Tech News

  • Xoxide X-Turbine Case Review @ MikhailTech

    Published: Thursday, August 7, 2003 | By: Dennis

    "Pre-modded cases are standard these days. DIY window kits and blowhole templates were quite the sellers in their own time but now all that has changed. With thousands of cases to choose from and more being released daily, it's cheaper to just find one you like and settle for that."
    This is so true. With so many different PC cases coming out, you can buy yourself a pre-mod and still be original at a local LAN Party. Case modding is being threatened by cheap pre-mods...sad smile

  • ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Thermal Images @ Big Bruin

    Published: Thursday, August 7, 2003 | By: Dennis

    "With a Mikron IR Thermal Imager and a Canon A40
    Digital Camera in hand, Spire was kind enough to detail all of the hot spots on an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard with a Radeon 9700 PRO AGP Card... and the results may be surprising!""

    I wouldn't say the images were very surprising, but I have to admit that they're pretty damn interesting! The images should help any overclocker in the war against heat.

  • IOCombo HDD Cooler Review @ TwistedMods

    Published: Wednesday, August 6, 2003 | By: Dennis

    OMG!! is this hdd cooler old or what. big grin smile
    "In conclusion, I’d say this product is worth the purchase. It can prolong the life of a hard drive, which can pay for itself over time. If you have a hot system this might be something worth checking into, not only because of the overall increase of airflow inside the case but because it’s ability to cool a drive is necessary with today’s more extreme drives."
    I'm not going to say that Ninjalane actually reviewed this product but there is no denying the similarities, see for yourself. The cooler shown in the project worked great for about a week, after that the fan seized up.

  • Albatron GeForce FX5200 Ultra Review @ Legit Reviews

    Published: Wednesday, August 6, 2003 | By: Dennis

    "Albatron uses 128mb of Hynix memory on this card that is rated at 700 mhz. Albatron has the memory clocked at 650 mhz from the factory. The FX5200 Ultra core is typically ran at 325 mhz, but we found that when you just take the card out of the box and plug it in, it is only running at the FX 5200 (non-Ultra) core speed of 250 mhz. This is because you have to "activate" the higher core speed via the software that the card comes with."
    It is good to see that some video card mfgs actually put good components on their products. Though don't be fooled, the FX 5200 is still a fairly slow card.

  • JBL Creature 2.1 Speaker Review @ Hardwarezoom

    Published: Wednesday, August 6, 2003 | By: Dennis

    These speakers are always the center of attention at the local CompUSA but thus far I have yet to see anyone actually want to buy them. [:p) Despite the apparent lack of sales the speaker set does indeed look pretty dang sweet.
    "At first look, this subwoofer has everything that a subwoofer shouldnt be. It is small, it doesn't have large air-volume, and it is neither rectangular or square in shape! How on earth can this be a subwoofer?

    Alright, but this is indeed a subwoofer and kudos to JBL for thinking out of the box for once. As mention earlier, its design is like an alien mothership with all the "exhaust" at its back "

    And yes speaker enclosure design theory does suggest that you can have an enclosures that are not square and still expect it to work. Actually, they work better if the box isn't square but non-square boxes cost more to build.

  • Soyo P4 i875P Dragon2 Review @ Tweaknews

    Published: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 | By: Dennis

    "The Dragon 2 is built on Soyo's Arctic Silver PCB which is a far stretch from the boring green substrate of a couple years ago. Although I personally like the silver, I found that the looks were diminished quite a bit by Soyo's choice of PCI and DDR slot colors. Even black would have been an improvement."
    I don't completely agree but then again I don't have a platinum dragon board in front of me either. sad smile I'm looking to change that though the outcome has yet to be confirmed.

  • Asylum GeForce FX 5900 Ultra Review @ nV News

    Published: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 | By: Dennis

    "I see no point in nitpicking and staring at static screenshots of a game that I play at 100+ frames per second! I'm not making these statements to defend anyone. I just want you to know where I stand on all of this before we get into the review since it's all a pretty hot topic lately."
    This is actually a really good review, nicely written and even covers things like image quality and game play. The thing it doesn't cover is comparisons against other mainstream or slightly off the beaten path video cards.

  • FIC Radeon 9600 Pro @ Gamers Depot

    Published: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 | By: Dennis

    When looking at a video card to buy it is always important to not only look at generic performance numbers but to also look at the card from a hardware standpoint. BGA memory chips run faster and cooler than TSOP chips and lower ns memory has a higher "theoretical" degree of overclockability.
    "Overall this card is quite capable of delivering decent performance at a price that’s hard to beat. There’s no question that any gamer on a budget should consider this over many cards in its price rang – thanks in part to FIC’s handy overclocking tool which makes getting extra performance a snap. "
    Of course there is always the factor of price and getting the most bang for your buck is pretty important as well. tongue smile

  • Explorer Technology FX5200 Review @ Techware Labs

    Published: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 | By: Dennis

    "This card comes stripped of anything that might add cost without sufficient returns. Hence, the GPU is made with the more mature (read: outdated?) 0.15u process and has about half the number of transistors of its higher-end brethen. The memory is 3ns, which will make for very poor overclocking potential, though it is rated at a higher clock level (380 MHz) than would be expected."
    This card is the cheap of the cheap but does pump out some decent framerates provided you turn of the “eyecandy” Though I wouldn’t consider putting this card in any of my gaming boxes.

  • Review Block - Link S7yl3

    Published: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 | By: Dennis

    The block of links has become quite popular with other review sites as an easy way to get affiliate and non-affiliate news posted. Here at Ninjalane the Review Block is pretty rare unless there is just too much news to fill the current days allocation.

    - A+GPB P4ATX450 Watt Rainbow PSU Review @ Ohls-Place
    - The New AMD FX Strategy @ Rojak Pot
    - Ergodiver MousePad Review @ Comp-Shop
    - Blue UV Reactive Acrylic Case Review @ PimpRig

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