Daily Reviews Summary 03/28/12

The Marvell 88SS9174 isn't quite sixty years old, but the controller first hit the scene in January 2010, a long time in computer component years. Just like the 911, each minor revision adds to the speed and functionality. Also like the 911, the components that surround the main controller have changed to produce a better product.

Plextor has taken a bit of that Porsche magic and brought it into the new M3 Pro solid state drive. The base for the M3 Pro is the same 9174 controller we've been reporting on for more than two years. Plextor has paired this ageless controller with the newest NAND flash on the market today, Toshiba 24nm Toggle Mode flash.

The FirePro V3900 is AMD's latest budget solution for the professional graphics market. We covered the card's launch last month. It's a formidable step up from the V3800 it replaces. Budget card launches may lack some of the excitement of high-end product debuts, but lower-end cards like the V3900 account for a significant percentage of AMD's total GPU sales.

The V3900 is interesting for another reason -- it's AMD's latest salvo in its ongoing campaign to steal professional market share away from rival Nvidia. Workstation-class GPU sales are overwhelmingly dominated by Team Green, but AMD has slashed its professional prices in an attempt to siphon market share.

Devout followers of the technology industry may have seen a sneak preview of ASUS' latest dabble in networking hardware back in January when it was announced at CES 2012. Maybe you only read an information starved press release after the event, either way there hasn't been much information regarding the ASUS EA-N66 3-in-1 Dual Band Wireless N450 Ethernet Adapter until now. Benchmark Reviews recently reviewed the ASUS RT-N66U Dual Band Wireless N900 Router and USB-N53 Dual-Band Wireless N300 USB Adapter, and now the EA-N66 3-in-1 Ethernet adapter completes the trio. There are a few Wi-Fi to Ethernet bridges available on the market as well as dedicated Wi-Fi repeaters and Access Points, but never before have all three functions been combined into one device, and never has a piece of networking hardware ever looked so interesting. Speed is the name of the game here, the EA-N66 3-in-1 Dual Band Wireless N Ethernet Adapter has a 10/100/1000 Base-T compliant RJ45 interface and can operate on 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless N frequencies at speeds up to 450Mb/s.