circuitREMIX - Computer + Technology News and Reviews

Three High Wattage Power Supplies by Antec, Cooler Master and Thermaltake

brandon — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:30:00 PST

Antec, Cooler Master, and Thermaltake are well established brands in the computer power supply market. In this article, we'll be examining some of their high end power supplies catering to users with multi-core and multiple GPUs. The participants include Antec's Signature 850w, Cooler Master's UCP 900w and Thermaltake's Toughpower CM 1000w. They will be strapped to our new power supply test system and will be evaluated on efficiency, noise, ripple, and voltage regulation.

Daily News for Jan 19

brandon — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:07:17 PST

OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA Flash Drive Review @ Legit Reviews
The removable storage benchmark in Sandra 2009 SP2 showed the OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is insanely quick when compared to USB 2.0 flash drives. The OCZ ATV 32GB USB Flash drive was one of the fastest drives we have ever benchmarked, but it looked slow when comparing it to the OCZ Throttle. With 'Write' speeds that were 4.65MB/Sec and 'Read' speeds of 25.30MB/Sec the old ATV series drive is still fast, but new technology has finally surpassed what we would once consider one of the fasted drives on the market. The new OCZ Throttle eSATA drive had an impressive 'Write' speed of 58.04MB/Sec when used with a eSATA port and 29.63MB/Sec when used with a USB 2.0 port. With a 256kb file size our testing shows that you get double the 'Read' performance by using eSATA over USB on the same device. The 'Write' performance results showed a 65% performance gain by using eSATA over USB, so hands down eSATA is the way to go if you are moving a large number of files.

Antec P1000 Computer Case Prototype @ Benchmark Reviews
Antec has been the top choice for system builders and hardware enthusiasts for almost a decade now, which is quite surprising when you consider the competition. But the good old days of beige box computer cases with plenty of fans lining the inside are long gone. To achieve market dominance in 2009, you have to manufacturer a product that features everything more would consider desirable. While visiting with Mr. Han Liu, Antec's product development director present at the 2009 International CES, Benchmark Reviews discussed the Antec P1000 gaming chassis prototype.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 285 Graphics Card @ TweakTown
While we would all no doubt love to own the latest top of the line dual GPU bad boy, for many it's simply not a purchase that can be swallowed by their partner, bank account or even themselves. The GTX 285, on the other hand, should offer excellent performance while not hitting the bank account as hard. The key words there, though, is "as hard", because don't think for a second that the GTX 285 is going to be cheap. The card we're looking at today comes from GIGABYTE, so with everything said and done let's have a quick look at the package before having a closer look at the card and its specifications. From there we will check out the performance and see how it compares to the older cards like the GTX 280 which is still a very capable card along with the ex performance crown holder, the HD 4870 X2. Let's stop blabbering and get a move on to the package.

Foxconn X58 Quantum Force BloodRage Overclocking Test @ Madshrimps
Foxconn has moved aggressively forward in the retail market, previously only OEM supplier they are now pushing hard to get their brand recognized by end users. Their latest motherboard is based on Intel high end X58 chipset. Their naming schemes are not a mumbo jumbo of numbers and letters, but actually really eye-catching, like their P35 MARS, X48 Blackops, and now the X58 Blood Rage.

Palit GeForce 9800 GTX+ Video Card NE/98TX+XT352 @ Benchmark Reviews
Benchmark Reviews has had the wonderful opportunity to review and critique some of the best and most powerful video cards currently available anywhere. These items are very exciting, dreams of playing your favorite video game as large as life and silky smooth abound. Wouldn't it be great if we could all afford one of these monster video cards? Today Benchmark Reviews will take a close look at what I'll call a junior monster. Currently fourth in nvidias lineup of single GPU cards, the Geforce 9800 GTX+ is a card for the mainstream gamer and offers refinements on an already proven design, specifically the wildly popular and powerful G92 core. With a die shrink to 55nm speeds are up and temps are down. We will focus specifically on the PALiT non reference design Geforce 9800 GTX+ NE/98TX+XT352. With it's nearly silent cooler and slightly overclocked core this card should put up some good numbers.

AMD Phenom II X4 940: Compared to Phenom X4 9950 BE and Intel Core 2 Q9550 @ InsideHW
In last few years it looked like AMD lost its bearings in CPU market. No one expected that company, that is in constant transition, financial problems and without complete product portfolio, can produce interesting, equivalent and concurrent product. Phenom CPUs with K10 micro architecture didn’t claim speed crown from Intel, but they were significant step forward compared to “worn out” K8 cores. We must be aware of the fact that every processor is result of compromise between investments and goals. Probably K10 would be better product if it had larger L2 and L3 cache memory, with better and larger Branch Target Buffers, with different cache policies that are favoring intensive operations with cache memory, but in that case Phenom, that was manufactured in 65nm process, wouldn’t give adequate results.

Daily News for Dec 15

brandon — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:39:46 PST

DFI LP JR X58-T3H6 MicroATX Motherboard @ VR-Zone
DFI is preparing a microATX board based on Intel X58 chipset slated for release in January 2009. The PCB is black in colour and has 4 layers measuring at 245x245mm size. With 6 phase digital PWM design, it supports the LGA1366 processors from 4.8 to 6.4GT/s QPI. There are 6 DIMM slots on the board to allow up to 24GB DDR3-800/1066/1333 memories and two PCIe x16 slots for 2-way SLI and Quad Crossfire. Other features include 1 x PCIe x4, 1 PCI slot, 6 SATA ports configurable with RAID 0/1/0+1/5, one IDE port, 12 USB ports, Realtek ALC889 HD Audio, Marvell 8053 GbE LAN. There are 7 fan connectors onboard with EZ-On (Power) and EZ-Touch (Reset) switches and a Software Debug LED. The BIOS features CMOS Reloaded, Voltage Tuning for Vdimm, Vnb, Vcore, Vsb, VHT, 1MHz FSB frequency tuning and adjustable CPU multiplier, ABS technology system.

Tuniq Miniplant 950 Watt Power Supply Review @ Club Overclocker
By now, we've used every line we could think of to stress the importance of using a high quality power supply in your rig. Seriously, short of throwing your entire computer into a pool of acid, there just isn't a quicker way to damage or even destroy your hardware than to power it with a poorly built power supply. With so much riding on a single piece of equipment, we approach lesser known PSU manufacturers with caution. Today Michael has a look at a 950 watt power supply from Tuniq. Can the Tuniq PSU run with the big dogs?

Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME Core i7 Motherboard @ Benchmark Reviews
The GA-EX58-EXTREME is the latest high performance X58-Express Series motherboard from GIGABYTE, designed from the ground up to unleash the awesome power of Intel's new Core i7 processors. Equipped with a host of new features including the new QPI interface, 3-channel DDR3 support, 3-Way SLI and CrossFireX support, Ultra Durable 3 technology and the industry's most extensive range of overclocking features, the EX58-EXTREME is bringing excitement back into the high performance motherboard industry. In this article, Benchmark Reviews compares the EX58-EXTREME to Intel's DX58SO Smackover and last-generations X48T-DQ6 motherboards.

AMD Athlon X2 7750 and 5050e Dual-Core Processor Reviews @ Legit Reviews
Both the AMD Athlon X2 5050e and the Athlon X2 7750 processors serve a place in today's market, but the roles for the two processors are clear as night and day. The AMD Athlon X2 5050e is perfect for those wanting to build a system that uses low power and has a quiet cooling solution. The thermal properties on the Athlon X2 5050e were amazing and the fact that the processor runs at just 41C under load on the factory heat sink was most impressive.

A closer look at the Core i7-940 Processor @ Tech Report
When we first reviewed the Core i7 processor, we had two chips on hand: the high-end Core i7-965 Extreme and the more affordable Core i7-920. Sandwiched in between them in Intel's product lineup is the Core i7-940. Since we didn't have one of those to test, we employed a trick we sometimes use and turned down the clock speed on our Core i7-965 Extreme from its native 3.2GHz to the 940's 2.93GHz frequency. Given the breadth of CPU model ranges these days, we find ourselves using this trick fairly often. In fact, in this case, Intel even recommended that reviewers use this method to test Core i7-940 performance and provided the media with instructions for setting the proper clock speeds.

Intel Core i7 920, Core i7 965 EE and Intel DX58SO @ InsideHW
Long awaited Nehalem architecture got its official name: Core i7. We have tested two CPUs based on this architecture along with one motherboard based on X58 chipset also signed by Intel. But let’s cut to the chase and go straight to testing and results. Code name for X58 chipset is “Tylersburg”. This chipset is made in 65 nm manufacturing process and it is direct descendant of X48 chipset, which means that it belongs to Intel Extreme chipset series. There will be more than one version of X58 chipset: EP, EN and WS version that will be differentiated by number of PCI Express lines and QPI (QuickPath Interconnect) connections (links, busses).

AMD Athlon X2 7750 BE 2.7GHz CPU Phenom goes Dual-Core @ Tweaktown
From the CPU-Z screenshot you can see that that design is based around a 64nm process codenamed Kuma. Kuma is actually a cut down version of the AMD Phenom processors that are currently out. First off it’s limited to a dual-core offering, which is kind of evident by the X2 part in the name. Sharing the lower clocked Phenom’s specs the 7750 uses a 1.8GHz HT link, which also limits the integrated Northbridge’s frequency to 1.8GHz. Thanks to the K10 architecture the new Athlon gets official HT3.0 specs allowing it to communicate with the external Northbridge at higher speeds and K8 based Athlon’s cache memory has also changed thanks to the K10 architecture improvements. First off the L2 cache has been dropped to 512K per core (1MB total CPU L2 cache) however a 2MB shared L3 cache has been used – it is the same size that all Phenom CPU’s share giving it extra memory storage on the CPU.

Intel i7-920 Nehalem Processor Review @ Tweaknews
The performance contained even within this US$300 i7-920 processor is extremely impressive for the money. One would really wonder why they would pay almost $250-$300 more for the i7-940 when this processor is beating even extremely fast quad cores from generations past. Sure some of the more expensive offerings will have their benefits when it comes to video and photo creation and editing, but for the mainstream or even the power user, this processor would be an excellent buy.

Daily News for Nov 26

brandon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:49:10 PST

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 @ InsideHW
ATI continuously presents new models of graphics cards, using new GPU to the maximum and filling gaps in their product lineup. ATI solves every problem with simple solution that can be summarized something like this: What is better than HD 4850? Two HD 4850! Result is logical and now after Radeon HD 4870 X2 we got in our test lab HD 4850 X2 that should position in between HD 4870 and HD 4870 X2. Graphics card that we got is signed by Sapphire.

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA HDD @ TechwareLabs
While Western Digital doesn't market the 1TB Green drive as a performance drive its actual performance might suprise you. Could this "Green" drive be your next good performance drive at a reasonable cost? We think so, and to find out why read our review.

OCZ Reaper OCZ2RPR10664GK DDR2 Memory Kit @ Benchmark Reviews
With DDR3 getting all the attention lately it's easy to overlook DDR2 performance memory. There are many very good reasons to consider DDR2 including but not limited to price and performance. Today Benchmark Reviews takes a look at at one potential price:performance hotshot; the OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066 OCZ2RPR10664GK 4GB Memory Kit. Can it's unique cooling solution and high speed specs be enough to sway you?

IN WIN Commander Series 1200 watt Modular Power Supply @ Tweaktown
For many of us old timers who have been playing with computers for a while, the name IN WIN conjures up images of system enclosures. It should since the company has been around since 1985 with their primary goal being the sales and marketing of their enclosure product line. Since that time they have expanded a bit and their lineup now includes enclosures, external hard drive enclosures and power supplies. The target of today's article is the new Commander Series of power supplies. These units are rated from 650 watts to 1500 watts of power output and consist of a total of five models, so you are assured of getting the power you will need for your own custom build. The Commander we will be testing today is one of the big boys, the 1200 watt Commander. We will delve into this new power supply and let you know what kind of features are included and what kind of power you can expect to be produced. After all, this is your money we're talking about so we will want to make sure it is worth the expense.

Thermaltake Armor+ LCS @ TechwareLabs
Today we take a look at one of the most feature rich chassis to come into TechwareLabs in a long time, the Thermaltake Armor+ LCS. The Armor+ LCS weighs in just shy of FIFTY pounds but it packs an equally heavy punch in features and cooling. Take a look why this case easily won our Editors Choice award and why we think it deserves a place in your home.

Daily News for Nov 24

brandon — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:25:27 PST

QNAP TS-409U Turbo NAS @ TechwareLabs
Businesses are always in need of more storage, and those with experience know that its the data that is important and therefore redundancy is critical. We take a look today at the QNAP TS-409U Turbo NAS which combines several features to bring you a device that is not only easy to use and fast, but also provides redundancy. The TS-409U has a laundry list of features and aims to please everyone from the advanced home user to the most needy of businesses. Is the TS-409U just what the doctor ordered?

GlacialTech Altair A381 HTPC Review@ Hardware Bistro
HTPC or Home Theatre PC which is not a new stuff as it have been in the market quite some time ago. What is HTPC? Basically it is a device which combines the functions of computer and digital video recorder. Today, we are going to bring you a HTPC case from GlacialTech; Altair A381 which was just released in Sep 2008. Wonder how this A381 looks like and how it performs? Let us go through together.

SilverStone Fortress FT01 Case SST-FT01B-W @ Benchmark Reviews
SilverStone has a long history of designing and building fantastic looking products, and the Fortress Series is no exception, especially the SST-FT01B-W model. Benchmark Reviews has investigated a few SilverStone products up to now, and we've always come away impressed by their good looks, thoughtful design, and premium build quality. Things are definitely looking up; let's take it home and see what it can do with this premium computer case.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 @ InsideHW
New edition of one of the best, if not the best, application for processing raster graphics attended for photographers but also for graphic and web designers, is finally tested on InsideHW. One of most important technical novelties is that Photoshop CS4 will be delivered only as 64-bit version. Adobe made this decision after preliminary tests that showed that performances of 64-bit applications are better for 8% to 12% comparing to 32-bit version. True power and advantages of 64-bit version are hidden in fact that it can use large amounts of memory.

Silverstone NT06 Evolution Heatpipe CPU Cooler Review @ Tweaknews
In conclusion, SilverStone has a great product in the NT06 Evolution cooler. Its cooling performance is surprisingly good when coupled with a quiet, low-flow fan and very good when airflow increases. I like its compactness and relatively low mass and it looks pretty good as well. With a lower cost and an improved mounting solution, the NT06 Evolution would be a excellent value, but these issues drop it back a bit in this regard.

Intel Core i7 Memory Analysis – Can Dual Channel Cut it? @ Tweaktown
There isn't much Intel can do about the slow write speeds inherent to MLC memory. However, the company has crafted a new solid-state drive based on single-level cell (SLC) memory chips that aren't plagued by poor write rates. This latest X25-E Extreme boasts the same 250MB/s sustained read speed as the X25-M, but write speeds have been boosted from a paltry 70MB/s to a much more impressive 170MB/s. Oh my. Obviously, the X25-E Extreme is going to be faster than the X25-M. Read on to see where the X25-E's faster write speeds help the most, and in some cases, where they improve performance more than you might expect.

Intel's X25-E Extreme solid-state drive @ Tech Report
There isn't much Intel can do about the slow write speeds inherent to MLC memory. However, the company has crafted a new solid-state drive based on single-level cell (SLC) memory chips that aren't plagued by poor write rates. This latest X25-E Extreme boasts the same 250MB/s sustained read speed as the X25-M, but write speeds have been boosted from a paltry 70MB/s to a much more impressive 170MB/s. Oh my. Obviously, the X25-E Extreme is going to be faster than the X25-M. Read on to see where the X25-E's faster write speeds help the most, and in some cases, where they improve performance more than you might expect.

Intel X25-M 80GB 2.5-inch Solid State Disk @ Tweaktown
The testing for the new Intel X25-M has been completed for a couple of weeks now, but I have been putting off writing the article. Reviewers are faced with tough decisions from time to time; generally it is because we had found a fatal flaw and try to work with a company to correct the issue. This time the flaw is simply that the drive is too good. Intel is saying that their first entry into the consumer SSD market is able to read up to 250 MB/s, while other products are claiming a maximum of 175 MB/s. Honestly, who in their right mind would want to send over a consumer SSD for us to review knowing that it would be compared to the Intel X25-M? - Where do I sign up for unemployment because my job is gone? The good thing is that Intel has left us a couple of back doors and has not totally disrupted the market. The first and foremost is price. We are starting to see 128GB MLC based drives with decent performance break the 300 Dollar barrier. The new Intel X25-M just showed up at Newegg for a little over twice that amount for the 80GB version we are looking at today. I may be saved after all, but information about rapid price drops are starting to leak out. The last I heard from the rumor mill is that the X25-M will get a new price of 530 USD before the year is out; still a lot more than some of the others, but clearly not out of range for enthusiasts.

Tagan A+ Curbic Mid Tower Case Review @ Legit Reviews
Overall, the Tagan found a nice balance of budget building practice, style, and features. The Curbic looks very nice with the mesh front panel and blue LED fans. The case was surprisingly quiet for running two 180mm fans. On high they are very much in the range of what would be considered livable for a desktop; with the fans on low it was very quiet. The Tagan Aplus Curbic is not yet available in the US, and has an estimated MSRP of $59.99 and should be available in retail stores before the holiday. The Curbic would be a very good fit for the user who wants an inexpensive, yet a nice looking, case.

iStarUSA T5F-SS SAS/SATA Hard Drive Mobile Rack

brandon — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:00:00 PST

iStarUSA is a company with almost 20 years of experience in manufacturing their own industrial switching power supplies, rackmount chassis and server cabinets. Expanding their product catalogue, iStarUSA also makes workstation and server accessories including mobile hard drive racks. Used in situations where hard drives need to quickly swapped, mobile racks help to make the task easier.

iStarUSA has many internal hard drive enclosure options, and today we'll be looking at the T5F-SS, a single drive SATA/SAS hard drive mobile rack.

The specification of iStarUSA's T5F-SS mobile hard drive rack are as follows:

- fits in a 5.25" drive bay
- accepts 3.5" SATA I/II and SAS hard drives (using the SATA power connector)
- 40mm cooling fan
- plastic face, steel frame, lockable
- trayless and screwless design for hard drive installation
- requires 4-pin molex power source

Daily News for Nov 21

brandon — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:23:17 PST

AMD overclocks 45nm Phenoms to 4GHz and Beyond @ TechReport
The slowest system—cooled with a heatsink and fan—managed to reach just under 4GHz with a 1.55V core voltage. With liquid cooling, AMD successfully pushed a 45nm Phenom II in another machine just over the 4GHz mark. That required kicking up the CPU voltage to 1.6V, however. For the other two systems, AMD took out the big guns. One was strapped to a phase-change cooler and reached the mid-4GHz range at 1.7V, while the fastest system managed to well over 5GHz using liquid nitrogen (which kept the core temperature down to a chilly -185°C).

Acer F-22 22" LCD Monitor @ InsideHW
Formula 1 circus has a lot fanatical followers and many of them cheer for most successful team in history of Formula racing, Italian Scuderia Ferrari. This phenomenal “stable” isn’t connected only with “studs” but through numerous licenses, Ferrari is linked with some products that aren’t in any correlation with race cars. Among sundry articles from sneakers to Segway you can find even TFT monitors with Ferrari brand that are produced by Acer. We are now presenting to you 22inch model produced in limited series and each TFT has unique identification number.

ASUS Rampage II Extreme X58 Motherboard @ Tweaktown
So far we have tested GIGABYTE’s EX58-UD5 in our Core i7 CPU review and we have just recently given the P6T Deluxe the tick of approval as well, but ASUS isn’t stropping there. P6T is actually aimed at the mainstream and enthusiast sector, where today’s contender is aimed more so at the extreme and hardcore users. Running under the name of the Republic of Gamers series, the Rampage II is ASUS’ second Core i7 model to hit the market. Rampage II Extreme is the latest in the ROG series, something that ASUS really puts a lot of pride into. And with all that effort and R&D comes a price tag to match. However, if you’re one who can afford a Core i7 along with dual GPUs then you’re not going to care or skimp on the board.

MSI K9A2 Platinum AMD 790FX Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
Retailing for about $170 CDN ($170 USD, £90 GBP), the MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard features four PCI Express x16 slots for multiple videocards, some nice overclocker friendly BIOS options and the regular host of integrated goodies. The MSI K9A2 Platinum is built on AMDs venerable 790FX and SB600 chipsets, which incorporate Hypertransport 3.0 and bus speeds of up to 2600MHz. The board accomodates all socket AM2/AM2+ AMD Athlon64/Sempron/Phenom CPUs and inexpensive DDR2 RAM.

Wolfking Warrior Xxtreme Gaming Keyboard Review @ Tweaknews
With the Warrior XXtreme, Wolfking set out to improve on the already great Warrior game pad by including the ability to chat and execute commands, something that was missing from its predecessor. The type of gamer you are will determine whether or not the addition of this modified QWERTY keyboard is welcome or just in the way. It became obvious early on in my testing that RPG gamers would be the ones making use of the Warrior XXtreme's full potential.

NZXT Tempest Airflow King ATX Case Review @ Madshrimps
Equipped with two 140mm and four 120mm fans this case from NZXT is build to provide a maximum of airflow to the components installed inside. It is a mid-sized tower case with enough room to fit high end VGA cards and third party CPU coolers. We compare the performance of the NZXT Tempest to our multitude of competitors, read on to find out if this case is truly the Airflow King.

G.SKILL 64GB SATAII MLC SSD Review @ HardwareBistro
SSD is being widely used on notebook since last year 2007 as the capacity is getting higher and cost is cheaper. Many PC manufacturers have started to offer SSD for their notebooks as SSD has many great advantages over the traditional HDD. Today we will have a look of G.Skill 64GB SSD (MLC) which we would say is the minimum capacity required for a notebook especially for Vista OS.

Daily News for Nov 20

brandon — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:52:12 PST

Kingston HyperX 3GB DDR3 2GHz Triple-Channel Memory Kit Review @ Legit Reviews
All said and done, the performance of the Kingston HyperX DDR3 2GHz 3GB triple-channel memory kit was impressive and it was great to see that it was overclocking beyond 2.1GHz with no extra voltage. Another thing that should be pointed out when it comes to performance is that no active cooling is required at 2GHz since the kit uses just 1.65V! I tested the memory inside the ThermalTake Spedo Advance chassis, which has good airflow, and when I touched the modules while playing Far Cry 2 they were just warm to the touch. Not what one would expect for some memory modules that are running at 2000MHz. It makes you wonder how fast these triple-channel kits will become in 2009 now that the Intel Core i7 platform is here.

Intel Core i7-920 Processor BX80601920 @ Benchmark Reviews
Today we are releasing the third review in our Core i7 series which focuses on the features and performance of the Intel Core i7-920. The Core i7-920 is considered to be the processor for the mainstream consumer primarily because of its price to performance ratio. The i7-920 doesn't have the unlocked multipliers that its more mature sibling does, but it is still a quite capable chip with its 2.66 GHz factory clock. We intend to share all of our findings and hope after reading this review you will have a much better understanding of the Core i7 family in general and the i7-920 in specific. We also plan to go into as complete of a discussion as possible on everything you can do to enhance capabilities this processor brings to the table. Unfortunately we don't have a QX9770, Intel's previous "King of the Hill", to compare the i7-920 to; but we should note that in all the test results we've seen the i7-920 (model BX80601920) outp! erforms the QX9770 in all processor dependant tasks. So the only true competition for the i7-920 are the other members of the Core i7 family which we will be testing for comparison purposes.

OCZ SLI Edition DDR3 2000MHz @ Pro-Clockers
But in the meantime for the enthusiast we have DDR3 that is topping 2000MHz at 1.8 volts. To me and many people that are gamers and overclockers is the way to go. Speed, power and the fun factor is just too much to not get excited about. Today we have OCZ's SLI Edition of 2000MHz DDR3. Matched with a good 790i motherboard like the EVGA Ultra and some dual Nvidia video cards has the making of being one hell of a rig.

XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
Considering how the XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition already has a significant overclock I wasn't expecting much in the way of overclocking headroom. That being said, the results were incredible. I was able to get the core up to 739Mhz, the shaders up to 1557MHz, and the memory up to 1285MHz. This was a 73MHz core overclock, 153MHz shader overclock, and a 286MHz memory overclock.

Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M/A Radeon HD 4850 Videocard Review @ PCSTATS
In this review PCSTATS is going to toss a bunch of benchmarks at ASUS' EAH4850 HDTI/512/M/A videocardv and find out if it has what it takes to enter the hallowed halls of history with the likes of the Geforce 8800GT, ti4200, Radeon 9800 Pro and X1950 Pro.... the md-range videocard hall of fame. The Asus EAH4850 packs a single Radeon 4850 'RV770' GPU running at 625MHz under the hood, and 512MB of DDR3 RAM running at a smooth 1000MHz.

Coolermaster UCP Ultimate 700W @ Pro-Clockers
Well that something is power supplies. Its not like the Coolermaster is new to power supplies but the new Ultimate line from them is poised to be a big hit with the consumers due to the stability and the efficiency of the unit. But with a name like Ultimate Coolermaster has better offer more than efficiency and stability but power and looks to make the potential buyer to even consider it for their new rig. Today we will be taking a look at the smaller of the line in form of a 700 watt power house.

Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283 Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
The Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283 heatsink FrostyTech is reviewing today is equipped with vibration absorbing rubber fan posts, a 120mm internally illuminated PWM fan that scales in speed from 1000-2200RPM, and a glossy black nickel plating that case modders must love. The 600gram Dark Knight S1283 heatsink is compatible with socket 775 Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad CPUs, and all socket 754/939/940/AM2 AMD Athlon64/Phenom processors.

Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition Processor @ Benchmark Reviews
Fear not my enthusiast brethren, in our second publication we will be covering all that you asked for and more as we review the Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition (XE). We have now had sufficient time to spend with Core i7 series and our knowledge base on these processors and their supporting components has grown exponentially. In our first article, Intel Core i7 CPU & DX58SO X58 Platform we covered most of the available information regarding both the Nehalem Technology and the architecture used with the Intel Core i7 Processor family. We will therefore not repeat that discussion, instead; our goal today is to spend most of our energy concentrating on those features and performance aspects of the Intel Core i7-965XE that have led it and its other i7 kin to be dubbed "The Fastest Processor on the Planet" by Intel.

Lian Li PC-A77B Full Tower Chassis Review @ Bigbruin
I am definitely impressed with this Lian Li PC-A77B full tower chassis. Being a fan of simplistic yet useful design, this case has it all. The top mounted I/O ports are in a great location to access while using the computer. Lian Li has designed this case to allow you to install your components in many different configurations, which makes customizing your setup very convenient.

Daily News for Nov 12

brandon — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:28:59 PST

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 Dual-GPU Grapchics @ Benchmark Reviews
Sapphire is best know for taking an ATI product, and making better. It's rare that an AMD partner takes engineering into their own hands, a produces a self-made product. What's impressive is that they've decided to do so with a dual-RV770 Radeon HD 4850 X2 as their latest evolution in graphics cards. Benchmark Reviews compares performance against the GeForce 9800 GX2, CrossFireX 4850's, and the Radeon HD 4870 X2 to name a few, but add a collection of todays hottest video cards to make sure the Sapphire 11139-00-40R receives a workout.

Blu-Ray Performance - Intel X4500HD Versus Radeon 4830 Part 2 @ Legit Reviews
Many Blu-Ray movies use VC-1 and Shoot 'Em Up just happens to be one of those titles and it has DTS-HD MasterAudio 7.1 for audio. The Intel DG45ID motherboard with X4500HD integrated graphics averaged 29% CPU usage with the broken BIOS and 14% with the fixed BIOS installed on the system. The ATI Radeon HD 4830 graphics card had on average 11% CPU usage, which is 22% less than the integrated graphics.

Titan Cool Idol TTC-NK75TZ Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
Titan's Cool Idol heatsink is made from three separate aluminum fin sections joined to a copper base by six 6mm diameter copper heatpipes. The heatsink uses one 120mm PWM fan mounted on vibration absorbing rubber posts that is capable of spinning from 800-2200RPM. The use of six heatpipes and three aluminum fin sections is fairly unique, but at 850 grams in weight the Cool Idol is seriously under supported. The bulk of the heatsink hangs heavy on the fragile copper heatpipes, so right out of the box it was leaning to one side.

Silicon Power 32GB SLC SATA-II SSD @ Benchmark Reviews
Silicon Power is a rather unknown player in the North American marketplace, despite having numerous products available to the retail market. Not very long ago, Benchmark Reviews tested the first-generation Silicon Power SATA SSD. In that article we found ourselves torn between performance that left some room for improvement, and the press release announcement that Silicon Power had a new SATA-II SSD product ready to launch. As fortune would have it, we didn't have to wait very long to see if the marketing hype was true. In this article, the Silicon Power 32GB SLC SATA-II SSD SP032GBSSD750S25 receives benchmark testing and gets compared against a dozen other high-performance Solid State Drives.

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3-1333 Memory Kit Review @ Bigbruin
The bottom line on the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3-1333 memory kit is that it offers great performance right out of the box, and for those looking for more, they will gladly oblige. While they may not have the highest stock speed rating, even a novice overclocker should be able to get a few hundred extra MHz out of this kit.

MSI X48 Platinum Intel X48 Express Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
The raw specs for MSI's X48 Platinum motherboard are equally impressive. The board is based on the Intel X48 Express and ICH9-R variant Southbridge, and supports DDR3-800/1066/1333 and 1600 (XMP) memory formats. It has four DDR3 memory slots which may accommodate up to 8GB of RAM in a dual channel configuration. The real beauty of MSI's X48 Platinum is broad accommodation of videocards.

Antec MicroFusion Remote 350 Mini HTPC Enclosure @ Benchmark Reviews
Home Theater Personal Computers (HTPCs) have been a steadily growing market for nearly a decade now. However, up until the past few years, if you wanted a quality HTPC case you either had to build it yourself, or modify an existing desktop case. While there is certainly some merit to building your own case, most major case manufacturers these days have their own line of cases for just this purpose. Today at Benchmark Reviews, we will look at one of the recent additions to the Antec Veris line-up: the Antec MicroFusion Remote 350 Mini HTPC Enclosure. After a thorough inspection of the exterior and interior features, we'll put it through its paces with a full range thermal performance benchmarks.

FSP Power-Mod 700w Power Supply Review @ Club Overclocker
Today we will be looking at the latest modular power supply from FSP Group, the Power-Mod 700 Watt Modular Power Supply. While the name FSP Group may be new to you, it is likely you have used one of their OEM power supplies before under the name Fortron Source. FSP is currently the number 6 power supply manufacturer in the world and has been making both OEM and aftermarket power supplies since 1993. With a history like that, lets see what the Power-Mod 700W can bring to the table!

Inte Core i7 CPU/Processor and X58 Chipset Review Edition

brandon — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:38:31 PST

@ Tech Report
The Core i7-965 Extreme is, by far, the fastest processor we've ever tested, and it seems clear the Core i7 architecture brings with it a general performance increase over the 45nm Core 2 processors it succeeds. We've seen that increase in everyday desktop applications, including the WorldBench suite and several of the latest games. In part, the Core i7's performance gains come from higher clock frequencies due to the "Turbo mode" mechanism. When the Core i7-965 Extreme is operating at 3.33 or 3.46 GHz, it's going to be somewhat faster than a Core 2 at 3.2GHz. That's why I've been I've been hesitant to talk about clock-for-clock performance gains for Core i7, as you may have noticed. Yet in some cases, the Core i7 undeniably delivers clock-for-clock performance increases over Core 2, along with dramatic gains in absolute performance. We saw the biggest improvements in some specific sorts of workloads, including 3D rendering, scientific computing/HPC applications, and nearly any application that could spawn up to eight threads. More than once, a single Core i7-965 Extreme outran our dual-socket "Skulltrail" system by a considerable margin. This new system architecture pushes the performance frontiers forward in places where progress had previously been rather halting.

@ Driver Heaven
Another new feature on i7 processors is an inclusion of an integrated memory controller which supports 2 DIMMs per channel. An on CPU memory controller is nothing particularly new as even in the desktop market AMD have been using this for a while but the Intel version improves on the AMD method in a couple of major ways. Firstly the i7 version is a 24 GB maximum, triple channel design which has huge benefits with memory bandwidth. Secondly it allows for extremely uneven population of memory, for example Channel A could contain 3 GB, channel B 1.5 GB and Channel C 2 GB, though the best performance occurs when all channels are populated identically. Finally, due to the design of the overall architecture the preset memory limits are a lot more flexible. On AMD CPU's each is set with a limit such as 800MHz DDR2 on original Phenoms. With i7 the memory speed is controlled differently and this is best explained if we look at the overall design of the i7 architecture.

@ Benchmark Reviews
As you can readily see the design of the Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO is radically different from anything you've been used to up until this point. The primary differences are component placement. The memory sockets are moved to the top of the motherboard in a area that heretofore has been allocated for the CPU socket. The north and southbridges that we have grown used to are now essentially a thing of the past as memory management is now an on die process. The QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) assumes most of the balance of of these two components tasks.

@ Anandtech
Nehalem, as I've mentioned countless times before, is a "tock" processor in Intel's tick-tock cadence. That means it's a new microarchitecture but based on an existing manufacturing process, in this case 45nm. A quad-core Nehalem is made up of 731M transistors, down from 820M in Yorkfield, the current quad-core Core 2s based on the Penryn microarchitecture. The die size has gone up however, from 214 mm^2 to 263 mm^2. That's fewer transistors but less densely packed ones, part of this is due to a reduction in cache size and part of it is due to a fundamental rearchitecting of the microprocessor. Nehalem is Intel's first "native" quad-core design, meaning that all four cores are a part of one large, monolithic die. Each core has its own L1 and L2 caches, and all four sit behind a large 8MB L3 cache. The L1 cache remains unchanged from Penryn (the current 45nm Core 2 architecture), although it is slower at 4 cycles vs. 3. The L2 cache gets a little faster but also gets a lot smaller at 256KB per core, whereas the lowest end Penryns split 3MB of L2 among two cores. The L3 cache is a new addition and serves as a common pool that all four cores can access, which will really help in cache intensive multithreaded applications (such as those you'd encounter in a server). Nehalem also gets a three-channel, on-die DDR3 memory controller, if you haven't heard by now.

@ Legit Reviews
Together the Intel X58 Express chipset and the ICH10 Southbridge make up what is certain to be a very solid platform to use on high performance systems. The Intel ICH10/ICH10R Southbridge was launched with the Intel P45 Express chipset and has already proven itself a winner with some of the best Solid State Drive performance numbers of any chipset on the market. The X58 Express supports up to 36 lanes of PCI Express 2.0 connectivity, and since many boards using these chipsets will have both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFire enabled it will mean that Triple-SLI and Quad CrossFireX will be easy to implement. This is due to the fact that NVIDIA is allowing motherboard makers to use a special sBIOS if they pay a licensing fee for SLI Technology. So, finally multi-GPU technology from both graphics card companies can be used on the same board. If that isn't enough Intel has done away with the Front Side Bus and now has the Quick Path Interconnet to handle the flow of data between the processor and the chipset. The memory now has over 25.5 GB/s of throughput since it now has a direct connection to the processor.

@ Bit-tech
Gaming performance is something key to our hearts though and we have to say the results are less than we'd hoped, but for two out of three games at least the Core i7 processors are faster - in the Source engine quite impressively so. However, given the huge advance in bandwidth - both from QPI compared to Front Side Bus and triple channel DDR3 compared to dual channel DDR2/3 previously - these architectural enhancements don't seem to benefit games as much as we would have liked. When the Core architecture was first announced with Conroe and we saw simply massive advances in gaming performance compared to AMD and the previous Netburst architecture, clearly with the same execution engine (and to some degree, a smaller L2 cache/slower larger cache) Core i7 doesn't offer the same advantage. Hyper Threading certainly doesn't make a positive impact either and the changing the QPI bandwidth doesn't hugely affect performance in Crysis and Half-Life 2: Episode Two, but it did in Far Cry 2. We'd argue a certain degree of caution in checking what the differences are in the games you play before buying, however while they're not likely to be slow by any means, the drops in Far Cry 2 were significant to say the least. Once we get the heads up as to why - we'll be sure to let you know.

@ t-Break
Codenamed Bloomfield, this well-anticipated successor in the ‘Core’ series has been officially labeled as the Core i7. Its is the first CPU to be based on Intel’s new Nehalem micro-architecture and it comes with a host of unique features. One of the most talked about feature of the Nehalem is the integrated memory controller which is something AMD’s has been doing for a while as well. However, the Core i7 supports the latest generation of DDR3 RAM in Triple channel. We say “Hello” once again to Hyper-Threading, making the quad-cores of Nehalem appear as eight logical cores with two threads per core. With the demise of the memory controller residing on the Northbridge, the Front Side Bus (FSB) is also replaced by Intel's Quick Path Interconnect (QPI)- a point to point interconnect between the CPU and the I/O hub which is, once again, somewhat similar to HyperTransport used in AMD CPUs. Adding to this is “Turbo Boost” that changes the way we’re used to overclocking with previous Intel CPUs. The first Core i7 processors launching today are the 920 @ 2.66GHz, 940 @ 2.93GHz and the 965EE @ 3.20GHz, all of which are quad core processors based on a 45nm fabrication process. They’re a bit bigger is size than previous Core 2 CPUs and the new socket packaging is LGA1366.

@ Tweaktown
Comparing all three CPUs from the back side, the Core i7 while larger, looks somewhat similar to Core 2. This is because Intel has done away with pins on the processor since the Pentium D series of CPU. I can personally vouch for killing one or two 478-pin test bed processors because of having to remove and insert them into boards for reviews. If you accidentally pull too hard on the heatsink when removing it from the board, you could easily bend or break a pin. Core i7 uses a Land Grid Array of 1366 pins, that’s 591 new pins. Intel needed to add extra pins for the QPI connector as well as extra pins for the memory module traces as the modules now connect directly to the CPU. This is a far cry from AMD who still use pinned processors in the desktop market which are prone to bending and breaking. It’s harder to ruin the pins on the board compared to the CPU. Ever since using LGA775 CPUs in test beds, we haven’t bent a single pin on any board we have had.

@ Legion Hardware
The base clock overclocking is a little trickier as it also boosts the memory frequency as well, much like FSB overclocking with a Core 2 processor. However unlike DDR3 memory that is paired with a Core 2 processor, a maximum memory voltage of just 1.6v can be used when operating with a Core i7. Increasing the memory voltage beyond 1.6v places the Core i7 processor at a high risk of being burnt out, and this is likely why Intel has gone with a triple-channel DDR3 interface, as it allows them to get away with using slower 1066MHz memory. Using a 160MHz base clock means that the memory is no longer running at 1066MHz but rather 1280MHz. It is unlikely that most current DDR3-1066 memory modules will do this at just 1.6v or less. Therefore, as we see it your options are either to try and reduce the memory timings in order to get the memory working at higher frequencies, or alternatively reduce the memory multiplier. Either option was made relatively easy to carry out in the Intel DX58SO motherboard BIOS.

@ Hot Hardware
We also did some overclocking to see how much headroom these early Core i7 processors have left untapped under their hoods. Because the Core i7 Extreme 965 has its overspeed protection removed--i.e. its multipliers are unlocked--we overclocked the processor by raising its multiplier to 25 and also experimented with an increased QPI speed. With the core voltage raised to 1.4v and the memory voltage tapped at 1.65v, we were able to take our particular processor up to a stable 4.15GHz with air-cooling. As you may have heard in the weeks leading up to today's announcement, the Core i7 processor, and in particular its integrated memory controller, are sensitive to increased voltages. Memory voltages higher than 1.65v are not recommended and could damage the CPU. In light of this, memory manufacturers have begun shipping triple-channel DDR3 memory kits capable of relatively high frequencies with voltages no higher than 1.65v.

Daily News for Oct 30

brandon — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:45:41 PDT

Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition 512MB Review @ Legit Reviews
The Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition is equipped with 512MB of GDDR5 memory and comes packed with innovative features like a dual bios and dual cooling fans. Palit custom designed this graphics card from the ground up, so no even the PCB is reference designed. Read on to see what Palit changed and how it performs with all the changes! Anyone can slap on an aftermarket heatsink and call it a day but Palit's implementation of two BIOS chips on this video card was a welcome improvement. I am notorious for killing video cards and I've had my fair share of video cards that I've bricked from bad BIOS flashes so having two BIOS chips on the card doesn't immediately render it useless after a bad flash. Palit features two BIOS profiles, one with stock clocks and one slightly overclocked. The stock clocks are 750MHz on the core and 950MHz on the memory. Palit bumps this up to 775MHz on the core and 1000MHz on the memory for a modest and safe overclock.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 Motherboard Review @ Hardware Bistro
Just few months ago Intel launched their latest mainstream chipset P45 Express; Codename "Eaglelake". The major different for P45 and P35 is P45 can support PCI Express 2.0. Today we are going to test out this P45 board from Gigabyte; GA-EP45-DS3. Gigabyte has total around 20 boards for this Intel P45 chipset and GA-EP45-DS3 is the most basic version of their P45 chipset line.

Antec Skeleton Open Air Case @ Pro-Clockers
Well, today we are taking a long look at a new case from Antec. Antec's slogan for their new offering is "Think outside the box". And that is just what they were thinking when they came up with the Skeleton. An open air structure that will house a full system and have some sides at all just four 'legs'. The Skeleton can be looked at from two different angles. The first is a house to hold all your beloved components or as a test bench to torture your beloved components. Which ever way you decide to lean I can say one thing and that is the Skeleton is one very interesting case. Read along to come to your own conclusion.

Sapphire Radeon HD 4550 Review @ Club Overclocker
When ATi launched the RV770 last summer, few could predict the amount of chaos that was brought onto the market. Even today, the barrage of products and the assault on NVIDIA continues, with the Sapphire Radeon HD 4550. But today, we look at things from a different perspective. The 4850, 4870 and the X2 series handle the gaming side of things very well, but the price point of the HD 4550 aims toward a very different market. While we still look at the gaming capabilities of this card, the testing will be primarily geared for HTPC and HD playback applications.

OCZ Technology Dominatrix Laser Gaming Mouse Review @ Bigbruin
This review will be taking a look at a provocatively named new mouse from OCZ Technology that includes features like on-the-fly resolution management, adjustable mouse weights, and an ergonomic design. Just this short list of items makes the Dominatrix laser gaming mouse sound promising; just don't expect this dominatrix to bend you over a table and give you a spanking!

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 260 OCX Graphics Card @ Tweaktown
Not too long ago BFG Tech thought that it was time to kick it up a notch and expand upon the popular OC line it already had. Expanding that line, two new OC variants were created; the OC2 which helped knock up clock speeds a bit more than the standard OC models and the OCX which was designed to offer a significant boost over stock clocks. We didn’t want to look at the card that was just a bit overclocked, nor the card that was overclocked a little bit more. We wanted to look at the big daddy of the GTX 260 line from BFG, the OCX variant. So with that said, let’s check out the package then from there we will have a look at the card itself and a closer look at the clockspeeds on tap before we get stuck into the benchmarking side of things.

Dell Studio 1735 Laptop @ InsideHW
Last month we tested model 1535 from new Studio series of notebooks from Dell and this time we got another model from same series but with slightly bigger dimensions. For all of you that missed that review we will say that Studio series is intended for home users. Dell Studio 1735 belongs to DTR category (DeskTop Replacement) of notebooks and because of that, most of its characteristics are predetermined. When we took Dell Studio 1735 out of the box we experienced a déjà vu which was expected because the only differences in design from 1535 model are bigger dimensions and presence of numerical keypad.

Patriot Warp V2 128GB 2.5” Solid State Drive (SSD) @ Tweaktown
Just yesterday on my monthly journey to Fry’s, I noticed several retail boxed Patriot Warp Drives in a locked cabinet. The 128 GB model like the one we are looking at today was on sale for 369.00 U.S.D., around 20 Dollars more than the Newegg price. For many the high cost will be a big turn off and the Warp will not enjoy the same commercial success that a VelociRaptor will, but a 128GB SSD just a few months back would have set you back 1100 Dollars or more. The Patriot Warp that we are looking at today is actually the second revision to the Warp Series. Very few of the first versions were released and unfortunately I didn’t have a Rev 1 sample on hand to test against the Rev 2. It should be noted that the packaging we received our Warp in did not specify if it was a V1 or V2, but we were assured it was the new V2. We will of course compare the drive to the other 2.5-inch drives we have tested since moving over to the new hard disk workstation.

Daily News for Oct 28

brandon — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:13:38 PDT

MSI N9800GT GeForce 9800 GT 512MB Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
The MSI N9800GT 512M OC is a factory overclocked GeForce 9800 GT graphics card that has an improved cooling solution. This sub $120 graphics card has a core clock frequency of 660MHz and the 512MB GDDR3 frame buffer runs at 1900MHz. This is a nice bump up from the factory clocked cards that are 600MHz core and 1800MHz memory. Read on to see how it does and if it can overclock further! In the time I’ve had to spend with this card, I haven’t really found much to dislike about it. The card has performed well in Folding@Home and in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Of course, I didn’t try to push the card to ridiculous resolutions, as gamers that own 24” or 30” monitors probably aren’t looking at sub-$120 video card to run them. Even with Crysis Warhead, where I thought the card could stumble and fall, as many higher priced cards did with the original Crysis, the 9800GT from MSI was able to play the game fairly smoothly at 1280x1024.

Cooler Master Hyper Z600R CPU Cooler @ Tweaktown
Today we are looking at the Cooler Master Hyper Z600R, the first product in Cooler Masters revised arsenal that is ready to battle flagship processors from Intel and AMD. The Hyper Z600R is a large cooler with premium packaging and the ability to add a second 120mm fan. From the looks of the design the cooler screams high efficiency with low acoustic interference. Overclockers will like the coolers ability to add a second fan and average users will like the quiet nature of this beast. Next in our list of cooler reviews will be the long awaited article for Cooler Masters flagship V8 air cooler. Be sure to check back in to see the results when both coolers go head to head, but for now enjoy the Hyper Z600R.

Lian Li PC - A77 Aluminum Computer Case @ TechwareLabs
Have you managed to cram as much hardware as possible into your rig? Need a crane to lift your case? Why not shed a few unwanted pounds from your machine by transferring it into a new aluminum home? Join RTM as he looks at the Lian Li A77 Aluminum Case.

Western Digital's Caviar Green hard drive @ Tech Report
To be fair, the Caviar GP's performance was surprisingly good for a drive whose platters spun at close to 5,400RPM. In some tests, it was even faster than terabyte drives spinning at a full 7,200RPM. The GP also lived up to its energy-efficient billing, sucking half the power of some of its terabyte rivals, all while barely making a whisper. Since its release, a reshuffling of Western Digital's hard drive branding scheme has transformed the Caviar GP into the Caviar Green. Now it's time for the drive itself to change. The original Caviar GP reached the terabyte mark with four 250GB platters, but the latest model we'll be looking at today has been upgraded to 333GB platters, of which it needs only three. The higher areal density of the Caviar Green's new platters promise improved performance, and since the drive is spinning only three of them, power consumption should drop as well. On all fronts, then, this latest Caviar Green looks better than the original.

Vantec Aeroflow FX 120 VAF-1225 Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
The Vantec Aeroflow FX 120 heatsink features a special base plate with three exposed 8mm diameter copper heatpipes, just like Xigmatek's very high performing "Heatpipe Direct Touch" technology. The heatpipes transfer heat directly to a large aluminum fin cooling tower above, and aside from a fairly quiet white 120mm fan the Aeroflow FX 120 is a simple and effective heatsink.

Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Gaming Keyboard @ Benchmark Reviews
Over the past few years, gaming on the PC has transformed from a niche hobby to a market in and of itself. More and more gaming-grade devices come out each year. Some accessories are just hype or a means to squeeze a few extra dollars out of unsuspecting customers whereas others genuinely make the gaming experience that much better. At the same time gaming hardware has also come to be synonymous with expensive hardware as gaming hardware frequently pushes the current norms and standards to their limits of usability, functionality and style (or taste in the worst case scenario). The Microsoft Sidewinder X6 tries to be the keyboard for the gamer's gamer. It features the ability to program 90 macros using 6 proprietary buttons, the number pad, and 3 banks. It has backlighting for playing the dark, cruise control, on the fly macro programming, large knobs for volume and backlight control and audio shortcut buttons. It features keys designed for quick presses and fast action.

Sapphire Radeon 4870 Toxic Edition @ TechwareLabs
Today, we bring to you the newest version of Sapphires HD4870, the Toxic Edition. This card should be the best single 4870 on the market, but can it compete on the same level as nVidias GTX280 and for half the price? Join Jack as we test to see how Toxic this card really is.

Daily News for Oct 27

brandon — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:53:30 PDT

Asus P6T Deluxe & Intel Nehalem CPU @ InsideHW
It’s been awhile since rumors about new Intel’s platform had started or more precisely about new processors with code name Nehalem and X58 controller logic. We managed to provide one Nehalem processor, for a very short time period, and we paired it with Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard based on X58 chipset. New motherboard, new chipset and new CPU architecture! Short time that we had for testing didn’t allow us to test all details of new CPU (just few benchmark results) but we had enough time to do a proper motherboard test.

Thermaltake M9 Case Review @ PCSTATS
Thermaltake's M9 caseis a straight forward case with all the nods towards keeping itself modern and useful. It stands 17" tall and 7.5" wide and is constructed out of plain old SECC steel, glossy black plastic, and mesh grating along its front bays. There's room inside for six 5.25" optical drives and three 3.5" bays in its default configuration, although that can be changed to open up as many as nine 5.25" bays by removing the hard drive cage.

Sapphire HD 4550 Video Card @ Pro-Clockers
And if you are one of these people that don't need the biggest baddest video adapter on the market just something that will get you by and play your videos at a clean crisp rate then the Sapphire HD 4550 may be up your alley. The HD 4550 is no bottom of the line GPU but a card that boasts 512MB of DDR3 memory at 900MHz and a 600MHz core. At $60 you will not have to settle with just what will get you by as the card supports Crossfire and HDMI with 7.1 audio support. But with all this being said how will the HD 4550 stack up on the ladder of other cards offered by Sapphire and ATI.

ATi Radeon HD 4830 512MB vs. nVIDIA GeForce 9800GT 512MB @ InsideHW
The fact is that nVIDIA these days lives on its reputation, considering that except for GTX280 and GTX260 (their place is reserved for the top of offer), nVIDIA doesn’t have anything new to show. Besides, trend of renaming the products becomes a bit irritating habit, cause real new product from “sub 250€” class isn’t introduced for a long time. G92 chip is still promoted even though it was “de facto” incredible product one year ago and that is for IT industry too long. Perhaps it wouldn’t feel that long if competition isn’t hyperactive, but as this became ATi’s new business policy, it’s quite evidently that nVIDIA isn’t held in high esteem.

Cooler Master Hyper Z600-R Heatpipe CPU Cooler Review @ Tweaknews
Cooler Master has a real winner in their new Hyper Z600R CPU cooler. Whether used actively, with the included 120mm blue LED fan, or passively you'll get top-notch performance and beautiful aesthetics. The X-shaped Hyper with its decorative top cover makes quite an impression and its large size and six heatpipes seem to provide the one-two punch that beats down high CPU temperatures.

NVIDIA nForce 730i / GeForce 9300 Chipset Review @ Tweaktown
Now Intel has the CPU of choice and with that comes support left, right and centre. While Intel has a huge array of chipsets for its own processor, support also comes from another source, that being from the biggest 3D chipset maker, NVIDIA. While Intel has the best enthusiast chipsets out for the platform, Intel’s integrated graphics platforms simply can’t compete with the likes of NVIDIA’s IGP based setups. This is simply because NVIDIA has all of its 3D chip technology to call on for integration into its chipsets, keeping it ahead of chipzilla.

Brando SATA HDD Multimedia Dock @ Hardware Bistro
Last two weeks ago, we just completed a unique product review; Unitek SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock. Today here we received another interesting HDD docking from Brando as well called SATA HDD Multimedia Dock. This docking is not only can be used for 2.5" and 3.5" SATA HDD for data transferring but also act as a media player where the files can be played on TV without connecting to PC.

ATI Radeon 4830 Reviews!

brandon — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:16:23 PDT

HIS Radeon 4830 @ Guru3D
See, right now every move that NVIDIA makes is being counter-acted by ATI. And today they are launching a new mid-range class product. It's called the Radeon HD 4830 and again is a product that will bring a couple of surprises in the performance versus price ratio, to fight against the 'new' GeForce 9800 GT. A sub-$150 HD 4000 series video card that will take on NVIDIA, in the shape of the Radeon HD 4830. We expect its price to settle at 119-129 USD. This card will have 640 stream processors, a 256-bit memory interface and GDDR3 memory, and slot in-between the Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4670. What is the HD 4830 targeted against? Well, considering the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT and 9800 GT retail for around $130, it seems likely AMD would continue the pressure by also aiming for these products.

HIS Radeon 4830 @ Elite Bastards
As with RV670, the Radeon HD 4800 series employs a 256-bit memory controller, but replaces its predecessors ring bus design with a distributed controller, which supports GDDR3, GDDR4 and GDDR5 memory types. RV770 also features AMD's second generation UVD video decoding engine, which now supports dual stream decoding (i.e. handling two High Definition video streams so that playback of both is GPU accelerated) and dynamic contrast enhancement. Full HDMI output is still supported, with the addition of full eight-channel audio output with support for all of the major formats used by DVD and Blu-Ray movies. The Radeon HD 4830 features that cut-down RV770 core we mentioned with a couple of SIMD cores disabled, as well as clock speeds lower than the higher priced Radeon HD 4850, which sees it utilising a GPU core clock of 575MHz, with the 512MB of GDDR3 memory on-board clocked at 900MHz (1800MHz effective).

Reference Board @ Legit Reviews
When you compare the specifications on the three single GPU Radeon HD 4800 series cards you can see how they stack up across the board. Notice that the max board power remains the same on the Radeon HD 4830, so power consumption and temperatures should be close to what is seen on the Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. The clock rate on the Radeon HD 4830 is 575MHz with the memory clock being 900MHz. The Radeon HD 4830, 4850 and 4870 all have 956 Million transistors and are built on the 55nm process.

Reference Board @ HEXUS
Talking figures when compared to Radeon HD 4850, the '30 drops two of the HD 4850's 10 SIMD cores - each comprising of 80 stream processors - bringing the total down to 640. Consequently, as two 'cores' have been removed and the texturing subsystem is linked in with each, data sampling and filtering go down a commensurate amount, too. In short, Radeon HD 4830 has 25 per cent less shading and texturing ability, based on a clock-for-clock comparison. The actual drop is higher because the core/shader speed has been reduced, as well. Fewer stream processors and a chopping of one ROP portion, down from 16 to 12, are matched up to the above-noted lower frequencies, with the core and shaders operating at 575MHz and GDDR3 memory at 1,800MHz. If you're interested, this leads to the Radeon HD 4850 having a 35 per cent higher peak GFLOPs throughput rate, 35 per cent higher fillrate, and 11 per cent higher memory bandwidth. What we can determine from these numbers is that HD 4830's 3D performance will be around 80 per cent of its bigger brother's, and pricing is such that the RRP is also around 80 per cent - it all makes rather tidy sense.

PowerColor Radeon 4830 @ TechPowerUP
PowerColor has successfully improved on the AMD reference design by adding a native HDMI output which comes in handy when you want to connect your big TV set. The other big change doesn't seem too wise to me though. PowerColor's big fan looks mighty at first sight, but the default fan settings make it a less than pleasant experience. For a card in this performance class the fan is way too noisy. On the other hand the temperatures are lower than on the AMD reference design. But personally I prefer a few degrees higher GPU temperature in return for a quiet card.

Radeon 4830 vs Geforce 9800GT @ NeoSeeker
At the heart of each HD 4800 video card is a RV770 GPU. The HD 4830 features the RV770LE. Basically the RV770LE is a laser-neutered version of the same GPU found in the HD 4850 and HD 4870. One cool thing about the HD 4830 is that there really won't be one standard design -- each board partner will be releasing there own variation. There won't be a wave of reference board design HD 4830's, and then a second wave of overclocked, customized versions -- as is often the case for 'marquee' models, like the HD 4870. There is a good chance each PCB will have a slightly different layout. Expect HD 4830's coming from the following folks at: VisionTek, HIS, Palit, Asus, PowerColor, GeCube, Diamond MM, Sapphire, Micro-star International (MSI), Gigabyte, and Club3D.

Daily News for Oct 24

brandon — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:47:09 PDT

Western Digital 300GB VelociRaptor Hard Drive @ TechARP
Western Digital may be marketing their new VelociRaptor family of high-speed hard drives as enterprise-class hard drives but they are also very popular with hardware enthusiasts who just cannot resist their 10,000 RPM spindle speed. Everything just seems a little faster when you use a hard drive that spins at such a high speed. To cater to this exclusive group of enthusiasts, Western Digital first introduced the Raptor and Raptor X hard drives with capacities of 36 GB to 150 GB. These Raptors have now evolved into the next-generation Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drives, that not only boast twice the storage capacity but also managed to do it in a much smaller 2.5" drive form factor! Let's find out just how much faster this drive is compared to the 10K RPM WD Raptor X and 7200 RPM hard drives!

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP²! Edition @ Benchmark Reviews
Well the smoke has cleared, the dust settled and most of the rumors and hype have been laid to rest with regard to the first phase of NVIDIA's launch. For the last month or so the revised editions of the GTX 200 series are beginning to appear. Today at Benchmark Reviews it is our pleasure to review the Zotac GeForce GTX 260 AMP2! Edition. This graphics solution reputedly takes the GTX 260 to the next level of performance primarily due to NVIDIA's second generation architecture coupled the addition of 24 streaming processors, upping the total to 216. We fully intend to focus all our technology and energy to either prove or disprove that allegation.

Patriot Memory PC3-12800 Extreme Performance 4GB Kit Review @ Club Overclocker
Finally DDR3 is starting to come down in price. Even better, the latencies are starting to come down and the performance is going up. All is right with the world. Patriot Memory has just sent us over a 4GB kit of 1600MHz memory with latencies of 7-7-7-20. I'm pretty excited to see how the performance of the kit is going to be so let's just jump in and see what happens.

MSI Geforce 9600 GT 1Gb Hybrid Freezer VGA Review @ MadShrimps
The MSI N9600GT Hybrid Freezer is equipped with 1Gb DDR3 memory and features an unique cooling solution which works passively when in 2D mode, and only makes noise when running 3D applications or games. MSI overclocked the GPU and Shader for increased performance, let´s find out how it compares to a vanilla Geforce 9600 GT.

22 inch Wide TFT Roundup (Asus, Benq, Samsung, LG) @ InsideHW
For every period on time there is optimal monitor (screen) size. Nowadays, smaller monitor isn’t cheap enough and isn’t worth of savings while the bigger one still doesn’t justify the difference in price. The thing is that lately, mid range monitors and even from low range, become very quality pieces of hardware. And if you pick by random any of them, there are small odds that you’ll chose “piece of junk”. As result of these changes on local and global market it is actually very favorable state for nowadays buyers. Now you can have bigger monitor on the table with more than acceptable price especially if you buy it on sales. So, according to all that, wide monitor with 22-inch diagonal is the best buy at the moment. Keeping that fact in mind, we gathered eleven models that can be classified as cheaper and we did comparison test.

Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower Case Review @ PCSTATS
At nearly two feet tall and weighing in at just under 30 pounds, the Cooler Master HAF 932 High Air Flow Chassis is an imposing full tower ATX case, marketed towards gamers and overclockers with an array of fans, cooling options, and lots of space for large components. Every possible surface that could be covered with a fan has a grating on it, and you'll find three 230mm fans installed in the front, top and side panel as defaults, along with a spare 140mm in the back to boot.

Coolermaster V8 CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers
I am a fanboy of American automobiles especially the old school ones like the Mustangs, Chevells, Novas and many others. And one of the reasons I am so into these cars is because of the big blocks ( V8 for the unknowing) that these cars all had. Pure muscle is where it is all at. And the Coolermaster V8 takes its name from just these types of cars. The V8 is 865g of copper and aluminum so you can say this one is a big block. Today we will see if the Coolermaster V8 can perform like the cars did back in the 60s and 70s.

Daily News for Oct 23

brandon — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:23:32 PDT

EVGA 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
If you are a DDR3 aficionado or need a fantastic SLI platform then the EVGA 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM would be a great choice. Just keep in mind the upcoming Core i7 launch. Intel Core 2 processors will still be very competitive, but those of you making a large purchase versus simply a motherboard upgrade may wish to hold off. The EVGA 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM is a fantastic board that may simply be overshadowed by the death of LGA775.

G.Skill FS-25S2-64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk Drive @ Tweaktown
G.Skill is known for their high performance enthusiast memory, but like many "memory" companies, when RAM became unprofitable they looked to broaden their product lines. One area that many of these companies made a straight line for was expanding their flash memory products. This eventually led to solid state drives and ultimately caused the price of these drives to start to fall rapidly. Today we are looking at the G.Skill 64GB SLC drive. The drive is a rebadged Samsung drive like the four we reviewed in various levels of RAID back in June for DVNation.com. The difference between then and now is that the G.Skill 64GB drive cost just a little more than the 32GB model did when that article was written.

Gigabyte GA EP45 DQ6 Motherboard @ TechwareLabs
Behind every amazing computer, there is an amazing motherboard. Today, RTM takes Gigabytes GA-EP45-DQ6 for a spin. Competing with such boards as the ASUS Striker II, we have high hopes for this energy efficient little devil. Now we are left wondering: Can this board out perform the competition?

ECS GeForce 9800 GTX+ Hydra SLI Video Card Kit @ Legit Reviews
The ECS GeForce 9800 GTX+ Hyrda SLI kit is a very innovative product that brings together SLI and water cooling very nicely. The bundle comes complete with everything you need to get started and that is very important for a kit of this size. Coming with the full version of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 video game is a nice touch as it is a $20-$30 game and not too many graphics cards come with games any longer. Installation was so simple the directions didn't even need to be used, so this kit will get you into water cooled graphics cards setup with SLI in minutes.

AMD Radeon HD 4830: Affordable Performance And Heavy Competition @ Anandtech
Based on the information we know about the GPU, the 4830 is clearly just an RV770 with one SIMD disabled. While AMD does have safeguards built into their GPUs to help improve yield, nothing is perfect. There will be ICs that come off the line that simply can't function properly at the desired speed or with all the hardware enabled to make it onto a higher end card. Chip makers will save these parts and bin them for possible use in lower end products later. We also sometimes see higher end binned chips released as special editions overclocked models, so it does work both ways. The price of the 4830 means that it will see higher volume sales than either the 4850 or the 4870. That's just how it works: more people buy cheaper parts. The interesting twist here is that the RV770 is being used in 3 different parts ranging from $130 to $300 with very little time lapse between the initial release and the current situation.

AMD's Radeon HD 4830 Graphics Processor @ Tech Report
Yep, this new card is indeed called the Radeon HD 4830. The name tells you almost everything you need to know about this product, which would appear to be the last piece of AMD's 4000-series Radeon lineup to fall into place. Those of you who read our recent review of affordable graphics cards may recall that AMD didn't have much to offer between the (sensational for its price) Radeon HD 4670 at 80 bucks and the all-world Radeon HD 4850 at about $180. Well, that's where the 4830 comes in. This new model is, like the 4850 and 4870, based on RV770 silicon, but in its tamest form yet. Yes, folks, the great product segmentation game continues with yet another chip having perfectly good—or possibly totally flawed—bits and pieces deactivated to maintain a neat separation between models. On the 4830, two of the RV770's 10 SIMD units have been disabled, reducing shader power (and likely performance) somewhat. Since those SIMD units are tied to texture management units, the GPU's TMU count has dropped proportionately. The end result: the Radeon HD 4830 has a total of 128 shader execution units—or 640 stream processors, in AMD parlance—and can filter up to 32 textures per clock.

Daily News for July 18

brandon — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:33:47 PDT

Intel Montevina - Centrino 2 Portable Platform @ InsideHW
Almost five years ago, Intel promoted its first uniform solution attended for notebooks, under the brand – Centrino. This brand was launched with intention to consolidate a position of Intel on notebook’s market as number one. Many people are making a mistake if they think that Centrino is some Intel processor attended for notebooks and is based on “rocket science” technology. Centrino consolidates processor, chipset, integrated GPU (graphic processor), network subsystem that supports 100Mbit/1Gbit LAN connection and also an optional WiFi adapter.

Tagan Black Pearl WCR Full Tower Chassis @ Tweaktown
Enter the Tagan Black Pearl WCR. The "WCR" moniker is an acronym for "Water Cooling Ready", so it is designed for enthusiasts who need the flexibility to run unconventional cooling solutions. But can the PSU Dudes pull off a quality enclosure? Go ahead and take a load off as we delve into this very issue. After all, when it comes to spending our hard-earned dollars, it is important to see if we are getting what we really need.

Foxconn X58 Renaissance Motherboard @ TechARP
With all the talk going around about Intel's upcoming Bloomfield desktop processor, many enthusiasts are anxious to know more about the next-generation Intel processors which are slated to be launched in Q4 of 2008. It appears that motherboard companies like Foxconn have already started preparing for the launch. We were able to obtain some details of the upcoming Foxconn X58 Renaissance motherboard.

Silverstone Decathlon DA850 @ Pro-Clockers
Today I'm reviewing the Silverstone. I respect Silverstone. Their products are attractive and perform well, but I'm not going to take it easy on the DA850. For this PSU to garner a good review from me, it will have to stay stable while providing power to all my hardware.

MSI P45 Platinum and Asus Maximus II Formula @ Madshrimps
Of course, we'll be focusing on what both the MSI P45 Platinum and Asus Maximus II Formula can bring us in terms of performance, overclocking and the performance gained from overclocking. We'll be giving you basic pointers for better results and will spend a little time on the energy-saving technology of both MSI and Asus. But first, we'll start with the pictures to find out what we'll be dealing with.

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS Hard Drive @ Futurelooks
Fast forward to April 2008, when the fourth generation Raptor is announced. Titled the VelociRaptor, this new drive increases its maximum capacity to 300GB using two 150GB platters, reduces its form factor from 3.5″ to 2.5″, and includes a 3.5″ mounting bracket that doubles as a massive heatsink. Western Digital bills it as an “enterprise-class” drive, and claims it’s 35% faster than any previous generation of Raptor. We’ll have to see about that, but first let’s take a quick look at the specs.

Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
From the very beginning many of us could have figured the P45 chipset was going to be the chipset of chance as it is price considerably cheaper than the older X38 and the X48. And from the early reviews the P45 overclockers pretty well. We have seen able forum post and web reviews with front side buses reaching the 600MHz range on Core2Duo processors. But for the non-overclockers out there another advantage over the older P35 is the two 8x PCIe slots when attempting to using ATI video cards in Crossfire mode. Today, we will take the EP45-DQ6 through a ring of benchmarks and see what type of FSB numbers we can achieve.

Force3D ATI HD 4870 @ InsideHW
Radeon HD4800 series of graphics cards is real refreshment in these days. Every new generation of GPU brought a big shift in performances and ATi this time showed us that top model graphics chip (RV770) doesn’t have to be expensive. Based on experience from previous HD3850 and HD3870 models, we expected that new model HD4870 will dominate in middle-high class, with lower price and higher performances than other competitors. But, we were wrong… Tests showed something quite unexpected. Still, before benchmark results let’s see what new GPU offers.

ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Benchmarks!

brandon — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:04:11 PDT

@ Tech Report
Although the Hynix chips on our engineering sample are rated for up to 4Gbps operation, on this board, they run at the same 900MHz base clock and 3600MT/s data rate as on the Radeon HD 4870. That ain't exactly shabby, though. All told, the R700 has an aggregate 512-bit path to memory that theoretically peaks at 230GB/s. To put that into perspective, its likely closest competitor, the GeForce GTX 280, has "only" 142GB/s of peak memory bandwidth. With that in mind, the big question about the 4870 X2 is: How does it perform? If you've answered "About like two Radeon HD 4870s in a CrossFire setup," you're on the right track. Compared to a dual-card config, this puppy has the potential benefit of a faster CrossFire interconnect between the GPUs and twice the effective memory size (single 4870s currently have 512MB), but it has the possible disadvantage of those GPUs having to share PCI Express bandwidth to the rest of the system via that PLX switch. Which, of course, is why we test these things....

@ Anandtech
The "Scalable design" block we already know about, that's RV770 - we reviewed it last month. The 150W TDP $300 part is the Radeon HD 4870, and the 110W $200 part is the Radeon HD 4850, the two cards that have caused NVIDIA quite a bit of pain already. The smaller $100 part has a name, and a release date, neither of which we can talk about at this point, but it's coming. Today however, is about the 250W, $500 multi-GPU solution - internally known as R700. Hot on the heels of the Radeon HD 4800 series launch, AMD shipped out ten R700 cards worldwide, attempting to capitalize on the success of the 4800 and showcase the strength of AMD's small-GPU strategy. We're assuming that AMD will call the R700 based cards the Radeon HD 4870 X2, and based on the chart above we're expecting them to retail above $500 (possibly $549?). Today's article is merely a preview as R700s won't be officially launched for at least another month, but AMD wanted to unveil a bit of what it's cooking.

@ HEXUS
There is nothing intrinsically clever about what ATI is doing here. Much in the vein of the also-twin-GPU Radeon HD 3870 X2, the new card positions two of its fastest-clocked single-GPUs - HD 4870s - on to one card. The difference here is that the HD 4870 X2's frequencies are exactly the same speed as the regular cards', running at 750MHz core and shaders and 3,600MHz for the smokin' GDDR5 memory. Each of the card's twin GPUs has access to its own 512MiB frame-buffer, of course, and both are connected via a PCIe 2.0 conduit that's mounted on to the PCB. The card-based numbers are extraordinary; 2.4TFLOPS of math calculation; 60Gtexels/s of bilinear filtering; and 230GiB/s of combined memory bandwidth - comfortably higher than any card that's come before. It would not be unreasonable to assume that performance will be very much akin to two discrete Radeon HD 4870 boards placed in two-way CrossFire.

@ PC Perspective
Not too long ago the idea of a multi-GPU graphics card seemed taboo and brought about a lot of negative connotations with it. The GeForce 7950 GX2 was the first in the modern NVIDIA/ATI era and some board partners went in other multi-GPU directions until the Radeon HD 3870 X2 was released. We took the 3870 X2 as an answer to NVIDIA's high end cards because the company didn't have a single GPU that could compete with the competitions parts on its own; something of "we need answer" product. Today's preview of the HD 4870 X2 card from AMD proves that this time AMD was planning ahead. Our review of the RV770-based Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4870 cards showed the new GPU architecture to be very potent indeed and NVIDIA is very scared of what the dual-GPU version, known as R700 previously, would do to its line of cards. Today we were allowed to post a short "preview" of the card's performance and I have to say you will likely be impressed. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 card is AMD's answer to NVIDIA's flagship GTX 280 card in terms of pricing and placement. Even though NVIDIA recently dropped a bomb and lowered the price of the GTX 280 from $649 to $499, the estimated pricing we have seen for AMD's card is in the ">$500" range and will likely fall on the lower end of that open-ended range now. Isn't competition a wonderful thing?

@ Legit Reviews
Only four short months ago AMD launched the Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card and it was the flagship ATI Radeon product. ATI took two RV670 cores (Radeon HD 3870) and put them on the same PCB with the same amount of memory with the bridge chip already on the video card that enabled CrossFire automatically. The result was a graphics card that has two RV670 cores with 1GB of GDDR3 memory at a price point of $449. A Radeon HD 3870 X2 can now be found for just $289 and still packs some serious performance in a single graphics card. Now, the successor to the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 is here with twice the gaming performance of the last generation. AMD has once again taken two of the latest cores (RV770) and placed them on a single PCB. AMD kept the clock frequencies the same as the Radeon HD 4870 graphics card, so basically you have the power of a pair of those running CrossFire on a single PCB! Our review of the HIS Radeon HD 4870 showed it to be a performance winner at a very nice price point. AMD has once again created a price versus performance winner and they have produced a product that has NVIDIA worried as they don't have a card that competes at the same price point. The GeForce GTX 280 is the only card that stands a chance to the Radeon HD 4870 X2!

@ HardOCP
So what is the Radeon HD 4870 X2, or better known internally as R700? The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is AMD’s single video card solution for the high-end gaming enthusiast crowd. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is poised to compete directly with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 280 at a competitive price. Final pricing and specifications will be finalized at launch later this summer. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is simply a video card with two Radeon HD 4870 GPUs on a single board. Therefore each GPU is operating in a “CrossFire” type of configuration, but hard wired on the board itself with a bridge chip. The new Radeon HD 4870 X2 uses a newer bridge chip that supports PCIe 2.0 and AMD has also improved the bandwidth between the GPUs. The bandwidth between both GPUs has been bumped from 6GB/sec, as found on the Radeon HD 3870 X2, to 20GB/sec on the Radeon HD 4870 X2. AMD has also beefed up the RAM on the Radeon HD 4870 X2; our samples have 1GB of GDDR5 accessible to each GPU (so 2GB total on the board.) Now, this memory is still not completely shared, the framebuffer is still duplicated and the memory is not combined. However, due to some inherent evolutionary upgrades present in GDDR5 memory modules there is actually a method in place to share some data between modules using that 20GB/sec bus. All of these improvements are evolutionary, through the memory, and the bridge chip, and should help improve performance and consistency with the Radeon HD 4870 X2 since it is a dual-GPU solution.

Daily News for July 9

brandon — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:43:51 PDT

OCZ Rally2 32Gb USB Stick Review @ Madshrimps
We are testing the largest USB drive in such a compact form today. Packing 32Gb this OCZ Rally2 promises high performance and high capacity. It comes in classy black with fancy activity LED and carrying strap.

ECS P43T Socket 775 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
If you take a budget chipset and mix it with a company like ECS you will get an incredible priced motherboard. In this case you will get the P43T-A2. The P43A is ECS’s first P43 motherboard on the market. Even with all its short comings compared to the P45 this board offers the everyday Joe with everything they would need to build a stable and very complete system.

Super Talent Pico-C 8GB Flash Drive @ Tweaktown
Over the next thirty days I will have only one thing on my mind; USB thumb drives. Thumb drives started out as small devices that were a little pricey, offered a small amount of storage and had very low transfer rates. Even with limited space and transfer rates that felt like we took a step back to 1.44 MB floppy disk days, people quickly adopted the technology based on their ease of use and convenience. TweakTown is working on gathering as many USB thumb drives as possible for a massive round-up review that will put products from every major manufacturer in the ring with one another. Some drives stand out for their high transfer rates, while others have high capacity. Other drives use a very small enclosures; about the size of your thumbnail.

Thermalright IFX-14 CPU and Back-side Heatpipe Cooler Review @ Bigbruin
The Thermalright IFX-14 uses eight heatpipes to move heat from the base plate to the cooling fins, and these pipes are larger and more numerous than on many of the other big coolers on the market. Overall it is larger than any other cooler I have had a chance to use, including some titans like the Tuniq Tower 120 and Zalman CNPS 9700, which we will see compared side-by-side in this review.

Gigabyte EX38-DQ6 Motherboard Review @ Club Overclocker
The X38 chipset isn't the latest/greatest, but Gigabyte has invested in this chipset and even positioned it in their Performance and Energy Saving lineup. As we take a closer look at this board, you'll see that this board offers folks looking to upgrade a great platform to build upon. By utilizing DDR2, Gigabyte is keeping your cost lower by letting you recycle your existing RAM and avoid the inflated cost of DDR3.

OCZ Vendetta 2 Heatpipe Cooler @ Pro-Clockers
Now we have at our doorstep the Vendetta Dos ok the Vendetta 2. This new and improved Vendetta is bigger and sports a larger cooling fan. Naturally, we would think that a larger version of a similar cooler would deem better temps and higher overclocks. Well we are here today to see if the theory correct.

MSI Wind U100 @ InsideHW
While exterior has a lot of similarities, platforms on which are based Wind and Eee represent two different worlds. Eee uses old technology which became cheap enough over time. On the other hand, Wind has newest Intel processor, made especially for these types of devices. That CPU is Atom N270. Beside small dimensions (which enables even smaller dimensions of device), Atom characterizes extremely small power consumption. Thanks to that, it is possible to use passive cooling solution which results in much bigger autonomy. Atom is manufactured in 45nm process with total surface area that is only 22mm2. Under full load dissipations amounts incredible 2.5W and if it’s in idle, dissipations are less than 1W. Atom N270 works at 1.6GHz which makes it able to respond on every task that can be expected from one ultra portable computer. As their main purpose is attached to Internet, a new name is already born - Netbook . If we look at their outstanding performances, we shouldn’t be surprised with great demands for Atom processors on the market. This is the main reason why shortage appeared in first place. We should expect that this sort of problem will exist in next few months.

Cooler Master Real Power Pro 550W Power Supply @ TechwareLabs
The box which the Cooler Master 550W “Real Power” Power supply comes in is the Cooler Master standard white, black and trimmer in purple and stamped with the products features on the sides and back of the box. Inside, the power supply secured tightly in foam to prevent shifting and damage during shipping. The front of the box is stamped with a few important facts such as a 5 year warranty which is very important to those PC users out there who want a power supply that backed by a warranty which will last the life most the components, essentially giving the user the most time for their hard earned dollar. The box is also stamped with the icon 80 Plus, which means the 550W PSU is an 80+% efficient PSU under normal loads. This efficiency is note-worthy to everyone concern about conserving energy and having the least amount of heat being produced due to load demands of the rig.

Daily News for July 8

brandon — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:56:22 PDT

Silicon Power 64GB SATA Solid State Drive @ Benchmark Reviews
Silicon Power has big dreams, but this a cruel world we live in and being the new name in competitive North American computer industry usually doesn't help dreams come true. Making matters more difficult - even beyond the obvious start-up hurdles - is the latest product focus of Silicon Power: Solid State Drive (SSD) technology. But all of this isn't to say that I don't think they can do it, because there have been many a new name made by fresh companies introducing product with a dramatic improvement over the old. But will Silicon Power enjoy this luxury? Benchmark Reviews tests the Silicon Power 64GB SATA SSD model SP064GBSSD25SV10 against nearly a dozen other Solid State Drives to see how well their SSD performs.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 Video Card Review @ Futurelooks
The GeForce GTX 280, and it’s little brother the GeForce GTX 260, were released in June of this year. This is just three months after the release of the GeForce 9 series. Now it may be based off the same unified architecture, but on paper, the new GTX 200 series of chips have a definite performance boost over the previously released chips. For starters this new GPU contains 1.4 billion transistors and is made on a 65nm fabrication process. According to some sources this makes the GTX 2xx series a chip with the largest die area ever fabricated for a GPU. The GTX 280 has 240 shaders (stream processors), and comes with 1GB of GDDR3 VRAM on a 512 bit bus. The chip is said to put out approximately 933 GFLOPS of floating point power.

Thermaltake Armor+ MX Midtower ATX Computer Case @ Legit Reviews
Thermaltake has tried to cram as many features from the larger “super tower” Armor case into this standard size mid tower, and did a good job of it. You have all the classic looks, the build quality, and you can still fit everything into the case. With shrinking space comes the 'snug factor'. The Thermaltake Armor+ case has close quarters, but you can still get most full length video card in this case.

Super Talent MasterDrive MX 60GB SSD @ Tweaktown
This last month has been filled with press releases from companies promising high performance solid state technology at prices that are up to 30% less than any of the drives we have previously tested. The cost reduction has to do with memory manufacturers starting to ramp up production of the memory chips used, and according to DRAMeXchange, prices are down 26% for many MLC memory sizes popular for use in SSDs. Super Talent is the first to send us their latest MLC Solid State Drive that takes advantage of the new lower contract prices on memory. The MasterDrive MX Line is available in sizes ranging from 8 to 120GB. Our sample 60GB model is available at Newegg right now for less than 400 U.S. Dollars. Let’s have a look and see how these new low cost Solid State Drives perform against our trusty Western Digital Raptor 150GB and Samsung’s SATA II SLC drive.

VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 512MB CrossFireX Review @ Club Overclocker
I always love it when new items come into the market. Nothing is better than new CPU's or new Video cards to get people excited about computers. It's especially exciting when the two largest gaming video card manufacturers release new products within a week of each other. The last few weeks have been very exciting ones with all sorts of video card reviews popping up all over the net. Forums have been flooded with new ammunition for the long debate; which video card is better? I don't think it's possible to answer that question and I'm not going to try. I'm just going to add more benchmark fuel to the fire and let you make up your own mind.

Aeneon XTune DDR2-1142 2GB Memory Kit @ Tweaktown
XTune is Aeneon's brand of enthusiast level memory modules. While our first encounter with the XTune was less than fantastic, we don’t reject companies from coming back with new products to try out. Today we have the newest addition, being a DDR2 package. That’s right; DDR2 still lives and it’s definitely not going anywhere soon. The kit sent to us is the DDR2-1142MHz overclocked pack with 2x1GB modules for a total of 2GB in Dual Channel; ideal for both Intel and AMD. These modules aren’t rated for Phenom’s 1066MHz memory controller, but that shouldn’t stop it from working with a bit of a boost in memory voltage.

AMD Phenom 9950 X4 Quad-Core Processor @ TechwareLabs
AMD recently released several low power processors to its Quad core family, while simultaneously pushing the ceiling up a bit on their high end line with the 9950. We take the new 9950 for a test drive and put it through its paces using several different software titles. We find out if the new flagship processor packs a bigger punch.

Sigma SP-700 700 Watt ATX Power Supply Review @ Club Overclocker
It seems like sooner or later everyone is going to need a new power supply. Whether you are upgrading from a dreaded OEM unit or plotting the next big build, starting with a stable foundation is critical. Today we will be looking at the latest from Sigma; the SP-700. In a sea of four digit monsters and units costing much more, is the SP-700 a dark horse contender for your next build?

Daily News for July 5

brandon — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:58:29 PDT

OCZ's Neural Impulse Actuator @ Tech Report
The NIA makes those things possible thanks to a headband with three diamond-shaped sensors positioned at the front. According to OCZ Technology Development Director Michael Schuette's article on the subject, the sensors are made of a plastic injected with highly conductive nanofibers, which the NIA hardware uses to read electrical potentials from the user's forehead. OCZ built the remainder of the headband out of soft rubber, with a lanyard at the back to allow for adjustment. A cable runs down the left side of the headband and plugs into the black NIA box, which includes two completely separate circuits: one hooked up to the headband and the other hooked up to the host PC's USB port. The two circuits only talk to each other through an optical transceiver, ensuring that users won't get electrical shocks if things go awry. On the user's PC, the NIA control software converts electrical potentials from the headband into usable input. Schuette explains that the software separates the different frequencies in these potentials using proprietary algorithms not unlike fast Fourier transforms. Running these algorithms on a continuously streaming flow of data can apparently hog some "serious CPU cycles," although we didn't see the control application eat up much more than 10-15% of our test rig's Core 2 Duo E6400.

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 @ InsideHW
We have tested Sapphire Radeon HD 4850, model that represents first commercial available GPU from new generation of Radeon HD 4000 and is marked as R770 GPU. We are talking about cheap but very fast card which is part of new ATI’s policy. ATI decided to leave multiGPU systems for top class but user can buy a card to play with for some time that is not overpriced and later on you have a possibility of purchasing another one or even more, depending from your affinity and upgrade your system easily. Trump card that ATI used is 55nm technology process that actually results in GPU surface area from 260mm2, half less then surface of GTX280 is. Nevertheless, ATI succeed to pack 956 million transistors on such a small space. Number of Stream Processors is also increased regarding previous generation, but– number of SP is 800! Yes, you read exactly, eight hundred, but every fifth works with all functions and there are actually 160 of them. Of course, number of texture units was also increased considerably and there are 40 of them. ROPs are still present in same amount as before -16. Improvements were done on every step and true example for that are SIMD cores consisted of 80SPs with 16KB cache memory, L1 cache and four dedicated texture units. Of course, 55nm technology process means less consumption and in case of Radeon HD 4850 it sums around 110W, which is a huge step forward. R770 cards has support as for GDDR3 as for GDDR5 with 256bit memory bus bandwidth.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 AMP! Edition Video Card @ BmR
NVIDIA has recently launched the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 video cards. Both the GTX 280 and GTX 260 products position themselves at the most elite segment of the GeForce product line, so just imagine how much more powerful the GeForce GTX 280 could become after ZOTAC give it their special AMP! Edition treatment. The recent Radeon HD 4870 launch may have shown how close ATI/AMD can get to NVIDIA's bar of performance, but the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 AMP! Edition graphics card has just raised that bar much higher. Benchmark Reviews tests the ZOTAC ZT-X28E3LA-FCP against the GeForce 9800 GX2 and 9800 GTX, as well as the new Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFireX configuration.

Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M Geforce 9600GT Videocard @ PCSTATS
The Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M is a Geforce 9600GT based PCI Express graphics card. It ships pre-overclocked from the factory for roughly a 10% gaming edge, and packs in a typical 512MB of GDDR3 memory. It's nVidia Geforce 9600GT GPU runs at 720MHz (up from the stock of 700MHz), while memory and shader clock speeds sit at 2000MHz and 1800MHz respectively. Asus retail the EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M videocard for roughly $50 less than a Radeon HD4850 card will set you back, and comes with a pretty basic accessory bundle.

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews
Sapphire has always offered the most influential ATI graphics products available, and the new Radeon HD 4850 is no different. Although it still uses GDDR3 clocked at 993 (1986 MHz DDR), unlike the 4870 version that is decked out with GDDR5, the Sapphire 100242L model offers 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) on its 625 MHz 800-core RV770 GPU. Benchmark Reviews tests the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 graphics card against the closest competition, and even compare CrossFireX performance in this performance review.

Coolink GFXChilla VGA Cooler @ Legit Reviews
The test results show that the Coolink GPUChilla dropped the idle temperatures by 49% and the load temperatures by an impressive 45%! Our only complaint on the Radeon HD 4850 was how hot the card ran and the Coolink GPUChilla took cooling to the next level. The 49% reduction at idle put the Radeon HD 4850 at 33C, which is better than we expected. The factory heat sink works, but it obviously leaves room for improvement.

AMD Phenom X4 9950 and 9350e Quad-Core Processor Review @ Legit Reviews
AMD was busy last month with the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards, which have both proved themselves to be price versus performance winners. This month, AMD is starting off by launching three new processors: the Phenom X4 9950 processor and the energy-efficient Phenom X4 9350e and 9150e processors. Read on to see how these new processors do! AMD has launched three more Phenom processors that are sure to get people talking. The energy-efficient 65W Phenom processors are the ones to keep an eye on. They are priced under $200 and will be a nice upgrade path for those looking to drop in a processor and move on.

Daily News for June 26

brandon — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:31:41 PDT

ZOTAC NVIDIA 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard @ Tweaktown
The 790i is the first chipset from NVIDIA to be re-designed totally. 790i has its own PCI Express 2.0 controller built into the chipset along with a new memory controller for DDR3 memory with support for EPP 2.0, and today we have ZOTAC’s high performance motherboard to play with. ZOTAC has definitely made its mark with us. While our first board we received from them based on the GeForce 8300 chipset failed to impress, the 790i Ultra SLI board really got us going.

Asus P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP @n Edition Review @ Club Overclocker
Asus is generally among the top choices for enthusiasts. They have built a reputation of solid, stable motherboards. Over the past several years they have also added speed to their reputation. Now some of the best overclocking boards belong to Asus. With a reputation of stable, fast and overclocker friendly motherboards, it's easy to get excited when an Asus motherboard arrives. This time we are digging into the Asus P5E3 Premium WiFI-AP @n Edition. It's a long name, but this bad boy is loaded down with bells and whistles so let's dig in and see what it can do. Come and check it out at Club Overclocker!

ASUS P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP @n Edition Motherboard @ Legit Reviews
The ASUS P5E3 Premium/WiFi-AP @n is an Intel X48 chipset-based motherboard that combines performance with great energy efficiency. It supports DDR3 2000MHz dual-channel memory architecture and Dual PCI Express 2.0 x16 lanes for ATI CrossFire graphics performance card users. If you are looking for a motherboard that features cutting edge features and uses the tried and true Intel X48 Express chipset then look no further. If you want a solid motherboard that performs great, has great overclocking ability and that comes from a very reputable manufacturer, and if price is no issue at all, then this is a board that you should take a close look at. ASUS has done it again in the P5E3 Premium motherboard!

XFX GeForce GTX 260 XXX Edition @ Tweaktown
I’m looking forward to seeing how the GTX 260 fairs in this extremely competitive graphics card market, and hopefully its cheaper price tag can win us over. The graphics card market has never been this hot before, and while AMD are fighting the good fight to take the market share crown back, NVIDIA is battling them off with sticks at the moment. While looking at how the GTX 260 XXX goes against the GTX 280 XXX, we will see how it also compares against the 9800 GTX and 9800 GX2 to see if the price drop affects performance much.

Asrock P45R2000-WiFi 775 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
We have yet again received another mainboard from Asrock that is based on this Intel and improved chipset. The P45R2000-WiFi has the look and feel of the X48TwinTurbo we reviewed just a week or so ago. Now the P45R2000 has all options stated above and plus some but what will be an added feature of this board is its price. It should be price well under the $240 asking price of the ASUS P5Q at about $150-$160. Price is one thing but is it worth it in the end? Read on as well put this board on the bench.

Thecus N3200 RAID 5 Three Bay NAS Network Attached System Review @ Tweaknews
Thecus succeeded in making a home NAS that is simple to set up without sacrificing features and functionality. Only a basic knowledge of networking is required to have dedicated storage up and running in a matter of minutes. If you can set up a home router, you can configure this NAS and be able to access files from any PC in the home. For data redundancy, the option to set up RAID 1 or 5 is available and a backup utility is included on the software CD. Additionally, the internal fan is nearly silent and the unit doesn't take up much room, so it can easily integrate with other home networking equipment.

Areca ARC-1231ML SATA RAID 6 Controller @ Tweaktown
So, where do you turn to when you run out of ports on the motherboard? - To a discrete solution of course! There are many companies out there providing a huge array of cards. Areca is a new company to TweakTown; we haven’t been graced with any products from them until now, and as always we are more than happy to oblige them with some testing of their products. Today they have sent one of their biggest cards for SATA-II expansion. In our labs we have been sent the ARC-1231ML 12 channel SATA-II Controller. Let’s get stuck right into it.

In-Win B2 Stealth Bomber ATX Case Review @ Madshrimps
The In-Win B2 is without a doubt a gamer orientated ATX chassis. Designed with aspects and features to resemble a B2 stealth bomber plane this military looking case is apt to turn some heads. It has a fully functional automatic hatch at the front and comes with four case fans to keep your hardware inside running cool.

Antec Three Hundred Gamer Case

brandon — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:00:00 PDT

Antec has three premium lines of consumer computer cases in it's roster: Performance One, Sonata and Gamer. We've already looked at cases from the Performance One and Sonata lines and those cases left with many awards and high ratings. So now all that's left is a look at Antec's Gamer line of cases. It's pretty obvious, but the Gamer line of cases is targeted towards gamers. Antec's claim for it's Gamer cases is that they have "unprecedented cooling, convenience, and style." That's what we'll check out today with the entry level Gamer case from Antec, the Three Hundred.

The general style of the Gamer series cases consist of black exteriors, lots of fans (some of them are quite big!) and perforated front panels. Moving from the Three Hundred and up the line, you gain more space, more fans (and even bigger fans!), and a side-panel window.

Radeon HD4850 and HD4870 Reviews! With Crossfire too!!

brandon — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:48:00 PDT

The Radeon HD 4870 & 4850: AMD Wins at $199 and $299 @ Anandtech
Priced at $299 the Radeon HD 4870 is clocked 20% higher and has 81% more memory bandwidth than the Radeon HD 4850. The GPU clock speed improvement is simply due to better cooling as the 4870 ships with a two-slot cooler. The memory bandwidth improvement is due to the Radeon HD 4870 using GDDR5 memory instead of GDDR3 used on the 4850 and 3870; the result is a data rate equal to 4x the memory clock speed or 3.6Gbps. The Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 both use a 256-bit memory bus like the 3870 before it (as well as NVIDIA's competing GeForce 9800 GTX), but total memory bandwidth on the 4870 ends up being 115.2GB/s thanks to the use of GDDR5. Note that this is more memory bandwidth than the GeForce GTX 260 which has a much wider 448-bit memory bus, but uses GDDR3 devices.

HIS Radeon HD 4870 CrossFire Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
The Radeon HD 4870 is the first retail graphics card to use GDDR5 memory and the 512MB of memory uses Qimonda branded ICs. GDDR5 introduces features and functions that go beyond previous GDDR standards and enables GDDR5 to operate at data rates up to 6 Gbps, three times the performance of todays high speed GDDR3. The memory ICs feature adaptive power management, error compensation, adaptive interface timings and date eye optimization. The ICs being used are part number IDGV1G-05A1F1C-40X, which are entry level GDDR5 chips and are rated for just 4 Gbps. ATI has them clocked at just 3.6 Gbps, so these should have some overclocking head room left in them.

ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870: RV770 Has Arrived @ Hot Hardware
Last week, due to some unexpected circumstances, we were able to post a sneak peek of the RV770 GPU and ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. As our limited testing showed, the Radeon HD 4850 was quite promising for a $199 graphics card. But we weren't able to tell the complete story. While the initial benchmarks definitely looked good, there was a lot more to talk about in regard to the Radeon HD 4850 and the RV770 GPU at the heart of the card. Today we can finally spill the rest of the beans. You see, AMD didn't plan to officially announce just one new Radeon HD 4800 series card this week, but two, with a dash of information about a third thrown in for good measure. Today marks the official arrival of not only the Radeon HD 4850, but the higher-end Radeon HD 4870 as well. As we've already explained, one card - the Radeon HD 4850 - is targeted at the sub-$200 price point. The other, however, is a $299 screamer that makes use of some cutting edge technology, like GDDR5 memory.

Palit Radeon HD4870 512MB Video Card @ Hardware Canucks
It has been a hard two years for ATI and we know that many people out there have been counting down the days until the boys in red returned to competitiveness. Well ladies and gents, the wait is over because the HD4870 has shown us that ATI has come out with all guns blazing. While the HD3870 and HD3850 were popular cards which were able to compete on a number of fronts with their Nvidia counterparts, we are quickly coming to realize that they were nothing more than technology demonstrators for the 55nm manufacturing process. This process has now blossomed into full maturity with the R770-series cards which seem set to take the graphics card world by storm.

ATI's 4800 Series: HD 4850, 4870 @ Ars Technica
In a word, the 4800 series is excellent. The HD 4850 doesn't quite beat the HD 3870X2 overall, but it comes darn close. The HD 4870, meanwhile, does make a clean sweep of the 3870X2, and it does so for less money. The NVIDIA 9800 GTX ends up soundly thrashed by both cards. At the higher end, NVIDIA's 9800 GX2 and GTX 280 maintain performance superiority over the ATI HD 4800 series, but their respective price points of $499 and $649 put them far above even the 4870's comparatively modest $299 list price. The two new cards perform well across the board relative to earlier ATI products. If you're looking for specific benchmarks where ATI does particularly well, I'd recommend checking the Call of Duty 4 results, while both Crysis and World in Conflict are games where previous HD 3800 cards struggled compared to their NVIDIA counterparts.

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 in Crossfire @ Tweaktown
Given the level of excitement the HD 4850 left, not only with us, but also gamers and enthusiasts all over the world, the HD 4870 quickly became extremely anticipated by people. Will it beat the GTX 260? - How much faster than the HD 4850 is it? - Can it out-perform the GTX 280? - How does Crossfire scale? These are all questions that we want answered, and today we intend to have answers for all of them. On paper the HD 4870 looks to be the right card for a lot of people. On the internet, looking at early prices it also seems to be the right one. Ultimately though, what it’s going to come down to is performance.

AMD's Radeon HD 4870 graphics processor @ Tech Report
Cards like this one from VisionTek should start selling online today at around $299. That's another hundred bucks over the 4850, but then you're getting a lot more card. The 4870's core clock is 750MHz, and even more importantly, it's paired up with 512MB of GDDR5 memory. The base clock on that memory is 900MHz, but it transfers data at a rate of 3600MT/s, which means the 4870's peak memory bandwidth is nearly twice that of the 4850.

AMD Radeon HD 4870 and HD 4850 Review - Mid-range GPU mix up @ PC Perspective
If you were confused into believing that AMD's next-generation architecture, the RV770 design, was supposed to be out MUCH earlier than today, you wouldn't be alone. We started posting about the RV770 design as far back as late December and the stream of news and rumors about the number of shader processors, memory technologies and more. Last week we were "gifted" with the early release of the Radeon HD 4850 512MB- one of the products based on the RV770 design, but today we'll walk you through not only both the HD 4850 and HD 4870 graphics boards but also the RV770 architecture itself. AMD is releasing two new graphics cards with the RV770 today: the Radeon HD 4870 and the Radeon HD 4850; the 4870 will sell for an MSRP of $299 while the 4850 will go for $199.

AMD (ATI) Radeon HD 4850 and 4870: bloodying NVIDIA's profits @ HEXUS
ATI has managed to fit an incredible amount of shading and texturing power into the new HD 48xx-series - more than we expected. That shading is helped along by a commensurate increase in texturing, and the use of GDDR5, on the Radeon HD 4870, means it has gobs of bandwidth, too. If this was a specification-to-specification fight, it would be over before it started. ATI's new GPUs' visceral output cannot be matched by NVIDIA's mid-range, based on 18-month-old technology. There's one thing in having a huge, huge engine, and another in being able to use it well. Historically, NVIDIA has enjoyed a huge advantage in ensuring that games developers optimise code for its architecture, through a better-supported dev-rel team. The upshot has been that any obvious shortfalls in on-paper specs have mitigated by tight, efficient code, much to the chagrin of ATI's engineers.m Whatever the current state of play, it's difficult to argue against the brute power of the new mid-range/enthusiast GPUs from ATI; they're comfortably ahead of anything else at the quoted price-points of £125 and £175 for the Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4870, respectively.

Belkin TuneCast Auto with Clearscan for iPhone/iPod

brandon — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:00:16 PDT

I normally don't review non-computer accessories circuitREMIX, but I made an exception for Belkin's TuneCast Auto with Clearscan for iPhone/iPod. For one, iPods are hugely popular around the world and the new iPhone 3G is going to make a huge splash on July 11. As well, I personally own some iPods and I intend on buying an iPhone 3G when they're released.

In my personal interest in the matter, I've had some trouble finding a good FM transmitter for my iPods. My car is from 2003, and that was before most cars came standard with auxilary input jacks for audio devices. It also doesn't have a cassette deck, and since I'm still using the OEM stereo, there isn't an easy way to install a direct cable input. Using an FM transmitter is my only easy option to get audio from my iPods to my stereo, and out the speakers.

Daily News for June 24

brandon — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:16:58 PDT

Brando 2.5 & 3.5inch SATA HDD Dock with USB Hub Review @ Madshrimps
Brando SATA HDD Dock allows you to hotplug any 3.5 or 2.5inch SATA drive in a nifty external device. No more screwing around to get that external hard-drive installed. Just push it into the HDD Dock and start copying files.

Samsung SC-HMX10A High Definition HD Solid State Memory Camcorder Review @ Tweaknews
Samsung's first foray into solid state HD recording can be easily summed up to be a success. Everything works perfectly, controls are easy to use and video/photo quality are excellent for an all-in-one product. With the rise in HDTV sales, HD camcorders are going to get more and more popular. Consider an HD camcorder as future-proofing your purchase so it will be compatible with the new TV standard for several years.

Tuniq Ensemble 1200w Power Supply Review @ Club Overclocker
With the focus on a Green PC and sky rocketing energy bills, High Efficiency power supplies are gaining momentum. Manufacturers are highlighting their units abilities to maintain high efficiency even under full load. Tuniq claims the Ensemble will achieve a minimum of 82.3% at full load with an average efficiency of 86%.

XFX GeForce GTX 280 XXX Edition @ Tweaktown
If the GTX 280 AMP! Edition from ZOTAC wasn’t enough MHz for you, we might have the card for you today. XFX is back once again, carrying with it some pretty mean speeds on the new GTX 280 XXX Edition. While the XFX GTX 280 does come in 30MHz lower on the core compared to the ZOTAC offering, it does carry with it a significantly higher 200MHz DDR memory clock. Let’s find out if that makes up for the reduced core speed.

Razer Lachesis High Precision 3G Gaming Mouse @ Futurelooks
As the “Bringer of Silent Death”, the Razer Lachesis is named after venomous pit vipers found in Central and South America which can strike its victim multiple times at lethal speeds. Now I don’t call myself an avid gamer but I do like to partake in the more recent windows based gaming titles and it will be interesting to see how a true gaming mouse outperforms a regular ol’ optical mouse that I’ve been clutching. Does this precision gaming mouse live up to its namesake?

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB Review @ Club Overclocker
What a crazy week this has been. First, with the unintentional early release of the 4850, followed by the nVidia bombshell announcement of the 9800GTX+, there has not been a dull moment. All this chaos in the market has precipitated a serious price war in which all of us win. Even with the MSRP of $199, we are already seeing the 4850 sell for as low as $160. 8800GTX like performance for under two bills? Yes, please! All on a design that sips power and uses a single slot cooler? Where do I sign up?

ASUS Lion Square CPU Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews
Today we look at the newest CPU cooler from ASUS, the Lion Square. Named for the Sword Lion legend and designed with quad core CPU’s in mind this seems to be a slick heat sink. The bold and unique design features eight heat pipes that originate from the copper base all the way to the top where they are covered by neat looking nuts. The very top of the cooler has a cover that mimics the shape of a shield. It looks great, but how will it perform? Read on to find out!

Daily News for June 23

brandon — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:15:22 PDT

NZXT Tempest Midtower ATX Case @ Futurelooks
NZXT has come a long way in a short time. They started simply, with a flashy entrance into the case market in the form of the Guardian. Now they have a full stable of wonderfully designed cases, and aren’t showing any signs of slowing down. Their latest release, the Tempest, has garnered a lot of attention. We’re going to take a look at it, and see how well it stacks up in the abundant performance case market.

Hiper Osiris HTC-1K514-A1 Mid-Tower Computer Case @ Benchmark Reviews
High Performance Group (Hiper) is best known for their self-designed power supply units, yet they have recently begun to compete in the computer chassis market. Their first foray into the arena was with the rock-solid Hiper Anubis Mid Tower ATX Case HTC-1K614, which could withstand brutal punishment while looking very stylish. Mere months later, Hiper has returned with the Osiris Mid-Tower 6063-T5 Alloy Computer Case HTC-1K514-A1. Named after the ancient Egyptian god of the overworld, this case comes equipped with many of the award-winning features found in the Anubis and adds a total of 20 new refinements.

MSI P7N SLI Platinum (750i) Motherboard Review @ Madshrimps
In this review we take a look at an affordable NVIDIA 750i based motherboard from MSI. It allows you to build an SLI gaming system powered by an Intel S775 CPU. Is this product good enough for the enthusiast? We compare its performance to an X38 based S775 board and also let you explore the BIOS of the MSI with our virtual tour.

Four Radeon HD 4850s In CrossfireX @ Tweaktown
The guys down at IBuyPower Australia can’t get rid of me these days. I’m surprised they haven’t started asking me to pay rent. The other day the ASUS P5E64 WS Evolution board arrived, and this thing just absolutely won me over as far as looks and features went. However, the feature that we really care about today is the fact it has four PCI Express x16 slots. While ASUS use a x16/x16/x4/x4 configuration, it’s really one of the best on the market. So, with four HD 4850s in hand and hopefully a driver that was going to work, it was time to take four of these single slot bad boys to town.

Overclocking The NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ Video Card @ Legit Reviews
The highest settings we could get stable with the GeForce 9800 GTX+ were 855MHz on the core and 2200MHz on the shaders. That is 55MHz higher on the core and 175MHz higher on the shaders than what we could reach on the old 65nm G92 core. For those that like percentages the overclock is roughly 6% higher on the core and 8% more on the shaders, which is significant, but nothing over the top. Usually with die shrinks overclocking performance stays close to the same, even more so when no major architecture changes are made. It should be noted that the memory overclocked better on the GeForce 9800 GTX+ and it seems NVIDIA has moved over to Hynix branded GDDR3 memory ICs. The GDDR3 memory IC's on the new GeForce 9800 GTX+ card were Hynix H5RS5223CFR-N2C, which are rated 1200 MHz (GDDR3-2400) 0.8NS with 1.5V. These are the same memory IC's that were found on the GeForce GTX 280 cards we reviewed last week.

ASUS Eee PC 1000H @ Tweaktown
Eee PC 1000H is Taiwan’s version of the latest Eee PC launched by ASUS late in 2007. Since then, like a wildfire the Eee PC revolution has burned asunder all competition before it. There is literally no other genré of PC like it. However, that being said, I have to say the look and feel of the model we are looking at today is a lot different from the first Eee PC we originally exposed in all her innocence a while ago. Today we are going to strip down a juicier, more mature model; something seductively more endowed, and covered in glossy black. No more innocent “clad in white” teeny tid-bit viewing; this is an all-black leather mistress with her whips and chains, and it took a great deal of coaxing to calm her out of her plastic glossy black briefs.

Super Talent 8 GB USB Pico Drive @ TechwareLabs
Gone are the days of "Super Size Me" as the world has taken a 180 degree turn and everywhere you look ultra small is in. Super Talent has extended this concept to its USB storage line and presents us with its PICO drive. Weighing in at 8GB its a lot of storage in a little itty bitty space. Does this contended have performance that is bigger than its size?

Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 ECO 80 ATX Case Review @ Madshrimps
Arctic Cooling, well known for their low noise CPU and VGA coolers, has developed their own Silentium ATX case series some time ago. We take a look at the latest incarnation, the T2 ECO 80 which comes with a high efficiency 550W PSU, HDD noise absorption system and decoupled low noise case fans. Can this case live up to their high standards?

Daily News for June 20

brandon — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:55:24 PDT

Western Digital VelociRaptor 10000RPM SATA Hard Drive @ Tech Report
Western Digital hatched its latest Raptor back in April, revealing a unique departure from more traditional designs. This leaner, meaner VelociRaptor VR150 is actually a 2.5" drive sitting inside a heatsink that slides nicely into standard 3.5" bays. But don't think you can take this most recent Raptor lightly just because it's gone on a diet. Despite a smaller form factor, the VelociRaptor still offers 300GB of capacity—twice that of its 3.5" forebear. The VR150 is also the first Raptor with a 300MB/s Serial ATA interface, and its trademark 10K-RPM spindle speed hasn't skipped a beat. Like its predecessors in their prime, the VelociRaptor proved to be the all-around fastest SATA hard drive on the market—and a surprisingly quiet and power-efficient one, at that. However, the drive we used in our initial look at the VR150 was an engineering sample with pre-production firmware. Final, production drives have now made their way onto the market, and we've managed to score a retail sample that should be representative of the drives you can buy today.

ATI Radeon HD 4850 Versus NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ @ Legit Reviews
The battle between ATI and NVIDIA reached a tense moment today when ATI removed the gag order on the ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card by more than a week. NVIDIA was trying to spoil the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4850 by launching an ultra secret graphics card called the GeForce 9800 GTX+! Read on as we benchmark the Radeon HD 4850 versus the GeForce 9800 GTX+!

Intel P45 Vs. X48 Crossfire Performance @ Tweaktown
The other day the new GIGABYTE P45-DQ6 arrived and I was instantly intrigued by how cool it looks. The thing is, what also arrived that day was the HD 4850s. With my mind going in over drive, I thought this was the perfect time to check out what’s going on in the PCI Express slot department these days. While there are a few differences between the two, we only cared about one of them. We wanted to know the performance difference between the X48 and the P45 when running Crossfire. While both boards carry two physical x16 slots, when two cards are installed the electronics behind the slots on the P45 tune back to x8 on both slots. The X48 on the other hand continues to run both slots at x16 independently.

Zalman ZM1000-HP 1000 Power Supply @ Pro-Clockers
Another one of those quality products is the subject of our next review. The ZM1000-HP is one powerful power supply and it is also good looking. This six 12-volt rail 1000 watt behemoth is a sterling dark gray glossy finish that is pretty attractive without being flashy. And while I am on the exterior features of the ZM1000-HP is mostly modular for unlimited cable management possibilities. This power supply has all that one would need in a unit to power the best of gaming rigs.

ATI Radeon HD 4850 @ Tech Report
The battle between AMD and Nvidia for the hearts, minds, and disposable income of PC enthusiasts is starting to get scrappy. First, AMD scheduled a press event to distract folks from Nvidia's GeForce GTX 200 series launch, which Nvidia subsequently pulled forward. Perhaps in retaliation, the green team then divulged plans to unleash a faster version of its GeForce 9800 GTX. This GeForce 9800 GTX+ will sell for only $229, dropping the vanilla 9800 to $199—conveniently stepping on the price point of AMD's next-gen Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. Lest it be outmaneuvered, and because cards are actually available for sale already, AMD has decided to lift the curtains on the 4850 a little early. Keep reading for our first look at AMD's new mid-range Radeon.

Corsair TX750W Power Supply @ TechwareLabs
Where does the juice for your power rig come from? Is it reliable? Was it a pain to install? Are you letting money slip through your fingers each moment you use a poor efficiency power supply? Matt tests out the Corsair TX750 which supports 80Plus efficiency in a sleek black box. So flip the switch and read the electrifying results.

ATI Radeon HD 4850 @ Anandtech
Running GPU-Z we see that the Radeon HD 4850 shows up as having 800 stream processors, up from 320 in the Radeon HD 3800 series. Remember that the Radeon HD 3800 was built on TSMC's 55nm process and there simply isn't a smaller process available for AMD to use, so the 4800 most likely uses the same manufacturing process. With 2.5x the stream processor count, the RV770 isn't going to be a small chip, while we can't reveal transistor count quite yet you can make a reasonable guess. That's a 625MHz core clock and 993MHz GDDR3 memory clock (1986MHz data rate). We've got more stream processors than the Radeon HD 3870, but they are clocked a bit lower to make up for the fact that there are 2.5x as many on the same manufacturing process.

Thermaltake ProWater 850i @ TechwareLabs
Getting ready to enter the world of watercooling? Not sure about which kit is right for you or even how to install it? We check out the ProWater 850i a cheap and well made kit and take you step by step through our install and explain how the kit works and show its performance.

Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR3-1333 CL8 Memory Kit

brandon — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:00:00 PDT

Aeneon is a relatively new brand on the market, re-launched about 7 months ago. Originally under the Infineon brand, it is now a Qimonda brand after the spinoff of Infineon as Qimonda. Qimonda decided to continue the use of the Aeneon brand name for it's retail market division.

As part of the strategy, Aeneon exclusively uses Qimonda DRAM chips. This is similar to the use of Micron chips for the Micron owned Crucial brand. We all know that when it comes down to the performance memory market, the DRAM "chip-to-get" changes like the seasons. Other companies such as Corsair, Kingston and OCZ aren't restricted to certain DRAM manufacturers and have more flexibility when creating product lineups. Some of those brands have used Qimonda chips in the past, and many video cards use fast GDDR from Qimonda, and today we'll check out a DDR3 kit from Aeneon which uses Qimonda DRAM chips.

Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR3-1333 CL8 Memory Kit (AXH760UDx0-13G)

The memory kit on the plate today is from Aeneon's performance line of RAM, XTune. It's comprised of 2GB (2x1GB DIMMs) of DDR3 rated to run at 1333MHz at CL8 (specifically, 8-8-8-24). Aeneon tests these kits in pairs to ensure performance and stability in dual channel configuration.

Daily News for June 19

brandon — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:45:50 PDT

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 In Crossfire @ Tweaktown
I actually tested the HD 4850 before I finished writing my review on the GTX 280, which turned out to be good news for AMD but bad news for NVIDIA. It completely changed my opinion on the GTX 280 before I had even finished writing. The thing is, the GTX 280 is a good card in the sense of what it’s capable of. Such technology as CUDA and PhysX are great inclusions. But I’m a gamer; I want FPS! - I can’t sum it up better than that, and the GTX 280 really didn’t deliver in that department. I wrote in my editorial the other day that the HD 4850 in Crossfire wasn’t going to bring me fully back into the world of PC gaming, but I think the HD 4870 has the ability to do this. While the performance on the HD 4850 is excellent in Crossfire, it’s not loads faster than the GTX 280. That’s fine; we didn’t expect it to be faster at all simply because of the price. The thing is though, it is, and this is awesome news for people who want what could probably be the absolute best value for money setup we’ve ever seen – Yes, ever!

ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB Video Card Preview @ Legit Reviews
You'll notice that the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 has just a single 6-pin PCI Express power connector on the board and that is because it uses just 110 Watts of power during peak usage! The box of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 states that a 450W or greater power supply with a 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector is recommended for use. If you want to run these cards in CrossFire you'll need at least a 550W power supply and two 6-pin connectors. The box doesn't say want you need for 3-way and 4-way CrossFireX and we are still under an embargo on information that isn't on the box or in the presentation deck, but you can figure out the math on that one. To make things even tougher NVIDIA just released the NDA on the GeForce 9800 GTX+, which is clocked faster than a normal GeForce 9800 GTX! The GeForce 9800 GTX+ is coming out in July and will put some serious pressure on ATI as it will be priced at $229.

AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB Preview - RV770 Discovered @ PC Perspective
The AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB card is a good performing card that is able to match both the GeForce 8800 GT and the 9800 GTX card in our initial preview of just a couple of major gaming titles. NVIDIA has some more tricks up their sleeve though with a little part called the GeForce 9800 GTX+ meant solely to rain on AMD's launch day parade. Whether or not that will pan out has yet to be seen. The estimated MSRP on the HD 4850 512MB cards is $199 - low enough to be competitive in the market against NVIDIA's solutions. Currently the GeForce 9800 GTX is selling for no less than $269 while the 8800 GT cards are going for anywhere between $159 and $209. Availability of the HD 4850 should be immediate and no later than June 25th - you'll have to wait a couple weeks longer to get your hands on the HD 4870 graphics cards.

G.Skill 4GB DDR3-1600 Pi Series Dual Channel Memory Kit Review @ Bigbruin
The G.Skill DDR3-1600 Pi Series memory modules have a rather funky looking heatspreader, which upon closer inspection impressed me from a design and engineering perspective. Each module is protected by an aluminum heatspreader with what looks like the spiral binding from a notebook on top. These loops are similar to what many other manufacturers implement, except they have a bit of three dimensional appeal to them.

GTX 280 ForceWare 177.35 Performance @ Tweaktown
We figured that graphs speak louder than words, so today we took the time to test the new drivers under XP and Vista across a range of benchmarks on our ZOTAC GTX 280. I’ve decided that although there are new Catalyst drivers available for me to test, people would be more excited to see what NVIDIA can do to (hopefully) squeeze more performance out of the GTX 200 cards. While a lot of sites have loved the GTX 200 series of cards, they don’t seem to completely understand what’s going on in the AMD camp. I can honestly say that NVIDIA need the GTX 280 to get a speed bump, or gamers may be flocking to AMD for their graphics card sooner rather than later.

Zalman VF900-Cu Ultra Quiet Heatpipe VGA Cooler @ Benchmark Reviews
The competition between ATI and NVIDIA is fierce; it's definitely a buyers market in video cards these days. New chips are coming out every six months and they're almost always running more transistors, faster. There's a fair chance that the hottest and noisiest component inside your PC is the video card. Fortunately, the PC cooling industry has responded with some excellent products to keep the GPU heat and noise down. Join Benchmark Reviews as we look at how the Zalman VF900-Cu Ultra Quiet Heat-pipe VGA Cooler saved the day for one system builder.

TechwareLabs Case Mod Contest
Are you a mad modder at heart? Have you taken the toaster over and crammed a quad core CPU, dual video cards, and four hard drives into it? Have you altered your washer to look like something that qualifies as a WMD and outfit it with a PC? If so we want to see your mod, big or small. Submit everything you have modified and we will incorporate it into a video to be hosted on our site. The winning case mod will not only appear in the video but will also get an interview by us and be featured on our front page. Get your dremel and bondo out and let the mods begin.