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Reviews Around The Web
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Choose Web Reviews from this Maker:
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Monday, February 9, 2009
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Aside from a few issues, the Leadtek Limited WinFast GTX260 EXTREME+ is a very impressive video card. It provides strong performance in 3D games, it has the ability to handle any multimedia tasks with ease, and it is so quiet that it is well suited for use in just about any type of system. It could be the card to provide some gaming muscle to your desktop, LAN rig, or HTPC!
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The 285GTX is a nice update of the 280GTX. Sure, the core is about the same as the GT200 found on the 280GTX but the card runs cooler and the newer manufacturing technology used for the GT200b chip gives us some more headroom in clock speeds.
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You could think of it as a DVD player without the optical DVD drive and a home theater PC without the full functionality of a computer. It really is just that - it doesn't come with any internal storage and sadly no Ethernet networking support, but it does include two hi-speed USB 2.0 ports, which allows you to hook up two external hard drives or USB flash drives which use a FAT32, NTFS or HFS+ (no journaling) file system.
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The right piece of the headset has controls for powering the device as well as putting it in pairing mode. You also have buttons for skipping between audio tracks and pausing which worked very well in Windows Media Player as well as iTunes on my iMac and the Blackberry Bold. A volume control is also present on the headset but instead of changing your desktop/notebook's volume, it changes the headset's volume levels.
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Last week I took the BFG Tech MX 680w Power Supply out for a spin, which earned our Seal of Approval based on several different criteria. The unit was rock solid stable, silent, modular and would look great in most any system. But for the user on a budget or those not into hardcore gaming, the 680 watts offered is simply overkill. If you fall into this category, have no fear, as BFG Tech has something right up your alley, the MX 550w PSU. Virtually identical to its 680w bigger brother, the 550 unit we have on the test bench today is about $25 cheaper, money that could be put towards other hardware or simply stashed away for a rainy day. Will the smaller MX 550w be able to follow in the footsteps of the beefier 680 model?
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One thing I really can't stress enough about the TOP line-up of graphics cards from ASUS is that they are more than just a few extra MHz on the core and memory. Past experience has always shown that the clocks offered by a card carrying this marking are clearly above the norm. What's interesting, though, is that this time around ASUS has not only got a TOP card on offer but also an Extreme one for the GTX 285. The TOP is the lower clocked of the two and what we're hoping is that ASUS hasn't just decided to ease off the MHz simply to squeeze a few more dollars out of people wanting even more performance.
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On paper and in tests, the 9500 GT is half a 9600 GT--there's a lot missing in that last 100. It's got half the shaders (32) half the ROPs (8) and half the bandwidth (128-bit). Adding insult to injury, everything is clocked lower; GPU, memory, even the shaders are slower. It's more like two-fifths a 9600.
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Based on the same standards, the In-Win Commander 850 Watt Power Supply can easily handle your loftiest power requirements. At 100% load, the PSU produces power rails just above spec which earns it a spot on my Extreme Gamer Approved list. The all important 12V rails remained 12.07 or above which is all you can expect from this mean, green gaming machine. However, I did manage to find an extra 35 Watts under that militant exterior which was still supported by at least 11.97 Volts.
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Today we're looking at the InWin Commander 750w and 850w power supplies. They are very similar to the 1200w version that we've previously reviewed, which was built like a tank, appropriate given its military-styled theming and design. Today's units are less powerful, but no slouches either, sporting some beefy specifications and features.
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I have to admit, at first I thought that this card would be much like the rest with a slight performance increase and a better cooling solution. But through testing and benchmarking, this card has impressed me with a sizable performance increase, a good overclocking experience and all for a price that at this time is under US$200.
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Sleek, shiny and unlike many of its earlier Windows Mobile siblings, our first impression of the HP iPAQ Voice Messenger comes off as a device worth paying some attention to.
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Okay, so the 22" widescreen Samsung Syncmaster 2243BW LCD display PCSTATS is testing in this review is oriented towards budget and gamer crowds - that much is clear. The Syncmaster 2243BW retails for the very affordable amount of $270 CDN, making it a tempting choice for a dual 22" display set up.
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Both, the A.C. Ryan AluBoxDuoLAN and the Akasa Integral LAN, are using the Ximeta NDAS System. So they are trying to be fast and affordable. Are they?
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Colour gamut is the ColorEdge CG222W's big selling point, and it almost covers all of AdobeRGB. Visually this display looks uniform, and there were no problems in out tests with viewing angles. Colours and density seemed to stay the same within a reasonable angle of view compared to most other LCDs. We also encountered no problems with shadow detail or banding, and the uniformity of colour and density across the screen was among the best we've ever seen. Beside the offensive asking price and lack of HDMI input, it's hard to find anything to fault the ColorEdge CG222W. Being fastidious, brightness is a bit low compared to other models, it has no speakers, no USB ports on the side of the bezel, and no auto-rotate of the images in the software. There are much more affordable displays that are better at handling your entertainment, gaming and general business needs, but if graphics are your business, the ColorEdge CG222W should be on your shortlist.
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The V10 offers many more features than the V8. The first would be the additional capabilities of cooling your ram while taking care of the CPU. Sitting atop a second set of aluminum fins is a 120mm cooling fan when placed properly blows right over your DIMM slots. We saw this in the Gemini cooler as well. This kind of cooler eliminates the need to deal with extra fans for ram cooling. Yet the most beneficial feature of the V10, if used right, is the T.E.C. base. With the right amount of heat to activate the thermal electric plate that is attached to the base of the cooler, the V10 is posed to offer a new level of performance and cooling and is capable of taming the most voltage hungry processor.
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