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Week Of May 4th, 2008
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Saturday May 10th
2008 - jeremy
The Early Edition
So, I'm back from the St. Louis trip.
It was a good time, but I'm still pretty exhausted from all the travelling.
There seems to be quite a bit in the news bucket this morning and I'm
short on time. Keep an eye out for another posting a little later.
Let's get it started in here.
Let's grab a look at some goodies from
our sponsors.
Sidewinder
Computers seems to be a case modder's dream this weak with some of the
specials they've got going. I've always thought the green UV
Reactive hoses and lights were overdone, check out these suckers.
The
Logisys Dual UV 12" CCFL Light kit will make any PC look dreamy.
In addition, the
Feser Tube FT Active UV Hose could add a sweet look to that blue light
you've got goin on. And every modder needs thermal paste. The
Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive should set you up for a long time.
Case Cooler has
got it going on as well. Check out the
Thermaltake MaxOrb CPU Cooler. Just to make sure your PC is
running cool, pick up some
Computer Temperature Monitors and Fan Controllers. Last up,
while you're beefing up your PC's cooling, stay awake with the
Foosh
Energy Mints.
Starting things up on the hardware side,
take a look at the
Coolermaster Aquagate Mini R80 Watercooling CPU Heatsink over at
Frosty Tech.
I'm always a sucker for the video card
reviews.
Motherboards.org starts those off for us this morning as they show off
the
Diamond Radeon HD 3650 1GB Card.
The Diamond HD3650
1GB card is available online for a price of $120-140 USD. At that price
point it competes with the 9600GT from NVIDIA and the HD3850 from ATI both
superior video cards in performance. the main difference between the 512MB
version and the 1GB version being the $30 price difference. The HTPC crowd
might have taken a liking to this card due to its HDMI connection.
Mad Shrimps keep
things rolling along for us this morning as they take a look at the
Silverstone KL03 Kublai ATX Case.
Keeping with the sweet video cards,
Hexus checks out the
Inno3D GeForce 9600 GT OC.
Looking for a full upgrade? The
3d Game Man shows
off the motherboard that just may be the ticket. The
Abit IX38 QuadGT Socket 775 Motherboard should support it.
The Abit Abit IX38
QuadGT Socket 775 Motherboard is based on the Intel X38 Express / ICH9R
Chipset
and supports the latest 45nm Intel Dual and Quad Core processors. It
accepts up to 8GBs of Dual channel DDR2 1066/800/667/533 Un-buffered Non-ECC
memory. Has six SATA 3Gigabit/s connectors capable of RAID 0, 1, 5 & 10The
board comes with 6 fan headers. This board also uses Solid State
Capacitors and has five phase digital Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). This
improves performance, increase stability and reduces power consumption.
Neoseeker takes a
closer look at the
ASUS EAH3850 X2.
Rollin along, head on over to
Overclock 3d and
have a go at the
NVidia 780a Chipset Preview.
The
Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 makes a bit of a splash over at
Bjorn3d.
With an excellent
layout and lots of performance, there is a lot to love about this board.
But there are some minor drawbacks. GIGABYTE gives the overclocking
community plenty of voltage control but fails to include on board power
and reset switches. Not a deal breaker but certainly something that should
have been included. Also, there is no native eSATA. Yes, GIGABYTE gives
you two add-ons to install eSATA but these require routing cables and
takes up space from using expansion cards.
Hardware Logic
shows us the
FSP 500W Blue Storm II PSU.
And closing up (for now),
Tweak Town has a
go at the
Patriot Viper DDR3-1866 2GB Memory Kit.
Patriot has managed to
impress us on a number of occasions, and the new Viper Fin DDR3 memory is extremely
impressive to say the least. In fact, it managed to achieve some pretty
high scores while keeping the voltages at the moderate level. Most boards
will be able to supply 1.9v to the DDR3 memory bus without much effort,
but it’s when we need beyond 2v that we start to see things getting
interesting. Cooling needs to be improved and the boards get a bit more
selective.
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Friday May
9th,
2008
-dean
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.
Even the side of
the case is inspired by a stealh bomber with the triangle shaped
ventilation outlet on the left side of the case. Once again we see the
snaps that lock the sides to the case. I find them to work very well as
its easy to open and they do keep the sides in place also. This computer
comes with several fans and one fan is mounted in the back already. The
fans have a very modern yellow color to match the black case.
ASUS P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP @n action up at
Techgage with the X48
and the funky board name rolled into one.
But nothing seen
here isn't found on the P5E3 Deluxe, for a much more
reasonable $325. Not that $325 isn't a lot for a
motherboard either, but it's far easier to deal with
than $375.
I still remember paying $120 for a board
and feeling screwed.
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.
OCZ ReaperX HPC DDR3-1333 2GB Memory Kit reviewage at
Think Computers.
More OCZ with this one on the
OCZ PC2-6400 ReaperX HPC 4GB Kit over at TechPowerUp.
Here's a reasonably hip 5.25" device
in the
VL System M-Play Blast LCD Case Display & Remote Control that gets
the once over by Tweaknews.
I always enjoy
being surprised by a product and the M-Play Blast was one such device.
Not only did it exceed my expectations, it thoroughly impressed me. If
you are looking for a remote setup for your media center and want
something that looks at home with your VCR and other entertainment
systems then the retro look of the M-play Blast should be right up your
alley.
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.
Cooler Master Hyper Z600 CPU Cooler
at Elite Bastards.
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Thursday May
8th,
2008
-dean
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.
Anandtech has a look at the rest of the year to see what gaming
titles are upcoming.
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.
And then I said...
Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 460w
PSU at
Hardware Secrets.
Vantec NexStar 3i Power Management Enclosure at Pro-Clockers.
Silverstone Treasure TS01B RFID Enclosure at TechPowerUp.
SuperTalent 8GB Pico USB Flash Drive at BCC Hardware.
NESTEQ ECS7001 700w PSU at TechwareLabs.
Durapower CR-104 Media Reader at Mikhailtech.
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Wednesday May
7th,
2008
-dean
First Edition
The NVidia nForce 780a chipset based
motherboard reviews are out in force today. Let's line em' up and
knock em' down.
ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe at the Hard|OCP.
Reference design article on the 780a at Anandtech.
Reference design 780a SLI
at The Tech Report.
ASUS M3N-HT 780a SLI
at Overclocker's Club.
ASUS CrossHair II Formula at AMDZone.
ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe at Neoseeker.
ASUS and MSI 780a based board rounded up at Hot Hardware.
(Lot of ASUS board reviews today.)
ASUS Crosshair II Formula at Elite Bastards.
Breaking away from 780a avalanche we
have a lowly P45 based board and yes, it's an ASUS too.
ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe coverage at
Nordic Hardware.
The motherboard shares a number of features
with its bigger and more expensive siblings, while at the same time
offering the same level of performance. The build quality is solid and
the various hardware configurations we've tested have all been fully
stable. The overclocking with today's 45nm quad-core processors is quite
promising.
Razer Piranha Gaming Communicator for you multiplayer guys and gals
today at BCC
Hardware.
When I
put on the Piranha headset I wasn't blown out of my seat by it, but I'd
say I was pleasantly surprised by it. When compared to a high-end set of
headphones the Razer Piranha falls short, but when compared to other
gaming headset in the same price range the audio quality is definitely
above average, and even though it lacks deep bass, the overall quality
is very good and very clear.
Need something to generate some tunes for those phones?
Check out Tweaktown's
review of the
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Sound Card.
The Prelude 7.1 is not just a bare bones Creative X-Fi based solution to
nudge the margins a little for the company, it’s being designed by
Auzentech from the ground up to be a value solution that offers the
fidelity of the X-Fi chip without the staggering software suite that
Creative bundle with their products which inevitably pushes prices up
and up.
Xigmatek S1283 Red Scorpion CPU Cooler action translated from its
original German today on Technic3D.
We don't usually cover console gear but this is a gadget
that is a bit different. I installed a set of similar units in my
father's house and they work great! Check out
Future Looks'
review of the
Corinex GameNet Powerline Networking Kit.
Corinex is a company that
specializes in something called powerline technology. In a nutshell,
this technology takes advantage of the pre-existing electrical wiring in
your home (or any building) to deliver a full Internet experience just
about anywhere you have a wall outlet. The key advantage of this method
over a wireless connection is that it cannot be blocked by walls,
floors, or ceilings. It doesn’t matter if you live in a concrete jungle;
it’ll still work.
The round out.
Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850w PSU at Tweaknews.
Zalman ZM850-HP 850W Modular PSU
at Think Computers.
Hanns-G Hi221D 22in Widescreen Display at the OCIA.
Thermaltake BlacX Hard Drive Docking Station at Overclocker's Club.
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Tuesday May
6th,
2008
-dean
Morning Edition
Tell me this won't get you up and
around better than strong Brazilian coffee.
9800 GTX vs. SLI vs. 3-way SLI. vs. Quad SLI article posted by the
pros at the Hard|OCP.
How does a 9800
GTX compare to SLI, 3-way SLI, and Quad SLI? We have completed an SLI
scaling evaluation using our real world gameplay techniques as well as
apples-to-apples testing to see what SLI, 3-way SLI, and Quad SLI can do
to improve your gameplay experience.
Not for the faint of heart
Bjorn3D reviews the
Foxconn 9800GTX Extreme OC for your Tuesday morning blast.
We are fortunate
to receive the Foxconn GeForce 9800 GTX Extreme OC card which features
clock speed of 780/1900/2360 (core/shader/memory) as opposed to the
reference speed of 675/1688/2200. Today, we will put this card against
other mid-range graphic cards ranging from the last generation G80 to
current generation G92 cards and even the HD card from AMD.
Here's another overclocked 9800 for us.
Gamepyre looks at
the
XFX GeForce 9800GTX Black Edition Card.
Overall this
card is a solid piece of equipment that excels in the 1920X1200 and
below resolutions with moderate AA and AF settings. In the 1680 and 1280
resolutions you can turn up the AA and AF settings to their maximum
values and get great FPS gameplay. Not quite a gamers gold card, but
definitely a Gamers Silver card award winner.
The GeForce 9600 was a solid card but
overclocked with a gig of RAM?
Tweaktown has
more on the
MSI GeForce 9600GT 1GB OC.
With the 1GB offering
and 512MB model offering the same overclock and the same excellent
performing cooler, it’s going to be hard to spend the extra money on a
1GB card when the 512MB offering is going to perform almost identically.
Another 1GB midrange VGA card makes
rounds today. The
Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3650 1GB shows up at
Hot Hardware
today.
And, as we have
seen, there definitely seems to be a trend with more and more memory
placed on board graphics cards to help with caching textures at higher
resolutions. So, we should be pleased with this effort, but overall the
performance of this version of Diamonds HD 3650 wound up disappointing
us instead.
Several Noctura cooler reviews out
today; let's line em' up.
Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler at Overclock3D.
Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler at DragonSteelMods.
Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler at TechwareLabs.
Arguably the Rolls-Royce of PC cases,
Lian Li has put out some fine boxes. Check out the
OCIA and the
Lian Li PC-C1110 Super Mid-Tower Chassis.
If you're going
to buy a case that you plan on keeping for a long time, you'll want it
to be built well and have easy maintenance. The PC-V1110 is definitely
that kind of case. The total aluminum construction makes the thick,
heavy-duty construction light as a feather (in comparison to similar
cases) and almost everything can be removed easily with thumbscrews.
Free stuff! (NZXT Tempest Case)
For those times when only tape will
do, like say on VGA RAMsinks.
Akasa AK-TT12-80 Thermal Adhesive Tape review posted at
Frosty Tech.
This
kind of material is useful for BGA chipset heatsinks, MOSFET heatsinks,
and passive videocard or peripheral card heatsinks. Essentially, if the
heatsink you are about to re-attach was originally held in place with
double-sided adhesive the Akasa AK-TT12-80 thermal adhesive tape is
going to be appropriate.
Still at Frosty's
is this review on the
Thermolab Micro Silencer TLI-S Cooler.
Cooler Master
Cosmos 1000 Case for the masses. Cowcotland has the
review. It is translated from its original French which doesn't
really translate that well into English.
ASRock Penryn 1600SLIX3-WiFi 680i Motherboard reviewage today over
at
Think Computers.
I have to say I would find this more than a little disheartening.
The DIMM slots felt wobbly,
the first time I have ever felt that when installing those memory
modules. This probably isn't an issue for "build-it-and-leave-it"
enthusiasts, but I am constantly replacing hardware and found it a
little unnerving.
The closed circuit, ready to go H2O kit known as the
CoolIT PURE CPU cooler makes another appearance this morning.
See Hardware
Canucks for more.
The CoolIT PURE has one of the easiest
installations of any all-in-one water cooling kit we have come across
and we can truthfully say that it truly is a plug and play unit. Even
better still is that this easy installation was backed up by a one in a
million instruction manual which was a pleasure to work with; so if you
run into a sticky situation the manual is there to get you out of it.
This is not even my desk!
Computrace LoJack for Laptops at Hardware Logic.
Tuniq Miniplant 950w PSU at Virtual-Hideout .
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler at BCC Hardware.
Cooler Master Real Power M850 850w PSU at TechPowerUp.
Ultra X-Pro 750W & 800W PSUs at Driver Heaven.
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Monday May 5th,
2008
-dean
Cinco de Mayo Edition
Happy Cinco de Mayo all. If you
are interested in a little
Cinco de Mayo history, here you go.
Techgage has a 9600GT
with a silent and effective cooling solution (a hard pair to find) in
the
ASUS EN9600GT Silent Card.
To make the 9600
GT better though, ASUS came along and created a model
with a silent cooler, perfect for HTPC buffs or those
who generally want their computer to be as quiet as
possible. While the design of the cooler is a little
strange, it is effective, and that's all that matters.
In their original press release, they boast that their
Silent cooler is around 10°C cooler than a reference
cooler, and in my tests, that's not a bad figure to go
by.
Here's a hip little unit. The
Matrix Orbital's GX Typhoon Display is a programmable bay insert
that is practical but just as importantly looks cool. See
Bit-Tech for more.
What it will
do is give me a lot of handy information at my fingertips, and I can
easily add more. It will pull my weather report from the web, display my
song titles and even my calendar entries. It will display my Speedfan
info on my test rig, and monitor my temperatures on my main rig. It will
do it colourfully, intelligently and easily. It will allow me to control
Windows Media player and it will give me data on that, too.
Free stuff! (ABIT AW9D Mainboard)
A
Thermolab Micro Silencer Cooler for the LGA775 OEM replacement
folks? Ask
Overclocker's
Club how it does.
I would suggest
getting this heatsink if you are not going to be doing any overclocking
to your system and if you are going to be building a HTPC or a computer
in a very small case.
OCZ 4GB Rally2 USB Flash Drive at Overclockers Online.
From the concept
of the Rally Flash Drive family, OCZ has done everything right: a sleek
slender body with fast performance. As the series matured and evolved to
the Rally2 Turbo, the drive has had a few cosmetic changes and the
performance has kicked into a higher gear.
A-DATA S701 and SDHC Eee PC Edition action up over at
TechPowerUp.
Check it.
A-DATA's S701 & SDHC card
Eee PC Edition are themed flash storage parts which go especially nice
with the ASUS Eee PC subnotebook. The SDHC card is a Class 6 Device
which means it can offer write speeds up to 6 MB/s. Both come at no
price premium over the non-EeePC branded variants.
4GB SDHC Memory Cards: OCZ vs. Crucial take it to the mattresses
over at Phoronix.
Our good friends at
Mikhailtech do
some cooling tests with the
CoolJag Falcon 92-AL Heatsink.
Is the Falcon
92-AL the 'Ultimate Cooling Machine'? It sure did gobble up the BTUs. I
would of liked to been able to throw more heat at it, but even mild
over-clocking didn't budge it. Until they change socket designs, this
unit should handle my future multi-core needs. It's one cooler I can see
using for a very long time and should be a great investment.
MSI K9A2 Platinum Motherboard (socket AM2+) for those left standing
today up at
Motherboards.org.
MSI has done a
wonderful job with their K9A2 Platinum motherboard. The performance is
higher than the last AMD motherboard we did the Gigabyte GA-M69GM-S2H
motherboard back in September. The ability to do Quadfire (Four ATI
cards in Crossfire) is excellent.
You used all the glue on purpose!
Cooler Master Hyper Z600 Cooler at Overclocker's Club.
Corsair's new HX1000w PSU at Hexus.
Noctua NH-U12P Heatpipe CPU Cooler at Benchmark Reviews.
Corsair Voyager 32GB Flash Drive at Pro-Clockers.
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