While I was over in Taiwan covering COMPUTEX Taipei 2010, I had the opportunity to go on a little excursion outside of the main city. It was on that day that we paid a visit to Kingston Technology, seeing how they did what they did. It was also on that day that they revealed two new products to us. Let’s start with those, before we head off into the deep recesses of the factory.
Futurelooks News Flash - COMPUTEX 2010 Flashback - A Tour of Kingston Technology's Factory and New Products"Hello everyone, Hi Tech Legion and Diamond Multimedia have collaborated to hold a month long contest to celebrate Independence Day. Starting on June 16, 2010 through July 14, 2010 we will be giving away up to two Diamond Multimedia products a week. Some included prizes will be the Diamond Radeon HD 5770 XOC and the New Diamond HD Wonder Media Player. Come celebrate Independence with a bang at Hi Tech Legion. Entry is simple and there are multiple ways to receive extra entries."
Independence Month Giveaway @ Hi Tech Legion"When it came time to overclock the modules, the system was tapped out at 2500MHz on air. Maybe some sub-zero cooling could help these modules scale a bit higher. These modules will, however, run at lower speeds with tighter timings. Cas 6 was run at up to 1940MHz, Cas 7 to 2058 and surprisingly Cas 8 to 2490MHz. The only problem is to get the modules to scale, you need to bump up the TRCD setting in the memory sub-timings."
Patriot Viper II Sector 5 PC3 20000 Cas 9 4GB Review @ OCCOver the past few years, we've been able to meet with Able Planet at CES and have come to know them as a major player in the high-end noise cancellation headphone market. The years have been kind and they have been able to expand their lineup to include mid-range products as well as the ability to turn their headphones into a high-end noise cancellation headset. . .
Able Planet NC500TF Noise Canceling Headset - BCCHardwareI might be a bit slow to the party, but I recently learned of a Sony proprietary application called Media Go. Since Sony decided to disable the 'Install Other OS' feature in its recent PlayStation 3 firmware, I decided to not update my PS3's firmware at all, or even use it for anything aside from Blu-ray movies. And because a lot of games I download through the PSP itself end up failing at the end, I needed a more reliable solution. That's where I stumbled on Media Go, and I have to say, my mind was blown.
Using Sony's Media Go to Backup and Restore Your PSP's Files @ Techgage.com"And the oscar goes to..."
SkyMall’s Most Bizarre Products – Part 4 @ Hardware Secrets"The Idapt I3 Universal Adapter provides a convenient way to charge three devices using only a single wall adapter. Idapt's I3 Universal Adapter comes with interchangeable tips and 3 slots that allows for one platform to function as a dock for any device. Shipping with 6 tips, and offering 20 in total, Idapt has come up with a stylish line of charging solutions that keeps something that should be simple exactly that."
Idapt I3 Universal Adapter Review @ Hi Tech Legion
"Silent Pro Gold is the 80 Plus Gold-certified power supply family that Cooler Master is releasing this month with models ranging from 800 W to 1,200 W, coming with some unique design choices. Let's see if the 800 W model will live up to the expectation."
"Today we have a couple of customized solutions based on the Radeon HD 5870 GPU. Both have proprietary coolers, and Gigabyte's card also has an original PCB. Besides, both graphics cards are factory-overclocked."
iXBT Labs Review: Gigabyte HD 5870 SOC, PowerColor PCS+ HD5870 Graphics CardsHigh-Definition content is available everywhere nowadays. We take a close look at what the drivers from AMD and NVIDIA offer in order to improve the quality of video playback. HQV Benchmark 2.0 uses 39 different tests that put the available image enhancement features in the spot light.
AMD & NVIDIA Video Enhancement Quality Tested @ techPowerUp"Over the past few years we have reviewed many processor cooling units. Most of them were heatsink fans (HSF) and some plain passive aluminium blocks, but some were all in one water cooling systems that are designed to do everything you want in a neat package.
Lately JoeB reviewed the CoolIT Domino ALC Watercooling Kit which scored a tremendous nine out of ten on our awards scale. CoolIT has to date produced many interesting all-in-one OEM, business and consumer products, ranging from single and dual CPU cooling up to custom and all-in-one GPU chiller setups. Today we have another CoolIT product though, the Coolit ECO A.L.C. all-in-one watercooler, ready for all modern sockets. "
If you know how to fix computers, have ever put a computer together, or can type faster than your aunt Edna, it’s a good chance someone in your family has asked you for help when their computer becomes something for the F.U.B.A.R record books. This happens to me on a monthly basis. I decided to write this out as helpful advice for anyone in a similar situation
So You SNAFU’d Your Computer? What Now? @ TechwareLabsFor every new chip design comes a fleet of new products. The launch of ATI's 5000 series powerhouses is already becoming old news. In the wake of leading edge technology there is always a turbulent sea of opportunity both for chip makers, partners and consumers. The turbulence there is caused by mid-range and budget products developed on new technology competing with high-end and mid-range products from past generations. One card released in this wild market is PowerColor's PCS+ HD 5550. The HD 5550 is based on the same "Redwood" GPU as ATI's mid-range 5670. While the 5550 was released by ATI as a low end form factor card, PowerColor model AX5550 512MD5-PP has beefed up the clock, memory, board and cooler to put some power into something most of us can afford.
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD5550 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews"Although the HD 5570 is not a gaming powerhouse, it is a very capable graphics card. This was clearly evident during the benchmarking process, as once the in-game settings were reduced, the HD 5570 continuously achieved playable frames-per-second in most of the games. This is an impressive feat for a graphics card that retails for $80. Still, there was a performance issue that just can not be overlooked. This is that where most manufacturers use DDR3 memory - XFX is using slower DDR2. This greatly reduces the GPU bandwidth and creates a situation where the on-board memory is limiting the graphics cards performance. In fact, in test after test it repeatedly fell behind the cheaper HD 5550."
XFX HD 5570 Review @ OCCIf I can describe the G.Skill Falcon II in one word, I would have to go with "fast" because this drive performs extremely well, especially when compared to the 5400RPM drive I am used to. With read and write speeds upwards of 150 MB/s, everything just feels so much snappier. Programs seem to open almost instantly, file transfers take less time, and my old Dell XPS m1330 laptop has become very snappy and feels like new again. So what's the catch? There is only one and that is the price that you will have to pay for this level of performance: over $2 per gigabyte of storage as compared to a few cents per gigabyte for conventional magnetic hard drives.
News - G.Skill Falcon II 64GB SSD Review at Overclockers Online"Some months ago we tested Cooler Master Hyper TX3 cooler, which has done well for a mainstream cooler. Cooler Master has revised this cooler and we decided to review this new version, which got the new part number RR-910-HTX3-G1, while the older version is internally called RR-910-HTX3-GP. Cooler Master is calling using the same name on this new version and therefore we decided to refer to the new revised model as "Hyper TX3 G1" to avoid confusion."
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 G1 CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Secrets"Today for this review I will be looking at a new product from our old friends at Thermaltake. The product I will be looking at in this review is one of their chassis. Said chassis is a new product with a reputable name the Armour A90. As always coming from Thermaltake, and with the Armour tag, I expect nothing less than quality.."
Thermaltake Armor A90 Chassis Review @ XtremeComputing