Keyboards come in various shapes, sizes, colors and even configurations, the type you want or need will depend on your own needs or preferences. Some keyboards can be wired or wireless and they can get to be very costly, so it’s nice to come across a quality keyboard that is inexpensive and feature rich.

Up on the review block today I’ve got a new product from our friends at OCZ Technology, it’s the Alchemy Elixir Series Keyboard and it’s advertised as a gaming peripheral but it’s also a great all around keyboard as well. It features 10 Macro keys, 7 Internet keys and 8 Media keys along with the ability to switch modes between standard and your personalized gaming configurations with the touch of a button. This keyboard retails for $29.99, and at that price most people wouldn’t expect much, as most other ‘gaming’ keyboards out there cost two to three times as much, but the Elixir will surprise you with its functionality, comfort and ease of use. It’s a very nice keyboard really that works well, is well made and most anyone will be happy with, OCZ has brought quality, professional gaming keyboards down to budget level with the introduction of the Elixir Series of keyboards.

So continue on to check out a great keyboard…

Read Full review HERE

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
Launch of “ Silent / TC / PWM ” Case Fan
Superior Silent Case Fan Series for Silent Enthusiasts
HONG KONG, 8 August, 2008

Thermal Solutions specialist GELID Solutions announces the launch of their superior Silent case fan
series Silent / TC / PWM in 3 different sizes (80mm, 92mm and 120mm).

The Silent series is designed for silent enthusiasts. GELID Silent case fans provide additional airflow
without increasing noise levels and at affordable prices. Precisely balanced fan blades and long life
Hydro Dynamic bearing guarantee ultra low noise. To add to the silence fan mounts replace
traditional screws and are made of high quality, temperature resistant, extra long lasting rubber and
stop vibrations from the fan motor from travelling into your PC case.

For discerning Silent enthusiasts the Silent TC fans provide additional airflow by changing the fan
speed according to your actual temperature needs, giving you no more noise than absolutely
necessary and maximum cooling when needed. A superior IC embedded in the fan’s PCB allows
smart variable fan speeds.

Designed for advanced users the Silent PWM fans provide additional airflow by using Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM) to automatically adjust fan speed according to the CPU temperature. An intelligent
IC had been integrated into the fan’s PCB to exploit your mainboard’s BIOS software. This technology
is more efficient and convenient than using an external fan controller to adjust the voltage.

“We have been able to make significant improvements in the way which the fan speed is controlled for
both the PWM and Temperature Control versions” said VC TRAN co-founder and Marketing Director
of GELID Solutions Ltd.

MSRP

GELID Silent 8 / PWM / TC
USD: 4.15 / 7.50 / 7.80
EUROS: 3.10 / 4.70 / 5.20

GELID Silent 9 / PWM / TC
USD:5.05 / 9.00 / 9.20
EUROS: 3.70 / 6.00 / 6.15

GELID Silent 12 / PWM / TC
USD:5.75 / 10.50 / 10.80
EUROS: 4.17 / 7.00 / 7.20

All fans are RoHS and WEEE conform and carry a 5 year warranty.

For further product information please visit www.gelidsolutions.com

El Monte CA – August 07, 2008 - iBUYPOWER, know for it’s innovative and powerful gaming PCs, is excited to launch its new line of Video PC’s.  The Video PCs’ are built with the amateur videographer on mind – individuals who prefer to shoot video rather than stills, and post their experiences on sites like You Tube.  The iBUYPOWER Video PC line includes the Video Bot, Video Pro, and Video Extreme, which are priced at $1,299, $1,799, and $4,299 MSRP respectively.

The Video Bot, housed in an NZXT Appollo case, features the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 CPU, nVidia 9800GT GPU, and 4 GB of DDR-2 RAM.  Customers looking for a little more power will find it in the Video Pro.  iBuyPower packed an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor, ATI HD 4850 graphics card and 8 GB of  DDR- 2 RAM into a Gigabyte Poseidon case.

The Video Extreme however, is built to be just that – extreme.  Housed in a Thermaltake Armor case, the Video Extreme is stocked with the best components available – an Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9770 CPU, ATI HD 4870 graphics card, 8 GB of DDR-3 1333 RAM, Blu-ray burner and a 1200W power supply.

“Millions of people visit sites like YouTube to share their videos everyday, yet before now no computer manufacturer has built a pc dedicated to the needs of this community,” said Darren Su, Vice President of iBUYPOWER.  “We decided it was time to provide these aspiring filmmakers with a professional video editing solution.”

All three of the iBUYPOWER Video PCs come with Adobe’s Premier Elements 4.0 editing software, built-in 8 channel surround sound, Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition, a 12-in-1 card reader/writer and a 3 year limited warranty.  (FULL SPECS BELOW)

As part of the launch iBUYPOWER is giving away a Video Pro System, a $1,799 value, and a $2,000 gift card to the winner of the Favorite Gaming Moments YouTube Contest.  Contestants will upload videos they create of them reenacting their favorite gaming moments.  The contest will run through August with a winner being selected from a group of ten finalists by the You Tube community in the second week of September.   Visit www.iBUYPOWER.com/WinAPC for contest details

For additional information about iBUYPOWER’s new line of Video PCs please visit http://www.ibuypower.com/VideoPC/VideoPC.asp

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870

” Just a few weeks ago, the Radeon HD 4850 was released and with it came a huge boost of performance for the price. The 4870 is the highend version of the RV770 series of GPU released from AMD. Sapphire provided a card for this review and the Radeon HD 4870 is here. ”

Link: http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=271

NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang to Kick Off NVISION on Monday, August 25; NBC11 Technology and Business Television Personality, Scott Budman, to Host Second Day Keynote with Celebrity Guests; Special Effects Experts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage to Present at Third Day Closing Session

SANTA CLARA, CA—AUGUST 7, 2008— NVIDIA today provided details on the exciting keynote sessions lined up for the NVISION^® 08 conference. Taking place on August 25-27, 2008 in San Jose, California, NVISION 08 is a three-day mega-event for professionals and enthusiasts who are passionate about visual computing. The keynotes will be held at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts and are open to all registered attendees.

NVISION 08 will open on Monday, August 25 at 1:00 p.m. with a keynote address by Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO and president of NVIDIA. Mr. Huang will discuss and demonstrate innovation in the field of visual computing. His presentation will highlight content from today’s leading-edge designers, scientists, researchers, and creative professionals. Special guests during Mr. Huang’s presentation will include Jeff Han, the guru of multi-touch display technology (and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the World), and actress Tricia Helfer of Battlestar Galactica and Burn Notice, who will illustrate how visual computing has impacted the television and film industry.

Read the rest of this entry »

CPU3D Review: MSI N9600GT Hybrid Freezer (1Gb DDR3)

We’ve seen a lot of graphic cards with 512Mb of memory, but now manufacturers are starting to include 1Gb of ram on their mainstream cards. The MSI N9600GT Hybrid Freezer not only features Nvidia’s Geforce 9600GT but also 1Gb of DDR3 ram and a very special and unique custom cooler that only spins when it gets hot enough. This means total silence during Windows operation.

“… The MSI N9600GT Hybrid Freezer offer total silent operation and 1Gb of DDR3 ram. This card is probably more suited to the mainstream gamer who’s after silence and occaisonal high resolution gaming. ”

Read the rest of the review … http://www.cpu3d.com/content/view/5578/53/

Unlike the enthusiast system manufacturers, Alienware and VoodooPC, Richmond, Virginia-based Velocity Micro is still an independent, privately held company. In fact, Velocity Micro is doing well enough on its own to have even purchased the enthusiast, boutique system maker, Overdrive PC last year. On top of that, Velocity Micro is one of the few (if only) independently owned, U.S.-based, high-end gaming systems manufacturers that–in addition to selling direct–also sells its systems at Best Buy and Circuit City. That’s a claim that even Velocity Micro’s competitors, Oregon-based Falcon Northwest, New Jersey-based Maingear, and California-based Vigor Gaming, can’t make.

As do most enthusiast system manufacturers, Velocity Micro makes hand-built, high-end gaming rigs using top-of-line components.  We received the highest end model in the company’s Edge series, the Z55. Velocity Micro configured it with a few options, taking the system price up to $2,664 and we put it through its paced in this hands-on evaluation.  Read on to see how the Edge Z55 faired…

Velocity Micro Edge Z55 Gaming System:

http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Velocity_Micro_Edge_Z55_Gaming_System/

Title: Sapphire HD4870 512MB at Modders-Inc.com

Summary: The use of the GDDR5 memory, increased bandwidth, DirectX 10.1 and a 55nm GPU it sounds like it should place this card in the higher end of the “pay for what you get” scale, but it can be had for about $285 USD

Articles URL: http://www.modders-inc.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=225

Site URL:  http://www.modders-inc.com

TweakPC has posted a new article.

Titel:
NZXT Avatar: Sneak-Preview of a Gmaing-Mouse

Teaser:
NZXT is well known for cases, but now there is a gaming-mouse calles Avatar!

Link:
http://www.tweakpc.de/hardware/tests/gaming/nzxt_avatar_preview/s01.php

Please note the little flag on the site for an automatic translation.

Title:
HTC Touch Smartphone Reviewed @ TheTechLounge

Quote:
“For me, Windows Mobile has always been primarily focused on data access, rather than data creation or modification.  The Touch excels in this regard.  It’s not a multimedia powerhouse, but it will get an acceptable job done for most of your basic needs.  If HTC added a hardware keyboard and a standard audio port, I think this would be a perfect Windows Mobile device.  For now, if you are looking for a small, attractive smartphone and you can put up with a less-than-ideal input solution, the Touch may be a great option for you.”

Article URL:
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/552/HTC+Touch+Smartphone/

InsideHW.com has posted review for Canon FS11 digital camcorder. You can read a clip from review:

“At the moment we saw it, we knew that this was the love at first sight. Canon FS11 is in true sense of word, compact digital camcorder with innovative and attractive functions, futuristic design and 16GB of memory for storing recorded video material. Canon Company revived camcorder market with FS11 model. It uses built-in memory instead of MiniDV tape or CD/DVD media. Canon FS11, beside low power consumption and small dimensions, brings completely new approach in recording home videos…”

If you are interested to read some more, we present you link:

http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Digital-cameras/Canon-FS11.html

Title:

Canon FS11 @ InsideHW

Too much partying last night. Way too much. You wake up the next morning with the taste of whatever still in your mouth and your head swimming like those hot chicks in a giant martini at the Cirque du Soleil. So roll out of bed, or off the kitchen table, and step directly on your brand new laptop. Awesome. Not only that, instead of jumping right off, you get mad and kick it across the room and destroy whatever hope there was of fixing it. Now what do you do with the only surviving part of that laptop, the Hard Drive?

You grab an INEO High Speed 2.5 Enclosure. Now, when you revert back to your desktop while you wait on your new laptop to arrive in the mail, you will have portable storage for whatever you need. The INEO NA202 is a USB2.0 hard drive enclosure with hi-speed data transfer up to 480Mbps. It has a convenient USB cable that wraps around and an aluminum allow case for spectacular heat dissipation. The black and silver design was very appealing too, mostly because that’s my favorite color combo.

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1291

NEW CONTENT (Visual) - MSI GeForce GTX 280 OC Graphics Card

QUOTE: “While the GTX 280 might be the most powerful single cored graphics card on the market at the moment, it didn’t seem to be greeted with welcomed arms. A high price tag and small to no gains over its older dual GPU brother, the 9800 GX2 meant that people didn’t get all that excited about it.

Today we’re going to take the time to see what MSI have done to the card. We know they’ve decided to overclock the card, but we wonder if they’ve done anything else with it to let it stand out from the pack. While we haven’t fallen head over heels for the GTX 280, there’s no denying that it’s a very fast single core card and it’s difficult not to be impressed by the performance the single GPU puts out.”

For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1536/msi_geforce_gtx_280_oc_graphics_card/index.html

Best Regards,

The TweakTown Team
http://www.tweaktown.com

We’ve just posted a review of Antec’s P190 + 1200 chassis with pre-installed power supplies.

Title: Antec P190 + 1200 Mid-Tower @ Techgage

Link: http://techgage.com/article/antec_p190_1200_mid-tower/

Quote: Planning a new build and don’t know which chassis to choose? Does the idea of having a feature-packed mid-tower intrigue you? Well, the P190 is just that, with its intuitive design and two pre-installed power supplies, offering you a total of 1,200W of overkill pleasure. Is the case a true winner? Not exactly, but it’s still worth a look.

Visiontek Radeon HD 4870 review
http://www.techspot.com/review/108-visiontek-radeon-4870/

Just a month ago we reviewed the Radeon HD 4850, the value offering in the new ATI line-up, and in short we absolutely loved it. Since then Nvidia has reconfigured their pricing scheme so that you can pick up either a GeForce 9800 GTX or Radeon HD 4850 for just $200 (the 9800 GTX was previously $300+).

However, if you can spend a little more, AMD also has the Radeon HD 4870 on offer, boasting improved performance on a single GPU for about $285. Competing in the same price range are the Radeon HD 3870 X2 and the GeForce GTX 260 graphics cards, while the GeForce 9800 GX2 and GeForce GTX 280 cost considerably more.

Today we will be taking the Visiontek Radeon HD 4870 card for a spin, comparing it to all of these high-end graphics cards to see how it stacks up both in terms of value and performance.