AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9 GHz Socket AM3 Triple-Core Processor Review
PC Stats posted AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9 GHz Socket AM3 Triple-Core Processor

But let's not get sidetracked by amusing balls of string. Is it better
to get a dual core CPU, a triple-core CPU or a quad-core CPU? Enter the AMD Athlon II X3 435 processor, the focus of this PCSTATS Processor review. It's a 2.9GHz triple-core socket AM3 CPU built on AMD's "Propus" architecture. The Athlon II X3 435 is architecturally related to the AMD Athlon II X4 620 processor, which means it's also manufactured with AMD's 45nm SOI production process. Thermal design power sits at a very reasonable 95W. Beyond that, the Athlon II X3 435 is built without L3 cache so there is a performance hit in that respect.

Fortunately the Athlon II X3 435 still has 512KB of speedy L2 cache per core, for a total of 1.5MB.

AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9 GHz Socket AM3 Triple-Core Processor Review

AMD Athlon II X2 240e and X3 435 CPU Review
Hi Tech Legion posted AMD Athlon II X2 240e and X3 435 CPU Review

The AMD Athlon II X3 435 and X2 240e are the latest releases to the budget AM3 family. The Athlon II X3 435 and X2 240e feature boosts in overall performance with high efficiency in mind, especially with the "e" series green chips. The anticipated performance characteristics and ability of utilizing DDR3 memory on a budget system make these chip releases become a big deal for the budget PC market. Finally there are choices for those on a budget that don't have to fit into the category of "low" performance.

AMD Athlon II X2 240e and X3 435 CPU Review



Nexus RX-6300 630 Watt Power Supply Review
TechwareLabs has published a review of the Nexus RX-6300 630 Watt Power Supply

Nexus has built their fortune on the Silent Computing movement. Everything they produce, from fans and heatsinks to hard drive suspension kits and silencing foam, is aimed at making your computer run as close to dead silent as possible. It's no surprise, then, that they would also be in the business of making power supplies. Constant exposure to a loud PSU fan is not only annoying, it can eventually lead to hearing loss. Nexus's RX series of power supplies is designed to be stable, efficient, and as quiet as possible. They've sent us the latest entry in the RX series, the RX-6300. Let's have a look, and see if it lives up to the claims.

Nexus RX-6300 630 Watt Power Supply Review

AMD Athlon II X2 240e and X3 435 Mainstream CPUs
HotHardware.com posted a review on the AMD Athlon II X2 240e and X3 435 Mainstream CPUs

With the current price war going on between Intel and AMD at the lower-end of the market, consumers are left with more affordable options than ever before. One can argue that there has never been a better time to build a computer or upgrade an aging system, especially with the cost of relatively high-performing hardware finally reaching attainable levels. And with AMD's recent launch of their first $99 quad-core, enthusiasts have run out of excuses to postpone the jump to multi-core computing.

AMD continues to expand their product line up with mainstream processors at competitive prices with the launch of eight new Athlon II models today. These chips range from dual to quad-core varieties and feature lower power consumption as well. Today, we will be looking at two variants from this launch, the dual core Athlon II X2 240e and triple core X3 435 processors. Come on by and take a look...

AMD Athlon II X2 240e and X3 435 Mainstream CPUs

Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro CPU Cooler & MX-3 Thermal Paste
TweakTown posted a review on the Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro CPU Cooler & MX-3 Thermal Paste

First off, we are going to take a look at the Alpine 11 Pro. This is a low wattage, small footprint (similar to stock) CPU cooler, designed to keep CPUs at a respectable temperature with limited room needed to do so. This very well may be something that you buyers are looking for in your next HTPC build. In a couple of pages we will find out just how well the Alpine 11 Pro stands up to other smaller fan coolers.

Secondly, I was also sent a sample of MX-3 thermal compound to run through our gambit of testing. Now, I am a huge fan of MX-2 and it performs admirably for the price. Now I get to see the new “big dog” in the AC line with their MX-3 and put it head to head against many of the more known brands of compound and greases to see just what Arctic Cooling is offering buyers this time around.

Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro CPU Cooler & MX-3 Thermal Paste

Steelseries Siberia V2 Headset Review
DriverHeaven posted a review on the Steelseries Siberia V2 Headset

Today we are going to look at the SteelSeries latest full-size gaming headset, the Siberia V2. This is essentially a refresh of the popular Siberia headset which has proved to be one of the best gaming headsets around for a very decent price.

Steelseries Siberia V2 Headset Review

23" Hannspree HF237HPB Widescreen 1080p HDMI LCD Monitor Review
TestFreaks posted a review on the 23" Hannspree HF237HPB Widescreen 1080p HDMI LCD Monitor

Today for review Geeks.com has sent me over the Hannspree 23" 1080P LCD monitor. Hannspree is company that is well known for making excellent quality and good performing products. The monitor I've got for review is a refurbished one so it does cost a bit less that it would buying it new, and I haven't run across any dead pixels or problems with it so far. This monitor features a 5ms response time in addition to having a contrast ratio of 15,000:1, so it works very well for everything from gaming to movie watching.

23" Hannspree HF237HPB Widescreen 1080p HDMI LCD Monitor Review

G.Skill 4GB F2-8500CL5D DDR2 Memory Video Review
eTeknix.com posted a video review on the G.Skill 4GB F2-8500CL5D DDR2 Memory

Today we are looking at the G.Skill 4GB F2-8500CL5D DDR2 memory. This particlar set of dual channel memory sports the typical blue heatspreaders that G.Skill used in their DDR memory, and comes with their amazing lifetime warranty. It has very low, tight timings and operates and a fairly low voltage.

G.Skill 4GB F2-8500CL5D DDR2 Memory Video Review

Athlon II X2 240e and Athlon II X3 435 CPU Review
Hardware Secrets published a review on the Athlon II X2 240e and Athlon II X3 435 CPUs

Today AMD is launching several entry-level 45-nm socket AM3 Athlon II CPUs and we are going to take a look on the new Athlon II X2 240e (2.8 GHz) and Athlon II X3 435 (2.9 GHz) CPUs and compare them to Athlon II X4 (2.6 GHz) but also with their main competitors from Intel.

Athlon II X2 240e and Athlon II X3 435 CPU Review

Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8X Review
Maximum CPU has posted its review of the Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8X

As our digital lives grow beyond the confines of our internal hard drives, more and more we turn to external solutions to carry the weight. A simple external hard drive is a convenient choice, but offers the risk of data loss if it incurs damage. To backup data entirely, twice the space would need to be purchased; RAID solves this problem elegantly by distributing the data across multiple disks, but requires dedicated hardware to accomplish the rapid and complicated process of distributing data and parity bits across multiple disks. Storing the disks in a clean, working, and elegant system is another common problem. As a university student, I eschewed this process and settled for a pile of hard drives on top of a Tupperware bin. While functional, enterprise users will be attracted to a product such as the TowerRaid, which is decidedly less ghetto fabulous than my solution.

Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8X Review

Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W Power Supply Review
OCC has published a review on the Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W Power Supply

The Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W lacks modular cable connections in my opinion. It will easily power two high end graphics cards in SLI or Crossfire, but that's as far you go with the four available PCI-E connectors (two 6+2-pin and two 6-pin). Power consumption of a high end dual graphic card computer would be 600-700W maximum, which leaves 300-400W of unusable power. That's fine for the user who likes a little headroom, but it does prevent the use of this power supply with three high end graphics cards - rare I know, but they are out there, and the Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W could power such a configuration with more connectors.

Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W Power Supply Review

NZXT Panzerbox Gaming Case Review
Virtual-Hideout posted a review on the NZXT Panzerbox Gaming Case

You've all probably heard of NZXT by now, though the same could not be said seemingly just a few years ago. They have come a long way in recent years in design and innovation to produce some of the coolest and most desirable enthusiast products on the market. Their focus is on computer cases but they've also been introducing themselves to some other niches. We've reviewed lots of products from NZXT over the years with all of their products being of good quality and performance. Their Cryo series notebook coolers are another gem. Today I'll be checking out the highly touted Panzerbox high-performance chassis.

NZXT Panzerbox Gaming Case Review

AMD Athlon II X2 240e & Athlon II X3 435 Review
PureOverclock has published a review of the AMD Athlon II X2 240e & Athlon II X3 435 processors.

The AMD Athlon II X2 240e & X3 435 processors signal an expanding mainstream lineup for AMD where value is king and performance for your dollar is a big deal. These chips lack the extreme horsepower of the premium Phenom II CPUs, or even the Intel Core i7's for that matter, but at less than 1/3 the cost, they offer a very compelling option to the mainstream user. Let's find out how well they perform.

AMD Athlon II X2 240e & Athlon II X3 435 Review

XFX Radeon HD5750 Video Card Review
Benchmark Reviews posted a review on the XFX Radeon HD5750 Video Card

The launch of Radeon HD57xx Juniper-GPU series cards is going very smoothly. ATI learned some hard lessons when they launched the HD4850 a couple years back. All the partners seem to have their cards ready for distribution this time, and there's no price gouging, due to the stable supply. This is doubly important for the HD57xx, since they're in the middle of the pack, performance-wise, and there are lots of competitors. XFX is one of the premium retail partners in the video card industry, although they're a relative newcomer to the ATI camp, and they've supplied Benchmark Reviews a model HD-575X-ZNF7 Radeon HD5750 to review. We recently looked at an early engineering sample of the HD5770, now we have the opportunity to take a look at a production version of the lower priced companion card, the XFX Radeon HD5750. We already know it's not going to challenge the HD5770, but can it beat out its real competition at the lower price point?

XFX Radeon HD5750 Video Card Review

InWin AMMO Review
Vortez.co.uk posted a review on the InWin AMMO

Performance is not the always the main feature that will set an external 2.5" hard drive enclosure apart from the rest. In fact, features such as durability, aesthetics, quality and security are more likely to attract consumers. In Win seeks to tap into these features with their newest military-themed enclosure, the AMMO. Whether they are successful in doing so or not will be determined in this review.

InWin AMMO Review

LanCool Dragon Lord PC-K62 Chassis Review
Driverheaven posted a review on the LanCool Dragon Lord PC-K62 Chassis

In the case of LanCool we have an outfit who sell cases designed and manufactured by Lian-Li, a comp any who are renowned for their quality chassis. The main difference between the two is that the Li an-Li range is aimed at the high end of the market where as the LanCool brand is more mainstream.

Today we have one of LanCools latest cases on our test bench, the PC-K62 which is manufactu red in Taiwan and part of the Dragon Lord family.

LanCool Dragon Lord PC-K62 Chassis Review

Ultra Products X4 850W Modular Power Supply Review
Bigbruin.com has published a review on the Ultra Products X4 850W Modular Power Supply

While the unit did not survive the review, I won't hold that against it. As the new test setup gets refined the mortality rate will hopefully drop, while the useful information provided in these reviews will hopefully rise. Before its death, the unit put up respectable numbers in terms of regulation, ripple, efficiency, and not previously mentioned - noise output.

Ultra Products X4 850W Modular Power Supply Review

ASRock P55 Deluxe LGA1156 ATX Motherboard Review
Futurelooks checked out the ASRock P55 Deluxe LGA1156 ATX Motherboard

We were recently surprised by their X58 Extreme Motherboard which is still the most affordable LGA1366 solution on the market. The board was capable of overclocking with the best of the mid-ranged X58 motherboards. Once again, we're very curious to see if ASRock's new aggressive approach has been applied to their next generation performance based P55 Deluxe LGA1156 Motherboard.

ASRock P55 Deluxe LGA1156 ATX Motherboard Review

NZXT CRYO S Notebook Cooler Review
Bona Fide Reviews posted a review on the NZXT CRYO S Notebook Cooler

Today for review I've got the NZXT Cryo S Notebook Cooler that works very well at keeping your laptop or netbooks cool. I've tested it out with two netbooks I've got on hand and it performed very well. The Cryo S is all aluminum and has two built-in 120mm fans along with a USB hub and dual power options. So continue on to learn more

NZXT CRYO S Notebook Cooler Review

Scythe Big Shuriken CPU Cooler Review
Hardware Secrets posted a review on the Scythe Big Shuriken CPU Cooler

This time we tested a low profile CPU cooler, the Scythe Big Shuriken. Only 58 mm tall, it is made to fit even SFF cases. It has a horizontal design, with four heatpipes and a 120 mm low profile fan. But, can it perform as well as its "big brothers"?

Scythe Big Shuriken CPU Cooler Review

Intel Core i7 / LGA1366 CPU Cooler Roundup
Hardware Canucks posted an Intel Core i7 / LGA1366 CPU Cooler Roundup

Over the last few months we have been building up an impressive array of CPU coolers for Intel's i7 / 1366 CPUs and it was high time they were all compared to one another. In this roundup we will be looking at new products from well-known companies like Tuniq, Kingwin and Zalman along with coolers from recent startups CoGage and ProlimaTech and finally some little-known units from Spire and ZeroTherm. The heatsinks we have on tap come from every price bracket and should give us a good cross-section of the current state of the CPU cooling industry.

Intel Core i7 / LGA1366 CPU Cooler Roundup

ECS P55H-A Review
OCC has published a review on the ECS P55H-A

The layout wasn't the most impressive. For instance, I was not at all happy with where ECS decided to stick the auxiliary power connector. I was also unhappy about where the IDE connector was located. To me layout is one of the most important aspects of a motherboard, so these defaults really brought the P55H-A down a few notches in my book. I was also surprised that the Driver CD didn't work. Vista has been out for a while now, and 64-Bit is nothing new. The fact that the Driver CD didn't support 64-Bit Vista is just ridiculous.

ECS P55H-A Review

Belkin Flip 2-port DVI USB KVM Switch F1DG102D Review
Benchmark Reviews posted a review on the Belkin Flip 2-port DVI USB KVM Switch F1DG102D

It's a common scenario for many of us these days: multiple computers, but no desk space for multiple monitors, keyboards, and mice. You might have a work machine and a play machine; or a home media server you access and control over the network, but it would really be nice if you had a monitor and keyboard sometimes, or maybe you just thought it would be fun to try one of those $200 nettop computers to see if it had any actual application. The solution is a KVM (keyboard/video/mouse) switch, and Benchmark Reviews looks at the Belkin Flip F1DG102D two-port DVI-USB KVWM switch to see how well it would work for you.

Belkin Flip 2-port DVI USB KVM Switch F1DG102D Review