High-Definition content is available everywhere nowadays. We take a close look at what the drivers from AMD and NVIDIA offer in order to improve the quality of video playback. HQV Benchmark 2.0 uses 39 different tests that put the available image enhancement features in the spot light.
Noctua has taken their NH-U9B cooler, which already offers great performance, added a second 92 mm fan and upgraded its mounting kit. Noise levels are still at a minimum and push the envelope in silent high performance cooling for modern processors. Today we see if these improvements have made the NH-U9B SE2 even more worthy of your hard earned cash.
Computex is one of the best tradeshows in the year. Not only because it has all the latest and greatest tech products, but also because of the pretty show girls. We brought you almost 100 pics of what you missed at this year's Computex.
The Xtreem Dark series of modules are aimed at the enthusiast and casual overclocker. With compact black heat spreaders and maximum specs of 1600 MHz, they should be an attractive choice for most i3 or i5 users out there. We slap the Xtreem Dark into our testing rig and turn up the heat to see what kind of power hides below the dark hard shell of these modules.
Today NVIDIA releases their new GeForce GTX 465. The cards are based on the same GF100 Fermi GPU as the GTX 470 and GTX 480. In order to create this $279 product, NVIDIA has disabled a large number of units inside the GF100. Did they do it right? What about power consumption and heat?
The GMC H-80 manages to impress with its cool and elaborate looks along with the gun metal gray choice of color. Inside are four fans, two of them with menacing red LEDs - including the big 250 mm one in the side. We tear the beast apart to see if it manages to impress or turn out to be a timid creature.
ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 480 AMP! Edition comes with a mighty Zalman VF3000 cooler strapped to it which reduces the card's temperatures by 20°C. Thanks to the new cooling solution, the card has no problems running at higher clock speeds out of the box. But is that enough to declare this triple slot card a winner?
The ICY DOCK EZ-DOCK combines the functionality of a traditional hard drive dock with the flexibility of transporting it anywhere with ease. We take it for a test drive to see if it manages to add speed into the mix or leave us eying one of those boring black docks instead.
Palit's GeForce GTX 470 is one of the GTX 470 versions that comes with a custom PCB design and non-reference thermal solution. Since the card is $20 cheaper than the reference design we take a close look to find out whether Palit cheaped out on their card or if it's worthy for consideration.
After a long period of scaling down its processors both in price and performance, AMD finally got some fresh reinforcements to continue the fight with Intel. The new Phenom II X6 1090T and its 3.20 GHz clocked six cores, aim to take AMD to new heights, where Intel's Core i7 processors were untouchable until now.
Noctua has taken the high performance NH-C12P, which already offers excellent performance, and added a 140 mm fan. Noise level are still at a minimum and push the envelope in silent high performance cooling for modern processors. They all say size matters - let's see if that holds true with the NH-C12P SE14 as well.
The ASUS HD 5870 Matrix Platinum is clearly engineered for maximum overclocking. It has 2 GB of fast GDDR5 memory and features software voltage control for three voltages. One unique feature is that the ASUS iTracker 2 sofware can put your changed settings into the BIOS so you won't have to worry about OC software anymore.
The ZM-M215W is the part of the newest line-up of 3D monitors by Zalman. Instead of plucking down hundreds of dollars on NVIDIA shutter glasses and being bound to NVIDIA GPUs, you can pluck down hundreds over a normal 2D monitor of the similar size, but be free from the shackles, allowed to use any GPU of your choice. Is that still worth it? We put on the glasses and take a really close look.
The Team Group Diamond is compact, available in multiple colors, packs up to 16 GB and comes with a very affordable price tag - even though the name may suggest otherwise. We take a look to see if the tiny flash drive shines and sparkles or if any imperfections overshadow the joy of using the drive.
The LM200 is the middle child of Thermaltake's Luxa2 series of high-end HTPC enclosures. While the LM100 Mini offers a compact size along with a PSU and hefty price tag and the LM300 goes all out with space for a full size ATX board, the LM200 can hold a mATX unit and seems to hit the sweet spot on price / performance as well.
Arctic Cooling's wooden in-ears are put to the test. Dubbed E352 these in-ears are closely related to the E361s which we recently had the pleasure of testing. For a budget of only about $50 you get solid sound quality coupled with a nice finish.
PowerColor's HD 5770 PCS++ could be described as an evolutionary step from the HD 5770 PCS+, targeted at overclockers. It is the first HD 5770 that comes with a Volterra voltage regulator which allows software voltage control. This enables tweakers to get higher overclocks out of their card without complicated modding.
The Define R2 from Fractal Design manages to still turn some heads in the crowded sub 100 Euro case market. It may not look like much at first sight, but Fractal Design manages to stuff it full of useful features, which are simply not present in cases from the competitors.
Microcool, typically known for their heatsinks, recently dove head first into computer chassis with their Banchetto 101 bench station design. With the option to mount your choice of water cooling hardware, this bench station stands out from the rest. Today we take a closer look to see how functional the Banchetto's design is.
The DH-202 succeeds the DH-102, with new looks and a couple of new features. It also costs around 90 Euros more than the aging predecessor. We take this 7" LCD display HTPC case for a speed to see if it gives us a bit of a deja vu or manages to impress with the new look and feel.
The Lamptron FC5 is the company's high-end model to control fans, display their information as well as monitor the temperature within your chassis. The front of each FC5 is milled out of a single block of aluminum and the unit can power up to 4 fans with 30W draw each - all attributes of an excellent quality.
The HIS HD 5850 iCooler V Turbo is a fully customized HD 5870 that uses a non-reference PCB and heatsink. Instead of the standard clocks it comes at frequencies of 765 MHz core and 1125 MHz memory. Another highlight is the included Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game which is clearly one of the top games of the last months.
PowerColor's HD 5570 is a small compact card that consumes very little power, yet should offer decent performance for most gaming up to 1280x1024. Another possible use is in a media PC, which is supported by the native HDMI output.
The V3 Black is one of the most affordable cases from Thermaltake. It aims straight for the likes of Xigmatek Asgard, which sells for a similar price, trying to walk the thin line between usability and ultimate affordability. We take the V3 Black apart, to see if it manages to go the distance or falls short in the required categories.
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 470 was announced a few weeks back - now we got the first production sample of the card from ASUS. Compared to the GTX 480 we saw much more reasonable power consumption numbers as well as fan noise and heat.
