This morning I learned you should never consume a box of Tyson chicken nuggets 10 minutes before going to bed at 11pm. It makes for a rough morning. Despite that, I rose early to bring you some splendid news to fulfill your geektacular needs.
There are plenty of fancy computer parts, including motherboards, solid state drives, cases and a few notebooks. On top, we’ve got some games, headsets and Left 4 Dead 2 benchmarks for the gamers among us. Enjoy.
RunCore 64GB Pro IV 70mm PCI-e SATA Solid State Drive SSD
The Asus EeePC 900a is a great little netbook with one big flaw, it comes with a tiny little 4gb SSD drive that is very slow. Actually there’s two flaws, the second would be how Asus handled the updates of the operating system, they’re automatic and they fill that tiny SSD to the point where the system slows to a crawl.
VIA ARTiGO A2000
The ultimate truth behind that question lies within the individual and what he or she use the data for. On one hand laying down extra money to have dedicated storage seems to be something unnecessary in a sense that they really do not need more storage, or there is only one computer in the network.
ASUS P7P55D Deluxe (P55 Express) Motherboard
ASUS has always been at the forefront when it comes to new technologies. Lynnfield is no exception. At Computex we were lucky enough to see just how well this new technology would work and from there the birth of the new Lynnfield processor and P55 chipset has already caused a stir in the hardware community. Not only is it looking like Core 2 will finally be leaving the stage after its long service, but a newer and better product will be taking its place.
Tritton AX 720 Dolby Digital Surround Gaming Headset
Tritton Technologies has long made excellent and versatile Dolby Digital headsets. However, the previous standard, the Tritton AX Pro with it’s four drivers in each ear was a bit beyond what many gamers were willing to pay at around $180. The new Tritton AX 720 comes in at $129.99 (at BestBuy) and retains the great versatility of the AX Pro in supporting PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.
OCZ Agility EX 60GB SSD
Back in August we reviewed the OCZ Agility SATA 2.0 SSD, which we found to be a reputable solid-state drive that offered nice performance under Linux. However, a step up from the Agility series is the Agility EX line. The OCZ Agility EX is designed to offer maximum performance with its SLC NAND-based storage and Indilinx controller. How though does the performance of this $400 SSD for just 60GB of storage compare to their other MLC-based SSDs under Linux? We have the benchmarks
Asus G51J Core i7 Mobile Gaming Notebook Review
Windows 7 is upon us, and with the launch of Microsoft’s self-proclaimed “best operating system” comes a slew of new desktop machines, notebooks, and netbooks looking to take advantage of its added stability and features. One of the companies that is looking to serve up a number of new Win7-based rigs is Asus, and without a doubt they have assembled an interesting and compelling offering in their G51J-A1 notebook. Hitting the sweet spot between the average-sized 15″ machine and the full-on desktop replacement, the refreshed G51 maintains the 15″ form factor yet packs enough horsepower to plow through even the latest game titles.
Left 4 Dead 2: CPU benchmarks – Phenom II very strong
Although Valve once again used the Source engine for Left 4 Dead 2, the developers nevertheless modified the structure for the new game. According to Chet Faliszek, inventor of Left 4 Dead, the developers enhanced for example the shaders, the lighting, the particles and the water. Multi-core support, diverse (Post) effects like Color Correction, Motion Blur and FP16-HDR as well as Film Grain are still integrated. Due to Soft Shadows, Self Shadowing, Normal Maps and Wet Surfaces the sceneries appear a little more realistic than before. The Havok physics engine top the technical features of Left 4 Dead 2 off.<
NZXT BETA EVO Classic Series PC Case Review
NZXT have well and truly established a good reputation within the enclosure market in the short amount of time they have been in existence. They have a really impressive assembly of cases available that have great features and looks but come in at a lower price compared to other case manufacturers. Today we have the privilege of looking at the NZXT Beta Evo, a budget case with a real statement to make. NZXT designed the Beta Evo off the back of the original Evo thus making it very affordable, lightweight and with a multitude of features.
ZoneOut: The iPod Nano’s Video Day Out
When the iPod nano was first unveiled many of us were thinking “ok, so they made it even smaller yet, what else?” Much to our surprise, we found out that this ‘Kit-Kat’ candy bar iPod nano device had a nifty feature up its sleeve and by that, we mean the video camera of course. While we all know what to expect out of the nano’s audio functionality and quality, wouldn’t it be cool if the video camera was decent enough for web video sharing needs? This could even mean ditching the need to spend on the new wave of dedicated pocket friendly video cameras.
A Boy and His Blob – Wii
Forget dogs. Everyone knows that a boy’s best friend is his blob. Especially when it’s a jellybean-eating blob who’s comes to Earth from his distant home world of Blobolonia in search of help and maybe even a friend.Play through over forty stages in this wonderful re-imagining of an NES classic on your Nintendo Wii.
Ultra X4 850W Modular PSU
We have recently posted our review of the Ultra Products X4 1200W Power Supply and today we are looking at the little brother to the big 1200W unit. We’ve got the 850W version on the bench and as we dive into the review shortly, you’ll notice that there are a lot of similarities between the two units. In fact, the cable package, outward design and even the physical size is virtually identical. It seems that the biggest difference will be inside. The PSU appeals to those that don’t need a 1000W+ PSU, but when you consider that this PSU weighs in at $249.99 MSRP, I think the 1200W X4 has more value at $299.99. We’ll see how things hold up as we carry on.
Cooler Master Storm Sniper Black Edition
Initially released early last year, the original Sniper was praised by many for its unique design, attention to detail, and surprisingly robust quality all for under $200. The Black Edition goes even further, adopting an all-black interior to further the aggressive look and keep up with current trends.
Crucial M225 256GB Solid State Drive Review
When it comes to Solid State Drives (SSD’s), it seems like many of the offerings available are from companies known for memory, not storage. This is because unlike traditional hard drives SSD’s have no moving parts and use NAND memory chips. So you would expect a company like Crucial to have a line of SSD drives, and they do! Actually our first SSD review here at ThinkComputers was a Crucial Drive. Today we will be looking at the 256GB M225 Solid State drive that is based off the ever popular Indilinx Barefoot controller. Let’s take a look…
GIGABYTE P55-UD6 (P55 Express) Motherboard
Lynnfield is now starting to really make its mark on the motherboard world. Intel now holds all the cards when it comes to performance computing. Taking the crown back from AMD’s Athlon 64 and moving it to the newest processor line, the Core i5 and the Core i7 8xx series designed for the new LGA 1156 platform have proven to be extremely successful.
Acer Timeline 14″ 4810T Notebook Review
Today we will be looking at the Acer Timeline 4810T notebook, a 14-inch ultra-portable that aims to bridge the gap between underpowered netbooks and bulky notebooks, while retaining the battery longevity found in the latest generation of netbooks. The Timeline has an incredible claimed battery life of over eight hours.
Corsair Dominator 1600MHz 8GB kit (CMD8GX3M4A1600C8)
With Windows 7 hitting the shelves we were hearing that the amount of ram in Windows 7 is just as important as raw ram speed. So to that end we got a couple of 8GB kits, installed Windows 7 and ran some testing. We ran our normal test suite on the kits then ran further testing using 2 sticks of ram (2x2GB) then the whole kit (4x2GB). That way the exact same ram is tested with 4GB and 8GB and the testing results should be about as good as they come.