ATI RV770 architecture analysis
bit-tech published an ATI RV770 architecture analysis

One of the biggest improvements has to be anti-aliasing performance -- it's nothing short of incredible and it takes AMD (or ATI of old) back to where it used to be. The Radeons always used to make more efficient use of AA than Nvidia's equivalent products and with the Radeon HD 4800 series, that has made a comeback in style.

Obviously there was a fairly low barrier for entry when it came to improving the situation, but AMD has gone well beyond improving it -- the architects have gone from zero to hero almost as quickly as you can say just that. Improving the render backend throughput in certain scenarios was a clever way to improve anti-aliasing performance and I'm sure that GDDR5 has had an influence as well.

That's not to say that the Radeon HD 4850 is starved of bandwidth though -- its anti-aliasing performance is better than anything Nvidia has to offer at the moment. The Radeon HD 4870 and 4870 X2, on the other hand, are just in a completely different league. Playing games at high resolution with 8xAA enabled is verging on plausible on a card that costs quite a bit less than £200 (including VAT). And with the Radeon HD 4870 X2, it's almost the default -- at anything less than 1,920 x 1,200 4xAA, there's simply no benefit to owning the card; it's all about cranking the image quality right up in today's games.

What's disappointing for me is that AMD sees a future of multiple 'small' GPUs to fill the high end market, when in actual fact we don't want to be greeted with the headaches associated with today's multi-GPU technology -- it just doesn't scale well enough across the board. I'd love to see a bigger chip derived from RV770 with well over 1,000 stream processors because at that point we'd be seeing some rather crazy and consistent performance gains.

With that said though, it's very clear that RV770 was all about architectural efficiency and on that front, AMD has really achieved. RV770 caught Nvidia by surprise and it wasn't until the company cut its prices that it became competitive again -- the GTX 260 is an attractive proposition, but it's still a little too expensive for my liking. It needs to be on price parity with the 4870 if it's going to steal back some market share from the big red rose in AMD's lineup.

ATI RV770 architecture analysis

Seagate Cheetah X15K.6 Hard Drive Review
HotHardware.com posted a review on the Seagate Cheetah X15K.6 Hard Drive

Traditional hard disk storage is living on borrowed time. We know it and storage manufacturers know it. Solid state drives, which use non-volatile memory chips instead of rotating metal discs for storing data, are simply a better medium in the long run. They consume less power, create nearly zero heat, and produce no noise - but best of all, there are no moving parts to wear out over time. The technology and prices aren't quite there yet, but it's only a matter of time. Take a quick look through any tech-oriented forum and you will likely run into folks proclaiming the death of traditional platter based storage. For the most part, they're right - but there is a twist to the story as platter based storage manufacturers are fighting back.

There is still plenty of life in traditional storage technologies, and Seagate is out to prove that with their newly launched Cheetah X15K.6 hard drives which feature 170 MB/s+ read / write speeds. Head on over to the site and check them out...

Seagate Cheetah X15K.6 Hard Drive Review



iStarUSA xAge-N99-US USB 2.0 Hard Drive Docking Station Review
Legit Reviews posted a review on the iStarUSA xAge-N99-US USB 2.0 Hard Drive Docking Station

Overall, I think the iStarUSA HDD dock is a great device to recover the use of dormant drives or to expand your storage options. With backups being so important, this gives you one less excuse for getting them done. Found online for less than $30, this is also a relatively inexpensive solution to your storage needs. Aside from a short power cable, I found no other flaws with the docking station and was easily able to add a variety of drives without compatibility issues and even hooked it to my Apple MacBook Pro for a quick compatibility check...

iStarUSA xAge-N99-US USB 2.0 Hard Drive Docking Station Review

NZXT Tempest Crafted Series Mid-Tower Case Review
PCPer posted a review on the NZXT Tempest Crafted Series Mid-Tower Case

The NZXT Tempest features impressive styling and supports up to 8 internal HDDs. And with six pre-installed 120/140mm case fans, it delivers excellent airflow for outstanding case cooling with minimal noise.

NZXT Tempest Crafted Series Mid-Tower Case Review

Logisys Ultra Slim Soft Touch Illuminated Multimedia Keyboard Review
TechwareLabs has published a review of the Logisys Ultra Slim Soft Touch Illuminated Multimedia Keyboard

Today, Dan Shannon takes a quick look at an ultra slim illuminated keyboard by Logisys and gives you the lowdown on the functionality of this marvel. The keyboard and mouse are the most used device associated with your machine so their ease of use and functionality can be highly important. Will the Illuminated Logisys replace your keyboard? Read our review and you may change your mind!

Logisys Ultra Slim Soft Touch Illuminated Multimedia Keyboard Review

Corsair HX620W Power Supply Review
Digit-Life posted a review on the Corsair HX620W Power Supply

Corsair is popular among PC enthusiasts, in particular, because of its high-performance memory modules. Power supplies of this company are somewhat less known. To fill this gap, we are going to review a number of its PSUs of various series. The first product that we have obtained is Corsair HX620W. The company positions the HX series as advanced high-performance power supplies for PC performance enthusiasts.

Corsair HX620W Power Supply Review

GlacialPower GP-AL650 Power Supply Review
Virtual-Hideout posted a review on the GlacialPower GP-AL650 Power Supply

Well, we're finally here. First, the short of it - is this a good product? Yes, but. It features high quality components, good quality cabling, a quiet, intuitive design, fairly stable voltage rails, and almost the same amount of connectors found on the recently reviewed BFG ES800 - a much more expensive and robust unit. But, I feel that this power supply is over-rated in terms of wattage. The performance is just as indicative of this as the ratings chart is - in effect, I would feel much, much more confident calling this unit a sober 500w, than an eager 650w.

GlacialPower GP-AL650 Power Supply Review

PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8 Video Card Review
TheTechLounge posted a review on the PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8 Video Card

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.

PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8 Video Card Review

MSI P45 Platinum Review
InsideHW.com has posted review for MSI P45 Platinum motherboard

MSI is well known to most of us as motherboard manufacturer or more accurately, MSI is present in that area of IT industry for a long time. Still, company had certain problems in this segment. You must likely imagine that those were some sort of technical problems but truth is that competition started to use better quality BIOS on their motherboards (especially in era of P35 chipset models). We don't say that MSI didn't know what's important to implement into BIOS chip of motherboard. Problem actually reflected in "disobedience" of those options. Frankly, problems were eliminated in later BIOS versions yet impression of incompleteness existed for a while.

MSI P45 Platinum Review

Thermaltake DH-101 Home Theatre PC Case Review
TechwareLabs has published a review of the Thermaltake DH-101 Home Theatre PC Case

Today Nitro takes a look at the Thermaltake DH-101 Home Theatre PC Case. Home theatres are more and more prevalent now-a-days and Thermaltake wants to make your HTPC look good. With smooth edges, a brushed aluminum front and a black piano finish, the Thermaltake DH-101 is bound to be an eye-catcher. Now the question remains, is it practical?

Thermaltake DH-101 Home Theatre PC Case Review

Geil Ultra DDR3 2x1GB Review
OCC has published a new review on some Geil Ultra DDR3 2x1GB

The Geil Ultra DDR3 fared very well against the other kits of DDR3 memory that it was put up against, while also looking very well while it was doing it. With stock speeds of 1600MHz, the Geil Ultra features an XMP profile to allow the memory parameters to be set by just checking the XMP profile in your motherboard's BIOS. This, of course, is easier than setting the parameters manually, which some less avid overclockers will surely make use of. I was very impressed with the performance of the Geil Ultra modules even when they were underclocked to 1333MHz (DDR3 JEDEC spec) and the scores that these speeds were able to produce.

Geil Ultra DDR3 2x1GB Review

GeForce 9800 GT Video Card Roundup
Hardware Canucks posted an in-depth GeForce 9800 GT Video Card Roundup featuring cards from ASUS, EVGA, Palit and Gigabyte.

The raison-d'tre of the 9800 GT is a bit of a mystery considering it is being offered in two distinct flavors of core architecture: 55nm and 65nm. With the recent deep price cuts to the 8800 GT cards, it is safe to say that the 9800 GT has come into being to try to liquidate yet more 65nm GPU cores so Nvidia can fully move their lineup to the more efficient and higher profit margin 55nm manufacturing process.

GeForce 9800 GT Video Card Roundup

Chrome - Google's Attempt at the 'Ultimate Browser'
Techgage posted an in-depth look at Google's brand-new web browser, Chrome

Sure, the Internet has no shortage of web browsers, but it's not often that someone comes along and tries something different, and believe it or not, it's Google this time around. We're taking a look at the first beta release of their Chrome browser, which happens to be ultra-fast, stable, intuitive and lightweight, all at the same time.

Chrome - Google's Attempt at the 'Ultimate Browser'

FoxConn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX) Mainboard Review
The Guru of 3D posted a review on the AMD 790GX - FoxConn A7DA-S mainboard

With the more high-end consumer in mind AMD released the new 790GX series mainboards. This mainboard is a lot about status, as AMD want to re-establish their status and performance levels for their products again. Hey, in the end, all you have is your reputation right? And for a chipset manufacturer that means top dog electronics.

Therefore AMD unleashed its new AMD 790GX platform. A mainboard chipset that is aimed at the performance computer users and packs in a host of features, we'll check out the FoxConn edition loaded with integrated HDMI, DVI, 8-channel sound, GPU and some great aesthetic features ...

FoxConn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX) Mainboard Review

Ecosol Powerstick USB-Powered Portable Charger Review
Futurelooks checks out some alternative power for your gadgets on the go...

To ensure that all of your portable electronics always have access to an emergency power source, the people at Ecosol created what they call the PowerStick. While it may look like an extra beefy USB flash drive, this handy little device actually serves quite a different purpose. With a 750mAh battery housed within, it can provide an emergency boost in power to your cell phone, BlackBerry, or portable music player.

Ecosol Powerstick USB-Powered Portable Charger Review

Skullcandy ComTi Multimedia Headphones Review
XtremeComputing posted a review on the Skullcandy ComTi Multimedia Headphones

SkullCandy have in my opinion have a great headset here, not only does it sound good, it comes with the best warranty in the market, come on do you think any of the other brands would replace the unit at 50% of the cost if you jump up like a lunatic to celebrate and snap the cable? I think not, and you just would be silly to ignore that kind of warranty!

Skullcandy ComTi Multimedia Headphones Review