Archive for the ‘Hardware Reviews’ Category
Monday, September 29th, 2008
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While Windex is a great cleaner for windows and glass counter tops and other class objects it is not meant for your LCD screen. Don’t use it. I have been asked this question hundreds of times by LCD consumers. The best cleaner for an LCD screen, weather it be your notebook LCD, desktop monitor LCD (most), or even an LCD television, is any cleaner designed for such use. You can find these cleaners at your local electronics store.
You can actually create your own. A simple 50/50 solution of 70% isopropyl alcohol and water will do the trick. And by no means should you ever spray any liquid directly on the LCD. It is recommended that you spray your selected cleaner onto a lint-free cloth and then wipe the surface clean. But don’t use Windex.
Tags: LCD, LCD Cleaner, Windex
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Saturday, September 27th, 2008
On the eave of purchasing a new case for my PC, I ran across the new Cooler Master HAF(High Air Flow) 932. This case sports three 23cm fans, one each on the top, side and rear panels all running at just 700rpm. Even at the lower rpm there is plenty of airflow through this case. The case is made of steel, so ruggedness is definite. This case supports ATX, E-ATX and M-ATX motherboards, six 5.25-inch devices, five hard drives and if you have a need, two power supply’s.
It seems to be a combination of previous Cooler Master cases, like the infamous Cosmos case with its push-button locking mechanism. Also the case includes a similar PCI retention clip as the 690 chassis.
The front of this case sports an eSATA, Firewire, and four USB slots. However the USB and Firewire ports are relatively close together. But, for me at least, this is not a problem. Seeing as most of the things I plug into my front panel connections are only done so one at a time. Now as for the water cooling elements of this case. Well if after the immense air flow this case provides, you still feel as if you want/need water cooling, there is plenty of room to do so. This case, while designed around airflow, doesn’t seem to leave out any of the water cooling options. There are retaining holes built onto the rear panel for tubing, the top of the case sports a hole on the top of the case for refilling the reservoir whenever necessary, and if your choose not to have dual-PSU’s then the extra space inside the case is plenty to sport the reservoir itself.
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Tags: ATX, Case Mods, Computer Case, Cooler Master, Cooling, Full Tower, HAF, Thermaltake, Water Cooling
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Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Based on the new Nehalem technology, Intels new processor lineup will range from 2 cores to 8. They will also have a triple channel DDR3 memory controller with up to 1333 MHz clock speed. Why not 1600 FSB? Who knows but these CPUs are definitely going to out perform just about everything you see today. The chips will also use Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) bus and will support multi-threading.
Currently there are three versions slated for release known as Bloomfield. The Core i7 Extreme Edition Bloomfield,Core i7 Performance Edition Bloomfield, and The Core i7 Mainstream Edition Bloomfield.
The Core i7 Extreme Edition
- Speed: 3.20 GHz
- Cores: 4
- Cache Size: 8 MB
- Memory controller: DDR3 800/1066/1333 MHz
- Socket: LGA1366
- Power TDP: 130 W
- Price: $999
The Core i7 Performance Edition
- Speed: 2.93 GHz
- Cores: 4
- Cache Size: 8 MB
- Memory controller: DDR3 800/1066/1333 MHz
- Socket: LGA1366
- Power TDP: 130 W
- Price: $562
The Core i7 Mainstream Edition
- Speed: 2.66 GHz
- Cores: 4
- Cache Size: 8 MB
- Memory controller: DDR3 800/1066/1333 MHz
- Socket: LGA1366
- Power TDP: 130 W
- Price: $284
Keep your eyes peeled for these new processors. They are scheduled for release in October of 2008.
Tags: Bloomfield, Core i7, CPU, Extreme Edition, i7, Intel, Intel Processor, Processor
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Thursday, August 7th, 2008
Finally, Sony is making an effort to improve battery life for their notebook PC’s. Technology in PCs is getting better by the day and with improvements comes a need for more power. I can only hope that the statement Sony makes will be followed by other manufacturers following suit. This has been a struggle for years and has only gotten worse in my opinion. Sony is making a $371 million dollar investment into improving their batteries. This investment will be split between new facilities, enhancing current facilities and attempting to double their current battery cell production rate by 2010.
When will we see a better battery from Sony? At this point we don’t know. But as I mentioned before, hopefully other manufacturers will follow suit.
Tags: Battery, laptop, Laptop Battery, Notebook, Notebook Battery, Sony
Posted in Hardware Reviews, Laptop Reviews | No Comments »
Monday, August 4th, 2008
Personally I can’t believe Western Digital took so long to release this HDD, but hey creating a stable 10,000 RPM hard drive can’t be easy. So obviously the storage amount has changed from the Velociraptors predecessor, the Raptor 150. The new Velociraptor has doubled the storage to 300GB. But who buys these drives for their storage space. Its all about the speed, right!?!
Well I’ve got good news for you when it comes to the speed enhancements. With two 150GB platters and a smaller form factor, the new Velociraptor has increased its speed by over 50% from the Raptor 150. And yes thats correct, it is smaller. It is a 2.5 inch drive now as opposed to the standard 3.5 inch form factor. This makes the drive consume less power and the read/wright heads have a shorter distance to travel, increasing speed for both actions.
With the exception of the incredibly expensive SSDs (Solid State Drive) this is the fastest consumer HDD you can purchase. Newegg.com currently has this drive for $289.99. Its well worth it if you are looking for speed.
Tags: Hard Drive, Raptor, Solid State, Velociraptor, Western Digital
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Sunday, May 25th, 2008
I was at work the other night while we were unloading a new truck of merchandise and then I saw it. The new Samsung T220 22″ LCD Monitor. The look of the monitor is taken from the new TOC (Touch of Color) series of LCD Televisions from Samsung. The monitor is 20,000:1 DC (Dynamic Contrast) contrast ratio and has a 2 ms refresh rate. The recommended resolution is 1680 x 1050. It complies with Energy Star regulations so the power consumption factor is there too. There are tilt options as well. I have yet to personally use this LCD but I plan to very soon. Once I do, I will follow up with you all and add my personal review. Until then click the link below to see some hands on reviews.
NewEgg.com Official Reviews
-TheYoungGuy
Tags: LCD Monitor, Monitor, Samsung, T220, TOC
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Monday, April 28th, 2008
The Linksys WRT600N Dual-Band Wi-Fi Router could be the best option for you if you are looking to join the wireless-N community. It is one of the first 802.11n draft 2.0 routers that can operate on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands simultaneously. This router really stands out when streaming HD media across a wireless signal. Another great feature of this router is that it handles VOIP traffic as well so you won’t need that extra VOIP dedicated router if you use a Voice Over IP telephone service. But not everyone uses all the different features that this router showcases. In that case, for the price of this router, I would not recommend this router if you are just looking for typical internet use. This router is by far the best I have researched for streaming HD media and has the fastest connection speeds via wireless connection but also carries a hefty $200+ price tag.
Tags: Linksys, Linksys WRT600N, Modem, Router, Streaming HD, VOIP, wifi, Wireless, wireless connection, Wireless-N
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Friday, March 21st, 2008
Well I can only hope AMD/ATI enjoyed their brief time at the top. I know they have been missing out on being even close to number one. Nvidia has just released the Geforce 9800 GX2. This card is, as expected, amazing. Just like AMD’s recent release, the Radeon 3870 X2, this card has two GPU cores.
Stats:
Core Clock: 600MHz
Stream Processors: 256 (128 per GPU)
Memory Clock: 2000MHz (effective)
Memory Size: 1GB of GDDR3 (512MB per GPU)
Memory Interface: 512-bit (256-bit per GPU)
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Tags: 9800 GTX, 9800 GX2, AMD, Geforce, Geforce 9800, GPU, nVidia, Redeon 3870 X2
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Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
Nvidia has recently released their follow-up to the extremely successful 680i chipset, the new 780i. Its packed with cool features like 3-way SLi technology for those who have bottomless pockets and want to add three Geforce 8800 GTX cards or even the 8800 Ultra. Its the first platform designed for ESA-certified components. You will have complete control over your system through the use of a well designed 3D system monitoring application.
The new motherboards will have PCI Express 2.0 slots (as described here), but don’t worry about having to buy different graphics cards, 2.0 is fully backwards compatible. Another cool feature of these boards will be High Definition Audio (HDA), that is designed to deliver 192 kHz/32-bit quality for eight channels.
The true need to know details:
Socket type - LGA 775
Front Side Bus - 1333/1066/800/533
Memory Type - Dual channel memory architecture. DDR2 1200(EPP1.0)/800/667/533
So here is my opinion on this board. While it will probably turn heads at first with the 3-way SLI, I don’t really see much in terms of improvements. Granted we will need to wait and see where it hold up against other chipsets, but I feel like its more so competing against the likes of the X38 chipset from Intel as opposed to the new X48 chipset that is to be released soon, I hope. Another question that is brought to mind was, why DDR2 support and not DDR3. If this board is to carry us into next year then why use RAM technology that is already becoming last-gen. I will keep my eyes open to what different vendors will do with the chipset but at this point I am still waiting for the X48.
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Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
***HBP CHOICE***
Intels new Core 2 Extreme QX9650 is a monster. And you will need a monster pile of cash to acquire one too with a price range of $1,000-$1,200. Four cores running at 3.0GHz though is unbelievable and a Front Side Bus of 1,333 MHz. For newer games out like Crysis, this is the processor you will need in order to eat these games alive. You will need to ensure you have a Socket 775 motherboard to use this CPU though. I wouldn’t want you to spend all that money and not be able to use it. One good option is the ASUS Striker Extreme LGA 775.
Tags: Core 2, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, CPU, Intel, Processor, QX9650, Socket 775
Posted in Blogroll, Hardware Reviews | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Gigabyte has developed a new case for all the enthusiasts out there. The Gigabyte Mercury Pro is amazing. It comes preloaded with Gigabytes own water-cooling setup, the Gigabyte Galaxy II water-cooling system, out of the box. And Gigabyte has done their best to conceal as much of the tubing as possible, and they did a decent job. The radiator could be larger. Due to its size the water cooling system makes a little noise, which for some contradict the point of water cooling. While it does do a decent job of cooling, it could be better.
As for the case itself, its very spacious. The drive bays make use of a well designed locking mechanisms. Simply slide each drive into the bay until you hear “click” and thats it (The Hard Drives have add-on retention clips). It is clear once you open the case that Gigabyte really spent time into creating this case. It is very well built.
Tags: Case, Computer Case, Gigabyte, Gigabyte Mercury Pro, PC Case, Water Cooling
Posted in Blogroll, Hardware Reviews | 1 Comment »
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
A question I have had lately was, will a PCI Express x16 in one of the new PCI Express 2.0 technology?!?! The answer is yes. I recently listened to a podcast on Maximumpc.com, which talks all about the new technology. So if you have a current gen, DirectX 10 graphics card and are looking to buy a new motherboard that includes PCI Express 2.0 slots, you will still be able to use the graphics cards. Good news for me, seeing as I just bought the new XFX Geforce 8800 GTX. Now my next purchase will be the motherboard and cpu.
Posted in Blogroll, Hardware Reviews | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
EVGA is one of the best known graphics card and motherboard vendors out. They are well known for amping up nVidia graphics cards and distributing them for reasonable prices. Their newest entry into the already well known line of cards is the EVGA 8800 GTS SSC. This card pushes the KO version one step further and pumps out just a little more juice for the performance hungry gamers.
96+ Shader Units clocked at 1.35GHz, 640MB of DDR3 Memory clocked at 1.8GHz giving you 64GB/sec of memory bandwidth, and the GPU is clocked at 576MHz. It has full DirectX 10 support and Shader Model 4 support, Unified Shader Architecture, NVIDIA Quantum Effects, 128-bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting. This card is packed to the brim with performance enhancing capabilities. What more could you ask for.
Tags: 8800 GTS, DDR3, EVGA, Graphics Cards, nVidia
Posted in Blogroll, Hardware Reviews | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
I was just reading a post on Gadget7.com about this new wireless home theater system by Neosonik and felt it was necessary to bring to your attention. Wireless is the way to go these days, thats for sure. With the new Wireless-N technology entering draft phase 2, the speeds and security are beginning to really improve. This new wireless home theater system transmits audio and video through a wireless signal at 60mbps. Based around the same technology as 802.11a Neosonik created airpower technology that can stream up to 7.2 surround audio and HD video wirelessly. So with this system you eliminate, generally, the only problem with home theater systems, the wires.
Check it out in further details on Gadget7.com
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Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Ladies and Gentlemen this is the fastest notebook drive on the planet and most likely in the universe as well. However, the capacity is low. A full 32GB. In comparison to the fastest desktop drive, the 150GB Western Digital Raptor, well there is no comparison. The Raptor was torn to shreds. Oh and for the record, its not exactly a fair fight. The Mtron MSD-S25032 is not a hard drive, its a Solid State Drive. One benefit, other than the shear speed, is the durability. Hard drives are treated like fragile pieces of equipment that cannot be moved or even bumped into in the slightest little bit, while a solid state drive can be just about thrown against a wall and never even flinch. Is this the future of drives?
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Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
Cooler Master Cosmos is a superior case for anyone that is looking to build a new PC or simply replace their old case. Maximum PC Magazine actually used it for this years Dream Machine. It has a clean silver look with rails on the top and bottom of the case that allow it to be easily carried.
There are five 5.25-inch drive bays that have a very easy-to-use push-button locking mechanism for securing each component. While designed with the water cooling fans in mind, it caters to the air cooling crowd as well. There are ceiling grills on the top of the case that are simply waiting for a water cooling radiator to be placed and a detachable 12cm fan that pulls air from the bottom of the case. There is also a unique plastic bar that runs across the case that pulls air into the GPU area of the case. Hard Drives could use a bit more airflow but hey Im not complaining. This thing is sweet.
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Thursday, June 21st, 2007
Yes, thats right, we can all now get our hands on a 16GB flash drive. The Corsair 16GB Flash Voyager. It wasn’t to long ago, the 1GB drives were released blowing everyone away with the ease of use and convenience they provided. Well now you get the same features with a hell of a lot more store space. In actual performance, this drive is only topped buy one other in write speeds, the 4GB Kingston Traveler. Perfect for the technician on the move, or the business person that needs to transport important files, or for the average student who needs a place to store all the papers they have written. Its perfect for everyone!
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Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
I wanted to touch on a few tools that were key to multi player gaming on the PC. No matter your genre of gaming, you should be able to take something away from this post. Most games these days require a pretty decent gaming system. What goes into a good gaming system? Well you don’t need to have the high dollar goods to push your games, but the better the hardware the longer you will be able to keep up with technology over the oncoming months. So if you have the budget, I would recommend focusing on 3 major components.
One, your CPU. This will dictate a lot of things, mainly core performance. I would recommend having a Dual Core processor, because all the new games coming out this year will most likely be multi-threaded, and for the ones that are not, the Dual Core procs will push them even better.
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Friday, May 4th, 2007
Apparently these new flash drives from Digiworks will chase down virus’s and eliminate them, dubbed the USB Virus Chaser. So a portable anti-virus device. Could we not just simply install a particular AV program of choice onto a flash drive of our choice? Im curious to know how these things turn out in the long run.
Posted in Blogroll, Hardware Reviews | 1 Comment »
Thursday, April 5th, 2007
Realizing there is more to hard drives than just size and speed, Samsung has began releasing its new series called Spinpoint drives. These drives are nearly silent. Using SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technologies to increase the drive speed while reducing noise. These are 3.5 inch drives running at 7,200 RPM being made available this month in 80GB and 160 GB versions.
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