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Reviews Around The Web
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Friday, February 20, 2009
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The popularity of hard disk drive standard definition and high-def camcorders continues to climb. Nothing beats the storage capability of a HDD video maker-just think, you can record hour after hour of baby giggles, if that's your thing (and new parents, you can admit it). Hard drive cams are great for everyone else too since you can record anything to your heart's content for much longer than any tape or disk-based system. And nothing beats the instantly generated thumbnails that let you hop from scene to scene during playback. Sony dominates the HDD market for SD and HD video makers-just as they do every other camcorder format. That said we were happy to get our hands on the new HDR-SR11, the company's HDD model that records Full HD 1920 x 1080I video along with 10-megapixel digital stills to a hefty 60GB hard drive. The camcorder even has Face Detection, the digicam feature du jour that works for video and stills. Even though there were no toddlers in the house, we definitely wanted to start recording ASA.
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Here today at Verdis Reviews, we have a product that is from a company specialising in one particular accessory ? the mouse pad. For many enthusiasts, the mouse mat is not an important decision and they use any product, the cheaper the better. However, should we be taking more care over choosing the perfect mat? In my opinion, the answer is obvious ? yes; mouse pads are really key and the wrong one can prove irritating and frustrating as your mouse won?t function as well. Therefore, the product we are reviewing today aims to be the perfect soft surface mat for gaming and also general use ? the XTracPads Pro Pad.
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Corsair's modular HX series have proven to be extremely popular with enthusiasts, but can it's hard-wired brother the TX win our hearts?
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Available in three colours with LEDs to match, Crucial looks to woo the enthusiast keen on aesthetics.
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
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As hard drive sizes continue to balloon, we are constantly bombarded with the one and singular question that guides our choice when it comes to the storage in our systems: Do we want a hard drive that has incredibly fast performance, or incredibly cavernous storage space? Though you can almost get that with the many 640GB 2-platter models that dot the landscape, true performance comes with drives like the VelociRaptor or any of the solid state drives out there. Western Digital is hoping to break that trend with their "Black Edition" Caviar hard drives.
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Today we are moving the spot light to NAS Servers with the QNAP TS-509 Pro. The 509 isn't designed to sit in an enthusiast's computer room, but many will eventually end up being used by power users like myself. If the Thecus N4100PRO impressed you with features, prepare to be blown away. The TS-509 Pro goes far beyond anything a normal consumer or prosumer would ever use under normal circumstances. The good thing is that QNAP has mastered ease of use when it comes to configuration. Many features that you may have passed off as unusable for your situation will eventually get used because they are just so easy in implement.
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When the idea of a digital picture frame first came up, I wasn't quite sure why anyone would want that. You could easily show all your pictures from your laptop and PC or in a photo album. I can't see many people changing a small 4"x6" picture so frequently that they would consider buying a digital picture frame. However, these devices have proven to be far more versatile than I originally thought. Your standard picture frame doesn't come with movies, it doesn't play slide shows when guests are over and there's no sound with them.
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Samsung re-enters the notebook market in Asia with a very promising and cool looking 13.3 ultra-portable, the Samsung X360.
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Today we are going to look at a £75 offering from Sapphire, the HD 4670. We looked at a similar model a few months ago from Sapphire and at the time we were impressed by the value it offered to the mainstream customer. Sapphire has completely revisited the card, adding GDDR4 memory and a brand new cooler to this mid-range card.
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The unsung hero of your system, the power supply which often goes unnoticed after installation is responsible for bringing all of your components to life. We take a look today at the CoolMax CU-950B power supply, some of the claims, its construction, and much more. This budget minded green friendly power supply could well suit your needs, but only if it passes our inspection.
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SilverStone Technology is especially well regarded for their unique computer cases from their micro-ATX Sugo series to their HTPC-oriented Lascala line-up to their flagship Temjin series. SilverStone though does not only pride itself upon designing some of the best (also the most expensive) cases on the market, but they have several lines of performance-oriented power supplies. We have looked at SilverStone's Strider, Decathlon, Zeus, and Olympia lines before, but never had we looked at a SilverStone NightJar power supply. The NightJar series is SilverStone's line-up of fan-less power supplies. While there may be no fans so that the power supply can operate silently, the NightJar power supplies are far from being low-end.
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Fan controllers are fairly simplistic by their nature, and as such can come off as "boring", cheaply made or poorly engineered in the worst cases... or elegant and, dare I say it, sophisticated devices in the upper echelon. NZXT appears on the blustery, wind swept field littered with fan controller promises with the Sentry LX to help tame your fan flow nightmares.
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Palit's new GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP is based on NVIDIA's latest GT200b 55 nm graphics processor. Palit has chosen to go with a dual fan design for improved airflow and increased overclocking. Not only the thermal design has been changed but also the PCB design, which features several cost optimizations and comes in an appealing ATI-red.
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The short answer is that unless you're only interested in maximising the overclocking potential of your CPU, the DFI LANParty DK 790FX-B M2RSH doesn't hit the right spot because it really lacks on virtually all other important fronts. As much as we don't like the MSI board we've also tested here, the DFI does little to stand out above even this low bar and the few positives are largely countered by an overwhelming "meh" experience.
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Thermaltake, a company we know for flashy eye-catching cases has changed things up a little bit with the Element S. Although very sleek looking it is not as flashy as previous cases we have seen from them. As the tag line says, "Create for Pros" the Element S has many features system builders and enthusiast alike will appreciate. Some of those include 7 3.5-inch internal HDD bays, tool-less HDD installation, stealth black material and noise reduction material on the side panels. All of this comes at a very affordable price too, let's take a look...
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