Daily Reviews Summary 04/26/10

It’s finally happening. One of the last Intel "bastions" has give way under AMD’s attacks and we finally have the chance to show you a model from the respected ThinkPad notebook series based on an AMD CPU. Are Lenovo and AMD up to par, and, more importantly, is ThinkPad X100e good enough to carry a name synonymous to quality? Impressions are mixed…

Lian Li are a name commonly associated with luxurious, high-end cases, often with excellent watercooling and modding capabilities. Today we'll be looking at something completely different from the Taiwanese company, in the form of a PSU. This is a new direction for Lian Li - will they be able to carry over their reputation for producing extremely high quality products?

Today I'll be taking a look at the Silent Force 650W unit, designed to power your PC quietly and efficiently.

ASUS had a huge setup at CES, displaying both consumer electronics such as laptops and netbooks as well as individual components like graphics cards and motherboards. We were naturally more interested in the component side of things and were given a full tour of their new and upcoming products. One of the motherboards we looked at was the P7P55D-E Premium, a P55 Express chipset board with a wealth of features including SATA 6.0 Gb/s support. Today we will be looking at the Deluxe version of this board that includes native USB 3.0 support as well as a few other differences.

The DC voltage load regulation was pretty good but it fell short of its claimed 80 Plus Silver certification by a long way on 115Vac, the mains input voltage at which the certification applies and even at 230Vac, which always improves efficiency, it still fell a little short at 20% loading. Noise/ripple levels came a little close on the 5V0 rail and exceeded the limit on the -12V rail by quite a margin.

Earlier in the month we saw the release of the FirePro V8800 card as it dominated the top-level professional graphics lineup. Can the new V5800 and V3800, with price of $470 and $110 respectively, do the same for the rest of the professional space? Or will NVIDIA's aging Quadro line be able to hold off AMD until Fermi can come to the rescue?

The problem is the other new technologies that have just emerged, SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3. Most of us had no idea that either was in the works when the Core i7/X58 emerged. Going to the expense of buying the new Core i7 980X, you definitely want the latest data transfer technologies, and with an older X58 board, the only way you will get them is with PCI expansion cards. But, the motherboard manufacturers are ready for this, and some have already released new models of X58 boards supporting SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3. Today I will be looking at the ASRock X58 Extreme 3, their new top-of-the-line board. It not only supports SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3, but also supports eSATA 6Gb/s. Read on to check out the ASRock X58 Extreme3!

At first look, the NZXT Hades looks quite striking with its all black interior/exterior, pushed outwards side panels, massive fans, and a very interesting shaped front door. The Hades is aiming for enthusiasts and gamers. This chassis looks to live up to such high expectations with its features and design, and a promise to not be too hard on the wallet. You won't have to trade your soul for the Hades either; a search of the web and you will find it selling for under $100 USD.

The Camangi WebStation is a compact tablet WiFi or 3G-connected PC that utilizes the Google Android Operating System. Similar to the Apple iPad, the Camangi WebStation adds all of the features an Android smartphone offers and combines them with tablet size and functionality. Weighing a mere 13 ounces, the Camangi WebStation tablet can double as an eBook reader with the installed Aldiko or Google Books applications. Internet phone calls can be made using Fring, and the 3G Wizard adds connectivity when WiFi is unavailable. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the Camangi WebStation Google Android Tablet PC in a combination of everyday uses to see how well it can replace other compact computer devices.

We have to wonder, though; does Low Voltage and HyperX deserve to be in the same category? It seems a little conflicting. HyperX is all about power and Low Voltage is all about taking care of the environment and hugging trees.

Let's hope that this isn't just some normal kit of memory with a new colored heatsink and fancy title. Hopefully we'll discover that the kit deserves to sit in the HyperX series and LoVo is something that we should be interested in.