Feb.
25, 2005
Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TCL
Author: John
Chen
"The
Silencer series is not highly recommended for use in an overclocked
system, but instead is aimed for systems with silence in mind.
But without a doubt, you'll be able to see this little budget
cooler in action today, in both stock and overclocked environments."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
nForce4 SLI, Real World System
Author: Scott
Sherman
"The
first thing I want to point out is this is not just a review
of SLI; I am going to look at several aspects of the nForce4
chipset. Also this is not a clean install machine being looked
at. This is a REAL WORLD machine. It is loaded with all the
tools I use for work and things that most computer users would
have installed and running. So the performance numbers you
see on things should show you how your machine would perform
if you had the same system I have built."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Mushkin PC2-4200 DDR2 Low Latency Kit
Author: Hubert
Wong
"We
were quite pleased with Mushkin's PC2-4200 3-2-2-8 as it performed
reliably and was quick as well. We did hit some hurdles in
overclocking past DDR2-667, but in that case you would be better
served by their PC2-5300 kit. Other than that, Mushkin doesn't
package the bling such as flashing LEDs, but in turn their
ram modules are easier on the wallet."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Dual MSI NX6600GT-TD128E SLI Videocard
Author: Colin
Sun
"As
an enthusiast I'm less than impressed with the last few years
under ATi's rule; they've been turbulent at best... and not
especially innovative. What ever the situation, there's no
doubt that nVIDIA's GeForce 6600GT is the best mainstream core
on the market right now.A single GeForce 6600GT-based videocard
is about as quick as last generation's Radeon 9800XT/GeForceFX
5950 Ultra cards, and then there is the "SLI factor." On
PCstats test bench today are a pair of MSI's NX6600GT-TD128E
videocards that are literally made for each other. Based around
the GeForce 6600GT core, both cards are backed up with 128MB
of memory on a 128-bit bus."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
TTGI 600W modular power supply
Author: Keith
Suppe
"TTGI
USA (also known as Super Flower) became popular in Overclocking
circles aproximately 3-years ago with the release of their
TT-520SS 4-fan aluminum PSU. Enthusiast's loved the stability,
rail adjustments, and especially the price. Today we look at
the TT-600K04 600W Modular PSU for the evolving BTX standard..."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
TTGI 600W
modular power supply
Author: Keith
Suppe
"TTGI
USA (also known as Super Flower) became popular in Overclocking
circles aproximately 3-years ago with the release of their
TT-520SS 4-fan aluminum PSU. Enthusiast's loved the stability,
rail adjustments, and especially the price. Today we look at
the TT-600K04 600W Modular PSU for the evolving BTX standard..."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
23, 2005
Thermalrock Circle Silver Designer ATX Computer Case
Author: Nathan
Glentworth
"Beauty,
they say, is in the eye of the beholder. That is certainly
true when it comes to computer case design. When the Circle
showed up at my house I was less than ecstatic with its appearance,
but over the week or so that I've had it around, I must confess
that it's grown on me. Love it or hate it, you have to admit
that ThermalRock's Circle chassis has a very distinctive look."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
MSI NX6600GT-VTD128
Author: Joel
Weirauch
"For
AGP based motherboard owners who are a little dismayed with
all the PCIe attention by chip makers, nVidia and MSI have
addressed your concerns with the NX6600GT-VTD128. The card
was rock solid, and the performance improvements are light
years over MSI's previous nVidia based mainstream solution."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
22, 2005
Sunbeam Samurai
Case
Author: Dean
Barker
"The
quality construction issue was further compounded by the bezel
mounts that held it to the face of the case - these as you
may recall broke off too. I am at a complete loss to explain
the glaring discrepancies between the Sunbeam website's list
of the case specs and what the true case specs were. Try as
I might to find some redeeming qualities here - truth be told,
this is one Samurai that should commit Hara-kiri."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Shuttle's XPC SN25P mini-barebones system
At long last?
Author: Geoff
Gasior
"WITH
EXPANSIVE INTERNALS that can accommodate up to three hard drives,
a trio of temperature-controlled cooling zones, tool-free drive
rails, and a robust 350W power supply, the P series is undoubtedly
the pinnacle of Shuttle's XPC chassis line. Enthusiasts have
been eagerly awaiting a P-series XPC for the Athlon 64, but
in the seven months since the chassis' introduction, the P
series has been a Pentium 4-only affair. That all changes today
with the arrival of Shuttle's XPC SN25P.
Sporting a 939-pin socket for the Athlon 64, an nForce4 chipset,
PCI Express, and an integrated Envy24PT audio controller, the
XPC SN25P could be the best small form factor barebones system
to date. Does it deliver on its considerable potential? Was it
worth the wait?."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu Heatsink
Author: Bob
Ratliff
"Zalman:
The name strikes fear into the core of all the heat generating
CPU's everywhere. The CNPS7000A-AlCu from Zalman keeps up the
battle against thermal meltdown on multiple fronts."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Abit KV8 Pro
Author: John
Chen
"As
AMD introduced the Athlon64, Abit introduced their first Socket
754 motherboard. The first one, version 1.0, came with one
huge bug--no AGP/PCI locks. Everyone looked down on Abit for
not providing working AGP/PCI locks and turned away for quite
some time. Fortunately, Abit was quick with their revisions
and came up with the current version--v1.1. It provides working
AGP/PCI locks to allow for potentially great overclocking results.
While many consider Socket 754 an aging socket, it should still
stick around for a while. Heck, Socket A is still around, so
why not Socket 754?"
Read
the full review here
Feb.
21, 2005
Ultra Products PC3200 XL 2-2-2 DDR Memory
Author: Shane
Unrein
"Before
releasing the X-Connect power supply and becoming a household
name virtually over night, Ultra Products was slowly releasing
more and more products and hitting the retail shelves at CompUSA
and Fry's. Before the big Samsung TCCD IC boom, Ultra had already
released some memory modules and had proven that the company
can provide a decent stick of RAM. Now, Ultra is the latest
company to jump on the Samsung TCCD memory chip bandwagon,
which is actually a good thing to be on.
The Samsung TCCD ICs have really leveled the playing field like
never before it seems. Now, any company that can get ahold of
some of these chips and create some memory modules is able to
compete with the big boys, like Corsair, Kingston and OCZ, because
the Samsung TCCD chips are just that good. Of course, the companies
are still trying to distinguish themselves from each other by
adding blinking lights or using superior PCB for even better
overclocking, but who would have guessed a couple months ago
that you could compare Ultra memory to Corsair, and it actually
be a fair fight? Ultra obviously has a long way to go before
it will be listed in the enthusiasts' top five, but its new PC3200
XL modules are definitely a step in the right direction."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
20, 2005
Intel 6xx & 3.73GHz
EE Processors
Author: Stephen
Cooper
"Intel
has made several key changes to the IA-32 architecture to allow
for these 64-bit applications, such as adding support for 64-bit
linear addressing. Variations of the IA-32 architecture may
not offer full 64-bit linear addressing, such as the processors
we’ll be looking at today which offer support for 48-bit
linear addressing. This issue will be covered in a more detailed
nature when we discuss the memory organization under 64-bit
mode."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Intel Pentium
4 600 Series with EM64T & SpeedStep
Author: Carl
Nelson
"Today
Intel is quietly launching its latest CPU lineup; 600. Although
it's still based on the Prescott core, it adds some interesting
features, as well as some that are not-so-interesting.
Among the more interesting features are the power saving featuring
Intel has added to the core. Our temperature level results will
amaze you, believe me.
With the 600 series, Intel is ready for WinXP x64 - not a moment
too soon either ;)."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
19, 2005
Albatron Trinity GeForce
PC6600U Videocard
Author: Colin
Sun
"What
makes the Albatron Trinity GeForce PC6600U special is that
it is one of the first commercially available, virtually silent
videocards. This next generation 'stealth assassin' gives the
consumer excellent performance without the noise. Nice. Based
on the GeForce 6600 GPU, the PCI-Express based, SLI-compatible,
Albatron Trinity GeForce PC6600U has 128MB of memory as well
as an impressive heatpipe GPU cooling system that is virtually
dead silent."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Gigabyte 3D1 Graphics Card
Author: Abbas
Jaffarali
"Gigabyte's
3D1 is an interesting product based on nVidia's SLI technology.
While all other manufacturers implementing SLI have done it
using two separate cards and bridging them together, Gigabyte
decided to skip the two cards process and make one card with
two cores and connect them internally."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
ATI Radeon X800XT Platinum Edition 256Meg AGP Videocard
Author: Nathan
Glentworth
"So
you have weighed your options and you are deciding on the fastest
ATI Radeon AGP videocard that money can buy. Even through there
is plenty of X800XT standard edition available on the market,
the Platinum Edition is only different because of its stock
core and clock rates. The standard X800XT is clocked at 500Mhz
core and 500Mhz memory but the Platinum Edition is stock clocked
at 520Mhz core and 560Mhz memory."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
ATI Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition
Author: Denver
Mcanally
"As
you can see the card is equipped with a copper heat sink and
large red exhaust fan. The fan helps to reduce overall system
temperature by drawing internal air over the heat sink and
expelling it from the back of the computer. On the back of
the card you will notice the metal band in the form of an L
shape. This does two very important things, a it helps cool
the memory by spreading the heat and b acts as a brace for
the heat sink taking stress from the card itself."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
17, 2005
Soltek SL-K890Pro-939
Author: Hubert
Wong
"The
Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 proved to be a solid and high performing
board across all our testing and is a nice entry on Soltek's
part for VIA's new PCI Express enabled K8T890. Overall, we
were quite pleased with the motherboard and if you're looking
for an alternative to NVIDIA for your Athlon PCI Express needs,
the Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 is certainly worthy of consideration."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Mushkin PC3700 1GB DC Kit
Author: Stephen
Jimenez
"Mushkin
is a popular manufacturer of performance memory. Mushkin Memory
Systems was founded in 1994 and is based in Denver, Colorado.
Mushkin's most recent success were its Black Level II PC3200
and PC3500 modules with Winbond BH5, which received high acclaim
from overclockers near and far. They almost always overclocked
better than the other BH5 based memory. It is my pleasure to
be able to review their new PC3700 modules today."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Enermax Black Knight CS-527 Case
"An
interesting (and patent-pending) feature of this case is the
stealth drive-bay covers. Both the 3.5" and the 5.25" bay
covers don't come out like your usual blanks, but they slide
down, nesting behind one another."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Asus eXtreme N6600GT posts on motherboards.org
Author: Ben
Sun
"What
can I say about the ASUS eXtreme N6600GT? The card is an excellent
performer for the cost. An additional bonus is that these cards
can SLI later, if you have a SLI board and AMD Athlon 64 system.
In some cases, the combination of two 6600GTs in SLI mode will
outperform the equivalent high-end card like a 6800GT."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Future of ATI's Overdrive
Author: techPowerUp!
News Team
"ATI
will introduce Overdrive 4 with the next Catalyst Driver scheduled
in March.
Previously you could only overclock your GPU core with Overdrive,
and only by a rather small amount.
Now you can overclock both core and memory and the frequency
range will be increased to 75% of the next higher class product."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Triple Contests @ InsaneTek
"The donations
contest is still currently active. All donations are welcome
and greatly appreciated. Remember that donating just
$1 will get you an entry to receive great prizes."
Sunbeam Samurai Case Contest: http://insanetek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2333
" Answer just a few simple questions in this Sunbeam contest and
you'll be eligible to win their new Samurai gaming case! There
are only 4 days left in the contest so hurry and submit your
answers."
Sunbeam Lightbus Contest: http://insanetek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2398
" Again, Sunbeam is here to sponsor another easy contest. Submit
your answers to some easy questions and you'll be automatically
entered to win a Sunbeam Lightbus. A total of 3 winners are chosen!"
Feb.
16, 2005
AOpen n250a-FR Socket 754Motherboard
Author: Colin
Sun
"PCStats
will be focusing in on the AOpen n250a-FR Socket 754 nForce3-250
motherboard in this review. This board supports any Socket
754 AMD Athlon64 or any of AMD's new budget 32-bit AMD Sempron
processors. Three DDR memory slots accommodate up to 3GB of
non ECC unbuffered PC3200 DDR RAM. Both the socket 754 Athlon64
and Sempron processors run with single channel DDR, as does
the nForce3-250 chipset. The nVidia nForce 3 chipset does not
support PCI Express, so graphics are provided by a standard
AGP8x slot. In terms of onboard features, the n250a-FR motherboard
includes an additional Silicon Image Sil3114 Serial ATA/RAID
controller, an onboard 5.1 audio codec, a Realtek Gigabit NIC,
IEEE 1394 and a dual BIOS feature."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Sunbeam Transformer Case
Author: Björn
Endre
"It
is hard to imagine that once computer cases were all beige
and dull. Today you actually have to look hard for a beige
case, and most cases now have one or more cool feature that
makes it stand out. The case I'm reviewing today makes you
think of the old Transformer comic, and it is no surprise that
the name reflects this - the SunBeam Transformer."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu
Author: Randy
Torio
"We
recently reviewed Zalman's VF700-AlCu, which was impressive
in terms of cooling performance and silence. I attributed the
VF700-AlCu's excellent performance to its design, which is
clearly derived from the successful CNPS line. As if improving
their VGA cooling line was not enough, Zalman revamped the
CNPS series itself by releasing the more extreme CNPS7700 series
(available in both aluminum/copper or copper). Today, we have
the honor of reviewing Zalman's CNPS7700-AlCu."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Enermax EG701AX 600W PSU
Author: Hubert
Wong
"While
the Enermax EG701AX-VE-SFMA24P does not have modular cables,
many reputable PSU makers will probably tell you that ideally,
you'll want cables drawn directly from the PSU to your components
for the best reliability. The EG701AX was just that; a solid
and reliable PSU with plenty of power when you need it."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
15, 2005
Radeon X800 Pro/XT/XT
PE Voltmods
Author: W1zzard
"In
this article you will be guided by step-by-step instructions
on how to do the VGPU, VMem and VDDQ voltmods for ATI's X800
Pro/XT/XT PE cards. Both pencil and resistor mods are covered."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
AOpen i915Pa-PLF mainboard
Author: Brian
Tiller
"There
are four options available; Performance, Normal, Automatic
and Silent. Power Master will also control the smart fan speed
allowing for increased/decreased fan speed depending on the
actual CPU usage at the time. It's quite a nifty feature, and
it does work very well. For our testing purposes, we will provide
results with the Power Master set to Normal as well as Performance
to give you an idea of how well this feature works."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
14, 2005
Gigabyte 3D1 Dual
Core 6600GT Video Card
Author: Carl
Nelson
"Several
weeks ago, Gigabyte announced a product that we have seen in
the past, but have forgotten about until now - a dual core
video card. Using NVIDIA's SLI and paired up with their own
NFORCE 4 SLI motherboard, the 3D1 is available as a package
that is about $50 cheaper than buying all the parts separately.
Of course, there are inherent issues with NVIDIA's SLI, and
the use of the mid-range 6600GT cores used. Is a dual 6600GT
solution better than a single 6800GT? It certainly has the potential
to be..."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Three New Reviews
Post On www.motherboards.org
Gigabyte 3D1
Author: Ben
Sun
"The
Gigabyte 3D1 and NVIDIA's SLI are interesting concepts in video
cards. When it works, it works great and is a very cool concept
for a video card. In games that take advantage of the SLI rendering
modes SFR and AFR, the combinations of two 6600GTs are as powerful
as a single 6800GT and sometimes better. Unfortunately, at
the moment, SLI has a very limited selection of games supported,
according to NVIDIA's website. We need to wait for NVIDIA to
make profiles for each game to determine if a certain game
works in either of the SLI modes, or if it defaults to single
card mode. NVIDIA really needs to step to the plate with driver
releases to support more and more games with their SLI. The
latest official NVIDIA driver on their site are the 66.93 drivers
from last year. Hopefully we'll see drivers released on a more
frequent basis to add applications to support SLI."
Read
the full review here
Foxconn 91501-P-8EKRS Motherboard
Author: John
Chen
"I have
to admit that I'm not a big fan of Intel's LGA775 platform,
at least for now. It's been out for a while and nothing new
has been introduced or even improved. Perhaps the only reason
any enthusiast will want to jump on the LGA775 platform is,
well, I honestly have no idea why. Intel's sales on these boards
and CPUs have definitely declined that's for sure. Perhaps
the price drops on DDR2 memory could help a little. If you've
been an Intel fan for the past ages and continue to stick to
their side, perhaps Foxconn's mid-level entry motherboard will
provide all that you need for a safe and stable computing system."
Read
the full review here
Foxconn 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 Motherboard
Author: Ben
Sun
"Unless
you're planning to heavily overclock your ram or system, high
frequency DDR2 kits are a bit of a waste of money considering
their conservative timings. The 4300C3PRO is fully suited for
overclocking, and so long as you stay at around DDR2-667 and
lower, the lower latencies will make a bigger impact on perform."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
SHUTTLE'S P-SERIES
CHASSIS
Author: Geoff
Gasior
"SHUTTLE'S
P-SERIES CHASSIS is easily the best small form factor enclosure
on the market. In fact, the chassis' meaty power supply, multiple
cooling zones, support for up to three hard drives, and largely
tool-free internal layout rival mid-tower systems more than
triple its size. Not bad for a bread box.
The latest
addition to the P-Series family is the 925XE-based SB95P V2.
Although
the 925XE chipset was designed as a companion
for pricey "Extreme Edition" Pentium 4 processors,
it's found favor among enthusiasts frustrated by the overclocking
limitations of Intel's other 900-series chipsets. The 925XE has
no such limitations, making it an ideal overclocking platform
for more affordable Pentium 4 processors and a surprisingly complementary
companion for the enthusiast-friendly P-Series chassis.
With a P-Series
chassis wrapped around a 925XE chipset, the SB95P V2 could
be the ultimate Pentium 4 small form factor system."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
13, 2005
Corsair TWIN2X1024-4300C3PRO
Author: Hubert
Wong
"Unless
you're planning to heavily overclock your ram or system, high
frequency DDR2 kits are a bit of a waste of money considering
their conservative timings. The 4300C3PRO is fully suited for
overclocking, and so long as you stay at around DDR2-667 and
lower, the lower latencies will make a bigger impact on perform."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Sapphire Radeon X800
XL
Author: Shane
Unrein
"MSRP
of $299, huh? Yeah, right. That's a joke! Big time! I like
to think of MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) as
the high point when it comes to actual retail pricing. Video
cards prove that wishful thinking wrong all the time, but ATi's
new kid on the block - the X800 XL - is selling for much higher
than its announced MSRP. We all knew this card would rock (or
rather violently shake) the successful NVIDIA 6800 GT boat
if it really hit streets at $300. That's not happening though...try
adding $100 to the MSRP. What was looking like a dead-on, hands-down
lock for best-bang-for-the-buck glory is now on a more even
playing field.
At a street
price of $400 though, the X800 XL makes for a great competitor
for the similarly priced 6800 GT, which is exactly
what it's meant to do. Does it make a great competitor as far
as performance is concerned though? We have a Sapphire Radeon
X800 XL here to find out."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
DFI LANParty UT nF3
250Gb
Author: John
Chen
"DFI
was fairly small and quiet back in the early days. It was not
until a year or so ago that people started recognizing the
company. They broke out into the enthusiast community with
their first LANParty motherboard, based on VIA's KT400A chipset.
They quickly continued the LANParty line with Nvidia's nForce2
chipset and eventually branched into Intel motherboards. The
LANParty was a huge hit, not only because it provided possibly
the best overclocking results on an overall basis, but because
the motherboard offered great voltage options. It was certainly
a huge plus since enthusiasts no longer needed to perform voltage
modifications. The LANParty motherboards were also the first
to provide a stunningly high 3.3v to VDIMM. Everyone, including
myself, jumped on the DFI wagon."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Sapphire Toxic X700
Pro and X800
Author: Denver
Mcanally
Sapphire Toxic Radeon
X700 Pro
"With
all of the recent NVIDIA reviews we thought it was about time
for an ATI review. More specifically the Sapphire Toxic X700
Pro. When we start talking about the Sapphire toxic cards there
are really two things that come to mind. One is the extremely
odd cooler bolted to the top of the card. The other is a little
something called A.P.E. which I will discuss later. With these
two things in mind and the GPU core as a base with 128MB of
GDDR3 memory you get one sweet video card."
Read
the full review here
Radeon X800
"When
I crack open the innards of this X800 I discover what appears
to be an average video card bundle... Upon first glance I see
the manual, S-Video cable, dvi-vga adapter, RCA-S-Video adapter,
driver cd, Power DVD, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and
Prince of Persia. I have got to talk to video card marketing
and ask them why always Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell.
However the bundle is only the icing on the cake when you buy
a video card. The best part is the actual card! One thing unimportant
thing I like about Sapphires cards is their packaging. Sapphire
uses a nice plastic form that is very easy to unpack and repack.
It also prevents the card from moving around inside of the
box."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Albatron PX925X Pro
Author: Scott
Harness
"Throughout
all the testing the Albatron PX925X Pro didn't falter once,
and let's face it, if your motherboard isn't stable, then nothing
you do will make the whole system stable. Standard performance
was up there with all the other 925 based boards we have seen,
and even put in a few impressive memory and content creation
scores higher than expected (nothing you would see except in
a benchmark but higher none the less)."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
HIS Radeon X700 Pro
IceQ Turbo 256 Meg PCI Express Videocard
Author: Nathan
Glentworth
"I
have to be honest, when I first starting testing this videocard,
I wasn't exactly expecting anything significant other than
maybe a little higher benchmarking. What I actually encountered
was an excellent performing videocard loaded with extra hardware
and software, yet still has a MSRP US$199 pricetag seen associated
with even the bland reference model from ATI."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Samsung TS-H552B 16X
DVD-R/RW
Author: Stephen
Cooper
"As
you can see from the selection above, Samsung has offered up
a solid product package and software suite for the TS-H552B.
This drive is quite cheap, ranging in the mid $60 range shipped.
Anything offering high speed burning and a software suite at
a price like that needs to be given a good look. Now that we’ve
seen what Samsung offers with the TS-H552B, let’s take
a quick look some data and write times obtained in our tests."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
11, 2005
Mad Dog SurePower
600W Smart Cable
Author: John
Chen
"Mad
Dog recently opened up a new category called "Techie Toyz".
This category mainly includes products for case modding and
accessories, such as rounded cables, fans, CPU coolers, power
supplies, etc. Today's sample will be their flagship SurePower
power supply. It boasts a whopping 600W of power and is almost
fully modular."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
ThermalRock
Circle
Author: John
Chen
"Never
heard of ThermalRock? Surely you must know Thermaltake, though.
No one really knows why Thermaltake decided to split off into
a second name, but sure enough both of them are owned by the
same people. This new name can only be good news for us. Why?
We get to see more goodies, of course. With the announcement
of the ThermalRock name, a couple of products have already
been introduced and have become available for sale. Most of
their products are cases, and if they follow Thermaltake's
case history, these cases should offer users plenty of space
to work with as well as great cooling performance."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
09, 2005
Foxconn NF4UK8AA-8EKRS
nForce4 Ultra Motherboard
Author: Shane
Unrein
"If
the buzz and excitement over the new nForce4 boards coming
out is any indication of how successful NVIDIA's new chipset
will be, then we just might have another nForce2 on our hands.
If you wanted the best in Athlon XP performance and overclocking,
you looked towards NVIDIA and one of its partner's nForce2
solutions. It's a safe bet that NVIDIA and its partners hope
the same happens with the Athlon 64 and its nForce4. No doubt,
many enthusiasts are pumped up about SLI, but there's a lot
more than SLI to be excited about, including NVIDIA Firewall
and RAID."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
FCorsair Flash
Voyager USB 2.0
Author: Hubert
Wong
"We
were very pleased with the Flash Voyager's speed and more importantly,
the durabilty. It survived a free fall onto tiles, a swim in
a sink, and a full laundry cycle without missing a beat. The
10 year warranty is great, but unless you stick this into your
Thanksgiving turkey and cook it, I doubt you'll ever need to
give Corsair's support a call."
Read
the full review here
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Hitachi Travelstar
60GB 7200RPM
Author: Chris
Tom
"Hard
drives are often the forgotten bottleneck in computer performance.
Too often people think of them only when they have filled up,
and it is time to upgrade. As we saw in our testing of striped
drives for gaming there is performance out there to be grabbed.
Today we change gears and shift from gaming performance to
notebook drives where slower RPMs and smaller cache sizes are
the norm compared to their desktop brethren."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
07, 2005
Leadtek PCI Express
6800GT
Author: Denver
Mcanally
"First
let me give you a little info on this card. It is built on
the NV40 GPU core with 16 pixel pipelines, 4 per quad. The
GPU is clocked at 425 MHz and the ram at 1.1GHz. Based on the
PCI-E bus this card is built with 256MB of GDDR 3 memory. The
card sucks power from the power supply and the PCI-E x16 slot.
The AGP version of this card, the A400 GT, features two molex
connectors as apposed to 1. I would love to get the A400 and
test against this PX6800 GT. Basically I would love to take
a high end PCI-E system and test against a very similar AGP
system."
Read
the full review here
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in the news
Double Contest @ InsaneTek
Sunbeam Samurai Case Giveaway Contest
Get
the full details here
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in the news
Zalman VF700-Alcu
VGA Cooler
Author: Randy
Torio
"When
I'm not watercooling, I'm usually running a Thermalright or
Zalman heatsink. I would always use a Thermalright for benching
purposes, but I would always use the Zalman for everyday purposes.
Why? In case you have been living in another planet, Zalman
has been the pioneer in the production of near silent quality
heatsinks. Their flower series quickly became a fan favorite,
as its "flower" design was both aesthetically appealing
and performed well enough for stock clocks, and their even
more popular ZM-80 series VGA-heatpipe cooler was a fan favorite
due to its ability to cool with no noise whatsoever. However,
as soon as Zalman introduced the CNPS performance heatsink
and the newer ZM-80 VGA series with the 92mm fan and bracket,
Zalman proved to be an effective solution towards both quiet
computing and high performance. In particular, their CNPS series
proved to be a serious contender for best overall heatsink.
Today, Zalman has given us the privilege of reviewing a VGA-cooler
similar in concept to the popular CNPS series: the VF700 VGA
cooler."
Read
the full review here
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in the news
Jetart JACSH1 VGA
Cooler
Author: Björn
Endre
"Most
video cards today need additional cooling. The higher priced
cards usually come with good cooling but many of the cheaper
cards usually use a stock cooling device that neither is effective
or silent. Today I am looking at an alternative VGA cooling
device from Jetart, the JACSH1, which fits both NVIDIA and
ATI video cards."
Read
the full review here
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in the news
ABIT RX600 Pro-Guru
Author: Brook
Moore
"If
you are looking to build a HTPC on the PCIe format, look no
further, the RX600 is easy to use and gives a picture you would
be proud of. I only ask that ABIT either get rid of the silly
Turbo jumper or change the color of the LED (I am soldering
on a Blue one as we speak)...."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Spire VertiCool SPA49B0
Author: Patrick
Ng
"Spire
started out way back in 1991 and has slowly been creating cooling
solutions. They have offices located all around the world to
provide many customers with their products. Their cooling division
has a wide variety of products, ranging from AMD coolers to
Intel. Aside from their air cooling, they also offer water
cooling to consumers. My last encounter with Spire's cooling
solutions left me less than impressed. Today we'll be looking
at the VertiCool heatsink. Perhaps a second look at their products
will change my mind."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Arctic Cooling ATI
Silencer 4
Author: W1zzard
"Arctic
Cooling is the first video card cooler manufacturer to use
a heatsink base manufactured from copper. The ATI Silencer
4 just does awesome on all settings. If you are looking for
a good cooler for your X800 you must definitely consider the
ATI Silencer 4. Its cooling performance is excellent no matter
what the fan speed is. Memory cooling works pretty well and
gives you a bit more overclocking headroom."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Asetek Waterchill
Antarctica Water Cooling System
Author: Nathan
Glentworth
"Seeing
that this is the first of many water cooling product reviews
to be posted on Tweaknews.net, you might as well come in with
a bang or in this case, a strong gurgle. Asetek have been in
the water cooling market for quite some time and it definitely
shows. Along with the outstanding quality and workmanship,
detail, and efficiency, my first voyage into Asetek water cooling
has resulted in a very positive experience..."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Seagate 100GB Portable
External HDD
Author: Adam
Erker
"On
the go? Always away from home or the office? Looking for a
way to take a big chunk of data along with you wherever you
may roam? With the arrival of USB portable drives in sizes
all the way up to several GB of data, the desire to go portable
with all of your data is fast becoming the norm. Enter Seagate's
portable external USB 2.0 100GB HDD ready to help you out with
every storage need you may encounter while on the move."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
03, 2005
Albatron Trinity 6600GT
PCI Express
Author: Scott
Harness
"For
a mid range card with 128mb, I was expecting Doom 3 and Far
Cry to require an 800x600 resolution for acceptable frame rates,
but this wasn't the case; all the games tested ran at 1024x768
with some FSAA and AF without issue, and in some cases a few
even broke into playable at 1280x1024 (albeit without FSAA
or AF)."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
OCZ ModStream 520W
Author:
John Chen
"Ultra
Products was the first to introduce the world's first fully
modular power supply. The power supply was great for case modders,
because it allowed great cable management. Well, OCZ is here
again with a similar approach. OCZ knows that overclockers
not only need the best performance possible but a nice tidy
system too. The solution is the OCZ ModStream. The ModStream
caters less to overclockers but more to the general public
and case modders who want a nice looking system."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Aopen Aeolus 6600GT
Author: Denver
Mcanally
"When
I did my over clocking on this card I was surprised to see
that it didn't want to over clock to 580MHz. The highest I
was able to over clock the GPU was a blazing 564MHZ. All of
the 10 other 6600 GT's that have been through my PCI-E test
box have over clocked to 580MHz with out any problem. Most
likely the video card isn't being cooled properly. It could
be that the AOpen 6600 GT's have a much lower yield than the
others, but I doubt that is the case. Upon closer inspection
of the heat sink, I found that AOpen chose to use very low
quality heat sink paste that allowed the HSF to move, wobble,
and do a dance with very little force. So I wiped off the white
crap and dabbed on some of that fancy Arctic Silver 5. After
applying the AS5, the card over clocked to 581MHz but no further
due to the quality of the HSF. I believe a much higher clock
speed could be obtained with an after market cooler."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Beginners Guides:
Most Common Ways to Kill a PC
Author: Mike
Dowler
"Computers
and their component parts do have a finite life span, and just
like us, they have a list of afflictions that are most likely
to claim their digital existences. Also just like us, most
of these problems stem from careless handling, neglect, unhealthy
environments and old age. Toss careless manufacturing into
the mix, and you can see why the average computer system rarely
survives more than ten years without some sort of catastrophic
failure. A few months ago the PCstats Newsletter asked its
readership a pretty simple question; "have you ever killed
your PC?" Out of all these tales, one thing became clear;
sometime soon, one of your computers or one of its essential
components is going to get fried and fail. So here are the
most common ways this is likely to happen!"
Read
the full article here
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in the news
Logitech MX 3100 Cordless
Desktop
Author: Norman
Tan
"When
Logitech introduced the laser-based MX 1000 as a replacement
for the MX 700, it was only a matter of time before they came
out with a matching wireless keyboard. That keyboard is known
as the MX 3000 on its own, and in a month or so it will be
released along side the MX 1000 in a 'cordless desktop' combo
known as the MX 3100.
We got an
MX 3100 set in for testing a few weeks ago, and have been enjoying
it ever since. Check out the review for our thoughts
on the keyboard, mouse, and the latest version of Logitech's
software."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Logitech MX
3100 Cordless Desktop
Author: Norman
Tan
"When
Logitech introduced the laser-based MX 1000 as a replacement
for the MX 700, it was only a matter of time before they came
out with a matching wireless keyboard. That keyboard is known
as the MX 3000 on its own, and in a month or so it will be
released along side the MX 1000 in a 'cordless desktop' combo
known as the MX 3100.
We got an
MX 3100 set in for testing a few weeks ago, and have been enjoying
it ever since. Check out the review for our thoughts on the
keyboard, mouse, and the latest version of Logitech's software."
Read
the full review here
Feb.
02, 2005
Samsung CLP-550 Laser
Printer
Author: Scott
Mikules
"Samsung's
products are nothing less that perfect and a great choice for
today's consumers either in office, or home use. They provide
means of excellence and ease of use. This time around we have
a close look at their new line of laser printers, the Samsung
CLP-550, which suits those in the home or office."
Read
the full review here
Also
in the news
Tweaknews.net US$1200
Corsair Memory Giveaway
Author: Nathan
Glentworth
"Contest
is really simple and is WORLDWIDE.
At the end of February, I will be giving away four Corsair 1Gig
3200XL Low Latency Memory kits to who have followed the rules
outlined and have become or have been contributing members of
the Tweaknews.net forum."
Get
the full details here
Also
in the news
