Thursday Reviews

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A few months ago, I reviewed a DDR3 kit from Kingston that supported 1800MHz operation at fairly fast timings. It was criticized by some that the modules did not include XMP information to aid in easy system setup. Fast forward to the current market and the KHX14400D2K2/2GX delivers XMP support.

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Just a few weeks ago, the Radeon HD 4850 was released and with it came a huge boost of performance for the price. The 4870 is the highend version of the RV770 series of GPU released from AMD. Sapphire provided a card for this review and the Radeon HD 4870 is here.

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You are probably like most people when they go on vacation and use a digital camera with a few memory cards. It would be great if you didn't need a computer all the time to constantly backup your photos. The MS1U from Sans Digital is billed as a digital photo bank and it does just that. It takes a laptop (IDE) hard drive and converts it into portable storage for your memory cards.

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ASE Labs prides itself on giving you fair and honest reviews for all types of computer products. This is one of the reasons that ASE Labs has been around for over seven years and keeps going strong. Today ASE Labs has the Eagle Tech N-Series Pro Serial ATA to USB2 Hard Drive Enclosure on the review bench. The fair and brutally honest review follows.

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* As we've seen with many reviews of mouse pads they can be an important part of a gamers arsenal of ultimate ownage. Nova have been making high quality gaming surfaces for over 15 years by now they should have gotten good at it. Their latest series of mouse pads has been much revered by gamers around the world so lets see how the biggest, therefore best - because of course size is what's most important - pad in this series fairs under a normal gamer's scrutiny.

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Back in June we were first to deliver Radeon HD 4850 benchmarks on Linux just after the new high-end ATI/AMD GPUs were launched. We were also successful in using the Radeon HD 4850 with an open-source driver and had exclusively shared that CrossFire support is coming to Linux along with a horde of other improvements. These new Linux features are coming soon, but today we are looking at a new Radeon HD 4850 graphics card from Sapphire Technology. The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Toxic 512MB ships with a performance-oriented Zalman cooler and it also comes factory overclocked.

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For over two years, Cooler Master has awed members of the media at trade shows like CES and Computex with their CSX line of premium cases. CSX cases are part of a calibration between Cooler Master and Smooth Creations, a private company specializing in applying show quality automotive finishes to consumer electronics. 'Till now, Cooler Master has held on to their limited production cases with a tight grip; some costing as much as 1200 U.S. Dollars. Media samples were non-existent so coverage of the products has been limited to the snap shots thrown in from event coverage.

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As hard drives become bigger, the possibility of fragmentation increases. Using innovative technologies that work behind the scenes, your hard drives will never succumb to fragmentation slow down with Diskeeper 2008 on duty. Some of these components have impressive names such as: InviTasking Technology, I-FAAST 2.0, Frag Shield 2.0. Today I will look at the Professional version of this degfragmenting software.

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Thecus' N5200 PRO NAS device holds up to five drives internally in any RAID configuration desired for maximum safety. With plenty of features and a modular design, when it comes to both hardware and software, it fits anyone's needs. As the N5200 PRO uses a fast 1.5 GHz CPU it has serious potential to stomp the competition.

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With the changing face of computing someone needed to come up with a fast, easy, hot swappable method of docking hard drives to a desktop or laptop that doesn't involve seating it in an enclosure or case, yet provide enough protection to read or write to the drive then move on to the next drive easily. Thermaltake decided to fill that need and designed their BlacX line of docking stations. We felt the need for this type of storage so when we got the chance to test the Thermaltake BlacX SE we were ready to see if it would fit the bill.

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You can't really put a label on this motherboard or designate it for any particular kinds of users. There are far too many useful features that you don't find on your typical budget motherboards. And while many professional motherboards also tend to offer the bare essentials, that's not what you get here. At this price, you can't go wrong if you're on a budget and really want a good quality motherboard. It's going to be really tough topping this one with anything else.

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The BlueAnt Supertooth 3 handsfree Bluetooth speakerphone provides a safer, legal alternative to talking on your cell phone while you drive. Voice prompts provide assistance to help you connect the device with your phone and upload your address book. With up to 15 hours of talk time and a charge time of just 3 hours is this Bluetooth speakerphone right for you? Read on to find out!

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We've literally loved everything about the HD 4850 since its release. The only thing that worried me was the high temperatures coming out from behind the card. While the stock single slot cooler is an excellent choice, it simply isn't going to do as good a job as dual slot coolers with bigger fans. Sapphire has not only chosen to include aftermarket cooling on the card, but also to take it a step further by overclocking the bad boy. With two in hand today, we will be looking at both single and Crossfire performance. Before we get into that, though, let's have a quick look at the package and the actual cards.

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When people think about PCs the first thing that strikes their mind is often the CPU. Currently Intel and AMD are the major players in the desktop segment and we recently posted a guide to Intel CPUs and now it's time for AMD processors. In it, we give an overview of where AMD sit at the moment with their current line of processors. There's so many tags in the naming scheme for AMD CPUs - and this article explains them.

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Quote: The Sapphire Radeon HD4870 512MB graphics card may look just like a unit from the HD3870 series, but it is a top of the line model offering a PCI Express X16 interface, a 750MHz core clock, and 900MHz GDDR5 memory which makes things very interesting thanks to the greatly increased bandwidth (in comparison to GDDR3 and GDDR4).

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The Vantec NexStar 3i External Hard Drive Enclosure incorporates power saving modes to help save power and prolong the life of hard drives. It operates in three power saving modes: idle, stand by, and power down; all of which are automatic. The USB connectivity provides high data transfer rates on hard drives with up to 1TB of data. The small design of the NexStar 3i takes up very little desk space and even keeps cool with an aluminum case. Read on further to see how it performs.

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Lexar's new entry level 8 GB SDHC card is quite unique. It is both reasonably priced and offers really good performance for a Class 2 card. Actually the card surpasses the Class 2 requirements in our testing. At around $50 quite a nice achievement.

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Quote: Ultra Portable laptops have reached new levels of usability and even shrunk in size recently. What Asus started with its introduction of the EeePC other manufacturers have continued and introduced their versions of the now popular Netbooks. We take a look at one of the nicest designs on the market right now with HP's 2133. This all aluminum masterpiece would fit right in on the show room floor and gives its owner just the right asthetics and feel. But we test out the engine under the hood in addition to the fit and finish of the 2133. Find out what our inspection showed.

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You can see all manner of designs and technology these days on CPU coolers ranging from the weird and wonderful, to the more conservative and stylish. But it is the technologies behind the cooling that matters the most to any hardware enthusiast. One technology that has offered impressive performance in the past is the HDT design, where the heatpipes actually touch the CPU. This should deliver greater and faster dissipation due to increased contact between the heat transport components, in this case the heatpipes and the core. One product that has this tech and wishes to use it to create some hopefully great results, is the Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer. Lets take this one for a spin and see how its does.

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DDR3 has been progressing slowly, but at a steady pace and it's not looking like stopping. While the JEDEC officially only supports 1333MHz DDR3 on its records, Intel has gone a step further; something we wouldn't have expected them to do. They've pushed the boundaries of DDR3 by introducing the XMP profiles that allow speeds of 1600MHz and very soon 1800MHz on its X38 and X48 chipsets with DDR3 memories. While this may seem quite impressive, it's still not enough; not when the 2000MHz barrier is in sight and quite a few companies are pushing to reach it. Corsair says it has managed to hit speeds well beyond that.

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AMD has finally released the AMD 790GX chipset for enthusiasts around the world. The AMD 790GX chipset is designed for performance gamers and multimedia enthusiasts alike, and promises to deliver outstanding gaming as well as full HD video performance. With the AM2+ processor in mind the AMD 790GX Chipset along with the ATI Radeon HD 3300 graphics core provides awesome gaming compatibility and fantastic multimedia capabilities right out of the box at an ultra competitive price.

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We saw the 9800 GTX+ launch a little bit back, but samples have been scarce and stock has been even harder to get a hold of. It's been a while since we've seen a card be a paper launch, but it seemed the 9800 GTX+ was exactly that. It was designed to help draw attention away from the release of the new AMD cards. Today we're not only looking at a standard GTX+, but the overclocked model from ASUS that comes in under the TOP naming scheme. Let's have a quick look at the package and the card along with what ASUS has done with the core, shader and memory clock.

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There are two kinds of computer enthusiasts in this world: those with a personal connection to the system motherboard, and those who simply refer to the part as a computer mainboard. For overclockers, the relationship with a well-designed motherboard can mean love or hate, and no two parts are alike. The motherboard is, after all, the foundation of every computer, and the importance is central to stable system operation. No matter if you are a low-demand office worker who plugs away on letters or spreadsheets every day or if you are a high-performance hardware enthusiast who demands extreme frame rates from your video games, one component alone will determine your ability: the motherboard. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 Ultra-Durable 2 DES motherboard against our harsh overclocking demands.

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* *Following up the X48TurboTwins-WiFi, ASRock continues with the philosophy of catering to the mid-range and high-end (enthusiast) markets with a board utilizing another new Intel chipset, the P45R2000-WiFi. The latest from ASRock is based off the popular Intel P45 chipset, a follow up of the P35 chipset, and allows for high speed DDR3 memory support along with two PCIE2.0 slots for your CrossFire needs. Along with the latest and greatest chipset, the board hosts a number of innovative features such as support for 1600 and 1333 FSB processors out of the box as well as hybrid DDR2 and DDR2 memory compatibility. *

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* *The Big Typhoon VX is...well....Big. You're not going to want to try and jam this into a small case, but it should easily fit in any mid or full case with no problems. The big advantage of a big cooler likes this that uses a nice big 120mm fan is that at low speeds (1300 RPM), it's going to be very quiet (~16dBA). When you crank the fan up to full speeds of ~2000 RPM, you can hear it, but it is moving a ton of air (86 CFM) so if you need that extra cooling for a big overclock, the Big Typhoon VX can help you out. . .*

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The iPhone 3G is mostly what we were hoping for in the second version of the too-popular-for-itself handset. Apple addressed call quality concerns, as well as demands for a faster Web experience via 3G and corporate email support, already making it a worthwhile upgrade for many first-gen iPhone owners. And while the addition of stereo Bluetooth and Assisted-GPS are mere catch-ups to other smartphones, the new App Store boosts it way ahead. We're a little disappointed that the iPhone 3G still lacks video recording, and we'd like a user-replaceable battery and expandable storage, but overall it's a thoroughly satisfying phone and iPod.

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OCZ is offering a full line-up of DDR3 memory. Their Platinum Series was always known for their great price/performance ratio and this Enhanced Bandwidth kit is no different. It offers tighter timings at 1600 MHz than the competition, at a lower price point. So can it give us some serious bang for our buck?

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External HDD Enclosures are plentiful and cheap these days. It's tough for a manufacturer to differentiate its products in the marketplace, and the competition on price is never-ending. Silverstone Technology has introduced a new product that is completely unique in the market, with a security system that you won't see anywhere else. Instead of relying on passwords to allow access to the encrypted data on the HDD, the SilverStone SST-TS01B uses a small RFID Key to identify an authorized user. This is not new technology, it's in commercial use in other markets, but it's the first time I've seen it used to unlock an encrypted HDD.

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My latest adventure (you will read about it soon) left me with a few <http://computingondemand.com/> SATA hard drives lying around. With those drives came a great opportunity to incorporate them into an off site storage solution. That being said, I absolutely must do this with some style. Enter the Eagle Tech Consus N-Series Sata to USB enclosure. Eagle Tech has a very industrial feel to their products. The presentation starts with their website and transcends into their products. Hard and soft edges along with some color contrasts bring attention to them aesthetically yet somehow still maintain a simple appearance. Do they offer features to match? The ET-CSNSU2-BK Consus series enclosure is garnished with aluminum side panels, thumb screws, a USB 2.0 (would you expect anything less?) interface, provided USB cable, a power adapter, and an internal SATA interface that supports both SATA 150 and SATA 300.

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This time we have tested a middle-lower class motherboard but nevertheless an interesting model, Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R. Gigabyte was always, at least when it's comes to DS3 series of motherboards, known for simplicity and real good production quality. As far as this model is concerned, there is enough space around CPU socket, so you can very easily mount any cooler. EPS 12V connector is positioned in upper left corner while 24-pin ATX connector for supplying components on motherboard is placed in upper right corner.

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We have been covering the Linux benchmarking scene since 2004, but one area we have never really been satisfied with have been the OpenGL tests that are available. There are now plenty of free software games that are available for benchmarking, but with most of them being based around the open-source Quake 3 engine, they aren't that demanding upon the graphics processor. The ones generally good with stressing the graphics capabilities of the system are the id Software games (Doom 3, Quake 4, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars) with native Linux clients. Under the workstation umbrella, there is just SPECViewPerf. On the Windows side though there are a number of OpenGL and DirectX games, tech demos, and other benchmarks. Thanks in part to the Phoronix Test Suite, however, we are starting to see a new era of OpenGL benchmarking that are able to stress the graphics card and are visually pleasing.

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Quote: Performance aside the GeForce 9500 GT offers consumers other things like compact size, a quiet cooler and low power consumption. The fact that it doesn't need any additional power connections means that it will make for an easy upgrade for many that don't have a power supply that is able to handle more devices. These strong areas make for great selling points not to mention that the GeForce 9500 GT can run F@H and is CUDA ready for parallel applications. In the future things like GPU video transcoding will be sure to take off and the GeForce 9500 GT can...