The boys and girls who work in Cupertino have released some wonderful gadgets  over the years. At the same time, there are far too many people out there who blindly listen to Steve and buy Apple products without considering some suitable alternatives. Just as you would probably spend a good deal of time shopping around for a new car or even a new home, it pays to do some background research before splurging on a new gadget or gizmo too. It’s your money and you probably want to make sure that it’s well spent. Let’s have a good look at some of the best alternatives to Apple products, or in some cases, the best alternatives to products that Apple “reinvented”.

A Futurelooks Guide to Finding the Best Alternatives to Apple Products

A fact that many computer users overlook is that the ram in their system plays a critical role in both the stability and performance. It is important not only to have enough ram but also that your ram is good quality and fast. Join us as we test the speed and performance of the Patriot Viper's DDR3 1600 ram kit.

Patriot Viper II DDR3 1600mhz Triple Channel Kit @ TechwareLabs

The Lamptron FC5 is the company's high-end model to control fans, display their information as well as monitor the temperature within your chassis. The front of each FC5 is milled out of a single block of aluminum and the unit can power up to 4 fans with 30W draw each - all attributes of an excellent quality.

Lamptron Fan Controller FC5 @ techPowerUp

The ASRock 890GX Extreme socket AM3 DDR3 motherboard supports USB 3.0, SATA3 and eSATA3 drives. It is based on the AMD 890GX chipset with SB850 southbridge and offers a fast integrated HD4290 GPU with sideport memory. The performance and the basic equipment of this high-end ASRock motherboard is really amazing, and it is very interesting to see how easy this platform can be overclocked.

ASRock 890GX Extreme3 AMD Socket AM3 DDR3 Motherboard Review

Today we are unboxing the XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular Power Supply. This power supply is a modular power supply with support for the latest technologies including nVidia SLI and is perfect for both AMD and Intel based systems. The box gives lot of information on the outside including the DC and AC figures and once opened, the modular cables are kept in a handy carry bag inside a seperate compartment part of the box, from the power supply unit itself. It seems that XFX have taken a lot of time and invested a lot of money and though into the styling and functionality of this box. The box also has a convenient carry handle for transporting the box around.

XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular Power Supply Unboxing Video @ eTeknix.com

"Asus' Xonar Essence STX may be pricey, but for audiophiles or those with the money to spend on an excellent sound card, this is the one to get. It looks good and performs even better. It's made with high quality components throughout, right down to the capacitors and EMI shield and this attention to detail becomes evident right from the first listen."

Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card Review @ Tweaknews

Aftermarket cooling solutions have really stabilized over the past couple years, no longer are we seeing strange and exotic designs, and the solid blocks we find with our retail processors are the only remnants of that past technology.

Thermalright Venomous X Heatsink Review @ Ninjalane

NVIDIA might have hoped for otherwise, but even after the GTX 480's launch, AMD's Radeon HD 5870 still proves to be an excellent choice for the price-point. We're taking a look at PowerColor's PCS+ version here, which includes a robust cooler, quieter operation, a slight overclock, and a complete copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

PowerColor Radeon HD 5870 PCS+ @ Techgage.com

SuperSpeed USB-3.0 delivers a very dramatic improvement over the older USB-2 protocol. Bandwidth speed has increased from 480 Mb/s to 5000 Mb/s, and file transfer rates as fast as 400 MB/s are now possible; making SuperSpeed USB-3.0 very competitive with the Serial-ATA interface. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Super Talent RAIDDrive ST3U64SRK SuperSpeed USB-3.0 flash drive, a product with up to 128GB of capacity which utilizes two SSD controllers in a RAID-0 array. The Super Talent USB-3.0 RAIDDrive is capable of 320 MB/s according to specifications, making it the fastest USB flash drive on the market.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 22, 2010 – As part of a commitment to sustainable construction, Intel Corporation obtained its first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification – the internationally recognized stamp of approval from the U.S. Green Building Council – for Intel Design Center 9 (IDC 9), set to open in Haifa, Israel in June. Securing a Gold-level rating – one of the highest level LEED certifications – IDC 9 is the first building in Israel to receive this level of recognition for sustainable construction.

Today we are looking at the Foxconn FlamingBlade socket 1366 motherboard. This particular board comes with support for Intel core i7 and i7 Extreme processors, 3 DDR3 slots supporting upto 12GB of DDR3 memory modules of speeds upto 1800MHz (oc). It uses the Intel X58 ICH10R chipset and has integrated 7.1 channel HD gaming audio and Dual Gigabit LAN. A perfect board for enthusiasts and overclockers.

Foxconn FlamingBlade Socket 1366 Motherboard Video Review @ eTeknix.com

 

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The Patriot Valkyrie is a nice quiet alternative to the popular DNS-323 dual-bay NAS.  They both have basically the same feature set and Patriot makes theirs unique with the backup feature that can quickly and easily backup your USB media to the box.   The Bittorrent feature seems to work well, and the iTunes server works as advertised.  All-in-all, the overall experience was very good. . .

Patriot Valkyrie Dual Bay NAS - BCCHardware

Revolutionary PsykoWave 5.1 surround sound technology delivers a new layer of gaming immersion with precise 3D sound, instant positional awareness, and improved reaction times and kill ratios

Psyko ushers in the Dawn of Audio as a Weapon

Calgary, Alberta – April 22, 2010 – Psyko Audio Labs Inc., a leading innovator in PC Gaming headphone technology, is ecstatic to unleash the dawn of audio as a weapon through the immediate availability of the highly anticipated Psyko 5.1 PC Gaming Headset System to USA and Canada.  Psyko’s patented PsykoWave Technology empowers PC Gamers with an unfair advantage over the competition through precise 3D sound that drastically heightens awareness of your gaming surroundings.  Players can instantly identify and locate every gun shot, footstep, and explosion allowing for faster reaction times, higher player performance, and the most immersive gaming experience to date.

The HIS HD 5850 iCooler V Turbo is a fully customized HD 5870 that uses a non-reference PCB and heatsink. Instead of the standard clocks it comes at frequencies of 765 MHz core and 1125 MHz memory. Another highlight is the included Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game which is clearly one of the top games of the last months.

HIS HD 5850 iCooler V Turbo @ techPowerUp

We all seek the very best in computer equipment. When time comes to pick the pc case, I get very picky. Some of the important factors that play a big role in the perfect PC are ease of use, accessibility and quality of the actual case. For some people other factors may come in to play but never the less we all want perfection. Of course finding the right case could be a challenge. There is a number of manufacturers that engineer PC enclosures from scratch and there are some that claim to engineer them selves but somehow they look very much alike to some of the cases you may meet out there.

UMLan Article Release: Cooler Master CM 690 II Basic - Review

Removable HDD cage; more space to fit graphics cards

22 April 2010, Keelung, Taiwan – Lian Li Industrial Co. Ltd Ltd, announces yet another Mini-Q series – PC-Q08, after the successful launch of PC-Q07 last year.  With increased case depth and removable lower HDD cage, the PC-Q08 offers more room to fit full size graphics cards.  For power users who require maximum video performance, Lian Li’s Mini-Q PC-Q08 is the solution.

"The Rampage series has included Asus' flagship Intel motherboards for the past three generations, pushing the boundaries of what is possible when it comes to overclocking and innovation. Today we have the latest iteration in the ITShootout labs; the Rampage III Extreme. With features like mobile phone powered overclocking, insane voltage support and of course USB3.0 and SATA 6Gbps this new board represents the finest X58 has to offer."

Asus Rampage III Extreme Motherboard Review @ ITShootOut.com

The biggest mistake PC hardware enthusiast make with SSDs is grading them by their speed. File transfer speed is important, but only so long as the operational IOPS performance can sustain that bandwidth under load. Based on the high-performance SandForce SF-1200 SSD Processor, Corsair's Force F100 solid state drive is in an excellent position to take the entire market. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the 100GB Corsair Force SSD CSSD-F100GB2 against some of the most popular storage devices available and demonstrates that 4K IOPS performance is more important than speed.

Corsair Force F100 SandForce SSD Test @ Benchmark Reviews

Taipei, Taiwan—2010—EVERCOOL Thermal Corp., Ltd., one of the famous and professional cooler and fan brands in Taiwan. To design the creative cooling products to make users comfortably use computers or notebooks is the mission for each EVERCOOL developmental team member. Two NB coolers are launched?FIT and Zodiac II recently, they have been noticed by their individual appearances.

You don’t need to spend a fortune on fancy amps, equalisers or phantom power for good sound. With the AT2020 USB condenser microphone you just plug and play and you’ve got great studio quality recordings at the fraction of a cost. This is a great mic for beginners to enthusiasts. Check out the review for further info.

Audio Technica AT2020 USB Condenser Microphone @ Tech Lobby