Content and news by Rob Williams

Intel fans who look for SLI performance now have a new choice on their motherboard list. Abit’s NI8 SLI is a solid board that
performs well without any issues. Overclocking is probably the only department that needs help.

Head on over to InsaneTek for the full review.

Do you want a hard drive enclosure that not only lives up to your expectations, but looks classy at the same time? We are taking a look at the Thermaltake Max 4, which does just that… and well!

Fremont, CA (Wednesday, October 26, 2005) – Corsair® Memory, Inc., a worldwide leader in high performance memory and cooling products for enthusiasts and overclockers, today announces immediate availability of the XMS-4000PT 2GB kit. Adding to Corsair’s comprehensive line-up of 1GB modules and 2GB kits, the new XMS-4000PT kit is designed to deliver high memory density and excellent performance at affordable prices.

Expect our full review later this week. Check out the full press release here.

Complementing the release of the WINE v0.9 is CodeWeavers’
CrossOver Office v5.0 Standard and Professional. In addition to being
based upon this recent WINE release, CrossOver Office now supports the
running of Microsoft’s Office 2003 and the introduction of CrossOver
“Bottles” capabilities. Although in our initial tests we didn’t find
this v5.0 to be perfect, it’s much improved upon its previous version
and a demo of this software is always available via BitTorrent for a
full 30 day trial period. In this article we have a few snapshots of
this latest WINE (Wine Is Not An Emulator) advancement.

Check out the full pictorial at Phoronix.

Aspire has delivered a very attractive design, on the outside. Once you open the case up, you run into some old fashioned design concepts with some not so thought out solutions and positioning of fans and air-ducts. Although in my situation I have a specific motherboard that causes a position issue, there should be a plan in place for that, as DFI is not exactly a small motherboard supplier in the enthusiast market space.

Check out the full review over at Viper Lair.

One of the first high-end mouse pads to make a name for its was the glass Icemat. Though most expensive pads which come out are lately are metal, glass pads have been around for some time and have developed a core following. Glass has a few attributes which make it a very good mousing surface, if properly designed. This review is going to be taking a look at the Second Edition of the Icemat. I reviewed the Icemat Black just about two years ago and I have to admit, I still use it almost every day. Icemat has made a name for itself for producing very good looking mouse pads which offer solid performance and a long life.

Check it out at XYZ Computing.

When it comes to system memory, Crucial Technology is a name
that comes to mind for many enthusiasts. Unlike a majority of the other
system memory manufacturers, Crucial employs its own DRAM chips
manufactured by their parent company – Micron Technology. Not only does
Crucial utilize Micron chips on its memory modules but it also brings
fourth superior technical support and competitive prices. Up for testing
in this article is Crucial’s Ballistix DDR2-800 PC2-6400 2 x 512MB
memory modules.

Read the full review at Phoronix.

All in all, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT is a stunning graphics card. The package was impressive and the bundled games are pretty good. This 7800 GT comes factory overclocked and it runs pretty cool even at overclocked speeds. Considering that the performance of a single 7800 GT is better than a single 6800 Ultra, gamers would definitely enjoy better savings going the 7800 GT way because not only the 6800 Ultra is expensive, it also requires dual slot and probably eats up more power too. We really liked the design of the 7800 GT especially its silent single slot cooler and the added aluminium strut that can only be found on XFX 7800 GT graphics card.

Head on over to PC Modding Malaysia.

This product is a fantastic case to build a robust Home Theatre PC. A Standard or Micro ATX Motherboard can be installed, and installation of a standard PSU allows for a wide variety of affordable parts that fit. It’s very pleasing to the eye and well constructed. Included are two 80mm fans; however three additional fans can be installed for added air flow. Watch the Video to find out more…

Head on over to 3D Gameman for the full video review!

It pains me to say so but being a solid, dependable mainboard – even at a pretty excellent £90 including VAT – sometimes isn’t enough to make a recommendation. There are better Pentium 4 mainboards out there (and ECS sell some of them!) and currently Crossfire is fairly forgettable. Overclocking the PA1 was an exercise in frustration although it appears a coming BIOS might solve some of those problems. Stability was there to go with all the other upsides.

Check out the full review over at Hexus.

I don’t know where to start. These speakers are just amazing, the clarity this speaker set delivered was unmatched. Even the Logitech Z-680s could not compete with the Z-5500s. Both sets are incredibly loud and offer superior bass than anything I’ve owned before and yes, I’ve even owned Klipsch and Bose Speakers. The control over the surround effects was also impressive, turning my room into a venue many times bigger with a twist of the control knob on the Surround option.

Check out the full review over at 3D Xtreme.

Stuck with lost data on a USB memory key or Flash card and don’t know what to do? Recovering data from flash memory devices is possible, and not to complex, so follow along and we’ll help you get those pictures back! In this Beginners Guide, PCSTATS is going to look at how flash memory works, what can go wrong with it, and how to recover and protect your data in case the worst does happen.

Check out this extremely useful guide at PC Stats.

Thermaltake has been doing custom computer cases for years now. Over the years we have seen many different approaches to the common case from Thermaltake. From the extreme styled Xaser series cases, to the completely functional and stylish Armor case being reviewed today. Thermaltake has taken on a more subtle approach to case design, and I for one applaud the change.

Check out the full review at PimpRig.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve evaluated quite a number of socket 939 motherboards for AMD Athlon 64 processors. The vast majority of these motherboards were based on NVIDIA’s very popular nForce 3/4 chipsets, although a smattering were based on chipsets from SiS or VIA as well. In November of last year though, ATI also chimed in with a reference board based on their Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. In our initial coverage of that motherboard, we found it to be a worthy competitor to the nForce in the performance and overclocking departments, but thought the nForce 4 still had an edge in features and availability.

Check out the full review at Hot Hardware.

AMD have published a renewed processor list with which the processor manufacturer lowers the prices of a large number of processors. The largest lowering are the Turion 64 processors for ` thin and light’-notebooks. They have been reduced in price with 26%, the midrange models 16% and the lowered models 6% . The mobile Athlon 64-processors droppes which varies between 13 and 2% and the mobile Sempron-processors fall between 10 and the 0%.

Check out the full posting over at HardwareXL! I love price drops!

Sunnyvale, CA—October 25, 2005—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, is extremely excited to announce the PC-3200 and PC-3500 Gold GX series modules which will be the first two products to utilize the latest OCZ heatspreader design. The new, patent-pending XTC (Xtreme Thermal Convection) Heatspreaders allow increased ventilation and heat dissipation due to an innovative honeycomb design providing more direct access to the actual memory ICs.

Wow, these are great looking. I am seriously wondering how well this will help, but it’s a hopeful design. Read: Full Press Release.

Tertsi has released a new tuning program. Quak4 is a small tuning program for Quake 4 compatible with NVIDIA GeForce 7800, 6800 and 5900 series cards. With Quak4 it is possible to tune Quake 4’s vertex and fragment programs by e.g. enhancing image quality and performance.

Grab the download over at NGOHQ.

This is release 0.9 of Wine, a free implementation of Windows on Unix.
After 12 years of development, this release marks the beginning of the
beta testing phase. Everybody is encouraged to try it; while there
are still bugs, most applications are expected to at least install and
do something useful.

Woot, I’m trying this out shortly. If you are currently running an older version of Wine in your Linux install, grab the new version here.

I recently had the chance to spend some time with Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land (DS), Vicarious Visions’ handheld spinoff of Neversoft’s Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland (PS2, Xbox, GCN, X360). I was also able to chat for a bit with Vicarious Visions CEO Karthik Bala, who explained some of the considerations and decisions that went into developing the game for DS.

I am a massive THPS fan, but no handheld version has ever interested me. This one does have potential though, as it seems to follow the latest game very closely. Check out the full preview at ShackNews.

I’d like to know how many different types of amusement parks there are in the world. It’s not that I’m complaining, I’m just curious how many more viable ideas Frontier is going to come up with to expand RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. The parent product covered a lot of bases already with so many themes and rides and the first expansion brought in the world of water parks (which was a lot of fun) and now this latest expansion called Wild! adds in some gameplay that those who play Zoo Tycoon will be familiar with. This expansion, like the first, adds a bunch of new content and improves some of the older features as well creating an even more complete amusement park simulation.

Check out the full review over at IGN.