Zalman ZM500-HP 500W Modular Power Supply Review
Think Computers :: Saturday, February 09, 2008
“South Korea-based Zalman is most well-known for its cooling products, but it makes a line of power supplies, as well. The ZM500-HP is Zalman’s 500 watt unit. Zalman’s main selling points for the series are its high efficiency and ultra-quiet heat pipe cooling system. Additionally, it’s modular! Read on for the review.”
ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP
Nordic Hardware :: Saturday, February 09, 2008
NZXT Rogue SFF Gaming Case Review
Metku Mods :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“During its existence, the shape and the size of the PC-case have gone through many evolutions. One of the newer designs is a cube. Case design has much to do with personal preference, so it’s good to see variety on the market as many find the cube shape to be very practical.”
Upcoming Intel Processor & Memory Technologies
Tech ARP :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“To increase the amount of on-die memory, a cheaper memory technology (in terms of chip real estate) was needed. To this end, Intel developed a new category of DRAM memory, called 2T Gain-Cell Memory. Unlike commodity DRAM, this type of DRAM is built using standard microprocessor technology and is designed to provide a new choice of fast on-chip memory.”
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Heatsink Review
Frosty Tech :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“The Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme heatsink is a continuation of the Ultra-120 series, only with a little more muscle and a couple extra heatpipes. It’s predecessor has remained at the top of Frostytech thermal test results for both AMD and Intel platforms basically since we tested it, so we’re especially interested to see how the Ultra-120 Extreme model handles. Like the Ultra-120 that came before it, the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme applies fairly simple concepts to yield a well performing tower heatsink that doesn’t have to generate much noise to get the job done.”
Computer User Beginners Guide
Techware Labs :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“Recently Jason Dumbaugh and Michael Lynch sat down and created a common computer users guide to the basic programs and utilities that beginners use. We will be adding more content to this guide as we go along and are happy to anounce the Computer Users Guide Ver. 1.0.”
Antec Veris Fusion 430
Phoronix :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“Home theater PCs are a growing market. More and more people are looking for a device that can drive their entire home theater. For many, the HTPC is the solution; however, most do not want a clunky computer intruding into their living room. Who wants a Cooler Master Cosmos towering over everything in their living room? Thus over the years, many companies have offered PC cases designed specifically for the task of housing a Home Theater PC. We’ve looked at other HTPC cases in the past, such as the SilverStone Milo series and the Lascala LC20M, but today we will look at the Antec Veris Fusion Black 430, which is also referred to as the Fusion Black v2.”
Thermaltake Xaser VI VG4000BWS Super Tower Case Review
Hardware Logic :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“The Xaser VI is the latest offering in Thermaltake’s popular Xaser series of full-towers, the flagship line of their cases. Today we will be looking at the Xaser VI VG4000BWS, a steel version of the case with a side window. Will this behemoth carry on the Xaser name in style? Will we be blown away by its features? Will Frank get a hernia from trying to carry it? Read on and see!”
Aqua-Pcs Flow Performance CPU Block
Overclock 3d :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“The Flow Performance CPU Block boasts not only great performance but great looks too. Today we gave it a workout in the OC3D Labs”
Sunbeam Quarterback – ATX case review
Club OC :: Friday, February 08, 2008
Since the year 2000, Sunbeam has been making case-mod accessories and PC enclosures. The Quarterback is from their mid-tower ATX line-up and comes equipped with some extra cooling. The Dual Core-Fan is a Sunbeam patent protected feature that can offer extra ventilation under the right circumstances. The case itself is sturdy enough to survive the rigors of LAN party life.
Intel’s Skulltrail dual-socket enthusiast platform
Tech Report :: Friday, February 08, 2008
It’s the coolest codename known to geekdom, and it has the hardware to back it up. Two sockets, eight cores, and a total of 24MB of L2 cache. We put Intel’s Skulltrail through its paces and came away feeling dizzy.
HighPoint RocketRAID 2300 PCI-E SATA
Tweak Town :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“While we do have onboard RAID, what if you’re the type that wants more? The only option is to chuck in a RAID controller card, and thankfully HighPoint are still in the game as they continue to expand their line-up of controller cards.
Today we have been given the chance to look at the RocketRAID 2300 PCI Express based controller card designed for the desktop user. How does it compare to the chipset integrated RAID? Let’s have a look.”
Adesso Vista Remote Control Reviewed
Dragonsteel Mods :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“With the ever increasing popularity of multi-media computers comes an increase in specialized products aimed at these types of users, specifically the ones that build Home Theater PCs . One such product is the remote control, there are many types out there that come bundled with some items you can buy, but most aren’t that great, in what they can do and their overall range. Today for review I’ve got a remote control from Adesso, called the Vista Remote Control, yes the name Vista is attached but it can work in Windows XP, and Media Center Editions of Vista and XP as well. ”
Zalman ZM850-HP Power Supply
PC Apex :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“Voiding the warranty on the PSU, I took off the top to get a look at the inside and the “Dual Heatpipe Cooling” design and all the other internals. The inside is nicely laid out with the output wiring bundled off to one side and two heatsinks running from front to back like most power supplies. However, unlike any other PSU I’ve seen, this unit boasts two copper heat pipes that run from the standard heatsinks to a pair of finned heatsinks right in front of the exhaust venting at the back of the unit. This design allows the heat disapating from the main heatsinks to travel along the copper piping, and out to the fins where the exhausting air from the fan will blow the heat out of the box thus keeping more heat away from the electrical parts in the power supply.”
Kingston HyperX PC2-9600 DDR2 2GB
Gideon Tech :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“Kingston Technology released the first 1.2Ghz RAM kits to the public last December. I was able to get a set of the KHX9600D2K2/2G for some fast action 2GB of ram for my Core 2 Duo system. Knowing that the 975 chipset in my DFI Infinity 975X/G was going to limit the modules in the basic BIOS setup, I needed to overclock the system to take advantage of the speed.”
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2x1GB DDR2-8500 Memory Kit Review
Mikhailtech :: Friday, February 08, 2008
Many of us heard about Crucial and their high quality Ballistix Tracer memories. Crucial was nice enough to send me the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2x 1GB DDR-8500 Memory modules for today’s tests and I must say that these memories are exceptional compared to other vendor memories that you can find on the market at the moment. With two rows of activity-indicating light – emitting diodes (LEDs) and ground-effects LEDs we can say that these memories are far the best looking memories on the market at the moment. But with its great look, can it keep up with the other memories? We’ll take a look at it in this review.
Kingwin 1000 Watt Mach 1 Power Supply Review
Club OC :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“When selecting a power supply, a Novice may look no further than the total wattage of the unit while an enthusiast will look for more stringent stats such as Active Power Filtering Circuits or the SLI Ready logo. As always, the competition among manufacturers is fierce which can reap huge benefits for the consumer. Advancements in the power supplies energy efficiency, the added aesthetics, and even shrinking the physical size of the unit itself, all go a long way in giving the consumer more of what they want.”
How On-Board Audio Works
Hardware Secrets :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“Today all motherboards have an embedded sound card (this feature goes by several different names, like on-board audio, on-board sound, integrated audio or integrated sound). On this tutorial we will explain you how the on-board audio is produced, allowing you to understand what a codec is and what its importance to the audio quality is.”
Intel Core 2 Processor Performance Comparison Guide
Tech ARP :: Friday, February 08, 2008
Specifications are all well and great, but can you really tell how much faster is one processor from another? Both Intel and AMD are trying to do just that with their model numbering scheme. But with over 30 SKUs, the Intel Core 2 family of processors has become a confusing bunch of numbers.
Today, we begin a performance comparison project for the Intel Core 2 family of processors where we test and compare the Intel Core 2 processors’ performance in five different benchmarks. It will show you exactly where a higher clock speed would be more advantageous and where the number of processing cores is far more important, as well as situations where the processor itself won’t really matter much.
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610W PSU Review
Xtreme Computing :: Friday, February 08, 2008
“PC Power and cooling have been around since before I was born, and are one of the oldest and best PSU brands around. It was with their reputation ahead of them that I came to testing their new PSU, the silencer 610W EPS12v. Why EPS and not ATX? Well the EPS is a higher classification standard that ATX is heading towards anyway, it basically means it has to have a 24pin motherboard connector and 8pin 12v aux power to the board/CPU. Don’t worry though as the Silencer is also ATX 12v compliant, so will work if you only have a 4pin aux 12v on your motherboard. Let’s see what treat PCP&C have got for us then.”
Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 Preview
Motherboards.org :: Friday, February 08, 2008
Introducing the all new GA-X48-DQ6 from our friends over at Gigabyte, this is their flagship motherboard for the new Intel 1600MHz FSB CPU line and it looks like a winner from first glance. The motherboard comes in an all gold box that is so shiny it gleams and reflects in the light. Featuring support for ATI’s dual VGA card CrossFire cards and DDR3 memory are just the tip of the iceburg on this one folks. Come over and see our preview of this fine product, we have lots of nice pics to glance through.
IBM presents 45nm Cell B.E. at ISSCC
Beyond3d Processor News :: Friday, February 08, 2008
IBM introduced the 45nm version of the Cell B.E. processor at ISSCC earlier this week, fabbed on IBM’s 45nm SOI line at East Fishkill and targeted primarily towards future revisions…
Megan Fox vs Jessica Biel
Maxit Mag :: Friday, February 08, 2008
It’s monday morning in loose wires and seeing as the sun is shining through the MaXit dungeon, we thought we’d start a little cat fight for the weekly hotty. Truth be told we couldn’t decide between Jessica Biels butt cheeks and Megan Fox’s ability to change into a giant forty foot metal robot. Maybe we just imagined the last bit? Both girls have plenty to offer the discerning surfer with titbits of scantily clad outfits appearing everywhere but who would you take home to play with your Wii. Megans so beautifully airbrushed and doll like we’d have to let her grasp our controllers for some Wii Sports. Wouldn’t you? Then you have the bunny rabbit face of Jessica Biel with those gleaming white teetch and sexy pink lips looking like a souped up version of bugs bunny dressed up as a lady bunny. And the body. Oh my. Anybody know how she carved that ass. Does she live on the Stair Master? Who cares, we’d give up our quad cores for a quick squeeze. Enough of this nonsense. Bring on the pics. And the winner is…..
New Intel CPUs and price cuts
Maxit Mag :: Friday, February 08, 2008
Not one, not two, not three… but a whole lot, and all of them at once. We’ve got laptop procesors, server processors, Quads and dual cores, whatever you like. The dual core CPUs (Wolfdale) should be available already, as they were announced quite some time ago. Quads (Yorkfield), on the other hand, will be released in Q1, with no specific release date (this was also known, but contrary to the initial announcement). This delay affects Xeons too, even though there aren’t a lot of four layered server motherboards (the excuse given) around. Price ranges will be held, with the Q9300 substituting the Q6600 and the E8200 (E8190) doing the same for the E6550, starting at the bottom of the list. Having desktop CPUs with a FSB of 333 MHz (x4), you will need a damned good board to fully squeeze them. Either that or you pay a little bit more for the Q9450 or the E8400. At Vr-Zone (http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/Intel_Desktop_CPUs_Price_Cut_Schedule/5510.html) they have a complete list with all the Intel microprocessors currently (or shortly) available. The six last columns are very interesting, as they tell us that a price cut will take place on the 20th of April. We’re only talking about 10 or 20$ for a Celeron or a dual core, proportional to their low price, but the Q6700 is getting the same treatment the Q6600 had this summer: from 530 to 266$! Intel must have noticed nobody bought them. And speaking of the Q6600, you will get it for only 224$. Link: AnandTech (http://anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=19).
Whatever comes after Penryn?
Maxit Mag :: Friday, February 08, 2008
Not satisfied with their current 45nm processor line-up, the folks at Intel are starting to give us a glimpse of the following architecture and the models that will be out first. There’ll be a test later so I hope your remembering all these new names – anybody getting their Nehalems mixed with their Havendales will be forced to buy AMD instead. Nehalem will be among us this year (if no motherboard issues arise, if you know what I mean), and it won’t be cheap with the most expensive Quad version of Nehalem – Bloomfield, or Bloominexpensive – set to break your wallets. Then, in the first quarter of 2009, Lynnfield will come, also with four cores, targeted at a market segment that wants performance (just not so badly). The dual core, Havendale, will be postponed for the second quarter of next year. Havendale will also have an integrated graphics unit for the entry level market in mind. If we talk about laptops, the Quad (Clarkefield) and the dual core Auburndale will also debut in the first half of 2009. Auburndale will also have an IGP, but is nevertheless expected to suck less power than Penryn. No mention at any time of a single Octal, serves us right for not buying AMD. Link: DigiTimes (http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20080107PD200.html).
Cellphone charger on a diet
Maxit Mag :: Friday, February 08, 2008
The product covered in this article has been out for some time, so let’s just say we’re talking about a little cellphone charger, which can be powered by two AA batteries, and address the review in itself. It turns out that the advertised autonomy for three full charges was a bit conservative, as there’s still some juice left in it. The device also has a couple of LEDs that are powerfull enough to serve as a flash light. If you read the article, you won’t find any big complaint about the gadget: the LEDs used to provide battery status information aren’t very reliable (meaning that you don’t really know how much power you have left) and the noise can be bothersome enough that you may be forced to leave it in another room, if you want some rest. Two pros and two cons, not bad. The price seems to be appropriate ($29.95), what could really prove to be it’s Achilles’ heel is the availability issue, because you can only buy it on their shopping page. Link: BigBruin (http://www.bigbruin.com/2008/turbocharge_1).
2.5″ Solid State Drive with a 832GB capacity
Maxit Mag :: Friday, February 08, 2008
The International Consumer Electronics Show has given us a lot of new products, some of which are close to being ready. Case in question: BiTMICRO Networks has a flash solid state disk up it’s sleeve that will reach 832 GB, as a part of their E-Disk Altima(tm) (http://www.bitmicro.com/press_news_releases_20080107.php) SATA flash SSD series (in 2.5 form factor). Taking advantage of the latest NAND Flash Technology improvements, it’s now possible to achieve these capacities in very a small space. They also say it will pave the way for mass SSD deployment in the, more price-sensitive , PC market. More specifically, they expect no less than a rise in sales by 477% annually, from 2006 to 2011. The main progress made in memory chips, consists in the new multi-level cell (MLC) type of NAND flash, compared to the old single-level cell (SLC). With them, the number of bits stored per memory cell, gets doubled. Add to that, BiTMICRO’s own propietary EDSA(tm) and LUNETA(tm) controllers, to optimize performance, and the disk should sustain transfer rates of up to 100 MB and up to 20,000 I/O operations per second. Link: BenchmarkReviews (http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content task=view id=2947 Itemid=38).
