Xigmatek Thors Hammer S126384 Exclusive Preview
TweakTown posted a preview on Xigmatek Thor’s Hammer S126384

Xigmatek managed to pull off the ultimate hat trick in 2008. The company made coolers that were cheaper, lighter, quieter and performed just as well as the very best CPU coolers manufactured in 2008. The key to Xigmatek’s success has to do with their HDT (Heatpipe Direct Touch) patent and what it does to seemingly ordinary coolers.

It is now 2009 and Xigmatek is ready to break into a new market. The company will still offer their amazing sub 40 Dollar USD coolers that perform with the best 80 Dollar products from other manufacturers, but they are now ready to bring their own ultra premium coolers to the market.

Xigmatek Thors Hammer S126384 Exclusive Preview

Topower PowerBird 1100W PSU Review
Driverheaven posted a review on the Topower PowerBird 1100W PSU

Today we will have a look at their latest PowerBird 1100W PSU, a high performance modular unit. The PowerBird 1100W is designed to compete in the most demanding category of the computer industry market and appeal to the most hardcore of enthusiasts. The big question remains however, is it able to compete with other high end offerings such as the Corsair HX1000W?

Topower PowerBird 1100W PSU Review



In Win Commander 1200 Review
Bjorn3D takes a look at the In Win Commander 1200

Enter the In Win Commander series of power supplies. Designed with the enthusiast/gamer in mind, they promise to deliver clean, stable power while maintaining a high efficiency rating. We have been blessed with the opportunity to review the 1200W version, but they are available in anywhere from 650W all the way up to 1500W. For many users, 600W is more than enough. But there is a certain group, a rather large group, that believe too much power is never enough. I, of course, happen to fall into the latter group. Why settle for 600W when you can have 1200W? It can offer several benefits. Not the least of which is higher efficiency. Many users mistakenly believe that when they hook up a 1KW power supply their power bill will go up as a direct result. When you have a highly efficient power supply, however, you're not drawing any more wattage from the wall than you would with a smaller PSU, you simply have more room to grow.

So the question, then, is whether or not the Commander 1200W will provide that clean, stable power. Let's find out as we put the power supply through its paces!

In Win Commander 1200 Review

Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 graphics card Review
Bit-Tech published a review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 285 graphics card

From Nvidias side of the fence, the GeForce GTX 280 is the obvious competition and while the GTX 285 is faster, you have to ask if its worth the additional outlay over the few GTX 280s that are still available.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 graphics card Review

Windows 7 Beta Performance
bit-tech published a look at performance with the Windows 7 Beta released last week

Generally speaking, the performance is almost identical to Vista with an exception made for gaming, but we're putting that down to driver optimisations at the moment.

For the most part the benchmarks flicker back and forth between Vista and Windows 7 with no outright winner. There are a few concerns we have at this time though - file compression tests are notably and consistently slower and network copy performance is very slightly slower as well. However, on the plus side, the simple file copy testing is faster than in Vista and boot times are notably improved.

Windows 7 is supposed to be much more lightweight, too, and we've seen it running on Atom-based machines without too much trouble. We've obviously tested here with an incredibly high-end system and so the performance differences may not be as noticeable at this end of the spectrum. Where the optimisations might make more of a telling difference is at the lower end of the scale, where hardware performance is very much the bottleneck of your experience with an operating system like Windows Vista or Windows 7.

That's something we'll be looking at in the future without a doubt, but for now we can only go on what we've seen so far.

With that in mind, we haven't seen comprehensive evidence of any optimisation or slimming of the OS that we would have loved to have seen, but at least it's not / /even fatter like every previous generation of Windows has forced onto us. The additional features and OS tweaks are generally very good and very positive, despite the fact there are still elements of Vista-fail that need surgically removing (the sharing options would be a good starting point).

Windows 7 Beta Performance

Zalman CNPS9900 LED CPU Cooler Review
techPowerUp posted a review on the Zalman CNPS9900 LED CPU Cooler

Zalman's CNPS9900 LED is their newest all copper model in the CNPS series. A silent 120 mm blue LED fan has been placed between two arrays of pure copper fins. With exceptional performance and amazing looks, the CNPS9900 LED is a great CPU cooler if you can justify spending $79 for a CPU cooler.

Zalman CNPS9900 LED CPU Cooler Review

Toshiba TEC B-EP2DL Portable Thermal Label Printer Review
ITreviewed posted a review on the Toshiba TEC B-EP2DL Portable Thermal Label Printer

If you work in mobile applications (retail, warehouse and logistics, hospitality and healthcare etc) and are looking for a robust and reliable printer for outputting 2-inch labels and receipts on the move, perhaps you should take a closer look at Toshiba TEC's B-EP2 series. The Auto ID specialist's latest portable printer is an incredibly robust - though pricey - monochrome thermal model that provides a range of wired and wireless connectivity options and battery-powered autonomy.

Toshiba TEC B-EP2DL Portable Thermal Label Printer Review

OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA Flash Drive Review
Legit Reviews posted a review on the OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA Flash Drive

Very few desktops and even fewer laptops have eSATA ports, but for those lucky enough to have a system with one you can embrace the OCZ Throttle eSATA drive. The OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is one of the very first eSATA Flash drives available on the market today. The OCZ Throttle’s eSATA interface offers an incredible performance speeds of up to 90MB/second read and 30MB/sec write. The OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA Flash drive is the fastest 'thumb drive' ever tested at Legit Reviews, but the question is if the eSATA interface will catch on before USB 3.0 arrives.

OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA Flash Drive Review

Thermalright AXP-140 CPU Heatsink Review
Overclockers Online posted a review on the Thermalright AXP-140 CPU Heatsink

This down draft style 120/140mm fan heatsink won't set any cooling record, but is one of the few well-performing HTPC CPU coolers.

Thermalright AXP-140 CPU Heatsink Review

Thecus N4100PRO Network Attached Storage System Review
APH Networks has published a new review on the Thecus N4100PRO Network Attached Storage System

Happy, happy new year! It seems that 2008 has gone by so fast, when I was entering the information of this article earlier today, I simply typed "2008" without much attention. Note to self: It's 2009. Now that everything seems to have gotten back to normal -- back to work, or back to school, or maybe even both -- it's time for me to get started on writing reviews again haha. In this evaluation article, we will take a look at Thecus' N4100PRO network attached storage system. I've been a big fan of such systems built into my home network since I deployed my first one back in 2006. Now that I am on my third ever owned NAS machine, my love has not died off at all -- in fact, I've always wondered how I lived without it. With enhanced data flow within my local area network, simplified backup procedure, out of sight experience, and the convenience of having it always available -- and best of all, ease of use -- there's no reason for me not to be such a big fan of such devices. Interestingly, today's network attached storage systems are no longer the same as yesteryear's. It's hard to call them simply "network attached storage" anymore. Many features built-in print servers, Bittorrent clients, media server capabilities, incredible performance over Gigabit networks, and the list goes on and on. In light of that, let's see what the Thecus N4100PRO can offer us today: Both in areas of basic file performance; extending to availability of built-in features.

Thecus N4100PRO Network Attached Storage System Review

CyberSnipa SWAT Mouse review
BurnOutPC.com has just posted their review on the CyberSnipa SWAT Mouse

Last time we've seen a CyberSnipa mouse it was called the Stinger and it felt really great, it reacted great and it looked great too. The CyberSnipa Stinger is the top of the line mouse and a newcomer that's just below that is called the CyberSnipa Swat mouse.

CyberSnipa SWAT Mouse review

Windows 7 BETA vs Windows Vista SP1 SSD Performance Compared
TweakTown posted a SSD performance comparison between Windows 7 BETA and Windows Vista SP1

The topic of SSDs itself is rather interesting, but when you team up the increasingly popular flash memory technology with Microsoft's next operating system, Windows 7, things move up to the next notch on the excitement level - for us around here, anyway - but probably you too, if you are reading this.

We have gotten hold of the Windows 7 BETA and today we are going to compare the performance of single SSD as well as RAID 0 SSD in W7 and Vista SP1. Keep in mind this is just a first look; Microsoft may still and probably will provide further performance optimizations for SSDs under the final shipping version of W7 and this is merely a look at the performance difference so far. We didn't even install any new drivers on our W7 beta install - just ran with what was built-in, so it is a good raw look at things currently as they stand.

Windows 7 BETA vs Windows Vista SP1 SSD Performance Compared

Samsung SyncMaster T240 24" LCD Monitor Review
Tweaknews.net posted a review on the Samsung SyncMaster T240 24" LCD Monito

Through over a 1000 hours of testing, this workhorse has proven its value time and time again through dependability, flexibility, craftsmanship, aesthetics and overall user experience. If you are in need of a monitor that does it all, and want a larger supported resolution, you will be happy with this product.

Samsung SyncMaster T240 24" LCD Monitor Review

Noctua NH-U9B tower cooler Review
ocaholic.ch posted a review on the Noctua NH-U9B tower cooler

With the NH-U9B we send the first Noctua cooler into the race. The comparatively small tower cooler should have a lot of potential and even fits in HTPCs. Also the noise level should be on a very reasonable level.

Noctua NH-U9B tower cooler Review