Wed Reviews

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As I am sure most of you know Crucial is a name that you can trust. I have personally used Crucial and Micron memory since I have built computers back when I was much younger than I currently am. It was not until recently that Crucial began to offer chips that had overclocking potential in the brand lines. This started with the new Ballistix line of RAM. In the past, Crucial had a stance that their RAM was for stability and not for overclocking, even though many people used it for both. Crucial RAM is rock solid, if you run it at the rated specs. Remember that overclocking is a variable thing; we shall see how Crucial stands up with their 2GB kit of PC2-5300.

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With DDR2-800 still in the early stages, PC users have to often pay a lot more for the latest and greatest memory products. The Mushkin High Performance (HP) Series memory is just what the doctor ordered. Mushkin offers the HP2-6400 at an affordable price with all the features enthusiasts want.

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The G7 in my mind should be standard equipment for any computer user that wants to truly enjoy his/her computer with complete control, accuracy and problem free longevity you want for your money. Kudos to Logitech with their quick swap battery technology. Finally a wireless mouse that isn't heavy to use.

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Anyone who has worked with a laptop for a longer period of time knows that it gets very hot underneath. Not only can that produce some nasty effects on your lap but it also can both shorten the life span of the laptop as well as affect the performance when the computer clocks back the speed of the CPU and/or GPU due to the heat.

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Power and mobility are 2 very important factors when choosing a laptop. You want something that is powerful enough to suit your needs, but also portable enough so that it is not a hassle to travel with. We recently reviewed the Dell XPS M1210 laptop and it achieved both of those factors easily. Today we will be taking a look at Alienware's Area-51 m5550 15.4-inch laptop and we will see how it stacks up to the M1210 and if it is portable enough for our needs. So let's take a look.

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Quote: In the spirit of college football bowl season, Bigbruin.com has a new contest for registered members of the forum. Up for grabs is a brand new, unopened Saitek A-250 Wireless 2.1 Speaker System. Even if you know nothing about college football, you can still compete in this contest. All you need to do is enter your predictions for the final scores of the bowl games featuring the top 25 ranked teams

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Computer gamers around the world know that the accurate laser mice work best on high quality mousepads. Movements are fast and accurate when the mouse glides easily over the surface. We've seen pads made from aluminum, steel, fiber, glass and plastics and every single of those have had strongpoints over the others. There are also differences in surfaces - other pads are smooth and other rough. Both pads tested this time are made of plastic and have a rough surface.

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Corsair knows their stuff when it comes to performance memory, but how about power supplies? Despite the fact that they are new to the PSU market, they prove that they are not newbies. After taking a look at their HX620W, we walk away impressed.

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Gone are the cheapo power supplies of yesteryear. Processors today from both Intel and AMD require a power supply that can deliver a steady diet of power. The Seasonic name has become the standard of barrier in power supply from a distant land, China. We are looking into one of the new M12 Modular series today rated at 600 watts from Seasonic.

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The PC-A10 is a fantastic case. All the little things that Lian Li does over and over again make this case stand out from the crowd. The anti-vibration mounts for the fans, drives and side panels, the removable motherboard tray, PSU tray and drive cages, as well as the tool-less design make this case a pleasure to work with.

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Let's cut to the chase, as those of you that have read my reviews know is my style: I thought it might be fun to do a short addition to the first review as since writing it I have made some rather significant upgrades to my test rig and also added a second XFX 8800 GTX running in SLI. Now that I have your attention, just a few words on what to expect. First, this addendum will only contain the outline for testing the SLI configuration and the test results as anything more would be a rewrite of the article I've already published.

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If you don't have $300 to spend on a GPU, then there are a slew of budget cards for you to ponder over. Last week we took a look at an X1650 Pro, and today we are taking a look at a similar model. Is the card worth your $150?

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Quote: After reviewing HIS' X1950 Pro Turbo card just the other day we now take a look at their X1650 XT. You may think that the X1650 XT is just a slightly higher clocked X1650 Pro but you would be wrong. Yes the XT does have a tad increase in clock speed over the Pro version, 5MHz in core speed and 60MHz in memory speed, but the biggest difference is in the physical structure and architecture of the card.

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In addition to having more cooling than any Antec case before it, the 900 is currently Antec's only case to use a fan larger than the standard 120mm model. These extra large fans are something relatively new to the mass market and a few companies have gotten there first, like Enermax, Aerocool, and Thermaltake (though most have opted for 250mm models). This case looks like it is going to be a great addition to Antec's lineup- it is a bit more adventurous than what they normally put out, but judging from what we have seen from Antec in the past, it should be worth investigating further.

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Quote: There is a compartment on the bottom side of the Hiyatek CF-6159-1 cooler between the two fan openings. Opening a sliding door reveals a storage area for the included USB power cable which has two full size connectors on the end intended for your notebook computer, while the end intended for the cooler has a single mini USB connector. In some situations it may be necessary to have both connections plugged into the host computer to make sure that enough power is provided and that data can be transferred through the hub connections, but I found that using just one USB connection was more than adequate on my notebook computer.

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Ideazon is a company whose products are specifically designed for gaming purpose. They have a range of products from keyboard to gamepad and most recently, gaming mice. Their first product-Zboard is a gaming keyboard that is specifically designed for some of the world's hottest games: Doom 3, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 2. What Ideazon strives to do is design the product that is from the gamer's perspective. Today, we'll be looking at the Reaper, Ideazon's first gaming mouse. Join us and see if Ideazon can bring innovation and good performance to the Reaper as with what they have done with their keyboards.

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When Zalman and Fatal1ty team up, you expect some special results. The FC-ZV9 graphics card cooler combines good cooling performance, great looks and wide compatibility into a product that any gamer would be proud to have in their case. The nickel plating and red LEDs give it a distinctive look that many folks will find appealing. The price, however, may deter some potential buyers.

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The Cooler Master Eclipse isn't just a futuristic off the wall design, the ability to cool a pretty intense processor is most definitely there as well. I was able to overclock both the Intel and AMD dual-core processors quite a bit while still maintaining more than acceptable temperatures with the Eclipse, even on the low fan setting.

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A first look at the keyboard shows that the shape has become more traditional; the feet no longer stick out as much as they used to, and media keys have been added on the top right hand side. Additionally, there is also a new dial to adjust the brightness of the backlighting.

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Gaming performance was, on average, double of anything the multi-GPU MSI 7950GX2 was capable of. Battlefield 2142, the newest title we tested with, proved to be no challenge at all for the MSI NX8800GTX. Despite the fact that widescreen gaming isn't officially supported, our quasi-widescreen settings still looked very good and performance was right up there. In fact, now that we've really gotten used to it, we think it's going to be very difficult for anyone to go back to traditional 4:3 gaming once they've played games in widescreen mode.

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The internet can be a very scary place. Yes, it is filled with countless amounts of useful information on all sorts of subjects, but that is also its downside. Having grown up with the internet, many adults are very adept at maneuvering it. Unfortunately, not enough people are as savvy as they should be, because spyware, viruses and the ever faithful phishing scams are running rampant. This of course doesn't even get into the realm of what your kids are getting into. This now brings up the whole point of this review, just what are your kids getting into? How much time is your child spending on the internet, and where? Are they looking up offensive content? Are they rotting their young minds? How much of your personal information is being stolen by Trojans and other forms of spyware? I could come up with so many

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The Scythe Karma Meter is a drive bay device to monitor the temperature inside your case with 4 separate diodes, control the fan speed of up to four fans and set the master volume of the PC. The Kama Meter shines with perfect build quality as well as 8 different back light modes. We take a close look to see if its features are useful and temperatures are accurate.

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One common problem that PC and console gamers alike experience, is sweaty hands. Yes, this can easily happen during an intense Moto GP or Need for Speed session. Logitech to the rescue with their latest gamepad, which includes a beefy 40mm fan to help you keep your cool during gameplay.

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Throughout the extensive overclocking and testing of these modules, I could not come up with anything to complain about. They look great, they perform as they should, and they have plenty of overclocking headroom for the enthusiasts out there. Again, without a retail price anywhere it is hard to give a very concrete judgment but something tells me that these modules should be a part of anyone's buying decision if you're in the market for a 1GB memory kit. I can hardly wait to get my hands on a 2GB kit of some hot FireStix.

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NVIDIA's new G80 GPU is the first to implement DirectX 10 support and Shader Model 4.0. Palit is one of NVIDIA's board partners who is selling the GeForce 8800 GTX. The card comes with 768 MB of video memory and can will run whatever you throw at it at highest resolutions with maximized settings. We test the card against the ATI Radeon X1950 XTX, X1900 Crossfire and the Geforce 7900 GTX.

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DDR2 memory is now mainstream and needed for current motherboards. So, when upgrading your computer system, it's required to pick up at least 2 gigabytes of DDR2 memory. Selecting memory can be a daunting task, as there are so many memory companies on the market. OCZ has really taken the guesswork out of this memory though, since it's designed to work best with ATI chipset motherboards. So if you are getting a new ATI chipset motherboard, this would be the memory to get. With a default speed of 800MHz DDR2 and a timing of 4-4-4-12 it is sure to perform very well in high-end motherboards...

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Quote: With the holidays right around the corner many enthusiasts are in the market for a brand new video card. Some may want the fastest card out there, regardless of its price, which means they would probably want NVIDIA's newest card, the 8800. Others are looking to upgrade their card that they've had for the past 3-4 years and is a couple generations old. They don't want to spend a lot of money but don't want to have to replace their card next year. In their case they will probably want to shoot for a card in the $150-$250 range which means that the X1950 Pro from HIS might just be the card for them.

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Even though I am sure most of us would love to be able to buy one or two X1950XTX or GeForce 8800GTX cards, the hard reality is that we cannot afford to. We have to look to a cheaper alternative that still hopefully will perform well enough.