The PAC 400 is basically an air conditioning unit for your PC. It?s designed to provide cooler ambient air into the computer system in the hopes of dropping the internal and CPU temperatures. It sounds like a great idea, but can it live up to the marketed expectations?

The Crucible is at it again. This time they fry up some x800 action and serve it up hot. They test Sapphire's x800 Pro with many of today's hottest games. They also have a little section where they put it head to head with the Nvidia 6800GT. Check it out here: Sapphire Radeon x800 Pro 256MB @ The Crucible

Hardware Pacers has posted a review on the Coolmax 3.5 Xtreme Files (F1). Here is a snippet:

Coolmax's new Xtreme Files 5-in-1 OS Backup / Data Backup / Restore system is a truly outstanding innovation. This system provides a user with 80GB of storage space to backup files or operating systems, or restore files. This system has a spectacular design and can be used right out of the box for data storage, or after a few simple steps can be used for operating system backups.

TrustedReviews has the scoopage of a new MCE 2005 PC, the Evesham e-box which is a DVD player sized PC with dual digital TV-tuners, slot loading DVD writer and integrated infra red reciever. Check it out!

The time has come, Microsoft has FINALLY released a version of Windows Media Center Edition that normal people like you and me can purchase through distributors who sell OEM software. Many years in the making, this latest version of Media Center Edition makes a serious push at the mainstream HTPC software market (SageTV, Snapstream Media and Meedio) with the mighty Microsoft backing it. HTPCnews takes a super in-depth look at this product and reports back the good, bad and the ugly. As a little extra, we even explain how you can edit the DLL's and create your very own unique looking MCE 2k5. For an all you can eat / read buffet of information covering every possible aspect of Windows MCE 2k5, check out HTPCnew's review.

Combining affordable pricings, good overclockability, top level performance and the ability to keep things cool is what we enthusiasts pursue in our quests to build high performance computers. Does the new S939 3200+ 0.09µ have these attributes? Find out as Madshrimps compare it to an expensive FX53, a cheaper S754 3400+ and a mid-range S939 3500+ CPU.

"Well, I'm still trying to lower the noise level of that noisy rig that sits about 2 feet from my head while I'm at my desk. I've installed an Ultra-Quiet PSU, a nice, quiet cooler for the video card, and even added some acoustic foam. Each time I've added "silent" hardware, everything else sounds louder. Now I'm going to try to lose some decibels from the CPU cooler, with the ACC-L81, also known as the Cooler Master X Dream III CPU Cooler."

"The SilverStone TJ05 is just a monster of a Case, it’s spacious and rigid. The quality behind this Case was never and will never be questioned. If you are looking for a LAN Party Case, look elsewhere. If you are looking for something to last a lifetime – this is it!"
Link - 3DX

Looking for an affordable USB memory key? Look no further than to TrustedReviews group test then, with 9 different models on test from Buffalo, Crucial, PNY, SanDisk and Sweex.

Read more at: trustedreviews

When Half-Life2 is just behind the corner and everyone thinks about hardware upgrade.

newgenerationorder.org tests the quality and performance differences between DirectX8 and DirectX9 engines.

The Crucible has just posted a review of Cooler Master's new Cavalier 1 case. This case is tres sweet looking, has tons of room and a cool analog sound meter. The review has tons of pics so check it out.

Cooler Master Cavalier 1 (CAV-T01-U1) Mid-Tower ATX Case

It is not surprising to see multimedia manufacturers introduce newer technologies in the market to gain edge over the competition.After all, there are only a limited amount of aspects that you can alter and improve in order to make 2.1 and up speakers produce higher quality of sound.
Few years ago, 2.1 speakers took over the market with a swish, but like everything in technology products tend to get outdated and common enough for users to demand something innovative and unique. We then started to see 5.1-surround sound speakers slowly emerge in the market. As time progressed, every speakers manufacturer was trying to do something different to gain higher market shares. Companies started producing speakers with THX technology, which meant clearer and crisper sound like the one you hear in limited theatres.

If you have been following our memory analysis for the past month or so, you will realize that DDR1 is clearly the choice over DDR2, at least for now. DDR1 is simply too mature when it comes to directly comparing it with DDR2. However, it is not anyone's fault and we can't blame anyone for the perfomance competition between the previous generation and next generation products. Intel was right in its own defense; it had to introduce newer and higher performing products in order to compete with AMD, but apparently their strategy didn't work as well as they hoped it would.

MHW has a review of the D-Link home networking solution, this includes router, wireless cardbus adapter, switch, and PCI network adapter.

"What is Super G? It is a feature designed to increase throughput in an 802.11G network. It consists of 4 separate features including Dynamic Packet Bursting, Fast Frames, Hardware Compression and Encryption, and Multi-channel 108 Mbps Turbo Mode. Packet Bursting basically reduces the amount of wait time required between data packets. Fast Frames increased the number of bits sent per data frame. So packet bursting sends more packets in a given time and fast frames sends more data per frame which means these two work together. Data Compression and Encryption is supported in the Super G hardware. The hardware compresses the data before transmission and decompresses it after reception. So this feature increased data throughput by compression. Multi Channel Turbo Mode takes two 54Mbps wireless channels and sends data over each, effectively creating a 108Mbps link."

GameConnect has a new review of Counter-Strike Source available now. There are 6 pages with chapters about grapics, sound, gameplay and many more. There are about 50 new in-game screenshots included. The graphics a great, the gameplay as good as ever and again we are going to play many hours of Counter-Strike.

The Crucible has just posted a review of Albatron's Trinity PCX5750 PCI Express video card. The card is a decent mainstream performer and they test pretty much ever current game in the review. Check it out if you are in the market for a PCI Express video card. Albatron PCX5750 @ The Crucible

One of my general annoyances with ATI is with their reluctance to have a default design structure with twin DVI ports, commonplace with the top of the range Nvidia 6800's. The R3xx and R4xx chips have a VGA, DVO (digital video out) and a TMDS out (DVI, single TMDS). To get dual DVI you need to get a DVO - TMDS convertor chip, ATI currently do this on their high end Firegl boards but to keep costs down on their boards they dont use the extra chip.

The AX800XT goes all the way and includes this additional chip for dual DVI, those of you on dual TFT will appreciate this extra as the video signal out from a standard VGA gives inferior overall image quality.

Dell is a big player in the computer market and especially in the business sector of this market. They cut out the middleman and sell directly to the end user. Starting off small and ending up with a huge assortment of products, Dell offers something for everyone.

3DVelocity

Today 3DXtreme is presenting our latest review of the Ultra X-Connect 500 Watt Modular Power Supply. This unit has been all the rage since its release a few weeks ago. Is it all show and no go for this unique Power Supply or has Ultra created a force to be reckoned with?

OCWorkbench has posted a review of the XGI Volari V8 versus a S3 Deltachrome S8, along with Radeon 9550 and GeforceFX 5700LE results.

The Volari V8 certainly proved to be a very interesting piece of hardware. This card has pretty good performance for the average gamer as we can see and proved to be a worthy alternative to the Radeon 9550 and GeforceFX 5700 LE which are both in the same price range. Its performance seems to match the Radeon 9600/9600 Pro too.