Wed Reviews

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB PC2-8500

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When you think of memory, Crucial is a brand that is recognized as stable and trustworthy. It was some time ago that Crucial (and Micron) never provided overclocking RAM and never warranted pushing their modules passed their recommended values. Even back then, people used Crucial modules to push their systems to the limits. Today, Crucial is one of the many memory makers that back overclocking memory as a standard. RAM has come a long way since those early years. Now there are lights and heat spreaders on most memory. The real meat is the speed and timings and that is what we are looking at for the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB PC2-8500 Kit.

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The dog may be man's best friend, but a mouse is a gamer's best pal. The market is flooded with mice that promise high resolutions and dead-on precision in the digital battlegrounds. Every company offers something extra to attract a potential buyer, be it the adjustable weight cartridge from Logitech's G5 line, or the triple threat button from OCZ Equalizer Laser Gaming Mouse, that allows the user to shoot a virtual weapon three times faster then normal. We tested the latter and its impressive range of sensitivity - from 400dpi to 2500 dpi - that can turn any lousy shot into a digital marksman.

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Zotac's new GeForce 8800 GTX OC Edition comes factory overclocked with clocks of 630 MHz core and 1000 MHz memory. This is a nice increase over the standard NVIDIA clocks, especially if you consider the small $20 premium and that you don't lose your warranty. For users who are not willing to spend a lot of money for a GeForce 8800 Ultra this card seems to be a viable alternative.

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Quote: You get what you pay for. It's a phrase we hear often, but how much does this statement reflect the truth? The Crucial Ballistix Tracer product lineup is intended to satisfy those who care about aesthetics just as much as performance. So with the Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 2GB DDR2 Memory Kit, do you get what you pay for? We'll let you be the judge.

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The release of the Nintendo Wii in November 2006 has brought a different look to next generation consoles. Since is release it has sold over 7 million units. The Wii uses wireless (Bluetooth) remotes, called Wiimotes. Yes, other consoles offer wireless remotes, but they don't offer what the Wii does, interaction. The remote and receiver combination is more of a virtual simulation where how you move physically is affected in the game. This is very different than any other console. Yet some gamers may find this to completely destroy their purpose of video gaming. This usually is to just sit around rather than move. This gives the opportunity for people to lose weight and enjoy themselves while doing it. Who knew that video games could come to this?

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With the introduction of the 3D Galaxy II liquid cooling system, Gigabyte has given novice watercooling enthusiasts another option when deciding to take the plunge. This system is feature rich, expandable and great looking. It has good cooling performance as well, and addresses the motherboard cooling issues commonly overlooked by the inexperienced waterhead.

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Quote: External hard drives are nothing new to the computer accessories market. External hard drive enclosures are offered by many manufacturers and most perform their intended job well. Antec recently sent us the MX-1 which is their latest external storage enclosure for us to test. We expected an ordinary enclosure and were pleasantly surprised by the performance and features of this product.

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Power supplies are something that we just have to have, and sometimes the cheapie OEMs just don't cut it for the things we need to do. The trend lately is bigger, and bigger for power supplies, sure that's nice thing but what if you don't need that much power? What if you're looking for something that can handle a basic system with no problems and still allow for a bit of upgrading headroom as well? Today for review I have a 560watt supply from our friends at High Power, during my testing I found it absolutely stable, and well within tolerances. One nice and interesting feature is that High Power has included an LED display on the back that lets you know just how much power your system is consuming at any given time...

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Quote: After having used a handful of notebook coolers that use rigid bodies with fans to get the job done, the iXoft is obviously the quietest, easiest to setup, most portable, and still quite effective. The somewhat mysterious and scientific nature of Thermaltake's heatshift technology makes the iXoft even more appealing, as it is just that much different than the typical cooler.

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The MX-1 is aptly named, as surprisingly it is Antec's first and currently only foray into the HDD enclosure market. Feature-wise, Antec takes great care to stress that the MX-1 is actively cooled, definitely a good start out of the gate. The average hard drive can easily reach temperatures of 40-50c if left out in the open air, while inside a case active hard drive cooling is a must. Antec's choice to equip the MX-1 with both an eSATA and USB 2.0 connectors gives it the potential to perform just as fast as an internal SATA hard drive, while giving it the portability to easily go anywhere. No eSATA port? No problem, an eSATA -> SATA pass through PCI bracket is included in the kit as well.

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The Good Work Systems Fragpedal Elite gives your feet control during your favorite game. Our feet are the only part which we still do not use when sitting in front of the computer. The Fragpedal Elite give you four fully customizable buttons to use in any fashíon you would like. The included software with its own programming environment makes this possible. We give the pedals and the software a try, to see if it makes a good addition to your keyboard and mouse.

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Yesterday we covered the graphics hardware needed to handle Beryl and on the heels of that article we are taking a quick look at another Linux versus Windows comparison for the official ATI/AMD graphics drivers. NVIDIA's Linux and Windows drivers perform about the same and in some instances the Linux binary driver even running faster, but as we have been sharing now for many months the Linux fglrx driver is handicapped for performance. Has things since improved for ATI? Well, as you'll see in this article by using the official Linux driver from ATI/AMD you can expect your frame-rate to be cut in half compared to the most recent version of the Windows Catalyst driver.

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OCZ brings us face to face with the Reaper... Will you be dying to get your hands on this ram from OCZ? Find out as we take a look at the Reaper and see how it compares to other high quality memory out there. These were the first modules to be incorporate the new Reaper heatsink and are rated at 1150MHz at CL 5-5-5. Read on to see if these copper heat pipe clad memory modules are right for you.

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OCZ brings us face to face with the Reaper... Will you be dying to get your hands on this ram from OCZ? Find out as we take a look at the Reaper and see how it compares to other high quality memory out there. These were the first modules to be incorporate the new Reaper heatsink and are rated at 1150MHz at CL 5-5-5. Read on to see if these copper heat pipe clad memory modules are right for you.

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We thought it was already clear what graphics processors and drivers work and don't work with Linux desktop eye candy such as Beryl and Compiz, but it seems based upon the number of e-mails we have been receiving along with messages in community bulletin boards that the line isn't so clear after all. For those that have never tried out Beryl, it is a compositing window manager branched from Compiz (though Beryl will merge back with Compiz soon) that provides a variety of window decorations and other desktop eye candy for X.Org users. In this article we hope to make it clear for you what GPUs will make your Linux desktop look the most pleasurable and what ones just sweat thinking about these desktop effects. We have taken eight different systems, benchmarked them using the Beryl Benchmark, and have our thoughts on these ATI/AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA solutions with Beryl v0.2.

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The BeleniX LiveCD that is based off of OpenSolaris with GNU applications has reached version 0.6 after some setbacks. While this release is coming out later than expected, it is based upon OpenSolaris Build 60, uses X.Org 7.2, features Compiz 0.5 for Xfce and KDE, offers usbdump integration, and sports many other improvements. BeleniX is a OpenSolaris distribution we enjoy very much and would encourage all of you experimenting with Linux or Solaris to try it out.

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As an encore to the Habu Razer and Microsoft teamed up again, this time to make a keyboard. Rather than build off of Razer's successful Tarantula keyboard, as the company did with its Pro|Type the team decided to put together something very different from it. The Reclusa is a gaming keyboard that, according to today's standards, does not look like a gaming keyboard. In fact it looks more like a media keyboard from 1998, that is at least before you turn it on. This low-key approach to gamer gear is probably a result of Microsoft's influence on the product- an attempt to broaden its appeal- so it will be interesting to see how its performance is affected by this approach.

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The Gladiator is a mid tower case that supports AT, baby AT, ATX, and micro ATX motherboards. The case is constructed of 1mm thick high grade steel and has a total of 10 drive bays. The Gladiator also utilizes several Tool-less features from the 5 ¼ inch drive bays to the PCI slots. The Gladiator even includes an Intel TAC compliant CPU duct and VGA vent.

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Compared to the first generation of X-QPack, the X-QPack2 is a better designed and better performing Micro-ATX case. The improvements design-wise is the slightly deeper chassis which gives a bit more clearance for long video cards and optical drives, and the improved performance comes from the additional cooling and higher rated power supply.

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Today we have for review an Albatron 8600 GT from Albatron. This is a standard (as opposed to overclocked) version of NVIDIA's 8600 GT. The 8600 GT performance is a little under par with the 7900 GS and the X1950 PRO, which can currently be bought for about the same price. This puts the card in a tight spot. Will it please the hordes of eager gamers looking for an affordable card?

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The ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard rings in at about $130 USD, which makes it substantially cheaper than many of the NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI motherboards on the market and even some of the nForce 650i motherboards. While this motherboard may be affordable, does it deliver upon the ASUS quality and innovations that enthusiasts have come to expect from their cutting edge products? Well, some of its many features include Intel Quad-Core support, NVIDIA SLI, and HD Azalia Audio.

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The OCZ name is well known when it comes to memory. Offering top notch performance and outstanding overclocking capabilities, it is hard to beat. OCZ's PC2-6400 SLi-Ready memory modules are programmed to boot at 800MHz DDR2 with timings of 4-4-4 1T.

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As DDR2 meanders to obsolescence, we're going to send it out with a bang......Today HL begins a four review series covering some enthusiast kits that not only tickle the overclocking itch, but do it without breaking the bank. We'll begin our journey with Crucial's PC2-8500 Tracer Memory Kit, for those of you that want bling in your case....it doesn't get much better than this.

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Every now again a product comes along that makes you sit up and take notice. It may be the newest video card or a screaming fast CPU. But once is a very long while it is a product that is less revolutionary and more evolutionary. And so I present you with the OCZ Trifecta, the next evolution in Secure Digital memory. The OCZ Trifecta offers microSD, SD and USB 2.0 compatibility at 66x speeds (10 MB/s) all in one convenient package. With capacities up to 2 GB, the Trifecta looks to have a lot of potential. During the time I spent with this device I would test to see how it performs as a replacement for my digital camera's SD card, my cell phone's microSD card and my OCZ Rally thumb drive.

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Mushkin's XP2-8500 4 GB DDR2 memory is the only kit on the market that can run DDR2-1066 in a 4 GB configuration. While other manufacturers have to use CL6 @ 800 MHz, Mushkin can use CL5 @ 1066, at around 2.30 V. Having 4 GB of system memory may soon be the recommended configuration when running the memory-hungry Windows Vista. The only drawback of this memory is its price: $679.

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* Although many have been a bit disappointed that the latest hardware renditions that ATI released didn't take the GTX performance crown, they tend to forget that the money is in the mid to low range cards, not the top end. This is a market that is still held pretty firmly by ATI with their x1950 Pro cards. Today I have Sapphire's version of the series which has proved itself time and time again; let's see how this one fairs against new challengers from the 8600 series.