Content and news by Rob Williams

Overall, I would say that Advent Rising is worth a try. The only major complaint I have is the story, which I was expecting to be the best part. Advent Rising is the first in what is meant to be a trilogy of games. I can only hope that as time goes by GlyphX straightens out their story telling skills. I’m also aware that in a market flooded with sci-fi games it can be hard to be truly original in terms of art and architecture, but I do still feel more effort is needed. Much potential lies in this game/series. Pick it up if you’re interested, since it can be found for $28.88USD at the time of this review.

Head over to GamePyre for the full review!

This funny looking USB 2.0 hard drive from Seagate has a retractable USB cable, enclosed 5GB 1″ Hard drive and a very cool blue activity light. It is a step further than a USB stick, in that it offers a whopping 5GB of truly portable storage, on its speedy shock-tollerant hard disk. It also boasts plug-and-play connectivity and a hot-swappable interface, and is compatible with both PCs and Macs.

Check out the full at Cache-Community.

In my previous review of ProClip’s devices, I took a look at their car-specifc vehicle mounts, as well as several handheld-device-specific holders that attach to these mounts. The solutions are elegant and useful, and I urge you to read the original review. In this particular review, we’ll be looking at three more recently-released device specific holders: two upgraded iPod holders, and a holder (and charger) for a Palm Treo 650.

Head over to XYZ Computing for the full look.

Today we review test six PC CPU heatsink blocks to see which works the best out of the ones we have here. The efficiency of a water block is very important for no matter how powerful a pump or how many radiators you have in your computer heatsink system they will not compensate for having a water block that does not transfer the heat from your AMD or Intel processor efficiently. It makes a difference if one is designed for low flow and a lot of water passing through it.

Check out the full review over at A1 Electronics.

Over the past year or two computer users have been witnessing something very interesting- the maturation of the LCD monitor. In a short amount of time these products went from being overpriced and awkwardly designed to being the mainstay of the display industry and the forefront of technology. This review will be taking a look at ViewSonic’s VX924 display. This display has been making headlines for a number of reasons, the foremost being its impressive 3ms response time. When it comes to LCD displays ViewSonic has been doing well, but much of the focus has been on their competitors, like Samsung. The VX924 marks a major step in the right direction and one of the more interesting displays to come along in some time.

Check out the full review at XYZ Computing for the full review.

Razer has packed a lot of features into a mouse with great looks. From the on the fly DPI switching, to the onboard memory that stores user’s profiles right in the mouse, to the drivers that allow for extreme fine tuning of the mouse for a user’s personal preferences, you would be hard pressed to find a mouse that offers more to the hard core gamer.

Check out the full review at Big Bruin!

Overclocking both the 7800 GT and GTX is a little bit more complicated than usual. This is because there are three different clock speeds to deal with – the vertex, shader and ROP clocks and these are all controlled by the root clock. The root clock is the one you will be tweaking in overclocking tools such as ATI Tool or Riva Tuner. When you adjust the root clock, you actually adjust these three clocks.

Check out the full review over at Pure Overclock.

This little USB stick from Freecom, is the smallest digital TV tuner in the world available to computer users. Initally it looks just like any USB memory stick, but once you’ve plugged it into your computer, and connected the antenna, it is capable of displaying a massive choice of digital TV channels full-screen on your moniter at extremely high quality. This is great for home viewing, but even better when coupled with your laptop, as it means you can take the telly with you whaerever you go!

Check out the full review at Cache-Community.

What can I say, this is some serious RAM, you can find it online for less than $100 for a 1GB kit. With some mild tweaking you got from some decent priced PC 4200 value RAM to some REALLY decent priced PC5400. Every once in a while a product comes along that gives you WAY more bang for the buck than you expect, like the ti series NVIDIA cards, the JIUHB XP 1700 and the ABIT NF7-s motherboard. You mention any of those products to an enthusiast and it brings a smile to their faces.

Check out the full review over at Viper Lair.

The kind of games vary from 2D roll and scroll things to fantastic cinematic FPS and RPGs. We can play them by ourselves, with friends in the same room, with friends on a LAN, or with friends and strangers in the either-net.

And everyone plays. It’s not just pasty faced fat boys in cut offs, it’s old guys like me, young girls like my daughter, lawyers, pilots, moms, bakers, and train engineers – literally every category, sex, and age you can think of.

Head on over to Hexus for the full article.

I was a little disapointed by the Video MP3 400. While it’s a decent enough mp3 player and radio, and I do like the color display, it’s just too bloody small for videos, pictures or text. It’s got a nice novelty factor, but I really don’t see anyone getting much use out of the video function. Also, I wasn’t really happy with it needing a USB cord, or with the cheap plastic construction. The control scheme isn’t very intuitive, either.

Check out the full review at Got Apex.

As we look back at past America‭’‬s Army releases,‭ ‬we find
most of them to be very diminutive in their changes; generally adding a
map or two,‭ ‬fixing numerous bugs,‭ ‬and‭ ‬a number of miscellaneous
improvements.‭ ‬However,‭ ‬the latest America‭’‬s Army‭ ‬release,‭
Direct Action (‬2.5‭)‬,‭ ‬is quite substantial with its alterations.‭
‬Some of the many upgrades include the addition of two new Special
Forces maps – SF Extraction and SF Dockside, Shoot House (MOUT
Training), tournament mode enhancements, and several game-play
enhancements.‭ For Linux and Macintosh users, this upgrade is even more
significant with four new SF maps, two new weapons, and an updated game
engine (Unreal Engine 2.5) due to the lack of a Q-Course (2.4) build.
‬Will America‭’‬s Army:‭ Special Forces Direct Action (‬2.5‭) ‬reflect
the game-play of what we‭’‬ll be seeing in‭ ‬America‭’‬s Army:‭
Stryker-Overmatch, which will utilize the Unreal Engine‭ ‬3‭ ‬and will
sport other state-of-the-art features‭

Check out the full pictorial at Phoronix.

Corsairs back, and they have delivered the fastest memory we have ever tested! Clocked at DDR500 speeds and 3-4-4-8 timings, it’s quite fast on it’s own. Add on the large amount of overclocking headroom, and these modules have serious potential.

Over the years, we’ve reviewed and tested countless power
supplies. Sometimes it becomes a chore, as most power supplies don’t
bring much of anything new to the table. However, to mark our 300th
article here at Phoronix, we have something a little more special.
Enermax has provided us with their newly announced Liberty series power
supply. Interested? We certainly were. Read more inside.

Head on over to Phoronix for the full review!

Well, today we have something new and rather exciting, at least for me anyway, from our friends at Computers Geeks (www.geeks.com). I say it is exciting for me because I have never had a Micro ATX motherboard before. I never realized just how small a Micro ATX motherboard is really, they are very small, it’s amazing all the features they can pack into such a small package. Obviously it is a Micro ATX mobo, but it features a Mobile Athlon XP 2600+ Barton core processor as well. The price from Geeks is $94.99, a VERY nice price. I went and checked prices for the Mobile Xp 2600+ and found that the cheapest I could find was $89.00, when you factor in a Biostar Micro ATX motherboard, this is one great deal, the cheapest I found the Biostar M7VIG for was $46.99, by buying the combo from Geeks you save almost $50, and get a great motherboard and an awesome CPU.

Head on over to Think Computers for the full look!

Not many people know that A4 Tech is the first company world wide to come up with a wireless optical mouse that does not require batteries. That alone is a pretty cool trick, but what is even cooler is the method they use to pull this off. It is done with RFID, you know these things that people are all concerned about for fear that the Government will be able to track you wherever you go. I am not worried about that I just want it to remember where my mouse is. So come check out the review to learn more about this subject.

Check out the full review at Hi-Tech Reviews.

This item has a fast memory timing of 3-3-2-8. Because of this, it performs very well, & is also overclockable for added performance. This kit is 2GB’s in size which is fantastic for the latest games. For those who need stable, reliable, & fast memory, this product will not disappoint. And like all OCZ memory, it comes with a lifetime warranty! Watch the Video to find out more…

Check out the full review at 3D Gameman.

EVGA really goes all-out in support of their video cards and that is a good thing for all users. Featuring Lifetime Warranties that actually last, a Step-Up program that’s unique in the industry, 24-7 Toll-Free Technical Support, these are trademarks of a company that cares about its customers. For those reasons, I can easily recommend an EVGA video card. The 7800GT CO adds a factory overclocked core and a copper heatsink to the feature list to further enhance the cards quality.

Check out the full review at GamePyre.

At this point, I was already pretty impressed with the Copperhead, but the real shock came when I switched back to my old Logitech mouse. One word: WOW. Never before had I realized that my mouse was sooo freaking slow! The pointer was practically crawling across the screen; I wanted to reach in and drag it myself.

Head over to OCIA for the full look!

Being one of the heaviest CPU coolers tested here, the Blue Orb II is unlike anything we have seen. Thermaltake made the Blue Orb II stand out from the crowd by adding blue LED fans to the cooler to match it with the blue aluminium fins on the heatsink. Although the heatsink was made of copper core and aluminium fins, the performance was slightly better than the full copper heatsink we compared it against. It runs pretty silent at 1700RPM and performs as advertised.

If you are not a huge overclocker, but want great looking cooling in your system, check out the full review over at PC Modding Malaysia.