Daily Reviews Summary 06/30/08

Today for review I've got a great product from our friends at USBGeek, it's a Solar Charger with Dual USB ports, it features selective voltage output, dual USB ports, long battery life, it includes an AC adapter and a car power adapter, and has several types of tips for various phones and electronic gadgets . In my time with this little gadget I've found it to be very well made, useful and just an all-around great little device that anyone would be happy with.

SCX 4300 is newest product from very successful Samsung SCX series A4 monochrome laser multifunctional printers. There were no revolutionary products in this product category for a long time, but SCX 4300 is device that brings few innovations regarding to SCX 4200. These innovations are related only to esthetics and printing speed. Differences between SCX 4300 and its predecessor SCX 4200 are: insignificant shape change, black color and a little bit faster printing results. Connection with computer is realized through fast USB 2.0 connection, and direct communication between user and device is achieved through a large number of command keys and two-line display.

With the Tempest being NZXT's debut here on Overclockers Online, I expect it to be a rising name in the industry. The build quality on all parts of the case is excellent, and with a superior packaging method, it is very evident NZXT aims for the design and production of quality products.

Nexus, proclaiming to bring ultimate performance at very low noise levels has released what it calls "some of the most advanced technologies in the market used for CPU coolers, claiming ultimate cooling performance with no to little noise. Talk is talk, but let's dig in to the actual product.

It's been a while since we tested notebook attended for professionals in 2D and 3D visualization. As buyers of these models are usually very demanding, manufacturing process and configuration are something that's always paid attention to. And that is why smaller producers keep themselves out from these waters leaving that market to biggest and most famous brands. Among "big boys" is surely HP and this time we represent you HP model Compaq 8710w.

With the 3870s and the 4850s so closely matching in price, suddenly buying a second 3870 doesn't seem like such a good idea. You can buy a 3870 for under $140.00 and have two 3870s in Crossfire (or a 3870 and a 3850 in CrossfireX depending on what you did back in the day). Alternatively, you can sell your 3870 and probably pull in a solid $90, and then buy a 4850, netting $100 and saving yourself the electricity bill of having two cards at the same time. Naturally, we have a problem with using just one card when we could so easily have two, but it really is the performance that counts.

A song from the group Disturbed comes to mind here, "Down with the Sickness." The P45 Platinum is the first and only motherboard I have been able to get a Quad core processor over 500MHz. In fact, 515MHz was achieved and was stable enough to run some of our benchmark suite. 515MHz is a great validation screen shot but I wanted to find out where I could gain a measure of stability without having to cook my little piece of silicon. This I found at 491MHz with 1.424 volts and running the memory at a 1:1 ratio. Auto settings were good for the voltages up until 470MHz. The exception being the Vcore and Vdimm voltages. These were manually set from the start of the testing. After this point the GTL reference voltages played a large role in increasing the stability of the overclock. The GTL reference voltage settings needed for stability will vary from CPU to CPU. Much the same way no two CPUs will be identical in the voltages needed to reach a set clock speed. The MSI P45 has got some serious overclocking cajones! Just keep in mind this is air cooled through and through!

Benchmark Reviews has tested several different monitors over the past year, and even though they all offer nearly the same features there still seems to be a high premium paid for some names. Not SOYO. Last year we reviewed the 24-Inch DYLM24D6, which was an extremely popular widescreen monitor that could be purchased for less than $300. That was over a year ago, and so as you can imagine prices have come down a but since then. Today we get to offer another excellent value: SOYO 26-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor MT-NI-DYLM26E6. Presently this monitor is available for only $379.99, which is an unbelievable price for any 26" widescreen LCD that can produce 1920x1200 WUXGA resolution.

A spectro what? That’s what most people say when I tell them what this little device is actually called. But for me “The Munki” is far easier to say. Created by the minds at X-Rite, the ColorMunki Photo is the answer for people who take lots of pictures, but always wonder why what they see on the monitor isn’t what they remember shooting. This little gizmo profiles your monitors, even your printers and projectors, to allow you to display your shots exactly the way that you remember taking them on all your displays.

For this review I will be taking a look at one of the new motherboards Abit are offering, the AX78 Phenom compatible motherboard, which I think is fair to say is aimed more towards the budget end of the market..

When testing a power supply, the greatest questions I have are going to always be as follows. How well is the PSU designed? How stable are the power rails? Can it produce its rated wattage reliably? Some worthwhile attention has been given to its overall design right down to the circuits. The OCZ 800 Watt EliteXStream Power Supply is obviously very well designed to produce 800 Watts of power, maintain steady, reliable voltages, and protect your system by offering very clean power without fail. Add the 80 Plus efficiency feature and you have the 800 Watt Editor's Choice.