Daily Reviews Summary 01/02/09

Currently available for around £111.54, this is an unquestionably pricey drive, although not ridiculously so. In fact, in comparison to the Samsung F1 1TB we favour here at bit-tech, it's only fifty percent more expensive, which seems very fair considering you're getting fifty percent more storage into the bargain.

For those with limited storage space running a media centre or small form factor system this certainly seems like the better option, especially when you consider that such setups are usually used for storing large video files, which the Barracuda 1.5TB is perfect for.

Noise wise it's just as quiet as the previous Seagate and the Samsung 1TB drives, although the use of four platters rather than three does make it a little hotter than the Samsung, although not enough to cause any real concern -- the Seagate 1.5TB is rated to run at temperatures up to 60°C, which you'd have to have a pretty poor cooling setup in your case to be approaching.

While an unquestionably good hard disk in its own right, and a big improvement over Seagate's previous quad platter 1TB drive in every respect, the response time and subsequent effect on read/copy tasks involving large numbers of small files in comparison to the Samsung stops the Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB from taking the crown of top desktop mechanical hard drive tested to date. For use as a boot or game storage the Samsung is still the superior disk, but if you're after more storage in a single drive for your media centre or looking to store a ton of larger files, then it's still a superb choice.

With video cards not only getting bigger and faster, they are requiring a lot more power to run them. And with them using more volts and having more capabilities, it is only natural for them to run hotter. Video card manufacturers usually only use the bare minimum on cooling solutions for the cards that they sell. For many of us, when we buy a new CPU, we normally purchase an after market cooler for them because we know that the standard cooler just does not cut it when it comes to cooling. With this being said, we can not expect a standard cooler to handle today's video cards. It is also rare to find a GPU cooler that fits both Nvidia's 2xxGTX's and ATI's HD48xx video cards. The folks at SilenX have made a GPU cooler that not only cools well, but fits both Nvidia's 2xxGTX series of cards and ATI's HD4870 GPU's. So, let's take a look at the IXG-80HA2 GPU cooler and the Tri fan IXG-3F2from SilenX.

It's a New year and we're staring it off Green! On the review block today we've got the Solio Hybrid 1000 Solar Charger that allows you to charge all of your gadgets with the sun. The Solio H1000 comes with common tips for many devices, and you can buy more as well if needed for you other devices. The H1000 is well made, and very easy to use, it includes a carabineer style clip so you can attach it to your bag or wherever and let it charge while you're on the go.

With high definition digital entertainment gaining popularity, having an HTPC setup is almost becoming a standard nowadays. It is easy to purchase a pre-built system for recording and playback HD contents. TiVo and Apple TV are a couple of example. Users can even add a TV tuner card to an existing system to convert it to an HTPC setup. For many computer enthusiasts, building their own system tailored to their needs is half the fun. Choosing the right case, one which offers ample expansion slots and good cooling, is essential for any HTPC. Of course, if the system can run at near silence, that would be a great plus when you immerse yourself in that digital enjoyment.

We take a closer look at a speedy laptop 2.5inch hard drive from Western Digital. Spinning at 7200rpm and with 16mb cache onboard it promises to be quite speedy. While not very cheap it does beat new SSD devices by a large margin, 320Gb of fast compact storage for your laptop? Let us put it to the test.

Cooler Master has been offering power supplies for a couple of years now and the quality of their products has improved over time. They are famous for their enclosures and heat sinks. With the UCP series, Cooler Master is now offering a line of premium power supplies that feature the latest in power output, efficiency and looks. Today, we are going to examine the UCP 900 Watt. The 900 watt version is the second most powerful in the UCP series. There are three models, the 700 watt, 900 watt and the 1100 watt. A great feature of this power supply is that it is 80Plus Silver certified, which is currently quite rare in PC power supplies. According to the 80Plus test report, its typical efficiency is around 88 percent!

The DNS-323 really shines in the HD playback tests, turning in its highest performance numbers across all the tests. The playback tests are more dependent on raw data rate capability and managed to push data through at drive configurations ranging from around 19-22 MB/s in the single file test. We also see the biggest gains in throughput from both RAID 0 and enabling jumbo frames here. If streaming multimedia were to be the main use, the DNS-323 would be more than capable of achieving acceptable data rates.

The OCZ Gladiator Max looks eerily similar to a few other HDT coolers; namely OCZ's own Vendetta 2, as well as the Xigmatek S1283 and Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer coolers we've also reviewed. Today we'll pit them all against one another in an HDT cage match and see if the Gladiator Max is victor or victim.

Maneuvering space in netbook arena is getting smaller and smaller every day, since almost every notebook manufacturer has its representative in this product category. Intel dictates strict rules for all manufactures so all models in netbook product category are very similar when it comes to performances. Because of these facts it is very important to achieve best tactical positions as fast as possible, and Toshiba has joined this battle a little bit late. We will try to give you answers to all questions about Toshiba NB100 especially on question concerning chance for success of Toshiba's new netbook.

Even the best computer cases can be improved in some fashion. We’ve reviewed several cases recently that have had great cooling abilities due to their use of 120mm fans. Though the fans worked well, there’s always room to improve. Even if you don’t have a top end case, as long as your lacklustre enclosure has 120mm fan mounts the product we’re reviewing will have something to offer. Manufactured by GELID Solutions, these 120mm fans give you a quieter way to keep your case cool while adding a bit of green glow action with a UV light.