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Reviews Around The Web
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Choose Web Reviews from this Maker:
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Friday, May 30, 2008
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Due to the similarities between this and the Eclipse-62, the Mirage was always going to be compared to its sibling, the Eclipse. However, when you look at the case on its own, you realise just what a good piece of kit it really is. Probably the best removable motherboard tray I've ever used, combined with rock solid build quality from the light and durable aluminium frame make a great base for a system build, and while the look of the case could be seen as a little boring, there's plenty of room for customisation.
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The Raidmax Iceberg is a sturdy case designed to suit the gamer who is also conscious of style. Coming stock with three 120 mm blue LED fans and a side panel window in addition to being quite sturdily constructed of aluminum, this case is made to please gamers.
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Recently, ASUS was among the first companies to put a pair of ATI HD 3850s on a single graphics card, for a more affordable dual-GPU experience. I reviewed a Radeon HD 3850 (single GPU) earlier this year, and was very impressed with it.performance just shy of an 8800GT at $100 less. A pair on one card should be an awesome experience. Today I will be looking at the ASUS EAH3850 X2 1GB, twin 3850s with 512MB each, one of the few on the market. Will it meet my dual-3850 expectations? How will it compare to the 9800GTX, nVidia's top of the line single-GPU card? Read on and see!
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It has been a while since we've seen anything from XFX, but they're back today with a 9600GT. This particular model we?re looking at isn't any ordinary 9600GT, it's the XXX Alpha Dog Edition which sits at the absolute top of the food chain in the world of 9600GTs. We've looked at so many 9600GT cards over the months that getting one which stands out from the pack isn't an easy task these days. We'll have to see if XFX is just offering a big overclock and nothing more, or if they can actually do something that makes them stand out from the pack that bit more.
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For testing, I used two programs, HD Tach and HD Tune, to test the write and read speeds of the drive in the dock. For reference purposes, the drive used was a 3.5" Maxtor 320GB, 7200 RPM SATA Drive. During testing, I was curious to see how having USB devices plugged into the hub would affect drive performance as they share the same USB bus to the computer.
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Making its appearance earlier at Sydney during Showcase Nokia 2008, the long wait is over as the Nokia N78 has finally reached our shores, so join us for a quick preview.
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As most of you know, due to the success of the original Eee PCs, Asus followed up with numerous accessories and multi-colored models in the months after their initial release. The follow-up units were essentially identical to the originals though, save for the different colored enclosures. The first really major change to the Eee PC line-up would be the Eee PC 900, which was just introduced about two weeks ago. Although the new Eee PC 900 and Eee PC 700 series machines have similar hardware foundations, Asus has tweaked the 900 in a number of meaningful ways including a bigger screen, a multi-touch touchpad and more storage.
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The Centurion line of Cooler Master cases has always been a solid entry-level series, targeted at gamers who don't want bling. Even modders like the steel. For enthusiasts, there's the Stacker series, with 5.25" bays running top to bottom, ready for any possible kind of expansion. And now they've created a middle ground.
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On the 29th of May 2008 VIA announced the Nano CPU, a processor built from Isaiah architecture. Building on the market-leading energy efficiency of their existing VIA C7 processor family, the VIA Nano processor family offers as much as four times the performance within the same power range to extend VIA's performance per watt leadership, while identical pin compatibility with VIA C7 processors will ensure a smooth transition for OEMs and motherboard vendors, and provides them with an easy upgrade path for current system or board designs.
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Even though X-Spice is not a very well known brand name, they achieved what nobody else could do: building an extremely quiet power supply that is stable and affordable. We are testing the 530W model today and found that it could easily handle a Quad CrossFireX rig, and produced less fan noise under load than most other power supplies in idle.
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The PIXMA MP970 does everything well. The print head can be removed and cleaned or replaced without having to take it to someone else to be serviced, it is reasonably quiet when printing, energy efficient and produces excellent results. The owner's manual is well written, but the printer is so easy to use that the manual will not be needed much. The paper output tray can remain closed and will open automatically once a print job has started, and the hidden bottom paper cartridge is nicely tucked away and goes unnoticed. The slide/negative holder is also conveniently hidden away under the top of the scanner lid. Overall this all-in-one can outperform any HP or Epson product in the same class. Colour photo printing is accurate and monochrome printing offers laser-like quality. The only major downside is that it's very bulky - make sure you have enough room for this monster.
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Thursday, May 29, 2008
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Early last month Nvidia released the GeForce 9800 GTX which today stands as the fastest single GPU graphics card money can buy. However, after almost sixty days of its release and with an eventual appearance of next-generation cards from both ATI and Nvidia, few manufacturers seem to be making pronounced efforts on modifying or improving the original Nvidia reference design. That is until we received the iChiLL 9800 GTX Accelero Xtreme from Inno3D, which features a mammoth heatsink that is cooled by no less than three fans.
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Like many gamers, we anticipated a heated videocard war would take place this past year between Nvidia and AMD. But instead of a knock-down, drag out fight between two heavyweight contenders, we instead witnessed Nvidia dancing around the ring with its 8800 series GPUs while the company formerly known as ATI nary made an attempt at the performance crown. In recent months AMD has finally responded with its HD 3870, and while it still doesn't manage to regain the lead, it did prompt Nvidia to release a new series in its lineup, the 9x00. Or did it?
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VIA made quite a splash early this year when they announced the Isaiah CPU architecture, which was developed at their Centaur design center. At the time of the announcement, we spoke with VIA's Centaur design center president, Glenn Henry, to get a deeper insight into what VIA had in store with Isaiah, but we weren't given many hard details regarding final clock speeds and specifications, performance, branding, or availability.
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The Silverstone KL03 is a mid-priced case with a price online of $180~. At this price, the case has a lot going for it as it has the space of an EATX case while easily fitting long video cards like the X1950XTX and 9800GX2 video cards. With NVIDIA?s next generation GT280 cards rumored to be the same size, the need for a case like the KL03 is clear. The main negatives of the case include the inability to remove the FDD cage which means that if you don't have a FDD, those spots are pretty much wasted. The five hard drive bays are sufficient for most users but it would have been nice to include a sixth HDD bay instead of the second FDD drive bay which is redundant in any case as most people don't have a use for a floppy disk. The lack of a removable motherboard tray is also a minus. Overall, the faults with this case are minor, and you should seriously consider buying one if you?re looking for a Med-Tower case that will work with larger PSUs and video cards.
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