News for April 29th 2009
Lots of news… blah, been a rough week, my Wii died on Sunday and my new 47″ TV died on Monday… Blah!
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Title: EASEUS Partition Master Server Edition @ TestFreaks
Review Link: http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/review/easeus-partition-master-server-edition/
Review Snipit:
“If you have ever attempted to format a hard drive, work with its partitions, create or move partitions, change partitions between FAT and NTFS or explore your drive’s structure, you have probably come across some difficulty. The tools built into operating systems don’t give you full accessibility over your drives, and having a handy piece of software to help you can be a godsend. ”
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Title: AAXA P1 Pico LCoS Hand-Held Micro Projector Reviewed
Review Link: http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/review/aaxa-p1-pico-lcos-hand-held-micro-projector/
Review Snipit:
” Today for review I have the Pico p1 Micro Projector from AAXA technologies. This thing is small, not much larger than a smartphone, it will fit in the palm of your hand. The Pico P1 has a few great features like a built-in media player, dual power, long battery life, small and portable of course and it can also connect to devices like ipods, iPhones, cameras and most anything with an RCA style audio/video output. Those features don’t mean much though is the picture quality isn’t good, so continue on to learn more about the Pico P1…”
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Title: Otterbox iPod Nano 4th Gen Defender Case @ TestFreaks
Review Link: http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/review/otterbox-ipod-nano-4th-gen-defender-case/
Review Snipit:
” A few days ago I took a look at the Otterbox Impact case for iPod nano 4th, today I’ve got the next in the series of cases from Otterbox, the Defender. The Otterbox Defender is an iPod case like no other really, it feature three levels of protection for you iPod. The first layer is the silicone covering over top of the second layer which is a plastic housing, in the housing you’ll find the third layer of protection, a clear membrane over the screen and click wheel. The Defender offers excellent protection for your iPod nano 4th, and easy access to the ports and controls.”
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We have a new article online: where we tested nine budget-class power-supplies and got several surpises, positives ones as well as negative ones:
http://www.planet3dnow.de/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=361083
If you need a translator for German to English you will find one here:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.planet3dnow.de/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=361083
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Soyo Pearl 24″ LCD Monitor Review:
Link: http://www.rbmods.com/content/8293/first-thoughts-on-the-soyo-pearl-monitor.aspx
Quote: Sometimes it’s more important to choose a high-quality product that suits your needs rather than choosing the largest, more expensive one. Today, we will be testing that theory when we examine a monitor that Geeks.com sent us: the Soyo 24†Pearl LCD monitor. While other computer monitors out there are larger and offer better specifications, does this monitor provide a decent picture at a reasonable price? Read on to find out.
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Date: 04-28-2009Â By Vlad Mihaiescu
Movies, games and even 2-D applications perform and look superbly on this monitor. I did not notice any glitches, flickers or distorted images. But besides the image looking sharp and great I did notice another difference with the S2409W Dell monitor. Personally, I associate this difference with the size difference, but I did notice that my eyes are not as tired and as dry at the end of the day, and maybe it is just a coincidence, but since I got this monitor I do not remember having a single headache (I’ve only had it for 2 weeks though). So far I’m very satisfied with this monitor.
Link: http://www.gamepyre.com/reviews/hardware/misc/1089_1.html
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NEW CONTENT (Storage) – Vizo Ares II Dual 2.5-inch SATA Drive Adapter
QUOTE: “You may have noticed that nearly all of the exciting hard drives in the last year have been 2.5 inch drives. The 2.5 inch standard has long dominated the notebook market and is quickly starting to take over the enterprise server market. When Western Digital released the VelociRaptor analysts took notice as it marked the 2.5″ invasion into desktop systems. Here we are a year later and solid state drives are all the rage. I know several enthusiasts that are using SSDs in their full towers, most of them with multiple drives in either RAID 0 or RAID 5.
Other than rack mounted servers I have yet to see a desktop system come with an efficient 2.5″ mounting system for these drives. Several companies make adapters but most were designed to fit a floppy disk drive into a 5.25″ CDROM bay. Vizo has noticed this same issue and decided to do something about it.”
For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2738/vizo_ares_ii_dual_2_5_inch_sata_drive_adapter/index.html
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| EVGA GeForce GTS 250 Video Card Review |
Author: Doc Overclock Date: 04-28-2009
EVGA offers the best support on the planet for most of their cards. A 2-year warranty may not seem like much but the fact remains that few people have video cards longer than 2 years, especially for those that want the higher end cards and need a hold me over card until the next generation of cards are released or they can afford a new card with the features and performance that the GTS 250 would offer. This card really blew me away in terms of overclocking as I was able to overclock the card to 958MHz stably without visual artifacts. The Step-Up program is a nice touch especially if NVIDIA releases a new card between now and 90 days from now or if you want to upgrade to a GTX275/285. This card is online for a price of $149.99 currently from Newegg and it performs pretty well in standard testing and game play. Its overclocking abilities are what make this card stand apart from its peers as it excels in that arena, earning it an Editor’s Choice product.
Review Link: http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/hardware/1880_1.html
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Today I will be looking at a couple of releases from SteelSeries that will have World of Warcraft players jumping up and down in excitement. SteelSeries’s World of Warcraft gaming mouse has been eagerly anticipated by the MMO gaming scene, most of all of course, by the WoW players themselves, who I’m sure are very happy about having a mouse made specifically for them.
Read the rest of the review … http://www.arm3d.com/review/314-1/steelseries-world-of-warcraft-mouse-mat-set/introduction.html
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Title: Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship 2009 @ Techgage
Link: http://techgage.com/article/gigabyte_open_overclocking_championship_2009/
Quote: The North American regional final of Gigabyte’s GO OC 09 overclocking championship took place this past weekend in the City of Industry, and we were there to take it all in. Although no world records were broken, no one disagrees that it was an exciting event, and the result is one lucky overclocker who’s now getting ready to head to Taipei for the final.
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Title:
Sennheiser IE7
Link:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sennheiser/IE7
Brief:
Sennheiser’s long awaited performance IEMs are finally here. The IE7 earphones aim to take on some of the very best in-ears around with their bold design and conventional driver. For a price of $300 you get some of the best in-ears on the market today that impress with a detailed bass and full sound stage.
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TITLE: In Win X-Fighter @ LanOC Reviews
DESCRIPTION: If you were to compare the PC case market to motorcycles In Win would be similar to Orange County Choppers. Each case they make is designed around a central theme. In the past we have seen cases designed after the B2 Bomber and race cars. Today I will be looking at the X-Fighter, I’m sure you can guess what the theme of this case is all about. I’m going to run the case through its paces to see if it would be a good fit for today’s high end gaming PC’s.
ARTICLE URL: http://lanoc.org/reviews/in-win-x-fighter/
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I4U News published a review of the Shure SE115 Sound Isolating Earphones.
Quote:
“Music lovers often look to replace the cheap earphones that come with their MP3 players right away. For the real audiophile what qualifies, as a good set of earphones for the normal user is sub-par. The Audiophile often spends more on their headphones than they do the MP3 player. Today we are going to look at the new Shure SE115 Sound Isolating Earphones. These earphones are available in several colors and offer lots of features for music lovers. Read on to find out how well the Shure SE115 Sound Isolating Earphones perform.”
Full Review:
http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-534.html
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Title: AMD ATI Radeon HD 4770 Graphic Card Review on Technic3D
Link: http://www.technic3d.com/article-862,1-amd-radeon-hd4770-grafikkarte-masse-statt-klasse.htm
Quote: “The new AMD Radeon HD4770 arrived Technic3D. The “Single” Graphic Card with a Dual Slot Heatsink and under 100$ better than the HD4850 Graphic Card? Technic3D will see the RV740 Chip in the following Review against the Radeon HD4850 and many more.”
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We have been talking about NVIDIA’s Ion since late last year when news first broke of the ultra small form factor platform. At the time, NVIDIA’s tiny Atom-powered prototype system wasn’t even called Ion yet, but images of the miniscule motherboard that would eventually be used in the reference platform had already surfaced and the community was buzzing with interest. One of the major concerns with most netbooks and nettops was their relatively weak integrated graphics solutions, and Ion would potentially address that concern.
Around the time when Ion was first announced, there was some scuttlebutt that Intel “disapproved” of the platform and that the company wouldn’t sell OEMs Atom processors separately, without pairing them to an accompanying Intel chipset. Those rumors were soon squashed, however, because Intel does in fact sell Atom processors independent of a chipset. Although, we think it’s still pretty safe to say Intel isn’t exactly thrilled with Ion’s existence.
Regardless of what anyone thinks of Ion though, the platform is moving closer to public availability. We took a look at NVIDIA’s Ion reference system a couple of months back and in our conclusion stated that “we want one – preferably sooner than later”. Well, the wait is almost over as the first publicly announced Ion design win has landed in the HotHardware labs, Acer’s slick Aspire Revo…
Acer Aspire Revo NVIDIA Ion SFF PC:
http://hothardware.com/Articles/Acer-Aspire-Revo-SFF-NVIDIA-Ion-PC/
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Quote: Ooooh arrr mi LanParty’s!! It’s competition time again! Fancy getting your hands on a brand new X58 motherboard? Then get hunting for the X!
Link: http://www.overclock3d.net/articles.php?/misc_content/the_dfi_x58_treasure_hunt/1
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Title: Reeven RCCT Review @ XSReviews
Review Link: http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/cpu-coolers/reeven-rcct/
Quote: “CPU Cooling has advanced somewhat in recent years with many different techniques being tried and tested. A relatively new company, Reeven, currently offer two direct heat-pipe CPU Coolers. Today, we’ve been luckily enough to acquire one such cooler, the RCCT-0901S. Let’s see if it performs to the same specification of more well-known CPU Coolers.“
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Data, data everywhere. Â I find myself needing to transfer data at some point nearly every day. Â The flash memory drive has made that process so much easier and faster (Any of my readers remember using five inch floppies?). Â It seems that every company is trying to produce some form of one. Â So how do you make your drive stand out? Â I see three options: Make it smaller, faster, or stylized. Â With the Pico C we showed you how small the drives can be. Â I personally don’t like most of the “style” drives. Â Honestly, who needs a flash drive that looks like Hello Kitty? Â Today we are going to take a look at OCZ’s “Performance” series, the OCZ Rally2.
http://techarkade.com/component/content/article/46-storage/173-ocz-rally2-4gb-flash-drive.html
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Tech arkade has published a review of the Bose Wave music system..
Read about it here: http://techarkade.com/component/content/article/41-mp3-players/177-bose-wave-music-system.html
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I don’t care what anyone says about them, I like Microsoft, and for the most part they release quality products (*cough* Windows ME *cough*). Â Now I remember back when I got my Sidewinder Gamepad 1.0, and later having a Sidewinder 3D Pro Joystick. Â While they were not the top ones out there, both devices were sturdy and performed their duties well. Â Needless to say I was disappointed when the Sidewinder line was discontinued in 2003. Â It was stated to be from a lack of sales. Â In 2007 the brand was shocked back to life with the Sidewinder Mouse, designed exclusively for gaming. Â This was replaced by the X5, and here recently the X8 was released with bluetrack and wireless technologies. Â All of these items were intended to build on the franchise that early gamers wanted to build. Â In late 2008, Microsoft decided it was time to give the mice a new companion; and born was the X6 Keyboard. Â Let’s take a look at this new piece of the legacy.
http://techarkade.com/component/content/article/42-peripherals/197-sidewinder-x6-keyboard.html
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iXBT Labs Review: ASUS M4A79 Deluxe Motherboard
Excerpt:
“We can only note that this motherboard is just as attractive to users as the previous model from ASUS with this chipset. Perhaps it’s a bit more interesting owing to its better integrated audio. In other respects, it has both pros and cons, too insignificant to affect your choice.”
Article: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/mainboard/asus-m4a79-deluxe-790fx-p1.html
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Article Name: Antec Twelve Hundred 1200 ATX Case Review @ Tweaknews
Article Url: http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/antec_twelve_hundred_1200_case/
Article Snippet:
“So, does the Twelve Hundred live up to all the hype? Is it, as Antec touts, the “Unbeatable Gaming Case?†If cooling and configuration options are the benchmarks we’re looking at, it just may be. With six case fans included (five 120’s and a massive 200mm top fan) and a distinctive look incorporating a chevron side window, uniform black finish inside and out and the mesh front, the Twelve Hundred brings a lot to the table in both performance and aesthetics.”
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ASUS EAH4770 HTDI/512MD5/A Radeon HD 4770 Videocard Review
“AMD is making a new addition to its midrange graphics card lineup today with the introduction of the Radeon HD 4770 videocard, based on the companies first 40nm GPU, the RV740. The Radeon HD 4770 strikes a balance between performance and price, coming just under the lucrative $100 mark and slotting in nicely in terms of performance between existing Radeon 4670 and 4850 videocards. PCSTATS will break down all the numbers in a moment, but first let’s introduce the videocard sitting on the PCSTATS’ test bench today, the ASUS EAH4770 HTDI/512MD5/A.”
URL: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2392
QUICK-LINK:Â Â ASUS EAH4770 HTDI/512MD5/A Radeon HD 4770 Videocard Review @ PCSTATS.com
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NEW CONTENT (Video Cards) – GIGABYTE HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 Graphics Card
QUOTE: “The frequency of graphics card releases now compared to two years ago is just jaw dropping. There used to be three models; a low, mid and high-end model. And while we still have that base structure today, there are so many models that fit into each category. These days we have high mid range cards and low high end cards amongst the main three categories; the reason for this is because of the amount of power these cards offer.
The latest card to hit the market is the HD 4770 which expands upon the HD 4700 series from ATI. The weird thing is that it’s a series that we haven’t heard about a whole lot leading up to its release, especially in the new model market. What we’ve seen from ATI lately are models in the HD 4800 series, HD 4890, HD 4870, HD 4850 and more.”
For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2737/gigabyte_hd_4770_512mb_gddr5_graphics_card/index.html
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TITLE: AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition AM2 Kuma Processor @ Benchmark Reviews
DESCRIPTION: Last week’s launch of the Phenom II X4 955 was a big win with the enthusiast crowd. This week, however, it looks like AMD has shifted focused to the mainstream market. Not only is the highly anticipated Radeon HD 4770 launching today, but also a new dual core Black Edition processor: the Athlon X2 7850 AD785ZWCGHBOX. Based on the updated K10 Kuma architecture, the 2.8GHz X2 7850 is poised to take over as AMD’s flagship dual core processor. At only $69 USD, it’s also shaping up to be quite a bargain. Benchmark Reviews has thoroughly tested this new processor, and today we bring you our results.
ARTICLE URL: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=249&Itemid=63
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Date: 04-27-2009Â By Vlad Mihaiescu
The sound is good, the graphics are good the gameplay makes sense and the controls are easy to learn, but despite all that I find myself wanting to go play more of The Godfather II or to just go on rampages in GTA IV. For some reason this game was not able to bond with me the way that other games do and they even have Romanians in it (I was born in Romania). Even with the Romanian factor (which I find funny altogether – Romanian organized crime) I still don’t see myself keeping this game. It is going to make a nice trade-in. On the other hand, I think that Wheelman would make a perfect rental; It is just long enough to beat in the few days that you have a rental out. Wheelman is a lot of fun, its just that with today’s economy it is not worth 60 dollars worth of fun.
Link: http://www.gamepyre.com/reviews/games/xbox360/1088_1.html
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ATI Radeon HD 4770 review: The $100 Killer GPU?
http://www.techspot.com/review/163-radeon-hd-4770/
Hot on the heels of last month’s Radeon HD 4890 release which set a new performance record for ATI as their fastest single GPU yet, the company has another new graphics card for us today, this time targeting the sub-$100 market.
The new Radeon HD 4770 is the world’s first 40nm graphics processing unit, and although it’s not designed to set any speed records like the flagship 4890, the 4770 aims to deliver the best possible value in a neat cost-effective package.
It has become common practice for both ATI and Nvidia to make their initial migration to a new design process using a mid-range or even low-end GPU, allowing time for refinement before they push it to high-performance parts. That said, the Radeon HD 4770 is far from a simple affair as the GPU has a transistor count of 826 million, or just 14% less than the Radeon HD 4890, ATI’s most complex GPU yet.
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| ATI/Gigabyte Radeon HD4770 RV740 Preview |
Author: Doc Overclock Date: 04-27-2009
Today ATI launches their latest venture into the video card arena, code name the HD4770. The day of this launch we were lucky enough to get our hands on one made by our friends a Gigabyte in just the nick of time. We only received the card late today and only had time to get in a quick photo shoot and read up on the card in time for the launch today. The card looks nice and is shiny red for those who associate that color as ATI’s PCB.
Review Link: http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/hardware/1881_1.html
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TITLE: ATI Radeon HD 4770 RV740 DDR5 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews
DESCRIPTION: Sometimes an industry first doesn’t mean a new champion is born. The ATI Radeon HD 4770 introduces the 40nm RV740 GPU paired to 512MB of DDR5 video frame buffer memory, and a double-height cooler allows the ATI B743 model video card to operate at 750MHz. Initially expected to sell at the $100 mark, could this be the mainstream graphics accelerator for the masses? Benchmark Reviews compares the Radeon HD4770 against a large collection of performance tests in this article.
ARTICLE URL: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=295&Itemid=72
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NEW CONTENT (Cases, Cooling and PSU) – Scythe Mugen 2 CPU Cooler
QUOTE: “Bling, bright LED lights, unique fin designs, exotic metal plating and loud, high CFM fans. What do all these things have in common? They are common features that attract the masses into buying a certain cooler over another, purely based on looks alone. Every once in a while a manufacturer takes a step back and tries to improve on a more basic design and add a few extra features that aren’t found on most CPU coolers on the market; taking the concept of a simple fin shape, basic use of common metals and from what I see on the internet, from previous users, really quiet fans as well. The company in question of taking this exact approach is Scythe.
Today I have the pleasure of taking a look at the Mugen 2 CPU cooler from Scythe. Never personally purchasing any of Scythe’s products previous to this review, I am sort of in the dark for firsthand knowledge of what their reputation is based on. What I have read in forums and seen in screenshots will be tested to our standards. Then we can see what all this “hype” is surrounding the Mugen 2 and hopefully shed some light for you and myself along the way.”
For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2736/scythe_mugen_2_cpu_cooler/index.html
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AMD is launching yet another new ATI Radeon graphics card today. And in light of the current worldwide economic conditions, along with the performance and power consumption data we present in the article, we suspect it’s going to be a welcomed addition to the company’s already potent graphics card line-up.
You see, the brand new Radeon HD 4770 is AMD’s first mainstream desktop GPU manufactured using a 40m process, and as such, it is more economical for the company to produce (due to its smaller die size) and it consumes little power relative to the current crop of products manufactured at 55nm. The Radeon HD 4770’s main features don’t stray far from the other members of the Radeon HD 4000 family, but its specifications are somewhat different due to the use of the new GPU, which was formerly codenamed RV740. Check it out…
ATI Radeon HD 4770 40nm GPU:
http://hothardware.com/articles/ATI-Radeon-HD-4770-40nm-GPU/
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Title:
AMD Radeon HD 4770
Link:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/HD_4770
Brief:
Today AMD released the world’s first GPU that is produced in a 40 nm process. The HD 4770 is aggressively priced around ~$100 and offers great performance for your hard earned dollars. In our testing realized out that the card performs almost on par with the HD 4850. With the amazing 30%+ memory overclock we got on our sample, the HD 4850 will be surpassed easily.
