Thursday Reviews

Vantec has done it once again with the NXP-301. Not only you get a rheobus to control your fans, they also included an Sound Activated inverter for the CCFL. And you get TWO tubes of the CCFL as well! Vantec has always emphasized on their packages but this one goes off the roof with excellent packaging. One that you would only find on videocards packaging! Instead of the blue glow we're used to with their current rheobus units, Vantec has changed that to a green one. While subjective to the user, it's a nice move from the norm and the green glow is rather nice too. Although they still use Blue LEDs so you can construct your own clear acrylic sheet if you still want the blue glow. It's ready to use out of the box with it's "U" shaped aluminium housing and entension cables are also included to help you with your fan connections. The instruction manual is also a nice touch for the newbies out there. But if you're looking at matching this unit either with a black of silver case, you'll be out of luck. Vantec only produces this unit in a metallic grey housing, much like the Antec AMG1080 Case. But like I said ealier, nothing a spray can can't rectify aight? :O)

As to MSI's video card tested, it's clear that this is a perfect product regarding its build quality and accessory pack. The company takes close to its heart production of videocards, especially of the High-End rank. The cooling solution, and the design in general are pretty interesting. There is just a small disadvantage: it can be difficult to install such card into some mainboards where a north bridge is located close to the AGP port. There can be not enough place between the AGP and the north bridge's cooler for the smaller fan on the card's backside. However, you can easily remove this fan without detriment to the card

The 8KNXP is a great board to work with and offers massive onboard functions. It is capable of catering a wide range of users and currently one of the fastest Canterwood motherboard on the market. 8KNXP is able to catch some mild overclockers and the overclocking result is satisfactory. However, for the overclockers on the extreme side, IC-7G is clearly a better choice

If you are a server administrator or have mission-critical workstation tasks, then this power supply might be right up your alley. It provides enough power to handle the biggest tasks and can withstand long periods of stress, with enough connections to easily handle large RAID arrays and cooling. Designed for large server cases, the EG851AX-VH(W) FM PSU has more physical depth than the average ATX case. Delivering 660W of pure power, this gold-colored behemoth would be an interesting addition to multi-processor servers and gaming dream machines

So you want to start overclocking but you don’t know where to start. Well Corsair has been producing high-performance memory since 1994 and have been sought put by overclockers. Today we are going to take a ride with Corsair’s latest offering. The Corsair TWINX PC-3200 512MB DDR Memory Modules!

The Mach V is Falcon Northwest's flagship model. Each machine is hand-built and tuned, and represents the pinnacle of PC performance. The machine we looked at was absolutely stuffed with high-end gear, and we were very excited at the prospect of putting it through its paces

Are you finding yourself constantly moving your monitor from room to room? How about to those LAN parties all the way across town or to another state. Trying to avoide cables, to claim the life of you and your monitor, is not a simple task. If you are in need of a saviour, then the GearGrip - LCD Shield Harness may be the answer to your prayers. The GearGrip - LCD is a computer monitor carrying harness.

Enermax has decided to join in on the fun and we’ve got two power supplies in the labs to look at. In this review we’ll be looking at the Whisper series of power supplies. The Whisper series makes use of two fans to cool the supply’s internals as well as your computer. Unlike many other thermally controlled power supplies, the Enermax Whisper power supply gives you the option of controlling the power supply’s fan speed yourself. If the room is cool or you’re doing light work such as word processing, you can leave the fan at its lower 1500RPM speed. When it’s time to enjoy some gaming, just turn the dial to the max and enjoy 3000RPM of cooling power

The IceMat, whilst restricting your overall movement area suffers from none of the other problems, with the surface being almost frictionless yet still provides enough grip to be able to stop the mouse intentionally without loss of control, perhaps to make a head shot whilst sniping. Trying to explain the frictionless effect only brings to mind a cushion of air but yet the traction in both ball and optical mice is enough to be able to stop where you want and when you want with no sloppiness or overshooting the mark

After removing the contents I find that everything is included in the box: a Driver CD, a quick guide for the interface and attachable wrist rest. It appears that this is NOT a USB keyboard. I was taken back a bit by this so I checked into it on ideazon.com and found this; ”Ideazon will launch a second base with a USB connector that will include two additional USB ports on the back of the Zboard™ base.” Well it was good to see that they were ditching the age old PS/2 for the now standard USB but disappointing that this one was PS/2