Submitted by brandon on June 17, 2008 - 12:23pm. Daily News for June 17

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 Graphics Cards by EVGA and PNY @ Legit Reviews
Overall the GeForce GTX 280 graphics card was a winner in our books and it made a difference while gaming, which is the most important thing. The game we noticed the performance gains the most was actually Age of Conan when we cranked up the image quality at a resolution of 1920x1200 . Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures passed the astounding 'One Million Copies Shipped' milestone in less than three weeks after the game's launch, so that is a huge potential market in the months to come.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 Compute Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews
Hot on the heels of a rapid-succession GeForce 9800 GX2 and GeForce 9800 GTX launch only two short months ago, NVIDIA now officially unveils the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 video cards. Using the fastest and most-powerful graphics processor NVIDIA has ever developed, both new GeForce products are constructed from a freshly-minted GT200 graphics processor. Both the GTX 280 and GTX 260 products position themselves at the very highest segment of the GeForce product line. NVIDIA Estimates that the GeForce GTX 280 will be introduced at $649, while the similarly powerful GeForce GTX 260 will enter the $399 price point. If the competition ever had a very good reason to be concerned with their future, it would be right now.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 AMP! Edition @ Tweaktown
Word on the GT200 has been floating around for a while now, and we’ve seen a number of leaked benchmarks all over the world wide interweb. With the NDA being lifted, it’s time to check out what exactly is going on with the new card. What we will be doing today is checking out exactly how much faster the new GTX 280 is when compared to the 9800 GX2, along with seeing how it compares against the top of the range AMD offering; the HD 3870 X2. For further good measure, we’ll also try it against one of the better valued for money NVIDIA cards at the moment; the 9800 GTX.

Gigabyte TurboForce 8800GT @ Pro-Clockers
Gigabyte being no stranger to graphic cards has sent us their variant of the 8800GT. The GV-NX88T512HP takes the 8800GT to a whole new level being overclocked from the factory. And to tame all the speed the card has to offer Gigabyte consulted Zalman for providing the necessary cooling. When you introduce a major player in motherboards and a major player in cooling chances are you will get an awesome product in the end.

Antec Twelve Hundred Gamer Case Review @ Club Overclocker

I classify the Twelve Hundred as a mid to high end computer cases due to it's street price of about $215 depending on where you live and shop. The Antec Twelve Hundred is an all new case in the "Gamer Case" family at Antec and extends the series preceded by the popular Three Hundred and Nine Hundred cases. However, the Twelve Hundred is a radical change over the previous models and only slightly resembles the Nine Hundred. Antec took bold steps in a completely new direction with the Gamer Case series, so my first question when I saw the Twelve Hundred was will I like this design as much as I've come to cherish other Antec cases such as the P180/P182 in the Performance One series

ECS A770M-A AM2 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
I have finally gotten my chance to review one of their products. The product on the bench here today is the A770-M socket AM2+ motherboard. Before I even received the board I browsed a few online stores to get a good ideal on pricing. In the case of the A770M-A we were able to find it for roughly $65. This is in range of Asrock and some of the board they manufacture. But is the ECS as stable as the competition? We will find out.

Antec Twelve Hundred Gaming Chassis @ TechwareLabs
With Antec's new Twelve Hundred, Antec is attempting to market a successful follow up to their wildly popular Nine Hundred gaming case. The Twelve Hundred makes numerous design improvements and sports 3 more bays than its smaller predecessor. Antec designed the Twelve Hundred with gamers in mind, the case sports a stylish black finish and blue LED fans. The first thing you will notice about this case is how large and heavy it is - it's big. Antec spared no features and set their goals high with the Antec Twelve Hundred. Let's see how they did.

Submitted by brandon on June 3, 2008 - 5:00pm. Kingston DataTraveler HyperX USB Flash Drive 4GB (DTHX/4GB)

Kingston is a company that needs no introduction. We've already reviewed many of their products here at circuitREMIX, and overall found them to be pretty good.

Today we're going to be looking at a product from Kingston's performance oriented line of products, HyperX. No, it's not RAM, but a USB flash drive. Kingston's DataTraveler HyperX is the fastest USB flash drive series that Kingston currently offers, and we'll see how it stacks up to the competition.

It is offered in 2, 4 and 8GB capacities, and we're going to be playing with the 4GB variety.

The DataTraveler HyperX (DTHX/4GB)

Kingston's DataTraveler HyperX USB flash drive is made almost completely of black plastic. It has a dull, matte surface which gives it some grip.

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.