SAS Performance at SATA Pricing: Cost-Effective SAS RAID Controller
Bjorn3D takes a look at SAS Performance at SATA Pricing: Cost-Effective SAS RAID Controller.

What is important when shopping for hard drives is the storage space, rotational speed, amount of cache, and of course the price. Currently, for desktop computers, 7,200 RPM SATA II hard drives are the most common type of storage. For enterprise and business, there is SAS, which stands for Serial Attached SCSI.

Although SAS HDD's are primarly aimed for the enterprise market whose main goal is to achieve the highest performance, the fact that you can find these drives in speeds of up to 15,000 RPM makes them a good candidate for enthusiasts as well. Current desktop SATA HDD's have rotational speed of either 5,400 rpm or 7,200 rpm. For the enthusiasts, SATA drives can be found in speeds up to 10,000 RPM. SAS, on the other hand, can be found commonly at rotational speed of 10,000 RPM and 15,000 RPM.

SAS Performance at SATA Pricing: Cost-Effective SAS RAID Controller

GELID Silent 12 TC & PWM Fan Review
Overclockers Online posted a review on the GELID Silent 12 TC & PWM Fan

I was extremely pleased with the GELID Silent 12 TC and PWM. They seem to be designed very well and perform exceptionally. The performance to noise ratio is also excellent, making these fans worthy of having "Silent" in their names. The installation is easy, thanks to the rubber mounting posts which I prefer over screws. Even the MSRP for these fans is attractive at $10.80 for the TC and $10.50 for the PWM.

GELID Silent 12 TC & PWM Fan Review



Samsung Rugby SGH-a837 Review
TestFreaks.com posted a review on the Samsung Rugby SGH-a837

The Samsung SHG-A837 Rugby was announced last week, and it's a military spec certified phone that truly is rugged and tough, it should be able to withstand most anything thrown at it, literally! So I've replaced my trusty AT&T Tilt with the Rugby for a week and I've found that it's great basic phone, but lacks in some areas like pictures and videos, then again picture taking and videos are not the main feature of this phone, the military certification is,.

Samsung Rugby SGH-a837 Review

BFG Tech's GeForce GTX 260 OCX Maxcore Review
Bit-Tech published a review of BFG Tech's GeForce GTX 260 OCX Maxcore

It's unfortunate then that the GTX 260 OCX Maxcore has been priced out of contention, because in actual fact there's not a lot wrong with it. It delivers more performance than the standard GTX 260 and it's not all that far off a GTX 280 in many scenarios. The only situations where it isn't is when you really start to tax that memory bus---either with high resolutions in graphic-intensive games, or with high levels of anti-aliasing---when the new GTX 260 starts to show a bit of a weakness.

The biggest weakness for the new GTX 260 though is its name -- if not for the board partners then definitely for the all-important consumer. I hate to have to come back to this, but it wasn't until I started searching around retailers that I realised that BFG Tech currently has no less than seven different GeForce GTX 260 models. That makes for a bit of spaghetti not only for BFG, but also for the consumer -- I mean, which GTX 260 should I, the consumer, buy when there are seven to choose from?

This isn't just limited to BFG Tech -- it's also the case with just about every Nvidia board partner that's going to introduce the GTX 270 new GTX 260. What this means is that consumers are going to have to be much more educated and vigilant when it comes to choosing what GTX 260 to buy because not only will clock speeds change between boards, but also stream processor counts as well.

BFG Tech's GeForce GTX 260 OCX Maxcore Review

ASUS GeForce GTX 260 TOP Graphics Card Review
TweakTown posted a review on the ASUS GeForce GTX 260 TOP Graphics Card

What’s so great about the TOP line of cards from ASUS is that they’re actually overclocked to a level where a decent performance can be seen. So many companies these days offer an overclock, but a few MHz on the core and a couple MHz on the memory doesn’t really equate to that much of a performance increase; all it tends to do is constantly just put it ahead of a reference based card.

The TOP line of cards aren’t like this, though; ASUS seem to put a bit of time and effort into the overclocking process and really find out what exactly the cards are capable of, which in turn tends to make them some of the fastest cards on the market in their category.

ASUS GeForce GTX 260 TOP Graphics Card Review

ASUS GeForce GTX 260 TOP Graphics Card Review
TweakTown posted a review on the ASUS GeForce GTX 260 TOP Graphics Card

What’s so great about the TOP line of cards from ASUS is that they’re actually overclocked to a level where a decent performance can be seen. So many companies these days offer an overclock, but a few MHz on the core and a couple MHz on the memory doesn’t really equate to that much of a performance increase; all it tends to do is constantly just put it ahead of a reference based card.

The TOP line of cards aren’t like this, though; ASUS seem to put a bit of time and effort into the overclocking process and really find out what exactly the cards are capable of, which in turn tends to make them some of the fastest cards on the market in their category.

ASUS GeForce GTX 260 TOP Graphics Card Review

Hiper Type R Mark-II 880 Watt Power Supply Review
TweakTown posted a review on the Hiper Type R Mark-II 880 Watt Power Supply

Founded in 2001 in the UK, Hiper, or High Performance Group as it is also known, offers a product line that includes enclosures, cooling, power and HTPC. Using a business model that includes listening to the needs of their customers, Hiper aims at making products that are not only top notch, but also affordable.

Today’s piece will cover one of their performance oriented power supplies. The Type R series is geared for the enthusiast and has some features that Hiper feels will make it a sure bet. With so many choices now available, this will be a tall order, but we will delve into this relative newcomer and see if they can deliver.

Hiper Type R Mark-II 880 Watt Power Supply Review

Foxconn Digitalife ELA P45 Review
XSReviews reviewed the Foxconn Digitalife ELA P45

With Intel's dominance throughout the CPU market, many users are making the obvious decision of choosing the big 'I' over AMD. Also with the success of ATI's latest graphics cards, most enthusiasts are going for either an 'Xx8' or 'Px5' series of motherboard.

One such motherboard which uses the P45 series chipset is the Foxconn DigitaLife ELA. Despite the odd sounding name, this board is specifically designed for performance and digital connectivity. Let's take a look shall we.

Foxconn Digitalife ELA P45 Review

ineo NA303US External Hard Case and Docking Station Review
TechwareLabs has published a review of the ineo NA303US External Hard Case and Docking Station

With the versatility and usefulness of external hard drive enclosures and removable storage in general there is no reason why everyone doesnt have one. Price is no longer a limiting factor in the market so consumers should focus on features and design. We have a look at the ineo NA303US which combines features of both internal docking station hard drives and external hard drive enclosures at full eSATA speeds. Does the NA303US hold up to our testing? Read why caution may be advisable with this unit.

ineo NA303US External Hard Case and Docking Station Review

BFG GTX260 MaxCore and Zotac GTX 260 Amp2! Review
DriverHeaven posted a review on the BFG GTX260 MaxCore and Zotac GTX 260 Amp2!

In the case of todays review product we have something a little different as although the cards do have enhanced clockspeeds it is the configuration of the core which has changed from the model originally released by Nvidia. The new GeForce GTX 260 increases the number of shader processors and should provide a very competitive alternative to the Radeon 4870. Today we will be finding out how well it compares in a selection of the latest games, including Crysis Warhead as well as demonstrating how well it handles Blu-Ray acceleration and PhysX processing.

BFG GTX260 MaxCore and Zotac GTX 260 Amp2! Review

Asus Triton 85 Heatsink Review
FrostyTech posted Asus Triton 85 Heatsink Review

We can sum up the ASUS Triton 85 heatsink in one line, avoid it entirely.

The Asus Triton 85 heatsink FrostyTech is reviewing today ships with a
120mm 800-1400RPM PWM fan, and weighs around 520 grams. The heatsink is uses four 6mm diameter copper heatpipes to support a 120x120mm aluminum fin array above the CPU block. This orientation directs fan exhaust down towards the CPU area to cool adjacent motherboard components, chipset heatsinks and VRM circuitry.

Asus Triton 85 Heatsink Review

Vizo Ninja HS Notebook Cooler Review
techPowerUp posted a review on the Vizo Ninja HS Notebook Cooler

The Ninja HS is Vizo's newest addition the their high quality notebook cooler line-up. The unit is made of heavy duty materials, encased in a nearly indestructible paint job and featuring a USB 2.0 hub. The cooling area can also be aligned to cool your notebook where it is needed most.

Vizo Ninja HS Notebook Cooler Review

QNAP TS-409U 1U NAS Review
OCModShop posted QNAP TS-409U 1U NAS Review

Nearly every home office or small business needs some sort of central data server, which is one reason why NAS units have been flying off the virutal shelves lately. Many of these networkable storage units are little mini-servers that not only keep your data safe, but offer multimedia capabilities (like TwonkyMedia and iTunes support). Does having a dedicated web server, print server, or BitTorrent server strike your fancy? If so, then you should look at some of these flexible networked appliances.

QNAP has been producing quality networked appliances for a while. One of their most popular products is the TS-409 Pro, which stuffs a whole lot of Linux-embedded servers into one small box. Now QNAP has released a 1U version of this flexible server, which should appeal to small IT shops that need to fit their servers in a rack. Its multimedia capabilities will certainly appeal to the home theater nut, as it allows you to literally have terrabytes of movies instantly available, to create your own video-on-demand service.

QNAP TS-409U 1U NAS Review

Palit Radeon HD 4870 512MB Sonic Dual Edition Video Card Review
Hardware Canucks posted a review of the Palit Radeon HD 4870 512MB Sonic Dual Edition video card

One of the first companies to release their non-reference cards is always Palit Multimedia and when it comes to the HD 4870, they came to the table with all guns blazing. They have released their HD 4870 512MB Sonic Dual Edition which not only sports a custom dual slot, dual fan heatsink but it also features a unique dual BIOS setup.

Palit Radeon HD 4870 512MB Sonic Dual Edition Video Card Review

Zalman GS1000 Full-Tower Chassis Review
Techgage.com posted a chassis review, courtesy of Zalman's full-tower GS1000

The first name that comes to mind when pondering a new chassis isn't likely to be Zalman, but with the few enthusiast models they've released so far, it's easy to see they mean business. We're taking their brand-new GS1000 for a spin to see if its features and size make up for the $199 price tag.

Zalman GS1000 Full-Tower Chassis Review

BFG GTX-260 OCX MaxCore Core 216 Review
Bjorn3D takes a look at the BFG GTX-260 OCX MaxCore Core 216

The initial release of the GTX-2XX series of GPU's is still fresh in our memories and variants are already hitting the market. Usually we see a full blown variant and a less expensive little brother. Seldom do we see the full blown version, the little brother, then a ramped up version of the little brother. Recently NVIDIA released the GTX-260 MaxCore, a revamped version of the GTX-260 that has 216 processing cores instead of the 196 run-of-the-mill cores that the GTX-260 contains. This places the GTX-260 MaxCore smack in the middle of the GTX-260 and GTX-280 where processing cores are concerned. When we found out BFG was offering the GTX-260 OCX MaxCore in their GTX-2XX lineup, we knew we had to drive one of these beasts to see how much more performance we could get than with a normal GTX-260. Well, we've driven it like it was stolen and we have to tell you it's one heck of a ride!

BFG GTX-260 OCX MaxCore Core 216 Review

Gainward Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample Graphics Card Review
TweakTown posted a review on the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample Graphics Card

Gainward is one company that we didn’t think would ever release an ATI based graphics card, but with Palit acquiring the company a while ago and bringing them in under that massive umbrella, it seemed weird that Palit wouldn’t capitalize on the strong Gainward name.

We first saw Gainward dip into the ATI pool in the HD 3800 series of cards. With that said, though, they didn’t do a whole lot. Jump forward to the next generation of cards, which have quickly become some of the hottest on the market and Gainward have taken the time to attack the cards and introduce two of the new HD 4800 series variants under the Golden Sample naming scheme.

Gainward Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample Graphics Card Review

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Intel/AMD Processor Cooler Review
Tweaknews.net posted Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Intel/AMD Processor Cooler Review

The freezer 7 Pro from Arctic Cooling has what it takes. Up against a couple of high-performance coolers that were newer, bigger and much more expensive, the little Freezer 7 Pro held its own. Some consumers might overlook the Freezer as being dated and no longer competitive. That would be a big mistake.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Intel/AMD Processor Cooler Review

Logitech Illuminated Keyboard Review
Techgage posted a review of Logitech's brand-new keyboard, the Illuminated... Keyboard.

Logitech's diNovo Edge is undeniably a great-looking keyboard, but it's also undeniably expensive. The new Illuminated Keyboard promises to deliver a lot of the same features, such as a thin frame, backlit keys, smooth key presses and a slick design - but for close to half the price of the Edge. Should you be getting ready to pick one up at launch?

Logitech Illuminated Keyboard Review

Integrated Sound Cards Roundup
InsideHW.com has posted roundup for integrated sound cards

In the beginning of era of integrated sound cards, they weren't for any recommendation because of many troubles. Even though the sound quality on certain models was satisfactory, by purchasing quality speakers, you could notice difference in sound quality compared to quality nonintegrated sound cards. There were even some relatively "bad" models of C-media nonintegrated sound cards with better sound quality. Beside sound quality there were also some problems with too big noise, as also sound interruptions during reproduction of audio contents (if someone remembers well known "integrated" PC-Chips motherboards in their own time).

Integrated Sound Cards Roundup

Silver Power's SP-S850 power supply Review
bit-tech published a review of Silver Power's SP-S850 power supply

So all in all, the Silver Power SP-S850 is a bit of a no frills but essentially solid PSU - it does what it says on the tin and falls around mid table in an efficiency list mostly made up of PSUs that are more expensive and/or lower power. The styling has a quirky retro-esq feel that to some might be a little too plain, but we kind of like the way it tries to be different. Not everyone will want the flashy blue LEDs though and some way to turn these on or off would have been nice.

When you dive a bit deeper though you do find out where Silver Power has made a few decisions that don't quite cut it in our opinion. It's not the quietest out there, especially as you ramp up the juice and the internal heatsinks, while nice and flashy gold, are not as large as some we've seen - that's part of the reason why the unit needs to get louder than we'd like.

The 12V power provision is a very high percentage of total which is good, but the use of different wire gauges (determining resistance and contributing to efficiency and heat) is inconsistent but not out of line compared to other units. The biggest blunder we see though is the total power division between the four rails and the decision to put the entire PCI-Express graphics on a single 20 Amp rail, yet have two rails for up to two different CPUs is not the best idea: more people will be using multi-GPU instead of multi-CPU these days.

With our PC design hat on, we ask that if you're shelling out for a couple of HD 4870 X2s or a pair GTX 280s in SLI, will you be wanting to top it off with something equally special or just inexpensive to power it all? If you're not looking at a high end multi-GPU setup, do you really need all 850W, or will simply dropping a power grade and going for something a bit quieter suit instead?

If your mind is made up and you are going to chase the Watts on the cheap, we feel this Silver Power unit should certainly be a consideration, but it's not the definitive choice.

Silver Power's SP-S850 power supply Review

Be Quiet Dark Power 1200w Review
DriverHeaven posted a review on the Be Quiet Dark Power 1200w

Today we will have a look at the Dark Power Pro 1200W unit from Be Quiet, a product optimized for the best possible acoustics performance despite its monstrous power output. The Dark Power Pro P7 series 1200W is the most advanced and powerful unit Be Quiet currently produce and it has some remarkable specifications.

Be Quiet Dark Power 1200w Review