Week of November 8, 2009

The model we continue to see from NVIDIA partners is the GTX 260+; it went through many variations since its launch and for the most part has offered some great performance. Today we see Galaxy launch a new series with the model; the new series is labeled the Razor Edition and we hope that it manages to stand out a bit.

" Seagate also includes a leathery protective travel case for the Seagate FreeAgent Go drive to keep it from harms way during its journeys. The FreeAgent Go Dock+ has a retail price of around forty dollars but can be found on the internet for a little more than half that price; making it a great value."

CLICK HERE FOR Seagate FreeAgent Go Dock+ PRICING & SHOPPING

Today we bring you the review of the least powerful product of the series, the X4 500W unit. It is a product designed to offer the high quality and aesthetics of the X4 series to enthusiasts looking something a bit above the ordinary for their mainstream home and office computers.

"Finally one of the most common complaints about the Playstation 3 - the lack of support for playing Netflix movies instantly over the Internet - was fixed. Let's take an in-depth look on this marriage. Netflix is - if you've been in a coma for the past few years - an on-line movie rental store with thousands of movies available where you create your own list of movies you want to watch. Then they ship you the movies (on DVD or Blu-Ray, if you select that you have a Blu-Ray player on your account) on the same order that is found on your list. Then after watching them you send them back on a prepaid envelope. The number of discs you can have at home (or in transit) at the same time will depend on the plan you sign for."

CLICK HERE FOR Playstation 3 PRICING & SHOPPING

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.

CLICK HERE FOR MOTHERBOARD PRICING & SHOPPING

"One of the tactics that some companies have used to help themselves through the tougher times of the global recession is by diversifying their product range. Since they also have a pseudo gaming division with their Storm chassis, Coolermaster seem set to take advantage of the growing pro-gamer market. The Coolermaster Storm Sentinel Adance is the company's first attempt at producing a gaming mouse, and with their recently released range of mouse pads it shows a whole new direction from them. Lets see if it was a good one."

CLICK HERE FOR Coolermaster Sentinel Advance PRICING & SHOPPING

“I’ve been to quite a few conferences and events where I’ve had to carry my Digital-SLR (D-SLR) camera around. It sometimes can be a pain, especially if you are carrying around a lot of gear. We have taken a look at a lot of Lowepro bags, but the Outback 100 is a bit different, it is a belt pack that not only has room for your camera, but room for 2 extra lenses and a few other accessories. Let’s see if this is the camera bag for you!"

CLICK HERE FOR Lowepro Outback 100 Camera Bag PRICING & SHOPPING

"Today, we will be looking at the EVGA GeForce GT 220 SSC DDR3 edition graphics card. This card has a factory overclocked core and shader clock speeds, which should help boost performance over the standard clock speeds of 625MHz and 1360MHz. The EVGA GeForce GT 220 SSC DDR3 has a core clock speed of 671MHz and a shader clock of 1458MHz. This is just over a 7% clock frequency boost on the GPU, so that should help out performance on the card's 48 stream processors..."

CLICK HERE FOR EVGA GeForce GT 220 PRICING & SHOPPING

“Mouse as PC peripheral had few significant evolutionary steps in its history. Since the 80’s, when first commercial mouse was presented, mouse devices evolved and changed the way they work few times. Until now, we had mechanical mouse devices with ball, after which came optical and finally laser mouse devices. Of course, every evolutionary step introduced improvements in precision and user experience. Laser mouse devices are already achieving precision of 5000dpi which was unimaginable just a few years ago…”

CLICK HERE FOR Logitech Performance Mouse MX PRICING & SHOPPING

CLICK HERE FOR Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX PRICING & SHOPPING

" Today for review I've got a rather large NAS box, the TS-419P from Qnap that houses four hard drives to give you a ton of storage. The TS-419P not only offers a lot of storage but tons of other features as well, so read on to learn all about it..."

Ever wanted a guide on hard drive performance, where you can compare the performance of a wide range of hard drives? Well, we are not quite there yet, but that is our ultimate objective.

CLICK HERE FOR Hard Disk Drive PRICING & SHOPPING

"The Patriot Sector 5 modules hit 2000MHz 8-8-8-24 with ease. Of course, they should since that is the rated speed of the modules. Since the CPU was already pushed to a 200 clock just to get to the 2000MHz rated speed I was not sure just how far I was going to be able to push them above the 2000MHz threshold. 2100MHz was not too difficult, requiring a bump in the IMC voltage up to 1.70 volts to get into Windows and run the benchamrks. To go higher needed some serious tweaking and I ran out of clock before tapping out the Sector 5 modules. 2200MHz at 8-8-8-28 is not bad at all. With the top end tapped out, I went on to check and see just how tight the latencies could be squeezed. What I was greeted with was 7-7-7-24 at 2070MHz with only 1.72 volts."

CLICK HERE FOR Patriot Sector 5 2x2GB 2000MHz Cas 8 PRICING & SHOPPING

What is obvious from the results of the review is that the NZXT Cryo S does help lower your system temperatures. When it comes to electronic components, cooler is always better, so the primary objective of this device was accomplished. What you can not see, and what I found even more impressive, is the difference in comfort provided by the Cryo S.

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Cryo S Aluminum Notebook Cooler PRICING & SHOPPING

Benchmark Reviews has put a plethora of storage enclosures and systems through their paces and all of the predecessors fell neatly into readily recognizable categories. The StarTech SATADOCK22UE is a horse of a slightly different color offering features that bridge the existing product categories it's neither a case nor storage array, but has the capacity to allow access to single data drives as well as two drives independently or as a RAID array. It's a niche product with stealth appeal for main stream users who think outside the box. The SataDock product line comes in 4 flavors: single drive USB only desktop bay (SATADOCKU2E), single drive USB & eSATA desktop bay (SATADOCKU2), 5.25" Bay Dual Drive eSATA (SATADOCK525) and the top of the line dual drive, dual eSATA desktop dock SATADOCK22UE which we will be reviewing. While no doubt the intended audience for the SataDock product line is mainly corporate or professional P! C repair and maintenance organizations, this small wonder has the potential to simplify the lives of a much broader audience if they can related to it's less obvious uses.

Inno3D's GeForce GT 220 uses NVIDIA's latest 40 nm graphics processor. It offers extremely low power consumption, especially in idle and has support for DirectX 10.1. It also features NVIDIA's new HDMI audio improvements, so you no longer need to route an SPDIF cable to the graphics card.

CLICK HERE FOR GeForce GT 220 1 GB PRICING & SHOPPING

"The AMD Radeon HD5870 from XFX arrived Technic3D. Technic3D will check the HD 5870 in the following Review with a Resolution from 2560x1600, 1920x1200, 1680x1050, the real Power Consumption and many more in new Games, against other Graphic Cards. You wait of the NVIDIA GT300 Chip?"

CLICK HERE FOR XFX AMD Radeon HD 5870 PRICING & SHOPPING

Sometimes using a fan controller can be difficult, and you don't always get the necessary feedback to operate your fans. That's why NZXT created the Sentry 2, an intuitive touchscreen fan controller with support for up to 10 fans.

As we all know (by now), DFI is a manufacturer known for stuffing in as many overclocking options as they can in their motherboards. They became famous on the back of the nForce 4 LANParty boards. These were some of the best boards for AMD overclocking that you could buy. DFI has continued this mindset and still offer some of the most “tweakable” boards out.

"The H1-Touch is a mobile device holder from a company called Luxa2. If you never heard of this company, you’ll be surprised to find out they are a subsidiary of Thermaltake who are well known for their PC related products. "

"The first XPC was released in 2001 and since then Shuttle have continually been upgrading the range to utilise as many desktop features as possible into a compact chassis. One of the latest models to be released is their Core-i7/X58 based system the SX58H7 and today we have one on our test bench to find out if Intel’s latest architecture is a viable option in a small form factor."

"Well, after what seemed like a long review, we're finally at the conclusion. What a case we have here today! CoolerMaster not only took the performance crown, but even took my breath away with awesome features like an all-black interior, full tool-less drive and expansion installation and three 200mm fans. What is not to like about this case? It even fits a whole Thor's Hammer heatsink and 'push-pull' fans without having to remove the top 200mm fan. It even sports some other nice features that are now being included on most new cases, like the ability to remove a heatsink without the trouble of removing the motherboard, which is something else I like to see."

CLICK HERE FOR CoolerMaster Storm Sniper Black Edition PRICING & SHOPPING

Xigmatek - A name that needs no introduction, But the first things that come to mind are CPU coolers, Right? A relatively young company, founded in 2005, Xigmatek has made some great quality coolers, 2 of which featured and performed very well in the Q2 best CPU cooler performance review here at Benchmark Reviews, Today's review focuses on the Xigmatek Midgard CPC-T55DB-U02 Computer Case, Big on features and while not an overly expensive case it is still closer to the top end of what I would call a Budget case. Tool free design, Midgard-W was designed by gaming and cooling thinking within tool-free hard drives and add-on card installation, easy installation CPU cooler back plate window, four pipe holes for water cooling system and seven cooling fan space at most. This case is certainly beautiful to look at, but looks are for the vain, Features and quality are essential to the success of a product. Will you be using this case in your next build? ! Come and take a closer look to see if this is the case ticks all the boxes for You.

"The 5870 CF tandem puts up good performance. As we can see, it sometimes outperforms GTX 295 Quad SLI. Considering all innovations, including DX11, we can say that it's the most powerful duo with the most 3D features these days."

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte GTX260 PRICING & SHOPPING

Here is a great mid-priced, high-quality mid-tower case from Cooler Master. This is the Cooler Master Gladiator 600 (RC-600) Mid-Tower Chassis! We've all heard about how you need to make a good first impression. This case does that. Smooth lines and a cool look. And hidden inside we find plenty to be happy about. Today we’re going to spec this one out and see how it builds.

"This time we tested Titan Skalli, a tower design CPU cooler with two 8 mm heatpipes and a 100 mm fan. Let's see if it performs better than other similar coolers. "

Today we are going to look at the ROCCAT Vire gaming headset which is optimized for mobile gaming, although still compatible with any PC, and similar to the Razer Moray+ headset we recently reviewed.

"I have very little (if anything) bad to say about the Cooler Master Sniper Black Edition (SGC-6000-KXN1-GP). This is one very nice case. It has loads of room and is relatively light. It gives the end user the ability to remove unwanted items, add in needed items, and reconfigure fan locations. As open as the case is it is very quiet; on low you don't even know the system is running. I turned it off once by accident by hitting the power button because I had the LEDs off and I thought the system was off. With the case on high it will be noticeable, but I don't see you having to turn up the TV due to it..."

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master Storm Sniper Black Edition PRICING & SHOPPING

The people over at Thermaltake have unleashed the Element G on the masses. Does the gigantic gaming, glittering, gradational glaciated goodness grab the general gamer? Glean the gratuitous guidance from our inspection of this gob of goodness!

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake Element G Case PRICING & SHOPPING

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

If you recently made an upgrade to the Core i7 system you may found that your older power supply may not able to support the C6 power saving feature that is found in the Nahalem processor. The C6 power saving turns of the core clock, PLL, and the caches. As a result, it is able to lower the core voltage even lower than the C4 state. It is estimated that the C6 uses about 300% less power than the C4.

"The TurboV is a wired remote that connects to the motherboard and is routed out the back of the I/O panel. It includes A, B and C profile buttons, a power button, a +/- button for under and overclocking and manual and auto mode buttons."

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS P7P55D Deluxe Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

For years, Kingston has sold system memory upgrade kits to help boost personal computer performance. Installing RAM is a simple process, and it usually helped speed up an old PC. Yet, because the processor and memory both operate at level much faster than the average hard disk, the real bottleneck is the primary drive. Solid State Drives are the ideal upgrade for hard drives, and the difference an SSD makes is far noticeable than any memory upgrade. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the performance and speed for the ideal SSD starter kit: Kingston's SSDNow V 40GB Boot Drive SSD SNV125-S2/40GB.

"Although this cooler performed well and offered good performance, I did have a little bit of a gripe with the installation process. For one thing, the positive stop method of holding the heatsink used on the original Tuniq tower was abandoned on this refresh. It could have been because of the bad reputation of the brass screws that would strip or break outright. Even so, a positive stop type of mount would have been better. I still wonder why there is a slot for a screwdriver on top of the thumbscrews, considering that there is only about a half an inch above them before the bottom end of the heatsink begins."

“I’m sure we’ve all seen cases with black exteriors, but have you seen cases with a completely black interior and a black tinted window? The NZXT Lexa S Crafted Series Black Steel Mid Tower Chassis gives you all of this and more! It includes four fans, two of which can be controlled by the built-in fan controller, 11 drive bays and some handy features everyone would enjoy. Read on further to see what else this case has to offer."

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT Lexa S Crafted Series Black Chassis PRICING & SHOPPING

After our review of the Beta, we knew the EVO would be a good base from which to start. With two more fan mounting locations and the ability to add watercooling the Beta EVO gives you even more options.

“Intel Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs that are compatible with LGA1156 socket, slowly but steadily are becoming interesting choice for wider user group because this socket is direct descendant of “good old” LGA775 and, of course, price drops. Intel P55 chipset is, basically, following footsteps of previous P chipsets (P965, P35, and P45). It is obvious that soon there will be many P55 based motherboards. For now we got two models signed by ASUS and Biostar which are based on same chipset but present two totally different solutions to the same problem…”

CLICK HERE FOR P55 Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

"Freshly updated Frostytech Top 5 Heatsink Charts! The Top 5 Heatsinks Charts rank the best coolers out of the hundreds we've tested to date by lowest temperature, lowest noise and by height as well. Don't go heatsink shopping without first looking at the Top 5 charts. Only heatsinks that Frostytech has tested in its labs are included in these Top 5 lists"

CLICK HERE FOR Heatsink PRICING & SHOPPING

"Today for review I’ve got the TV TrickleSaver from TrickleStar and it’s an ingenious little gadget that is so simple, yet so effective in that it will help you save money on your electricity costs. The TV TrickleSaver is simple to use, just plug your TV into one of its outlets and then your other devices into its other outlet and you’re ready to go. It works by sensing when you power your TV off, then it turns off anything else that is connected to it, no more stand-by power means a lower electric bill. "

The Samsung Spinpoint F line currently consists of the F1 family of drives which are available in capacities ranging from just 80 GB to 1 TB, and the F3 family which only has two members - a 500 GB model and a 1 TB model.

CLICK HERE FOR Samsung Spinpoint F1 (HD103UJ) 1 TB Hard Disk Drive PRICING & SHOPPING

With Windows 7 hitting the shelves we were hearing that the amount of ram in Windows 7 is just as important as raw ram speed. So to that end we got a couple of 8GB kits, installed Windows 7 and ran some testing. We ran our normal test suite on the kits then ran further testing using 2 sticks of ram (2x2GB) then the whole kit (4x2GB). That way the exact same ram is tested with 4GB and 8GB and the testing results should be about as good as they come.

CLICK HERE FOR Corsair Dominator 1600MHz 8GB kit PRICING & SHOPPING

To remedy the price shock of SSD drives you have several routes in which you can take. The first one is to opt for a small size drive say a 32GB or even a 16GB units. This would be fine for a large majority of the population as many only want the drive for their OS and important applications. A second option is to look at units geared toward the mainstream audience. This would be the class our second SSD review will fall in. The Apacer A7 Turbo advertise some really impressive write/read times that would appeal to the likes of more knowledgeable PC users like gamers, enthusiasts and semi-professional.

Many gamers swear by the proven stability that is Windows XP, but there's a new player on the market: Windows 7. While Windows XP is heralded by some as the best OS to ever come from Microsoft, Vista is the Windows ME of the 21st Century. Enter Windows 7. Built on the proven NT platform and in many ways appearing much like Vista, that's where the similarities end. Today, Benchmark Reviews will take a look at some of the different methods of installation, and hopefully clear up some of the confusion many of you may be having. I think some people will be surprised by how easy it can be, plus we will show you how to possibly bypass having to reinstall Windows XP or Vista during an upgrade.

CLICK HERE FOR Microsoft Windows 7 PRICING & SHOPPING

“When it comes to Solid State Drives (SSD’s), it seems like many of the offerings available are from companies known for memory, not storage. This is because unlike traditional hard drives SSD’s have no moving parts and use NAND memory chips. So you would expect a company like Crucial to have a line of SSD drives, and they do! Actually our first SSD review here at ThinkComputers was a Crucial Drive. Today we will be looking at the 256GB M225 Solid State drive that is based off the ever popular Indilinx Barefoot controller. Let’s take a look…"

CLICK HERE FOR Crucial M225 256GB Solid State Drive PRICING & SHOPPING

"P55-UD6 is the top shelf motherboard from Gigabyte for Intel socket 1156 processors (Core i5 and Core i7). Let's take a look at this motherboard, with twelve SATA-300 ports, six memory sockets, support to SLI and CrossFireX, 24-phase voltage regulator and more."

CLICK HERE FOR Gigabyte P55-UD6 Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

The In Win AMMO continues on the army based theme we have come to love with the Commander PSUs. The enclosure combines a sturdy shell with a soft interior and the added security of AES 128 bit encryption. We take a real close look an run it trough our barrage of tests to see if it comes out on top after the battle.

CLICK HERE FOR In Win AMMO PRICING & SHOPPING

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

Not too long ago, I took my very first look at the Thermaltake Toughpower XT 850W unit and found it wanting. Thermaltake was anxious to improve on things, and so they did; as I found in my last review when I saw what the new and improved 750W Toughpower XT could do.

CLICK HERE FOR Thermaltake Toughpower XT 850W PRICING & SHOPPING

It's no secret that the Radeon HD 5870 is the fastest GPU on the planet, but what do you get when you take it, toss in a more robust cooler, quieter operation, higher clock speeds and not one, but two free games? You get the Vapor-X, from Sapphire. Despite all that it packs in above the reference version, it modestly carries just a $20 premium.

The Gamma Midtower wants you to keep your cool. It boasts 6 fan capability including dedicated VGA/CPU cooling and a unique front panel design that allows extra air to enter through the front. Creating a vortex through your tower will keep the hotest running CPU and VGA running optimally. If that is not cool enough NZXT also includes pre-drilled watercooling holes on the backplate and mounting holes for a dual radiator at the top. This NZXT Gamma gives you everything you need for a sharp look and clean build with punched motherboard holes and a turned HDD cage which keeps cabling as discrete as possible. Sounds appealing doesn't it... Let's have a closer look !

The problem with HDMI is that it is relatively new. Home Theater components usually lag behind the new industry standard, because the technology could lose support. As a result, some flat-panel TVs only have a few HDMI inputs, but your gaming consoles, receivers and DVRs have many. You can simplify or eliminate the unsightly rat�s nest of cables in your home theater rig by just using the elegant HDMI solution. Some of the newest home theater receivers now support multiple HDMI switching, but not everyone has a need for a full-blown amplifier.

"Tired of the same old boring gaming audio headgear? Looking for something unique to wear at your next LAN party? The guys over at Gameskulls may have just the thing you're looking for. It's the GS-1 Tactical Gaming Helmet, and it's definitely a whole lot different than any other gaming headset we've ever reviewed or even seen previously."

The Tritton AX 720 is an excellent headset for taking advantage of your PC, Mac, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3 digital audio while having chat for multiplayer network gaming. While the headset is very versatile and comes with an adapter to allow you to use it in analog mode with any audio source and microphone input, if you don't have optical audio out you'll not get your money's worth our of the AX 720.

"The Asus EeePC 900a is a great little netbook with one big flaw, it comes with a tiny little 4gb SSD drive that is very slow. Actually there’s two flaws, the second would be how Asus handled the updates of the operating system, they’re automatic and they fill that tiny SSD to the point where the system slows to a crawl. The OS that is on the SSD is ok for just messing around, but let’s face it, most everything is Windows and to be any kind of productive with the EeePC you’ll need to install Windows on it. This isn’t a Linux vs Windows or even vs Mac rant, so I don’t want to hear about it, this is a review of the Runcore 64gb SSD for the EeePC 900a that will turn that little netbook into not only a speed demon, but something that can be a more productive machine. "

"Well after this review I would have to say I'm kinda neutral on this case. It does have many great points that any one person might look into. Points such as 120mm/140mm radiator support, price, and a side panel window with LED fan. It also boasted good wire management and provides holes leading to the other side of the case. However, the one side panel does not kindly accommodate wires put behind the motherboard tray. This makes it hard to close and even causes a slight bulge on the panel so you might have to figure out some other way to run the wires behind your motherboard tray. The fact that one LED did not light up was probably a fluke defect but I thought it best mentioning that it had happened."

CLICK HERE FOR NZXT M59 - 001BK PRICING & SHOPPING

Over two years have passed since Nvidia dived into the low end graphics card market. Today we have Nvidia's latest entry, the G210. This card features a 64 bit bus, 512 MB of GDDR2 memory, and a 40nm die. The smaller die size means lower temperatures, which is great for low ventilation cases, which is probably where the card will go since it is a low profile card. So far this card is shaping up to be a great combo for a low power computer.

Déjà vu is a funny thing. At first you're not sure it's real; then you're absolutely convinced; finally, it fades and you're not sure anymore. The CM Storm Sniper, first shown to the public when Cooler Master launched the CM Storm brand in 2008, started out life with a full "Black Ops" paint job. Black on the outside, black on the inside and the first gaming case to feature three massive 200mm cooling fans, it was an instant hit. Somehow, the production version ended up without the black interior, but it was still a rousing success when Benchmark Reviews looked at it in January of this year. Its ten months later, coming up on the holiday season, and what better (and easier) way to kick it up a notch than to bring back the black: The CM Storm Sniper Black Edition SGC-6000-KKN1-GP.

CLICK HERE FOR CM Storm Sniper Black Case PRICING & SHOPPING

"Today for review I’ve got the Vantec NexStar Universal Storage Adapter, it’s a long name but it can do quite a bit. This product will allow you to access both SATA and IDE 2.5” and 3.5” drives along with 5.25” SATA and IDE Optical drives and even 66 types of memory cards, so it does live up to it’s name of being a universal adapter. "

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.

CLICK HERE FOR Motherboard PRICING & SHOPPING

Having a good gaming PC is more than just about having a good CPU, GPU or motherboard. Having the proper input peripherals is also key to your success on the gaming battlefield. With keyboards and mice seemingly becoming commodity products, with some prices in the single digit dollar amounts, this may not seem to be the case, but the increasing market for gaming-oriented peripherals has helped move along what otherwise would be a stagnant market.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ Eclipse Double Laser Gaming Mouse PRICING & SHOPPING

"Today for review I’ve got another product from our friends over at NZXT, it’s their new fan controller the Sentry 2. This isn’t just any fan controller though, it features a touch screen and it only takes up one 5.25” bay. Personally I like this product quite a bit, in my opinion it’s the best fan controller on the market today. It’s easy to use, it works well and it looks great."