Content and news by Rob Williams

The bays come with rubber grommets already installed. Using the provided thumbscrews gives a quick and tool-less hard drive installation. Installing hard-drives after the motherboard is a good idea, as they stick out into the motherboards general area. However, the bays are easily removed if they are getting in the way.

Head over to Xtreme Computing for the full review!

If you are any of those then this kit is awesome. The tight timings and overclocking headroom make this kit an excellent choice. Having 2GB of ram gives you some nice options when it comes to system performance and usability. You can totally eliminate any virtual memory in the system, and you also have the ability to make a good sized high speed ram drive. Try running an app out of a ram drive and you will never want to use your hard drive again.

Check out the review at Viper Lair.

Allthough outside of Europe Club-3D might not be such a big name, but here in europe they are really getting to be noticed bigtime. Today i have been givin the chance to see what the Club-3D ATI X850XT is capable off and to test it with a ATI Silencer 4 from Artic Cooling. Both stock cooler and the Silencer take up two slots so which of them will perform better?

Check out the full review over at Hardware XL.

To start with, the PQI mPack P800 supports a pleasingly large array of formats. For video, MPEG 1,2 and 4 (and DivX) are covered, along with XviD, WMV and ASF. An equally wide range of audio formats including OGG, AC3, AAC, WMA and WAV files are supported in addition to the traditional MP3. To top it off, the mPack P800 even supports a range of picture formats beyond the expected JPEGs. GIF and BMP pics can be viewed, and even RAW images, something that should make photography enthusiasts smile.

Check out the full review over at PC Stats.

Since Windows XP Pro 64-Bit was released, there has been a lot of speculation of whether it would help current gaming or anything else in general. I put both versions of the OS through a round of benchmarks to see if the 64-Bit does indeed offer any advantage.

Sound is something really nice on this mainboard, Integrated High-Definition sound. Intel designed this to integrate quality sound in Intel desktop platforms to meet the demands required of a modern PC in the home and office or even your HTPC (Home Theater PC). The previous AC’97 solution was capable of delivering a maximum of Six Channels of Audio at 48KHz/20-bit Audio quality, the Intel HD specification manages 8 channels at 192KHz 32-bit. With this solution Intel can support all modern Dolby formats like Dolby Digital EX and even DTS ES. Even better is the wide array of connectivity for sound, there even are optical SPDIF in and outputs available. Fantastic, especially when you are using this in a HTPC environment.

Check out the full review at Guru 3D.

Ok so it has taken a while (almost 2 years), but eventually “a certain company” has decided they don”t like what I”m doing (circumventing their protection) and have come at me like a pack of wolves. I”ve no choice but to cease everything to do with DVD Decrypter.I realise this is going to be one of those “that sucks – fight them!” kinda things, but at the end of the day, it”s my life and I”m not about to throw it all away (before it has even really started) attempting to fight a battle I can”t possibly win.

Well, that sucks. No idea which company forced the shutdown, but they are a bunch of idiots, no doubt. I personally used this program for my own use, and it certainly has it’s legitamite purposes. Check out the full posting over at CD Freaks.

Rambus has sued one of its largest proponents, Samsung Electronics, for several counts of patent infringement. The contents of the suits echo those Rambus filed in the late 1990s: in one suit, Rambus named Samsung as allegedly infringing on 11 patents involving SDRAM and DDR memory.

A separate suit alleged that Samsung had also infringed on 14 patents Rambus held in GDDR2 and GDDR3 memory, specifically used in graphics, as well as the more generic DDR-2 memory type. Both suits were filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Read more at Extremenano.

As the old saying goes, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”. This holds true when we think about AGP graphics cards. While PCI-Express has certainly gained a lot of ground, AGP is not ready to die just yet. Virtually any video card manufacturer you look at is still offering AGP based graphics solutions, even in the high-end sector. Surely, the day PCI-Express completely eclipses AGP isn’t too far off, as the bandwidth and power benefits of PCI-Express are very real. Nonetheless, new AGP offerings continue to hit store shelves.

Check out the in-depth look at the card, with many benchmarks, over at Hot Hardware.

MARKHAM, Ontario, Jun 06, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) — ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY)(NASDAQ:ATYT), the industry leader in notebook PC graphics, is raising the bar for the mobile enthusiast with the introduction of Mobilityâ„¢ Radeon® X800 XT. Delivering lightning-fast, ultra-high graphics performance, the Mobility Radeon X800 XT features 16 pixel pipelines-an industry first in notebook graphics. Designed for high-end desktop replacement notebooks and today’s most visually intensive games, the Mobility Radeon X800 XT unleashes the ultimate notebook gaming experience.

Mobility Radeon X800 XT will be available from world-leading designers of enthusiast gaming PCs including Alienware, Rock, Eurocom, VoodooPC, HyperSonic, Pro-Star, Velocity Micro and Sager.

It looks like the Dell XPS Notebook with the 6800U will soon have a competitor. It only makes sense that ATI would join the mobile gamers fray, but I’m surprised it took them this long to announce it. Check out the full press release here.

Yes, its yet another memory maker trying to enter the low-latency stream. A few years ago, there were quite a few memory makers, but since the introduction of low-latency TCCDs from Samsung, the market seems to have exploded with these wonders from practically every memory maker in the market. Either the profit margins are ridiculously high on memory these days that even a small percentage accounts for serious revenue or memory makers simply think of Samsung’s TCCDs as a gift of appreciation. If you think about it, ever since the tier one-memory manufacturers came out with PC3200 low-latency versions, everyone seems to be entering the market rather rapidly. The memory market has literally exploded with low-latency modules from quite a few companies.

Check out the full review at Cool Tech Zone.

Flash memory has seen an explosion in popularity over the past few years with digital cameras now common place in the mainstream, PDAs, and MP3 players which more than likely don’t all use the same type of media. Not only that but having to attach your digital camera every time you wish to take pictures off can be a pain and one sees where having a multi-purpose reader can come in handy. Crucial have been strong in the memory game for sometime now and have their own solutions for flash memory with their 12-in-1 USB multi slot reader and Crucial SD memory as well as Mini-SD adapter. Today we look at how those stack up.

Head over to AMD Zone for the full review.

DVD Burners have had a long way growing towards maturity, and after reviewing these three heavy hitters, I would say the technology has almost been perfected. This time around we bring you last generation units from LG, Plextor and NEC. Not only these will support both kinds of media and burn them at 16x speeds, but also support dual layer media, which means you can store ~8 gigabytes of information in one disk, these hot tamales do it all!

If you are looking for a new DVD+RW, check out the full comparison over at Tech Spot first.

Fatal1ty is one of the most successful professional gamers in the world. ABIT hired him to give his name and a few design ideas to the new boards.

Here is a quote from ABIT’s website: “Engineered by ABIT. Game-tested and approved by Fatal1ty. The Fatal1ty AA8XE motherboard represents the culmination of ABIT Engineering with the gaming prowess and experience of the world’s number one professional gamer, Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel. The result of this collaboration is a gaming platform with no equal, specifically engineered for the gamer that demands nothing less than the very best.”

Head over to Tech PowerUp to read more on this packed board.

Ok, so now it’s time to get the graphics out of the way. And, I have to say that they are pretty impressive. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a game that actually allows you to see how much time and effort was put into designing it. Since this is Comment (0) -->

It’s been a long time since Turbine’s Asheron’s Call franchise got started. Building on the success of the original Asheron’s Call, their second game in the series, Asheron’s Call 2: Fallen Kings, was a wonderful game for its time. Trying to draw new players into the world of Asheron’s Call, Turbine has Comment (0) -->

The choice of 500 watts of power provides a PSU with just the right amount of power for all virtually all todays requirements of modern computers from the office to home desktop use. And with you only needing to plug in the power leads you actually need you do not have to find a home somewhere inside your computer case for the ones you do not use. We all know what that is like.

You autotmatically have to appreciate PSU’s that use the cable connect system. It just makes sense! Check out the full review at A1 Electronics.

TITAN isn’t always fast with product releases but when they do have something new, it’s always pretty promising. Continuing the line of girls, the external watercooling kit named Bianca is released.

Check out the full review of this kit, over at Insane Tek.

Built upon years of experience, will OCZ’s Titanium series continue in the same success shared by the Gold and Platinum performance memory modules? In this review, we’ll be trying out the OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel Titanium system memory. This memory runs at 2-3-2-5 while conforming to PC-3200 DDR speeds and featuring Enhanced Latency Technology and an OCZ PowerSwap warranty. Will this be the new ideal RAM for gamers and enthusiasts alike?

You can head over to Phoronix for the full review.

This product screams unique looks, has countless features, & swappable media storage. The innovative media storage area is fantastic, offering quick access to blank media or a game play disk. Also, there are plenty of drive bays; 4×5.25″, 2×3.5″ (Ext.), & 5×3.5″ (Int.). For convenience, ports (2xUSB 2, 1xFirewire, Mic, & Headphone) are located at the front of the case. It even has two 120mm fans for excellent case ventilation. Watch the Video to find out more…

Check out the full video review over at 3D Gameman.