TGIF Edition

Okay, I admit it.  I'm a big Survivor fan and I have to say... Damn, Eric!  She still isn't going to flash you!

Here's another review of the maturing HD3870 x2 card with Bit-Tech's review of the ASUS EAH3870 X2.

What's interesting is that, unlike many of AMD's partners, Asus has taken the word innovation to heart with its EAH3870 X2 graphics card – not only is there a new cooler, but the company has also added support for up to four digital displays on the card. Yes, you read that right – this graphics card has four HDCP-compliant dual-link DVI-I ports.

Does that memory do anything more than add to the final price?  Diamond Viper HD 3650 1GB at Overclockers Online.

So while it is another good 3650 card, I just can't see the benefit aside from marketing to add the additional memory to make 1GB. I'm sure with prices being so low on DDR2 these days, it's sort of a no brainer from the marketing department, but performance-wise no 3650 will ever be able to run a game at resolutions to warrant the extra memory.

CoolIT Systems PURE CPU Cooler action posted today by our friends at Tweaktown.

For a first time running a water-cooling setup in your system, the PURE is a good place to start. Since everything is fully enclosed and all of the technical considerations such as wiring pumps, fans and cutting tubing are removed, the PURE is really a novice dream come true.

We have two Thermaltake M9 Case reviews out today.  The first is at Overclocker's Club while the second is at Dragon Steel Mods.

Sometimes simple is best.  The NZXT Alpha Case isn't exactly a back to basics box but it does have that simple look.  Benchmark Reviews has more.

The exterior appearance of the Alpha is certainly the strength of the case. The Alpha is an attractive case that is neither understated or over the top. NZXT succeeded in pulling off the futuristic look, and at the same time, by providing the windowed side panel as optional, designed an enclosure that could find itself in an office as easily as the desk top of a gamer.

One last case review for your week's end.  This one is at R&B Mods and covers the In Win B2 Stealth Bomber Case.

ASUS P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP @n action up at Techgage with the X48 and the funky board name rolled into one.

Here's another look at this very hip gaming keyboard, the Wolfking Warrior XXtreme by Bjorn3D.

In today's gamer-friendly market there seems to be no shortage of gaming peripherals to choose from. Unfortunately for the games, however, not all peripherals are created equal - making it difficult and risky to choose. Today I hope to help with your decision by taking a look at the Wolfking Warrior XXtreme gaming keyboard. As an avid gamer that has always used a basic keyboard, the comparison will prove to be a great test for the latest Wolfking.

More OCZ with this one on the OCZ PC2-6400 ReaperX HPC 4GB Kit over at TechPowerUp.

Odds and ends.

Hades Gaming Ares H1 Optical Gaming Mouse at Dragon Steel Mods.

Razer Destructor Professional Gaming Mat at Think Computers.

Eagle Tech Consus M-Series Hard Drive Enclosure at Hardware Canucks.

Almost There Edition

Jeremy remains in St. Louis this week.  Keep your fingers crossed for him.  Big Brother 10!

Check out this bad boy over at Overclocker's Club.  The VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 Overclocked Edition should have juice to spare.

The VisionTek Radeon HD 3870X2 Overclocked Edition video card is, without a doubt, the best graphics card that I have ever tested. It absolutely demolished the nVidia 9800GTX video card in almost every test, but you can attribute its performance to the dual GPUs on the card. I was impressed by how quiet this beast of a video card was; my CPU fan's sound overpowered the sound of the video card, so I didn't hear the 3870X2 at all.

SLI for the masses.  Look in at the Hard|OCP for this review on the eVGA 750i SLI FTW Motherboard.

My experiences with the 750i SLI FTW were surprising. Rarely do I enjoy working with boards less than $200. They typically don’t have the full featured BIOS I’m used to and sometimes give me some issues setting them up for testing. The board was rock solid in all my testing and I didn’t encounter any glitches using it. The overclocking was good and can probably be improved upon with BIOS updates.

We have a number of cooler reviews up today so let's just cut to the chase.

ThermoLab Micro Silencer CPU Cooler at Tweaktown.

Thermolab Nano Silencer TLI-U Low-Profile Cooler at Frostytech.

Xigmatek Achilles S1284 HDT CPU Cooler at Benchmark Reviews.

Noiseblocker Coolscraper 3.0 CPU Cooler at XS Reviews.

Intel FCLGA4-S Core 2 Extreme Reference Cooler at Frostytech.

Free Stuff!  (NZXT Tempest Case)

Speaking of the NZXT Tempest Case, the 3D Gameman has one up for review.

Affordability is obviously very important to most folks and this case is very well priced considering what's included. Airflow is crucial and with 6 included fans (4x120mm & 2x140mm) this case is king in that department. HDD storage space is also vital and with space for 8 HDDs this is not a problem. Another big plus is it's compatible and tested with many well known water cooling radiators which can be mounted at the top of the case using the pre-drilled holes.

Tweaktown follows this up with another NZXT Tempest Case review here.

Enter the Tempest, an enclosure that claims to be the "Airflow King". This is a mighty tall order to fill considering some of the similar products on the market, so we will take a closer look and see if they can live up to this statement.

More free stuff!!  (a PAIR of XFX 8800GS SLI cards)

My first aftermarket VGA card was an S3.  Check out the S3 Chrome 430 GT Graphics Card at Tweaktown.

Where the problems lie is in reference to the driver support. How often are we going to get driver updates from the company? Getting a hold of the card might also be a problem as availability seems low. What is after-sales support going to be like?

Gigabyte's X48T-DQ6 motherboard makes an appearance over at Bit-Tech for all to see.

We feel the Gigabyte is sitting in a different league to the Asus Republic of Gamer boards with the X48T-DQ6, even though the Maximus Extreme (DDR3) and Rampage Formula (DDR2) are very similarly priced. Both the Asus boards sit on the enthusiast edge with respectively better BIOS implementations than the Gigabyte, which in comparison is more of a jack of all trades motherboard.