computer-reviews.net

Gigabyte i-RAM storage device

Thursday, March 30th, 2006 | Hard Drives, News | No Comments

Hard drives are always a bottleneck in the computer system. The mechanical nature of disks means there needs to be a physical movement of the platter inside to find the correct spot on the disk where the information you need has been stored.

Although they have gotten much faster with spindle speeds in such disks as the Western Digital Raptor reaching 10000RPM and transfer rates of up to 300MB/s available, this is still a far cry from the speeds available from main memory and the computers processor’s onboard cache.

The Gigabyte I-RAM intends to make up this area with a product that doesn’t break the bank like solid state drives do, but to offer a good balance between pricing and speed for slightly more permanent data storage than memory, but much faster speeds than those obtainable from a hard drive.

It takes 4 sticks of DIMMs to fill out the memory requirements. They are attached to the card which goes into a PCI slot. It connects to a SATA connection which is where the data is transferred. Storage is only semi-premanent, with a battery holding data if the computer is reset, but can only hold it for a few hours at the most.

The drive itself compares well to ordinary drives in tests at hothardware.com where it beat other drives hands down in all but buffered/burst speed tests.

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19 inch Flat Panel Monitors for 2006

Tuesday, March 28th, 2006 | Monitors, News | No Comments

A massive roundup of all the 19″ flat screen LCD monitors for 2006 has just been completed at tomshardware. Going through every monitor they have with their usual thoroughness, you can get a complete picture on which monitor to buy.

19 inch monitors are quickly becoming more and more popular and these are a testiment to how good they have become. These 19 inch monitors have finally cracked the gaming market and can now satisfy the needs of nearly every computer user, from those who need high speeds to those who need ultra sharp and clear pictures.

But with extended ranges and more specific purposes it can become harder to find the one that is just right for you and also one that fits your pocket. Flat screen monitors have come a long way, but they are still very expensive if you look at the bigger sizes.

Our preference still goes to the VP930, for its flexibility of use and advanced ergonomics, especially since the price has come down slightly since the model was introduced. Gamers should look to the ViewSonic VX922.

For photo retouching and content creation, we can’t recommend the Samsung 970P enough. Its exceptional contrast and unmatched color fidelity make it the ideal companion for spending long hours in front of your screen.

So there you have it, check out the full (huge) article for all the details.

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XFX 7600GS XT SLI Video Card

Monday, March 27th, 2006 | News, Video Cards | No Comments

XFX have released almost every single Nvidia based video card under their branding. Their focus is exclusively on Nvidia, and for this reason you will find a great deal of the new Nvidia releases from them. XFX is based in Korea and is a big manufacturer in the Asian market.

Motherboards.org takes a look at this card from XFX and puts it through its paces. It doesn’t incorporate active cooling and relies on only a heat sink to meet its cooling needs. Alright for cooling but most beneficial for a quiet computer without the fan blowing.

The size of the card is smaller than the other high class offerings from XFX like the 7800 and 7900 series cards which take up a massive amount of space inside any computer case.

The massive array of improvements that have been made to cards have been applied to this model, meaning that it can handle new games, although not with as much ease as its bigger brothers.

Although it performs alright in games it will not suit your needs if you need to run them at high resolutions and especially with all the extra setting turned on.

At a price much cheaper than a 7900GT it would make sense for those who don’t want to break the bank to get a good card, but don’t want to sacrifice too much for gaming on a computer that is probably designed to do more than just play games.

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AeroCool 620W Zerodba Power Supply Review

Monday, March 27th, 2006 | News, Power Supplies | No Comments

Legitreviews have just completed a review of the Aerocool 620W Zerodba power supply. The Zero dba refers to the ability to change its settings allowing it to either run very cool or slightly hotter with slower fan speeds. Variable fan speeds allow greater cooling or less noise, depending on your needs.

The power supply itself is reated at 620W which is in fact enough to supply any system you care to set up nowadays. With the fastest video cards needing at least a 550W power supply the Zerodba comes at a good time for this market.

It’s large fan allows it to run at lower RPMs reducing the noise you hear from it during use.

This power supply does something which many other power supply unit manufacturers are taking to heart, and thats modularity. You are able to detach any of the cables which are not in use, leaving the case free from clutter. Another addition are 3 pin fan power connectors on the power supply unit, never leaving you without a spot to get the power for your fans.

I comes with a full compliment of connectors, 8 molex, 2 floppy and all the others you could need, as well as those fan connectors I mentioned before.

Although Aerocool have not made as much of a name for themselves as some of the other manufacturers, they are making ground with a power supply that is well worth considering if you are looking for something in this range.

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Massive Memory Roundup from Tomshardware

Friday, March 24th, 2006 | News, RAM Memory | No Comments

Memory upgrades are a common part of the modern computing experience. Operatins systems need more, many other programs need more and the added pressures of multi-tasking add to the need.

Tomshardware takes a short look at the history of memory in recent times and gives a large roundup of the popular memory choices and the messups that have occured within the industry relating to memory.

In the bulk of the article they take a look at how well memory manufacturers themselves can help you to choose the right memory for your computer.

Upgrading is becoming an increasingly difficult thing to do as limits placed on a system by different parts and software determine how much you can put in and how fast it can go.

Manufacturers help to ease this process with online suggestion tools for choosing the memory you need. The articles analyses a most of these offered by the major manufacturers and sees how good their suggestions actually are compared to what you really need.

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Spire Rocketeer 500 watt power supply

Friday, March 24th, 2006 | News, Power Supplies | No Comments

A 500 watt power supply not only allows smoother power delivery, but allows you to run the newest stuff without worrying that it will overwork your power supply.

With a claimed 75% efficiency and supporting the BTX standard this 500 watt power supply seems to be on the right track from the start. Modular style cables are always an added advantage and becoming more and more popular with many manufacturers adding them to their units.

The Spire Rocketeer 500 watt power supply lived up to expectations and stayed on track with decent ratings in the full review at motherboards.org

Overall a worthwhile purchase, although the cables are a little stiff, but easily replaceable.

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Torture Testing Twinhead’s Durabook N15RI Notebook

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 | Laptop and Notebook Computers, News | No Comments

Tomshardware takes a Twinhead Durabook N15RI and throws it around and does unspeakable things to see how much it can handle and how well it performs after the throwaround.

It is designed to be able to survive a series of tests that would destroy the average plastic cased laptop, but it doesn’t just perform well in this area but does well in general use too, which is not something to be overlooked.

The case is made of Magnesium alloy, making it extremely strong. The parts inside are surrounded by rubber padding to keep them from being damaged if dropped or moved around. The case itself does not clip closed so as to allow more flex for when you drop it or it gets bashed around.

Everything on the keyboard side of the notebook is fully sealed, protecting against spills and damage from water.

The tests included multiple drops, a large drop, water being poured over it and a whole lot of shaking for an hour.

This laptop passes all the tests with ease and as well as being rugged it has good looks and decent performance going for it. Not much else to ask for in a computer really, is there?

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Plextor Network Attached Storage Device

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006 | Hard Drives, News | No Comments

The ability to share files is becoming more and more important. With the advent of the internet large scale file sharing became feasible. It is still not enough for smaller networks. Having a computer to act as a file server within a home network allows all the users in a household, which sometimes is a few computers, to share the files they need to.

The problem with a dedicated file server is that one computer has to be up and running all the time to ensure that the data is available to all those who need it. The Plextor NAS device gets around this problem by offering a file server setup for a home budget. It is a standalone device that will serve as a file server.

It looks similar to an external hard drive and does share a few limited features. It has 2 USB 2.0 ports at the back as well as a network connection. The software needed to run the device is located on the Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 Ultra ATA/133 hard drive inside.

It has a total of 235MB of storage space, but that is expandable by adding a USB hard drive to one of the USB ports. It is easy to setup via a local network, attached either to a computer or a hub.

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rockdirect Xtreme SL Laptop

Monday, March 20th, 2006 | Laptop and Notebook Computers, News | No Comments

Laptops have become far more powerful and much more capable in recent times, but there is still much room for them to improve. They aren’t effected much by the addition of all new technologies like SLI which put two video cards in unison to provide massive graphics ability, simply because there is really no space.

The rockdirect Xtreme SLI laptop comes with dual GeForce Go 7800 GTX GPUs in SLI mode. This is big news taking this step into an area where only desktop computers have been able to go.

In the review at Hexus they take a look at this baby and see just how much it can put out.

Now it has to be said that this laptop is big. It will do as a desktop replacement simply with its massive 19 inch wide screen monitor alone. It has a DVD writer, a gig of ram and basically a complete package as well as anything else you could think of.

The size of the system allows for a full sized keyboard, while still having plenty of space around the touchpad. All this space does detract from its ability to be lugged around. Although if its just lots of gaming power you are looking for you can’t go wrong.

So if you are looking for the fastest laptop around then this is it, it could still do with a few improvements and the price is a little scary, but it is fast, oh yes, it is fast.

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eVGA GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB Superclocked

Monday, March 13th, 2006 | News, Video Cards | No Comments

EVGA have released their GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB graphics card and it is fantastic. Guru3d takes a look at this new card and pits it against all of the competition.

Now this newer card performs better than the 7800 models, but is actually cheaper due to factors like less transistors and other stuff that keep the price down.

In performance it does the expected and performs better than the previous model. It takes on any game with maximum settings and handles them fine. The video card manufacturers seem to be getting ahead of themselves and these cards can handle far more than the games can throw at them.

Anyways, it performed on a smudgen better than the X1900 from ATI which really sets the game afoot with the battle between these two manufacturers. It manages to outdo it in most of the tests, but not all.

With fierce competition the best thing is that prices start to fall. With ATI dropping its pricing below 500 bucks there is motivation for nvidia to keep prices down.

Head on over to Guru3d and check out the whole article and see just how well these new cards are going to handle.

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