We take a closer look at one of the latest HTPC cases coming from the mainly USA known brand Vidabox. A leading manufacturer of digital entertainment and control systems and solutions. They offer now there vCase3 case for the "build your own HTPC" freaks among us. How does this stand in the world of the case builders? Let find out

VidaBox SLIMv3 vCase3 Premium mATX HTPC Case Review @ Madshrimps

There is no such thing as a "perfect" OS, but given that Microsoft's Windows costs a pretty penny and Linux is free, it's a little strange that the latter can do certain things far better than the former. We're taking a look at our favorite ten, which includes the partitioner, automatic logon, troubleshooting, customization and more.

10 Things Linux Does Better Than Windows @ Techgage.com

As more and more people choose to embrace the mobile  lifestyle, the more they’ll realize that it’s perfectly suitable to rely on a notebook  for all of their computing needs. Even hardcore gamers, coders, graphic artists, and the like have been able to enjoy the mobile lifestyle with some very powerful portable system. With power though comes heat and heat is a very real enemy to portable electronics, especially laptops, even netbooks.

A Futurelooks News Flash - Futurelooks' Wish List of Features For The Perfect Notebook Cooler

Company Unveils Cutting-Edge 2.5-Inch Solid State Drives for the Consumer Market SAN JOSE, CA—April 8, 2010—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (OTCBB: OCZT), a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today unveiled the Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SATA II 2.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) Series. These are new enthusiast-class SSDs designed for consumers who are seeking unprecedented speed and reliability with the goal of enhancing both their daily computing experience and long-term productivity. “OCZ’s original Vertex Series of solid state drives have become a top seller due to the product’s exceptional performance and reliability,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. “The new Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SSD lines continue that tradition by incorporating the latest controller and firmware technology. They are an excellent solution for customers who are looking for improved transfer rates and best-in-class input/output per second (IOPS) for a wide range of uses, ranging from entertainment to workstation and tier 2 storage applications. Additionally, this new product line highlights our continuing determination to be the market leader in the high reliability memory and flash-based storage market.” Building on the features that distinguished their highly acclaimed predecessors, the Vertex 2 and Agility 2 incorporate a cutting-edge new controller design that delivers superior performance across the board. As the higher-end option, the Vertex 2 excels in 4KB random writes up to 50,000 IOPS and features transfer rates up to 285MB/s read and 275MB/s write. For the value-conscious enthusiast, Agility 2 provides similar performance at a lower price point and delivers identical read/write rates and 4KB random writes up to 10,000 IOPS. OCZ Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SSDs not only provide a faster, more responsive PC experience, but also promote cooler, quieter and more energy-efficient conditions compared to traditional mechanical hard drives. Built with SATA 3Gb/s, the drives easily integrate into today’s mobile and desktop platforms and feature TRIM support for Windows 7 systems. Available in 50GB, 100GB, 200GB, and 400GB capacities*, Vertex 2 and Agility 2 will begin shipping in the next few weeks through OCZ’s extensive global channel. Both series come backed by a three-year warranty and OCZ’s dedicated technical support for ultimate peace of mind.

HIS recently released its entry-level Radeon HD 5450 silent, low-profile graphics card targeted at those looking for a simple step-up from integrated graphics, packing all the essentials of this generation's GPUs. The model we're looking at has double the onboard memory at 1GB, native HDMI with 7.1 audio, and examining what it brings to the table with its added costs.

HIS Radeon HD 5450 1 GB @ techPowerUp

Crucial is popular for good reason, the reviews for their RAM have always been on a positive, with good reliability and overclocking ability. We will see if this is the case for their Value Ram kit as well.

Crucial DDR3 1333 Value Ram Kit @ TechwareLabs

San Diego, April 08. 2010

 

Mad Catz™ Interactive, Inc. (“Mad Catz” or “the Company”) (AMEX/TSX: MCZ), a leading third-party interactive entertainment accessory provider today announced that its new range of lifestyle Eclipse-branded accessories and Cyborg R.A.T.-branded premium gaming mice are now available for pre-order at Amazon.com.

 

Announced to critical acclaim at the 2010 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) and the 2010 CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany, the new range of products are due for release in Summer 2010 with consumer interest continuing to prove substantial based on online traffic received since the launch of the two websites (www.eclipsetouch.com and www.cyborggaming.com) designed to inform and update consumers on the benefits of the new product lines.

 

Products available for pre-order on the Amazon.com website include the following:

 

Triple Channel memory kits are a good investment for Intel Core i7 systems.
However, the test system for DDR3 memory modules is based on an AMD Phenom II processor and supports only the Dual Channel mode.
We have some nice Triple Channel kits for the 10 years ocinside.de April 2010 drawing, so it is obvious to test them on the AMD system with three modules, two modules and one module.
Let us have a look, how high the Crucial 3GB PC3-10600 Triple Channel DDR3 kit can be overclocked and if a purchase of the inexpensive Crucial 3x 1GB DDR3-1333 kit can be worthwhile also for an AMD Dual Channel system.

Crucial 3GB Kit DDR3-1333/PC3-10600 CT3KIT12864BA1339 Memory Review

"Motherboards supporting DDR2 memory are in limited demand these days. On the other hand, modern Athlon II and Phenom II CPUs are still backward-compatible with this memory as well. Consider this MSI 790XT-G45, if this is important for you."

iXBT Labs Review: MSI 790XT-G45 Motherboard

Overclockers around the world use Corsair memory kits for their high-speed performance. Similarly, Corsair SSD storage products have continued this tradition. The Corsair Nova V128 CSSD-V128GB2-BRKT is an Indilinx-ECO Solid State Drive kit that designed to deliver 270 MB/s maximum read speeds and offer 195 MB/s writer performance. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests ACHI speeds for the Corsair Nova-series V128 SSD against the fastest SSDs available.

Corsair Nova V128 Solid State Drive Test @ Benchmark Reviews

Today we are taking a look at a PSU from a new sponsor of ours. The well known Cougar have sent us their latest S550W PSU that we are going to be comparing both in performance noise vs some very high end PSU's on the market.

Cougar S550W PSU @ Rbmods

"The i3DSpeed informs you about performance of popular graphics cards and the best price/performance deals in the market. In this issue we added GeForce GTX 480, 480 SLI test results."

iXBT Labs Review: i3DSpeed, March 2010

Overclockers and PC hardware enthusiasts understand that system memory performs best with low latency and fast speeds, but both seldom come in the same package. Corsair offers the exception. Available with XMP eXtreme Memory Profile support, the Corsair Dominator-GT DDR3 memory kit can deliver 2000 MHz at CL7. Sold in dual- and triple-channel kits, Benchmark Reviews tests the CMG6GX3M3A2000C7 set against a wide range of modules in our RAM tests using the six-core Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processor.

6GB Corsair Dominator-GT 2000MHz DDR3 Memory @ Benchmark Reviews

"Zalman's new ZM-MFC1 Combo fan controller is a must-have device for the control freaks among us. With a beautiful front panel and a rich feature set, this product is a real winner. The device exudes quality and provides both wide functionality and intuitive controls to give the consumer a positive experience right out of the box."

Zalman ZM-MFC1 Five Channel Fan Controller Review @ Tweaknews

"Today we're going to review a top motherboard from ASRock. Actually, company's P55 series isn't very long, and even the second top P55 Extreme is more of a decent mid-end product. But P55 Deluxe is definitely a top solution with both rich features (SLI, 3 graphics slots, dual Gigabit LAN, top-class integrated audio, FireWire, USB/eSATA, etc.) and a nice addition to the bundle -- a SATA 3.0 daughterboard."

iXBT Labs Review: ASRock P55 Deluxe Motherboard

"This time we take a look at Microsoft's new Sidewinder X4 gaming keyboard. Earlier we've reviewed Microsoft's Sidewinder X6 keyboard, and this one is supposed to be a bit simplified and cheaper version, with some of the X6's features dropped. "

Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Gaming Keyboard Reviewed in Metku.net

The term Utgard stems from the Norse mythology and means "land of the giants", ruled by Utgard-Loki. The Xigmatek Utgard offers you a unique and useful set of features, wrapped into a sturdy, tall and good looking chassis. We dive into the story to find out if the case will be forgotten or live on just as the legend has.

Xigmatek Utgard @ techPowerUp

Delivers Superior Performance, Reliability and Greater Flexibility for Enterprise Application Storage

SAN JOSE, CA—April 6, 2010—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (OTCBB: OCZT), a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), announces the Company’s plan to enter mass production of the Z-Drive R2 Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, the second rendition of the original Z-Drive family. The Z-Drive R2 builds on the existing solution but provides greater performance and design flexibility due to the implementation of a series of optimized NAND modules. “Our 4th generation PCIe SSD, the Z-Drive R2, tackles the performance challenges facing enterprise IT professionals head-on” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. “The Z-Drive R2 is a total solution that delivers exceptional performance over a wide of range of applications due to its superior sequential performance, making it a winner in both high IOP and high-throughput environments. In addition, it is the only bootable and field serviceable PCIe SSD option on the market today, and due to an innovative interchangeable module design, it enables low cost field upgradability and capacity increases giving storage architects unprecedented flexibility.” The innovative Z-Drive R2 SSD maximizes bandwidth by taking the SATA bottleneck out of the equation and utilizes the speed advantages of the PCI-Express interface. Unlike competing solutions, the Z-Drive family is bootable and with 8 PCI-E lanes and an eight-way[1] RAID 0 configuration, the R2 delivers performance ideal for enterprise applications that are limited by HDD technology. What also makes the R2 especially exceptional is the use of interchangeable modules in the place of permanent, surface-mounted NAND; this unique feature-set is designed to make the Z-Drive field-serviceable and field-upgradeable. Addressing the emerging performance demands of storage area networks (SANs), workstations, and servers, the Z-Drive R2 creates new possibilities in enterprise data management. The R2 delivers extremely fast transfer rates up to 1.4 GB/s, while offering enhanced reliability and durability compared to mechanical hard drives. Promoting greater productivity for a broad range of applications spanning across virtualization, caching, and high-end storage, the Z-Drive R2 can also provide cost savings when considering the total cost of ownership (TCO) versus complex and hard to maintain HDD infrastructures. With capacities ranging from 256GB to 2TB, the R2 makes SSDs a viable alternative to large, power-consuming hard drive arrays. Furthermore, OCZ offers customization options for OEM clients that may require tailored hardware or firmware solutions for their business. More information can be found on our product pages here

"Asus has been uncharacteristically slow at delivering an affordable next-generation X58 motherboard, with the only product amongst its ranks to offer USB 3.0 and 6Gbps SATA being the flagship P6X58D Premium. Fortunately Asus has addressed this situation with today's launch of the P6X58D-E. Designed to occupy the price segment currently filled by the P6T, this new board boasts all of the features of its predecessor along with more powerful voltage regulation circuitry, a new colour scheme and those all-important next generation storage interfaces."

Asus P6X58D-E Motherboard Review at ITShootout.com