The Enermax Noisetaker 485 watt is slightly smaller in output than its bigger brother, but is at a price that is much more within the range of normal buying. It offers the same high quality, but with a power output that is less, but still enough for nearly all computers.

485 watts might not seem like much compared to the 800W monsters that can be seem around. However, it is more than enough for a computer that has a PCIe graphics card, 2 SATA drives, 2 sticks of 512MB memory and the usual array of gadgets.

Here is a brief list of features…

• 485W power output
• 2 fans for cooling needs
• Convertible 20/24 pin adapter

The Enermax Noisetaker is a fairly plain power supply that just does what it is supposed to do. One of the neater features is that it lets the fans run on after you have turned the computer off. This could be a benefit or a drawback, depending on your point of view, but by turning the power supply off you can make them turn off.

Enermax is one of the more well known makers of power supplies. It has been around for a few years and its products are reliable. In fact I would recommend either it, or one of it major competitors for any power supply upgrades.

The Enermax will not disappoint in terms of performance, delivering smooth power to the parts of your computer that need it most. A clean power supply is especially good for those components that are most sensitive to power variations, like processors.

This power supply, although not a bargain, gives you more of what you need for a reasonable price. It is enough, even if you have lots of parts in your computer. At around a 100 bucks, it makes good sense for an upgrade, especially if you are going to upgrade the other major components in your computer.

Media center PCs from MSI and Gigabyte

Monday, November 21st, 2005 by Peter

Both MSI and Gigabyte have entered the home media center market with their own name branded offerings. Some other motherboard manufacturers like ECS have decided to stay out of that game and stick to plain motherboard manufacturer.

Retail prices on home entertainment computers is much higher than that of desktop computers, (Read the rest of this review…)

SLI-ready GeForce 6800 GS graphics card from Chaintech

Monday, November 21st, 2005 by Peter

Chaintech is releasing a new graphics card based on the nVidia GeForce 6800 GS GPU. It featuers all of the normal featues expected from a 6800 series graphics card. It comes with 256MB of SDRAM and a 256-bit interface.

Source: Digitimes (Read the rest of this review…)

ECS nForce4-A939 Socket 939 motherboard

Monday, November 21st, 2005 by Peter

This board is strictly aimed at the budget oriented buyer looking for new stuff at a low price. It manages to get all the new parts you would need for an Athlon 64 system, without having to resort to old stuff to get that value.

It is not a board aimed (Read the rest of this review…)

Enermax 600 watt ATX power supply with 2 80mm fans

Monday, November 21st, 2005 by Peter

This highly specced, highly rated power supply, provides all the power needs any computer could need. With a rated 600 watts of power its more than enough to run the most powerful processor, paired up with dual-graphics SLI graphics cards.

New computers put continuin strain on power supplies. As the parts (Read the rest of this review…)

Asus A8N SLI Premium nVidia nForce4 Socket 939 motherboard

Saturday, November 19th, 2005 by Peter

The range of high quality boards for AMD Athlon chips, namely socket 939 is fairly big. With a range of boards to choose from big manufacturers like MSI and DFI there is a good chance to get all you need from a board with a little investigation.

If you have or (Read the rest of this review…)

Acer TravelMate C310 TMC214XCi Intel Centrino 2.0GHz Tablet PC

Saturday, November 19th, 2005 by Peter

The TravelMate C310 is a very powerful laptop from Acer. It provides all the functionality of a laptop, but the screen can be flipped over to convert it into a tablet. The laptop comes with an Intel Centrino 2.0GHz, which is very fast and combined with 1GB or RAM gives (Read the rest of this review…)

Montecito launch delayed due to power issues

Friday, November 18th, 2005 by Peter

Integrated power management issues may push back the launch of Intel’s dual-core Itanium processors till the middle of next year.

The dual-core Itanium will also no longer support Foxton and DBS power management, neither will the Xeon core “Tulsa”. Intel also gave up on the 667MHz FSB sticking to the current (Read the rest of this review…)

Intel 65nm Yonah names revised

Friday, November 18th, 2005 by Peter

Intel revised its naming convention of it’s new Yonah processor line. There will now be differentiation between single and dual core processors in the naming.

There will be an initial letter to denote the Thermal Design Power followed by number representing the model. First number of “1″ indicates single-core, “2″ indicates (Read the rest of this review…)

Foxconn 975X motherboard in December

Friday, November 18th, 2005 by Peter

Foxconn will release an Intel 975X chipset based motherboard in December.

Intel 975X is basically exactly the same as the older 955X but has dual-graphics capabilities. ATI’s crossfire is supported, while nVidia’s SLI in not, although it should be supported too.

Source: Digitimes (Read the rest of this review…)

Asus P5WD2 Premium Intel 955 Socket 775 motherboard

Thursday, November 17th, 2005 by Peter

There is a huge range of options when buying motherboards these days. All the big manufacturers have one for you to choose from, and there are new companies joining the game as well.

When you are actually picking a board, you can limit your options fairly easily. First, decide on what (Read the rest of this review…)

Aspire X-plorer ATX case with clear sides

Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 by Peter

The X-plorer is aimed at the mid-range custom computer case market. At around 60 dollars of so it lacks a few of the features of its more expensive brothers and sisters. It’s still a good case for the money, but as you will see it has a few issues that (Read the rest of this review…)

Acer TravelMate TM8104 Intel Pentium M 750 1.86GHz TM8104WLMi Notebook

Monday, November 14th, 2005 by Peter

The Acer TravelMate TM8104 is in the Company’s performance series. It’s big but sleek design give it a look of good qualities in terms of performance, without giving making it too heavy for travelling with.

The TravelMate 8100 provides practically everything for those on the move. The computer is powerful enough (Read the rest of this review…)

Aspire X-cruiser Mid-Tower ATX case with clear sides

Monday, November 14th, 2005 by Peter

An ATX sized offering the range from Aspire computer cases, this case has a retro feel with a lot of good features. Some only cosmetic, but some useful ones too.

Aspire PC cases have established themselves as good reliable cases, but as well as that they actually do appeal to the (Read the rest of this review…)

ECS Elitegroup PF21 Extreme Intel Socket 775 ATX P4 motherboard

Monday, November 14th, 2005 by Peter

At a price tag of around $150, this board is not attempting to appeal to the entry level computer. With its array of features, some of which are quite unique, it puts up a good fight in a market segment that is dominated by big brands.

The ECS PF21 is designed (Read the rest of this review…)

Both MSI and Gigabyte have entered the home media center market with their own name branded offerings. Some other motherboard manufacturers like ECS have decided to stay out of that game and stick to plain motherboard manufacturer.

Retail prices on home entertainment computers is much higher than that of desktop computers, so manufacturers are trying to get into this more profitable market.

Source: Digitimes

Chaintech is releasing a new graphics card based on the nVidia GeForce 6800 GS GPU. It featuers all of the normal featues expected from a 6800 series graphics card. It comes with 256MB of SDRAM and a 256-bit interface.

Source: Digitimes

This board is strictly aimed at the budget oriented buyer looking for new stuff at a low price. It manages to get all the new parts you would need for an Athlon 64 system, without having to resort to old stuff to get that value.

It is not a board aimed at the rigorous hardcore overclocker, but with an nForce4 chipset it does offer new technology for good performance.

Beside a few features which are ommitted or slightly toned down, it provides most of what you could need at a wallet friendly price.

Main features include…

• nVidia nForce4 chipset (not Ultra)
• SATA with RAID
• Ethernet, USB 2.0 and built-in audio
• Dual-channel DDR

This board sports the nForce4 chipset, which is the chipset of choice for most gamers using this platform. Although it is not the Ultra version of the chipset, you don’t lose too much for that, which is fine for a board not particularly aimed at overclocking.

It has the usual compliment of extras. 4 DDR slots in dual-channel configuration allow up to 4GB or memory to be installed into the system. There are 4 SATA headers for support of new hard drives and some DVD writers.

In the graphics department, the ECS nForce4-A939 comes with a single PCIe 16x slot, which again, considering the price range, makes sense. You can install a good single card, which with the latest 7800 series graphics cards from nVidia wouldn’t be lacking at all.

Firewire is not included in the system, which might be missed by those with digital video cameras and the like. For other expansion cards there are a few PCI and PCIe 1x slots.

Tuning of the BIOS is limited and there is little opportunity for overclocking due to a lack or options to control the system voltages and speeds.

So overall, the board is a budget buy. You do get a lot for your money, but nothing extra. It would make a good choice if matched with an Athlon 64 3000+ or similar which is a great budget processor. Both offer the latest technology but with the best money savings.

Pros

• Well-priced
• Full compliment of features
• nForce4 chipset

Cons

• No firewire
• Limited overclocking

This highly specced, highly rated power supply, provides all the power needs any computer could need. With a rated 600 watts of power its more than enough to run the most powerful processor, paired up with dual-graphics SLI graphics cards.

New computers put continuin strain on power supplies. As the parts get faster and more advanced so do their power requirements increase. Processors can suck up to 90 watts, graphics cards get a lot too because they now incorporate GPUs, which are like mini processors for graphics only. Hard drives are another culprit here, but overall things need more.

Here are the main features…

• 600 watts total power
• ATX standard power supply
• Quiet operation, despite 2 fans
• Stable voltages

Really not everyone needs a 600watt power supply, actually most people don’t. There are however advantages to making the investment into a higher quality supply.

To provide future upgradability, a high quality power supply can provide the needs of any extra parts you might care to add.

This power supply from Enermax is very plain, nothing fancy on the outside, no little lights and stuff like that. And at its price its not cheap.

So let me get to the point. As a long term upgrade, power supplies are a great choice. The stability added to a system by a power supply that is both stable and efficient cannot be seen immediately, but can be felt in the long term, by just not having any trouble. That might not seem like much, but when you realize how many hassles many people have with their power supplies, you might think twice.

Power supplies do not date quickly, unlike processors which seem to move in and out so rapidly, a good power supply is a long term buy.

This power supply does more than just provide lots of power it is also quiet. Many high power supplies become very noisy as they have to add fans to keep things cool inside, if they don’t, it will fry. Especially under extended use, where the components can be tested to the extreme by continued high loads.

The Enermax does a good job in all departments. It is not a cheap buy, but is certainly great. Get it if you are looking for a good long term upgrade.

The range of high quality boards for AMD Athlon chips, namely socket 939 is fairly big. With a range of boards to choose from big manufacturers like MSI and DFI there is a good chance to get all you need from a board with a little investigation.

If you have or are planning on a system utilising socket 939, you can’t go wrong with this fully-featured board.

Main features include…

• Socket 939 for AMD 64
• SLI Graphics capabilities
• Passive cooling, using no fans is quiet
• SATA2 with NCQ
• Windows based overclocking

The A8N sports socket 939, which is for Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon x2 and Sempron processors.

The nVidia nForce4 SLI chipset is cooled by a passive cooler which has a heat pipe running to a set of coolers by the back of the motherboard, just behind the network ports and that stuff.

There are 2 SATA controllers, one of which supports up to 4 drives, configurable in RAID 0, 1, 5 or 10. The bonus with these options is that RAID 5 results in the loss of only 1 drive worth of space for redundancy, so 4 drives will yield the space of 3.

DDR memory is still the name of the game for Athlon chips. Intels have moved on to using DDR2, which should happen in the future for AMDs as well, but for now, DDR will have to do.

Other extra features include 2 network ports, both of which are gigabit ethernet controllers, 4 rear USB 2.0 ports, as well as some from the board, high quality built-in audio and the traditional helping of IDE slots.

One thing missing is a firewire port. Although not as common as USB, for this price, it would have been a good rounding off of the package.

The overclocking ability of this motherboard is great. For those who don’t know much about overclocking and just want the easiest route, there is oveclocking software included, which allows you to boost system bus speed up to 110%. Not huge, but cool anyway, and within safe limits.

So as an overall package, you can’t get too much more than this. For those who support AMD and want SLI graphics with good overclocking options, then this board will give you all you could need. I would certainly consider this board for a new AMD based system for myself. Combine it with my personal choice of the Athlon 64 3000+, overclock a little and I’d be happy.

Pros

• SATA options galore
• decent audio
• Gigabit LAN
• SLI

Cons

• No firewire

The TravelMate C310 is a very powerful laptop from Acer. It provides all the functionality of a laptop, but the screen can be flipped over to convert it into a tablet. The laptop comes with an Intel Centrino 2.0GHz, which is very fast and combined with 1GB or RAM gives many desktops a run for their money.

Here are some of the features…

• Convertible from laptop to tablet
• 14.1 inch screen
• Intel Centrino Pentium M 2.0GHz processor
• 1GB or DDR2 RAM
• Dual Layer DVD±RW
• nVidia GeForce Go 6200 TurboCache Graphics chip

The best feature about this notebook is it’s ability to flip its monitor and convert into a tablet PC. It’s really useful for taking notes at meetings and such.

It’s not light, weighing in at around 6 pounds and more when adding a power adapter, it is very heavy. For use as a tablet PC, this is not ideal. It’s too heavy to hold in your hand and take notes.

The keyboard is full-sized make it easy to type with. There are also buttons for turning the bluetooth and wireless LAN on and off, so you can save power when not using those features.

As reported at cnet.com the monitor can be very dull, making it hard to see what’s on the screen when it is used outside, even in the shade. The screen is bright enough, but not enough for conditions with heavy lighting.

The laptop comes with a digitizer pen, which is used to write on the monitor’s surface. One notable bad point of the monitor is its microphone. As a tablet is designed for meetings, the use of a microphone is often required to record things. Unfortunately for this otherwise great performer, the microphone barely picks up anything at all, which is a terrible disappointment.

The array of other extras include VGA, S-Video, Firewire, 3 USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, 4-in-1 card reader and a PCI card slot. It comes with modem, bluetooth, LAN, and wireless LAN.

Battery life is good, in the 3 hour range.

The real strength of this computer is its power. It outperforms many other laptops in the same price range. Its 2.0GHz processor and 1GB or fast RAM certainly help it there. It has it’s quirks, but overall gives great performance.

Pros

• Fast
• Convenience of table and laptop
• Good graphics
• DVD burner

Cons

• Heavy
• Screen hard to view with lights
• Terrible microphone

Integrated power management issues may push back the launch of Intel’s dual-core Itanium processors till the middle of next year.

The dual-core Itanium will also no longer support Foxton and DBS power management, neither will the Xeon core “Tulsa”. Intel also gave up on the 667MHz FSB sticking to the current 400MHz and 533MHz.

Source: Digitimes

Intel revised its naming convention of it’s new Yonah processor line. There will now be differentiation between single and dual core processors in the naming.

There will be an initial letter to denote the Thermal Design Power followed by number representing the model. First number of “1″ indicates single-core, “2″ indicates dual-core.

Source: Digitimes