ASE Labs: Computers, Technology, News & Reviews

Antec Three Hundred Case: The Antec Three Hundred case is the newest child in the Hundred series of cases. It has minimal frills and gets the job done on a budget. (May 13, 2008)

Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Toxic 100225TXSR: The Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Toxic is the perfect match for your Linux system thanks to AMD. The bundle is also impressive. (May 2, 2008)

Sans Digital MobileSTOR MS2UTN+ RAID Enclosure: What happens if you hard drive dies right now? Be safe and get a true backup solution: The MobileSTOR MS2UTN+ RAID enclosure. You won't be sorry that you did. (April 23, 2008)

OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4GB USB Flash: OCZ makes all type of computer products but today the Rally2 Turbo 4GB USB flash drive is up for review and it is really fast. (April 14, 2008)

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Wednesday May 14, 2008

Wed Reviews

Posted at 11:23:33 AM by Aron Schatz

Antec Three Hundred Case @ ASE Labs

Antec steps up to the plate to deliver a brand new case in the "Hundred" series. Betting on the success of the excellent Nine Hundred, Antec has released a lower end model dubbed, the Three Hundred. Known as the " Versatile Case," will the new case stand out from its bigger, badder brother? Probably not, but it is at a better price point that its sibling.

Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Toxic 100225TXSR @ ASE Labs

It has been a very long time since a graphics card has passed by the review bench of ASE Labs. Sapphire steps up to the plate with their release of the Radeon HD3870 Toxic Edition that hopes to earn some of your hard earned cash. With AMD's support of open source, the ATI partners are in a good position to conqueror the Linux market and the future to bright. Sapphire is the biggest producer of ATI cards and we will see how their product performs.

Sans Digital MobileSTOR MS2UTN+ RAID Enclosure @ ASE Labs

ASE Labs has always explained the benefits of having redundant storage and backups. There are series of articles devoted to each technology. Sans Digital is a big player in RAID enclosures and their latest model, the MobileSTOR MS2UTN+ delivers USB2 and eSATA support to a 2 disk array of your choosing. This combines the best of both world for data backup and redundancy. It really is an excellent product.

OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4GB USB Flash @ ASE Labs

OCZ may be best known for their memory products such as low latency and high speed RAM, but they also provide other products with enhanced speed and performance. Their line of cooling products as well as flash memory provide excellent performance in today's market. Today, ASE Labs has the OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4GB USB flash drive for review. Even flash can be dual channel.

GeForce 9800 GTX Extreme Overclocking Experiment @ Madshrimps

The GeForce 9800 GTX product was received with mixed feelings; on the one hand you had an affordable high end VGA solution, but on the other hand it was not much of improvement over the 8800 GTX. One area where the 9800 GTX might shine through however is overclocking, the new GPU generates less heat, and with the help of some LN2 it will be interesting to see how high it can climb!

AeneonXTune_2GB_DDR2-1142_Dual_Channel Memory_Kit_Review @ Bigbruin.com

Testing showed that the Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR2-1142 dual channel memory kit could put up some solid numbers, keeping pace with another comparable kit from Kingston. At stock speeds this kit is ready for action above and beyond the JEDEC standard speed grade of PC2-8500, and with some relatively easy overclocking it can soar past PC2-9600 speeds

Digit-Life Review: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT Performance Scaling in Modern Games

We decided to find out what parameters affect performance in modern games most of all. Besides, we haven't analyzed how performance is affected by CPU/GPU/video memory clock rates for a long time already. So we decided to test a G92-based graphics card and determine main rendering bottlenecks in modern games.

NZXT Tempest @ Bjorn3D

For many enthusiasts venturing into the world of PC building, selecting a case can be quite a challenge these days. Important factors to consider include quality, size, functionality, and now more than ever - style. Well-built enclosures with incredible features are important, but without a bit of flash and beauty, they might as well stay sitting on the warehouse shelf (and probably will!). However, there's also another aspect of case selection that's very important to many builders, especially those new to the game - price. Being on something of a strict diet myself when it comes to purchasing new hardware, I certainly appreciate a company that can combine all of the above mentioned features in a single product. Enter NZXT and the Tempest midtower case. Did they pull it off and create a budget-friendly winner? Let's find out.

Hiper Osiris Mid Tower @ Pro-Clockers

But as of late, Hiper's claim to fame is the Anubis. A 6063 T5 Alloy case that boasts plenty of features that make air ventilation and water cooling an ease to setup. This case saw itself on the front page of a lot of well known websites. The Anubis received all kinds of awards for it superb construction, its ease to assemble, its roominess and its stealth features. We, here at Pro-Clockers, were not lucky enough to review the Anubis but we will make up for it today by reviewing the Osiris.

Ultra X3 800Watt Modular Power Supply Review @ Tweaknews.net

Testing yielded stable voltages, quiet operation and I won't have to worry about buying a new power supply when the time comes to upgrade my system. The flat, flexible modular cabling system was great to work with and has spoiled me completely. I can't imagine going back to regular cables, much less a non-modular design.

OCZ SATA-II 32GB 2.5-Inch SSD OCZSSD2-1S32G @ Benchmark Reviews

Perhaps Benchmark Reviews like to ride the edge of technology just a little too close, since we've tested more DDR3 and SSD's than almost everyone else on the web, but the bleeding edge is what where most enthusiasts like to live. OCZ allowed us to test their first Solid State Drive product, the OCZSSD64GB, and while the pricing very affordable the performance wasn't so impressive. Now just a short three months later, OCZ has returned with one of the industries very first SATA-II SSD products, the OCZSSD2. It would be a shame to give away the details, but it appears that the extra time at the design table was very well spent. OCZ's new Solid State Drive offers industry leading performance matched by ultra-affordable pricing, and sets a new record.

Palit GeForce 9600 GSO Sonic 768MB

It seems we're right on time for another pointless release of a graphics card that is slightly better or slightly worse than what is on the market already, whilst carrying with it a price tag pretty similar to that of what's already available. Did that confuse you? - The thing is, these graphics card releases from NVIDIA are becoming nothing short of a joke. I've actually tested the 9600 GSO; I know how I'm going to wrap this up before I even wrote this introduction, and it's a real doozy. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves though, let's find out exactly what the card looks like, what Palit has done with it and if the package stands out in any way.

Toshiba Satellite M305 Laptop Review @ Digital Trends

processor in a light and portable package. Though it won't win any benchmark shootouts it's certainly adequate for web surfing and office productivity; the only downside is it includes the usual Toshiba bloatware, so know that you'll have to spend some time cleaning it up a bit to allow it to reach its full potential.

Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1TB External Hard Drive Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Terabyte hard drives are becoming more popular with the need for more hard drive space. If you're looking to expand your hard drive capacity I think the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1TB External Hard Drive would be great for you. This drive includes USB and Dual FireWire interfaces with available capacities of 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB. The drive is jam packed with plenty of software to suffice the most avid external storage fanatics, while being easy to use for the everyday individual. Read on further to see what all this OneTouch drive has to offer.

In Win B2 Stealth Bomber Mid Tower Case

With looks based off the design concept of the B2 Stealth Bomber, this B2 enclosure has some features that are not commonplace. The big question, though, is whether it can handle the rigors of a high-end system and manage to not only give it a good home, but to do so in a cool manner. We begin our tour of the B2 Stealth Bomber by noting the lack of a door on the front bezel. The bezel is made of plastic like many other enclosures, but there is not a door in the normal sense that we have come to expect. As implied by the name of this case, stealth is the key. Let's take a closer look...

OCZ Technology 4GB Rally2 USB Flash Drive @ Viper Lair

The OCZ Technology 4GB Rally2 USB Flash Drive is the fastest flash drive I've had the opportunity to work with. The drive itself has a tough, durable feel to it given the chassis is made primarily out of aluminum. Thankfully, OCZ has one of the more classic types of logos, so the corporate branding doesn't over power the aesthetics of the device.

ASUS 8600GT TOP Video Card Reviewed @ TheTechLounge

I was a bit surprised that Asus asked us to review their *flagship budget* -- it's weird just writing that -- 8600 GT TOP. It's new SKU for a card closing in on its end of life; the model being about a year old now. Just the same, with a hundred-dollar price tag, it's definitely got an audience, no matter what cards there are competing against it, or what cards have been released since. And it's a pretty highly-regarded card; go on any hardware forum and there's a dozen NVIDIA people extolling the virtues of the 8600 GTs when it comes to budget gaming. Now, I'm not saying that they're all wrong, but it is worth finding out if new drivers and some moderate factory overclocking can put value on an otherwise dated video card.

ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe Motherboard Review @ HardwareLogic

Making sure every possible niche is covered, Asus provides AMD users a high end, SLI capable motherboard with several unique features. The Asus M3N-HT Deluxe dishes out goodies like the brand new 780a chipset, 3-way SLI capability, Hybrid SLI, ESA, HyperTransport 3.0, PCIe 2.0 and the sexy Cool Mempipe. Is this the motherboard you've been waiting for? HardwareLogic straps the M3N-HT onto the test bench and drops the knowledge on you, raw and uncut.

Palit 9600GT Sonic 1GB Graphics Card

Palit are back again with another 9600GT. While this model is a Sonic variant, this one also sports 1GB of memory. What's cool about this card is that more often than not you have two options when it comes to getting a card other than stock. You can get yourself one with more memory, which generally comes under the Super naming scheme; the other option is that you get yourself an overclocked model. This comes under the Sonic naming scheme for Palit. Today we've got ourselves a 1GB card which also happens to be overclocked. Unfortunately Palit has called it the 9600GT 1GB Sonic; personally I think they should have called it the 9600GT 1GB Super Sonic which just sounds plain cool, and since the card carries with it an overclock and more memory, it's more than appropriate.

Gigabyte X48 DQ6 Socket 775 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers

Gigabyte being a leader in motherboards is making it easy on us to have the best when new chipsets are released. They have being right there, first to market, when Intel believed it was time for change. This used to be a position held by Asus. Gigabyte is the first to bring us the new X48 chipset to our rigs. This honor belongs to the X48-DQ6 and X48T-DQ6, DDR2 and DDR3 versions respectively. The DQ6 being the high end model for Gigabyte, it has all the bells and whistles. From complex cooling systems to high-end capacitors you can't ask for more in a motherboard except for excellent overclocking. Can the X48-DQ6 accomplish what we achieved with EX-38 just a few weeks ago?

Palit GeForce 9600GT 1GB Sonic Video Card Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Today I will be looking at the Palit 9600GT 1GB Sonic. The 9600GT is nVidia's latest mid-range GeForce card, and rather than the reference 512 gigs of DDR3 memory, Palit has opted to add a full gig of memory, along with a heatpipe cooler, to this card. How will it stand up against the last generation of GeForce mid-range cards? Continue reading to see...

GIGABYTE X48T-DQ6 @ Bjorn3D

Today we are going to take a look at GIGABYTE's high end motherboard, the X48T-DQ6. GIGABYTE makes two versions of this board utilizing Intel's X48 chipset. The X48 which is a DDR2 variant and the X48T which is the DDR3 version that we will be covering today. The X48 brings minimal changes to the chipset when compared to the X38 and the only tangible difference should be more overclocking headroom. In recent years GIGABYTE has truly reinvented itself as a leader in innovation. In today's world the name of the game, or color to be more specific, is green. We have green cars, green homes and now you can add motherboards to the growing list of items going green. GIGABYTE has made a concerted effort to produce motherboards that use the least amount of energy possible without sacrificing performance. A task not easily accomplished. To this end they have dubbed this innovation DES or Dynamic Energy Saver. A system which can adjust voltage, power phases and clocks speeds of the boa! rd and CPU to ensure as little energy as possile is wasted while providing as much power as needed. Is it possible to have a power efficient system without losing performance? Let's find out.

Canon EOS Rebel XSi Review @ Digital Trends

Like the price of a barrel of oil, the megapixel count of D-SLRs continues to climb. When Canon and others first unveiled popularly-priced digital single lens reflex cameras, 6MP was the resolution spec, and everyone was thrilled. Today, 6-megapixel cameras of any type are practically ancient history. In fact, most new D-SLRs such as the Nikon D60, Pentax K200D or Sony DSLR-A200 kick off at 10MP with 14s becoming much more prevalent in 2008, such as the recent Editor's Choice-earning Sony DSLR-A350. As for the new Canon EOS Rebel XSi, it fits right between them with a resolution of 12.2MP, but proves slightly more expensive if you look at it on a pure pixel-for-pixel comparison. Yet digital cameras are about much more than pure resolution-they're about speed, picture-taking ability and loads of little things that separate the good from the bad. With that in mind, it was time to see if Canon had a winner on its hands-or, to put it bluntly, a clunker instead.

Hyper Sonic AG2 Notebook @ techPowerUp

With the recent purchase of Hyper Sonic OCZ has added another company to their portfolio, further diversifying their product range. Hypersonic's AG2 Notebook, which we have on our testbench today has been engineered to be light weight and portable with less than 1.8 kg. The design also looks stunning with its a high quality, glossy paint.