"Vizo is back with a new notebook cooler aimed at enthusiasts looking for the perfect blend of performance and portability. Leveraging on the success of their popular Ninja line of notebook coolers, Vizo introduces the Xena II, a lightweight and highly functional notebook cooling solution designed for 12" to 15.4" laptops. Boasting a unique tilting, 360 degree swiveling base, the Xena II looks to supplant its competition. Will Vizo's newest addition to their notebook cooling lineup pass muster? Can it compete with other more expensive coolers in its class? Let's take a look and find out!"

"Revoltec are a company based in Germany, well known throughout Europe for their line-up of gaming and modding products. They have been in
business for several years and most people know that they are a subsidiary to Listan (along with other brand names such as BeQuiet).

A couple of years ago we had a look at several gaming and illuminated desktop peripherals from Revoltec, including the first version of Lightmouse as well as the Fightboard and the Fightmouse of their gaming series. Revoltec have expanded their gaming series with the FightPad Advanced which is a mini-keyboard designed for FPS games and released three new versions of the Lightmouse. These are the very products we are checking out today."

"The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU cooler features H.D.T (Heat-pipe Direct Touch) which offers better cooling due to the direct contact between the copper heat pipes and processor. The HDT-S1283 includes a 120mm cooling fan, anti-vibration fan screws, spoiler design, and an installation process that anyone can do. The three 8mm U type heat-pipes look like they will take care of business as they are exposed and move the heat away from the CPU."

"In today's CPU cooler marketplace, there's some enormous air-cooling solutions. Which is all fine, except many won't physically fit in some cases. Well Scythe has come out with a 3 heat-pipe CPU cooler that is only 64mm high! The question is, at that size, will it perform? We're going to drop one in and check out the results."

"Olympus E-520 is considered as ticket to D-SLR world and its price speaks for itself. When you take this model into your hands you really got the feeling that you are holding a quality pro model that can accomplish a lot. For testing purposes we've got two additional lenses: Zuiko Digital ED 50 mm Macro and telephoto lens Zuiko Digital 50-200mm (equivalent of standard 100-400mm). Olympus E-520 is available in two variants: kit with zoom lens Olympus Digital 14-42mm (we got this one also on test) and variant without this lens (just body)."

"As with all things, CPU cooling solutions have a "circle of life" and today we will be looking at the continuation of the TRUE line with the "TRUE Black 120". This cooler is not a major refinement upon the TRUE line as it is the same design as the regular TRUE, but it is more of a Special Edition than an actual successor. This all-black model is all about looks by taking the striking design of the TRUE and making it bark at the moon."

"Like most of their recent coolers, the Zalman CNPS9300AT uses a circular heatsink design, and just like previous 9000-series coolers the CNPS9300 uses an upright orientation with heatpipes connecting it to the base. CNPS stands for Computer Noise Prevention System, and Zalman uses this designation on all products designed for noiseless operation. Can an air cooler designed to be "noiseless" really provide enough cooling for modern processors?"

"With a card that is overclocked well above the standard version, there is usually very little overhead to push the video card even further without voltage or BIOS mods that, of course, void your warranty. With the additional cooling capabilities of the Toxic HD4850 I was able to max out the Catalyst Control Panel clock speeds on just the first go-round. 700MHz on the core and 1200 on the memory - not too shabby! Then I started to push further. But, to do so, I needed to download and use the AMD GPU clock tool. This utility allowed me to set clock and memory speeds above those from the CCC. The highest GPU core speed that was at least 3DMark06 stable was 740/1212; unfortunately, this was stable only for just the Futuremark benchmark. So, I started backpedal.ing until I finally stopped at 731MHz on the GPU core and 1206MHz on the memory. This setup was good for all of our benchmark suite, as well as an extended COD4 session just to verify that the
settings were indeed "good". The additional cooling that is offered by the Zalman cooler kept the temperatures in check, with a maximum temperature of 64 Celsius in my 27 Celsius room."

"In today's world of ultra mobility, technology companies seem almost uniformly focused on developing smaller components designed to accompany us just about everywhere. Remember the early mobile phones? For those of us old enough to remember, the first commercially available cell phone came out in 1983 - the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x. It weighed in at a hefty 28 ounces and measured 13' x 1.75' x 3.5'. Talk time was about 30 minutes, it took roughly 10 hours to recharge, and could go a whole 8 hours between between charges! And by the way, this 'little' beauty could be purchased for just shy of $4,000 U.S. when it hit the market on March 6th, 1983. What a bargain!

What the heck does this have to do with computer cases, you ask? Well think about cell phones today - so tiny that we end up spending about half our lives trying to find them! A far cry from the giant brick released back in the days when an awesome little band called 'Journey' ruled the world and Steve Perry was King. In an age where smaller is better (at least for technology!), it's interesting to see the ongoing evolution of computer cases where once again 'big' seems to be making a comeback. Case in point (pun intentional), the Tagan A+ CS-Monolith 'Super Tower' case."