computer-reviews.net

Biostar TForce4 U 775 motherboard

Friday, April 21st, 2006 | Motherboard Reviews, News | Comments

Biostar are attempting to get into the enthusiast overclocking part of the computer sector with this new model. The T-series represents their high-perfromance boards.

In the review at bit-tech.net they have a closer look at how well it performs, especially compared to the other boards in the same price range as this one.

The board itself is well set out with the 24 pin power cable input being the strangest positioned thing on this board. Sitting back near the USB ports it makes wiring a bit of a drag as the wires have to pass across the board from the back of the PSU.

One of the other strange things was the lack of a manual in the box, which was a little strange, although it was probably just forgotten on this box, as I don’t think there is any great reason to not have one. The cost saving could only be minor by leaving it out.

There is an option to set the voltage of the DDR2 modules to 3.3V, which is actually too much for them. With standard voltages of 1.8V this should fry them within a few hours.

Much of the board is set out alright, not too well, but not too badly either. The features it includes are good. A 280MHz FSB speed was all that they could get out of the board which doesn’t rate that great against some of the competition that can be overclocked to much higher levels than that.

For gaming enthusiasts it will not meet the grade. It does well generally, but not enough for those who want to dish out all this cash for a motherboard. Check out the full review at bit-tech.net

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Overclocking the Intel Pentium D 805 processor

Thursday, April 20th, 2006 | CPU Processor Reviews, News | Comments

The Intel Pentium D processor provides a bottom of the range option for those looking for a dual core processor without the cost involved in getting many of them.

This chip is fairly new to the market and mates two smithfield cores together, with a FSB of 533MHz, one L2 cache of 1MB each for the cores. Unlike its brothers and sisters in the 800 series of dual-core processors from Intel, which all run at 800MHz, this one runs slower at 533MHz, with a multiplier of 20 to get to a speed of 2.67GHz.

In the review at legitreviews.com they managed to push the FSB up to 760MHz without any problems from the processor and loaded up Windows and ran their tests without any problems. The actual increase in performance did not quite match the rise in processor speeds, with the overall change being about a 29% in performance or so.

The processor goes past the levels of the 840 processor and starts to come near the level set by the 840 Extreme Edition.

There is a lot or praise for this chip on the site and the test scores go to show how much it can perform, and how much you can get for your money from the lowest priced dual-core processor around. With a decent motherboard for under a hundred bucks, you will be able to get a processor that is capable or running up to 3.8GHz with a little bit of overclocking.

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Thermaltake Matrix Computer Case

Wednesday, April 19th, 2006 | Computer Case Reviews, News | Comments

The Thermaltake Matrix computer case is toutes a “case for LAN parties” according to the detailing on the box. LAN party cases usually have unique designs, clear cases, some cold cathode lights, great cooling and good layouts inside to add to the pleasing look of the case.

The Blue LED 120mm fan located at the bottom and the 120mm fan at the back give it good airflow. The clear side panel lets you see all of your cool components inside and its light enough to lug around to any LAN party you wish to go to.

The case incorporates a tool-less design. All of the peripherals come out with just clips. This applies to PCI slots, hard drives and all the other stuff besides the motherboards screws to the case.

The case does basically what it is supposed to in a case thats priced at about $75. It has good looks and works fine. It’s nothing to write home about and won’t leave any jaws on the floor, but it does provide another option for those looking at cases in this range that are suitable to be lugged around, but are also not lacking in the design department.

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Inflatable USB drive

Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 | News, USB Removable Drives | Comments

EverythingUSB reports on this remarkable little device. This little monster likes to eat information.

As you put more and more stuff on the flash drive the bigger it becomes. When its near exploding it will tell you that you have nearly run out of space. They only come in this orange color as far as I know. I really like the idea of giving data a physical size, like it actually takes up a portion of space somewhere. It gets a little bit harder to take around when you start to fill up the disk.
Catchy, and definitely worth style points. The website of stuff at Plus Minus is really worth a look at. There are some pretty innovative and cool little gadgets.

The flashbags look like they could offer a lot of storage.

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What is VoIP?

Monday, April 17th, 2006 | Networking (LAN), News | Comments

Tomshardware takes a look at many of the questions that people have about VoIP technology. This is the technology that allows you to make phonecalls over your computer other users around the world for very much less than the cost of an international phonecall.

VoIP has become popular because of its cheap prices, but the main limitation, according to the article is that people are not sure what its all about. And if a consumer is not sure, they’re likely to go elsewhere.

There are a few variations on VoIP.

There is computer to computer, where both parties need software like Yahoo! messenger with voice of Skype and they call each other using their usernames. This kind is completely free, and the quality is quite good.

The other option is computer to landline. This will usually cost and you will have to use a computer to phone them, the cost however is cheaper than a local call in the area you are phoning to.

Little gadgets like the phone pictured here make things easier. This one attaches to the computer and then you can use it around the house like a normal phone. Other options are standalone phones that perform the same function, but without the need for a computer to be on.

Go check out all the details at Tomshardware.

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