Quote
Bathed in martian sunlight for four days, the white substance sublimated--i.e., it transformed from solid to gas without passing through the liquid state. This is how water behaves on Mars. Atmospheric pressure on the Red Planet is so low (1% that of Earth), it rarely allows H2O to exist in liquid form on the planet's surface; solid and gas are the only options. Some readers have asked, how do we know the white substance is not frozen CO2 (dry ice) instead of frozen water? Answer: Phoenix's landing site is too warm for dry ice. The average daily temperature is about -70 F while dry ice requires temperatures lower than about -109 F.
Quote
As part of the upgrade, all Fios customers will now have access to download speeds of 50 megabits per second and uploads of 20 Mbps for about $140 a month. The company is also offering its symmetrical 20 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload service to all Fios customers for $65 a month.
Verizon had already been offering these speeds in certain markets such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. But now the service will be expanded to Verizon's entire Fios customer base, which is spread throughout its 16-state territory. Previously Fios in these states, such as Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, topped out at 30Mbps/15Mbps and 15Mbps/15Mbps.
Verizon will also upgrade its mid tier offering increasing speeds from 15Mbps/2Mbps to 20Mbps/5Mbps. And the low end service will increase from 5Mbps/2Mbps to 10Mbps/2Mbps.
Quote
The Wine team is proud to announce that Wine 1.0 is now available. This is the first stable release of Wine after 15 years of development and beta testing. Many thanks to everybody who helped us along that long road! While compatibility is not perfect yet, thousands of applications have been reported to work very well. Check http://appdb.winehq.org to see the details for your favorite applications.
Quote
I'm currently engaged in a legal disagreement with the Associated Press, which claims that Drudge Retort users linking to its stories are violating its copyright and committing "'hot news' misappropriation under New York state law." An AP attorney filed six Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown requests this week demanding the removal of blog entries and another for a user comment.
The Retort is a community site comparable in function to Digg, Reddit and Mixx. The 8,500 users of the site contribute blog entries of their own authorship and links to interesting news articles on the web, which appear immediately on the site. None of the six entries challenged by AP, which include two that I posted myself, contains the full text of an AP story or anything close to it. They reproduce short excerpts of the articles -- ranging in length from 33 to 79 words -- and five of the six have a user-created headline.
Quote
While the next generation of graphics cards from ATI are just around the corner, you can get some amazing performance with full open source support for a great price. Some of the readers might also be looking for a silent solution while having good performance and the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Ultimate steps up to provide that. It combines a truly massive heatsink with the powerful 3870 GPU to create a fast and completely silent graphics card for your quiet PC.
Quote
I've always been keen to recommend Crucial in the past when people wanted RAM with a lifetime warranty that works as expected. Not until a few years ago did Crucial start offering their Ballistix overclocking RAM. Fast forward to the new DDR3 days of today and we find a new Ballistix PC3-16000 kit that offers speeds of 2000MHz! You'll be pressed to find a board that can even handle this speed, I know I didn't have one.
Quote
My first orb was the Thermaltake Golden Orb way back when the Abit BP6 was the thing to have. Imagine having to shave a bit of a heatsink off to have it fit on your motherboard. Those were the days when you had to work hard for every once of performance. These days, you can squeeze so much out of new CPUs. Thermaltake has released a brand new orb, the DuOrb. It combines heatpipes and two huge orb coolers.
Quote
Thermaltake makes an entire range of PC supplies including cases, cooling, hardware and much more. The last Thermaltake product I reviewed was the excellent Armor full tower case. Thermaltake is known for making great cases and the M9 looks like a mid tower case with ventilation as its prime agenda. Should the Antec Nine Hundred be worried? Perhaps...
Quote
We mentioned the other day when we reviewed the BFG 9600GT OC2 that BFG had recently expanded its OC line-up with the addition of the OC2 and OCX models. While the 9600GT only goes to OC2, the 9800 GTX is the first model to make use of the OCX naming scheme. The OCX naming is the highest level of overclock from BFG; while the company has been a bit conservative with overclocks over the past year, they felt it's time to kick it up a notch and expand upon the popular OC naming scheme.
Quote
Palit's GeForce 9800 GTX follows the specifications of the NVIDIA reference design to the letter. Even then it is one of the fastest cards out there that you can buy, constantly delivering excellent FPS in games. Our sample allowed up to 16% additional overclocking on the GPU for a final clock speed of 784 MHz.
Quote
In-Win continues to make a name for themselves by releasing excellent cases like the Metal Suit GD. I was impressed by the build quality - every part of the case was solidly constructed; nothing about it felt cheap. It packs in a lot of features like liquid cooling readiness, an internal VGA cooling system, and plenty of drive bays while maintaining a sleek, uncluttered look.
Quote
When the Eee PC was announced many people were excited for it, myself included. The thought of a small 7-inch laptop for under $400 would excite anyone! Now this is a budget notebook so you're not going to be playing games on it, but for most people they do 2 things on their computer, surf the web and word processing. Having a small notebook that can easily be carried and used for those functions for that price tag is pretty amazing. Now the notebook comes with Linux pre-installed, that might be a barrier for some people, but we will have to see how we like it. Read on to check out the ASUS Eee PC!
Quote
Up till now the easiest way to increase the amount of displays was to connect more display adapters to the computer. This may not be possible or cost effective in every situation so Gefen went out and added this new USB to DVI Adapter to their product lineup. This might change our way of dealing with multiple monitors.
Quote
Yuin OK2 is the name of the second best earphone from the Chinese brand Yuin. Unlike their bigger brother these earphones are easy to drive, and are also optimized for use with a normal modern DAP. The OK2s can function both as normal earbuds and as in-ears which makes them quite unique.
Quote
technology and radiation shielding may seem gimmicky, but these great-sounding cans give our trusty Sennheiser HD280 Pro's a serious run for their money. To our ears, they're best suited for applications where sonic accuracy is key; though we'd have virtually no qualms about recommending them for casual as well as critical listening.
Quote
There are a number of interesting things coming out of Computex in Taiwan this week. The two that initially stood out were from AMD's ATI unit and NVIDIA. Both promise a dramatic change in how some of us do things and with only few days to go till the iPhone launch, one of them could redefine the competitive landscape. Let's chat about how these announcements could change our mobile future.
Quote
ThermoLab recently introduced the Micro and Nano Silencer PCT (Power Clamping Technology) CPU coolers aimed at those of want to lower noise levels. 'Power Clamping Technology' is a new technology developed by ThermoLab that helps the heat sink cooling fins make better contact with the heat pipes. Does the technology work? Read on as we look at the ThermoLab Micro Silencer PCT and Nano Silencer PCT on a system running an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor!
Quote
Thermaltake played a large role in the evolution of the water-cooling phenomenon. With their manufacturing capability and R&D teams, the company has made improvements in the quality of components used and the level of skill needed to install a unit successfully. The Thermaltake ProWater 850i is a step above the company's entry level water cooling kits and is a good choice for those looking for stable performance with a low acoustic footprint. The fan is able to crank up to very high speeds, giving overclockers who are less worried about noise and more focused on performance the opportunity to let their system run wild.
Quote
Today. we take a look on MSI's upcoming P45 Diamond motherboard that is equipped with Intel latest EagleLake chipset aka P45. The new chipset brings official support for 1333MHz FSB along with the option to use DDR3-1333MHz. We say option as the chipset also supports DDR2-800MHz and the motherboard manufacturer can decide which way to go. In MSI's case, the P45 Diamond is their highest-end P45 board and thus, it's no surprise to see it equipped DDR3 slots.
Quote
With both AMD and Nvidia readying a new arsenal of videocards, the real battle for GPU supremacy won't be fought until later this summer. In the meantime, gamers are enjoying attractive price points nearly across the board, and unlike days of yesteryear, enthusiasts needn't plunk down $600+ for a high end gaming experience. Remarkably, AMD's HD 3870 has nestled into the $150ish tier, unheard of territory for a higher performance part.
Quote
This article serves only one purpose: test three of the industry's most coveted coolers. Not very long ago Benchmark Reviews published the article Best CPU Cooler Performance - Q1 2008. At the time, the effort we gave in producing our test results seemed well worth the trouble. However, months later we see that there's a lot more to a cooler than just measuring performance with the same common fan. So after even more testing, we now have a full understanding of each CPU coolers individual characteristics and deliver the results to you. Benchmark Reviews is proud to present a three-way fight to the finish: The OCZ Vendetta 2 vs. Thermalright's Ultra-120 eXtreme vs. Xigmatek's HDT-S1283.
Quote
Digital cameras revolutionized the consumer photography scene and it seems that we are currently undergoing a similar revolution in the arena of digital videos. Up until now, most digital camcorders have been too expensive for the average consumer. With products like the Samsung SC-MX10 Flash Memory Camcorder, it just got a heck of a lot easier for Joe Public to transform into the next Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese. Oh, I guess you should have some movie-making talent before you can make that leap.
Quote
The Zalman Reserator XT offers more than your typical external water cooling system. It includes detailed gauges and sensors for the avid water cooler wanting to know what's going on. It also allows, with ease, the support for additional water blocks. Don't worry about remembering to refill this system because it will tell you when it's thirsty. Read on further to see what other features the Reserator XT has to offer.
Quote
AMD's progress of late has been rather slow. With Phenom being initially delayed due to poor clocking, and then being bitten by the TLB bug in its B2 stepping core, AMD's Phenom has been a late bloomer. Although it has now come out of its shell, it's still not able to kick Intel off the performance ladder. Today we are testing out ECS' AMD 780G chipset variant that is designed to replace the 690G chipset which was very popular as a value option. How does ECS' 780G compare to the ASUS 780G we have already tested? Let's take a gander.
Quote
Mistakes happen. We are all human and sometimes we do things we later realize were not the best way to do them. Most of the time these mistakes are small and harmless and sometimes they cost you. In this regard, I am referring to the NVIDIA 780i chipset. Yes, that's right, I called it a mistake. With native PCIe 2.0, eSATA and support for Intel's 1600MHz FSB CPUs, the 790i Ultra is what the 780i should have been, thereby making the 780i a very costly mistake for anyone who purchased one. But like all mistakes, we need to put the past behind us and look forward to better and brighter things. Better and brighter is just what XFX specializes in and with this board they aim to keep the good times rolling. As stated before, this board comes with lots of goodies including PCIe 2.0, on board eSATA, triple-SLI support, DDR3 support, and a sexy black PCB. If that wasn't enough, just wait until you look at all the accessories XFX throws into the mix. Without further ado I present to y! ou the XFX 790i Ultra.
Quote
Quote: No doubt the PNY Verto GeForce 9600 GT was up against some stiff competition when we tested it at a resolution of 2560x1600. Given that the card is a reference model it performed admirably against the GeForce 8800 GT and GTS, and outperformed the Radeon HD 3870 in many of our tests at both resolutions. Considering that currently the Radeon HD 3870 has to have a rebate to match the price of our PNY 9600 GT it's hard to argue against what a great value this card is...
Quote
Few people who pay even scant attention to the technology industry could claim to be shocked by the introduction of a faster iPhone earlier on Monday by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Apple has sold 6 million iPhones since June 2007, Jobs said, and will likely sell a few more once the new model arrives on July 11 with a faster networking chip, GPS capabilities, and a software upgrade that's an IT manager's dream for a mobile device.
Quote
Lawmakers are seeking to address cyberbullying with new legislation because there's currently no specific law on the books that deals with it. A fairly new federal cyberstalking law might address such acts, according to Aftab, but no one has been prosecuted under it yet. The proposed federal law would make it illegal to use electronic means to "coerce, intimidate, harass or cause other substantial emotional distress."
When signed, the Missouri state law will update existing regulations on harassment and stalking to include instances of those acts over the Internet, text message, or other electronic device. It will make cyberbullying punishable by up to four years in jail.
Quote
I've always been keen to recommend Crucial in the past when people wanted RAM with a lifetime warranty that works as expected. Not until a few years ago did Crucial start offering their Ballistix overclocking RAM. Fast forward to the new DDR3 days of today and we find a new Ballistix PC3-16000 kit that offers speeds of 2000MHz! You'll be pressed to find a board that can even handle this speed, I know I didn't have one.
Quote
My first orb was the Thermaltake Golden Orb way back when the Abit BP6 was the thing to have. Imagine having to shave a bit of a heatsink off to have it fit on your motherboard. Those were the days when you had to work hard for every once of performance. These days, you can squeeze so much out of new CPUs. Thermaltake has released a brand new orb, the DuOrb. It combines heatpipes and two huge orb coolers.
Quote
Thermaltake makes an entire range of PC supplies including cases, cooling, hardware and much more. The last Thermaltake product I reviewed was the excellent Armor full tower case. Thermaltake is known for making great cases and the M9 looks like a mid tower case with ventilation as its prime agenda. Should the Antec Nine Hundred be worried? Perhaps...
Quote
Antec steps up to the plate to deliver a brand new case in the "Hundred" series. Betting on the success of the excellent Nine Hundred, Antec has released a lower end model dubbed, the Three Hundred. Known as the " Versatile Case," will the new case stand out from its bigger, badder brother? Probably not, but it is at a better price point that its sibling.
Quote
The USB 2.0 4 Port KVM Auto Switch is an economical option for those who in need of a KVM that can handle a more expansive computing setup. Let's check out this product and see if it is the solution for ones multi-computing needs...
Quote
Quote: The Osiris turned out to be one beautiful case. Hiper has really made an excellent product, with great attention to detail. It appears refined and polished, and in no way comes off as gaudy. No matter what side you look to you will find it blends perfectly with the rest. If you are looking for a clean, easy to work with, extremely well made mid-tower case, you should definitely consider the Osiris.
Quote
The Sugo SG02-F is described as their most affordable case yet and it offers an improved layout over the original SG01. Unlike the revolutionary differences between the SG01 and SG03, the SG02-F is just an evolution of the SG01 design with expanded support for graphics cards and is composed of a steel body. Thanks to these design improvements, this SFF case is capable of handling long graphics cards such as the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 and GeForce 8800 Ultra. The SG02-F is quite similar to the original SG02 except for turning from aluminum to steel construction and some other enhancements. With a price tag under $80 USD, does this case still deliver on the features and exceptional build quality we have become to know and love from this high-end manufacturer or have they cut too many corners to achieve this pricing?
Quote
NVIDIA usually pleases the enthusiast community with their product launches, and no launch has been more memorable lately than the GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS graphic card launch more than eighteen months ago. So when the 9800 GTX product line launched on April 1st, 2008 there was a lot of commotion surrounding the new crown prince. With such a successful debut of the 8800 GTX back in 2006, the level of enthusiast skepticism surrounding the new 9800 GTX was unquestionably high. First came the lower mid-level 9600 GT, and then the ultra-high level GeForce 9800 GX2 which utilized two G92 GPU cores. Yet title of fastest single-GPU video card remains the honor of NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GTX. Benchmark Reviews has already helped launch this product, and now we're back to test the performance of Foxconn's new GeForce 9800 GTX Standard OC Edition 512MB video card 9800GTX-512N.
Quote
I honestly thought that we were running out of letters to use for overclocked 9600GT cards. BFG pretty much has OC and OC2 locked down, Zotac has AMP!, ASUS has TOP and XFX has become tired of just using XXX, now opting for words like Alpha Dog. TwinTech has opted for XXT for its top overclocked 9600GT. It's been ages since we've seen anything from TwinTech, but the last time we looked we were pretty impressed with what they offered.
Quote
* Lenovo tests the waters in the LCD market with a product that we've been waiting quite some time for -- a 22 LCD monitor that offers a 1920 x 1200 native resolution. But is its resolution alone enough reason for you to give the nod to the L220X, or is it worth waiting for other manufacturers to follow?
Quote
Occasionally here at OCIA.net we receive review requests from overseas = companies that we've never heard of before. Such was the case with = computer and home electronics manufacturer NorthQ. Based in Denmark, = NorthQ offers chassis, cooling and power supply products as well as = other electronics for home and car. Today I will be taking a look at = their Siberian Tiger water cooling system for AMD and Intel processors.
Quote
To demonstrate the raw power of Nehalem, Intel first started encoding raw HD footage into 1080p Blu-ray format and while we didn't get any numbers, it handled it without a sweat at all and was on track to complete in record time with solid CPU utilization over all eight threads. Next up we got a look at a program called Deep Viewer which brings a new way at how we could be looing at old photos in the not so distance future. Intel had a monitor setup with touch capabilities and were showing off how Nehalem handled accessing and processing huge amounts of data in terms of photos and mapping in real-time.
Quote
Under the heatsink is a whole lot of GDDR3, which in itself doesn't mean much--you can find a pile of budget cards with a gig of RAM, the extra memory incapable of boosting their meager performance--but the 3870 is plainly able to fill its frame buffer. If it were truly a budget card, it would come off as sheer marketing; with a high-end card like this, it really does make a difference. The last great ATI card was the HD 2900 XT, a spectacular misfire. But despite it's ridiculous power consumption, sub-par video processing, and tremendous heat with the blower to match, it still beat out the 512MB HD 3870. I hoped that this redesigned 3870 would have what it takes to finally put out the year-old performance despot. And it does, in almost every way.
Quote
At this test station these two individuals were individually testing Nano processors at various speeds and temperatures to see if they pass stress testing. If you are curious what Centuar was testing you are in luck. Centaur was checking to see if the VIA Nano CPU's were stable at 1.8GHz at three different temperatures (85C, 5C and then 25C)with 1.1V on production platforms. The processors that pass testing at this stage move along to become VIA Nano L2100 processors, which are the 1.8GHz processors. I was able to see VIA Nano processors get speed binned right in front my eyes...
Quote
How can you not love the 9600GT? It's everywhere. It seems that every company is making at least five different versions of the card; stock clocked, overclocked, 512MB, 1GB, active cooling, passive cooling, dual slot, single slot, HDMI, Display Port, DVI and so much more. It is the card that caters to everyone. GIGABYTE is here today with the heat-pipe version that carries with it 512MB of memory. Silent cards are extremely important to some people, but it was generally limited to low-end models in the past.
Quote
The Samsung HT-X810 was one of the coolest soundbars announced at CES 2008, mostly because of the 5.8GHz wireless subwoofer. That plus Bluetooth connectivity, a USB port, HDMI output, and an on-board DVD/CD player put it ahead of most competitors, and the glossy black styling matches Samsung's HDTV line (especially our 40-incher) perfectly. At nearly $700, it isn't an entry-level product, but it's a lean, mean home theater system that can eliminate a lot of the clutter of more traditional setups.
Quote
If you live in the US, you have probably seen TV commercials about the analog TV signal being switched off in February of 2009. For old home TV sets, there is a converter that can be purchase and the government is even stepping in to help subsidize some of the expenses for the converter. However, for thoes users who mainly use their computer to watch TV via a TV tuner, they may be out of luck unless they upgrade their old TV tuner to a new one that supports digital signals.
Quote
So why not just get two 3870s and rub a little CrossFire into your box? There are two reasons, really. For most people, that's just not an option. Dual-PCI-Express can easily tag a Benjamin onto the price of a motherboard, and, in Micro-ATX land, it's a mythical beast that visits overclockers in their dreams. And there's another thing: regular 3870s get the lower-binned GPUs--the faster-clocking chips go into the X2s. But, lastly, the 3870 promises something else: tri- and quad-CrossFireX. But that begs the initial question: now that the release is behind us, how much awesome stuck to the HD 3870 X2, and how much washed away?
Quote
Up on the review block today is the Super Talent T800UX2GC4 DDR2 PC2-6400 800Mhz 2x1Gb Ram, I'm sure most people are familiar with Super Talent, they makes quite a few products related to memory like USB Drive, SSD Drives and of course regular memory. The ram I have today from them is very sleek looking with it's dark blue heatspreaders, but looks don't mean much if it doesn't perform, so let's just jump right on in and see just how well it does perform...
Quote
Honeywell is not a name you think of when you think of LCD Monitors, actually they are very new into the market. Recently they partnered with Soyo to produce LCD monitors and televisions. We got a chance to take a look at one of their latest LCD's the very affordable Topaz S 24-inch LCD monitor. Now Honeywell has a new LCD that is a more advanced and premium version of the Topaz S. Let's take a look at the Arius 22-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor!
Quote
While most early adopters and Gen Y-ers are used to the idea of watching TV on their PC using services like Bebo, Hulu, Joost or a million alternatives, now the rest of the world is finally catching up. Have yet to join the party? It's about time you tuned in - and upgraded your monitor to really enjoy all of these groovy options as they're meant to be experienced. Thankfully, Dell's new Ultra-Sharp 2408WFP 24-inch widescreen flat panel monitor can help.
Quote
Quote: The comfort level of the Discovery 925 is incredibly nice. After finding the right size to wear, you start to wonder why manufacturers haven't come up with a similar design yet. A friend of mine who has small ears and has always had problems wearing in-the-ear type of headsets was able to fit the Discovery 925 with no problems at all. It doesn't matter if you are left-ear or a right-ear Bluetooth wearer, you can switch between ears with ease. Some headsets like the Jawbone require you to physically change the hardware for this basic switch. After using the 925 for a few days, there is no way I want to go back to the ancient fit of an ear hook like the Jawbone or deep in the ear canal of the Gennum. These headsets are great performers, but their fit is not as comfortable, free and versatile as the 925...
Quote
Quote: The FZ120 Zen does what I believe ZEROtherm wanted it to do, and it does a great job. It has performance very close to that of the Nirvana, is quieter than the Nirvana, and is cheaper than the Nirvana. The Zen can be found for $39 + shipping, and that's a steal. With a price like that the Zen is an inexpensive upgrade for anyone, and is almost (depending where you shop) $15-20 cheaper than its bigger brother, the Nirvana...
Quote
Quote: The ECS A780GM-A Black Series AMD 780G motherboard wound up being quite interesting. It offers quite a few appealing features, such as a back panel full of useful connections, onboard HD audio and video with HDMI output, an integrated RAID controller, support for AMD's Hybrid CrossFire and their new Phenom processors. With such a selection of goodies onboard, the relatively low price initially seems too good to be true.
Quote
Recently, ASUS was among the first companies to put a pair of ATI HD 3850s on a single graphics card, for a more affordable dual-GPU experience. I reviewed a Radeon HD 3850 (single GPU) earlier this year, and was very impressed with it.performance just shy of an 8800GT at $100 less. A pair on one card should be an awesome experience. Today I will be looking at the ASUS EAH3850 X2 1GB, twin 3850s with 512MB each, one of the few on the market. Will it meet my dual-3850 expectations? How will it compare to the 9800GTX, nVidia's top of the line single-GPU card? Read on and see!
Quote
Intel has four new desktop chipsets to show off from this year's Computex trade show in Taiwan. The G45 and the G43 focus on HD video playback by way of a new Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD integrated graphics chip. The P45 brings support for faster memory and is the first mainstream Intel-made chipset with two graphics card slots. A scaled-down P43 chipset rounds out the new 4 Series. All of the chipsets use Intel's familiar LGA 775 processor interface, which means support for Intel's Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad desktop CPUs. Intel has also added a 1,333MHz front side bus to each chipset, as well as support for DDR3 RAM, as well as DDR2 or DDR3 RAM at speeds up to 1,333MHz.
Quote
Intel's 32Gb chip will enable more cost-effective SSDs, "instantly doubling the current storage volume of these devices and driving capacities to beyond 256GB in today's standard, smaller 1.8-inch form factor," Intel said in a statement. Intel SSDs will be "introduced and ramped" in the second half of this year, said Pete Hazen, director of marketing for Intel's NAND Products Group The 32Gb chip marks a big step up from the 16Gb technology Intel introduced about a year ago. At that time, Intel announced a 50nm process. "This product is essentially the same die (chip) size as our 50nm product but double the density," said Hazen.
Quote
My first orb was the Thermaltake Golden Orb way back when the Abit BP6 was the thing to have. Imagine having to shave a bit of a heatsink off to have it fit on your motherboard. Those were the days when you had to work hard for every once of performance. These days, you can squeeze so much out of new CPUs. Thermaltake has released a brand new orb, the DuOrb. It combines heatpipes and two huge orb coolers.
Quote
Thermaltake makes an entire range of PC supplies including cases, cooling, hardware and much more. The last Thermaltake product I reviewed was the excellent Armor full tower case. Thermaltake is known for making great cases and the M9 looks like a mid tower case with ventilation as its prime agenda. Should the Antec Nine Hundred be worried? Perhaps...
Quote
Antec steps up to the plate to deliver a brand new case in the "Hundred" series. Betting on the success of the excellent Nine Hundred, Antec has released a lower end model dubbed, the Three Hundred. Known as the " Versatile Case," will the new case stand out from its bigger, badder brother? Probably not, but it is at a better price point that its sibling.
Quote
It has been a very long time since a graphics card has passed by the review bench of ASE Labs. Sapphire steps up to the plate with their release of the Radeon HD3870 Toxic Edition that hopes to earn some of your hard earned cash. With AMD's support of open source, the ATI partners are in a good position to conqueror the Linux market and the future to bright. Sapphire is the biggest producer of ATI cards and we will see how their product performs.
Quote
The Altair A380 is an affordable slim HTPC case, with a very clean look coupled with a very durable construction. The included power supply is 80 Plus certified and can easily power today's mATX boards with multi core CPUs. Also included is an infrared remote control which is compatible with Windows Vista.
Quote
The Intel P45 boards will sport a die shrink of the onboard components to 65nm as opposed to the previous 90nm standard. This die shrink would lead us to expect less power consumption as well as improved power efficiency. The P45 also offers official support for PCIe 2.0 with more adaptable lanes to help better support the use of multiple GPUs based on the CrossFire architecture. The P45 based boards will feature the new ICH10 series southbridge, which is extremely close in its feature set to its ICH9 brethren, but the primary difference between the two is the ICH10 series has removed LPT and legacy PATA support entirely. While not officially offering support for the new 1600 MHz FSB processors we have it on good authority that most of the P45 boards will support these chips.
Quote
ZEROtherm has really made a name for themselves over the past year. The last 3 products we reviewed from them scored very high and all of them have received awards. But there are still people who have not heard of them. Well ZEROtherm has announced a new cooler, the ZEN FZ 120, which they were kind enough to send us. Will it perform up to what we have grown to expect from ZEROtherm? Read on to find out...
Quote
The 80GB Zune has undeniable cool factor, given its big screen and built-in WiFi. But rather than trumping the competition, it falls in that gray area between the somewhat ho-hum iPod Classic and the rip-roaring iPod Touch. We applaud Microsoft for trying to make the hardware and software as un-Microsoft (read: user-friendly) as possible, but even this second-gen model has some kinks that need working out. And although we love the wireless sync and recently upgraded song-sharing features, we hope future generations will include more practical WiFi features like a Web browser.
Quote
The T-Power N750 comes loaded with features and accessories. BIOS options leave nothing to be desired by even the most adventurous overclocker, giving a solid platform for AMD fans. I love the package of accessories and software included and NVIDIA finally brings PCI Express 2.0 support to SLI configs for AMD CPUs. While onboard video is less than stellar, adding a high end video card will allow for some energy savings.
Quote
While the RadeonHD developers have been busy working on Radeon HD 3200 / 780 Series support and other features for this open-source ATI R500/600+ driver, the DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) support has been lagging behind. Earlier this month Matthias Hopf was successful in getting DRM working on an RS690 GPU and he has published RadeonHD DRM code into his personal development tree, but no code has yet to reach master. Meanwhile, as the xf86-video-ati driver is using AtomBIOS, they are able to spend more time working on the 3D features and other areas and less time banging on registers or even waiting on register documentation to arrive. David Airlie has been working on the R500 3D support along with Alex Deucher and Corbin Simpson. The trio has been making some great headway towards open-source 3D goodness for Radeon X1000 and HD 2000/3000 GPUs. Their most recent efforts have focused around the R500 fragment program code and today they have reached a monumental milestone.
Quote
With more and more emphasis being put on the cooling proficiency and the quietness of cooling products, many people are beginning to look try different ways to keeping their PC chilled at a reasonable noise level. One of the most popular methods is to purchase a passive cooler, I.E. one without a fan. But can these fanless coolers really live up to their fan-covered ancestors? That's the question that begs to be answered, so Coolermaster have sent me the Z600 to check out.
Quote
The Hypersonic Avenger AG2 notebook was just launched on May 22nd, 2008, but that doesn't mean we haven't had a sample for well over a month now. The Hypersonic Avenger AG2 notebook is the same thing as the Clevo M72R notebook, so Hypersonic was able to get a production sample in our hands before they officially started to carry this recently released 12.1 notebook. This gave us the chance to do a long term test drive, which is something we rarely get to do in the fast paced computer industry. For the past month we have used the Hypersonic Avenger AG2 as our traveling notebook...
Quote
MSI held its ECOlution press conference in Taipei this afternoon and it was quite an upbeat event with fancy green dancers, attended by a sizeable audience of local Taiwanese press. It seems a tad strange for MSI to hold a press event of this size just one week before the Computex trade show begins in Taipei but there was plenty for us to see early before the show begins. In the following posts we will show you plenty of shots of the WIND notebook and WIND PC along with a bunch of other goodies which focus on power saving and monitoring.
Quote
Quote: The Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR3-1600 dual channel memory kit wound up surprising me. While I didn't expect it to perform poorly, I did not anticipate that it would keep up with similar kits with tighter timings. Despite being rated for 1600MHz at 9-9-9-28 timings, it managed to perform on par with other kits with timings of 8-8-8-34 and 7-7-7-18.
Quote
Today marks our first look at the heatpipe tower design. This design isn't relatively new to the industry but is different from what we have become used to here at ModSynergy. Regular coolers have a fan that blows downward on the heatpipe, and hot air can escape anywhere it wants to. But with tower style coolers, the heatpipes are raised vertically and the hot air is exhausted through the left side of the case. This idea seems like a much more efficient design because the hot air is being directed to where your rear exhaust fan lies. Read on to see if this indeed makes a difference. Today also marks our first review of a ZEROtherm product. ZEROtherm has recently released the new ZEN FZ120 CPU cooler and we are happy to provide you an in-depth look at what you can expect having tested this heatsink in our new workbench consisting of the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 spitting out easily 100W of juice. We'll see if this heatsink can cool down or crashes and burns. Oh yeah, overclocked results @ 3.0GHz are included (spitting out well over 100 watts of heat) so read on to see how the ZEN FZ120 performs.
Quote
The X300 notebook has an Intel Core Duo SL7100 (1.2GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB) CPU. The monitor is a 13.3 WXGA+ TFT (LED backlight). There is a 3x3 UltraConnect II which is a connectivity suite offering wireless LAN, UWB (UltraWide Band), Bluetooth and numerous wireless WAN choices including a system that utilizes native GPS functionality that is built into the X300. The hard drive is unique in that it is a solid state drive (SSD) 64GB in size. What this means is that the hard drive is not a rotating disk in the traditional sense, but rather comprises of several chips with addressable memory arrayed in a specific format to prolong the usability of the SSD drive.
Quote
NZXT has recently been coming out with some great mid tower cases. ThinkComputers got the chance to take a look at the new NZXT Tempest case. This case is probably different than most other cases you've seen because it has a bottom, rather than top, mounted PSU. It also includes plenty of features for overclockers, water coolers, and storage fanatics, while still displaying a sleek design. NZXT calls this the Airflow King because it includes SIX 120mm and larger fans. Don't worry, they're probably quieter than the case you have right now.
Quote
The AMD Phenom X2 was announced quite some time ago but still hasn't seen the light of day; instead we were greeted by the X3 Phenom, a new breed of processor, first in the market to offer a Triplecore solution. This CPU is priced lower than AMD's own X4 and Intel Core 2 Duo series. In our review today we test the Phenom X3 8450 and compare it to an AMD X4 and Intel C2D.
Quote
The Thermaltake Armor+ MX Case offer lots of great features. One bug plus with this case is air circulation. With two 120mm fans as well as a massive 23cm fan on the left side panel it provides tremendous airflow. This will keep the computer components inside the case cool in any environment. This case also has a tooless design for installation of drives in the drive bays and cards in the expansion slots. Watch the video to find out more.
Quote
It has been over a year since ATI got into the Folding@home project and it seems that the time is right for NVIDIA to join in! Mr. Vijay Pande himself was in San Jose today and we managed to catch up with him while he was giving the presentation on behalf of Stanford University on how folding is going to work on NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards. This is a must read if you are interested in distributed computing.
Quote
Intel has thrown a new chipset into the fray to replace one of its aging components. P45 is set to be the new mainstream chipset from Intel to replace its aging P35 chipset by bringing some new features and support to the table. For our initial tests, we have been handed two GIGABYTE motherboards based around this chipset, one at the top end of the spectrum and one for the mainstream marketplace. Today we test the Intel P45 Express based GIGABYTE EP45-DQ6 and EP45-DS3R.
Quote
If you are like me, and have been happy with mid-range cards, spend a few hours at your favorite game played at the highest settings, using AA, and higher resolutions while using an upper end card, and you'll probably realize that you've been in denial for all of this time. Today I will be looking at the Asus EN9800GTX Top, a factory overclocked version of nVidia's latest top-of-the-line single-GPU video card, with 512mb of DDR3 memory. Will this video card finally make me realize that rather than being practical when buying mid-range cards, I've just been cheap? Read on and see!
Quote
Recently ATI refreshed their line up of video cards, and they were nice enough to send one over for review, the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT. Added to this new card were HD AC3 audio, 1080P video output, DX10 support for Vista, and a few other suprises. The testing and review took awhile, but I wanted to make sure things were done right.
Quote
Sony has a winner with its MDR-AS50G sport headphones: They're lightweight, they fit securely, and they sound good indoors and outside. Their in-ear design is definitely geared towards fitness nuts rather than commuters; they don't block out a whole lot of sound, which could be a plus or a minus depending on where you work out. The low price ($49.99 USD) is a big plus, since we tend to burn through exercise headphones faster than we burn through calories.
Quote
According to the RIAA, evidence presented in the case showed that he received payment from the leader of the group in return for this work. "For the first time ever, a criminal online music piracy case went to trial, and the jury rendered a swift and unanimous verdict," said Brad Buckles, executive vice president of the RIAA's anti-piracy division. "The crimes committed here -- as well as the harm to the music community -- are severe, and so are the consequences.
Quote
Thermaltake makes an entire range of PC supplies including cases, cooling, hardware and much more. The last Thermaltake product I reviewed was the excellent Armor full tower case. Thermaltake is known for making great cases and the M9 looks like a mid tower case with ventilation as its prime agenda. Should the Antec Nine Hundred be worried? Perhaps...
Quote
Antec steps up to the plate to deliver a brand new case in the "Hundred" series. Betting on the success of the excellent Nine Hundred, Antec has released a lower end model dubbed, the Three Hundred. Known as the " Versatile Case," will the new case stand out from its bigger, badder brother? Probably not, but it is at a better price point that its sibling.
Quote
It has been a very long time since a graphics card has passed by the review bench of ASE Labs. Sapphire steps up to the plate with their release of the Radeon HD3870 Toxic Edition that hopes to earn some of your hard earned cash. With AMD's support of open source, the ATI partners are in a good position to conqueror the Linux market and the future to bright. Sapphire is the biggest producer of ATI cards and we will see how their product performs.
Quote
ASE Labs has always explained the benefits of having redundant storage and backups. There are series of articles devoted to each technology. Sans Digital is a big player in RAID enclosures and their latest model, the MobileSTOR MS2UTN+ delivers USB2 and eSATA support to a 2 disk array of your choosing. This combines the best of both world for data backup and redundancy. It really is an excellent product.
Quote
nVidia been on Intel\'s case by very strongly voicing their opinions on how a better GPU adds more value that a better CPU. This could be true for certain things on a low to medium end setup but for enthusiast gamers, the fastest of the fastest is the only option. We put this theory to test by putting three nVidia 9800GTX cards in Triple SLI mode and running some games on the highest-end Intel and AMD CPUs, the Core 2 Extreme QX9770 and Phenom X4 9850 respectively.
Quote
With GPU's raising the bar in terms of performance and heat output with every generation, aftermarket cooling is taking a larger role in today's high performance gaming systems. Today we take a look at Thermaltake's DuOrb CL-G0102. Does the DuOrb have the performance to match the good looks, or is this another case of Ms. Teen USA South Carolina? Read more to find out!
Quote
Chaintech have really expanded from the line of graphics cards, now doing products like memory and flash products as well. What they no longer do however are motherboards. It wasn't all that long ago we were impressed with fancy cooling solutions and the general performance of Chaintech products. We'll have to see if the 9600GT is able to do anything for us. >From first glance the Chaintech offering didn't do a lot for us, but upon throwing it in our system we where pleasantly surprised with what happened. Before we get into that though, let's find out what they've done with the package and have a closer look at the actual card.
Quote
* *At the end of the day, this is yet another very nice kit of memory from Aeneon. The performance was very good, the stability was excellent, and the MSRP is very competitive. Thanks to those 3 key features, the Aeneon XTune DDR3-1600 Mhz kit of memory has earned out Top Pick award.*
Quote
A few months ago I reviewed the Aeneon Xtune DDR3-1333 2GB kit from Qimonda. It was an impressive pair of memory modules from a company we'd never heard of. The kit was very flexible, gaining tighter timings at lower clockrates, and overclocked reasonably well, all at the PC3 standard of 1.5v. Today I will be looking at Aeneon's latest PC3 kit, their DDR3-1600 2GB kit. It is rated at DDR3-1600, CL9, once again at the standard 1.5v. Will this new kit impress us as well as the earlier kit did? Continue reading to see.
Quote
As a serious High-End product, the NH-U12P effectively combines charismatic appearance with advanced technical design. It's an impressive cooler indeed - its working medium comprises a copper heat sink (45x42x5 mm), four 6mm copper heat pipes, a stack of large aluminum fins, and a 1300rpm fan.
Quote
* As the computing industry has evolved over the years, people have begun to care more and more about what their PC looks like, as well as how it performs. But it's not like what it was like several years ago, where the 'cool' happened to be flashing neon tubes and fans that glow various colours. The tacky disco era has moved on now, it's now the age of pure quality that performs well, is silent and ultimately, looks good. One of the products on the current market that boasts to do all this is the Asus Triton 79 Amazing. Now let's see how amazing this CPU cooler really is.
Quote
Microsoft Live OneCare (or just OneCare) is Microsoft's answer to the mistake they made years ago that passed the responsibility for securing Windows off to third parties. That has, in my mind, been one of the three critical mistakes Microsoft has made since they first were founded. This created an environment where the people who secured the product were motivated to showcase the product's vulnerabilities in order to sell their wares while creating no incentive for them to actually help improve the core offering.
Quote
The original Core 2 Duo based on Conroe architecture had 2MB of shared Level 2 cache. Whole Penryn based CPUs came with 6MB. This is a huge jump in size, but what about a cheaper option? Well, Intel has now come out with its latest addition to the Core 2 line; welcoming the Core 2 Duo E7000 series. This new CPU is designed to take a more mainstream and value-end stand. Its intention is to compliment and replace the already popular E4000 series of Core 2 CPUs. Today we will be testing out what the Core 2 Duo E7000 series is capable of and will pit it against its direct competition; AMD's Phenom X3.
Quote
While we have been impressed with some of their earlier offerings, these folks have taken their power supplies to the next level by offering a power supply that they claim is not only top notch, but also has a new look that is more than a little interesting. They have done so under a subsidiary company ABS, a name that is aiming at taking Tagan reliability and offering more value. There is more to this package than just numbers, though. You also get a modular design that offers more cable security than most others on the market. The lighting is unique and even the colored rings surrounding your modular cables give off LED lighting.
Quote
Quote: Booq calls the Boa A travel bag designed especially for frequently-traveling professionals. This bag has about 2,000 pockets and zippers to store all your favorite gear and gadgets. Actually, we counted 9 zippered pockets, 3 magnetic pockets, with 4 large compartments for your precious cargo. The outer material is made of water-repelling nylon that will keep the moisture out. Inside the Booq Boa, the laptop is housed in its own separate compartment that is lined with protective foam covered in very soft upholstery...
Quote
The GeForce 9800GTX is a perfect example. While the name implies that it is an upgrade for the GeForce 8800GTX, which it in a way is, it also is just a higher clocked GeForce 8800GTS 512 MB. You might wonder why NVIDIA didn't just use GeForce 9 for all their G92 based cards but we may never know why.
Quote
Corsair knows enthusiasts and the performance we demand from our components. Since 1994 the guys over in Fremont, California have met that demand by providing some of the highest quality memory in the market. Within the past couple of years, Corsair has also sailed into the power supply scene and carried over the quality and reliability their brand name is known for.
Quote
Logitech really is covering all the bases with its peripherals these days. The last Logitech product I reviewed was the MX Air Mouse and I thought that was a nifty bit of kit to control your home theater setup. The proverbial cake however has not just been taken; it's been flaunted and eaten right in front of our starving faces. I'm referring to the Logitech Harmony One remote control here; a nifty slick piece of all-in-one cake that can control TVs, DVD players, VCRs, game consoles, home media center PCs, air conditioning units and pretty much everything else that uses an Infrared transmitting remote control.
Quote
We've published a great deal of benchmarks looking at the Linux fglrx driver (now more commonly referred to as the Linux Catalyst driver) since these major changes were pushed into the limelight this past fall. In fact, since this past September we've published more than 80 display driver articles with many of them being AMD related, and that's in addition to nearly a dozen graphics card reviews. On the AMD side, all of our testing has been done with the consumer-grade Radeon GPUs and IGPs, but that has changed today. In this article, we are providing our first look at the AMD FireGL V8600 1GB under Linux. We'll share our thoughts on this high-end workstation graphics card and specifically looking at how the Windows and Linux performance compares.
Quote
Home theater PC's have become very popular lately. It seems almost everyone I know has been taking their old computers and turning them into media machines. Well what if you want the best media machine money can buy? The Alienware Hangar18 HD Entertainment Center could be just that. Alienware is mainly known for making gaming machines, so it will be interesting to see how they do on the Hangar18. The Hangar18 is an all-in-one media machine that can play DVD's or Blu-ray media, watch live TV, watch internet TV, listen to music, and share it all wirelessly. Let's check it out!
Quote
When we reviewed the tx2000's predecessor, aptly named the tx1000, last July, we found it to be an interesting machine. It was unique in being one of the only entertainment-minded laptops with a resistive digitizer display. HP has refreshed the tx1000 with the tx2000, which brings a technology refresh as well as a full active WACOM digitizer.
Quote
As a conclusion of the 9800GX2 I have to say that it's a truely impressive piece of kit. I had my doubts about dual GPU systems, but in our tests the SLI worked nicely and gave a significant performance boost over single card setups.
Quote
Big on performance and easy on the wallet, the Albatron GeForce 9600GT-512X video card offers unheard of graphics processing power at a wallet friendly price point. Finally you can enjoy decent frame rates in the latest DirectX 10 games at resolutions that gamers actually want to use. Read on as we take a look at the Albatron GeForce 9600GT-512X and how it does when we game on it and then overclock it to the max.
Quote
I liken Lian-Li to the Mercedes-Benz of the chassis design world. The Taiwan-based company designs its chassis with sleek, conservative style and hand-builds cases out of lightweight, yet durable aluminum. The chassis are generally not flashy, but are very, very conducive for high-performance cooling while overclocking. Lian-Li recently renewed its V series line-up with five new cases: PC-V2110, PC-V2010, PC-V1110, PC-V1000Z, and the focus of this review, the PC-V1010. ThinkComputers goes inside the Lian-Li PC-V1010 chassis in this review.
Quote
The NBC spokeswoman said the network had no intention of blocking the show but declined to specify how the error was made. Flags that have been issued accidentally aren't uncommon, some industry insiders say. While acknowledging that it "fully adheres to flags used by broadcasters," Microsoft said that it was working with content owners to reduce the number of false flags. "The success of the entire distribution chain is dependent on all involved maintaining the necessary checks and quality control so that coding is correctly applied," a Microsoft spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail to News.com. Meanwhile, the larger issue for some is that Microsoft and possibly other hardware and software makers will honor broadcast flags. "Customers need to know who Microsoft is listening to and how that affects their equipment," said Danny O'Brien, a staffer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for Internet users.
Quote
The software company was responding to questions about why some users of Windows Vista Media Center were prevented from recording NBC Universal TV shows, American Gladiator and Medium on Monday night. The "rules," in which the spokeswoman is apparently referring to are those proposed by the FCC, which would require software and hardware makers to honor "broadcast flags." The flags are code that broadcasters can insert into the data stream of TV shows that typically require restrictions on the recording of the shows. What she didn't say is that the "rules" aren't rules at all. The courts struck down the FCC's proposal in 2005, saying the regulator lacked the authority to tell electronics makers how to interpret the signals they receive. Since then, Microsoft and other manufacturers have retained the option of whether to honor the flags.
Quote
Antec steps up to the plate to deliver a brand new case in the "Hundred" series. Betting on the success of the excellent Nine Hundred, Antec has released a lower end model dubbed, the Three Hundred. Known as the " Versatile Case," will the new case stand out from its bigger, badder brother? Probably not, but it is at a better price point that its sibling.
Quote
It has been a very long time since a graphics card has passed by the review bench of ASE Labs. Sapphire steps up to the plate with their release of the Radeon HD3870 Toxic Edition that hopes to earn some of your hard earned cash. With AMD's support of open source, the ATI partners are in a good position to conqueror the Linux market and the future to bright. Sapphire is the biggest producer of ATI cards and we will see how their product performs.
Quote
ASE Labs has always explained the benefits of having redundant storage and backups. There are series of articles devoted to each technology. Sans Digital is a big player in RAID enclosures and their latest model, the MobileSTOR MS2UTN+ delivers USB2 and eSATA support to a 2 disk array of your choosing. This combines the best of both world for data backup and redundancy. It really is an excellent product.
Quote
OCZ may be best known for their memory products such as low latency and high speed RAM, but they also provide other products with enhanced speed and performance. Their line of cooling products as well as flash memory provide excellent performance in today's market. Today, ASE Labs has the OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4GB USB flash drive for review. Even flash can be dual channel.
Quote
The GeForce 9800 GTX product was received with mixed feelings; on the one hand you had an affordable high end VGA solution, but on the other hand it was not much of improvement over the 8800 GTX. One area where the 9800 GTX might shine through however is overclocking, the new GPU generates less heat, and with the help of some LN2 it will be interesting to see how high it can climb!
Quote
Testing showed that the Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR2-1142 dual channel memory kit could put up some solid numbers, keeping pace with another comparable kit from Kingston. At stock speeds this kit is ready for action above and beyond the JEDEC standard speed grade of PC2-8500, and with some relatively easy overclocking it can soar past PC2-9600 speeds
Quote
We decided to find out what parameters affect performance in modern games most of all. Besides, we haven't analyzed how performance is affected by CPU/GPU/video memory clock rates for a long time already. So we decided to test a G92-based graphics card and determine main rendering bottlenecks in modern games.
Quote
For many enthusiasts venturing into the world of PC building, selecting a case can be quite a challenge these days. Important factors to consider include quality, size, functionality, and now more than ever - style. Well-built enclosures with incredible features are important, but without a bit of flash and beauty, they might as well stay sitting on the warehouse shelf (and probably will!). However, there's also another aspect of case selection that's very important to many builders, especially those new to the game - price. Being on something of a strict diet myself when it comes to purchasing new hardware, I certainly appreciate a company that can combine all of the above mentioned features in a single product. Enter NZXT and the Tempest midtower case. Did they pull it off and create a budget-friendly winner? Let's find out.
Quote
But as of late, Hiper's claim to fame is the Anubis. A 6063 T5 Alloy case that boasts plenty of features that make air ventilation and water cooling an ease to setup. This case saw itself on the front page of a lot of well known websites. The Anubis received all kinds of awards for it superb construction, its ease to assemble, its roominess and its stealth features. We, here at Pro-Clockers, were not lucky enough to review the Anubis but we will make up for it today by reviewing the Osiris.
Quote
Testing yielded stable voltages, quiet operation and I won't have to worry about buying a new power supply when the time comes to upgrade my system. The flat, flexible modular cabling system was great to work with and has spoiled me completely. I can't imagine going back to regular cables, much less a non-modular design.
Quote
Perhaps Benchmark Reviews like to ride the edge of technology just a little too close, since we've tested more DDR3 and SSD's than almost everyone else on the web, but the bleeding edge is what where most enthusiasts like to live. OCZ allowed us to test their first Solid State Drive product, the OCZSSD64GB, and while the pricing very affordable the performance wasn't so impressive. Now just a short three months later, OCZ has returned with one of the industries very first SATA-II SSD products, the OCZSSD2. It would be a shame to give away the details, but it appears that the extra time at the design table was very well spent. OCZ's new Solid State Drive offers industry leading performance matched by ultra-affordable pricing, and sets a new record.
Quote
It seems we're right on time for another pointless release of a graphics card that is slightly better or slightly worse than what is on the market already, whilst carrying with it a price tag pretty similar to that of what's already available. Did that confuse you? - The thing is, these graphics card releases from NVIDIA are becoming nothing short of a joke. I've actually tested the 9600 GSO; I know how I'm going to wrap this up before I even wrote this introduction, and it's a real doozy. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves though, let's find out exactly what the card looks like, what Palit has done with it and if the package stands out in any way.
Quote
processor in a light and portable package. Though it won't win any benchmark shootouts it's certainly adequate for web surfing and office productivity; the only downside is it includes the usual Toshiba bloatware, so know that you'll have to spend some time cleaning it up a bit to allow it to reach its full potential.
Quote
Terabyte hard drives are becoming more popular with the need for more hard drive space. If you're looking to expand your hard drive capacity I think the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1TB External Hard Drive would be great for you. This drive includes USB and Dual FireWire interfaces with available capacities of 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB. The drive is jam packed with plenty of software to suffice the most avid external storage fanatics, while being easy to use for the everyday individual. Read on further to see what all this OneTouch drive has to offer.
Quote
With looks based off the design concept of the B2 Stealth Bomber, this B2 enclosure has some features that are not commonplace. The big question, though, is whether it can handle the rigors of a high-end system and manage to not only give it a good home, but to do so in a cool manner. We begin our tour of the B2 Stealth Bomber by noting the lack of a door on the front bezel. The bezel is made of plastic like many other enclosures, but there is not a door in the normal sense that we have come to expect. As implied by the name of this case, stealth is the key. Let's take a closer look...
Quote
The OCZ Technology 4GB Rally2 USB Flash Drive is the fastest flash drive I've had the opportunity to work with. The drive itself has a tough, durable feel to it given the chassis is made primarily out of aluminum. Thankfully, OCZ has one of the more classic types of logos, so the corporate branding doesn't over power the aesthetics of the device.
Quote
I was a bit surprised that Asus asked us to review their *flagship budget* -- it's weird just writing that -- 8600 GT TOP. It's new SKU for a card closing in on its end of life; the model being about a year old now. Just the same, with a hundred-dollar price tag, it's definitely got an audience, no matter what cards there are competing against it, or what cards have been released since. And it's a pretty highly-regarded card; go on any hardware forum and there's a dozen NVIDIA people extolling the virtues of the 8600 GTs when it comes to budget gaming. Now, I'm not saying that they're all wrong, but it is worth finding out if new drivers and some moderate factory overclocking can put value on an otherwise dated video card.
Quote
Making sure every possible niche is covered, Asus provides AMD users a high end, SLI capable motherboard with several unique features. The Asus M3N-HT Deluxe dishes out goodies like the brand new 780a chipset, 3-way SLI capability, Hybrid SLI, ESA, HyperTransport 3.0, PCIe 2.0 and the sexy Cool Mempipe. Is this the motherboard you've been waiting for? HardwareLogic straps the M3N-HT onto the test bench and drops the knowledge on you, raw and uncut.
Quote
Palit are back again with another 9600GT. While this model is a Sonic variant, this one also sports 1GB of memory. What's cool about this card is that more often than not you have two options when it comes to getting a card other than stock. You can get yourself one with more memory, which generally comes under the Super naming scheme; the other option is that you get yourself an overclocked model. This comes under the Sonic naming scheme for Palit. Today we've got ourselves a 1GB card which also happens to be overclocked. Unfortunately Palit has called it the 9600GT 1GB Sonic; personally I think they should have called it the 9600GT 1GB Super Sonic which just sounds plain cool, and since the card carries with it an overclock and more memory, it's more than appropriate.
Quote
Gigabyte being a leader in motherboards is making it easy on us to have the best when new chipsets are released. They have being right there, first to market, when Intel believed it was time for change. This used to be a position held by Asus. Gigabyte is the first to bring us the new X48 chipset to our rigs. This honor belongs to the X48-DQ6 and X48T-DQ6, DDR2 and DDR3 versions respectively. The DQ6 being the high end model for Gigabyte, it has all the bells and whistles. From complex cooling systems to high-end capacitors you can't ask for more in a motherboard except for excellent overclocking. Can the X48-DQ6 accomplish what we achieved with EX-38 just a few weeks ago?
Quote
Today I will be looking at the Palit 9600GT 1GB Sonic. The 9600GT is nVidia's latest mid-range GeForce card, and rather than the reference 512 gigs of DDR3 memory, Palit has opted to add a full gig of memory, along with a heatpipe cooler, to this card. How will it stand up against the last generation of GeForce mid-range cards? Continue reading to see...
Quote
Today we are going to take a look at GIGABYTE's high end motherboard, the X48T-DQ6. GIGABYTE makes two versions of this board utilizing Intel's X48 chipset. The X48 which is a DDR2 variant and the X48T which is the DDR3 version that we will be covering today. The X48 brings minimal changes to the chipset when compared to the X38 and the only tangible difference should be more overclocking headroom. In recent years GIGABYTE has truly reinvented itself as a leader in innovation. In today's world the name of the game, or color to be more specific, is green. We have green cars, green homes and now you can add motherboards to the growing list of items going green. GIGABYTE has made a concerted effort to produce motherboards that use the least amount of energy possible without sacrificing performance. A task not easily accomplished. To this end they have dubbed this innovation DES or Dynamic Energy Saver. A system which can adjust voltage, power phases and clocks speeds of the boa! rd and CPU to ensure as little energy as possile is wasted while providing as much power as needed. Is it possible to have a power efficient system without losing performance? Let's find out.
Quote
Like the price of a barrel of oil, the megapixel count of D-SLRs continues to climb. When Canon and others first unveiled popularly-priced digital single lens reflex cameras, 6MP was the resolution spec, and everyone was thrilled. Today, 6-megapixel cameras of any type are practically ancient history. In fact, most new D-SLRs such as the Nikon D60, Pentax K200D or Sony DSLR-A200 kick off at 10MP with 14s becoming much more prevalent in 2008, such as the recent Editor's Choice-earning Sony DSLR-A350. As for the new Canon EOS Rebel XSi, it fits right between them with a resolution of 12.2MP, but proves slightly more expensive if you look at it on a pure pixel-for-pixel comparison. Yet digital cameras are about much more than pure resolution-they're about speed, picture-taking ability and loads of little things that separate the good from the bad. With that in mind, it was time to see if Canon had a winner on its hands-or, to put it bluntly, a clunker instead.
Quote
With the recent purchase of Hyper Sonic OCZ has added another company to their portfolio, further diversifying their product range. Hypersonic's AG2 Notebook, which we have on our testbench today has been engineered to be light weight and portable with less than 1.8 kg. The design also looks stunning with its a high quality, glossy paint.
Quote
The opensource deathmatch game Nexuiz has been released in version 2.4.2 ! New features include:
* New gamemode Onslaught new available in the menu
* Added map for the onslaught gamemode (ons-reborn)
* Completely new announcer sounds/voices
* Fixed several problems with lagging gameplay/crashes/wrong display of effects
* The teammessage binds are available in the menu (if you do not see them delete or rename your config.cfg)
* New server tools for rcon and an irc gateway, updated server documentation
* Fixed the rotating textures/hud bug on Mac OSX with r_glsl 1
* new crylink primary attack and tweaked some other weapons
* implemented uint16 element array support, this hopefully improves performance on Radeon 9500-X300 cards and GeForce1/2 cards
Quote
Texans who shop Amazon.com to avoid paying sales taxes may not have that luxury for long. The Texas Comptroller's Office is investigating whether the Internet retail behemoth, with sales last year of $14.8 billion, owes Texas possibly millions of dollars in uncollected sales taxes on purchases made by its customers in the state. Seattle-based Amazon.com has been operating a distribution center in Irving since 2006, giving it a "physical presence" in Texas, a longstanding litmus test for when sales taxes must be collected by an online or mail-order company. The issue came to light last month after Amazon.com Inc. sued the state of New York over whether it should begin charging customers state sales taxes, citing the federal law it appears to be breaking in Texas.