Motherboards.org Reviews

Review ImageEPoX AF570+ Ultra nForce 570 Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 12-29-2006 Category: Motherboards

EPoX has done a good job with the 570 Ultra chipset. It has many of the features of last year’s nForce 4 Ultra chipset. The only real glaring omissions from the board is the lack of a second PCI Express x16 slot, but the ordinary

Review ImageXFX GF 8800GTX 575M SLI Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 12-28-2006 Category: Hardware

The 8800GTX is the fastest single graphics card on the market today bar none. The performance with two of them just flat outperforms everything on the market and then some when it works. Two of these cards working together in SLI

Review Imageabit NF-M2 Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 12-15-2006 Category: Motherboards

Positives of this board include the integrated graphics, dual monitors without the need for an external graphics card and support for the AMD Live digital home. While gamers will want to steer away from any integrated graphics on

Review ImageDIAMOND X1950 Pro Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 12-13-2006 Category: Hardware

The DIAMOND X1950 Pro is an interesting contrast to the other X1950 Pro from ASUS I reviewed recently. The card performs better in many respects, but as the cards are identically clocked, this could be due to the driver on the dri

Review Imageabit IL9 Pro Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 12-12-2006 Category: Motherboards

The abit IL9 Pro is an interesting mix of a board. The board is not an enthusiast board but is available on Newegg for under $85, matching or lower than the price of some available 945P boards. The IL9 Pro is a good choice for tho

Review ImageBIOSTAR TForce 590 SLI Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 12-06-2006 Category: Motherboards

The Biostar TForce 590 SLI motherboard is an excellent purchase choice for those wanting a Socket AM2 platform for their next computer. The hype surrounding the new Intel Core2 CPUs means that most people wanting the high-end will

Review ImageASUS P5W64 WS Professional Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 11-30-2006 Category: Motherboards

This is a great board for those seeking a workstation class motherboard that has multiple-monitor support. Stability and options are the P5W64 WS Pro’s stand-out features. The lack of any PCI-X slots for 32-Bit SCSI may be dauntin

Review ImageECS KN3-SLI2 Extreme AM2 Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 11-26-2006 Category: Motherboards

The ECS KN3-SLI2 board retails online for a mere $119 at the time of this writing. At this price point, the board makes a compelling argument as you get the performance and features of the nForce 590 SLI chipset without having to

Review ImageGIGABYTE 7900GS TurboForce GV-NX79G256DP-RH Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 11-20-2006 Category: Hardware

The GIGABYTE 7900GS is an excellent card for the money in terms of today's performance and features, outperforming the 7900GT in many instances and outperforming ATI's X1950 Pro in many instances on the performance spectrum. This

Review Imageabit AB9 Pro Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 11-16-2006 Category: Motherboards

Performance on the AB9 Pro board was excellent, typical of the 965 chipset series motherboards seen thus far. Overclocking on the board went well, with uGuru clocking the CPU up to 10% above default with no stability issues and th

Review ImageASUS 680i SLI Striker Extreme Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 11-15-2006 Category: Motherboards

The ASUS Striker Extreme Motherboard has all of the features that you would want from a motherboard today. The nForce 680i chipset is designed for the extreme overclocker and the ability to run two graphics cards in SLI mode is al

Review ImageEVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 11-14-2006 Category: Motherboards

As far as the 680i goes, I liked what we saw here in the lab, as stability was excellent, and its design is quite nice as well. For those wanting an entirely NVIDIA based motherboard and VGA combination for the Intel platform, thi

Review ImageASUS GeForce EN8800GTX/HTDP/768M Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 11-09-2006 Category: Hardware

The future is Microsoft Vista and Shader Model 4, and the GeForce 8800GTX is the first fully compliant Pixel and Vertex Shader 4 card on the market. That means even if you purchase the card today, it will allow you to play the gam

Review ImageXFX GeForce 8800 GTX Video Card Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 11-08-2006 Category: Hardware

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than ATI's most loaded, able to render millions of Pixels in a single bound, it's going to burn the comp, that's the plan and it's NVIDIA, yet once again. The GeForce 8800 series signal

Review ImageASUS EN7900GS TOP Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 11-06-2006 Category: Hardware

This card sports a lot of surprises for a 7900GS card. The performance of the card is on par with the slightly more expensive 7900GT reference card, and that is a good thing. The ASUS EN7900GS TOP is available on Newegg's website

Review ImageIntel QX6700 Extreme Quad Core CPU Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 11-01-2006 Category: Hardware

Anyone who runs applications like Photoshop for Photo editing or Maya 3D and CAD for modeling will see huge benefits from the QX6700 Extreme as its multithreading abilities will be taken advantage of. In another instance if you ar

Review Imageabit AW9D-Max Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 10-30-2006 Category: Motherboards

Intel is set shortly to announce their first Quad Core CPUs, according to their roadmaps. abit has assured me that the AW9D-MAX will support the Kentsfield CPUs. The AW9D-Max is an interesting mix of a 975X motherboard performance

Review ImageGigabyte Poseidon Case Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 10-28-2006 Category: Hardware

Overall the case has good looks, and an ergonomic design that combined with its predisposed nature to use a liquid cooling kit, makes it ideal for the enthusiast's user who wants to use the best cooling available. There is enough

Review ImageASUS M2N32 WS Professional Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 10-26-2006 Category: Motherboards

The ASUS M2N32 WS Professional board is unique in several ways. First it's about the only board on the market today with PCI-X slots on the Socket AM2 platform. PCI-X can use both the PCI-X devices and PCI devices, meaning you los

Review ImageEVGA 256-P2-N612-TX e-GeForce 7600 GTS Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 10-19-2006 Category: Hardware

For a street price of $116 after mail-in rebate, the 7600GTS is a good alternative to the 7600GT, as its performance is very nearly the same, but the price is lower. After consultation with EVGA, they say the 7600GTS is a cross be

Review ImageASUS M2R32 MVP Crossfire Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 10-17-2006 Category: Motherboards

The M2R32-MVP is a good solid choice without all the frills that a Deluxe or an ASUS Premium Edition board would carry. Things like a Wi-Fi AP Solo or extra SATA ports are not included, but the pricing should reflect this. Feature

Review ImageASUS P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi-AP Edition Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 10-13-2006 Category: Motherboards

With the release of the new BIOS that fixes the issues with the P5B Deluxe motherboard and Crossfire on the Prescott CPUs, there isn't a reason not to recommend this board for the included features, as it scores over 40 on our Fea

Review ImageABIT Fatal1ty AN9 32X Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 10-10-2006 Category: Motherboards

ABIT has done a wonderful job with the Fatal1ty AN9 32X board. The board scored over 40 points on our features scoring system, with SLI, Firewire and other features making it one of the most feature-rich boards on the market. Perf

Review ImageGIGABYTE 965P-DS3 Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 10-09-2006 Category: Motherboards

The first foray into the Intel 965 world has left me with a few very good positives. First, performance seems to have increased over earlier chipsets, due to the new memory controller. Second plus of the new chipset is the new Sou

Review ImageATI TV Wonder 650 TV Tuner Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 10-04-2006 Category: Hardware

For a MSRP of $129, the TV Wonder 650 brings a lot of capabilities to the computer. These include free OTA HDTV (with an amplified antenna attached), cable television reception, a FM radio, a DVD Player, a Personal Video Recorder,

Review ImageGigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 09-29-2006 Category: Motherboards

GIGABYTE has done a wonderful job with the GA-M59SLI-S5 motherboard. S5 stands for Silent Pipe, SLI, Speed, Smart and Safe. The board offers these features in spades. The addition of the Multiple SATA port adapter means that you c

Review ImageATI Radeon X1950XTX 512MB Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 09-26-2006 Category: Hardware

ATI's X1950XTX is supposed to be retailing for $449 as a MSRP. It is currently available at Newegg.com for $419, not a bad price for what you get. Performance in the high-end today is sufficient for high resolution gaming with ant

Review ImageSpire Verticool II SP601B3 Heatsink Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 09-19-2006 Category: Hardware

Now, with a considerably lower mass than many other sinks out there, it stands as a wonder that this sink was capable of holding a load when the temperatures ramped up. The only thing of worry, is that these figures may change dep

Review ImageSpire SP512S7 CPU Heatsink Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 09-17-2006 Category: Hardware

Enthusiasts shouldn't be expecting the world from such a small heat sink, but at the same token, there's no chance of breaking the bank, bending the board, or even botching this installation. So in the end, this sink is an excelle

Review ImageXFX GF 7950 GT 570M 512MB Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 09-14-2006 Category: Hardware

A big plus of the 7950GT is performance that rivals that of the 7900GT of earlier this year for $299, over $100 less than the MSRP of the 7900GT at launch. It is always interesting to see how video card manufacturers package their

Review ImageAMD's Energy Efficient Processors: 4600+ and 3800+

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 09-12-2006 Category: Hardware

Intel and AMD are moving towards more efficiency in their CPUs and that's a good thing. The "Green" initiative is about conserving energy and saving our environment. With power requirements on every facet of the computer going up

Review ImageXFX GeForce 7900GS PV-T71P-UDE3 Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 09-07-2006 Category: Hardware

With the announcement of the 7950GT and the 7900GS, NVIDIA looks to bring the 79xx series into the upper mid-range of the market with price points of $199 for the 7900GS. At this price point, you get all of the performance and fea

Review ImageMSI K9A Platinum Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 08-31-2006 Category: Motherboards

Features on the K9A Platinum come just short of the 40 point maximum that is possible on our chart. Performance is right there among the best of the AMD AM2 platform so far. The retail bundle of the K9A Platinum is a bit of an unk

Review ImageEVGA nForce4 SLI x16 Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 08-21-2006 Category: Motherboards

The EVGA 123-K8-NF47-AX is an excellent example of the nForce4 SLI x16 platform. With the recent launch of the Socket AM2 platform, the Socket 939 CPUs will likely disappear over time. For those wanting to upgrade their nForce3 mo

Review ImageASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 08-18-2006 Category: Motherboards

The ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe is an excellent example of NVIDIA's nForce4 for Intel x16 SLI motherboards. The fact that I was able to install and run an X6800 Core 2 Extreme CPU on the board is a definite plus, as the new Intel CPUs a

Review ImageCooler Master Musketeer III Tube Amplifier Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 08-14-2006 Category: Hardware

Sure it might be a novel idea, and an easy way to get a front audio port, but what did you guys really expect - that a $50 audio "enhancer" could turn terrible, bottom of the barrel audio ICs around, and pump theater quality surro

Review ImageCooler Master eXtreme Power Duo 650W Power Supply Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 08-09-2006 Category: Hardware

Though it didn't have the most stellar results coming out of the gate, or the most comforting design, Cooler Master's eXtreme Power Duo 650W is a fairly good buy for the price. Generally, it seems to be a power supply for gamers o

Review ImageMushkin Enhanced XP650 Power Supply Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 08-08-2006 Category: Hardware

So what is it, you ask, that makes this unit stand out? Apart from everything I've listed above - the stable power, good looks, and handy modular capability - it's just that feeling of security, when working with the beefiest comp

Review ImageABIT KN9 SLI Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 08-04-2006 Category: Motherboards

ABIT has done the job well with the KN9-SLI motherboard. The board retails on Newegg for $130 USD, the price point is excellent. The performance is below that of the nForce 590 SLI boards that we have tested, but those boards are

Review ImageEVGA e-GeForce 7600GS 512MB Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 08-01-2006 Category: Hardware

With the announcement of the AMD-ATI merger, the video card market is in a state of flux. The 7600GS is a good mainstream card, available on Newegg for $129.99 after a $20 mail-in rebate. For this price, you get 512MB of memory; d

Review ImageSansun Galaxy Case Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 07-31-2006 Category: Hardware

A good design, plenty of features, a full complement of fans, and good looks - so what's stopping Sansun from coming out slugging? Once again, I've got another case that'd be a damn hard one to find out there in the open market, w

Review ImageMushkin XP2-6400 Memory Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 07-28-2006 Category: Hardware

Pick your poison ladies and gentlemen - CAS3 DDR2-800, or CAS4 DDR2-1066, either way this memory was smoking fast. Right out of the gate, there were some problems with overclocking, though when an additional power connector was at

Review ImageASUS EN7600GT Silent Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 07-26-2006 Category: Hardware

The 7600GT supports all DirectX 9.0 features including Pixel Shader 3.0 and Vertex Shader 3.0. These are the features that one should look for when purchasing a video card today, as virtually every game released today require them

Review ImageABIT AW8D Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 07-21-2006 Category: Motherboards

The AW8D board is an excellent example of an Intel 975X board with one rather big exception. Total lack of support for the new Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Duo CPUs means that those wanting this motherboard are limited to the current

Review ImageFOXCONN C51XEM2AA AM2 Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 07-19-2006 Category: Motherboards

The FOXCONN board is the third AM2 platform motherboard on our test bench. In terms of features, the C51XEM2AA covers the bases nicely, with SLI, LinkBoost, SLI memory, Firewire and everything else you would expect from a modern m

Review ImageIntel Core 2 Extreme / Core Duo Processor Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 07-18-2006 Category: Hardware

Wow, not only did Intel make a comeback they have done it in a much cooler fashion, as the new X6800 and E6700 CPUs are not only fast and furious, they run at a much lower temperature threshold than the previous generation Pressle

Review ImageCorsair Nautilus 500 Water Cooler Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 07-14-2006 Category: Hardware

To the point, though. For $150, you could either outfit the perpetual in your system with good, silent air cooling, or the Nautilus 500, and considering that you'll be running just one fan instead of several, it just makes sense t

Review ImageECS KA3-MVP Extreme Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 07-11-2006 Category: Motherboards

Feature-wise, the ECS KA3-MVP motherboard includes the ability to Crossfire two ATI cards, 7 SATA devices, a Gigabit Ethernet controller, and two Firewire ports. The minimal expansion on the board is a bit disappointing, but the m

Review ImagenForce5 590/570 SLI Intel Family Preview

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 07-10-2006 Category: Hardware

SLI works well for those wanting the absolute best performance in games today, especially when NVIDIA 7950GX2 cards are utilized in SLI (“Quad-SLI) or two 7900GTXs are used in SLI mode. The extra features such as DualNet, FirstPac

Review ImageEVGA 7900GTX 512MB SLI Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 07-06-2006 Category: Hardware

One thing that sets EVGA apart from other companies is the support EVGA puts behind each and every product they sell. If you go onto EVGA's message boards, it is clear that they care about the customer. Lifetime Warranty, 24/7 Tol

Review ImageCoolermaster Centurion 534 Case Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 07-03-2006 Category: Hardware

To be fully honest, I loved this case since it came out of the box. It's fit and finish is superb, and its good cooling is backed by a well thought out design. While it may be impaired by a half heartedly designed side panel, and

Review ImageThermaltake Safari BX-01 BTX CPU Cooler Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 06-23-2006 Category: Hardware

As to the performance, though? Very, very good if you pick apples with oranges on the Gigabyte 8I955X Royal I had used as a test platform for a while, though testing could be only done at stock. Though future testing may be done,

Review ImageUltra Products: Microfly SFF Case Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 06-22-2006 Category: Hardware

Overall, I'm quite happy with the Microfly. This, of course comes after using it for a few days on end as a 'Daily Driver' type of machine. It's sturdy, and has enough airspace that cooling is decent, without forward intake. On th

Review ImageFoxconn NF4SLI7AA-8EKRS2 Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 06-20-2006 Category: Motherboards

FOXCONN hass done a good job with the NF4SLI7AA-EKRS2 motherboard. The board supports CPUs up to the 8xx series, with the 9xx series requiring a nForce 5 for Intel board instead or a 975 board from Intel Otherwise, for the street

Review ImageComputex Day 5: The Makings of a Motherboard

Author: Tulatin Date: 06-17-2006 Category: Hardware

When you look into the quality control of the new boards, and just how much they go through, it's basically a complete turnaround from the ECS I once knew, aka the vender who ran with PC-Chips. The boards have gone from functional

Review ImageComputex Day 4: Closing with Interest

Author: Tulatin Date: 06-16-2006 Category: Hardware

Computex was really and truly a blast for me. With this being my first time around this block of the tech world, I wasn't jaded or bored by the show in any way - for me it was like walking through a giant computer store with ALL t

Review ImageGIGABYTE M57SLI-S4 Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 06-13-2006 Category: Motherboards

GIGABYTE has done an outstanding job in most respects with the M57SLI-S4 motherboard. Performance on the board was below that of the nForce 590 SLI board, but that is to be expected as the 590 is the enthusiast model and the 570 i

Review ImageMotherboards.org at Computex Taipei 2006: Day 3

Author: Tulatin Date: 06-11-2006 Category: Hardware

After one hell of a long day, and just under 500 photos shot, it felt good to hit the nightlife. The trade show was going great, and with the flight to China coming the very next day, my body needed a little R&R. Especially after

Review ImageMotherboards.org at Computex Taipei 2006: Day 2

Author: Tulatin Date: 06-09-2006 Category: Hardware

Who else showed you overclocking Core 2 Duo at Intel. More to the point, though. The remainder of our coverage (a healthy dose of Thermaltake, Coolermaster and others), will be posting on the eve of the morrow, and you can rest a

Review ImageMotherboards.org at Computex Taipei 2006: Day 1

Author: Tulatin Date: 06-08-2006 Category: Hardware

What a way to spend a first day - caught up in the contests and products of Gigabyte, impressed by the diversity and quality at ECS, and absolutely gobsmacked by Corsair's performance. If there anything more that I can ask for? We

Review ImageXFX GeForce 7950 GX2 XXX Edition Video Card Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 06-06-2006 Category: Hardware

As far as sheer performance goes, all I can say is WOW! At this moment in time, the XFX 7950GX2 XXX Edition is unchallenged as the fastest single out of the box 3D card in existence and will challenge most SLI systems as well. Aft

Review ImageMotherboards.org at Computex Taipei 2006: Day 0

Author: Tulatin Date: 06-05-2006 Category: Hardware

Today, I’ll be covering the basics of the core of your system, and sitting down with Gigabyte, ECS and Corsair, talking about all sorts of future issues and potential things, such as support for the Conroe chip on current and futu

Review ImageGIGABYTE X1900XTX Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 06-05-2006 Category: Hardware

The X1900XTX is the best available video card on the market today in terms of image quality. The ability to use HDR+MSAA in games like Oblivion makes the X1900XTX the choice for the discerning high-end consumer. I've always felt t

Review ImageEvercool WC202 Water Cooler Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 06-01-2006 Category: Hardware

In the end, everything came across quite well. The kit was able to keep the chip chilly, even at increased frequencies. It didn't leak, or demand extra liquid or even begin raising its fan past the indoor volume. Heck, everything

Review ImageASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wi-Fi Edition Motherboard Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 05-31-2006 Category: Motherboards

This board has a lot to offer the user as it has anything you might need to get up and going including a Wireless Wi-Fi connection that in today's world is a real plus feature. Everything you can ask for in a board is available on

Review ImageAMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ / FX62 CPU Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 05-23-2006 Category: Hardware

This round shows the gap between Intel and AMD taking a wider gap in favor of AMD for the first time; to be candid the FX62 was a smoking gun as an out of box product. AMD has really made advancements the past year with new faster

Review ImageASUS EN7800GT Silent Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 05-22-2006 Category: Hardware

The 7800GT is still a great card for the high-end enthusiast. While it has been replaced in NVIDIA's lineup by the 7900GT, there currently isn't a higher performing card that's passively cooled. ASUS has done an admirable job with

Review ImageThermaltake Typhoon Heatsink Roundup

Author: Tulatin Date: 05-18-2006 Category: Hardware

After that unfortunate defeat at the Overclocked section of the Intel area, I'm sure that some wind has been taken from the sails of the Mini Typhoon. But for me, that's hardly the point. What matters here is that with a little mo

Review ImageASUS P5WD2-E Premium Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 05-16-2006 Category: Motherboards

The ASUS P5WD2-E board supports a lot of features. So many features, in fact that it scored over 40 in our Features rating scale taking it off the charts so to speak. Crossfire is supported on the 975x platform if you are looking

Review ImageUltra ULT31664 1GB PC3200 Memory Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 05-14-2006 Category: Hardware

Though priced a touch on the high side, and meeting us with disappointing overclocks, the simple fact that these modules ran perfectly with tightened latencies out of the box, and the fact that they're backed by a lifetime warrant

Review ImageECS 945G-M3 Motherboard Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 05-07-2006 Category: Motherboards

Well, in the end, the integrated video did take a hit out of the overall performance, but not enough of one to slow this machine down all too far. For the money, the 945G-M3 proves to be a good investment for your basic machine, o

Review ImageASUS EAX1600XT Silent Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 05-05-2006 Category: Hardware

ASUS has put together an excellent package with the X1600XT Silent. You get totally silent operation, the features you expect from a video card today and the performance to play games like Oblivion and F.E.A.R. at medium resolutio

Review ImageCorsair DDR2 XMS2 PC2 8500 Memory Kit Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 05-03-2006 Category: Hardware

Outlandishly fast, straight from the box. Perhaps the most impressive thing I've found to Corsair over time is that they've got a beautiful balance of a forgiving nature, and raw power in the products. With the sheer ease which I

Review ImageOCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 PEL-XTC Dual Channel Memory Kit Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 05-02-2006 Category: Hardware

Unfortunately, a great name and cool looking modules just can't make up for piddly poor overclocking at such a high price point ($170 at time of writing) for this kit. For $50 less, you can purchase yourself a nice, entry level ki

Review ImageGIGABYTE GA-8I945GMH-RH VIIV Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 04-30-2006 Category: Motherboards

As a Digital Home Entertainment platform, VIIV has a heck of a lot going for it. Intel's High Definition Audio standard, plus the other features makes it a compelling value addition to any motherboard bundle. The GIGABYTE GA-8I945

Review ImageScythe Kamariki II PSU Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 04-28-2006 Category: Hardware

Good points on the Kamakiri II include the silent operation, the steady power under load, and the myriad of connectors. I would like to thank our sponsors at Directron for providing the PSU for review, but can't recommend it for S

Review ImageUltra X-Finity 500W/500W+ APFC PSU Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 04-24-2006 Category: Hardware

With ever rising energy costs in all forms, and the habits of some users to be overtly clumsy (with an input voltage of 100-240V, you're mostly covered), we'd figure that you're set when it comes to a solution here. As such, we'd

Review ImageSapphire Pure CrossFire Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 04-21-2006 Category: Motherboards

In terms of features, the PC-A9RD580 motherboard from Sapphire is in a decent position, due to the inclusion of Crossfire support, 8 SATA ports, and generally high performance for the AMD Athlon 64 platform. This Crossfire platfor

Review ImageCoolermaster Ammo 533 Case Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 04-18-2006 Category: Hardware

In the end, while the military styling might not win you over, the rugged construction, beautiful ease of use, and convenient features (the handle is just plain cool) should. While we definitely aren't happy about the lack of spac

Review ImageDiamond X1900XTX Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 04-17-2006 Category: Hardware

Diamond has done a wonderful job with their X1900XTX card, in that the card is an ATI reference card through and through. Virtually every X1900XTX manufacturer has followed ATI's reference design for the X1900XTX cards, in PCB lay

Review ImageSuper Talent T800UX2GC4 2GB PC2-6400 Memory Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 04-12-2006 Category: Hardware

Though aesthetics may not have been the forte and flavor of the day, the ability to hit PC2-6400 speeds right out of the box, not to mention the further increase to near the border of DD2-1000 was indeed quite nice. Along with tha

Review ImageMushkin XP2-5300 Memory Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 04-10-2006 Category: Hardware

High capacity, high speed, and slick looks make this memory a very solid product. Couple that with swanky new heat spreaders that’ll keep the sweltering chips chilly when the clocks go sky high, and you’ve got a formula to come ou

Review ImageGIGABYTE GA-G1975X Turbo Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 04-09-2006 Category: Motherboards

GIGABYTE has done a wonderful job with the GA-G1975X Turbo motherboard. Feature-wise it scores at the top of the features chart with 39 points on our scale. The ability of the board to do Crossfire and the inclusion of a SLI bridg

Review ImageThermaltake Coolers from Mild to Wild: A Three Sink Comparison

Author: Tulatin Date: 04-05-2006 Category: Hardware

With the fans finally spinning down, we can see that through mounting difficulties, the monstrous heatsinks, predictably, came out on top. While there are no clear cut recommendations to be made today, we're hoping that this revie

Review ImageATI Crossfire Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 04-04-2006 Category: Hardware

The performance of two X1900s is simply mind-blowing when a game works with it properly. NVIDIA has a solution with four GPUs, Quad-SLI but this isn't on the market in any numbers as of yet and will cost the buyer 2x or more a Cro

Review ImageThe Ultra Products Aluminus Case Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 03-29-2006 Category: Hardware

With its amazing features, amazing looks, and its sturdy construction, there's little not to love about the Aluminus case, that is, up until you hit the price tag as it is a bit pricey at $140.00 and that can be a determent to tho

Review ImageGigabyte 3D Galaxy Liquid Cooler Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 03-26-2006 Category: Hardware

There are many liquid cooling solutions out there to choose from, the good things about the 3D Galaxy are it's really good looks, its ergonomic design and its price. As far as being the best cooling solution out there, no it's not

Review ImageXFX 7600GS XT SLI Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 03-25-2006 Category: Hardware

The XFX 7600GS is a good example of what kind of performance you can expect from a mainstream video card today. And it's a good one. The card is on Newegg today for a price of $143, putting it squarely against a X1600XT in price c

Review ImageECS KA1-MVP Extreme Motherboard Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 03-22-2006 Category: Motherboards

A solid board backed by a good price, sprinkled with much needed features in the way of exotic options, and you've got yourselves a winner here from ECS. While it may not be destined to take the top of the crops in the record book

Review ImageSpire Rocketeer 500W PSU Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 03-20-2006 Category: Hardware

Spire has done a good job with their Rocketeer 500W Power Supply Unit. Performance on the unit was stellar, easily handling SLI and Crossfire on two different systems. With more and more dual video card systems sold today, SLI or

Review ImageASUS EAX 1900XTX Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 03-17-2006 Category: Hardware

So the bottom line on the card is this. A X1900XTX provides the best image quality experience bar none on the market today. I guess I have to make a decision as to where I rate the EAX 1900XTX card. At a retail price of $650, and

Review ImageEVGA nForce4 133-P4-NF51-AX Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 03-13-2006 Category: Motherboards

EVGA is still earning their merits in the motherboard arena as they are known primarily as a kickass provider of NVIDIA based video cards. The 133-P4-NF51-AX is their fourth motherboard. In general, the board performs very well an

Review ImageNVIDIA GeForce 7 Phase 2 Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 03-09-2006 Category: Hardware

The spring lineup for NVIDIA cards is a strong one in many respects. The decreased die size of the chips compared to the last generation and the move to the 90 nanometer process, will likely combine to increase yields and lower ma

Review ImageSwiftech Apogee, MCW-30 and MCW-60 Cooler Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 03-08-2006 Category: Hardware

As with all of Swiftech's goods in their time, the blocks look great and perform just as well. Considering that GPU temperatures could be kept so low, even when the CPU was being clocked upward dumping heat into the loop, we can r

Review ImageAbit AN8 32X Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 03-05-2006 Category: Motherboards

The ABIT AN8 32X is a wonderful example of the nForce SLI x16 chipset. The board comes with every feature you would expect from an AMD Athlon motherboard today. ABIT includes every accessory needed to fully utilize the motherboard

Review ImageCorsair 3500LL Pro 2GB TwinX Memory Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 03-03-2006 Category: Hardware

Fast, Beautiful, Stable and Spacious. Things you'd normally say about a sports car or a luxury beast before being jerked back by the missus so you don't drool on it. That's exactly how we feel about this memory. This memory is pe

Review ImageASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Motherboard Preview

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 03-01-2006 Category: Motherboards

From what we have seen so far the new ATI Xpress 3200 chipset has a lot to offer the enthusiast motherboard market. Featuring the first true Dual-16X technology and geared for the CrossFire VGA card setup the Asus A8R32-MVP may be

Review ImageASUS A8R-MVP Crossfire Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 02-28-2006 Category: Motherboards

ASUS has done a wonderful job with the A8R-MVP motherboard. The board came with all the features, performance and bundle that you want from a Crossfire motherboard today. The features chart shows the A8R-MVP to be among the highes

Review ImageGIGABYTE GA-8N Quad Royal SLI Motherboard Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 02-27-2006 Category: Motherboards

For now, GIGABYTE has done a wonderful job with the GA-8N Quad Royal SLI motherboard and it stands out among the crowd. Features-wise the board has no peer, as the board scores over 50 points due to the inclusion of Wireless Netwo

Review ImageXFX 6600 256MB DDR2 XXX Edition Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 02-20-2006 Category: Hardware

To my mind, the XFX XXX 6600 256MB card is the perfect upgrade for the casual gamer that is tired of using integrated graphics. The inclusion of a game like Far Cry which can showcase the features like Pixel Shaders and HDR on the

Review ImageUltra Xfinity 600W PSU Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 02-16-2006 Category: Hardware

In the end, the ability to hold up the voltages necessary, the fairly tight regulation of said voltages, and the efficiency of the supply once the fans spin up, and the low cost make this a definitely an appealing product for thos

Review ImageXFX 7800GS AGP Extreme Edition Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 02-14-2006 Category: Hardware

There's still an upgrade market for the AGP user. After all there's literally hundreds of millions of systems based upon the old standard still in use today. The 7800GS AGP Extreme Edition is positioned to take advantage of the fa

Review ImageThe Ultra Products X2 PSU Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 02-11-2006 Category: Hardware

What impressed me the most was that even while holding down a high powered SLI setup, voltages didn't fluctuate all too much more than normal, and noise levels didn't budge. Considering the stylish casing and clean modular cables,

Review ImageCorsair Flash Voyager Vs OCZ Rally Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 02-06-2006 Category: Hardware

In the end, while the OCZ Rally's dual channel technology did give it a performance edge, I'm fairly doubtful that it can stand up to even half of the more extreme abuse tests that I've seen the Flash Voyager put through. The poi

Review ImageASUS EAX X1800XT TOP Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 02-03-2006 Category: Hardware

At the end of the day the ASUS EAX X1800XT TOP card is a good card that can hold its own in today's ever changing market, and although the X1900 series has arrived, the TOP X1800XT still rocks in the gaming world.

Review ImageOCZ PC3500GX Memory Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 02-02-2006 Category: Hardware

Considering that we easily pegged 245MHz at 2-2-2-5 with just 3.2V and no errors, and 250MHz with the same timings and voltages with only minor errors, OCZ has come out swinging with a winner, now offering the same low latencies t

Review ImageATI All-In-Wonder X1900 Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 01-31-2006 Category: Hardware

The A-I-W X1900 is quite simply the fastest most feature-rich multimedia video card you can buy today. For a MSRP of $499, you get great performance, features, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Premiere, a TV tuner a FM Radio and mo

Review ImageAOpen I915GM-m-HFS Review

Author: Tulatin Date: 01-29-2006 Category: Motherboards

While the gaming performance on the 915 platform are far from neck breaking, this motherboard offers something unique - the ability to build a low cost, low noise and high speed media center, without the need to splash out and pur

Review ImageATI X1600XT Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 01-27-2006 Category: Hardware

What you get with the X1600XT is full DirectX 9.0 Pixel and Vertex Shader 3.0 compliance, HDR support with Anti-Aliasing at the same time, high quality Anisotropic Filtering and Adaptive Antialiasing. These combine to give the bes

Review ImageXFX 7800GT XXX Video Card Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 01-25-2006 Category: Hardware

Overclocked, good looking and fast, that is my opinion of the new XXX 7800GT from XFX as it delivers what’s promised right out of the box. Package content is above the average and at least gives you a few decent game titles to wet

Review ImageDoubleSight DS-1900 Dual LCD Review

Author: Doc Overclock Date: 01-23-2006 Category: Hardware

This monitor is an excellent product and some positives of the monitor include the ability to have 30 inches of viewable area horizontally, matching the highest end Cinema displays from Apple in the overall viewing area. If you wa

Review ImageRAIDMAX Aurora RX-580F PSU Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 01-19-2006 Category: Hardware

One concern with modern PSUs is the ability to provide enough solid power for two video cards at the same time in a system. I mounted two CD-ROM drives, 2 7800GTs in SLI mode, a FX-60 CPU, 2GB of memory and a SLI motherboard and r

Review ImageSilverstone TJ05 Case Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 01-14-2006 Category: Hardware

The Silverstone Temjin TJ05 case is a very solid and beautiful design that works as well as any case I've worked with. Aesthetically the case does the job, as black cases appeal to my sensibilities of style in my computer room tho

Review ImageEVGA SLI 6800GS Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 01-13-2006 Category: Hardware

6800GS cards are retailing for under $200 online, which is a good buy as it has similar performance to the 6800GT which was so popular at $399 last year. This forced ATI and their partners to lower the MSRP of their X1600 Pro to $

Review ImageATI All-In-Wonder 2006 PCI Express Edition Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 01-01-2006 Category: Hardware

Feature-wise the A-I-W 2006 fully supports Shader Model 3.0, HDR and is the equal of it's bigger brother, the X1800 in most respects. The inclusion of Adobe's Premiere Elements is a $99 value, and is an excellent video editing pro