Wed Reviews

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Remember that the Tracer series from Crucial is very mature. I even reviewed the original set of black modules last year. These new red modules mark a trend in computing that Crucial is good to follow. The fact of the matter is that people like personalization. I'm guilty of that myself. I know that these modules are hardly better than the normal Ballistix breed, but the fact that it is red and has lights adds something of value to people. Red is my favorite color and I would naturally gravitate to these in a computer I would build.

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Even though my previous reviews on Kingston Technology products were about their flash division, Kingston still is very much an enthusiast RAM company. Their HyperX series now comes in DDR3 at very high speeds. While DDR3 is still very new, Kingston offers a kit that runs at a scathing PC3-14400 which is 1800MHz DDR. The KHX14400D3K2 is on the bench for review.

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Kingston Technology produces all kinds of memory including RAM for a computer to flash memory. Kingston is pushing harder and harder into the consumer flash market. Kingston sent over their high speed SD flash memory for review and the SD2/2GB-U is really fast.

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These modules are rated for operation at DDR3-1600 which is PC3-12800 at 1.8V. The modules have SPD values for lower speeds (DDR3-1066) at JEDEC specs to provide boards the needed initial boot to provide the RAM with the proper voltage and timings. The stock timings at DDR3-1600 are 8-8-8-24. DDR3 latencies are very high compared to DDR2 and should only get better in time. These modules are lead free which helps the environment. Nothing like being green in today's world. I almost forgot that the command rate is 1T which means you get an extra performance boost.

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With the big focus on the environment and how much of a negative impact the 21st century society is having on it, it's not surprising we are seeing things moving towards green. When we refer to green, we aren't talking about the colour, we are taking about measures used to reduce the devastating impact we are having on the environment because of our industrialised society. Computer companies are now starting to take the green initiative very seriously with new production methods to make them more environmentally sound. The first stages have already been implemented with the RoHS designs from GIGABYTE and ASUS, this is accomplished by moving from lead based solder to a totally lead free substitute, thus reducing the overall amount of lead required.

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For Linux distribution vendors, right now is proving to be an awkward time for them as they decide which ATI driver will ship as the default choice in their spring distribution refresh. The problem used to be whether to ship a binary-only driver in the distribution in order to provide "out of the box" support for all available graphics hardware, but on the ATI/AMD side the software distributors are now facing the challenge of which open-source driver they should call the de facto standard. In this article we are briefly looking at the matter of the xf86-video-ati vs. xf86-video-radeonhd drivers, the highly political issue of AtomBIOS, and what some of the popular Linux distributions are deciding to use this spring.

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One of those reputable name brands in today's market is Samsung and today we will be reviewing one of their new SyncMaster 2243BW 22 monitors which is boasted to be an affordable thin bezel monitor which will be enjoyed in the home/office as well as in a gamer's den. Let's see if that claim is true.

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Quote: Rated at 5-5-5-18, the OCZ Technology PC2-8000 Platinum Edition 4GB DDR2 kit is quite impressive in terms of timings, speed, and capacity. Running at 1000MHz it was able to outperform competition in the form of DDR2 from Patriot and DDR3 from OCZ Technology. While overclocked to 1080MHz it was even able to outperform the DDR3 kit running at 1333MHz.

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Noctua has been known for serving up one of the best coolers on the market. I am sure most of us have heard of the NH-U12P. It was one of the top coolers on every website's list. And coupled with their newest fan the NF-P12 there aren't too many coolers that can come close. Now take this cooler and fan and throw in the NT-H1 and you have everything you need to cool that new processor. So do we have another compound that is capable of taking down the old king? We will find out soon.

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Back when Socket A, and later Socket 939, were the preferred platforms for enthusiasts, one motherboard company emerged as the king of overclocking, DFI. DFI's LanParty boards had it all: colorful UV reactive components, excellent BIOS conducive to overclocking, rock-solid stability, and excellent reliability. Today we will be looking at the DFI LanParty UT IFCX3200-T2R/G. It is an LGA775 motherboard powered by the ATI RD600 chipset, and featuring ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 IE. This board has been around for some time but is still available, and at an excellent price, I might add. So rather than spend time comparing it to newer boards with newer chipsets that cost up to triple the price, I am going to attempt to review it on its own merits, and look at it more as an economy board rather than the upper-end board it was a year ago.

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I've never before found myself in the position where I've been this rushed off my feet to get an article online. This afternoon I was e-mailed the Quad SLI Vista Driver! - At the same time, a second 9800 GX2 rocked up in my hot little hands. It was clear what I needed to do. We found ourselves in the IBP bunker sitting in front of a 4GHz Water-cooled system with an SLI capable motherboard and an 8GB Pen Drive in hand with the 174.53 Quad SLI Driver installed. You want results? We've got 'em!

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After introducing the 9000 series with a mid-range graphics card, nVidia gives us a taste of its power with their first high-end 9000 series graphics card. Like AMD\'s 3870X2, the GeForce 9800 GX2 is a dual GPU solution with 1GB frame buffer divided equally amongst the two GPUs. Unlike AMD, nVidia already has some experience with their dual GPU based graphics card- the old 7950GX2 which was certainly a breakthrough product and much liked at our labs. Lets find out what the new GeForce 9800 GX2 brings to the table.