It's the Geeky equivalent of a conversation that most guys would have about a Maxim girl versus the Olsen twins. Would you rather have a single, very fast CPU or a pair of somewhat slower processors? That's a tough question, and it's precisely the one that Intel has prompted by releasing a couple of new CPUs today, the Pentium D 820 and the Pentium 4 670. The P4 670 is the fastest single Pentium 4 processor ever released, running at nearly 4GHz. The Pentium D 820, meanwhile, runs a full gigahertz slower, but it has two complete Pentium 4-style CPU cores onboard for a very nice price.

Shuttle takes a shot at the HTPC by introducing their Media Center Edition SB83G5C XPC. Lets find out if Shuttle can duplicate their success in the HTPC market.

T-Break

Logitech is one of the most well known makers of computer peripherals. Founded in 1981 in Switzerland, this company has grown to near 7,000 employees and have their products sold in more than 100 countries worldwide. Here in North America they have achieved an extremely deep market penetration, evidenced by their presence in nearly every electronic retailer in the country. If you walk in any Best Buy or Fry?s Electronic you will see Logitech keyboards and mice for sale.

PolarFLO has earned itself a respectable place in H20-cooling for PC with their flagship TT Series CPU block and the design has remained unchanged since its inception. They obviously know a good thing when they´ve engineered it. While other companies scramble to re-design quarterly hoping to defy the laws of physics by manipulating water every way imaginable, PolarFLO steadfastly stands behind a single product line for CPU. Today the Madshrimps see just how far this unique copper block will allow to overclock our S939 Athlon 64 3500+.

Thermaltake has done a good job with their first entry into the modular power supply market. The TWV 500W sells for around $130US, putting it at the high end of the spectrum, price wise. The inclusion of a case fan and the TWV module offsets the high price somewhat, if the prospective buyer finds these features desirable.

We've rounded up a collection of drives from Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital to find out how the T7K250 stacks up against the competition. We've also tested the new Deskstar's 300MB/s transfer rates to see where?or whether?they may have an impact on performance.

TechReport

If you are in the market for a keyboard and mouse combination your options are almost limitless. From market giants like Microsoft to relatively unknowns like A4Tech, manufacturers have been lining up to sell you these input devices since the dawn of personal computers. 21 years ago, the mouse was introduced to consumers as an integral part of the graphical user interface (GUI). The mouse and keyboards have freed themselves from the shackles of wires and can now be considered as remote controls for your PC.

The sexily named "BFGRNF4U" is BFG Tech?s introduction to the wonderful world of motherboards. See just how well their non-SLI nForce4 Ultra solution stacks up to the competition.

[H]ardOCP

OCIA.net has posted a review on the OCZ Technology Platinum Edition EL PC-4800 Dual Channel DDR Kit.

Not mentioned above is the fact that these modules are based on Samsung's infamous TCCD chips. These chips have a great track record and are highly sought after by overclockers and enthusiasts alike. EVP is the abbreviation for Extended Voltage Protection, under which OCZ offers a Lifetime Warranty for these modules all the way up to 3.0V ± 5%. ULN (Ultra Low Noise) technology uses various printed circuit board (PCB) techniques to reduce the amount of electrical noise that is present in all high-speed ICs. This results in faster and more stable memory.

Having spoken in the past with OCZ staff members Tony and Andy who regularly post on our forums I have been aware of their close affiliation with DFI. Today we are going to take a look at a product that is closely linked with their DFI NF4 range of motherboards, OCZ's EL DDR PC-5000 Platinum (created for DFI NF4). Its quite easy to assume in a passing glance with a rating of "5000" these would be DDR2 modules however this is not the case, its regular DDR rated at a mind numbing 312.5mhz or DDR 625 with timings of 3-4-4-10. This should on paper sate even the most ardent of overclockers.

DriverHeaven

AMD has had their share of new CPU releases lately, and more are coming. Recently, they released the Venice and San Diego chips, with a 90nm core, added SSE3 support, and has superb overclocking potential. They also use less power, which means lower temps! Read on as I put the Venice 3200+ through a slew of benchmarks.

Today TweakTown are taking a look at VIA's latest small form factor All-In-One EPIA motherboard, the SP 1300 based on the latest processors and chipsets to come from the VIA labs. This low power consumption platform with hardware MPEG-2 decoding and hardware MPEG-4 acceleration might just what you're looking for in a silent HTPC or car computer. Read on as we take a close look at the humble yet impressive EPIA SP 1300 All-In-One motherboard from VIA Technologies.

MHW has a one pager on the Logitech MX 1000 mouse, does it bring anything to interest current MX 700 users? Read on to find out.

I suppose I could feature a long section here on gaming performance, but I don't want to write one and you probably don't want to read one, when I can readily tell you what you want to know in a few short sentences. Here it is: The Logitech MX 1000 laser cordless mouse performs as well or better at all sorts of gaming than any corded mouse I have ever used. Period. No lag, no cord tug, no sluggish movement. It justs works, and it does so in a way that I wish all other PC hardware would but invariably doesn't.

XtremeResources today has on the test bench the Crucial Radeon X850 XT 256MB PCI Express videocard. Our European Senior Reviewer Grace evaluates the high end graphics solution aboard her bench consisting of the watercooled Intel 3.73 Extreme Edition ES @ 4.2GHz riding aboard an Asus P5AD2-E premium mainboard for a full featured, high end benching galla.

3DVelocity are still on their case gig, and today it's the Aspire X-Dreamer II, a nice, pre-modded LED strewn chassis that doesn't cost the earth.

Let's face it. There's a limited amount of slots and space in a computer case. Most computer users wouldn't even give this a second thought, but among overclockers and case modders it something to consider. Well today we take a look at Sunbeamtech's Wherever PCI Rack that allows you to install more components to your computer case. Maybe you want to mount a fan just above the videocard for added cooling, or maybe you just want to mount a third hard drive. With the Wherever PCI Rack you can do that and more.

ECS made a bold move to integrate an upgrade slot with a base board allowing the board to adapt to future CPU socket types that uses a common south bridge. The daughter board would come with the supporting north bridge, ram slots, power regulator built in. ECS calls it SIMA platform converter card.

ECS PF88 main board is based on the SiS LGA775 chipset, SiS 656 NB and SiS 965 SB. The board supports the Intel P4 LGA775 socket and includes 4 slots of DDR2 667 memory, a 1066FSB, SATA2, GigaLAN, 1394a Firewire. The board supports the Intel 6xx CPU and a BIOS update should be available soon to support the newer dual core CPUs. The PF88 also supports SATA II NCQ ports using the SiliconImage Sil3124 chipset.

OCWorkBench

Despite the growing success of water-cooling or of less common cooling systems, air-cooling is still the most widespread system for our computers. With the release of numerous new products, it was time to take stock of the market. Here is a survey of 25 of the best CPU coolers!

Test: 25 CPU coolers

From the HEXUS.review: The I-Trigue 5600 is a cracking speaker set, with sound quality right up there alongside anything else in the same price range. If that range seems a little too rich for you, know that until you've enjoyed the pleasures of surround sound, it's impossible to appreciate how much it enhances the enjoyment of DVD movies and gaming. That experience is worth paying for if the quality is right. And, with these Creative speakers, it is right. A further big plus (or a major negative, depending on your viewpoint) is that the design of these speakers isn't discrete. Heck, it's not intended to be. But whether it's too in-your-face to have around the place, only you can say.

For a little over a year, ATI's Radeon X800 series GPUs have powered the company's high-end AGP offerings. Over that time, however, ATI has introduced a number of new graphics products, including the Radeon X850 XT PE that boasts dynamic clock gating and higher clock speeds than previous Platinum Editions, and the Radeon X800 XL built with 0.11-micron fabrication technology. For months, these new graphics cards were limited to PCI Express, but AGP versions of each have recently become available. ATI has also bolstered its AGP lineup with the addition of an All-in-Wonder Radeon X800 XT. Together, these cards breathe new life into a graphics interface that's been largely ignored for the last six months, but are they any good? Let's have a look.