Content and news by Rob Williams

It wasn’t long ago that we took our first look at the AOpen i915GMm-HFS which was the first Pentium M board based on the new 915GM chipset to arrive at TrustedReviews. The attraction of running a Pentium M in a desktop PC is that it offers much of the performance you need for everyday applications with the potential for a virtually noise free system. The downside is that only a limited number of chips are available and they tend to be on the expensive side.

Head over to Trusted Reviews for all the info.

Casegears is an unfamiliar name to all of us, they are introducing their first Tri-Fan series power supply in 400, 450 and 500 Watts. Modular, UV reactive sleeved cables, 20/24-pin main and blue LEDs; this 450 Watt power supply in Gun Metal Mirror finish will be priced competitively. Will it deliver?

Check out the full review over at Mad Shrimps!

The board supports all current AMD Socket 939 CPUs including the Sempron, Athlon 64, and Athlon FX. This board is also unique in that it supports the future Socket 940 M2 CPUs via a Future CPU expansion slot. In the future, you will be able to purchase an M2CPU expansion card to fit in the slot to use the M2 platform by simply setting a set of jumpers.

Check out the full review at Motherboards.org.

TITAN is proud to release a new notebook cooling pad — TTC-G3T, which is made in solid aluminum with a very fine black finish. We guarantee it’s the best quality at a price that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected!!

Has potential! I like the styling, so if it can only do a great job of cooling, it will be rockin. Read: Full Product Info

For a HTPC the idea of having a way to remote start the computer is a pretty good idea, it also gives you a way to monitor the temps as well as tweak fan speeds without making the PC look tacky or out of place. The inclusion of USB and Firewire also goes right along with the HTPC theme and provides an easy way to transfer files from digital cameras and recorders.

Head on over to Viper Lair for the full look.

The only unusual item on the bottom of the Sensor-X is a switch that allows you to switch this mouse from 650dpi to 1300dpi. The difference in dpi means you don’t have to choose a mouse based on the speed or precision you require for certain applications. You can now have one mouse and easily switch modes depending on your individual needs.

Check out the full review at Big Bruin!

After building an Intel test bench I knew it would be a task to find an everyday heatsink to keep the processor cool. Everybody knows that the Prescott chips produces its share of heat, and it is a job that requires a hefty heatsink. Shortly after talking to the people at Scythe, we received the SCNJ-1000 Ninja heatpipe cooler. The Ninja boast the ability to cool without the usage of a fan. Well we have the products to test this claim as well as the time. Also in comparison we do have a spare 120mm fan to add to the cooler, to see how well it performs against other coolers.

This is a great looking case that really doesn’t cost too much. Check out the full review at Pro-Clockers.

Call it a fad or a trend it really doesn’t matter. Having a USB flash drive is a necessaity for some people. Now that floppies are as ancient as a dinosaur and zip drives costing about ten dollars a piece and are just as instinct as floppies. People need a way to carry their more important files from pc to pc. And only being about two inches in length nothing is more suitable to carry around than a USB flash drive. OCZ being one of the top companies in memory making is set to take over the flash drive market with their new Rally drives.

Check out the full review of this killer fast drive at Pro-Clockers.

Quite often we enjoy trying out new and unique Linux
distributions not only to express our eternal love for open-source
software but more importantly to see how various distributions compare
to our personal favorites, and to see the progress Linux is making for
desktop usage. The latest of these distributions to hit our systems is
Puppy Linux; which recently experienced its v1.0.5 release. In addition
to the DotPup Downloader there is the new Wireless Access Gadget,
puppyPDF, and a wealth of other Puppy advancements. Today we’re sharing
our first looks at this lightweight distribution weighing in at a measly
53.4MB.

It’s not the best looking distro out there in my opinion, but how many have a cute puppy gracing the screen? Check out the screenshots at Phoronix.

The ECS KN1-SLI Extreme looks like a pretty sweet motherboard for anyone on a budget who wants good performance, and the all important option of running dual PCI Express x16 SLI-compatible videocards. Based on the nVidia nForce4 SLI chipset, the ECS KN1-SLI Extreme supports all the current flavours of Socket 939 AMD Athlon64/FX/X2 processors. Its four DDR DIMM slots can be installed with as much as 4GB of PC3200 DDR memory in a dual channel configuration. Onboard data connections consist of IEEE 1394a Firewire which hums away at 800Mbps, a 7.1-channel audio codec, Gigabit and 10/100 NICs, and an additional Serial ATA II/RAID controller. The two PCI Express x16 slots support 8 lanes of PCI Express each when the user is running videocards in Scalable Link Interface (SLI) mode.

Head on over to PC Stats for the full review!

This case has a very rugged look, a rubber handle which is excellent for LAN parties, steel construction that’s tough, & it has a tool-less design. There are 1×3.5″ & 5×5.25″ external drive bays & 4×3.5″ internal drive bays. They include one blue LED 120mm fan at the front & an optional 80/90/120mm fan can be installed at the back. Watch the Video to find out more…

Check out the full review at 3D Gameman.

Pfäffikon/ Hong Kong, 29.08.2005: Swiss cooling manufacturer ARCTIC COOLING launches
a new version of the NV Silencer 5. The 3rd Revision now includes an additional passive
memory cooling for the 7800 models. Thanks to the DHES (Direct Heat Exhaust System) the
award winning NV Silencer 5 continues to provide not only easy installation but excellent
cooling performance while still operating extremely quietly. The same technology enabled
ASUS EN7800GTX TOP Limited Edition to reach higher clock rates and become the fastest
graphic card on the planet. ARCTIC COOLING’s long-lasting ceramic bearing i.e. 6 years
warranty sets the standard.

You can check out more info about the cooler here. Rev. 2 will become obsolete and replaced by Rev. 3, since it is compatible with both the 6800 and 7800 series.

The Copperhead boasts some of the best specs of any mouse available. These include the 2000 DPI laser engine, 1000 Hz interpolling and a 16bit data path. This should provide absolute accuracy. It’s also is a gorgeous looking mouse, probably the best looking on the market to date.

Check out the full review over at Pure Overclock!

ABIT’s entry into the 955X race employs a “Drifting” theme for their box art. Can ABIT get back on track or are they destined for the pits? How well does ABIT’s AW8-MAX perform against the other Intel and AMD motherboard competitors?

Check out the full review at HardOCP.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – September 29, 2005 – AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that Futuremark has signed an agreement to license the AGEIA PhysX™ SDK for use in future products. The inclusion of AGEIA PhysX technology will add comprehensive physics benchmarking to Futuremark’s traditional battery of performance tests for 3D graphics, CPUs, memory and other component and system parameters.

Read Full Press Release

I wasn’t as impressed with the “look” of the motherboard as the color palette used for the various components isn’t to my taste. The jet-black PCB has potential but the DIMM, PCI/PCI-E, IDE, USB, IEEE Firewire, SATA, and on-board power connections coloring aren’t working for me. A more subtle use of colors combined with the jet-black PCB could have really made for a much cooler-looking motherboard.

Check out the full review at NVNews.

I’m beginning to sound like a broken record saying this, but the first impressions of the case were good. It was a tad (ok, very) heavy at 30+ lbs, but considering the size of the case as well as the fact that a 480W PSU was included, it is understandable. Just don’t be expecting to lug your computer around to any LAN parties anytime soon unless you want to get in shape.

Check out the full review at HardcoreWare.

Our benchmarking has shown that PowerColor’s X850 Pro can stand fast against a 6800GT, results swaying one way or the other depending on the graphics engine in use. Pricing of the two products is close, so deciding whether the PowerColor X850 Pro is worth the purchase must boil down to other considerations.

Head on over to Hexus for the review!

Today, I have another one of those products that I think is just cool! I was actually excited about getting it for review. It is the VPC-1000B-N MultiMedia Hub/FM Radio/Equalizer/SRS-WOW & 16x DVD Drive, yeah it’s a mouthful! It is made by a company called Asour; it was provided for review by and available from Geeks.com for $99 plus shipping. It is one of those products that is just cool, it does quite a few things as you can tell by its title, and has lots of features to discuss.

Check out the full review at Think Computers.

The Asus A8N-E motherboard comes with everything you need included in the box and is packed full of the features you want including lots of overclocking settings easy enough to all to use.

We are only left being able to recommend this Asus A8N-E AMD Athlon 64 socket 939 motherboard as an ideal motherboard for those you looking for a single PCI-Express graphics card motherboard for your 939-pin AMD Athlon 64 processor.

Check out the full review at A1 Electronics.