"It's hard to believe you can buy a 13.6-megapixel point-and-shoot digicam for under $349 USD from a top brand-not simply a piece of junk from some godforsaken outfit working in the farthest depths of this globalized world. Think 13 or 14MP is a lot? There's no end to the megapixel race as camera makers constantly try to outdo one another day-by-day. We've heard 14-plus megapixel compacts are due in September and we even expect 25MP D-SLRs to be introduced at the Photokina 2008 trade show around that time. Pretty amazing stuff. Now the question for buyers is pretty simple-is this total overkill and is an 8MP point-and-shoot like $249 USD Canon SD1100 IS really all you need? Or is a camera like the Sony DSC-W300 just your cup of pixels?"

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"This time we will show you a graphics card that has evolved to be something more than its forefathers. Sure, the pixel pushing ability is still there and benchmarks will show that clearly but what more can a graphics card do? Up till now, nothing much but this is about to change..."

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"AMD's new Radeon HD 4870 is the first graphics card to feature GDDR5 memory. GDDR5 offers twice the memory bandwidth over previous GDDR generations which helps the HD 4870 gain a nice performance advantage over the HD 4850."

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"Today we are looking at a headset for the iPhone called the Maximo iP-HS1 iMetal Stereo Headset. The headset has a built-in mic for making and receiving calls and a soft touch button that allows you to answer and hang up calls as well. Sound quality from the Maximo iP-HS1 iMetal Stereo Headset is good with nice deep bass and crisp highs and mids. The headset works well for calls with clear and legible speech on both sides of the conversation. The mic does pick up a bit of extraneous room sounds, but not so much to be a real issue."

More information can be found here.

"Super Micro, are you familiar with them? Chances are that unless your focus is on the workstation and server markets, you probably haven't heard of them. However, this company has been around since 1993 and they have been producing a variety of different motherboards, servers, computer enclosures, and other products to fit the needs of their customers. Super Micro manufacturers a variety of different Intel server motherboards -- and they are one of the few that offers quad-socket Xeon motherboards -- but they also have a growing selection of Core 2 desktop motherboards. The C2SBX+ is one of their newest motherboards and with our first Super Micro review at Phoronix we are looking at this product. This Intel X48 motherboard is designed for digital entertainment, gaming enthusiasts, and other high-end applications."

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"Well, here we are at the end of June! We're half-way through the year, in the start of a gorgeous summer (or maybe winter for those of you south of the equator), and we're celebrating the first birthday of our Mod of the Month competition! One year ago, we rolled out the first of our monthly awards, won by none other than a fishtank with a computer. Since that point in time, we've seen all manner of beasts and builds, from top-spec watercooled SLI rigs to slim and trim HTPCs. Scratch case builds, full-on mods and everything in between have graced these pages as 55 of the best from our forums vied for prizes and recognition. This month, we're celebrating the anniversary by going back to the old school - June's Mod of the Month contains absolutely no scratch builds. Don't worry, all you talented creators - we'll go back to pick up a couple of you for July. But this one is all about the art of the old-fashioned //mod."

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"Still, despite all these minor flaws and control issues, Civilization Revolution is still pretty good and Firaxis has done well to carry over the same addictiveness and educating mechanics as the previous games. There are issues, but there's also a lot to like in //Civilization Revolution and even though a lot of the depth has been trimmed out, there's still a lot left in in terms of negotiations and deciding what to build next. There's also a lot to like in terms of the different scenarios and modes -- though there's only support for up to four players, which is limiting. The game is boiled down, streamlined and basic -- but that isn't all bad and one could easily level accusations of needless depth and bloatiness at the original games. To have a lighter option is no bad thing and the developers have done well to adapt the game to a console audience, though there are some obvious failings and concessions that have been made. The game could have been made better in some fairly fundamental ways - we'd have loved to see some of the more varied campaign scenarios and the like from //Beyond The Sword, the add-on for the last proper //Civilization game. Some expanded multiplayer support and better controls would go down a treat as well. Still, //Civilization is a strong brand and an awesome series of games, so these failures don't really have that big an effect on the overall outcome. As good as the PC forefathers? Definitely not, but still better than the nearest competitor on a console."

More information can be found here.

"With the Xaser VI, Thermaltake has an aluminum full-tower chassis that will rival the best in it's class. The innovative tool-free features are well executed and make working in this Xaser a real pleasure. Arguably the best feature is the sliding motherboard tray. Or maybe the hard drive mounting solution. What about the densely populated front panel I/O plate? Or the outstanding cooling design? There's a lot of stuff here to like, and I like the vast majority of it."

More information can be found here.

"We have seen many newcomers to the computer cooling industry; and lately, many of these newcomers have been making a name for themselves, like Noctua and Zerotherm. These companies are now competing against well-established manufacturers like ThermalRight and Zalman, and today, we will be reviewing another heatsink and fan from SilenX - even another manufacturer that is quickly becoming a big player in the PC cooling industry."

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"For this review I will be taking a look at one of the new motherboards Abit are offering, the AX78 Phenom compatible motherboard, which I think is fair to say is aimed more towards the budget end of the market.."

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"Benchmark Reviews has tested several different monitors over the past year, and even though they all offer nearly the same features there still seems to be a high premium paid for some names. Not SOYO. Last year we reviewed the 24-Inch DYLM24D6, which was an extremely popular widescreen monitor that could be purchased for less than $300. That was over a year ago, and so as you can imagine prices have come down a but since then. Today we get to offer another excellent value: SOYO 26-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor MT-NI-DYLM26E6. Presently this monitor is available for only $379.99, which is an unbelievable price for any 26" widescreen LCD that can produce 1920x1200 WUXGA resolution."

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"If your head is swirling with all the options for budget notebooks, here are our favorites for under $500."

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"The first development snapshot for the forthcoming release of Ubuntu 8.10 (codenamed Intrepid Ibex) is coming out two weeks late -- likely due to Canonical's focus on getting the Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS update out next week -- but what matters is that it's finally here. Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1 is far from meeting the quality standards for end-users (there isn't even a desktop LiveCD spin of this release), but that didn't stop us from playing with this latest build from the Canonical camp. In this article we are looking at the few changes in the Intrepid Alpha 1 release for Ubuntu and Kubuntu as well as looking at some of the changes they have planned before this release goes gold in October."

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"Yuin's PK1 earbuds were all the rage when they first hit the market quite a while ago. Since then Yuin has further upped the stakes by introducing the new and improved OK-series earphones. Today we take a look at the PK1s to see if the former earbud champion can still compete in today's market."

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"The graphics on the Qismio x305 will be powered by the yet to be announced NVIDIAGeForce 9800M GTX graphics card, which has 1GB of video memory. For those that still want to game, but save some hard earned dollars we overheard that consumers can customize the notebook with the less expensive GeForce 9700M GT graphics card rather than the GeForce 9800M GTX. NVIDIA hasn't said much about this un-released graphics card, but they did have the Toshiba Qosmio x305 notebook on display at a Microsoft Corporation event this week called the Games for Windows Presents: The Big Picture..."

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"The Asus 9600 GT TOP edition is obviously not the fastest card in NVIDIA’s line up but that is not the goal here. As of this writing, the Asus 9600 GT is selling for $129 after a $20 Mail-in-rebate, which is an astounding value! You get a card with a great cooling, low-noise heat sink, and an overclocked card for the same price as a reference model. Though the performance differences weren’t that large compared to the reference card the heat sink easily makes this card the, forgive the pun, TOPS in its class..."

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"Despite the Kingston HyperX 2GB DDR3-1600 dual channel memory kit having fairly loose timings (9-9-9-37), it manages to keep pace with other kits rated much more aggressively (7-7-7-18). The performance at 1600MHz and higher was just fine, the only issue I had was that getting there was not as easy as with other kits. Of the five kits used in this review, the one from Kingston was the only one to lack an XMP profile in SPD."

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"How many times do you get than you bargained for? Sure, when you're taking a risk you can end up worse of then you started. But we're talking about the other end of the spectrum. When was the last time you went shopping for something only to realize it was on sale or it was a two-for-one day? It's times like these that you really feel like you got your money's worth. In the world of computing these feelings occur even less often. Not because of lack of deals or overpriced equipment but rather the pace of innovation. What is a good deal today will be next to nothing in a few months making the decision of when to buy a daunting one."

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"A lot of people have been building their own home servers based upon Ubuntu, a user friendly Linux distribution. The brave souls among them even tweaked some bits on their completed builds. Now, it's time to take it a step further./ / In this next article we'll be adding a bit of functionality to our server, transforming it into a router with an integrated firewall. But of course you can also build a entirely new box for it, like I did. I used a minimal Debian install so I could start with a fresh system. Due to the complex nature of iptables, the package that controls all the routing and filtering goodness, it will be required to have some basic knowledge about all the CLI capabilities on offer in Linux. Because all the iptables rules and settings will be entered through commands, a BASH script will be used to define the configuration. Aren't you glad we covered all of that previously?"

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"Alone in the Dark is a game we really loathe to not like, but at the end of the day we do have to admit that we don't like it and that the game isn't really all that great. It's a real shame because we can tell that //Alone in the Dark is actually a real good game underneath. The story in compelling, the presentation is gripping and the gameplay itself mixes a load of styles together to make a final product that is unique and interesting. Unfortunately, all of that potential is lost underneath a sea of problems on the PC version. The controls are unwieldy and awful, the graphics regularly freak out and break, the game can't decide what it is or how it wants you to play it and the balancing has got more holes in than the Incredible Hulk's underwear. Instant-deaths and poor control schemes are really only the tip of the iceberg, but they do reveal the real problem beneath the ocean of minor gripes. Fixed camera angles and checkpoint saves? This is a console game, ported poorly to the PC and left to fester. On a console, we can see this game making a lot more sense and having a lot more accessibility. This game was built from the ground up to be played with analogue sticks and that's clearly evidenced by the many mini-games and woeful handling. On the PC though, the game is part oil, part water -- and that mix just doesn't work. We want to like it, we really do -- especially since we had to go out and buy it -- but the reality is that although the game may be good on a console, on the PC the experience is more infuriating than fun and is suited only to the survival horror hardcore. You know who you are."

More information can be found here.

"If you are looking for a faster and easier way to get files to and from your microSDHC MP3 player or smartphone SanDisk has what you need. Today we are looking at the Mobile Ultra microSDHC card that includes a USB card reader. The SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC 8GB did fantastically on the Sandra Removable storage benchmark. The SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC 8GB had a device index of 4124 ops/minute and an endurance factor of 43.60. That score completely blows away the OCZ microSD card I reviewed back in March that had a device index of only 27 ops/minute."

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"Most people would think that when NVIDIA, who is the world-class leader in graphics technology, releases a new driver to the public that performance would either remain the same with some stability improvements, or that both performance and stability would increase. As a hardware enthusiast for over a decade, I know that this isn't true. Very recently NVIDIA updated their Forceware driver from version 175.16 to 175.19. Anyone familiar with their updates would agree that the version number difference is so small that it would suggest nothing has really changed. But did NVIDIA take two steps backward instead? Benchmark Reviews offers this small article to demonstrate what we discovered while testing the GeForce 9800 GTX and 9800 GX2 video cards."

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"If you look up Nuvi in the dictionary, you won't find anything, and on a traditional US keyboard, it's hard to even type N ü (hold down alt, then on your numeric keypad type 0252) v i. Go ahead, give it a shot. But if you go into any major retail store that offers GPS units you will definitely find Garmin Nüvi GPS units all over the place competing as one of the best in car, on the trail or in the airplane navigation system solutions money can buy. Today we are looking at their 680 model which features Bluetooth connectivity and MSN Direct which provides real-time traffic data, movie time and more. The Garmin Nüvi 680 has a street price around $399 USD. Check out our full review after the jump."

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"Eighteen months ago when nVidia's GeForce 8800 GTX was king of the hill, a multi-GPU setup was either ostentatious and reserved only for the most die hard gamer if you were using a high-end card, or downright silly if you were pairing up midrange and lower. NVIDIA's SLi initiative, started back with the GeForce 6 series, was basically a kludge designed to wring that last ounce of performance out of the cards of the era for the deep-pocketed enthusiasts. ATI's CrossFire, when it debuted up until the release of the Radeon X1950 Pro, was an embarassment, offering poorer performance and compatibility than NVIDIA's solution."

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"Last week we exclusively shared the steps AMD was taking to make an evolutionary leap in Linux support with same-day support for their brand-new Radeon HD 4800 series, Linux drivers shipping on the product CD, some manufacturers showcasing Tux on the product packaging, and their proprietary Linux driver reaching a feature parity with their Windows driver. We had also shared that the Radeon HD 4850 works with open-source xf86-video-ati driver since day one. Now that we have had time to complete testing of the Radeon HD 4850, today we are sharing the first Linux results from this brand-new ATI graphics processor. Before you think the Windows and Linux performance is equal for the Radeon HD 4800 series, this isn't the case, at least not yet."

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"The NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi is an amazing screen that not only fits the bill for professionals, but will also appeal to those of us that want stunning image quality, a whole host of features and acres of desktop real estate. Of course, the price will undoubtedly put a lot of people off this screen, but I tell you, if I had £1,500 burning a hole in my pocket I know where I'd be spending it. Yes, it's expensive, but then so is a Ferrari F430 Scuderia -- it's all about getting what you pay for. And what you get for your money here is one of the best LCDs I've ever had on my desk. Going back to my Samsung SyncMaster 215TW---even though it's incredible---will be very hard indeed. There's nothing that will replace the sheer size of this display combined with the simply stunning image quality. I'm going to be a very sad man indeed."

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"Despite the impressive gaming performance advantages of these cards over the lower clocked cards we've compared them to, and the simply fantastic cooling abilities of the ThermoIntelligence coolers, where both these cards will really be judged is on their price. This is becoming the case more and more often in the increasingly competitive and cut-throat world of mid-range graphics. At the time of review, BFG Tech was quoting us street prices of around $194.99 (around £115 inc. VAT) for the 9600 GT OCX and $184.99 (around £110 inc. VAT) for the 8800 GT OCX. While we haven't been given official UK pricing yet, we're expecting these cards to be priced in a similar range to the new Radeon HD 4800 series which, as I'm sure you'd like to know, offer significantly better performance for just a few quid more (as we'll see in Tim's upcoming article). In light of Nvidia's decision to move the GeForce 9800 GTX's price down to $199 (or £125-140 inc. VAT in real money) in order to remain relatively competitive with the Radeon HD 4850, we're expecting the price of these cards to drop faster than a stripper's thong. However, there is no official word on when, or by how much the price of these cards will drop. And without a reasonable price drop, it becomes very difficult to recommend either card on a value basis. Despite being superior performers when compared to cards using the same graphics core, and having phenomenal cooling ability, both cards are victims of the changing tides in The Sea of Grey. The mid-range graphics market can change enormously with the introduction of a new GPU or card series, and until the market calms down, and the 8800 GT OCX and 9600 GT OCX drop in price, we simply cannot strongly recommended them, despite their impressive gaming and thermal performance."

More information can be found here.

"As we all know, processors are getting faster and as a by-product produce far more heat than they have in years past. Many of us remember the days when there was simply a small heatsink on top of a processor with no fan at all. As speeds and temperatures have increased however, so has the size(and number) of the cooling products available. Today we will have a look at the Zen FZ120 from Zerotherm. Designed to compete with several of the other large heatsink/fan combinations that are currently available at an extremely affordable price,the Zerotherm is available for a paltry $39.99 + shipping."

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"Today we are looking at the SoundCast OutCast speaker system that wirelessly streams music from your iPod or other source to a large speaker that is battery powered. The speaker itself is weather-proof and can be used outdoors without fear of splashes. If you aren’t a fan of the iPod or a pal wants to listen to their tunes on another MP3 player an auxiliary jack allows direct connection of other PMPs. However, you will have to use the player’s controls for skipping tracks and other functions since the onboard controls of the SoundCast OutCast only work for iPod’s."

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"Two months after Ubuntu 8.04 LTS was released and almost one month after Ubuntu Netbook Remix was first showcased, Ubuntu MID Edition 8.04 has been released. This is the newest Canonical product in the Ubuntu family and is designed for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Ubuntu MID Edition is a cut-down version of Ubuntu 8.04 for the desktop but with many packages sliced away and with optimizations for Intel's Atom Processor and mobile software enhancements as a result of the Moblin project."

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"The Radeon HD 4870 is the first retail graphics card to use GDDR5 memory and the 512MB of memory uses Qimonda branded ICs. GDDR5 introduces features and functions that go beyond previous GDDR standards and enables GDDR5 to operate at data rates up to 6 Gbps, three times the performance of todays high speed GDDR3. The memory ICs feature adaptive power management, error compensation, adaptive interface timings and date eye optimization. The ICs being used are part number IDGV1G-05A1F1C-40X, which are entry level GDDR5 chips and are rated for just 4 Gbps. ATI has them clocked at just 3.6 Gbps, so these should have some overclocking head room left in them..."

More information can be found here.

"This review is going to focus on a keyboard loaded with features specifically designed for 3D gamers; the G15 Revision 2. The overall style is sporty, a "GamePanel" LCD provides convenient access to system information, a handful of G-keys allow you to program your own macros, and backlit keys let you take command with any lighting condition."

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"The thing is, there's a minimum cost in making a //quality power supply. You //can buy cheap supposedly branded devices but why risk it? Seasonic produces a quality device that works exceptionally well, looks great and has all the right cable requirements for a PSU of this cost and power rating. Is it worth buying over the Corsair VX? //Probably, the battlefield is littered with pros an cons, but essentially if you buy either you'd be making the right decision."

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"Thecus succeeded in making a home NAS that is simple to set up without sacrificing features and functionality. Only a basic knowledge of networking is required to have dedicated storage up and running in a matter of minutes."

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"It wasn't all that long ago that Benchmark Reviews was throwing a contest for when we reached 100,000 unique visitors, but since the staff and I have been putting in some long hours to produce a wide variety of content there has been a dramatic increase in visitors over the past several months. Our 200K contest grand prize winner will receive an XFX GeForce 8800 GS video card, and two runner-up winners will have their pick from several other items."

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"Usually the words"

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"Over a year ago I looked at the Ninja Laptop Cooler from Vizo which scored decent marks. Today I received the miniNinja from Vizo. This is pretty much a smaller version of the Ninja, hence the name. It's still an aluminum laptop cooler with two quiet fans that help move the heat away from your laptop. It also angles the laptop a bit to help ease the strain on your wrist. So how does it hold up to it's older brother?"

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"If you want a solid motherboard that performs great, has great overclocking ability and that comes from a very reputable manufacturer, and if price is no issue at all, then this is a board that you should take a close look at. ASUS has done it again in the P5E3 Premium motherboard!"

More information can be found here.

"While OCZ Technology is known for their memory products, over the past few years they have developed a strong family of power supplies -- most notably with their PowerStream, ProXStream, and GameXStream series. With their acquisition of PC Power & Cooling in 2007 it affirmed their position as a leader in this market and with the combination of the engineering talent from OCZ and PC Power & Cooling they are now able to deliver even more competitive and high-end products. One of the most recent power supplies to have been introduced under the OCZ brand is the EliteXStream 800W. The OCZ EliteXStream 800W is ATX12V v2.2 compliant, greater than 80% efficiency, single +12V rail, active PFC, and is backed by a five-year warranty. Today we are reviewing this product."

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"Keyboards of the past were designed for the same thing typewriter keyboards were, typing. Today's computers, being more powerful and diversified, encompass entertainment and gaming and the need for good gaming and multimedia keyboards has grown with the evolution of more powerful machines."

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"Samsung's first foray into solid state HD recording can be easily summed up to be a success. Everything works perfectly, controls are easy to use and video/photo quality are excellent for an all-in-one product. With the rise in HDTV sales, HD camcorders are going to get more and more popular. Consider an HD camcorder as future-proofing your purchase so it will be compatible with the new TV standard for several years."

More information can be found here.

"That said, making a compute heavy ASIC with 1.4 billion transistors is an amazing feat, but to be honest I had hoped to see more performance from such a big chip – the GT200's performance is often higher than the 9800 GX2 in the targeted tests we've run, but in many real-world cases it isn't, as we'll show you very soon in our GeForce GTX 280 and 260 gaming performance article. I can't help but feel this is a strange position to be in with the release of a completely new architecture because, generally speaking, the new generation of hardware completely outclasses everything that's gone before. That isn't the case here and I get the feeling that Nvidia has been a little conservative on the graphics front. Instead, it has focused a lot of resources on improving the GPU's general compute capabilities. What concerns me though is that Nvidia seems intent on pushing CUDA at the moment, which is fine in many respects, but it's not the only player in the GPU computing market and applications developed using CUDA don't work on other hardware. That limits its appeal to me, unfortunately, as we dearly need a standard that all hardware vendors support in hardware."

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"There are not many manufacturers offering such massive kits, but Winchip has made some waves before with unique offerings. Their 667 MHz 4x 4 GB kit runs at CL5. Such a large capacity kit is intended for very specific scenarios. We try to showcase some of these."

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"Riding on the shoulders of its predecessor, the original Aliph Jawbone; comes the second generation Jawbone 2. By adding Noise Assassin technology, a 40% smaller size, and an even cooler, more stylish look to it, the Aliph Jawbone 2 might be the paramount of headsets."

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"Just because the game is tough though, isn't to say that RooGoo isn't fun. It is fun to play, kind of. Fun in the same kind of way as //Peggle or //Drug Wars or any other casual game. You don't actually massively enjoy playing the game, you just crave the sense of accomplishment and completion and you get sucked into this trap early on thanks to the pick-up-and-play design. There are only two real things that prevent / /RooGoo from being a good game and neither of these are really going to be a huge problem to any initiated puzzle fans. The first is that there really isn't much to be had beyond the single game mode and once you've played one level you've played them all. The other problem is the way the game presents itself. We've joked about the bright colours, MeeMoos, King Goos, and Roos of / /RooGoo, but the reality is that they really are a problem. //RooGoo is too fast and frantic to be a kids game, so we have to judge it as more than that and while the game would still have problems if it was presented as a less immature puzzler, it would be a bit better off."

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"BT: Did you get any feedback from the fans on any specific things they wanted to see improved from Command and Conquer 3? JV: Yeah, absolutely. What we did find immediately was that people didn't think that the D-Pad was fast or comfortable enough to really utilise in an RTS game. That was kind of the first thing we wanted to do -- to try and find a new and natural evolution to the radial interface. And that's kind of what the new interface does. Also, just in terms of the gameplay, a lot of people found //Tiberium Wars was pretty tough and was very difficult on Xbox 360. With the new interface though and with the game in general we think we've made it easier by tuning the campaign a bit more and made it a better balance of difficulty. Plus, a lot of the new units and the whole idea of just going back in time and looking at Kane and so on -- all that was based on player responses."

More information can be found here.

"We've been meaning to deliver benchmarks of the NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX under Linux for some time, but with the recent rollout of the GeForce GTX 200 series, the competition presented by the ATI Radeon HD 4850, and the introduction of the GeForce 9800GTX+, the GeForce 9800GTX is dropping in price and captivating the interest of a different segment of users. Finally we are delivering these benchmarks of the GeForce 9800GTX with Ubuntu Linux and using the most recent NVIDIA driver release, which has a number of improvements since the G92 chipset was introduced back in April. The graphics card we're using is the EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR."

More information can be found here.

"After AMD's successful launch of the HD 4850 Series, NVIDIA decided to drop the price point of the GeForce 9800 GTX to only $199. At this price the card becomes a very affordable product that offers all the performance you need to play the latest games. An additional plus is the support for PhysX via NVIDIA's CUDA implementation."

More information can be found here.

"Exciting plot lines and ethically dubious marketing aside, we at Bjorn3D can't remember a time when the mid-range market was this exciting! Oh wait, it was 8-months ago when the 8800 GT showed up though without any real competition. Regardless of which side of the fence you are on it, is a great day for PC gaming everywhere. Not to mention the expansion of GPU computing into other areas like video transcoding and super-computing. Without further ado I present to you the newest card in NVIDIA's arsenal in the on-going battle for the mid-range market, the 9800 GTX+. The plus means better!"

More information can be found here.

"OCZ have been known for high performance memory for quite some time. Somewhat recently they have expanded into other areas of computer hardware, such as power supplies and cooling.2 Today we will be taking a look at OCZ’s new CPU cooler, the OCZ Vendetta 2."

More information can be found here.

"High Performance Group (Hiper) is best known for their self-designed power supply units, yet they have recently begun to compete in the computer chassis market. Their first foray into the arena was with the rock-solid Hiper Anubis Mid Tower ATX Case HTC-1K614, which could withstand brutal punishment while looking very stylish. Mere months later, Hiper has returned with the Osiris Mid-Tower 6063-T5 Alloy Computer Case HTC-1K514-A1. Named after the ancient Egyptian god of the overworld, this case comes equipped with many of the award-winning features found in the Anubis and adds a total of 20 new refinements."

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"The highest settings we could get stable with the GeForce 9800 GTX+ were 855MHz on the core and 2200MHz on the shaders. That is 55MHz higher on the core and 175MHz higher on the shaders than what we could reach on the old 65nm G92 core. For those that like percentages the overclock is roughly 6% higher on the core and 8% more on the shaders, which is significant, but nothing over the top. Usually with die shrinks overclocking performance stays close to the same, even more so when no major architecture changes are made. It should be noted that the memory overclocked better on the GeForce 9800 GTX+ and it seems NVIDIA has moved over to Hynix branded GDDR3 memory ICs. The GDDR3 memory IC's on the new GeForce 9800 GTX+ card were Hynix H5RS5223CFR-N2C, which are rated 1200 MHz (GDDR3-2400) 0.8NS with 1.5V. These are the same memory IC's that were found on the GeForce GTX 280 cards we reviewed last week..."

More information can be found here.

"It's been a while since last looking at a Solaris Express Community Edition release (SXCE Build 75 to be exact) and since then Solaris Express Developer 1/08 and OpenSolaris 2008.05 have been released, which are both based off the same SXCE"

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"The Xigmatek Achilles S1284 heatsink has many improvements over the famous HDT-S1283 cooler. There are now four U-shaped heatpipes, and they are nickel-plated. The fan design is new and unique as well, with its white LEDs that light up the fan's smoke frame and orange blades."

More information can be found here.

"Today we are looking at the Logitech Driving Force GT racing wheel specifically designed to be used with the PS3 game Gran Tursimo 5 Prologue. The wheel has force feedback effects and controls to allow real-time adjustment of car performance. The force feedback effects are good with the Driving Force GT, but simply not in the same league as the G25. That said the price of the Driving Force GT is not in the same league as the G25 either. You can pick up the Driving Force GT for $149.99 and the G25 will set you back $299. For the vast majority of users the Driving Force GT will be ideal for driving games like GT5."

More information can be found here.

"Back in March we had looked at the Radeon HD 3200 graphics found on AMD 780G motherboards. With the Catalyst Linux driver the Radeon HD 3200 had performed about the same speed as the discrete Radeon HD 2400PRO graphics card, which we were quite pleased with considering its integrated and low-power design. The Radeon HD 3200 also offers support for DisplayPort and HDMI, but it's up to the motherboard vendor which output connections they wish to utilize. The Radeon HD 3200 / 780G certainly impressed us, but today we are looking at NVIDIA's latest IGP offering for AMD's Phenom platform. While not all of these features are available to Linux customers, the GeForce 8200 supports DirectX 10, PureVideo HD, GeForce Boost, Hybrid SLI, and other leading edge features. Though between the Radeon HD 3200 and GeForce 8200, which IGP offering reigns supreme under Linux? In this article we'll tell you our thoughts."

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"All in all, the MSI P45 Platinum scores many wins with us, but unfortunately it hits almost as many epic fails. Hopefully some of these will change with software updates and BIOS updates, and we greatly look forward to what can be achieved with UEFI when the free update arrives in the next few months. Until then, we can only recommend you look elsewhere because there are currently better boards on the market."

More information can be found here.

"The power supply is an odd component of sorts. In the same way our heart doesn't make us run faster or get better grades in school, a power supply won't give you a higher frame rate or make your CPU faster. But without a strong, solid heart even everyday tasks would become difficult. Imagine trying to walk a flight of stairs with a weak heart or carry groceries. Your power supply is the heart, the very core, of your PC and without a strong solid PSU everyday tasks become difficult. Imagine trying to play games or run Folding@Home with a flaky PSU. Constant lock-ups or total shut-downs would put a quick stop to any chance of enjoyment you would get from your PC. Clean, solid power is a must in today's PCs but with so many poor quality power supplies masquerading as high-end units it's easy to get buried by the sea of marketing hype. Today Bjorn3D is looking at one power supply that not only positions itself as a top-notch PSU built with quality components, but brings some new!"

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"The Flip Video Ultra by Pure Digital is a pocket size digital camcorder that allows you to record up to one hour of VGA quality video that you can upload directly to YouTube or other video sharing services. With one-touch recording and instant playback and delete, plus a 2X digital zoom, the Flip has managed to capture 12% of the digital camcorder market. Much of this has to do with the Flip Video's price. At less than $150, the Flip Video Ultra is almost an impulse purchase. "

More information can be found here.

"The past 24 hours has been nothing but a blur of testing, but we wanted to get this review out to you as soon as possible. The ATI Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce 9800 GTX+ raise the bar for graphics cards and perform better than one would expect for a $199-$229 product. Enthusiasts and gamers better start saving some money up because you'll want one of these before summer is over...."

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"Get back in the black by going green with your tech toys."

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"What's better than a My Book with a single drive inside of it? A My Book with two drives in a mirrored array so the same data is on both drives. Even better, if one drive fails you can easily pop the lid on the drive and remove it! These are both very welcome features to the world of backup drives, and when you combine them with easy-to-use software, optional encryption and a competitive price, you have a very solid backup solution."

More information can be found here.

"In our article this morning entitled AMD Makes An Evolutionary Leap In Linux Support, we briefly touched on the fact that AMD would be continuing in their open-source support for the Radeon HD 4000 generation of GPUs. AMD will release register information for the RV770 and the code to TCore and KGrids will help the community developers when it comes to 2D and 3D acceleration. Though, with not much work at all, this afternoon we have the ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB running with the open-source xf86-video-ati driver! The Radeon HD 4850 will not currently work with the xf86-video-radeonhd driver as it doesn't rely upon the AtomBIOS in these areas, but in this article we have enclosed our patch and other information for using this open-source driver on AMD's latest hardware."

More information can be found here.

"AMD has moved the launch date of the HD 4850 forward, launching it today. The cards are positioned in the $200 range and offer several new features and performance improvements. According to our benchmark results AMD has found a winner with this card that offers excellent price/performance and energy efficiency."

More information can be found here.

"After some confusion, AMD has lifted the NDA for their brand-new Radeon HD 4850 Series today. The RV770 on these boards comes with 800 shaders and boasts 956 million transistors. Together with a new AA architecture the card takes the $200 segment in a storm offering leading performance/dollar and performance/watt."

More information can be found here.

"The retail card that we have is the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850, which features an MSRP of $199 and will be the jewel in the price versus performance charts for months to come. It is also the first card that has a TeraFLOP of compute power. Not bad at all for a price tag of just $199!"

More information can be found here.

"Less than a year ago we shared with you the revolutionary steps AMD was taking to deliver significant improvements to their once infamous proprietary Linux display driver and at the same time the work they were doing to foster the growth of an open-source driver for their latest graphics card families. These steps have certainly paid off for both AMD and the Linux community at large. AMD's proprietary driver is now on par with NVIDIA's Linux driver and there are two open-source ATI drivers picking up new features and improvements on an almost daily basis. AMD also continues to publish new programming guides and register information on a routine basis for their latest and greatest hardware. This has been truly phenomenal to see, but AMD has now evolved their Linux support by taking it a large step further. AMD is in the process of pushing new high-end features into their Linux driver -- such as Multi-GPU CrossFire support -- and with the ATI Radeon HD 4850 they have even begun showing off Tux, the Linux mascot, on their product packaging and providing Linux drivers on their product CDs!"

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"The G.Skill DDR3-1600 Pi Series memory modules have a rather funky looking heatspreader, which upon closer inspection impressed me from a design and engineering perspective. Each module is protected by an aluminum heatspreader with what looks like the spiral binding from a notebook on top. These loops are similar to what many other manufacturers implement, except they have a bit of three dimensional appeal to them."

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"Besides, for every negative we can think of about Endwar we can also think of one or two positives. The game is obviously a labour of love for many of the developers and it's clear than an awful lot of work has gone into not just perfecting the admirable science behind the vocal recognition software, but also the balancing and technicalities of the game itself. There are still a few things which need to be cleared up to satisfy our curiosity -- is the game part of an entirely new franchise Ubisoft are launching and will the game be staying as an Xbox 360 exclusive, for instance. These are matters on which Ubisoft is keeping understandably a bit quiet on for the moment. Still, whether or not the franchise looks set to spore one thing is certain for the moment and that's that Real-time Strategy buffs are in for a definite treat when it comes to / /Tom Clancy's Endwar. The game may still look a little bit rough and may be a bit on the small-scale side of things, but the game is very fast-paced and has a deceptive level of depth once you've got to grips with the voice controls and are able to order groups to take cover in buildings or unleash special abilities. / /Endwar is an interesting looking game and while it obviously isn't going to be the definitive Tom Clancy experience by the look of things (that honour still lies with //Rainbow Six), it could certainly be one of the most interesting console games of this year regardless."

More information can be found here.

"Visiontek does it again!! It’s a two in one deal. Two GPUs under the same roof or should I say PCB. (To bad it isn’t two GPUs for the PRICE of one.) They couldn’t stop there though they had to make it even more tempting by overclocking it. Too many times space is wasted in your rig getting the power of two cards in Crossfire, now there’s just one card with one easy setup. Just set it and forget it. Or, if you are like me, drool over it."

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"A-DATA is one of the few companies, which offer 32 GB Compact Flash cards. We take a look at the unit and also give it a go as a hard drive, as it certainly has the size for such a scenario."

More information can be found here.

"Today we are checking out a reasonably priced 24-inch LCD from ASUS. The MK 241 looks good and offers a wide range of features to entice users. The display works well for normal computer use with nice color saturation and decent black levels. Skin tones looked natural and colors popped well. ASUS claims the display has a 130% color gamut, which is something you really can’t measure. Colors looked good though."

More information can be found here.

"The competition between ATI and NVIDIA is fierce; it's definitely a buyers market in video cards these days. New chips are coming out every six months and they're almost always running more transistors, faster. There's a fair chance that the hottest and noisiest component inside your PC is the video card. Fortunately, the PC cooling industry has responded with some excellent products to keep the GPU heat and noise down. Join Benchmark Reviews as we look at how the Zalman VF900-Cu Ultra Quiet Heat-pipe VGA Cooler saved the day for one system builder."

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"You know when your MP3 files are a mess. You have albums by The Beatles, Beatles, and Betles, four copies of the same song in different bitrates, and your friends are boggled by the files in your collection with names like 593_afeerb.mp3 and grtst_Hits_TRACK1_.mp3. It's time to clean them up, but like the junk drawer in your kitchen, the still-packed moving boxes in your basement, or the decade's worth of old clothes in your closet, you really don't have the time. Fortunately, unlike any of those tasks, technology can lend a hand and practically do your MP3 organization for you. Here's how you can straighten out a folder with gigs worth of messy MP3 files in only an afternoon."

More information can be found here.

"The Samsung Glyde has a lot of potential, with a smooth-sliding full-size QWERTY keyboard and a 2.8-inch touchscreen, as well as extras like assisted GPS, Bluetooth, haptic feedback, and a 2-megapixel camera. It even looks like a smaller version of one of its main competitors, the LG Voyager, though it lacks the former's mobile TV capability. Unfortunately, the Glyde's main input method - the touchscreen - doesn't work well enough for us to recommend the phone. If Samsung fixes this issue via a firmware update, we'd consider changing our tune."

More information can be found here.

"Yuin OK3 is the budget version of the new OK-series earphones coming from Yuin. The OK3s have the same design as its two bigger brothers and feature the exact same exterior design. This little Yuin is made for the more budget minded critical listeners with a price of only $89."

More information can be found here.

"The Logitech designers and engineers have delivered what is sure to be the blueprint for future peripherals in the wireless industry. The Pure-Fi Mobile wireless speaker system can connect to your mobile phone, the PC, and your favorite portable media player, it can easily be stored in your backpack or briefcase. More than anything, it produces excellent sound and play an entire day on a charge. Sign me up, right?!? Oh, wait, it costs how much?"

More information can be found here.

"We do think Gigabyte has made a motherboard with a lot of potential here -- the board currently works very well under default conditions. It has tons of features---and some are genuinely great little nuggets---far, far better software and very good performance for DDR2 but even though it has lots of BIOS options we are unable to use with the board in its current state. Strip out the four Gigabit Ethernet sockets and strap on 802.11n Wi-Fi instead would give it a similar high end appeal but with more variety for home users. The hardware RAID implementation also needs more thought put into it. What is has done for us is lay the foundations for what could be some awesome value friendly EP45-DS3R or the DS5 that we had a first look at not too long ago. However, we'll give it a few months to see what Gigabyte comes out with on the BIOS side before we really see if they can shine."

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"Getting in is relatively easy, providing you know where to look. You'll first need to remove the battery and take out all the screws on the underside (there should be 13 in total), including the one for the flap that hides the non-warranty voidable removable parts. Once that's out, take out the 16GB SSD and the single DDR2 memory module - note if you want to upgrade you'll have to replace this DIMM with a bigger one since there's only one socket available in the 901. We're still keen to try this 16GB SSD in another notebook and we'd love to know how much of the 901's BOM (bill of materials) is taken up by the SSD. To the left of the SSD slot and above the DIMM socket, there is the Wireless 802.11n module. Both antennas are connected to it - they run up and around the 8.9"

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"Any computer enthusiasts would know the importance of keeping the components inside of a system running cool. This is especially true if you overclock because once pushing the hardware components to their limits, the resultant heat they generate can cause system instability and in some extreme situations ruin the hardware. Anyone who messes around with their system will know how crappy the retail processor heatsink is in keeping the temperature of the CPU running low. The retail Intel heatsink is extremely inefficient in the heat conducting department despite the fact it is running at extremely quiet. Thus, for those who overclock their system, having an after-market heatsink and fan is pretty much a given in order to achieve that perfect overclocking result."

More information can be found here.

"Everyone is familiar with PCLinuxOS by now. And most of us have preconceived thoughts and opinions on this Linux distribution. And yet, I could not get my head around the attraction of this distro over Ubuntu, Simply Mepis, Linux Mint, Freespire or any other beginner-friendly Linux release. I mean, yes, PCLinuxOS is very polished and attractive. It takes the best that Mandriva has to offer and then adds to it with features its developers felt like were lacking in Mandriva itself."

More information can be found here.

"There’s been a lot of talk about third-party software here at OSWeekly.com recently, and this trend is only going to continue. Third-party software is an important element of our operating systems, and it can really make or break an OS. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to get nearly as much done on our computers, so be thankful for those useful applications that you enjoy using."

More information can be found here.

"BlueAnt continues to innovate for mobile handsets with relevant products to make communication easy. The Supertooth 3 is one such product that?s surely going to wow anyone who?s looking for a handsfree speakerphone for their cell phone. The device is equipped with a speaker, a volume rocker, two status lights, a send key and an end key, and all of this is integrated on a glossy black box that looks amazingly nice."

More information can be found here.

"Microsoft?s decision to shut down retail sales of Windows XP is a good one, for Microsoft and consumers alike. One of the growth hurdles that Vista has faced is because of XP?s continued popularity. Of course, you can?t fault the users for not willing to spend to purchase a substandard product, but the fact continues to be that XP has limited Vista sales. And after a disappointing launch of Vista and its market adoption rate, Microsoft couldn?t be super excited to fix its anomalies."

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"You come home, turn on your computer, and as if you were being punished for something, it does not work. After careful review, you discover that the hard drive has failed. This situation happens more often than you might like to think. In this article, I will share some suggestions for dealing with it in the preventive sense. In short, how-to have a backup of your hard drive, ready to go."

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"Today we are checking out the BFG 9600 GT OCX. This is one of the best performing and highest overclocked 9600 GT video cards we have tested to date. In the end the BFG 9600 GT OCX performed well, though it was out performed on a couple benchmarks ever so slightly by the Asus EN9600 GT Top. Some of the cards in this price range include nice game bundles, like the XFX 9600 GT Alpha Dog while the BFG 9600 GT OCX gets nothing additional."

More information can be found here.

"Admit it. You visit YouTube to watch talking cats, quickie news and video game items, music videos as well as ogling people around the world generally making fools of themselves. I do it too but haven't Broadcast Myself-until getting the new JVC Everio S GZ-MS100 camcorder that's specifically designed for recording and quickly uploading clips to the wildly popular site. This is a stripped-down camcorder offering none of the quality of recently reviewed high-def models like the Sony HDR-SR12 and Canon Vixia HF10. And even though it's an Everio, this JVC has no hard disk drive--it is a"

More information can be found here.

"The key problem for the Ninja Copper lies in the fact that we’ve already tested ultra low noise coolers like the Noctua NH U12P and ThermalRight Ultra 120 eXtreme, and not only were they very quiet, but both performed brilliantly thermally. When you consider that the Ninja Copper is priced in the same region as these top performers, it becomes impossible to recommend as even a silent cooling solution. The enormously frustrating mounting process for S775 and the fingerprint magnet copper surface are the final shuriken to the heart of the Ninja Copper. Scythe has left the Ninja’s design fundamentally unchanged for over three years now, while its competitors have been releasing more and more advanced coolers, packing in more cooling fins and more efficient heat pipes - this is starting to show now. While it might be silent, we simply cannot excuse the poor thermal performance and S775 mounting problems of the Ninja Copper, and at over £40, it represents very poor value for money compared to modern competition. Silent? Yes. Deadly? Definitely not."

More information can be found here.

"In the end the ASUS P5E64 WS Evolution X48 ATX motherboard wound up being just about what I had hoped it would be... A high end motherboard equally well suited for serving in a workstation and a gaming rig. With all of the performance features, its slick styling, and the ample bundle of accessories, it is almost like someone at ASUS paid close attention to their market research!"

More information can be found here.

"I can't recall a time when technology moved as fast as RAM technology is moving today. It seems like just a few short months ago DDR3 had appeared and was grossly overpriced and rather underpowered. But in a short time the technology has advanced to such extreme levels that we are now beginning to see DDR3 be fiscally competitive with DDR2. But what about performance? Starting out at a rather meager DDR3-1333 we have seen what can only be referred to as exponential growth as today we are reviewing a kit designed to run at 2000MHz! You read that correct, RAM that is designed to run faster than some CPUs. Simply astonishing. The RAM is the Ascent DDR3-2000 and the company is Mushkin. Designed to run at extreme speeds and even more so when paired up with the 790i chipset from NVIDIA, the Ascent DDR3-2000 kit looks to take RAM to a whole new level."

More information can be found here.

"In-Win is surely going to turn some heads with the Commander – not only does it have a one of a kind look, it has demonstrated excellent stability and its four +12V rails are ready to power up any hardware thrown its way. I can see this being not only a good choice for today's gaming rigs, but it should easily last through another upgrade or two as well. Realistically, not many current systems out there are going to pull 1200W of power but in a few years this might be exactly what's needed."

More information can be found here.

"You are going to see an increased interest in GPU computing very soon. Terms such as "heterogeneous computing" and "parallel computing" are going to be used as often as the term "video card" is used in a product review. You won't want to miss this evolution in graphics technology, because we are witness to a pivitol moment in time when computers are going to stop being filled with familiar single-purpose hardware. Benchmark Reviews offers this FAQ to help our readers understand what is happening, and help introduce them to what is coming. We don't want anyone to be left in the cold when the rest of the world learns that the GPU is this years CPU."

More information can be found here.

"Lenovo breaks out of the business mold with the stylish and hip IdeaPad U110 laptop computer."

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"Lately we've seen couple of cases that make use of microATX sized motherboards and normal sized power supplies. Trend seems to go on. This time we received a delivery from Silverstone and the case in question is their SUGO SG03 model. The case is very small but it can still take in larger and more powerful power supplies and graphic cards."

More information can be found here.

"Today we are looking at the brand new XFX GTX 280 video card. This is now the top end video card from XFX pushing the 9800 GX2 down a notch in the NVIDIA line. The XFX GTX 280 is a high performance video card by anyone’s standards. It is bested slightly in 3DMark 06 and some gaming tests by the highly overclocked 9800 GX2 video cards like the XFX 9800 GX2 Black Edition and ASUS EN9800GX2 Top. I can’t wait to see what the XFX GTX 280 can do in SLI and 3-way SLI, the latter is something the 9800 GX2 couldn’t do."

More information can be found here.

"Overall the GeForce GTX 280 graphics card was a winner in our books and it made a difference while gaming, which is the most important thing. The game we noticed the performance gains the most was actually Age of Conan when we cranked up the image quality at a resolution of 1920x1200 . Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures passed the astounding 'One Million Copies Shipped' milestone in less than three weeks after the game's launch, so that is a huge potential market in the months to come..."

More information can be found here.

"Hot on the heels of a rapid-succession GeForce 9800 GX2 and GeForce 9800 GTX launch only two short months ago, NVIDIA now officially unveils the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 video cards. Using the fastest and most-powerful graphics processor NVIDIA has ever developed, both new GeForce products are constructed from a freshly-minted GT200 graphics processor. Both the GTX 280 and GTX 260 products position themselves at the very highest segment of the GeForce product line. NVIDIA Estimates that the GeForce GTX 280 will be introduced at $649, while the similarly powerful GeForce GTX 260 will enter the $399 price point. If the competition ever had a very good reason to be concerned with their future, it would be right now."

More information can be found here.

"NVIDIA's new GTX 280 graphics cards have just been released. Point of View's GeForce GTX 280 is an implementation of the NVIDIA reference design. The GTX 280 offers amazing performance improvements and can even beat the GeForce 9800 GX2. But performance comes at a cost, at $649 you need a fat wallet to be able to afford this card."

More information can be found here.

"Bjorn3D will kick off our on-going coverage of this gala event with a detailed preview of the flagship of the line, the GeForce GTX 280 provided to us by XFX. For clarity's sake notice we said 'on-going' and 'preview'. As with the debut of any new generation of graphical product there is almost always a portion of the manufacturer's final vision of that device that is either immature or incomplete, and the GTX 280 is certainly no exception to that premise. We fully intend to go into great detail in this preview about what's currently available and what you can expect in the future from the NVIDIA 200 series of graphical products. For sake of this introduction, suffice it to say the features available for today's product preview are a splash in the pan compared to what will be available shortly after this launch day. Thankfully all these missing features are software controlled and the final products are nearing release."

More information can be found here.

"Today NVIDIA launches their new GTX 280 graphics cards. Zotac as one of NVIDIA's premier partners has engineered a factory overclocked version of the GTX 280 which offers additional performance. Overall the Zotac GTX 280 Amp Edition is the fastest graphics card on the planet today, but also the most expensive."

More information can be found here.

"We expected //The Incredible Hulk to be bad from the offset, not out of some inherent bias but more to do with a realistic reflection of the past and the facts of the matter. On this front, //The Incredible Hulk didn’t disappoint us. It’s predictable, samey, bland and as by-the-numbers as any game of this type could be. The developers have got a checklist of all the usual errors made on movie tie-ins and they’ve zipped down and ticked them all expertly. As a game it’s more shallow than a Paris Hilton-wannabe and uglier than the real-deal. But, at the same time, it is kind of fun to mess around with. And no, the Paris Hilton jokes stopped last paragraph //thankyouverymuch. Elements of The Hulk’s character are captured very well and it’s quite bizarre to see that Sega has done a better job of capturing the wall climbing experience than Activision did with //Spiderman 3. Also, just because a game is shallow doesn’t mean that it’s bad – every id Software game ever proves that, just about. Despite all the chinks in the armour and the fuzziness on the lens there is still a sense of progression that makes the game involving to play and aspects of the animation do feel suitably kinetic and powerful. In the end, though //Hulk can’t claim to be as good as the majority of the games out on shelves nowadays, he can certainly wipe the floor with //Iron Man and the other comic-movie-adaptation-tie-ins at the moment."

More information can be found here.

"We like the Eee PC. It's small, it's lightweight, it's perfectly balanced - it's perfect for press trips; in other words when we need a dinky little notebook to help us bring you the latest news and reviews from events round the world. Also, at the same time, it runs Linux - which can't help but appeal to the elitist geek in all of us. The nice folks at Asus know that we like the Eee PC as well, which was why they took the first possible chance to head down to the new //bit-tec//h offices and show us the brand new model of the insanely popular sub-notebook. The Eee PC 901 is the latest in the Eee PC line and is fundamentally similar to the Eee PC 900 we reviewed a few weeks ago, but with a handful of new features and software thrown in - including a new 1.6 GHz Atom Processor instead of the older, underclocked Celeron. On top of that swanky, sparkling new 45nm CPU chip, the Eee PC 901 also houses new Bluetooth support and Dolby Sound Room on the XP versions, but unfortunately not the Linux like we have here."

More information can be found here.

"Following our article looking at the state of X.Org (along with announcing the release of X Server 1.4.1), we proceeded to share the contributors behind the X Server -- both the individual developers and companies involved with fostering the growth of this important free software package since 1999. What we hadn't looked at in that analysis was the people and companies behind the work on Mesa 3D, or the OpenGL component used by X. In this article, however, we have these statistics to share."

More information can be found here.

"My iPhone is sitting beside me right now, and I’m still thrilled that I purchased it. I’ve never been more excited about a device, and I can’t wait to see how the iPhone continues to develop. We’re well-aware that the iPhone is running a scaled down version of OS X, and we can thank OS X for making the iPhone experience enjoyable and useful in so many ways. Since the iPhone is an Apple product, it only makes sense that OS X would be running on the device, but what makes sense now didn’t always make sense in the past."

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"One has to admit, regardless of their feelings of just how idiotic the idea behind Digital Rights Management (DRM) may be, it is frustrating to watch the other two platforms have content we cannot enjoy ourselves."

More information can be found here.

"In one of my recent articles, I talked about the need to format your hard drive, install your operating system, restore your most important backups, and start from scratch on occasion. That can be a lot of work, and thinking about the process is enough to make you want to avoid doing it, but once you’ve cleaned up your computer, you’ll be glad that you did."

More information can be found here.

"In the past, I have discussed the various browsers out there for us to enjoy at length. Despite this, there has always been the question as to which one was best for which type of person. After all, we all know what each offers, but which one best fits different type of users? In this article, I hope to better answer that particular question. And of course, all platforms will be considered, not just Linux."

More information can be found here.

"With RIM and Apple?s latest smartphones in the market, I?m glad to not be frustrated anymore. While I loved the original iPhone and BlackBerry devices, RIM and Apple annoyed me too much. Apple released its iPhone with a number of technologies missing, mainly integrated GPS with a good mapping service. Seriously, how crippling is that!"

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"How often do you perform a fresh installation of your operating system? When I say fresh, I mean completely formatting your hard drive and starting from scratch with only a copy of your favorite OS. There are no hard rules about this matter because you can pretty much do whatever you feel like, but it’s usually suggested that we do this once a year."

More information can be found here.

"When we looked at the original Jawbone we asked ourselves “Is this the best Bluetooth headset on the market?” The answer was complicated, but the bottom line is that we thought Aliph could do better on the Jawbone. Let me tell you that this new Jawbone is much better overall than its older sibling. To arrive to the table at half the size and still retain the incredible noise cancellation features puts this at the top of all Bluetooth headsets we have reviewed here at Legit..."

More information can be found here.

"DLO continues to focus on Apple?s core products, the iPod and the newly announced iPhone (compared to the iPod, at least). This time, the company has a set of speakers for the iPhone that should prove to be interesting, if not in functionality, then surely in looks."

More information can be found here.

"As I sit here looking at my Zonbu(s) (a mini and the notebook), I cannot help but feel overwhelming dismay over all the progress made with"

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"DLO continues to expand its iPod accessories portfolio with new additions. Although FM transmitters are nothing unique, the TransDock Micro adds an interesting feature that makes working with it a breeze. A lot of transmitters require manual setting to pick the best available FM station to transmit your iPod?s music through your car. Not with this one, however. With a press of a button, the device automatically searches for the best station between 88.1 and 107.9 to feed the audio, thanks to DLO?s IntelliTune technology. It just works, and that?s what makes it so great."

More information can be found here.

"What’s the first thing that you notice when you look at a computer? Is it the operating system? Probably not. For all you know, the computer could have Windows Me or Windows Vista installed on it, and the only way that you’d have any clue as to which OS was primarily being used is if the monitor was turned on while the computer was running. Yes, you’re going to get your first impressions from the design of the computer, and if it’s hard to even look at, then you’re probably not going to be very inclined to use it."

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"Whenever a patent from Microsoft or Apple is filed, we devour it like it’s fresh meat. These patents give us a glimpse of interesting things that are being worked on, and even though we may not be able to see the actual implementations for years to come, the patent filings help us to get an idea of what we can expect if they ever see the light of day. Sometimes the documented information is minor, other times it’s major, but in every situation, we can easily form opinions before it may be reasonable to do so."

More information can be found here.

"Whether it’s hardware, operating systems, or any other available technology gadget, we’re constantly being shown what the future is, and so much effort and time is spent on giving us a glimpse of what the future will bring. Both Microsoft and Apple focus on the future of their operating systems, and it’s only reasonable that they would do so. They want us to be excited about what they’re working on, and many times, what they tell us does get us excited for the future."

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"While Gates had a point about OLPC being able to come to full fruition, I think he is out to lunch on the idea that third-world countries are interested in Windows, paying for software and any potential malware headaches that will arise with running a stripped down version of XP on these systems. But perhaps the bigger question is how the minds behind the OLPC project can possibly expect, or even have an interest in what Intel does with other similar projects like the ASUS Eee."

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"DLO continues to focus on Apple’s core products, the iPod and the newly announced iPhone (compared to the iPod, at least). This time, the company has a set of speakers for the iPhone that should prove to be interesting, if not in functionality, then surely in looks."

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"DLO continues to expand its iPod accessories portfolio with new additions. Although FM transmitters are nothing unique, the TransDock Micro adds an interesting feature that makes working with it a breeze. A lot of transmitters require manual setting to pick the best available FM station to transmit your iPod’s music through your car. Not with this one, however. With a press of a button, the device automatically searches for the best station between 88.1 and 107.9 to feed the audio, thanks to DLO’s IntelliTune technology. It just works, and that’s what makes it so great."

More information can be found here.

"QNAP already added nearly every thinkable feature to their NAS firmwares. To make a new series innovation had to be found elsewhere. QNAP decided to double the capacity in their TS-409 Pro and add features to utilize this space. The four disks that the TS-409 Pro houses can therefore be put in any RAID level including 6. Besides adding RAID 5 and 6 support QNAP shows they take their RAID arrays seriously by adding support for online expansion and RAID migration. Combined with the already proven ease of use and list of software features the TS-409 Pro Turbostation promises to be a solid product."

More information can be found here.

"The Silverstone TJ07 has been on the market for quite some time, but still impresses every time you lay eyes on it. This is the reason you will see the case at every show, always filled with the latest and greatest in hardware. That is certainly enough reason for us to take a close look at the TJ07."

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"Over the past few years we have looked at several Tagan power supplies such as the TurboJet 1100W and BZ 900W. However, their product selection is no longer limited to power supplies and they now produce several different desktop cases as well as a growing selection of storage devices. These storage products are part of their Icy Box family, which consists of 2.5"

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"The Kingston 800MHz HyperX FB-DIMMs are hands down the most innovative cooling design that we have seen Kingston bring to market. The design is flawless and the modules run cooler than any other FB-DIMMs that we have seen. For those that want even better cooling, simply place a fan on the modules like we did and you'll notice another massive temperature reduction. When it comes to building a high-end enthusiast platform using the Intel Skulltrail motherboard having the right memory modules is critical and Kingston should be the top brand on the short shopping list..."

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"Lego Indy is very much a game in the same mould as //Lego Star Wars -- a fact which is simultaneously both exactly what we wanted and hugely disappointing. It's big and it's funny and it's going last any player worth their salt a long, long time. It's Indy and it's Lego -- both are equal parts awesome, so the end result of the mix is pretty awesome too. The problem is though that we're talking in generalities there, because once you get down the specifics of the PC version the game is a bit of a letdown. The keyboard just isn't hugely fun to play with and the game suffers from fairly basic design flaws that really hammer this home. It's a shame. The game could be exactly the type of game to pass the time this summer while the football is on and we geeks have to otherwise occupy ourselves. In fact, it / /is that game as far as console gamers are concerned, only on the PC does it fall down out of a generally lessened accessibility and ease of use. Besides, trying to get two people to share a computer monitor -- and a keyboard two unless you have a gamepad going spare - is never as much fun or as easy to do as it is with a console."

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"The HP 2133 Mini-note Linux Edition is an incredibly good looking piece of kit, but is sadly a classic example of style over substance. Gorgeously designed and stunning to look at, the 2133 Mini-note seems to have it all at first glance. The keyboard is perfectly sized and the screen is bright and perky. It's so pleasurable to use that it could probably only be topped by an invitation to have a go on a jelly-covered bouncy castle with the half-naked celebrity of your choice. It's a bit disappointing then that this is all that the 2133 stands out for. Throughout our time with the notebook it slowly dawned on us that although the Mini-note wasn't a bad netbook, it certainly isn't the best. While it does manage to tick most of the right boxes and do everything it sets out to do, it just doesn't do those things as well or as fast as other products. Price is a limiting factor too and the HP is in danger of putting itself out of the market with the £350 price tag as the reality is although it looks like you're getting bang for your buck, all you're actually getting is the appearance that that is what you get. In the end, the HP 2133 Mini-note is very much like the aforementioned celebrity-endorsed jelly-castle adventure. It sounds good in theory, it's great while you're doing it and you're sure to have a lot of fun. When all is said and done though you'll just be left slightly frustrated that the experience didn't quite live up to your expectations. Also, it'll be messy. As a netbook the Mini-note is OK, but there are better and faster products on the market that would work out cheaper."

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"Price is a major consideration with a lot of people but with cases I tend to take the long view. It's well worth spending a few extra bucks on a case if you can use it through several evolutions of that killer gaming rig you've got in the computer shrine. Thermaltake has been making cases and cooling products for quite a while now, they've managed to combine their cooling expertise with their case design and come up with mid priced quality Chassis that takes cooling into consideration from the word go."

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"Today we are looking at the interesting mouse replacement called the Novint Falcon. The device allows you to feel items in compatible video games and adds a new dimension to games. Overall the Novint Falcon is a very interesting device. The biggest drawback is the lack of top-tier games that are Haptx enabled. Novint is working on that though and more top-tier titles are coming soon. The Novint Falcon works very well, even if it is a bit sluggish for a gamer used to much more sensitive mice."

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"At a modest price the Stinger delivers a high quality, feature packed Laser mouse. Whilst not the best mouse I have tested, at this price point, the Stinger is not too far behind. This is probably the best bang for your buck you can get at the moment."

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"This year's Computex was full of pretty asian booth babes fighting for your attention. Just like on previous tradeshows we set a day apart to chase down all the sweet girls for you. In total we have over 150 pictures with full-res images available for your viewing pleasure."

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" Booth babes and trade shows seem to go hand in hand. It's a know fact that one of the best ways to get traffic to your site is to post some photos of beautiful girls. After all, everyone likes beautiful girls. Beautiful girls are also a great way to attract traffic to your booth. The Computex show in Taipei uses booth babes for more than just eye candy. Some are expected to do a lot more than just stand around and get their picture taken by female deprived tech geeks. The booth babes used by Computex can be divided into four distinct working groups."

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"The Flip Mino is a tiny little 2GB camcorder measuring up at just 4-inches tall and 2-inches wide inches and a mere 3.3 ounces living up to the buzz word"

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"Are you planning to pick up a Gigabyte GA-P45-DQ6? Over the course of this article, we'll show you where it was made as Gigabyte invited //bit-tech to one of its Taiwanese factories, allowing us to roam around its facilities. The Nan-Ping factory is about an hour out from Taipei City where Computex was happening in full swing; it's one of four manufacturing plants that Gigabyte owns. The second is located in Ping-Jen in Taiwan and the remaining two factories are in China: Ning-Bo (just south of Shanghai) and Dong-Guan further south still. Nan-Ping isn't your typical expansive factory -- it's almost as tall as it is wide, with eight huge floors offering 45,000 square metres of space for 1,200 employees. The factory features eleven SMT lines (seventh Floor) providing 400,000 motherboards, 300,000 graphics cards and 5,000 server products a month. There are also six lines of DIP and Testing (fourth and fifth floors) and four lines of packing all those motherboard, VGA and server products up on the second floor. There are also two lines of whole system assembly for its OEM and retail business on the third floor and two lines for its mobile assembly unit (20,000 units per month) for Asia on the sixth floor."

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"Noctua changed things up a little this time around by going to a down draft style cooler, but in the process they made several improvements. The biggest, and most noticeable, is the reduction of the overall height. The NH-C12P is 2.63 inches or 67mm shorter than its predecessor, the NH-U12P. At an overall height of 4.5 inches or 114mm (with the fan), it can fit in cases that the NH-U12P could never think of, such as desktop mini tower..."

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"Sapphire HD 3870 X2 Atomic Edition comes with pre-filled, pre-sealed and maintenance free watercooling. This allows Sapphire to ship the card with higher clocks, making the card the fastest HD 3870 X2 on the market today. As you would expect from such a premium product the presentation is outstanding, and so is the price."

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"I have used an array of KVM switches over the years both in my work as a database administrator and also at my home to run multiple computers simultaneously with one mouse, monitor, and keyboard. These, however, were not DVI based and had very few features other than a few that used USB instead of PS2 for keyboard and mouse connections. I had also come to know that each of the KVM switches I had used, including the professional quality ones at my workplace, had idiosyncrasies that in some cases compromised their efficiency. So my quest to find a switch that would meet my rather heightened needs at home continued in silence and up until recently I had all but given up."

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"Silverstone's third Kublai mid tower chassis is made for aficionados and serious computer enthusiasts that require a high level component with no trade-offs for cooling and quietness. Following the designing concept of previous chassis from Kublai series, the KL03 also possess many features borrowed from the Temjin series. Constructed using steel and aluminum, this chassis strikes a great balance between external aesthetics and excellent structural rigidity. Benchmark Reviews tests the Silverstone Kublai KL03B-W mid-tower ATX computer case in this article."

More information can be found here.

"When it comes to HDTVs, bigger and more expensive means a higher profile in the press and a much greater techno-lust factor. Everyone would love to own a 60-inch Pioneer Kuro plasma set but who has $7K to buy one? Enter the real"

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"Today we are checking out the recently released Mass Effect PC game. Mass Effect is an immensely fun and deep game that virtually all PC gamers will find something to like in. You could literally write a book about Mass Effect giving away plot details as you go along. If you are a fan of sci-fi role playing or shooter games you simply must add Mass Effect to your library. Mass Effect is simply one of the best PC games I have ever played."

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"Gaming on this system was incredible fun once we'd finished tweaking it, but up until that point it wasn't looking particularly good. In fact, I found myself reaching for my beloved Xbox 360 controller on more than one occasion through sheer frustration. The great thing about PC gaming though is that the bounds are limitless -- you can improve the graphics further down the line and you can tune to get better performance. That's something you can't do with a console, but it does require time investment on the user's part and that's not for everyone. Anyway, I'm not here to create a debate the benefits and downsides of PCs and games consoles -- I came here to prove that PC gaming isn't as expensive as everyone seems to think. You don't need the biggest, baddest and most power hungry high-end graphics card on the market to enjoy games at their maximum in-game settings, and you don't need the world's fastest processor either. You can get a great gaming experience---a great computing experience, in fact---on a system that costs less than that high-end CPU or graphics card //on its own. This industry focuses on the 'sexy' high end stuff far too often in my opinion and it's that that is killing a lot of //our enthusiasm because it's no longer fun -- we've said it before and I'll say it again: enthusiasts are being misinterpreted. Building a PC that burns holes in ones pockets isn't what enthusiasts are about; building a PC that delivers maximum bang-for-buck is what it's all about and I think we've achieved that right here."

More information can be found here.

"QNAP’s attention to the quality of the components used in the construction of the TS-409 is refreshing to see, and still they have proven quality doesn’t automatically mean a higher price. At $550 for the non-Pro and $600 for the Pro version the TS-409 is priced well below most of their competitors. The TS-409 incorporates many Enterprise-grade features one would expect to see in a NAS that costs almost half again this amount, and as such literally blows away four-bay NAS solutions within its price range by offering a better value, feature set, and very strong performance."

More information can be found here.

"Palit's GeForce 9800 GTX follows the specifications of the NVIDIA reference design to the letter. Even then it is one of the fastest cards out there that you can buy, constantly delivering excellent FPS in games. Our sample allowed up to 16% additional overclocking on the GPU for a final clock speed of 784 MHz."

More information can be found here.

"In-Win continues to make a name for themselves by releasing excellent cases like the Metal Suit GD. I was impressed by the build quality – every part of the case was solidly constructed; nothing about it felt “cheap”. It packs in a lot of features like liquid cooling readiness, an internal VGA cooling system, and plenty of drive bays while maintaining a sleek, uncluttered look."

More information can be found here.

"Up till now the easiest way to increase the amount of displays was to connect more display adapters to the computer. This may not be possible or cost effective in every situation so Gefen went out and added this new USB to DVI Adapter to their product lineup. This might change our way of dealing with multiple monitors."

More information can be found here.

"Yuin OK2 is the name of the second best earphone from the Chinese brand Yuin. Unlike their bigger brother these earphones are easy to drive, and are also optimized for use with a normal modern DAP. The OK2s can function both as normal earbuds and as in-ears which makes them quite unique."

More information can be found here.

"German headphone maker Ultrasone's HFI-580s block out noise without plugging up your ear canals or using active cancellation circuitry. The S-Logic"

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"All in all then, the new //Prince of Persia looks like it could be the best game in the series yet and if the developers can hold true to their promises and roll up the best of the //Sands trilogy with their new highly detailed cel-shaded style and the extra personality afforded by the redesigned Prince and his companion then this could be yet another title to enter our must-have list for this year. Granted, there's still a lot of detail to be cleared up in the game and we're fuzzy on whether the Prince's arsenal of moves and swords will be upgradeable or completely open -- finding a new sword was something we liked an awful lot in the past games -- but these are trivial details at best and when the soul of the game seems to be glowing this brightly then we'd be more than willing to accept a dark spot or two."

More information can be found here.

"This article serves only one purpose: test three of the industry's most coveted coolers. Not very long ago Benchmark Reviews published the article Best CPU Cooler Performance - Q1 2008. At the time, the effort we gave in producing our test results seemed well worth the trouble. However, months later we see that there's a lot more to a cooler than just measuring performance with the same common fan. So after even more testing, we now have a full understanding of each CPU coolers individual characteristics and deliver the results to you. Benchmark Reviews is proud to present a three-way fight to the finish: The OCZ Vendetta 2 vs. Thermalright's Ultra-120 eXtreme vs. Xigmatek's HDT-S1283."

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"Phillips' most recent entry into the earbud market touts an expert tuned and angled acoustic design, which reportedly provides remarkably"

More information can be found here.

"Canonical's Netbook Remix won't be appearing on mobile devices until later this year -- and these software changes are still very much under development -- but interested parties can already check out the source-code and Debian packages for this work. Canonical is publishing this work under the GNU GPLv3 license. For now this work isn't available through any of the Ubuntu repositories, but the packages are hosted within a Launchpad PPA (Personal Package Archive)."

More information can be found here.

"Back in 2005 we had looked at the Hiper Type-R Modular 580W power supply. This was a unique power supply that had a modular cable design and had performed very well. Even the Type-R's packaging was unique, with the power supply arriving in a plastic toolbox. We haven't looked at a Hiper power supply now in almost three years, but today we are looking at the Type-M 780W from Hiper Group. This power supply is dual-GPU ready (including compatibility with PCI-E 8-pin connectors), utilizes active PFC, and has four +12V rails."

More information can be found here.

"It's always a painful and futile experience to try reviewing an MMO. For instance, there are problems with credit cards and the inevitable fact that we forget to cancel the subscriptions after the review is done, therefore inadvertently charging a couple of hundred pounds to company credit card. Most of all though, the review very quickly runs out of date as the game is constantly updating and how much anyone enjoys the game is massively dependent on the calibre of gamers they end up gaming alongside. That means you're going to have to take any conclusions we offer with a pinch of salt -- ok? Just so we're clear. That said, //Age of Conan is a lot of fun once you get into it -- the proviso mainly being that you do have to make an effort to get into and jump over the initial few hours of boredom. Game designers seem to be labouring under the impression at the moment that MMO games as a genre have only one aim; to topple //World of Warcraft as Lord of the Pings. To do this, they seem to think that you need a certain gimmick or hook -- PvR gameplay or genre blending MMOFPS action for instance. So far, that tactic doesn't seem to be doing to well -- so it's refreshing to see that //Age of Conan bucks the trend and instead focuses on creating just a solid and persistent world to play in. //Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures doesn't bring anything hugely new to the table and the only real gimmicks it has going for it are the franchise behind it all and the fact that you can't take two steps without faceplanting into the second biggest pair of boobs you're ever likely to see. It's a fun and accessible RPG though, and on that front it can't be faulted."

More information can be found here.

"BT: Piracy is pretty big topic right now and, with games like //Mass Effect and //Spore threatening increasingly draconian DRM 'protections', some gamers are worried about the state of PC gaming. Sins though came with no copy protection at all if I remember correctly, so what's your take on all this? Is there a way to stop the pirates without punishing the customers? CF: We're all stuck in an unfortunate vicious cycle. As pirating increases, DRM increases, which in turn forces people to pirate. From what I understand, //Mass Effect has since backed down a tad after listening carefully to their fans. SecuROM seemed a bit ridiculous in my opinion. At the same time you can't blame developers for retreating to the console if they can't receive the fruit of their labour. Until a real solution presents itself, Stardock and Ironclad will continue to reward legit gamers and make the purchasing process are smooth as possible. The last thing we want to do is treat our customers like criminals."

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"Network attached storage. Storage that is attached to a network. NAS. Don't these words just send shivers up your spine? Is there anything more exciting in the world of computers and technology? Well, truthfully most things out there probably are more exciting...until now."

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"If you have been reading XtremeComputing for a while, you will know that we have already reviewed an AK965 cooler from Akasa, and found it to be very good performance for the money. So what is different about this AK965? Well the last version of the cooler was intended for the OEM/system builder market, and because of demand for the AK965 Akasa has released a slightly updated version (blue leds and fan) straight to retail. This should mean that it will be available to buy in even more places."

More information can be found here.

"Last week we released Phoronix Test Suite 1.0 and one of the article requests we received as a result was to do a side-by-side comparison between the popular desktop Linux distributions. Ask and you shall receive. Today we have up 28 test results from Ubuntu 8.04, Fedora 9, and Mandriva 2008.1."

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"Today we are looking at the Wolfking Warrior XXtreme. This is a gaming keyboard set up for one had use while gaming with a mouse. The keys have a nice tactile feel, though they are stiffer feeling than the keys on say the Razer Lachesis or Logitech G15 gaming keyboards. The keys are arranged well, though you do have to get used to where the keys are in the circular layout. Once you find them they keys on the left side are much easier to reach than in a standard linear gaming keyboard."

More information can be found here.

"Today we have the Cyber Snipa Dog Tags on the review block. What exactly are the"

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"Late last month AMD had announced the release of the Stream SDK for Linux. This Stream SDK brings support for the CAL and Brook+ libraries on Linux. The version released was Stream SDK 1.1 Beta, which arrived at the same time as the SDK for Windows XP. With this new Linux support, we ran a small Q&A session with Michael Chu, who serves as the product manager for AMD Stream software. In this article are AMD's answers to some of the questions asked by members of the Phoronix Forums."

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"Mistakes happen. We are all human and sometimes we do things we later realize were not the best way to do them. Most of the time these mistakes are small and harmless and sometimes they cost you. In this regard, I am referring to the NVIDIA 780i chipset. Yes, that's right, I called it a mistake. With native PCIe 2.0, eSATA and support for Intel's 1600MHz FSB CPUs, the 790i Ultra is what the 780i should have been, thereby making the 780i a very costly mistake for anyone who purchased one. But like all mistakes, we need to put the past behind us and look forward to better and brighter things. Better and brighter is just what XFX specializes in and with this board they aim to keep the good times rolling. As stated before, this board comes with lots of goodies including PCIe 2.0, on board eSATA, triple-SLI support, DDR3 support, and a sexy black PCB. If that wasn't enough, just wait until you look at all the accessories XFX throws into the mix. Without further ado I present to y!"

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"The AirView-2000 can stream your Windows desktop or favorite video to the device through any normal 54 MBit wireless network. So there are no cables to tie you down and you may walk around freely with your tablet PC or notebook during a presentation or at school & university."

More information can be found here.

"For this review I’ll be looking at something a little different from a, I assume, relative newcomer to the gaming accessory scene as before receiving the item for review I had never heard of them. The item under review today is the FPS Gaming Vest from TN Games. It’s a rather interesting item that should make compatible FPS games even more realistic by enabling users to “feel” the game."

More information can be found here.

"Today we are looking at a high-end motherboard from Asus called the Striker II NSE. This board uses the latest NVIDIA 790i Ultra chipset and supports Intel LGA775 processors. The BIOS used on the board is easy enough to use and offers easy access to CPU level up automatic overclocking and memory level up. All the settings the overclocker needs are on one tab for easy access. The voltage tweaking section is robust and even changes the color of the voltage based on how dangerous the BIOS deems the settings from green, to yellow and red."

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"High-resolution wide screen monitors are very hot right now. As with most computer trends, one will see a new technology start off expensive before growing into a less expensive and more mature product. LCDs have come a long way themselves; transitioning from an early-adopter, niche market due to poor viewing angles and high product costs into the de facto standard monitor for all new computer systems. Like any piece of hardware, many users aren't content with a single standard size and usually want something bigger, better, larger and more life-like or some such. Hence, large LCD monitors are becoming the new toys that many computer enthusiasts are picking up. The Samsung 2220WM-HAS represents a maturing line of larger wide screen monitors that are surprisingly inexpensive nowadays."

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"No doubt the PNY Verto GeForce 9600 GT was up against some stiff competition when we tested it at a resolution of 2560x1600. Given that the card is a reference model it performed admirably against the GeForce 8800 GT and GTS, and outperformed the Radeon HD 3870 in many of our tests at both resolutions. Considering that currently the Radeon HD 3870 has to have a rebate to match the price of our PNY 9600 GT it’s hard to argue against what a great value this card is..."

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"Awkwardly proportioned and packed with ostensibly clever but actually rather pointless image quality enhancements, what exactly do we make of Samsung's new 21.6-inch display? In default mode---the mode we recommend you leave this display set to---it's a solid but unspectacular performer. The real problem, therefore, is pricing. At over £200, it's not exactly cheap. Especially when you factor in the missing HDMI port and 0.4-inch shortfall in panel size. That may not sound like a lot. But in the absence of any mitigating features, it's just noticeable enough to be a significant niggle at this price point."

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"Today we are testing out the BFG 8800 GT OCX with ThermoIntelligence video card. This 8800 GT retails for a bit over $200 and offers the best performance you will find in a 8800 GT video card. The performance that BFG gets out of the 8800 GT OCX is very impressive. The 8800 GT OCX is a very well priced card considering the performance it delivers with an online retail price of $209.99. This is the best performing 8800 GT I have tested."

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"This is most assuredly the era of high-definition, and now many people are buying into Blu-ray only to find that their old receivers aren't quite up to the task. Onkyo had met the demand for an affordable, versatile home theater receiver with last year's TX-SR605, a truly impressive offering for the modern age, with HDMI switching and the latest audio codecs. And after listening to consumer and industry feedback, they have addressed the 605's few limitations to make its successor even better, resulting in the killer TX-SR606."

More information can be found here.

"The age old saying of "Love thy Neighbor" may still be heard on any given Sunday and will likely receive a positive reception. However, if the saying happened to be "Trust thy Neighbor" the response would most likely be a little different. Gone are the days where one can feel comfortable leaving their house or cars unlocked, trusting that your employees are honest, or even that the babysitter is not mistreating your child. It is rare that you walk into a store nowadays without being watched by electronic eyes. While to some that may be troubling, the fact of the matter is, it is becoming more and more a necessity. In the past, those high tech security systems were reserved for the business that was forced to justify the expense or the rich guy that could afford the rather large expense of not only purchasing the system but having it professionally installed. Today Benchmark Reviews will be taking a look at a new product that hopes to reduce not only the cost barrier of the home/small office security system, but also virtually eliminate the installation hassle, the NVR-1012 from Qnap."

More information can be found here.

"The Super Talent MasterDrive MX is a great drive for those that want speed and don't have a ton of heavy writing that needs to be done. Its clear that these type of drives will not be a fad, and these will truly supersede rotational hard drives. Unfortunately these drives are still rather pricey at $419 for a 60GB drive..."

More information can be found here.

"Recently we were contacted by Mushkin, who informed us about a new series memory products that was in the offing. This series of products called the Ascent, would be offered both in DDR2 and DDR3, have both 2 and 4GB kits, and offer varying increases in performance over their previous product high-performance product line. Today it is our pleasure to share our findings for Mushkin's 4GB Mushkin XP2-8500 Ascent DDR2 memory kit. We should also note that the official launch for Mushkin's Ascent memory series should take be taking place and be available most major vendors as you read this review."

More information can be found here.

"The Osiris turned out to be one beautiful case. Hiper has really made an excellent product, with great attention to detail. It appears refined and polished, and in no way comes off as gaudy. No matter what side you look to you will find it blends perfectly with the rest. If you are looking for a clean, easy to work with, extremely well made mid-tower case, you should definitely consider the Osiris."

More information can be found here.

"NVIDIA usually pleases the enthusiast community with their product launches, and no launch has been more memorable lately than the GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS graphic card launch more than eighteen months ago. So when the 9800 GTX product line launched on April 1st, 2008 there was a lot of commotion surrounding the new crown prince. With such a successful debut of the 8800 GTX back in 2006, the level of enthusiast skepticism surrounding the new 9800 GTX was unquestionably high. First came the lower mid-level 9600 GT, and then the ultra-high level GeForce 9800 GX2 which utilized two G92 GPU cores. Yet title of fastest single-GPU video card remains the honor of NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GTX. Benchmark Reviews has already helped launch this product, and now we're back to test the performance of Foxconn's new GeForce 9800 GTX Standard OC Edition 512MB video card 9800GTX-512N."

More information can be found here.

"Earlier this year we had looked at the Cooler Master Cosmos S, which was a very nice EATX chassis and had taken the Cosmos 1000 to the next level. While we were not most fond of the Cosmos S aesthetics, the Cooler Master case we are looking at today is unlike any other we have ever reviewed. The case we are looking at is the CSX Limited Edition Gargoyle."

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"Now admittedly we were a little disappointed that our plan to incinerate the ramshackle huts had failed so early on and that we had had to fall back and rely on Warren's help, but the process actually helped to prove how great Far Cry 2 is when it comes to providing an emergent experience and an arena for players to experiment in and create their own stories. This, if anything, would seem to be / /Far Cry 2's speciality -- it just refuses to be consistent in any aspect of the game design. There are a few hard and fast rules which make the game world consistent with how we think the world should be -- wind that blows, fire that spreads, wood that splinters -- but that's about it. The rest of the game is different every time you play it because the details are always changing. Put simply, when it's the case that the direction that the wind is blowing in can change your entire approach to a mission then you know you're in for a hugely open and vastly replayable gaming experience. / /Far Cry 2 may yet have problems we haven't uncovered and granted that a single mission is no basis on which to judge an entire unreleased game -- but if we were so foolish as to do judge in that way then //Far Cry 2 is one game that we'd definitely get very excited about."

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"Today we are looking at a portable solar battery charger system that has tips to fit most all popular phones, game systems and other portable devices. The Devotec Solar Charger also works with the iPhone and iPod. When I plug the Devotec Solar Charger into my iPhone the iPhone beeps and recognizes the charger just as it does the stock dock or charge cable. You can make and receive calls while the phone is connected to the Devotec Solar Charger. Perhaps the best news for users looking for a device like the Devotec Solar Charger is that it is cheap and ships worldwide. The device sells for £19.99 or about $40 in the US. Devotec will ship the charger anywhere in the world for a bit under $6."

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"In our interview with David Makin from Palit Multimedia we learned about recent US activities of the company and how Palit is working on increasing their market share. Also David talks about his personal background and how he made it into the Industry."

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"At this test station these two individuals were individually testing Nano processors at various speeds and temperatures to see if they pass stress testing. If you are curious what Centuar was testing you are in luck. Centaur was checking to see if the VIA Nano CPU's were stable at 1.8GHz at three different temperatures (85C, 5C and then 25C)with 1.1V on production platforms. The processors that pass testing at this stage move along to become VIA Nano L2100 processors, which are the 1.8GHz processors. I was able to see VIA Nano processors get speed binned right in front my eyes..."

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"The Samsung HT-X810 was one of the coolest soundbars announced at CES 2008, mostly because of the 5.8GHz wireless subwoofer. That plus Bluetooth connectivity, a USB port, HDMI output, and an on-board DVD/CD player put it ahead of most competitors, and the glossy black styling matches Samsung's HDTV line (especially our 40-incher) perfectly. At nearly $700, it isn't an entry-level product, but it's a lean, mean home theater system that can eliminate a lot of the clutter of more traditional setups."

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"If you live in the US, you have probably seen TV commercials about the analog TV signal being switched off in February of 2009. For old home TV sets, there is a converter that can be purchase and the government is even stepping in to help subsidize some of the expenses for the converter. However, for thoes users who mainly use their computer to watch TV via a TV tuner, they may be out of luck unless they upgrade their old TV tuner to a new one that supports digital signals."

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"Building on the success of its Xonar D2, D2X and more recently, the DX, Asus will launch the Xonar D1 this month. It's a PCI based version of the Xonar DX that we recently reviewed and we're told that it will be priced aggressively to target the alternative Creative cards in the same price range. Asus believes that, by July, its audio range will be in a position to finally claim the trumps over Creative from top to bottom -- the guys from the Xonar team we met were certainly very fired up with ideas and stories of the Xonar development spilling out from everywhere. One thing Asus has listened to is the feedback on its PCI-Express cards which are right now shipping into the channel with a floppy power to Molex adapter and all new future board designs will feature a Molex power connector instead. It's a little more frustrating to use, but Asus was adamant that because it keeps the grounding separate, the quality improves. Since the primary target is audio fidelity, this is an important goal even if it's at the expense of a little usability. With regards to gaming, Asus is not stopping with its GX3D 2.0 engine that emulates EAX 5.0. The upcoming GX 3.0 is also in the works to provide"

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"Today we are looking at the Belkin Nostromo n52te gaming keypad. The device has 15 buttons plus a D-pad with removable joystick. The n52te is powered by Razer and features backlighting for gaming in the dark. The Belkin Nostromo n52te has a learning curve, but once you get the gamepad set up to your liking and get used to the control layout it is a nice tool for gaming. Personally I will stick to my gaming keyboard, but if you frequent LAN parties the Belkin Nostromo n52te may be exactly what you need."

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"In our test the Battle-Axe proved to be a very powerful graphic card cooler, but it doesn't come without a long list of down sides. First of all it's huge. This isn't a problem if the user only has one graphic card and doesn't even plan to get any other cards. Anyway it just leaves a feeling of"

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"So now its time again for me, the crazy Swede, to build a HTPC case - but this time, I have strayed a bit from my usual path. I'm trying to go a bit more clean and stylish in my design than before. My casemods usually have some skulls, flames or pentagrams in them, but this one has none of that at all. Even I get tired of the same old thing eventually, so now it's time for me to boldly go where I haven't gone before. My past projects like the Pentagram HTPC and the Weighted Companion PC were a lot of fun to build and I'm very happy with them, but fitting the pentagram beneath my TV turned out to be a bit of a problem. So, this time I'm going small sleek and stylish...or at least I think so. The aim here is to build a case that could be used in any living room without scaring your grandma out of her socks. For me that is a bit of a challenge since I have no experience in this type of design. But, enough with the small talk - lets get to it and do some case building."

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"NVIDIA has done very well for itself over the past decade. While most of the world can recognize the chip-maker for its popular GeForce product line, very few might realize that this green-machine also has focus outside of the graphics card industry. Like any company that has mastered its craft, NVIDIA set out to develop a competitive processor design that would change the face of mobile computing. Earlier this year NVIDIA announced that they were ready to product the APX 2500 application processor for a new line of handheld mobile Internet devices, but then very little actually materialized. Back with what might be considered a re-launch, NVIDIA launches the Tegra 650 and 600 mobile processors."

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"On a recent trip to Santa Clara we got to actually use the Tegra development platform and we can tell you that it is very real and it works! The picture above is the real deal. The Tegra processor was able to playback high definition video at 720p without a stutter, which was impressive..."

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"The Sugo SG02-F is described as their most affordable case yet and it offers an improved layout over the original SG01. Unlike the revolutionary differences between the SG01 and SG03, the SG02-F is just an evolution of the SG01 design with expanded support for graphics cards and is composed of a steel body. Thanks to these design improvements, this SFF case is capable of handling long graphics cards such as the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 and GeForce 8800 Ultra. The SG02-F is quite similar to the original SG02 except for turning from aluminum to steel construction and some other enhancements. With a price tag under $80 USD, does this case still deliver on the features and exceptional build quality we have become to know and love from this high-end manufacturer or have they cut too many corners to achieve this pricing?"

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"The Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic provides users with the best image quality and most flexible visual experience regardless of the output standard needed. The new advanced DisplayPort output supports a maximum of 10.8 Gbit/s data rate and display resolutions up to 2560×1600; high-definition video is supported with the HDMI output. Palit maintains dual Dual-Link DVI outputs on GeForce 9600 GT Sonic, further extending the usability of this graphics card. All four outputs support 40-bit HDCP and the DisplayPort output also supports 128-bit AES DPCP. Benchmark Reviews tests the Palit NE/960TSX0202 GeForce 9600 GT 1GB Sonic video card against a wide variety of Geforce products in this product review."

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"While most early adopters and Gen Y-ers are used to the idea of watching TV on their PC using services like Bebo, Hulu, Joost or a million alternatives, now the rest of the world is finally catching up. Have yet to join the party? It's about time you tuned in - and upgraded your monitor to really enjoy all of these groovy options as they're meant to be experienced. Thankfully, Dell's new Ultra-Sharp 2408WFP 24-inch widescreen flat panel monitor can help."

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"The comfort level of the Discovery 925 is incredibly nice. After finding the right size to wear, you start to wonder why manufacturers haven’t come up with a similar design yet. A friend of mine who has small ears and has always had problems wearing “in-the-ear” type of headsets was able to fit the Discovery 925 with no problems at all. It doesn’t matter if you are left-ear or a right-ear Bluetooth wearer, you can switch between ears with ease. Some headsets like the Jawbone require you to physically change the hardware for this basic switch. After using the 925 for a few days, there is no way I want to go back to the “ancient” fit of an ear hook like the Jawbone or “deep in the ear canal” of the Gennum. These headsets are great performers, but their fit is not as comfortable, free and versatile as the 925..."

More information can be found here.