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XFX GeForce FX 5200 / 128MB DDR / AGP 8x Video Card

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005 | Reviews, Video Cards | No Comments

For the mid-range gamer or for someone who just wants to improve their graphics on an average low cost desktop computer, this is the choice for you.

The card is based on the nVidia GeForce FX 5200 and does a decent job on graphics. It has 128MB of memory, it’s core clock operates at 250MHz while the memory clock at 400MHz.

It uses an AGP interface operating at 8x.

This graphics card is not very new and has been around for more than a year already. Over this time it has shown itself to be a solid performer.

This card is perfect for the average computer user but not for the serious gamer. Might not provide the kind of performance that is needed by latest games.

The card also has a tendency to get hot. It does not come with a fan as standard so you might need to purchase one, as there have been reports of the card getting too hot. In fact I would strongly recommend you buy a fan along with it, the airflow provided is enough to keep it cool.

A good card for everyday things like using graphics programs, and certainly good value for a 128MB card.

Note: The drivers need to be updated from the manufacturers website. Otherwise you will have problems on newer computers.

Toshiba Dual Layer DVD Writer

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005 | DVD and CD Drives, Reviews | No Comments

Another bargain DVD drive for people who have lots of information that they need to put into long term storage. Or for anyone who needs to free space on their hard drive for other things.

This drive is a great way to store those family movies safely for a long time.

Toshiba are well known for their cheap laptop computers, but they also make other components.

The Toshiba DVD burner writes DVDs at speed that rival the fastest around today. It can write DVD+R format at 16x while handling DVD-R at a still respectable 12x.

It can write any DVD format, as well as being able to write to DVD dual layer discs. Dual layer allows two lots of information to be stored “on top of each other” on the shiny side of the DVD. Many years back, before this technology, DVD movies would have discs with two shiny (containing information) sides. Almost all of the newer ones use Dual Layer.

A very affordable drive. Probably not a true high performance drive, but still capable of handling everything that can be thrown at it when used with a low cost desktop computer.

Maxtor 120GB ATA-133 5400RPM Hard Drive

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005 | Hard Drives, Reviews | No Comments

Maxtor is a long time name in the hard drive business. Most of it’s offerings are reliable and can do the tasks they are designed for well, if not great. This hard drive is not exception.

Of course the greatest feature of this drive is it’s price. At around 50 bucks after rebate you get a lot of space for your money.

The drive is 120GB which is plenty of space for most people on cheap desktop computers. It connects to the motherboard using ATA-133 which is very fast, but still a tad slower than SATA which is a newer technology.

It’s spin speed of 5400RPM work against it, but not excessively so.

Reviews of this drive are positive. Most people found it to be easy to use with no hassles in installation.

A common report is that the drive is slow compared to other drives like Western Digital. This is not too surprising considering it’s fairly small 2MB of cache, which acts to store information on the way between drive and computer, usually speeding things up.

My recommendation is to use this drive as a secondary storage drive. If you plan to use it as a main drive where many applications will be accessing it at the same time, the slow speed will become apparent. But as a data only second drive this should be a minimal issue.

Overall a good drive for it’s price, just a little on the slow side.

Ultra 1024MB DDR400/PC3200 Memory

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005 | RAM Memory, Reviews | No Comments

This very large chunk of memory will improve your computers speed. 1GB and more of memory allows your computer or operating system to put more of your programs and the things you use most frequently in there. As it is much faster to access than your hard drive where all the information is kept, things run faster, being stored in RAM temporarily.

Reports and reviews show that Ultra is a reputable brand for Memory.

The package includes coolers to help the memory to stay cool when under heavy use.

Note: Your motherboard needs to be able to supply 2.65 volts to run at 400MHz.

So if you are looking to put the final touches on a workstation PC of looking to speed up your current computer. This is the perfect choice for those looking to round off their top dektop computer.

Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0GHz / 800MHz bus / Socket 775

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005 | CPU Processors, Reviews | No Comments

Featuruing the newer Socket 775, this CPU processor offers a lot in performance. Suitable to fun a workstation that needs just that little bit more powerful than the average cheap desktop computer.

3.0GHz speed puts it on the slower end of this line of chips. The fastest ones are about 3.6GHz, while the slowest you can get are 2.66GHz. This one is third from the bottom. That is not something to look harshly on. These chips are very fast, perhaps not meeting the needs of those hoping to build a cheap high powered gaming computer, but enough for intensive work. Gaming would still definitely be possible.

The Intel Pentium 4 Processor comes with 1MB of L1 cache. This is the memory that is closest to the actual insides of the processor, and can be accessed very fast. This is an improvement over the 512KB (or half MB) on the older but still used Socket 478 Pentium 4s.

As well as this new feature, it also has a 4 wire fan control allowing better cooling of the processor, allowing it to run better and faster, without worries over letting it get too hot. And it does get hot. Consumer reviews have it that this processor can run very hot, and needs better fans to cool it, as well as better fans in the PC case to keep the temperatures down. This is a bit of a concern, but it’s not too surprising with this newer chip.

The price on this model puts it only 20 bucks more expensive that the 2.66GHz model that is available still. A good deal for those looking for a more powerful computer.

Abit KV7-V Via Motherboard with AMD Athlon XP 2900+ and 512MB DDR400/PC3200 Memory

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005 | Motherboards, Reviews | No Comments

Abit’s KV7 series motherboards come with a range of features and combined with the AMD Athlon XP 2900+ Processor and 512MB of Ultra DDR400/PC3200 memory, it makes an ideal starting point for a more powerful computer which could be used for all your home office needs as well as dabbling with gaming.

The motherboard is an Abit. It supports Socket A processors. The bus speed is an impressive 400MHz, allowing faster data transfer between components in the computer, speeding it up. The memory that comes included with this system can support this speed too.

Video support is an AGP 8x. This allows the newer generation of video cards allowing gamers a more realistic gaming experience throught the increased performance in graphics. It’s not as fast as the latest PCI express but will give enough power to those wanting to give games a try, but not hoping for the most bleeding edge performance.

Hard drive support goes up to Ultra DMA 133, as well as being able to support the SATA technology for even faster speeds. Other extras are LAN support and built in audio.

This combo has received mixed reports from people who have bought it. Although the final outcome is always a good board with the chip, the installation seems to be quite difficult. But not undoable with the knowledge of those who have already managed it.

Also included in this package are the AMD Athlon 2900+ processor which is optimised to improve performance with digital media like audio, video and image files.

And to finish it off, 512MB of DDR400/PC3200 RAM memory is included.

Overall an impressive performer for it’s price. But see below for a few issues that people have experienced with this combination.

Note: This motherboard requires that you have an Intel Pentium 4 connector from your power supply. It will also not support 3.3v video cards, only 0.8v and 1.5v.

Visit their website to update the bios.

PC Chips M811LU Via Socket A MotherBoard and AMD Duron 1.8GHz Processor

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005 | Motherboards, Reviews | No Comments

This motherboard and CPU processor is a steal for under 50 bucks after rebate. The motherboard is a PC Chips Via Socket A motherboard, and the processor is an AMD Duron 1.8GHz CPU.

Firstly, a closer look at the motherboard.

PC Chips is a Taiwan based maunfacturer of motherboards. This particular model supports Socket 462, otherwise known as Socket A, and supports a front side bus up to 133MHz.

The board can take up to two DDR Synchronous DRAM modules, allowing a total of 2GB of memory. It utilizes up to 4x AGP allowing for fast video cards to be used.

Other feature of this board are 5 USB ports, built in sound, 5 PCI slots if you need to upgrade anything in the future, and a CNR slot. It also supports Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 which will provide increased speed of information transfer by using hard drives that support this faster data transfer technology.

Now, on to the CPU processor.

The AMD Duron 1.8GHz CPU processor works with up to 266MHz front side bus, which is a great match for the motherboard it comes with.

The Duron provides great value for money without sacrificing on quality. It’s value for money is clearly obvious. It performance, although not being the most cutting edge, is surely still worth a mention. Combined with a good graphics or video card can still make a great computer for someone looking to make a cheap high powered gaming computer.

Overall this is a great start to a very low cost desktop computer. There are a few things left to buy for it, but as a cheap upgrade, it can’t be beat.

Note: There are a few things that need to be noted about this combo. Reports have it that the bios of the motherboard is a little out of date and reports the 1.8GHz processor as only a 1.3GHz. This can be easily fixed by first installing everything as usual, but after this is done, a newer bios can be downloaded at the manufacturers website by going to the pcchips homepage.

Gateway 700GR Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz

Thursday, April 21st, 2005 | Desktop Computers, Reviews | No Comments

A refurbished complete desktop computer deal that is worth considering if you need some extra power without the extra outlay of cash.

One great thing about refurbished computers is that you can get powerful computers for way less than what they are worth. This one appears to be a wholesale factory refurbished desktop computer as reports have it that the fans have been replaced due to concerns about overheating when they were first brought out.

The heart of the machine is an Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz socket 775 processor. This was fast at the time of the original release of these computers but is still more than enough now.

This computer also takes advantage of a 400MHz front side bus, which means information can pass quicker between parts of the computer. As well as this it has dual channel DDR ram memory, so the memory operates faster by using two memory sticks in the computer that are paired together. Total memory is 1GB using two 512MB DDR400/PC-3200 sticks.

Graphics is courtesy of an ATI Radeon X300SE with 128MB of memory. This card utilises the new PCI Express which is a newer graphics card interface, making data transfer faster. 3D games will look smoother, making them more pleasurable to play, and for those who use graphics in work, image processing will be quicker as the video card takes some work off the main CPU processor.

Complete with the PC are two optical drives. It comes with both a CD-ROM and a DVD writer. The CD-ROM is run of the mill. The DVD writer is a little on the slow side. It’s nothing to look down on, but when computers are now coming with 16x DVD writers, this drives 8x for DVD+R and DVD-R is a little slow. With that said, it will still work for anything besides dual layer disks and is still respectable. It would be bothersome if you did lots of DVD burning.

The hard drive is a fast 250GB SATA drive which will assist in speeding up data access, making programs load faster and making things save quicker.

The other features are 7 USB ports, 2 firewire ports, a LAN port, audio ports (in, out, center, sub, mic), and s-video connectors.

So overall it’s not a bad computer. It could be a little cheaper for a computer that retailed for over a thousand bucks at the end of last year, but still worth a look at.

Systemax Ascent AMD Athlon 64-bit Processor 3200+

Thursday, April 21st, 2005 | Desktop Computers, Reviews | No Comments

This computer deal has to make it one of the top desktop computers you can buy. For it’s price it could easily be considered a very cheap desktop computer.

This low cost desktop computer comes packed with features which should keep it in good stead for years to come.

The AMD Athlon 64 3200+ / 2.0GHz chip provides a very powerful core to this computer. This new design chip makes the computer faster by being able to take advantage of dual channel DDR memory as well as AMDs own 64-bit technology.

A full 1GB of ram memory provides it with ample memory to run anything you can throw at it. This memory comes in a dual channel format so there are actually 2 512MB DDR400/PC3200 memory boards in there. It’s front side bus clocks in at 400MHz too.

The 200GB hard drive will provide more than enough space to store anything. You could even store up to 50 DVD movies on here if you wanted to. It operates at 7200RPM which is becoming the standard for drives nowadays but still provides faster data access. And it uses the SATA technology resulting in faster communication between the motherboard and the drive itself.

Other features that are included are integrated audio, integrated AGP graphics, LAN support, modem connector and black mouse and keyboard.

It also comes with a DVD writer, which will write all formats of DVD.

For a limited time this computer is going to include a 17inch monitor. For a full featured computer like this one, the addition of a monitor for no extra cost is really fantastic.

Hyundai L70N 17-inch 1280×1024 LCD Monitor

Thursday, April 21st, 2005 | Monitors, Reviews | No Comments

Fantastic value moitor. This 17 inch clearance flat computer monitor is the best value 17 inch monitor you can find. If you are looking for a discount computer monitor, this certainly fits.

This monitor has received good reviews from people who have used it. Besides the value for money of this screen, it performs well.

It’s general quality seems to be up to scratch with the recommended resolution being 1280×1024@75Hz, which is the maximum for this monitor. That is a pretty impressive performance for a 17 inch.

Reports from people using it to play games like DOOM3 say that there is no obvious ghosting when playing the game. So the monitor will suit those who like to play 3D games. This said it still functions more than admirably as a day to day monitor for doing things like word processing and surfing the internet.

The stand is sturdy and holds the monitor well, which is something many monitors don’t do well.

So overall, taking into account the super low price of this monitor and it’s good performance this is definitely a monitor that needs checking out. I recommend it.