Tech News
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NL: Review Block - Chassis
Published: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | By: DennisComputer cases come in all shapes and sizes. Some look like ass, some are total ass, some are super pimp, while others rock the house. The one thing ALL cases have in common, cost for performance ratio. Simply put, the better the case, the more it costs.
Gone are the times when you could buy a decent case and later mod it up to meet your needs, these days cases come pre-modded or are designed after popular mods from the community, so picking the right one is a challenge.
Here are some reviews from around the web. See if you can figure out which ones are good and which ones are not.
- Thermaltake Lanbox VF1000BWS Case Review @ Tweaknews
- SilverStone Grandia GD04 Case Review @ Motherboards
- Thermaltake Element V Full Tower @ Pro-Clockers
- NZXT Beta Evo Midi-Tower Review on Technic3D
- Antec Nine Hundred Two Ultimate Gaming Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- NZXT Hades Case Review @ Overclockers Online
- NZXT Hades PC Case @ TweakPC
- Cooler Master ATCS 840 Case @ TechwareLabs
- SilverStone Grandia GD05 HTPC Case Review @ OCIA
- XClio Nighthawk Case @ RbmodsMore news to come
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NL: Review Block - Radeon HD5570 Video Card
Published: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | By: DennisATI has been really pushing the product launches lately in the span of a month we have seen at least 3 new cards hit the market, and 2 of them within a week. It's all we can do to keep up, but how does that affect the consumer??
- ATI Radeon HD 5570 - Sub-$100 HTPC & Gaming Solution @ Techgage
- Sapphire Radeon HD5570 1GB DDR3 Single & Crossfire Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 1GB video card review @ Elite BastardsHowever this turns out I would put my money on nVidia.
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GIGABYTE SATA 6G Update - RAID 0 Just How We Like It
Published: Monday, February 8, 2010 | By: WillHere is a neat little article with RAID 0 and SATA 6G to take note on.Looks like Gigabyte is putting on there thinking caps to make the best performing SATA 6G RAID 0 solution for its users.
"When we tested the ASUS P55 and GIGABYTE P55 boards with USB 3.0 and SATA 6G, we found some interesting numbers when using the GIGABYTE P55A-UD4P in RAID 0. For the most part we didn't see much of an improvement when going from a single to a dual drive configuration with RAID 0. GIGABYTE also noticed the same issue and quickly went to work with Marvell to find a solution.
When enthusiasts choose to pair a set of drives in RAID 0, they are looking to nearly double their performance. RAID 0 offers many a quick and inexpensive way to get solid performance gains out of the slowest component or subsystem in their computer. Simply put, when your hard storage system is running faster, your entire machine feels more responsive and appears to be faster."Looks like Gigabyte has something over Asus once again.
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G.Skill Pi Series DDR3-2200 and Eco DDR3-1600 Review @ HardwareHeaven
Published: Monday, February 8, 2010 | By: WillHere is a sweet looking set of RAM from GSkill that has some very awesome setting for getting to such high speed. Check out the review to see what I am talking about.
"Today we have two sets of memory from G.Skill on our test bench, the high performane Pi series DDR3-2200 and a 1.35v set from the Eco series running at DDR3-1600."
Pretty impressive stuff there.
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Sapphire Radeon HD 5450 Review
Published: Thursday, February 4, 2010 | By: WillThe new Sapphire Radeon 5450 has just arrived and we are testing it right now. So we wanted to let everyone know the review is coming. Till then enjoy the pic.
1. Microsoft DirectX 11 Support
2. ATI Eyefinity Technology, support up to 3 displays. *
3. ATI Stream technology**
4. 40nm Process Technology
5. PCI Express® 2.1 support
6. Microsoft Windows 7® Support
7. Enhanced Anisotropic Filtering
8. Accelerated Video Transcoding**
9. Display Flexibility
10. HDMI 1.3
11. Dolby® TrueHD and DTSHD Master AudioTM Support
12. ATI PowerPlay ™ Technology***
13. ATI Avivo™ Technology Enhanced Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD 2)***
14. Supports OpenGL 3.2 ****
15. ATI CrossFireX™ multi-GPU technology*****We are very sure you HTPC guys are looking hard at this card.
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NL: Monster Sized Air Cooled Heatsinks
Published: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | By: WillHere is a couple monster sized heatsinks for all your air cooling needs. Even though Ninjalane will be the first to tell you to just go watercooled.
Noctua NH-D14 Dual Fan CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers
"Before I re-write the About Us page for Noctua let's get into why we are here today. Noctua was generous enough to send other their latest cooler, NH-D14. The D14 as we will call it is the largest cooler we have seen from Noctua to date. This new cooler weighs in at 1240 grams with two fans attached. This alone is scary enough but due to the SecuFirm 2 mounting system weight should be the last issue on your mind. Lets get into the review before I reveal anymore secrets on the D14."
Thermalright Venomous X CPU Cooler @ PCShopTalk
"After the fall of the old king of air cooling, the TRUE, some manufacturers have succeeded to make better and better heatsinks, with different shapes and sizes. All concurrence was ripped apart when Noctua have presented their NH-D14 heatsink. Thermalright, which developed one of the best heatsinks for a really long time had to catch up. In this review we will see if we will have a new king of air cooling or a huge dissapointment."
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NL: PC Game Reviews Roundup
Published: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | By: WillIt has been a little bit since our last PC game review roundup. Don't worry there is going to be enough new games hitting soon that will take care of the problem.
Star Trek Online (PC) Review @ GamingHeaven
"Back in 2004 an announcement was made that Star Trek Online was in development and geeks around the world rejoiced (this reviewer included). News releases after that were sporadic at best until in January 2008 it was announced that the developer was closing its doors and the game development (not including code) was being passed to Cryptic Studios. Given their experience with MMO games, Cryptic seemed an ideal fit and just over two years after taking on the IP, we have the official release of Star Trek Online."
"Mass Effect 2 is the sequel to BioWare's hit space-based role-playing game (RPG), Mass Effect. A single player adventure, Mass Effect 2 allows players to continue the adventures of the fully customizable series hero, Commander Shepard, as you take on a whole new adventure and cast of supporting characters. Features new to this latest release in the franchise include the ability to import game save files from the original Mass Effect game to continue the adventure in an unbroken fashion, a new damage system, a more flexible dialogue game mechanic and more. See you in the following Review from Technic3D."
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ASUS P7H55D-M EVO & Intel DH55TC @ Techgage
Published: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 | By: WillLook here a two for one review on two different board with the same Intel H55 chipset. HTPC is really in the air right now with everyone about to jump on this new setup. Let's see what these guys think about these board for your HTPC setup.
"With Intel's recent Clarkdale processor launch, the itch to build that new HTPC is no doubt greater than ever. Not only does Intel offer a wide-range of processors, but motherboard vendors are currently offering an incredible amount of H55 models. We're taking a look at two here, Intel's own DH55TC and ASUS' P7H55D-M EVO."
I think the Asus board would be my pick.
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Inside Intel and Micron's 25nm NAND Fab - IMFT @ Legit Reviews
Published: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 | By: WillTime for a road trip on the internet to the Intel/Micron Fab in Utah. Interesting to see, but I do have a spoiler. Not one guy was dressed in cool blue suit or dancing. Micro must not allow the Intel guys to have fun there.
"This shrink is important as the new 25nm process reduces chip count by 50 percent compared to previous process generations, allowing for smaller, yet higher density designs and greater cost efficiencies. This is great news as that means IMFT will be able to get twice as many NAND Flash chips per wafer. Intel said that performance would be comparable to 34nm speeds today, but that endurance and reliability would be improved. Since devices like SSDs can be built using less 'chips' now you can expect to see SSD capacities increasing in the months to come. Micron even mentioned that 1TB 2.5" SSDs will be a possibility in 2010 thanks to the move down to 25nm..."
What a shame I was so looking forward to dancing workers in the fab.
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GF100 (Fermi) Product Names Released
Published: Monday, February 1, 2010 | By: DennisCaught this on Facebook and Twitter of all places
Fun Fact of the Week: GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 will be the names of the first two GPUs shipped based on our new GF100 chip!
Seems reasonable
