Rosewill RCX-Z5 CPU Cooler Review @ Tweaktown
Last month we started using the Thermal Environment Control Chamber for our CPU Cooler Testing and have been very satisfied with the results. To follow up from the initial article we tested the Rosewill RCX-Z4 CPU cooler and found it to be a good cooler for running stock speeds on mainstream processors. Today we take a look further up the Rosewill product family tree and put the RCX-Z5 in the T.E.C.C."

Diamond Viper ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 1GB Review @ Tweaktown
Ok we’re a little slow sometimes, we won’t deny that. Why review a 1GB HD 2900 XT card when the new 3870 is out? Ultimately though, what the 8800GT and HD 3870 has done to these other high-end cards is make them worth absolutely bugger all on the second hand market. What this means is you can really pick up a bargain."

X-Spice Croon 750watt Power Supply Review @ Tweaknews
This is the first product I have reviewed from X Spice and I must say that it has made me look forward to receiving further product samples from them. The Croon BF 700 is solidly built and performs well.

Thermaltake iXoft notebook Cooler Review @ TechwareLabs
The Thermaltake iXoft is a unique product that combines technology with common sense to deliver a cooler which really works well. We take a look into the concept behind this product and put it to the test under three different environments. Will the iXoft hold up in our tests? Read our review to find out.

Tight Timings On DDR3 Memory Is Possible! @ Legit Reviews
The days of saying DDR3 memory can't run tight timings are long gone now that memory kits can run 1333MHz with 4-4-4-12 timings with a little extra voltage. It just goes to show that it is possible to run tight CL4 or CL5 timings on DDR3 and it is likely that upcoming memory IC's might be able to improve on the frequencies at which these tight timings can be run. The Corsair WIN3X2048-1800C7DFIN G DDR3 memory kit is the only DDR3 kit that I have seen run CL4 memory timings above 1333Mhz.

Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750W Power Supply Review @ Hardware Canucks
The Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750W surprised the hell out of me with its solid performance and high quality construction. The performance I saw is in such stark contrast to the price that I found myself retesting again and again just to make sure this power supply really was performing as good as it was.

MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC Geforce 8800GT Videocard Review @ PCSTATS.com
MSI Computer has released a pre-overclocked GeForce 8800GT that makes it one of the fastest on the market. The MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC is pre-overclocked to 660MHz core and 1920MHz memory. The standard is 600/1800MHz core/memory. This lean single slot PCI Express x16 videocard is backed by 512MB of GDDR3 memory, supports dual DVI outputs and a variety of TV output options. Cost sits at $324 CDN, putting it about middle of the pack.

November 2007 system guide @ Tech Report
Happily, though, sometimes all of the elements converge and the time just seems right to build or upgrade. Now is unquestionably one of those times. The past few months have seen the release of a deluge of new PC components that offer solid value for the average enthusiast's PC—not just the high-end stuff with elaborate, snaking heatpipes and outrageous price tags, but truly affordable hardware with next-generation performance. We're talking about quad-core processors, DirectX 10-class graphics cards, near-terabyte hard drives, and the plumbing needed to keep such beasts well fed. At the same time, we've been inundated with a slew of major new PC games—everything from Unreal Tournament 3 to Team Fortress 2 to Crysis, to name just a few—to take full advantage of that hardware. If you've been holding off building until the time was right, your wait may well be over.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 512MB G92 Tested @ Tweaktown
Getting down to the nitty gritty there are some key details we should make mention of. Based on the new G92 core, we have the standard features to come with it such as PCI Express 2.0, a 65nm die and 1:1 texture addressing units : texture filtering units. These are the features we know to be standard across all of the upcoming 8800GTS G92 based graphics cards, but as far as model specifics go we have in this case 512MB of GDDR3 memory. That 512MB comes clocked in at 1940MHz DDR while the core and shader clocks come in at 650MHz and 1625MHz respectively.

OCZ Vendetta CPU Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews
What makes the Vendetta unique, is the fact it uses three copper heat pipes that each make direct contact with the processor to ensure the most rapid heat transfer. The 'V' shaped stacked aluminum cooling fins feature dimples that are supposed to add turbulences, thereby reducing the skin effect of laminar air flow. Basically, this CPU cooler was built to tackle heat-induced performance degradation and to solve the cooling challenges of today’s enthusiast system builds.

Aerocool EasyWatch LCD Fan Controller Review @ 3DXtreme
Following their success of the Aerocool FP-01, the fan controller with media reader and LCD, today 3DXtreme is taking a look at the latest product from our friends over at Aerocool, the EasyWatch. The Aerocool EasyWatch takes the fan controller and LCD from the FP-01 and incorporates them into a single 3.5” drive bay device.

Win a Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 80GB External Hard Drive Contest @ Big Bruin
Up for grabs in week thirteen of Bigbruin.com's Pro Football Pick 'Em is yet another brand new Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 80GB External Hard Drive!

Radeon HD 3870 could return to e-tail at $229 next week Article @ Tech Report
Now is a frustrating time to be in the market for a new graphics card. Nvidia and AMD both launched very attractive sub-$250 products this month--the GeForce 8800 GT and Radeon HD 3870--but both cards flew off store and e-tail shelves within hours of their respective launches, and they have been scarce ever since. The Radeon HD 3870's scarceness isn't due to low supplies of the RV670 graphics processor, TR has learned. Instead, an industry source tells us the cards are hard to come by because of a supply problem with Radeon HD 3870 boards stemming from...

Samsung HL-S6187W 61inch 1080P DLP Projection HDTV Review @ Tweaknews.net
With LCD and plasma TVs being all the rage in today's market, it is a shame that DLP projection TVs aren't getting the recognition they deserve. For the money, they offer more value, larger sizes and better black levels than their thin cousins. Until this review, I too thought that DLP would be a flickering annoying mess. But this TV, for its huge size, still pumped out a crisp picture that I thought would be only seen on smaller versions.

Razer Pro|type Keyboard with iPod dock Review @ TechwareLabs
The Razer Pro|Type keyboard is an ultra slick, backlit, and thin profile keyboard that comes with about every feature you could possibly need and an iPod dock as well. We hooked this beauty up to our rig and took her for a test drive. read our review to find out why we liked the razer interface so much.

Aeneon XTUNE 2GB PC3-10600 DDR3 Dual Channel Memory Kit Review @ Big Bruin
Going into this review I had no idea of what to expect. I wasn't particularly familiar with Aeneon and honestly didn't expect their memory to be able to outperform similar kits from the likes of Kingston and Crucial. With the ability to run at tight timings and overclock nicely, this kit made a solid impression and is definitely worth keeping your eyes out for.

LG Viewty KU990 3G 5MP Mobile Phone Review @ Tweaktown
LG has gone from a relatively budget oriented player in the mobile phone market to a company that is something of a fashion icon alongside its Korean counterpart Samsung. The Chocolate and Shine ranges have been very successful for LG, but what we’re looking at today has more akin with the Prada phone. The latest model from LG is the KU990 or Viewty is it’s also known as. It corrects a lot of the shortcomings that the Prada phone suffered from, but it has some of its own which we’ll bring up a bit later.

ASUS GeForce 8800GT 512MB Graphics Card Review @ Tweaktown
We’ve got three 8800GTs on hand at the labs of TweakTown which would probably give us more 8800GTs than any retail shop has seen. To say supply on the 8800GT is pretty poor would be an understatement. Maybe the 8800GT got off to a bit of an unfair start; we did compare an overclocked card to stock HD 2900 offerings initially. However, it’s safe to say that with the numbers being pulled here today from the stock clocked ASUS card, our initial judgment of the card being a great performer is well justified.

Thermaltake Bigwater 760i Water Cooling System Review @ TechwareLabs
Today we take a look at the Thermaltake Bigwater 760i am om bay complete water cooling solution for your PC. We answer the question "Is the Bigwater 760i able to keep our overclocked Core 2 Duo beast running at 3.2Ghz cool?" Check out our review for an in depth look at this solution that takes you from unpacking to installation and testing.

Albatron Blue Ray Decoder Card Examined @ Tweaktown
The front of the box is where the magic really begins. Now we can see that VGA is printed down the left side but it doesn’t exactly stand out. Of course Blue Ray Decoder Card is what you see initially. Everything becomes a little clearer as you read the press release though; this Blue Ray Decoder Card is basically just a poor performing video card with HD processing capabilities. You say “OMG, that’s just mean”, but I say “I want the Albatron marketing team.” This could be the greatest marketing idea ever!

Nanoxia Silent Case Fans Review @ Tweaknews
All in all, despite the one DOA fan these fans performed very well. The noise levels were decent and the fan controllers provided with each unit was a nice touch. I have had four of these fans running in my main PC for almost a month now and I honestly couldn't be happier with a fan.

Samsung Syncmaster 940UX 19inch LCD Display Review @ PCSTATS
The silver Samsung Syncmaster 940UX before us today is a tripple input LCD monitor, meaning it accepts a video signals over digital DVI, analog VGA and USB (UbiSync). Though DVI is the naturally preferred standard, multiple Syncmaster 940UX displays could be connected to a PC with the video signal going over the USB connection! There are some big limits for the USB-monitor-interface, so more on this in a moment. The Syncmaster 940UX's 19" screen boasts a native resolution of 1280x1024 pixels, with an industry standard dot pitch of 0.294mm. The Samsung 940UX retails for $330 CDN ($334 USD, £162 GBP) and offers up a contrast ratio of 1000:1 (dynamic contrast ratio of 2000:1). The brightness is pegged at a good 300 cd/m2, viewing angles sit at 160 degrees horizontal/vertical, and pixel response time is a quick 5ms.

Crucial Ballistix 2GB 1600MHz DDR3 Memory Kit Review @ Legit Reviews
The 1600MHz dual channel memory kit comes rated with 8-8-8-24 at 1.8V and it was able to run either a command rate of 1T or 2T with no issues at this clock frequency. This is due to the fact that Crucial's 1600MHz memory kits use highly screened Micron ICs that have been found to offer great timings and high clock frequencies. With an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor running at 450MHz Front Side Bus, we were able to reach 1800MHz at 2.20V with 7-7-7-20 1T timings on the 1600MHz Crucial Ballistix DDR3 memory kit.

4-Way Intel P35 Motherboard Overclocking Roundup @ Madshrimps
In this group test we compare the overclocking capabilities and performance of 4 motherboards based on the mid-range P35 Intel chipset. From the low cost Asus P5K, affordable Foxconn P35AP-S and MSI Platinum Combo to the expensive DFI P35 Lanparty, which one will come out on top? Find out in this article.

x264 Benchmark Results Updated @ Tech ARP
What's x264, you ask? It's more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it's ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.

Thermaltake Xaser VI Super Tower Chassis Review @ Tweaktown
The recently released Xaser VI is a chassis designed with aggressive lines, and certainly makes a bold statement. Xaser is pronounced “Zzzzaser” and it comes in various color configurations from silver, blue, black and red to mention a few, with this particular model being black with red trimmings. Looking at the case, one can clearly see a sleek presentable design, and with lots of extra effort from the designers to make the case stand out as a progressive enthusiast’s gaming rig.

A case is an important component of any computer system. It houses all the components, and thus can affect the performance of all of them. With so many high powered components prevalent in the average enthusiast's systems today, a good case has to offer sufficient cooling and proper design to allow for the highest levels of compatibility and stability. Antec is a company that has a reputation of fulfilling these requirements with their cases.

Today we are going to be taking a look at two of Antec's cases, the P182 and the P190. Both of these cases are from Antec's Performance One series of cases. These are targeted towards high end users who want a high quality case with excellent noise and thermal properties.

'The problem with enthusiast platforms' Article @ Tech Report Coupled with Radeon HD 3800 series graphics cards launched late last week, AMD's new Phenom processors and 790FX chipset fill out the company's Spider enthusiast platform. As I'm sure you know by now, Spider hasn't exactly received rave reviews. All is well on the graphics front; the Radeon HD 3800 series offers pretty compelling value considering current card pricing. However, Phenom is largely slower than its Core 2 rivals and hampered by a delay in the 2.4GHz part. The 790FX has issues, as well, held back by a dated south bridge and dodgy motherboard implementations. Perhaps launching an enthusiast platform wasn't such a good idea for AMD after all. In fact, the very idea of an enthusiast-centric platform is wrought with problems. ATI Catalyst 7.11 Analysis - XP & Vista Article @ Tweaktown AMD has just released a new Catalyst driver for Radeon graphics cards – we check out performance under XP and Vista. It seems like AMD forgot to send us the drivers before release this time, and there could be a reason for that. As we have a look over the release notes, there appears to be no performance improvements noted anywhere this time round. NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT Graphics Card Review Rev. 2.0 @ Tech ARP The NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT was designed to succeed the GeForce 7600 GT by not only offering better performance but also support for DirectX 10. For many gamers on a budget, the DirectX 10 support was the biggest reason to upgrade to the GeForce 8600 GT. It would allow them to play DirectX 10 games, or so they thought. G.Skill DDR2 and DDR3 Memory Kits Comparison @ Tweaktown PC system memory is always getting faster and faster, especially with the introduction of the DDR3 memory standard. JEDEC has ratified it, Intel P35 and X38 chipsets are supporting it and we are now seeing it come from all the major players. We have seen Mushkin, OCZ, Corsair and Kingston all producing memory based on DDR3 technology, but we haven’t seen the last of DDR2 just yet. Today we are going to test Both DDR2 and DDR3 from G.Skill, a 1000 MHz DDR2 4GB kit and 1600 MHz DDR3 2GB kit. How will they fair? We will pit the DDR3 against our just recently tested OCZ memory and the DDR2 against our Geil memory which has broken over 1200 MHz. AMD Spider Technology Article @ Tech ARP The AMD Spider platform consists of three new AMD high-end components - the AMD Phenom processor, the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series graphics card and a motherboard based on the AMD 790 chipset. Do note that the AMD Spider platform revolves around these high-end components. As an enthusiast gaming platform, it does not cover the lower-end AMD processor, the older Radeon HD 2000 series graphics cards or even the new AMD 770-based motherboards. Maximo iM-490S iMetal Earphones Review @ Legit Reviews Maximo Products, who makes their home in Vancouver, Washington and has been developing and marketing consumer-electronic products and accessories for many years, has introduced the iM-490S isolation earphones. The earphones, released just in time for the holidays are supposed to rival what is offered by “high end” earphone manufacturers. On paper, the iM-490S competes with headsets like the V-Moda Vibe quite closely. At its core, the iM-490S has an all-metal light-weight body design with neodymium drivers for maximum frequency response. All of this for under $50. Ideazon Merc Stealth Illuminated Gaming Keyboard Review @ 3DXtreme Ideazon has wowed us before with their unique products like the Z-Board, the Merc Gaming Keyboard and the Fang Gamepad. Today we are taking a look at the Ideazon Merc Stealth, a backlit version of the Merc Gaming Keyboard. Following the likes of Saitek and Logitech, Ideazon delivers a unique Gamers Keyboard that is now backlit in three different options of color.

Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews Gigabyte has done a wonderful job with the X38-DQ6 and I love the fact that it's a DDR2 board. With DDR3 memory prices being so high the X38-DQ6 allows you to have all the latest chipset features and run the less expensive DDR2 memory line. The board runs stable with all four memory banks full at both 800MHz and 1066MHz as that is the only way I have ever run the board... Patriot Memory PDC32G1600LLK 2GB DDR3-1600 Memory Kit Review @ PCSTATS In this review PCSTATS is testing a 2GB pair of DDR3-1600 memory from Patriot Memory. I have no idea if the company is actually "patriotic" by calling itself Patriot, but its PDC32G1600LLK PC3-12800 low latency memory does look nice. These enthusiast grade DDR3 modules run at 1600MHz, with a CAS latency of 7-7-7-18 at 1.8V. The low latency PDC32G1600LLK kit has a PC3-12800 rating, which that means it's capable of delivering a massive 12.8GB/s to the system. Enermax Infiniti 720W SLI Power Supply Review @ OzHardware Enermax, a major player and leader in the aftermarket and enthusiast power supply segment brings us their latest power supply, a 720W unit boasting SLI certification, modular cabling and even good looks, plus many other features. Yidsun SP-788 Bluetooth Stereo Headset Review @ Tweaktown Our first impression was somewhat mixed; the design is ok, but we’re not keen on the Yidsun logos on the side of the headphones as it’s not like having Shure or Sony or some other famous brand showing. None the less, they’re not ugly and the design is up to date, which is rarely the case with Bluetooth headsets from lesser known brands. The headset is amazingly light and although it weighs 30g with the ear pieces it’s anything but heavy when worn. ATP Electronics ToughDrive and Petito Flash Drives Review @ Bigbruin ATP Electronics sent over a pair of 2GB USB flash drives for BigBruin.com to take a look at... the ToughDrive Mini and the Petito. Both drives boast similar speed specifications, Windows Vista ReadyBoost compatibility, and are available in capacities ranging from 512MB to 4GB. Where they differ is in style, as the ToughDrive Mini is a black ruggedized unit and the Petito is a dainty little pink thing with a sparkly finish. Sparkle 8800 GT 512Mb Review @ Madshrimps One year ago NVIDIA released the Geforce 8 series and took the performance crown, today we test the latest additions to the family, the 8800 GT is priced lower than the 8800 GTS 320mb, yet sports higher clockspeeds and more video memory. A candidate for best price/performance card and worth a place in your Christmas shopping list? We find out! Coolermaster COSMOS - Spacey Design - ATX Case Review @ Madshrimps The latest high end ATX case from Coolermaster has an outer-space design, nicknamed Cosmos this creation features tons of airflow and noise reduction features. We stress test this unique chassis with high end hardware and compare its performance to nine other cases. MvixUSA MX-760HD Wireless HD Media Center Review @ TechwareLabs We all know media center consumer electronics is a huge market right now and we at TechwareLabs have a look at an HD Wireless Media Center from MvixUSA. The MX-760HD is an amazing device with flexibility and tons of functionality. take a look at why this device could replace your media center PC at less than half the cost.

Contrary to AMD, Intel is trying to steal the day from the Phenom launch. As performance dictates, Intel's Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Processor is significantly faster than the fastest Phenom processor introduced today, but then again it also costs significantly more.

Accompanying some of the QX9770 reviews is some information on the successor to Intel's X38 chipset, the X48 which will provide official support for the 1600MHz FSB.

Anyways, on to the reviews!

AMD Phenom & Spider vs Intel QX9770
AMD's native quad core Phenom desktop processor is finally here accompanied by the 790FX chipset that makes up the AMD “Spider” platform when used alongside the Radeon 3800 series video cards.

Intel's Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Preview: Too Hot for TV @ Anandtech
The old Intel would've waited for the X48 chipset, which will bring official 1600MHz FSB support. The old Intel wouldn't have even recognized the QX9770 as existing on its roadmap. The new Intel not only pre-announced the chip, but it also encouraged reviewers to overclock X38 chipsets to support the 1600MHz FSB required by the QX9770.

Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor QX9770 Review @ Legit Reviews
The Gigabyte X38-DQ6 with BIOS version F6b was used for overclocking the Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor QX9770 and the results were amazing. This processor starts life out at 3.2GHz and I aimed to max out the overall core speed, so I increased the Front Side Bus speed until the system became unstable. With 1.5Vcore on the processor, the system was able to top out at 4.51GHz with partial stability...

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Performance Preview @ Hot Hardware
As we noted previously, Intel has increased the Core 2 Extreme quad-core's clock speed by incrementally increasing front side bus speed. Along with this FSB boost, they've decided to revise the existing X38 chipset in an effort to better support the higher front side bus speed of the chip. Here's where the new X48 Express chipset comes in. That's not to say that existing X38 boards won't also support the higher 1600MHz FSB of the new Core 2 Extreme QX9770. The product will be supported on a case-by-case basis, depending on the motherboard model, manufacturer and BIOS revision. In fact, all of the benchmarks you'll see here today were taken from an X38 chipset-based motherboard from Asus (P5E3 Deluxe) and things were completely stable at stock 1600MHz FSB speeds and higher.

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Performance Preview @ TechGage
The focus of today's preview is an up and comer. The QX9770 offers 3.2GHz speeds with a 1600FSB, a first of it's kind. This article is considered a preview for three reasons. First is the fact that our motherboard does not officially support 1600FSB processors, despite having a beta BIOS that is designed to add the support. Second is that the QX9770 is designed to launch alongside Intel's X48 chipset, which we were unable to attain prior to this preview.

Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Candidate Release Preview @ TechARP
This Release Candidate Preview build also includes updates that have not been released online as updates, or only made available to specific Microsoft customers and partners. These updates are now part of the build. Therefore, this build is more than just a collection of previously-released hot fixes and security patches.

Western Digital RE2 750GB Hard Drive Review @ Tweaktown
Hard disks are continuing to get bigger and faster thanks to perpendicular recording, larger cache sizes, SATA-II interface and faster rotation speeds of the platters. Hard disks by no stretch of the imagination are one of the most important parts of the PC. Today we are looking at Western Digital’s top end SATA hard disk designed specifically for RAID environments. Using Enterprise class components these drives are built to last. The specific model we have on the chopping block today is the Western Digital RE2 750GB Hard Disk.

Desktop CPU Comparison Guide Rev. 4.2. @ TechARP
There are so many CPU models that it has become quite impossible to keep up with the different models or even remember their specifications. Therefore, we decided to compile this guide to provide an easy reference for those who are interested in comparing the specifications of the various desktop CPUs in the market, as well as those already obsolescent or obsolete. Currently covering over 600 desktop CPUs, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare up to 18 different specifications for each and every CPU.

Aliph's Jawbone Bluetooth Headset Review @ Legit Reviews
This Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headset really shines when operated in noisy environments as the on-board DSP, multiple microphones and the unique Voice Activity Sensor sheds the unwanted sounds and isolates and enhances the user’s voice. Unfortunately, as great as this headset’s noise suppression and voice enhancement are, the headset really stumbles when you are actually trying to hear your party in these noisy environments...

ATI Radeon HD 3870/3850 Vs. NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT @ TechARP
The really big problem for NVIDIA right now is availability. They haven't been able to deliver the GeForce 8800 GT in sufficient quantities to even meet initial demands. This may push impatient gamers into buying the cheaper Radeon HD 3870, especially if ATI includes an attractive game bundle like they did with the Radeon HD 2900 XT.

Nexus LXM-8200 CPU Cooler @ TechwareLabs
Patriot Memory made quite a name for itself in the DDR2 era by releasing some pretty fast memory. It's looking to continue its track record with DDR3 I expect. The 2GB Patriot Memory PDC32G1866LLK DDR3-1866 memory kit PCSTATS is testing for you today is the companies' fastest current memory part, running at a blistering 1866 MHz! The PDC32G1866LLK kit has a PC3-15000 rating, which that means it's capable of delivering a massive 15GB/s to the system.

Patriot Memory PDC32G1866LLK 2GB DDR3-1866 Memory Kit Review @ PCSTATS
Patriot Memory made quite a name for itself in the DDR2 era by releasing some pretty fast memory. It's looking to continue its track record with DDR3 I expect. The 2GB Patriot Memory PDC32G1866LLK DDR3-1866 memory kit PCSTATS is testing for you today is the companies' fastest current memory part, running at a blistering 1866 MHz! The PDC32G1866LLK kit has a PC3-15000 rating, which that means it's capable of delivering a massive 15GB/s to the system.