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ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 gets Infineon GDDR3

Tuesday, December 13th, 2005 | News | View Comments

ATI has selected Infineon technologies Graphic Double-Data-Rate 3 DRAM for its Mobility Radeon x1600 graphics processor.

Clock speeds up to 800MHz and a 32-bit interface are some of the main features. It also has significantly less power consumption than other DRAM modules conserving battery power.

Source: Digitimes

Cyberhome DVD recorder 16x DVD±RW external dual layer

Monday, December 12th, 2005 | DVD and CD Drive Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

For ease of use and convenience when it comes to transportation portable drives can’t be beat. The cyberhome dvd recorder allows you to not only tranport your information with you but to actually burn stuff onto the DVD when you are done.

Portable devices have been around for a while, and with the advent of memory sticks and other portable devices the optical drives like portable DVD and CD drives have taken a bit of a back seat in terms of popularity.

The Cyberhome DVD recorder offers an affordable solution for those looking for a portable DVD recorder. In terms of price the cyberhome dvd recorder falls right up there with the best value. There are very few DVD recorders cheaper then this one, which does beg the question, is it any good?

Here is a basic feature list…

• 16x read speed
• 16x write speed for DVD+R and DVD-R
• 4x for DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD+R Dual layer
• Support for both USB and FireWire

These are pretty good specs for a cheap dvd recorder.

Back to the performance. There have been few consumer complaints about this product. This is not too unexpected as even the cheapest products do what they are supposed to do, just depends how long and well they do them for.

Other people who bought the cyberhome dvd recorder found it to be reliable and to perform the task its intended for, and that is writing DVDs and being able to do it in different locations.

Praise for the drive itself include the ability to just plug it in and not be able to install drivers, although that’s mostly to do with Windows XP. It also managed to do it on a non-windows system too which is great news for those running other systems.

A few production faults have been noted, most of which are cosmetic, rather than to do with the main functioning of the device. One customer reported the drive tray not appearing closed (still functioning) and the little indicator lights not working. These are genuine complaints, but would be most easily fixed with a more expensive bigger name brand burner.

Overall I feel it is good value for the money, if you are going for a discount deal there will be problems, which is something to expect. However for the money you can’t really go wrong. There are no problems with the recorder itself. So I recommend it for a value deal.

Pros

• Fast
• Good functionality
• Cheap

Cons

• No firewire cable (just a little something that could be included)

CN700 chipset for VIA C7 processor

Sunday, December 11th, 2005 | News | View Comments

The new CN700 integrated graphics chipset is aimed at the fanless, mini and home entertainment computers. It allows output for CRT, LCD as well as standard HDTV.

It has support for both DDR and DDR2, as well as built in system and power management for a flexible solution for developers.

It was specifically designed for the digital media market, combining great perfromance with the power saving, quiet and stylish features needed for this sector.

Source: Digitimes

Foxconn AMD based motherboards to use SiS761GX chipset

Sunday, December 11th, 2005 | News | View Comments

SiS has announced that Foxconn will use its SiS761GX chipset. The chipset is designed for AMD64 and supports PCIe x16. It will be used in two boards for AMD processors.

The chipset achieves power-saving by using AMDs Cool’n'Quiet technology to control the CPUs speed and frequency. It will also support its 8GB/sec HyperTransport technology.

The two boards on offer from Foxconn will have different southbridge chipsets, one with an SiS964 and the other with an SiS965, which offers an extra high speed ethernet controller and support for PCIe x1.

Source: Digitimes

Cooler Master 550W 120mm LED fan power supply

Thursday, December 8th, 2005 | Power Supply Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

The Cooler Master 550W power supply is highly specced power supply that doesn’t quite live up to its claims. Unfortunately like many power supplies, this one claims a little more than it can give. In reality it cannot maintain its 550W power delivery for an extended period of time.

It is however, still a decent power supply. It can deliver its claimed power for a while. That’s not too much of a downer, seeing as the vast majority of computers could never put this much strain on a power supply, and even then, not for that long.

It’s basic list of features are…

• 120mm fan
• 550 watts of power output
• Extra floppy drive sized power meter
• Good cooling

At first looks the Cooler Master 550W power supply might not look like much, but a lot should be expected from a power supply in this range.

The blue LED light might not be to everyones liking, but should be fine for most people. You might not notice it if your case is out of the way or has no window on it.

It provides quiet operation due to its large 120mm fan. Basically a 120mm fan can move twice as much air as an 80mm one, but makes the same noise, so you get better cooling, without adding extra noise, which might happen when adding more fans.

A cool extra that comes with this is a meter that tells what kind of output the power supply is producing. It is a moving needle that pinpoints usage along a little dial. Although not extrememly useful and doesn’t pinpoint any specifics of the power output it will provide some eye candy for those who like lots of little gadgets on the front of their computer case.

Their is a 20pin to 24pin converter included with the package which adds a good amount of compatability with motherboards. The cables are fairly standard offerings.

Basically you can’t go too far wrong with this power supply. It produces the said output and will keep things in your system running smoothly for a good long time.