Content and news by Rob Williams

OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the highly-anticipated Platinum XTC memory series. The first inclusion to the new series will be the PC2-6400 EL Platinum Edition XTC, engineered to implement the recently introduced and highly commended OCZ XTC heatspreader design.

Read the full Press Release.

Noctua is pretty new in the cooling market, but they are making a huge splash. PC Apex thought the NH-U9 was so good, that it deserved a 9.5/10! So if you are looking for a new CPU cooler, check out the full review. If you are in the market for a 2GB memory kit, then you will want to check out some of the reviews available today. Extreme Overclocking is taking the Corsair 3500PRO kit for a spin, and Velocity Reviews is taking a look at Corsairs 4000PT, my personal favorite. If DDR2 is more your flavor, then check out Legit Reviews for their look at the Mushkin XP2-5300.

Cases & Enclosures
• Cooler Master CM Media 250 HTPC Case – Big Bruin

Cooling
• Noctua NH-U9 – NH-U12 – PC Apex

Memory & Storage
• Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO – Extreme Overclocking
• Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT – Velocity Reviews
• Mushkin 2GB XP2-5300 3-3-3 Memory – Legit Reviews

Motherboards & CPU’s
• AOpen I915GM-M-HFS – Motherboards.org
• Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS – PC Stats

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Multimedia Viewer With WiFi & Hi-Speed USB OTG – Everything USB

Video Cards & Monitor
• ATI’s All-In-Wonder X1900 – Motherboards.org
• ATI’s All-In-Wonder X1900 – Tech Report
• Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP Widescreen LCD Display – Hexus
• PowerColor X800GTO16 – Overclockers Online
• Visiontek X1900XTX – GD Hardware/

Etcetera & Contests
• Announcing the ARP-Seagate Survey Contest Winners – Rojak Pot
• Nikon CoolPix P1 Wi-Fi Compact Camera – Trusted Reviews
• Super Bowl XL HDTV Buyers Guide – Design Technica

Computer maker Dell Inc. said Monday it planned to add 5,000 jobs in India over the next two years, bringing its work force in the country to 15,000. Dell is also looking to set up a manufacturing center in India, a move that could help boost the sale of Dell computers here, President and CEO Kevin Rollins told reporters after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Ahh, I lose respect for Dell with each new announcement they make. I don’t disagree with outsourcing, but I disagree with poor customer service. If you can’t understand the representative on the other line, then that’s horrible customer service. Check out the full posting at Business Week.

But, as we reported last week, AMD isn’t rushing to shove Socket 1207 chipolatas out the door. The chips for Opterons which will support DDR3 and pinouts for quad core, are expected to be rolled out with fanfares during April, and be ready to run in May.

Check out the posting over at The Inquirer. It’s hard to wait a few months to see how these things will perform..

Serial ATA (SATA) disk technology has made a major jump recently in the form of “SATA-II” specification drives that run twice as fast as their predecessors—a hypothetical maximum transfer rate of 3 gigabits per second (Gbps). With disk capacities climbing steadily, system builders can now achieve the vaunted heights of terabyte storage (more or less) with just two drives. In this TechBuilder Recipe, I’ll take you through the steps of building a compact, self-contained system with a near-terabyte of speedy storage.

Check out the full article at Infomation Week.

Selling knockoffs isn’t just for Times Square anymore. The NY Times reports that smaller eBay buyers and sellers are grumbling about the abundance of counterfeit pieces, and Tiffany has filed a lawsuit accusing eBay of facilitating counterfeiting, finding that three out of four ‘Tiffany’ pieces they secretly purchased on eBay were fakes. The Tiffany case threatens eBay’s very business model, since it would be nearly impossible to police a site with 180M members and 60M items for sale.

I think educating buyers before they foolishly buy fakes would be the smarter route to take. Some of the users comments after this posting make some good points also. Check out the posting at Tech Dirt.

William “IllWill” Genovese, 29, will serve three years of supervised release following his prison term, during which he’ll be subject to electronic monitoring through special software installed on his computer, under the terms handed down by federal Judge William Pauley in New York. He remains free on bail, and is scheduled to report to prison March 14.

Wow, this is a way to learn your lesson. This guys prior rap sheet isn’t too clean though, so it would have happened someday.. somehow. Check out the full article at Wired.com.

Infamous cracker Kevin Mitnick (turned security consultant) has come out to say that he’d prefer to ‘hack’ open source code vs proprietary closed code. “Mitnick says that open source software is easier to analyse for security holes, since you can see the code. Proprietary software, on the other hand, requires either reverse engineering, getting your hands on illicit copies of the source code, or using a technique called ‘fuzzing’.” He further says that open source is more secure, but leaves you wondering questions if enough people are really interested in securing open source code.

This certainly makes sense. When you are able to have the code in it’s entirety to play with, there’s nothing to hold you back. Check out the full posting at Tectonic. Source: Slashdot.

Many times before a hard drive goes completely bad there are signs foreshadowing its demise. If these signs are observed and recognized there is a good chance that the data on the drive can be saved. The window of time in which action any will be useful is quite small but if the proper precautions are taken there is a chance than a real problem can be avoided.

This is extremely important, especially for those who do not use a Mirrored RAID setup. Check out the full article at HDD Saver.

Happy Monday! There are many reviews to catch up on today, so let’s get to it. I for one had no idea Toshiba made thumb drives, and maybe it’s best that I didn’t. Rojak Pot takes a look at the 512MB TransMemory, which only managed to write at 3.6MB/sec! I think it’s clear that the competition is going to win that race. If you are interested in Crossfire on a budget, then you will want to check out Tech Reports review of the ASUS A8R-MVP. Not only does this motherboard offer superb performance and options, it costs less than $100!

Will your next HTPC have Viiv? If you are not sure what Viiv is, then you will want to read the article all about it at UK Gamer. They show some snapshots of Viiv capable products that will be soon available. If you need wireless connectivity, then the Logitech MX5000 Keyboard and Mouse may be to your liking. It’s based on Bluetooth technology, and received ByteSectors Editors Choice award, so definitely check out their review if it intrigues you.

Cases & Enclosures
• Cooler Master Centurion 540 mATX – Viper Lair
• NZXT Lexa – XYZ Computing

Cooling
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Cooler – Driver Heaven
• Thermaltake Hardcano 14 HDD-Cooling – Technic 3D

Memory & Storage
• 160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3 2.5″ Hard Drive – Big Bruin
• Corsair 2048 MB XMS 3500 LL Pro Series – 3D Xtreme
• Corsair Voyager 4GB USB Flash Drive – Think Computers
• Toshiba 512MB TransMemory – Rojak Pot

Motherboards & CPU’s
• ASUS A8R-MVP – Tech Report
• Intel Viiv Launch – UK Gamer

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Act-On Optical MicMouse and Ear Phone – A1-Electronics
• Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1 with Dolby Digital Live Sound Card – PC Perspective
• Logitech MX518/MX1000 – Phoronix
• Logitech MX 3100 Desktop – Design Technica
• Logitech Bluetooth MX5000 Laser Desktop – Byte Sector

Video Cards & Monitor
• ATI X1600XT – Motherboards.org
• LG Flatron M1910A – Trusted Reviews

Etcetera & Contests
• Abstraction Layers And Their Importance – ASE Labs
• An Interview With Wizard Workshop – UK Gamer
• Computer Power User (CPU) magazine giveaway – Case Mod God
• Oakley THUMP2 1GB MP3 Sunglasses – Bona Fide Reviews
• SLAX Standard v5.0.7 (Linux) – Phoronix

Power supplies are an important part of our PC and should never be overlooked. Antec is one of the top makers in the market, due to their stability and build quality. We are taking a look at their 500W Phantom and see how it stands up to a Dual Core system.

The Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus is one of the finest air
solutions we have EVER laid our eyes on, and it is certainly a prime
example of how a relative newcomer can shake the PC cooling industry
with fresh thinking. During our testing, when this video cooling
solution was maxed out on a GeForce 7800GTX, we had seen an incredible
12-21 Celsius drop in the core temperature! This product is definitely
worth looking into with its near universal support for both ATI and
NVIDIA products.

Check out the full review over at Phoronix.

In fact, I even managed to fit a simple H2O setup in the case with relative ease – single radiator only though. In some situations a tool-less card holder can have it’s advantages, but most of them just cause trouble when installing – the brackets and screws used in the PC-7 Plus just looked nice too.

Check out the review at Xtreme Computing.

The unit itself weights in at 310g, hardly light. It measures 149 x 42 x 123mm and has a built-in 2 watt speaker in the center. Yes, 2 watts. Don’t expect serious audio (or any bass for that matter) with this panel. Below the speaker are two buttons: one for controlling volume and one for switching colors. Pressing the volume button cycles through high, medium, and low presets. Pressing the other button cycles through each of the 7 colors (which backlight the dB gauges). Pressing it once more enables the auto cycling, which basically flashes each of the colors in succession at a rate of approximately one color every 2-3 seconds.

Head on over to Mikhailtech for the full review.

Ideazon make one product; the Zboard. It’s a gaming keyboard aimed at FPS players looking for the best way to interface their fingers to their PC. Zboard pioneered the remapped keyboard design, but how well does it actually perform?

Check out the full review over at XS Reviews.

From the Flash Voyager to COOL Water Cooling, Corsair has
proven time and time again that they are able to offer exceptionally
designed products just not when it comes to their system memory origins
but whatever they focus their attention upon. Under our microscope
today, we have the Secure Digital 133x series to see if the product
lives up to Corsair name we have all become to know and appreciate.

Check out the full review at Phoronix.

We would like to announce the closure of the ARP-Seagate Survey Contest and the commencement of the ARP-Scythe Survey Contest! Up for grabs are TEN Scythe SCKTN-1000 Katana CPU Coolers! Come and check it out now!

What are you waiting for? Jump over to RP for a chance at this great prize.

The Zalman ZM460-APS power supply is quite the unit. It can be a
difficult hunt finding the right power supply that offers quality power
output that won’t cost your system its stability. The Zalman provides this
and is able to do it quietly.

Check out the full review over at Overclockers Online.

If you are a modder you already know about AC Ryan, or you certainly should. AC Ryan is one of the leaders in modding supplies, with everything from Cold Cathode lights, fans, modding mesh, plastics and tons of great doohickeys that help make any mod just that much cooler. So it’s no surprise that they have just the right gadgets to make modding easier. Such is the case with the Backy. The concept is fairly simple and straight-forward, it’s been done before but not with so many flavors and combinations as AC Ryan provides. The item I am reviewing here is a back plate device that brings your molex power connector, 2 pin power connector and SATA power connector to the outside of your case so you can plug in your devices without having to crack the case to do so.

Check out the full review at Think Computers.

Zalman introduced the ZM460-APS power supply around 2 months ago as an ultra quiet 460W power supply supporting Intel and AMD based systems. We have gotten the opportunity to shed some light on this new powerful but noiseless power supply which meets the latest ATX power standards. Zalman has on top of their older already very silent power supplies improved their noise prevention system by using an auto controlled cooling fan. So without holding you all up let’s dig into the new Zalman ZM460-APS PSU.

Check out the full review at MVKTech.