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The Future of Voice Communication
Can you see the vision? Johnny walking down the street with his new Skype[ish]-watch built with a tiny mic and speaker/headphone jack. He just bought Halo 6 and wants to tell his friend Billy all about it. So he dials up Billy and while he’s waiting to connect he hears a short ad for the soon to be released Xbox 720. Of course this ad was targeted due to his personal information stating him as a 17 year old male with an interest in electionics and video games. Once the ad is done he is connected to Billy on Billy’s tiny palm-sized Skype[ish] phone talking freely at will with high quality sound and perfect clarity.
Head over to Bona Fide Reviews for the full look.
Codegen Group Briza-97 Mid Tower ATX Case
The Codegen Group Briza-97 Mid Tower ATX Case isn’t one of the top of the line cases that we have looked at, but it does have alot going for it. At a mere $47.99, it offers a unique appearance, and interesting features like tool-less expansion slots, stylish carrying handles, LED cooling fans, and stealth optical drive covers.
This is a great looking case, I love the color scheme. Check it out at Big Bruin.
OCZ Rally 2GB Flash Drive Review
Over the past couple of months, we’ve heard numerous rumors
and reports of OCZ Technology venturing into other PC enthusiast areas
such as water cooling and flash memory. With this said, today we have
one of OCZ’s recently released flash drives. Shipping with the 512MB,
1GB, and 2GB ‘Rally’ flash drives is dual channel technology we’ve never
seen previously implemented into flash memory, and this technology does
indeed offer blazing fast read/write speeds.
Head on over to Phoronix for the full look at this killer thumb drive!
Plextor PX-740A Review
So where exactly do we sit with the Plextor PX-740A? The drive
certainly does amazingly well. The speed was a bit jittery but in the end
the Plextor PX-740A got the job done by meeting its specifications and
writing a perfect disc. While the Scan Disc did report the odd problem, it’s
nothing to be concerned about as our LiteOn Error Checks came back negative.
Even with “only” 2MB of buffer, Plextor is a brand you can associate with
coaster free burning. You can be assured that they won’t be cutting corners
on the quality of writing.
Check out the full review at Overclockers Online!
Thermaltake Swing VB6000
For several years Thermaltake has been making “cool” hardware for the enthusiast. This includes heatsinks, fans, cases and other cooling solutions. Today we take a look at the Thermaltake VB6000SWS, an affordable case for people who still want a good looking computer.
Check out the full look over at techPowerUp!
NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.7805
Our friends from NGO have released a new optimized NVIDIA driver! If you like using cool modified drivers, definitely give these ones a go here.
OCZ Technology Announces 2GB Dual Channel DDR PC-4000 Platinum EB with 3-3-2 timings
OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, is excited to announce the release of OCZ DDR PC-4000 Platinum Enhanced Bandwidth Edition 1GB modules and 2GB dual channel kits, a series designed to give PC enthusiasts and gamers the ultimate combination of density and speed. Unlike no other 2GB memory solution, this cutting-edge line operates with the extraordinarily fast latency timings of 3-3-2!
Wow, that’s some killer timings! Since it’s the Platinum series, it could likely even be pushed further than that!
Read: Full Press Release
ATI’s CrossFire Dual-Graphics solution
Some four months after first announcing its CrossFire technology, ATI is finally ready to bring multi-GPU Radeon rendering to the masses. Enthusiasts have been anxiously awaiting CrossFire arrival, in part because the particulars of the Radeon X800 series have forced ATI to take a somewhat novel approach to GPU teaming, employing “master” cards and an external composting engine to weave the output of two graphics cards together for a single display. We’ve also been eager to see how CrossFire will stack up against NVIDIA’s SLI technology, which the green team has diligently refined for nearly a year.
If you want to know just how well CrossFire will work, then you will want to check out this very in-depth review at Tech Report. Many popular games were used, and I was impressed with a lot of the results.
Day of Defeat: Source Preview
As the name suggests, the game is a remake of the classic Day of Defeat mod for Half Life, first released back in 2001. Like Counter-Strike: Source before it, DoD: Source promises classic team-based gameplay with vastly improved Direct X 9.0 graphics. Axis & Allied forces have been skilfully remodelled using high polygon characters. Maps have been rebuilt, replacing ugly, square scenery with curved archways, dense foliage and realistic particle effects.
Like many others, I have been waiting since last year for the release of this. Who knew, before the HL2 release that it was going to take this long to get released? Check out some of the screenshots for yourself, and you will see that this is going to be madly played just like CS: Source. Check out the full preview at Bit-Tech.
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler Review
The Tuniq Tower 120. This heatsink comes from a relatively unknown player in the cooling field, Sunbeam subsidiary Tuniq. Of course, we all know Sunbeam, which means the odds of this product, well, sucking are slim to none. Tuniq is headquartered in China, with a staff that has a decade or more experience in the industry as well as enthusiastic newcomers and designers.
They can only call it tower for a reason! Check out the full review at Think Computers.
SilverStone Zeus 650w PSU Review
As we always say and it is true, you don’t buy a power supply every day so you want to buy one that will supply your needs today and tomorrow. This SiverStone Zeus 650w ST65ZF will certainly do that for you and with the decent length of the leads and well equipped power leads it will suit any computer and has got to be a good buy.
This is somewhat of a basic looking PSU, but it packs a ton of power. Check out the full review at A1 Electronics.
Modding 101: Switches
What kind of switch to use is the first question you will ask, the
answer depends on how you want to be able to control it. Switches can be a
little intimidating if you do not know how they work. After reading this
guide I hope that you feel a bit more comfortable when choosing and working
with switches.
This is a very well thought out guide if you are needing to implement switches into your mod. Definitely check it out at CaseModGod!
OCZ Technology Gold Series 1GB PC3200 Dual Channel Memory
Three years later here we are with 1GB of their Gold DDR400 dual channel memory ready for interrogation. It is important to note that this is not the VX (Voltage eXtreme) version of memory, just the regular Gold DDR400 memory. However, while it’s not high voltage, it does come with some extremely tight 2-2-2-5 timings right out of the packaging.
As we have proven clear here before, OCZ memory is usually top notch. But how about memory for the average consumer, who may not be so much into OC’ing, but just wants regular speedy memory? Read the full review at Bona Fide Reviews to see how it performed.
Zalman Reserator 1 Plus Water Cooling System (for SLI) Review
Zalman is committed to creating a “user friendly†environment by reducing computer noise through their cooling products, and one of their latest offerings is definitely designed to do just that. The Zalman Reserator 1 Plus is a fanless water cooling system, and in this review we will be testing it on a very heat intensive SLI system. Let’s see how it fared.
This is incredibly unique. If you didn’t want to keep a WC setup inside your PC, then this is even more perfect. Check out how it made out over at Big Bruin.
HIS X700 IceQ 128MB GDDR3 AGP Video Card Review
This review is going to take a look at the X700 IceQ video card from HIS. If you built a system a not long ago (probably more than 12 months), there is a good chance that your video card is not aging very gracefully. There are a lot of reasons to consider a card like the X700 IceQ, but a main one is that cards like the ATI Radeon 9600 are having a lot of trouble with this generation’s games and they are in need replacement. If you want to do this without breaking the bank you are going to need a solid, mid-level AGP card in order to get the most out of a game like Half Life 2. This way your socket A, 478, or 754 computer can stay intact and you can cure your gaming woes.
This seems to be a great card for a budget, but I’m not too sure that it would be the 6600GT, which comes in at around the same price. Check out the full review at XYZ Computing.
AMD64 X2 5000+ specs reveiled?
Once again, from HKEPC, they have leaked the specs for the X2 5000+, which I didn’t know was in production. If all of this proves true, then this is going to be an extremely interesting chip.
It will be based on a 65nm process and have support for DDRII 667MHz! Of course, it will still be Socket M2 based, and will use the 8 * 333 base multipliers, for a 2.667GHz processor. All I can say is.. wow. This thing will be expensive! Check it out at HKEPC.
ATi Radeon X1800XL VS nVidia Geforce 7800GT
HKEPC has tested out the new ATI X1800XL against the ultra proven 7800GT. Now, the XL is usually considered to be more of a ‘budget’ card, when being compared to the XT and PE. Amazingly though, the X1800XL keeps right up behind the 7800GT, scoring only 200 points less in 3D Mark 05.
If that’s the case, then I suddenly have very high hopes for the X1800XT, because it may obliterate the 7800GT/GTX. You can check out all the results in this thread.
SLI Power Supply Roundup
Totaling close to 3000W (3KW), these five top quality power supplies from various manufacturers will battle it out on our overclocked nF4 SLI Intel Edition setup with a pair of GeForce 6800GT overclocked to Ultra, running in SLI mode. In the end of the review, we will find out if it is worth to spend extra cash for an NVIDIA SLI certified power supply or perhaps a non SLI certified power supply will just do fine.
This is quite the in-depth look at a couple great PSU’s. If you are in the market, check out the full look at PC Modding Malaysia.
Xingtone ringtone creator
Xingtone’s software allows you to load an audio file from your computer or CD, chop it up to get your favourite bit, edit it a little and then send it to your phone via the Internet. You’re not downloading something pre-made, you’re not composing your own music, you’re creating a tone from your own personal media library.
Check out the full look at Hexus.
Windows Vista to boot in 3 seconds?
A Windows Vista computer starts and shuts down as quickly and reliably as a television, typically within 2 to 3 seconds. Windows Vista processes login scripts and startup programs and services in the background so you can start working right away. You’ll also shut down and restart your computer less often by using the New Sleep state, a simple one-click on and off experience which not only reduces power consumption, but also delivers and protects user data.
I’m extremely skeptical about this one. I couldn’t imagine a top of the line computer at that time could pull it off.. but we shall see I guess. Check it out at Microsoft. Grabbed from Digg.com.
Edifier e2100 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System Review
Another impressive feature is the vinyl wrapped MDF (Medium Density
Fibreboard) subwoofer enclosure. Most of the systems in this price range use
particle board for their enclosures. Particle board is a cheaper solution, but
at the sake of sound colouring due to “ringing” or what is known as resonance,
MDF does not suffer from this. The front of the subwoofer face is simple yet
stylish with an orange LED power on indicator, and triangular control knobs.
In the 2.1 speaker market, it’s hard to look unique. There are so many outrageous designs, that it’s definitely a great spot for competition. These are cool looking, but not overdone. See how they sound over at Mod The Box.
iPOD Nano screen a piece of iCRAP?
“I don’t really care if the case on my Nano gets scratched but my screen has scratched up so badly that all the images are starting to become distorted,” Cason wrote, echoing the sentiment of many others in the discussion. “I have only carried it in my small pocket in my shorts and nothing is in there to scratch it. I still can’t figure how the screen looks like it has been rubbed with sandpaper when the entire time it has been safe in my pocket (with absolutely no items).”
That’s a sign of poor design. If this is really the case, then Apple would have had to known of this problem before release. Check out the posting over at News.com.
Transcend DDR2-533 TS64MLQ64V5J Review
Transcend designs their system memory modules to be simple and
aren’t engrossed by heatspreaders or any unconventional features but
simply remains on target for the normal PC hobbyist, however, will the
Elpida E5108AE-5C-E ICs be able to perform anywhere close to the
extravagant overclocking abilities we experienced previously by the
Elpida E5108AE-6E-E parts? We’ll find out today in this review and just
how well these DDR2-533 modules fair for normal computer usage.
That’s one easy name to spit out. Transcend may not be a name that immediately comes to mind when thinking about a memory purchase. Check out what Phoronix has to say.
MGE Vigor 500W Power Supply Review
Ah, power supplies, we all need them, we can’t live without them. Not so long ago I did a review on the Mge/Xgbox Magnum PSU, today I have another from the same company. It is the Vigor 500 Watt power supply. There comes a time when that stock PSU just won’t cut it anymore, but where do you go when you need a good power supply with a great warranty? Well MGE offers a Lifetime Warranty on their power supplies and other products. How’s that for confidence in your product?
This is a great looking PSU, that somewhat reminds me of the Ultra X-Finity. Check out the full review at Think Computers to see how it performs.
nVidia Geforce 6150 VS ATi Radeon Xpress 200G
nVidia has recently launched the K8 IGP Chipset – C51G and C51PV, they have integrated NV44 Graphic Core and Support DirectX 9.0c and SM3.0. We have got the C51PV and C51G samples from Albatron , AsRock and MSI to compare with ATi Xpress 200G
Check out the article at HKEPC.