AMD's Phenom processors
Bit-Tech published a first look at AMD's Phenom processors

The bottom line is that AMD's Phenom processors are currently too expensive and don't perform well enough to offer serious competition for Intel's quad-core processors. With the low clock speeds, AMD needs applications that make use of multiple cores to show off the benefits but, as most real consumer applications are single threaded (or maybe occasionally dual-core optimised), there aren't any real benefits to Phenom in its current state.

The situation has completely reversed from back in the day when it was Intel's Pentium 4 versus AMD's Athlon 64 -- AMD's Phenom processors are outperformed almost right across the board, and this is especially the case in gaming and single-threaded tests where the processors lack raw MegaHertz. That said, I almost hope consumers will buy them, just to make sure that there's still a market left for us enthusiasts in the future.

AMD's Phenom processors

OCZ 8GB ATV Flash Drive Review
Techconnect Magazine has posted a new article on OCZ's 8GB ATV USB flash drive.

Overall the bumpy road that the ATV has to permanently run on has turned it into a solid drive and a nice change in attitude for OCZ. Apart from the low write speeds the 8GB ATV tested today offers pretty much anything you'll need from a mainstream flash drive and if this will be coupled with a price tag that is reasonably lower than that of the Voyager, OCZ will have a best seller on its hands.

OCZ 8GB ATV Flash Drive Review



NVIDIA 3-Way SLI Technology Review - 8880 Ultra x 3
PC Perspective posted a review on the performance of 3-Way SLI running today on an nForce 680i SL motherboard.

NVIDIA has just taken its performance lead in the world of high-end consumer graphics and trumped it by introducing 3-Way SLI to the world. Though we have some minor issues with what cards NVIDIA has setup for 3-Way SLI compatibility the fact is that the performance results from our testing are freaking incredible. There are definitely some major games that need to be addressed in future, Crysis being the most prominent, but our initial impressions proved quite pleasing.

NVIDIA 3-Way SLI Technology Review - 8880 Ultra x 3

NVIDIA 3-way SLI review - 8800 Ultra
The Guru of 3D takes a look at NVIDIA 3-way SLI

If you had a close look at the 8800 GTX & Ultra, you'd notice there's a second SLI finger (connector) and to date there has been a lot of speculation about that extra connector, to name one .. it could have been an extension for physics over a third card. The truth is often to be found in the most simple and logical solution, it was all about SLI from the get go.

If you have one of these rather expensive cards you can now link up three cards and enable 3-way SLI. Guru3D takes three XFX GeForce 8800 ultra's for a quick test-drive, you could call it a three-some.

NVIDIA 3-way SLI review - 8800 Ultra

NVIDIA 3-Way SLI GeForce 8800 Ultra Performance Preview
HotHardware.com posted NVIDIA 3-Way SLI GeForce 8800 Ultra Performance Preview

NVIDIA has been the forerunner in multi-GPU rendering for a long time now. With years of maturity and performance tuning, their SLI technology has shown very strong scaling when chaining a pair of GPUs together to tackle the 3D graphics processing workload. We've seen quad-SLI on mid-range GPUs previously with NVIDIA's GeForce 7950 GX2 but what about three GeForce 8800 Ultra cards strapped in under the hood?

Green-friendly, eco-minded, tree-huggers or those of you with weak constitutions for that matter; look away. This might not be for you. Put the kids to bed early - NVIDIA's 3-Way SLI is in the house. We'll show you exactly what it can and can't do for you, next.

NVIDIA 3-Way SLI GeForce 8800 Ultra Performance Preview

Spreading it Thin, Thermal Paste Roundup 2007
Madshrimps posted a Thermal Paste Roundup

Arctic Silver dominated the TIM (Thermal Tranfer Material) industry for many years. They may have invested more in R&D then all their competition combined. Many ask is there anything else out there? Today we hope to answer this question...

Spreading it Thin, Thermal Paste Roundup 2007

AMD Introduces Hybrid CrossFire - 780G and Radeon HD 2400
Legit Reviews posted a review on Hybrid CrossFire

When it comes to performance the Radeon HD 3450 isn't going to dominate any games, but it does score a respectable ~1650 points in 3DMark 2006 on the test system powered by a 2.2GHz AMD Phenom processor. If you enable Hybrid CrossFire the score in 3DMark 2006 jumps up to ~2660 points, which is a boost of over 60%. We didn't get a chance to see the ATI Radeon HD 3470 graphics card in action, but AMD said it should score over 3000 points when run in Hybrid CrossFire on 3DMark 2006. AMD let us try out Call of Duty 4 at 1024x768 with decent quality settings on the system pictured here and we were seeing 20-50 frames per second Hybrid CrossFire enabled...

AMD Introduces Hybrid CrossFire - 780G and Radeon HD 2400

NZXT Alpha Review
XSReviews has reviewed the NZXT Alpha case

We've been privileged enough to review a fair portion of the NZXT case range, with the Lexa Blackline, Rouge, Hush and Duet all receiving solid results and accolades. Now I have another case from the gamer enclosure constructors; the NZXT Alpha.

Sold under the tag-line of 'Simple yet powerful' it slots into the budget class case segment. Featuring tool-less drive mounting, steel chassis and GTX support, it should make for a good enclosure for your build.

NZXT Alpha Review

XFX 8600 GT Fatal1ty Review
OCC has published a new review of the XFX 8600 GT Fatal1ty

Another nice feature of the XFX 8600 GT Fatal1ty is its passive cooling solution. This allows for no additional noise to be added to the system and for your games to be heard more clearly. The unique design also allows the video card to only take up one expansion slot in your case and motherboard, which is another added bonus.

XFX 8600 GT Fatal1ty Review

Scythe Mugen SCINF-1000 Heatsink Review
FrostyTech posted Scythe Mugen SCINF-1000 Heatsink Review

If you jump ahead to the acoustic measurements or thermal test reports you'll quickly discover that the Scythe Mugen has more cooling power than its predecessor. It also runs about 9dBA louder. As with the Infinity, Frostytech isn't going to delay the verdict for 5 pages - the Scythe Mugen is currently a Top 10 heatsink on both Intel/AMD platforms.

Scythe Mugen SCINF-1000 Heatsink Review

GeIL Black Dragon DDR2 800 MHz CL4 Review
techPowerUp posted a review on the GeIL Black Dragon DDR2 800 MHz CL4

GeIL broke into the market with the Golden Dragon Series in the past and have now "resurrected" the dragon in form of the Black Dragon DDR2 line. The memory features a gorgeous looking PCB with a golden dragon head with bright red LEDs as the eyes. The entry level CL4 variant looks quite promising and performs just as well.

GeIL Black Dragon DDR2 800 MHz CL4 Review

Foxconn Mars Review
Bjorn3D takes a look at the Foxconn Mars.

Foxconn jumped on the band wagon and made their first 'overclocking' motherboard in their new Quantum Force product line called Mars. It is based on the Intel P35 chipset, and has been specially tuned for overclocking performance. One reason for the great overclocking potential of MARS is the Gladiator BIOS. It is specially developed for the Quantum Force product series, and is both user friendly and provides powerful OC options. The BIOS features include a voltage multiplier for accessing a much wider range of voltage settings. It is the first one in fact to offer a 0.5 multiplier increment. 'The 0.5 multiplier increment will give enthusiasts more flexibility when it comes to overclocking, so we should see higher clock speeds running in a stable environment' says Peter ‘Shamino’ Tan, Technical Consultant for the Quantum Force product line. 'Quantum Force is not just about a new product line, it is also a complete philosophy about how we develop our products' stated from Quantum Force product manager Greta Kuo.

'We have developed a design manifesto we call SWORD, which focuses on delivering more performance capability with better value for money, whilst listening to the feedback of real enthusiasts. Quantum-Force.net is going to be a great home for our products on the internet, and a really interesting place for enthusiasts to visit and learn more about our products and philosophy. Whether you are looking for overclocking advice, Beta BIOS downloads, help solving technical problems or you want to show off your own overclocking talents on our Power Wall, I would recommend all enthusiasts to visit this website' claims Greta Kuo. Let's see if what they say is really true. Time to dig in.

Foxconn Mars Review

AMD Hybrid CrossFire Sneak Peek
HotHardware posted a preview on the AMD Hybrid CrossFire technology

We had a chance to sit down with some folks at AMD to talk about their upcoming Hybrid CrossFire technology and to get some firsthand experience with pre-production hardware. It looks like tomorrow's next-gen IGPs are going to be much more interesting than today's offerings. Head on over to the site and take a look...

AMD Hybrid CrossFire Sneak Peek

LC Power PSU Roundup
InsideHW.com posted LC Power PSU Roundup

We recently received three powerful power supply units from LC Power, and we tried to determine how good they really are. These are three models from the LC Power METATRON series - models with 700, 850 and 1000 W.

LC Power PSU Roundup

ECS A770M-A Review
OCC has published a new review of the ECS A770M-A

The A770M-A is an entry level AMD 7 series (770/790X/790FX) ATX size motherboard for the Spider platform (when paired with a Phenom CPU and ATI 3800 series graphics card). Upon first glance, the layout of the board looks promising. It has support for the Quad Core Phenom CPU as well as Dual and Single Core AM2 CPUs, so current AM2 users have an easy upgrade path to the Spider platform that should not break the bank all at once. The rear of the board is standard fare with no obstructions on the back.

ECS A770M-A Review

Asus Xonar U1 USB Audio Station Review
APH Networks posted a review on the Asus Xonar U1 USB Audio Station

As far as laptops go, lately it's gotten as close as it would get to desktop performance in all but one area: Sound. For a while now, I've been looking around for a decent USB audio solution for my mobile computer -- and most of them are either impractical, provides virtually no improvement over my Dell Inspiron's integrated audio, or the features offered are simply not enough to make a difference. Last year, my friend lent me his Creative X-Mod USB sound device for my enjoyment -- while it has great looks and builds upon the X-Fi brand, the performance was more or less disappointing for me. After Asus' successful release of the Asus Xonar D2 sound card, Asus made quite a smart move and decided to expand on this brand to the USB sound device market. How will this sweet looking Asus Xonar U1, combined with a complete set of home theater audio technologies and features such as optical digital out, perform altogether? Is it the sound solution for notebook PC owners? We'll put it through our tests today to see how it goes.

Asus Xonar U1 USB Audio Station Review

HT Omega Claro Plus+ AD8620BR Op Amp HD Sound Card Review
Benchmark Reviews posted a review on the HT Omega Claro Plus+ AD8620BR Op Amp HD Sound Card

HT Omega, Inc. was one of the first companies to offer authentic high-fidelity sound at a true 24-bit level of performance in their Original Claro sound card. Now revised, a new AD8620BR Op Amp from Analog Devices has joined the world class Oxygen 8788 based audio processor in the Claro Plus+. Like the Claro, the new Plus+ model supports EAX 1.0 & 2.0, A3D 1.0 and DirectSound, but also adds Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Headphone, and a precision Base Management system. Benchmark Reviews has been fortunate enough to compare the HT Omega Claro Plus+ 24-bit/192KHz 8-channel high definition sound against the entire C-Media CMI8788 family of audio products in this review.

HT Omega Claro Plus+ AD8620BR Op Amp HD Sound Card Review