While much of the focus of the enthusiast community is on the high-end when it comes to the ever-continuing GPU wars, there is still a vast majority for whom shelling out vast quantities of money on such a powerful card is but a pipe dream. For these users, there is much gaming pleasure to be had from currently available mid-range boards, and it is just such a card we are looking at today, in the form of Leadtek's WinFast PCX6600GT-TDH GeForce 6600GT part.

The combination of two fast GeForce graphics cards enables fluid 3D display at the highest resolutions with maximum picture quality. We took a look at four of the latest motherboards offering NVIDIA's new dual-card feature.

Toms Hardware Guide

ATI and NVIDIA's latest budget graphics cards have embraced using system memory over PCI Express, with ATI calling its approach HyperMemory, and NVIDIA branding its TurboCache. Join us as we explore the intricacies and performance of each company's approach, and crown a new budget PCI Express champion.

TechReport

No need to look into a crystal ball to read the future, Behardware.com does that for you. Here is an exclusive on the flat monitor?s future at relatively short term. Instead of fluorescent tubes used for backlighting NEC has replaced them by 48 x 3 red, green and blue LEDS (144 on the whole): This is the Lumileds technology!

BeHardware

Today 3DXtreme is presenting a review of the latest in CPU Cooling technology from our friends at Thermaltake. Thermaltake has been delivering their world class products to 3DXtreme for some time now and we are always excited with each new product. Thermaltake?s products just seem to get better and better. The Big Typhoon is a massive CPU cooler using a 12CM Fan and six heatpipes however this Cooler only generates 16 dBa of noise.

Throughout the two month testing period, I have yet to witness one single problem or disadvantage from buying this inexpensive LCD monitor. It performs well during office work, it games exceptionally well, its' cheap, it can be purchased almost everywhere online and did I mention it games well.

XtremeResources today has on the test bench the Hiper Type-R Modular Blue Line 580W Power Supply Unit . Our European Senior Reviewer Grace evaluates the high end modular Power Supply Unit solution powering her Intel P4 3.73 EE, Asus P5AD2-E premium based test bench. Read along as she determines the flexibilty this unit offers in it's modular construction, and takes a look inside to see what make this unit the powerhouse that it is.

Here in the second of three X-ray mouse pad reviews, we have the Thunder9. While it inherits both the awesome surfaces of the Thunder8, though, you have to pick either the smooth, or the rough, because there are technically two different pads. However, the larger surface that gamers demand is here, which should be the major selling point for the Thunder9. Continue on if you'd like to find out more.

It is also the first chipset that uses a tunneling technique to interconnect the two "North Bridges" as the South Bridge M1567 integrates logic for supporting native AGP 8x. Not only that, it also offer simultaneous support for PCI Express x16, and AGP 8X graphics interfaces that makes it possible to connect to multiple monitor displays. The ULi M1695 now supports Async CLKs making it a direct challenger to the NF4 Ultra chipset not only in performance but in overclocking.

OCWorkBench

We were quite impressed by ASUS' previous 955X based P5WD2 motherboard. Lets find out if their nForce4 based P5ND2-SLI continues the experience.

T-Break

After a long break concerning VGA coolers we can present a new review on VGA coolers by Zalman today. We tested the VGA coolers of the VF700 series, the VF700 Cu and the VF700 AlCu. To be able to say something about their cooling performance/potencial we tested without any case fans and an highly overclocked VGA card. How both VGA coolers performed under this conditions you can see in this review.

In answer to Intel?s dual core announcement, AMD has pre-announced the Athlon 64 X2 for desktop computers. The processors initially weren?t available for sales and tests before June, but this date was brought forward. Behardware.com has tested the Athlon 64 X2 and compared performances of this solution and Intel dual core. Power consumption, compatibility, performances, multithread & multitasks? here is an in-depth test.

From HWZone.co.il: PrimeCooler has released a new series of CPU coolers named HyperCool 4. If we took off the brand name sticker off the cooler, you would probably think it is one of the products of Zalman, a manufacturer known for producing quiet yet efficient cooling solutions.

In this review we will examine the HyperCool 4 + Led in order to determine if it is indeed a serious competitor, one that companies such as Zalman should worry about, or just another failed attempt to recreate the success of others.

AMD is getting set to push their first dual core Athlon 64 X2 processors out to the world next month. How do they stand up to the Intel CPUs released last month? Are they going to be worth the extra cash they are asking for?

PC Perspective

As I said earlier, for the money and the software included, if you are in the market to turn your computer into a handy TV with A/V functionality and don't have the ability to use a PCI version, you really can't go wrong with this product. It is easy to install and setup, comes with ATI exceptional multimedia software along with GemStar's GuidePlus which on it own is worth over US$200 for its' subscription. The image quality is just as good as all the TV wonder and All in Wonder videocard's that I have tested in the past.

PureOverclock pit the 6600GT against ATI's only current defence, the X700 Pro. Is it enough?

So, why are we pitting the X700 Pro and not the XT version against the 6600GT? The X700XT has not actually hit retail yet and the word on the grapevine is that it may never hit retail. Current pricing also puts the 6600GT and X700 Pro head to head, with no more than a £10 difference between them. Currently, to pit the 6600GT against the X700 Pro makes perfect sense unless ATI does the right thing and lowers the price of the X700 Pro.

The X850XT PE and X800XL are two new latest-gen graphics cards from Canadian GPU manufacturer extraordinaire ATI. Priced at different ends of the GFX market price range, one retails for over 600USD, while the other settles for a more approachable 300USD. As well as reviewing both cards in full detail, we're going to be keeping a special eye to whether the increased performance of ATI's 850 flagship model is worth the rather steep price difference.

MBReview has released their latest motherboard review. This time they've taken a look at Chaintech's VNF4 Zenith Value Edition, an ATX motherboard based off of the standard nForce4 chipset. This board features a fairly unique design, among other things. If you're in the market for an affordable nForce4 motherboard, give this review a once over to see if this board looks like what the doctor ordered.

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