<strong>Bjorn3D, Elite Bastards, planet3dnow, Techgage, Designtechnica, Hexus, Madshrimps, Frostytech, HWZ, Hard Tecs 4U, PCstats, bit-tech, BIOS, Techconnect, TweakPC, Tech-Hounds, Legion Hardware, Trusted Reviews, 3DCenter, PureOverclock, etc.</strong>

RAID: A Guide For All ... Part 1 @ Bjorn3D

"The use of RAID, a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, up until a few years ago was pretty much limited to servers and high end workstations; this was primarily due to the cost of the controller and the accompanying hard drives. Today that's not at all the case! Most of the newer motherboards provide one or more onboard RAID controllers capable of delivering configurations up to and including RAID 5. With the cost of disk storage at an all time low the two primary barriers to using this once esoteric form of data storage have been lifted."

Source: Bjorn3D.

Elite Bastards commentary: State of the Next-Gen Consoles - Part II: A Brief History of the PlayStation 3

"The PS3 plan was both ambitious and predictable at the same time. For the 3rd time Sony would jointly design the powerful main CPU. For the 3rd time they will launch a console with the next generation in optical disk technology. For the 3rd time the machine will play PS1 games. And for the 3rd time they will use basically the same controller. The only difference in main design this time around is the area of graphics. Graphics technology has progressed at a phenomenal rate over recent years, and consequently has advanced beyond Sony's ability to develop a competent GPU in-house. With ATI locked up for both the Xbox 360 and the Revolution GPUs, Sony made a wise choice in Microsoft's ex-Xbox GPU designer, NVIDIA. Now as you may have remembered from the previous article, Microsoft had some pricing issues with NVIDIA - This won't be the case with Sony however. Sony has the same basic royalty deal in place with NVIDIA as Microsoft and Nintendo have with ATI. Sony likely learned from Microsoft's mistake, and retained the intellectual property rights to ensure the PS3 will be forwards compatible with its successor."

Source: Elite Bastards.

CeBIT 2006 reports @planet3dnow.de

"German hardware magazine Planet 3DNow! will report live from CeBIT 2006 from now on. If your own editors are not in Hannover you might find interesting CeBIT news here:"

Source: planet3dnow.

Ultra Products Value Series PSU Round-up @ Techgage

"All too often we read reviews of power supplies that are not cheap. Some good power supplies can run between $100 and $150, if not higher! Not everyone has enough money for a top end PSU, so we are taking a look at Ultras Value line-up to see if they would be a good choice when you are low on cash."

Source: Techgage.

Designtechnica News: Motorola PEBL Mobile Phone Review

"For a product as utilitarian as a cell phone, care should always be taken when inserting a gimmick that could limit functionality. To be sure, the smooth rubberized PEBL feels like no other handset -- the TV commercial in which the phone is meta-morphed from meteorite to river-worn rock, captures the feel of the phone. And once mastered the PEBL's geek-cool sliding cover that pops up when slid down and disengaged from its magnetic hold is kind of addictive. But all this cell style belies the bland cell phone underneath -- plain old GPRS, not EDGE, network compatibility; VGA instead of mega pixel digital camera with no flash; a narrow monochrome instead of square color exterior display. The PEBL performed well, but so do many other far less expensive, admittedly less attractive T-Mobile models."

Source: Designtechnica.

HEXUS.beans :: Intel Conroe vs AMD Athlon FX 60 Benchmarks

"These are interesting results for a number of reasons, we are comparing the mid range Conroe CPU against that of the future top of the range FX62."

Source: Hexus.

HEC WinPower 550 - Compucase Power Supply Review @ Madshrimps

"We have heard of Herolchi HEC power supply before. Heorlchi was a division of Compucase. This time, the HEC logo is once again called for active duty. Today we are checking out their new 550 watts ATX Power Supply cooled by a single 120mm fan."

Source: Madshrimps.

ASUS Star Ice Heatsink Review @ Frostytech

"The Asus Star Ice is the companies first venture into the realm of commercial heatsinks, and it certainly captures attention for its appearance. Looking vaguely like a jet engine, the top of the Star Ice is decorated with a clear plastic window with a big bright ASUS logo illuminated by two small blue LED's. Hidden behind the outwardly aerodynamic appearance is a stacked array of many copper fins, pierced in six places by three copper heatpipes which connect to a thin copper base. But sometimes motherboard manufacturers should just stick to what they do best, motherboards. "

Source: Frostytech.

IDF Spring 2006 - Day 0 - Research, Development and Architecture @ HWZ

"Intel Developer Forum Spring 2006 is just around the corner, but what's this? Intel has already started the ball rolling with insights into R&D efforts to bring about more efficient systems, power optimizations and even some crazy talk of 100's of cores. Check out what went down on Day 0."

Source: HWZ.

Super Talent T800UX2GC4 - 2GB DDR2/800 Highend-Speicher @ Hard Tecs 4U

"Als sich unser DDR2-Roundup bereits dem Ende neigte, wurde uns seitens SuperTalent ein Speicherpaar angeboten, welches wir einfach nicht ausschlagenkonnten. Zum einen, weil es sich bei Super Talent um einen hierzulandevollig unbekannten Hersteller handelt, der jetzt erst seine Fuhler RichtungDeutschland ausstreckt (was naturlich unsere Neugierde weckte) und zumanderen, weil die Ausrichtung der uns angebotenen Module einen schonenKontrast zu unserem Roundup-Programm stellten."

Source: Hard Tecs 4U.

PowerColor X800 GTO PCI Express Videocard Review @ PCstats

"ATi's new X800 lineup competes very well against nVIDIA's GeForce 6600/GT series. These two Geforce GPUs are currently some of the best mid-level videocards out there. The PowerColor X800 GTO is one of the new series of ATi X800 videocards, and it offers up quite a bevy of value for the mainstream consumers. The ATI 'R430' core is built on the 0.11 micron manufacturing process, and contains some 160 million transistors. The PowerColor X800 GTO core speed is 400MHz and this version features 128MB DDR memory running along at 350MHz."

Source: PCstats.

Games: the ethics issue at bit-tech.net

"In the US, games are voluntarily rated by the ESRB. Unlike in Britain, there is no way to legally restrict the sale of a game to a certain age group, since the rating is not legally binding. In the UK and America banning a game is nigh-on impossible, with freedoms to play prevalent. This is not necessarily the case elsewhere. The Greek government banned the playing of computer games in public in 2002. The law was designed to combat online gambling, but had the effect that two LAN cafe owners were dragged into court for allowing people to play the team shooter Counter-Strike. The government has since changed the law after pressure from the EU, but there still remains a ban on video games at all LAN cafes. As recently as 2004, 80 computers were taken from a cafe in a raid by Greek police."

Source: bit-tech.net.

Epson Perfection V700 Photo Scanner Reviewed @ BIOS

"The Perfection V700 Photo is the ideal scanner for the photo enthusiast oradvanced amateur photographer, especially those with large print and filmcollections waiting to enter the digital age. Its ability to handle allcommon film formats and scan multiple images simultaneously makes it ahighly versatile solution for digitising your film. And scanning is so easy- you insert media into the template on the platen then launch the scan fromwithin a program or simply by pressing the single large button on the frontof the unit."

Source: BIOS.

Techconnect Magazine's eVGA Interview

"With SLI or Quad SLI we “only” leapfrog 6 – 12 months to have a permanent advantage over the competition. And what Quad SLI delivers today you may see from a single chip later this year."

Source: Techconnect.

Pixelview 6800 GT and 7800 GT Overclocked @ TweakPC

"Pixelview are changing their image, they offer overclocked cards. We took alook at the GeForce 6800 GT and GeForce 7800 GT."

Source: TweakPC.

Deeper with the X1900 Series @ Tech-Hounds

"It's only been three months into the year 2006, but the next generation of graphics chipsets are already here. This time around, the first salvo is from ATI, in the form of the Radeon X1900 series formerly known as R580. When the very late Radeon X1800 came out several months ago, most people agree that the chip to watch out for is not the Radeon X1800 (or R520) but the R580. Architecturally, the two are very similar, but the R580 is equipped with more shader units per pixel pipeline than the R520 - 48 shader units in all. The X1800 and X1900 come with more than just raw shader power. It offers higher quality filtering with less optimization, adaptive antialiasing for transparent textures, high dynamic range rendering with anti aliasing and overall faster antialiasing performance. We'll be looking into several of those claims in this article."

Source: Tech-Hounds.

Legion Hardware - (ASUS Extreme AX1800XT TOP)

"The ASUS Extreme AX1800XT TOP is an amazing product simply because it is different; there is no other Radeon X1800XT like it. Finally, there is a Radeon X1800XT that differs from the rest, until now every Radeon X1800XT has featured the same PCB design, the same cooling solution and the same core/memory frequencies. ASUS has not only improved the design and specifications of their Radeon X1800XT, but they have also greatly improved the package."

Source: Legion Hardware.

Acer CU-6530 @ Trusted Reviews

"I have to admit I was initially a little bit skeptical when I received this newly-launched camera from electronics and computer component manufacturer Acer. From past experience with other companies trying to break into the digital market, I assumed that it would be similar to many other low-cost Chinese import cameras bearing the logos of well-know electronics brands. I have seen a number of such cameras, and they have generally proved to be of extremely poor quality. I’m happy to report however, that I was pleasantly surprised when I unpacked the CU-6530."

Source: Trusted Reviews.

3DCenter News: ATI Radeon X1900 XT/XTX Review

"Late, but not too late :), we are finished our review on the new Radeon X1900 series. With this article, a new type ofbenchmarking has its premiere: Almost all benchmarks are based on savegames instead of timedemos. Please, notice thissmall, but fine difference ;)."

Source: 3DCenter.

Gainward BLISS 7800 GS GLH 512MB @ PureOverclock

" In this article I aim to find out if this supercharged 7800 GT clocked at 450/1300 can, as Gainward claims, compete against the mighty X1800 XT and if by some miracle it does, should you buy one anyway? All will be answered..."

Source: PureOverclock.

Battle of the 64-bit Budget CPU - Sempron 64 vs. Celeron D 64 @ TweakTown

"Intel’s value market was unchallenged for some time with the demise of Duron, but now it’s starting to show again that AMD can put its muscle into both high-end and value segments, and still give the users what they want."

Source: TweakTown.

Asus A8R32-MVP Issues @ DH

"Those of you who have visited the site in the last week will have noticed that our coverage of ATI?s Crossfire 3200 has been non-existant. We have been quiet on the reasons behind this because we were working through them with ATI/Asus and our A8R32-MVP."

Source: DH.