While most manufacturers focus on looks when building a budget 2.1 sound system, Speed-Link went with a clean design and put more resources into delivering better sound quality. For a mere 70 EUR you get a solid 2.1 sound system, that works good in both games and for listening to music.
Danger Den is one of the most established players in the watercooling business. Their new Tyee GPU Waterblock has been designed specifically for the ATI Radeon X1800/X1900 Series and can cool GPU, Memory, Voltage Regulator and CrossFire Encoder Chip with just one block. Even though its installation is a bit complex, it shouldn't be a problem for more experienced users.
The Verbatim Store 'n' Go PRO series is geared toward business men and women who need fast and large storage devices with the security to safeguard confidential information. The blue 2 GB variant may not look very out of the ordinary, but the inside is what counts. It certainly sounds good, with read speeds of ~24MB/s and write speeds of ~13MB/s and an included security suite.
Xigmatek is a new company churning out computer cooling components. We took a look at one of their heatsinks not so long ago, and now, we have their S80 on our testbed. This is not a normal HSF by any means - it is a fusion of both air and water cooling, using dual 80 mm radiators and a 72 l/hr pump to cool your CPU. How does such an interesting concept perform? Can watercooling packed into such a small form factor be any better than standard air cooling?
OCZ's ProXStream is an extremely capable power supply that offers up to 1000 Watts of output. As you would expect it comes with four PCI-E power connectors and is CrossFire/SLI ready. In our testing we come to the conclusion that this PSU will be able to power any system you could think of while still maintaining stable output voltages at all times.
While most GeForce 8800 GTX cards are all based on the same product, with the exact same specs, EVGA has taken the 8800 GTX a step ahead. They cherry picked cards that can run high GPU and memory speeds and engineered a card that is running at higher clocks right out of the box. In our testing we see about 10% increased performance, especially at high resolutions with demanding games.
Soundgraph has updated their own VFD series with a new display which is not only twice as big, but one could say twice as good as well. The one aspect which did not get bigger, but in fact, smaller is its price. While the original Soundgraph VFD had a price tag of ~$100 the new Ultra Bay sells for $95. The new graphical LCD is a great choice to display any type of font, while the new buttons make navigating even easier than before. This is the display that makes any case into a home theater enclosure with some excellent software to control it.
The A-DATA Super Info SD card comes with a little LCD readout that can display volume name and remaining capacity. This is a very useful feature because it allows you to check what is on the card without inserting it into a computer. The performance of the card is good as well, transfer rates are in the 12 MB/s range with access speeds of only 1.3 ms.
The I-Rocks Superman Returns series is an officially licensed set of input devices and accessories. The collection includes a keyboard, optical mouse, card reader and USB 2.0 hub. All of these have fairly low price tags and come in various colors, fitting the Superman theme. We take a look at the optical mouse and the card reader to figure out if the price/performance ratio is down to earth or out of this world.
Sharkoon has released a refresh of their 1337 Gaming Mat series. The new pads have grown considerably and carry the XL label. The big downside of the original 1337 Gaming Mat was its small size. The new XL mouse pads still have the great quality and performance of their smaller variants, while keeping the price down - perfect for low sensitivity gamers.
OCZ's XTC Memory Cooler is a plug-on cooling module for your motherboard's memory modules. With people pumping more and more voltage through their memory, temperature becomes a concern and often limits the maximum overclock. In our testing we saw about 20°C decrease in memory temperature and increased overclocking capability.
The Pertelian X2040 is a multi purpose display, which can display IM messages, media information, stock and Ebay items among other things. Its software is based on an ever growing number of plugins, allowing the user to add further functionality to this LCD. The device is very well constructed and the display is quite bright. We give the display a try and set up a few plugins, to evaluate how useful such a secondary display can be.
OCZ's Dual 1GB SD-Card is a hybrid approach to giving you the optimum connectivity on an SD card. You can use the card either like any regular SD card or after removing a little cap like a USB stick. The card is rated at 80x speed which is about 12 MB/s. OCZ is selling the 1 GB version for about $40 which is a good price considered the added functionality of the product.
The Sharkoon Rush Laser mouse brings high DPI laser technology down to an affordable price range. For a mere 20 Euros you get up to 2000 DPI with variable on-the-fly switching, solid feel and build quality as well as a little pouch to get your weapon of choice to and back from a LAN party safely. We take the mouse for a spin and let you know if we feel the rush.
Where would computers be without coolers? Nowhere... High-end systems put out heat just like an engine, and they need to be cooled just like an engine. Water cooling is becoming a more popular format to keep these systems in line, but what if you don't want or can't afford a water system? High-end air coolers are the only next option. XIGMATEK is now starting to fulfill this need with coolers like the 055 which we'll look at today.
The Biostar V7603GS21 V-Ranger is based on NVIDIA's GeForce 7600 GS but comes at a higher memory clock. In addition to that Biostar added some changes to the PCB to allow software to change the GPU and memory voltages, which allows much better overclocking of the card. In our testing we could increase the core clock by 63% and the memory clock by 20% which made the card play in a completely different performance league.
Today we will be taking a look at the recently launched and highly anticipated SteelSound 3H gaming headset, which should bring some quality audio to the low-/midrange headphone market. The headset can be folded together nicely to take up very little space in your LAN party backpack, for a very competitive price of $50.
The A-DATA Vitesta DDR2 1066+ 2 GB memory kit is an excellent choice for overclockers who are looking to maximize their clock rates and performance. Even though it is specified to run at CL5, we had no problems running at CL4 above DDR2-1000 - CL3 is possible as well at reduced clock rates. What makes this versatile memory kit even more attractive is its fair price of $365.
The Thermaltake Bach VX case is nothing ordinary, even though the slogan "The Charm of the Ordinary" may imply some form of simpleness. The case sports some gorgeous looks and comes feature packed from start to finish. A brushed aluminum front, black drive bay covers, multiple locks and a partially screws-less design are just some of the highlights. We fill the case with hardware and let you know if we are still smiling in the end.
The I-Rocks IR7330 4-Way Navigation Laser Mouse is a very light, but robust 800/1600 DPI mouse. It offers more than the usual functionality and comes with a very small and slim piece of software to customize these. If you are a gamer looking for an ultra light mouse, this one may be for you. We won't be distracted by the fancy blue scroll wheel and take a close look at form, functionality, feel and performance of this mouse.
With the Tarantula Razer has created a keyboard that is designed to suit the needs of gamers. The keyboard offers programmable macro keys and lets you also reorganize your keyboard layout by swapping keys. As always, Razer's software is intuitive to use and offers a lot of features. Unfortunately with a $129.99 price tag the keyboard is fairly expensive.
Goldenmars are expanding from being an OEM manufacturer to targeting the retail market. To facilitate the changes, the company launched its signature brand "GeeDom" line of memory modules and flash based storage products. We are testing the Identity flash drive and SD card today which comes with a small LCD display that shows volume label and available capacity, even when disconnected from the PC.
Razer has always been known to produce some of the best mice and sensors on the market. They established their reputation with the Razer Diamondback which has now found a worthy successor. The Razer DeathAdder is the best mouse we ever tested, in both low sensitivity and high sensitivity. The bundled control panel is a breeze to work with and boasts a huge number of features. With a price of $59.95 this mouse also offers an excellent price/performance ratio.
At CES Zalman announced that they will enter the monitor market. The first product is a 3D display based on LCD technology. Initially there will be two sizes available, 19" and 22". Another more traditional new product was a fan controller that can measure the system's power draw.
The Radeon X1950 Pro series is one of the hottest selling video cards at the moment. It is competitively priced and can run all current games without breaking a sweat. Gecube has engineered a special TEC cooled solution for improved overclocking. In our testing we saw amazing clock increases of 20% on both the core and memory for a final clock of 682 MHz / 816 MHz.
The SteelSeries SteelSound 4H is a headset made specifically for gamers. Like its big brother, the 5H, it is designed to give you an advantage in games by making sure you hear all the little details like footsteps. The SteelSound 4H offers great wearing comfort even when used for gaming sessions of several hours.
A-DATA's My Flash PD7 USB Drive is certified for use with Microsoft Windows Vista ReadyBoost. In our testing this drive takes the performance crown with a sustained read transfer rate of 34 MB/s, far more than any other USB drive we tested so far. Access times are very important for ReadyBoost. Here the PD7 can shine too, only 0.6 ms is a new record as well.
Super Talent has recently announced their RBST line of USB sticks that support the Windows Vista ReadyBoost feature. ReadyBoost is a technology that enables you to increase system performance without doing any complex hardware upgrades. In our testing we see that the RBST offers amazing access times of only 0.9 ms and solid transfer rates of 17 MB/s for a very competitive price.
Everglide has been known to produce very high-end mouse pads for years. Now they ventured into the gaming headset market with their S-500 series of professional headsets. The headset offers excellent wearing comfort, even when used over longer periods of time. Also the sound quality is good for both gaming and listening to music.
Ratpadz was one the first companies to produce high quality plastic mats aimed at gamers who wanted absolute precision. The pad looks just like the original and is made from the same type of durable plastic. Can this old, relatively speaking, mat compete with the new sleek designs of the other big pad producers, read the review to find out.
Akasa has a full range of external hard drive enclosures. The integral line-up includes every connection variant from LAN and USB 2.0 to eSATA. The Akasa integral eSATA combines USB 2.0 and eSATA. You can also use an IDE or SATA drive with the enclosure. This makes the integral eSATA a very versatile enclosure. We use every possible combination and take a look at the performance of both connection types. Its stackable, sleek looks combined with the good performance make this a perfect choice for users who plan to use multiple external enclosures.
OCZ's hottest announcement at CES was their upcoming 2000W powersupply that is so big that it is housed in an external case. Another promising product is their Equalizer series of gaming mice. These laser mice have a feature "Triple Threat Button" that simulates three keypresses when pressing a mouse button once. Quite useful for pistol action in Counter-Strike or to get off quick bursts.
Func has always been known to produce some of the best gaming mouse mats in the world. They started off producing their infamous surface1030 which featured two surfaces: one rough and one smooth. Today we test the new version of their smooth surface namely the Func F10.S Large, which is aimed at low sensitivity gamers, and gamers who want the smoothest glide.
ASUS has been showing a number of innovations at CES. For example their XG Station which is the first external video card for notebook. The 7900 GS class card lets you play modern games on your ultra portable business notebook. Another show highlight was the W5Fe notebook which is the first to use a secondary display for Microsoft Windows Vista Sidekick technology.
The big attraction at Sapphire's CES booth was the Dual X1950 Pro, which uses two X1950 GPUs on one PCB with a total of 1 GB of memory. The card that is bigger than any other video card to date is designed to give top notch performance to users of motherboards with only one PCI-E slot. Also on display was a completely passively cooled Radeon X1650 Pro.
The Thermaltake LanBox is a portable case, which - as the name implies - is perfect for LAN parties. It features a large, comfortable and very sturdy handle, while keeping the weight down. It may cost more than other SFF cases out there, but certainly shines in every aspect. We let you know if the money is well spent for this case that is made to be the ultimate LAN party case.
Arctic Cooling has been in the video card aftermarket cooler market for several years. Their products are well known among overclockers and users that are looking to lower the fan noise of their video card. At this year's show they presented two completely fanless passive VGA coolers that can even cool GeForce 7950 and X1950 cards.
The Everglide Titan "Fnatic" is the first mousepad which is the result of the collaboration between Clan Fnatic and Everglide, hence the name. Everglide has always been known for producing high quality gaming surfaces. A great feature for low-sensitivity gamers is its size, it is absolutely huge. But will it live up to Everglide's standard and reputation?
The Danger Den Maze 5 is a waterblock that fits most ATI and NVIDIA video cards. It is engineered for optimum performance and flow rate. Danger Den has years of experience in designing water blocks, which you can see in this product. In our testing we saw an increase of maximum stable GPU clock by over 70 MHz compared to the ATI stock cooler.
The Ultra X-Blaster is a midi tower ATX case with a lot of potential. It may sport a small price tag, making the buy an easy one, but certainly does not disappoint. The case is quite sturdy, features drive rails for easy installation as well as a screwless setup for expansion cards. The included 400W XVS FlexForce modular power supply is a great addition, making this case the perfect allrounder for anyone looking to build their own system.
When deciding on components for a new system, users are often worried about incompatibilities with the memory of their choice. OCZ has teamed up with ATI to bring you CrossFire certified memory. This means that you can install this memory on any CrossFire certified motherboard and it is guaranteed to work. In our testing the modules performed very well over a wide range of timings from CL3 to CL5. To distinguish this memory from their other products OCZ colored the heatspreader in a beautiful ATI red which looks mighty good.
Razer and Microsoft have been known to produce some of the best gaming mice on the market. Not long ago the two competitors teamed up to create a new gaming mouse, the Microsoft Habu. This newcomer to the mouse market is of course packed with the latest technology that the two companies came up with. The design of the mouse is much like the old Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0, but you get some unique new features that only the Habu has.
The Akasa integral fusion combines two devices into one sleek functional device - an USB hard drive enclosure and a multi format card reader. It may not be the fastest enclosure for your money and the software may be a bit crude, but it gets the job done - that is what counts.
The G.SKILL F2-6400CL6D-4GBMQ are one of the first 2x 2 GB DDR2 memory kits that let you run high frequencies, DDR2-800 in this case. In our review we will point out the difficulties you will experience when installing 4 GB of memory on 32-bit platforms. Is this $500 memory kit the solution to a smooth Windows Vista experience?
QPAD is known to produce some of the best mouse pads on the market. Their pads are optimized to give gamers the best possible experience. The QPAD EC-R is the smaller sister of the QPAD XT-R. It is a bit thinner, which makes it more comforable to use. Also the price has been reduced a, to make it more affordable.
Mad Moxx has been providing pre-modded cards to their customers for several years now. Their GeForce 7900 GTO Burstfire is a GeForce 7900 GTO, overclocked to 7900 GTX speeds. In our benchmarks we saw that performance is identical to the 7900 GTX, at a much lower price. What makes the Mad Moxx product special is that you retain your warranty and the GTX overclock is tested and guaranteed.
Art. Lebedev is well known for its industrial designs as well as the Optimus range of keyboards. The Mus2 is a very nice looking optical mouse, shaped like a mouse pointer. This would make the perfect accessory for every HTPC. We take a look at it, to acertain if it performs as well as it looks.
When Intel Core Duo hit the stores, people went crazy. Many wanted to experience the amazing performance for themselves. Now, Intel brings us the QX6700 - a quad-core CPU. Is another revolution about to take place? Or are we going to find just a small increase compared to dual core? What about single threaded applications? Multi-core scaling?
Lian Li is entering the media PC enclosure market with their PC-C30 series. With more and more media system components available and enthusiasts looking for the perfect balance of form and functionality the PC-C30 series is a perfect choice. Many enclosures limit builders and enthusiasts to certain components where as the PC-C30 allows them to use whatever they need to fit their demands.
The Razer Barracuda HP-1 is a unique headset which offers true surround sound. A number of small speakers in the headphone are placed at different positions and are driven by a small amplifier included with the headphones. Now you can enjoy positional sound effects while using a headset. In our testing we found out that this makes quite a difference in games like Counter-Strike or Battlefield, where you can locate enemies based on the sounds they make.
Apevia is the new company name of Aspire. The Apevia X-Cruiser sports three gauges with blue light as well as a window for a small price tag. While the inside is quite simple and does not feature anything out of the ordinary, the outside look of the case did bring a smile to our face, especially considering the price tag and multiple color choices available.
The PC-A10 is a fantastic case. All the little things that Lian Li does over and over again make this case stand out from the crowd. The anti-vibration mounts for the fans, drives and side panels, the removable motherboard tray, PSU tray and drive cages, as well as the tool-less design make this case a pleasure to work with.
Crucial has always been highly thought of by all serious overclockers. They have catered well for the enthusiast market with their Ballistix and Ballistix Tracer range of memory. Today we take a look at the Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 2 GB kit, which has given us some stunning benchmark results! Reaching speeds of over 1 GHz, and breaking the 10,000 MB/s barrier in Everest Read.
The Scythe Karma Meter is a drive bay device to monitor the temperature inside your case with 4 separate diodes, control the fan speed of up to four fans and set the master volume of the PC. The Kama Meter shines with perfect build quality as well as 8 different back light modes. We take a close look to see if its features are useful and temperatures are accurate.
No.Identity Pads is a rather new mouse pad maker, but they listened to what gamers and professionals wanted. The NOIDpad gaming surface is a high-quality hybrid cloth mat that offers exceptional precision and tracking performance. For a small premium you can print your own logo onto the mat in an incredible quality. All this comes at a modest price of EUR 20, your custom logo adds EUR 5 to the price.
The be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 750W is a PSU of the next generation. It has four independant 12V rails which can supply 20 Amps each. You can connect up to four PCI-E video card connectors which makes this a great PSU for a GeForce 8800 GTX SLI rig. The power supply uses a modular concept which is a great way to keep the cable mess in your case at a minimum level. With over 30 connectors available this PSU will be able to power all peripherals you may have.
NVIDIA's new G80 GPU is the first to implement DirectX 10 support and Shader Model 4.0. Palit is one of NVIDIA's board partners who is selling the GeForce 8800 GTX. The card comes with 768 MB of video memory and can will run whatever you throw at it at highest resolutions with maximized settings. We test the card against the ATI Radeon X1950 XTX, X1900 Crossfire and the Geforce 7900 GTX.
The Scythe Kama-Thermo is a very simple, blue backlit temperature LCD display with a connected diode. The cheap price tag makes it very appealing to most case modders. It is quite small, but has large enough digits and a very good contrast so that the temperatures can be read from further away. The Kama-Thermo combines simplicity and functionality to form a great little device.
The SteelSound 5H v2 is a headset designed with gamers in mind. SteelSeries' first headset was called the SteelSound 5H, today we test the second version. The new version features even better padding than the old one, to make it more comfortable. Besides that the internal connections were reworked for increased durability, which was a problem with the old version.
If you are looking for a cheap video card that will keep you running until Windows Vista and DirectX 10 are out you may want to look at the Sapphire X1650 Pro. The card will run most games on high details at 1024x768 without taking a sweat. It comes equipped with fast GDDR3 memory and the fan is temperature controlled to keep the noise levels down.
OCZ's Roadster is a tiny little USB stick that uses an ingenious folding concept. With only 3 cm in length and 0.5 cm in height, this is probably the smallest USB key on the market. Its 1 GB of storage should be plenty for all your data transportation needs. With a price of around $25 for the 1 GB version it is also very affordable.
The OCZ EvoStream 600W is a powerful PSU that comes with modular connectors to help you reduce the cable mess in your case. On top of that you get four independent 12V rails that can supply all the power your video cards may ever need. In our testing on a Crossfire system the 12V line was exceptionally stable, making this unit a great choice for overclockers.
Passive cooling without fans is the holy grail of cooling because it does not add annoying fan noise to your system. While this is almost impossible using air cooling, Thermaltake has engineered an external watercooling solution that can keep a modern CPU cool without any fans. Thermaltake's Orchestra is very easy to install, even for novices, and comes with everything included to get you up and running.
Wicked Lasers is very well known in the enthusiast laser community for making high-quality products that perform well. We test the 125 mW Fusion laser which emits a high-powered green beam that is visible for several miles without losing much of intensity. Also we test protective goggles which are designed to make sure you don't hurt your precious eyes when playing with lasers.
Some people would love to get into a water cooled setup, but aren't quite sure where to start, or don't really want to get into anything too complex. Thermaltake has a solution for this - The Silent Water II. Coming pre-built and ready to go, it's just a matter of mounting this cooler to reap the benefits of watercooling without the hassle of setting up pipes, leak testing, and the other aspects of building a water cooled system.
Func Industries manufactures gaming surfaces by gamers for gamers. Their product range includes a pad for everybody from low sensitivity, to ultra-large surface area. In this review we will be testing three pads: the Func surface1030, the 1030 Archetype and the F30.R. Also on the testbench we have the Func Antifriction Liquid which is supposed to reduce the gliding resistance of your gaming surface even more.
The Ultron Speecision is a 2in1 mouse pad, sporting a rough precision side and a fine speed side. The build quality of the pad is incredibly solid, due to the aluminum used. Since there is no cloth in use, the pad is resistant to any spilled liquids. We take our mice for a spin on both surfaces and test how each side fares.
The Thermaltake TMG AT2 is a cooler for ATI's Radeon X1800, X1900 and X1950 Series. It uses a combination of copper and aluminum to optimize the cooling. We compared the cooler to the Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 and the Zalman FC-ZV9 Fatal1ty. The temperature results were among the best of the tested coolers. Not only performance is great, but the installation is also very easy to perform, in just a couple of minutes.
Today NVIDIA released their highly anticipated GeForce 8800 Series based on their all-new G80 GPU. The first two cards will be the GeForce 8800 GTS and 8800 GTX. We take you through the changes in the GPU design and what's new and great on these cards.
The Akasa Integral P2 LAN is just one of many hard drive enclosures from Akasa. It looks quite sleek and solid, holds the hard drive well and comes with everything needed. Setting up the drive may not be as easy as other variants, but the software is bug free and easy to use. You can even use up to eight of these units to build a RAID setup.
The Ultron G1-Clawpad has an interesting look to it. As soon as you see it, you will notice what it is for: having all the needed keys for a game within reach of the left hand. It does not only look good, but feels great as well. The buttons are responsive and comfortable. Gaming with the G1-Clawpad is very nice once the hand has gotten used to its new weapon of choice.
Abit has a long history of producing top notch motherboards for overclockers and enthusiasts. Their new AW9D-MAX is designed for Intel's Core 2 platform using the i975X chipset. On the feature list there is everybody you could find useful: Dual Gigabit Ethernet, 8x SATA-II, Firewire and two PCI-Express x16 slots for your video cards. To make your life easier this board includes abit's proprietary UGuru technology. We test the board thoroughly to see if it can live up to the hype, especially when it comes to overclocking.
Art.Lebedev Optimus Mini Three is a very innovative little keyboard product. While the large price tag will make it appealing only to a limited number of customers, the price reflects a designer product. It offers a lot of functionality, but nothing you couldn't do without. The Optimus Mini Three is the ultimate gadget for the computer enthusiast, so the price will not be as important as the fun factor of the device.
The new ATI Radeon X1300 XT is based on the RV530 GPU core which is used on the X1600 series. That alone should bring quite a nice performance boost. On top of that Sapphire has added GDDR3 memory and a healthy clock increase. There is no need to run an overclocking software on your system, the increased clocks are stored in the BIOS. In our testing we saw a huge performance difference to the X1300 and almost no difference to the X1600 series.
The Akasa Mirage 62 can simply be described as the Hummer of PC cases - wide, big, black. The front looks sweet, but the interior looks even sweeter. Black interior and a mirror finish mainboard tray just ask for a window panel to be used. This case delivers everything you may need, from total access to your parts to all the space you could ever need - even for QuadSLI and 1kW power supply. So if you can afford the $150 price tag, this case is for you.
ATI's new X1900 XT 256 MB is designed to fit into the price range that is bound by the X1900 GT on the lower end and the X1900 XT 512 MB on the upper end. In order to bring the card's price down ATI chose to reduce the total memory size from 512 MB to 256 MB. Also a bit slower memory is used. We test how big the performance difference to the more expensive X1900 XTX with 512 MB is.
ATI's Radeon X1650 was introduced with the X1950 XTX and the X1300 XT. Just what is this card? As the name suggests, it is a little step up from the X1600 XT. With the same amount of pipelines, and slightly higher clocks, is there anything to look forward to with the X1650 Pro? No doubt, this card at least runs cooler - insured by a smaller manufacturing process. Does it bring balanced performance at a fair price? How does it fair compared to the X1300 XT? Most importantly, is it worth buying?
The Scythe Infinity is a huge high-performance CPU cooler using five heatpipes. The cooler comes with Scythe's ingenious mounting system which makes installation a breeze. Scythe has included mounting kits for the Sockets 939, AM2, 478 and 775. This means that this cooler is a future proof investment for users who are considering a Conroe S775 upgrade in the near future.
The Thermaltake Power Express 250W is a video card power supply specifically designed for the needs of current high-end video cards. When you have an older PSU you may not be able to run Crossfire or SLI because the PSU can not supply enough power for the video cards to run stable. When installed, the Power Express will supply 12V to your video card(s), taking a lot of strain off your main power supply.
At Intel Developer Forum 2006 in Prague a presentation explained many of the obstacles that need to be overcome on the long way to Terascale computing. A Terascale computer is a machine that can perform one trillion operations per second, more than 50 times of what today's high-end CPUs can achieve. But Terascale is about much more than just building a CPU that can go that fast...
Even though the OCZ PC2-8800 Gold are designed "for gamers" they still offer features that you would usually see only on high-end overclockers' memory. Being able to run at a default of 1100 MHz DDR2 is very impressive, even though it requires around 2.4V to do that. In our testing we could get this $450 memory kit to DDR2-726 at CL3 and DDR2-1178 at CL6. This shows that this kit has something for everybody, no matter if you overclock just a little, or need insane FSB speeds.
Sharkoon has an extensive line-up of external enclosures for all types of drives. The Sharkoon Swift-Case 3.5" Combo is made of shiny, brushed aluminum and gives the user the choice between USB 2.0 and Firewire. The case is incredibly solid and looks quite nice. We take a look if the installation and performance keeps us smiling with joy or frowning in frustration.
We take a look at Sharkoon's latest gaming mouse pad, which is only 1.4 mm high and can be rolled up to make transportation to LAN parties easier. The mat has a cloth top and uses foam at the bottom to make sure it's not slipping around on the table. At the end of the day the Sharkoon 1337 gaming mat which costs only $10 does not disappoint.
Serious gaming needs a serious mouse - The Logitech MX518 is sure to fulfil that requirement. At 1600 DPI and armed with eight buttons, it's sure to please even the most hardcore of gamers. Using Logitech's precision MX optical technology, the MX518 didn't miss a beat when it came to gaming, it took everything we threw at it with ease.
The Zalman HD135 Media PC case was designed to be low-profile, yet you can install full-height video card(s) in it without the need for a riser card. It is also possible to use a standard sized power supply and a regular optical drive. Space for storage is also plenty, you can stuff up to 6 HDDs in this case which is just 135mm high. The HD135 is made from all aluminum and is available in black and silver for a price of $299.
Thermaltake's Aqua RX R-1 is a waterblock for memory modules. Overclocking the memory, in most cases, is unavoidable when you want to reach a higher CPU speed. Sometimes, the memory might limit your CPU overclock, and that's when you start thinking about cooling your memory, to achieve even higher clocks. Watercooling memory is still in its infancy, but products capable of cooling the memory well are slowly making their way to the market.
If we could describe the XLCIO A380 which is identical to the A+Case Twin Engine with one word it would be: monstrous. Not because of looks, as it looks incredibly sleek. The case sports two huge 25 cm fans which light up and are a definitely a huge attraction at LAN parties. Big fans don't have to be loud - the included fan controllers allow you to fine tune the fan speed and noise as needed. Even at maximum speed the fan noise of this $110 case is barely audible.
The be Quiet Straightpower 700W is a high-quality power supply for power hungry gamers and overclockers. It sports features like two PCI-Express power connectors and an 8-pin CPU power connector. A temperature controlled fan helps keep the system noise level at a minimum. During testing we found out that this PSU's inside is identical to an OCZ PSU.
The Thermaltake Mozart TX case has a unique 7" drive bay which was designed for installation of this LCD screen. The LCD panel is hidden inside the case until activated, then it slides out driven by a motor. An additional feature is the integrated touchscreen which lets you use your PC just by pointing with a little pointing device on the screen. Even though its native resolution is not something that is common in the PC world, the display's great scaler can still achieve excellent video quality and well readable fonts.
QPAD is known to produce some of the best cloth based hybrid mats on the market. Their older QPAD LowSense mouse mat has been a great success because it offered excellent control and precision to gamers. Today we are reviewing the latest evolution of QPAD's cloth based hybrid mats, the QPAD|CT. It is a hybrid mat which basically means that it is a cloth mat with polymer coating. The special surface makes it more rugged and allows even less gliding resistance.
With the Katana Cu Scythe has delivered a very solid all copper cooler that has excellent cooling performance. It uses a 92mm fan with an integrated fan speed controller. When the fan speed is turned all the way down the noise is reduced to an inaudible 30% of full speed, yet temperatures under load are only increased by 3°C.
The Ultra Grid case does not only sport a great paint job, but includes two 12cm fans, a 500W power supply, a great door with magnetic locks and a fancy "Ultra" air duct. It even has space for 11 drives. We take a close look at the case & the included V-Series 500W power supply to figure out if the case has everything we look for when we pay a penny short of $150 or if it leaves a hurtful void in our wallet, wishing we have gotten more.
Watercooling a CPU or a graphics card is nothing out of the ordinary these days. With the arrival of Core 2 Duo, people have started to put emphasis on cooling their chipset too, in order to achieve higher overclocks. As if Thermaltake was expecting this, they released a new chipset block, the Aqua Brazing W3, designed to cool almost any chipset on today’s market.
SteelPad has been producing high quality mouse mats for years. Only recently they started to make cloth mats. Today we have on our testbench the SteelPad QcK Heavy which is the biggest mat in the lineup with a surface of 450 mm x 400 mm. Additionally the thickness has been increased to 6mm for a better experience on uneven surfaces.
The Thermalright Ultra 90 is a solid performing air cooler with six heatpipes to keep your CPU temperature down. Its unique design allows you to use your own 92mm fan for fine tuning of heat vs. fan noise. A competitive price of 25 USD makes this cooler even more attractive, and if you need more cooling power you can just get the 120mm Ultra 120.
The Ideazon MERC Gaming Keyboard is the one thing the gamer can use, but may have never thought of. Many of us buy expensive mice, large and specially made mouse pads but continue playing on ordinary keyboards. The MERC gaming keyboard changes all that and gives gamers the one thing they actually use the most - a butterfly. We take a look at the keyboard and its software, to see if it really makes our gaming lives easier and more efficient.
Have you ever dreamed of a device that lets you connect all kinds of IDE and SATA devices via your USB port? This is what the Kama Connect does. You can connect all EIDE and SATA drives, 5.25 and 3.5", CD/DVD-ROM and HDD to it. It is even possible to connect SATA and IDE devices at the same time and use them both. With a price of only $29 this is one of the most useful USB devices ever.
At this year's Games Convention in Leipzig every company wanted to please your eyes with their hot girls. We spent almost a whole day collecting photos of the nicest booth babes. In total this makes almost 100 pictures - with full-size 8 MegaPixel versions to show you all the important details.
The ATI Radeon X1950 XTX is a refresh of the X1900 series and is the first video card to use GDDR4 memory. Another major change is the new cooling system which was designed to reduce noise while keeping temperatures down. ATI's new flagship card is clocked at 600 MHz GPU and crazy 1000 MHz effective memory clock. Read our review to find out how this card performs.
OCZ is well known for their great overclocking memory. But they also had a PSU product a long time ago. Now the power supply line of products gets a refresh with new products. The first of them is the OCZ GameXStream 700W which is designed with gamers in mind. It is SLI Ready and certified by ATI for use with Crossfire.
The Thermaltake Mozart TX is one of the biggest PC cases ever made. It has so much space that you can put two systems into it. You have five drive bays and seven 3.5" bays, a total of ten fans can be installed into this case which seems like a great candidate to be fit with water cooling. We test the silver, all aluminum version of this $300 monster case.
Watercooling is becoming very popular these days due to several reasons. With water you can cool just about anything in your PC. People usually start with watercooling their CPU, then move on to GPU, through chipset watercooling and may end at memory or MOSFET cooling. On our testbed today is the Thermaltake W2 waterblock. If you are in search of silence, and need a GPU waterblock, then read on!
The Ultra Aluminus case may look like your standard Chieftec case, but do not be fooled by first impressions. It is much different under the hood (or side panel for that matter) and has a lot to offer. The perfect paint job just rounds up the entire case which can hold up to 12 drives, has a removable motherboard tray and space for two 12 cm fans. If you are looking for something unique, check out this case.
Cooler Master enters the external hard drive enclosure market with their X-Craft series. Just like their cases, the X-Craft is very sturdy and once again does not disappoint. Everything from the tool-free design down to the extra USB/Firewire connectors and great looks make it a joy to use. The performance for both Firewire and USB is just as expected and the backup software, albeit very simple, gets the job done.
The GeForce 7950GX2 is NVIDIA's current high-end offering. While this card is based on the GeForce 7900GX2 used in Quad SLI systems, the 7950GX2 is just as long as a 7900GTX and currently meant to be used as a single card, replacing the 7900GTX. It offers a great performance boost while currently costing just about as much as the 7900GTX at launch. We run it through the benchmarks, to see what the card will deliver.
Thermaltake has been around for only seven years, but every one of them has been spent turning the heads of the hardware community. From the original Golden Orb's effective cooling at near silent levels to the current array of water and air coolers, Thermaltake continues to impress with both design and function. When Thermaltake designed the Big Typhoon, they went all out, using six heatpipes and a 120mm fan. Is bigger really better? Let's find out...
Thermaltake, established in 1999, has a large portfolio of products ranging from HDD enclosures to water cooling kits for experienced PC users. Today, we take a look at the Thermaltake Aquabay M6, an extraordinary reservoir with functions unlike any other. How many times have you wondered how much water you have left in your reservoir? Have you ever pondered about the temperature of the water circulating in your water-cooling loop? If so, then this might just be the product for you. Read our review to find out more about this unique reservoir!
2006 is the year of the FIFA World Cup in Germany. For this event A-DATA has created a special edition USB stick with a football theme. If you like this or you don't is up to your own taste. But you can't deny the benchmarking results which were just amazing. In the read bandwidth tests this stick could beat the OCZ Rally which is known as the fastest USB drive on the market. Fast does not have to be expensive, the 1GB version of the Football Disk runs for $28.
The SteelSeries SteelSound 5H USB is a quite unique gamer headset. The microphone is retractable and for easier transportation you can take the whole unit apart. In addition to the headset you get a USB based sound card which makes sure you get the sound you are used to, no matter where you are. We compared this headset against the popular Sennheiser PC 160 and were amazed by the quality of the SteelSound headset.
Logitech has produced something every gamer needs. A keyboard with backlighting, usable in the dark. It will make the use of your World of Warcraft or Counterstrike key binds easy to use and out of the way. Even the LCD is useful, with sheer endless possibilities. Once again the quality and details of this input device is just what we have come to expect and love from Logitech - perfect in every aspect.
Thermalright is one of the foremost cooling companies in the overclocking community. They have been around for many years providing that extra edge needed to keep your system cool. Although their lineup has changed quite a bit recently, many users out there are still cooling their CPUs with the Thermalright XP-90 and the XP-90C. Today we will take a look at the famous XP-90C and see what it can do in a current S939 setup.
A while ago the Diamond Viper X1900XT was the lowest priced X1900XT card from all manufacturers and is still one of the lowest priced cards available today. Diamond Multimedia has produced modems, sound cards and MP3 players. One of the first consumer MP3 players ever was called the Rio PMP300. They have since sold their MP3 player line, but still offer a range of multimedia products. In this review we'll take a look at this X1900XT offering from Diamond Multimedia along with some basic X1900XT functionality and overclocking tips.
The Silverstone TJ08 is a great little case at first sight. The front is incredibly well made and looks quite nice. The case can fit a mATX board and standard power supply. On second look however, the case exhibits some horrid paint and built quality. It costs twice as much as some from the competition and one is hard pressed to find any reason to recommend the Silverstone TJ08 case over much cheaper and even better variants.
Today we look at the Speed-Link Medusa 5.1 Pro Gamer Edition headset. Not only does it come with all the cables and a tiny but effective power supply, but with a perfect bag which makes the journey to the next LAN party a breeze. The suède feel of the headset makes it incredibly comfortable and it definitely has the sound to make your scariest games even scarier and give you the 5.1 surround sound you need to excel at your next LAN Party.
The Cooler Master Centurion 540 is a mATX case with a sleek aluminum front, sporting very nice blue LEDs and a black fan grill. While the outside appearance leaves nothing to be desired, the inside does not disappoint either. The hardware installation is a breeze and the great fan mounting positions make it an ideal candidate for water cooling. The case definitely has the Cooler Master quality, but still a very affordable price tag.
The Thermaltake MUSE LanDisk is an external enclosure for one 3.5" HDD. In addition to USB connections it also supports 10/100 MBit Ethernet making this a nice entry-level NAS system. The installation is extremely easy and can be performed without tools in a few minutes. When connected to the Ethernet interface a nice and easy to use web-based configuration page is available to change the settings.
At Computex we saw a lot of pretty asian girls. Every big manufacturer had something to catch the eye of the visitor. The girls were presenting products, handing out information or performing dance shows. We have 190 pictures of them. For your extra viewing experience we also posted the full-size 8 megapixel images straight from the camera.
Lian-Li is known for the great computer cases they make. Now they offer the new V series of cases, but even the classic ones have not remained unchanged. The Lian-Li PC-G50 may look absolutely tiny and cute from the outside with its perfect, sturdy build quality and paint job. Given the small size we were surprised that we could stuff a full sized ATX board equipped with a huge CPU cooler into the case comfortably and managed to keep it all cool with the two included 12cm fans.
ECS had many new Intel motherboards in all price classes. All of them support Conroe so you will be able to play with it for just a few bucks for the motherboard. On the AM2 front many products have been outfitted with the new socket. Products are based on NVIDIA, VIA, AMD and SIS chipsets giving you the whole lineup from high-end enthusiast down to budget as cheap as possible.
Arctic Cooling displayed their new PSU project at the show. They emphasize extremely high power conversion efficiency, up to 90%. Another product was the Fusion Supporter which improves the voltage quality and stability of your video card.
At DFI the highlight was of course the new NVIDIA nForce590 based motherboard for AM2. The LanParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G is the first enthusiast motherboard to support Digital PWM using a special circuitry that enhances the power supplied to the CPU. Also new is an ATI RD580 Crossfire motherboard using the new SB600, a new copper cooler for the chipset and an additional SATA-II controller by Promise.
At Computex Thermalright has a prototype of a TEC waterchiller. Regular coolers can be seen too, but it's mainly sized up versions of existing coolers. New is a memory cooler and a video card cooler. Also there is a concept of a video card cooler with an external heatsink.
Thermaltake has released more products than any other manufacturer at Computex. Among the highlights are a huge home theater case which looks like a big audio rack and has space for two systems. For visitors of lan parties a Shuttle-like case is offered which takes all standard size components and supports SLI. Several new watercooling products have been announced, including a watercooled passive PSU. A whole load of air and watercooled GPU coolers are new too.
A-DATA is one of the first memory manufacturers to show off DDR3 memory. Even though it is still a while away, this is a good step to be able to deliver once the platforms start appearing - which will be sooner as everybody thought. Other new products are geared towards improving your USB stick or SD card experience. For example an SD card with integrated USB connector has been developed.
At GEIL you could see the first DDR4 modules. Also on display was a super fast AM2 rig with memory running at 1200 MHz, CL4. For users of SD cards a card has been developed which is completely waterproof and burn-proof.
At the small form factor specialists Silverstone we saw a case the size of a Shuttle which uses only standard components and has suport for SLI. Another novelty were cases which are made from only one piece of aluminum. Last but not least there was a new 850W PSU on display.
The PSU experts at Topower have been making power supplies for 20 years now. Their new products are made to improve your power supply experience. One is an easy to use cable which filters power to the video card and also protects from overcurrent and overvoltage. Another one is a special add-on power supply which can boost your total wattage by 420W each per unit added.
At Scythe we saw new CPU coolers for AM2 of course. Another novelty was a behemoth of a VGA cooler, which is probably the biggest video card cooler ever made. Another cool toy is a universal USB adapter which lets you use 3.5", 2.5" and SATA HDDs on your USB port - all with one small adapter.
Zalman had an awesome HTPC on display. It comes with an integrated 7" touchscreen TFT. The display has a native resolution of 1024x768 which makes everything crystal clear. A more affordable version of that case comes without LCD screen but is low-profile and takes up to six harddisks. The cooling products have been improved as well. Here we see coolers for AM2 and a new Fatal1ty VGA cooler.
NVIDIA's Quad-SLI was released only for system integrators. The first retails cards for enthusiasts are showing up now. The new name is 7950GX2 and it means smaller PCB and optimized design for self-builders. In our preview we show what NVIDIA has thought up this time and if it is something that you should look into for your gaming rig.
Soundgraph was established in 2000 as a spinoff from Samsung. Their latest product is the SoundGraph iMON 2.4G series of remote controls. Unlike traditional infrared remotes they use 2.4 GHz wireless. The advantage of this is that it will work through walls and you don't have to point the remote at the receiver. Even though the 2.4 GHz band is used there were no problems running with an active wireless LAN nearby.
QPAD's new XT-R gaming surface features an arched design which gives you more usable area for your mouse. The mat is made from hard plastic Carbytek and offers extreme precision for high-speed gaming. We evaluate the gaming performance against the Razer Mantis and the SteelPad 5L to see what kind of difference it makes.
The Thermaltake mini is a watercooling system with an interesting new design. The external radiator looks like a speaker and is 80 cm tall, two pumps are integrated there as well. As we know from Thermaltake installation is exceptionally easy. In our testing we check out how well it cools an overclocked Celeron and an Intel Xeon hot head.
Sunbeam Tech was founded in 2000. They specialize in computer accessories, and some hardware. Sunbeam is known for their case lights and cooling products, including the well known Tuniq Tower. Today we have the Sunbeam Silent Storm on the test bench. It features a clean office look and a big "Core fan" which improves air flow through your case.
Today NVIDIA launched their nForce 500 Family chipsets for the AMD AM2 Socket. There will be four models to allow a wide range of motherboard products from budget to high-end for enthusiasts. A lot of new features have been introduced like SLI Memory, First Packet, DualNet and Media Shield. Read our preview to find out what the new nForce500 offers.
The Soundgraph iMON VFD is the perfect accessory to turn your normal PC into a HTPC. The set is made of a bright and responsive VFD with an integrated volume control and large infrared remote control. Soundgraph has produced a solid gadget and has thought out an ingenious installation system. The software is incredibly easy to set up and use. The remote enables total control over the PC, while the VFD displays much more than just song titles and PC information.
With the XP2-6400 Mushkin has released their second generation of DDR2-800 memory. The memory comes with default timings of 4-4-3-10, which is a good deal better than most of the competition. The elegant black heatspreaders add to the look of this memory. But this memory is not only about looks. The timings can be tightened down to 3-2-2-4. Relaxing them has an even better surprise for you - we reached DDR2-1104 at CL5.
Thermaltake with its well known Aquabay series has added a HDD water cooler to its list of offerings for their water cooling kits. The new cooler is dubbed the M4 which is the next number in line for the Aquabay series. With the addition of this new HDD water cooler it opens a new debate as well "Do I really need to water cool my HDD?" We'll try to answer that question as we review the Thermaltake Aquabay M4.
The Aspire X-QPack is a unique case, which has everything the gamer is looking for. It is small and portable, thanks to the integrated handle and has all the room one could need. The small power supply still packs a punch and can power all the latest hardware with its 420W. But Aspire did not stop there - they included a 12 cm blue LED fan, as well as thermal probes so you can keep an eye on your temps while playing your favourite games at a LAN party. We crammed the case completely full, using every last screw that was included and checked out how it performed.
This press presentation from NVIDIA talks about the upcoming nForce 500 Series chipsets. One interesting feature is SLI Memory (EPP Memory) which has been developed together with Corsair. Another highlight is the new networking support in nForce500 which offers dual Gigabit with technology that makes you "King of Ping" and also lets you link together two GigE links. You want RAID with 6 SATA drives? That's possible with nForce 500 too.
The X1800 GTO cards use regular X1800XL chips with just 12 rasterizing pipelines instead of 16. Clocks are still at 500 MHz for both memory and core. We tested this card and found it is an overclocker's dream. Even though we could not unlock the extra pipelines, the card still overclocks very well, in our case to over 700 MHz on air cooling.
SteelPad have been around for some time now and have an excellent reputation for producing high quality mouse pads. The SteelSeries SteelPad QcK+ is made with the gamer or graphics designer in mind. This pad offers so much surface area that you will never run out of space when things get hectic. The fabric used ensures high precision in all scenarios, even the highest resolutions on optical mice. Another plus is that this nice pad comes at a bargain price of under $15.
The OCZ Rally USB Stick revolutionized performance of USB sticks. Now OCZ has released another stick called the Mini Kart which is optimized for size and ultra-portability. The stick which comes in a 512 MB, 1 GB and 2 GB version has a height of only 2.8 mm. Small enough to carry it around in your wallet. Considering how thin the Mini Kart is, we tested its strength using the weight of OCZ's latest PSU hooked to the end of the USB stick to see if the stick would snap.
AData is well-known in the overclocking scene as a high-quality memory brand which offers good overclocking on all their memory modules. We have their Vitesta DDR2-800 kit on the testbench and were impressed that it could be overclocked to DDR2-900 without any problems. Even though the default timings of 5-5-5-15 are a bit slow, they can be tightened down to 3-2-2-4 when running lower clocks. Another plus is that this memory will work great even at stock voltage of 1.8V.
XTracPads is known to produce some of the absolute best performing cloth mats on the market and they have specialized accessories to suit even the most demanding gamer. Over the last years they have produced a variety of different mats, right from the Micro hard plastic mat up to this new Ripper XXL measuring in at an astounding 914mm width, 457mm height. Yes, that's right. You can put your keyboard on it and still have plenty of space for the mouse.
The Thermaltake Big Typhoon is known for being one of the top-performing air coolers out there. Now Thermaltake has released a smaller, lighter cooler called the Mini Typhoon which is is supposed to offer the best features of the Big Typhoon at a fraction of the cost. Can six heatpipes and a 92mm fan keep your CPU cool?
At this year's CeBIT the most controversial and most debated new hardware was NVIDIA's Quad-SLI, which was awarded "best product of CES" earlier this year. We had the chance to put two identical retail 7900 GX2 QuadSLI and X1900 XTX CrossFire systems right next to each other and evaluate them. There were quite a bunch of surprises.
A few weeks ago I got me a new notebook from Lenovo, the Thinkpad X60s. Soon I realized that the default memory configuration of 512 MB is not enough. Since the official memory upgrades are rather expensive I thought I'd give G.SKILL notebook memory a try. These modules come for about half the price of the original memory and offer rock stable performance for your memory hungry applications.
Today we take a look at the Point of View 7900 GTX, which is based on the current high end chip from NVIDIA, the G71. The GeForce 7900 Series was introduced during CeBIT this year, and has replaced the old 7800 Series line up. A major change is the increased clock speed of 650 MHz on the core and 1600 MHz on the GDDR3 memory. While the card is not exactly budget at $499 it is still cheaper than most other 7900 GTX cards from the competition.
Thermaltake provides the Tai-Chi in two versions, one with pre-installed water cooling and one without. Obviously the water cooled equipped Tai-Chi comes with a hefty price tag and is one of the most expensive cases. Gazing at this behemoth one would expect it to do laundry too, however everything I wash turns pink even the poka dots. So after having to explain to the kids we didn't get a new TV I lugged the box indoors. Time to see what's inside the crate and makes this the top of the line Thermaltake offers.
SteelSeries has been manufacturing gaming gear for the gaming enthusiast for half a decade. The SteelPad 5L is the latest incarnation of there SteelSeries gaming surface series and today we take the SteelPad 5L for a test drive. The gaming surface at first glance looks like the typical cloth type mouse pads of back in the day when we all had roller style mouses and input devices. The cushion layer thats between the surface and backing resembles a thin layer of neoprene, so the surface has a stiff but sponge like feel to it. The surface is comfortable and smooth to the touch. Let's have a look.
Pentagram has been a leading supplier of communication products for the european market in the last years. Now they are entering the CPU heatsink business with a load of new products. The NXC 100-Cu heatsink uses the proven "flower" design in an all-copper approach. The cooler supports all current CPU sockets and comes with an easy to use fan controller.
The Evercool Turbo2 is a universal GPU cooler which fits all cards from NVIDIA and ATI, including the 7800/7900 and X1800/X1900 Series. What really makes this fan stand out compared to other solutions is that it is extremely quiet while still being able to keep your card cool. Another plus is that you can find it online for a bargain $20.
The F2-4200PHU2-1GBNT are G.SKILL's latest budget DDR2 memory kit. Even though they lack heatspreaders they offer excellent overclocking. Our sample would go from the advertised DDR2-4200 up to a blazing DDR2-5800. What makes this kit even more attractive is that you can tighten the timings to 3-3-2-4. All this comes at a very competitive price of only $75 for a 2x512 MB dual channel kit.
With all the attention on the high ends cards being released most people overlook the bargain video cards that are already out by numerous OEM manufactures. It seems everyone is on the band wagon and this includes Diamond Multimedia. With the release of the GTO and GTO² series there are some goods deals to be had. We'll be taking a look at Diamond's Viper X800GTO PCI-E to see it's no X1900 but would take the sting out of finally upgrading to PCI-E.
At this year's CeBIT NVIDIA had a load of new products and was very aggressively marketing them, which made ATI's existing customers feel insecure. In order to level the playing field and reassure distributors that ATI is indeed able to compete, this presentation was created. It quotes several big websites on topics like X1800GTO, 7600 and 7900.
ASRock did it again. The 939SLI32-eSATA is the killer budget board of 2006. It comes with two PCI-Express x16 slots and supports NVIDIA's SLI. Other new features are Gigabit Ethernet and support for eSATA. Also the overclocking has been polished some, the dreaded 275 MHz limit is gone and there are more memory timings options available. With a CPU socket upgrade card this board can even run with AMD's upcoming AM2 CPUs.
In this presentation ATI talks about "The Product Stack" which is one way to measure how much bang you get for your buck. There is a comparison of different price segments against what the competition from NVIDIA has to offer. Also there is a hint of "cable-free CrossFire mode" with upcoming Catalyst 6.5.
G.SKILL presented their new 2GB F1-4000BIU2-2GBHV DDR memory kit at Cebit. If you are looking for a well overclocking 2GB memory kit you should definitely take a look. Even though it comes with CL3 timings, it will also run at CL2 and CL2.5. It can do all its overclocking magic at only 2.6V so this may be a good choice for users of budget motherboards which do not offer allow voltage adjustments in the BIOS.
OCZ has been a technology leader in the overclocker's memory business for quite a while now. Their new DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum XTC kit comes with stock timings of 4-5-4-15 which we could tighten down to 3-3-2-4 and still get some serious overclocking out of the memory.
Our Cebit coverage ends with reports from SiS, Asetek, Foxconn, Primecooler, Scythe, Arctic Cooling and NVIDIA. The highlights here are definitely the NVIDIA Quad-SLI and slides from the NVIDIA press conference.
In this Cebit report we have coverage of ASUS, Gigabyte, Elitegroup and MSI. With those names you can bet you will see a lot of AM2 motherboards. Also nice were ASUS' leather-covered notebooks.
Today we have Day 4 of our Cebit experience with the latest products from Biostar, ASRock, Sapphire and DFI. The highlights here are the various AMD Socket AM2 motherboards and Sapphire's HDMI+HDCP+Audio video card solution. Sapphire also showcased their Blizzard VGA watercooling which is based on a Thermaltake design.
In this Cebit report you will find coverage of Albatron, Corsair, Tyan, Akasa and Powercolor. One highlight is Albatron's new i975 motherboard which is designed to run with two PSUs and comes with 10 SATA ports and 7-phase CPU power.
Our second day of Cebit coverage includes the companies GeCube, Sparkle, Sirtec, AOpen, Zalman and ABIT. Among the highlights are dual-GPU X1600 from GeCube, quad-12V rail PSUs from Sirtec and overclocking with Crotale at ABIT's booth.
This is our Day 1 coverage of Cebit 2006, the biggest electronics expo in the world. We have reports from the memory manufacturers A-Data, G.SKILL, Kingmax, OCZ Technology and Patriot.
The Matrix VX is a new budget case from Thermaltake with a great amount of features borrowed from high-end cases. It is specifically designed for LAN party users with full aluminum, screwless drive installation, two 120mm fans for case ventilation, side panel with large transparent plexiglass and net weight only of 3.8kgs.
Mushkin has been making performance memory for enthusiasts for a long time. Today we have their new DDR2 XP2-5300 memory on the testbench. This 2 GB kit comes with tight timings of 3-3-3. It can even run at impressive 1000 MHz when the timings are relaxed to 5-5-5. The elegant black heatspreaders add to the excellent impression this memory left.
Powercolor (Tul's graphic card division) is no newcomer to the graphic card segment. Over the years, it has built up a strong reputation, which it is constantly improving. In the past weeks, we were all able to notice that Powercolor started offering a "lifetime" guarantee on their X1900 series cards. Today, we take a look at the opposite side of the X1000 spectrum - the low end X1300. But perhaps low end is not the correct word. The card comes pre-overclocked to a massive 600 MHz compared to ATI's default of 450 MHz. Using HyperMemory technology the VGA memory can be expanded from 128 MB to 512 MB.
ASRock is a subsidiary of ASUS and manufactures low-cost motherboards. The ASRock 775XFire-eSATA2 for Intel Socket LGA775 is based on Intel's i945 chipset and can run ATI Crossfire. Due to a lack of PCI-E lanes in the Intel chipset this is only possible in x16/x4, but this board costs only USD 80.
ASUS was the first motherboard manufacturer to have an ATI Radeon Xpress 3200 motherboard ready. Some retailers even got their shipment early and were selling boards before the official Xpress 3200 launch. It seems ASUS has learned from the A8R-MVP and improved their board in many ways. If all boards with RD580 will work as good as the A8R32-MVP, NVIDIA better starts worrying.
ATI held their european Xpress 32000 launch event at Seville, Spain. While the marketing people were showing off presentations and gave out technical info, Finnish overclockers Macci and Sampsa set out to break the 3DMark05 world record using the new chipset, a pair of X1900XTX and dry ice. We bring you exclusive coverage of the nightly overclocking session.
ATI, the company that is most known of their powerful and quality graphic card solutions, released their first Crossfire mainboard chipset with the RD480. Today they present the new Xpress 3200 chipset. The most important feature is support for x16/x16 PCI-Express when running in Crossfire mode. There are also a lot of other interesting changes.
German video card specialist Mad Moxx has released a special edition of the Sapphire X800 GTO². The Mad Moxx X800 GTO² Burstfire comes premodded with 16 pipelines out of the box. To improve cooling an Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer has been installed on the card. For paying a small premium over the regular Sapphire card you can stay away from BIOS modding, aftermarket cooler installation and voiding your warranty.
G.SKILL is well known in the community for making high-quality memory products which perform good and are not too expensive. The F1-32000PHU2-2GBNS 2GB DDR-400 kit is going for around $160 - one of the best prices for a 2 GB kit right now. For such a bargain price you would usually expect slow CL3 timings on memory. However, G.SKILL specifies this memory as 2.5-3-3-6 at only 2.6V.
AOpen is offering a wide range of products, many of them geared toward living room multimedia. The dual-core capable AOpen i945Ga-PHS is a motherboard designed to be used for building a Media PC. Its outstanding feature is integrated VGA with analog, TV and HDTV output without the need of any addon card. This gives you everything to build a very low profile Media PC.
After ATI's launch of the X1900 Series the people at NVIDIA sat down and took a close look at where the weak points are and where NVIDIA's lineup is superior. This presentation compares X1900 performance against the 7800GTX and in the second part of the presentation tells us why SLI is superior to Crossfire.
Swiftech has always been known for their innovative cooling solutions. Today we will take a look at their 100% copper chipset cooler: the MCX159-CU. Its creative design allows for greater heat dissipation in even the tightest spaces, and on almost all motherboards. Not only does it cool well but the included 40mm fan is also remarkably quiet.
Thermaltake is making a variety of products for computer enthusiasts: cases, coolers, power supplies, water cooling and other accessories. The Thermaltake Eureka is their latest full-tower case. It has a solid front door and is made from all aluminum with a brushed metal look. Sliding drive rails and tool free drive cages make installation easy. A removable motherboard tray completes the feature set of this high-end case.
Japanese heatsink manufacturer Scythe has engineered a nice heatsink with the Samurai Z. It includes mounting accessories for Socket 478, 775, 754, 939 and 940. On all these platforms installation is very easy and can be performed without any tools. While the cooler can not offer the cooling performance of behemoth coolers, it can keep up well with the heat load of our test setup. In addition to that it is remarkably quiet.
ABIT is one of the most popular motherboard manufacturers for enthusiasts and gamers. Their products are full of innovations like UGuru or SilentOTES. The AT8 is the latest Crossfire capable board from ABIT and uses ATI's RD480 chipset. As southbridge the ULI M1575 is used. What makes this board even more interesting is its competitive price which will lie in the USD 120 range.
Diamond Multimedia expands its offerings and adds the Stealth X550 to their lineup. This card is aimed at casual users surfing the web or building a HTPC system. The Stealth X550 is a cut above the onboard graphics solution and can overclock to X600 speeds. This entry-level card is good news for those on a low budget, so with card in hand let's take a look at the Diamond Stealth X550.
From a feature perspective ECS offers a very well rounded board with the PF5 Extreme. Having one Gigabit and one Fast Ethernet port is exactly the combination which I think is a good compromise between speed and price. Getting six SATA ports and two PCI-E x16 ports for around $120 is also very nice. However, if you are looking into overclocking more than just a little bit this board might not for you. It has quite a few issues when it comes to overclocking.
OCZ is one of the most well known manufacturer of enthusiast memory. Recently they have introduced their XTC line of heatspreaders which are engineered to keep temperatures of the memory down, even when overclocking. The PC2-4200 Gold XTC offer superb overclocking, even at stock voltage. We found that the default timings of 4-4-4-12 can be tightened a good deal without losing much overclocking headroom.
The chinese manufacturer Sansun isn't too well known yet, because they are a rather new company. If they continue delivering such solid products, I'm sure that this will change in no time.
For a price for which you often get only a plain and unsleeved power supply, Sansun is giving you dual 12V rails and a modularity feature which is usually found only on much more expensive PSUs. All cables are sleeved as well which helps keep your case look clean. Also the important qualities of a PSU like voltage stability and fan noise look good.
The Thermaltake ToughPower offers 550 watts to satisfy all your power needs. Two 6-pin PCI-Express connectors are available for SLI or Crossfire. On top of that you have four SATA and eight 5.25" connector. Two independent 12V rails can supply a total of 38A. During our testing we saw impressive voltage stability and very small ripple.
If you are an enthusiast who is always playing with hardware, constantly swapping components, the HighSpeedPC Tech Station might be for you. We test the large version which offers plenty of space to add serious watercooling or even more exotic stuff. During our review we check if it's easy enough to put together and we also put a system inside the Tech Station to see if it can live up to the expectations.
The "Silencer" series from Arctic Cooling has been famous for delivering top notch performance while still being quiet. The Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 is the first aftermarket cooler engineered for the ATI Radeon X1800 and X1900 series. It features a completely revamped design and continues the tradition of powerful and silent.
The Corsair FlashVoyager USB Sticks are well known for their ruggedness. During our testing we boil and freeze the USB stick, put it into the dish washer and run over it with a car, more testing happens in the toaster and in the washing machine, and we finally managed to break it. Not only can the stick take a lot of beating but the transfer speeds are also among the fastest.
Thermaltake introduces its new Big Water 745 kit with single and dual radiators. Adding an improved water block and a move to 3/8" tubing Thermaltake takes the Big Water to a new level. Also included is a beefed up pump with larger reservoir. We'll check the new parts inside and out while testing it against its predecessor.
The ECS PF88 Extreme is a unique motherboard. Its SIS 656 chipset offers users the possibility to purchase CPU add-in cards, called SIMA cards which allow to run a completely different CPU architecture on the motherboard. At the moment SIMA cards are available for Intel Pentium M Socket 479, AMD Socket 754 and AMD Socket 939. Together with the on-board Socket LGA 775 this means that you can run any mainstream CPU available today. However, there are a few BIOS bugs, one allowed us to get a POST screenshot at 6750 MHz.
Artic Cooling is famous for their video card coolers, but they offer more. The Freezer 64 Pro is the latest addition to their CPU coolers. Clever routing of airflow cools the motherboard voltage circuitry. Another good idea is that the fan is mounted on rubber posts which absorb any vibration caused by the fan. During our testing we learn that the Freezer 64 Pro can not only deliver solid cooling performance but does so without creating a lot of noise.
The Mambo is another competitively priced case from Thermaltake. It weighs only 6.2kg but still offers all the comfort of a full tower case. Its elegant black design makes it pleasing for the eyes of the more mature computer users.
NVIDIA is successfully filling all the gaps on today's market, offering solutions for both the masses as well as the few "exclusive" people. The 6800GS is NVIDIA's latest product and is aimed at people looking for a compromise between performance and money. Unlike the 6800 Ultra, which is no longer manufactured, the card has only 12 pipelines, but the GPU clock has been bumped up by 25 MHz.
G.SKILL is known for their well performing memory, which doesn't cost an arm and a leg. We have their latest 2GB kit on the testbench and were surprised by the good results. For $200 you get a 2 GB kit which performs very close to Samsung TCCD. Our best result was 272 MHz at only 2.8V. Impressive for a 2GB kit.
ATI video card specialist Sapphire has built this Crossfire-ready motherboard with enthusiasts and gamers in mind. Special care has been given to providing the whole range of needed BIOS options to properly tweak the motherboard. Its unique white design will make the board stand out of the crowd.
Thermalright is well known for making world-class CPU coolers. Now they have entered the VGA cooling business. The Thermalright V1 Ultra is an improved version of the V1 and features a third heatpipe. Not only does it cool well, it does this without creating a lot of fan noise. During our testing the cooler could easily beat a low-cost watercooling solution.
Modern games require more and more memory. One gigabyte of system memory has pretty much become today's standard. Once you turn up the eye candy you are much better off having 2 GB. OCZ is using their new XTC honey-comb heatspreaders on these modules which offer much better thermal properties than the traditional solid heatspreaders. For 1024 MB modules the overclocking works quite well too, we reached up to 240 MHz without any voltage increase.
MGE targets the extreme gamer/modder niche and the build-your-own mainstream market of PC enthusiasts with this power supply. It features a unique blue anodized design with side windows in the PSU case. A PCI-Express video card connector is available, all cables are sleeved. During our testing we found that the PSU can supply stable clean voltage. Another plus is that the retail price of $60 is quite competitive.
When I first heard that DFI is coming up with a new "Expert" version of this board, I was wondering if they could really improve things so much that it warrants a new product. Yes they did! There are a lot of improvements compared to the older LanParty NF4 series. For example you can finally run four 512 MB memory modules at 1T timing.
When we hear Razer, we think of high-performance mice made for gamers. The latest Razer product is the Razer Copperhead Gaming Mouse, it has an amazing 2000 DPI laser engine with a response time of 1 ms. Unlike other mice the laser never powers down during game play, so you are ready to frag at any time.
Cooler Master has engineered a great PSU which has a PCI-Express Power connector and can supply 12V from three rails. Most PSUs have only one or two. For the visual aspect there is a Watt Viewer which goes into a drive bay and automatically displays the current power consumption of your computer - without the need of additional software.
After all the good reviews NVIDIA got for their brand-new 7800 GTX 512 MB, ATI had to come up with ideas how to respond to this. Instead of building better products which are available at launch date, their marketing guys sat down and put together this presentation.
MIPS Computer is a manufacturer of specialized high-performance water cooling solutions for overclockers. Their products offer excellent build quality made in Germany. This time we test the RAM Freezer which is a water cooling device for DDR1/DDR2 memory. We saw great testing results with Winbond UTT, Samsung TCCD and Winbond BH-5 memory - up to 25 MHz faster without any additional fan noise is very impressive.
OCZ is well known for being constantly on the lookout for new ways to improve performance of their enthusiast memories. The 3200 Gold GX XTC are using OCZ's completely reingeneered heatspreaders which feature a pattern of honeycomb holes for improved heat transfer. Being able to run tight latencies of 2-2-2-5 1T is a great way to improve system performance. In our tests we could run at DDR476 with those timings.
Sansun is a new and rather unknown company, which produces various types of hardware including premodded cases. There are different designs available, the one that we tested has a Batman theme. It looks good and performs pretty well at the same time.
Mushkin has been well known for producing top-notch overclocker's memory. Now they have released a 2 GB kit which features their brand-new reengineered heatspreaders. Even though it uses 6 ns rated memory chips from Infineon we could overclock them to 280 MHz, a great result for a 2 GB kit.
ASRock has engineered the 939Dual-SATA2 around ULi's new M1695 chipset. The board has both AGP 8x and PCI-Express x16 slots which do not suffer from performance loss like other manufacturers' implementations. You can even use both slots at the same time. General performance is very close to that of the competition. Suprisingly the board is a good overclocker as well, it reached an amazing 380 MHz HTT after some tweaking.
Today, we will take a look at Sapphire's Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition for AGP. With nForce 4 for AMD and the i9XX chipsets for Intel, it seemed that the long era of AGP was over once and for all. However, about a year later, this is not quite the case, and many people still use AGP. Is there still some life left in the dying standard? Or would you be better off upgrading to PCI-Express right this minute?
The G.SKILL F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ unite overclocking and 2GB. They almost overclock like the best 1 GB Dual-Channel kits, but offer double the amount of capacity. We reached 275 MHz (DDR550) at low 2.6V. If you want the smoothness of 2 GB and also overclocking, they can be yours for about $245, which is an excellent price.
Sirtec may not be one of the known big players of the PSU industry, but in fact they are a huge OEM producer of power supplies, for example for Thermaltake and Chieftec. We test Sirtec's 410W unit which offers a beautiful chrome finish and a low-noise fan at a very competitive price.
G.SKILL uses Samsung TCCD or TCC5 chips on these DDR memory modules. The timings of 2.5-4-4-8 are pretty much what you would expect from modules using these chips. During our overclocking tests we could get DDR600 speeds out of the sticks, at a rather small voltage of 2.8V. The best about this memory? It's the price. You can find a 2x 512MB kit for around $170 online.
Thermaltake has engineered a completely new video card cooling concept. A self-contained water cooling unit which is mounted into two PCI slots keeps the GPU cool. People who think watercooling requires a lot of maintenance or leaks easily will be proven wrong. The installation is also remarkably easy. What makes this unit even more attractive is its competitive price. Powercolor liked it so much, that they use it on their X800 GT EVO series.
Under-hyped or Overrated? The Zalman CNPS 9500 LED is Zalman's newest addition to their top of the line air coolers. This full-copper heatsink comes with a fan controller so you can optimize for performance or fan noise. In our testing it even beats a watercooling kit and proves that it is well worth your money. Watch as we put it to the test on the Pentium 4 Prescott 561 at 180 Watt TDP.
World-famous case modder Mashie has created this unique case modding accessory. It is a stereo 7-channel real-time spectrum analyzer which shows beautiful patterns on 112 LEDs. It goes into two 5.25" drive bays and does not require any additional software because it comes with its own microprocessor on-board.
ATI has created this presentation in which they share with us what they think will be NVIDIA's reactions on the X1000 Series launch.
We are taking a look at the ASUS CT-479 Adapter which allows you to use an Intel Mobile Processor in your desktop. This Socket 478 to Socket 479 converter is considerably less expensive than the native Socket 479 boards. With this adapter you can turn that old ASUS 865P/875P mobo into a serious gaming machine. The OCZ DDR Booster is reviewed along with the ASUS CT-479 Adapter.
OCZ is well known for their excellent enthusiast memory. Now they have entered the USB memory stick market with a bang. Their Rally USB sticks use dual-channel technology to deliver the fastest transfer speeds available. Not only are the sticks fast, they also come in a robust aluminum case.
Functional panels for our computers have been around for a while now, but Logisys took the standard functional panel with USB, Firewire, fan controller, and temp monitors and tricked it out one more. They created "The first remote panel in the world designed for media PC and for enhancement of all computers". The Logisys FP800BK includes almost everything you could want in a front panel device, plus you can turn your PC on and off with its handy remote!
ATI held a nice press event at Ibiza this weekend, where they showed off their new R5xx series to the press. We weren't there, but we brought you some nice slides from the presentation for your prerelease viewing experience.
We take a close look at VL System's L.I.S 2 Blue eye, to find out how this middle-segment LCD performs. It can display anything from fan RPM and current time all the way to CPU temperature and voltages, it can even control up to 4 fans. Have you ever caught yourself wondering what time it is in the middle of a frag fest, and couldn't risk switching back to desktop? Do you own a modded case and attend LAN Parties regularly? Then this might just be the unit you are after...
For several years Thermaltake has been making "cool" hardware for the enthusiast. This includes heatsinks, fans, cases and other cooling solutions. Today we take a look at the Thermaltake VB6000SWS, an affordable case for people who still want a good looking computer.
When you ask hardcore overclockers about companies who have the best extreme cooling gear, you can bet that Asetek is among the first mentioned. Their Vapochill Extreme Cooling Units are legendary, but come with a hefty price tag. The average user is not willing to pay that much, so Asetek has engineered the Vapochill Micro series. While the principle is the same as the Vapochill, do not expect to reach sub-zero temperatures with the Vapochill Micro, it essentially is a heatpipe cooler, just with some very clever ideas. Asetek's experience in designing high-performance cooling units sure has helped here.
Thermaltake has recently released the Golden Orb II. Now they have the Blue Orb II. This cooler is a good deal bigger than its golden brother, which results in seriously improved cooling performance. Also the fan seems to have been improved - cools better, but not much louder.
NVIDIA has set out to bring the ultimate video and HDTV experience to the PC. Their PureVideo technology has exciting features like acceleration of video decoding, HDTV deinterlacing, Inverse Telecine and a high-quality rescaling engine. In the second part of this 35-page presentation NVIDIA's new DualTV technology is shown. It is the "industry's highest quality dual-analog tuner", according to NVIDIA.
NVIDIA's launch of the GeForce 7800 GTX has been a huge success, now they bring that platform to the mobile sector. It has double the rendering performance, while having the same power consumption. It also comes in a pin-compatible package making it easy for notebook manufacturers to upgrade their designs. We have a 26 page presentation straight from NVIDIA.
ATI's competitor NVIDIA has sat down and put together a presentation dealing with the shortcomings of CrossFire. Problems like limited resolution and game issues are listed. Not only do they cover the CrossFire video cards, but also problems with ATI's dual VGA motherboard chipsets.
This 26-page presentation from NVIDIA talks about their new nForce4 variants, called GeForce 6150 and GeForce 6100. Both have integrated VGA. The new high-end dual PCI-Express x16 part is also briefly mentioned.
ABIT has engineered the AL8 for Intel Socket775 to be a good compromise between features, performance and price. Apart from the standard features, the motherboard has Gigabit Ethernet, an extra SATA controller, 8 Channel Audio and ABIT's uGuru.
We also found out why other reviewers could not overclock past 220 FSB and describe how to fix it. Our best result was 4568 MHz @ 326 FSB.
Featuring a sleek and chic brushed aluminum shell the Lian Li PC-65b is all anyone could wish for in a mid tower. With the ability to remove the motherboard and PSU in just a couple seconds. Lian Li is known for their elegant and classy cases, they are designed and built to carry on the motto: a purchase you'll never regret.
Thermaltake's Aquabay M3 watercooling reservoir is mounted in one 5.25" drive bay. It has a water level indicator and comes with all accessories required for installation. It was designed to go with Thermaltake's watercooling, but works with other systems as well. Its incredible price of about $25 makes it a great accessory for watercooling owners.
Unlike all other memory manufacturers who merely buy DDR-chips and solder them on PCBs of other manufacturers, Crucial builds their own memory chips and PCB. On the Tracer PC4000 you will also find unique leds for a good look. Although Crucial/Micron is not very known for overlocking RAM we will do an xtreme overclocking test with high voltages and try to determine if they are a good alternative to sticks with Samsung TCCDs or low latency modules like Winbond UTT BH-5/CH-5.
OCZ has released the PC4800 Elite Edition in reply to user's claims that their 4800 Platinum modules used Samsung TCC5 chips instead of TCCD. OCZ guarantees that only Samsung TCCD chips are used on the PC-4800 Platinum Elite, but at a higher cost. These modules are specified to run both 2-2-2-5 and 2.5-4-4-10 timings. At the CL2.5 setting up to a whopping DDR600.
Watercoolers often wonder: "How much water do I have in the system?", "Is my flow rate ok?". Thermaltake's Aquabay M1 watercooling reservoir with fill level and flowrate indicator will help you answer this question. It is mounted into two 5.25" drive bays and is compatible with any watercooling system.
If you are a person who is (physically) moving a lot of data around, you have only a few options: USB stick, notebook or USB HDD. A notebook is quite expensive, big and heavy and USB sticks might not provide enough capacity for you. With the Thermaltake Muse 3.5" external HDD enclosure you can put your old IDE harddisks back at use. It supports fast USB2.0 transfers with speeds of up to 480 Mbps.
ECS has built the RS400-A motherboard around ATI's RADEON XPRESS200 chipset for the Intel LGA Socket 775 platform. Keeping cost down was a driving factor during development of this board. It can be used with DDR1 or DDR2 memory modules. Also available are slots for PCI-Express x16 and AGP. This board looks like an upgrader's dream, but does it offer the performance enthusiasts want?
OCZ has geared their DDR2 Value Pro towards "mainstream desktop users". We had the DDR2 PC2-4200 Value Pro modules on our testbench and were surprised by how far we could overclock this memory. Close to DDR2-750 at stock voltage is certainly not mainstream. Timings could also be tightened from 4-4-4-8 to 3-3-2-4. Great results, especially if you consider the price of $120 for a 2x512MB kit.
After the success of the old "BH-5" PC3500 LVL2, Mushkin tries to continue the success story with the new Redline XP4000. They select the best Winbond UTT CH-5 and use them on these modules to have a big clearance above the specifications. The modules offer 250 MHz with tightest timings of 2-2-2, but require active cooling. We test these sticks at up to 3.5V and see how far they go.
Quite some time ago Thermaltake produced the Golden Orb CPU Cooler. Now the successor Golden Orb II is released for Socket939 and LGA775. It features a huge heatsink with a nice looking gold-fin design and two blue LEDs which light up the cooler during operation. Is it as cool as it looks?
When it comes to ATI video cards, Sapphire is one of the top, if not the number one manufacturer. After their tremendous success with video cards, they are now entering the motherboard business.
Sapphire's PI-A9RX480 is based on the ATI RX480 chipset and is specifically developed to fit the needs of overclockers and enthusiasts. The BIOS shines when it comes to overclocking options. For example DDR Voltage can be selected up to 4.0 V.
If you ask an overclocker "Best memory chips ever?" you will most probably get the reply "Winbond BH5". Unfortunately Winbond stopped production some time in 2003 and supply of these chips was running dry pretty fast. Now Winbond is back with their BH5 UTT and OCZ has built the PC-3500 Gold Gamer Extreme modules with it. The modules run at aggressive timings of 2-2-2-5 and offer a lifetime warranty for up to 3.1V memory voltage.
Video card cooling specialists Arctic Cooling have listened to the user's reports and released the ATI Silencer 5 Revision 2. This VGA cooler, which is designed to fit on ATI's X800 and X850 PCI-Express was built with high-performance in mind, while keeping sound levels at an acceptable level. We test the cooler against an X850 Pro which already has a big fan, a copper base and cools memory as well.
At this year's Computex in Taiwan, ECS announced the big brother of the successful KN1 Extreme Motherboard - the ECS KN1 SLI Extreme. It is based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI chipset and aims at delivering an affordable SLI motherboard, while still having features like Dual Ethernet and IEEE1394. During all our testing the KN1 SLI showed excellent performance, but can it deliver the overclocking the enthusiasts want?
The DFI LanParty series is legendary among overclockers. We haven't seen any other board offer that many overclocking features. For example, being able to your run your memory at voltages of more than 3.3V is pretty unique. A well thought out components layout and little on-board switches make overclockers happy.
The Albatron K8SLI is a budget oriented Socket939 motherboard based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI chipset. While it has been designed with cost in mind, performance has not been left out. Innovative features like second BIOS on an external add-in card and automatic SLI switch make this board easy to use. Overclocking possibilites are good as well, we managed to reach a maximum FSB of 390 MHz.
OCZ is known as a memory manufacturer who produces high-end enthusiast memory. The recently released Titanium Line is more focused on stability of operation, than for overclockers. It features OCZ's Lifetime PowerSwap Warranty which is a unique feature to the Titanium Series. If your memory breaks at any time, you call up OCZ and they will send out a replacement via Fedex on the same day. Once you got your system up and running you ship the defective memory back to them within two weeks.
Albatron has built a competitively priced motherboard, which is based on Intel's high-end i925XE chipset. It comes completely passive cooled, only the CPU fan is producing noise, making it a good Media PC motherboard.
Abit, one of the top manufacturers for enthusiast motherboards, has asked the Pro-Gamer Jonathan Fatal1ty Wendel for ideas on making a top-notch gaming board.
The Fatal1ty AA8XE is an awesome overclocking motherboard for Intel Pentium 4 LGA775, it offers loads of features geared towards the hardware enthusiast and gamers. We could overclock our P4 CPU by over 50% for a final clock of 4514 MHz @ 323 FSB.
We had the honor to be the first journalists to visit Sapphire's factory where most ATI video cards are produced. This report will take you through all stages of video card production and show many interesting details on how a video card is build.
Thermaltake has put together a nice package consisting of a PSU with modular cables, a 5.25" drive bay real-time Watts Viewer and an additional 120mm case fan.
Right now, DDR2 is only available to the Intel Platform. The biggest drawback people are complaining about, is that DDR2 is running at slower timings than traditional DDR. That is why OCZ, who have always been designing products with the enthusiast in mind, came up with a memory that can run at 667 MHz but at tighter timings than the standard JEDEC Spec. The maximum clock we could get out of the memory at 2.4V was DDR726 at Timings of 4-2-2-8.
AMD has released a new revision of their Athlon64 S939, the code name is Venice. Venice is produced in 90nm, has 512KB Cache and is clocked betwen 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz. We test it against the Winchster and two Pentium4 systems.
ArctiClean is a non-toxic solvent which helps you clean your heatsinks to a new level. It is very easy to use and produces outstanding results. We even tasted it.
Jetart has built their own VGA cooler - a pretty full copper design with a blue LED. Can they compete with the other coolers in terms of performance as well?
One month ago we reviewed the Zalman VF700-AlCu. Now we test the VF700-Cu which is a full copper design. The performance difference is definitely there and users who have the choice should go for the copper version.
TwinMOS is returning the legendary Winbond BH-5 chips to the market. We could run these competetively priced modules at speeds of over DDR500.
Arctic Cooling is the first video card cooler manufacturer to use a heatsink base manufactured from copper. The ATI Silencer 4 just does awesome on all settings. If you are looking for a good cooler for your X800 you must definitely consider the ATI Silencer 4. Its cooling performance is excellent no matter what the fan speed is. Memory cooling works pretty well and gives you a bit more overclocking headroom.
The DFI Lanparty Freezer is a chipset waterblock, made by german company MIPS-Computer. It is the only chipset cooler on the market which can cool the DFI Lanparty's NForce4 chipset, even when there are two video cards installed in SLI mode.
Today we bring you a world-exclusive Preview of Sapphire TRIXX. This is Sapphire's new overclocking utility which is shipping this month. It boasts many new and exciting features, like maximum overclock detection.
Today we have a very special PSU on the test bench - it is completely passive. Fortron trusts their design so much that they say a backup fan is not needed.
I was surprised to see the Fortron Sparkle ZEN power our demanding test platform without any load problems. While the electrical noises were definitely annoying, they are only noticable on higher power systems.
This time we cover the video card manufacturers Club3D and Sapphire.
News from AOpen, Foxconn, S3 and Soltek. Also in this report you will find all R520 and ATI's SLI info we could get.
For the stereotype american the remote control is probably the most important aspect of his home life. That's probably why Thermaltake is the first manufacturer to create a fan controller that can be controlled via infrared remote. This is a great idea if you use your computer to watch movies - turn down the fan to reduce noise while you are watching.
Silent and powerful? Is the included CPU HSF worth it?
Zalman has added a second heatpipe and a pretty blue finish. The dissipation area is also bigger, but does this warrant an upgrade?
The 5V and 3.3V lines are exceptionally stable. The 12V line tends to fluctuate a bit, but stayed above 12V at all times. All lines are well within the limits set by the ATX Specification.
Revision 3 adds compatibility with AIW and 9600 cards. What else is new?
Arctic silence? Great performance? Can you have both?
Two Heatsinks, Dual Heatpipe, additional 9000 RPM blower fan - how cold can it get?
Can heatpipe technology keep your card cool?
