Daily Reviews Summary 12/03/09

I am a pretty big gamer, and I definitely am known to frequent a LAN party or two. In most cases, I would be packing up one of my computers that was housed in a mid tower case, which was far from portable. Now having tested the Lanbox Lite and seen the room that this case provides, I think a LAN build will be in order for me. The easy installation with excellent airflow will allow me to run a full sized graphics card with good graphics power for gaming. In addition, the side windows and the stylish exterior will certainly garner attention from my fellow gamers at the next LAN party I attend. If LAN parties are not your thing, don't pass over this case without a look. The stylish design and excellent interior space makes this a very nice HTPC case that will add a nice touch to any entertainment center. The quiet running fans do not contribute much to the noise levels, which makes for a quiet solution as a piece of entertainment for your home theater center.

Intel recently released a new firmware for the second generation X25 SSDs. We flash one 160Gb SSDSA2M160G2GC to the new firmware to see what has changed.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 Vapor-X, with the configuration of 720 stream processors and 1GB of GDDR5 memory offers users access to the same new generation technology, and full DirectX 11 support found on the more expensive models at a lower price point. The Vapor-X model is also factory overclocked and uses a better cooling solution than the reference design. Read on to see what this budget friendly card is all about.

It's been a while since I've really taken a look at any cell phone accessories, we've looked at cases and a couple basic stands, but how ab out something that's truly multi-functional. Today for review I've got a product called the Desk Genie, it's a non-slip charging stand for your desk, but it's much more than that. The Desk Genie features two USB ports along with an 8 in 1 card reader, and the ability to charge most any portable device out there today. I was a bit skeptical of this device at first, but I figured I'd give it a try anyway. I've come to like the Desk Genie in my time with it, it's very useful especially since it's a card reader and USB hub as well as the charger, but there is one improvement I'd make to it, read on to learn more

The GeForce GT 240 is a derivative of the GT200 GPU that powers the GeForce GTX 280 and the GeForce GTX 260. It is a slimmed-down version that features 96 stream processors and 8 ROPs. At the official core speed of 550 MHz, it is capable of processing up to 17.6 billion texels and 4.4 billion pixels per second.

Officially, the GeForce GT 240 can either use 900 MHz DDR3, 1 GHz GDDR3 or 850 MHz GDDR5 memory, delivering anywhere from 28.8 GB/s to 54.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

But Galaxy is never satisfied with sticking to the official specifications. Even though they are not officially calling this a factory-overclocked card, Galaxy gave their GeForce GT 240 (DDR5) card a slight boost in memory clock speed, going from 850 MHz to 900 MHz. Let's see how well that works out for them...

Today for review I figured I'd post another NZXT case review, this time it's the Gamma. I really like the aesthetics of this case, it looks very nice and has an interesting profile look to it. Inside you'll find quite a bit of room to install a system, and spaces for six fans, with one pre-installed for you already. The build quality is what we've come to expect from NZXT, it's very good overall, the case is sturdy and designed well. So read on to learn more about the Gamma from NZXT

For one of the cheapest boards on the new chipset, this one looks very decent. If you don't need 6 expansion slots and fully-fledged SLI/CrossFire, then ASRock P55M Pro is a nice choice for an inexpensive machine based on a Core i5 CPU (or future Socket 1156 processors).

The Megtron is a dual color LCD display which is simply powered by the USB bus and utilizes a slim and small software application to output all kinds of important information. With a market being flooded by plenty of secondary displays, the SDC Megtron does offer some very useful features and functionality.

At nearly two feet tall and weighing in at just under 30 pounds, the
Cooler Master HAF 932 High Air Flow Chassis is an imposing full tower ATX case, marketed towards gamers and overclockers with an array of fans, cooling options, and lots of space for large components. Every possible surface that could be covered with a fan has a grating on it, and you'll find three 230mm fans installed in the front, top and side panel as defaults, along with a spare 140mm in the back to boot.

Being such a techie, I am typically an early adopter with anything tech related but I decided to take a rain check when it came to the whole high definition format war. While I do enjoy the occasional movie, I am far from a movie buff or someone that has a huge movie collection. Combine that with the fact that one format would ultimately prevail over the other (R.I.P. HD DVD) and prices only come down over time on new technology, it only made sense for me to wait on Blu-ray. Fast-forward two years to today and Blu-ray has made its way into the homes of many. Today I will be taking a look at a portable Blu-ray player from SilverStone that operates via USB so you can use it with either a notebook or a desktop computer.

Canon with model PowerShot SX200 IS finally changed the design of whole PowerShot series. Despite changed looks and new feature in form of ability to record HD 720p videos, new PowerShot SX200 IS does not introduce any other new and significant feature…

Enermax are a legendary manufacturer of some of the best high end power supplies on the market. Their Galaxy series in particular were truly high end units that were the definition of ultimate performance. Since this success they have chosen to branch out with an equally successful 'Air Cooling by Enermax' brand.

Following on from this they have kindly sent us a selection of their 120mm fans including their very newest model the Apollish!

The basic 80PLUS is a breeze for most quality manufacturers, and 80PLUS Bronze is also becoming fairly common. 80PLUS Silver on the other hand, still isn't seen a whole lot yet. GlacialPower is hoping to change that by brining forth their first 80PLUS Silver power supply, the GP-AX950AA. A 950W, 80PLUS Silver certified modular power supply.

Even though the high and mid ranges of the CPU cooler market may seem to be cluttered with products, there is always room for more competition. Competition is just what Titan is hoping to offer with two of their newest CPU coolers: the Fenrir and the Skalli. While they may be targeted at different price ranges, they form the heart of what Titan hopes will be their answer to some of the most popular CPU coolers on the market today.

In this review I will test a new GPU cooler from Arctic Cooling named Accelero L2 Pro and I will use as a platform the Radeon HD 4830 video card. The tests will be performed with the help of the OCCT Perestroika 3.1.0 software and the monitoring will be done with the GPU-Z software.