Saturday, November 15 2008 |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:34 PM (EST) |
Cirago was founded in Shanghai in 1996 is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. They've "been manufacturing comprehensive & innovative products that will enhance people’s lifestyle worldwide" according to their website. In addition to their bluetooth headsets, they also have a line of Bluetooth dongles and USB external hard drive enclosures. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:33 PM (EST) |
Today’s offering is the BZ1300, and as the name implies it offers a massive 1300 watts of power. It carries logos from both Tagan and ABS, their sister company, and features a modular design that is always nice to see. We have seen the BZ900 recently and it performed well, but this is the monster of the product line. |
CPU3D Review: Corsair Dominator Tri-Channel DDR3-1600 6Gb Kit |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:32 PM (EST) |
"Corsair's Dominator Tri-Channel DDR3-1600 6Gb kits are well worth considering, if you're after excellent performance and good overclocking ability. In addtition, the DHX cooling technology, with its grooved heatspeader and optimised fins looks great and it effectively cools the modules during heavy load and overclocking. Corsair have delivered a great memory product suitable for all Core i7 users, including the hardcore enthusiasts and overclockers. The price is something they need to work on." |
MSI R4870 T21G ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Review @ Motherboards.org |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:32 PM (EST) |
The 4870 from MSI performs better than the ATI reference card across the board, mainly due to the improved clock speed over the original. The card is available online for a retail price of $299.99 making it a decent buy. The card plays games extremely well and the slight overclock makes it a good buy versus the reference model. The ATI HD 4870 1GB is a decent competitor to the GeForce GTX260 card with some games playing better on one or the other. Video cards of this generation have never had as much performance for the price or the features for the price that the HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 have. Hopefully, the days where single video cards just release at $599 for the high end are over. Last week you could buy a HD 4870 512MB card for around $200 after rebates, an incredible price for a great card. That special price is no longer available but is indicative of where the pricing on the HD 4870 might be going. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:31 PM (EST) |
Anybody who knows graphics cards, knows Sapphire. They have been a main player in the ATI graphics card market for what seems like an eternity. Is the HD4550 the benefactor of its higher performing siblings, or is it one of those "embarrassing cousins" that you just wish would go away? Well, we break it down for you in real world, tangible benefits... and we'll let you be the judge! |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:31 PM (EST) |
"Today I've got the Corsair TX750 750Watt Power supply for review and it features plenty of connections and power for most systems. the cables are sleeved nicely and I have to note that they are nice and long as well, it also features 80% efficiency and 99% Active PFC to round it out. " |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:30 PM (EST) |
“Today we’re looking at the Sapphire 4870 X2. It has been out for a while now, but it still certainly appears to be a card worthy to sit atop the heap as king of the hill. Indeed, it features two GPUs on one card, and is gigantic, in more ways than one.” |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:30 PM (EST) |
No one can argue that this new cooler doesn't have very good cooling performance and lets face it: this is the name of the game. Without the ability to properly cool your CPU the Gladiator Max would be nothing more than a fancy paper weight. Unfortunately, its cooling is very good but it is not as good as the cheaper Vendetta 2's and quite honestly, why would you pay more for less? |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:29 PM (EST) |
On our very first HDTV review, we looked at the amazing plasma-based Samsung PN50A650 HDTV. During the course of the review, it was found that the plasma-based HDTV was simply inspiring. Samsung had done an amazing job. Not only were colors vibrant, performance on the plasma excelled as it handled motion with ease and mimicked the CRT we’ve become accustomed to for so long; it felt like a television. Besides the review, we also touched on the basics of HDTV, talked about the differences between plasma and LCD technology, and shared about the new digital ATSC standard. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:29 PM (EST) |
"Although I am pleased with the overall performance of the Palit 9800GTX+, I was slightly disappointed by its overclockability. Although, the Palit 9800GTX+ has decent clocks to begin with but I really expected more. Its core clock, memory clock and shader clock could only be increase by 84MHz, 72MHz and 162MHz, respectively. This marginal increase in clocks is a lot lower than another 9800GTX+ reviewed by OCC. The 9800GTX+ clocks in this review were adjusted using Rivatuner 2.11 and temperatures were monitored by GPU-Z 0.2.8. To reach my final overclock, I bumped up the GPU and memory in 25MHz increments and tested stability using 3DMark06. The GPU core clock and shader clock were linked until I hit instability above 1998MHz on the shader. I then unlinked the two and was able to get the GPU up to 824MHz. The stock cooling solution did a fantastic job of controlling temperatures at clock settings. I never saw the GPU core rise above the upper 60s at load, which is 20-30 degrees cooler than the 9800GTX+'s direct competition, the 4850." |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:29 PM (EST) |
Anyone old enough to remember the old arcades of the 80's would tell you the main thing that they would love to see in a console is the ability to play like they did in the arcade. There is no feeling like holding that plastic gun in your hand and crazily pulling the trigger for dear life. There are not nearly as many arcades as there once were, but what if you could have that same arcade feel in the comfort of your own home, with your own games? That is what Eagle Tech hopes to help you with. Today they have given us the chance to review their WiiPAL Infrared Shotgun attachment for the Nintendo Wii. The product certainly looks like a shotgun that was attached to arcade games of years past, but does it have that same feel? Read on to find out the answer to that pressing question. |
bit-tech News: Viewsonic's VLED221wm 22" widescreen LCD monitor |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:28 PM (EST) |
We had high hopes for this monitor, but unfortunately few/if any were met. Most of all, in this particular implementation, the benefits of LED technology are rather tough to spot. For static image quality, a decent PVA or IPS panel with a CCFL backlight still gives clearly superior results to the VLED221wm's TN-plus-LED combination. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:28 PM (EST) |
I am definitely impressed with this Lian Li PC-A77B full tower chassis. Being a fan of simplistic yet useful design, this case has it all. The top mounted I/O ports are in a great location to access while using the computer. Lian Li has designed this case to allow you to install your components in many different configurations, which makes customizing your setup very convenient. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:28 PM (EST) |
Not all televisions are created equally, and yet most consumers are in the dark when it comes to knowing the difference. However, for those smart shoppers who keep in touch with technology, Honeywell offers a treat for home theater enthusiasts. The Altura MLX series delivers a 1080p resolution at the double-rate 120Hz display speed. The Honeywell MT-HWJCT42B2AB offers 42" of full high-definition LCD viewing with a 10-bit color gamut far superior to most all other LCD panels. Benchmark Reviews tests the performance and quality of this HDTV in this article. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:27 PM (EST) |
The product sent to us to review is the QPAD XT-R which is a gaming grade mouse surface and we have been using it for this task and general use over the past couple of months, today we can tell you how it has performed. |
Friday, November 14 2008 |
Antec NeoPower Blue 650W Power Supply Review @ JonnyGURU.com |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:18 AM (EST) |
I've looked at several Antec power supplies lately, and this time I'm looking at a new take on a Seasonic based platform introduced with the Truepower Trio line. Only this time, there are blue LEDs and it's modular. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:17 AM (EST) |
A beautiful HiFi PC in the living room was unthinkable a few years ago, because there were no beautiful PC enclosures available for this matter. Thus it was necessary to completely build these PC cases for the living room, like the first www.ocinside.de J-Box HowTo from the year 2000 shows. The times have changed and in the meanwhile there are dozens Home Theater PC enclosures - briefly HTPC - in all sorts of colors, styles and price ranges. But one problem has still not changed and that is the balancing act of the best case size. Because many users upgrading their gaming PCs several times a year and thus have a lot of hardware left for living room PCs. So the enclosure should have the right size for an ATX or MicroATX motherboard, but on the other hand it should not be too big for a HiFi rack. Silverstone try to reach this goal with their La Scala SST-LC02B. |
Thermaltake VI-ON External USB Drive Enclosure Review @ OCIA.net |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:16 AM (EST) |
"The Thermaltake VI-ON offers a couple different flavors, either a USB/eSATA interface or USB-only, and is available in a high gloss black or white. All versions support 3½" SATA drives up to 1TB in size, and feature a SMART active cooling system and embedded drive suspension to reduce vibration and noise. The one we have for review is the black, USB-only model." |
Altec Lansing VS3251 5.1 Surround Speaker System Review @ Tweaktown |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:16 AM (EST) |
"These days AL are focusing on more affordable systems that are very functional without entering into a higher pricing bracket. Now, I'm not sure about AL’s exact reasons for concentrating on the lower end of the spectrum, but let’s hope they can combine value with performance, which is admittedly not an easy nut to crack for any company. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:15 AM (EST) |
In a review, gaming, enthusiast situation, Swapping PC components is a task carried out on a regular basis. Keeping up with the greatest/latest hardware to hit the market is a job that requires some careful planning and some spare time on your hands when it comes to installation. It's in this situation that PC Freaks & Geeks found our HSPC test bench a god send when it came to hot-swapping our components not only very easily, but in no time at all. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:14 AM (EST) |
"Today for review I've got the Razer Lachesis gaming mouse, it features a 4000dpi laser sensor, 32kb onboard memory to save profiles, nine buttons, one the fly sensitivity adjustments and many other features that make this an excellent choice for a gaming mouse. " |
OCZ EliteXStream 1000 W Power Supply Review @ Hardware Secrets |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:14 AM (EST) |
"OCZ EliteXStream 1000 W is one of the most affordable 1,000 W power supplies available in the market today. Its lower price point was achieved by carrying fewer features compared to other 1,000 W models, such as less auxiliary power cables for video cards (only four) and the absence of a modular cabling system. On the other hand OCZ was able to put this power supply inside a housing with a depth of only 6 19/64" (16 cm), while other 1,000 W models like Corsair HX1000W needs to use a bigger housing with a depth of 7 7/8" (20 cm). But is this a good power supply? Let's see if it survives our load tests." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:14 AM (EST) |
"While it isn't trying to live up to the standards set by their XXX range of boards, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ Black Edition does sport some modest factory overclocks against a reference board. Oddly, these clock speed changes actually sees the GPU core clock drop very slightly (down to 785MHz from 788MHz), but this is more than compensated for by an increase in the board's shader clock to 1900MHz (from 1836MHz on a reference part). Finally, the 512MB of GDDR3 memory on-board finds itself with a 50MHz speed bump, giving it a final memory clock of 1150MHz." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:13 AM (EST) |
"While point-and-shoot digicams muddle along without any super breakthroughs-14 megapixels? Big deal!-watching the brawl between D-SLR manufacturers is much more enjoyable. Recently, Canon, Nikon and Sony have all introduced or announced digital single-lens reflex models that are leaping ahead of last year's cameras. For example: Sony's new $3,000 A900 is the first full-frame 24.6MP model. Recently-resurgent Nikon unveiled the first D-SLR that records HD video-the $999 12.3MP D90. And, just a short time later, Canon announced the $2,699 EOS 5D Mark II, which has a 21.1-megapixel full-frame imager that also takes high-def videos. This clash of the titans is great news for photo enthusiasts who now have a wide range of D-SLRs to fit practically any desire. And, as we've said, it's also fun to watch. But frankly, it's even more enjoyable testing the devices. Case in point: We just reviewed the D90, and as a camera, it really shined. Yet when the EOS 50D came our way, we couldn't resist trying out a new 15.1-megapixel D-SLR that's a huge on-paper leap above the still-available 10MP EOS 40D. Although the 50D costs $300 more, the good news is that there's a lot extra on offer here beyond the camera's new higher-resolution sensor. So is it the D-SLR of your dreams? Hit the jump to find out." |
G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-4GPI-B DDR2 Memory Review @ Virtual-Hideout |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:13 AM (EST) |
“Though G.Skill's kit managed to melt it's wax wings on the path to greatness, it still managed to impress a fair bit before it plummeted back to the earth. Though it managed only 1,000 MHz, this is still a 25% overclock, so to speak - something which is quite impressive on a kit that runs for under $90. Even if you don't intend to overclock, these modules pack a fair punch with their low latencies, great build quality, and oddly, lower cost than the rest of the flock. Considering these few graces, as well as the small tokens inside the package, I'd have to say that I recommend this kit to anyone looking for a quick fix in terms of a memory upgrade - something that will simply drop in and work - now that's peace of mind.” |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:12 AM (EST) |
"The Antec Veris Premier is a very useful tool for anyone wanting more control over their computer's multimedia functionality. This controller opens a whole new world of uses for your system and makes it very easy to get the information. If you are putting together an HTPC then this device would be invaluable to you especially with the fully featured remote control that is included with the unit. Most devices I have seen their remote controls are their downfall but this is not the case with the Antec Veris Premier. Another nice thing is that I had no problem installing and running the Veris Premier in Windows Vista so it is as fully compatible as Antec claims it is." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:12 AM (EST) |
Today we are taking a look at two high specification DDR3 kits from Patriot and Super Talent to find out if either should be considered for consumers moving to DDR3. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:12 AM (EST) |
"CPG is putting the screw to its customers to "repay" rebates that have already been funded. Hardly what we would call "Fulfilling the Promise of the Brand" as it is stated on its home page." |
Thursday, November 13 2008 |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:39 PM (EST) |
"When it comes to GPUs, everyone always looks to the top end cards to judge the current performance available on the market. Really though, the majority of money is made in the mid and budget range cards as that's what everyone can afford. The main problem with these though, is often the performance doesn't allow the prospective gamer much head room for what games will be playable. Today we have the 4550 card from Sapphire which with 512MB, we're hoping will give reasonable gaming ability. Let's find out." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:39 PM (EST) |
The Cooler Master HAF 932 is a great looking case with its industrial and rugged design. It sports two 230 mm fans to cool those parts to the max. Removable hard drive trays and plenty of space for large components, all packed up inside this steel case makes for a perfect combination. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:39 PM (EST) |
We have already benchmarked two new Nehalam processors- the 920 and the 965EE and compared them to other processors on the market. It is now time for some temperature tests and to see how high these processors can be overclocked using the ASUS P6T motherboard. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:38 PM (EST) |
"ATI have done very well with the 4850 and Sapphire has done just as well with the implementation of the card and bundle. Sapphire's 4850 can be found for around £110 online which while not the cheapest 4850 is one of the lower priced 4850's out there. When combined with the decent bundle of parts and software it makes this good value for money in terms of the 4850's out there." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:38 PM (EST) |
"There were no "dealbreakers" with this case - if you like the look, it would make an admirable chassis for your high end system. As with any aesthetics, these are strictly matters of opinion. The ample interior space should allow a great deal of system growth." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:37 PM (EST) |
"Hot on the heels of the Antec Twelve Hundred, Antec has been busy developing a new breed of enclosure: The Mini P180. As a new member of the elite Performance One chassis lineup, the Mini P180 looks to improve upon the design of the P182 in a Micro-ATX form factor. Boasting a dual-chamber design, robust cooling, and dead silent computing, the Mini P180 looks to be the next hottest thing to hit the enthusiast market. Will the Mini P180 make the grade?" |
NorthQ NQ-3360A Max Tower Extreme CPU Cooler Review @ OCIA.net |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:37 PM (EST) |
"While the Denmark-based NorthQ has been making a variety of computer hardware products for the past few years, the availability of their merchandise has always been limited to non-existent in the United States. NorthQ not only manufactures a broad spectrum of computer equipment, from cases to power supplies to CPU coolers (water and air), but also home and car electronics. Their name may not be big in the USA, but we have seen their products before with good results." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:36 PM (EST) |
"The smooth and clean lines of the Coolermaster ATCS 840 is what makes this chassis so appealing. Constructed of high quality brushed Aluminum ... it offers excellent build quality, it's light-weight, strong and looks great. What's more, the cooling performance is just as impressive. " |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:36 PM (EST) |
Thermaltake has delivered a full-tower case with the features and looks one would expect from a higher priced model. Thermaltake has delivered on its promises of a great case with plenty of expansion room for those 4 dual slot video cards you are hankering to buy. The only negatives I have found on the case are the high price and the I/O cable length which are minor quibbles on a case that delivers for the person wanting high-quality components and a case that will hold anything you could possibly want in a computer system. For those reasons I give the Thermaltake Xaser VI an Editor's Choice award as it definitely is worthy of praise. His case is a big one and if you are looking for plenty of expansion and good looks, this is a case well worth looking into. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:36 PM (EST) |
"The ASUS EEE PC 1000HA is a very polished and well thought out product, and I give great kudos to the design team over at ASUS for developing such a wonderful machine. it's clear that ASUS has hit a home run with this device..." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:29 PM (EST) |
While Corsair's Flash Voyager Mini isn't going to take a speed crown, it gets the job done. Its diminutive size hides a decent 8 GB of data and the Mini is about a 1/3 the size of your standard drive. No chance of losing a cap is a definite plus and it is hardly noticeable attached to your keychain. This makes for a handy bit of storage to take with you wherever you go. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:27 PM (EST) |
"Not all superstar partnerships turn out for the best. (See: Madonna/Guy Ritchie, Shaq/Kobe, Steve Jobs/John Scully, McCain/Palin, etc.) But Motorola, the inventor of the cell phone, and Kodak, the creator of the digital camera, can be credited with launching at least one successful team-up. Together, these manufacturers have paired to create the Motorola ZINE ZN5, which features the best digicam we've seen on a cell phone yet. Better still, the handset is priced at just $100. Keep in mind that you can hardly buy a decent digital camera for that, much less a 5MP one built into a feature-rich mobile device. Not everything in the ZN5 is popping flashbulbs, however - it's only an EDGE phone and the device's video recording and playback are less than cutting-edge. Nonetheless, we will say this: The gizmo's imperfections are all but meaningless compared to its overall value, and especially the quality photos it produces." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:27 PM (EST) |
Cooler Master loves to live up to their name, and that may have been precisely the inspiration behind their High AirFlow (HAF) 932 full tower case which we will be taking a look at for this review. Airflow isn't the only thought factored into this case's design, functionality, affordability, and dare we say it, silence, was as well. The Cosmos S may certainly a beauty of a full size tower, but very few people are willing to spend $250 for a computer case and for good reason. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:25 PM (EST) |
The Antec Skeleton is a desperately frustrating product in so many ways, not least because we’d allowed ourselves to believe it could be something special, that it could prove that open air setups don’t have to just be for benchmarketeers like ourselves and that it really could offer a compelling alternative to the upgrade happy enthusiast. |
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3-1333 Memory Kit Review @ Bigbruin.com |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:24 PM (EST) |
The bottom line on the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3-1333 memory kit is that it offers great performance right out of the box, and for those looking for more, they will gladly oblige. While they may not have the highest stock speed rating, even a novice overclocker should be able to get a few hundred extra MHz out of this kit. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:23 PM (EST) |
"This is one of those polarizing products. You probably already know if you love it, or if you hate it. You know if you want it or wouldn't touch it. You know if you understand what all the features are actually for, or you don't. If you want to go really fast all the time, we would have to currently suggest a Core i7 920 on an ASUS P6T motherboard and some easy BIOS tweaking. If you want to go really freaking super effin blindingly fast some of the time, the Rampage II Extreme looks to be your motherboard. It and a bottle of LN2." |
Wednesday, November 12 2008 |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:19 PM (EST) |
"The 8800GT used to be a good overclocker, as seen in our review of the Asus 8800GT Top earlier this year. I was expecting no less from this XFX card since it's newer and should carry at least some minor component upgrades, even though this one is the vanilla version. I was able to reach a healthy 750 MHz on the core, just 10 MHz under Asus's top end version, although still an impressive 150 MHz over the stock speed. That's a 25% increase, not too shabby since it's basically free extra performance. The GDDR3 clocked up to 1062 MHz, right on par with most GDDR3 overclocks. In order to get the clock speeds of 750 MHz on the GPU core and 1062 MHz on the memory I used an application called RivaTuner, which lets you clock the card high enough not be software limited. As you can see on the GPU-Z screenshot, even at 75% fan speed the card ran quite warm at 81 Celcius, although it was a quieter than a stock cooler set at the same speed." |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:19 PM (EST) |
Home Theater Personal Computers (HTPCs) have been a steadily growing market for nearly a decade now. However, up until the past few years, if you wanted a quality HTPC case you either had to build it yourself, or modify an existing desktop case. While there is certainly some merit to building your own case, most major case manufacturers these days have their own line of cases for just this purpose. Today at Benchmark Reviews, we will look at one of the recent additions to the Antec Veris line-up: the Antec MicroFusion Remote 350 Mini HTPC Enclosure. After a thorough inspection of the exterior and interior features, we'll put it through its paces with a full range thermal performance benchmarks. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:19 PM (EST) |
"Raidmax delivers a hard blow to the competition with the Iceberg case. The exterior is very appealing in design as well as function. One of my favorite attributes is the use of the top of the case for the Power / Reset buttons along with USB / FireWire and audio. The Blue LED's are neither here nor there for me, some will like them, some will replace them. " |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:18 PM (EST) |
“Since living in big cities became fast, need for small and easy portable devices grew over time and manufacturers are trying to satisfy those needs. On the market of music and portable music players, compact and ultra-portable solutions become popular than ever. If you find yourself as trendy person that likes to be surrounded with good sound, without need of occupying whole car trunk with good speakers, than Altec Lansing has a solution to your problem. Depending on your needs, solution in this case can be models: FX3020, iMV712 and T612…” |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:18 PM (EST) |
"Corsair HX1000W is a 1,000 W power supply with six 6/8-pin auxiliary cables for video cards (four on the modular cabling system and two coming directly from inside the unit), modular cabling system, solid aluminum capacitors, dual-transformer design and with the manufacturer saying that it can really deliver 1,000 W at 50º C. Let's see if this is true and if this is a good product." |
Overclocked Radeon HD 4870 X2 Shoot-Out: ASUS, MSI @ HotHardware.com |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:18 PM (EST) |
That’s what happened with the Radeon HD 4870 X2. At launch, just about every Radeon HD 4870 X2 available at retail had the exact same features and specifications. But more recently, a few board partners have introduced factory overclocked variants that take the performance of what is already the fastest graphics card available up a notch. We’ve actually got two of them in house, the Asus EAH4870X2 TOP and the MSI R4870X2-T2D2G-OC. |
Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe - HD 4870 X2 2048 MB @ techPowerUp |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:17 PM (EST) |
Palit's new Revolution 700 Deluxe is the first graphics card that occupies three slots in your PC. The massive cooling assembly successfully increases overclocking performance, lowers temperature and reduces fan noise. But is that good enough to beat the AMD reference design? |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:17 PM (EST) |
"Adata has really surprised us all with their XPG Tri-Channel DDR3-1600 3Gb kits. Although these kits are Adata's PLUS (+) Series aimed at the mainstream desktop market, its performance is quite astonishing. When it comes to performance, these Adata XPG Tri-Channel DDR3-1600 3Gb kits are extremely good. What's more they offer pretty good overclocking ability too ... " |
Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ 850W Review @ Tech-Reviews.co.uk |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:17 PM (EST) |
One often overlooked component when building the ultimate gaming computer is the power supply. Reasoning for this is because the core components, CPU, RAM and Graphics Card are usually decided first leaving little or no budget for the PSU. In the past, a low-end power unit was normally fine; however with the newer and more power-hungry components which entail many of our systems, a beefier and more stable PSU is a must-have in achieving the ultimate stable gaming machine. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:16 PM (EST) |
The Vidabox Wireless Media Keyboard is a welcome addition to my new entertainment center. The Vidabox eliminates having to get up off the couch maneuver around a table and whatever else I have on the floor to get a hold of the wired keyboard I was using. And not only is it a keyboard but there is a laser mouse embedded right in the unit. The Vidabox keyboard is gearing up to be the ultimate input device for anybody running a HTPC. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:16 PM (EST) |
The transfer from traditional type computer cases to media centres and remote controlled equipment is rapidly occurring. There is much more emphasis on the style and ability for an encasement to suit the living room rather than an office. Consequently, whole operating systems have been designed to provide the user with the perfect media platform. |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:16 PM (EST) |
"I've got arguably one of the best keyboards on the market for review today the Das Keyboard or The Keyboard, in other words THE Keyboard of keyboards! The Das Keyboard is more than a keyboard, it might be considered a work of art actually, it's very nice to look at with its high gloss finish and blue LED indicators. Looks aren't everything though as we all know, under the keys are Cherry brand gold-plated key switches to provide tactile and audible feedback while typing which provide a typing experience that has to be experienced to be understood." |
Posted by Nathan @ 8:15 PM (EST) |
So today I bring you the Whisper. Built by NZXT, this chassis gives us users a large interior, exceptional noise damping abilites (by utilizing a sound dampening foam rubber throughout the entire interior), makes cable management easy by separating the motherboard and CD/DVD drive area into one chamber and by putting the PSU and HDD's in another. It does all this, while at the same time giving this chassis a stylish look that we will be proud of to show off to our friends and family. |
Tuesday, November 11 2008 |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:08 PM (EST) |
The T-Rad2 should be a gamer or even a quiet PC users best friend. I currently have numerous cards from Nvidia and ATI and all of them suffer from very loud fans that need to be conquered. If Thermalright chose to build the T-Rad2 like they do their processor coolers we just may have a winner here. The T-Rad2 is built around six nickel-plated heat-pipes and a series of aluminum fins that form a platform. The platform can support either a single 120mm or dual 92mm fans. We will take the first option and see how well this new cooler performs. |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:07 PM (EST) |
The OCZ Behemoth Regulator is a classic cloth mouse pad with ample size and good feel for the casual gamer. The price of less than 10 US Dollars should make this an interesting buy. |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:07 PM (EST) |
The last gaming mice we came across from Logitech were the G5 and G7 and it has been around 2 years since. Recently, Logitech added to the line-up and we have with us today, the Logitech G9 Laser. We'll judge how this rodent fares in general everyday and intense gaming use. |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:06 PM (EST) |
Well, I honestly have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the performance and features of the HD4550. It comes with every feature and accessory you could want for a HTPC setup and even handles games fairly well. At around $60 US you easily get your money's worth and more. |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:06 PM (EST) |
A few weeks ago, we took a look at Coolmax’s 950W PSU and were impressed by the quality and stable voltages. Coolmax also offers a 750W PSU, the Coolmax RM-750B 750W PSU, which they claim has a high level of performance with a lower price point. Will the reduced power prove to be too much of a sacrifice? Let’s find out as we take a closer look at this power supply. |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:06 PM (EST) |
"At the end of the day we would have preferred to see less ripple and more consistent voltage. While the power supply is by no means bad, we do not recommend pairing it with a monstrous tri-SLI system. With that said, we strongly believe that this power supply is perfect for a system built on a budget of $1200 or less. Corsair has always made solid products, and we are definitely not worried about this one faltering or failing under the load such a system would pose." |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:05 PM (EST) |
"The LS series power supplies from BFG are middle of the road units. They have all fixed cable units (as opposed to modular cable units on the MX series) and feature four 12V rails cooled with a single 135mm fan. The GS series are positioned to be lower wattage and lower budget units with a 120mm fan, while the ES line feautures a 135mm fan and leads the pack in wattage and efficiency due to its Frequency Conversion technology. But we're not here to explore everything about BFG, so let's focus on the task at hand: the LS-680W power supply." |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:05 PM (EST) |
"Asus have produced yet another great product. The performance, features and overclocking ability is excellent. I really can't fault it ... except for price. But what makes the Asus P6T Deluxed so appealing and attractive is the fact that you'll be owning one of the best performing motherboard available on the market." |
Intel Core i7 965EE, i7 940, i7 920 Review @ Motherboards.org |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:04 PM (EST) |
The Key features of the new CPUs include the return of Intel's famous HyperThreading technology, meaning that the CPUs can work on 8 threads at the same time, double that of the Core 2 Quad CPUs that were the top of the line CPU in the previous generation. The new CPUs are faster in applications that take advantage of multiple cores, which means that programs installed on your computer that can take advantage of multi-core technology will run much faster. As of now the 920 is slated to hit the streets for $284 in a few weeks. The hardcore gamer wanting the most out of their Core i7 CPU will want the 965 which will run $999, a bit higher in price, but for those who must have the best at the moment this is it folks. |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:04 PM (EST) |
QNAP TS-209 Pro II Turbo NAS is an all-in-one, high performance NAS server designed for storage-hungry modern business and SOHO users to save, back up, manage, and share data. It also satisfies the needs of modern business for centralized data management and brings more value-added features plus the hardcore home network users. |
Blu-Ray Performance - Intel X4500HD Versus Radeon 4830 Part 2 @ Legit Reviews |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:03 PM (EST) |
"Many Blu-Ray movies use VC-1 and Shoot 'Em Up just happens to be one of those titles and it has DTS-HD MasterAudio 7.1 for audio. The Intel DG45ID motherboard with X4500HD integrated graphics averaged 29% CPU usage with the broken BIOS and 14% with the fixed BIOS installed on the system. The ATI Radeon HD 4830 graphics card had on average 11% CPU usage, which is 22% less than the integrated graphics." |
CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB DDR3 PC3-12800 1600Mhz Ram @ TestFreaks.com |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:03 PM (EST) |
"Today I've got a set of DDR3 ram from Corsair, it's the XMS3 DHX PC3-12800 Ram or 1600Mhz ram. The DHX stand for Dual-path Heat Exchange that the ram features in the form of essentially a three piece heatspreader, one of each side over the ram ship and one between that actually helps keep the PCB cool as well. I ran the set through my battery of tests and it fully dominated all of them, it even easily runs at a lower latency of Cas8 which netted me a nice performance gain as well. So read on… " |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:03 PM (EST) |
“Today we're looking at the ABS/Tagan 700 BZ power supply, a unit that makes big promises. You may not be very familiar with Tagan, as they are more well-known in European markets but have only recently begun to make inroads in to the North American market. They have established themselves as a respected brand in Europe, so let's take a look at the BZ 700 and see what it brings to the table today.” |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:02 PM (EST) |
"If you've been waiting to buy a new laptop and aren't scared to spend a little bit of money, the Apple MacBook Pro for 2008 is a seriously sleek and powerful machine." |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:02 PM (EST) |
"Mushkin's slogan is "Get More". Did I? Why, yes, yes I did. At stock speeds, the Mushkin modules consistently performed almost identically the same as most of the 2x1GB sets. This, while running looser latencies to do it. Most of the 2x1GB kits are able to reduce the latencies to 6-5-5-16 at 1333MHz, but I was unable to make this happen on the HP3 10666 2x2GB set. But in reality, the addition of two gigabytes of additional system memory makes this a non-issue for day-to-day use. 'Feel' is something that is hard to explain, but most of you know just what I am talking about. Programs respond that little bit quicker, games load just that little bit faster, all things that you can feel but are not easily measured. Adding more system memory does this for you. If you run Vista, many of you know the amount of resources that are eaten up by all the background services. Running with just two gigabytes, means that eventually the requested memory is going to have to be paged out to the swap file and this of course takes longer to respond than having the physical memory available." |
Posted by Nathan @ 6:01 PM (EST) |
Computer speakers are okay for when you are at home at the desktop and headphones are okay for those times when everyone at home is asleep or when the noise might bother others during routine activities. But what do you do if you don't want to lug around a set of full sized headphones but don't want to sacrifice sound quality? |
Monday, November 10 2008 |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:36 AM (EST) |
"RIM has released the BlackBerry Bold 9000 on the AT&T network, which has been delayed for several months. It's finally here, so TechReviewSource.com has written a full review that details everything from the beautiful screen to the redesigned interface and new BlackBerry OS version. The full QWERTY keyboard, multimedia features, and long battery life make it a smart phone worth buying even if you're just an average user." |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:36 AM (EST) |
Core i7 is here and Intel is going to be pushing this as the new enthusiast processor platform. We have already taken a look at two of their three models released to the market, the Core i7 920 and Core i7 965. Both have proven themselves to be a very impressive processor and are quite easily capable of taking over where Core 2 leaves off. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:36 AM (EST) |
“From the first moment we took new Smartphone from RIM Company into our hands it was obvious how it got its name: Bold. Basic design resembles its older brother Curve. Elegant and business oriented design will impress almost everyone. Somewhat bigger dimensions than Curve are consequence of bigger screen and frame made of metal alloy. All used materials are top-quality with no gaps and squeaking sounds or problems with breaching light…” |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:35 AM (EST) |
Manufacturers like Nvidia and ATI have perfectly seeded this changed market with a plethora of graphics cards which won't put you out of your rent money since they focus on a "bang for buck" factor everyone seems to be happy with. Let's be honest, the $150 to $250 price range is the place to be right now as evidenced by the massive number of products all clustered within a mere $100 price bracket. ATI has their new HD 4830 and HD 4850 while Nvidia has the 9600 GT, 9800 GT and 9800 GTX+. Most of these cards have been reviewed by Hardware Canucks but there has always been one notable absentee: the 9800 GTX+. |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:35 AM (EST) |
"Where the Xonar D1 takes off into orbit is with multi-channel audio! The implementation of Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Speaker work a lot better than Creative's CMSS-3D. This means that games and movies sound incredible from headphones, something that is important if you like to play games or watch movies late at night. I do, that's why I bought reference headphones and made my own headphone amplifier, so that I can enjoy high quality audio at any time of the day. With the Xonar D1, I can now enjoy high quality surround sound at unsociable hours. The EAX implementation, in the form of DS3D GX, is not exactly as good as Creative's hardware EAX, but it comes close, and I prefer the Xonar's Dolby Headphone + DS3D GX to the X-Fi's CMSS-3D + EAX. You would laugh if you saw me during this review, regularly trying to turn my speaker amplifier down in fear of waking the neighbours, when I was actually listening to headphones!" |
Posted by Nathan @ 5:35 AM (EST) |
Silicon Power is a rather unknown player in the North American marketplace, despite having numerous products available to the retail market. Not very long ago, Benchmark Reviews tested the first-generation Silicon Power SATA SSD. In that article we found ourselves torn between performance that left some room for improvement, and the press release announcement that Silicon Power had a new SATA-II SSD product ready to launch. As fortune would have it, we didn't have to wait very long to see if the marketing hype was true. In this article, the Silicon Power 32GB SLC SATA-II SSD SP032GBSSD750S25 receives benchmark testing and gets compared against a dozen other high-performance Solid State Drives. |
Sunday, November 9 2008 |
A company called: Functional Product Design now makes the PC Add-A-Fan Model 120. This system allows the creation of a metal lattice for adding additional fans to your PC. Basically it is an erector set for your PC. |
Radius Atomic Bass Aluminum Earphones (black) @ TestFreaks.com |
Once such company is Radius, they're based out of the United States and selling quality, affordable, Japanese designed Earphones. I've got the Radius Bass Aluminum Earphones for review today an the first thing I noticed about these was their odd shape, the second thing I noticed was that they seemed very well made, the third thing I noticed was the price, coming in at about $40 they can truly fit into anyone's budget. Are they any good? Read on to learn my impressions of these earphones… |
