Monday Reviews

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ASE Labs prides itself on giving you fair and honest reviews for all types of computer products. This is one of the reasons that ASE Labs has been around for over seven years and keeps going strong. Today ASE Labs has the Eagle Tech N-Series Pro Serial ATA to USB2 Hard Drive Enclosure on the review bench. The fair and brutally honest review follows.

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Logitech is a company that should be well known to the readers of ASE Labs. The company specializes in computer peripherals which include their line of mice and keyboards all the way to webcams. The focus of the review is the newest webcam from Logitech, the Quickcam Vision Pro which is billed to be Mac ready with ease. In reality, it works on every operating system.

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As readers of ASE Labs, you know that I have always said that it is very important to have proper backups and have redundant storage. While we have seen the MS2UTN+ from Sans Digital, this new model contains a LCD screen to easily setup and manage the unit. It is really amazing what a two line LCD can give you in terms of piece of mind.

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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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Leadtek was nice enough to send us a Winfast GTX-260 to take for a test drive. Having heard the cries of our readers we decided to take a different tack at this test drive and do a direct comparison between the Leadtek GTX-260 and an XFX 8800 GT Alpha Dog. Going more in depth with a head to head comparison between an old favorite and the new kid on the block.

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* When we last looked ATI's HD 3650 architecture in Asus trim, we found the home theater-centric videocard wanting when it came to gaming. And while not geared towards the hardcore gamer, we expected a little more oomph than what we got. This time around we're getting down and dirty with HIS's HD 3650 with twice the amount of RAM than the last version we looked at. Will it be enough?

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Coolmax was kind enough to send over one of their more powerful power supplies. The CUQ1350 is the big dog from Coolmax and guaranteed to power the most extreme systems. The CUQ1350 is a small cry from the CUG950 we reviewed a few weeks ago. The CUQ series is not totally modular like the CUG but still modular. And a stunning brushed aluminum enclosure encloses all the power the unit has to offer. This is just some of what the new CUG1350 has to offer. What else does the CUG has to offer? Lets read the review shall we.

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Today I will be looking at ASUS' workstation motherboard based on the X38 chipset, the P5E64WS Professional. It is similar to the earlier board in that it has the capability for a quad of graphics cards, DDR3 system memory, and other features that will satisfy the enthusiast as well as the engineer. This one has even more features for the enthusiast, and a much more serious heatpipe cooling system. Fortunately, I will be able to pack more than one GPU onto this board, so hopefully I'll be able to better see the graphics capabilities of the board. Stay tuned to see!

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* *The Axiom Audiobyte speakers with EPZero subwoofer are certainly not for everyone. These speakers sit in a niche market that attracts audiophiles or audio connoisseurs if you will. The sound quality is impeccable and the clarity is amazing. While there certainly are many other companies that offer louder speakers for less money, they certainly don't sound near as nice. . .*

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Gigabyte has truly stepped up to become a serious contender for the top manufacturer of quality motherboards. Gigabyte has aggressively pursued ways to produce the best choice in quality and enthusiast motherboards. They've brought us features like Dynamic Energy Saver, complete solid state computing, and some of the most consistent extreme overclocking to date. These kinds of features have culminated in to two recent Best Choice Awards at Computex 2008 for the GA-EP45-DQ6 and GA-EP45-DS5 Motherboards. All of that and more have been combined once again to bring us the Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 Motherboard. There's plenty of features and bonuses to be had.

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Today on the desk we have Cyber Snipa's latest in hardcore gaming accessories; the Tracer backlit mouse mat, Stinger Laser gaming mouse and the Gamepad v2. This lethal setup will fit right at home for most gamers looking to have some dedicated hardware to bring home the headshots. Now let's look at the specs for each item. Looking at the setup overall; I think Cyber Snipa are on to something good here. The dwarf keyboard is great for hardcore gamers and the mouse is a serious contender for anyone who needs a laser mouse. Coupled with a mouse mat that keeps the mouse gliding smooth, there's no way you can loose, unless of course you're like me and suck at games...

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As the world changes so do the demands of consumers -- this is particularly true with technology. One of the most pressing issues today is that of digital television. But to most this subject is shrouded in mystery. Why are we being forced to convert to digital signals? What does going digital even mean? Most importantly, how will the shift to digital television affect me? These are all excellent questions, ones I hope to address sufficiently, and thereby purging the digital switch from its aforementioned shroud of mystery.