Tuesday Reviews

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DDR3 is finally coming to a price where many mainstream system builders will be willing to pay. Manufacturers must provide mainstream DDR3 solutions to fill in the gap between the high end (and inexpensive) DDR2 and the very expensive, high speed DDR3 modules. While the HyperX line from Kingston may not be the mainstream product, the KHX12800D3K2/2G kit is described as the mainstream overclocking kit. It is far cheaper than speedier kits but lacks the tight timings as well. This could be the kit that kicks off DDR3.

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The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 retail box is black with red accents. This is the case it should be since ATI graphics are known to be red. Also, red and black are my favorite colors. While the box says it supports some stuff, there is no mention of Linux support even though AMD has said it wants its partners to include a penguin or other open sourcey stuff on the box. The Catalyst 8.6 drivers for Linux support this GPU and were released last month.

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Western Digital is well known to system builders and end users for providing excellent storage solutions matched with a good warranty and support. I only recommend two hard drive manufactures to people, Western Digital is one of them (the other being Seagate). The latest and greatest things in terms of technology have moved out of the computer case and into portable storage. The My Passport Studio comes in at 250GB and this one is preformatted for Mac. Don't let that scare you, though.

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I have always been a bit weary of doing reviews of things very subjective and a Bluetooth headset is just one of those things. When Lubix offered to send a review sample over, I was hesitant until they insisted. I'm glad they did since the UBHS-NC1 is a great stereo headset. I'm not a headset kind of person, but as standard Bluetooth headphones, they rock.

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The case is virtually a tool free design, in fact with the exception of the screws I used for the PSU installation. Managing the cables and wiring was a snap and Thermaltake even provided the cable management supplies and need space in the chassis. Installation in the Thermaltake Armor+ MX was simply the easiest I have done in a while.

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This baby comes stacked with 2-way SLI, native 1333 FSB support, PCIe 2.0, LEDs, and onboard reset / power switches. It is geared towards the consumer who wants maximum performance without the bells and whistles that tends to drive up costs. If you drool over high end hardware but scoff at high end prices, this might be the motherboard you've been looking for. The best way to find out is to let HardwareLogic do the dirty work for you as we run the 750i SLI FTW through our benchmark suite to find out if this really is the one you can count on for the win.

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The TS-409U is a powerful embedded Linux system featuring a 500MHz System-on-Chip (SoC) CPU and 512MB of DDR2 memory. It fits in a 1U rackmount space, and has four SATA II hotswap bays supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6. On top of this, the TS-409U is a multi-functional all-in-one NAS server supporting various functions from webserver, to MySQL server, to an iTunes server.

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Without a doubt the iPod is the most popular MP3 player out there. If someone you know has an MP3 player most likely it is an iPod. With the popularity of the iPod there are a plethora of accessories made specifically for the iPod. None is more popular than iPod speaker systems. Today we will be taking a look at the Orb 2.1 Stereo Speaker System from mStation. Read on to see why it is called the Orb and if it the perfect iPod speaker system for you.

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Quote: Centrino 2 is made of of three major components, the processor, the wireless card and the chipset. Intel Centrino 2 processors are 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad processors with up to 6MB L2 cache and a 1066MHz FSB. Intel is introducing the Intel Core 2 Extreme Mobile Processor X9100 is now the highest performing flagship processor for the Centrino 2 platform and operates at 3.06GHz. Just like other Extreme mobile processors the X9100 has 'Overspeed Protection' removed, so consumers will be able to overclock the processor if the notebook allows it. When it comes to TDP ratings the X9100 is mobile friendly at just 44W...

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Intel added what it termed XMP or Extreme Memory Profiling to its X38 and X48 chipsets; this in terms of technology is the same as NVIDIA's EPP which adds extra instructions into the memory SPD, allowing the memory to tell the system how fast it can run, what extra voltages it needs and what timings can be used for certain extreme profiles. Today we have A-DATA's Vitesta Extreme Edition DDR3 modules designed for XMP with a rating of 1600MHz; the fastest that Intel currently supports on its X series chipsets. Let's see how well it performs.

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Last time we tested RADEON HD 4850 in games. Now we got hold of the higher-end HD 4870 with GDDR5 memory. Even though it has the same architecture and the same number of processing units, we decided to compare it to GeForce GTX 260, its competitor in terms of price.

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In their known style, Asrock re-invented the 680i platform by creating the only official 45nm and 3-Way SLI supporting 680i motherboard. Let's see how this relatively cheap motherboard performs against the newer 750i platform.

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* When buying a fan, there are two main factors which we look for: Performance and Silence. Normally though, a quiet fan isn't so good in the performance department due to a lower RPM and thus less airflow. However, today we have a fan which strives to offer both these factors. Introducing the Xthermal BTF120PRO LED.

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We've already looked at nVidia's flagship product- the GeForce GTX 280 and today we have the more affordable GTX 260 card- two of them actually. Both these cards are overclocked out of the box giving better performance than your stock card would. Like most of their previous overclocked cards, ASUS called their product the TOP edition while Zotac sticks to its own terminology- the AMP! Edition.

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Quote: Most headsets can handle phone calls just fine, but they fail to address the stereo audio playback features found on many modern phones. Lubix offers an innovative line of Bluetooth headsets capable of handling your communication needs, while also letting you enjoy the multimedia capabilities of your phone.

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The word is out and every enthusiast dreams of the day they get to install a shiny new solidstate drive into their notebook or desktop. We have all seen the videos of a pair of notebooks booting into Windows; the solid state drive boots like it is coming out of hibernation and the platter drive, well, you know how that goes. Just as impressive are the claims of 30% more battery life for those on the go. In our recent reviews, TweakTown has documented just how quickly the technology has come down from the clouds and landed right in the laps of enthusiasts. For users, the only thing that has held back wide spread adoption of solid state drives has been the enormous costs associated with the innovative technology.

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I always thought that the little security system signs that people place in their landscaping and on their windows at home looked a bit goofy. I mean, yes, it may deter some of the more novice thieves, but like they say, 'locks only keep the honest people out'. It also seemed like putting up the signs was almost an advertisement that shouted 'Hey! Look at me, I have goodies inside!' These thoughts all came to me before I actually owned my own house, but now that I am in my second house, I see the appeal of a security system. One thing that most security systems do not come with however, is any sort of camera or video recording features, and if they do, they are outrageously expensive. This is where the NVR-1012 Network Surveillance System from QNAP comes into play. The NVR-1012 pairs the NVR-101 Network Video Recorder with two ICS-1013 IP cameras for dual-zone monitoring, with the ability to expand the system if needed. Follow along to see just how the QNAP NVR-1012 can help! you get started with monitoring your home or office.

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Corsair, legendary provider of computer memory, has expanded their range of quality products from memory hardware and flash products. With the introduction of their various series of power supplies they have proven that they, too, belong among the big guys in the power supply market. Corsair's new CMPSU-750TX is one of two recently released units for the gamer, overclocker or enthusiast and high-end system builder. Here at Bioslevel we take a look at the higher-end 750TX.

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When it comes to ATI products Sapphire has always offered the most influential graphics cards available, and the new Radeon HD 4870 is no different. For the first time in this industry, we have a fully-functional product equipped with 900 MHz GDDR5 video frame buffer. The Sapphire 100243L model offers 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) on its 750 MHz 800-core RV770 GPU. Benchmark Reviews tests the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 graphics card against the closest competition, and even compare CrossFireX performance in this performance review.

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Today I will be looking at Gigabyte's latest mainstream LGA775 motherboard, the EP45-DQ6. Based on the P45 chipset, and utilizing DDR2 memory, this board boasts advanced energy-saving features, something we all have to think about nowadays. Will this motherboard really save energy? Will it have the overclocking features and capabilities that we enthusiasts require? Read on to see...

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* Today, HardwareLogic takes a look at NZXT's newest small form factor (SFF) offering, the NZXT Rogue. In a bid to capture the SFF chassis market, the Rogue ups the ante with a highly competitive SFF enclosure where NZXT has left nothing to chance when designing and manufacturing their newest SFF case. Does the NZXT Rogue have what it takes to be named the top dog in the SFF enclosure kingdom? Will it succeed in an arena dominated by big name players that offer their own wildly successful small form factor enclosures? Let's get to it and find out!

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Interestingly, there seem to be few, if any drastic, architecture changes for HD 4000. It's all scale down, add more. PowerColor, a long-time board partner, shows just how well this strategy pays out for the HD 4850.Even side-by-side, this card looks just like a 3850. That's really superb, because not only was its predecessor small, clean, and fast, it was also quiet. The sticker's adornment is a busty, armored model in Viking chic. But it's a stock card, with the same design that you'd get with any 4850 currently available.