What better way to mark the return of new content at HTPCnews.com after their long holiday break and a mention in Popular Science magazine than a full scale editorial on what people can / should expect from their HTPC's? They have been working on this piece on and off since November 24, 2004 and finally feel that it's ready for the public eye. This is a must read for any HTPC user, new or old.

AnandTech takes a look at (and in) the new Mac mini, iLife '05 and iWork...

Weeks before MacWorld San Francisco there were rumors appearing about a "headless Mac", an ultra cheap Mac offered without a monitor. The first thing that came to mind was an Apple version of an eMachines system. Interestingly enough however, the rumors also stated that it was an attempt from Apple to get iPod users to give Mac OS X a try. It sounded odd at the time...

OC-Service.com has just posted the 64 bits for desktop PCs! Here's a snip.

It is the fact that Advanced Micro Devices, which is also known as AMD introduced 64 bit technology processors that was previously only used with servers. Thanks to this, AMD became the winner of the best desktop Pcs processors competition. Few days later, Intel introduced the new version of P4 called Extreme Edition but it did not take the AMD's place.

There are hundreds of different styles of mice on the market today that do a hundred different things. The big question is: what do you need your mouse to do for you? Today, we are taking a look at I-rocks? Beetle mouse. A nice solid mouse that performs very well, without a lot of fancy add-ons.

With cellular telephones and internet voice chat becoming more and more popular, people realize that while enjoying these two communication applications, they are unfortunately tethered to either their cellphone or their computer via a wired headset. Although in most cases this might not be a huge concern, but after a while you will realize that you could doing other things rather than being tied down to your computer, or you could be talking over you cellphone without having that annoying separate headset wire constantly catching onto your clothing and uncomfortably ripping itself out of your ear.

MBReview has taken a look at Foxconn's top Pentium 4 offering to date, the 925XE7AA-8EKRS2. This motherboard is based off of the Intel i925XE chipset, supporting 800MHz / 1066MHz FSB processors. The board comes with a stellar product package, and offers solid performance, though it is lacking a little when it comes to the BIOS. Looking for an i925XE motherboard? Head over and take a look!

The video card is benchmarked with an entire list of games and Synthetic benchmark tools. Games: Unreal Tournament 2004, Far Cry, Doom 3, CounterStrike Source, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 1, Need for Speed Underground 2, Colin McRae Rally 2005, GT Racing (GTR) Demo, Ford Racing 3 Demo, Shade Wrath of Angels Demo and The Punisher Demo. Synthetic benchmark tools: 3DMark01SE, 3DMark03 build 3.5.0 and 3DMark05 build 1.0.0

Gigabyte is here with the second SLI capable motherboard to the PCP labs. How does it compare to the A8N-SLI?

PC Perspective

Shuttle's latest creation, the SB77G5, puts a Canterwood motherboard with LGA775 (Socket-T) into the G5 chassis. The G5 is already quite popular in the form of the SN95G5, a Socket 939 AMD64 based PC. HEXUS.net have a review of the new SFF PC, and while performance is good, an AMD based SFF system could be more appealing to gamers.

In XtremeNews we had published a new review testing the CaseBuy EZ Power Supply Tester; It´s an easy-to-use and very practical accesorie that allow us to check the status on our power supply and detect any damage. If you want to know more about EZ Power Supple test, click here

We finally procured a motherboard based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI technology earlier this month. Armed with two GeForce 6600 GT's that were provided by NVIDIA and eVGA, Clay Angelly, aka Dr. Frankenstein, takes his "new" system for a spin.

Razer has been making high precision mice for gamers since 1999. Razer now has made a dual surface mouse pad. It's large like other "gamer" pads if you will, but does have one unique feature, two sides with differing surfaces. One is geared for "control" and the other for "speed." Continue on for my thoughts and impressions of Razer's first endeavor into the mouse pad world...

One of Intel´s latest CPU runs at 1.6ghz, no there is no typo here, the Pentium M normally intended for laptops have been given a chance to shine in desktop systems also with the help of resourceful motherboard manufactures. The Madshrimps take a closer look at DFI´s offering to see how far they can overclock this new "Dothan" CPU.

The Aerocool Spiral Galaxies is a quality made Case; there was never any doubt about that. The "screw-less" design makes installation a breeze. The issues we ran into were related to the non standard Form Factor that everyone is trying to copy while using ATX hardware. Aerocool delivered a quality product, its flaws while not entirely Aerocools' fault can be attributed to the sudo BTX standard implementation.

XtremeResources have just published a review of the Corsair Corsair XMS TwinX512-3200C2 Rev. 4.2 ram, which are utilizing Samsung TCC5 IC's aboard.

Power consumption is a great concern in the computing industry, nowadays. Although, it wasn?t much of a concern a while back, users now want to know the power ratings and consumption of their personal computers, and the components that reside in it. We are at a point where we don?t want high-powered products in our systems. Power consumption is the cause of elevated electricity bills and mere annoyance, when it comes to thermal issues. Add the aforementioned points to 600W+ power supply units and the scenario gets much worse.

XtremeResources.com have just published a review of the Coolermaster Cavalier II CAV-T02 case.

Most people have o­ne PC for every facet of their needs, whether it be education, work or entertainment. However many people want a HTPC (home theater PC) for their living room lately to join with their home cinema systems and high-end audio systems. Most men accept having their typical nice tower next to the other equipment, or even normal beige towers in the living room: but in order for a HTPC to pass W.A.F. (wife acceptance factor) it has to be 1, looking very nice and fit in with the rest of the equipment and 2, it has to keep cable clutter to a minimum and be as silent as possible. At least!

Welcome to the grilling of the Volari V5. The V5 is the 'middle of the road' chipset of the Volari range from XGI ,the card is aimed at the low to mid range sector of the market, this is the area of the market that gains the most sales. The other cards in this category are the Radeon 9550 and the Geforce Fx 5500 or the 5700le.. The card I am reviewing was sent to WASD by the kind guys at Club-3D, who are also XGI main distributors in Europe at this current time. This is the 128meg AGP version of the card.

Looking for a good set of headpones that you can use with your PC, but that would also be great for your portable DVD player? TrustedReviews might have the answer for you as they've just reviewed the HCT DH-720G Portable Home Theater Surround Sound Headphones which comes with a Dolby Digital and DTS decoder to give you the best possible sound from a portable sound solution.
Check it out here - Trusted Reviews

OCIA.net has posted a review of the Corsair Flash Voyager 512MB USB 2.0 Drive.

Above we have a photo of the Voyager itself. As you can see, the exterior is constructed of rubber. This rubber construction makes for a water-resistant and shock-proof drive. Get caught outside in the rain or accidentally drop the drive down a flight of stairs? No worries!