At the Razer booth you could take a good look at their revolutionary speaker system - the Mako. It has been developed together with the engineers of THX to deliver optimum audio performance, without redecorating your whole room. The DSP output is monitored, so you can never overload the system. Also on display was the Razer Pro|Solutions keyboard which is a white styled keyboard with integrated iPod docking station.
Antec is giving the visitors a look at what is to come in the P series. The P180 will be succeeded by the P182 and the P190 comes with two power supplies with Neo-Link for a combined output of 1200W. The new P series has holes for water cooling and fan speed control switches. Besides that, the company is showing a limited edition of the P182, new HTPC & budget cases, as well as a 1000W power supply.
Akasa has expanded their case line-up to include aluminum ITX cases, as well as mATX designer enclosures. There are a few new power supplies, notebook cooling pads for every budget and a very interesting, closed loop, all in one, liquid cooling HSF in two different colors.
Aerocool has their completely new case series, which is produced by Lian-Li on display. These all aluminum enclosures come in multiple colors, feature different LCDs and even have touch sensitive buttons. They also have a new drive bay card reader with flip-up LCD up and running.
It's March again, and the IT world is coming to one place for the biggest computer/IT exhibition show in all of Europe - CeBIT.
The Saitek GM3200 may be bigger than most other gaming mice, but it is so for a reason. The customizable weight system as well as a slew of programmable buttons in two modes and an on-the-fly DPI switch make this one of the most versatile mice out there. The great paint job, bright lighting and backlit Saitek logo make this mouse perfect for modding fans and LAN party gamers.
Razer's new Pro Tones m250 headphones look a bit different than your average headphone. They clip on to your ears, allowing the headset to be larger than the usual ear plugs, while still being quite compact. During testing we found out that these $50 headphones can deliver amazing sound quality, no matter which type of music you listen to.
Saitek's Eclipse II keyboard is the successor of the Eclipse. It features three different backlight colors and some very comfortable keys for stress and pain free gaming. The layout looks a bit futuristic, while keeping the size and weight at the same level as normal keyboards. We light it up and try it out with gaming and every day work and let you know how it fares.
The Razer Pro|Tones m100 is a light-weight in-ear headphone system that is designed to give you the best music listening experience. The headphones are available in black and white, which is a perfect match for an Apple iPod. After testing these $40 headphones we come to the conclusion that they offer excellent comfort and good sound quality.
The Vizo Luxon Advanced HDD enclosure is a very versatile case which gives the user complete choice what type of internal and external connection is used. The rounded corners and nice black, blue or silver exterior make this a great addition to your desktop and the performance of both USB 2.0 and eSATA is good no matter what drive is used.
Based on the award-winning SteelPad S&S, SteelSeries has created a new mouse pad that comes with a completely new surface that is optimized to give the best compromise between low friction and best precision. We tested this $35 mousepad that comes with included Teflon and a carrying bag to see if it is really an improvement.
The Verbatim Store 'n' Go U3 is a Smart Drive with the U3 Launchpad included on the memory stick. The addition of the software and improved performance cost the end user around $10 USD more, when compared to the basic Store 'n' Go 4 GB variant available. We benchmark the Verbatim U3 Smart Drive and let you know if the performance and software are worth the small price premium.
The ASUS M2A-VM is ASUS' first board using the new AMD RS690G chipset. It comes in the small MicroATX form factor and is all passively cooled. This makes the board an ideal candidate for a quiet Media PC system. The integrated VGA with DVI/Analog output has enough power to do video playback and play an occasional game.
AMD's 690 Chipset Series is the first new product since the AMD/ATI merger in October last year. The RS690 is designed to be a low-cost, power efficient Athlon64 chipset which can be used in notebooks and desktop PCs. It features integrated VGA with support for HDMI and DVI - at the same time. With motherboards retailing in the $60 range this chipset has great potential on the budget market.
The Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit is a very unique device and may look like something out of a Sci-Fi movie, but it actually gives you control over games without the use of a traditional keyboard. It puts all functions within reach of your left hand. This makes gaming a lot more comfortable and faster. We tried it with First Person Shooters and Real Time Strategy games to see if the Pro Gamer Command Unit is just as advanced as its futuristic looks.
The I-Rocks IR-9300 Combo is a HDD enclosure with USB 2.0 and Firewire. It features completely passive use and two LEDs on either side of the enclosure. It may be a bit bulky when compared to some from Coolermaster or Akasa but does work well. The USB 2.0 connection is not very fast, but the speedy firewire option makes up for this, while reducing the CPU utilization as well.
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.
