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Reviews Around The Web
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Choose Web Reviews from this Maker:
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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The Intel line of Solid State Drives is certainly one of the most anticipated pieces of hardware for 2008. Intel without a doubt raised the bar with what one can expect with Solid State Drives by producing a drive that can compete with any drive on the market, be it solid state or a hard disk. The highlights of the Intel X25-M has to be the fast that it uses hardly any power, puts off little heat and the insanely fast read and access speeds. The SSD architecture looks a lot more appealing now that Intel has entered the market and I?m sure that this is only the beginning of many more exciting products to come down the pipes...
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Today we have the new OCZ Dominatrix on the slab, ready for a bit of rough and tumble. Many of our loyal readers will have an un-nerving sense of deja vu as this mouse looks pretty much identical to the Cybersnipa I reviewed not too long ago. Well, in truth they appear to be the same mouse chassis with a few tweaks to the aesthetics. Now we will find out just how different they are in the details. The OCZ edition has opted for the blue rubberised grip which is a solid choice as I like the rubber on this grip; it's a soft and silky silicon feel but it doesn't leave your hand sweating and struggling for grip.
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With the introduction of the SL Series notebooks, Lenovo continues its trend of pushing the ThinkPad name out of its lofty perch and into more affordable territory. The 14.1-inch version bulks up a bit for the sake of keeping price low, but retains Lenovo's signature ThinkPad durability and feel, along with competent performance for a business machine. But some minor issues still need to be ironed out.
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NVIDIA's new GeForce 9400 GT Series is based on the same G96 GPU that is also used on the 9500 GT. The 9400 GT has half the shaders however, which seriously limits the uses of the card in a gaming PC. On the other hand this greatly reduces the heat output which allows a completely passive solution. Point of View differentiates their card by using 1 GB of video memory and bundling a full version of the Wall-E game.
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Today HardwareLogic looks at one of Gigabyte's newest mid-range boards, the GA-EP45-DS3R motherboard. Like many before it, the EP45 touts Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 2 nomenclature, a set of technologies the company claims "can deliver dramatically lower temperature and longer system lifespan." Combined with several power saving features, Gigabyte has built up quite the spec sheet. Can the EP45 also deliver the performance?
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Today PCSTATS is testing Palit's latest videocard, the Radeon HD4870X2, sporting a pair of ATI/AMD's powerful 4870 (Radeon 770) GPUs. This dual slot card is intended to provide gamers with the power of a dual video card Crossfire setup in a single unit, and features a huge 2GB of onboard GDDR5 video memory, enough to keep both GPUs fed and happy.
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The criteria to get on my desk are rather stringent. A case has to be sturdy. After all, it's sitting on top of a desk and is subject to gravity, especially during Battlefield 2142 sessions. It must be rather spacious inside. I trade out parts frequently and I hate cases that are stingy on the square footage. The build quality must be top notch. This goes beyond the basic toughness. A case has to look nice and be well-built which means all doors and panels are flush, the buttons work, I/O panels function, and there can be absolutely no sharp edges. My tetanus shots aren't up to date and I'm not ready for a booster. To get a case in that soon to be coveted position, a company pretty much has to showcase their ingenuity and dedication to quality.
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Over the years of Razer launching new products such as the Copperhead, Barracuda HP-1, and Tarantula, we have been completely overtaken by their incredibly well-designed products -- primarily their high-end gaming mice -- and the bar they continue to raise with each new iteration of products they introduce. The Razer Copperhead was one of their best mice to have been introduced and it contained a laser sensor with 2000 DPI capabilities, but their newest mouse is the Lachesis and it uses a 4000DPI 3G laser sensor. However, with Razer having yet to provide any drivers or customization software for the advanced capabilities of this mouse on Linux, is the Razer Lachesis worth its expensive price tag?
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At £115 this is an incredible price for a 1,000W PSU, but we have to admit that originally alarm bells started ringing whether this was one of those "1,000W too good to be true" bargains. However, having tested it we know that it has stable voltages and good efficiency, even to 100 percent load. Akasa throws in a three year warranty too which matches the likes of Nanopoint (Tagan, Seasonic etc) and Enermax, but it's lower than many others five year warranties like Cooler Master, Antec for example. The saving grace on this front is that Akasa has a UK RMA base should you need it.
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We recently looked at the HD4870 X2 and were easily convinced that it is currently the fastest single card solution in the market. So we did what any righteous hardware editor would do- put two of them together. Now, if you remember, the X2 by itself shows its true powers at very high resolutions with all details turned on.
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Super Talent have created a new line of tiny Flash Drives that not only offer you the best in style but also performance as well. Today we are taking a look at Super Talents new Gold PICO USB Drive. Available from 1GB, right through to an amazing 8GB, in such a tiny space which is really setting a high standard in the small USB market. Super Talent sent me the largest size available in there range of 8GB and I can't wait to get started on this review so let's get started shall we.
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Today I will be reviewing yet another P45 board, the Gigabyte EP45T-DS3R. I haven't quite decided the niche this board fits in, it is full-featured although not quite as nice as what I consider a mainstream motherboard, but much more than an economy board. Even the price fits between an economy board and a mainstream board. So what will it be, a very nice economy board, or an inexpensive mainstream board? Read on to see!
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The 4850 is a great mid-range card at under $200 MSRP and is gaining momentum as a well priced gaming solution. Newegg has the MSI card for under $195, only $5 more than the standard MSI 4850 without the special cooling. MSI's card has the distinction of being the coolest running HD 4850 I have yet to test with temperatures 10 degrees less than the standard reference card under load. The HD 4850 supports all of the features of DirectX 10.1 meaning that if a game requires it the card supports it. As the little brother of the HD 4870, the HD 4850 from MSI is a great choice for all but the most hardcore enthusiast who would want the more expensive 4870 or HD 4870 X2 cards in any event. At the end of the day the MSI R4850 512M video card is worth the extra $5 as it runs much cooler than the standard 4850 card and sacrifices nothing for it in terms of performance or features.
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Tuesday, September 9, 2008
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It's time to take a look at a 1200W PSU from Thermaltake, we are going to look at their biggest PSU from the Toughpower series. This PSU has four 12V rails from 20A and up so there is alot of power to be used, the question is how stable all the rails are and how loud this thing actually will be? I can only imagine how hot this thing actually will be after awhile of gaming or using the computer at load.
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Our topic of interest today will be one of their latest enclosure designs, the Osiris. Named after the ancient Egyptian god, the Osiris is an aluminum case with numerous features that the folks at Hiper think will make it a winner. To test this theory, we will install a system and see how well these features actually work, then look at cooling potential for a high-end system. The Osiris comes in two color choices, silver and black. Our test model comes in flashing the lighter color choice and presents a very nice physical appearance. As noted in our introduction, it is a mid-tower design so does not give the impression of wanting to need a room for itself due to a large footprint.
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