july 30 2010

engadget reviewed the ASUS U33Jc

Look and Feel:

The Bamboo Series is covered in one of the most durable and recyclable materials on earth. The 1.2-inch thick and 4.5-pound chassis is a lot like the ASUS U30Jc in terms of size, but doesn't have an optical drive, the reviewer expected it becauseof the thicker base.

Touchpad:

The touchpad gets premium treatment, and ASUS has used a special in-mold decoration process along with a new integrated circuit with proper sensor capabilities to cover it in bamboo to match the rest of the palmrest.

Conclusion:

This notebook is much more than a bamboo laptop. The wood makes you feel you're buying a unique device, but its superior blend of graphics, performance and battery life are great. There's no optical drive, the keyboard quality feels cheap, and it has a thicker chassis than other 13.3 inch laptops.....More

july 29 2010

techarp reviewed the Western Digital VelociRaptor 600 GB WD6000HLHX

Hardware enthusiasts and overclockers have allways liked the 10,000 RPM spindle speed of this hard drive.

Packaging:

The WD VelociRaptor 600GB hDD has a sealed anti-static plastic packet with a sachet of dessicants to keep it dry, like most OEM-packed hard drives. This OEM-drive is the same as the retail version that also has a 5-year warranty.

Breather Holes:

The WD VelociRaptor 600 GB drive has a small, barely-marked breather hole on the top plate, which allows condensation inside the hard drive to escape. This hole must not be covered.

SATA3:

This drive has a 32 MB buffer and has a max sustained internal transfer rate of 145 MB/s.....More

july 29 2010

anandtech reviewed the Samsung N210

This laptop is equipped with an Atom N450 CPU and 1GB of DDR2 and the storage is a 250GB HDD, the lack bluetooth could be considered a major loss.

keyboard:

The keyboard is about as comfortable as one could really ask for on a netbook this size. It's for the most part easy to get used to, and the keys have good travel and depth.

Screen:

The quality of the Samsung N210's screen is in and of itself not terribly noteworthy: the low 1024x600 resolution is as cramped as ever, and the overall sheen sparkles a bit more than the average matte screen does.

Benchmarks:

Internet Performance, 3D Mark 2003, 3D Mark 2005, 3D Mark 2006, Cinebench, PC mark 2005, PC mark vantage, x264 HD.....More

july 28 2010

pcper reviewed the ASUS N61Jv

Conclusion:

This notebook has a great performance because of the Core i5 processor, discrete NVIDIA GT325M and the relatively large screen. The weight of 2.80 kg (6 lbs) puts it closer to the desktop category. USB3 support definitely adds to the value of this laptop.

Tested Model:

• CPU : Core i5-430M 2.53 GHz with Turbo Boost
• HDD : 500GB 5400RPM 2.5 inch
• RAM : 2x2GB DDR3-1066MHz
• OS : Windows 7 Home Premium

Compared to:

• ASUS EEE 1201N Atom 330 (ION Graphics)
• Acer Ferrari One 200 (ATI HD 3200)
• ASUS UL50 (G210M)

....More

july 22 2010

ultimatehardware reviewed the ASUS ENGTX460-2DI-768MD5

The GPU core of this graphics card runs @675Mhz and is equipped with 768MB GDDR5 memory @ 3600Mhz, 336 Shader Processors and a 192Bit Memory Interface, which is less than the MSI card, that has a 256bit interface.

Conclusion:

The Asus GeForce GTX 460 was predestined to lose from the MSI card because it's clocked lower, has less memory and the memory interface is 64 bits less. The performance of the Asus card was actually very good and when you condsider that it's 14% cheaper, you'll get value for money. The Asus GeForce GTX 460 is app. 8% slower than its competitor but the price/performance ratio is a lot better.

Benchmarks:

Batman: Arkham Aslyum, Far Cry 2, H.A.W.X, DiRT 2, Far Cry 2, Resident Evil V.....More

july 21 2010

hardocp reviewed the Gigabyte GV-R577SO-1GD

This series has a boosted GPU frequency and an upgraded cooling solution. It has a 13% better performance than the reference card and is app. 4.3% faster than the GTX 260.

Conclusion:

This card isn't all that much better from a reference HD5770. It didn't live up to all of the guarantees that Gigabyte has claimed, but it ran slightly quieter and cooler than the reference card. The cooling solution couldn't take the extra heat when the reviewers tried to overclock it. There is an overclock, but there's nothing SUPER about it. Gigabyte also claims that the Gigabyte HD5770 SO is app. 4.3% faster than a GeForce GTX 260. The reviewers only found one case where it did actually perform at 9% better than a GeForce GTX 260, Splinter Cell: Conviction. in Aliens vs. Predator the results were worse.

Overclocking:

The GPU was OCed with OC Guru and the reviewers managed to achieve a 30MHz overclock on the GPU core and a 150MHz overclock on the GDR5 memory.

Benchmarks:

Splinter Cell: Conviction , Battlefield Bad company 2, Power Consumption, Metro 2033, Power Consumption, Temperatures, Furmark.....More

july 21 2010

storagereview reviewed the Corsair Force Series 120GB CSSD-F120GB2-BRKT

The Force series SSD line from Corsair has the latest controllers from SandForce and is based on SATA2. This second generation of SSDs offers a small performance boost too with an extra 5MB/s read and 15MB/s.

Conclusion:

This SSD is the second SandForce-powered model reviewed by StorageReview and is very fast when compared to the competition. The SF-1200 equipped drives are faster than the Intel X-25M and they also manage to draw less power. The F120 runns flawlessly through our rigorous stress tests and is very stable. The price/performance ratio is also very good. The Corsair F120 is a solid, stable and reliable performer. In this latest generation of SandForce- enabled drives, the Corsair Force Series stands out not only for being stable, but also as a faithful execution of the speed and performance. ....More

july 15 2010

tweaktown reviewed the Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI

The GIGABYTE card is overclocked out of the box which seems to be quite a common occurrence with this model. The card has moved from the 675MHz / 1350MHz / 3600MHz QDR Core / CUDA / Memory clocks to a 715MHz / 1430MHz / 3600MHz setup.

Conclusion:

Due to the core on the GIGABYTE card being slightly lower when compared to the MSI one, we can see that its performance is almost identical. A few more MHz on the 768MB version and it's clear that it would outperform a 1GB model which was 20MHz lower. Of course, you can overclock the 1GB version and gain even more performance; it's a little disappointing that GIGABYTE opted for 715MHz. While it's a very impressive overclock, it would have been nice to see an extra 10 or so MHz on it.

The cooler on the GIGABYTE card looks strong and no doubt will perform better than the standard GTX 460 cooler. It's not the best GTX 460 cooler we've looked at, though, which is saying something since we've only looked at one other. The extra heat and noise coming from the card is something you wouldn't really notice as it's only a small difference.

Compared to:

• Sapphire HD 5850 1GB
• Gigabyte HD 5830 1GB
• Gainward GTX 470 1280MB
• Galaxy GTX 465
• MSI GTX 460

....More

july 13 2010

engadget reviewed the Toshiba Portege R705-P25

For years the Portege series has been Toshiba's top-of-the-line ultraportable brand, featuring the latest CPUs while usually setting the standard for portability, and always been attached to seriously hefty price tags.

Toshiba's put out a 3.2-pound, Core i3-powered notebook that's less than half the price of former Porteges. It has an optical drive, 500GB of HDD storage, Intel's wireless display technology and app. 8.5 hours of battery life. The R705 has a chiclet keyboard. The black keys are a lot like those on Toshiba's Mini NB305 netbook in terms of their Technia font, and they're also quite small. The plastic touchpad is decently sized and comfortable for pushing around the cursor. The pad does support multitouch gestures, two-finger scrolling failed more often than not, while pinch-to-zoom worked fine and the right side doesn't function as a scroll strip.

Conclusion:

If you're looking for a thin and light 13-inch laptop under $900, the R705 beats all the others on the market.

Battery Life:

Toshiba's promised 8.5 hours of battery life seemed quite unrealistic to the reviewers, and in reality it was actually about half of that. ....More

july 12 2010

modders-inc reviewed the ASUS EAH5750 FORMULA-2DI-1GD5

Looking at the retail box Asus is boldly stating that the card runs 13% cooler, just under the model name we see that it has 1GB of GDDR5 memory, supports HDMI, supports Direct X 11 and it runs under the Xtreme Design series. Across the inside we find more details on the cooling solution. On the rear of the box we have a more detailed feature list along with the system requirements.

Conclusion:

Overall the Formula has performed very well. It has the potential to compete with the bigger cards in the market. For the average users looking to get their game on at a respectable price range, the 5750 series will let you play the latest games while not causing you to go broke in the process.

The Asus EAH5750 Formula had no problems on the cooling sidethe temperature was about 65 degrees Celsius when OCed. Without having a stock reference designed 5750 on hand I was unable to verify if the Formula ran 13% cooler as Asus states. None the less, I was very pleased to see that it did stay as cool as it did. It would easily handle the task for the average gamer as well as doing the daily workload in a HTPC environment.

Overclocking:

The reviewer used ATI Overdrive to do the overclocking, this graphics card runs at 700MHz Core, and 1150MHz Mem stock. The Core was OCed up to 860MHz, a 22% improvement and the Memory was OCed up to 1345MHz which is a 16% improvement. This card is value for money.....More

july 1 2010

overclockersonline reviewed the Antec Two Hundred

The Two Hundred is intended for gamers on a budget, this enclosure has a nice appearance and adequate cooling to keep the components running cool.

Package:

The Antec Two Hundred comes in a corrugated cardboard box. Measuring 22(height) x 20.5(length) x 10.5(width) in inches. The orange border on the right shows Two Hundred and Gaming Mid-Tower below it.

Testing the cooling capabilities under full load:

After three hours temperatures start to be pushed. The CPU goes to 49 degrees, tied with the NZXT Lexa S and the NZXT Gamma and one degree behind the Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 and GMC H-80. The Case Ambient Temperatures fall four degrees behind the leaders, the Cosmos 1000 and Lexa S, but is four degrees cooler than the Gamma and nine degrees cooler than the BAV280. As for noise levels: quite low.

Conclusion:

Although the chassis doesn't come with many fans, the included 140mm fan is a OK, if you're looking for an inexpensive case, Antec has the right product for you, which even has a SATA Hot-Swap bay, which is exceptional for a cheap case.....More

july 1 2010

kitguru reviewed the Antec TruePower TP-750

TruePower has been re-engineered as new series to boost quality, reliability and performance. With Japanese brand capacitors, DC to DC converters for a better voltage regulation, a 80 PLUS Bronze certification for better efficiency and a Japanese made 120mm quiet Pulse Modulation fan make it an ideal solution for power users, gamers and people who go for quality.

The new series should replace the older Truepower Trio and NeoPower series. The new models in this lineup are: the TP550, the TP650, TP750 and TP-750 Blue. The TP-750 Blue is the same as the TP 750 but with blue LED lighting. They all have an 80 Plus Bronze certificate. This PSU is a cool running, efficient and high performing power supply for the enthusiast. Efficiency and Voltage regulation are the two key selling points and in the end you can never tell if it is on or not, it is that quiet.....More

        

Archive may june 2010