The aesthetics of the unit are a little bit different from the norm, but everything is well done. In use, the Toughpower QFan 650W power supply is very impressive; providing excellent voltage regulation and near silent operation. Most high quality power supplies these days aim to be quiet, but Thermaltake takes a few extra steps to guarantee it on this unit.
The Thermaltake BlacX SE hard drive dock provides a convenient way to access 3.5 inch and 2.5 inch SATA drives without installing them in a computer, or in an external drive enclosure. You can swap out drives quickly and easily, and while the speed isn't what you might want for frequent, large transfers, it is quite good for USB 2.0.
If you are looking for an extremely compact and stylish portable hard drive, the new Seagate Free Agent Go series is definitely worth checking out. While the aesthetics are a strong selling point, Seagate didn't sacrifice the performance in order to produce a pretty product, as the USB 2.0 interface performed quite respectably during testing.
I am definitely impressed with this Lian Li PC-A77B full tower chassis. Being a fan of simplistic yet useful design, this case has it all. The top mounted I/O ports are in a great location to access while using the computer. Lian Li has designed this case to allow you to install your components in many different configurations, which makes customizing your setup very convenient.
The bottom line on the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3-1333 memory kit is that it offers great performance right out of the box, and for those looking for more, they will gladly oblige. While they may not have the highest stock speed rating, even a novice overclocker should be able to get a few hundred extra MHz out of this kit.
Sapphire is back again with another specialty graphics card based on a high end ATI Radeon GPU. The newly released Sapphire Radeon HD4850 X2 2048MB graphics card incorporates a pair of Radeon HD4850 graphics processors and 2048MB of GDDR3 memory on a custom PCB to create one serious looking piece of equipment.
The ASUS EN9800GT has several things going for it including a low price ($109.99 after MIR), performance that matches the competition at this price point and the features that matter for the holiday season including DirectX 10.0, F@H support, and PhysX support. The price is competitive with the ATI card at this price point, the HD 4830 and with faster performance apparently in several reviews. Another positive is the silent operation of the card which is pretty interesting considering the huge fan and heatsink on the card. motherboards.org
In the recent CeBIT event, GMC has showed off their latest cases and one of the most outstanding cases would be R-4 BullDozer. Why is this R-4 BullDozer so unique and outstanding? It is mostly due to its vertical optical drive design which is the trademark of their R series cases. hardwarebistro.com
The Antec Skeleton is an original, innovative concept finally put to work. It's a fresh break from square edges, windows, and standard features. Besides being unconventional, it combines excellent features of both a accessibility and efficient use of space. The quality and design behind the Skeleton are top notch Antec. If you're a real enthusiast, you just have to ask yourself one question. Are you afraid of change? virtual-hideout.net
Western Digital’s My Passport Studio series of portable hard drives comes in sizes ranging from 250GB (as tested) to 500GB. Coming out of the box MAC formatted and with a Firewire port attached, this product is clearly aimed at Mac Cultists. futurelooks.com
The first Nintendo DS broke out of the constraints of the gaming world by introducing a handheld gaming device with not one, but two screens. It also had wireless connectivity for game play and game control by voice and touch. These winning features have produced a gaming device with a big following. Over 84 million DS devices and 454 million DS games have been sold worldwide in just four years. Today we reviewed one of its latest versions: the DS Lite Ice Blue. hardwaresecrets.com
What would the Dark Knight name be without a cool design to go with it? That is why Asus has painted the GPU cooler a cool black/silverish color along with a blue PCB. I feel that Asus really succeeds with the look of the Dark Knight, but can it perform just as good as the true Dark Knight? With the custom GPU cooler, Asus hopes that you will be able to overclock your heart out with this card, and thus achieve higher frame rates. bjorn3d.com
After a rather disappointing HD 3000 series, ATI took the world by surprise with the HD 4000 generation of graphics cards. Since the launch of the HD 4000 series back in June, ATI has reclaimed its presence in the market and has been steadily eating away at Nvida's marketshare. Benchmark Reviews has had the opportunity to review several cards from the HD 4800 series lineup and today we look at one of the newest additions to the family: the Radeon HD 4830. This particular model, the EAH4830, comes to us from Asus and sports a custom cooler design and factory overclocked memory. We'll put it through its paces and find out how it compares to its two closest siblings; the HD 4670 and the HD 4850. benchmarkreviews.com
Earlier this year we shared that Valve's Source Engine is coming to Linux after receiving some information that pointed in this direction. In addition, a year ago Valve Software was publicly looking for a senior software engineer to port Windows-based games to Linux platform. There have long been rumors and hopes among Linux users that Steam games would become natively available for Linux, but we have additional confirmation that Valve Software has ported their Steam game client to Linux. In Valve's most recent title, Left 4 Dead, there are shared Linux libraries shipping alongside this Windows game client. phoronix.com
Today we have the opportunity to review the new Thermaltake MaxOrb EX CPU Cooler which is an extension of the quality proven MaxOrb. With an adjustable fan, pure copper construction, silent blue 120mm fan and a patented design, this CPU cooler certainly has a lot going for it. The Thermaltake R&D Manager claims that the "MaxOrb EX has been created from the Thermaltake belief in breaking of present cooling limits." Does it perform up to his expectations? Read on further to see what we found in this review. thinkcomputers.org
Hard drives have been a big bottleneck in computer systems for quite some time now. Speeds on typical non-raid drives average somewhere between too slow and too darn slow. SSD's have been on the market for a while and prices are starting to drop. Some are becoming inexpensive enough for manufacturers to include them in laptops, and others are inexpensive enough for enthusiasts to dabble with. Initially sizes were very small, and 32GB wasn't uncommon to see running in the $500 (USD) range. We've done some scouting lately and we've seen 64GB drives from reputable manufacturers running in the $150 dollar range. bjorn3d.com
