Today we’ve got a roundup of news from the past few days. There’s a lot here, so get prepared to accomplish little else in the upcoming minutes. And, since I likely won’t update tomorrow, have a lovely Thanksgiving.
Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 1TB NAS Box
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/review/seagate-blackarmor-nas-110-1tb-nas-box/
Ah, the NAS box! I’ve got a thing for NAS boxes, that doesn’t sound right does it? Anyway, I like NAS boxes, I like them much more than external hard drives, they’re just so much more useful than an external hard drive really, everyone can access them and you can access them from anywhere in the world really. With an external hard drive you can put your files on it, but then you’ll have to take it with you to access those files, sure there are ways around that, but it’s not as easy as just hooking up a NAS box. NAS boxes are the replacement really for external hard drives, toss the files on the server, access the server from your destination, can’t get much easier than that really.
Tyme Machines Star Wars Sculpted 4gb USB Drives
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/review/tyme-machines-star-wars-sculpted-4gb-usb-drives/
We love USB drives here at TestFreaks, we love to test them and we really love the unusual ones. Today for review I’ve got four USB drives that are very cool, these are from a company called Tyme Machines and they’re special because they’re Star Wars themed. I’ve got 4gig versions of Yoda, Darth Vader, Boba Fett and a Storm Trooper. They’re very nicely made, they look great, but looks aren’t everything, so I had to test them out and compare them to some ‘regular’ USB drives I’ve got on hand, so read on to see a whole bunch of pictures of these drives and the testing of course…
You Can Become A Gmail Power User
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/gmail-power-user/
Gmail is everywhere. From innocent mail users getting a note from granny, to power users that are forging a path across the internet wastelands, Gmail is a formidable tool in every web jockey’s arsenal. But to really use this versatile set of tools to their best advantage, a little knowledge can turn the chevy into a Ferrari powerhouse.
Sony Vaio VGN-FW190EBH
http://www.laptopreviewscentral.com/sony-vaio-vgn-fw190ebh/
The Sony Vaio VGN-FW190EBH is a notebook from Sony’s FW VAIO series that is inspired by theatres. It is the first 16:4 inch extra-wide display that features an aspect ratio of 16:9 which makes it suitable for watching movies in their original cinematic format. The widescreen proportion minimizes black bars during movies as well as offers an expansive workspace for viewing tow pages side by side. The Sony Vaio VGN-FW190EBH is available in black, chocolate brown, Machine and Nebula.
Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3-1333 RAM
http://www.techwarelabs.com/crucial-ballistix-tracer-ddr3-1333/
Most of the time, RAM is like the IT guy at work: you only notice it when something goes wrong. Crucial decided to take a different tack with the Ballistix Tracer series. By embedding a series of LEDs along the top and bottom edges of the PCB, they’ve made a memory kit that puts on quite the light show. Of course, showiness is no good without solid performance; and we’ll take a hard look at that in a moment. First though, let’s hear what Crucial have to say for themselves about this glitzy little kit.
How CPU Features Affect CPU Performance, Part 5
http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/archspeed-2009-5-p1.html
We proceed with our series of articles devoted to analyzing performance of modern CPUs in real applications and finding out the effect of processor features. This article dwells on the number of cores of Intel Core i7. That is we actually redo the first part of this series, but with a different processor this time.
Dirt 2: DirectX 9 vs. DirectX 11 graphics compared
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,699998/Dirt-2-DirectX-9-vs-DirectX-11-graphics-compared/Practice/
Codemasters delayed the PC version of Colin McRae: Dirt 2 in order to upgrade the Ego Engine of the racing game with DirectX 11 support. The cross platform architecture is capable of all modern rendering tricks but some are only used with DX11. The current API offers Hardware Tessellation which is used for a more detailed audience, tessellated cloth (banners and flags) as well as a more realistic visualization of water with more waves and splashes. Due to the Full Floating Point HDR Illumination (FP16) and High Definition Ambient Occlusion calculated via DirectCompute, Post Effects like Motion blur and filtered Soft Shadows especially the light and shadow effects of Colin McRae: dirt 2 are very realistic. Furthermore Dirt 2 receives a benefit from multi-core CPUs because of the multithreading feature of DirectX 11.
Ultra X4 1200W
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=174
As you can tell by the above box picture, today’s review sample will be the brand new Ultra X4 1200 watt unit. It’s been quite some time since we last looked at an Ultra product here at the site, and I for one am excited to see what the company is up to lately.
Thermaltake BlacX Duet HDD Dock
http://www.bcchardware.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7919&Itemid=40
Thermaltake was one of the first companies to release a simple USB Hard Drive Dock – the BlacX and today we are looking at the evolution of the BlacX. We have the BlacX Duet on the bench and this device brings the convenience of the original BlacX and super-sizes it with a speedy eSATA interface and an additional HDD dock. It still features USB2.0 and support for both 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives, but now it can handle two drives – and do it faster.
VidaBox Premium Wireless Keyboard
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/VidaBox/Premium_Wireless_Keyboard
Vidabox has made an update to its popular HTPC RF keyboard, and has sent us a sample for our viewing pleasure. For those of you who don’t know, Vidabox is a New York based company that specializes in “The World’s Most Advanced Media Centers.” They manufacture a full line of HTPC products for just about anyone from your average joe to the millionare looking for a full-featured home theater computer.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows 7
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1488
Keyboard shortcuts have been in the Windows operating system since its inception, but the Windows key started appearing about the time Windows 95 rolled out. Some analysts say it is in response to Apple’s command button, which is used in conjuntion with other keys to perform keyboard shortcuts.
Seven Cheap Full HD 22-inch Monitors
http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Displays/Seven-Cheap-Full-HD-22-inch-Monitors.html
In the times when CRT monitors (displays) were only choice, if you cared about your health and especially eyesight you needed to buy good and expensive monitor. Back then, when someone wanted to buy a good PC we always recommended him to buy good monitor first and then the rest of the configuration with money that remained from initial budget. With TFT monitors is different story, and in most cases it does not matter how much you spent on your TFT monitor since most of them won’t hurt your eyesight.
HP Mini 5101 Review
http://www.digitaltrends.com/product-reviews/hp-mini-5101-review/
Any number of slimmer, sexier or longer-lasting netbooks might step up if you’re less concerned with durability, but for road warriors, the Mini 5101 is just what the CEO ordered.
Trendnet 300Mbps Wireless N Travel Router
http://www.rbmods.com/content/16050/features-and-specifications.aspx
Today we are taking a look at Trendnet’s latest Travel Router named 300Mbps Wireless N Travel Router, we earlier reviewed a USB WIFI adapter from Trendnet whic worked very good so it is going to be interesting to see what performance we can get from this.
EVGA P55 FTW Motherboard Review
http://www.ninjalane.com/reviews/motherboards/evga_p55_ftw
The Intel P55 is a desktop level chipset designed for mainstream systems. In some ways the P55 is very similar to the X58 but takes things one step further by completely eliminating the Northbridge chip and moving all of it’s functionally to the processor.
Sapphire Radeon HD 5750
http://techgage.com/article/sapphire_radeon_hd_5750/
Over the course of the past two months, AMD has launched five different models as part of its HD 5000 series. The company kicked things off with its higher-end HD 5850 and HD 5870 cards, which simply put, reaffirmed the fact that the roaring success of the HD 4000 series wasn’t going to be the last. Just last week, AMD ushered in the launch of its first dual-GPU card as part of the HD 5000 series, the HD 5970, and it’s mind-bogglingly fast, especially when compared to NVIDIA’s current offerings.
Assassin’s Creed II Review
http://www.lgrnexus.com/ac2-review
Usually when a sequel is announced, a couple of thoughts go through my head. The first is whether or not it will be anything like the original and the second is wondering how bad they are going to screw up what they had. But, I am happy to report that this sequel does not fit into either one of those categories. In fact, Assassin’s Creed II fixed a lot of what was wrong with Assassin’s Creed and sits right up there with The Lord of the Rings, The original Star Wars movies, and other sequels that rocked my socks off.
GIGABYTE P55A-UD6 (P55 Express) Motherboard
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3023/gigabyte_p55a_ud6_p55_express_motherboard/index.html
GIGABYTE is one to do things big and one thing they wanted to be a part of first up is the SATA-III (6Gb/s) and USB 3.0 revolution. Now, whilst still considered premature as far as wide adoption goes, this is not a bad thing. After all, we already have USB 3.0 controller chips from NEC and SATA-III controller chips from Marvell starting to show their faces, which is extremely impressive. In fact, until AMD and Intel start to integrate SATA-III and USB into the next generation of Southbridge’s, we are going to have to rely on the external chips like we did when USB2.0 and SATA-II came out.
ASUS Maximus III GENE
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1731
Earlier this year (2009) ASUS introduced a motherboard that has all of the capabilities, and features that only the full sized counterparts had. These motherboards were all based upon the micro-ATX standard design, during my time using these micro ATX motherboards these little “Bad Boys” quickly became known as the “Mini Monsters” around these parts. In short not only did they keep up with there full sized brethren, they were able to out clock and in some cases out perform full sized motherboards.
Logisys NP160 Laptop/Notebook Cooler
http://www.techwarelabs.com/logisys-np160-laptopnotebook-cooler/
Over the last 3 decades, laptops have sky-rocketed to become one of the largest industries inside consumer electronics, and as more and more of us strive to have the newest and greatest out there, we find ourselves spending a good portion of our “extra money” on accessories for our personal computers, specifically laptops. Logisys, a huge dealer in electronic parts and accessories, delivered the NP160 Aluminum USB Laptop Multifunctional Cooling Pad. At first glance the Cooling pad looks ordinary and you wonder if Logisys really makes use of the “Multifunctional” part of its title. Can they add that extra *bam* to this cooler and make what seems to be ordinary, in to something “extra”ordinary?
Intel DP55KG “Kingsberg” Motherboard
http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/mainboard/dp55kg-p1.html
Intel’s launch of three LGA1156 processors has been accompanied with four motherboards — two ATX and two MicroATX ones. They belong to different families: two motherboards of different form factors come from the Extreme series, another two from the Media series. In fact, all boards look very much alike, they have similar PCB layouts, and compact boards differ from full-size ones in the traditional Intel’s way: they just cut off the bottom part that sticks out of the MicroATX confines (the left part on our photo) with all its contents. Today we are going to review the top model in this series, DP55KG, which crowns the Intel’s desktop motherboard series along with the already reviewed DX58SO.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 – Xbox 360
http://lanoc.org/review/games/xbox-360/2114-marvel-ultimate-alliance-2-x-box-360
Play as a team of your favorite superheroes in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Play as Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil and many others as you fight your way through a story inspired by Marvel’s Civil War comic books. MUA 2 picks up the story right where the first game left off. Vicarious Vision has added some fresh ideas and re-vamped some of the old mechanics. Did the developers listen to fans and create an ultimate sequel or did the changes ultimately ruin the game? Read on to find out what I thought!
Powercolor HD 5750 PCS 1024 MB
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5750_PCS
During this fall, AMD has been releasing their new Radeon HD 5000 Series cards. Currently, the smallest model is the Radeon HD 5750, which uses the same Juniper GPU as the HD 5770, but with lesser shaders, and reduced clock speeds.
Packard Bell Dot M/A AMD Powered Netbook Review
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=958
Today we have a brand new config from Packard Bell, dubbed the Dot M/A it features a larger screen, more memory, larger hard drive and is based on an AMD Athlon L110 CPU and ATI Radeon integrated GPU. One the few AMD netbooks around in Belgium.
SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro CompactFlash
http://www.bcchardware.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7931&Itemid=40
CompactFlash cards are not very popular anymore as Secure Digital cards are typically much cheaper. That being said, pro-sumer Digital SLR cameras as well as full Professional SLR cameras use CompactFlash as it seems to be more reliable and is certainly faster when it comes to continuous write speeds. Today we are taking a look at a very expensive 16GB card from SanDisk that is from their flagship line – the Extreme Pro. These cards claim to have a write speed of up to 90MB/sec – making them some of the fastest flash cards to ever hit the general public. How much will this set you back? SanDisk lists the MSRP at a mere $335.99USD currently. Before you choke and run away, let’s take a look and see if this price tag is justified in any way, shape or form.
TrickleStar PC TrickleSaver
http://www.ccereviews.com/reviews/tricklestar-pc-tricklesaver/
Today I have the PC TrickleSaver, a device designed to reduce the energy use from peripherals that are connected to your PC. The PC TrickleSaver switches off peripherals that are attached when the PC’s power is shut down. A simple and easy to use product that will help put money back in your pocket is a winning formula, read on to see if the TrickleSaver is worth having.
QNAP TS-419P Turbo NAS 4-Bay Network Storage Review
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1132/1/
My home based network is a mix of two windows based workstations (XP and Windows 7), two XP laptops and two Linux servers (Redhat 5 and Fedora Core 10). External storage on these systems has always been on my todo list and a simple solution would be to add a network attached storage device or NAS. Up to this point, every time I looked at a NAS, they always seemed poorly made or way too expensive for a home based system. Recently I was asked to review the QNAP TS-419P and was hopeful that this system would fit my storage needs, be priced right and have the quality I have been looking for in a NAS.
Nokia N900 Smartphone Review
http://tech.tbreak.com/2009/11/nokia-n900-smartphone-review/
My first mobile phone was a Nokia and that was thirteen years back. I’ve used a lot of Nokia phones over the past decade and while lots has changed, two things remained the same. All of them had the Send (Green) and End (Red) buttons and were based on some variation of the Symbian Operating System. With the N900, that changes as well- gone are the Send/End buttons and the Symbian platform. And though Nokia has used the term “computer” for some of its previous smartphones, the N900 is really their first device that could possibly fit that bill.
Samsung DualView TL225 / ST550 Digital Camera Review
http://www.everythingusb.com/samsung-dualview-tl225-digital-camera-18044.html
Looking to make a splash in the slim midrange digicam point-and-shoot class, the Samsung DualView TL225 / ST550′s headline feature is that it sports not one, but two LCD screens. With class-competitive specs including a beautiful wide touchscreen, this new stunner really bridges the performance and fashion needs of the demanding consumer. Alas, the truth still lies in the user experience and the pictures, and for answers we must delve deeper. Come with us as we spend some quality time with our new mate to see if she’s as easy to live with as she is to talk about.
MSI X-Slim X340 Notebook Review
http://www.techspot.com/review/222-msi-x-slim-x340/
Today we’ll be taking a look at the X-Slim X340, a very slim notebook from MSI that’s been labeled by many as the budget alternative to the MacBook Air. Currently selling for $600, MSI hopes to lure potential buyers with its svelte design and extended battery life.
Editorial: Why High-End Radeon HD 5000 series supply is problematic
Now, before I get started I just want to let everyone know that I don’t have any secret inside knowledge, word from a secret source or anything of that stature. My thought process of what I’m about here comes down to being involved in graphic cards heavily for the last few years and dealing with a number of companies all over the world.