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Reviews Around The Web
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Thursday, March 27, 2008
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Corsair is a traditional memory manufacturer they gained a lot of respect in the industry with their power supplies - we reviewed HX620W and TX750W and they are terrific products. But how the entry-level series from Corsair, dubbed VX, performs? Today we will take the most inexpensive power supply from Corsair, VX450W, and completely disassemble it and see if it can really deliver its labeled power.
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The original P180 case was launched already three years ago and has since been replaced by a new and improved P182 model. The P1-series also includes the P190, which is a larger case including same design features as the P180, but it also offers room for EATX-motherboards and dual power supplies. Now the performance 1 series also includes a long awaited mATX-case - say hello to the P180 Mini!
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Today we are checking out one of the first NVIDIA ESA certified liquid cooling systems on the market. The system is called the Cooler Master Aquagate Max. The only really bad part about this system is that Cooler Master uses simple screw on compression fittings. That means if you ever need to remove the system to change cases you will have to drain the fluid. A few bucks worth of quick connect fittings like Corsair uses in its Nautilus system would have made the Cooler Master Aquagate Max much more user friendly in that respect.
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Vizo have sent plenty of bits and bobs my way over the last couple of years and one area of products they keep making and keep improving on is their HDD enclosures. Today I have one such product, the Uranus (that's yur-uh-nus, not...) which has a sleek blue finish. Will it live up to Vizo's reputation? Let's find out.
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When I first looked at the b-Envi enclosure, I thought the front panel controls were either hidden or on the side of the bezel. Boy, was I surprised when I flipped through the manual and found out they were touch sensitive; I couldn't wait to try them out. The buttons work great, and there is even a little beep every time you push them.
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Remember that the Tracer series from Crucial is very mature. I even reviewed the original set of black modules last year. These new red modules mark a trend in computing that Crucial is good to follow. The fact of the matter is that people like personalization. I'm guilty of that myself. I know that these modules are hardly better than the normal Ballistix breed, but the fact that it is red and has lights adds something of value to people. Red is my favorite color and I would naturally gravitate to these in a computer I would build.
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For my first venture into water I learned a lot, and the main thing is that it?s not nearly as hard or complicated as I thought. That may be due to the Thermaltake Bigwater 760i kit, but either way the whole process was very easy. It took all of 30 minutes to do the pre-install and fill the system, the long part was the bleeding the air from the system and leak test. I chose to do this out of the case for the fact it was easier to fill the tank and work the bubbles out of the lines. That and the nagging thought of a leak...
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The Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 8800 VGA Heatsink arrived Technic3D. Accelero Xtreme 8800 supports VGA cards from NVIDIA Geforce 8800 series. The VGA coolers comes with three 80mm Fans and place for SLI. See you in the following Review the Xtreme on a XFX 8800 GTX XXX compared with Standard GPU Cooling, Xigmatek Battle-Axe Cooler and the Zerotherm Hurricane HC92 Cu.
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Zalman have released several high end units lately and today we will examine the most expensive unit they currently produce, the ZM1000-HP. There are a few things about the ZM1000-HP which make it unique but the most important of them is the cooling system. Zalman have used their expertise with cooling to create a heatpipe system able to keep the powerful 1000w power supply cool and silent at the same time.
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We like the HD 3870 X2; generally speaking it gets good gains at high resolutions in most applications we test. The single PCB design is leaps and bounds ahead of the original dual GPU offering from NVIDIA under the 7900 naming scheme. We've seen pictures of the HD 3870 X2 from ASUS before, but now it's our chance to get down and dirty with it to see if it's worth spending the extra money the ASUS cards generally carry with them. The ASUS bundles on a whole are pretty good and give you everything you would expect out of a high-end card. You do pay a premium for ASUS cards which give you little extras like the CD Wallet and a more recent game.
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008
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The Porsche 911 Turbo wheel is an exact replica of the real wheel and comes with hand stitched leather and wireless technology for unrestricted racing fun. The pedals and choice of gear box round up the exclusive package. The gearbox is available as either 6+1 speed H-pattern gear stick or a sequential version.
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OCZ is well known for their memory and power supplies, but we thought we'd see just how well their current fleet of CPU coolers held up. We pit the Vendetta, Vendetta 2, Vanquisher and even the old-school Vindicator against our QX6850 to see what each one is made of.
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Yes you can go out and purchase one of the cards from any of the several manufacturers that endorse the ATI brand. The Toxic HD 3870 is an overclocked version of the ATI 3870 chipset. The Toxic HD 3870 uses a single slot cooler that would be a godsend for those that are tight on space or have motherboards with the PCIe slots too close together. This non-reference cooler helps to cool a RV670 clocked to 825MHz from the default 775MHz. Time to put the Toxic 3870 on the bench and see what performance numbers we can get.
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On the 18th of March 2008 NVIDIA launched the GeForce 9800 GX2 to coincide with their 790i motherboard chipset. Because gamers were teased by NVIDIA's first 9-series release which barely satisfied the middle-market with their GeForce 9600 GT, the discussion as to which upcoming product would become the new king of the hill quickly became a heated topic. Since the 8th generation GeForce series launched with a monumental success, starring the still powerful 8800 GTX and 8800 GTS, most hardware enthusiasts come to expect the same level of awe in this launch of new generation of discrete graphics. Few enthusiasts would say NVIDIA has outdone themselves again, while most others will claim that they have disappointed the community. Benchmark Reviews ignores the chatter, and makes a solid case with the Gigabyte GV-NX98X1GHI-B GeForce 9800 GX2 video card.
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X Trac Pads Fat Mat is a Cloth Nanofiber mouse pad that is relatively large and has a soft 1/4 inch thick foam backing. The large slick surface and extra thick soft material is invented to provide a more comfortable and efficient mouse surface.
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