computer-reviews.net

Samsung 940BF 19 Inch LCD Display

Friday, April 14th, 2006 | Monitor Reviews, News | Comments

XYZ computing takes a look at the Samsung 940BF. With very little exciting happening in the world of monitors, this promises to be a fairly average computer monitor.

It’s a plain design, with a slim outer edge so that putting two monitors together will still look alright. There are no little speakers as there is no space left for them. But good riddance to little gimmicks, in my opinion.

It’s designed with office use in mind and is simplistic. Its ordinary coloring gives it a look that can blend with a clean desktop and match the other parts of the computer.

The performance is fine with a few nitpicks about how well it handles gray colors and some color issues towards the edge of the screen. But overall, its a good monitor, and it despite its run of the mill looks should be okay for those not looking for too much.

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Three System Cases from ASUS

Thursday, April 13th, 2006 | Computer Case Reviews, News | Comments

X-bit labs takes a look at 3 different mid-range cases from Asus. Although Asus are not well-known for their cases they do offer decent looks, but plain. Their Vento system was a bit of a failure, having good looks, but bad functionality. Their focus now is just for those who want a middle of the range case, without too much cost involved.

The funniest one of the lot is the TA-370 which has cool looking, chess board like cover, which although may not appeal to everyone’s tastes has a unique styling to it. All of the buttons blend with the checked look of the cover, so they are almost completely covered up. The other parts have covers that slip down for use. There is a doorknob on the side panel that allows you to open it. Inside parts almost all have clips for easy undoing of parts.

The TA-252 has a more plain design, and the whole cover is white. There are large areas of mesh for good airflow. Another thing I like is that you don’t need to open a cover to get to the USB and audio ports. There is no tool-free design here and the little clips apparent in the above mentioned case are not there. The internals are plain.

The TA-212 shares the same internals, but a different front cover with the TA-252. It’s a completely gray, almost silver looking front cover where all the drives have flaps that come down to conceal them. They are  functional.

They find the TA-252 the best one in its class, which I would agree with, as its the most traditional, has things placed in the right places and provides enough cooling through big vents.

See the full review at X-bit labs.

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Who Designed This Crap? The Great Ipod Scam

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006 | News, Speakers and Sound Card Reviews | Comments

Not everyone likes the Ipod, but in an article at Tomshardware the author outlines the reasons why he doesn’t really support the Ipod thing.

Amongst the complaints are that it gets really scratched up really easily. Although they are not expected to last forever, they don’t even last for a few days really. They may be usable, but are not as cool as when you first got it. There is also little support for third party casings for them.

Issues with the Digital Rights of the media come into play too. It is certainly not the easiest and definitely not the best when it comes to ease of use as it places a lot of restrictions on use.

The cuteness of the name with a lower case “i” is also made fun of.

One of the other complaints it that unlike many other consumer products like printers, where the real profit is in the inks and the printers themselves are really cheap, Ipods are still quite expensive in comparisson.

Discussions are fast and furious at the site. Looks like he’s not the only one with an opinion on the matter.

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Logitech Wireless Music System

Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 | News, Speakers and Sound Card Reviews | Comments

The Logitech Wireless Music system allows you to listen to the music from your computer on any stereo in the house.

A transmitter sends the signal from the computer to a receiver that is plugged into your stereo via audio cables. The whole idea is pretty cool for those who have a ton of songs on their computer, but do not want to be at their computer or at least want some easier way to listen to the music in another location.

According to the report at techgage it works fine, but still has a few bugs to be sorted out. The one major feature that doesn’t work is the remote control. If you are listening in another room, it’s the equivalent of listening to the radio, as the remote does not work, unless you are in the same room, which kind of defeats the point anyway.

Installation seemed alright, although not completely intuitive.

In its current setup it reminds me of car products that allow a non CD shuttle supporting system to get sound via its inputs from a CD shuttle that sends the music over radio waves.

If this could be made to work well, for example, getting the remote to work, or as the ultimate feature, to have a screen so you know what track you are listening to, it would be the ultimate solution for home audio.

Check out the full review at Techgage.

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ABIT AN8-32X nForce4 SLI x16 Motherboard

Monday, April 10th, 2006 | Motherboard Reviews, News | Comments

The Abit AN8-32X nForce4 SLI motherboard is reviewed at PCstats. Crossfire is not a great as it could be, so boards with the nForce4 SLI chipset are about the only choice for enthusiasts.

Abit is well known in the industry and builds respectible motherboards. A recent merger helped out the company amidst financial difficulties.

The board itself has a socket 939 connection to support all of AMDs chips. It also comes with a 7.1 audio built in, which is a decent extra. 4 Gigs of memory, gigabit LAN and SATA2 are amongst the other things in the package.

It’s priced fairly well for a board that has quite a lot on offer.

Overclocking ability was determined to be 280MHz, which is not bad, but not as good as some other models on the market.

Overall it manages to impress in the benchmarks. Again, it does not perform to an exceptionally high standard but is in the top half of the pack.

Head on over to PCstats to check it out.

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