After using this case for a couple of weeks, I'm fairly pleased with its performance. The Athenatech A605 has a lot of competition in its $50 price range. While none of its features put it head and shoulders above its rivals, I feel it is a good buy. With the addition of another fan and a motherboard tray it would have been a great buy.
NVIDIA's GeForce 6200 with TurboCache @ TechReport
A while back we, reviewed the GeForce 6200, and we were a bit perplexed. The GeForce 6200 was a success on most fronts. It brought GeForce 6-class features to graphics cards in the $129 range, including DirectX 9 with Shader Model 3.0?no small feat. Performance was quite good, and the product made sense overall, save for one thing: the 6200 was based on the NV43 GPU, the same graphics chip used in GeForce 6600 cards, but with much of its rendering power disabled. Graphics companies sell tons of low-end GPUs. Why would NVIDIA manufacture a bunch of NV43 graphics chips, which are relatively larger chips, only to cut them down to half the rendering power?
Thermaltake VA70000BWA
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into your PC store, webring you the Shark, a snazzy new aluminium case from Thermaltake.
ATI's Radeon X800 XL Gaphics Card
When we reviewed ATI's new Radeon X850 series of graphics chips a couple of weeks ago, we said that the more exciting development in ATI's re-spin of its high-end products was probably the Radeon X800 XL, a card slated to replace the Radeon X800 Pro. We are, after all, notorious cheapskates, and a sixteen-pipe card for under $400 is the kind of proposition we tend to appreciate. In fact, the GeForce 6800 GT has been one of our favorite high-end cards, often edging out the 12-pipe Radeon X800 Pro at the same basic price.
Jetart JACSH1 VGA Cooler Kit
Worried about how effectively that stock cooler is handling your latest graphics card? 3DVelocity check out a VGA cooling kit from Jetart that looks good and works like a charm.
It's tempting to assume that just because a manufacturers sells a graphics card with a particular cooler fitted that it's perfectly capable of doing its job, but we also need to remember that most cards these days are based on original reference designs, and these tend to put a lot of emphasis on low noise, low weight, small size and reduced manufacturing costs, but not necessarily great cooling. This is why so many aftermarket coolers perform better and, in some cases, look better too.
It's tempting to assume that just because a manufacturers sells a graphics card with a particular cooler fitted that it's perfectly capable of doing its job, but we also need to remember that most cards these days are based on original reference designs, and these tend to put a lot of emphasis on low noise, low weight, small size and reduced manufacturing costs, but not necessarily great cooling. This is why so many aftermarket coolers perform better and, in some cases, look better too.
Soltek 8KAN2E-GR Motherboard
Soltek have produced a well designed Socket 754 motherboard in the 8KAN2E-GR. The most notable difference to many boards out there is the orientation of the DIMM slots, ensuring that they are away from any large graphics card that might be sitting in the AGP slot. Hexus.net have a review of the board, including benchmarks, from gaming to raytracing.
Leadtek A400 Ultra review at nVnews
Kalyan Rai a.k.a. MUYA has just finished his review of the Leadtek A400 Ultra TDH. This is a snip of what he thought: The Leadtek A400 Ultra TDH and this package is probably one of the better ones in the market. The pricing seems to be in-line with the competition, but the bundle is probably one of the best I have seen.
Sunbeam Wherever PCI Rack Review
"Looking at the thumbnail sized photos on the box, I tried to figure out some of the other configurations of the rack. Some of them appeared to have the rack "arms" mounted perpendicular to the rack. In this particular case, the "arms" were much too long to mount that way, even without a motherboard installed, so I assume that it is not one of the configurations. The only way I can see to mount anything in front of the PCI slots is to mount one "arm" parallel to the rack, and only have screws in one side of the drive, radiator, etc."
Direct Link: ocia.net
Direct Link: ocia.net
Geforce 6800 GTo @ Driverheaven
The card we have in for review today is an interesting beast. Not full GT, Nor 6800 Non Ultra, rather 6800 Ultra toned down to somewhere between GT and Non Ultra. You?ll not have seen many reviews of cards with the GTo suffix floating about however they may well be worth a look, certainly from a price perspective it could well be a winner so let?s see how it performs against the more expensive 6800 Ultra?
Network Cable Tester with RJ-45 Crimping Tool Review @ ExtensionTech.net
Ever look at the price of network cables in your local retail store? What is that? A 6 foot cable for 10 bucks? And how many of you paid that? Ok, I'm not out to knock the person that needs one network cable, but what if you wanted to dabble in making cables for much cheaper than what you would pay retail? Well, you'll need a few things; cable, ends, a crimper, and possibly a tester. I'll be focusing on the crimper and tester of course. If that sounds remotely interesting, you can get the crimper and tester for really cheap. How about around $13 USD?
Thermalright SI-97 Review
In order to get the maximum cooling, you would want the heatsink to be as big as possible, in order to get the largest surface area, but keeping in mind other limitations such as space and weight. Traditionally aluminum has been used, but copper has become more popular because it absorbs and transfers heat faster. Unfortunately, cooper is a heavy element so installing a big heatsink entirely out of copper might become a risk for some systems motherboards due to the weight.
Samsung SyncMaster 193P 19 Inch LCD Monitor Review @ Tweaknews.net
The SyncMaster 193P is not meant to compete with the lower end affordable options and is more targeted towards the end user that requires a large LCD monitor with designer aesthetics, a higher contrast ratio, flexible mounting and screen orientation and color reproduction sought after in the graphics and CAD industry. This is Samsung's premier 19 inch model and they have done a great job at packing almost every feature needed by most consumers, yet still kept the slim and sleek visual appeal.
Sharkoon SilentStorm 480W Power Supply Review
Sharkoon targets the enthusiast with their latest power supply, does the SilentStorm pack enough power to please the demanding high end user? Find out in this review
Vantec Tornado and NXP-205 Multi Fan Controller Review
If you want extreme performance from your air cooled system then this Tornado fan might be what you need. The generated noise is equally extreme, that´s why Vantec recommends the use of a fan controller; in this review Madshrimps takes a look at the NXP-205 fan controller used in combination with their high CFM CPU/Case fan.
Logisys Stove Fan Review
OCIA.net has posted a review of the Logisys Stove Fan. Below is a direct quote from the review:
Since computer case modding has become such a huge fad, manufacturers have been thinking of ways to up the ante with lights and all sorts of fancy gizmos to pull at a modder's wallet. Fans have become not just a means of cooling your computer, but a style all their own.
Since computer case modding has become such a huge fad, manufacturers have been thinking of ways to up the ante with lights and all sorts of fancy gizmos to pull at a modder's wallet. Fans have become not just a means of cooling your computer, but a style all their own.
SunBeamTech Chameleon LED Controller @ TechTastic.ca
So you've decided to add some lighting mods to that cool new case of yours, but you're not sure what color lighting to go with. Well with SunBeamTech's Chameleon controller you don't have to decide. You simply dial in the color you want, be it red, green, blue, or any other color you can come up with.
Five Large P4 Coolers
OCAU looks at five coolers for P4 CPUs, in the "this is getting silly" size range. On test we have Thermaltake's Silent Tower, Cooler Master's Hyper 6, Gigabyte's 3D Rocket, Zalman's CNPS7000B-Cu and Thermalright's XP-120. We test with two CPUs, one Prescott and one Northwood, and also consider the two stock coolers. Many of these coolers also fit AMD CPUs, so it's worth a read for fans of either brand.
HIPER Type-R HPU-4x480 Power Supply
Hiper have launched a treo of power supplies for those who value looks, power and a price tag that shows some mercy. 3DVelocity got to try them out.
The 6600 and X700 PCI Express videocards
The new generation PCI Express based videocards are here to stay, they are going to become more and more attractive in 2005. Thats why we've decided to get a few videocards to check are they so good as everybody is claiming them to be... we got 4 models from different vendors at HWspirit's test lab: Albatron 6600, Canyon 6600, Gainward 6600GT and Gecube X700 Pro. And we definetly were quite surprised by the results and some interesting facts that we discovered druging the testing process.