Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category
Motherboard Roundup: G33, P35, X38, X48
For anyone buying a socket 775 motherboard the choice is now quite bewildering. For a while the number one choice was the 975X chipset but more recently the G33, P35, X38 and X48 have all been released with each targeting a specific market segment. Today we will be looking at the mainstream and enthusiast models to identify which boards offer the best value, performance and features.
Diamond Multimedia HD 3850 Ruby Edition 512MB
Diamond has designed their HD 3850 Ruby Edition with additional cooling performance in mind. Their cooler is a custom dual-slot solution which does quite a good job at keeping the card cool. In addition to that the memory has been doubled to 512 MB of GDDR3.
ASUS P5K3 Deluxe
Market forecasts predict DDR3 memory poised to replace its predecessor DDR2 as the main volume product for 2008. Already aware of this, memory chip manufacturers like Micron, Samsung, Hynix, and Qimonda have begun tooling up for mass production. As a result we should finally start to see the dizzying prices of DDR3 come down – being affordable will no doubt help to spur adoption in the market.
Nvdia's Hybrid SLI technology
On the whole then, I’m quite excited by the prospects of Hybrid SLI but I can’t help but feel that there are some things that Nvidia could have improved in hardware
Scythe Ninja Copper 6
The new Ninja, which is simply dubbed as the Ninja Copper or SCNJ-CU1000 for the technical geek, is upon us. The Ninja Cu, as we will call it, is built identically like the older Ninja but made of Copper. Obviously! About 90% of the cooler is made of copper except the bolts that hold the heat pipes in place and the bottom aluminium thick fins that are attached atop the base.
Danger Den MC-TDX Waterblock
Danger Den redesigned the TDX to improve its performance on multiple-core CPUs. This new version, dubbed the MC-TDX, features 240 pins above the CPU core area to help dissipate heat. The rest of the design is classic TDX, with its offset outlet barb, acrylic top and simple mounting hardware.
Hardware round-up: 17/01/08
AMD haven’t had the best luck over the last few months with every new product they brought out either being riddled with issues, or just being underwhelming. Bit-Tech have taken a look at the Phenom 9600 Black Edition and although there are some good clockers out there, it seems they’re still going to recommend an Intel chip. CPUS AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition by Bit-tech @ 12:59 GMT CASES Sigma Luna Type-W by HardwareLogic @ 12:58 GMT GRAPHICS CARDS GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Roundup – Albatron, eVGA and XFX by Legit Reviews @ 12:56 GMT MSI 8800GT 512MB by XSReviews.co.uk @ 16:02 GMT MOTHERBOARDS Foxconn X38A by Legit Reviews @ 15:36 GMT OTHER PRODUCTS Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound by TechPowerUp @ 12:52 GMT Jetart Thermo Eye D2000 temperature gauge by EliteBastards @ 12:53 GMT
MSI 8800GT 512MB
The 8 series of nVIDIA cards have been around for over a year and have almost completely dominated the market in terms of high end support. Now with the 9 series just around the corner, partners are finishing up with their last set of performance cards before focusing on the next generation. One of these last cards is the 8800GT; near performance of a GTX with a sub GTS price tag. MSI might be a bit late in the game to release an 8800GT model, but they’ve done it none the less and it’s here with me today. Let’s see if it lives up to the 8800GT’s sterling reputation.
Foxconn X38A
The Foxconn X38A motherboard offers everything you could want out of an Intel X38 Express chipset based board. After you get past all the standard X38 features such as dual Lan, HD audio, PCIe-Gen 2.0, the board goes the extra mile of adding in dual ram compatibility. This lets you take advantage of great DDR2 prices right now, with the added piece of mind of future upgradeability when DDR3 prices stabilize. When you factor in that this comes at no apparent cost to performance, you can’t really ask for more…
Hardware round-up: 16/01/08
Back when I was getting into hardware, Hiper Type R PSUs were all the rage. Since then reports of exploding units damaging other hardware have dipped their reputation. BenchmarkReviews have been taking a look at the new MKII Hiper unit which received their Silver Tachometer reward. CASES Aerocool M-40 SFF by Pro-clockers @ 12:33 GMT DRIVES Patriot X-Porter XT Boost 32GB by Xtreme Computing @ 12:29 GMT MOTHERBOARDS ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi by Phoronix @ 12:48 GMT OTHER PRODUCTS Tuniq TX-2 Thermal Compound by Mikhailtech @ 12:41 GMT Asus P5N-T Deluxe 780i by Overclockers Club @ 13:03 GMT PERIPHERALS Razer Destructor gamer mouse pad by Techwarelabs @ 12:35 GMT Ideazon Reaper Edge by Overclockers Club @ 12:40 GMT POWER SUPPLY UNITS Corsair TX750W by RBmods @ 13:05 GMT Hiper HPU-5K880 and HPU-5B680 Type R Mk II by Benchmark Reviews @ 13:18 GMT RAM Mushkin XP2-6400 DDR2 4GB by ClubOverclocker @ 12:42 GMT
