Happy Thanksgiving!!!
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I4U NEWS published the Top 100 Holiday Tech Gift Guide 2008.
Quote from the review:
“On August 19th we set out to start our Top 100 Holiday Gift Guide with one Tech Gift Idea per day. Now 100 days later we have arrived and the Top 100 Gift Guide is completed in time for the biggest sales of the year.
Find out what the hottest gifts for this Holiday shopping season are across 10 categories. Find out for instance which smartphone is ideal for whom and why or what we think the best HDTVs and robots are.”
Full Guide:
http://www.i4u.com/article21973.html
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“The ASRock G43Twin-FullHD motherboard is a very good all-rounder. It’s great for any HTPC user or even a system builder. It competes very well against others in its class, easily matching the performance and features of the Gigabyte G43. What I do like about the ASRock G43Twin-FullHD, is that it supports both DDR2 and DDR3 ram, as well as a daughter card with DVI and Display Port.”
Read the rest of the review here … http://www.cpu3d.com/review/6271-1/asrock-g43twins-fullhd-motherboard/introduction.html
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iXBT Labs Review: Foxconn A7DA-S Motherboard
Excerpt:
“This motherboard produces a strong positive impression both in terms of functionality and technical level. In fact, Foxconn hasn’t had any problems with product quality for a long time already. But BIOS versions and some minor features often indicated that the company used to be manufacturing third-party designs for other brands. Now we can say that it’s a very interesting motherboard. If there’s enough of these boards in stock and its price is at least similar as that of competing products, it will certainly become very popular.”
Article: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/mainboard/foxconn-a7da-s-790gx-p1.html
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Article Name: Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray Player Review @ Tweaknews.net
Article Url: http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/samsung_bd-p1500_blu-ray_player_review/
Article Snippet:
“When the dust is settled and the Blu-ray movies are put away, the BD-P1500 is a very capable BD player that has the “out of the box” functionality to be easily inserted or included into any recent home theater system. The picture quality was excellent and the audio playback was exceptionally clear.”
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“On paper the W980 Walkman Phone ticks most boxes and is a fantastic piece of gadgetry: it is beautifully finished with cool lights that flash all over the place, offers stylish touch-sensitive buttons, and even has a full 8GB of onboard memory. But it’s only when you use the phone for a few days that its unintuitiveness becomes apparent. Most annoying are the tiny call start and end buttons, along with the even smaller menu, shortcut and cancel buttons. You’re never entirely sure which button to press when navigating menus either, and navigating the contacts menu isn’t as quick as you’d expect. Usability issues aside, those after a phone that doubles as an excellent quality music player with more than enough storage space and a sufficiently well-designed media manager should consider the W980. If your priority is a phone - in particular voice, messaging and contacts management - you may soon become frustrated with the W980.”
http://www.itreviewed.co.uk/rev.php?id=865
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Tropic Thunder Blu-Ray & DVD Review @ Ascully.com

Quote
“We are introduced to four of the lead characters through these mock movie trailers. They are four of the main Hollywood food groups. 1. A rowdy actor who does low common denominator comedies and who has a serious drug habit. 2. An actor who takes every role so seriously he “lives” each part, and is the bad boy type in real life. 3.) An muscle bound action movie hero star who has fallen from grace by doing too many sequels and who has an ego the size of Montana. 4.) The rap dude from the commercial, young, obnoxious, and seemingly shallow and full of himself.”
Article Link - http://www.ascully.com/?page_id=2313
Podcast Link - http://www.ascully.com/?p=2314
Article Title - Tropic Thunder Blu-Ray & DVD Review @ Ascully.com
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The Holliday season is in full force with a gazillion titles coming out. You can expect the writers at [OC]ModShop to be attempting reviews on every single one. Today I don?t want to discuss news, rather, I just figured I?d bring up a few games fresh in my mind.
And yes, most of these are RPGs, I realized that when I finished this article.
Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1413
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Title: Revoltec LightMouse Precision 2 Wireless Review on Technic3D
Link: http://www.technic3d.com/article-750,1-revoltec-lightmouse-precision-2-wireless-im-test.htm
Quote: “The Revoltec LightMouse Precision 2 Wireless arrived Technic3D.
The Revoltec LightMouse Precision II Wireless offers a scanning rate of up to 1600 dpi. A freely definable key can be defined as a dpi switch with the help of the software that is provided. The scanning process can be set to either 800 or 1600 dpi. By using Teflon glide feet the Lightmouse Precision 2 reaches a better gliding performance. Due to the 2.4 GHz Wireless Technology the Revoltec LightMouse Precision 2 Wireless offers a secure wireless connection. More you can see in the following Review on Technic3D.”
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NEW CONTENT (Memory) - Corsair Dominator 1600MHz 6GB Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Kit
QUOTE: “With Core i7 now officially on the market for sale, it wasn’t going to be long before boards and memory came out to support it. In fact, boards were on the shelves even before the CPU was officially launched on the Intel site. Memory kits are now starting to show themselves on the market as well, with companies announcing new kits just about every day.
Today we have Corsair’s Dominator triple-channel memory kit aimed at the Core i7 range with three DDR3 memory modules designed for 1600MHz at the rated 1.65v max that Intel recommends for the Core i7. How will it perform? Let’s find out.”
For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1668/corsair_dominator_1600mhz_triple_channel_ddr3_memory_kit/index.html
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Hardware Bistro has just posted latest review; Vizo Armada II Memory Cooler. Thanks
Quote: “Are you having stability issue of your PC? If yes then one of the hardware reasons could be overheating issue. Today we are going to take a look on a memory cooler; Armada II. Armada II is a latest memory cooler from Vizo for desktop which comes with dual blue LED fans and support all kind of desktop memory like DDR, DDR2, DDR3 and etc.”
Read More:
http://hardwarebistro.com/index.php?option=com_simple_review&Itemid=84&review=29-Vizo-Armada-II-Memory-Cooler-Review
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Title: Gigabyte EX58-UD5 @ Techgage
Link: http://techgage.com/article/gigabyte_ex58-ud5/
Quote: Our X58 motherboard coverage continues with a look at Gigabyte’s EX58-UD5, an offering that’s competing with all the other $300 launch boards out there. Though still expensive, there’s a lot being offered here, including a plethora of USB and S-ATA ports, solid design, support for 3-way GPU configurations and a nice top overclock.
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* Title: Lenovo customer service hell, as you’ve heard @ APH Networks
* Description: A few weeks ago, I ordered a Lenovo T400 laptop — and from
what I had read, it was one of the best laptops in the market. With excellent
battery life (9+ hours with a 9-cell, switchable integrated/dedicated on
specific models, and LED screen), generally excellent reputation for ThinkPad
laptop’s excellent reliability, it was really hard to resist this purchase –
considering the fact that my Dell Inspiron 6400 recently died. The Lenovo
T-series’ features, performance, weight, you name it — are as perfect as a
laptop would be. The funny thing is, many of these customer service articles
that I’ve been writing here on APH Networks started off with a couple
negative reviews, balanced with another handful of positive ones from
manufacturers such as BenQ, NEC, and Shaw Cable. And then it all stopped,
with the amount of reviews that we’ve been putting out every week for the
last couple years. Well, while I’ll still write this week’s review
(Hopefully!) despite spending time to write this article, here’s a new one
for you: and right off the bat, I hate to say it but — it’s more than
negative. To clarify, I’m not trying to “get back” at Lenovo or anything, but
for accurate consumer reference only — and be as objective as possible.
After all, Lenovo’s laptops are attractive, that’s why I bought one. Hello,
my first impression of Lenovo.
* Link:
http://aphnetworks.com/reports/lenovo_customer_service_hell_as_youve_heard
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Title: Samsung LN55A950 LCD TV Review at Overclockers Online
Link: http://www.overclockersonline.net/index.php?page=articles&num=2201
Quote: I’ve held onto the Samsung LN55A950 for over 2 months and every
second I sit down in front of it, I’m blown away by its performance. I’ll
end up re-watching some show or movie in HD and notice details that I missed
before. The LN55A950 is certainly not for everyone as it holds a high price
tag, but those who want the best shouldn’t settle for anything less. Imagine
the nothing less than the best, imagine the A950 in your home.
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The Pyroblazer demo can be downloaded from the link below. it is free for upload and distribution.
www.eipix.com/Media/PyroBlazerDemos/Pyroblazer_Demo_Setup.exe
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Title: Zalman ZM750-HP Power Supply Review
Link: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/661
Category: Reviews
Summary:
ZM750-HP is a 750 W power supply from Zalman featuring a modular cabling system and a heat-pipe-based heatsink to cool down the secondary rectifiers. Let’s see if this unit survives our tests.
Here is a snippet:
“ZM750-HP is a 750 W power supply from Zalman featuring a modular cabling system, a 120-mm fan and a heat-pipe-based heatsink to cool down the secondary rectifiers. We had already reviewed the 600 W model from this series, ZM600-HP, and liked it a lot. Let’s see if the 750 W model is also great.”
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Today, we take a step back from Intel’s new Core i7 to look at one of the motherboards from Gigabyte’s new Ultra Durable 3 line, the EP45-UD3P. As its name suggests, this board is based on the current mainstream chipset offering from Intel, the P45 Express. Although we’ve covered this ground before, most recently with our look at two recent offerings from MSI, it’s helpful to remember that the P45 is closely related to the X48 Express with support for Core 2 Duo and Quad processors as well as DDR2 or DDR3 RAM. What that means for most people is that the EP45-UD3P, as well as other P45 boards, makes for a great upgrade without breaking the bank.
Direct Link:
http://hothardware.com/Articles/Gigabyte-GAEP45UD3P-Ultra-Durable-3-Motherboard/
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Ace Mouse MLUC100 Laser 1600D Review:
Link: http://www.rbmods.com/Articles/Ace/Mluc100/1.php
Quote: Today we are taking a look at the Ace MLUC100 mouse from Ace. This seems to be a fairly new company on the market but they seem to aim their market on the gamers with high quality products. Lets see what type of mouse they have released for gamers and also check out how it performs.
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“The Tsunami e-DATA 3500 NAS BT enclosure will appeal to a lot of SOHO users. It’s the price and features that will make it attractive. The build quality wasn’t as bad as I thought, it’s easy to install and configure … what’s more, it can be used as a standalone external hard drive or a portable NAS device. It supports File-Sharing, FTP and Bit-Torrent services … a great little portable NAS solution that’s extremely affordable.”
Read the rest of the review here … http://www.cpu3d.com/review/6644-1/tsunami-e-data-3500-nas-bt-enclosure/introduction.html
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TechwareLabs has published a review of the SuperTalent Pico Drive Gold. Here’s a clip from the review:
Quote: Looking for more than just a flash drive? How about a drive with a bit of bling added in? William takes a look at the Super Talent Pico Drive Gold which boasts not only a tiny size but flash with dazzle for your storage needs.
LINK: http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/storage/Pico-Drive-Gold
Title: SuperTalent Pico Drive Gold @ TechwareLabs
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Title: Patriot Memory Viper series 4gb kit DDR2-1066Mhz Review @ FusionMods.Net
Link: http://www.fusionmods.net/index.php?theCase=viewThread&threadID=1784
Quote: “Good ram can be found anywhere, but you need quality ram to make a modder and overclocker happy, and today, Patriot Memory has done just that with their Viper series. With the 1066Mhz speed, and dual channel 2gb sticks, this ram will surely make your system load times better.”
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* Title: Patriot Extreme Performance PC3-14400 2×1GB DDR3 RAM @ APH Networks
* Description: When DDR3 RAM was first introduced to the public in 2007, it
did not seem to be able to capture much of the consumer and enthusiast market
alike. Well, at least that was what the forums I frequented indicated to me.
Every time a person mentioned ‘DDR3′ in their ‘I want to build a new
computer’ thread, the first reply by some enthusiast would be to suggest the
user to get a DDR2 based motherboard and corresponding RAM kits instead.
There’s a good reason for this though, I won’t even try to deny it — when
DDR3 debuted in 2007, the asking price was at least $400-$600 for 2×1GB sets
– there was a very limited amount of people that would have been willing to
spend so much money on 2GB of RAM for <5% performance gain over its DDR2
counterparts. I’m not saying such people don’t exist, but as you will learn
in any microeconomics class, the demand shifts left as price increases. Fast
forward to November 2008 — now. DDR3 RAM is much more affordable now; and
with pretty much every manufacturer offering a complete range of
value-oriented models to high performance DDR3 kits, there must be one for
you, if you really wanted to jump to the DDR3 boat. Today, we’ll be taking a
look at Patriot’s Extreme Performance PC3-14400 2×1GB dual channel kit. Stock
specifications at DDR3-1800 at 8-8-8-20. It’s certainly isn’t the best we’ve
seen so far. But here’s one thing to note: How much do stock settings matter
with Micron’s excellent D9GTS DDR3 chips used in this set? (Read:
Overclocking!) We’ll find out for you today in this review. Also, pretty much
all photos in this review is ‘Photoshop-enhanced’ for your viewing pleasure.
Haha.
* Link:
http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/patriot_extreme_performance_pc3_14400_2×1gb
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