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Week Of April 6th, 2008
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Saturday April 12th,
2008
-dean
Weekend Edition
Congrats to Gary Tourville in winning
the ATP 2GB ToughDrive. He was the first of many who answered
correctly that Dr. Maturin's wife's name was Diana Villiers. It's
a literary geek thing with the Patrick O'Brian series. Moving
on...
Case Cooler has
Tt
iConnect Hose Connectors in stock and on sale. These are some
of if not the best hose connectors on the market for anyone putting
together a water cooling system for their PC.
Keeping with the DIY theme, these four
posted
Enzotech MOS-C1 Forged Copper Mosfet Heatsinks that
Sidewinder
Computers has in stock. Very hip.
Let's check in and see what the weekend news bucket has to offer.
Our day starts
out with the
ASUS Striker II Extreme for anyone with the wallet to stomach it.
Anandtech has the
full on skinny.
NVIDIA's 790i has already proven itself a very
capable platform for overclocking, something we did not expect to say
considering this is the first (and last?) DDR3 memory controller from
the green team. Performance is great, overclocking is easy, and NVIDIA
has even managed to keep power consumption in check. By every account,
the 790i is a real contender when placed side-by-side with Intel's X48
Express chipset.
The
GeForce
9 series multi-GPU Extravaganza stops today at
The Tech Report.
It really is that too!
We threw
together two and then three 9800 GTX cards in order to see how they
perform in some incredibly powerful and borderline ridiculous
configurations. Then we totally crossed in the line into crazy-land by
doubling up on GeForce 9800 GX2 cards and testing the new generation of
quad SLI, as well. What's more, we tested against the previous
generation of three-way SLI—based on the GeForce 8800 Ultra—and against
the competing CrossFire X scheme involving three and four Radeons.
Lian Li has a well deserved rep for
making some of the best cases on the market. Quality isn't cheap
as you can see over at
TechPowerUp
today when they check out the
Lian-Li Armorsuit PC-P60 Case.
The new Lian-Li Armorsuit
PC-P60 is a very elaborate case, which is quite different from the
understatement shape of their usual enclosures. Three LED fans are built
into the very detailed front door and a top airduct guides air out of
the case toward the back. Even though the case retails at $269 it offers
a lot of premium features justifying the cost.
Win a
Pair of XFX 8800GS SLI cards at Motherboards.org.
The crew at the
Virtual-Hideout
seemed exceptionally impressed with the
Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler.
All its splendor
aside, it's a fantastic performer. It's easily the best, most capable
cooler to cross this test bench. While it carries over the commonly seen
tower design, the performance will easily be the deciding factor for the
user who literally wants nothing but the coolest CPU possible. The
Noctua NH-U12P is a great performer, it's cool, it's recommended, and
it's my current top choice of CPU coolers.
I'm a big fan of the external heatpipe
cooler design. The
OCZ Vendetta 2 Cooler sports it and is on deck at
Overclocker's
Club.
While idling and
overclocked, the Vendetta 2 tied the Thermalright Ultra, and was only
one degree warmer than the water cooled system. At full load it was the
coolest of all the air coolers and just a bit higher than H2O. Those are
very good temps, especially considering the cost between the air and
water cooling setup.
The
ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI motherboard shows up today over at
TechwareLabs.
Nitro brings you
a look at the new Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI motherboard packed with lots of
features. We test this new motherboard as a gaming platform as well as
demonstrate the features common to the 780G platform. Does the Asus
M3A78-EMH HDMI provide you with a good gaming experience in a small
package?
Lots of free stuff today.
Win a AMD Phenom X4 9750 based system
at Hot Hardware.
Hexus has the first
look at a new box out of Antec styled the 1200. See how the
Antec 1200 Case stacks up.
There's no doubt
that the Antec 1200 is a capable performer and one that offers a lot of
potential. The supplied cooling - which can be extended further - could
reasonably be described as overkill (verging on the insane?).
More
Free
stuff! (Two EVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW series motherboards)
Saving money x2 is a recipe for nice
performance with the 9600 in SLI.
Bjorn3D shows this
off with a pair of
XFX
9600GT XXX in SLI.
There are two
ways to look at performance; Absolute performance, which places this
card in the middle of the pack under the 8800GT and above the HD 3870.
And Performance value, which takes into account the price you pay for
this level or performance. This is where this card excels. For the MSRP
of this card you just can't get better performance.
Time for one more VGA review with the
ASUS
EAH3870 TOP Overclocked Radeon HD3870 as seen at
Big Bruin.
As the big
brother to the HD3850 TOP card I expected it to perform about 10-20%
better, and in general that is about what it did. It offers solid
performance in today's demanding games without draining you of the
extreme amount of money that the high end cards will set you back. And
while the card may be overkill for the typical home theater setup, it
does offer all the features you would want there as well.
Not to be left out...
Seagate Momentus 5400.4 250GB 2.5” HDD at TweakTown.
Western Digital 160GB Passport External HDD
at BCC Hardware.
BFG ES-800w PSU at Hardware Logic.
Nesteq EECS 700 Watt Ultra Quiet PSU at the 3D Gameman.
Enermax Pro82+ 625W PSU
at Hardware Canucks.
LapWorks Attache Laptop Desk at the OCIA.
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Friday April 11th
2008 - jeremy
The TGIF Edition
The last day of the week? Woohoo!
I hope everyone else is as excited about the weekend coming up as I am.
Let's see what kinda news we can find.
Overclock 3d
Starts things up for us this morning. They're taking a look at the
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Quad Core CPU.
Moving on along, check out
Virtual Hideout
and their review of the
Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB Crossfire setup.
Everyone will most likely be
picking up these cards for single or Crossfire solutions to play their
latest game titles and at least have pretty decent playable experience.
The frame rates aren't going to quite match something like the 8800 GTS
Superclock cards or a single HD 3870 X2 card, but they aren't lacking in
performance. It's also nice to see the latest Catalyst drivers helping the
cards stand up to the tasks at hand.
Gigabyte seems to be getting lots of
attention this morning. Have a closer look at the
Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 Motherboard at
APH Networks.
The
PowerColor Radeon HD 3650 Xtreme Cooling gets some attention from
MVKTech.
The PowerColor
Radeon HD 3650 Xtreme comes at a very attractive price tag which will
please a lot of potential buyers. The main point we liked about the
PowerColor version is the professional cooling solution which does an
excellent job and allows greater overclocking. All well considered the
features offered are excellent, and with full DirectX 10.1 support you
can't really go wrong with the Radeon HD 3600 series. So if you are on an
average budget then this PowerColor board could be the graphics card you
have been looking for...
We've got lots of sweet video cards this
morning. I4U takes
a close look at the
ASUS
EN9800GX2 Top Video Card.
This is a pretty neat article,
Hexus says that
Ultra Products is suing all kinds of PSU Manufacturers.
Future Looks is
up next this morning, have a look at the
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe WiFi-AP Motherboard.
It’s hard to say
no to this board. Asus had left it wanting for nothing. The selection and
implementation of ports ensure that you can connect any device you need,
and with external ports like eSATA you have some future proofing. The
accessory package is well stocked. Finally everything is easy to install.
The board does carry a power user price tag, with street prices topping
$230. But if you are looking for a good performance motherboard to anchor
your AMD based performance system, you need look no further than the Asus
M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP motherboard. It’s worth the price.
Overclocker's
Club keeps us rollin with the
Gigabyte GA-EX38-DQ6 Motherboard.
How about some water cooling?
Tech Power Up
takes a look at some
EK Water Blocks products.
The EK Water
Blocks EK Supreme is an excellently designed and well built waterblock
that can be applied to many different
CPU types. The
performance numbers were the best seen so far, edging out the competition
by three or four degrees. For all the modders out there, the acrylic
version reviewed here today can be lit up with two 3mm LEDs of your
choice. Adding some UV LEDs and UV additives to the coolant could produce
some attractive results.
Hot Hardware
also has a look at the
Asetek Low Cost Liquid Cooling System.
The Hardware Canucks keep things rolling
on along as they show off the
Thermaltake BlacX Review.
And closing things up this morning is
ASE Labs and the
always impressive
Thermaltake Armor Case.
This is an
excellent price for such a versatile and tough case. I haven't been this
impressed with a case in a long time and Thermaltake really delivers with
the Armor. It is perfect for the server market, even more-so than the
gamers. The Armor keeps to its name being tough and sturdy. Buy this case
and you won't be disappointed.
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Thursday April 10th
2008 - jeremy
The Early Edition
Just about labeled this one the Case
edition this morning, there are a bunch of reviews going on this morning
but a lot of them seem to be cases.
Neoseeker keeps
things rolling along for us this morning as they take a look at the
Palit 9800 GTX.
There is no doubt
that the Palit 9800 GTX is a one of the fastest cards you could get today.
In fact, with this amount of GPU power, one problem you may have is
finding a game that will give your video card any sort of challenge to
run! Retailing for around $330 USD currently, the Palit 9800 GTX fits in
nicely at the upper-end of segment of NVIDIA's current line-up. In an SLI
configuration, the 9800 GTX -- as expected -- dominates the benchmarks.
However, in both single and dual card configurations, the 9800 GTX often
only maintains a small performance lead over much of the competition.
Techgage is up next as
they take a look at another flavor, the
ASUS EN9800GTX 512MB.
The 9800 GTX
didn't break new ground, but it is a blazing fast card, and one
that will appeal to either those with 3-Way SLI in mind, or those who
simply want the fastest single-GPU solution available. The best thing
about it all, is that the card retails for $330 on average, with this
particular ASUS offering hitting $340.
The
3d Game Man shows
off the
Crucial Ballistix Tracer Red PC2-6400 4GB Memory Kit.
Seems like today was a good day for
reviews, there's all kinds of goodies. Kingston gets some attention
from Hardware Logic
as the
Hyper X PC3-13000 2GB Kit gets benched.
Now that I have some breakfast, we can
keep moving on along.
Driver Heaven
takes a look at the
Silverstone Decathlon 1200W PSU.
The
OCZ Vendetta makes a splash over at
Benchmark Reviews.
Some hardware
enthusiasts may not like the "V" design that OCZ has given their Vendetta
series. The extended fin plates may not allow a second fan, but then
again that would be unnecessary based on the performance we received. The
exposed heatpipes formed from polished copper, along with polished
aluminum fins lined with effective pebbles, create a look you can't really
help but to appreciate the functional fashion OCZ has designed into the
Vendetta 2.
I haven't heard much from Biostar
lately, but this morning
Overclocker's
Online have a showing of the
Biostar GeForce 9600GT.
Mushkin is one of those companies that I
don't think gets enough lovin. They make some killer products.
This morning,
Overclocker's Club takes a look at the
Mushkin XP-800AP 800W PSU.
This power supply
will make any owner very happy. It provides very stable power and has the
connections to power any current system, including ones with multiple
graphics card setups. With four PCI-Express connections, a user can power
up to four cards with single 6-pin power requirements or two cards with
the 6- and 8-pin dual-power requirements. The XP-800AP has an
aesthetically pleasing look to it, and the nice green glow from the 135mm
fan, which is thermally controlled for quiet operation, makes the inside
of the case light up nicely.
Closing things up for us this morning,
Bjorn3d shows off the
Arctic
Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.
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Wednesday April 9th,
2008
-dean
Morning Edition
Easy contest time. First person
who e-mails me the correct name (first and last name prior to the
marriage) of Dr. Maturin's wife wins an
ATP 2GB ToughDrive.
Hint for any non-fan; this is a Patrick O'Brian character. On to
the news.
Let's start our day out with the pros
over at The Tech Report
and the
ASUS Xonar DX Sound Card.
The card's sound
quality is nothing short of exceptional, and more impressively, it was
indistinguishable from that of the Xonar D2X in both blind listening
tests and in RightMark Audio Analyzer's objective measure of signal
quality. Gaming performance is good, too, which isn't really a surprise
considering that all the Xonars share the same audio chip.
Tweaktown expands
their GeForce 9800 GTX coverage with 11 pages of pushing the card to
find it's limit. See what they find with the
GeForce 9800 GTX overclocked.
The overclocking card of choice today is
the 9800 GTX which has been out for just over a week. While out of the
box the performance is pretty good, if we can get a bit more for nothing
then we’re not exactly going to complain. Since we already know about
the 9800 GTX, let’s just get stuck straight into the test system setup
and have a look at the clocks we achieved.
The
Diamond HD 3650 1024 MB sounds impressive at first glance but that
gig of memory is DDR2 not what has long since become the accepted
standard of GDDR3.
TechPowerUp has
more.
Diamond's idea
behind the HD 3650 1 GB was certainly a good one: Add more memory and an
HDMI connector to improve on AMD's reference design. Unfortunately the
final product did not turn out that well. Since the card's GPU is
already quite weak, adding more memory won't make any difference at all.
To even have a scenario that could theoretically benefit from more
memory you need to run high resolutions, with lots of anti aliasing and
pretty eye candy turned on. With any HD 3650 you won't see playable
framerates at those settings.
Free Stuff!! (More than I care to list of top shelf gear!)
InWin B2 Stealth Bomber Case reviewage posted up at
Tweaknews for you
midweek bump.
For the door
open button to work, power has to be supplied via a Molex connector
(more on this later). Otherwise, there is a “rescue” button on the side
panel that when pressed allows the door to be manually lifted up and
over the top. It reminded me of an Alpha 360 case.
"Rescue"??
The
Overclocker's
Club has another case on deck with the latest review of the
Cooler Master Cosmos S Case. No "Rescue" sticker however.
Cooler Master
has done it again with the Cosmos S case, they have brought a great
looking case, with a simplistic design with excellent build quality, to
the market that is also able to keep the temperatures down. Cooler
Master took a look at the Cosmos 1000 case and improved on it and added
the features to make the case better and released it as the Cosmos S
case, which worked very well.
Check out this Intel X48 based DDR3
monster board on deck today at
Hardware Logic in
the
ASUS P5E3 Premium / WiFi-AP @n.
For those of you
that waited, and waited, and waited, for X48 to be some sort of
groundbreaking chipset, we can do no more than chuckle. If you already
have a good X38 motherboard, it's hard to recommend spending $350+ on a
new motherboard, at least at this point. However, if you are wanting to
build a top of the line system from the ground up, you could hardly do
better than ASUS' new X48 motherboard, the ASUS P5E3 Premium.
I swear I saw this thing on Battlestar Galactica last
week.
Techware says the
Saitek Cyborg Command Unit is worth a look and so does Starbuck.
There is definitely a learning curve, but when
you're used to it, keys/commands that once required you to look down at
the keyboard to find, say, the 'P' key are now at your fingertips via
any of the programmable keys of your choice. The time saved in hectic
game situations could be more than significant.
Who you calln' puddin?!
Thecus N1200 Single-Drive NAS at Techgage.
GlacialTech Igloo 5750 Cooler at Mikhailtech.
Cavalry 500GB External HD
at Monster-Hardware.
Noctua NH-U9B CPU Cooler at DragonSteelMods.
Rosewill Notebook Cooler RNA-7000W
at Overclocker's Club.
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Tuesday April 8th,
2008
-dean
Second Edition
Now here's a pumped up 9600 GT that
should turn heads. Check out
Overclock3D and
the
XFX 9600 GT XXX Alpha Dog Edition 740M 512MB.
This time we're
looking at an overclocked example from XFX, one of Nvidia's premier
partners. Their XXX Alpha Edition 9600 GT is clocked at a huge 740MHz
with a 1750MHz shader clock and 2000MHz RAM clock, which is pretty
special.
The Sapphire Toxic Edition cards
always were very hip looking with the multicolored UV reactive coolers
and such. The new
Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB Toxic is more plane Jane looking but
underneath that is what? Ask
Hot Hardware.
In all tests, the
Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Toxic 512MB graphics card
performed well and on a competitive level to that of the GeForce
8800GTX. When you consider the 8800GTX we used costs double that of the
Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Toxic 512MB, the Sapphire card really begins to
show its value at the resolutions tested.
Here's another
ATI Radeon HD 3870 review for your Tuesday.
Techware Labs
this time around.
Overall the ATI
Radeon 3870 has proven to outperform the NVidia 8800 GT Overclocked. Not
only does it outperform the 8800GT OC, but it also is significantly
cheaper. The Sapphire 3870 can be found for $177.99 at buy.com, where as
the BFG 8800GT OC can be found for $219.99 at buy.com.
The X38 and P35 chipsets from Intel
represent a big gap in pricing that many ask is it worth it.
Pro-Clockers
has an X38 based board on deck with the
Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4
Socket 775 Enthusiast Motherboard
with what looks like a comparison board to address that question.
Gigabyte was nice enough
to send us two motherboards, one based on the P35 and the other the X38.
We wanted to see how much better it really is over the P35 purely based
on benchmarks and overclocking. Not to give the whole review away in the
introduction, but I was really surprised with the GA-EX38-DS4 as it took
our E8400 to a whole new level.
Mikhailtech has
a very slick looking VGA cooler reviewed today that may be of interest
to you. See what they say about the
Coolink GFXChilla VGA Cooler.
Overall the
performance to silence and price ratio is amazing. So compared to the
stock cooling on the video card, the stock cooler was much louder and
would get louder every single time you would start gaming. The GFX
Chilla was silent at all loads.
64 bit Windows users listen up.
Bjorn3D has some
extended memory coverage today with the
OCZ
DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC 4GB Edition Memory Kit.
The enhanced
cooling from the Reaper HPC Heatsink does not seem to help with the
overclock result and I personally doubt that it assists the cooling of
the RAM more than the simple heat spreader. However, it is nice to see
that it is included without added costs to the consumer.
Stuff not to be left out.
Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 up at Tweaknews.
Zalman FPSGun FG1000 Gaming Mouse at Virtual-Hideout.
Saitek Cyborg Gaming Headset at Techware Labs.
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Tuesday April 8th,
2008
-dean
First Edition
The 9600 GT has gotten a lot of press
and for good reason.
Techgage expands this a bit to include the
Gigabyte 9600 GT Card.
If on the
lookout for a good GPU at a great price, it's easier than ever. NVIDIA's
9600 GT packs a punch and retails for well under $200. We are taking
Gigabyte's stock-clocked solution for a spin to see how it stacks up
against our other models. And yes, it overclocks like a beast.
Now if I pay top dollar for a TOP
card, I'd like to know if I get the high end cooler or not. The
ASUS EN8800GT TOP 512MB Card shows up in the great white north of
Hardware
Canucks.
Along with this
price, another slight problem presented itself for us: there is
literally no way of telling if you will get the TOP Edition with the
Glaciator cooler. According to ASUS, the product number EN8800GT TOP/G/HTDP/512M
is valid for both (reference cooler and Glaciator) of their TOP edition
cards. Indeed, as you can tell by the product page we linked you to
above, even ASUS’ website does not make a distinction between the two
cards.
Apevia has been known for the years as
the maker of some nice case/PSU combos. With power supplies
becoming larger and larger they have faded a bit though until now.
The
Overclocker's Club has posted a review of the
Apevia Warlock 900w PSU and they
don't seem impressed.
Well, I
was pleasantly surprised with the Warlock. It not only has the looks but
the performance to back it up - and quiet too! It appears as if Apevia
has finally got its act together ... to a degree. Unfortunately, there
were several small annoyances with the Warlock: unthreaded screw holes,
an odd rainbow paint coat, and combining connectors onto a single cable
- things I hate seeing on such a high-end product.
Speaking of power supplies...
OCZ EliteXStream 1000w at the Hard|OCP.
OCZ EliteXStream 800W and 1000W units at Anandtech.
Corsair TX750 750w PSU
at Think Computers.
Logisys 550w Clear Acrylic PSU at Techware Labs.
NesteQ ASM 620w PSU at R&B Mods.
OCZ EliteXStream 1000w ATX PSU at Overclock3D.
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610EPS12V PSU at Future Looks.
Driver Heaven
has a go with the
NZXT Tempest Case complete with its four 120mm fans and two 140mm
fans.
Staying true to
their ultimate goal, NZXT have included two huge 140mm exhaust fans on
the top of the case, which are covered by a thin metal mesh. The top
also includes the finned design similar to the front of the case. By
making it unleveled, the fins serve to keep you from setting items on
top of the case which might restrict airflow.
DDR2 memory is alive and well.
While its demise is inevitable, it is in no way going to be soon.
Big Bruin looks
over a sample of the
Kingston HyperX 1GB PC2-9600 DDR2 Memory Kit.
Whether it was
in benchmarks, gaming, or every day use, the Kingston PC2-9600 DDR2 kit
performed well. Getting up and running at 1200MHz was easier than I
expected, and the only effort required was to bump the speed up in the
BIOS. Even overclocking was easy, and the test system was able to push
these modules to 1280MHz by simply relaxing the tRAS value from 15 to
16.
Odds and Ends.
Noctua NH-U9B 92mm Cooler
at Icrontic.
Rosewill RCX-Z775-EX Intel CPU Cooler
at Think Computers.
ADATA C702 Classic 16GB Flash Drive at the Overclocker's Club.
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Cooler at Ninja Lane.
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Monday April 7th
2008 - jeremy
The Monday Edition
Everyone must have taken the weekend
off, there's just about nil going on in the news this morning. I
know I did. It was an awesome, albeit rainy, weekend. Hope
everyone else had a good one as well.
Well, let's see what we can scrounge up.
Starting things up this morning,
Overclock 3D has
a look at the
Lian Li PC343 ATX Case.
Our review sample
carried a price tag of £312.70 inclusive with all the extras which is a
huge amount of money to spend. It was stated though that there was plenty
of room for extreme cooling, and with the right extras you could get a
360mm and a 240mm radiator in with out any modifications. This has to be a
major selling point for any of you not that confident with a Dremel. Even
if you did fit a 360mm rad that would still leave you with 9 drive bays to
expand in to.
Mmm, power. Check out the
AMD Phenom X4 9850. Thanks to
Lost Circuits
for this one.
That said and
done, the Phenom in its latest iteration is a remarkably good CPU. The
bottom line of our results actually indicates that the B3 revision is
markedly better than the original B1 or B2 revisions that, according to
corporate liability paranoia, require the BIOS patch and then the
work-around in form of AOD. Granted, in applications that solely depend on
core speed, the 9900 is still the fastest Phenom officially (not)
released, anything else belongs to the 9850 Black edition that further has
the overclocking potential to become the most powerful CPU ever released
by AMD. Until the next one...
Mad Shrimps has a
go at the
Gainward 9800 GTX 512MB VGA Card.
Got some coolers in the mis too.
Have a look at the
Vizo Properller 2 System Cooler. This one comes to us from
Dragon Steel
Mods.
The
Hardware Canucks
are having a go at the
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W Quad PSU.
Without a doubt,
PC Power & Cooling has delivered an engineering tour de force which is
able to keep up with many other higher-wattage power supplies on the
market. To make matters even better, under the tutelage of OCZ we have
seen the prices of many Silencer units fall significantly in the last few
months. Indeed, with the Silencer 750’s price hovering at around $160, OCZ
has shown that it can make a high-end power supply available at a price
point which will appeal to the masses and this means more competition in
the every-growing 750W segment.
Techware Labs
has a
Linux Beginner's Guide for anyone out there who may be considering a
Linux Install.
OCIA finishes things up
for us this morning with their look at the
Razer Piranha Gaming Communicator and the
Razer Destructor Gaming Mat.
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