Audio Video News April 2008

XFX GeForce 9800GX2 1GB Review

Inside HW :: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
…” DualGPU systems are very trendy in recent time and whole story begun with ATi “Gemini” project. Idea was born long time ago, when two graphics processors were integrated into one graphics card, but that idea didn’t get much popularity until now. On the other hand, ATi Radeon HD 3870X2 turned out as accessible to most users and at the same time very powerful solution. So all doubts in making investment in such card can be shattered in pieces.”…

Gigabyte GeForce 8800GT 512MB Review
Club Overclocker :: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Has there ever been a more confusing time to buy a video card? ATI cards are still pretty straight forward, even after their dual card. It was team nVidia that threw us for a loop, spiking the 8800 series cards with a new GPU core and moving things around within the model naming scheme. nVidia gave us a sneak peak at the new G92 core on two cards; the 8800GTS and the 8800GT. At the same time, there are also cards available that use the original G80 core with the same name. Today we test Gigabyte’s GeForce 8800GT based on the G92 GPU coupled with 512 Megabytes of on board GDDR3. With this card, the Windows Vista Aero Desktop will be no problem! Let’s take a look at what the NX88T has to offer.

Not impressed with 9800GTX
t-break :: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
When we took the initial look at the 9800GTX from nVidia, we were far from impressed. Over its previous counterpart- the 8800GTX, there was not much improvement in performance while the prices were about the same as AMD’s dual GPU based 3870 X2 cards which we preferred.

HTPC Build Guide
Missing Remote :: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
As I eluded to above, a couple of ways around a high price tag is to use what you already have. Did you recently upgrade to a quad core CPU and have a perfectly good older dual core CPU and motherboard now just lying around? With a video upgrade, a case, and some storage upgrades, you could have a perfectly great HTPC to use. Perhaps looks aren’t a concern and you have a mid-tower case that can be stuffed out of the way. Great! Buy a few hundred dollars in parts with the advice given below and you should be good to go.

Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT Turbo Force Edition Video Card
Viper Lair :: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
“Gigabyte customized their Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT Turbo Force Edition by increasing the clock speeds of key areas on the card, but they did not stop there. Ultra Durable2 is a fab process they use to increase the durability and longevity of their products. Ultra Durable2 is featured on both their graphics hardware as well as their motherboards. Lower RDS (on) MOSFET Design, Ferrite core chokes, and Lower ESR Solid Capacitors are the three main components of their design. These components will create less wasted energy, lower power consumption and last longer.”

DX10 gaming on a HD3450
Neoseeker :: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
“X3 ran quite well. With texture and shader quality set to ‘medium’ (and no AA or AF) the game had no absolutely no problems at all. Framerates would generally ranged from the low 30’s to the high ’50s. This was at a resolution of 1280×1024. Of all the five games we looked at, X3 was the game that ran the smoothest. So, if space-trading, dog-fighting, Elite/Privateer-type games are your thing, you can get away with not spending over a $100 on a video card to fly a starship. Check out this video of the HD3450 in action…”

Directx 11 to Reveal a New Era of Graphics
PC Mech :: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
“It has been announced that DirectX 11 will include a completely new type of graphics rendering called ray-tracing. Wait a minute. It’s not new. In fact, it’s been around since the 80’s. How come it took so long to be implemented for public use? How does it work? What advantages does it have over current-gen graphics? These questions are about to be answered.”

3DMark Vantage Review
Club Overclocker :: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
If you have been involved with PC gaming or GPU overclocking at all in the last few years, then you are familiar with the name “3DMark”. Starting with 3DMark 2001, Futuremark has essentially been the name in GPU benchmarks. However, many things have changed since 2001, and so Futuremark must keep up with the times. How well does it manage to stay relevant?

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage Review 
OCC :: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
“Futuremark has done it again. The company has effectively come out with a benchmark that makes some of the latest hardware feel oh so inadequate. The upside to this is that it is upgrade time, and this is just another reason to do so, if for nothing more than bragging rights. This time, I think Futuremark has come up with a better mousetrap, to coin a phrase. The preset feature allows all levels of players (enthusiasts, benchmarking gods) to step up and take a swing for the fences to see how well their systems perform.”

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage 
Legit Reviews :: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
“With the ASUS PhysX card installed on the test system the CPU Test 2 score increased to 25.73 operations a second with seven gate pairs. This also boosted the CPU score and the overall 3DMark score as you can see from the image above. The CPU score alone went up by 2177 points or 21.4%. This won’t impact rankings online as the AGEIA PPU must be switched off for the results to be approved as a default result. The ASUS PhysX P1 card retails $149 plus shipping, so it was nice to see the performance boost…”

Venturi Mini Car Audio System
PC World :: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
This Bluetooth accessory lets you stream tunes from your phone and talk hands-free–if you have a compatible phone.

Directx 11 to Reveal a New Era of Graphics
PC Mechanic :: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
It has been announced that DirectX 11 will include a completely new type of graphics rendering called ray-tracing. Wait a minute. It’s not new. In fact, it’s been around since the 80’s. How come it took so long to be implemented for public use? How does it work? What advantages does it have over current-gen […]

Asus EAH3850 Trinity
Overclock 3d :: Monday, April 28, 2008
“With three HD3850’s on one board and a release date of….never, the Asus Trinity is one interesting bit of kit.”

Pre NDA Futuremark Vantage Scores
Chile Hardware :: Monday, April 28, 2008
We just released a small news with scores from NVIDIA and ATI high end video cards running Futuremarks Vantage benchmark. The results are quite interesting you can see NVIDIA with a huge performance advantage but they are almost identically on a Price/Performance Ratio.

DIAMOND Radeon HD 3650 1GB Graphics Card
Tweak Town :: Monday, April 28, 2008
“What’s different about the Diamond HD 3650 from Diamond is that it carries with it a massive 1GB of memory. We’re not really big on huge amounts of memory added to a mid-range card, but we’ll have to see if Diamond is able to do anything with the HD 3650 here today that impresses us.

Diamond does something that is quite common when companies increase the amount of RAM on lower end models. Instead of using 1GB of GDDR3, they’ve dropped back to GDDR2.”

Honeywell 22-Inch LCD Monitor MT-SY-HWLM2216
Benchmark Reviews :: Monday, April 28, 2008
Honeywell is brand new to the LCD monitor industry, which is why they called upon the expertise of SOYO. After making giant waves in the market with their 24-Inch DYLM24D6 ultra-affordable widescreen LCD, SOYO was put to work building an up-scale version with premium features. The end result of their work became the Honeywell Arius product line, which features an integrated webcam, microphone, speakers, and USB ports. The Honeywell Arius MT-SY-HWLM2216 22-Inch WSXGA+ widescreen LCD monitor boasts a quick 2ms response time. Benchmark Reviews has be fortunate enough to test this monitor in our labs, and we find out just how well it performs for hardcore gamers and casual PC users alike.

3D Mark Vantage
Technic 3d :: Monday, April 28, 2008
“Every year anew this does not exclusively refer to Christmas, but also to new benchmarks from Espoo, Finland, where the Futuremark guys come from. After releasing the last 3DMark in 2006 and starting a new category of benching with that combination of high performance graphics scenes, they today launched the new top of the class-benchmark with the 3DMark Vantage.”

Head-Direct RE1 Earphones
techPowerUp :: Friday, April 25, 2008
Head-Direct has just released their RE1 earphones which are quite different compared to all the other in-ears on the market today. The special thing about them is that they are based around some very unique performing drivers that scale particularly well. The better your amplifier is, the better their sound, leaving the competition behind in the dust – if you have a good amp.

Samsung SyncMaster 2263DX Dual Display
Digital Trends :: Friday, April 25, 2008
“The Samsung SyncMaster2263DX provides a more reasonable balance between screen size and price by offering an enormous 22-inch widescreen monitor coupled with a more modest 7-inch side display to handle the screen overflow. Like the heads-up display in a car, the 2263DX gives users a convenient way to keep an eye on a handful of side programs without distracting from the main task at hand.”

ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card Review
Hardware Canucks :: Friday, April 25, 2008
ASUS has heard the call for a product aimed at this budget-priced market and they are back from the drawing boards and off to market with another addition to their new line of PC soundcards: The Xonar 7.1 DX. They recently started to apply their considerable design talents to cement a solid name and reputation for themselves among PC audio fans with high spec, high quality soundcards even though the new Xonar DX 7.1 is clearly aimed at the entry level markets with a lower price tag and no-frills bundle.

Cyber Snipa Sonar 5.1 Headset Review
OCIA :: Friday, April 25, 2008
“Earlier this week we tested out the Stinger Gaming Mouse from Cyber Snipa. During this time we’ve also been using Cyber Snipa’s Sonar 5.1 Headset as well. With a USB connection, eight speaker sound and adjustable boom mic, the Sonar 5.1 looks to have a lot going for it as well.”

Samsung SyncMaster T220 Widescreen 22 Inch LCD Monitor Review
Futurelooks :: Friday, April 25, 2008
If there’s one thing that you’ve got to hand it to the people at Samsung is that they know what it takes to make a seriously stylish product. We’re talking dollar sign bling action here! The company has been working hard to create a very distinctive style to the entirety of their product line and it’s really starting to show. Taking a look at their cell phones, you will inevitably find that the majority of those handsets have a piano black finish and a remarkably slim profile. Hopping over to the television department, you’ll discover the same glossy black finish and the same slender physique. Even when you look at some of the Samsung printers, they’ve got piano black finishes there too. This is why I was taken aback upon opening the box for the Samsung SyncMaster T220 LCD monitor.

Asus 9600 GT TOP Videocard Review
RB Mods :: Thursday, April 24, 2008
Today we take a look at a new videocard from Asus. It this in the middle class segment on the market but the question is how it actually performs. We are goint to compare it vs the 8800GT and Asus 3850 videocards to see what type of performance we can expect.

Edifer E3350 PC Speaker System Review
Digital Trends :: Thursday, April 24, 2008
With so many computer 2.1 speaker systems on the market today, it’s easy to be turned off from anything starting at under $100. But at the Consumer Electronics show earlier this year, the buzz was all about Edifiers new E3350 lifestyle speaker systems. People were assuming that with such rich sounds, and well built speakers, they would be in the $250 or higher price range. Coming in at just $99.99, the new E3350 speaker system combines award winning design with practical affordability.

Gigabyte Radeon HD 2400 XT Review
OCC :: Thursday, April 24, 2008
“Like I mentioned above, the Gigabyte HD 2400 XT uses a unique cooling method called “Screen Cooling”. This takes a fan-less heatsink and extends it past the width of the PCB, making the card essentially a full size ATX card. This gives the video card a wider and thicker look, while effectively cooling it with zero noise level, from the lack of fans. This design also protects the VGA connection, which uses a ribbon cable to extend the port on the PCI bracket, from snagging or damage. By removing the outer connection bracket we can get a better look at the fins of the heatsink and the holes which allow air flow from the case to pass through them and cool the card.”

Foxconn 9800GTX-512N Extreme OC Video Card Review
Futurelooks :: Thursday, April 24, 2008
It’s that time again; time for one of the two remaining video card manufacturers to reveal what they’ve been cooking up since their last product release. Today we’re seeing green, and testing the new nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX video card. This is being done by way of a board from Foxconn.

LiveWires T1 Custom IEMs
techPowerUp :: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
LiveWires T1 is the name of some new custom earphones that cost about half of its main rivals. They are built exactly to fit your ear with additional customization options like colors. These in-ears use two balanced armatures and play in a completely different league compared to whats usually available in this price segment.

Asus GeForce 9800GTX videocard
Madbox PC :: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
“Based on Nvidia’s G92 (same as 8800GT, 8800GTS and 9800GX2), feauring 3 way SLI, hybrid power and a new multimedia decoder is the most powerful single-gpu card available at this time”.

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 
Modders Inc. :: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
The GeForce 9800 GX2 combines the two GeForce 9800 GPUs in a single graphics solution, which offers 256 processor cores and a frame buffer of 1 GB (512 MB per GPU). It also allows a user to take advantage of the second-generation Quad SLI technology.

Saitek Cyborg 5.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset Review
Futurelooks :: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Saitek is an established leader in the area of PC gaming accessories and their latest line of products — the Cyborg line — is absolutely top-notch. In addition to things like gaming keyboards and mice, they’ve also got the Saitek Cyborg 5.1 headset. This certainly isn’t the first set of headphones to offer the 5.1 experience, but I must say, these are some of the best headphones I’ve used in quite some time.

ASUS Radeon HD 3850X2 1 GB Review
Inside HW :: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
” At first, ATI popularized MultiGPU solution with Radeon HD 3870X2. As this model turned out as great solution it was natural that ATI create similar model which should be accepted by most users. HD 2600X2 was the first model with graphics chip R6XX but unfortunately users didn’t embrace it, which only means that low-budget MultiGPU solution has not appear yet.”…

Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide
Tech ARP :: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Covering 343 desktop graphics cards, this comprehensive comparison allows you to easily compare 18 different specifications for each and every card. If you need to find out about the specification of any card, just come over and check out our Desktop Graphics Comparison Guide.

We hope it will prove to be a useful reference. We will keep this guide updated regularly so do check back for the latest updates.

Diamond Radeon HD 3870 1GB Video Card Review
Legit Reviews :: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
“First and foremost, if you’re playing at extreme resolutions of 2560×1600 a single ATI Radeon HD 3870 is clearly not going to cut it. It is able to provide playable frame rates in some situations but is bested by the Nvidia 8800 GTS in most of those same situations. When it comes to performance compared to a standard 3870 with 512MB, our 1GB version really didn’t show much improvement in our short battery of test, but I believe that the performance is being held back more by the actual GPU than an increase in memory bandwidth and size can help. Our testing at such a high resolution should have given the Diamond 3870 1GB a chance to shine…”

Palit GeForce 9800GTX Review
Gamepyre :: Monday, April 21, 2008
Palit has done a good job with the reference 9800GTX video card in that they have included a game bundle and their entry into the US is most welcome since the video card market needs more players bringing better competition to the retail market place for the video card dollar. Palit support needs to update their drivers as NVIDIA has released the 174.74 Forceware and the drivers on Palit’s website are based upon 169.32. The 9800GTX is the fastest single chip video card I’ve ever tested. Having said all the positives on the 9800GTX, the 9800GTX is not much of an upgrade over the 8800GTS 512MB that was released last year and is in fact just an overclocked version of that card with more power requirement and a higher price. It is rather disappointing from a technical point of view to see NVIDIA stuck in a rut. It has been over two years since the release of the 8800GTX and the 9800GTX just doesn’t live up to the GTX moniker as something special, its just another fast NVIDIA card.

Zotac GeForce 9800GTX AMP Edition
t-break :: Monday, April 21, 2008
Zotac is a new nVidia partner- at least for us. Its a new brand in the region and this is the first product we have received from them which is an overclocked 9800GTX card. Considering how cool the 9800GTX runs, this should work out quite nicely. Lets find out how the AMPed version of Zotac compares to the stock 9800GTX and other cards.

Leadtek 9600 GT SLI reviewed and compared with 9800 GTX 
Madshrimps :: Monday, April 21, 2008
“With the Geforce 9600 GT pricing reaching new lows, it becomes interesting to see if pairing up two of them can get you more bang for the buck compared to the more expensive Geforce 9800 GTX. In this review we use two Leadtek 9600 GT Extreme cards and run our battery of game tests to find out what performance you can expect.”

Klipsch Image Earphones
techPowerUp :: Monday, April 21, 2008
Klipsch Image is the name of a brand new set of high-end earphones. They feature a radical new design and come with an excessive bundle. Besides being extremely good looking they also have a special sound characteristic that appeals to a large crowd.

BFG 9800GTX OCX Graphics Card Review
Hardware Canucks :: Monday, April 21, 2008
Nvidia lifted the veil from these cards a little while after the official launch so finding them is a bit hard but if you look hard enough, pre-overclocked 9800GTX cards ARE out there in the wild. As you may have already guessed, this review will be focusing on a certain card from BFG called the 9800GTX OCX.

ATI Catalyst 8.4 Analysis – XP & Vista
Tweak Town :: Monday, April 21, 2008
“Another month, another set of Catalyst drivers. Last month we saw some issues with the HD 3870 X2, but hopefully this month we see those problems disappear. There isn’t much in the read me file and the majority of adjustments seem to be related to bug fixes.

With the same test system that we’ve been using for the last few months, we’ll just get straight into it and see what the latest Catalyst release brings us.”

Creative Alchemy Drivers and Vista Support
Techware Labs :: Friday, April 18, 2008
Today, Michael Bosse and Ben Brindle take a look at Creative drivers for Vista. Some people report problems with their sound cards, and TechwareLabs decides to investigate.

How to Use the SPDIF Output from Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Cards
Hardware Secrets :: Friday, April 18, 2008
“Creative Labs has always been one of the most popular manufacturers of sound cards and Sound Blaster X-Fi is their current series of add-on sound cards. Due to the massive amount of readers asking us how to use the digital audio (SPDIF) output from their Sound Blaster X-Fi sound cards in order to connect them to their home theater receivers or digital speakers, we decided to compile this short tutorial listing all Sound Blaster X-Fi models released to date and the available options for SPDIF connection.”

XFX 8800 GS XXX Alpha Dog Video Card Review
i4u :: Friday, April 18, 2008
“XFX introduced a new video card recently with a low price and impressive performance called the XFX 8800 GS XXX Alpha Dog. This card sells for only $119 and includes a full copy of Call of Duty 4. The performance of the XFX 8800 GS XXX Alpha Dog is within a few FPS of the stock 9600 GT that costs more. For gamers on a budget of under $150 the XFX 8800 GS XXX Alpha Dog at $119 is a great bargain. You even get a full copy of Call of Duty 4 which is still selling for around $40.”

ASUS EN8800GT 1GB Graphics Card
Tweak Town :: Friday, April 18, 2008
“You did your research and you’ve discovered that the 8800GT continues to be one of the best value for money cards when it comes to good mid-range performance. The thing is, you wouldn’t mind kicking it up a notch in the memory department if you had the choice.

Well, we might have found the card for you here today. ASUS has recently released an 8800GT that is packing 1GB of GDDR3 memory. However, it’s not uncommon for a bump in memory to do nothing more than make you feel a bit better about your system. Really, there’s only one way to find out if the extra memory does anything for your gaming experience, and that is to run it through a multitude of tests.”

Logitech Z Cinema SRS TruSurround HD USB Speakers Review
Everything USB :: Friday, April 18, 2008
Everyone knows that nothing can beat the quality of sound that you get from a 5.1 surround system. Unfortunately with the aural bliss comes the headache of cable clutter and space constraints when trying to find a place to put those rear speakers. While the cable clutter is something that everyone can and usually does live with, the lack of space for rear speakers isn’t. Featuring SRS TruSurround HD, the Logitech Z Cinema offers surround sound in a 2.1 speaker configuration. Full review in the link.

NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT Voltmodding Article posted
techPowerUp :: Friday, April 18, 2008
NVIDIA’s Geforce 9600 GT is quite an exceptional midrange card that offers excellent overclocking potential. Since the cards run at a relatively low voltage there is some extra overclocking waiting to be unleashed by raising the card’s voltages. The GPU voltage mod we present in this article uses a new method which will not be affected by the card’s overvoltage protection. Also we describe an easy to do modification to increase the memory voltage.

HP MediaSmart TVs Gain Media Extender Upgrade
PC Magazine (HDTV) :: Friday, April 18, 2008
Hewlett-Packard said Thursday that a firmware upgrade to its MediaSmart connected television line would add Microsoft Media Center Extender capability.

Logitech G51
PC Magazine (Speakers) :: Friday, April 18, 2008
The G51 speaker system sports Music and Game Matrix modes for simulated six-channel audio, but the real story here is powerful sound.

JBL On Stage IIIP
PC Magazine (Speakers) :: Friday, April 18, 2008
Preview of the JBL On Stage IIIP.

Avivo HD Vs Purevideo HD – Indepth Analysis
Driver Heaven :: Thursday, April 17, 2008
Every time a new graphics card is released we hear great claims about how the new video enhancements will improve our viewing experience or that the hardware is as perfect as it can get in the High Definition HQV Benchmark. Unfortunately, for many reasons most end users have to pretty much accept these claims as it is not really possible for the average consumer to set up two identical systems, side by side and see what the differences are.

Well we have with the aid of some specialist equipment and the results are fascinating, not only this but we have HD screen grabs and detailed analysis to show you which card delivers the best IQ……..

Asus P5E-VM review
Neoseeker :: Thursday, April 17, 2008
“With a video card, I was able to boot into the Windows desktop at 535MHz x 6 – but it was not stable; I think giving even more voltage to the northbridge would stabilize it, but frankly, I was worried about frying the northbridge. But 500MHz x 8 is stable, with the memory running at 5-5-5-15, when I use a video card.”

Zalman TRIMON 22″ 3D Monitor Exclusive
Tweak Town :: Thursday, April 17, 2008
“The existence of the 3D concept has been around since people could express themselves artistically; for example, through painting or sculptures. When the first such expression began, I certainly could not tell you. However, I can tell you that 3D has evolved to the point where it is now commercially available for the average user for under $1000 USD. Admittedly that’s a lot more than most would want to pay for it, but it is a positive step in the right direction.

The TRIMON is the first commercial 3D monitor available to the public from Zalman, and it is not often one gets to be the first to review a finally finished product. We have been waiting for these ZM-M220W monitors to hit the shelves for a little over a year now, with the first introduction of them at CEBIT 2007.”

Hands On With DTS HD Master Audio
Tweak Town :: Thursday, April 17, 2008
“Yesterday, Sony Computer Entertainment finally gave home theatre fanatics what they had been clamouring for since late 2006, when the PlayStation 3 console launched. With the delivery of the latest console firmware, version 2.30, owners whom have an amplifier capable of outputting PCM sound will benefit from improved sound with Blu-ray movies encoded in DTS HD Master Audio.

The days of lossy audio in home theatre are over; now the onus is on home theatre fans to embrace these new technologies, and if they truly love the art form, there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t.”

SLI vs. CrossFire
Hardware Secrets :: Thursday, April 17, 2008
“With the recent release of CrossFireX by AMD/ATI and 3-way SLI by nVidia we think it is a good time to make a technical comparison between all incarnations of these two technologies, which have the same goal: to allow video cards to be connected in parallel in order to increase gaming performance.”

NVIDIA Hybrid SLI Interview
NV News :: Thursday, April 17, 2008
“We have posted an interview with NVIDIA’s Director of Technical Marketing Tom Peterson concerning their exciting new Hybrid SLI Technology. Although this question and answer session only skims the surface of Hybrid SLI, it does serve as general introduction to the technology and is supplemented with visual aids.”

Alienware Launches Cheaper Gaming Desktops
PC Magazine (Graphics Cards) :: Thursday, April 17, 2008
A refreshed Aurora line comes equipped with the latest AMD and ATI hardware, with prices starting under $1,000.

Creative EAX vs. ASUS DS3D GX 2.0 Article
Techgage :: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
When Creative publicly called ASUS out a few weeks ago over their fake EAX support, we had an idea to compare both true EAX along with the DS3D GX 2.0 engine from ASUS to see if real-world differences could be heard. So we picked up three Creative-recommend games and did just that. Though true EAX ultimately came out on top, the GX 2.0 performed so well, that Creative now has a true reason to become worried.

ASUS EN9600GT Top Video Card Review
i4u :: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
“Today we are checking out another overclocked 9600 GT. This card is the ASUS EN9600GT Top. ASUS promises a 10% overclock right out of the box and provides applications to let you overclock even more. The only real sore point for me with the ASUS EN9600GT Top is that the custom heatsink makes the card very thick. You can still run the ASUS EN9600GT Top in SLI mode, but you are likely going to give up the slot right below where you put the ASUS EN9600GT Top.”

ECS GeForce 8800 GT Review
OCC :: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
“I have to be honest, I went into this review with high hopes but very concerned whether or not the lower memory clockspeed was going to affect performance, and the fact that the firmware needed to be flashed in order to reach 512MB. I was wondering where the other 256MB would come from; was it on the card or used as shared memory from the system? All sorts of things were going through my mind, but no matter what, as a reviewer you have to maintain the objectivity with any product you go into testing. So I started on it looking back and forth between the ECS 8800 GT and other 8800 GTs. I started to notice little things during the review, like the memory on the ECS board was the same brand as the ones on the ASUS card and that there were the same number of chips. So I started to think if it is so alike physically, then it should perform close to the same. Boy was I surprised! At 256MB, the card was behind, but that was expected for half of the memory buffer as the 512MB cards, but man, after that update the decrease in the memory clock did not seem to be that big of a deal.”

ASUS EN9800 GTX 512MB Graphics Card
tweak Town :: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
“While the 9800 GTX might not be the revolutionary jump that we had hoped for, it’s still a very good card for someone looking at buying a new graphics card with this kind of budget. The first retail 9800 GTX we’re going to look at comes from ASUS and doesn’t carry with it any extra acronyms such as TOP.

With the 9800 GTX in hand we took the time to see how it goes up against other high-end retail cards like the HD 3870 X2 from ASUS and the 9800 GX2 from Zotac. While Dual GPU cards are good in theory, if the application isn’t able to make full use of the power then high-end single core cards can outperform them. Let’s find out how the 9800 GTX goes against these Dual GPU wielding cards.”

ASUS 9800 GTX 512MB Graphics Card Review 
Virtual Hideout :: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
“The bottom line here is that the ASUS EN9800GTX is a much cooler graphics card that’s capable of replacing the 8800 GTX in ASUS’ line up. Should you run out and replace that 8800 GTX you already have? Not really. Performance between these two GTXs is a pretty even battle with the newer 9800 winning out a little. Those looking for the newest performance card that offers the best bang for buck are going to find the ASUS EN9800GTX to be a good option. The only thing that would make it an even better choice would be a lower price tag and a decently bundled video game. It’s ASUS, so anything is possible.”

Altec Lansing PT 7031 Review
Inside HW :: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
This time we have tested a really special sound system or it is better to say loudspeaker. This particular Altec Lansing model includes three flat NXT speakers, which are pretty much rare on the market. If you want to understand how special they are, you must forget everything you know about regular speakers. They are different in many ways: different looks, size, manufacturing, sound reproduce .”…

ATI FireGL V8600 1GB Workstation Graphics Card 
Hot Hardware :: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
As many of you know, ATI has been particularly aggressive with their FireGL workstation graphics card lineup over the past six months. While their flagship R600-architecture was the basis for the solid (but ultimately underwhelming) Radeon HD2900XT for the gaming market, our tests have shown that this particular GPU architecture is much more competitive in the workstation market. While the R600 may not be the best choice for a high-end gaming rig, it is indeed a powerful chip for high-end OpenGL work, and as such, has led to a revival of sorts for ATI’s FireGL lineup.

With an excellent performing workstation GPU in tow, ATI finally took the steps to get their latest generation of FireGL cards out to the market fast – much faster than we’ve seen from them in the past. ATI now has a number of R600-based workstation products out on the market, and is competing quite well with NVIDIA in terms of both price and performance. ATI’s cards generally offer nearly all the bang for the buck as the QuadroFX lineup, but ATI has some unique models as well which give them their own following of users. One of their newest models, the FireGL V8600 1GB, has finally hit the market. And this is the card we’ll be looking at today…

Alphacool LC-Display reviewed 
Burnout PC :: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
“Alphacool has a very nice product with their LCD Display. Like I said, it has been around for a while but even today it’s still very functional and modern. It’s cheaper than an external color display to use with Windows Vista for it’s sideshow feature and it’s better function and performance wise than the Pertelian V5. The display sells for around 100 euros nowadays and the smaller 240×64 ones for 70 euros. The Pertelian sells for around 35 euros, which is half the price of the 240×64 pixels version but the Pertelian doesn’t have screen as nice as the Alphacool LC-Display.”

Samsung LN-T4081F LED Backlight LCD 40″ HDTV
Bona Fide Reviews :: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Today in the BFR labs we have a brand new display from Samsung’s latest 81 series of LCD HDTV’s. The specific model we have is the LN-T4081F, a 40″ 1080p LCD display. The 81 series displays are unique because they feature Samsung’s LED SmartLighting technology.

Agent18 Dragon Shield Case for the Zune 80GB Review
Futurelooks :: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The good people at Agent18 are coming to the rescue of Zune owners as they have developed a fantastic case to go with the Zune 80GB Media Player that we reviewed earlier. Dubbed the Dragon Shield, this polycarbonate case will protect the Zune from all the usual bumps, bruises, and scrapes. This way, you won’t have to worry about the occasional drop or brush up against a harsh surface.

Cyber Acoustics CA-5001 5.1 Speaker Kit
Tweak Town :: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
“Cyber Acoustics are based out of Asia and claim to have had involvement in the PC audio industry for many years, since the 80`s in fact. Now, that should be plenty of time to get the recipe right, so to speak. The company offers many products from headsets and iPod solutions to full on surround sound systems like the one I`m looking at today.

For the purposes of testing I have several systems around my home to provide an adequate representation of where these speakers stand, all things considered. I think that when evaluating speakers in general, it’s a very good idea to try and listen to the same piece of music through several different systems.”

Foxconn 9600 GT OC Video Card Review
i4u :: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
“Today we are looking at the Foxconn 9600 GT OC video card. As the name implies this is a factory overclocked 9600 GT video card that offers good performance at a good price.

The Foxconn 9600 GT OC performed well, but was on average 300 points lower on 3DMark06 than the other overclocked 9600 GT video cards I have tested. In the real world that performance difference equates to around 3 fps slower on average when playing video games. The difference is minimal in performance, but the Foxconn 9600 GT OC lacks a bundle whereas other cards include first rate video games as well.”

OVC TC20 Earphones
techPowerUp :: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The OVC TC20 earphones are aimed at the more budget conscious in-ear audience. Priced at only $39 they are many times cheaper than most big brand earphones. The only question is how does their sound performance stack up against the more expensive in-ears.

NVIDIA 3-Way SLI With GeForce 9800 GTX Graphics Cards
Legit Reviews :: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
“Today is April 15th, 2008 and that means that it is the day taxes are due in the United States. While this is a time of stress for many Americans it shouldn’t be as you might be one of the many that is expecting a substantial income tax refund this year. It turns out that over 70 percent of Americans get money back at the end of the tax year, with the average refund being close to $2,000! Rather than having those precious dollars being absorbed into your normal spending routine or being used wisely to pay off bills you could do something crazy with your refund, get three GeForce 9800 GTX graphics cards for triple SLI! Actually, with a street price of $289 plus shipping buying the graphics cards will only set you back $867. This sounds like a large amount, but keep in mind a single GeForce 8800 Ultra cost $829 when it launched back in early 2007…”

Leadtek Winfast PX9600GT 
t-break :: Monday, April 14, 2008
The 9600GT from nVidia is a pretty decent GPU as far as the price/performance ratio is concerned and thus its no surprise to see many vendors jumping on it. Today we take a look at one such card by Leadtek modeled as WinFast PX9600 GT with 512MB RAM. Looking at its specifications, the PX9600 GT runs at stock speed as per nVidia’s specifications with nothing overclocked.

ASUS EAH3870 TOP 512MB Graphics Card Review
Hardware Canucks :: Monday, April 14, 2008
Since its release, the HD3870 name has been synonymous with affordable performance and with the HD3870 TOP, ASUS has continued this tradition in their own unique way. In the past, ATI’s board partners have left pre-overclocked versions of their cards off their proverbial “to do” lists and have left their Nvidia-totting competition to run away with this portion of the market. ASUS has bucked this trend and has pushed out a TOP edition which finally adds some spice to an otherwise drab ATI presence in the graphics card arena.

Foxconn 9600GT 512N Videocard
Madbox PC :: Monday, April 14, 2008
“Nvidias’ 9600GT cards are very interesting cards for a certain segment of buyers that needs power but doesn’t have money for a bigger card. Foxconn 9600GT 512N comes with slight overclock, but you can get more than 10% extra with a little help of rivatuner.”

Terratec 2400 Dual TV tuner Review
Xtreme Computing :: Monday, April 14, 2008
“Today I will be looking at a product from a manufacturer that I personally don’t know a great deal about, you however maybe more familiar with the name of TerraTec. The product I will be reviewing is a digital tv card the Cinergy 2400i DT. This is a dual digital tuner card, nothing special there you may think BUT this card uses a pci express x1 slot which is refreshing as, in my honest opinion, most manufacturers overlook this expansion slot.”

HIS HD 3870 IceQ 3 Turbo
Bjorn 3d :: Monday, April 14, 2008
Since AMD bought ATI they have struggled to compete with NVIDIA for the performance crown. Instead they have chosen a different strategy by releasing GPU’s that while still fast mainly compete by offering an excellent performance and features for a low price. The HD3870 GPU is no exception and today we are testing HIS interesting HIS HD 3870 IceQ 3 Turbo.

As the name implies the HIS HD 3870 IceQ 3 Turbo comes with HIS tested IceQ 3 cooler promising to keep the card cool and running quiet. The “Turbo” in its name means that it is overclocked right out of the factory.

x264 HD Benchmark
Tech ARP :: Monday, April 14, 2008
“Simply put, it is a reproducible measure of fast your machine can encode a short, HD-quality video clip into a high quality x264 video file. It’s nice because everyone running it will use the same video clip and software. The video encoder (x264.exe) reports a fairly accurate internal benchmark (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encode and it also uses multi-core processors very efficiently.”

Palit GeForce 9800GTX Review
Motherboards.org :: Monday, April 14, 2008
Palit has done a good job with the reference 9800GTX video card in that they have included a game bundle and their entry into the US is most welcome since the video card market needs more players bringing better competition to the retail market place for the video card dollar. Palit support needs to update their drivers as NVIDIA has released the 174.74 Forceware and the drivers on Palit’s website are based upon 169.32. The inclusion of the latest Tomb Raider game which was released last year is a somewhat good thing. I remember buying video cards and getting huge game bundles (20 games and demos for the Diamond Monster 3D card). I hope Palit gives a game with every card they sell as it adds value for the new buyer. Sure games get old fast, but the fact is its better to have a game bundle than not to have one.

GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB Crossfire Review
Virtual Hideout :: Friday, April 11, 2008
“Two of those latest cards has come to us in the form of Gigabyte’s ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB graphics cards, or GV-RX387512H for those currently shopping. NVidia’s 8800 series are a very common top end budget gamer card and typically does well in most cases. How does the Gigabyte HD 3870 stack up against the card? And is it a viable solution? Read on for the surprising results.”

AutumnWave OnAir USB HDTV-GT Tuner
Tweak Town :: Friday, April 11, 2008
“There are quite a few products available nowadays that allow you to display and capture over-the-air High Definition television content to your home computer or laptop. While the number of choices are plentiful, most of them are designed for those outside the confines of the United States. The reason for this is simple; the US tends to lag far behind other parts of the world when it comes to transmitting high-def signals over the air.

With the inevitable transition toward digital broadcasting due to federal laws getting ready to take place early next year, this trend is finally changing. With this thought in mind, AutumnWave has come forward to address this new market need. They are a US based company founded in 2005 and at the time of this writing, their entire consumer product line is designed for mobile television devices.”

ASUS EN9800GX2 Top Video Card Review
i4u :: Friday, April 11, 2008
“Today we are checking out a factory overclocked 9800 GX2 called the ASUS EN9800GX2 Top. The card promises 11% overclocks right out of the box. Every time I look at a 9800 GX2 I am impressed by the performance delivered by a single graphics card. The ASUS EN9800GX2 Top is the fastest 9800 GX2 that I have tested to date and has a very nice bundle with it. ASUS might not be a name you think of immediately when it comes to overclocked graphics cards, but ASUS is working on that.”

VSONIC R02-PRO Earphones
techPowerUp :: Friday, April 11, 2008
VSONIC R02-PRO is the name of a reasonably priced set of earphones. They retail for around $69 which is to be considered cheap by earphone market standards. What is interesting to see is their rather different design and how they stack up against competitors from more established brands.

NVIDIA QuadroFX 3700 512MB Workstation Graphics Card
Hot Hardware :: Friday, April 11, 2008
Today at HotHardware we take a look at NVIDIA’s latest entrant into the mid-range workstation graphics card market, the QuadroFX 3700. This card has an MSRP of about $1,700, which puts it smack-dab in between the price tags of NVIDIA’s mid-range and ultra-high-end products, although street prices for the QuadroFX 3700 are much lower than its MSRP. This card is based on NVIDIA’s popular G92 graphics processor, which has been prominently featured in their GeForce 8800 GT / GTS lineup at a very competitive price point. Likewise, with NVIDIA’s G92 GL GPU underneath the hood, this professional-grade QuadroFX should also deliver substantially better performance in high-end OpenGL applications, while tackling DirectX 10 applications similarly to the 8800 series GPU as well. Head on over to the site and check it out…

Sapphire HD3850-512MB
t-break :: Friday, April 11, 2008
When AMD introduced the 3850 graphics card, it came bundled with 256MB of RAM which is a bit on the lower side for games that come out nowadays. Granted the 3850 is targeted as a mid-range card, it still pumps out pretty decent performance so a higher frame buffer could help. Today we look at the 3850 solution from AMD’s biggest partner when it comes to graphics cards- the Sapphire HD3850 card with a frame buffer of 512MB.

Palit 9800 GTX review and SLI testing
Neoseeker :: Friday, April 11, 2008
“With a high-end card such as this, many are no doubt wondering what a 9800 GTX SLI system would be capable of. So this is something we are going to look at today, comparing the a pair of 9800 GTX cards against a 9600 GT, 8800 GT, and 8800 GTS 512MB SLI configuration. How nice would be to come home from work one day and see a pair of these powerful cards sitting in your motherboard?”

Leadtek WinFast GeForce PX8800GT 256MB
reviewLab :: Friday, April 11, 2008
“The race on the marketing of high-end video cards has lately been well-led by NVIDIA. One of great achievements was the launch of GeForce 8800 series, the world’s first DirectX 10 compliant graphics cards, the GeForce 8800 GTX / GTS based on a new G80 GPU architecture. Today we’re going to review the Leadtek PX8800GT 256MB Video card and check out everything this great GPU can offer.”

Diamond HD 3650 1024 MB DDR2
techPowerUp :: Friday, April 11, 2008
Diamond’s latest HD 3650 card features a huge video memory of 1 GB, but uses only slow DDR2. For media PC systems an extra HDMI output has been added which natively supports HDCP and audio. We run this card through our benchmarks and check whether the extra memory can make a performance difference.

Our Favorite Bluetooth Headsets
PC Magazine (Speakers) :: Friday, April 11, 2008
Free your hands, forget about wires, and make clearer calls with these excellent Bluetooth headsets.

Sapphire HD 3870 TOXIC Edition
Modders Inc :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Sapphire is always trying to figure out how to out do itself with their graphic cards and this holds true with the HD3870. Once they take a card and kick it up a notch or two they brand it with the now familiar Toxic label. Does the Sapphire HD3870 Toxic Edition live up to it namesakes?

XFX 9800 GTX review
Neoseeker :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“In the end, the rest of NVIDIA’s current line-up is the 9800GTX’s own worst enemy, but it can not be denied that the while perhaps not as exciting as the 8800GTX was, the 9800GTX is a worthy successor to that ‘old’ performance crown, and while perhaps it is not as ground-breaking in its design, the 9800GTX is still a damn fine piece of engineering, with enough positive features to leave a lasting impression.”

EVGA e-GeForce 9800 GTX Review 
NV News :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“And the GeForce 9800 GTX? In summary, after having tested the GeForce 9800 GTX under Windows XP, I will state that it performs on par with the previous generation GeForce 8800 GTX. That is until its 512MB of video memory (VRAM) becomes exhausted. Although not necessarily a drawback, it is a consideration that the informed consumer needs to realize before making a purchase – especially when two (SLI) or three (3-way SLI) graphics cards are being considered.”

XFX and Palit GeForce 9800 GTX Video Cards
Legit Reviews :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“This is by far one of the toughest cards that we have had to draw a conclusion on since we started reviewing video cards when the site started back in 2002. The GeForce 9800 GTX is not faster across the board than the GeForce 8800 GTX that came out back in 2006 as the benchmarks showed. To many readers this may be a disappointment and we’d be lying if we said it doesn’t bother us too. When it comes to just raw gaming performance the GeForce 9800 GTX is more of an evolutionary advancement than revolutionary. If you are looking to play at high resolutions with high anti-aliasing it seems that the GeForce 8800 GTX is still the best choice in the majority of the game titles we looked at here today…”

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Round-Up: BFG, EVGA, Zogis
Hot Hardware :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
NVIDIA is officially taking the wraps off of their new GeForce 9800 GTX card today. With its predecessor, the GeForce 8800 GTX’s, excellent pedigree the new GeForce 9800 GTX certainly has some pretty big shoes to fill. Its name alone will make many users assume the GeForce 9800 GTX is NVIDIA’s new flagship single GPU powered graphics card. And technically it is. But we all know what happens when people assume.

Thankfully, there’s no longer a need to make any assumptions. We’ve got a trio of GeForce 9800 GTX cards in-house from NVIDIA’s partners BFG, EVGA, and Zogis and have put them to the test with some of today’s popular games running at XHD resolutions in single card, SLI, and 3-Way SLI configurations. Head on over to the site and take a look…

Asus EN9800GTX performance preview and pictures
Overclock 3d :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“The full review is on the way, but we think it would be rude not to give you a quick sneak peak at some numbers and pictures!”

BFG 9800 GTX 512MB Review 
Hardware Canucks :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
The new 9800 GTX is billed as a card that offers not only extreme HD gaming but also offers a one-stop-shop of a bevy of other features which were not offered on the outgoing 8-series cards. With these new features, Nvidia is taking the road less travelled of forgoing brute force graphics power and instead focusing on a balanced entertainment experience.

XFX 9800GTX 512MB
Bjorn 3d :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Today, April 1, 2008 less than two weeks since the 9800GX2 became reality, the 9800GTX is born. We at Bjorn3D are honored to have the opportunity to review XFX’s version of the 9800GTX. The biggest question we asked ourselves before beginning this review was, is there a large enough void between the aforementioned cards to warrant the introduction of an entirely new card? Stick around we’ll have the answer to this and hopefully many other of your questions in short order.

9800 GTX/X2 and 3870 Roundup 
Driver Heaven :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
No, its not an April’s fools joke, today we have yet another launch from Nvidia, the new 9800 GTX which is set to replace the 8800 GTX of old. Not content with just reviewing the new GTX however we have several new GX2’s as well as a kick ass new Asus 3870 X2 in our test labs today.

ZOGIS 9800GTX Review
OCC :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“The ZOGIS 9800GTX was a beast when it came to overclocking. I was able to overclock the stock GPU clock of 675MHz all the way up to 823MHz! A 148MHz overclock is quite good if you ask me. I was also able to get the stock memory clock of 1100MHz all the way up to 1274MHz – a 174MHz increase. The shader clock was stock at 1688MHz, but I was able to bring it up to 2001MHz. The core clock was able to go higher, but the memory kept having to go down, so these numbers are the absolute highest that I could get for all three of the variables. I’ve never overclocked any other video card nearly this much in all of my years of overclocking. I’m thoroughly impressed with the ZOGIS 9800GTX’s overclocking ability.”

High-end graphics card roundup
Nordic Hardware :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Today we will look at the high-end graphics card segment of today. This of course includes the just launched GeForce 9800GTX, but also the previously launched 9600GT, and the older cards of the GeForce 8800 series, both G80 and G92-based. They go up against the Radeon HD 3800 and 3600 series, with 3870X2 and 3870 CrossFire at the top of the ladder, 3650 at the bottom and Radeon HD 3870 and 3850 in between. Most of all we’ve made sure to use a test system that will render as few bottlenecks as possible, while also making sure no automatic overclocking features will compromise the results.

Zotac GeForce 9800 GTX
Tech PowerUp :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Today NVIDIA launches their new GeForce 9800 GTX cards. Like many products in the GeForce 8 Series they are based on the G92 graphics processor. This is also the reason why there are no real technological innovations on this $299 card.

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XFX 9800GTX Review
OCC :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“One thing the XFX 9800GTX does really well is overclock. Finding the highest GPU core and memory clocks individually results in higher clock speeds, but the idea is to find the area where the two work well together and don’t crash the application and driver. 842MHz on the GPU core and 1280MHz on the memory with the shader clocks just a hair over 2100MHz results in a nice performance boost. Overclocking the GPU core while leaving the memory at the stock 1100MHz resulted in a core clock speed of 862MHz. Overclocking the memory with the GPU core clock at the stock 675MHz resulted in a memory clock speed of 1288MHz. Unfortunately, I could not manage to boost both clockspeeds to their independent maximums. But the final results are more than I was expecting after the 8800GTs that I have worked with.”

ASUS GeForce 9800 GTX review
Tech Spot :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Today will see the official launch of the GeForce 9800 GTX as the third member of the GeForce 9 series. Already we have seen the GeForce 9600 GT performing in the mainstream sector, the 9800 GX2 aimed at the high-end $500+ market, and now the 9800 GTX which may sit right in-between.

Based on the infamous G92 architecture that we have seen used time and time again, the GeForce 9800 GTX shares very similar specifications to that of the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 graphics card. By now, the G92 has been used on numerous Nvidia graphics cards including the GeForce 8800 GS, 8800 GT, 8800 GTS 512, and the 9800 GX2. Keeping this in mind, it will be interesting to see what makes the new GeForce 9800 GX2 special.

Myka Digital TV Appliance
Digital Trends :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
The upcoming Myka digital video appliance borrows the Apple TV’s smooth lines and tiny footprint, but promises to open up a whole new treasure trove of content by trimming back restrictions and adding capabilities. Besides a wide spectrum of compatible video formats, from DivX to WMV, the Myka offers built-in access to the granddaddy of all sources for video downloads: BitTorrent.

ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Video Card 
Benchmark Reviews :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
On April 1st, 2008 NVIDIA will officially launch the GeForce 9800 GTX. It’s been over sixteen months since the GTX series was last launched, and with such a successful debut of the 8800 GTX back in 2006 there is a lot of skepticism surrounding the new 9800 GTX. Enthusiasts may recall that the last time around NVIDIA launched their new generation of graphic cards with the GTX and GTS models, and later followed up with some mid-range offerings and one slightly faster “Ultra”. This time around though, the playbook looked a lot different. First came the lower mid-level 9600 GT, and then the ultra-high level though, the playbook looked a lot different. First came the lower mid-level 9600 GT, and then the ultra-high level GeForce 9800 GX2 which utilized two G92 GPU cores. Benchmark Reviews has been fortunate enough to test the performance of ZOTAC’s new GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB video card in this article, model ZT-98XES2P-FSP.

ATI Radeon HD3450
Techware Labs :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Many users are looking for a video card that will allow them to tak advantage of Vista’s new graphical features but are not iterested in playing games. This leaves them serching for an add-on video card that wont break the budget and yet still powerful enough to run things like Aero and Flip-3D. We test the ATI HD3450 to see if this card fits this need and bring you real world testing and results.

NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT Graphics Card Review 
Tech ARP :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“Our benchmark results show that the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT is fast. For certain, it is more than twice as fast as the GeForce 8600 GTS, a faster-clocked version of its predecessor, the GeForce 8600 GT. In fact, it is only slightly slower than the GeForce 8800 GT in many games and actually slightly faster than that excellent card in BioShock.”

ASUS PG221 22-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor Review
Think Computers :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“We have taken a look at a lot of LCD monitors here at ThinkComputers. While most of them are adequate for all scenarios, none of them have been dubbed as gaming monitors. Well the ASUS PG221 is dubbed as a gaming monitor and we can see why just by looking at the specs, a 2000:1 contrasts ratio, 2ms response time, and all the connections you want on a LCD. Not only does it have these features it also has a 15W bass speaker, built-in webcam, touch-sensitive controls, and a cool lighting effect. It seems the PG221 has everything any gamer or consumer alike would want. Let’s see if we can find anything wrong with it.”

Ray Tracing To Debut In DirectX 11 
Tech ARP :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“You need not worry about your old raster-based DirectX 10 or older games or graphics cards. DirectX 11 will continue to support rasterization. It just includes support for ray-tracing as well. There will be two DirectX 11 modes, based on support by the application and the hardware.”

Creative: Doing Little to Please Consumers
Techgage :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Despite Creative being a leader in PC audio, their stature as such is being comprised with newcomers releasing superb offerings. To make matters worse, they’ve just added to the pile by banning modded X-Fi/Audigy drivers, a move that received an outstanding response from the community.

NVIDIA 9 Series Naming – Inappropriate
Tweak Town :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“NVIDIA choosing to move their latest line-up of cards to a whole new next generation naming scheme would have to be one of the worst things we’ve seen from a company in recent years. Having now looked at the 9600GT, 9800GTX and 9800GX2 we have a fairly good idea of what exactly we’re dealing with, and an e-mail we received the other day really sealed the deal.

Anyone who has really been keeping up with the latest models will tell you the same thing. NVIDIA should have chosen to move from the 8800 series of cards to the 8900 series to avoid any confusion in people thinking that this was going to be the next big thing for graphics cards.”

ASUS EN9600GT TOP 512MB Review
Techgage :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
NVIDIA’s 9600 GT card is a great offering for the price range, but ASUS ups the ante by offering a TOP version that adds 70MHz to the core and 100MHz to the memory. Add in HDMI support and the ability to overclock the card even higher… then the EN9600GT TOP proves to be a great offering.

PowerColor HD 3450 Review 
OCC :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“The HD3450 is designed as a next generation card supporting all of the newest techlologies and that it does well. This card is not designed for the gaming market and you will not be playing games at those ultra high graphics, but it is great for movie playback and running Vista’s features. The HD3450 has a low profile design which makes it ideal for home theater PCs, but keep in mind the heatsink is big and will take up part of the expansion slot below it, keeping you from placing a card in it. The upside to the size of the heatsink is that it is a passive solution, something that makes the most sense for use in an HTPC case.”

HIS & Jetway HD3870X2 Compared and Tested
Madshrimps :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“ATI partners have brought their HD3870X2 products to their market for quite some time now, we compared the performance of samples from Jetway and HIS, unfortunately the results are not as encouraging, CrossFire can be a blessing or a curse depending on the games used. If you wonder what the other sides of the medallion looks like… keep on reading.”

NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX in Tri SLI Tested
Tweak Town :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“Well here I am again finding myself locked in the iBuyPower bunker with more graphics cards than I can poke a stick at. Alongside three 9800 GTX graphics cards we also have two 9800 GX2s all ready to go into the funky water cooled system that we’ve been provided with today.

With Tri SLI drivers in hand, more benchmarks than we had last time and some Dominos Pizza and Dickens Energy Cider, we’re ready to get stuck into the wonderful world of expensive VGA setups which is overkill for most of us, but still wanted oh so badly.”

NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) v4.0 Released…
MVK Tech :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
“MVKTech has just released a new version of NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) software. NiBiTor is the original and defenitive BIOS tweaker that supports the latest NVIDIA graphics cards. NiBiTor allows graphics card enthusiasts to have full control over advanced features and functionality found on firmware on supporting cards. This to gain some extra performance, enable hidden features and extra stability on the NVIDIA graphics cards.”

Sapphire HD 3450
PC Magazine (Graphics Cards) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Preview of the Sapphire HD 3450.

S3 Launches $60 Graphics Card
PC Magazine (Graphics Cards) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
S3 Graphics, a one-time graphics powerhouse that now languishes in near obscurity, has released a $60 graphics card that the company claims will compete against low-end cards from AMD and Nvidia.

ASUS EN8800GT TOP
PC Magazine (Graphics Cards) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Nvidia’s 8800 GT redefines affordable graphics card performance. We look at four contenders for your gaming dollar and find a lot to like in all of them.

eVGA 8800 GT KO
PC Magazine (Graphics Cards) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Nvidia’s 8800 GT redefines affordable graphics card performance. We look at four contenders for your gaming dollar and find a lot to like in all of them.

The PCMag Dream Home: Game Room
PC Magazine (HDTV) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Got a spare room? Why not turn it into the best game room on the block? Here’s how to pull off the transformation, whether you’re on a budget or a spending spree.

Mobile Media Mavens
PC Magazine (HDTV) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Tired of carrying a dedicated digital music player? Want to watch TV and movies on your phone? These are the handsets to get.

Sony SRS-BT100
PC Magazine (Speakers) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Preview of the Sony SRS-BT100.

Boston Acoustics MM 226
PC Magazine (Speakers) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
This 2.1 speaker system delivers strong bass and bright highs. And because of its BassTrac audio processing, it doesn’t distort at higher volumes.

Razer Mako
PC Magazine (Speakers) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
The 2.1 Mako speaker system delivers clear, thunderous sound, but it comes at a price.

The PCMag Dream Home: Game Room
PC Magazine (Speakers) :: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Got a spare room? Why not turn it into the best game room on the block? Here’s how to pull off the transformation, whether you’re on a budget or a spending spree.

Diamond Viper Fin DDR3 PC14400 2 x 1 GB Review
OCC :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“When it came time to overclock the Viper Fin modules, I had to wonder how much was left on such a high speed rated module. The answer was not what I was looking for but was kind of expecting. I topped out the modules at 1884MHz (942MHz), or 84MHz (42MHz) over the baseline rated speeds. Not a bad increase by any means, but I had thoughts of 1000MHz running through my skull. Loosening the timings to 9-9-9-24 or increasing voltage beyond 2.1volts did not help at this point. The modules were air cooled and felt similar to the ambient air temperatures, so heat was not a factor during the testing. One unexpected side effect was the ability to tighten the timings up at the max overclock. Sweet! It just took a little more voltage to get there.”

On The Move Media Center with Toshiba
Tweak Town :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“I love the media center; there’s nothing better than kicking back in the lounge and watching a movie on the big TV. Setting up a good media center isn’t cheap though, and it’s not exactly a 5 minute task either.

Toshiba has released a line of notebooks under the Qosmio naming scheme. I don’t know exactly how you would go about asking your local retailer for the particular model as I have enough trouble typing the name, let alone saying it. The thing about this series of notebooks is that they’re aimed at people who are interested in not only a large desktop replacement notebook, but also something that offers some pretty cool multimedia specs.”

bgears b-Envi Gaming/HTPC Enclosure Review 
Virtual Hideout :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“When I first looked at the b-Envi enclosure, I thought the front panel controls were either hidden or on the side of the bezel. Boy, was I surprised when I flipped through the manual and found out they were touch sensitive; I couldn’t wait to try them out. The buttons work great, and there is even a little beep every time you push them.”

ASUS Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics Card
Tweak Town :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“We like the HD 3870 X2; generally speaking it gets good gains at high resolutions in most applications we test. The single PCB design is leaps and bounds ahead of the original dual GPU offering from NVIDIA under the 7900 naming scheme. We’ve seen pictures of the HD 3870 X2 from ASUS before, but now it’s our chance to get down and dirty with it to see if it’s worth spending the extra money the ASUS cards generally carry with them.

The ASUS bundles on a whole are pretty good and give you everything you would expect out of a high-end card. You do pay a premium for ASUS cards which give you little extras like the CD Wallet and a more recent game.”

Accelero Xtreme 8800
Technic 3d :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“The Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 8800 VGA Heatsink arrived Technic3D. Accelero Xtreme 8800 supports VGA cards from NVIDIA Geforce 8800 series. The VGA coolers comes with three 80mm Fans and place for SLI. See you in the following Review the Xtreme on a XFX 8800 GTX XXX compared with Standard GPU Cooling, Xigmatek Battle-Axe Cooler and the Zerotherm Hurricane HC92 Cu.”

Gigabyte GV-NX98X1GHI-B GeForce 9800 GX2 Video Card
Benchmark Reviews :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
It seems like it was just yesterday that I bought my first discrete graphics card to outfit an overclocked Cyrix M2-300 6x86MX-based computer. Back in those Windows 98 (first edition) days of 1998 the term GeForce wasn’t even in existence yet, and NVIDIA was called referred to as nVidia. So when I bought my first computer late that year, I would have never thought Quake II played on my RIVA TNT2 AGP video card would mark the last time I would spend money in an arcade. This was nearly ten years ago and since that time NVIDIA has developed several successful GeForce product lines, including the newly launched 9th generation.

Strata Mini Loudspeaker Review
Digital Trends :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
The Strata Mini Loudspeakers give a statement with their South American Rosewood finish, and planar magnetic drivers.

Tweaking the fastest AGP Based System
Madshrimps :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“While the rest of the mainstream world moves on to PCI-Express and DDR3, we take a step back to the previous generation hardware. Our aim is to build a scalable AGP benchmark platform with sole purpose: breaking overclocking records. Fueled by HWBot competition we squeeze the best AGP performance from a budget-friendly Asrock motherboard. Which memory goes the fastest? DDR1 or DDR2? Let us find out”

GeForce 9800 GX2 Quad SLI 
t-break :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
Quad GPUs – its the stuff that a gamers dreams were made of a couple of years back. However, with the release of dual GPUs on a single graphics card, both AMD and nVidia have managed to make it happen. In fact, nVidia has had some previous experience with their 7950GX2 and today, they transfer that technology to the recently released game killer- the 9800 GX2.

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Early Test!
Tweak Town :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“Initial pricing on the 9800 GTX looks promising; down under we should see it pop up for under $500 AUD which puts it into a bracket that doesn’t really exist at the moment.

For roughly 15% more (sometimes less) in the money department you can get yourself an HD 3870 X2 and this really is going to be the GTX’s toughest competition. While the X2 may be a dual GPU card it doesn’t carry the excessive price tag that we see on NVIDIA’s dual GPU card, the GeForce 9800 GX2. We all know these dual cards don’t always provide great performance in all games due to untweaked driver support, so our tests today should be rather interesting indeed.”

XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 Quad SLI Video Card Testing 
Legit Reviews :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“NVIDIA has done a great job with Quad-SLI and with some driver improvements it should only get better. The XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics cards running in a quad-SLI showed increased performance in every application we tested versus a single GeForce 9800 GX2, which is something that can not be said about the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 as they had some driver issues on Tomb Raider: Anniversary. We almost didn’t include Tomb Raider: Anniversary in our testing, but our two store-bought DVD versions of Bioshock say they have been installed too many times, so this game was a last minute addition…”

How To Fix The PCI Express X1 Bug
Tech ARP :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“Crysis enjoyed a 223% increase in framerate, as it is a very GPU intensive game, especially with the High settings and high resolution.”

XFX 9800 GX2 Quad and 8800 Ultra Three Way SLI + ESA
Driver Heaven :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
Last week we brought you coverage of the new nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset along with the 9800 GX2. Within that article we would have liked to include benchmarks of the GX2 in an SLI Quad configuration but due to a rather bizarre decision by Nvidia they asked all partners to withhold Quad performance until today. Members of the public could have bought two of these cards and used Quad Sli themselves, so the decision was for all intents and purposes, utterly ridiculous.

Anyway, today we can tell you how Quad SLI performs but we want to do more than that so we will be taking our first look at 3-Way SLI using three 8800 Ultras and finally we will be testing in a fully ESA compatible system… case, cooling… the works. If you have money to burn, this is where you find out just how fast you can go.

NVIDIA Quad-SLI with the ASUS EN9800GX2
Hot Hardware :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
Last week, NVIDIA formally launched the dual-GPU powered GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card and nForce 790i SLI Ultra chipset. We evaluated both products in our coverage of the launch, but had to leave out one important detail per NVIDIA’s embargo agreement – that being Quad-SLI. The embargo has since lifted, however, and today we take a look at 2008’s version of Quad-SLI technology with a pair of retail-ready graphics cards from ASUS, the EN9800GX2. Head on over to the site for the full scoop…

VVIKOO GeForce 9600GT Turbo 512MB
Tweak Town :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“This is the first card we’ve seen from VVIKOO, and what a card it is. Expecting nothing more than a reference design I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to discover just how cool this 9600GT is.

With the VVIKOO 9600GT in hand and its mammoth clocks, it’s time to see how it fairs against the competition in this price bracket. The 8800GT sits slightly more expensive while the HD 3870 sits at around the same price.”

ASUS EAH3850 Trinity – three GPUs with one card
Nordic Hardware :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“We knew that CrossFireX would bring new multi-GPU setups, but we did not expect anyone to actually use more than two cores with a single card. ASUS proved us wrong, as EAH3850 Trinity is a tri-core card.”

PNY 9800 GX2 Graphics Card Review
i4u :: Thursday, April 03, 2008
“If you are in the market for a high-end graphics card and have the budget for the $600 price tag, the PNY 9800 GX2 is a great option. After all the testing was done, my second round with a PNY 9800 GX2 reaffirmed what I found the first time out with the XFX branded card. The 9800 GX2 is one beast of a graphics card. The PNY 9800 GX2 is able to play games at settings unobtainable with any two other video cards.”

ASUS 8800 GT 512MB TOP Edition Review 
Virtual Hideout :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“So, where does the 8800 GT fit in terms of market niche? I’d say it’s still well tuned for users looking for the best bang for buck. I mean, it’s still a really, really good buy. The regular 8800 GTS, GTX, and Ultras are still quite a bit more with the GTX and Ultra still costing the most. The ASUS 8800 GT TOP Edition may cost a little more than the stock frequency versions, but the card packs a bigger punch thanks to its factory overclocked settings and the card is very quiet. And the card is fully warranted.”

MSI GeForce 8800 GT Silent 512MB, MSI RADEON HD 3650 512MB
Digit Life :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“MSI 8800 GT That we review today belongs to the most popular group of slightly overclocked 8800 GT cards. The RADEON HD 3650, in its turn, is basically a RADEON HD 2600 made using a finer process technology. Its clock rates are lower than, but close to those of 2600 XT.”

Rocketfish Universal Wireless Rear Speaker Kit Review
i4u :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“Today we are looking at the Rocketfish Wireless Universal Rear Speaker Kit. This kit allows you to make any rear 5.1 surround speakers into a wireless system requiring no wires running from your receiver to the rear speakers. Once everything was connected up the system worked flawlessly. As soon as I pressed the connect button on the transmitter the rear speakers synced up. In my room the rear speakers are about 30 feet from the transmitter. There was no lag, popping or other issue noticeable with the sound when watching a Blu-ray movie.”

AMD Releases R300 3D Register Guide
Phoronix :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“Last month right before FOSDEM 2008, the 3D programming documentation for the R500 GPUs (Radeon X1000) series was released. This documentation consisted of a register reference guide for the R500 GPUs as well as a programming guide covering such areas as the command processor, vertex shaders, and fragment shaders. While the register reference guide for the R600 series is still being worked on, for those with older ATI graphics processors, AMD has went back and created a register reference guide for the R300 series.”

mStation 2.1 Stereo Orb Review
OCIA :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“The wireless IR remote control has 10 buttons to fully control speaker functions as well as basic iPod functions, so you can change tracks from the remote without having to actually touch the iPod. This of course only works with iPods plugged into the dock and will not work with other MP3 players that are connected via the line-in jack.”

GIGABYTE GV-RX387512H HD3870 512MB Crossfire Review
Gamepyre :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
GIGABYTE has done a wonderful job with their new HD3870 card in many respects. One especially nice addition to the bundle was that of NeverWinter Nights 2, a recent RPG game. Many card manufacturers are forgoing the games bundle meaning that there are fewer costs involved in bringing the new video card to the market in packaging. I prefer a game to increase the value of the bundle.

Workstation Graphics Card Comparison Guide 
tech ARP :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
These days, there are so many workstation graphics card models that it has become quite impossible to keep up with the different configurations. Therefore, we decided to compile this comprehensive guide to 103 workstation graphics cards.

We hope this comparison will provide an easy reference for those who are interested in comparing the specifications of the various workstation graphics cards in the market as well as those already obsolescent or obsolete. We will keep this guide updated regularly so do check back for the latest updates.

Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 512MB
Hot Hardware :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
We’re writing to let you all know that we have just posted a new article at HotHardware in which we evaluate the features and performance of Sapphire’s Radeon HD 3650 512MB graphics card. The Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 512MB differs from ATI’s reference design in that it has double the frame buffer memory (512MB vs. 256MB) and a much higher GPU clock speed (800MHz vs. 725MHz). The Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 512MB also has a fairly good accessory bundle and its priced right too. Head on over to the site and check it out…

Sapphire HD3870X2 CrossfireX
Technic 3d :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“Two Sapphire HD3870X2 arrived Technic3D. The AMD/ATI Dual GPU Graphic Card with Quad Performance? Technic3D will see that in the following Review with 1920×1200 up to 1280×1024 on Windows Vista and DirectX 10. CrossFireX on Catalyst 8.3 are Ready Now?”

ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1 Channel PCI Express Sound Card Review
Big Bruin :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
The ASUS Xonar D2X isn’t your typical sound card. It features a host of impressive features, a generous bundle of software, and a variety of connections and cables to help you get fully connected right out of the box. The large Aluminum EMI shield gives it the appearance of a high end graphics card, while the PCI Express x1 connector finally gives you something useful to stick into those unused slots on your motherboard.

Genius BT-03A Bluetooth Stereo Headset
Blue Tomorrow :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“Genius, a smaller consumer electronic company based out of Taiwan, has thrown their hat into the ring with the BT-03A wireless headset. This headset is the smallest wireless Bluetooth stereo headset they currently offer, providing a solid option to contend with competitors.”

Foxconn GeForce 8800GT OC Graphics Card
Tweak Town :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“It recently saw a price drop to continue competing with the HD 3870 and manufacturers are still making loads of them as they continue to represent great value for money. Foxconn tend to produce a nice little reference card with an overclock and at a decent price.

With the 8800GT Standard OC in hand from Foxconn, we thought it was time to see how it faired against the overclocked 9600GT from Galaxy and the ASUS HD 3870 which carries with it stock clocks.”

CrossFire X explored
Tech Report :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
AMD’s CrossFire X will let three or four Radeon HD 3800 GPUs team up in order to kick some green team backside. How well does it work? We’ve taken a quick look at AMD’s first drivers for CrossFire X, we’ve talked with one of AMD’s driver architects, and we have some interesting things to report.

RadeonHD Driver Introduces Major Changes
Phoronix :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“Following a period of relative inactivity in the xf86-video-radeonhd git tree over the past few weeks, this afternoon Novell’s Egbert Eich had pushed forward 55 changes to this open-source R500/600 driver. The AMD Radeon HD 3400 and 3600 series are now supported and there are a number of other significant changes. The RV620/635 mode-setting support has required the most significant work since the R500 series, since all output blocks have been altered due to the introduced DisplayPort capabilities. We have already tested out this latest code and were left with a positive impression.”

World-Exlusive: Sapphire HD 3870 Toxic
TechPowerUp :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Sapphire’s new HD 3870 Toxic is built on the same Vapor-X cooling technology that the HD 3870 Atomic uses. This means that the card comes with a single slot cooling solution making it a premier choice for Quad CrossFire systems. The accessory package also includes an HDMI cable, PowerDVD and a 3DMark license, not bad for a $40 premium.

XFX 8400GS 256MB Video Card Review
Gamepyre :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
All around for what it is XFX has made a great card here, perfect for the media center computer. Some of the best features being the ability to put it in a low profile case, an S-video out, dual monitor support and it’s nice and quiet. This card is a great choice for those who want HDTV output for their computers as well, but don’t want to shell out a ton of cash. Though not a gaming card, I give this card a Silver Medal for being a solid product in every aspect, and delivering all that is promised of it.

VVIKOO GeForce 8800 GT Max 1024 MB
techPowerUp :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Even though the GeForce 8800 GT has already been out for a while, it still has the punch to play all the latest games. The VVIKOO 8800 GT Max 1 GB comes with the Zalman VF1000 pre-installed and also features double the video memory. But is there any performance to be gained by going from 512 MB to 1024 MB of memory?

BFG 8800 GTS OC 512MB
Modders Inc :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
It performed the best overall through the testing process and comes in at the same price range of the HD3870.

ATI Catalyst 8.3 Analysis – XP & Vista
Tweak Town :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“The first thing we did when we obtained the latest driver release from AMD was to test out the Crossfire X capabilities with a pair of HD 3870 X2 cards. With that out the way it’s time to test the latest driver in the typical fashion.

This is a pretty good driver as far as performance increases go for Vista users. Crysis sees a very nice bump in performance and so does UT3. CINEBENCH also sees gains but the OpenGL increase isn’t carried over to our OpenGL based game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.”

Gateway XHD3000 30-inch Wide-Screen Review
Techgage :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Gateway, not content to let Dell and others hog the limelight in the display market, have recently launched their XHD3000 monitor. It offers a wide-range of connectivity options along with bright picture and an incredible upscaler. When said and done, this is one model we can heartily recommend.

Alphacool External 240×128 LCD-Display Review 
Xtreme Computing :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“The screen editing software has a lot of control over everything that you could possibly want to add, you can modify existing screens or create a new one completely. You can even drop a picture into the background (2 tone pictures work best).”

Razer Mako THX 2.1 Speaker System Review
Futurelooks :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Razer is a company that prides itself in designing products for gamers, by gamers. We’ve already seen what Razer is capable of when it comes to crazy computer mice and “gaming surfaces”, but what about something a little more substantial? Well, the speakers that are built into my Dell laptop are pretty anemic at best, so I approached the newly launched Razer Mako THX speakers with completely open arms. And the 2.1 system absolutely blew me away. Yes, they are that good.

Foxconn 9600GT 512 MB Review
OCC :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“To overclock the Foxconn 9600GT, I used Nvidia’s Ntune software. I started at the stock clock speeds and just kept increasing the core and clock speeds until I had reached a point that the graphics benchmarks would not complete or have corruption. 749 MHz is a 99MHz overclock over the stock speeds of 650MHz on the G94 core. The memory just kept scaling upwards until I reached the end of the scale. The scale ended at 1100MHz, a 190 MHz increase over the factory memory clock speeds. The Foxconn 9600GT was able to complete the entire benchmark suite at these speeds. Hoping that the overclocked settings would not fail, or more specifically, trying to make them fail, I played an hour long round of Call of Duty 4 just to be sure the settings were good. They were! At these overclocked speeds, the 9600 GT decreased the performance gap between it and the 8800GT. Pretty amazing results.”

Helios H4000 Review
Tech Bitch :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“You’re not getting true HD, but the Helios H4000HD is a reasonable player for DVD buffs who want to get the most from their HDTV without spending hundreds on a ‘true HD’ DVD player. The major criticism I had with the player was its build quality – the buttons on the unit itself are very noisy when clicked, DVDs frequently stuck (requiring me to force open the drive bay), and the remote control looks like an afterthought. Plus, the on-screen menu is painfully slow and subtitles keep appearing every time you pause a movie – how annoying! But, for the price it’s a steal.”

Sony ICD-UX80
Tech Bitch :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“Let’s not get carried away. The ICD-UX80 is a decent voice recorder, but it is a million miles away from being a proper MP3 player or preamplifier microphone. If you consider price, music playback capability, compact size, MP3 recording functionality and PC connectivity a priority when purchasing a digital dictation device, the ICD-UX80 should be exactly what you’re looking for. If audio quality is the main priority, such as for podcasting or other types of broadcasting, you’d be better off with a proper microphone. But for the latest in personal digital dictation, the ICD-UX80 is not bad at all. We just wish Sony would sort out their unintuitive interfaces and make their products easier to use.”

Four Overclocked RADEON HD 3650/3850/3870 Graphics Cards
IXBT :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“Like most people neither wear designer clothes nor live in villas, most users cannot afford expensive powerful graphics cards like GeForce 8800GTX or RADEON HD 3870 X2 and choose cheaper solutions instead. So, this time we are going to review three Mid-End graphics cards of the $100-$180 price range and a more expensive HD 3870. All our contenders today are based on AMD (ATI) RADEON GPUs.”

Audiotrak Maya EX5 CE External 5.1 USB Surround Audio Solution
IXBT :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“Audiotrak has launched an external USB device, Maya EX5 CE. It differs from the previous Maya EX5 product only in colors. The title of the new product now includes CE, which stands for Crystal Edition. Unfortunately, such a nice name did not affect technical characteristics of the device, all parameters remain the same.”

Vvikoo 9600GT 512MB Review
XS Reviews :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“Well it’s finally here, the 9 series of GPUs has hit the shelves and the reviews have already poured in thick and fast. I know we’re a little behind everyone else on this one, but our 9600GT review is a bit different. Vvikoo’s monstrous 9600, comes with a whopping Zalman heatsink and some hefty factory overclocking. Let’s see what it’s made of.”

Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics Card
Tweak Town :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“The latest HD 3870 X2 to make its way into the labs comes in the form of a stock clocked Sapphire. We actually haven’t checked out the X2 on our new test bed in any real detail, so we’ll have to see how it goes here today.

If you’re looking for a HD 3870 X2 that doesn’t do anything but produce some good numbers, this could be the card for you. Fortunately, there is only one way to find out so let’s get stuck into the card and see what we have on our hands today before we get into the benchmarks.”

Logitech Harmony ONE Review 
OCC :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
the 890 while the additional buttons one up the 1000. While the touch screen is smaller than the 1000, I found that with my size XXL hands I did not have any issues pushing the correct feature or setting on the touch screen. The feel of the One in my hands was actually more comfortable than the 890 Pro due to its wider dimensions and more ergonomically correct feel. It just felt better to use. The buttons are large and spread at a comfortable distance so that one handed operation is easily accomplished.”

ASUS VW222 22-inch Wide-Screen Review
Techgage :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
The display market is chalked-full of models that fill up the quality spectrum, from sub-par up to high-end. The VW222 falls into the sub-par category, sadly, with overall poor color representation and noticeable screen-door effects, resulting in a model that should not be considered for purchase.

AMD HD3870 512MB roundup, Club3D and HIS compared
Madshrimps :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
“The HD3800 series have been available for nearly three months now, but it’s only until NVIDIA recently decided to launch their 9600GT that we decided to have another look at ATI’s current mainstream video card. Our article includes two samples, one standard clocked HD3870 branded Club3D, and one supercharged video card labeled HIS. Head on to found out how we rated the HD3870 three months after release.”

Asus 8800GS TOP Videocard Review 
RB Mods :: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Today we take a look at a relatively inexpensive videocard from Asus. We recieved a sample of their 8800GS card that cost around 200$. This card is cheaper than the 8800GT card but can it compete with it at all or will it fall behind in every test we put it through? How does it perform and is it actually worth even looking at this card? Those are a few questions that we will digg deeper into.