“With a display that can accept 1080p/24fps signals, this player’s picture quality is truly top class. Detail is astonishing and colours are vivid and lifelike. SD DVDs don’t fare so well compared to a dedicated DVD player with upscaling but they’re still good. A bigger issue for multimedia junkies is the lack of media support - MP3, WMA, JPEG and DivX files are not compatible. The player also lacks resume (of a Blu-ray Disc), which is annoying if you have stop a movie unexpectedly or change a setting from the menu. If you are looking for a reasonably priced entry into the world of high-def movies, then you could do a lot worse than choose this one. At this price, it’s a steal - especially for Sharp Aquos HDTV owners.”

http://www.biosmagazine.co.uk/rev.php?id=786

Digit-Life Review: Graphics Card + Processor, Part 3

Excerpt:
“We have already researched into the most balanced PC configuration, but it seems this problem has no ends. Today our objective is to increase game resolutions to 1680×1050 and add the most resource-consuming modern games.”

Article: http://www.digit-life.com/articles3/video/video-cpu-power-game-2-p1.html

TweakPC has posted a new article.

Titel:
USB-Stick Mega Roundup

Teaser:
42 USB-Sticks are compared in our Roundup, but we don’t look at the performance only. We also explain the technic and show what to
pay attention to if you want to buy an USB-Stick.

Link:
http://www.tweakpc.de/hardware/tests/datenspeicher/usb_stick_roundup/s01.php

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

Title: Cyber Snipa Sonar 5.1 USB Headset Review on Technic3D

Link: http://www.technic3d.com/article-684,1-cyber-snipa-sonar-5.1-auf-positionssuche.htm

Quote: “The Cyber Snipa Sonar 5.1 USB-Headset arrived Technic3D. Technic3D will see as good they are with eight speakers against a Stereo Headset with two speakers.”

CPU3D Coverage: Multiplay i34 aka M-Festival Coverage (Part I)

CPU3D is proud to present a full and comprehensive coverage of the Multiplay i34 LAN event aka M-Festival, with a more than 2,500+ gamers attending. It is one of UK’s largest LAN event and this time it’s being held at Stoneleigh Park, Conventry. It’s our third time we’ve attended, we’ll be giving an exclusive and comprehensive coverage … right here @ CPU3D. We’ll be checking out the booths from manufactuers such as Coolermaster Crucial, Foxconn, MSI, Antec and many more. Retailers Scan, Aqua PCs, Kustom PCs and CyberPower will also have booths to show off their new range of products.

Read the rest of the coverage here … http://www.cpu3d.com/content/view/5603/47/

Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 Motherboard Review

Author: Ben Sun Date: 08-08-2008

Gigabyte tends to release many motherboards on the same chipset and the X48 is no exception with no less than four X48 motherboards currently on their website. The X48T-DQ6 supports all of the latest Intel Core 2 Quad/Extreme/Duo CPUs and also supports the older Prescott CPUs which some motherboards don’t due to the VRM 11.1 specification. The qualified memory support on the board is rather light as to their Qualified Vendor List on their website, with the lack of Samsung DDR3 memory above 1066MHz and no Crucial memory support on the QVL list at all though both companies’ memory worked great when I tried them. Not exactly an Editor’s Choice due to its lack of DDR3 support, but it is a Hot Product as it still has plenty of available options that make it worth taking a look at.

Review Link: http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/motherboards/1802_1.html

Date: 08-08-2008 By Chris Gump

Sid Meier and his team have done an absolutely wonderful job at bringing the PC Civilization we all know and love and put it on the console. Not only that, but we have a 100% new game that is just as fun to play as the originals. There may not be as much depth and micromanagement, but I for one welcome these changes. I’ve always been a fan of the older Civilization games over the newer ones, so watching the series get back to basics is just fine by me. Now, here’s to hoping for a Civilization Revolution 2. Or maybe they’d like to just bring that remake of Colonization over to the consoles, and keep the functionality this game has. Doubtful, but hey, I can wish, right?

Link: http://www.gamepyre.com/reviewsd.html?aid=1000&p=1

Title: ASUS P5E64 WS Professional @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12717
Summary: “Intel’s latest performance desktop chipset is now the X48 Express, but there still is life left in the X38 Express, which was released late last year. The Intel X38 and X48 Chipsets share many of the same features including support for the latest dual-core and quad-core Intel processors, DDR3 system memory support, and 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 interfaces with there being very few differences to the end-user between these chipsets. In addition, benchmarks we have delivered from different motherboards have shown the X48 has little to no performance improvements over the older Bearlake chipset. ASUS’s X38 motherboards are still very much in the market place and today we happen to be looking at one of their workstation motherboards based around the X38. The motherboard we are looking at is the ASUS P5E64 WS Professional, which ships with all of the usual ASUS innovations in addition to having four PCI Express x16 slots.”

Title: Palit GeForce 9800 GT 1 GB Video Card Review
Link: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/599
Category: Reviews

Summary:
GeForce 9800 GT is simply a GeForce 8800 GT with a new sticker. How does this 1 GB model from Palit compare to the original 8800 GT and current high-end video cards? Check it out.

Here is a snippet:
“GeForce 9800 GT is currently the simplest model inside nVidia’s GeForce 9800 family. But in reality it is a GeForce 8800 GT with a new sticker. In this review we will compare the performance of this 1 GB model from Palit with current high-end video cards and also with the original GeForce 8800 GT with 512 MB and GeForce 8800 GTS with 320 MB.”

Shine A Light DVD & Blu-Ray Disc Review @ Ascully.com

Quote

“I truly enjoyed seeing Shine a Light as I feel that it displays the Rolling Stones as the real deal. This is a band that has endured for years, and they are still relevant and they can still put on a riveting live performance. Coupled with the fact that the presentation on this DVD is nearly perfect, Shine a Light is an amazing time capsule of one of the most important rock and roll bands ever. They may be old, but the Rolling Stones are definitely still able to play….”

Article Link - http://www.ascully.com/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=785

Article Title - Shine A Light DVD & Blu-Ray Disc Review @ Ascully.com

Title: How to Use The SPDIF Connector Available on GeForce Video Cards
Link: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/600
Category: Tutorials

Summary:
Some GeForce video cards have an SPDIF connector. Learn when and how to use it.

Here is a snippet:
“Some video cards based on graphics chips from nVidia have an SPDIF input connector. In this tutorial we will teach you when this connector should be used and how to use it.”

NEW CONTENT (Motherboards) - GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Motherboard

QUOTE: “The first chipset to come out in the 7 series was the 780G, the first with the next generation in onboard graphics along with HT3 support for the Phenom processors. AMD really outdid themselves; not only was it future proof, it finally introduced a good onboard graphics accelerator.

GIGABYTE has been one of the biggest producers of motherboards along with ASUS and MSI. And one thing is for certain with these three companies; above all else, if the chipset is good, you will find at least one board based on it. Today we are looking at the GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard. How does it stack up as a HTPC board? Let’s have a good look.”

For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1537/gigabyte_ga_ma78gm_s2h_780g_motherboard/index.html

Best Regards,

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

Title: Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 P45 Motherboard @ APH Networks
* Description: The midrange to high end motherboard market is filled with
products. These ‘high-midrange’ boards are very popular among enthusiasts for
its abundance of features, performance, and a not-too-out-of-the-world price
tags. Sure, boards like the Asus Striker II NSE are really good, but not
everyone can justify all the extra fancy features for the price. As major
motherboard companies love to compete in this area, a significant array of
boards are made based on the collection of latest chipsets — for example,
both Gigabyte and Asus have a ton of Intel P45 chipset based motherboards
ranging from just over $100 all the way to over $250. Today, we’ll take a
look at Gigabyte’s high end P45 board — the Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 — as the name
suggests, it has Gigabyte’s Dynamic Energy Saver, 100% solid state
capacitors, and “Quad Bios, Quad Cooling, Quad E-SATA2, Quad Triple Phase,
Quad-Core Optimized, Quad DDR2 Slots”. We’ve already taken a look at the
quad-quad-quad-quad-quad-quad Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 a few months back. The
Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 is loaded with features and carrying a $250 price tag at
press time, so let’s see how this beast steps up against the competition.
* Link: http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/gigabyte_ep45_dq6 [1]