Tuesday Reviews

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OCZ may be best known for their memory products such as low latency and high speed RAM, but they also provide other products with enhanced speed and performance. Their line of cooling products as well as flash memory provide excellent performance in today's market. Today, ASE Labs has the OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4GB USB flash drive for review. Even flash can be dual channel.

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It has been a long time since I last reviewed a Logitech product. CES has come and gone and with the show brought some interesting items. One such item that Logitech was showing was the diNovo Mini which is targeted to media center PCs like those provided by MythTV. The diNovo Mini was released a few weeks ago and it is the spotlight in this review.

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What happens when you need a full size case for a new build? Maybe you want the extra space for additional cooling or hardware support. Look no futher than the Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS. We already know that Thermaltake is a big player in the cases and modding market. This case certainly fits its name. It is big, heavy, and tough.

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Honeywell produces many different types of products in the consumer and enterprise market. It was just some time ago that SOYO partnered with Honeywell to produce a new line of consumer electronics and out of that agreement comes the newest LCD monitor from Honeywell: The ARIUS 22" HWLM2216. ASE Labs is proud to be the first site to review this monitor.

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When looking at the AMD Phenom 9500 under Linux, we had found this processor had posed a number of issues from kernel panics to other troubles when running Ubuntu 7.10 with the Linux 2.6.22 kernel. Once, however, upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04 with the Linux 2.6.24 kernel these problems had vanished and we were pleased by this native quad-core desktop processor from AMD. Released a month prior to the first Phenom desktop CPUs were the quad-core Opteron 2300 Barcelona processors. We hadn't looked at any AMD Barcelona processors at that time, but today we finally have our hands on two of the new AMD Opteron 2356 server/workstation processors. The Opteron 2356 CPUs come clocked at 2.30GHz, and is a revision B3 Opteron meaning that it has a proper fix for the TLB erratum -- this model was introduced only earlier this month. We have benchmarked the new Opteron 2356 in both single and dual CPU configurations and have compared the results -- under Linux -- to two of Intel's quad-core Xeon processors.

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The OVC TC20 earphones are aimed at the more budget conscious in-ear audience. Priced at only $39 they are many times cheaper than most big brand earphones. The only question is how does their sound performance stack up against the more expensive in-ears.

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Once this drive is on the market in full force, I can see it becoming one of the most popular USB drives out there. It's fast, it's remarkably small, it's cheap, and its a lot of fun to show your friends how huge (sarcasm) your 8Gb drive is.

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ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe will be one of the first motherboards to be launched on the market based on the forthcoming nForce 780a chipset - which, by the way, is delaying a lot to be released. But don't think that nForce 780a is simple the AMD version of the nForce 780i - it isn't. One of the main differences between the two is the support for HybridSLI, which features HybridPower, a feature that disables the video cards installed in the system when you are not playing games and generates 2D images - i.e. when you are using Windows, a word processor or a spreadsheet - thru the chipset to save a lot of power, and GeForce Boost, which uses the on-board video to increase 3D performance. The problem is that both features require compatible video cards and so far only two video cards support each feature. Other features from this motherboard include three PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots supporting 3-way SLI and Quad SLI, a passive cooling solution for the memories, an eSATA port, co! axial and optical SPDIF outputs and more.

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Gigabyte is a solid company. They're at the top of my list, it would seem, so picking a current-generation entry-level motherboard without integrated graphics narrows things down to about half a dozen options, with the GA-P31-DS3L at the front. But is that really enough to base a decision on? Well, if you're reading this, then Jesus, of course not. Here's what to expect: OK performance, dull layout, and Ultra Durability! After a trip to the bench, this board indeed gets a nod for being better than the other P31 motherboards. Here's what that means.

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Cyber Acoustics are based out of Asia and claim to have had involvement in the PC audio industry for many years, since the 80`s in fact. Now, that should be plenty of time to get the recipe right, so to speak. The company offers many products from headsets and iPod solutions to full on surround sound systems like the one I`m looking at today. For the purposes of testing I have several systems around my home to provide an adequate representation of where these speakers stand, all things considered. I think that when evaluating speakers in general, it's a very good idea to try and listen to the same piece of music through several different systems.

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Apple's Time Capsule combines a gigantic 1TB hard drive with a speedy wireless router that dishes out legacy B and G Wi-Fi along with the new N standard. It's an overall solid package that delivers on its promise of easy-to-use centralized storage for a home network, and its wireless performance is very good as well. The only drawbacks are that the much-touted Time Machine feature only works with OS X Leopard, setup isn't as easy as we anticipated from an Apple product, and naturally it's a bit expensive..

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There are times when Benchmark Reviews will test a product that seems very similar to another that we've already reviewed, with only subtle differences separating them. A much less common occurrence is when we see the exact same product, only wearing a different name. Kingwin is fortunate then to have built their RVT-12025 HDT CPU cooler from an award-winning mold. Designed from the Heat-pipe Direct Touch technology created by Zaward, and later incorporated into the award-winning Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU cooler, the new RVT-12025 is a chip off the old block... a very well established block.

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Alphacool has a very nice product with their LCD Display. Like I said, it has been around for a while but even today it's still very functional and modern. It's cheaper than an external color display to use with Windows Vista for it's sideshow feature and it's better function and performance wise than the Pertelian V5. The display sells for around 100 euros nowadays and the smaller 240x64 ones for 70 euros. The Pertelian sells for around 35 euros, which is half the price of the 240x64 pixels version but the Pertelian doesn't have screen as nice as the Alphacool LC-Display.

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In Win has been developing some pretty interesting cases lately and the B2 Stealth Bomber is the latest ATX tower from the Xtreme Series. With an auto-sensing front door and a touch sensitive mechanism to activate the front cover this case is far from what one would expect in a case. Join us as we see if this tool-free case can be as stealthy as the plane its named after!

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It's not the first time I've entered the wonderful world of notebooks, but recently I've found myself getting a bit tired of sitting in front of the same desk in the same room so many hours a day. I thought that it was finally time to take the plunge and get back into the wonderful world that is notebooks. There are three kinds of notebook users; those that get their notebook through work for business purposes, those that buy it themselves and say that they're going to use it all the time, but actually don't, and then of course the group of people who buy it and actually do use it. I hope to find myself in the latter; previously I was in the second group and found my notebook being used as a door stop more than anything else.

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Last month we had looked at the Radeon HD 3200, which is part of the AMD 780G Chipset. In that Linux-based review we had found the performance to be admirable for being an integrated graphics processor (IGP) and it was quickly supported by the proprietary fglrx driver, aside from AMD not yet introducing the CrossFire/Hybrid Graphics Linux support. To deliver those Radeon HD 3200 benchmarks we had used the ECS A780GM-A Black and today we're publishing our full run-down on this AMD 780G motherboard that's paired with the AMD SB700 Southbridge. The A780GM-A boasts support for AMD Phenom processors, DDR2-1066 memory, PCI Express 2.0, and an HDMI port in addition to one VGA output.

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Quote: The 1GB Sapphire Radeon HD3870 X2 graphics card couples the power of two HD3870 GPUs on one card to provide the muscle necessary to smoothly drive today's games with ease. And if you are a player that insists on the absolute cutting edge and top notch performance at any cost you can take advantage of CrossFireX and use two of these cards in tandem.

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Since AMD bought ATI they have struggled to compete with NVIDIA for the performance crown. Instead they have chosen a different strategy by releasing GPU's that while still fast mainly compete by offering an excellent performance and features for a low price. The HD3870 GPU is no exception and today we are testing HIS interesting HIS HD 3870 IceQ 3 Turbo.

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ThinkComputers loves ThermalTake's lines of cooling supplies and cases. The company is known for its think of everything packaging and subtle stylishness of its products. ThermalTake provided ThinkComputers with a 650W version of its new ToughPower QFan line of power supply units. We expected this power supply to sputter when connected to our enthusiast-level gaming rig-the results of our testing are in the review.

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Today is the day where I try something a little different here in the Pro-Clocker lab. I will take some of the fastest DDR3 modules on the market and see how high I can get them to overclock. We are taking four sets of the highest quality DDR3 that are advertised at least 1800MHz from their respective manufacturers. OCZ, Super Talent, Patriot and Kingston were all nice enough to test samples for this mini roundup.

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When Coolink first notified me about the ChipChilla, the first thing I thought of was the reference NVIDIA 680i motherboard and how loud the stock chipset cooler is. Coolink advertises the ChipChilla as a solution for overheating Northbridge chipsets, and while it is true that a few of the current chipsets get very hot, they rarely overheat to the point of failure. It is not a coincidence that the chipsets that run hot are also the ones with very loud fans, opening the door for an aftermarket solution. Recently I tested the Coolink GFXChilla in our Mega 9-way VGA Cooler Roundup and found that the cooler performed very well for its size and that the unit was well made. The ChipChilla at first glance appears to follow the same lines as the GFXChilla, and the two when used in combination would add visual appeal to a system.

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This small device from Mitron allows you to switch between two different hard drives. Can be useful in some situations where you don't want one OS to see the other system. Also for family PC with one disk for the business and one for pleasure with no risk of virus infection from one to another. Lets take a closer look at this nifty product which fits in 3.5inch bay.

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The 9600GT from nVidia is a pretty decent GPU as far as the price/performance ratio is concerned and thus its no surprise to see many vendors jumping on it. Today we take a look at one such card by Leadtek modeled as WinFast PX9600 GT with 512MB RAM. Looking at its specifications, the PX9600 GT runs at stock speed as per nVidia's specifications with nothing overclocked.

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A couple of months ago, I read a post in a forum that stated: with an Intel processor you should use an Intel chipset, and have seen something similar nearly every day since, including today. I guess that I agreed with it, subconsciously if nothing else. Such was the distance that I had strayed from my roots in such a short time. Which is why when I was informed that I would be reviewing an LGA775 board with an nVidia chipset, I was a little apprehensive, and still am. Today I will be looking at the brand new Asus Striker II NSE motherboard. It is a full-featured DDR3 board for LGA775, utilizing the nVidia nForce 790i SLI chipset, belonging to Asus' ROG (Republic of Gamers) motherboard line. Will the Striker II NSE interrupt my current love affair with Intel chipsets? Read on to see...

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When NVIDIA released the G80 core in late 2006 the enthusiast world rejoiced. New levels of image quality were in reach with a single card that used to require two or more. The mainstream market anxiously awaited its share of the G80 love only to be disappointed by the lackluster 8600GT/GTS. Fastforward to last year when the world was given the G92 core. Even more peformance was to be had by enthusiasts willing to shell out the $250 or more it would take to enjoy the pleasure of gaming on a 8800GT/GTS 512. And the mainstream market waited. Only this time things would be a little different. This time the mainsteam market would not take a step back but a huge leap forward, in performance that is, not price. Finally, we were given the card that all of us could afford and not be ashamed to put in our forum sig. The 9600GT from NVIDIA was just that card. Offering levels of performance usually enjoyed by the bigger boys at a price we all can swallow placed this card into unknown t! erritory. As if that wasn't enough XFX got their hands on a few and cranked the heck out of the clocks even further. So I present to you the Alpha Dog 9600GT XXX from XFX. What could be better then having one of these cards in your rig? How about having two!?

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If you're in the market for a desktop replacement notebook, but don't want a glitzy gaming machine, you could do a lot worse than Toshiba's loaded Qosmio G45-AV690. Designed to be the central hub of a digital home, it sports a lot of media-centric features including an HD DVD burner, HDMI output and it even comes with a digital cable adapter too. Sadly, it has bloatware issues and one of its primary features is its HD DVD playback capabilities, which is essentially outdated tech at this point, making it difficult to wholeheartedly recommend.