Danger Den Custom Water Loop Review
Bjorn3D takes a look at the Danger Den Custom Water Loop

For many years, watercooling for PC's has been something that is seen as extreme. Many people look at those of us with anti-freeze running inside a computer case as being a little bit 'not quite right.' Of course, even my wife tells me I'm crazy for doing it. But then, there are those of us that understand just what all that liquid can do for you. Extreme overclocks, extreme voltages, and often a nice UV glow are all reasons those of us that have taken the plunge (so to speak) decided to do so in the first place. Besides, I enjoy getting really weird looks when I tell people that I have a radiator in my computer. Or, from those in the know, the looks of envy when you tell them just how big the radiator is, or which new blocks you just got. Competition is all part of the fun.

What all this means today though is that we have some new gear to play with. Danger Den is well recognized within enthusiast circles as a solution provider. When I got the word that they were going to be sending review samples for a custom loop, I was quite excited. Look further and see for yourself whether or not DD has delivered.

Danger Den Custom Water Loop Review

DXG-595V HD High-Definition Video Camera Review
TestFreaks.com posted a review on the DXG-595V HD High-Definition Video Camera

One such company that makes HD video cameras and sells them at very inexpensive prices is DXG, most people balk at the quality vs price with these cameras, they can't believe that a sub-$200 camera can produce a quality video. I've got the DXG-595V HD camera for review today, it's DXGs flagship camera, and by the HD in the name we can see it's a hi-def camera, and it can record up to 1080p resolution

DXG-595V HD High-Definition Video Camera Review



ECS Hydra Watercooled 9800 GTX+ SLI pack Review
Bit-Tech published a review of the ECS Hydra Watercooled 9800 GTX+ SLI pack

We're sorry to say it, but the ECS 9800 GTX+ Hydra SLI kit is a bit of a disappointment. The build quality of the GPU cooling and waterblocks is probably the most galling of faults -- we almost couldn't believe it when we saw the shoddily fitted waterblocks when we took the cards out of the box, and the situation only got worse when the PWM coolers literally fell apart once we'd started testing. The baffling inclusion of the blue LED lit paddle fan adds to the list of flaws -- they have absolutely no influence on card's operating temperatures and are so woefully underpowered that they couldn't ever hope to keep the cards cool on thier own in the case of a watercooling system failure. It's as if ECS just wanted something to stick some blue LEDs onto so screwed a load of useless plastic onto the cards.

And the problems don't stop at the card design. While the Thermaltake Bigwater 760is was well put together and perfectly solid, it could do with a bit of a rethink -- exhausting hot air straight down is baffling, and the fact that it's exhausted into the case and not out of it isn't going to help internal system temperatures one bit. It's also frustratingly loud in comparison to the stock 9800 GTX+ cooler even with the fan speed set to low, and when set to high it's intrusively noisy, having been annoying the rest of the office with its irritatingly loud drone for most of the week.

The final nail in the coffin of the instability and uncertainty you get from SLI drivers. As we've seen with our Crysis DirectX 10 results, SLI drivers are still far from perfect even for the post popular games, and we'd still have to recommend a more expensive single core GPU than two less expensive graphics cards in SLI or CrossFire. While some of the benchmarks might look impressive, the performance improvement is rarely close to 100 percent, and the instability and scaling problems just aren't worth the hassle, let alone the extra investment involved.

In short, while SLI performs well in some situations, it can't rescue the ECS Hydra 9800 GTX+ SLI pack from its more serious flaws. Poorly built cards, running at stock speed that disintegrate under load are not worthy of your money, no matter how bling bling the over engineered cooling system is. If you really want to get into the world of watercooled graphics cards, do it properly with a custom loop and not with this half baked kit that's high on ideas, but desperately low on execution.

ECS Hydra Watercooled 9800 GTX+ SLI pack Review

IMSI/Design TurboCAD Pro 15 Platinum Edition Review
BIOS Magazine posted a review on the IMSI/Design TurboCAD Pro 15 Platinum Edition

Whether you are a professional mechanical engineer, architect or builder, civil engineer, woodworker, hobbyist or student, TurboCAD has you covered. Plus, there are optional, specialised architectural and mechanical toolsets available for purchase, as well as plug-ins that extend TurboCAD's capabilities into 3D animation, furniture design, Computer Aided Machining (CAM), and more. But let's not get too excited - working with 3D objects in a 2D environment is an acquired skill and you'll have to spend hours upon hours on training and practise before you even scratch the surface of a comprehensive program like this. TurboCAD 15 Pro offers a raft of features and new tools, and although you need to be a skilled designer to appreciate most of them, the software offers plenty of scope for you to grow into. If you're put off by the price and learning curve of AutoCAD LT 2009, yet want something more advanced than TurboCAD 15 Deluxe, TurboCAD 15 Pro should be just the ticket.

IMSI/Design TurboCAD Pro 15 Platinum Edition Review

Genius Luxemate 525 Review
XSReviews has reviewed the Genius Luxemate 525 keyboard

Whilst in a game, aside from the ability to accurately shoot your opponent in the face, the ability to move is fairly high on your list of things to do. Most people will have a keyboard to do this with the usual WASD configuration of walking about. However many companies are now bringing out little innovations to make this easier: Circular keyboards with all the buttons you need for gaming on, highlighting the commonly used buttons on your keyboard with back lighting or are combining the two and adding a little gaming keyboard to the side of our normal one. The last of these options is what Genius have done with there latest professional keyboard, the Luxemate 525 Star Cruiser. But with a compromise between a normal keyboard and a gaming one can it be any good?

Genius Luxemate 525 Review

GeForce 177 vs 178 quickie
Techconnect Magazine posted a performance comparison of Nvidia's latest GeForce drivers

Just like an old married couple, after a rather long (four weeks) dry run we're ready for a new quickie to rekindle the love for new graphics drivers. This time, the combatants are Nvidia's last official 177 release, the GeForce 177.92 beta and the first two 178 drives made available - the official and WHQL-certified GeForce 178.13 and the dev-friendly GeForce 178.15.

GeForce 177 vs 178 quickie

NZXT Sentry LX Fan Controller Review
TechwareLabs has published a review of the NZXT Sentry LX Fan Controller

Wish your case ran a little quieter during every day use, and then you could crank all the fans to max when you want to unleash the beast? You need a fan controller. Join Mike as he takes a look at the stylish NZXT Sentry LX. Able to control up to five fans independently, this controller will meet all your needs and look good doing it.

NZXT Sentry LX Fan Controller Review

AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4550 passive 512M
techPowerUp posted a review on AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4550 passive 512M

AMD's new Radeon HD 4550 comes in a passively cooled version without fan. Such a noiseless experience is crucial in media PC designs where you don't want to be distracted by any fan noise. Also included is a native HDMI and DisplayPort output for connection to your big screen. With a price of around $50 the card even offers some potential for casual gaming.

AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4550 passive 512M

SilverStone OP1000-E 1,000W Power Supply Review
PC Perspective posted a review on the SilverStone OP1000-E 1,000W Power Supply

SilverStone's high performance OP1000-E PSU delivers 1,000W of clean, well regulated power with good efficiency and minimal noise; another strong contender in the high-power PSU market.

SilverStone OP1000-E 1,000W Power Supply Review

Evercool Transformer 6 CPU Cooler Review
Rbmods posted a review on the Evercool Transformer 6 CPU Cooler

Companies that make CPU coolers try all different tactics to distinguish their products in the marketplace. One of those tactics is to give a product an interesting name. Evercool, makers of a wide range of cooling solutions for PCs, has a new product, the Evercool Transformer 6 CPU cooler, which promises to show you extreme performance. Will this cooler prove to be more than meets the eye? Let's find out.

Evercool Transformer 6 CPU Cooler Review

Thermaltake M9D Review
BurnOutPC.com has posted a review on the Thermaltake M9D (VI4000BWS) Chassis

Thermaltake expanded their mid-tower range of cases with the M9D earlier this year. It's available with or without the window in the side panel and it features a huge 23cm fan on the side to help cool down the hardware inside. It's a trend these days to incorporate a larger fan into the case, Antec is doing it and so are some of the other manufacturers. The larger the fan, the slower the RPM, but the higher the CFM. Which is the whole idea behind these types of fans. Let's see if it works out for the M9D casing

Thermaltake M9D Review

Palit HD 4870 Sonic Review
Neoseeker takes a look at the Palit HD 4870 Sonic video card

What's faster: turbo speed, or sonic speed? That's one of the questions we'll be looking at day in this review of the HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition, from Palit.

The first wave of ATI HD 4870 video cards have made a big splash, surprising everyone with exceptional levels of performance. But as that first wave of cards crested, many hardware reviewers, myself included, wondered what the next wave would be like. Given some time, you'd suspect that all the various board partners would be tweaking and altering the designs of their cards somewhat, trying to make their own particular twist stand out of the pack.

Palit HD 4870 Sonic Review

XFX 9800GTX+ Review
OCC has published a new review on the XFX 9800GTX+

Since this card higher speeds from the start I had to wonder how much was left in the tank. As it turns out the tank had some gas left. I kept bumping it up and up until I hit the wall on the core and then the same with the memory. Then I had to find the best combination of the three clock speeds. Once I reached about 840-850 MHz on the core I was getting crashes, so I used RivaTuner to unlink and back down the shader cores a touch to move the bar a little higher. This yielded an increase on the GPU core of 123MHz and a final speed of 863MHz. The shader core clock increased by 235MHz and 150Mhz on the memory. All pretty substantial increases on air cooling. Speaking of cooling the stock cooler does a great job cooling this smaller core.

XFX 9800GTX+ Review

OCZ ModXStream 600w Power Supply Review
OCIA.net has posted their review of the OCZ ModXStream 600w Power Supply

The OCZ ModXStream 600 is a lot of power supply in a relatively small package. Boasting 25A on each of its dual +12v rails, plus an additional 25A each for the +3.3v and +5v, the ModXStream 600 seems at least as capable if not more so than many power supplies with higher wattage ratings.

OCZ ModXStream 600w Power Supply Review

Kingwin Elite 3.5" SATA to USB/eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure Review
DragonSteelMods posted a review on the Kingwin Elite 3.5" SATA to USB/eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure

Up on the review block today I've got the Kingwin Elite 3.5" SATA to USB and eSATA hard drive enclosure. From my time with this product I've found it to be one of the best choices in an external enclosure, it looks great, it's well made, and it works well

Kingwin Elite 3.5" SATA to USB/eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure Review

BIOSTAR TPower N750 AM2+ Motherboard Review
TweakTown posted a review on the BIOSTAR TPower N750 AM2+ Motherboard

BIOSTAR has a range of Intel and AMD boards catering to budget to mainstream users and today we have been sent a mid-range AMD motherboard designed for the Phenom range of processors, this based on the NVIDIA nForce 750a chipset. Let’s see how the 750a compares to the AMD 780G.

Today’s tests involve the nForce 750a based BIOSTAR motherboard along with our resident AMD 780G motherboard from ASUS. We will be testing out the system using the IGP and discrete graphics in both stock and overclocked configurations to see just how well the systems compare.

BIOSTAR TPower N750 AM2+ Motherboard Review

Intel G45 Express chipset Review
The Tech Report posted a review on the Intel G45 Express chipset

AMD and Nvidia have beefed up their integrated graphics chipsets to offer decent gaming performance and Blu-ray decode acceleration. We take Intel's latest G45 Express for a spin to see if it can keep up with the graphics giants.

Intel G45 Express chipset Review

Gelid GC-1 Thermal Paste/Compound Review
Tweaknews.net posted a review on the Gelid GC-1 Thermal Paste/Compound

When the smoke has cleared and the results are in, it is clear that Gelid's GC-1 thermal compound is indeed a thermal compound option that most system builders and tweakers should keep in mind when completing their next build. It supplies more thermal paste for less money and also comes with an applicator that will definitely come in handy for many years to come.

Gelid GC-1 Thermal Paste/Compound Review