If you're looking to build a truly compact, no nonsense mini-ITX system, the Mini-Box.com M350 is an excellent case to consider. Just slightly larger than a mini-ITX board itself, and only 62mm tall, you can't get much smaller in this form factor. And depending on the components you use inside, you may be able to build a completely silent system.
After spending some time with the Nitrox x835 Bluetooth handsfree car kit we have somewhat mixed feelings. Overall, the sound quality is decent and the battery life is really good. Its size and simple visor mounting clip make it easy to move from vehicle to vehicle. It is also a lot better than the built-in speaker phone feature on the iPhone.
I can honestly say that the Cooler Master HAF 932 AMD limited edition is a great case. The style is first-class, the red front face plate is gorgeous, and the side panel window with AMD dragon graphic is really cool. The tool-less design is very well thought out, and the included 8-pin power cable extension and caster wheels are a very pleasant surprise.
The Powermat portable wireless charging mat can greatly reduce the number of chargers you need to power your devices... A good thing for when you are at home, and an even better thing when you are traveling. Instead of a jumble of cables and power bricks, you might only need the portable Powermat and its accessories packed neatly into its case.
The mainstream acceptance of Bluetooth technology, and its widespread use, has spawned a glut of different types of accessories. Everything from keyboards and mice to remote controls and speakers. According to bluetooth.com, there are over 1100 headsets alone. In this review we take a look at one of the 1100 with the Nitrox x735 Bluetooth stereo headphones.
CES is finally over (has been for several days), and a lot of things were shown. Some were really cool new things, while others were just updated models or those with an increase in speed/capacity. Instead of focusing on the many SSDs or USB 3.0 enclosures that dominated a good part of the show, we will focus on a broad range of other new products in this article.
With ATI’s assault on the high and mid-range price segments nearly complete, their focus has now shifted to the lower end of the market. Hot on the heels of their HD 5450 release comes a card with substantially more graphics horsepower but with a sub-$100 price: the HD 5570 1GB. In this review we take a look at this card and how it does alone and in Crossfire configuration against some stiff competition. hardwarecanucks.com
Hopefully one day soon Solid State Drives will be standard equipment for new computer systems, but first SSDs must become available as an optional upgrade item for build-it-yourself orders. Plextor/LiteOn hopes to bring this service to tier-one OEMs, and computers from Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Sony could soon offer lightning-fast SSD performance. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the LiteOn 32GB 'Strong-Page' SSD, model LA-32M1S, built on the Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2 Da-Vinci controller. benchmarkreviews.com
Even though both drives are based off the same technology, the firmware is a different and this may have the greatest impact on performance between the two units. Many users of the Patriot Torqx SSDs have noticed a performance decrease when using the 1819 firmware, but this firmware keeps the drives performance static on a TRIM-enabled OS - even after prolonged use. bcchardware.com
The ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card that was launched last week brought full DirectX 11 support, ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology and ATI Stream technology support for ~$49. That is a hard combination to beat for the price, but the Radeon HD 5450 graphics card wasn't that great in gaming and some have said that it is too weak in compute performance. The ATI Radeon HD 5570 that was introduced today has four times the compute performance on paper and we were able to see nearly a two times performance difference in real world game testing. Not a bad increase for just an extra $30, but gamers will be hard pressed to go with anything less than a Radeon HD 5670 as it does much better across the board when it comes to gaming. legitreviews.com
For 2010, Intel has introduced a new line of processors code named “Clarkdale”, and will be known as the Core i5 600 series. At this point there are four processors in this series, the 650, the 660, the 670, and the 661. Today I will be looking at the Intel Core i5 661, a dual core LGA 1156 processor built in the 32nm process, with on-die video processing. This should make it a natural for HTPC and non-gaming rigs. How will the i5 661 fare with this geek who has had the honor of reviewing some of the most powerful video cards in the world? thinkcomputers.org
As a video card for the enthusiast gamer this does not fit the bill. On the other hand such a gamer will not likely spend $50 to buy a video card but there are other markets than the hardcore gamer. The Home Theater PC owner with a low-profile case this card is the perfect fit. It offers much higher performance than the latest integrated graphics technology from Intel or AMD, draws less power, has no active cooling and has the ability to run three monitors on a PCB that is the same size as the previous generation HD 4350 card which has the same specs in terms of Stream Processors. motherboards.org
Today we tested Thermaltake SpinQ VT CPU cooler, which has a unique design with a centrifugal fan inside a cylindrical heatsink. Will this fancy design translate into a high performance? Let's see. hardwaresecrets.com
Solid State Drive technology has helped transform computers into high-performance machines. Adding to the mania, 6.0-Gbps SATA-III bandwidth has cleared any bottlenecks that may have previously limited SSD speeds. Based on the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 SSD processor, the 256GB Crucial RealSSD-C300 becomes the industry's first SATA-6G consumer Solid State Drive. Likewise, the C300 is also the first SSD to use ONFI 2.1 synchronous NAND flash. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the MTFDDAC256MAG model rated for 355 MBps read speeds using the HighPoint Rocket 620LF host controller. benchmarkreviews.com
The NH-U9B SE2 continues the legacy of Noctua's classic NH-U9 series of compact premium coolers, which have received more than 100 awards and recommendations from the international press. The new SE2 version lends itself to use in quiet HTPCs or smaller cases and adds support for LGA1156 as well as LGA1366 via the latest SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting system. We have tested the cooler with a Core i7 860 system. hardwareoverclock.com
The ability to overclock is great, but what about the features? Well you'll be happy to note that this card has all of the features of the more expensive cards. This includes DirectX 11 and Eyefinity. While this card won't play games as well on Eyefinity as the more expensive cards, it has the ability. Like many other more recent graphics cards, this card decodes video. Combine that with the aftermarket cooling solution, and you have a great card for a high end HTPC. bjorn3d.com
