"Overall, the Ultra Mini Portable Disk Enclosure is a pretty decent external enclosure especially with the bright LED indicators and built-in cooling fan. The performance also speaks for itself thanks to the fast Firewire interface. So if you’re looking for a portable storage that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket, grab a decent hard drive and get the Ultra Mini Portable Disk Enclosure."

"Ah! It’s Godzilla ... Or more like Godzilla's mouse pad, I thought when I opened up the plastic container which was holding the Lowsense from attacking me with its ferocious blue reticule eye. How big is it exactly? This oversized mouse pad is 16" x 11" and has a thickness of roughly 4 mm. The length and width make for a total mousing area of almost 176 square inches."

Today we are taking a look at an all-in-one bay unit from Thermaltake, called the Hardcano 13. This is a very feature packed device with a 6 in 1 card reader, ability to control 4 fans and monitor 4 temperature probes, as well as an LCD screen that can be switched over to a 24 hour clock if you don't wish to see all the temperatures and fan RPM's. To add to all the technical features, the Hardcano 13 is topped off with a very stylish look and colour backlit LCD.

The 1st prize winner gets a Mini Wizard Tower Case, an X Connect PSU along with a bunch of other modding accessories including CCFLs and fans. If you come in 2nd or 3rd you too will get an X Connect PSU along with some other modding goodies.

To enter, the first thing you'll need to do is make sure you're registered on our forums. Then, we want you to get modding your PC. Start a thread in the Project Logs section of HEXUS.modhouse and create a log of your modding project from start to finish. We want to see what you do, why you did it and how.

You can do just about anything you want in the mod, but what we want to see is effort. The winners will be the modders who have put the most effort into their projects.

For those of you who've been waiting, the final version of my full Battlefield 2 Tweak Guide is out. Following on from my initial release of the BF2 Demo Tweak Guide, this full version guide contains nine pages of information designed to explain BF2's settings, provide an insight into the reasons behind many common problems, and provide some handy tips and tweaks for you to try. Keep in mind that it will also be continually updated as EA releases patches for BF2 and as I discover new tips/tweaks.

"Recently, we had time to speak with the BD (Business
Development) manager of XGI Technology. In this interview, we found the
precise status of the current generation XGI Linux and Windows display
drivers along with their future. Among other things, we learned that XGI
Tech will finally be supporting the Linux 2.6 kernel in September of
2005. Join us for these exclusive details."

Gigabyte has done an excellent job in getting their GeForce 7800 GTX product to the market at the time of launch. It is now possible to order one, or two if you dare, of these cards online for $600 US a piece. Although there is nothing unique or special, so to speak, about the Gigabyte GeForce 7800 GTX, it is available at the MSRP.

"Thermal Take has been a huge name in computer cooling for ages, ever
since their classic Golden Orb became such a hit, Thermal Take has been
working harder, and harder to improve their products; rumors have been
going around talking about Thermal Take's lack of quality as of late,
let's check out the latest fan in the Smart Case line, and see if it's
up to Thermal Take's normal snuff."

Hi, Imation just stepped into the miniature storage market with their own Micro USB Hard Drive, available in 2GB & 4GB. While we see a lot of these like the Seagate 5GB USB and Sony Micro Vault Pro 5GB, Imation's features a novel fexible connection cable, which loops over the drive to make it appear as a padlock. Its cable locks firmly into transport position, and can also be used as an attachment clip.

If you are looking for better cooling, but don't want more fans to add to the noise, SilverStones FM82 may be for you. It promises to be the most silent 80mm fan out there. Let's take it for a test drive.

“All those times you see those clear cases at computer conventions, and you just think, "How cool would it be to get one of those?" Or maybe you just want something that will let you show off all your computer hardware. Well, we have a look at Mutant Mods' very own acrylic mid-tower ATX Case and see if it's just what the doctor ordered!”

"The idea is simple: provide a PC-based radio with TiVo-like time shifting of live radio, scheduled recording, and on-the-fly recording. Then market it to iPod and MP3 player owners. What a great idea! That’s the Griffin radioSHARK. MP3 player add-ons are always a hot seller, and at $69.95 MSRP, the price point is just right. We were deeply disappointed by the actual execution, though."

"This litigation follows a recent ruling from the Fair Trade Commission of Japan (JFTC), which found that Intel abused its monopoly power to exclude fair and open competition, violating Section 3 of Japan's Antimonopoly Act. These findings reveal that Intel deliberately engaged in illegal business practices to stop AMD's increasing market share by imposing limitations on Japanese PC manufacturers. Intel did not contest these charges."

"It seems that nothing can get us back to the bland grey and simple power supply units of ages past. The presence of such a power supply unit seems intolerable to most enthusiasts in this day and age. Most have already been replaced by more powerful and much more aesthetically pleasant units. Furthermore, what seemed to be an innovative thought not even a year ago, the modular type power supply unit appears to be taking the market by storm. AeroCool, the famous manufacturer of enthusiast hardware is among those manufacturing modular power supplies. The Turbine series of power supply units was released a while ago, boasting excellent appearance, modular design and exceptional performance all in one. Today I have a Turbine Power 450W unit for evaluation, so we will shortly know if it stands up to the quality AeroCool is usually known for."

The fact that digital consumer electronics are quickly replacing their analog counter parts only proves that
it's only a matter of time before VCR's are on their way to extinction. The new players on the market are DVD recorders,
cable of burning your TV shows to DVD recordable media. On top of the benefit of better quality recording, DVD's take much
less room than a VHS tape. Today we take a look at one such DVD Recorder from Samsung that's capable recording in multiple
formats, their DVD-R120 Recorder.

"The hard core story is a lot less intense after several decades of movie watching. The whole thing is still quite powerful. A jerk of a guy goes to prison for good reasons, only to find that the inmates are unfairly beaten, racially taunted, and generally abused by the warden and guards...."

"Ultimately, not matter how good or bad a product is, most of us are going to be concerned about the price. At $122 USD, the Seagate 5GB Pocket Hard Drive rings in at little more than $0.02 per Megabyte. Compare this with a 4GB flash drive at $350 USD, which rings in at about $0.09 per meg, we can see the Pocket Hard Drive's value."

" It's quite hard to convince you whether you should purchase a mouse pad that costs 50 euros when your also able to get a free mouse pad on any computer convention you go to.... I must say though this is by far the best and most impressive mouse pad I've had the pleasure to test! It looks fantastic, it's made with precision and it's really great to use."

"Like a kid on Christmas, I couldn’t decide which one to open first so I went with the biggest box first, the 20-In-1 Superior Panel. Once I opened this sturdy box, I felt intimidated by what I saw. After all, the last time I hooked up a car stereo it had fewer wires packed inside the box than this one did. Thankfully, I came to my senses and actually remembered that I know what these wires were for (unlike the car stereo)."

"ECS has always had a reputation of being an inexpensive solution for DIY system builders. They haven't had a great history
in terms of overclocking but their new micro-ATX motherboard may actually be a viable solution for HTPC systems."

"At this year's C3 Expo the focus was on "corporate and channel computing" as expected but there was the occassional item that consumers will find to be interesting. Unlike Cebit or CES this exposition is aimed at the enterprise and corporate level, but some enthusiast-friendly items were able to find their way to the show. Though most of these companies decided to demonstrate at Digital Experience, a completely seperate event the night before C3, we did find at least one exciting booth at C3. SilverStone had lots of exciting products at the show, including two new cases."

"Tired of getting fragged left and right? If you are questioning your fragging skills, maybe it's time to take a look at your mouse.

Today, we will take a look at the Razer Diamondback professional gaming mouse with its incredible 1600 DPI resolution and 16-bits data resolution! This could be the mouse that will make you the Fragmeister! "

Graphics cards, like so many other tech components, seem to require their own language to describe the functions and features they provide. This Tech Tip will take a look at a handful of terms related to graphics cards, and some more specifically related to graphics cards as used for video games.

"The Ultra Hard drive cooler is an excellent cooling product, temperatures on my hard drive dropped dramatically once installed. If Ultra fixed the minor cabling mess and designed it to allow for a hard drive to be installed underneath it would be even better."

Isaac at Leadtek has let me know about a new BIOS out for the Leadtek 7800GTX. It increases the core to 450MHz and the RAM to 1.25GHz. This is of coarse supported overclocking by Leadtek's warranty. He also informed new boards will be shipping with this BIOS.

"With more and more people using their computers for long periods of time, it has become necessary for companies designing input devices to approach the issue of repetitive strain injury. A4 Tech has recently designed a wireless keyboard and mouse with many features intended to help prevent the onset of RSI. The keyboard features a number of pre-set multimedia keys for use with applications such as Microsoft Office, Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer. The optical mouse also has a number of attributes, including a new-design scroll wheel and various programmable buttons. The set uses RF wireless technology with ranges up to 2 metres and no angle restriction. There are 255 ID's, which allow a number of units to operate in close proximity to each other without causing interference."

"Yesterday it turned out to be the most widely anticipated day in the microprocessor realm. AMD finally filed an antitrust complaint against its archrival Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker. Regardless of the obvious superiority of AMD’s Athlon 64 line of microprocessors, the world’s largest OEMs such as Dell, HP and Sony have either offered limited AMD based systems or they have outright declined to work with AMD at all. Allegedly, this is due to unfair and monopolistic business practices by Intel."

All of us have movies, pictures and/or music that we treasure and would hate to lose. You may have already heard or read it a thousand times, but you really should back up any data that is important to you. Before you reach for those 3.5' floppies, you should realize that your backed up data is only as good as the media you put it on, which is why you should steer clear of floppies, especially when there are so many superior options available today. Besides, you can't fit much more than a few school papers on a floppy.

Just released is Futuremarks latest system benchmarking tool, PC Mark 2005. We take a look at what's new, and tell you what you need to get an uber score.

"This isn’t a review of XM Radio; I’m already hooked. I have it in the car, I have it at home. With Pioneer’s AirWare XM2Go portable, I can have it anywhere I go thanks to 128MB of memory that packs away 5 hours of programming. That’s if I’m willing to go through the hassle of hooking it up in a spot within reach of the satellite signal. I’m still working on that cost/benefit chart.

My review was delayed a few days because the reviewer who had it before me forgot to put the AC adapter back in the box. I’m surprised that’s all he or she left out. The package comes with 18 pieces, including accessories for car and home use, headphones, battery and docks. My goal is to see how few of them I can use and still have a happy experience."

“Whether you’re listening to music, playing games or watching movies, the Altec Lansing VS2221 system brings entertainment to life. Full-range drivers play clear highs while a long-throw ported subwoofer pumps out the bass so you don’t miss a single wham, bump or thump of your favorite music or games.”

If I had to sum up the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra in one sentence, I'd have to say that it's a case of substance over style for a nice price. Powered by the nForce4 Ultra chipset, it brings home good performance all around with while outshining the competition with it's memory and drive systems.

"Earlier this month we reviewed the ATI All-in-Wonder X800XT and really liked what we saw. A top performing graphic card with an excellent set of features complimented by smart design and accessories. Today we have the luxury of reviewing another AIW X800XT but this time it's from the friendly folks at Connect3D. Like the ATI card, this model comes with a bundle of features including EAZYLOOK, TV-ON-DEMAND, and MULTIMEDIA CENTER."

"There's no question that these are decent speakers. The reviews are already out there, and they're pretty universally favourable. Tons of gamers have raved about the bass, the bass, the bass. The bass seems to be a particular thing with gamers. They like the bass. But what about somebody that's not all that interested in the bass? I'm not a big gamer, first of all. I play games like Civilization and Evil Genius, where things like bass aren't really a going concern. What I do love, however, is music."

"Ultra Products still has a bit of refinement left for the Ultra
Fire; more fins would definitely be an advantage. The push-pull fan
system will surely be able to capitalize on such an improvement. If
Ultra Products used 80*80*25mm fans, we could expect more air flow,
lower dBa's and an overall increased performance. As it stands, the
Ultra Fire is a basic stock cooler replacement with potential to be much
more."

"www.hardwarezone.com® managed to obtain MSI's latest Intel 945P Express motherboard and we give you an exclusive look at the soon-to-be released 945P Neo Platinum. This board comes with DTS certified audio, a 5-phase power supply and full system overclocking for novices."

"Think carefully about what you want from a S939 board. If it's
features above all else, look elsewhere, frankly. If it's the promise
of sky-high overclocks and care and attention paid to cooling and
tweaking, the ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 SLI is hard to beat. Recommended to
the enthusiast/gamer."

"Give it a twist, a flick of the wrist, that's what the showman
said! That is exactly what Swissbit has us doing with the
SWISSMEMORY(tm) USB TWISTPRO. Swissbit knows that your tired of losing
that cap on the end of your thumb drive, and they also know you just
need more space to carry around your work files, along with those play
time files. What else could you need in a USB device?"

"The included power supply also performed really good and stable at high loads. The integrated front panel is another nice feature with the case where it shows real time temperatures and also the power consumption. However, the retail price for the Nextherm ICS 8200 is no joke as it costs a hefty USD360! Not everyone will be willing to spend such huge amount on a PC case. If you think you need a case with superb cooling and decent power supply, the Nextherm ICS 8200 should be yours."

This review examins three of the latest modular power supplies in the market: Aerocool Turbine Power (550W), SkyHawk Power One GM620, and Thermaltake PurePower TWV500W. While each of these PSUs shares a few similarities, each also brings to the table something unique. Do any of them deserve a spot in your computer? Read on and find out.

In this article, John Guzman, who's always willing to share his point of views, is expressing his opinions regarding password security. With identity theft on the rise, this is a great article for beginners to learn some tips for securing their passwords.

One of the newest products on the virtual shelves of Logic Supply adds that extra appeal of silence to Mini-ITX systems by eliminating the need for fans on the processor or anywhere on the case. The Serener GS-L01 Fanless Mini-ITX Case utilizes heatpipe technology and large aluminum fins on the exterior of the case to passively cool the entire system, making it an appealing choice for home, commercial, or industrial applications.

AMD announced today that it filed an antitrust complaint against Intel Corporation (“Intel”) yesterday in U.S. federal district court for the district of Delaware under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, Sections 4 and 16 of the Clayton Act, and the California Business and Professions Code. The 48-page complaint explains in detail how Intel has unlawfully maintained its monopoly in the x86 microprocessor market by engaging in worldwide coercion of customers from dealing with AMD. It identifies 38 companies that have been victims of coercion by Intel – including large scale computer-makers, small system-builders, wholesale distributors, and retailers, through seven types of illegality across three continents.

Despite the launch of the latest 7800GTX and the immensity of falling prices, NVIDIA’s 6600GT would still remain one of the most sought after graphics adapters for enthusiasts on a budget. The 6600GT core has been getting its well-deserved appreciation ever since it debuted. Thankfully, NVIDIA introduced the 6800 vanilla before the 6600GT or else it would’ve surely hurt the sales of its supposedly better counterpart.

As you know ATI has released the Catalyst 5.6 driver for the Microsoft Windows x64 platform, unfortunately this driver only supports Radeon 9500 and above. Have no FEAR! The NGO ATI Optimized Driver is here with support for ALL desktop and mobile radeon cards.

Microsoft has reigned the browser market for a long time, ever since it took the original Netscape browser out of the picture; there has been no competitor able to keep up with Internet Explorer. Unfortunately for end users however, the software giant has been sitting duck for about half of its lifetime, adding almost no new features since IE 6 was introduced in 2001, and until very recently, barely keeping up with security holes found in its browser.
Just as Linux is to Windows, Mozilla’s open-source Firefox is to Internet Explorer. The fact is, although IE is still the top used browser, Firefox is by far the best out there.
TechSpot's Firefox tweak guide covers every functionality aspect found in this great browser, from the very basic appearance and menu options, to advanced customizations in Firefox’s behaviour such as caching, net connection handling, plug-ins and web page rendering. Also make sure not to miss Firefox's extensions top 10 recommendation list.

The DISH Player DVR model 942 is a high definition satellite receiver capable of recording up to 25 hours of high definition or 180 hours of programming on a 250GB hard-drive. However, what really makes model 942 exceptional is the fact that it allows you multi-room capability via one satellite receiver. It also includes DISH's Video-On-Demand Service that provides the capability to "pause" live TV, record any type of DISH Network programming, skip recorded commercials, and create "instant replays." Besides being able to "pause" live TV, the Video-On-Demand service allows you to fast forward/fast reverse at four speeds ( 4x, 15x, 60x, and 300x), skip forward (30-second increments), and skip back (10-second increments), and the capability to view shows in slow motion or frame-by-frame.

The Logitech diNovo Cordless Desktop is designed for desktop use as well as for people on the move, who carry their notebooks with them everywhere they go, whether from city-to-city, office-to-home, or simply room-to-room. The new diNovo is a lower-priced version of the award-winning Logitech diNovo Media Desktop. It combines the sleek, low-profile design elements of the original product with the top-selling Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse for Notebooks and a separate cordless numeric pad. The result is a versatile modular ensemble that offers desktop comfort plus instant mobility, letting people easily pack away mouse and numeric pad and be on their way.

The highly anticipated update of Antec's Sonata has arrived and promises to be even better than it's predecessor. Can the Sonata II improve upon the award winning Sonata I's style and quiet performance? Lets find out with Futurelooks' WORLD EXCLUSIVE first review of the case.

Is the data on your internal drives important to you? If your answer is a resounding yes, the SimpleTech SimpleDrvie 250GB External that we will be examining today might the solution you are looking for your gaming or workstation PC. SimpleTech believes it is the perfect portable external solution for your backup needs as it features both USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces. The USB interface is perfectly backwards compatible with the older standard so that you can connect the SimpleDrive to almost every PC that you wish to connect it to. Let us examine the SimplTech SimpleDrive External 250GB external hard drive performance and software to see if it is the backup and storage solution you are looking for.

The crucial 11K barrier on 3DMark05 for single card configuration has been broken with ASUS EN7800GTX card running at an insane 702Mhz/1506MHz. The benching rig is made up of AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 @ 3.56GHz, ASUS A8N-SLI Premium (modded), 2 x 512MB GSkill DDR600 and phase change cascade cooling setup.

Today we're looking at the SCX-4100 multifunction scanner/printer/copier from Samsung. This is possibly a dream machine for every office. It's a very fast scanner and copier, and to add to that speed it's also a laser printer which we all know are very fast printers to begin with. Having the ability to copy something quickly can be very handy for many businesses as well as many home users! Read on to see what the performance is like.

For years now, since its initial release, I simply could not part with my modded Logisys dual optical mouse. Featured in two magazines and websites across the world, this is personally one of the best optical mice ever released. However, if there is one product we have reviewed here that has quickly gained the interest of many enthusiast as well as those in the gaming community, it is the mice put out by Razer. Their high performance mice have truly gained the respect deserved based on their innovative design and unmatched performance. We have had the pleasure of taking a look at two of their most popular mice in the past, both of which earned our very highest recommendation as well as high marks from many other respected review sites. We were left wondering with what they would come up with next? Well, they have done their homework and have just released a new limited edition mouse that is sure to grab everyone's attention, including those in the modding community. The new Razer Diamondback Plasma touches on both overall aesthetics and performance. Today, we not only take a look at this new mouse, but also offer our loyal readers an opportunity to win one of these beauties!

Using an Asetek Waterchill system, with only a water block on the CPU, we tested the overclocking potential of the Foxconn 925XE. We would have put a block on the chipset as well, but with the new chipset HSF mounting solution, we have no way of attaching the block to the northbridge chipset. We managed to get our 3 GHz P4 running stable at 3.75 GHz, which is a healthy 750 MHz overclock.

It used to be that those still using older AGP based motherboards were hard-pressed to find a high end ATI graphics card for their systems. The Rialto bridge chip changed that and now with the native AGP version of the RADEON X850 XT P.E. from Sapphire, ATI's top dog finally comes to AGP.

There are a few factors that determine a heatsink's cooling performance; the heatsink itself of course, the thermal interface material, and the factor most people forget, flatness of the heatsink base. A large number of heatsinks these days have bases that are not flat. Even the best heatsinks are not free from this problem. How do we solve this problem however? Lapping is usually the solution, and Easy PC Kits has a Premium Heatsink Lapping Kit to make it easier.

I work the best when watching TV. At home I have a nice big TV on the side of my computer which always is on showing a movie or just a random TV-channel. Obviously at work I cannot do the same and need to solve this in another way. Luckily Compro came to the rescue and let me test one of their latest external TV-Tuners, the Compro VideoMate Action Ultra tuner.

San Diego brings SSE3 support to Athlon 64 FX for the first time, along with support for mismatched DIMM sizes in its memory controller, more efficient use of memory compared to Clawhammer and more performance from its data prefetcher, which pulls data out of system memory into the processor's caches, in advance of it being needed.

Babies make the best and the worst subjects to photograph. In this photo guide we'll show you what it takes to get that perfect baby shot. After all, Babies are babies for short a period of time; you can never have too many photographs.

This is part 4 of InsaneTek's 1 year anniversary contest. The prize is an AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 Winchester. This contest is available to everyone in the world. Shipping is cheap so here's your chance. The contest will only last for 1 week so hurry and get in!

Given that users are likely to purchase either of these chipsets for general Windows based performance, the feature sets are much more important. While the Radeon Xpress 200 does offer an impressive 2D/3D graphics engine, it also supports eight USB 2.0 ports, DDR memory, up to seven PCI Slots, four Serial ATA RAID ports, 8-Channel Audio and PCI Express.

So you've seen all those great big long articles on the G70 with all their complex explanations and flashy graphs. Well, we're going to simplify all of that so that maybe us normal folks can understand why we need to put our hard earned cash down on the latest offering from nVidia.

Cold Winter, Sierra’s latest first person shooter, delivers a solid single-player campaign with an immense replay value. Instead of focusing on complex objectives and time-consuming puzzles, you can simply expect a straightforward action packed game right from the beginning. Filled with loads of gore and profane language, this title is sure to satisfy anyone’s desire for destruction.

With the 120mm fan removed, you can see the top of the densely packed aluminum fins. Something that makes the design of the Big Typhoon unique is that it is large enough to be designed as two heatsinks in one! The aluminum fins are actually arranged into two separate groups, which allows for maximum heat dispersal from the six heatpipes.

This guide is going to skim over the PCI Express video cards that are currently available using ATI graphics processing units. We will take a look at nVidia-based cards in a future article, we already have more than enough to handle. If you are buying a video card right now chances are you are investing in PCI Express; AGP is not dead but with the advantages of the 775 and 939 platforms the focus has definitely shifted to PCI Express. This means you can score some good deals on AGP equipment, but you won't find them here.

Since the introduction of double layer writing, we have seen quite a few drives hit the market from a majority of manufacturers over that past 12 months. However, 16x appears to be the threshold and a majority of manufacturers have been quite hesitant to release new models to consumers. They are simply left with having to improve on their double layer writing and re-writable performance. One drive that truly showed a high level of interest was the NEC ND-3500A. NEC was one of the first manufacturers to release a double layer writer and continue to leap ahead the competition by releasing one of the first writers to support high speed double layer writing to the new DVD-R DL format. With its impressive and truly next gen features, the new NEC ND-3540A is about as good as they come in terms of features. Let's take a thorough look at their latest offering and see what improvements, if any, have been made.

With the Intel 945P Express chipset starting to make its rounds, we grabbed an ECS PF5 Extreme for a spin. With features like quad-monitor display and PCI Express based Gigabit LAN and SATA II controllers, ECS looks serious to get in the limelight.

EPoX, with its EP-9NPA+ SLI, has taken onboard the chipset's attributes and added in discrete SATA (PCI-Express, which is nice) and FireWire400. What's also appealing is the voltage manipulation available in BIOS. Enthusiasts will be happy to see 3v+ DDR and up to 1.85v available for the CPU. The chipset, BIOS, and features implementation combine to make the 9NPA+ SLI a reasonably attractive proposition. Priced at around £105, the 9NPA+ SLI matches other manufacturers' similarly priced efforts in both features and performance, making it worthy of consideration if you want a fast, stable board that should overclock to 300MHz HTT and beyond.

"The proverbial stuff begins to hit the fan as the girls flee the sinister plans of the British Library and the rapidly collapsing Dokusensha (both figuratively and literally) as ROD the TV Volume 4 Turning Point starts almost a whole new story."

"True, some cases are really very very cleverly designed and a pleasure to build a system into, [...] Whereas a processor took hundreds, if not thousands, of engineers with countless diplomas ages to develop, has thousands of patents implemented and needs clean room assembly by skilled workers with high wages, and millions worth of machinery to produce."

"There are many entries in the Gamer/Professional Mouse pad segment out there. Today we will look at an entry by Xraypad, theThunder 8. Gamer pads range from $15-$75, but sometimes I wonder if it is really worth spending that amount of money on a mouse pad. After all, it's just a mouse pad right? A square or rectangular piece ofplastic or cloth that your mouse sits on, what's the big deal? Well the Thunder 8 is available for $20 most places online and can easily sell for a lot more, I was extremely surprised at the quality/cost ratio with this pad. When I got this pad and checked the price online I was shocked, I honestly thought it was one of those $75 pads. Today we are going to take a closer look at it, and you will see what I mean."

"Talk about a HUGE LAN Party! We are in Louisville, Kentucky for MillionMan LAN 4! There are around 1700 people here, and some nice looking cases. Some well known modders are here including Mashie, Gruntman, and Sky. Take a look at the pictures for all the crazy cases, gaming and more!"

"The ASUS P5ND2-SLI Deluxe is another addition to the growing nForce4 SLI Intel Edition motherboards supporting 1066MHz FSB and the Pentium Processor Extreme Edition. Why do we think this is the board you want for gaming? Find out inside."

"...the best thing about this is the installation process. Since the radiator has an integrated pump and also used as the reservoir, it takes about half the time you need to install a typical water cooling kit. Not many water cooling kit out in the market looks as cool as the Aqua Box and with the provided UV blacklight, I’d say that you’re about to become a UV freak. Overall, the Aqua Box is a pretty decent water cooling kit that stands out from the rest thanks to its UV reactive components, UV blacklight and stylish looking radiator. If you’re looking for a silent solution with a bling, the Aqua Box should fit the bill."

"The growing popularity of socket 939 means that more coolers are being made for the K8 platform than ever before. The focus has shifted away from sockets 478 and A and now all the new products are moving to the newer processors, just as the computer industry has always worked. In addition to making new products for the new platforms, many old, yet proven, products are being adapted to fit the new requirements. One such item is the Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra CPU cooler. This product is very similar to a number of coolers produced by Arctic Cooling in the past, many of which were quite successful. One of the first of this style was the 4ProL, which we reviewed a long time ago on our s478 test bed. Though a number of changes were made the products are strikingly similar."

"Utilizing a single heatpipe, will Prime Cooler's PC-VGAHP 1 be able to provide the VPU temperatures overclockers are looking to achieve? In this review, we'll be taking a look at this rare offering from the folks at Prime Cooler."

"ASUS put together a fine package in the P5WD2 Premium. Performance was solid and the board was problem free out of the box which is something we don't see enough of these days. We were quite happy with pushing our 3.73 Extreme Edition past 4.5GHz, and although we've had mildly better success with other boards, we'll still take a free ~700MHz boost anyday."

Go back just a few short years and the appearances of pretty much all computers were slight variations of the same theme. Boring beige boxes dominated the industry, and people looking to express their individuality with the style of their computer had to take matters into their own hands. The term "modding" may not even be a real word (I know MS Word's spell checker is upset with my use of it), but it is appropriate for loosely describing the broad field of modifying a computer system to give it a personalized style. This tip will proceed by looking at some of the basic items, tools, and accessories used in modding.

Seagate has decided to get in on the action with products catering for users with portable storage needs. Over the past few years we’ve seen the influx of portable storage devices such as pen drives which many of couldn’t do without in our day to day lives. Who doesn’t want 1 and 0’s in their pocket for convenience? Read on as we take a close look at both products and then put them through their paces and see just how they perform.

Who would have thought that a mediocre piece of hardware like the iPod could ever win the hearts and minds of the mass population and change the way we listen to music forever? Well it did, and now we check out some iPod neccessities that every iPodder should own.

Ever since NVIDIA has introduced its 7800 GTX graphics adapter, one of the many questions that users have been asking is if NVIDIA would ever launch an AGP version of the aforementioned card.

Although the Geforce 7800GTX from Nvidia saw its official release mere days ago, it doesn't spell the end of the former generation, in fact it is arguably at this time that the former generation sees increased attention due to (usual) appropriate pricing adjustments. The 6800Ultra represents the paramount of Nvidia's now former generation, and it was really the first highend Nvidia GPU to gain some performance ground back from ATi ever since the release of the 9700Pro. Well, today we double the pleasure and throw two ASUS Geforce 6800Ultra PCI-E videocards together in all their SLI glory. Is there an advantage in doubling the cost of your graphic upgrade, or is one enough?

Smithfield (current stepping A0) is based on the Prescott 1M core with E0 stepping. This core is known for high overclocking potential. On the other hand, knowing that Smithfield consumes at least 15% more power and runs hotter than the already hot Prescott, we did not expect much when we started overclocking. The reality was a pleasant surprise.

One of the unique characteristics of this particular kit is the addition of OCZ technologies EVP® and ULN. OCZ EVP® (Extended Voltage Protection) is a feature that allows performance enthusiasts to use a VDIMM of 3.0V ± 5% without invalidating their OCZ Lifetime Warranty. ULN (Ultra Low Noise) technology uses various printed circuit board (PCB) techniques to reduce the amount of electrical noise that is present in all high-speed ICs which results in faster and more stable memory.

Memory is arguably the most important and most scrutinized component in all high end computers. While computer enthusiasts search for low latency and high quality components, one type of chip comes to mind... Winbond BH5. BH5 memory is known by enthusiasts and gamers for its excellent performance and competitive pricing, which brings us to some of OCZ’s memory modules... The 1024MB EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel Gold kit, which utilizes the Winbond BH5 chip.

Today we are doing a review on the Swiftech's H20-120™ Series Liquid Cooling Kit (Revision 3a) plus it's not only just a review it's also this authors first attempt at building a water cooling system from scratch. We're going to show you the case we (A.) Modified (B.) Butchered (C.) attempted to use for our project. Some come on along and see how well I did I'm sure one of us will be surprised.

Ever since its recent release, the Lian Li PC-V1000 has been a very popular case. Let’s say you are looking for a nice home for your new dual processor rig and you don’t think that the PC-V1000 is big enough, while the PC-V2000 is too big. Isn’t there a nice in-between you may ask, well you’re in luck. The Lian Li PC-V1200 fills that nice in-between ground. Without further ado, let’s find out what this case is all about.

" The loose timings are really hurting the Nitro modules. I would expect at least a 5,000 point gain across the board with tighter timings."

In our previous article we were investigating the architectural features of the GeForce 7800 GTX, a new graphics card from NVIDIA. And now it’s time to see how the creation of the Californian GPU-maker performs in actual games.

Today at XtremeResources, my longtime friend, overclocking Guru and 3D bencher extraordinaire OPPAINTER has posted up some incredible results with nVidia's recently introduced and released 7800GTX videocards. He has broken records in all 3 Futuremark 3DMark benches including : 48,046 in 3DMark 2001 as well as scoring 34,891 in 3DMark 2003 and 16,086 in 3DMark 2005. The power of these new generation GPU's has hardly been touched as these record breaking runs were done with the cards o­n straight watercooling.

"The first thing we did was set the memory to run at a full 1 GHz and it had absolutely no problems running at that frequency. Playing nicely, we then raised the memory speed in 4 MHz intervals and 1.01, 1.02 and 1.10 GHz fell by the wayside. The maximum speed we got the memory to was 1.11 GHz, very good for an ATi Radeon X800 XL class videocard!"

Thinking of the Xtreme Ti in strict DTR terms, the overall impression is favourable. You can zip around Windows XP, thanks, in main part, to Rock's use of 2 60GB 7,200RPM laptop drives that are pre-configured in RAID0. Browsing around in 2D mode, the machine felt faster than Dell's Inspiron XPS Gen 2, which shipped with a single 100GB 4,200RPM drive. The screen is a hit-and-miss affair. You'll either love the high-contrast 17-inch (1680x1050) screen or immediately dislike just how reflective the X-Glass-equipped panel is. Rock's got most of the performance bases covered, too, with a fast Mobility Radeon X800 (now XT) card providing decent framerates at the laptop's native resolution. There's also plenty of memory and the optical drive is decent enough.

NVIDIA has unveiled its brand-new graphics processor and proclaimed it to be the fastest in the industry. Today we take a look at what the company has to offer in terms of acrhitecture, efficiency and power consumption.

"The move to the DDR2 memory subsystem seems to be picking up momentum lately as there are numerous memory manufactures offering higher speed grade modules compared to several months ago. Intel is the first to utlize DDR2 and AMD continues to stay with DDR and may move up to DDR2 in the future. Today, we will examine and test the PC2-5600 modules from Patriot on the nVidia C19 platform with Patriot's XBLK PC2-5600+ 1GB dual channel kit and see how it does."

NVIDIA's G70 GPU architecture has finally materialized today in the form of their new flagship and heir to the performance crown with the GeForce 7800 GTX. Find out all the tech details, its performance, our views and if you should look forward to splurge on one, if not, two of these.

"TEC cooling has a few drawbacks compared to a regular HSF setup, the main one being that it's cooling is usually so efficient that temperatures will drop to below ambient, which means that you will need to insulate against condensation. This kind of setup also usually requires a separate power supply and more often than not, watercooling to cool the hot side of the TEC. But take the middle ground of a low power TEC coupled with a HSF combo, and while the temperatures won't drop below ambient, they should get down lower than a HSF combo alone."

"The use of watercooling to cool your system is becoming increasingly popular. Evercool joins the watercooling crowd and provides a setup with TWO compact radiators."

The computer market is flooded with after market computer cases. A lot of design copying happens also, so it's refreshing to find a particular case with new design ideas. One such case is from Casebuytech is their A.I. 01 series of mesh cases.

Many of you are thinking “what can a budget VGA card possibly do for me?” Aside from it pricing out at a very reasonable $69 as opposed to something north of three or four hundred clams, the 6200A is a passively cooled product. You home theater guys are already all over this. Here in the days of HTPCs, having a single slot, silent video card solution being paired with say a Hauppauge TV-PVR card to run a media center is very desirable.

All-in, a solid improvement to an excellent architecture. NVIDIA balance ALU increases with ROP considerations to create a formidable pixel pusher that currently has no equal. 7800 GTX boards can be bought from today for a UK retail price of £369. That's only some £70 more than a 6800 Ultra (15%), for a rough 40% increase in performance, should your wallet be up to the task.

The latest ATI Radeon X800 XL boasts 512MB of memory, yet fails to provide a significant improvement over cards with less RAM.

The Intel chipset roadmap may always move forward, but there are a lot of detours along the way. Mainstream motherboards naturally take a side street to their Performance class big brothers, but this time there is an express lane. Sure, Intel's current hot rod the i955X can blow the doors off its main stream cousin. However, the i945 is certainly more than just a compact class stripped down version with no thrills. With support for Dual Core processor and CPU's with a 1066 Front Side Bus, the GA-8I945P Pro has a price tag that won't force you to look at the used boards section.

“In this day and age of mobile and digital audio, it would only make sense to have the ability to listen to your music whenever you want and wherever you want. The car should be no exception and this time we get to take a look at one of those devices that gives you that ability to do just that.”

"High-definition television: Why bother? Surely HDTV is a plaything for the rich and self-indulgent, some cryptic form of digital television designed for Freemasons, just one more ridiculously overhyped and overpriced technology aimed at parting care-worn folk from their hard-earned cash. Right?

Wrong. The analog television standard we’ve been using since just after World War II is ludicrously obsolete. It was designed for round-cornered five-inch pictures that were mere portholes compared to the big screens that today’s home theater buffs demand. Trying to build a home theater system around 1948-vintage technology is like riding a horse in the slow lane."

"The s939 processors are intended to be AMD’s mid to high level processor platform as well as to bring together the s754 and s940 series processors. However, the new processor socket will not replace the 754 or 940 sockets. The 940 will continue in the server and workstation environment supporting the Opetron processor. The s754 will be home to AMD’s new value line, a cut down version, 32 bit only version of their s754 64 bit processors."

Sunbeam Tech is known for their computer modding supplies and accessories. Recently, they have entered the computer hardware arena. How so, you ask? Sunbeam Tech has released their new active PFC power supply line called the Nuuo. Today we look at the 550 Watt model.

To go along with our Socket 754 processor, we chose the cheapest compatible nForce3 250 motherboard we could find. NVIDIA's nForce3 250 chipset is the best Socket 754 solution out there, so our choice was simple. Biostar is known for their reliable motherboards and the NF325-A7 features 2x DIMM slots for up to 2GB of memory, 8x/4x AGP, 2x IDE channels, 2x SATA channels with RAID (0 and 1 configurations), 8x USB2.0 ports (4 in the rear), 5x PCI slots, integrated LAN, and Realtek ALC655 6-channel audio. All in all a very feature-rich board.

Hi, we just got words from LaCie about its new FA Porsche-designed biometric USB hard drive. The SAFE Mobile Hard Drive has built-in fingerprint authentication. While similar hard drives are pretty common, none of them supports Mac like LaCie does. The 5400-rpm 2.5" boxy, silverish bus-powered drive starts at $149.99 for 40GB, and $199.99 for 80GB.

“Logitech has proved themselves with the MX line of computer mice. With their innovations in wireless mouse technology, and with the great performance of the MX 700, Logitech has set the bar high, but hopefully not too high. Meet the MX 1000, Logitech's new laser mouse which claims to make the typical optical mice “obsolete.” Is it worth the hype or will it turn out to be a waste of money?”

"Overall, my experience with this product has been excellent. This aesthetically pleasing product was problem free, easy to install using a standard video connection and is packed full of features that will have your DVD player future-proofed if you decide to upgrade your TV to a high definition display sometime in the upcoming years. But with the advantages of this product, there are some hang ups."

Following our article on the ASUS Extreme N6600GT, we now look at another GeForce 6600 GT offering but from a different vendor - Gigabyte's GV-NX66T128D. Read on to find out what we felt about it.

"To celebrate the release of their two new digital cameras Samsung had a small event at their posh NYC pad. Held on the third floor of the Time Warner Center, this two-hour press event was thrown to celebrate the arrival of Samsung's Digimax Pro815 and the Digimax i5. Since the event was held at noon on a Friday it seemed like a great chance to get out of the office, play with some cool new toys, and score a free lunch."

"The Hyper 6 is probably considered Cooler Master's first high performance cooler. To this day, enthusiasts are still using the cooler. Well now, Cooler Master gives you something else to play with, the Hyper 6+."

About 18 months ago, Adobe loaded the bases with its fantastic upgrade from Photoshop 7 to Photoshop CS (8.0). I have to admit that I thought they would pretty much just phone in the next upgrade. They'd done such a good job with the transformation from 7.0 to CS that no one could blame them. But I was wrong. After spending the last month reviewing the BETA version of CS2.0 (Photoshop 9.0 - code named Space Monkey) I have only one thing to say:

Get out the rye bread and mustard grandma because Adobe has done it again. The new version of Photoshop is Grand Salami! I said that Photoshop CS was a must have upgrade. Accordingly, Photoshop CS2.0 is a must, must have upgrade.

FREMONT, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 06/21/2005 -- Antec, Inc., the leading manufacturer of computer hardware and accessories for the upgrade and build your own (BYO) markets, has launched P180, its latest Performance One series case for the gaming and high-end computing market.

P180 was designed from the ground up to provide the highest level of cooling, silence and stability to today's high-end PC users. The case features a breakthrough design with dual chambers to isolate the power supply and CPU in separate cooling zones for improved airflow and lowered system noise. Unique sound-deadening three-layer side panels minimize noise in even the loudest high-performance systems.

The innovative chassis accommodates up to Standard ATX motherboards, and features a highly configurable cooling system including three of Antec's 120mm speed-adjustable TriCool fans, an additional front 120mm fan mount and an adjustable VGA air duct with another 120mm fan mount for better cooling to the graphics card. Silicon grommets in all hard drive cages reduce hard drive vibrations, and a double-hinged front door opens to 270 degrees for easy access to internal components.

Eleven drive bays are provided for maximum expandability. There are seven expansion slots, two convenient front-mounted USB 2.0 ports, FireWire and audio connectors for easy multimedia connections. A built-in washable air filter keeps clean air flowing through the case.

"Antec prides itself on its commitment to silence, cooling, and reliability in all of its products," said Scott Richards, Antec worldwide vice president of sales and marketing. "With the P180, our goal was to create a case that addressed the most demanding needs of today's high-power gamers, of quiet computing enthusiasts, and of PC users of every sort in between. The result is a truly revolutionary case worthy of inclusion in a new category we call the Advanced Super Mid Tower."

The P180 is available for an estimated street price of $159 through major retailers, e-tailers and distributors. It is backed by Antec's Quality 3-Year Warranty.

"Measuring in at 64 x 21 x 10mm while having a storage capacity of 1GB, the Transcend JetFlash 110 is one of the smallest flash drives we have yet to see. Although this unit may be small, is it fast? You'll need to read the review to find out for yourself as we pair it against four other top-of-the-line thumb drives for our usual read and write testing."

Take a look at the review of this really interesting and unique case from Thermalrock, a division of Thermaltake. The looks will definitely catch your attention!

The Quake series is undoubtedly one of the most popular in the first-person-shooter (FPS) genre ever. The first iteration of the series is considered by many the father of multiplayer deathmatch also, so it’s no surprise that as we get closer to the estimated release date, more people are speaking about Quake 4 and the game's potential.

During this year's E3, a lot of people waited in line to watch the Quake 4 demo that ended up being a live gameplay session conducted by some of Raven’s designers and programmers. After having a closer look to the game, and a brief chat with one of Activision reps, we bring you our preview of Quake 4, so you can know a bit more of what to expect when the game is released by the end of this year (not official yet).

"The market is packed with MP3 players of all kinds. We have Apple’s iPod with delicate looks and a professional appeal as the top champion, at least when it comes to being a cultural accessory. We then have portable audio players from iRiver and Creative that are trailing the iPod in hopes of taking away from its market share, and from what it appears the trick depicts to be working somewhat. Then we have a few more hard drive players from the likes of Rio and others that are chugging along to justify their existence. That’s just with hard drive players, though. Once you move to the more portable and rugged flash players, the market becomes even more complicated."

Nvidia is putting the finishing touches on a little party for its local fan base this Tuesday in San Francisco, where the company will unveil its newest GeForce 7800 graphics processing chip and related graphics cards.

"Thin, svelte, appropriately wrapped in a black faux leather tuxedo and bow tie in a dazzling smooth chrome case; it appears as if it could mystically appear not just in your pocket but as a fashion statement accessorizing and fitting into anything you wear while performing all of the magical tricks you desire. "

So, all your friends have shiny new Radeon X850s and you are still getting by with your trusty old GeForce 4. Connect 3D has you covered with the next best thing, the Radeon X700 256MB Pro. Designed to compete with the popular GeForce 6600 cards.

“Imagine if you could take your movies, pictures, even your TV Shows with you all in one device? Well folks, you don't have to imagine anymore. Samsung's YH-999 Portable Media Center is more than just a glorified MP3 player. It's an entertainment center in the palm of your hand.”

"Today, PCSTATS will be looking at MSI's nForce4-4X entry, the K8N Neo3-F. This motherboard supports all AMD Athlon64 and Sempron Socket 754 processors and up to 2GB of single-channel DDR memory. As with other nForce 4 chipsets, PCI-Express is integrated and the K8N Neo3-F sports a full PCIe x16 slot for video cards as well as a single x1 slot for peripherals. A standard compliment of four SATA 150 ports and two IDE controllers are present, as well as four built in USB 2.0 ports and two more on the included PCI bracket."

"Like the ThermalRock Circle but a tad too big and heavy for you? Count on ThermalRock to have the answer. The Eclipse is great for LAN parties without sacrificing what's important in a case--the spacious room."

"AeroCool has brought to market a short list power supply with the Turbine Power 550. It is an efficient solution that can drive most anything you have to throw at it. There is ample power, connectors and separation of 12V rails to alleviate headaches on high end water coolers and the like. Their design plays nice with your customizations, no matter the level, without taking over as the centerpiece of your hard work."

Among the "extremely good" cases I've looked at are the genuinely tidy WaveMaster from Cooler Master which lacked the 120mm fans, the equally slick Shark and Tsunami from Thermaltake which were near-contenders but for the front doors, and one or two others I've had a chance too fondle and dismiss for various reasons.

While Nvidia has never denied that SLI’s speedup is application and usage dependent, we were impressed with ATI architects’ willingness to look for ways to make the 2nd GPU useful when applications, user demands, and/or host systems make it difficult for AFR or Scissor mode to produce a solid performance increase. As a result, CrossFire architects added support for two additional modes that SLI' have. (or at least not yet): Supertile and Super AA modes.

With so many companies now offering performance memory, it makes it harder to choose which one to buy. We are taking a look at Crucial's offering, the Ballistix PC3200. Is their memory with a purchase?

"Established in 1994, Mushkin Enhanced Memory Systems has always delivered a quality product. But to me this product seemed like that exotic car that you knew would be a solid performer but for some reason or another you always passed on it. Call it bad marketing or being lost in the crowed filled with an ever-increasing number of memory suppliers. Mushkin for the last year seems to have reorganized itself and is hitting the computer enthusiast market with force and they no longer seem to be the exotic you can’t decide on. So to help make your decision even easier in today’s review we’ll taking a look at one of Mushkin’s latest offering, the DDR High Performance Memory 2GB (2x1GB) HP3200 2-3-2 Dual Pack kit."

"Gigabyte is making a lot of noise at the moment with their new range of wireless networking equipment. Their new range has just made it into Australia and we've taken a look at their new goods. They sent us a wireless desktop router, wireless access point capable of A/B/G standards and a Gigabit Ethernet Adapter which uses the PCI Express bus for optimal speeds. We’re feeling all networky, so read on and learn more about the new products from Gigabyte."

"Has Google finally embraced RSS with their new XML powered Sitemaps program? Well, sort of, but it seems more like a hug than a strong impassioned embrace! "

With the rise of the nForce 4 chipset as the dominant form factor for the Athlon 64 family, we are seeing several new motherboard manufacturers break out of the pack. Soltek has been on the scene less that 10 years and have already made their mark with the SL-KT8Pro family. The SL-N4Pro-939 continues the tradition of offering full feature cards with window friendly looks. We put their latest to the test here at Club OC.

With NVIDIA's G70 on the horizon, the good news for the budgeters is that prices of former mid-range cards like the GeForce 6600 GT are likely to fall in future. Hence now would be as good a time as any, to find out if the ASUS Extreme N6600GT has what it takes for a good GeForce 6600 GT product.

“It's taken awhile to come up with a decision on this unit. I have reviewed a number of MP3 players so far but now it was time to get something for myself. I needed a lot of room for storage, good sound quality and the ability to record through a line in source. Will the mediaGear do the trick?”

Unfortunately, I was disappointed with Apple's actual announcement on Monday, which revealed not a bold strategy embracing the openness movement but confirmation that Apple is still a company locked in the time warp of the go-it-alone '70s. Apple agreed to switch from processors made by IBM to special processors made from Intel over the next two years - that's it. This is only slightly more significant than Apple choosing to change the hard disk or memory supplier it puts into its computers.

"As MP3 players continue to become one of the most common digital accessories, consumer electronics companies will persistently develop newer models with added features to make their products stand out. Although Apple’s iPod and other hard drive players are the popular players of all time, flash storage is getting just as much attention. While hard drive players allow you to store your entire music library and listen to it for days on end, they are not all that rugged. If you like to listen to music while exercising, Apple’s iPod or such players may not be to your liking due to their delicateness. No need to worry though, flash based players are targeted at the budget oriented users who doesn’t mind switching songs once they have listened to them enough time. Furthermore, flash MP3 players are solid enough to take on morning jogs and even to gyms for a quick workout."

" The I/O ports and power / reset buttons are located on the top of the case, at the front. This is excellent for people who put their computer on the ground, but not so good for people like me who have their system sitting on a desk."

Overall the Sunbeam Chromatic Windmill is a nice function panel which supports many features such as fan control, temperature display, overheat alarm and more. With the price of 40USD, the price is still acceptable because most of such function panels are around the same price. However, remember do not use the Chromatic Windmill to control high powered fans, as you might spoil it.

The Imation 16x DVD writer had some pretty good highlights like its short depth drive design, fast and precise DVD decryption and DAE, good media compatibility and write quality, but was unfortunately not without its downsides. Read on to see our views of the drive and if it warrants your attention.

"The premise behind the Trio name and design is the inclusion of three Analog style gauges which provide information on Volume level, Fan Speed and Temperature. While the Analog style gauges provide a retro look and feel, the design of the Trio is more modernized and futuristic. The Sunbeam Trio Case measures approximately 430mm (H) x 200mm (W) x 440mm (D) and is light weight at 7.8kg. The case supports mATX and Full ATX motherboard formats and is packaged with a generic 450W PSU. The eye candy for Sunbeam Trio Mid-Tower Case besides the Analog gauges is the inclusion of a pre-modified side panel window, show car paint finish and matching mesh material used on the front bezel for ventilation."

Spring time is usually a slow time for the computer industry, but Unlike many major companies, Seagate has been hard at work developing new products. One of their new product lines are the push button backup external hard drives. Seagate has sent over their best external drive, the huge 400gb External USB Hard Disk Drive. Talk about major backup space!

"If you've never heard of Mushkin's infamous Black Level II BH5, you should be ashamed of yourself and quit this computer hobby. Well Mushkin is back with blazing fast Winbond UTT BH5 but with a pretty red heatspreader."

An Ennyah graphics card is not something that we get in our labs that often so the Ennyah PCX6600 is indeed a rare guest. Read on as we interrogate it to find whether it is up to the mark.

"While it still does seem strange to most PC users and is an unheard of cooling method for most non-enthusiast users, water-cooling is becoming more mainstream. A few years back it was only a hardcore cooling method but nowadays there are many companies that release water-cooling products on the market. Some are very well known names and very well established companies in the PC components market, others are not so well known yet. Today we will check the work of 1A-Cooling, a German company which designs, builds and distributes their products mostly by themselves. Let us see what kind of fish they are in the water-cooling ocean."

"If you have ever visited a Linux support forum, the very first thing you will notice are the massive number of threads with questions similar to, "What Linux distribution should I use?" or "What is the best distribution for me?" Since these questions are asked by those who are unfamiliar with the open-source operating system and are possibly curious about it, do you ever wonder why that’s the scenario? It’s indeed very simple."

“The socially inept are getting a new lease on life, albeit a virtual one. The Internet, once the domain of hackers, crackers, and the like, has, for a while now, been attracting the "other" type. Social butterflies can hang up their cocktail dresses, because the new cocktail room is now the Internet.”

The C-Systems CSP-MAG is a next generation brushless DC pump that replaces the original CSP-750. The new CSP-MAG pump incorporates a seal-less design with jeweled bearings for high reliability and long operating life. The CSP-MAG is very compact and operates on 12 VDC just like the original CSP-750."

An H - Lock framed window is beautiful. This is a very time intensive project to get right but with the stunning results this mod is well worth all the effort. With this How-to we hope that we can help make this mod a little easier for you.

"Economical videocards of today allow users to experience all the same DirectX 9 eye candy that higher end models offer. This is quite a change from the past when both ATi and nVIDIA removed important features out of their low-end graphics processors in an attempt to cut costs. Times have changed for the better, and hopefully this will bring the world of full-fledged PC gaming to more consumers."

"NZXT takes the chassis of the Nemesis and slaps on a more stylish and sleek front panel. It's not as crazy looking as the Nemesis but it's still one great gaming case."

"A question that has been going back and forth now for a while is whether or not SCSI is dead for workstations. Has the advancements in SATA and the main-stream acceptance of 10K RPM Western Digital Raptor, made SCSI too expensive for what you need in a workstation? It's time we take a look at this under Linux and draw our own conclusions. We'll show you what we've found out about the Western Digital Raptor WD740GD as well as how it compares to the three latest Ultra320 SCSI drives: the Seagate Cheetah 10K.7, Seagate Cheetah 15K.3, and Seagate Cheetah 15K.4. In this review
we'll cover the technology of the drives, acoustics, heat, size, and
performance."

The task of setting up a home network has never been easier. With wireless routers and the many wizards built within Windows XP, a home network can be installed and setup within minutes. Gigabyte has a new wireless network product designed for everyone. Easy to use and very rich in features, the AirCruiser G Desktop Router puts 54Mps, literally, inside your PC. Whether its setting up a multimedia PC, or just making a low budget wireless Access Point, the AirCruiser deserves serious consideration.

"Overall, the Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB SATA II hard drive offers excellent performance and reliability. Although we did not have a pair of hard drives to test the RAID performance, I’m guessing that the 16MB buffer would boost the overall RAID performance. Given that you are planning to buy a newer motherboard with SATA II support, you should probably look out for DiamondMax 10. Although the price for a retail hard drive is about USD186 / RM700, you can always opt for OEM versions which come in a much cheaper price. Backed with a 3 years warranty and supporting various enhanced features such as the NCQ, you can never go wrong with Maxtor!"

" Single-core solutions are not going the way of the dodo just yet -- Intel still has two major updates headed towards the way of the single-core Pentium 4, and I'm sure that a refresh of the FX is in order for AMD at some near point in time. First of all, Intel plans to introduce two more 3.6 and 3.8 GHz models of the Pentium 4, but with an added kick: Vanderpool. Vanderpool is Intel's on-chip virtualization technology, which will allow you to run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same hardware. These parts will come with a model number of 662 and 672, respectively."

Upgrade your old Apple Power Mac G4 system with Sonnet's Encore/ST G4 processor upgrade kit. It's one of the best ways to keep your investment running like new. Is it worth the investment? Find out as we explore the Macintosh upgrading scene.

Codenamed Avalanche, the technology is similar to existing peer-to-peer file swapping systems, including the most famous - BitTorrent - that divide large files into many smaller pieces that are shared by all users and reassembled on your hard drive to create a copy of the original.

The Intel 955X chipset has proven to be a superior overclocker once again, with the ASUS P5WD2 Premium. Reaching a 300MHz FSB with a 14x clock multiplier, the total clock frequency was 4.2GHz. Combined with a DDR2 frequency of 1GHz the system produced a healthy bandwidth of almost 8GB/s. Although the memory settings were backed well off to just CAS5-5-5-18 at 1GHz the memory was still able to produce big bandwidths.

The chosen combination of Pentium M 770 and GeForce 6800 Go Ultra 256MB make for, without doubt, the fastest gaming laptop ever to grace HEXUS Labs, and I keep repeating this, ad nauseum, but it's just so damn quiet. The screen's pretty sharp, the keyboard's above average, and the chassis looks pretty cool. With the £2099 asking price and gamers in mind, I'd urge Dell to pre-configure a model with a 7,200RPM hard drive for faster loading and, perhaps, look into a better base warranty. Other than that, though, I'm struggling to find bad points about it without resorting to nitpicking.

"Toshiba held their annual line show this year in sunny New Mexico at the luxurious Hyatt Tamayo in the exclusive Rio Rancho section of Albuquerque on May 19th. As always, Toshiba put on a terrific show with the theme this year being advanced technology. Since the location for the line show was New Mexico, Area 51 was invoked as the ideal location for keeping advanced technology secrets. Toshiba married the advanced technology concept with their integrated marketing message that “Image is Everything.” And, for Toshiba, it certainly is!"

“There are plenty of cube-shaped bare bone systems out on the market these days. However, most of them force you to use their board built specific to the case so your options are limited when it comes time to upgrade. ANTEC provides a highly upgradeable alternative.”

In order to optimize PC performance, the KN1 Extreme includes NVIDIA nTune, enabling KN1 Extreme to operate at speeds up to FSB 2GHz. And KN1 Extreme has added a second 802.11g LAN connector to make this motherboard ideal for Internet connection sharing over a home network. KN1 Extreme supports four SATA2 ports through the NVIDIA nForce4 single chip as well as two standard SATA ports through the SiS180 controller.

"Yep, Apple continues to be the headlines winner all over the media outlets, and this time Dell is sharing the spotlight with the Macintosh maker. Yesterday, Dell’s Founder and Chairman Michael Dell e-mailed Fortune magazine (after being requested to comment on the situation) stating, "If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers." That’s a fairly bold statement coming from Dell considering that this declaration could possibly have a negative impact on the company’s relationship with Microsoft."

Equipped with the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset, the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe is armed to provide hard-core gamers with great performance and a rich selection of features. While you won't go wrong with this one, there are some things that you might want to take note.

AMD has won contracts from Net App over Intel and IBM has begun selling Blade Servers using AMD 64 Bit Opteron Processors. The competition is heating up.

"And carefully insert the other side of the clip on the three tabs on the tall side of the cpu base. Since the clip does not work by a "spring action", this may take a little time. After properly positioning the clip, tighten the screw. This retaining clip is really not any more difficult to install than the standard ones with a spring action."

Until recently we thought that heatspreaders are not necessary for DDR2 modules, because DDR 2 runs cooler than DDR1 due to its lower voltage. DDR2 modules in previous tests became just lukewarm. We had to change our opinion after running OCZ PC2-6400 at 2.3 volt. After a while these modules become quite hot and a quality heat spreader is therefore useful.

"The prospect of overclocking a computer system can be intimidating for a computer newcomer, to say the least. The idea is simple enough; make the computer's processor run faster than its stock speed to gain more performance without paying for it. The execution of this idea though, can be anything but simple."

"After we have gone through the details and performance that the Akasa PaxPower 460W power supply has to offer, we should know that it is a decent quality power supply. It comes with many great features such as the active PFC, nickel black coating and sleeving. As for the price factor, I think that the PaxPower 460W is slightly over priced for its class as the Antec TPII 480W that we reviewed previously was retailed cheaper. The Akasa PaxPower 460W should serve you very well if you're looking for a reliable 24-pin power supply. Unless you are going to GeForce 6800U SLi or maybe the CorsFire setup, then you should probably stay tuned for their 600W+ version."

"Logitech, a well known leader in the realm of computer devices, has expanded their already large line of wireless notebook mice to include the high-class V500. The V500 comes packed full of new features like an expandable chassis, a touch-sensitive solid state scrolling panel, and 2.4 GHz wireless technology. Coupled with a smooth look and compact body this mouse looks to mean business. Possibly considered the corvette of notebook mice, the V500 is certainly priced to fit this label. With a MSRP of $70USD (actual price online is around the $50 mark) it's certainly not for the light hearted."