Submitted by brandon on May 15, 2008 - 9:37pm. Daily News for May 15
ASUS Rampage Formula X48 Motherboard Review @ Hardware Canucks
ASUS has always been synonymous with enthusiasts and mainstream users alike. Offering a combination of stable value motherboards and bleeding edge performance motherboards, ASUS has managed to keep both segments of the market continually happy over the years. Being a tier one partner for Intel, they are also always one of the first to market with Intel chipsets being released and the Rampage Formula is just another example of this early release ability.
GeForce 9800 GTX Extreme Overclocking Experiment @ Madshrimps
The GeForce 9800 GTX product was received with mixed feelings; on the one hand you had an affordable high end VGA solution, but on the other hand it was not much of improvement over the 8800 GTX. One area where the 9800 GTX might shine through however is overclocking, the new GPU generates less heat, and with the help of some LN2 it will be interesting to see how high it can climb!
Ultra X3 800Watt Modular Power Supply Review @ Tweaknews
Testing yielded stable voltages, quiet operation and I won't have to worry about buying a new power supply when the time comes to upgrade my system. The flat, flexible modular cabling system was great to work with and has spoiled me completely. I can't imagine going back to regular cables, much less a non-modular design.
Palit GeForce 9600 GSO Sonic 768MB @ Tweaktown
It seems we’re right on time for another pointless release of a graphics card that is slightly better or slightly worse than what is on the market already, whilst carrying with it a price tag pretty similar to that of what’s already available. Did that confuse you? - The thing is, these graphics card releases from NVIDIA are becoming nothing short of a joke. I’ve actually tested the 9600 GSO; I know how I’m going to wrap this up before I even wrote this introduction, and it’s a real doozy. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves though, let’s find out exactly what the card looks like, what Palit has done with it and if the package stands out in any way.
ThermoLab Nano Silencer CPU Cooler @ Tweaktown
We recently looked at the ThermoLab Micro and found it to be an energy efficient processor-only cooler that was designed for small enclosures. Today we are going to look at the ThermoLab Nano, an even smaller cooler made for the same type of application; extremely small enclosures and cases. Before you start to yawn I will go ahead and say upfront that the Nano performed better than the Micro, even though it is a smaller cooler and fan. What is really attention getting is the size of the cooler and the custom applications that modders will be able to use with it.
Coolermaster Aquagate Mini R80 Watercooling CPU Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
The Coolermaster Aquagate Mini R80 is a self contained watercooling system designed for a broad range of Intel and AMD processors. Unlike a lot of CPU watercooling systems which can be complicated to install, fill, bleed and monitor, the Aquagate comes pre-plumbed and pre-filled with an ethylene glycol based coolant. The system is guaranteed for two years operation without need for refill, so to get started all you need to do is mount the CPU block and attach the heat exchanger to the side of the computer case.
Cyber Snipa Warboard Gaming Keyboard @ Pro-Clockers
The Warboard looks to be the weapon you would like to take into battle with. Equipped with more keys than shells in a M16. Aimed with more programmable keys then most other keyboards on the market, the Warboard can be customized to your every command. There are many keyboards that come with customizable keys; well, Cyber Snipa did one up and added anti-ghosting as well as other features that you probably didn’t know were possible in a keyboard. Anti-ghosting?
Xigmatek HDT-S1283 and Red Scorpion CPU Coolers Review @ Madshrimps
Two HeatpipeDirectTouch CPU Coolers from Xigmatek duke it our in this review. We compare the performance of these enthusiast heatsinks to the best out there to see how they compare. Available for a budget friendly price can they deliver the cooling performance required to be at the top?
Submitted by brandon on May 14, 2008 - 9:18pm. Daily News for May 14
Hiper Osiris Mid Tower @ Pro-Clockers
But as of late, Hiper’s claim to fame is the Anubis. A 6063 T5 Alloy case that boasts plenty of features that make air ventilation and water cooling an ease to setup. This case saw itself on the front page of a lot of well known websites. The Anubis received all kinds of awards for it superb construction, its ease to assemble, its roominess and its stealth features. We, here at Pro-Clockers, were not lucky enough to review the Anubis but we will make up for it today by reviewing the Osiris.
OCZ SATA-II 32GB 2.5-Inch SSD OCZSSD2-1S32G @ Benchmark Reviews
Perhaps Benchmark Reviews like to ride the edge of technology just a little too close, since we've tested more DDR3 and SSD's than almost everyone else on the web, but the bleeding edge is what where most enthusiasts like to live. OCZ allowed us to test their first Solid State Drive product, the OCZSSD64GB, and while the pricing very affordable the performance wasn't so impressive. Now just a short three months later, OCZ has returned with one of the industries very first SATA-II SSD products, the OCZSSD2. It would be a shame to give away the details, but it appears that the extra time at the design table was very well spent. OCZ's new Solid State Drive offers industry leading performance matched by ultra-affordable pricing, and sets a new record.
OCZ Vendetta 2 Exposed Heatpipe Base Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
The OCZ Vendetta 2 heatsink features three large copper heatpipes that make direct contact with the top of the processor. This approach takes advantage of the superior heat conducting capabilities of 8mm diameter heat pipes to efficiently move heat from the processor to the cooling fins, without any intermediary steps. The technique is called Heatpipe Direct Touch, and as you've seen by the Top 5 Heatsinks chart... it's a winner.
Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR2-1142 Dual Channel Memory Kit Review @ Bigbruin
Testing showed that the Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR2-1142 dual channel memory kit could put up some solid numbers, keeping pace with another comparable kit from Kingston. At stock speeds this kit is ready for action above and beyond the JEDEC standard speed grade of PC2-8500, and with some relatively easy overclocking it can soar past PC2-9600 speeds.
Corsair Survivor 32GB Ultra Rugged USB 2.0 Flash Drive @ Futurelooks
The Corsair Survivor 32GB Ultra Rugged USB 2.0 Flash Drive takes off where the Voyager leaves us, and gives us an even higher level of durability. The new casing is now manufacturered from CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum casing that is water resistant to 200M through the use of a EPDM waterproof seal. It is also protected from vibration or impact damage through the use of a molded shock dampening collar. The Survivor is available in sizes from 4GB - 32GB (as tested) and also comes in a GT version up to 16GB’s that supports faster transfer speeds than the vanilla Survivor.
SilverStone Kublai Series KL03 Case Review @ Madshrimps
A Silverstone case with LED lightening in none rectangular front panel? The Kublai series is Silverstone's entry in the Gaming/Enthusiast ATX case market. Build with less expensive materials it aims to find a balance between price, looks and features. We take a look at the KL03 model in this review to see how it stacks up to the competition.
ASRock Penryn1600SLIX3-Wifi Motherboard Review @ Hardware Canucks
Feature-wise this board is a clear winner. ASRock provides its customers with dual 16x SLI slots and a third 8x slot, 7.1 HD audio, WiFi capabilities, overclocking and monitoring software, and many other perks. All the features we tested in this review worked as promised and setup was quite straightforward. As was seen in the tests, the improvements when running SLI and an overclocked system were rather dramatic and really did well to show what we find is a huge selling point for this board. Although the board didn’t clock quite to the point of some others on the market, dual 16x SLI makes up for that quickly in 3D and gaming applications.
Western Digital 1 TB Caviar GP Serial ATA Hard Drive @ TechARP
The Western Digital 1 TB Caviar GP delivers a terabyte of storage capacity with low power consumption at a relatively low cost. If large, affordable storage capacity in a single drive is what you are looking for, then this is the drive you are looking for.
Palit 9600GT Sonic 1GB Graphics Card @ Tweaktown
Palit are back again with another 9600GT. While this model is a Sonic variant, this one also sports 1GB of memory. What’s cool about this card is that more often than not you have two options when it comes to getting a card other than stock. You can get yourself one with more memory, which generally comes under the “Super” naming scheme; the other option is that you get yourself an overclocked model. This comes under the “Sonic” naming scheme for Palit. Today we’ve got ourselves a 1GB card which also happens to be overclocked. Unfortunately Palit has called it the 9600GT 1GB Sonic; personally I think they should have called it the 9600GT 1GB Super Sonic which just sounds plain cool, and since the card carries with it an overclock and more memory, it’s more than appropriate.
Submitted by brandon on May 13, 2008 - 9:48am. Daily News for May 13
Corsair HX1000W Power Supply Review @ Hardware Canucks
Fans have been frothing at the mouth for it, reviewers have been begging for it to arrive on their doorsteps and enthusiasts have been waiting for that fateful day when it becomes available to buy. We are talking about the crowning achievement of Corsair’s seemingly never-ending quest to produce a 1000W power supply: the HX1000W. Indeed, forums all over the internet have been abuzz with excitement ever since that fateful day more than half a year ago when the first tantalizing pictures of this behemoth showed up on a few websites. Well, the wait is over; the mothership has landed and the Corsair HX1000W should be available for purchase from you friendly neighborhood retailer as you read this.
Corsair Voyager 32GB Flash Drive @ TechwareLabs
The Corsair Voyager 32GB is currently the ultimate in flash portable storage with a massive amount of space. We test the Voyager against the Kingston DataTraveler for transfer speeds and bring you the results. If you are looking to carry the equivilant of 7 DVD's worth of information in your shirt pocket and want fast reliable storage then the Voyager just might be right for you. Read our review to find out.
Sapphire HD 3650 OC ATi Video Card @ Pro-Clockers
Sapphire has been around long enough to know how to put out a great video card. Just a few weeks ago we took a long look at the Toxic 3870 which is an overclocked 3870 with a single slot cooling system. Yeah that was a good one. But now we are here to take a look at the budget HD3650 from Sapphire. But this budget card has an added punch to its core and memory clocks as it is overclocked as well, just like the Toxic 3870.
Sapphire Toxic 512MB Radeon HD3870 Graphics Card Review @ Bigbruin
The Sapphire Toxic 512MB Radeon HD3870 graphics card offers strong performance right out of the box, but if you have any interest in overclocking you can turn it into a real powerhouse. There are really no negatives to discuss in terms of performance, quality, and overall appeal. The card performs well, it stays cool and quiet, and the bundle of accessories is generous.
Gigabyte X48 DQ6 775 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
Gigabyte being a leader in motherboards is making it easy on us to have the best when new chipsets are released. They have being right there, first to market, when Intel believed it was time for change. This used to be a position held by Asus. Gigabyte is the first to bring us the new X48 chipset to our rigs. This honor belongs to the X48-DQ6 and X48T-DQ6, DDR2 and DDR3 versions respectively. The DQ6 being the high end model for Gigabyte, it has all the bells and whistles. From complex cooling systems to high-end capacitors you can’t ask for more in a motherboard except for excellent overclocking. Can the X48-DQ6 accomplish what we achieved with EX-38 just a few weeks ago?
Patriot Viper DDR3-1866 2GB Memory Kit @ Tweaktown
Patriot has been one of the newer companies to come on board at TweakTown to supply us with their high performance memory for testing, and so far we have been pretty impressed with their line of high performance memory. Once again they have come on board to send us their new series of DDR3 modules. Today we have Patriot’s Viper Fin DDR3 2GB dual channel memory kit. The sticker on one side of each memory module contains info on the modules. The kit we received was rated for speeds of 1866MHz or 933MHz core speed with timings of 8-8-8-24 at a maximum voltage of 1.9v. The modules are all RoHS which means they are manufactured with lead free solder.
Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC Video Card @ Futurelooks
Sure the NVIDIA 9800 series of video cards are the current crème de la crème of gaming performance but what if you don’t have the scratch to afford such a beast? Well that’s where the NVIDIA 9600 series comes in. Foxconn sent us over their pre-overclocked 9600GT. As an overclocked card, it should give us a bit more kick than your standard garden variety card.
NVIDIA GeForce To Quadro Soft-Mod Guide @ TechARP
It all revolves around the driver support for professional 3D applications like 3ds Max or Maya. Quadro drivers allow the Quadro to be used to accelerate the rendering operations of such professional 3D applications while GeForce drivers do not. This is the basis for the premium prices NVIDIA (and ATI) charge for their professional-grade graphics cards.
Submitted by brandon on May 8, 2008 - 11:22am. Daily News for May 8
DFI LANParty LT X48-T2R Motherboard @ Tweaktown
X48 has certainly earned a name for itself now. While Intel has been at the back end of adapting new technologies that actually work (forget the Rambus incident), the X38/X48 chipsets are somewhat ahead of their time. What can be said for the DFI X48 LANParty board other than yet another success from this once OEM company is that DFI has really taken on a new persona over the last three years. With a huge boost in R&D, DFI are designing boards that are not only functional, but look just as good as they perform.
NZXT Alpha Classical Series Mid-Tower Case @ Benchmark Reviews
Fortunately, since the PC Enclosure market is roughly organized into three segments; entry/OEM level, mid-range and performance/enthusiast, all you need to do to begin your case search, is to figure out which segment of the market fits your systems needs and zero your search down to that particular segment. Someone looking to spend between $25.00-$75.00 on their future system's enclosure need not waste their time exploring the expensive performance/enthusiast segment of the market, and so forth. Well, if part of your criteria is that you are on a budget or a first time builder, then usually the place to start is at the entry and budget mid-range levels. Once there, while parusing the current multitude of styles and designs, your eye would almost certainly be caught by the entry-to-mid-range NZXT offering: the ALPHA. The first time you see it, you'll think, "I bet that's what Darth Vader's desktop looks like." Today at Benchmark Reviews, we're going to find out if NZXT's latest in their Classic series line is just another....pretty face?
XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
The XFX nForce 790 Ultra SLI motherboard is designed for the latest generation 45nm Core 2 processors with Front Side Bus speeds of up to 1600MHz. Based on the NVIDIA nForce 790i MCP chipset, this powerful ATX platform supports all the latest enthusiast technology. This versatile platform is SLI 3-way and 2-way ready and features NVIDIA Enthusiast System Architecture, MediaShield Storage, NVIDA System Tools, and NVIDIA DualNet Technology. Read on to see how it performs! Performance on the XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard was great! The majority of our testing showed that the motherboard performance was very close to what we have seen on recent Intel Express chipset based boards. Once we look at more recent gaming results like FEAR and Crysis, we see that the XFX 790i Ultra absolutely dominates compared to the boards we tested it against in this review...
Nvidia's nForce 780a SLI Chipset @ Tech Report
Interestingly, the nForce 780a SLI's motherboard GPU is much more than just a frame buffer middleman—it's a fully functional DirectX 10-class graphics processor. The GPU core has the same architecture as the GeForce 8400 GS discrete GPU and features 16 stream processors. Clock speeds are actually a little higher than the GS, with the 780a's mGPU core running at 500MHz and its shaders clocked at 1.2GHz. The mGPU even includes a PureVideo HD decode engine capable of handling "full" MPEG2, VC-1, and AVC high-definition video decoding duties for the Blu-ray and the now defunct HD DVD standards.
Aeneon XTune DDR3-1333 Memory Kit @ Pro-Clockers
If you are not familiar with Aeneon’s DDR3 modules here is a quick rundown. Aeneon makes two different lines of DDR3, the first is their ‘value’ line which has no heat spreaders and a better price point. But the second series is the one that many of us would choose as it is meant for the overclocker and gamer that wants the most out of their rig. XTune is what this line is called and sports a very clean set of heat spreaders and pretty good timings. For those that are into numbers, how does 8-8-8-15 at just 1.5 volts sound?
Sapphire HD 3850 1 Gigabyte High Definition Graphics Card @ Club Overclocker
Not too long ago, our very own Paul did a pretty intensive review of one of the latest ATi powered video cards to hit the market, the 3870 Toxic. Hot on the heels of that review, Sapphire sent us the 3870's little brother, the HD 3850 1GB. We already know that Paul loved the 3870, both for the performance, the price, and the sweet bundle, so will the 3850 keep us satisfied as well, or leave us wanting for more?
OCZ Quad 2Gb Memory Kit Review - 8Gb of Platinum Goodness @ Madshrimps
With the introduction of Vista, 2 GB of memory suddenly seems insufficient. Many people have made the jump to 4 GB lately, but on a 32Bit operating system, more is definitely overkill. Today we happen to have a 64 bit operating system installed on our test system, so there's no stopping us from fully loading our P35 motherboard with... 8 GB of memory. And we even managed to overclock it!
Corsair Voyager 32GB Flash Drive @ Pro-Clockers
How would you like to have 32 gigs of storage in your front pocket? There was a time when just a one gig flash drive was the ‘big drive’. Just enough storage room to transport a few pictures of the loved ones or enough to hold a few songs to share with your best friend. Times have changed and needs have increased. Now we have movies, programs and other large forms of files that would shallow a one gig drive. That’s when a drive like the Voyager comes into play. Besides an abundance of space, the Voyager is rigid and durable as well.
Submitted by brandon on March 27, 2008 - 7:59pm. Daily News for March 27
Overclocking with Gigabyte P35C-DS3R and Intel Q6600 @ Madshrimps
Overclocking successfully requires a mix of the right components, we take a closer look at the pinnacle of affordability and performance product from Gigabyte, the P35C-DS3R, testing with a Quad Core Q6600 we see how we can fly with a water cooled CPU and some spicy DDR2 memory modules.
Thermaltake Bigwater 760i Water Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews
For my first venture into water I learned a lot, and the main thing is that it’s not nearly as hard or complicated as I thought. That may be due to the Thermaltake Bigwater 760i kit, but either way the whole process was very easy. It took all of 30 minutes to do the pre-install and fill the system, the long part was the bleeding the air from the system and leak test. I chose to do this out of the case for the fact it was easier to fill the tank and work the bubbles out of the lines. That and the nagging thought of a leak.
Samsung SyncMaster 2243BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor Review @ Tweaknews
One of those reputable name brands in today's market is Samsung and today we will be reviewing one of their new SyncMaster 2243BW 22" monitors which is boasted to be an affordable thin bezel monitor which will be enjoyed in the home/office as well as in a gamer's den. Let's see if that claim is true.
ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GX2 Graphics Card @ Tweaktown
It feels weird to have done four articles on the 9800 GX2 without having actually had a look at a single retail card yet. The first retail card to come out of the gates comes in the form of a ZOTAC offering. With the latest WHQL driver in hand, the 174.53, we’re going to see how the GX2 holds up against the direct competition, the HD 3870 X2 from AMD.
Gigabyte GV-NX98X1GHI-B GeForce 9800 GX2 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews
On the 18th of March 2008 NVIDIA launched the GeForce 9800 GX2 to coincide with their 790i motherboard chipset. Because gamers were teased by NVIDIA's first 9-series release which barely satisfied the middle-market with their GeForce 9600 GT, the discussion as to which upcoming product would become the new king of the hill quickly became a heated topic. Since the 8th generation GeForce series launched with a monumental success, starring the still powerful 8800 GTX and 8800 GTS, most hardware enthusiasts come to expect the same level of awe in this launch of new generation of discrete graphics. Few enthusiasts would say NVIDIA has outdone themselves again, while most others will claim that they have disappointed the community. Benchmark Reviews ignores the chatter, and makes a solid case with the Gigabyte GV-NX98X1GHI-B GeForce 9800 GX2 video card.
XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 Quad SLI @ Legit Reviews
NVIDIA has done a great job with Quad-SLI and with some driver improvements it should only get better. The XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics cards running in a quad-SLI showed increased performance in every application we tested versus a single GeForce 9800 GX2, which is something that can not be said about the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 as they had some driver issues on Tomb Raider: Anniversary. We almost didn't include Tomb Raider: Anniversary in our testing, but our two store-bought DVD versions of Bioshock say they have been installed too many times, so this game was a last minute addition.
Patriot Viper Series 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 Memory Kit Review @ Bigbruin
Configuring the Patriot Viper Series 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 memory kit was extremely easy, which made getting up and running at over 1600MHz and 7-7-7-18 timings even more enjoyable. It usually takes some tweaking to get the test system stable at such elevated frequencies, but this kit was pretty much plug and play.
ASUS Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics Card @ Tweaktown
We like the HD 3870 X2; generally speaking it gets good gains at high resolutions in most applications we test. The single PCB design is leaps and bounds ahead of the original dual GPU offering from NVIDIA under the 7900 naming scheme. We’ve seen pictures of the HD 3870 X2 from ASUS before, but now it’s our chance to get down and dirty with it to see if it’s worth spending the extra money the ASUS cards generally carry with them. The ASUS bundles on a whole are pretty good and give you everything you would expect out of a high-end card. You do pay a premium for ASUS cards which give you little extras like the CD Wallet and a more recent game.
AMD Phenom X4 9850 Processor Review @ Legit Reviews
When the AMD Phenom series of processors launched back on November 19th, 2007 no one could have expected just how rough things were about to get for AMD. AMD has fixed the problems with a new B3 stepping of Phenom. All of the new Phenom B3 steppings will be named with the nomenclature of what AMD is calling the '50 series' of processors. The four new AMD Phenom X4 processors that AMD is announcing today are the 9550 (2.2GHz), 9650 (2.3GHz), 9750 (2.4GHz) and 9850 Black Edition (2.5GHz).
"The new AMD Phenom X4 50-series of processors is how Phenom should have launched back in November of last year. This stepping of Phenom doesn't offer higher performance versus the older Phenom B1 and B2 steppings, but does remove the TLB erratum that caused many consumers to skip over Phenom when considering a platform for their next system. Those that already have an AMD Socket AM2 platform now have a solid upgrade path to look forward to..."
Sapphire Toxic HD 3870 ATi Video Card @ Pro-Clockers
Yes you can go out and purchase one of the cards from any of the several manufacturers that endorse the ATI brand. The Toxic HD 3870 is an overclocked version of the ATI 3870 chipset. The Toxic HD 3870 uses a single slot cooler that would be a godsend for those that are tight on space or have motherboards with the PCIe slots too close together. This non-reference cooler helps to cool a RV670 clocked to 825MHz from the default 775MHz. Time to put the Toxic 3870 on the bench and see what performance numbers we can get.
Submitted by brandon on March 24, 2008 - 12:00pm. Thermal Compound Roundup
Thermal compound is very important when it comes to running a cool computer. It helps to facilitate the dissipation of heat from the processor to the heatsink. Without thermal compound, it doesn't matter whether you're using stock cooling, high end air cooling, water cooling or above, cooling performance will be dismal.
In the past few years, thermal compounds have undergone an evolution. I'm sure many are familiar with the basic silicon based thermal compound, also known as white goop. This quickly evolved into metal based thermal compounds, which by its namesake have a composition of metal particles. This improved the thermal conductivity, but also had the problem of being electrically conductive.
Now we are at a stage where performance thermal compounds are ceramics based. Thermal conductivity has been improved even more, and don't have the problem of being electrically conductive. Most of the thermal compounds we are looking at today are ceramics based.
The thermal compounds we are looking at in our mini-roundup are the Stars-700, Noctua's HT-N1, Arctic Silver's Ceramique, Tuniq's TX-2 and OCZ's Freeze.
Submitted by brandon on March 19, 2008 - 11:25am. Daily News for March 19
Steelseries Ikari Laser Gaming Mouse Review @ Tweaknews
All through testing I experienced nothing but comfort and that neat feeling only quality can give you. Like all good things though it comes at a price and the Ikari Laser is certainly not cheap coming in at around US$65. This is certainly not the type of product your average home user should be looking at, unless you have money to throw away, but for the enthusiast and or Gamer it's a worthwhile investment.
OCZ Technology PC2-8000 Platinum Edition 4GB DDR2 Kit Review @ Bigbruin
Rated at 5-5-5-18, the OCZ Technology PC2-8000 Platinum Edition 4GB DDR2 kit is quite impressive in terms of timings, speed, and capacity. Running at 1000MHz it was able to outperform competition in the form of DDR2 from Patriot and DDR3 from OCZ Technology. While overclocked to 1080MHz it was even able to outperform the DDR3 kit running at 1333MHz.
Razer Lachesis 4000dpi Gming Mouse Review @ TechwareLabs
Any true gamer is always seeking to gain the advantage over their opponent. Razer seeks to give you that edge in the form of their new Lachesis mouse which boasts an amazing 4000dpi sensitivity. Bullseye the target has been eliminated!
GeForce 9800 GX2 in Quad SLI Tested @ Tweaktown
I’ve never before found myself in the position where I’ve been this rushed off my feet to get an article online. This afternoon I was e-mailed the Quad SLI Vista Driver! - At the same time, a second 9800 GX2 rocked up in my hot little hands. It was clear what I needed to do. We found ourselves in the IBP bunker sitting in front of a 4GHz Water-cooled system with an SLI capable motherboard and an 8GB Pen Drive in hand with the 174.53 Quad SLI Driver installed.
QNAP TS-409 Pro 4-Drive SATA Gigabit NAS @ Benchmark Reviews
Times are a little tough right now for many small business owners, so any product that offers to save them money while still performing every function they require is sure to interest many of them. The task of providing an affordable product, that cuts overhead yet still performs up to par is not any easy undertaking. Most small businesses today have at least some level of data storage needs. It may be as simple as storing bookkeeping records, emails and customer contact information, it may involve storing legal documents or patient records, it may involve storing work product such as digital artwork or CAD drawings, or it may even involve hosting the company's retail sales website. The bottom line is that in today's business world it is hard to find a small business that doesn't have some need to store their digital data. This is where the Network Attached Storage servers come in and today Benchmark Reviews will be taking a close look at one of these NAS Servers, the QNAP TS-409 Pro.
Aerocool iCurve Plus Mid Tower @ Pro-Clockers
Many of us want a really good looking case that can properly house our components and keep cool and running well. A lot of time you don’t need to pay so much to get this. Aerocool believes this as well. And with the whole money saving concept upon most of us comes the iCurve Plus. A mid size case with a fascinating look and features the average joe would love. Get ready to take a look at the iCurve.
Western Digital Scorpio 2.5" 320GB HDD Review @ Tweaktown
While SSD or Solid State Disks are making their way in, we are still working with the current generation of storage and Western Digital has managed to do very well at increasing sizes and speeds. The underside of the drive is extremely clean of high rise circuits and components, simply because they have been sandwiched between the top of the PCB and the lower casing of the drive. With this design you don’t have to worry about any short circuits or clearance issues.
ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1 Channel PCI Express Sound Card Review @ Bigbruin
The ASUS Xonar D2X isn't your typical sound card. It features a host of impressive features, a generous bundle of software, and a variety of connections and cables to help you get fully connected right out of the box. The large Aluminum EMI shield gives it the appearance of a high end graphics card, while the PCI Express x1 connector finally gives you something useful to stick into those unused slots on your motherboard.
Logitech Harmony ONE Advanced Universal Remote Control Review @ Futurelooks
When I had a chance to review the Logitech 676 Harmony Remote back in 2005, I was totally impressed with the experience. It changed things in the Universal Remote Control world because it was easy to use, easy to setup, and most importantly, it had a very high approval factor with all the non-techies in the household. Most importantly, you can do it yourself without the help of an CEDIA Certified Engineer. Now that we’re in 2008, Logitech continues to be successful with their line of Harmony Remotes. Their latest remote, the Logitech Harmony ONE Advanced Universal Remote Control continues the tradition of easy to use and easy to setup for the modern home theatre.
Corinex GameNet Review @ ClubOC
A lot of folks say that they've had no problems what-so-ever gaming with a wireless adapter. My personal feeling is that good old-fashioned copper still guarantees the fastest and most reliable connection. So unless you're house is already wired with Ethernet to every room, we have to find a way to get the Internet to every device that needs it. Fortunately, there is company out there that feels our pain. Better yet, they have decided to help do something about it. Corinex brings us, the GameNet. The short story is, it's Ethernet over Power line technology. The basics of the technology make it an alternative to using wireless protocols to network your home. When devices like this first started to make their debut, they used standard phone cords and proprietary network interface cards. With the GameNet, you'll use RJ-45 Ethernet cables and your devices own network interface adapter to string your device to the transceivers.
Submitted by brandon on March 18, 2008 - 9:39am. nVidia GeForce 9800 GX2 (G92) Review Edition
@ Anandtech
With G9x coming in as a glorified die shrink to G80, NVIDIA took the opportunity to move away from huge die size and shift to the cheaper option of combining two GPUs on a single board for its highest end part. It is less expensive to make use of two chips, even if their combined size is larger than a monolithic one because yields are so much better. NVIDIA is able to get more chips per wafer and a higher percentage of those will be good compared to a large design. Of course, in spite of a cheaper to produce solution, the increased performance of this solution over previous high end has earned the 9800 GX2 a pretty heft price premium. At a retail price of at least $600 US, these bad boys will not be making their way into everyone's systems. There is always a price for having the best of the best.
@ PC Perspective
We can remember first "officially" seeing the GeForce 9800 GX2 back in January when another website featured a few high resolution images of it. It definitely didn't LOOK like any other graphics card on the market at the time, with its fully enclosed cooling design and oddly stacked DVI outputs. We got another "clue" when NVIDIA itself mentioned the 9800 GX2 in a press FAQ about the launch of AMD's Radeon HD 3870 X2 card. Just like the HD 3870 X2, the new NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 is a dual-GPU graphics board with only a single connection to the motherboard via PCI Express. The common way of describing these cards is "SLI on a card" or "CrossFire on a card" depending on your party affiliation. These descriptions are about as accurate as you can get in ten words or less, though as we'll see the NVIDIA 9800 GX2 is even more like "SLI on a card" than its AMD competition.
@ Hot Hardware
As you can see, the GPU is built using a 65nm fabrication process. On stock GeForce 9800 GX2 cards, the GPUs are clocked at 600MHz, with a 1.5GHz shader clock, and 1GHz memory. If you recall, the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB's GPU is clocked at 670MHz with 900MHz memory, so a pair of GTS cards running in SLI mode will offer higher shader performance and fillrate, but less memory bandwidth. Keep that in mind as you look through the benchmark results that appear a little later in this article. The GeForce 9800 GX2 offers a total of 128GB/s of memory bandwidth, with a 1GB frame buffer (512MB per GPU), 32 ROPs (16 per GPU), and 128 Texture Filtering Units (64 per GPU), for a total of 76.8GigaTexels/sec.
XFX 9800 GX2 @ Legit Reviews
The GeForce 9800 GX2 is the latest flagship graphics card by NVIDIA and comes with a pair of GeForce G92 GPU's and 1GB of GDDR3 memory on board. With a total of about 1.5 billion transistors it will give the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 a run for its money. The new GeForce 9800 GX2 features 256 processor cores each independently operating at 1,500 MHz. Counting conservatively (2 flops per processor core), this amounts to an unprecedented 768 gigaflops of raw shading horsepower. In texturing performance, it can filter 76.8 billion pixels per second, or 190% more than the Radeon 3870 X2. In raw specifications across the board, it is vastly improved over its predecessor, the GeForce 8800 Ultra. But with a price of $599-$649, it launches at the same price that the GeForce 8800 GTX did back in 2006. With more than twice the shading power and a vastly improved PureVideo HD engine, the GeForce 9800 GX2 is something that all enthusiasts need to take a closer look at.
@ HardOCP
Each GPU has 128 shader processors, same as the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. Remember, the GeForce 8800 GT has 112 stream processors. But here is where things get odd. Both GPUs in the GeForce 9800 GX2 are clocked at a 600 MHz core frequency. This is actually lower than the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB which is clocked at 650 MHz. Looking further we also see that the stream processors are clocked at 1.5 GHz. Well, this again is lower than the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB which has its stream processors clocked at 1.625 GHz. So right off the bat, each GPU in the GeForce 9800 GX2 is clocked at the same frequency as a GeForce 8800 GT, BUT, they have 128 stream processors each, just like the 8800 GTS 512MB. So what we end up with is basically lower clocked GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GPUs on board.
ZOTAC 9800 GX2 @ HEXUS
One can surmise that a single-board GeForce 9800 GX2's performance scaling will be good. After all, it's not that difficult to scale with two GPUs - both NVIDIA and AMD (ATI) have compelling multi-GPU technologies that leverage two GPUs in an efficient manner. The real pain the posterior will reside with scaling with to four GPUs, based on two 9800 GX2s boards in SLI. Queuing up the requisite number of frames is hugely problematic in Windows XP and highly dependent on the games' engines in Vista. NVIDIA will introduce four-way alternate frame rendering (AFR) with the 9800 GX2 SLI driver. The GeForce 9800 GX2 carries NVIDIA's PureVideo HD that has been software-upgraded with the release of the ForceWare 174.xx drivers. NVIDIA has added dynamic contrast and colour enhancements for better-looking images, it says. Further, the driver supports dual-stream decode, which hardware-accelerates the decoding of two video streams running concurrently. There are only few instances where we can see this being useful - picture-in-picture commentary, for example.