Submitted by brandon on June 24, 2008 - 11:00pm. Belkin TuneCast Auto with Clearscan for iPhone/iPod

I normally don't review non-computer accessories circuitREMIX, but I made an exception for Belkin's TuneCast Auto with Clearscan for iPhone/iPod. For one, iPods are hugely popular around the world and the new iPhone 3G is going to make a huge splash on July 11. As well, I personally own some iPods and I intend on buying an iPhone 3G when they're released.

In my personal interest in the matter, I've had some trouble finding a good FM transmitter for my iPods. My car is from 2003, and that was before most cars came standard with auxilary input jacks for audio devices. It also doesn't have a cassette deck, and since I'm still using the OEM stereo, there isn't an easy way to install a direct cable input. Using an FM transmitter is my only easy option to get audio from my iPods to my stereo, and out the speakers.

Submitted by brandon on June 24, 2008 - 8:16am. Daily News for June 24

Brando 2.5 & 3.5inch SATA HDD Dock with USB Hub Review @ Madshrimps
Brando SATA HDD Dock allows you to hotplug any 3.5 or 2.5inch SATA drive in a nifty external device. No more screwing around to get that external hard-drive installed. Just push it into the HDD Dock and start copying files.

Samsung SC-HMX10A High Definition HD Solid State Memory Camcorder Review @ Tweaknews
Samsung's first foray into solid state HD recording can be easily summed up to be a success. Everything works perfectly, controls are easy to use and video/photo quality are excellent for an all-in-one product. With the rise in HDTV sales, HD camcorders are going to get more and more popular. Consider an HD camcorder as future-proofing your purchase so it will be compatible with the new TV standard for several years.

Tuniq Ensemble 1200w Power Supply Review @ Club Overclocker
With the focus on a Green PC and sky rocketing energy bills, High Efficiency power supplies are gaining momentum. Manufacturers are highlighting their units abilities to maintain high efficiency even under full load. Tuniq claims the Ensemble will achieve a minimum of 82.3% at full load with an average efficiency of 86%.

XFX GeForce GTX 280 XXX Edition @ Tweaktown
If the GTX 280 AMP! Edition from ZOTAC wasn’t enough MHz for you, we might have the card for you today. XFX is back once again, carrying with it some pretty mean speeds on the new GTX 280 XXX Edition. While the XFX GTX 280 does come in 30MHz lower on the core compared to the ZOTAC offering, it does carry with it a significantly higher 200MHz DDR memory clock. Let’s find out if that makes up for the reduced core speed.

Razer Lachesis High Precision 3G Gaming Mouse @ Futurelooks
As the “Bringer of Silent Death”, the Razer Lachesis is named after venomous pit vipers found in Central and South America which can strike its victim multiple times at lethal speeds. Now I don’t call myself an avid gamer but I do like to partake in the more recent windows based gaming titles and it will be interesting to see how a true gaming mouse outperforms a regular ol’ optical mouse that I’ve been clutching. Does this precision gaming mouse live up to its namesake?

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB Review @ Club Overclocker
What a crazy week this has been. First, with the unintentional early release of the 4850, followed by the nVidia bombshell announcement of the 9800GTX+, there has not been a dull moment. All this chaos in the market has precipitated a serious price war in which all of us win. Even with the MSRP of $199, we are already seeing the 4850 sell for as low as $160. 8800GTX like performance for under two bills? Yes, please! All on a design that sips power and uses a single slot cooler? Where do I sign up?

ASUS Lion Square CPU Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews
Today we look at the newest CPU cooler from ASUS, the Lion Square. Named for the Sword Lion legend and designed with quad core CPU’s in mind this seems to be a slick heat sink. The bold and unique design features eight heat pipes that originate from the copper base all the way to the top where they are covered by neat looking nuts. The very top of the cooler has a cover that mimics the shape of a shield. It looks great, but how will it perform? Read on to find out!

Submitted by brandon on June 23, 2008 - 8:15am. Daily News for June 23

NZXT Tempest Midtower ATX Case @ Futurelooks
NZXT has come a long way in a short time. They started simply, with a flashy entrance into the case market in the form of the Guardian. Now they have a full stable of wonderfully designed cases, and aren’t showing any signs of slowing down. Their latest release, the Tempest, has garnered a lot of attention. We’re going to take a look at it, and see how well it stacks up in the abundant performance case market.

Hiper Osiris HTC-1K514-A1 Mid-Tower Computer Case @ Benchmark Reviews
High Performance Group (Hiper) is best known for their self-designed power supply units, yet they have recently begun to compete in the computer chassis market. Their first foray into the arena was with the rock-solid Hiper Anubis Mid Tower ATX Case HTC-1K614, which could withstand brutal punishment while looking very stylish. Mere months later, Hiper has returned with the Osiris Mid-Tower 6063-T5 Alloy Computer Case HTC-1K514-A1. Named after the ancient Egyptian god of the overworld, this case comes equipped with many of the award-winning features found in the Anubis and adds a total of 20 new refinements.

MSI P7N SLI Platinum (750i) Motherboard Review @ Madshrimps
In this review we take a look at an affordable NVIDIA 750i based motherboard from MSI. It allows you to build an SLI gaming system powered by an Intel S775 CPU. Is this product good enough for the enthusiast? We compare its performance to an X38 based S775 board and also let you explore the BIOS of the MSI with our virtual tour.

Four Radeon HD 4850s In CrossfireX @ Tweaktown
The guys down at IBuyPower Australia can’t get rid of me these days. I’m surprised they haven’t started asking me to pay rent. The other day the ASUS P5E64 WS Evolution board arrived, and this thing just absolutely won me over as far as looks and features went. However, the feature that we really care about today is the fact it has four PCI Express x16 slots. While ASUS use a x16/x16/x4/x4 configuration, it’s really one of the best on the market. So, with four HD 4850s in hand and hopefully a driver that was going to work, it was time to take four of these single slot bad boys to town.

Overclocking The NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ Video Card @ Legit Reviews
The highest settings we could get stable with the GeForce 9800 GTX+ were 855MHz on the core and 2200MHz on the shaders. That is 55MHz higher on the core and 175MHz higher on the shaders than what we could reach on the old 65nm G92 core. For those that like percentages the overclock is roughly 6% higher on the core and 8% more on the shaders, which is significant, but nothing over the top. Usually with die shrinks overclocking performance stays close to the same, even more so when no major architecture changes are made. It should be noted that the memory overclocked better on the GeForce 9800 GTX+ and it seems NVIDIA has moved over to Hynix branded GDDR3 memory ICs. The GDDR3 memory IC's on the new GeForce 9800 GTX+ card were Hynix H5RS5223CFR-N2C, which are rated 1200 MHz (GDDR3-2400) 0.8NS with 1.5V. These are the same memory IC's that were found on the GeForce GTX 280 cards we reviewed last week.

ASUS Eee PC 1000H @ Tweaktown
Eee PC 1000H is Taiwan’s version of the latest Eee PC launched by ASUS late in 2007. Since then, like a wildfire the Eee PC revolution has burned asunder all competition before it. There is literally no other genré of PC like it. However, that being said, I have to say the look and feel of the model we are looking at today is a lot different from the first Eee PC we originally exposed in all her innocence a while ago. Today we are going to strip down a juicier, more mature model; something seductively more endowed, and covered in glossy black. No more innocent “clad in white” teeny tid-bit viewing; this is an all-black leather mistress with her whips and chains, and it took a great deal of coaxing to calm her out of her plastic glossy black briefs.

Super Talent 8 GB USB Pico Drive @ TechwareLabs
Gone are the days of "Super Size Me" as the world has taken a 180 degree turn and everywhere you look ultra small is in. Super Talent has extended this concept to its USB storage line and presents us with its PICO drive. Weighing in at 8GB its a lot of storage in a little itty bitty space. Does this contended have performance that is bigger than its size?

Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 ECO 80 ATX Case Review @ Madshrimps
Arctic Cooling, well known for their low noise CPU and VGA coolers, has developed their own Silentium ATX case series some time ago. We take a look at the latest incarnation, the T2 ECO 80 which comes with a high efficiency 550W PSU, HDD noise absorption system and decoupled low noise case fans. Can this case live up to their high standards?

Submitted by brandon on June 20, 2008 - 7:55am. Daily News for June 20

Western Digital VelociRaptor 10000RPM SATA Hard Drive @ Tech Report
Western Digital hatched its latest Raptor back in April, revealing a unique departure from more traditional designs. This leaner, meaner VelociRaptor VR150 is actually a 2.5" drive sitting inside a heatsink that slides nicely into standard 3.5" bays. But don't think you can take this most recent Raptor lightly just because it's gone on a diet. Despite a smaller form factor, the VelociRaptor still offers 300GB of capacity—twice that of its 3.5" forebear. The VR150 is also the first Raptor with a 300MB/s Serial ATA interface, and its trademark 10K-RPM spindle speed hasn't skipped a beat. Like its predecessors in their prime, the VelociRaptor proved to be the all-around fastest SATA hard drive on the market—and a surprisingly quiet and power-efficient one, at that. However, the drive we used in our initial look at the VR150 was an engineering sample with pre-production firmware. Final, production drives have now made their way onto the market, and we've managed to score a retail sample that should be representative of the drives you can buy today.

ATI Radeon HD 4850 Versus NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ @ Legit Reviews
The battle between ATI and NVIDIA reached a tense moment today when ATI removed the gag order on the ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card by more than a week. NVIDIA was trying to spoil the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4850 by launching an ultra secret graphics card called the GeForce 9800 GTX+! Read on as we benchmark the Radeon HD 4850 versus the GeForce 9800 GTX+!

Intel P45 Vs. X48 Crossfire Performance @ Tweaktown
The other day the new GIGABYTE P45-DQ6 arrived and I was instantly intrigued by how cool it looks. The thing is, what also arrived that day was the HD 4850s. With my mind going in over drive, I thought this was the perfect time to check out what’s going on in the PCI Express slot department these days. While there are a few differences between the two, we only cared about one of them. We wanted to know the performance difference between the X48 and the P45 when running Crossfire. While both boards carry two physical x16 slots, when two cards are installed the electronics behind the slots on the P45 tune back to x8 on both slots. The X48 on the other hand continues to run both slots at x16 independently.

Zalman ZM1000-HP 1000 Power Supply @ Pro-Clockers
Another one of those quality products is the subject of our next review. The ZM1000-HP is one powerful power supply and it is also good looking. This six 12-volt rail 1000 watt behemoth is a sterling dark gray glossy finish that is pretty attractive without being flashy. And while I am on the exterior features of the ZM1000-HP is mostly modular for unlimited cable management possibilities. This power supply has all that one would need in a unit to power the best of gaming rigs.

ATI Radeon HD 4850 @ Tech Report
The battle between AMD and Nvidia for the hearts, minds, and disposable income of PC enthusiasts is starting to get scrappy. First, AMD scheduled a press event to distract folks from Nvidia's GeForce GTX 200 series launch, which Nvidia subsequently pulled forward. Perhaps in retaliation, the green team then divulged plans to unleash a faster version of its GeForce 9800 GTX. This GeForce 9800 GTX+ will sell for only $229, dropping the vanilla 9800 to $199—conveniently stepping on the price point of AMD's next-gen Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. Lest it be outmaneuvered, and because cards are actually available for sale already, AMD has decided to lift the curtains on the 4850 a little early. Keep reading for our first look at AMD's new mid-range Radeon.

Corsair TX750W Power Supply @ TechwareLabs
Where does the juice for your power rig come from? Is it reliable? Was it a pain to install? Are you letting money slip through your fingers each moment you use a poor efficiency power supply? Matt tests out the Corsair TX750 which supports 80Plus efficiency in a sleek black box. So flip the switch and read the electrifying results.

ATI Radeon HD 4850 @ Anandtech
Running GPU-Z we see that the Radeon HD 4850 shows up as having 800 stream processors, up from 320 in the Radeon HD 3800 series. Remember that the Radeon HD 3800 was built on TSMC's 55nm process and there simply isn't a smaller process available for AMD to use, so the 4800 most likely uses the same manufacturing process. With 2.5x the stream processor count, the RV770 isn't going to be a small chip, while we can't reveal transistor count quite yet you can make a reasonable guess. That's a 625MHz core clock and 993MHz GDDR3 memory clock (1986MHz data rate). We've got more stream processors than the Radeon HD 3870, but they are clocked a bit lower to make up for the fact that there are 2.5x as many on the same manufacturing process.

Thermaltake ProWater 850i @ TechwareLabs
Getting ready to enter the world of watercooling? Not sure about which kit is right for you or even how to install it? We check out the ProWater 850i a cheap and well made kit and take you step by step through our install and explain how the kit works and show its performance.

Submitted by brandon on June 19, 2008 - 5:00pm. Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR3-1333 CL8 Memory Kit

Aeneon is a relatively new brand on the market, re-launched about 7 months ago. Originally under the Infineon brand, it is now a Qimonda brand after the spinoff of Infineon as Qimonda. Qimonda decided to continue the use of the Aeneon brand name for it's retail market division.

As part of the strategy, Aeneon exclusively uses Qimonda DRAM chips. This is similar to the use of Micron chips for the Micron owned Crucial brand. We all know that when it comes down to the performance memory market, the DRAM "chip-to-get" changes like the seasons. Other companies such as Corsair, Kingston and OCZ aren't restricted to certain DRAM manufacturers and have more flexibility when creating product lineups. Some of those brands have used Qimonda chips in the past, and many video cards use fast GDDR from Qimonda, and today we'll check out a DDR3 kit from Aeneon which uses Qimonda DRAM chips.

Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR3-1333 CL8 Memory Kit (AXH760UDx0-13G)

The memory kit on the plate today is from Aeneon's performance line of RAM, XTune. It's comprised of 2GB (2x1GB DIMMs) of DDR3 rated to run at 1333MHz at CL8 (specifically, 8-8-8-24). Aeneon tests these kits in pairs to ensure performance and stability in dual channel configuration.

Submitted by brandon on June 19, 2008 - 9:45am. Daily News for June 19

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 In Crossfire @ Tweaktown
I actually tested the HD 4850 before I finished writing my review on the GTX 280, which turned out to be good news for AMD but bad news for NVIDIA. It completely changed my opinion on the GTX 280 before I had even finished writing. The thing is, the GTX 280 is a good card in the sense of what it’s capable of. Such technology as CUDA and PhysX are great inclusions. But I’m a gamer; I want FPS! - I can’t sum it up better than that, and the GTX 280 really didn’t deliver in that department. I wrote in my editorial the other day that the HD 4850 in Crossfire wasn’t going to bring me fully back into the world of PC gaming, but I think the HD 4870 has the ability to do this. While the performance on the HD 4850 is excellent in Crossfire, it’s not loads faster than the GTX 280. That’s fine; we didn’t expect it to be faster at all simply because of the price. The thing is though, it is, and this is awesome news for people who want what could probably be the absolute best value for money setup we’ve ever seen – Yes, ever!

ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB Video Card Preview @ Legit Reviews
You'll notice that the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 has just a single 6-pin PCI Express power connector on the board and that is because it uses just 110 Watts of power during peak usage! The box of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 states that a 450W or greater power supply with a 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector is recommended for use. If you want to run these cards in CrossFire you'll need at least a 550W power supply and two 6-pin connectors. The box doesn't say want you need for 3-way and 4-way CrossFireX and we are still under an embargo on information that isn't on the box or in the presentation deck, but you can figure out the math on that one. To make things even tougher NVIDIA just released the NDA on the GeForce 9800 GTX+, which is clocked faster than a normal GeForce 9800 GTX! The GeForce 9800 GTX+ is coming out in July and will put some serious pressure on ATI as it will be priced at $229.

AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB Preview - RV770 Discovered @ PC Perspective
The AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB card is a good performing card that is able to match both the GeForce 8800 GT and the 9800 GTX card in our initial preview of just a couple of major gaming titles. NVIDIA has some more tricks up their sleeve though with a little part called the GeForce 9800 GTX+ meant solely to rain on AMD's launch day parade. Whether or not that will pan out has yet to be seen. The estimated MSRP on the HD 4850 512MB cards is $199 - low enough to be competitive in the market against NVIDIA's solutions. Currently the GeForce 9800 GTX is selling for no less than $269 while the 8800 GT cards are going for anywhere between $159 and $209. Availability of the HD 4850 should be immediate and no later than June 25th - you'll have to wait a couple weeks longer to get your hands on the HD 4870 graphics cards.

G.Skill 4GB DDR3-1600 Pi Series Dual Channel Memory Kit Review @ Bigbruin
The G.Skill DDR3-1600 Pi Series memory modules have a rather funky looking heatspreader, which upon closer inspection impressed me from a design and engineering perspective. Each module is protected by an aluminum heatspreader with what looks like the spiral binding from a notebook on top. These loops are similar to what many other manufacturers implement, except they have a bit of three dimensional appeal to them.

GTX 280 ForceWare 177.35 Performance @ Tweaktown
We figured that graphs speak louder than words, so today we took the time to test the new drivers under XP and Vista across a range of benchmarks on our ZOTAC GTX 280. I’ve decided that although there are new Catalyst drivers available for me to test, people would be more excited to see what NVIDIA can do to (hopefully) squeeze more performance out of the GTX 200 cards. While a lot of sites have loved the GTX 200 series of cards, they don’t seem to completely understand what’s going on in the AMD camp. I can honestly say that NVIDIA need the GTX 280 to get a speed bump, or gamers may be flocking to AMD for their graphics card sooner rather than later.

Zalman VF900-Cu Ultra Quiet Heatpipe VGA Cooler @ Benchmark Reviews
The competition between ATI and NVIDIA is fierce; it's definitely a buyers market in video cards these days. New chips are coming out every six months and they're almost always running more transistors, faster. There's a fair chance that the hottest and noisiest component inside your PC is the video card. Fortunately, the PC cooling industry has responded with some excellent products to keep the GPU heat and noise down. Join Benchmark Reviews as we look at how the Zalman VF900-Cu Ultra Quiet Heat-pipe VGA Cooler saved the day for one system builder.

TechwareLabs Case Mod Contest
Are you a mad modder at heart? Have you taken the toaster over and crammed a quad core CPU, dual video cards, and four hard drives into it? Have you altered your washer to look like something that qualifies as a WMD and outfit it with a PC? If so we want to see your mod, big or small. Submit everything you have modified and we will incorporate it into a video to be hosted on our site. The winning case mod will not only appear in the video but will also get an interview by us and be featured on our front page. Get your dremel and bondo out and let the mods begin.

Submitted by brandon on June 18, 2008 - 1:04pm. Daily News for June 18

Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile Wireless Speaker System @ Legit Reviews
Have you ever wanted to play music from your stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)-enabled phone? If you have then take a look at the Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile wireless speaker! Thanks to stereo Bluetooth you can enjoy music from up to 33 feet away from your phone or you could use it as a wireless speakerphone. The Logitech Pure-Fi comes with everything you need to get things working and comes backed by a 2-year limited hardware warranty. The Logitech designers and engineers have delivered what is sure to be the blueprint for future peripherals in the wireless industry. The Pure-Fi Mobile wireless speaker system can connect to your mobile phone, the PC, and your favorite portable media player, it can easily be stored in your backpack or briefcase. More than anything, it produces excellent sound and play an entire day on a charge. Sign me up, right?!? Oh, wait, it costs how much?

MSI P45 Platinum Motherboard @ Tweaktown
Today we have an early market sample of MSI’s P45 Platinum which is their top of the range board, this designed to compete with both ASUS’ and GIGABYTE’s ultra high-end P45 offerings. While it doesn’t have the full retail packaging included, we’ve confirmed with MSI that it’s the final revision board in our labs. For our comparison today, we are pitting the MSI P45 Platinum against our oldest but most impressive P35 board we have, GIGABYTE’s P35 DQ6. Both are based on DDR2 memory which make these systems equally matched apart from the change in chipset.

CoolIT Systems nVIDIA 8800 Series Dual Drive Bay VGA Cooler @ Futurelooks
Canadian Darling, CoolIT Systems has been kicking ass and taking names in the high end CPU cooler market with their excellent MTEC systems which combine watercooling and peltiers (TEC’s) into quiet and dependable cooling systems with high overclock potential. You would think that with big OEM wins with Shuttle and DELL under their belt, the Calgary, Alberta company would be happy just making CPU cooling solutions. Not a chance. After CPUs, their next stop is the VGA cooling market and today we get a chance to check out one of their Dual Drive Bay VGA Coolers for nVIDIA 8800 series GPU’s.

Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick Review @ Club Overclocker
Anyone who watches television is probably aware of the upcoming digital switchover coming to the United States on February 17, 2009. What has remained a mystery is how this will affect the consumer electronics market, not only for standard televisions; but for HTPCs as well. The U.S. federal government is trying to ease the switchover in a couple different ways: first, all televisions, DVD recorders, and computer-based television tuners sold after March 1, 2007 are required to support the new digital standard. Secondly, the federal government is sending $40 vouchers for set top boxes that would bring older analog sets into compliance. Now, this probably sounds like a major hassle to most consumers, especially those that do not keep themselves on the bleeding edge of electronics. On the other hand, digital means better, right? Will the new digital age of television allow for a better overall experience? This is a question I hope to tackle as I review today's product: the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick.

Asrock A780FullDisplayport AM2+ Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
Today, the board we will be tackling is the A780FullDisplayPort which is based on the AMD 780G/SB700 chipset. This new board looks to be competing for the title of the ultimate mATX motherboard with its integrated graphics that will support now and future DirectX 10 titles. And if this doesn’t supply you with enough video processing power a higher end graphic accelerator can be added. This is only one thing the A780FullDisplay has to offer. What are the others……read on.

Submitted by brandon on June 17, 2008 - 5:00pm. OCZ Reaper HPC 2GB PC3-10666 (1333MHz) DDR3 Memory Kit

OCZ Technology is a relatively young company. In business for less than 10 years so far, OCZ's birth not too long ago was welcomed by the computer enthusiast community. At the time, there were few other high performance memory companies. Coming back to present time, OCZ is still alive and kicking. It's now a much bigger company and even though it now has a more diversified product portfolio, memory is still its #1 game.

OCZ Reaper HPC 2x1GB DDR3-1333 Memory Kit (OCZ3RPR13332GK)

Today we'll be taking a look at one product in OCZ's product portfolio that attempts to live up the company's heritage as a high speed memory company. The kit we'll be examining is from OCZ's DDR3 lineup, the 2GB Reaper HPC PC3-10666 (DDR3-1333MHz) memory kit. It's a dual channel kit comprised of 2x1GB DIMMS. The DIMMs are rated to run at 1333MHz with 6-6-6-18 timings at 1.75v. They feature OCZ's lifetime warranty (with voltage support of up to 1.8v) and a radical cooling design.

After receiving and opening our Reaper memory kit from OCZ, one thing immediately came to mind: these are the heaviest memory modules I've ever held. Most high performance memory kits on the market have aluminum heatspreaders, but OCZ went much further with it's Reaper series.