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Latest Madshrimps Articles and Latest Webnews |
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In time for holiday shopping spree Sparkle launches a custom Geforce 9800 GTX+ which features onboard HDMI and a silent GPU cooling. Can it run the latest games fluently? We test twelve on them to find out.... |
by jmke @ 2008-12-03 |
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We were invited to visit Cooler Master´s brand new power supply testing setup, a very high end installation build to deliver up to 1200W and higher load to any PSU hooked up to the system. We bought some cheap PSU units from local Belgium stores to see how they would measure up when stressed to their rated wattage... read on to find out about the carnage.... |
by jmke @ 2008-11-28 |
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Equipped with two 140mm and four 120mm fans this case from NZXT is build to provide a maximum of airflow to the components installed inside. It is a mid-sized tower case with enough room to fit high end VGA cards and third party CPU coolers. We compare the performance of the NZXT Tempest to our multitude of competitors, read on to find out if this case is truly the Airflow King.... |
by jmke @ 2008-11-20 |
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A bit late to the market, but, as always, DFI comes in with a bang. Today we have a look at the latest addition to the DFI lineup, in the form of the (ultra) high end X48-T3RS. Does it have what it takes to beat Asus et al? Read on to find out...... |
by thorgal @ 2008-11-16 |
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Signal Path Technologies is now known for bridging the abyss between PC and High End Audio. This they have accomplished with the Decco, a 50wpc hybrid tube/chip-amp with internal DAC. They also design and build Era loudspeakers. Today we evaluate both.... |
by Keith Suppe @ 2008-11-07 |
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In a few weeks you can find a brand new Intel CPU at your local hardware shop, it still carries the Core name but it is drastically different compared to their previous Core 2 units. The Core i7 has an onboard memory controller and hyperthreading is re-introduced. We compare the performance of the entry level 920 model as well as the high end 965 XE.... |
by piotke @ 2008-11-03 |
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The weekend of the 25th October 2008, Geoffrey and I switched on the traveling mode and decided to pass the weekend in Minfeld, Germany. Why? Because of the 2nd edition of the AOCM overclocking LAN, of course! Meeting up with very talented overclockers from around Europe, we spent an entire day using LN2 cooling on various setups, as so did our fellow overclockers. World records and subzero cooled... |
by massman @ 2008-10-31 |
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The MSI N9600GT Hybrid Freezer is equipped with 1Gb DDR3 memory and features an unique cooling solution which works passively when in 2D mode, and only makes noise when running 3D applications or games. MSI overclocked the GPU and Shader for increased performance, let´s find out how it compares to a vanilla Geforce 9600 GT.... |
by jmke @ 2008-10-22 |
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Hardware or Gadget/Multimedia News
(hit read more to go straight to the full story)
If you are about to buy a new AMD motherboard, this one showed great overclocking prowess on the front side for older Athlon X2s. Maybe we will see the same with Phenom II CPUs. With the ASUS M3A78-T at $140, it still all makes me go, “Meh,” and grow a big rubbery one. Maybe Phenom II processors in January will give us a reason to get excited about the M3A78?

Once again ThermalRight Ultra-120 Extreme shows top notch performance, while Danamics LM10 with the PowerBooster is on par in most cases, sometimes a degree better, sometimes lower. And once again The ReturnPower can not keep up. It's a nifty function, but here the load becomes too much in several scenarios.

Eventually I established that manually installing a .NET update might fix it. Another 20 minutes of downloading, installing and screaming later, I was past the mysterious fatal error, and amazingly this managed to be the first ever Games For Windows Live game that accepted the Live login I have for my Xbox. Hooray! Achievements, or something. Then it started repeatedly telling me that it needed to restart due to some account change, but would just just carry on regardless when I pressed enter. Huh.
Finally, after a tortously long loading wait, I get to watch the intro. It looks great and runs smoothly. Then, at last, I’m in car, ready to drive. Except it’s now only running at 1fps. As a final indignity, it crashes to desktop 10 seconds later. And there I rest. I suspect I’m now beyond caring.
It’s interesting that none of us who reviewed it (my write-up’s in the latest PC Format, where I’m significantly less forgiving of the multiple login doormen than others were) didn’t hit these tech problems in the code we were sent just a couple of a weeks back. The performance was unacceptably sluggish unless I dropped everything way-low, but there was none of these bewildering impasses. We were on a different clutch of activation etc servers and, I think, had a different version of Securom, but the Fatal Errors seem unrelated to that. So did bugfixing after the review code introduce new problems?

The malware uses JavaScript to identify more than 100 financial and money transfer Web sites, including Barclays, Wachovia, Bank of America, and PayPal along with two dozen or so Italian and Spanish banks. When it recognizes a Web site, it will collect logins and passwords, forwarding that information to a server in Russia.


Of all the complex and expensive toys that have become standard objects in our lives, mobile handsets probably get the worst treatment. Think about it: they’re the result of many hours of engineering and design and cost hundreds of dollars to obtain, yet within days of purchase they’re generally being smashed into coin-filled pockets or carelessly tossed into cupholders. How do they last a week, much less the years we expect of them?
To help answer that question, Nokia invited us down to their San Diego Test Center to check out some of the trials a new handset goes through before they make their way into our dangerous hands. Of course, we couldn’t leave our readers out of the fun - so we shot video throughout the entirety of the tour and brought it back for all to see.


According to AMD’s plan, it will unveil Phenom X4 9850B and Phenom X3 8850B with AM2+ socket in the first half of 2009, and then follow with brand-new “BXX” Series processors in Q3. Phenom II X4 B90, Phenom II X3 B70 and Athlon X2 B20 are equal to the consumer processors - Phenom II X4 900, Phenom II X3 700 and Athlon X2 200. Based on 45nm S0I technology, they all feature AM3 socket and support DDR2 or DDR3 memory.
Phenom II X4 B90 Series feature 4 cores, and their L2/L3 cache capacity is 8MB. They’re scheduled to come out with 2 verisons of 2.8GHz B93 and 2.6GHz B91, with 95W TDP. X3 B70 feature 3 cores with 7.5MB L2/L3 cache, coming out with versions of 2.9GHz B22 and 2.7GHz B71 of 65W TDP.

With the Achilles S1284 Xigmatek presents a towercooler which should
have an enormeous cooling potential. Four heatpipes with eight
millimeters in diameter are directly built into the ground plate
through the "Direct Touch" process. You'll also find a big and silent
120 mm fan to transfer the heat to the environment.


Going head-to-head today are drivers from both before and the actual Big Bang II era - the GeForce 178.24, which is the last WHQL release of the 178 series, the GeForce 180.43 official beta, the WHQL-certified GeForce 180.48 and the latest leaked driver available, the GeForce 180.70 beta.

Today, MSI launches the world’s first micro-ATX motherboard, G45M Digital, which utilizes server-class DrMOS and APS (Active Phase Switching), providing the best energy-saving solution for entertainment applications. The MSI G45M Digital is passively cooled and equipped with Intel® X4500HD chipset, making this mainboard a perfect solution for a Home Theatre PC: small sized, silent and capable of playing all HD content fluently. Through hardware decoding acceleration, users can enjoy Blu-ray high definition movies. MSI G45M Digital also provides HDMI, DVI, D-Sub multiple display output, as well as 8-channel HD audio quality; enabling users to experience the best multimedia applications.

One of their popular line of cards has been the cards using the various IceQ-coolers from Artic Cooling. While the IceQ-coolers are really silent even when the cards are running at maximum performance, they still emit a bit of sound, enough to annoy those who want a totally silent system. The solution, of course, is to make the card passive cooled, and HIS also offers a few passively cooled cards where they have partnered up with Zalman and put a Zalman VNF100 on the cards to cool them passively. So far they have only done this to an HD2600XT card and an HD3650 card and it is therefore no surprise that they have chosen an HD4650 GPU from this generation.
The card is called the HIS HD 4650 iSilence 4 512MB and we have been taking the card for an extended spin in our testing lab to see how good is.

Albatron are no strangers to Mini-ITX, in fact we have already tested a couple of boards from them on a Mini-ITX format, including a Socket 754 based and an AM2 based board. Today, however, they are raising the stakes just a little higher. Phenom may not be the highest clocking kid on the block and it can’t keep up with Intel on a clock-for-clock basis with Core 2, let alone Core i7, but where AMD lacks in the enthusiast market, they do have the goods in the power friendly market. Not only that, a top clocking Phenom X4 processor can also be had for cheap now.
Today Albatron have sent us their Mini-ITX KI780G board based around AMD’s very popular IGP chipset, the 780G. Let’s see just how well it’s able to perform compared to VIA's Nano platform.

After reviewing the 650w model earlier in the year, be quiet! offered us a chance to take a look at its slightly beefier bigger brother. Will it woo us just as much, read on to find out.

Recently we have reviewed quite number of case cooling fans such as Noctua NF-P12, GELID Wing & Silent, and Nanoxia FX. Today we are going to review another case cooling fan; BTF120Pro from Xthermal which is a cooling supplier base in Poland. BTF120Pro is a transparent case fan and it has two versions; LED and without LED. Let us have a quick look on these fans.

For those who missed it, the HD4870 X2 is essentially two HD4870s
operating in Crossfire mode, albeit on a single card. And as if the
original wasn't already huge enough, Palit has super-sized the HD4870 x2.
What it calls the Revolution R700 Deluxe takes up a grand total of 3
slots.

On the test bench today, we have Gigabyte's latest Micro ATX offering, the Intel G45-based EG45M-DS2H. This board carries the typical Gigabyte enthusiast charm, but also caters towards those looking to build a media center. But how does it stack up against the other Intel mATX boards we've tested recently?

We've spent several weeks with the EVGA GTX-280's we received some time ago. They've been productive weeks, full of testing, playing, and living with the EVGA GTX-280 in single card and SLI configuration and while we still have a lot of testing to do, we decided to go ahead with a Single card and SLI review. We're saving the Triple SLI review for a week or two and then we'll break it out with some of the hottest titles of the season in what's sure to be an SLI vs. Crossfire extravaganza of epic proportions.
We've got to tell you that there's a certain feeling that you get when you hold these monsters in your hand that's almost indescribable. Knowing that you are holding the fastest, most powerful single GPU video card in the world in your hand; with it straining to get into a machine and drive graphics like you've never seen before.
With the introduction of the new Nvidia 180.xx drivers offering better SLI support, we felt it important to review the beast in not only our normal fashion, but in SLI as well. In honor of its debut we spent days testing it and getting a feel for the 'King of Single GPU Cards'. We have to tell you, the King still rules.

The installation of the power supply however, is also where I ran into another design flaw. A missing feature that enthusiast cases require, especially one with a see through panel. The pre-installed wires were well managed but the options ended there, APlus left no room behind the motherboard tray for wires to be hidden nor anywhere else in the case. I ended up doing my best to hide the wires in the empty drive bays. The optical drives slid into place easily but the front door has a flat back making it so that no drives with rounded fronts will fit. The hard drive system is really simple, you pop the hard drive in to a little drawer/tray and slide it into the case. I was a little afraid to bend the tray enough so that the drive would snap into place but the plastic is very flexible so it worked without a hitch and when I got the drive in it did not jiggle around at all, a very good sign.

While we like to look at all the high-end motherboards at TweakTown, we also like to focus on some of the smaller, more budget oriented choices that come to the scene. It’s not the large enthusiast based hardware that manages to make it into the average mainstream or HT PC and you won’t find any ATX boards in car PC’s or project PC’s, it’s most always the mini that gets all the action.
Today we have something you may not consider for your desktop PC, but more for the digital setup unit or a car PC. MSI has sent us their Industrial IM-945GSE-A Mini-ITX board to see just what we can get out of it.


The new MX series of power supplies from BFG features a modular cabling system, one 120-mm fan and one 80-mm fan that only kicks in when the temperature on the secondary heatsink is above 50º C. Let's see if the 550 W model (MX-550 or BFGI550WMXPSU) is a good product.

Our usual in the clipboard and Web watch tests graphics cards high-end flagship manufacturers and focusing on performance but few people can afford. We wanted to look here on maps smaller, closer to the purchase of Mr everybody and less focus on enthusiasts.
We were therefore able to get their hands on a brand of HD4670 Gigabyte, card-based ATI GPU and located in the catalog of the manufacturer as a mid-range card. We wanted to see if a sufficient performance to be fun in games, but also and especially if overclocking was in order.

Join Matt as we look at the NZXT Tempest Enthusiast Steel Mid Tower Computer Chassis. With a professional look that can fit anywhere, youre sure to intimidate others with the very presence of this case. Lets stand back and watch as Matt puts this case to the TechwareLabs test.

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