NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ Review
The Guru of 3D posted NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ review

Just when you think it cant get any busier in the graphics card arena Murphy's law always kicks in. It's not often that so many new graphics cards are released in just one week. NVIDIA surely pushed it's limits there. To address the Radeon HD 4850 they unleashed the GeForce 9800 GTX+

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ Review

Zerotherm Zen FZ120 Review
Bjorn3D takes a look at the Zerotherm Zen FZ120.

As we all know, processors are getting faster and as a by-product produce far more heat than they have in years past. Many of us remember the days when there was simply a small heatsink on top of a processor with no fan at all. As speeds and temperatures have increased however, so has the size(and number) of the cooling products available. Today we will have a look at the Zen FZ120 from Zerotherm. Designed to compete with several of the other large heatsink/fan combinations that are currently available at an extremely affordable price,the Zerotherm is available for a paltry $39.99 + shipping. Let's take a look at how it performs for that price.

Zerotherm Zen FZ120 Review



Areca ARC-1231ML SATA RAID 6 Controller Review
TweakTown posted a review on the Areca ARC-1231ML SATA RAID 6 Controller

So, where do you turn to when you run out of ports on the motherboard? - To a discrete solution of course! There are many companies out there providing a huge array of cards.

Areca is a new company to TweakTown; we haven’t been graced with any products from them until now, and as always we are more than happy to oblige them with some testing of their products. Today they have sent one of their biggest cards for SATA-II expansion. In our labs we have been sent the ARC-1231ML 12 channel SATA-II Controller. Let’s get stuck right into it.

Areca ARC-1231ML SATA RAID 6 Controller Review

BFG Tech's GeForce 9600 GT OCX & 8800 GT OCX graphics cards
Bit-Tech published a review of BFG Tech's GeForce 9600 GT OCX & 8800 GT OCX graphics cards

Despite the impressive gaming performance advantages of these cards over the lower clocked cards we've compared them to, and the simply fantastic cooling abilities of the ThermoIntelligence coolers, where both these cards will really be judged is on their price. This is becoming the case more and more often in the increasingly competitive and cut-throat world of mid-range graphics.

At the time of review, BFG Tech was quoting us street prices of around $194.99 (around £115 inc. VAT) for the 9600 GT OCX and $184.99 (around £110 inc. VAT) for the 8800 GT OCX. While we haven't been given official UK pricing yet, we're expecting these cards to be priced in a similar range to the new Radeon HD 4800 series which, as I'm sure you'd like to know, offer significantly better performance for just a few quid more (as we'll see in Tim's upcoming article).

In light of Nvidia's decision to move the GeForce 9800 GTX's price down to $199 (or £125-140 inc. VAT in real money) in order to remain relatively competitive with the Radeon HD 4850, we're expecting the price of these cards to drop faster than a stripper's thong. However, there is no official word on when, or by how much the price of these cards will drop.

And without a reasonable price drop, it becomes very difficult to recommend either card on a value basis. Despite being superior performers when compared to cards using the same graphics core, and having phenomenal cooling ability, both cards are victims of the changing tides in The Sea of Grey. The mid-range graphics market can change enormously with the introduction of a new GPU or card series, and until the market calms down, and the 8800 GT OCX and 9600 GT OCX drop in price, we simply cannot strongly recommended them, despite their impressive gaming and thermal performance.

BFG Tech's GeForce 9600 GT OCX & 8800 GT OCX graphics cards

NEC's MultiSync LCD3090WQXi 30-inch widescreen monitor Review
Bit-Tech published a review of NEC's MultiSync LCD3090WQXi 30-inch widescreen monitor

The NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi is an amazing screen that not only fits the bill for professionals, but will also appeal to those of us that want stunning image quality, a whole host of features and acres of desktop real estate. Of course, the price will undoubtedly put a lot of people off this screen, but I tell you, if I had £1,500 burning a hole in my pocket I know where I'd be spending it. Yes, it's expensive, but then so is a Ferrari F430 Scuderia -- it's all about getting what you pay for.

And what you get for your money here is one of the best LCDs I've ever had on my desk. Going back to my Samsung SyncMaster 215TW---even though it's incredible---will be very hard indeed. There's nothing that will replace the sheer size of this display combined with the simply stunning image quality. I'm going to be a very sad man indeed.

NEC's MultiSync LCD3090WQXi 30-inch widescreen monitor Review

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB Review
Digit-Life posted a review on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB

Today we are going to review a graphics card that has the same dimensions and weight as the GTX 280, but it has a narrower bus and fewer unified processors. Besides, it's noticeably cheaper. Meet the GeForce GTX 260.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB Review

In-Win B2 Stealth Bomber ATX Case Review
Madshrimps posted a review on the In-Win B2 Stealth Bomber ATX Case

The In-Win B2 is without a doubt a gamer orientated ATX chassis. Designed with aspects and features to resemble a B2 stealth bomber plane this military looking case is apt to turn some heads. It has a fully functional automatic hatch at the front and comes with four case fans to keep your hardware inside running cool.

In-Win B2 Stealth Bomber ATX Case Review

QNAP NVR-1012 Network Surveillance System Review
Bios Magazine posted a review on the QNAP NVR-1012 Network Surveillance System

Don't let 'network surveillance' put you off. The NVR-1012 is an easy-to-use surveillance system that provides live video recording and real-time remote monitoring/playback, making it an affordable solution for providing day and night protection to your home and office. In order to bring more convenience and extra benefits in setting up a network surveillance system, QNAP has considerately selected two value-plus IP cameras for the NVR-1012. This way the kit can be set up quickly in a few simple steps without having to worry about additional networking equipment or peripherals. In addition, system configuration and recording/monitoring functions of the supplied network video recorder (NVR) are carried out via a Web browser, so no complicated software installation or configuration is required.

QNAP NVR-1012 Network Surveillance System Review

Sapphire HD 4850 Video Card Review
Hardware Secrets posted Sapphire HD 4850 Video Card Review

AMD/ATI has released two new high-end graphics chips recently, Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 4850, known by the codenames RV770 XT and RV770 PRO, respectively. As you can guess by the numbers, HD 4850 provides a lower performance compared to HD 4870. In this review we will benchmark HD 4850 from Sapphire and compare it to its main competitors from nVidia. Is this video card a good buy? Check it out.

Sapphire HD 4850 Video Card Review

Six Months with ATI CrossFireX Technology
Benchmark Reviews has released a new article on ATI CrossFireX Technology

Eighteen months ago when nVidia's GeForce 8800 GTX was king of the hill, a multi-GPU setup was either ostentatious and reserved only for the most die hard gamer if you were using a high-end card, or downright silly if you were pairing up midrange and lower. NVIDIA's SLi initiative started back with the GeForce 6 series, was basically a kludge designed to wring that last ounce of performance out of the cards of the era for thedeep-pocketed enthusiasts. ATI's CrossFire, when it debuted up until the release of the Radeon X1950 Pro, was an embarassment, offering poorer performance and compatibility than NVIDIA's solution.

Six Months with ATI CrossFireX Technology

DFI DK P45-T2RS - Mini Living Review
Cluck posted a mini review on the DFI DK P45-T2RS P45 chipset based motherboard

Today I'm going to embark on a mini living review of DFI's latest mid range, DDR2, P45 chipset based motherboard.

I'm calling this a "mini" living review as really, it is a preview of DFI's ABS (Auto Boost System) technology, rather than an overclocking fest, although there will be some overclocking later.

The guys at DFI are extremely proud of their Auto Boost System, and are keen for people to get to grips with it, and that's exactly what we are going to do.

In a nutshell, ABS is simply a set of predefined preloaded overclocking profiles that can be loaded at startup by pressing a key (F1 for example).

There are many different profiles available for various combinations of memory and CPU, but the great part is that the profiles can be swapped with other users online, so there will be a huge database of downloadable profiles available once people start to share them.

Admittedly, this technology is aimed at novice overclockers and anyone that requires a quick boost, however, more advanced users can also define their own profiles.

I will look more closely at ABS later, but first, let's have a look at the official specs of the P45-T2RS.

DFI DK P45-T2RS - Mini Living Review

CradlePoint Technology PHS300 WWAN Router Review
OCIA.net has posted their review of the CradlePoint Technology PHS300 WWAN Router

WWAN is becoming more and more popular for business travelers and remote locations for internet connectivity. With a simple USB or PCMCIA card stuck in your laptop, you can pretty much connect from anywhere you can get cell service, and the bandwidth available on these wireless plans is about what you'd expect from an entry level DSL connection. Which means sooner or later you might think to yourself, "boy it sure would be nice to be able to share this big pipe with more users than just my laptop

CradlePoint Technology PHS300 WWAN Router Review

GlacialTech Igloo 5710 CPU Coolers Review
Modders-Inc.com has a new article online on the GlacialTech Igloo 5710 CPU Coolers

The 5710 Series cooler is the largest cooler that Glacialtech currently offers and the only difference in the two samples we have today are the fans. One utilizes a silent fan rated at 1600 RPM while the other utilizes a PWM fan rated at 800 - 2600 RPM.

GlacialTech Igloo 5710 CPU Coolers Review

PowerColor HD 4870 Review
OCC has published a new review on the PowerColor HD 4870

For the overclocking tests I used the Catalyst Control Center to bump up the core and memory speeds a few megahertz at a time until it became unstable and unable to complete a benchmark. Unlike the HD 4850, I could not get as much of an increase out of the RV770 core on the HD 4870. I was only able to get a 30MHz increase, topping out at 780MHz. However, for the memory I was able to get a lot more actually, a 175MHz increase (350MHz effective), bringing it to 1075MHz (2150MHz effective) which is a very good overclock for video card memory. Since this is GDDR5, I did not know what to expect but I am pleased with that bump in computing power. So how will this overclock handle, and will it make a difference since the GPU could only be raised a little? To find out, I will be running the overclocking tests at the speeds of 780/1075MHz. I also noticed that when overclocked even this little bit, the load temperatures peaked and stayed around 86 degrees Celsius.

PowerColor HD 4870 Review

FPS Impact: NVIDIA Forceware 175.16 vs 175.19
Benchmark Reviews posted a comparison between NVIDIA Forceware 175.16 and 175.19

Most people would think that when NVIDIA, who is the world-class leader in graphics technology, releases a new driver to the public that performance would either remain the same with some stability improvements, or that both performance and stability would increase. As a hardware enthusiast for over a decade, I know that this isn't true. Very recently NVIDIA updated their Forceware driver from version 175.16 to 175.19. Anyone familiar with their updates would agree that the version number difference is so small that it would suggest nothing has really changed. But did NVIDIA take two steps backward instead? Benchmark Reviews offers this small article to demonstrate what we discovered while testing the GeForce 9800 GTX and 9800 GX2 video cards.

FPS Impact: NVIDIA Forceware 175.16 vs 175.19

SanDisk Mobile Ultra 8GB microSDHC Card Review
I4U NEWS published a review of the SanDisk Mobile Ultra 8GB microSDHC Card.

If you are looking for a faster and easier way to get files to and from your microSDHC MP3 player or smartphone SanDisk has what you need. Today we are looking at the Mobile Ultra microSDHC card that includes a USB card reader.

The SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC 8GB did fantastically on the Sandra Removable storage benchmark. The SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC 8GB had a device index of 4124 ops/minute and an endurance factor of 43.60. That score completely blows away the OCZ microSD card I reviewed back in March that had a device index of only 27 ops/minute.

SanDisk Mobile Ultra 8GB microSDHC Card Review

SilenX iXtrema IXC-120HA2 CPU Cooler Review
TweakTown posted a review on the SilenX iXtrema IXC-120HA2 CPU Cooler

A few weeks ago we looked at the Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer, our first crack at a heatpipe to Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS) direct contact CPU heatsink. In retrospect, nothing other than the base was very remarkable; at least nothing that would lead us to believe anything other than the contact point would cause such great performance. The fan used from Sunbeamtech was a silent type that does not push a large amount of air, and this only confirmed that direct heatpipe to CPU technology is more than just a marketing tool.

Today we will be looking at another direct contact cooler, this time from SilenX. The SilenX iXtrema IXC-120HA2 is very similar to the SBT CCF; they even share the same mounting hardware. While the two are similar, they are not identical. The SilenX version is more robust, giving us the option of using two 120mm fans (one on each side of the fins). This is a feature that SBT did not include with their offering.

SilenX iXtrema IXC-120HA2 CPU Cooler Review

ASUS Radeon HD 4870 Review
The Guru of 3D posted a review on the ASUS Radeon HD 4870

AMD is back and with a bang. The Radeon HD 4870 is just a tremendous nice performer that offers great value. be sure to check out this GDDR5 packed and armed graphics card, you can read all about it at Guru3D of course.

AMD made an excellent product for both 199 and 299 USD, and they are both winners. It's exactly what the graphics card arena needed.

ASUS Radeon HD 4870 Review