The Altec GT-5051 is a 5.1 stereo gaming speaker system. This is an interesting system in that it has only a subwoofer and two satellites, yet still delivers 5.1 surround sound. It does this by using side firing speakers that are built into the satellites. This is an innovative approach to a problem we always have with 5.1 systems.

The Albatron K8SLi is based on the Nvidia's NForce 4 SLI MCP, and is targeted at the mass market as one of the most cost effective SLI-enabled motherboard today. VR-Zone brings you an in-depth review of this budget wonder.
VR-Zone

LinksysInfo.org has just reviewed the Vonage VOIP Service. the review is in 3 parts, with Part 1 now completed. This gives the an insight to VonageFeatures and a look at the Linksys PAP2 VOIP Adaptor.

Today XtremeResources Randi "MrIcee" Sica evaluates Arctic Coolings latest graphics card cooling solution, the Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 6 (Rev. 2). This iteration of their now familiar cooling solution is designed for the nVidia AGP based 5700FX and PCI-E based 6200 and 6600(GT) videocards.

3DVelocity posted the second in a series of four budget/midrange case reviews. This time they review the COMPUCASE 6C29BUF, an elegant, cheap and Prescott compliant case that swaps loud colours for curves and class.

Mobile notebook graphics are becoming increasingly important as the popularity of the mobile market takes off. Over the past few years the form factors that notebooks are available in have become ever more diverse, with configurations down to Ultra Portable, all the way up to full powered Desktop Replacement machines. To address these needs the graphics vendors have also had to address then with an increasing range of graphics chips and performances.

Both products tested today come with the very chilly IceQ II cooling package that means a large but very silent cooler. For the standard Radeon x850 XT model additional iTurbo overclocking software is included, which makes the product run as fast as a Platinum Edition within the click of a mouse button, a very cool feature. They take it through a nice photo-shoot and multiple benchmarks with the best poosible settings. The result ? Yeah .. of course it's sweet stuff. If you have the processor to juice it up though!

Sunbeamtech?s Transformer is a large mid-tower case on steroids. If you want a computer with plenty of fans and lots of lights, this case is for you. A product like this from Sunbeamtech isn?t surprising, since they are currently making a name for themselves in the case modding industry. To get an idea about some of the products they offer, they sell screws with LEDs on them and lighted connectors/expansion accessories.

Dual core will pretty much be the norm in the following years and while Intel announced theirs first, AMD had one ready for us before them. We take a look at their current highest-end dual core CPU today.

T-Break

We have on the bench the 3800+ model of the Venice Athlon 64, and we've compared it against everything from its direct predecessor, the Athlon 64 "Newcastle" 3800+, to the highfalutin' new dual-core processors from Intel and AMD. We've also attempted to overclock the thing into oblivion. Hop into our gondola and come take a brief tour of Venice with us.

3DVelocity has reviewed a case built with the HTPC/media user in mind. With front-mounted LCD, volume knob and mode buttons it looks the business, but do looks deceive?

The first case I'm looking at today has the rather unimaginatively named 8008-B3, a rather distinctive looking chassis that looks more like a hifi component than a case, and maybe that gives us a clue as to its intended market.

Mushkin has been a supplier of quality PC and Server based memory since the days of SDRAM. Today Madshrimps has been invited along on Mushkin´s latest excursion as they once again prove themselves worthy as the DDR Ring Bearer, and the Lord of the RAM. A complete roundup of all new Mushkin products, including their new high voltage Redline and their well known LVL2 Black series.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (ASUS), a leading provider of high-performance notebook computers, today introduced the flagship W2V Notebook Series. The W2V offers the latest DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) digital TV feature, 17-inch Color Shine/ Crystal Shine LCD widescreen, 5.1 channel stereo sound audio and built-in subwoofer. Combined with desktop level processing power, the ASUS W2V intelligently packs all the home theater electronic devices into one slim and light notebook, creating the ultimate mobile digital home.

Thermaltake is no stranger to the computing scene. They have been designing cooling products for five years now, starting with the infamous Golden Orb CPU cooler. They have come a long way since then and have diversified their product line beyond CPU coolers. Thermaltake has been producing cases since 2002, when they first established their Xaser line.

Did I mention that I like big cases? Well, I do. I also like the Aspire X-QPACK. It looks good without sacrificing functionality. It?s compact, yet offers room for two 5.25 inch drives, two hard drives and a floppy. It?s lightweight, but still quite sturdy. The carry handle makes for easy portability and the cooling is surprisingly good. With three windows, LED fans, LCD temperature display, a 420W power supply with a dynamite finish and sleeved cables, and five color choices it also gets big points as a pre-modded case. In fact, the X-QPACK really challenges the modder to mod the components inside the case, as so much of the interior is visible.

Same great multifunction panel, brand new display technology. 3DVelocity takes a look at Matrix Orbital's new MX6 series.

Below the surface these units are identical to the MX2 series displays we looked at last year. What's has changed is that Matrix Orbital have ditched the LCD module and equipped this puppy with a very nice Polymeric LED display instead. I mean let's be honest, your multifunction display could be capable of giving you next week's lottery numbers but they're not much use if you can't see them.

Advanced Micro Systems (AMD) has released a new revision of their Athlon64 S939, the code name is Venice. Venice is produced in 90nm, has 512KB Cache and is clocked betwen 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz. Compared to its predecessor, the Winchester, new features are support for SSE3 and an improved Integrated Memory Controller (IMC), which means the the CPU itself manages the computer's memory. With those improvements it is now possible to run 2GB memory at 200 MHz with a CommandRate of 2T. Previous CPUs were only able to run 2GB Memory in Async Mode (5:4 - Ram: 166 MHz 2T). We will test, if that has any effect on the memory's overclockability and if SSE3 does actually increase performance.

If you ask any PC enthusiast what type of memory they have in their PC the likely response would be Corsair or OCZ. Both manufacturers make great performance memory and have done for some time. Recently though more manufacturers are branching out into the performance segment and today we have modules from two of these manufacturers up for review. The first is Crucial who have been synonymous with quality, stable memory for years. The second is Ultra.

DriverHeaven

Today XtremeResources Senior Reviewer Steve "WxChaser" Carmel evaluates Logitech's current high end speaker system offering, the Logitech® Z-5500 THX® certified digital speakers. These are the next evolution of Logitech's famous Z-680's which have stood as one of the finest amongst many excellent competitors.

EPoX sent TweakTown one of their newest motherboards recently, the 9NPA+ Ultra, which is based on nVidia's new nForce 4 Ultra chipset for the AMD Athlon Socket 939 processor platform. We've compared the motherboard against the nForce 4 SLI chipset to find out if there are any differences in performance in a non-SLI system setup. If you're on the market for a new PCI-Express Socket 939 motherboard with some decent overclocking support, you might be interested in the EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra.