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News Search Results for: mb ATI Stream Computing:From the desktop to the datacenter @ pcper.com [Nov-14-08] (0 Comments) AMD claims to have 2 million HD 4000 series GPUs in the marketcreating a pretty large user base for ATI stream compatible applications.As of today, stream applications are NOT enabled with publicly availabledrivers but that will be addressed in the next revision of Catalyst comingin December. Once that update is ready, all 2 million of the Radeon HD4000-series cards should be stream compute ready and will be able todownload the new Avivo Transcoder for free as well. Sapphire HD 4550 512MB - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Nov-12-08] (0 Comments) Whenit comes to GPUs, everyone always looks to the top end cards tojudge the current performance available on the market. Really though,the majority of money is made in the mid and budget range cards asthat's what everyone can afford. The main problem with these though, isoften the performance doesn't allow the prospective gamer much headroom for what games will be playable. Today we have the 4550 card fromSapphire which with 512MB, we're hoping will give reasonable gamingability. Let's find out. Cooler Master HAF 932 @ techpowerup.com [Nov-12-08] (0 Comments) The Cooler Master HAF 932 is a great looking case with its industrial and rugged design. It sports two 230 mm fans to cool those parts to the max. Removable hard drive trays and plenty of space for large components, all packed up inside this steel case makes for a perfect combination. Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe - HD 4870 X2 2048 MB @ techpowerup.com [Nov-12-08] (0 Comments) Palit's new Revolution 700 Deluxe is the first graphics card that occupies three slots in your PC. The massive cooling assembly successfully increases overclocking performance, lowers temperature and reduces fan noise. But is that good enough to beat the AMD reference design? Sapphire HD4850 512MB Video Card @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [Nov-12-08] (0 Comments) ATI have done very well with the 4850 and Sapphire has done just as well with the implementation of the card and bundle. Sapphire’s 4850 can be found for around Ł110 online which while not the cheapest 4850 is one of the lower priced 4850’s out there. When combined with the decent bundle of parts and software it makes this good value for money in terms of the 4850’s out there. Vidabox Wireless Media Keyboard @ pro-clockers.com [Nov-11-08] (0 Comments) The Vidabox Wireless Media Keyboard is a welcome addition to my newentertainment center. The Vidabox eliminates having to get up off the couchmaneuver around a table and whatever else I have on the floor to get a holdof the wired keyboard I was using. And not only is it a keyboard but thereis a laser mouse embedded right in the unit. The Vidabox keyboard is gearingup to be the ultimate input device for anybody running a HTPC. Palit 9800GTX+ @ pro-clockers.com [Nov-08-08] (0 Comments) This leads us to today's review sample which is the Palit 9800GTX+.The overall specifications of the 9800GTX+ are very similar to the 9800GTXwith a few differences. The main difference is the reducing of die size.After months of playing second fiddle to AMD when it came down to die sizeNvidia finally got with the program and reduced theirs to 55nm. This meant afew things to the consumer one being less power consumption. And for thosethat really like numbers higher clocks came along for the ride. How does745/1100 sound? I figured you would like that. Palit has a couple morefeatures that will win you over if these first couple don't. Fanatec Porsche 911 Racing Wheel @ techwarelabs.com [Nov-07-08] (0 Comments) Today TechwareLabs takes an in-depth look at the Porsche® 911 Turbo Racing Wheel from Fanatec and distributed by Pacific Media Partners. Licensed by Porsche Lizenz- und Handelsgesellschaft mbH, the Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo Racing Wheel offers gamers latency free wireless USB technology (wheel and pedals), three force feedback motors and smooth belt drive, both of which help to deliver sensational realism, 6+1 speed H-pattern gear stick with realistic shifting feel, and authentic wireless pedals with realistic clutch pedal (with declining resistance) and brake with soft-stop. The wheel itself is covered with fine, automotive grade leather. Its time to shift your game into high gear and read the review. =?windows-1252?Q?Sapphire_Radeon_HD4850_X2_2048MB_Graphics_Card__ @ bigbruin.com [Nov-07-08] (0 Comments) Sapphire is back again with another specialty graphics card based on a high end ATI Radeon GPU. The newly released Sapphire Radeon HD4850 X2 2048MB graphics card incorporates a pair of Radeon HD4850 graphics processors and 2048MB of GDDR3 memory on a custom PCB to create one serious looking piece of equipment. Leadtek GeForce GTX 260 Extreme+ 216 Shaders @ techpowerup.com [Nov-06-08] (0 Comments) The new Leadtek GeForce GTX 260 Extreme+ comes with an increased shader count of 216 compared to 196 on the regular GTX 260. Leadtek has also overclocked the card for some free extra performance. In our testing the GTX 260 Extreme+ delivers excellent performance per Watt claiming a number one spot in the test group. Zotac 9400GT 512MB - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Nov-05-08] (0 Comments) Overthe past few years, nVidia have become used to holding theperformance crown firmly on their brow. With the recent introduction ofATI as the Queen Bee of the GPU world with their 4 series of cards,especially with the 4870 x2 taking the top performance award, nVidiahave been playing catchup. With that said, the green camp have releaseda wide range of mid-range cards with very low price points, in anattempt to draw in the mid to budget range crowd. Today we have the9400GT from Zotac, a company that's reputation has grown steadily overthe last few years. Will this card stand up to our scrutiny? Lets findout. First Look:Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB @ bit-tech.net [Nov-05-08] (0 Comments) */There are some good things about the design too though -- the most important one may not sound very important, but it really is. Despite it being a physically bigger card than the 4870 X2, it's lighter and so you're unlikely to encounter problems if you're transporting your system (to LAN parties, for example) with everything assembled. We've seen a couple of Radeon HD 4870 X2-based systems that have ripped the PCI-Express x16 slot almost clean off the motherboard during shipping, so this concern isn't unfounded -- for those of you with Radeon HD 4870 X2s installed, we'd recommend removing the card before transporting your system if you're using the stock cooler. Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2048 MB @ techpowerup.com [Nov-04-08] (0 Comments) Being priced at reasonable $419, the Sapphire HD 4850 X2 is designed to take some market share from NVIDIA's GTX 280. The card features 2 GB of GDDR3 memory and comes with a custom designed cooling solution. Even though you would expect very little overclocking from a dual-GPU card, we saw an amazing 15% performance increase from overclocking without touching any fan settings. bit-tech's Hardware Buyers' Guide for November 2008 @ bit-tech.net [Nov-04-08] (0 Comments) */Phew! it's been a busy month here in the bit-tech offices, with October full of fantastic new hardware launches, and November set to be just the same. With the launch of Intel's Core i7 we'll doubtless be seeing a major shake up of the high end and ultra high end recommended hardware as the range of processors and accompanying motherboards and memory start to make thier way into the market. Sapphire HD 4650 OC Edition 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Nov-03-08] (0 Comments) Sapphire's HD 4650 Overclocked comes with a solid overclock out of the box. But during our own overclocking tests we saw an amazing untapped overclocking potential resulting in more than 20% real world performance increase. Even without overclocking this card, that's in the $70 price range, is an excellent deal considering price/performance. Intel Core i7 920, 940 and 965 Processor @ legitreviews.com [Nov-03-08] (0 Comments) The performance numbers speak for themselves as the Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition proved itself to be more than 35% faster than the equally clocked Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processor in a number of benchmarks. This is an impressive number and one that may be higher than many expected. When overclocked the Core i7 965 was wickedly fast and ripped through performance tests faster than anything we have ever seen... If you were building your dream luxury notebook, what are the top five features you’d include? @ hardwaresecrets.com [Nov-01-08] (0 Comments) This is a very good question, and every hardware expert will give you a different opinion. The fact of the matter is it would depend on the usage you’d give to your laptop. While some features are common to all kinds of user – 54 Mbps wireless network is a minimum requirement nowadays – some other features depend on the kind of [Affiliates News] World's Most Powerful:Wicked Lasers The Torch @ aphnetworks.com [Nov-01-08] (0 Comments) In today's world, the term [electric] torch is often usedsimultaneously with flashlight. But remember why torches were called'torches' in the first place? Because these portable open fires have somereal burning power (After all, it does carry real fire and fuel) in additionto, well, some lighting ability. On the other hand, a conventional flashlighthas practically zero designed fire power, as its purpose is to provide light;and depending on what you have, most consumer units have a very poor range.When I think of 'torch', Wicked Laser's The Torch comes into my mind. Why?It's called The Torch for a really good reason -- simply put, it can burnthings, and no, I'm not kidding. But unlike conventional fire torches, it hasnothing short of incredible brightness and range. Carrying a 100W bulbpowered by a massive nickel-metal hydride battery, anything within severalinches of The Torch will definitely begin to burn in seconds. Meanwhile,other than its insane ability to transfer heat over short distances, TheTorch is also insanely bright with an amazing range. We'll show you somephotos in just a moment. With a brightness rating of 4,100 ANSI lumens, it'sroughly twice as bright as an average home theater LCD projector. They callit The Torch world's most powerful flashlight (As currently reviewed byGuinness World Records) with a very good reason. Excited? We won't keep youwaiting. Not excited yet? That's also a very good reason for you to read on. Cooler Master's ACTS 840 chassis @ bit-tech.net [Oct-31-08] (0 Comments) */While its performance isn't world beating, the ATCS 840 is still undoubtedly one of the best cases we've seen for a long time - it has thoroughly impressed us during our time with it. Combining gorgeous looks, fantastic build quality and unmatched attention to detail throughout the entire design, Cooler Master has produced a case of the highest quality that thoroughly deserves your hard earned cash. It might be expensive, but it's most definitely worth it!/* Galaxy GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB Graphics Card @ pcper.com [Oct-30-08] (0 Comments) The new KFA2 Galaxy GTX 260+ is showing itself to be formidablecontender in the mainstream performance graphics market. By using the new,upgraded GTX 260+ (aka GTX 270, etc) GPU the KFA2 brand is able to take thata bit further by pushing up the clock rates of the core, shaders and memoryby about 13% producing a much faster than stock graphics card. In mytesting the Galaxy card was able to beat out the highly overclocked EVGAGeForce GTX 260 FTW card and was ALMOST on par with the BFG GTX 280 1GB cardin many cases. Vidabox Premium Wireless Keyboard @ techpowerup.com [Oct-30-08] (0 Comments) With HTPC's gaining more and more in popularity, various input devices and peripherals for them are becoming a more integral part of the market. With many options to choose from for keyboards, mice and the combination of both, it's hard to come to a conclusion on what suits the HTPC best. Vidabox may have an answer with their Vidabox Premium Wireless Keybaord w/ laser trackball as an all in one solution. HIS ATI Radeon HD 4830 512MB graphics card @ bit-tech.net [Oct-30-08] (0 Comments) */When you look at the Radeon HD 4830 in isolation, only comparing it to Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 1333MHz @ pro-clockers.com [Oct-29-08] (0 Comments) Just a few weeks ago Crucial released some new DDR3 modules under theTracer line. The modules came rated at a mere 1333MHz but at a industry low6-6-6-20 timings. One may look upon this as great when it comes to such lowtimings but not so great when it comes to the low speed rating. Well this isa kit from Crucial and you can beat it has plenty in the tank to give somevery respectable numbers in the overclocking department. Read along to seejust how high we got with this new kit. Aquacomputer AquagrATIx HD4870X2 vga watercooler @ hardwareoc.at [Oct-29-08] (0 Comments) Aquacomputer is a German water cooler manufacturer. The Aquagratix is a combinedGPU/RAM/VRM-cooler for graphics cards of the type ATi HD 4870 X2 according toreference design. This cooler combines the features of a graphics chip coolerand RAM-coolers in an elegant and very flat water cooler. Thereby the slot nextto the PCI-Express-slot remains useable. Additionally the voltage regulatorsare also cooled effectively. The possible temperatures are also impressive. MSI N9800GT GeForce 9800 GT 512MB Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Oct-28-08] (0 Comments) In the time I’ve had to spend with this card, I haven’t really found much to dislike about it. The card has performed well in Folding@Home and in Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare. Of course, I didn’t try to push the card to ridiculous resolutions, as gamers that own 24” or 30” monitors probably aren’t looking at sub-$120 video card to run them. Even with Crysis Warhead, where I thought the card could stumble and fall, as many higher priced cards did with the original Crysis, the 9800GT from MSI was able to play the game fairly smoothly at 1280x1024. Asus 9800GT Matrix Videocard @ rbmods.com [Oct-28-08] (0 Comments) Another day another review and today we got Asus latest 9800GT Matrixcard on the bench with DirectX 10 support and 512 mb DDR3 video memory sothis should be a interesting review as we are going to compare it vs someother high performing cards on the market right now. Sapphire HD 4550 Video Card @ pro-clockers.com [Oct-27-08] (0 Comments) And if you are one of these people that don't need the biggestbaddest video adapter on the market just something that will get you by andplay your videos at a clean crisp rate then the Sapphire HD 4550 may be upyour alley. The HD 4550 is no bottom of the line GPU but a card that boasts512MB of DDR3 memory at 900MHz and a 600MHz core. At $60 you will not haveto settle with just what will get you by as the card supports Crossfire andHDMI with 7.1 audio support. But with all this being said how will the HD4550 stack up on the ladder of other cards offered by Sapphire and ATI. Butterkneter's Far Cry 2-themed Playstation 3 mod @ bit-tech.net [Oct-24-08] (0 Comments) */A while back, I received an email from Ubisoft asking me for some concept art for a potential Far Cry 2 mod based on Sony's Playstation 3. Ubisoft had been pleased with my past work when I worked with it on a number of similar projects for Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six:Vegas 2, so with such a big game I needed to create something special. AMD Radeon HD 4830 512MB Graphics Card @ legitreviews.com [Oct-23-08] (0 Comments) AMD has done a great job bringing the Radeon HD 4000 series to market and they now offer a product at every price point available and the offerings are impressive. The AMD Radeon HD 4830 was found to be a solid performing graphics card that was able to play current game titles at decent resolutions with many image quality settings cranked up. How can you complain with the performance numbers on the Radeon HD 4830 when the price point is only $129? Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer @ pureoverclock.com [Oct-23-08] (0 Comments) On the test bench today is Sunbeamtech's Core Contact Freezer, which offersHeatpipe Direct Touch (HDT) technology, a newer trend in tower-styleheatsinks, and promises some efficient cooling numbers. AMD Radeon HD 4830 512MB - Do we need another sub-$150 GPU? @ pcper.com [Oct-23-08] (0 Comments) The HD 4830 512MB is obviously a strong contender in this area andputs the GeForce 9800 GT on notice becoming the best card you can get forless than $130. In our gaming tests I saw the HD 4830 clearly outpace theGeForce 9800 GT in both Call of Duty 4 and Crysis, two games that areusually quite favorable to NVIDIA's GPUs and drivers. Bioshock alsoperformed well on the HD 4830 but the tests at 2048x1536 indicate to me thatthe cards are about equal in this title. PowerColor Radeon HD 4830 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Oct-23-08] (0 Comments) PowerColor's new HD 4830 features the same 640 shader pipes as the AMD reference design, but comes with a big dual-slot cooler. Also new is a native HDMI output which supports HDCP and 7.1 channel audio. Thanks to a PowerColor designed PCB the card will retail about $10 cheaper than the reference design from AMD. Raidmax Aura Case at Modders-Inc @ modders-inc.com [Oct-22-08] (0 Comments) Raidmax has introduced a new member to its Performance SeriesGaming Cases, the Raidmax AURA. A mid-tower computer case. ASUS EN9800GTX+ 512MB Dark Knight @ techgage.com [Oct-21-08] (0 Comments) Need a new mid-range GPU for under $200? NVIDIA's 9800GTX+ is a good model to keep in mind, and ASUS' Dark Knight card inparticular proves to be one well-worth considering. The card offersgreat gaming performance for the cash, even handling certain games at2560x1600 with ease, has a sweet-looking cooler, and best of all, ispriced-right. HSPC TopDeck Tech Station @ pureoverclock.com [Oct-20-08] (0 Comments) Today we're examining the HSPC Top Deck Tech Station, an open-air case thatfeatures an improved design from the original, in an easy-to-assemblepackage that should prove very enticing to anyone who regularly swapshardware or is searching for a test bench setup. XSR Link Correction @ xsreviews.co.uk [Oct-16-08] (0 Comments) Computercooling is becoming a much more widespread topic with extraemphasis on silence in comparison to the past where this aspect ofcooling was more or less disregarded in an attempt to produce maximumperformance. The challenge that faces most manufacturers nowadays isthe perfect combination between the two. Today at XSReviews, we have awhole series of Arctic Fans up for review. However, the question iswill this latest series of fans be able to meet both the demands ofperformance and silence? NZXT Guardian 921 Case @ rbmods.com [Oct-16-08] (0 Comments) With the large number of case manufacturers on the market, we here atRbmods.com don't get a chance to review every case on the market. But it'sstill exciting when we get to evaluate a new company's case, especially whenthey offer features that stand out amongst the crowd. Today we get to lookat a case from NZXT, a provider of a wide range of computer and gamingaccessories, called the NZXT Guardian 921 Case. Will this case turn a buildinto a computer rig everyone will want? We will find out in this review. Das Keyboard Professional ed @ thetechlounge.com [Oct-16-08] (0 Comments) Any keyboard will type, but the Das Keyboard Professional (and Ultimate) take the decades-proven IBM standard and make it perfect. Each key is crafted, every keystroke is perfect. The sound coming off it is musical. Gaming being just as important as typing, this machine turns would-be broken little fingers into nimble sprinting, crouching, or whatever you bind to left shift. Zotac's GeForce 9300 (MCP7a) Motherboard @ bit-tech.net [Oct-15-08] (0 Comments) */Zotac's board isn't the fastest or most capable out there, but for just being stable and for HTPC playback it's the best Intel solution currently available. The Nvidia GeForce 9300 gives it an underlying boost to be something great with dual digital displays, perfect HD HQV numbers (that we've not seen before) and Blu-ray playback that the Intel G45 can't match. Arctic Cooling Fans - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Oct-15-08] (0 Comments) Computercooling is becoming a much more widespread topic with extraemphasis on silence in comparison to the past where this aspect ofcooling was more or less disregarded in an attempt to produce maximumperformance. The challenge that faces most manufacturers nowadays isthe perfect combination between the two. Today at XSReviews, we have awhole series of Arctic Fans up for review. However, the question iswill this latest series of fans be able to meet both the demands ofperformance and silence? Microsoft SideWinder X5 Gaming Mouse @ tweaktown.com [Oct-15-08] (0 Comments) Microsoft has sent me a whole box of goodies to review recently and in amongst the pile of goodness is something sinister looking; something very black and very evil...The SideWinder X5 Gaming Mouse. This is a modified version of the classic SideWinder gaming mouse that sported a lovely burgundy coloured detailing. However, they have done away with the colouring in favour of a look that reminds us of stealth bombers. Gone are the silver side buttons, replaced with some black ones to complete the look of pure malevolence. It's like Darth Vader in mouse form. Sapphire HD 4870 TOXIC Edition @ modders-inc.com [Oct-13-08] (0 Comments) What we have come to expect from Sapphire is that when a top tiergraphics card has been released a newer and more powerful one will be on theway and branded with the Toxic name. They have done it again with thepowerful HD 4870 by cranking up the numbers and by adding a heat pipecooling system. Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse with BlueTrack @ tweaktown.com [Oct-13-08] (0 Comments) The latest slick offering from the big MS mob comes in the form of a rather miniature rodent, the Explorer Mini Mouse! The little gem is touting the latest all-surface tracking technology as well as power saving features and a sporty little bag, too! The most important feature of this mouse is its ability to track on almost any surface; this thanks to a new blue LED based technology called “BlueTrack” which works by giving a better image of more varied and non uniform surfaces. This is most appreciated by the mobile users who need their mice to work on a number of surfaces as they move about, sometimes even their leg or a park bench. Pioneer Blu Ray / DVDRW (BDC-202BK) @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [Oct-13-08] (0 Comments) Today I am going to be looking at another product from a company that doesn’t immediately spring to mind when talking about the computer hardware industry. The company in question is Pioneer and the product is one of their new Blu Ray / DVDRW combi drive the BDC-202BK. Coming from a household name like Pioneer I expect nothing less than the best, even though Pioneer isn’t generally known for computer hardware. Boddaker's Battlestar Galactica case mod @ bit-tech.net [Oct-13-08] (0 Comments) */First order of business was to disassemble the case down to its bare Technic3D/Brothers in Arms - Hell's Highway @ technic3d.com [Oct-12-08] (0 Comments) Brothers in Arms - Hell's Highway PC Game from UbiSoft arrived Technic3D. Operation Market Garden was a real-life Allied offensive d esigned to destroy Nazi Germany before Christmas, 1944. The plan was a mbitious - it was largest airborne invasion in the history of the worl d. The plan was to capture a corridor through Holland to punch through the German lines. Paratroopers of the 101st Airborne and other divisi ons dropped from the sky in mid-September to seize and hold the corrid or by surprise. The surprise attack was a bust. Follow Matt Baker, Joe Hartsock and the rest of the 101st Airborne Division in Anatomy of the Playstation 3 @ hardwaresecrets.com [Oct-10-08] (0 Comments) We completely disassembled the Sony Playstation 3 video game console (80 GB version) to show you how it looks like inside and the components used. Genius Luxemate 525 - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Oct-09-08] (0 Comments) Whilstin a game, aside from the ability to accurately shoot youropponent in the face, the ability to move is fairly high on your listof things to do. Most people will have a keyboard to do this with theusual WASD configuration of walking about. However many companies arenow bringing out little innovations to make this easier:Circularkeyboards with all the buttons you need for gaming on, highlighting thecommonly used buttons on your keyboard with back lighting or arecombining the two and adding a little gaming keyboard to the side ofour normal one. The last of these options is what Genius have done withthere latest professional keyboard, the Luxemate 525 Star Cruiser. Butwith a compromise between a normal keyboard and a gaming one can it beany good? GeForce 177 vs 178 quickie @ tcmagazine.com [Oct-09-08] (0 Comments) Just like an old married couple, after a rather long (four weeks) dry run we're ready for a new quickie to rekindle the love for new graphics drivers. This time, the combatants are Nvidia's last official 177 release, the GeForce 177.92 beta and the first two 178 drives made available - the official and WHQL-certified GeForce 178.13 and the dev-friendly GeForce 178.15. Will Current Performance Memory Kill New Intel Core i7 CPUs? @ legitreviews.com [Oct-09-08] (0 Comments) All of the memory companies we talked to informed me that they will have triple channel memory kits ready when the platform would launch, but none would give a specific date when this would happen. I also didn't find one company that hurt or ruined a processor by running higher than 1.65V on the memory kits, and a good number of the above memory companies said they are testing at voltages above 1.65V. What does this mean to enthusiasts and gamers around the world? It means that everything is fine and that these new triple channel memory kits are going to be the right choice for an Intel X58 Express platform... SilverStone OP1000-E 1,000W Power Supply @ pcper.com [Oct-09-08] (0 Comments) The OP1000-E PSU incorporates a single, powerful +12V output thatcan deliver up to 80A (960W) of combined load. Using a single +12V rail isa trend we are seeing in many newer power supplies. Traditionally,manufacturers have created multiple +12V outputs by implementing currentlimiting circuits into their design to conform to the old 240 VA maximumguidelines - no single output should exceed 240 VA (12V x 20A = 240 VA).Having multiple current limited +12V outputs can lead to power distributionproblems, particularly with some power-hungry video cards. Delivering asingle, powerful +12V output is a better approach IMHO. Samsung S3 MP3 Player ed @ tweaktown.com [Oct-09-08] (0 Comments) Arriving on my doorstep recently was a sleek and sultry little number from the big S, their new S3 series MP3 player. The version sent to me by post as pictured is the “pretty in pink” model, because as a modern 20something guy, I’m secure in my manliness... The menu system of the player is fairly intuitive and you will rarely find yourself flummoxed or lost in menus, so it’s easy to switch into DSNe 2.0 environments while playing a track. There is a bunch of standard pre-sets offering you EQ boosts and then there are spacial simulators to give the effect of a concert hall or a stadium gig. Asus Eee PC S101 @ bit-tech.net [Oct-08-08] (0 Comments) */Opening the flap reveals the Eee PC S101's striking metallic burnt orange lid -- a massive change from the black and white casing used on the older Eee PCs. It's already clear that Asus has changed direction with the S101 and we think that it's for the better. However, we're sure that some won't like the burnt orange -- we've heard that Asus will be offering a number of lid options, including graphite and champagne, along with the metallic burnt orange on the model we looked at. InWin Commander 750w - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Oct-07-08] (0 Comments) Inthe past, overclockers had a core set of components they needed tofocus on to guarantee stability and performance:CPU, motherboard,memory and GPU. One often overlooked aspect of the intrepid systembuilder was the PSU. However, as products have become more highpowered, with GPUs especially needing hundreds of watts just on theirown, PSUs have become far more important. With that in mind, InWin havesent over their Commander 750w PSU. Let's see how it holds up. NZXT Khaos Full Tower Enclosure @ tweaktown.com [Oct-07-08] (0 Comments) NZXT began life in 2004 and had a goal of producing a product line that was geared toward enthusiasts and gamers. From the beginning, they have shown a love for those who are looking to eke out that little bit of extra performance from there machine. Even in the beginning when they used pretty basic design builds for some of their initial products, these folks have always added something to the build to make it different from everybody else. Since those humble beginnings, NZXT has worked hard to enhance that enthusiast outlook and are now in the market of creating truly unique enclosures and have even added power supplies to the mix. All this brings us to today's piece, the NZXT Khaos. This enclosure features a full tower design that offers some innovations not found in your everyday case, which suits the company very well. =?windows-1252?Q?Sapphire_Toxic_Radeon_HD4870_512MB_Graphics_Card__ @ bigbruin.com [Oct-06-08] (0 Comments) In terms of single GPU performance, the Radeon HD4870 set the bar pretty high, and the Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD4870 512MB graphics card had its work cut out for it to do much better. With a factory overclock of 30MHz on the GPU and 100MHz on the memory, the Toxic version generally did perform better, but not always by much. Keelog USB Keylogger @ rbmods.com [Oct-06-08] (0 Comments) Every now and then, the idea of knowing what your friend might typeon his computerpops in mind. Keelog has provided us their newest product Keelogger FlashUSB keylogger, which saves everything you type on your computer to tiny USBflash memory and allows you to read it whenever you want. The currentproduct line includes PS/2 and USB keyloggers with 2MB, 512MB or 2GB ofmemory. AMD Radeon HD 4670 512MB - Good gets cheaper @ pcper.com [Oct-04-08] (0 Comments) The Radeon HD 4670 looks even better when we take that long-debatedquestion of multi-GPU tactics into account. We saw scaling that reachedinto the 80% and above range with our pair of HD 4670s - something that ispossible only because the GPU is most definitely the bottleneck in ourgaming tests. The upgrade potential 3-6 months down the road for a userbuying one of these GPUs today is compelling - $90 (and probably lower thanthat in the future) is a much easier cost to swallow for a sweet increase ingaming performance. Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Keyboard and Mouse Combo @ rbmods.com [Sep-21-08] (0 Comments) If you have ever bought a Logitech product you know that they makelarge variety of diverse products for your computer. I have for a long timebeen impressed with their keyboards and mice and today we got a combo kit toreview from Logitech. We got their latest Cordless Desktop Wave Keyboard andMouse combo that really seems to have all the necessary features to make ityour number one choice. Lets have a closer look a the features this kit has. EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Sep-20-08] (0 Comments) The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 does, without a doubt, improve performance over the original GeForce GTX 260 thanks to the additional 24 shaders that have been added to the graphics card. By increasing the number of shaders from 192 to 216 (a 12.5% increase) performance improvements were seen, but no where near the 12.5% that one might expect and this is on an overclocked version of the card! Lexar FireWire 800 Compact Flash Reader @ techpowerup.com [Sep-20-08] (0 Comments) Lexar's new FireWire 800 CF Card Reader uses the powerful interface to offer unprecedented bandwidth with allows you to optimally use the latest CF card technology. While the traditional USB interface is limited to a maximum of about 30 MB/s, the FireWire interface goes up to 100 MB/s. Clearly a difference if you move a lot of files to and from your CF card. Technic3D/Cooler Master Silent Pro 500W @ technic3d.com [Sep-19-08] (0 Comments) The Cooler Master Silent Pro 500W PSU (RS-500-AMBA D3) arrived Technic3D. See you in the following Review from Technic3D the next PS U Review with a high efficiency and a good price. Make the quiet 135mm fan, 6xSerial ATA connectors, 2x PCI-e (6+2)Pin this PSU better than other PSUs? Zaward Gyre ZCJ010 CPU Cooler @ tweaktown.com [Sep-19-08] (0 Comments) Being new is much different than doing new. Zaward’s Gyre CPU cooler is new in action. The cooler features HDT, but that is hardly anything fresh at this point. But what is innovative is the design of the cooler, how it operates and the extent of engineering that went into the fan. By the time we finish this article the extent of engineering that went into the Gyre will be revealed, but it is important to remember that going against the mainstream doesn’t always net better results in performance. We will have to dig deeper to see if that is the case here. Turning your WHS into a Free Proxy Server @ computingondemand.com [Sep-18-08] (0 Comments) There are more uses for your WHS then you can shake a stick at;whatever that may mean. The latest endeavor is using your Windows HomeServer as an Internet Proxy. I personally use my Windows Home Server as aproxy to be able to view sites that my company blocks access to. Setting upa proxy can also allow you to control web content served in your home. Ifyou have a child, you can block sites or even keywords to keep pages frombeing served. Corsair 4GB and 8GB Voyager Mini USB Flash Drive @ legitreviews.com [Sep-18-08] (0 Comments) Corsair has done a great job on the Flash Voyager Mini and for such a small device the performance was actually better than I expected. The Corsair Flash Voyager Mini was not designed to be a speed demon, but the benchmarks showed that it wasn't all that slow. The write performance on the drives could use some work as writing 8GB of data at just over 2MB/sec does take a fair amount of time, but once you get the data written to the drive the read throughput on both the 4GB and 8GB Voyager Mini drives was great! Sapphire HD 4850 512 MB 100245L Own PCB Design @ techpowerup.com [Sep-18-08] (0 Comments) Sapphire has engineered their own version of the Radeon HD 4850 with cost and cooling in mind. The card's new unconventional heatsink looks good and keeps the card cool - far below reference design temperatures. The best of all is that the card costs only $169.99 online which makes it the cheapest HD 4850 available today. Cooler Master UCP 1100W PSU @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [Sep-16-08] (0 Comments) The wattage rating label for the PSU, as you can see on the specifications page, up to 1000W of the 1100W that this PSU can supply can be drawn from the 12v rails. That is a seriously beefy amount of 12v power. The UL number indicates that this PSU has been made by Cooler Master, which means it hasn’t been outsourced to another company and just had Cooler Master stickers thrown on it. Sapphire 4870x2 Video Card @ pro-clockers.com [Sep-16-08] (0 Comments) People across the globe purchasing and building systems based on thehigher-end Intel chipset to utilize dual GPU setups now have a reason tojustify their purchases. For quite some time, people that were dreaming of abetter-than-average gaming rig were forced to go with SLI simply because ofthe pure graphics power the nVidia 8xxx and 9xxx graphic cards offered overATI cards. Things have changed. We'll be looking at our first dual GPU cardat Pro-Clockers courtesy of Sapphire. The Sapphire 4870x2 is based on theATI reference design and its numbers reflect this. Let's take it for a testdrive. [News] BFG LS-Series 680w Power Supply @ virtual-hideout.net [Sep-15-08] (0 Comments) Things continue to advance in the video card area and we find themrequiring less and less wattage realistically. So, smaller, more efficientwattage power supplies are all the rage and everyone wants more power fortheir money. One PSU that could very well be your next investment is the BFGLS-680 Power Supply. As the model number denotes, it offers at least a solid680 Watts with four 12V rails. Let's open this PSU and see what it can do. Dell XPS M1730 Notebook - Intel Core 2 Duo X9000 Powered @ pcper.com [Sep-14-08] (0 Comments) Armed with the fastest mobile hardware money can buy; it is nosurprise to find that the Dell XPS M1730 offers blistering performance innearly any game or application. Here, the combination of Intel’s latestPenryn processor, NVIDIA SLI graphics, RAID-0 drive configuration, andother flagship components have provided us with the highest mobile scoreswe have ever seen in our benchmarks. Simply put, the Dell XPS M1730 is thefastest notebook we have ever had in our labs. [Affiliates News] Gigabyte GeForce 9800GT 512MB Graphics Card @ aphnetworks.com [Sep-14-08] (0 Comments) What do you call a company that manufacturers the same carunder 50 different nameplates? Answer:General Motors. So, in that sense,what do you call a company that markets the same graphics card under twomodel numbers that indicate (supposed) separate generation of cards? Answer:NVIDIA. Jokes aside, no one can deny that there are truths to these claims --with the General Motors one having a bit of exaggeration, of course. Theever-so-popular NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT was ever so popular amongst enthusiastsand general consumers alike for its excellent performance; and even more soconsidering the retail prices. That was approximately one year ago. Now,tides have changed and ATI/AMD is returning to the game in the graphics frontwith the performance-to-price leaders such as the 4850 and 4870. How abouttaking the G92 based 8800GT and calling it a new product? Well, here we are,with a 8800GT called a 9800GT. As most would know how the NVIDIA 9-series arebasically are mostly derived off the 8-series and not a completely newgeneration (They are mostly G92's and G94's) -- the 9800GT made it into the9-series with a few minor updates. But trust us, it's practically the samething -- more info on the second page of this review. Therefore, in honor ofNVIDIA's excellent branding job, we based this review off the Gigabyte 8800GTTurboForce review with a few minor changes (We made it as similar aspossible, haha). Good thing Gigabyte made it a little more unique with acustom built unit and an aftermarket Zalman HS/F. Let's see how the 8800GT,er, 9800GT, performs. NVISION 08 Video @ modders-inc.com [Sep-12-08] (0 Comments) With NVISION 08 just a few weeks ago Modders-Inc brings you avideo review of the event. Modders-Inc site member Stealth was able tocreate an awesome video that highlights the NVISION event. Four differentvideo sizes are available to view. [News] Evercool Transformer 6 CPU Cooler @ virtual-hideout.net [Sep-12-08] (0 Comments) So here it is. A well marketed, acceptably manufactured, and verydifficult to install cooler, marred only by it's substandard performance...it really seems like everything went downhill since I opened the box. Whilethere are a number of good ideas here, they all falter on the same lines.Let's start with the simplest one. By layering the two sets of fins overeach other, a lot of the heat dissipated just goes to return, and heat upthe fins below. This isn't the first time, or the first company to have thisproblem, nor are they to try and alleviate it in a simple manner - put thecooler fins on top. Powercolor PCS HD 4670 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Sep-10-08] (0 Comments) Today AMD launches their new cards based on the RV730 graphics processor. The Powercolor PCS HD 4670 we have on our testbench today comes with a dual slot heatsink which offers excellent cooling and low noise. Together with the serious gaming performance of this card, AMD has managed to successfully position their product in the sub-$100 segment. HIS HD 4850 IceQ4 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Sep-10-08] (0 Comments) HIS has just released the IceQ4 version of the AMD Radeon HD 4850. The IceQ4 cooler is a dual-slot solution which ensures low temperatures under both idle and load. Also HIS has overclocked the card which results in a nice performance boost compared to the reference design card. SilverStone Nightjar ST45NF 450W Fan-less PSU @ pcper.com [Sep-09-08] (0 Comments) The SilverStone Nightjar ST45NF fan-less power supply is a uniqueproduct designed for a niche market. Under the right conditions it candeliver up to 450W of clean, well-regulated DC power with support for ahigh end video card. However, for this unit to operate successfully(especially at higher loads) you must pay close attention to the type ofcase you use, the amount of case airflow, and meeting the 25°C ambient airrequirements. Point of View GeForce 9400 GT 1024 MB Wall-E Edition @ techpowerup.com [Sep-08-08] (0 Comments) NVIDIA's new GeForce 9400 GT Series is based on the same G96 GPU that is also used on the 9500 GT. The 9400 GT has half the shaders however, which seriously limits the uses of the card in a gaming PC. On the other hand this greatly reduces the heat output which allows a completely passive solution. Point of View differentiates their card by using 1 GB of video memory and bundling a full version of the Wall-E game. Thecus N5200BR NAS Server @ legitreviews.com [Sep-06-08] (0 Comments) The use and features of the Thecus N5200 were impressive and this is partly due to the fact that it has been on the market now for well over a year. The firmware and setup wizard have been updated a number of times over the months and my testing went without any problems. I was a little nervous when I started building the server as the Western Digital WD1500 hard drives I used were not on the HDD compatibility list provided by Thecus, but the N5200 was compatible with them! Leadtek GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB Extreme Video Card @ thetechlounge.com [Sep-06-08] (0 Comments) It shouldn't take too long to guess that this is the same card as an 8800 GS, right? I mean, same clock speeds, same memory bus, same wonky 384MB of RAM. Yep, it's just a re-badged GS. There aren't any updates or added features, either, not a hint of HybridSLI; it's an attempt by NVIDIA to consolidate their three different video card series. Can you hear my head shaking? It totally is. Given that this is an old, cut down card, can it be worth it? First, yeah, 'course someone's going to like it, and it's one of the cheaper GSOs, too. And Leadtek's is special, with its factory overclock and stylin' custom cooler. But it's results are the real interesting bit:for a budget card, it's future-proof. World-Exclusive:S3 Graphics Chrome 440 GTX 256 MB @ techpowerup.com [Sep-05-08] (0 Comments) The Chrome 440 GTX is the latest card from S3 Graphics. It features all the main bullet points like DirectX 10.1, PCI-Express 2.0, native HDMI with integrated audio, small form factor and low heat output. But is this enough to compete with the offerings from ATI and NVIDIA? WolfKing Timber Wolf Gaming Keyboard @ benchmarkreviews.com [Sep-05-08] (0 Comments) Today's PC gaming enthusiast is always on the lookout for the edge that will put him or her above other players. A performance gaming Is Your Linksys SD2008 Switch Overheating or Losing Connectivity? @ legitreviews.com [Sep-04-08] (0 Comments) If you already own the Linksys SD2008 and are having issues with it remember the switch has a limited lifetime warranty, so you shouldn't be stuck with a faulty product. The newer Linksys SD2008 v3.0 switches are more power efficient and put out far less heat than the older v2.x series that so many people are having issues with... Zalman GS1000 Full Tower @ pro-clockers.com [Sep-04-08] (0 Comments) Zalman is back at it again with a new gaming case called the GS1000.The difference between the GS1000 and the GT1000 are as obvious as day andnight. The GS1000 is a made of a combination of aluminum, steel and a littleplastic. Before we determine what category it falls in we will tell you alittle bit more about the case. The case is full size and boasts incrediblecable management possibilities and impeccable cooling options. Trust methere are several other features that are unique to the GS1000 but you willhave to read on to find out what they are. TRENDnet TEW-624UB 300Mbps Wireless N USB 2.0 Adapter @ tweaktown.com [Sep-03-08] (0 Comments) Over the past few weeks we have looked at a couple of products from TRENDnet, including the 200Mbps Powerline AV Fast Ethernet Adapter Kit as well as the 300Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router.Both are pretty good products and overall we were left thinking quite good things about TRENDnet and what they had sent us to review. Today we have another review of a TRENDnet product and this time it is the TEW-624UB (version B1.0R to be exact) 300Mbps Wireless N USB 2.0 adapter. It is designed to add wireless capability to your Windows 2000, XP or Vista desktop PC or notebook or as an upgrade over a slower wireless connection such as 802.11b. PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8 Video Card @ thetechlounge.com [Sep-03-08] (0 Comments) It's an unfortunate thing that the 9800 GTX doesn't quite live up to a souped-up, though no longer available, 8800 GTX. I mean, it's definitely a better card in most respects. It consumes less power, is much better at video playback, and though it's relatively louder, the 9800 GTX costs one third today what the 8800 GTX cost yesterday. So for the same kind of dough, you can go SLI (with its inherent drawbacks of power and motherboard costs). Which isn't clearly an advantage with Intel CrossFire boards being as ubiquitous as they are. Nobody's saying it's a bad card, it just hasn't lived up to its expectations. As a card by itself, it's not bad, and if you're limited to one card, it's really the way to go. And while it does beat an HD 4850, it does cost more--I'd say they're equal on that front. If not for the massive difference in power consumption, choosing a 9800 GTX over an HD 4850 would just be a matter of preference. Adding the GTX+ to the equation further weighs against this card, as it'll improve on the performance quite a bit--although the plus is reported to use just as much power and it will definitely cost more. If you're looking for the next amazing card that will last two years and still look its successor in the eye, you'll have to turn to the GTX 200-series. Palit HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Sep-02-08] (0 Comments) Palit is one of the first AMD board partners to release a custom Radeon HD 4870 version. Their new HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition comes with a completely revamped cooling assembly that features two fans to keep the card cool. Also included is a DisplayPort connector and a Turbo switch which lets you select the operating frequencies of the card. The mandatory Technic3D/be quiet! Straight Power E6 450W @ technic3d.com [Sep-01-08] (0 Comments) The new be quiet! Straight Power 450W PSU E6-Series arrived Te chnic3D. See you in the following Review from Technic3D the next PSU R eview with a high efficiency and a good price. The September 2008 PSU Series better than the E5 Generation from August 2006? Air Live HP-3000E 200Mbps Ethernet over Powerline Adapters @ techpowerup.com [Aug-29-08] (0 Comments) Power Line adapters utilize the existing cables in your home to establish a network where Wifi is not an option. The Airlive HP-3000E is the company's newest offering of such a system, it promises up to 200 Mbps of bandwidth. Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB Toxic Video Card @ thetechlounge.com [Aug-29-08] (0 Comments) This is the ATI counter-point to the 9800 GTX+:Sapphire's Toxic HD 4850. It may be alone, and it may not be more power-friendly, but it's, ahem, wickedly fast. The icing is that it doesn't really cost more than other HD 4850s--sure, it's on the high side, but it's still cheaper than a 4850 and a Zalman heatsink. The astounding thing is how closely the Toxic keeps up with an HD 4870, cards that cost close to a hundred dollars more. Zalman CNPS9300AT CPU Cooler @ pro-clockers.com [Aug-29-08] (0 Comments) Over the years we have seen the 7000, 8000 and the now current 9000series. What we are going to review today is not the beginning of the 1xxxxseries but a miniature 9xxx called the CNPS9300AT. The little brother boastssome numbers that are more impressive than the bigger brother. Smaller butfaster fan. And on load a little louder. Now that we got the numbers out ofthe way time to see how this little booger does on the test bench. Nikon Announces D90 Digital SLR - First Ever With Movie Mode @ thetechlounge.com [Aug-28-08] (0 Comments) Nikon today announced the D90 Digital SLR - successor to the D80. It's slated for availability some time (late?) September, at an ESP (estimated street price) of $999.95. At this point, I should mention that I'm a Canon user. I love my 5D and my treasure chest full of expensive L lenses. Point being, I'm so happy with Canon that it's rare for me to get excited about anything from the Nikon camp. In fact, this is the first time my eyes have wandered. [Forgive me, Canon, 'tis but a fling.] Oh, and we got some exclusive footage of the D90's movie mode in action, courtesy of professional photographer, Chase Jarvis. Bombshell of NVISION08:SLI goes native on Intel X58 @ pcper.com [Aug-28-08] (0 Comments) NVIDIA is going to allow the Intel X58 chipset to natively supportSLI graphics configurations.Let me let that sink in. No need for an nForce 200, no need for any special logic of any kind, noneed for an NVIDIA product but the graphics cards themselves. Obviouslythis is GREAT news for the gamer - now we can finally get high qualitymotherboards that are reasonably priced and will run both NVIDIA SLI and AMDCrossFire GPU configurations. We are very excited about the idea ofunifying our platform selections for the hardware leaderboard, for using asingle motherboard for all our graphics card testing and just excited aboutwhat it means for high-end PC gaming in the big picture. Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB Toxic Video Card @ thetechlounge.com [Aug-28-08] (0 Comments) This is the ATI counter-point to the 9800 GTX+:Sapphire's Toxic HD 4850. It may be alone, and it may not be more power-friendly, but it's, ahem, wickedly fast. The icing is that it doesn't really cost more than other HD 4850s--sure, it's on the high side, but it's still cheaper than a 4850 and a Zalman heatsink. The astounding thing is how closely the Toxic keeps up with an HD 4870, cards that cost close to a hundred dollars more. EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB FTW Video Card @ thetechlounge.com [Aug-27-08] (0 Comments) The GTX 260 is exceptionally powerful, quiet, even power-miserly. It too has dropped in price--you can find them for around $200 (!) with a rebate, anyway--although EVGA's FTW is... more. However, I believe that the price premium is totally fair with the Step-Up Program, warranty, and ridiculous overclocking potential. If the 280 is a heavyweight, then the 260 is a ninja. And everyone knows that ninjas are cooler. Vantec Aeroflow FX 120 CPU Cooler @ pro-clockers.com [Aug-26-08] (0 Comments) Vantec's new coolers are named after their best selling cooler todate the Aeroflow 2. The new Aeroflow FX 92 and Aeroflow FX 120 are based onthe ever popular tower design which all the top coolers share. Even with thesimilarities of these coolers they also had their differences. Whether it issize, number of heat pipes, number of fins or the number of fans it supportsthey all have characteristics that make them stand out from one another. TheAeroflow models boast the vastly becoming popular Heat-pipe Direct TouchTechnology and a sweet white cooling fan. But is this enough for Vantec tobecome a real player in the air cooling market? We will put it up againstthe several other coolers to see where it ranks. ASUS GeForce GTX 280 TOP Graphics Card @ tweaktown.com [Aug-25-08] (0 Comments) It was only going to be a matter of time ‘till ASUS strapped some mean clocks onto the GTX 280 and put it under its TOP naming scheme. Well, that day has come and it’s time to see what happens when the GTX 280 gets, for the most part, an unnecessary but much loved speed bump.The tumbling GTX 280 prices over the past few weeks make the card more and more affordable for people wanting to get a top gaming experience. While we all know that for the most part the new AMD HD 4870 X2 is the faster single card on the market, NVIDIA still hold the crown of the fastest single cored card. [Affiliates News] Super Talent Pico-C Gold 8GB USB Flash Drive @ aphnetworks.com [Aug-23-08] (0 Comments) From the initial introduction of USB flash drives to presentday, this is one innovation that changed the way people carry data around.Back in the days of floppy drives and floppy disks with a formatted capacityof roughly 1.38MB, to the age of CD-RWs that was never able to takeprecedence as the prominent portable storage medium, and ending up to presentday's popularity of USB flash drives -- how did it all come to be? Computerenthusiasts first embraced this new type of products years ago as a symbol ofgeekiness and a sort of unashamed pride. Bringing on 16MB, 32MB, and 64MBdrives, I still vaguely remember how 'advanced' I was with a stunningly large512MB SanDisk Cruzer Micro. Supreme Commander Xbox 360 Competition - XSs @ forums.xsreviews.co.uk [Aug-22-08] (0 Comments) Dearreaders, today marks the launch of our newest competition. To markthe release of Supreme Commander for the Xbox 360, we've beengiven 2 copies of the game to give away. To win all you need to do isbecome a member, and make a few forum posts. What could be simpler? ATI Catalyst 8.8 Analysis - XP & Vista @ tweaktown.com [Aug-21-08] (0 Comments) With the drivers coming in nice and early this month, I’ve been able to get stuck into the testing to see what the latest driver incarnation from AMD offer us. As usual, before we get stuck into the actual results let’s see what kind of promises AMD have made for us this time around.With new cards out and the year coming to an end extremely fast, it’s time to ramp up the performance numbers so we can all sit back and enjoy a high FPS Christmas with all those new games coming out. Diamond HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Aug-20-08] (0 Comments) The Diamond HD 4870 features some of the most current technology available on the market and sits at an easily affordable price point. The power requirements aren't anything to snuff at but for those users looking for a single-GPU card to game at 1920x1200 with high settings, the Diamond HD 4870 is an excellent option. A single HD 4870 wouldn't be able to game at 2560x1600 but the beauty of CrossFire would let you couple two or three of these cards together till you have enough graphical power... TRENDnet 300Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router @ tweaktown.com [Aug-19-08] (0 Comments) How do you decide which router to buy in this day and age? Is there one product that has it all? You’ll be hard pressed to find a product with all the bells and whistles, but we may have one here today that comes close to the mark.Today we get up close and personal with TRENDnet’s very latest router, the 300Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router sporting model number TEW-672GR. Specifically, we are looking at version 1.0R, which is the shipping version you’ll find in the stores when buying. [Affiliates News] Thermal Paste Roundup August 2008 @ aphnetworks.com [Aug-18-08] (0 Comments) It has been over a year since we've reviewed thermal paste.With the previous presented to us being Arctic Cooling's excellent MX-2thermal compound in July 2007 and reviewed August 2007 -- it was, no doubt,excellent thermal paste; and were able to achieve a score of 8.1/10 on ourNumber Ratings. Thermal paste may seem so insignificant -- it can be easilyoverlooked to an extent that many people simply buy what they've heard of themost, and not necessarily what is the best. Thermal paste may 'seem' to beall the same with each other; but each is actually quite unique withdifferent companies making different formulas for synthetic compounds ormetal compounds. But all serves the same purpose to allowing better transferbetween the cooled device and the cooler; filling microscopic valleys insurfaces that has microscopic imperfections to maximize heat transferefficiency at its source. Today, we will be looking into several differentbrands of claimed 'high performance' thermal paste and see which one performsthe best. Our four-way competition today includes the 'classic' Arctic Silver5, our previous winner Arctic Cooling MX-2, the price competitive Tuniq TX-2,and the NT-H1 paste from silent PC enthusiasts' favorite company Noctua.* Link:http://aphnetworks.com/reports/thermal_paste_roundup_august_2008 [1]* Image:http://aphnetworks.com/report/thermal_paste_roundup_august_2008/005.JPG [2]Thanks for your support. Don't forget to send your site news tonews@aphnetworks.com [3] as well!Best Regards,JonathanAPH Networkshttp://aphnetworks.com [4] ECS P45T-A Intel P45 Chipset Motherboard @ pcper.com [Aug-15-08] (0 Comments) The stock performance of the board was right were it should be. Eventhough it utilized memory bandwidth that was about 33MHz slower (DDR2-800vs. DDR2-1066), it was not enough to cause more than slight variances inbenchmark numbers. I would have liked to see ECS include support for thefaster FSB and Memory speeds, as the chipset clearly seems to support it onalmost all the other P45 based products. Why ECS choose not to follow suiteremains a mystery to me. Powercolor PCS HD 4850 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Aug-15-08] (0 Comments) Powercolor's latest HD 4850 PCS graphics card is based on the AMD HD 4850 reference design but comes with an improved cooler and slightly increased core clocks. While the overclock makes only a small performance difference, the cooler substantially improves the product. Even under load the PCS 4850 is barely audible which makes it the quietest graphics card ever tested - of all performance classes. Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB - AMD's Triumph @ pcper.com [Aug-13-08] (0 Comments) There is little room to debate that the new AMD Radeon HD 4870 X22GB is the best performing graphics card on the market. By combining thepower of a pair of RV770 GPUs along with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the R700design is able to run away from NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280 1GB card handily.Our various game tests proved this - Crysis, Call of Duty 4 and GRID showedbig gains for AMD's new card at resolutions 2048x1536 and 2560x1600 thoughthey were minimal at 1600x1200. Antec Twelve Hundred Case @ hardwaresecrets.com [Aug-12-08] (0 Comments) Antec Twelve Hundred is a full-tower case targeted to gamers, with an impressive number of cooling options (six fans with speed control for all of them) and coming with twelve 5 Ľ” bays, with nine of them available for hard disk drives. Sapphire HD 4870 X2 2048 MB @ techpowerup.com [Aug-12-08] (0 Comments) Today AMD released their new HD 4870 X2 graphics cards. They are based on two RV770 GPUs on one PCB. With a total of 1600 shaders and 2 GB GDDR5 memory the card has excellent chances to achieve the goal Braid @ bit-tech.net [Aug-12-08] (0 Comments) Braid does have a few problems despite our love for it. Theoblique logic and lateral thinking that you need to learn how to applytoo rapidly scales up from Easy to Murderous, for instance, and thegame doesn’t always do a great job of introducing the new ideas. Worse, the game doesn’t even have a proper help page and there’sliterally no introduction to the rewinding mechanic until you die forthe first time – something you naturally spend your first go throughthe game trying to avoid. The combined ingenuity of the gameplay and the gentle, nostalgicbrilliance of the art and writing do manage to overcome this though andit’s a testament to the pacing of the game that you manage to learn allthese elements without any decent manual or instruction. Cerebral and startlingly playable, Braid is a throwback to the forgotten world of commercialplatformers and proper adventure gameswhere the puzzles were hard, but rewarding. At times it can be toodifficult for its own good, but the bulk of the game isn’t weighed downby this and Braid instead manages to float upwards, toexcellence. Sapphire HD4870 512MB @ modders-inc.com [Aug-08-08] (0 Comments) The use of the GDDR5 memory, increased bandwidth, DirectX 10.1 anda 55nm GPU it sounds like it should place this card in the higher end of the Supermicro X7DWA-N Motherboard @ pcreview.co.uk [Aug-06-08] (0 Comments) I had the opportunity to spend some time testing and evaluating this motherboard with two sets of CPUs and two types of memory. First using two X5482 Harpertowns (3200/12mb/1600) and 4x2 gig of Transcend DDR2-800 FB-Dimms, and later on using two E5450 Harpertowns(3000/12mb/1333).This EATX board is built using the newest 5400 Seaburg chipset with 1600FSB support built in. The layout is a typical EATX 12x13” design and like previous versions uses 24, 8 and 4 pin connections to the motherboard. With this new series, a 4 pin Molex connector is added to the board for users with higher power needs. There are 8 Dimm slots for quad channel memory support (up to and including DDR2-800 FB-Dimms) for a maximum of 64 gigs. The board comes boxed with 6 SATA cables, I/O shield, IDE cable, and an excellent manual and Cd with all needed software and drivers. Sapphire HD 4850 Toxic 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Aug-05-08] (0 Comments) Sapphire's new HD 4850 Toxic graphics card comes with a preinstalled Zalman VF-900 GPU cooler that greatly reduces the operating temperature of the card. Also the operating frequencies have been bumped quite a bit, with some additional overclocking potential left in the card. News@Technic3D/Cooler Master Silent ProM 600W @ technic3d.com [Aug-05-08] (0 Comments) The Cooler Master Silent ProM 600W PSU (RS-600-AMBA-D3) arrive d Technic3D. See you in the following Review from Technic3D the next P SU Review with a very high efficiency and a good price. Make the quiet 135mm fan, 9xSerial ATA connectors, 2x PCI-e (6+2)Pin this PSU better than other PSUs? Noctua NF-P12+NF-B9 Quiet Fans @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [Aug-04-08] (0 Comments) A lot of the time I use my computer in the late evenings when the ambient noise is very quiet in my house, so trying to keep PC noise to a minimum is important so as not to annoy me/disturb others. With testing the Noctua NF-P12+NF-B9 fans today I have been treated to a taste of really quiet computing. Technic3D/SteelSeries Gaming-Keyboard 7G @ technic3d.com [Aug-03-08] (0 Comments) The SteelSeries 7G Gamer Keyboard arrived Technic3D. A Gamer K eyboard with advanced key combinations, PS/2 buffer-system, switch lif etime of 50 million operations, audio ports for headphone-out and micr ophone-in and two port USB hub. One of the best Gamer Keyboards in the moment? See this in the following Review. Intel Atom 230 versus VIA Nano L2100 @ legitreviews.com [Aug-02-08] (0 Comments) I'm sure a fair number of you expected the VIA Nano L2100 to come out ahead because it operates at 1.8GHz, while the Intel Atom 230 runs at just 1.6Ghz, but there is more to it than the 12.5% difference in clock frequency. The VIA Nano processor is based on superior superscalar out of order architecture, which is why it performs better than the Intel Atom processor. The VIA Nano processor beat the Intel Atom processor in every single performance benchmark we ran and that says a ton for the engineers (Centaur Technologies) who designed the Nano processor... [News] Thermaltake TMG2 Radiator and W2 Waterblock @ virtual-hideout.net [Aug-02-08] (0 Comments) Well, I'm back yet again. A scant few weeks ago, I took a look atThermaltake's fairly good ProWater 850i kit, making just one observation -performance could probably see a great improvement if another, largerradiator had been added. While this concept had in fact been done before ontheir BigWater 745i, it was stunted by mediocre radiators, a weaker pump,and an older waterblock. Considering that two of these three factors werecorrected in the 850, logic would dictate that throwing the thirdimprovement in would make this kit really shine. Though it's a shame that Idon't have the older kits on hand to give a performance review against, Ifeel that this pair of reviews should give users a good idea of theperformance they stand to gain, provided they have the desire, and the spaceto plumb a second radiator, as well as a videocard waterblock into the loop.That being said, let's crack open the box and see just what a $70 upgradeentails. Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 GPU @ pro-clockers.com [Aug-01-08] (0 Comments) Today we will be covering the ATI top card in the form of the 4870.The 4870 is based on the long awaited RV770 from AMD. The RV770 core wasmanufacturer from the 55 nanometer technology. This whole technology is whatgave us DirectX 10.1, Shader 4.1 and PCIe 2.0 support. The most impressivefeature that we see in the new 4870 GPU is the GDDR5 which is clocked at900MHz in this new AMD card. Renegade Gaming Chair - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Aug-01-08] (0 Comments) Whenvisiting the Channel Expo trade show in Birmingham a few monthsago, I stumbled upon one booth with a product that really caught byeye. The booth was owned by Galaxy GeForce 9500 GT Overclocked 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Aug-01-08] (0 Comments) NVIDIA recently launched the GeForce 9500 GT. This low-end card in the GeForce 9 Series is designed to offer acceptable gaming performance for the small wallet. Galaxy has created an overclocked edition which runs at higher clocks and comes with a quiet heatpipe cooling solution. In our testing we saw amazing overclocking potential of over 35% compared to the reference design clocks. Thermaltake DuOrb CPU Cooler @ thinkcomputers.org [Jul-31-08] (0 Comments) The Thermaltake DuOrb CPU Cooler provides more than just CPUcooling. The dual fan design cools the entirety of the upper portion of themotherboard in addition to the CPU. The DuOrb includes double-sided radiantheatpipes disperse the heat through the extensive number of fins surroundeach fan. The mirror coated copper base provides even better heatdissipation between the contact surface and the CPU over other CPU coolers.Read on further for the full review. [News] Quakecon 2008:Day 0 @ virtual-hideout.net [Jul-31-08] (0 Comments) It's a full on production, dealing with this many people, but thisis the 13th time for Quakecon, hopefully it's their lucky number. Even withthe regular staff, there is no way they could run the show without thepublic who volunteer for everything from security to NVIDIA's GeForce 9500 GT Debuts, Solid Graphics For Under $100 @ hothardware.com [Jul-29-08] (0 Comments) In comparison to the recently released GeForce GTX series, the GeForce 9500GT has only a fraction of the number of stream processors, ROPs, and textureunits available, but the GPU's configuration does put it on par with orahead of the GeForce 8500 / 8600 series of graphics cards, that the 9500 GTwill eventually replace (along with the already released GeForce 9600 GT). VIA Nano and Intel Atom - Battle of the Tiny CPUs @ pcper.com [Jul-29-08] (0 Comments) For an incredibly inexpensive and low power part, the VIA Nano L2100CPU was very impressive from a performance perspective. Using just 20 wattsor so of power at load the Isaiah architecture running at 1.8 GHz couldhandle our media encoding, our PCMark05 general purpose tests and even alittle gaming. The numbers aren't going to impress you enough to make thisyour next gaming system of choice but for budget notebooks and PCs I caneasily see VIA's part providing enough power. Cool IT Systems NV Reference SLI Cooler @ techpowerup.com [Jul-29-08] (0 Comments) The CoolIT Systems coolers are certainly a unique way to get into liquid cooling. They come pre-assembled and are maintenance free. We are taking a look at their dual card cooler for two GeForce 8800 GTXs, but CoolIT offers a very similar variant for the GTX 260/280 and for AMD cards as well. Tuniq Ensemble 1200W Power Supply @ bigbruin.com [Jul-29-08] (0 Comments) I expected the Tuniq Ensemble 1200W power supply to perform well after seeing what the 950W Tuniq Miniplant had to offer a few months ago, and my expectations wound up being exceeded. The unit ran cool and quiet, managing to provide stable power to the beefiest system I could put together while producing a trivial ripple of a fraction of one percent. [News] Raidmax Iceberg Case @ virtual-hideout.net [Jul-28-08] (0 Comments) The Raidmax Iceberg impressed us with its sturdy and qualityconstruction. We were definitely not expecting an aluminum case to be sostrong, but the thick aluminum of the Iceberg makes it one of the strongestcases we've seen. The design of the case also makes it one of the easiest todisassemble, from the nice side panels to the easy-to-remove front panel.Cooling options provided were also very decent, with four fans out of thecase. Thermaltake M9D Computer Case @ rbmods.com [Jul-27-08] (0 Comments) When I choose a computer case, I am often drawn towards a couple ofthings:good looks and cool features that will make building and using thecomputer enjoyable. Thermaltake, makers of a wide variety of computerproducts, sent us a sample of one of their new cases, the Thermaltake M9Dmid-tower computer case, which from the package seems to combine stylishlooks with a sophisticated design. Can their case live up to these loftygoals? Let's find out in this case review. Thermaltake M9D Computer Case @ rbmods.com [Jul-27-08] (0 Comments) When I choose a computer case, I am often drawn towards a couple ofthings:good looks and cool features that will make building and using thecomputer enjoyable. Thermaltake, makers of a wide variety of computerproducts, sent us a sample of one of their new cases, the Thermaltake M9Dmid-tower computer case, which from the package seems to combine stylishlooks with a sophisticated design. Can their case live up to these loftygoals? Let's find out in this case review. Sumo Lounge SumoSac Sultan - Khaki @ aphnetworks.com [Jul-26-08] (0 Comments) You might think that, here at APH Networks, we're a bunch of geeks who own a dozen computers at home. Maybe a TV and a microwave, and that's about it. I don't know about other members of the APH Networks team (Sorry guys hehe), but here's the deal though:While I do have almost a dozen computers around here, and I do own a microwave and an HDTV, I have something more than that. After all, despite popular belief, we do have a life. Okay, jokes aside, my point is that we aren't all over tech and tech related stuff all the time. Once in a while, we do have non-computer related products here in our labs. It's already been two years since we looked at the Sumo Lounge Omni Beanbag Chair. Just a few months ago, we 'reviewed' the TWM Performance Complete Short Shifter Kit just for fun. Automotive accessories? Heck, yes. Last month, Andrew from Sumo Lounge got in touch with me again and asked if I wanted to take a look at their latest product, the Sumo Lounge SumoSac. Obviously, I said Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GSO Extreme 384MB @ tweaktown.com [Jul-26-08] (0 Comments) We’re not quite sure what makes this 9600 GSO so Extreme, but we intend to find out today. Not unlike its 8800 GS twin brother, the 9600 GSO hasn’t really had much attention due to AMD offering two new cards, the 9600GT already being excellent value and of course NVIDIA offering two new high-end models as well.There are a lot of people on a tight budget though, and the 9600 GSO might come in at a price point that’s most attractive to them. We'll have a look at the Extreme version from Leadtek today and see if it’s worth buying or if should you save a few more dollars and just buy the better known 9600GT. Auzentech, Asus, and C-Media:As the CMI-8788 Turns @ pcper.com [Jul-26-08] (0 Comments) The truth finally came out in June of this year, but very few peopleseemed to notice it. Stephane Bae, President of Auzentech, wrote a littleopen letter concerning this situation, a full year after Auzentech stoppedproducing the X-Meridian. The long and short of it is that Asus hadnegotiated with C-Media for exclusive rights to the CMI-8788 chip after acertain date. This meant that Auzentech would have to purchase asignificant number of chips within a week of the original introduction ofthe X-Meridian to keep that part running for the next few years of itspotential lifespan. Hardware Leaderboard Update @ pcper.com [Jul-24-08] (0 Comments) What changes did we implement this time around? First, we bumpedthe Q9300 processor up to a Q9550 and changed from a 780i SLI motherboard toan ASUS Rampage Formula motherboard based on the Intel X48 chipset. Why didwe move away from the NVIDIA chipset? The answer is in our GPU - we wentwith the Radeon HD 4870 512MB cards (a pair in CrossFire to be exact)bringing AMD back into the High End System Leaderboard for the first time inquite some time. We also updated to the VelociRaptor hard drive and XonarD2X PCIe sound card. Palit HD 4870 512MB Video Card ed @ thetechlounge.com [Jul-24-08] (0 Comments) The real win is having a $300 card:NVIDIA made a lot of money with the 9800 GTX before the 4850 forced them to sell it for $200. Now that bracket belongs to ATI, who, for the first time in years, is dictating hardware costs, not following prices set by NVIDIA. We'll have to wait for board partners to add innovation. So yes, the card isn't perfect, but like they say, it's lonely at the top. Hackers on Planet Earth 2008:'The Last HOPE' @ techgage.com [Jul-23-08] (0 Comments) The seventh HOPEconference was held this past weekend in NYC and I wasthere to take in the numerous talks. Such subjects covered were lockpicking, Wikipedia's evils, YouTube, FOIA, hardware hacking and a lotmore. Special talks were also given by Steven Rambam, Steven Levy, AdamSavage and Jello Biafra. Lian Li Tyr PC-X2000 @ bit-tech.net [Jul-23-08] (0 Comments) The Lian Li Tyr PC-X2000 is certainly an impressive piece ofhardware,combining a gorgeous and unique design, an innovative layout, simplysuperlative noise levels and impressive cooling performance. However,there are a few minor blemishes on the face of this otherwise fantasticcase, and sadly most of them are directed towards the case’s frontfascia panel.The problems causing the front aluminium panel to bow in the middlereally should have been caught before the case went into fullproduction, and it’s certainly disappointing to see such a premium casesuffering from case panels not fitting together properly. The fact thatthe fascia is so easily removed is also a concern, as is the placementof the fan controller, inexplicably placed behind both the front fasciaandthe dust filter. While we appreciate that the fans might be a VisionTek HD 4870 512MB Video Card @ thetechlounge.com [Jul-22-08] (0 Comments) Picking out a video card should be a little more exciting than finding [News] GIGABYTE GA-X48-DQ6 Motherboard @ virtual-hideout.net [Jul-20-08] (0 Comments) Gigabyte has truly stepped up to become a serious contender for thetop manufacturer of quality motherboards. Gigabyte has aggressively pursuedways to produce the best choice in quality and enthusiast motherboards.They've brought us features like Dynamic Energy Saver, complete solid statecomputing, and some of the most consistent extreme overclocking to date.These kinds of features have culminated in to two recent Best Choice Awardsat Computex 2008 for the GA-EP45-DQ6 and GA-EP45-DS5 Motherboards. All ofthat and more have been combined once again to bring us the GigabyteGA-X48-DQ6 Motherboard. There's plenty of features and bonuses to be had. Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 Motherboard @ pro-clockers.com [Jul-18-08] (0 Comments) From the very beginning many of us could have figured the P45 chipsetwas going to be the chipset of chance as it is price considerably cheaperthan the older X38 and the X48. And from the early reviews the P45overclockers pretty well. We have seen able forum post and web reviews withfront side buses reaching the 600MHz range on Core2Duo processors. But forthe non-overclockers out there another advantage over the older P35 is thetwo 8x PCIe slots when attempting to using ATI video cards in Crossfiremode. Today, we will take the EP45-DQ6 through a ring of benchmarks and seewhat type of FSB numbers we can achieve. [News] ECS P45T-A Black Motherboard @ virtual-hideout.net [Jul-17-08] (0 Comments) In short, this inexpensive motherboard is fast, stable, and featuresa ton of opportunities for expansion. While the lack of firewire is indeed adisappointment, I believe that this can be taken as a non-issue for gamers.Considering the features present, the speeds attained, and the stability ofthe system overall during the testing procedures, I feel that thismotherboard is a good buy if a user is looking to assemble a low cost,reliable gaming machine. It's just a shame that this product doesn't havewhat it takes to break free of just what it was meant to do, but given thefact that it costs just shy of $110 - or rather, is shockingly cheap, Iwould say this is a good candidate for the great value award! GelaSkins for DS and PSP @ gideontech.com [Jul-17-08] (0 Comments) There's always a balance between protection and style when it comes to your electronic peripherals. There are numerous cases on the market now to shield just about anything. From iPods to your camera, there's something for everyone. The only downside to it is that it's bulky and down right ugly sometimes. To combat this, there are now rubber or hard cases you can buy, but they still create unnecessary bulk when we're all trying to emphasize portability. ASUS EN9600GT SILENT Graphics Card @ tweaktown.com [Jul-16-08] (0 Comments) You’d think we would have looked at all 9600GT cards on the market, but I can guarantee there are more out there. The particular one we’re looking at today comes from ASUS and carries with it a silent cooler. We’ve seen GIGABYTE offer the 9600GT in silent form, sporting both 512MB and 1GB of GDDR3. MSI also has a card where the fan only spins when the card needs it. During our testing, however, the fan never actually spun.Silent cards are becoming quite the rage and everyone wants good performance without any noise. In the past, the design used to be reserved for low-end cards, but these days we seem to be able to get a good performing card that outputs not a single dB. In the highly competitive market that is the 9600GT, we will today see if ASUS are able to do anything that helps them stand out from the pack and if it’s a card worth looking at. Tuniq Miniplant 950w - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Jul-16-08] (0 Comments) Withthe need for a steady and stable supply of power to fuel the most powerhungry of PCs nowadays, we are starting to see an increasing number ofpower supplies with high wattages that claim stability and silence aswell. One such product is the Tuniq Miniplant, which boasts animpressive 950W of power and was for a time the highest wattage PSU inthe 80+ category of standard PS2 sized units. Today I will be takingthis one for a spin to see just how efficient and quiet it really is. [News] Patriot Viper 4GB PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Memory @ virtual-hideout.net [Jul-16-08] (0 Comments) If you're spending your hard earned cash on the new DDR3 standard,then you expect nothing short of stable, dependable performance whetheryou're using a 32-bit or 64-bit system. The memory must be reliable if youjust play games or if your system is a serious number crunching SETI beast.The Patriot Viper 4GB PC3-12800 Dual Channel Memory Kit thoroughly testedhere offered nothing short of those expectations. The memory is fullybackward compatible with your 1066 MHz and 1333 MHz Core 2 series Intelprocessors. The extra performance gained from the memory's timings at lower6-6-6-18 setting should be a pleasant bonus which also equates to plenty ofbandwidth. Intel Announces The Centrino 2 Platform @ legitreviews.com [Jul-15-08] (0 Comments) Centrino 2 is made of of three major components, the processor, the wireless card and the chipset. Intel Centrino 2 processors are 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad processors with up to 6MB L2 cache and a 1066MHz FSB. Intel is introducing the Intel Core 2 Extreme Mobile Processor X9100 is now the highest performing flagship processor for the Centrino 2 platform and operates at 3.06GHz. Just like other Extreme mobile processors the X9100 has 'Overspeed Protection' removed, so consumers will be able to overclock the processor if the notebook allows it. When it comes to TDP ratings the X9100 is mobile friendly at just 44W... AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 1GB P - R700 a bit early @ pcper.com [Jul-14-08] (0 Comments) While it is hard to get a complete outlook of AMD's new Radeon HD4870 X2 1GB card with three games and some 3DMark Vantage numbers, ourinitial outlook for it is very, very good. If those idle power numbers canbe improved upon with the updated PowerPlay BIOS as AMD claims, it will bevery difficult to find weaknesses in AMD's new flagship product. The onlyexception might be the scalability concerns we mentioned above - that's upto AMD's software team to keep up with the PC titles as they arrive. PowerColor HD 4850 512MB Video Card ed @ thetechlounge.com [Jul-12-08] (0 Comments) Interestingly, there seem to be few, if any drastic, architecture changes for HD 4000. It's all scale down, add more. PowerColor, a long-time board partner, shows just how well this strategy pays out for the HD 4850.Even side-by-side, this card looks just like a 3850. That's really superb, because not only was its predecessor small, clean, and fast, it was also quiet. The sticker's adornment is a busty, armored model in Viking chic. But it's a stock card, with the same design that you'd get with any 4850 currently available. Aeneon XTune DDR3 1600 4GB Kit @ pro-clockers.com [Jul-11-08] (0 Comments) Qimonda was nice enough a few months ago to let us play around with aset of XTune DDR3 PC-1333MHz. They were not too bad of a kit and did prettywell in our round of tests. As things progress and the need for more isthere we asked to review a bigger and faster kit. We were granted permissionto do so and received a set of 4GB of AXH860UD20-16H which is rated at CL9at 1600MHz. We all know there is faster out there but this kit operates atonly 1.5 volts. Not too bad for some one that doesn't want to put anunnecessary load on their system. We will now stop rambling and get on withthe testing. Honda MP3 Player @ hardwaresecrets.com [Jul-08-08] (0 Comments) Our review of the MP3 player embedded on the navigation system from Honda cars. Eagle Consus D-Series @ gideontech.com [Jul-08-08] (0 Comments) On the review block for today is the Consus D-Series dual SATA hard drive external storage system from Eagle Tech. The D-Series has the ablity to use JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) spanning to combine your odd sized disk drives into one larger drive, or you can run it plain old RAID 0. Diamond HD 4870 512MB ed @ thetechlounge.com [Jul-05-08] (0 Comments) The 4870 is an excellent card, but for now, all the models are functionally identical, and there are yet to be factory-overclocked cards, let alone custom-cooled models. Variation ranges from changing the sticker to adding spiffy adapters. If you buy Diamond, you're not buying a different card, you're buying better service, only they're not charging extra. Sapphire HD3870 Ultimate Video Card @ pro-clockers.com [Jul-04-08] (0 Comments) Based off of the RV670 chipset is the Sapphire Ultimate 3870 videocard. This card many not be overclocked like the Toxic we reviewed a fewweeks back. This means it won't perform at the same level of the Toxic did,but the major thing the Ultimate has over the Toxic is silence. Combinedwith 512MB of GDDR4 and Shader 4.1, silence isn't the only feature the cardhas that it can boast about. Just how well does it match up against theToxic mode? Read on to find out. [News] Dynapower USA TP-LINK (TL-WR543G) 54Mbps and (TL-WR642G) @ virtual-hideout.net [Jul-03-08] (0 Comments) Dynapower USA sent over the TP-LINK 54M Wireless AP Client Routerand the 108M Wireless Router. Each of the routers have XR, or ExtendedRange, technology which can increase the range 2 to 3 times the normal802.11b range. They both are designed for Small Office/Home Office wirelessnetworks, and integrate Firewall, NAT-router and Wireless AP. The 54M Routeradditionally sports a 4-port switch. Not only designed for the SmallOffice/Home application but for those of use on a small budget. Technic3D/Easy Touch ET-656 Wireless @ technic3d.com [Jul-02-08] (0 Comments) The Easy Touch ET-656 Wireless Keyboard/Mouse arrived Technic3 D. Ultra-low profile, Programmable keys, Multimedia keys, Wireless 27 MHz (up to 1,5m) and Volume adjustment (scroll) for a good Price?. Te chnic3D will see the functions in the following Review. Apple Wireless Keyboard ed @ thetechlounge.com [Jul-02-08] (0 Comments) Mmm, Mac hardware. Sharp. Purposeful. Tasty. Downright industrial designelicious. Half of the people who make the vaunted switch do so because of this keyboard. I mean, not literally this keyboard, but because of the engineering and style that this wireless device is the apex embodiment of. The keyboard is small because it's cut down; the keys are standard but a lot is sacrificed to make the whole package as miniscule as possible without cramping digits. I see a lot of potential in this input device, and not because it's portable. But I also can't help but wonder, can design be taken too far? Diamond HD 4870 512 MB GDDR5 @ techpowerup.com [Jul-01-08] (0 Comments) AMD's new Radeon HD 4870 is the first graphics card to feature GDDR5 memory. GDDR5 offers twice the memory bandwidth over previous GDDR generations which helps the HD 4870 gain a nice performance advantage over the HD 4850. Roccat Sense - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Jun-27-08] (0 Comments) Gamingperipherals are something that not many hardware enthusiastsspend much time on; as the title suggests, it's more of a gamer thing.However, many underestimate what effect a simple mouse or keyboardupgrade can have on their PC usage in terms of comfort and features.The peripheral overlooked most of al however, is the mouse mat. Fromit's humble beginnings as a poorly held-in-place piece of foam, gamingmouse mats were born and today, I'm testing one that's been causing astir with it's flashy looks; bring on, the Roccat Sense:AdrenalinBlue. NEC's MultiSync LCD3090WQXi 30-inch widescreen monitor @ bit-tech.net [Jun-26-08] (0 Comments) The NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi is an amazing screen that notonly fitsthe bill for professionals, but will also appeal to those of us thatwant stunning image quality, a whole host of features and acres ofdesktop real estate. Of course, the price will undoubtedly put a lot ofpeople off this screen, but I tell you, if I had £1,500 burning a holein my pocket I know where I'd be spending it. Yes, it's expensive, butthen so is a Ferrari F430 Scuderia – it's all about getting what youpay for.And what you get for your money here is one of the best LCDs I've everhad on my desk. Going back to my Samsung SyncMaster 215TW—even thoughit's incredible—will be very hard indeed. There's nothing that willreplace the sheer size of this display combined with the simplystunning image quality. I'm going to be a very sad man indeed. ASUS EAH4850 512MB @ techgage.com [Jun-26-08] (0 Comments) Proper competition from AMD in the mid-range scheme ofthings might have taken a while to happen, but it does happen with theHD 4000 series. We are taking a look at the smaller of the two newmodels, which offers exceptional performance for the price of $200. Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2000 2GB Dual Channel Memory Kit @ thinkcomputers.org [Jun-26-08] (0 Comments) Yes, you read the title correctly, DDR3-2000. Isn't that incredible,that memory operating speed has climbed that high in such a short time?Think about it, one year ago, we were beginning to see the first DDR2-1066modules being released. Today, all memory manufacturers offer a DDR3-1600module, many offer a DDR3-1800, and over the past month the more prominentof them have released a DDR3-2000 module. Considering PC3 system memory hasonly been out for about a year, I don't think that we've come close toseeing the limits of DDR3. HIS Radeon HD 4870 CrossFire Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Jun-25-08] (0 Comments) The Radeon HD 4870 is the first retail graphics card to use GDDR5 memory and the 512MB of memory uses Qimonda branded ICs. GDDR5 introduces features and functions that go beyond previous GDDR standards and enables GDDR5 to operate at data rates up to 6 Gbps, three times the performance of todays high speed GDDR3. The memory ICs feature adaptive power management, error compensation, adaptive interface timings and date eye optimization. The ICs being used are part number IDGV1G-05A1F1C-40X, which are entry level GDDR5 chips and are rated for just 4 Gbps. ATI has them clocked at just 3.6 Gbps, so these should have some overclocking head room left in them... Roogoo (PC) @ bit-tech.net [Jun-23-08] (0 Comments) Just because the game is tough though, isn’t to say that RooGooisn’t fun. It is fun to play, kind of. Fun in the same kind of way as Peggleor Drug Warsor any other casual game. You don’t actually massively enjoy playingthe game, you just crave the sense of accomplishment and completion andyou get sucked into this trap early on thanks to the pick-up-and-playdesign. There are only two real things that prevent RooGoo frombeing a good game and neither of these are really going to be a hugeproblem to any initiated puzzle fans. The first is that there reallyisn’t much to be had beyond the single game mode and once you’ve playedone level you’ve played them all. The other problem is the way the game presents itself. We’ve jokedabout the bright colours, MeeMoos, King Goos, and Roos of RooGoo, but the reality is that they really are a problem. RooGoois too fast and frantic to be a kids game, so we have to judge it asmore than that and while the game would still have problems if it waspresented as a less immature puzzler, it would be a bit better off. CradlePoint MBR1000 Mobile Broadband Router @ thinkcomputers.org [Jun-23-08] (0 Comments) EVDO is basically wireless internet access that can be accessed overa cellular network. Almost every cell phone provider offers EVDO service.What's great about it is that anywhere you get a cell signal you getinternet access. No depending on a hotel's internet or a hotspot at a coffeeshop for internet access anymore. I currently use an Express card fromSprint that allows me to connect to the service, but what if I'm on a tripwith friends? Why should they have to pay $9.99 per day or more for internetwhen I already have access? That is where the CradlePoint MBR1000 comes in. Silenx Ixtrema ICX-HA2 CPU Cooler @ rbmods.com [Jun-22-08] (0 Comments) We've seen a number of fan manufacturers branch out into the CPUcooler business, with mixed success. CPU coolers are a lot different thanfans, but if a company pays attention to quality, they typically do well.Acousticpc.com, well-known retailers of silent performance computercomponents, sent us a new cooler from Silenx, the Silenx Ixtrema ICX-HA2 CPUCooler. We've had a chance to review Silenx fans in the past and weregenerally impressed by their silent operations and good airflow. Will thisCPU cooler leave the same impression? That is what we're here to find out. NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB P - G92b @ pcper.com [Jun-21-08] (0 Comments) My guess is that the marketing team at Big Green didn't want toone-up the recently released GT200 parts - some people might assume thatsinge it was built on the 65nm process while the new 9800 GTX+ is on the55nm, that the GT200 would be inferior in some way. As we saw in ourperformance review of the GeForce GTX 280/260 cards, that's obviously notthe case but I can see how some readers might make that conclusion. OCZ EliteXStream 800W Power Supply report @ aphnetworks.com [Jun-20-08] (0 Comments) Well guys, here we go again -- another close-look-at-power-supply-hardware report. Last week, we took apart the Seasonic M12II 500W power supply. As usual, because we don't have the necessary professional equipment to do the simulated load testing, measuring the quality of power delivery (Voltage, ripple, etc) in accordance to load, and that we don't want to use some fake hardware test reports, we are up for another power supply hardware examination report. This time, we are going to crack open the relatively recently released OCZ EliteXStream 800W power supply (A 1000W model is also available for those who really need it). This power supply has gained excellent reputation in regards to performance and efficiency from other excellent online publications that tested it with professional load testing equipment. When OCZ asked me a couple months back to see if I wanted to take a look at the EliteXStream, I was nothing but excited to see what OCZ has in store lately. The OCZ EliteXStream series power supplies combine a 120mm fan with an open rear exhaust design like the Seasonic M12II for a somewhat good reputation of 'quietness' in this regard, and high power output ratings. So today, let's see how extremely elite is the OCZ 1337-Extreme 800W -- I mean, OCZ EliteXStream 800W. MSI R4850 Radeon HD 4850 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Jun-20-08] (0 Comments) After some confusion, AMD has lifted the NDA for their brand-new Radeon HD 4850 Series today. The RV770 on these boards comes with 800 shaders and boasts 956 million transistors. Together with a new AA architecture the card takes the $200 segment in a storm offering leading performance/dollar and performance/watt. PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Jun-20-08] (0 Comments) AMD has moved the launch date of the HD 4850 forward, launching it today. The cards are positioned in the $200 range and offer several new features and performance improvements. According to our benchmark results AMD has found a winner with this card that offers excellent price/performance and energy efficiency. ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB Video Card P @ legitreviews.com [Jun-19-08] (0 Comments) The retail card that we have is the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850, which features an MSRP of $199 and will be the jewel in the price versus performance charts for months to come. It is also the first card that has a TeraFLOP of compute power. Not bad at all for a price tag of just $199! Motorola Bluetooth Headset H680 @ bluetomorrow.com [Jun-19-08] (0 Comments) The Motorola Bluetooth Headset H680 combines contemporary style and modern technology to provide users with attractive communication device that performs as good as it looks. The H680 features a sleek, elegant design, premium finish and easy to use functionality. Straight out of the box, this unit looks great and offers a lightweight design that is comfortable to wear, even after extended use. AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB P - RV770 Discovered @ pcper.com [Jun-19-08] (0 Comments) The AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB card is a good performing card that isable to match both the GeForce 8800 GT and the 9800 GTX card in our initialpreview of just a couple of major gaming titles. NVIDIA has some moretricks up their sleeve though with a little part called the GeForce 9800GTX+ meant solely to rain on AMD's launch day parade. Whether or not thatwill pan out has yet to be seen. NVIDIA GeForce 280 GTX in Tri SLI Tested @ tweaktown.com [Jun-17-08] (0 Comments) It was always going to happen; the testing of two and three GTX 280 cards. We had hoped to have had it ready by launch date, and we’ve fortunately done it with an absolutely massive weekend that has involved over 250 benchmark runs across four different motherboards. Before we get into it though, we have to laugh at our power supply situation. When we started testing our Tri SLI setup with a 1000 Watt Zalman PSU, we ran into some problems. During the Canyon test on 3DMark06, the system would just shut down! - Since this would seem to resemble a power problem, it was time to pull out a HX 620 Watt and do a bit of ghetto modding to get the two power supplies working together. What we ended up doing is running one GTX 280 off the Corsair HX 620 PSU while the 1000 Watt took care of the other two cards and the rest of the system. Thermaltake Toughpower QFan 650W PSU @ jonnyguru.com [Jun-17-08] (0 Comments) Today's review is brought to you by the letters W, T, Q, and thenumber 3. W is for Wolf, that's me; T is for Thermaltake, who sent me thereview sample for today; and Q is for QFan, a specially designed fan thatThermaltake believes will decrease fan noise in your standard power supplywhile maintaining efficient cooling. While the Q in QFan could stand formany things, like Quality or Quigley:Down Under, the Q actually stands forQuiet. We'll have to see if this fabled QFan of yore can be heard over theyowling, screaming exhaust fan in the old load tester, won't we? Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC6400 - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Jun-17-08] (0 Comments) Memoryexperts ‘Crucial’ have sent us a number of RAM kits in the past – allof which have proved to overclock very well. A new member of Crucial’svast family is the red Ballistix Tracer. This kit is of the performancerange of Crucial's line up and includes LED’s which NVIDIA GeForce 280 GTX in Tri SLI Tested @ tweaktown.com [Jun-17-08] (0 Comments) It was always going to happen; the testing of two and three GTX 280 cards. We had hoped to have had it ready by launch date, and we’ve fortunately done it with an absolutely massive weekend that has involved over 250 benchmark runs across four different motherboards. Before we get into it though, we have to laugh at our power supply situation. When we started testing our Tri SLI setup with a 1000 Watt Zalman PSU, we ran into some problems. During the Canyon test on 3DMark06, the system would just shut down! - Since this would seem to resemble a power problem, it was time to pull out a HX 620 Watt and do a bit of ghetto modding to get the two power supplies working together. What we ended up doing is running one GTX 280 off the Corsair HX 620 PSU while the 1000 Watt took care of the other two cards and the rest of the system. GeForce GTX 280 with QX9650 @ tweaktown.com [Jun-16-08] (0 Comments) Feeling a little underwhelmed with the initial GTX 280 results, I took the time to make my way over to the IBuyPower Australia bunker to let the card have a bit more breathing room. While our 3GHz test bed is quite modest and a good indication of performance for the everyman or woman, there is of course people out there who are a bit more hardcore and do have a few more dollars to splash about. Since the card has just been released, we thought it was the perfect time to really see what the card was capable of in a very nicely overclocked QX9650 rig carrying with it a 10 x 400MHz FSB combination. At this speed we had a Swiftech water cooling setup attached which caused the CPU to stay below 47c on all four cores. We had found our rig, and now it was time to see what kind of performance increase we get when we move to something that carries with it faster RAM, a faster HDD and of course a faster CPU. NVIDIA GT200 tackles gaming, Folding, Transcoding @ pcper.com [Jun-16-08] (0 Comments) NVIDIA’s GT200 is a big, powerful processor that is capable ofhanding out the best gaming performances we have seen, ever. The GeForceGTX 280 1GB card is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to pushing thetop gaming titles to super HD resolutions like 2560x1600 and is able tobest both NVIDIA’s and AMD’s previous flagship dual-GPU cards. Just beprepared to pay top dollar for those bragging rights and performancegains. The GeForce GTX 260 896MB is a much more price conscious card thatis still a fantastic performer when compared to its direct competition inthe market. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Unleashed @ hothardware.com [Jun-16-08] (0 Comments) =93The high-end 280 card is powered by NVIDIA's 1.4 billion transistor GT200GPU, produced on TSMC's 65nm process node and is the largest, most complexchip TSMC has ever manufactured. Beyond just a larger number of streamprocessing units, the GT200 also supports three times the number of threadsin flight, as NVIDIA's previous G80, at any given time. It also has a newscheduler design that is up to 20% more efficient, along with a wider512-bit memory interface with improved z-cull and compression technology.Perhaps what's most interesting about this GPU however, are its twooperational states, one as a 3D Graphics processor and another standardcompute mode configuration. NVIDIA's new behemoth chip not only lights upthe gaming benchmarks but also can be specifically reprogrammed for moreefficient general purpose GPU (GPGPU) computing usage models like Foldingand supports atomic read-modify-write operations in memory.=94 The Incredible Hulk (Xbox 360) @ bit-tech.net [Jun-16-08] (0 Comments) We expected The Incredible Hulk to be bad from theoffset, notout of some inherent bias but more to do with a realistic reflection ofthe past and the facts of the matter. On this front, TheIncredible Hulk didn’t disappoint us. It’s predictable, samey, bland and as by-the-numbers as any game ofthis type could be. The developers have got a checklist of all theusualerrors made on movie tie-ins and they’ve zipped down and ticked themall expertly. As a game it’s more shallow than a Paris Hilton-wannabeand uglier than the real-deal. But, at the same time, it is kind of fun to mess around with. And no,the Paris Hilton jokes stopped last paragraph thankyouverymuch.Elements of The Hulk’s character are captured very well and it’s quitebizarre to see that Sega has done a better job of capturing the wallclimbing experience than Activision did with Spiderman 3.Also, just because a game is shallow doesn’t mean that it’s bad – everyid Software game ever proves that, just about. Despite all the chinksin the armour and the fuzziness on the lens there is still a sense ofprogression that makes the game involving to play and aspects of theanimation do feel suitably kinetic and powerful. In the end, though Hulk can’t claim to be as good as themajority of the games out on shelves nowadays, he can certainly wipethe floor with Iron Man and the othercomic-movie-adaptation-tie-ins at the moment. [News] QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS @ virtual-hideout.net [Jun-15-08] (0 Comments) For my own introduction to Qnap, they have sent the TS-409 pro. Itis a 4 bay NAS, with all those basics I've just mentioned. The guts of itare powered by a 500MHZ CPU, with 256MB of ram, and 8MB of flash memory forthe operating system. 500 Mhz might not seem like a lot these days, but thelow power usage, optimized design is more than enough when you pair it upwith a custom light Linux installation. QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbostation @ techpowerup.com [Jun-14-08] (0 Comments) QNAP already added nearly every thinkable feature to their NAS firmwares. To make a new series innovation had to be found elsewhere. QNAP decided to double the capacity in their TS-409 Pro and add features to utilize this space. The four disks that the TS-409 Pro houses can therefore be put in any RAID level including 6. Besides adding RAID 5 and 6 support QNAP shows they take their RAID arrays seriously by adding support for online expansion and RAID migration. Combined with the already proven ease of use and list of software features the TS-409 Pro Turbostation promises to be a solid product. CradlePoint CTR500 3G Cellular Travel Router @ pcper.com [Jun-14-08] (0 Comments) The CradlePoint CTR500 is really an interesting all-in-one productthat can act as a normal broadband router, accepting a WAN connection fromcable or DSL internet lines and then creating a wireless network for yourhome or office. What really makes the CTR500 unique is its ability to use aUSB or Express Card based 3G wireless modem as the WAN connection, givingmobile users and teams the ability to maintain productivity and freedom frombe tethered to cables and switches. OCZ EliteXStream 800W @ pro-clockers.com [Jun-13-08] (0 Comments) The EliteXStream is the example of what two companies can think upwhen they get together. The EliteXStream is a single 12 volt rail behemoththat is sure to raise some eyebrows. The EliteXStream belongs to the crowdof people that believe all the power should be in one main 12 volt rail.This is a philosophy that we have seen for many years from PC Power andCooling. But if you are a member of the multi-rail power supply club, OCZhas the ProXStream for you. The EliteXStream is available in to varieties,an 800 and 1k models. Each is enough to power the biggest of gaming systems.And today we will be reviewing the 800 watter for you. Chaintech GeForce 9600 GT 512MB OC ed @ thetechlounge.com [Jun-13-08] (0 Comments) Everyone recommends the GeForce 9600 GT first, and they should. It's got a price-to-performance ratio unlike any card before. I'm not exaggerating. This card could very well be the best deal NVIDIA has ever put to market. I spent a day with Chaintech's factory- overclocked card... And I found a couple things I didn't like. Deal breakers? Hardly. Gigabyte Nan-Ping Factory Tour @ bit-tech.net [Jun-12-08] (0 Comments) Are you planning to pick up a Gigabyte GA-P45-DQ6? Over thecourse ofthis article, we'll show you where it was made as Gigabyte invited bit-techto one of its Taiwanese factories, allowing us to roam around itsfacilities.The Nan-Ping factory is about an hour out from Taipei City whereComputex was happening in full swing; it's one of four manufacturingplants that Gigabyte owns. The second is located in Ping-Jen in Taiwanand the remaining two factories are in China:Ning-Bo (just south ofShanghai) and Dong-Guan further south still. Nan-Ping isn't yourtypical expansive factory – it's almost as tall as it is wide, witheight huge floors offering 45,000 square metres of space for 1,200employees.The factory features eleven SMT lines (seventh Floor) providing 400,000motherboards, 300,000 graphics cards and 5,000 server products a month.There are also six lines of DIP and Testing (fourth and fifth floors)and four lines of packing all those motherboard, VGA and serverproducts up on the second floor.There are also two lines of whole system assembly for its OEM andretail business on the third floor and two lines for its mobileassembly unit (20,000 units per month) for Asia on the sixth floor. GIGABYTE GeForce 9600GT TurboForce 1GB @ tweaktown.com [Jun-12-08] (0 Comments) Only just the other day we looked at the GIGABYTE 9600GT TurboForce 512MB; today we look at the 1GB version of this card. While we’ve never been a huge fan of 1GB mid-range cards, the GIGABYTE TurboForce version carrying with it a hefty core and memory increase seemed to help the card out a little bit more. It made sense that we include the 512MB version of the card in our testing today. We’ve also included the Sapphire HD 3870 Ultimate which is a passively cooled card as well. Powerdrive Computers Discount - XSs @ forums.xsreviews.co.uk [Jun-12-08] (0 Comments) Powerdrive Computers and XSReviews haveworked together for some timenow, and to help continue this great relationship, the guysover there have been kind enough to offer all forum members a 10%discount. E-Power Thunder EP-650-TD1 3-in-1 PSU @ tweaktown.com [Jun-12-08] (0 Comments) Enter E-Power, a company that has been around since 1990 but is not one of the big contenders. This company has a goal of creating high quality at an affordable price, and today we will take a peek at one of their moderate level power supplies to see if they have managed to pull this off. While the power port and toggle switch appear pretty normal, there is an added port on this unit that resembles a PCI-E plug. Though that is not what it really is, it does add to the feature list and is where they get the “3-in-1” label. Let’s take a quick look at what plugs into this port and then we will see what we have. Palit GeForce 9800 GTX 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Jun-11-08] (0 Comments) Palit's GeForce 9800 GTX follows the specifications of the NVIDIA reference design to the letter. Even then it is one of the fastest cards out there that you can buy, constantly delivering excellent FPS in games. Our sample allowed up to 16% additional overclocking on the GPU for a final clock speed of 784 MHz. Sins of a Solar Empire Interview @ bit-tech.net [Jun-09-08] (0 Comments) BT:Piracy is pretty big topic right now and, with games like MassEffect and Sporethreatening increasingly draconian DRM ‘protections’, some gamers areworried about the state of PC gaming. Sins though came with no copyprotection at all if I remember correctly, so what’s your take on allthis? Is there a way to stop the pirates without punishing thecustomers?CF:We’re all stuck in an unfortunate vicious cycle. As piratingincreases, DRM increases, which in turn forces people to pirate.>From what I understand, Mass Effect has since backed down a tadafter listening carefully |