Monday News part 2

The RF receiver is a small grey unit with room for 2 AA batteries. The 2 batteries in the receiver are always charging when the computer is on. So, you will always have a fresh pair of batteries for your mouse (or discman), which is a very nice feature by A4 Tech. I found that for the first few charges the batteries didn't last much more than 2 days, but after 2 weeks of use the batteries seem to last for 5-6 days before needing a recharge.

Matrix Orbital's step into USB wasn't a big one; there weren't a whole lot of significant changes I can read off a list. However, the changes that were made improved this unit just a ton. Higher quality and more user friendly products are what we like to see from the manufacturers, and Matrix Orbital Delivers. On the other hand, now that Matrix Orbital has made everything so easy with this LCD's, you're not that special anymore if you have one. But, chicks do dig the blue LCD, so you'll likely have that going for you. The bottom line here is that this product will rarely serve any practical purpose for anyone. However, neither will CCFLs, window cut outs, or a nice looking wiring job.that you have on your case. It's another thing to have fun with, and for many will turn into a full fledged hobby.This is definitely a sure fire way to impress all your LAN buddies.

The MSI TI4800SE-VTD is a nice card bundled with an extraordinary package. The card performed on par with others in its class, although the Radeon 9500 outperforms it by a fair margin in every benchmark. Using AGP 8X proved to be of little advantage, as it allowed the card to gain a paltry 249 3DMarks. If you don't own an AGP 8X board, the results that we showed today are proof that you aren't missing much.

A few things that stand out with this fan controller to me are the fact that you can still monitor the speed of your fans with the motherboard fan headers and that it controls 6 fans. Four are on a variable knob and two fans you can switch between off,5V and 12V. Has brightly colored LED bulbs with color intensity changes reflecting fan speeds. It looks really cool. It has... well heck, read the specs and find out.

It seems that a majority of PC cases now come pre-modded. This trend is only increasing as many case manufacturers are adding unique features to make their cases more prominent or visually appealing. It's not only a window and a blowhole anymore. Now we have cases with temp sensors and LCD displays built-in. Today we look at one of these cases provided by Xoxide called the X-Dreamer. This low cost, highly modified mid-tower case is loaded with features such as a pre-installed LED fan and a built-in temp sensor with backlit display.

Soyo has always been know for producing decent, full featured motherboards with all the toys you would ever need. But, the one thing they are REALLY known for is bundling a great package together with extra peripherals like I/O panels, software, and extra cables needed to get your system up and running at their full potential. Today I will be reviewing their flagship board which contains pretty well everything you need, and a little more.