberSnipa Sonar 5.1 Headset SHOPPING & PRICING

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

The LN40A650 comes packed with features including multiple HDMI inputs, VGA input for older computers, ATSC tuner, LAN, InfoLink, WiseLink and Anynet. The Samsung panel produces magnificently stunning and mouth dropping pictures. Everyone who has seen my new TV was envious of it.

CLICK HERE FOR Samsung LN40A650 40inch LCD HDTV SHOPPING & PRICING

Palit is one of the first AMD board partners to release a custom Radeon HD 4870 version. Their new HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition comes with a completely revamped cooling assembly that features two fans to keep the card cool. Also included is a DisplayPort connector and a Turbo switch which lets you select the operating frequencies of the card. The mandatory "overclocked out of the box" is included as well.

CLICK HERE FOR Radeon HD 4870 512MB SHOPPING & PRICING

I never thought this would happen to me, but here I am, at work, sitting at my desk, and I'm being blown. Last night, I was getting blown on the couch and, while browsing articles on TechwareLabs, my roommate came up and asked me what the hell I was doing. He sat down next to me and before we knew it, both of us were being blown at the same time! For just a few bucks you can get blown too. even while gaming!

We recently spent some time with the Alienware m15x and the end result was the fastest 15 inch laptop we have ever tested. Today we look at the bigger brother, the Area 51 m17x which is marketed as a high powered gaming desktop replacement. So what goodies have we inside? How does a 2.8ghz Extreme Edition processor and two 8800 GTX M in Sli sound?

CLICK HERE FOR Alienware M17x SHOPPING & PRICING

Even for the home user, if 'in today's networked world, digital content is truly the most precious asset', then perhaps protecting that content and providing easy access to that content is second on the list. The Thecus N3200 is a Networked Attached Storage (NAS) device that proposes to do just that by providing complete data redundancy using RAID 5. Or as Thecus puts it, 'RAID 5 Comes Home'.

CLICK HERE FOR Thecus N3200 Networked Area Storage (NAS) Server SHOPPING & PRICING

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

"Speaking of PCs with three or more graphics cards, they are for hardcore gamers. Percentage of such users is very low. Nevertheless, ASUS does not complain about the lack of attention to this motherboard. Most users consider buying this model (and other similar products) for computers that can be upgraded in future."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe / Mempipe Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

Despite being decent value and having a wonderful alloy construction, there are a few faults that drag the Osiris back down to the underworld. The lack of a removable motherboard tray is certainly one, and while we admit that only those that frequently change their hardware consistently benefit from them, the initial build process is always made significantly easier by their inclusion.

CLICK HERE FOR Hiper Osiris Case SHOPPING & PRICING

Antec has been on the forefront of quality case design for some time. While not always the flashiest of cases, Antec's build quality and functionally generally ranks toward the top of the charts. However, recently Antec has made a momentum shift, and produced a product line to appeal to gamers and enthusiast system builders alike. Enter the Antec Twelve Hundred Case, that in Antec's own words.

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If you've been holding off on an upgrade for a while, there's no reason to continue if a gaming addiction is pulling at your sleeve. The selection for mid-range cards right now is ideal, and anything you pick up will deliver good performance for the money. The best card for the buck right now might be the HD 4870, and we take Palit's version for a spin to find out why.

CLICK HERE FOR Radeon HD 4870 512MB SHOPPING & PRICING

"I currently have a Zaward Gyre CPU cooler fitted so I will be comparing the Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 Premium against that. Once I have run the tests on the Zaward Gyre, which is a VERY capable cooler so the Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 Premium has some real stiff competition, I will then rerun the tests with the Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 Premium cooler fitted. I will also take readings from the PWMIC to see how well the coolers cool the chipset too as the case IS a multimedia case and as such has limited system cooling to keep noise to a minimum."

CLICK HERE FOR ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 Premium SHOPPING & PRICING

The name Lian Li is synonymous with quality computer cases and computer accessories. They've been in the business for over 20 years and have attained ISO 9001 certification for all of their products. They've built some reputation over the years and have received accolades from the computer industry as well as end users; but nobody is perfect. Today Benchmark Reviews will take a look at the Lian Li PC7B Plus II black aluminum mid-tower computer case and see if this reputation for quality and performance still holds true, after all these years.

CLICK HERE FOR Lian Li PC7B Plus II Mid-Tower Case SHOPPING & PRICING

With so many cases to choose from in today's market, where do you go? The people at Cooler Master have crunched numbers in their labs time after time, and now it's time to crunch some in ours! Today, Matt Homan takes a look at the new Cooler Master HAF932 (High Air Flow) case.

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master HAF 932 Case SHOPPING & PRICING

This year, PAX is held at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Originally, the Penny Arcade Expo was held at the relatively small Maydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington, and is now ten times bigger. PAX 08 occupies 300,000 square feet of the trade center and features over 70 exhibitors and acommodates over 50,000 attendees.

"Founded in 1986, Topower is a company that began life as a manufacturer of switching power supplies. While they have expanded their product line of late, today we will be looking at one of their latest offerings in the PSU segment, the PowerBird 1100.

With features including a modular design and a high power efficiency, it is vying for your bid the next time you upgrade your system power. With so many choices in even high end power supplies, we will look at features and performance in an enthusiast build to see if these guys have what it takes to earn your upgrading dollars."

A short while ago, PC Freaks & Geeks had the opportunity to take a look at one of Sapphire's 3800 cards: the HD 3850. Whilst it provided the average gamer with a decent performing GPU upgrade at hardly no cost at all, some users will in no doubt prefer a little more power under the bonnet of their PC. This is where the older brother of the HD 3850 steps in to take over, still within Sapphire's 3800 range of cards, today PC Freaks & Geeks will be taking the HD 3870 1GB card for a test drive.

"Today for review USBFever has sent me over the Internal 3.5" Multi Card Reader and not only does it incorporate an eSATA connection but it's the first reader like this that I have seen that can read microSD cards without an adapter, to me that's a big bonus as I've get several microSD cards for my cellphone. This reader can read just about every card on the market today without an adapter of any kind so that is a great feature to have as well. "

“Notebooks from famous ThinkPad T series are true top models thanks to so many characteristics. That is why every new model is expected with a great attention. This time Lenovo integrated several very interesting innovations. New Lenovo ThinkPad T series has new naming convention. Instead of regular two-digit model identification, these prestige models have three-digits. ThinkPad T400 and T500 are successors of T61 and we can predict just from these marks that T400 has 14.1’’ screen and T500 has 15.4’’ screen, both of course in wide format…”

CLICK HERE FOR Lenovo ThinkPad T500 SHOPPING & PRICING

The motherboard we are reviewing today is the GA-EP45-DQ6, which is by far the most feature-rich model in the EP45 lineup. This high-end motherboard caters to the "I want it all" crowd, and as you will see it really does not disappoint. Oft-used terms like "Everything and the kitchen sink", "Swiss Army Knife", "Overkill" just barely hint at the functionality that Gigabyte has somehow managed to shoehorn into this model.

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 P45 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

“It pleases me to say that the price of the Moncaso 972 is more affordable than the 932 when it first launched. When the 932 was brand new, it required a $700 to $800 premium which was quite steep for many to afford. The 972 comes in at about the $500 which will attract far more users. The quality of the entire product reflects the money is well spent. Perhaps in the future, we may could see the possibility of more drive storage for dual optical drive use. Or, maybe we'll see vertically mounted drive bays to increase hard drive count as well as a hot swappable bay or two. The concepts are endless. The idea of an optional keyboard has it's pros and cons. On the one hand, you're stuck with their software and limited keyboard features. And on the other hand, if you get to pick the one you want, you're happy. The enclosure continues its legacy of refinement. It's a testament to Moneual in just how quickly their designs and concepts have grown in the HTPC market. It would seem that there is very little that can be improved upon in this enclosure. It's inspiring to think what we can expect from Moneual and the Moncaso HTPC series in the near future.”

CLICK HERE FOR Moneual MONCASO 972 HTPC Enclosure SHOPPING & PRICING

" For the beginner, System Mechanic 8 offers "fix and forget" capability. One click repairs and power tools allow automated repair and maintenance of your PC. The ActiveCare technology allows System Mechanic 8 to do all the work and fix issues as they arise. "

"NZXT has been building cases targeted for gamers and enthusiasts since 2004. Headquartered in Taiwan, NZXT's company objective is to "provide every gamer with a case that they can identify with." To this end NZXT offers two types of case designs, the more conservative Classic series, and the contemporary Crafted line. I've reviewed models from both in the past and I have to say I prefer the Classic series styling, however today I have for review the Guardian 921 which is the latest in their Crafted series."

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Guardian 921 Mid-Tower Case SHOPPING & PRICING

“What a good motherboard really gives you is potential--potential to take that pile of parts you ordered and make it into something great. A motherboard is truly one of those things that must be greater than the sum of its parts in order to be successful. Today we're looking at the MSI X48 Platinum motherboard to see if it succeeds or squanders that potential.”

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"Rosewill is the brand-name associated with the reseller Newegg.com. Like Costco’s Kirkland, Newegg uses Rosewill to sell competition products at cheaper prices than the big names that they already sell because they don’t have to play the middle man of reselling, they are selling factory direct. Recently, Rosewill has put together their latest aftermarket GPU cooler, the RCX-V100, which we have for review today. Because companies like Rosewill sell a wide variety of products, they are not always associated with the best of quality. Especially in a market like cooling, where companies have become extremely specialized, many people won’t trust a generic name like Rosewill. Can it stand up to the test, though? We’ll find out."

I’ve never had the chance to look at a graphics card from Point of View before, but now is as good a time as any to start. When word came through that the first card the company would ever be sending to me would be the 9500 GT, I felt kind of sorry for them. Clearly they didn’t read my original review of the 9500 GT from Leadtek.