Audio FX Pro 5+1 Gaming Headset Review
Bit-Tech published a review of eDimensional's Audio FX Pro 5+1 Gaming Headset

The Audio FX Pro 5+1 isn’t the best headset we’ve ever used and, because Ben Heck himself has pinned his name on it, that comes as a bit of a disappointment. On the other hand though, it isn’t the worst headset we’ve ever used either – it’s somewhere in between.

The Audio FX Pro 5+1 ‘Heckset’ – a joke I’m making again in case you’re one of those annoying people who skips straight to the conclusion and missed my previous witticisms – seems to tick and skip all the boxes arbitrarily.

It has good sound performance, but you often need to push the volume too high to make the best of it. It has funky extra features, but they don’t really add anything new. It’s got a cool oversized design but…well, actually the overall aesthetic is one thing we can’t begrudge. The headset may look a little contrived to some, but personally we kind of like the whole faux leather, old-school look.

Price-wise it treads the line too. You can pick up headsets much cheaper but, considering the versatility and bragging rights, the price point is also justified. In the end the Audio FX Pro 5+1 isn’t going to blow you away – but it shouldn’t disappoint you either, so it’s a safe enough option for anyone in the market.

Audio FX Pro 5+1 Gaming Headset Review

AutumnWave OnAir GT (USB HDTV Tuner) Review
Bjorn3D take a look at the AutumnWave OnAir GT (USB HDTV Tuner).

A few months ago, I reviewed the VisionTek TV Wonder HD 650 PCIe. It is a great expansion card for desktop users but it has small limitation that it will only work with desktop. For the user who is always on the run or has committed to use their laptop as their primary PC, it is not an option. There is no shortage of TV tuners designed for laptop users from many desktop TV tuner manufactures. They come in different shapes and forms and connects through laptops via USB, ExpressCard, and PCMCIA. Despite the fact that the PCMCIA is quickly being phased out in laptops and is being replaced by the ExpressCard, you can still find some of these cards on the market specially for the old analog tuners. Whicheve card you choose ultimately depends on what expansion slots you have in your system.

For most users, choosing a TV tuner with USB connection seems to be the most ideal solution since USB has become the standard connector for peripherals for both laptops and desktops. So, today, join me as we are going to put the AutumnWave OnAir GT, a USB HD TV tuner, to the test. Let's see if this TV tuner is able to deliver what it has promised.

AutumnWave OnAir GT (USB HDTV Tuner) Review



Thermaltake Xaser VI VG4000BWS Super Tower Case Review
HardwareLogic.com posted Thermaltake Xaser VI VG4000BWS Super Tower Case Review

The Xaser VI is the latest offering in Thermaltake's popular Xaser series of full-towers, the flagship line of their cases. Today we will be looking at the Xaser VI VG4000BWS, a steel version of the case with a side window. Will this behemoth carry on the Xaser name in style? Will we be blown away by its features? Will Frank get a hernia from trying to carry it? Read on and see!

Thermaltake Xaser VI VG4000BWS Super Tower Case Review

Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB Atomic Review
bit-tech published a review of Sapphire's Radeon HD 3870 512MB Atomic

Sapphire's Radeon HD 3870 512MB Atomic is a ground breaking product in many respects, but sadly where it falls short at the moment is on the performance side of things. From what we understand, since the launch of the Radeon HD 3870 X2, the RV670 chips are suffering from even higher demand than they were before. This has resulted in the prices of the standard cards increasing slightly, and bringing them more into line with Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT.

This is a problem for AMD/ATI, because the chip just isn't fast enough---even when it's overclocked like Sapphire's excellent example we have here today. Hopefully, we'll see the price come down again very soon because that's ultimately having an effect on the price of the card we're reviewing here today. Sapphire says that the card should be hitting a £165-170 price point, but retailers are currently asking customers to pay up to £200 (inc. VAT), which puts it almost on price parity with the appreciably faster GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB!

The cheapest we've found the card for is £188 (inc. VAT) on Dabs, which is on the expensive side, but it sounds easier to stomach than the £200 other retailers are expecting customers to pay for this graphics card. Sapphire was quick to point out that the card is a limited edition---more of a technology showcase if you will---than a card it expects everyone to rush out and buy.

What we can take away from this though is the fact that there has been some true innovation here---something that we don't see all that often from add-in board partners. The technology that Sapphire has showcased here is nothing short of awesome -- it not only looks good on paper, but also works incredibly well in practice as it managed to knock ten degrees off the load temperatures of a reference Radeon HD 3870! What's more impressive though is the fact that Sapphire's card is running at much higher clock speeds than the reference card.

Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB Atomic Review

Kingston MobileLite Card Reader Review
ASE Labs posted a review on the Kingston MobileLite Card Reader

The reader itself is not much bigger than a normal sized USB flash drive. Granted, the MobileLite can only handle SD and MMC (and its variants including micro and SDHC), there is much versatility in its use. Since it is hardly bigger than a normal flash drive, you can use it as one with no problem. Imagine keeping a mini-SD card in the slot and having the other slots free for other memory cards. This is a very handy device.

Kingston MobileLite Card Reader Review

Asus EAH3870X2 TOP Review
Neoseeker published a look at the Asus EAH3870X2 TOP today.

Vying for that respect is what the HD 3870 X2 is all about. This is a serious card for the enthusiast. Today we are looking at the Asus EAH3870X2 TOP, with 1 GB of GDDR3. This mesh of metal, silicon and plastic wasn't made for people who play *The Sims* on the weekends. This is a dual-GPU high-performance monster card that retails for around $450 USD.

Asus EAH3870X2 TOP Review

8 Graphics Card Coolers Tested With the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Digit-Life posted a review on 8 graphics card coolers

Today we shall examine 8 graphics card coolers from Arctic Cooling, Thermalright, Thermaltake, Zalman, and Zerotherm (including a liquid cooling unit). These will be tested with the reference NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. After that we'll analyze test results from a computer enthusiast's point of view.

8 Graphics Card Coolers Tested With the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

NZXT Rogue SFF Gaming Case Review
Metku took a closer look at NZXT's Rogue SSF Gaming case.

During its existence, the shape and the size of the PC-case have gone through many evolutions. One of the newer designs is a cube. Case design has much to do with personal preference, so it's good to see variety on the market as many find the cube shape to be very practical.

NZXT Rogue SFF Gaming Case Review

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Heatsink Review
FrostyTech posted Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Heatsink Review

The Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme heatsink is a continuation of the Ultra-120 series, only with a little more muscle and a couple extra heatpipes. It's predecessor has remained at the top of Frostytech thermal test results for both AMD and Intel platforms basically since we tested it, so we're especially interested to see how the Ultra-120 Extreme model handles. Like the Ultra-120 that came before it, the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme applies fairly simple concepts to yield a well performing tower heatsink that doesn't have to generate much noise to get the job done.

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Heatsink Review

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP Review
NordicHardware posted a review on the ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP is one out of the many motherboards based on the popular P35 chipset from Intel, ASUS alone has a very broad lineup of P35 motherboards. This segment have a tendency to be forgotten, but since more and more customers are looking for affordable boards with good performance, we thought it would be a good idea to see what a motherboard in this segment can do. Looking back, we can only conclude that ASUS did practically everything right when designing P5K-E/WIFI-AP.

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP Review

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB Hard Drive Review
Viper Lair posted a review on the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB Hard Drive

The biggest change from the 7200.10 to the 7200.11 is the increase in platter size. We mentioned there will be a few capacities offered, but we can sum it up by saying that there will be 3; 500GB, 750GB and 1TB. If you're shopping for the 1TB version, another change from the previous model is the doubling of cache from 16MB to 32MB. The 500GB and 750GB will only ship with 16MB. As the name implies, the Barracuda spins its drives at 7200rpm, allowing for a sustained transfer rate of 105MB per second.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB Hard Drive Review

Thermalright Ultima 90 Review
OCC has published a new review of the Thermalright Ultima 90

How well did the Thermalright Ultima 90 actually do? On the Intel side, compared to the stock heatsink, the Ultima 90 won hands down. As per its other two competitors, both come equipped with 120mm fans that put out between 85 and 110 CFM, where the fan that I used only put out a max of 68 CFM. On the AMD side, while it was only compared to the ZeroTherm Nirvana and the stock heatsink, it performed just as well or better aside from idle temps while overclocked. The Ultima 90 is much lighter and compact than the Nirvana and the Tuniq tower, which to me is a plus since I always seem to cut my hands on the fins of the others.

Thermalright Ultima 90 Review

Promise SuperTrak EX STEX8650 8-port SAS Review
TweakTown posted a review on the Promise SuperTrak EX STEX8650 8-port SAS

Serially Attached SCSI is based around the same SCSI principal that makes it faster and more reliable than the IDE interface, however it’s now moved to the Serial Transfer method. In fact, the cables and interface slots are identical, which makes SAS controllers rather interesting.

Today we have the big bertha from the Promise SuperTrak family, the STEX8650 8-port SAS controller. How does it stack up against onboard Serial ATA RAID as the storage preference? Let’s have a look.

Promise SuperTrak EX STEX8650 8-port SAS Review

Saitek Cyborg Command Unit Review
I4U NEWS reviews the Saitek Cyborg Command Unit gaming controller.

The device is like a small keyboard with 21 keys and three shift states allowing you to bind lots of commands to the device. If you are a gamer who travels often to LAN parties, this is an excellent device for you. To change shift modes you slide an analog switch on the upper left corner of the Saitek Cyborg Command Unit. As you change modes the backlighting color of the gamepad changes to so you know what mode you are in at a glance. The backlighting changes through green, red, and yellow colors.

Saitek Cyborg Command Unit Review

Buffalo MiniStation 320GB Turbo USB Hard Drive Review
Everything USB posted Buffalo MiniStation 320GB Turbo USB Hard Drive Review

External hard drives are becoming almost as popular as flash drives and it isn't hard to see why. They are extremely easy to install and offer the portability that internal drives simply don't offer out of the box. This makes them great for users on the go needing to store large amounts of data or need an easy to use yet still cheap backup system. Bus powered external drives are even more portable than their non-bus powered brethren, however their size usually requires them to sacrifice some speed as they usually offer only USB support. Buffalo thinks that this shouldn't be the case which is why we are taking a look at the Buffalo 320GB MiniStation Turbo USB portable hard drive, a drive they claim to be up to 64% faster than the competition.

Buffalo MiniStation 320GB Turbo USB Hard Drive Review