ECS GF7100PVT-M Motherboard Review
Overclockers Club :: Tuesday, February 26, 2008
“So, what can we conclude about this motherboard? Well, it’s a sure thing that this board isn’t made for overclocking. We also know that the onboard video isn’t made for today’s hottest games and high resolutions. But this motherboard did perform well against the Foxconn, which was shocking to say the least. The difference between other MicroATX motherboards and this ECS GF7100PVT-M is that this ECS motherboard is half the price of the Foxconn and simliar X38 boards.”
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Processor Review
Legit Reviews :: Tuesday, February 26, 2008
“The Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 that we specifically looked at in this article did very well in the benchmarks and consistently beat the AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition quad-core processor. This goes to show how well the Wolfdale core has been developed and also how bad of a position AMD is in when it comes to processors. When it came to overclocking, the 45nm Wolfdale processors do great and hitting 500MHz FSB is easily possible, which means 2GHz DDR3 memory kits can be finally released and companies like Corsair Memory have already launched such products…”
Tuniq Ensemble 1200W Review –
XS Reviews :: Tuesday, February 26, 2008
“With the recent addition of triple SLI and multi GPU gaming rather than single powerful cards, power supplies with quadruple figure watt values are being recommended more and more by manufacturers. Whether it’s due to actual necessity or the want to sell more, high power PSU’s are now more common than ever.
Today I have the Tuniq Ensemble which will be pitted against a couple of 8800 Ultra’s to determine whether it passes the gamer grade. Featuring four PCI-e connectors, dual fans and 87% efficiency, let’s see if you can frag while saving the earth at the same time.”
Measuring Ubuntu’s Boot Performance
Phoronix :: Friday, February 22, 2008
“Last year leading up to the release of Ubuntu 7.04 “Feisty Fawn” and Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” we had published several articles looking at various aspects of this desktop Linux distribution. These articles had varied from looking at Ubuntu’s power consumption for the past six major releases to presenting the visual history of Ubuntu and how its graphics have evolved since Ubuntu 4.10. With Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” shipping in just two months, we are once again looking at Ubuntu from several points of view. In this article, we are looking at Ubuntu’s boot performance for the past five releases through the use of Bootchart for measuring its boot time, disk throughput, and the running processes.”
NZXT Rogue mATX Gaming Case
techPowerUp :: Friday, February 22, 2008
The NZXT Rogue is a very unique case. It combines the portability of a cube with the possiblity to install large graphic cards and high performance power supplies. A carrying strap is also included, to make carrying the black or silver cube – featuring either blue or red LEDs – to and from a LAN party as easy as possible.
Scythe Kama Bay Amp
Overclock 3d :: Friday, February 22, 2008
“Never ones to sit idle and let an opportunity pass them by, Scythe has decided to take on the PC Audio market with their Scythe Kama Bay Amp.”
Thermaltake BigWater 760i Liquid Cooling Kit
IXBT :: Friday, February 22, 2008
“Thermaltake Big Water 760i proves that a liquid cooling system is still a rational choice: given the performance is a bit higher and the pump quieter, we would have got an absolute must have!”
Corsair TX750W 750watt Power Supply
Tweak Town :: Friday, February 22, 2008
“We had the chance a while back to review the Corsair HX series 620 watt power supply and it managed to be one of the most stable we have yet to come across. The power levels were incredibly clean and showed no stability issues at all. While this was a sure winner in our labs, past performance won’t help out in today’s testing.
When it comes to power supplies, the days of picking up whatever happens to be on the shelf are long gone. With the advent of more powerful processors, graphics and cooling solutions, power is just too important to take shortcuts with.”
SilverStone Decathlon DA800 800W Modular Power Supply Review
Think Computers :: Friday, February 22, 2008
“SilverStone Technologies, founded in 2003, has in less than five years become one of the industry leaders in PC power supplies. Though probably not as well known as some of the popular companies who have recently branched out into the power supply field, SilverStone’s robust PSUs are well respected by those who are serious about power supplies. SilverStone was one of the first two companies to receive SLI certification from nVidia. The DA800, being a new model, has not received its SLI certification by nVidia, but both the DA750 750 watt, and the DA850 850 watt models of the Decathlon line have been certified for a pair of 8800GTXs, so I can assume that it will receive the same rating.”
Lian Li Lancool Metal Boned K10 Case Review
Hardware Secrets :: Friday, February 22, 2008
“Lancool Metal Boned K10 brings the best of both worlds: its exterior is made of aluminum, bringing a flawless finishing and being lighter than all-steel cases and, at the same time, its internal body is still made of zinc-coated steel (a.k.a. “SECC”), which makes this case to cost far less than all-aluminum products . This case is particularly targeted to users that go to LAN parties, not only because it is lighter than other steel and hybrid cases around, but because it presents a very robust construction and a couple of small features to prevent unauthorized people from opening your case.”
Kingwin Revolution RVT-12025 Heatsink Review
Club Overclocker :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
It was not long ago when I held the original Kingwin Revolution (RVT-9225) in my hands and said “This would be great as a 120mm heatsink”. It appears the gods of overclocking have heard my plea, as my wish has been granted with the RVT-12025. So, is this new heatsink truly a blessing, or are they a curse?
DFI Lanparty LT X38-T2R Motherboard
Overclock 3d :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
“Some of DFI’s previous Lanparty branded boards have reached almost iconic status. Will their latest X38 based board be able to meet our expectations?”
Zerotherm Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800
Technic 3d :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
“The Zerotherm Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800 VGA Heatsink arrived Technic3D. HC92 Cu 8800 supports almost all VGA cards including NVDIA Geforce 8800 series. (Except ATi Radeon X2900 series). The VGA coolers provide 3-in-One function (Fanless mode, Aero-Dynamic mode and Overclocking mode). See you in the following Review the Apack Cooler on a XFX 8800 GTX XXX against Standard CPU Cooling.”
Thermaltake Armor + Case Review
RB Mods :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
Thermaltake´s Armor case was a huge success a few years ago and now they have released a new version of their case named Armor +. This case is HUGE and I really mean huge! It also holds very nice features like screwless, fans, removable motherboard tray just to mention a few. We are going to turn this thing inside out to see what type of case they have come up with this time.
Nexus Caterpillar ATX Quiet Case Review
Virtual Hideout :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
“In the past few years we have seen the move towards quiet computing. In the early days of modding, the aim was to achieve a well-cooled system no matter what the cost, with the “cost” usually being annoyingly loud fans. No more, some have said. With the multitude of other “quiet cases” out there currently, Nexus has set out to beat them all with their Caterpillar, dubbed the “Silent System PC Case”. Can this innovative case live up to the promises?”
Scythe Zipang SCZP-1000 Ultra Low Noise Heatsink Review
Frosty Tech :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
“The number one question Frostytech readers ask us is “what’s the best silent heatsink?” Much of the time, readers find themselves asking us this question after they’ve built a media center PC using the standard type of heatsink one normally finds in local computer stores. If you need a silent heatsink, and I do mean silent, the Scythe Zipang (SCZP-1000) is the next best thing to a passive block of aluminum (the only truly silent option). What makes the Zipang quiet is a 138mm wide fan that spins at a lazy 1000RPM.”
Eagle Tech ET-CS2LSU2-BK 2.5 Inch USB Drive Enclosure Review
Big Bruin :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
With a built in USB connector and leather trim, the Eagle Tech ET-CS2LSU2-BK 2.5 Inch USB Drive Enclosure has an interesting appearance that instantly sets it apart from a typical drive enclosure. This review will take a closer look to see what else it offers that might differentiate it from other similar devices on the market.
Thermaltake Bigwater 760i
Bjorn 3d :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
enthusiasts know that water is inherently better than air when it comes to cooling our nuclear powered rigs. This is primarily due to water’s capability to hold and transport more heat than air within the same volume of space. It is this property that has long allured users to take the plunge and stick water inside their machine regardless of the dangers. It is these same dangers that have kept water cooling on the fringe of mainstream acceptance. No one wants to deal with the reality of coming home to a dead machine only to realize the cause of the untimely demise was a leak in their water cooling loop. And so company after company has sought to solve this problem and devise a system so easy, a system so fool proof that it could rival the ease of air cooling while maintaining the benefits of water cooling. Not an easy feat to be sure. Enter Thermaltake, a company dedicated to cooling since 1999. With their vast amount of experience and R&D resources they stand ready to bring water cooling to the mainstream.
Presenting the Thermaltake Bigwater 760i, an internal, all-in-one water cooling solution for the masses. It has an adjustable LED fan, easy to read reservoir, quick disconnect fittings and a whole lot more. But does it have what it takes to supplant air cooling as the choice of cooling for millions of users? I intend to find out.
Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 8GB USB Flash Drive
Legit Reviews :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
“The Kingston DataTraveler HyperX USB Flash Drives have a read speed of 30MB/s and write speed of 20MB/sec so they certainly deserve the HyperX name as it is hands-down the fastest USB Flash drive that Kingston offers. The Kingston DataTravler HyperX USB Flash drive that we are looking at today is the 8GB version, but Kingston offers the drive with different capacities at various price points, so if you want a HyperX USB Flash drive you can pick from a 2GB ($54.99), 4GB ($99.99) or 8GB (189.99) capacity…”
Apevia X-Supra Mid Tower Case Review
OCIA :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
“Apevia has a lot of cases. A quick look at a popular online retailer shows 127 listings at the time of this writing. Most of these are economy-priced premodded mid-towers, in many different colors, some with a power supply, some without. This will be the fourth Apevia/Aspire case I have owned, and I have liked each of them. For someone wanting a decent lower-priced premodded case, you can’t go wrong with one from Apevia.”
Apevia G-Junior Type X-Telstar Review
XS Reviews :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
Apevia aren’t the most widely known maker of cases, especially since they changed their name from Aspire. We’ve seen a couple of their cases before, and today I have another to add to the list. The rather cumbersome name – G Junior Type X-Telstar – relates to a front temperature and voltage display with a couple of 120mm fan thrown in.
AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition
Techware Labs :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
“With the release of the Phenom, AMD has introduced the world to native quad core computing at a consumer level. We test the Phenom 9600 Black Edition for its performance and overclocking results. Will the Phenom 9600 Black Edition please consumers and provide results as well as overclocking? Read our review to see our “Mixed” results.”
Foxconn G33M-S Micro-ATX Motherboard Review
Virtual Hideout :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
I have really grown to like the Foxconn G33M-S a lot. It’s a good looking board with an excellent feature set and has proven to be extremely reliable. The integrated Intel chipset will more than satisfy your basic graphics needs like surfing the web, checking email, and even some light gaming. However if you’re looking for a bit more graphics power you can add any PCI-e graphics card and really unleash this m-ATX powerhouse. Do like I did and add an 8800 series graphics card, a couple gig of memory and a decent Core 2 Duo CPU and you’ll have a stable and powerful small form factor system that packs a punch.”
Asus Silent Square EVO CPU Cooler Review
Hardware Logic :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
HardwareLogic takes a look at one of Asus’ newest CPU coolers, the Silent Square EVO, and put it through the torture chamber otherwise known as ‘The Cooling Lab’. After hours of grueling testing and dissecting, the Silent Square Evo made it out alive but how did it fare? Read on and find out if this cooler is what you’re looking for.
Asus Silent Square EVO CPU Cooler Review
Hardware Logic :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
HardwareLogic takes a look at one of Asus’ newest CPU coolers, the Silent Square EVO, and put it through the torture chamber otherwise known as ‘The Cooling Lab’. After hours of grueling testing and dissecting, the Silent Square Evo made it out alive but how did it fare? Read on and find out if this cooler is what you’re looking for.
Asus Silent Square EVO CPU Cooler Review 
Hardware Logic :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
HardwareLogic takes a look at one of Asus’ newest CPU coolers, the Silent Square EVO, and put it through the torture chamber otherwise known as ‘The Cooling Lab’. After hours of grueling testing and dissecting, the Silent Square Evo made it out alive but how did it fare? Read on and find out if this cooler is what you’re looking for.
Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Cooler Review
Futurelooks :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
Today we’re looking at the Hyper 212 CPU cooler; a cooler that bridges the gap between the subtle and the ostentatious. The cooler is a tower design that has multiple heat pipes running from a block on the CPU to two towers of cooling fins. These fins are then cooled by a large 120mm fan. That means this cooler is by no means subtle or small in stature, but may just turn out to be acoustically quiet.
Tweaking the Phenom 9600 Black Edition
Tech Report :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Phenom 9600 Black Edition is a veritable enthusiast’s playground if you know how to tweak it. We turned the knobs and dials on the Black Edition to see what we could get–assisted by a cooler the size of your head.
Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 8800 Video Card Cooler Review
Dragonsteel Mods :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
The processing power of the current graphic card generation is phenomenal, in fact some of the newer graphics chips can run distributed computing projects such as Folding at Home. This processing horsepower of course requires some pretty potent cooling. Most of these cards come with large GPU coolers attached and sometimes take up two PCI slots on the motherboard, however, some of these cards get pretty darn loud when the card is under load. I have had a few NVIDIA cards that sounded like small vacuums when playing F.E.A.R. or some other graphically intensive game. These stock coolers perform their job, but at the price of higher noise levels, if you want to overclock your card, then they will get even louder. Arctic Cooling makes some of the best GPU coolers on the market and they are about to unleash their newest model, fortunately, we were able to get our hands on the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 8800 Video Card Cooler. This cooler is designed to fit the nVIDIA 8800Ultra, GTX, GTS(G80) model graphic cards. Please note, this cooler is designed to fit the G80 GPU versions of these cards. Arctic Cooling has garnered a reputation for making excellent products that provide superb performance with whisper quiet operation. Let’s see if they can continue the trend with the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 8800 Video Card Cooler. Let’s get started….
Adesso Win Touch Pro Desktop Multimedia Touchpad Keyboard Review
Dragonsteel Mods :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
Keyboards come in many shapes, sizes and most are pretty much the same, but companies are of course trying to come up with things to make their product stand out from the crowd by adding features and integrating other things into them. Today for review I’ve got the Adesso Win Touch Pro Desktop Multimedia Touchpad Keyboard, (quite a name there eh?) and it is a feature rich product that most people should appreciate. The Win Touch Pro Keyboard has an integrated Touchpad in the palm rest just like you would find on a laptop computer, along with that it features shortcut and multi-media buttons as well. This is a great keyboard for those that use laptops often and are accustomed to using a touchpad instead of a mouse. So let’s just jump right in…
Sonos Bundle 130 Digital Music System Reviewed
Dragonsteel Mods :: Thursday, February 21, 2008
For the sake of full disclosure, I admit that I am a huge SlimDevices (now owned by Logitech) Squeezebox fan, I have owned a Squeezebox2 for the past three years and have used it almost daily during that time. It is a great device, but it does have some drawbacks, particularly, the Squeezebox requires setting up Squeezecenter (aka SlimServer) on a machine to get your personal music library to stream to the device. Setting up this server can take a fair amount of time when tweaking its settings and plugins Sonos has come up with a similar system to manage your digital music system. The main difference between the two products is the presentation and the ease of set up. The Sonos is a plug and play system with a beautiful remote control. They have released the Sonos Bundle 130 which includes a Sonos ZonoPlayer 80 (ZP80), a Sonos Zoneplayer 100 (ZP100) and a Sonos Controller (CR100). Using these devices will provide instant access to your entire digital music collection, along with millions of songs from music services and online radio. It takes literally ten minutes to get this setup up and running, it is basically an idiot proof setup. Plus, the Sonos system is infinitely expandable, by creating a wireless mesh network (aka SonosNet), you can expand your music listening capabilities all over your residence. Just add a Zoneplayer to the area you want to have music and you are all set.
