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Reviews Around The Web
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Choose Web Reviews from this Maker:
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Thursday, February 11, 2010
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"Thermaltake has a real gem in the Lanbox chassis. The design and styling elements join to produce a small, portable case that not only performs very well, but also is relatively easy to work in, given the space limitations. And, it looks as good as it performs. Its sleek, classy look garnered a lot of attention around here, and it's easy to see why. The all aluminum construction keeps the Lanbox light while the modular design keeps it strong."
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All DVD-burners are the same, right? So what makes one better than the next. It's rare these days to hear about an optical drive, with all the other components that are getting faster, greener, and cheaper. Today, Benchmark Reviews is taking a look at ASUS's most recent addition to the optical drive market, the ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24x DVD+/-RW. Many of us may have recently been contemplating an upgrade to our old drives. After a few years of wear and tear, optical drives can give out. Also, with recent upgrades in motherboards, you might find yourself without an IDE channel, necessitating the purchase of a newer SATA model drive. Benchmark Reviews will test the ASUS DRW-24B1ST against other optical drives with USB, IDE, and SATA connectors to find out just exactly what ASUS has in store with it's newest DVD-Burner.
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"In June we wrote an article about Adaptec?s new Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection and explained how the company planned to introduce a revolutionary technology that would leave the battery protection behind for good. Two months later Adaptec once again broke new ground and announced their MaxIQ cache system that accelerates data transfers by using Intel solid state drives to increase I/O performance. Both of these high tech features can be used on Adaptec?s Series 5 RAID controllers like the 5805Z we are testing today.
You may notice the 5 Series product naming; the series has already been on the market for over a year but the Z models are updated with the new cache protection system. You can expect to spend around 500 USD for the standard drive without a battery and close to 800 for the Z Series RAID 5805(Z) according to PriceGrabber. The MaxIQ Upgrade Kit is also on the market already, but the price is a bit more significant. Look to spend around 1,100 Dollars for this add-on that is capable of boosting performance 10x as long as your data is able to fit into the ?Hot Zone?. In the coming weeks we will have the additional MaxIQ hardware in house to test some scenarios that will see performance increases and a few that don?t. We will also answer the question, Will this increase the performance of my system?"
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"Power when you need it, efficiency when you dont. So goes the premise behind Lenovos new IdeaPad U550, a mid-size notebook with a CULV processor and switchable ATI graphics that could serve as both a desktop replacement, and a makeshift travel machine. Throw that together with a $799 price tag (as equipped) and the U550 makes an appealing pitch to computer buyers looking to make one purchase for all their computing needs. Can it follow through? We give Lenovos perfect porridge a taste test."
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Data security is a very important issue for some people. For internal hard drives there are many solutions available to ensure your drive cannot be accessed. However, for portable hard drives, there really are very few working solutions. One such apparent solution is iStorage?s diskGenie, a hardware encrypted portable hard drive which utilizes secure PIN code access. Let?s see how it performs?
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NZXT is well known for unusual and extravagant cases. The Hades is no exclusion in this way and the name is program.
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If there is one camera brand that is all geared up to take the imaging world by storm this year, Ricoh might just be it. While other top camera brands like Olympus and Panasonic are going the Micro Four Thirds way, Ricoh has decided to be an island and rethink its own camera system.
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Monday, February 8, 2010
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?In the last few years, there seems to have been a definite slow-down in the modification of CPU coolers. Companies are now seeming to follow a standard: aluminium fins, copper heat-pipes and a 120mm fan. And would you blame them? Well as the saying goes ?If it ain?t broke, don?t fix it?, so probably not. Today, for review, we have a CPU cooler from a company named ?Spire?, they?re fairly new to us, so let?s see if this TherMax Pro cooler surprises us with any new offerings to the processor cooling scene??
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"The Antec Nine Hundred Two case is the perfect case for builders who are just getting started or those of us who have been building machines for years. Antec makes the case incredibly versatile by allowing the user to practically customize the location for each storage device. Fan locations and controls are ideal and can be easily reached. All the fans are essentially quiet on their slowest settings, but this is more than enough to keep your rig cool. For hard-core enthusiasts, you can still crank the fans sacrificing noise comfort for airflow. Working with the Antec Nine Hundred Two was very easy..."
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?With the continued flux of PC cooling companies on to the international scene, reputation is key and perhaps it is this, Noctua?s seemingly legendary status as a premium quality cooling Solutions Company that has held them at the forefront of the market for several years since its establishment in 2005. Formed through the merger of Austrian Rascom Computerdistribution Ges.m.b.H and the Taiwanese Kolink International Corporation, Noctua has focused predominately on the cooling of the central processing unit with an array of aluminium heatsinks and fans symbolised by their peach and brown colour schemes.
Noctua?s fan selection is reasonably extensive and previous designs such as the NF-P12 have been highly decorated with awards but it is until now that the cooling company has decided to add a larger, 140mm fan to its prestigious range.
With limited coolers requiring a 140mm fan though, the NF-P14 FLX is essentially an alternative for the more commonly used 120mm designs making use of a larger impeller for a superior airflow/noise ratio but with the ability to fit on to both 120mm and 140mm mounts. Let?s take a closer look??
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If you where to lost the Dynatron P-Secure enclosure and had very personal data on the secured partition, you don't have to worry about the founder looking at this data. The P-Secure has a secure partition that you can set the password. Once it is set you do not have much to worry about. But what if we took the drive from the enclosure what then? We will find out.
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"Team Group made a solid name for themselves a couple of years ago when they started offering some of the fastest memory on the market at a price that made other memory makers red in the face. Since then Team has been a part of the enthusiast community worldwide and even expanded their product offerings to include among other things flash memory drives and even solid state drives.
Today we are testing the new Team Group Xtreem-G1 solid state drive. The G1 is based on the Indilinx Barefoot controller and has a rated read speed of 260MB/s and a write speed of 180MB/s. The Barefoot controller is capable of using up to 64MB of high speed DRAM cache and Team stuffed the drive to the max with very fast cache memory."
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" Today for review I?ve got a green accessory for your cell phone to make you life a bit easier maybe. If you?re into using a speakerphone while driving then the Scosche solCHAT II might be right up your alley, it?s nicely made, loud and easy to use. It even talks to you in a sort of sexy female computer generated voice to guide you through pairing, usage and she can even let you know who?s calling by name."
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The term "3D" can be seen all over, and for good reason. Both software and hardware companies are beginning to deliver the goods to increase the immersion for our games, movies and even images. But, we're curious to see just how important this whole 3D aspect is to you. Answer three simple questions, and you could win an NVIDIA 3D Vision bundle!
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"No longer will you have to worry about ghosting artifacts and you can watch any action movie or sports game and feel like you are really there. Although LCD models may try to mimic the fluid playback a plasma TV brings to the table, they can't hold a candle to plasma technology even today."
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