Daily Reviews Summary 01/01/09

Kingston Technology Company, Inc. has been an industry leader in computer memory technology arena for as long as some people can remember. Producing high quality ram since 1987 Kingston has been in on every phase of computer memory manufacturing, worth mentioning that we can think of. Then some time back they started producing enthusiast level memory with their HyperX line. We have seen HyperX and tested HyperX and we'd have to say HyperX is some seriously great ram.

Every once in a while two of the titans in memory manufacturing produce a kit that could almost be twin brothers on paper. When that happens it's that rare time when we can do an SPD shootout. By that we mean we can compare two kits that will run at the same speed with the same timings against one another with a level playing field. In this case a 6 GB kit of Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 and a kit of Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600. In all fairness to the Corsair Dominator kit the specified timings are 8-8-8-24 @ 1.65v and the Kingston kit is rated to run at 8-8-8-20 1.65v so there is that minor difference in the kits.

If you've made the decision to upgrade your life to include a Home Theater PC, then one of the biggest decisions you can make is the case you choose. Within the past few years there have been many cases vying for your living room, and their features vary as much as the internal builds.

One case that looks like a worthy contender is nMedia PC's 1000B HTPC Case. Not only does this case have a ton of media features, but it has also been selected as the standard case for several HTPC OEMs like AMD's Maui HTPC.

A year ago we started a series of articles about the motherboards market. The first article was devoted to the selection of Mid-End products. A year has passed, and it's apparently high time to draw new conclusions.

The GMC Corporation (not to be confused with General Motors in the USA) is a Korean company that has produced some of the most innovative case designs in recent memory. OCModShop has had a chance to review some of their creations in the past, and each of their designs has provided a good shot in the arm of ingenuity for the PC industry.

The same can be said for the Home Theater PC Market. Now, everyone is jumping onboard with Media Cases, and many of them copy each others features or designs, so that many start to look rather stale in comparisson. If you take a look down the Boom Box (or "Personal Stereo") aisle of Best Buy, you will see that music systems have changed dramatically in the past decade. Stereo equipment is no longer the sleek black box, but in-your-face designs with custom VFDs and a million flashing lights. Why can't we have the same look in our Personal Computers?

The PSU offers a performance to cost value which is extremely helpful given the current state of the economy. At a $109.99 price tag, it's one of the more cost effective options currently available. The quad 12V power rails provide a decent amperage boost over previous FSP generations which cost a bit more making it an even better choice. Otherwise, the Power Mod 700 PSU is a good launch in the gamer and enthusiast market for FSP Group.

The Black Series X58B-A "Nehalem" Motherboard with LGA1366 socket support for Intel's all-new "Core-i7" processors is currently the flagship motherboard for ECS Elitegroup. With the Intel X58 Express chipset handling the North Bridge duties and the Intel Intel ICH10R South Bridge handling the rest of the board you know this will be a sound and stable platform. Read on to see how the ECS X58B-A motherboard does on the benchmarks and to see it overclocks.

Super Talent didn't really include any software with the Pico-E, but that's okay, because most of the time all you need to do is move files. Plus, there are plenty of apps you can download that allow you to do some of the things that built in apps take care of. The small size of the Pico-E is another great thing about this drive. While it might be easier to lose, it is also out of the way and can be carried around without weighing you down. All in all, I would recomend the Pico-E as a good, all around USB drive that stacks up well against other drives in its class.