Eagle Tech Consus L-Series 2.5" SATA Enclosure Review
DreamWare Computers posted a review on the Eagle Tech Consus L-Series 2.5" SATA Enclosure

Eagle Tech is a company based out of the United States which specalizes in building external storage solutions. They make everything from basic USB enclosures to handle all sizes up drives up to more advanced RAID and NAS style of enclosures as well. Today, we have one of their new Consus L-Series 2.5" SATA enclosure; the ET-CS2LSU2-BK to be specific.

Eagle Tech Consus L-Series 2.5" SATA Enclosure Review

Lian Li PC-9 Computer Case Review
Rbmods posted a review on the Lian Li PC-9 Computer Case

We've had the opportunity to review a lot of cases here on rbmods.com, but one manufacturer seems to stand out amongst the crowd in terms of quality and reputation: Lian Li. But as the competition gets tougher, everyone needs to elevate their new products to new levels. Today, we get a chance to look at one of the newest products from Lian Li, the PC-9 computer case. Will this case continue the Lian Li's tradition of excellence? Read on to find out in this review.

Lian Li PC-9 Computer Case Review



Tomb Raider Underworld Review
GamingHeaven posted Tomb Raider Underworld Review

Lara Croft is undoubtedly one of the most well known game icons across the globe and Eidos have released the latest installment Underworld to capitalise on the success of Legend ... which was a great title. The question we aim to answer today, is this another archaeologist journey worth paying for?

Tomb Raider Underworld Review

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Review
InsideHW.com has posted article about Adobe Photoshop CS4

New edition of one of the best, if not the best, application for processing raster graphics attended for photographers but also for graphic and web designers, is finally tested on InsideHW. One of most important technical novelties is that Photoshop CS4 will be delivered only as 64-bit version. Adobe made this decision after preliminary tests that showed that performances of 64-bit applications are better for 8% to 12% comparing to 32-bit version. True power and advantages of 64-bit version are hidden in fact that it can use large amounts of memory.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Review

Intel X25-M 80GB 2.5-inch Solid State Disk Review
TweakTown posted a review on the Intel X25-M 80GB 2.5-inch Solid State Disk

The testing for the new Intel X25-M has been completed for a couple of weeks now, but I have been putting off writing the article. Reviewers are faced with tough decisions from time to time; generally it is because we had found a fatal flaw and try to work with a company to correct the issue. This time the flaw is simply that the drive is too good. Intel is saying that their first entry into the consumer SSD market is able to read up to 250 MB/s, while other products are claiming a maximum of 175 MB/s. Honestly, who in their right mind would want to send over a consumer SSD for us to review knowing that it would be compared to the Intel X25-M? - Where do I sign up for unemployment because my job is gone?

The good thing is that Intel has left us a couple of back doors and has not totally disrupted the market. The first and foremost is price. We are starting to see 128GB MLC based drives with decent performance break the 300 Dollar barrier. The new Intel X25-M just showed up at Newegg for a little over twice that amount for the 80GB version we are looking at today. I may be saved after all, but information about rapid price drops are starting to leak out. The last I heard from the rumor mill is that the X25-M will get a new price of 530 USD before the year is out; still a lot more than some of the others, but clearly not out of range for enthusiasts.

Intel X25-M 80GB 2.5-inch Solid State Disk Review

QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS Review
Overclockers Online has posted a new review on the QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS

From start to finish, QNAP has done everything right with the TS-509 Pro. The packaging is simple and filled with useful information for the customer looking at one at a store. The product is packaged securely with no place to go and well protected from any possible scratches or dents during shipment. The specifications scream high end with dual gigabit networking, RAID 0, 1, 5 and 6 for five hot-swappable SATA II drives.

QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS Review

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3-1333 Memory Review
Virtual-Hideout posted a review on the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3-1333 Memory

DDR3 is fast becoming the new standard as all things computer change. Memory makers know that some standards don't have to be exceeded, but improved rather. Here is a good case and point. I have here a Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 1333MHz 4GB Dual Channel Memory Kit. It's not, 1600 MHz, or 1800 MHz, but a solid supported 1333 MHz. What's so special about it? Check out the specs and I'll sum it up for you after.

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3-1333 Memory Review

Corsair TX750W Review
OCC has published a new review on the Corsair TX750W

If you are in the market for a 750W power supply then I highly recommend the Corsair TX750W and even if you don't need all the power, it's still worth considering for your next build. The price, at the time of writing this article, makes the Corsair TX750W excellent value for money. The Corsair TX750W is Nvidia SLI certified for dual 8800GTX graphics cards and if you intend to start off with a single graphics card and upgrade to SLI or Crossfire sometime in the future, then consider using the TX750W, you won't regret it.

Corsair TX750W Review

Intel's X25-E Extreme solid-state drive
The Tech Report posted an article on Intel's X25-E Extreme solid-state drive

Intel's new X25-E Extreme SSD reads at 250MB/s, writes at 170MB/s, has near-instantaneous seek times, and may very well be the fastest drive you can plug into a standard Serial ATA port. Read on to see it blow away mechanical hard drives, other SSDs, and even our own expectations.

Intel's X25-E Extreme solid-state drive

Asus P5Q Pro Review
OCC has published a new review on the Asus P5Q Pro

There are no major problems with this product but I found a couple of issues that should be addressed. The internal SATA port placement should be redesigned to avoid possible issues with large videocards installed in the second PCI-E x16 slot. This is actually a common design flaw found in many boards and can be prevented by using right angled SATA ports. Asus does well to implement right angled ports in most of their boards but not this one. To nitpick a bit further, every current motherboard should have an eSATA port located on the rear panel for immediate use.

Asus P5Q Pro Review

Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 motherboard review
TechSpot posted Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 motherboard review

Having just recently examined the new Intel Core i7 processors, the timing seems perfect to also show you in detail a motherboard designed to take advantage of these CPUs. The Asus P6T Deluxe sports the new Intel X58 chipset and is one of the first production Core i7 motherboards available in the market.

Because of the added cost inherent of moving to a new platform, building a new Core i7 computer is going to be quite steep. The base model Core i7 processor will set you back an initial $284, which is not too bad, but combined with a $300 motherboard and a triple-channel DDR3 memory kit, that should add up to around $800 just for the guts of a Core i7 system.

Yet, given the blazing fast performance offered by this new platform, justifying the price tag may not be too difficult for those who can afford it. After all, a few years ago you could end up paying $1,000 for a 'top of the line' Pentium 4 that heated up like crazy. Today's cheaper alternative winds up being the Core 2 Duo which is no slouch, so stepping into Core i7 territory right now can be considered a luxury.

Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 motherboard review

SilverStone Fortress FT01 Case SST-FT01B-W Review
Benchmark Reviews posted a review on the SilverStone Fortress FT01 Case SST-FT01B-W

SilverStone has a long history of designing and building fantastic looking products, and the Fortress Series is no exception, especially the SST-FT01B-W model. Benchmark Reviews has investigated a few SilverStone products up to now, and we've always come away impressed by their good looks, thoughtful design, and premium build quality. Things are definitely looking up; let's take it home and see what it can do with this premium computer case.

SilverStone Fortress FT01 Case SST-FT01B-W Review

Silverstone NT06 Evolution Heatpipe CPU Cooler Review
Tweaknews.net posted Silverstone NT06 Evolution Heatpipe CPU Cooler Review

In conclusion, SilverStone has a great product in the NT06 Evolution cooler. Its cooling performance is surprisingly good when coupled with a quiet, low-flow fan and very good when airflow increases. I like its compactness and relatively low mass and it looks pretty good as well. With a lower cost and an improved mounting solution, the NT06 Evolution would be a excellent value, but these issues drop it back a bit in this regard.

Silverstone NT06 Evolution Heatpipe CPU Cooler Review

Shaun White Snowboarding Review
bit-tech published a review of Shaun White Snowboarding

The game doesn't just reward button-mashers either and though the landing criteria are fairly lax for the most part so that you don't need to be perfectly lined up with the ground, you'll still need to have a decent understanding of timings if you want to get some sick scores.

Unfortunately though, these plus points just aren't able to raise Shaun White up above the masses and we're especially dismayed to see that the Assassin's Creed engine hasn't been used to full effect. The strength of that particular piece of technology is the ability to have lots of stuff on screen and on a map, but with Shaun White the levels are naturally large and uncluttered so you can start to see that the actual models and textures aren't all that.

Ubisoft has tried to spice things up a bit in the snowboarding genre by bringing an impressive engine and open-world approach to the table, but unfortunately when it comes to sports games it's always far, far better to have some exciting linear courses rather than poorly mapped white expanses. In the end it's this misunderstanding coupled with needlessly complex controls which make Shaun White a bit of a letdown.

Shaun White Snowboarding Review

Tom Clancy's Endwar Review
bit-tech published a review of Tom Clancy's Endwar

Tom Clancy's Endwar does show that it's possible to do RTS on a console, it's just that Ubisoft has achieved it by stripping out many of the things that make RTSes what they are. That's a bit like taking an F1 car and making it street legal by replacing the engine with one from a Mini Metro. Sure, it's still theoretically an F1 car, but it's not very exciting to drive.

And that's the real problem with Tom Clancy's Endwar: in making an RTS accessible to console gamers by using speech recognition, Ubisoft has ended up creating a game that has many of the features of an RTS, just without much of the fun and excitement.

That's not to say that Ubisoft has failed completely -- it hasn't, and Tom Clancy's Endwar is still a fun game when judged on its own merits -- it's just that the developer has fallen short of making the definitive console RTS.

It's a good start, though, and we look forward to seeing where Ubisoft Shanghai can go from here.

Tom Clancy's Endwar Review

DFI's LANParty JR P45 T2RS motherboard Review
bit-tech published a review of DFI's LANParty JR P45 T2RS motherboard

The DFI LANParty JR P45 T2RS tries to bridge the gap between enthusiast and the average Joe Martin user and gets stuck at what it does best - offering the end user a chance to endless abuse the CPU-northbridge and memory, while entirely forgetting that it needs a variety of features to compete more competently in the P45 arena.

While DFI fanboys will no doubt harp on until the end of time about how it's all to do with overclocking, for the rest of us, once we've left the BIOS all we're left with is a feeling of mediocrity, where the JR P45 doesn't have quite the level of thoughtfulness other DFI products have been given. The unbalanced bundle, the rubbish northbridge screws, the clear CMOS jumper on the rear I/O, the BIOS's craptacular CPU fan control, poor BIOS flash options, no Firewire, no eSATA (yet there could easily be) and hit-and-miss sound quality: all this speaks of a distinct lack of TLC.

It all comes down to asking whether microATX has its own specific customer, therefore it cannot readily be compared to full ATX boards - like how you either buy a non-modular or modular PSU - because the customer has a specific need. In this respect the DFI has its own market and for those wanting an SFF case with a lot of gaming potential, the DFI offers it. A pair of HD 4850s don't cost much and should give some great 1080p gaming, even if this isn't the fastest board to do so.

Comparing to full ATX boards on performance alone, the DFI LANParty JR P45 T2RS is pretty good, despite the odd hiccup, and it's a good board with great stability. The ABS system is made for very simple, yet fan-frolicking-tastic overclocks by changing preset profiles. The only downside is that you need an E8500, although we expect E8600/8400/8200s will work as well. Those with the super-popular Q6600 might like some presets for Kentsfields too, though.

Essentially unless you're specifically after a DFI fuelled microATX motherboard with CrossFire support, an enlightening BIOS experience and a BEAST of an overclocker, it is being left behind by the features the competition are pushing for the same money. As one of the only powerful microATX boards out there, it will certainly suffice for the task: it's good at what it does, but don't buy it over more complete full ATX boards unless you have to.

DFI's LANParty JR P45 T2RS motherboard Review

Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe 4870 X2 review
The Guru of 3D takes a look at the Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe 4870 X2 video card

Meet Palit's Revolution 700 Deluxe. It's an (R700) Radeon HD 4870 X2 with 2048MB memory based graphics card that comes with custom cooling, slightly higher memory clock and some serious connectivity on the form of VGA, DVI, HDMI and even Display port. That's right all the aforementioned connectors are physically present on this graphics card.

The end result is the weirdest thing you've ever looked at really, I mean .. this thing is huge, it's literally the size of a brick as it's familiar sized at 27 CM in length and 3 PCI slots (6 CM) wide. But heck, it's rather impressive and something you won't forget easy.

Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe 4870 X2 review

ATI HD 4870 1GB vs. NVIDIA GTX 260/216 896MB
Techgage.com posted an in-depth look at both the HD 4870 1GB from ATI and GTX 260/216 from NVIDIA to see which reigns supreme

In the $250 - $300 price-range, there exists two graphics cards that want to see your dollar, but which one deserves it the most? To find out, we're taking a thorough look at each. In addition to general performance comparison, we're also taking a look to see which excels where power consumption and temperatures are concerned, in addition to overall pricing.

ATI HD 4870 1GB vs. NVIDIA GTX 260/216 896MB

Sennheiser PC350 Gaming headphones Review
XtremeComputing posted a review on the Sennheiser PC350 Gaming headphones

With the Gaming industry getting bigger and bigger every year most gamers out there want to get the very best out of equipment to even have the slightest advantage over there enemy and that is where Sennheiser's new headset makes its appearance. The PC 350 brings a new dimension to the gaming headset technology, a claim of never before experience of sound and quality, so let’s see what the global leader in electro-acoustics experts have put together in this headset.

Sennheiser PC350 Gaming headphones Review

ASUS DSL-N13 wireless ADSL 2/2+ router review
Elite Bastards posted a review on the ASUS DSL-N13 wireless ADSL 2/2+ router

One of the DSL-N13's big selling points is the inclusion of what ASUS have dubbed AiDisk. In short, this is an FTP server application run by the router, which allows you to connect any USB hard disk to the device and use it for file storage and sharing over both public and private networks. Users can be added and removed via the web interface to grant them access, and all of the usual sets of rights are available, meaning that users can be given combinations of read, write and delete access as required to either the public (WAN) or private (LAN) FTP folders. Guest access can also be allowed or disallowed, and the FTP server's port can be changed easily within the interface. Of course, this capability works best in tandem with dynamic DNS, meaning that you'll only ever have a single hostname to worry about to access files on the hard disk.

ASUS DSL-N13 wireless ADSL 2/2+ router review