OCIA.net checks out the ABIT IC7-Max3 motherboard in their latest review! Here's a snip.

Today we will take a look at one of their latest motherboards, the IC7-Max3. This will make the second ABIT motherboard that I have had the pleasure to own, the first one being their KG7-RAID. Let?s get a few things out in the open first though. I absolutely loved the KG7-RAID. This could give a slight bias toward ABIT, but honestly, the hardware speaks for itself. Many other reviews have been given on this board, with nothing but raves for the board?s performance. For this reason, I will not concentrate on the board?s performance as much as its usability, convenience, and innovation.

DataFuse.net just finished reviewing DFI LP NFII REV B.

Here's a quote from their site: "The moment has finally arrived, the DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra 400 Revision B is amongst us. Many AMD enthusiasts all over the world have eagerly been waiting for this board to become available. I can easily say this board is the board everybody has been waiting for that's not willing to take the step to 64-bit computing. And why would you already take the step to 64-bit computing, AMD is still keeping prices high and since it will still take a while until software takes full use of it, I'm sure a lot of people won't mind sticking with 32-bit for a while."

Got MP3? Wanna play those MP3's on your home or car stereo without the hassle of wires or complicated installations? Ever think about going wireless? GeekExtreme.com reviews 2 FM Transmitter, the iRock BeamIt 400FM and AudioBUG by Aerielle.

"One nice feature of the BeamIt is the LED that lets you know you are transmitting. Aerielle, which manufactures the AudioBug uses a method I like a little better -- the unit turns itself on automatically when sound starts transmitting, and off after 70 seconds of silence."

Digitalwanderer of EliteBastards was fortunate enough to receive Active Cool's ACG4 to play with and I did a review of this nifty little CPU cooler over here at Elite Bastards.

It's definately one of the more unique CPU coolers on the market.

Read More...

Merconnet's 7" LCD TV would be a great addition to a small portable DVD viewing station, but as for the Cable TV viewing, it is a little lacking. If stereo composite connectors were added and the TV tuner refined, this would be a great product.

Hardware Pacers has posted a review on the Apex ATX-500W-P4 Power Supply. Here is a snippet:

"The Apex AL-B500E ATX 12V 500W Switching Power Supply is a unique and power saving power supply. It uses Active PFC that makes it capable of harnessing universal free input and creating efficiency up to 75%. This power supply also features Smart and Silent fan control that extends the life of the PSU fan and reduces the amount of noise released. It has aluminum casing for fast heat dissipation and it is ideal for Intel and AMD based systems. The power supply looks robust and durable and the manufacturer guarantees 50,000 work hours."

Not only was the player physically robust, but its feature list would go toe to toe with any normal DVD player on the market. As stated earlier, the visual and audio quality were flawless and you would never tell the difference when compared to the bigger alternative.

Just got word that Zardon over at DriverHeaven has just published his review of the Visiontek Radeon 9800XT. The review focuses on what the card can do at high res/AA/AF when really pushed and contains some excellent features such as downloadable video files showing how the card runs Need For Speed:Underground!

I would like to point out that not only did this card perform flawlessly under 26 hours of almost solid benchmarking but it held a generous overclock of 470 on the core and 400 on the ram without any stuttering.

Nach einer kleinen Arbeits - bzw. Umziehphase hat unsere Partnerseite Teschke wieder ein paar sehr interessante Testberichte veröffentlicht.
Diesmal geht es um: Festplattenkühlertest Ley Festplattendämmung Test Silentmaxx Xice Wasserkühlung Test Zu den Reviews geht es hier

Just got word from my good mate Anton Nilsson at NordicHardware that their AMD Athlon 64 3200+ review is out!

A couple of weeks ago AMD introduced their long awaited 64bit processor for the desktop market, Athlon 64 and Athlon FX. At that time we unfortunately got no opportunity to look closer at it the way we did with the new flagship from Intel, Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Extreme Edition. The processor is intended as Intel's "temporary" reply to Athlon 64 and proved to have an impressive performance with its huge 2 MB L3-cache. However, now it is time for AMD to show what they have got: Athlon 64 3200+.

Just got word from Crow at Darkcrow.co.kr that he's been searching the web high and low for the latest graphics card reviews to have hit the web and grouped them all together on one page! There's 30 reviews in total. Here are some of the list:

Digital fotografieren muß nicht teuer sein. Die Redakteure von der Chip haben Digital-Kameras unter 200 Euro getestet und waren von der guten Bildqualität überrascht. Welche Kamera für wen geeignet ist, zeigt der Test.

Tweaknews is reviewing Object Desktop, a Windows shell enhancement/replacement. Tweaknews takes a look at most of the sub-programs of Object Desktop.

Article Snippit: "Object Desktop is a fantastic suite, although it does have the potential to overwhelm certain users. Novices will be intimidated by the amount of separate components which make up this suite. I believe Stardock would have been further ahead to group everything together neatly, allowing you to change each aspect of Windows (skinning, desktop, Start menu, etc?) within one application."

I have my (old) ATI Hercules 9800 Pro 128MB tested in my machine, you think why? Simple for comparison. Yes you read that right comparison. I have compared this card with the Catalyst 3.7 and with the Catalyst 3.8. I published a couple of weeks ago some benchmark results in Longhorn Beta 4029, visitors asked me why I published this because there isnt any comparison. Well I listen to my visitors and tried to get the latest build of Longhorn, it was Longhorn PDC Build 4051. Finally after a couple of days, I was finished installing Longhorn 4051 and ready for some benchmarks. Looking around on some sites, I noticed that people would like to see how the Catalyst 3.7 and the Catalyst 3.8 driver performend against each other. And ofcourse is this as well included in this review! Ok, here is a short brief of what I did:
Compared Windows 2000 with Catalyst 3.7 and Catalyst 3.8
Compared Windows XP with Catalyst 3.7 and Catalyst 3.8
Compared Windows Longhorn PDC 4051 with Catalyst 3.7 and Catalyst 3.8
Compared Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Longhorn PDC 4051

Now you know what I compared lets see what I used for comparison:
3D Mark 2001 Second Edition (DX8)
3D Mark 2003 Standard Version 330 (DX9)
AquaMark 2003 (DX9)
Quake 3 Arena (DX8)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (DX8)
Halo: Combat Evolved (DX9)

Interested? Come on over and read the review! ;-)Review: 3D Prophet 9800 Pro 128MB Review, Compared with 2k/XP/LH/3.7/3.8!

Abit's latest motherboard is the value-orientated AI7 for the Pentium 4 based on Intel's Springdale chipset. Tweaktown put it right up against the IC7 MAX3 based on the more expensive Canterwood chipset and it doesn't fair too badly at all.

ExtremeTech have published an article that promises to be a useful read if you're considering putting together a new Athlon 64 based system: "We examined five Athlon 64 motherboards from the first wave of products, designed for early adopters and PC enthusiasts. We compared features, performance, and price on these socket 754 motherboards to help you decide which you should buy to go along with that new 64-bit CPU."

Want to cool that Pentium 4 CPU to the max? We tell you which heatsink is best suited when it comes to aircooling!
Little over a year ago we put Swiftech´s greatest against Alpha´s best. The MCX4000 vs PAL8942 review is more then a year old. And it is time again to find out who´s the king of the Pentium 4 aircoolers. Read the review here

I've just released a review of Logitech's X620 6.1 Speakers.. How did they hold up? "I was surprised to find that at least at lower and middle volume ranges, the quality of these speakers is damned near that of the Z5300's -- that is to say it's excellent. Crisp and clear with no distortion to speak of, they do start to suffer a little more at higher volumes, but you can still crank them to a nearly uncomfortable volume before this happens. The subwoofer that comes with the X620's is decently sized and delivers very good bass. The midrange is good, but compared to the Z5300's is slightly lacking -- this is barely noticable."

Well, this is ironic... a renowned heatsink, fan, and powersupply company, that has its whole mission statement based around the pursuit of quiet computing, now wants to MAKE noise rather than prevent it.

The Tech Report have thrown up their review of AMD's Opteron 148 and 248 Processors! Here's a snip.

IF YOU HAVE BEEN following these things at all, you probably know that AMD introduced its Athlon 64 FX chip last month to great fanfare. This new processor took our benchmark suite by storm, beating out the Pentium 4 3.2GHz by some downright embarrassing margins in many tests. Intel struck back preemptively with its Pentium 4 3.2GHz Extreme Edition, but now that we know that product's actual, heart-stopping price, the P4 EE looks more like a stunt than an actual option for purchase. In my view, the Athlon 64 FX reigns as the fastest x86 processor in the desktop market.