DSM Tech News has officially changed hosts. Please let us know if you have any reliability issues when browsing the site. Hopefully, the opposite should be the case!
There weren’t any posts over the weekend due to the transition, so it’s time to play catch-up, as seems to frequently happen after a weekend.
First up are product reviews, then more to follow later. The usual fare is included – gaming mice, motherboards and the like. Nothing super exciting today, but any gadget is a good gadget.
LG GSA-E50L 8x Slim Super Multi DVD±RW DL USB 2.0 External Drive
Review Blurb: “Geeks.com has sent me over the LG GSA-E50L 8x DVD±RW DL USB 2.0 Slim External Drive w/LightScribe for review. The LG drive is essentially a laptop drive in an external enclosure, but what makes this drive preferable over others on the market is that it does not require an external power supply so you won’t need to worry about carrying one with you. The idea of a netbook is portability so this drive is not only inexpensive, but quiet and very portable.”
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Wi-Fire Wi-Fi Adapter
Link: http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/review/wi-fire-wi-fi-adapter/
Review Blurb: “The product I’ve got for review today claims to extend your wireless range by up to 1000 Feet, if true it could be a very valuable tool for many people. The product is called the Wi-Fire, it consists of a wedge shaped directional antenna that connects to your PC via the USB port. It includes software to help you get connected and it’s also compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac right out of the box.”
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Pong Case for iPhone 3G/3GS
Link: http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/review/pong-case-for-iphone-3g3gs/
Review Blurb: “Pong Research is a new company whose focus is on improving environmental health. This past week they released their first product the Pong Case for iPhone 3G/3GS. This is a protective case is designed to reduce the user’s exposure to radiation emanating from the cell phone. It is a silicon case designed with proprietary technology that directs the phone radiation away from the user’s head.”
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Calibre X260 Nvidia GeForce GTX260 896MB Video Card
Link: http://www.dragonsteelmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14907&Itemid=1
Review Blurb: “Up on the review block today I’ve got the Calibre X260 Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 896MB Overclocked Video Card and I can say that for a somewhat low priced card this thing rocks. Before I got the GTX260 for review I was using an ATI 4870 with 1 gig of ram, and I’m truly surprised that the GTX260 with less ram and lower clock speed easily bests it in terms of performance. The 4870 runs 1 gig of DDR5 ram and the GTX260 runs 896Mb of DDR3 ram, you’d think the 4870 would perform better, but you’d be wrong. I’ve put the GTX260 up against my 4870 and a GTS250 for comparison, so read on to learn about a very good video card…”
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Jetart MP2000
Link: http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/mouse-mats/jetart-mp2000/
Review Blurb: “Once upon a time, when beige PC towers ruled the earth, your average PC user was rather limited for their choice of mouse pad – most were abominable little plastic rectangles backed with some kind of spray foam that served little purpose other than accumulating years of rotting spillages. Thankfully that time is no more and coMPanies have been churning out mouse mats of every conceivable shape, size and colour to cater to the needs of PC users for years. Today we take a look at Jetart’s new addition to its MousePal line-up, the MP2000, to see if it’s worth your hard earned pennies.”
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Intel DP55KG Motherboard
Link: http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/motherboards/1948_1.html
Review Blurb: “Intel has a long history of making processors and motherboards to support those processors. Intel launched their P55 Express chipset and LGA-1156 CPUs earlier this month. We’ve already reviewed a few of the boards on the market using this chipset, but haven’t gotten around to reviewing Intel’s own reference boards until today. Intel has three models of their P55 motherboards available today including the DP55KG Extreme board on the review bench today, the DP55SB, the DP55WG and the DP55WB media motherboards. Today I’m reviewing the reference board that was tested during the initial Core i7 870 and Core i5 750 reviews.”
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HP USB 2.0 Docking Station
Link: http://www.ocia.net/reviews/hpusbdock/page1.shtml
Review Blurb: “Docking stations for laptops have been around almost since the existence of laptops themselves. If you’re not familiar with how a docking station works, these devices provide a quick, easy method of connecting external peripherals to a portable computer without having to plug in multiple cables and connectors to various ports on the laptop. The monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, network, printer, etc. are all connected to the dock, and then the laptop has a single connection to the dock, typically through a port on the rear or bottom of the notebook case.”
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Invisible Shield Gadget Skin Protector by ZAGG
Review Blurb: “For us gadgetophiles dropping a new toy is like dropping your first born – once the damage is done, you stop being so proud of them. This is where ZAGG come in with a nifty piece of polymer, which is translucent and soft to the touch. The Invisible Shield will keep your baby safe from your clumsy handling.”
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SanDisk 64GB Ultra Backup USB Flash Drive
Link: http://www.rbmods.com/content/12942/introduction.aspx
Review Blurb: “Super Talent gives the phrase “thumb drive” new meaning with their most recent addition to their line of USB flash drives, the 32 GB Pico C, which packs so much storage space into an area smaller than that opposable appendage. Read on for the full performance review.”
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CM Storm Sentinel Advance Gaming Mouse
Link: http://techgage.com/article/cm_storm_sentinel_advance_gaming_mouse/
Review Blurb: “When Cooler Master contacted us a few weeks ago and asked us if we’d like to take their new gaming mouse for a spin, I was a little taken back. Here, CM, already with a slew of chassis’, cooling products, power supplies, notebook products and more, now have a gaming mouse? Well, despite it being their first such product (as far as I’m aware), it’s actually quite good.”
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Targus Netbook Accessory Kit
Link: http://www.ccereviews.com/reviews/targus-netbook-accessory-kit/
Review Blurb: “To keep pace with our ever more hectic on-the go life style manufacturers of electronic equipment and computers have been racing to push out the next great portable gadget. Phones, digital audio players, and now netbooks have garners a considerable amount of significance in the way we conduct our day to day dealings. While unlike fancy cell phones, smart phones and digital audio players have progressed in features and functionalities over their predecessors, netbooks are quite different. Netbooks took laptops in quite a different direction by trimming out all but the necessaries. [i]Better[/i] is no longer measured by gigahertz, megabytes or ability to compare with desktop systems but rather size, weight and battery life.”
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Seagate BlackArmor PS-110 500Gb
Link: http://lanoc.org/reviews/seagate-blackarmor-ps-110-500gb/
Review Blurb: “I recently took a look at the WS-110 and was surprised by all of the features of the BlackArmor series. Of course the WS-110 is a little large and has a power cord, not something you would want to travel with. That’s where the PS-110 comes in, considerably smaller than the WS-110 it is designed for portability. But does it have the same high performance and great software that the WS-110 came with? Seagate was kind enough to let me get my hands on one.”
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HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 1GB Video Card
Link: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2930/his_radeon_hd_4890_icooler_x4_1gb_video_card/index.html
Review Blurb: “Recently we’ve seen more and more companies begin to mix up the HD 4890 quite a bit. Be it big overclocks, new coolers or both, we’re seeing more of the card now than we did in recent months. What makes this so interesting, though, is that the new HD 5800 series which is designed to take over where the HD 4800 leaves off is ready to come out.”
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MSI P55-GD80 Motherboard
Link: http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/cpu_mainboard/msi_p55-gd80_motherboard/1
Review Blurb: “Rather than opting for just two PCIe slots on the P55-GD80, MSI have incorporated three slots which are CrossfireX and SLI capable but when used in multi GPU format the speeds drop from the PCIe 2.0 16x standard to 8x,8x and 4x. Also worthy of note is that MSI have not opted to go with the infamous Marvel controller supporting 6G, instead, MSI have incorporated the tried and tested stack of Intel and JMicron controllers for the 9 available SATA ports.”
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BFG’s GTX 295 H2OC: Water-Cooled Graphics
Link: http://hothardware.com/Articles/SelfContained-WaterCooling-BFGs-GTX-295-H2OC-/
Review Blurb: “In a market where dual-GPU, single-PCB graphics cards are readily available from most major OEMs, product manufacturers are increasingly turning to water cooling as a way to differentiate their products and out-maneuver their competitors. The superior thermal characteristics of liquid cooling allows companies like BFG to hit higher core / memory clocks than they might using air alone. However, H2O-reliant high-end video cards cater to an even smaller slice of the market—specifically, those enthusiasts with big money to spend and who are comfortable using water in their own PC.”