News for May 14th 2010

Kristofer Brozio | May 14, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Happy Friday all! I’m back with the news for you from around the world, and I’ll have another GPS review up in the next couple days as well.

Storage Related::

Seagate BlackArmor WS 110 – Review
Article Clip: Here we are yet to take a look at another business grade storage solution. Its not tough to come up with a usable storage for a project but it is important to keep all of your work files in one place. Having a small NAS or DAS near by would be a perfect solution. Either way you are looking to spend at least 400$ for a storage system. If you are looking for smaller solutions, this unit might be just right for you. Today we are going to be taking a look at Seagate’s BlackArmor WS 110. BlackArmor WS 110 is a business grade storage solution for your every day needs. Some of the work environment where you may find this device is in Marketing and IT departments.
Article Link: http://umlan.com/reviews/hardware/h123.html

G.Skill Phoenix 100 GB SSD with SandForce SF-1200 Controller Review
Teaser:
Phoenix is the name of the newest SSD from G.Skill. It is equipped with the SandForce SF-1200 controller, a very high performance and an attractive price. Let’s take a look at it and the benchmarks.
Link: http://www.tweakpc.de/hardware/tests/ssd/gskill_phoenix/s01.php

OCZ Vertex 2 100GB SandForce SF-1200 SSD Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1299/1/

OCZ designed the Vertex 2 solid-state drive to surpass the competition when it comes to performance by using the SandForce SF-1200 series controller and the best firmware revisions possible. With native TRIM support and featuring 285MB/s read speeds with 275MB/s write speeds you can say that OCZ is off to a good start. Read on to see how the Vertex 2 performs against nine other drives!

Crucial Ballistix PC3-12800 (1600MHz) 6GB Kit
QUOTE: "Today we’ll be looking at a conservative PC3-12800 or 1600MHz DDR kit. Maybe we’ll get a surprise when it comes to testing the kit. Before we get that far, though, let’s have a look at the package and the modules themselves.
As always, we have the need; the need for speed. When it came to overclocking the kit honestly went a lot better than I thought it would. At first I thought I would leave the CPU at the default BCLK and adjust the memory divider so that the memory went to 2000MHz. No dice, though! A 400MHz DDR overclock was probably a bit too hopeful."
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‘Kingston SSDNow V+ 128GB SSD Review’
Feel like giving your PC a speedy experience? This Kingston will do just that
The Full Article can be viewed at http://tech.tbreak.com/2010/05/kingston-ssdnow-v-128gb-ssd-review/

NZXT IU01 Internal USB Expansion HUB Device @ TechwareLabs

Quote: Will gives us a quick look at the NZXT IU01 Internal USB Expansion Device, a USB hub for people who hate USB hubs. Consisting of nothing more than a single printed circuit board and a pair of cables, it turns one of the USB headers on your motherboard into four, providing three headers and two internal USB ports.
LINK: http://www.techwarelabs.com/nzxt-iu01/

Icy Box Hard Drive Docking Stations Review.
Quote: We take a look at a pair of Icy Box docking stations and compare E-SATA to USB3
Link: http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/storage/icy_box_hard_drive_docking_stations_review/1

Patriot Zephyr 128GB Solid State Drive
QUOTE: "The more solid state drives grow in popularity, the larger the need to make them affordable. As it sits now, companies are choosing between two paths to achieve low priced drives. The first has been to extend the lifecycle for current products on the market, either leaving the existing model numbers in tact or releasing a new product SKU based on existing technology. A good example of this is the Corsair Nova, a slightly revised Indilinx Barefoot controlled drive that is very close to the original Performance Series offered by Corsair last year.
The second way to achieve a low cost product is to introduce an entirely new product SKU and use older technology that is for the most part, obsolete. This also has a documented parity and can be found in the Kingston SSDNow V Series, second generation drive. The second generation V Series uses a JMicron controller once thought to have served its purpose on the market even though it was released last June at Computex. The drive performs much slower at real world tasks than the Indilinx Barefoot, but Kingston has priced the drive so low that would be purchasers with the understanding of You Get What You Pay For know that you are paying little for little performance. At 259 USD the Kingston SSDNow V Series has a much lower cost than the Corsair Nova that is currently selling for 330 USD."

Patriot Torqx 128GB SSD @ Pro-Clockers

Review link: http://pro-clockers.com/storage/1397-patriot-torqx-128gb-ssd.html

A special gift today on our bench is the Patriot Torqx. The Torqx from the looks of it should be one of the SSD component that you would drool over. Equipped a MLC Indilinx controller with 64mb of cache we just can’t wait to get to the testing phase. The advertised number should be enough for us to say it is a winner. But what is a review with the testing phase.

: Kingston HyperX KHX11000D3K2/4G Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Video Review @ eTeknix.com

Link: http://www.eteknix.com/reviews/memory/kingston-hyperx-khx11000d3k24g-dual-channel-ddr3-memory-video-review/

Quote: Today we are looking at the Kingston HyperX KHX11000D3K2/4G Dual Channel DDR3 Memory.

Everything USB is pleased to announced our latest review on Corsair Flash Voyager GTR Flash Drive.

Flash drive capacities are growing larger and larger at 32GB and beyond, but with write speeds limited to around 17MB/s or less, you could be spending quite some time in order to fill a drive to capacity. Though this may not matter if you’re only looking to move a few Excel files, if you need to move high resolution photos or HD video from place to place, you could be in for a world of hurt. Enter Corsair’s Flash Voyager GTR series, billed as the fastest flash drives we’ll likely ever see before USB 3.0 becomes the norm. With advertised write speeds of 28MB/s or greater, could these new drives actually put an end to all of the silent profanities? Can we hold Corsair to their numbers? Will my pocketbook spontaneously burst into flames? Discover the answers to these and more, after the jump.

http://www.everythingusb.com/corsair-flash-voyager-gtr-flash-drive-18963.html

Audio / Video::

Phiaton PS 210 Review
"We’ve enjoyed reviewing Phiaton’s personal audio products in the past. They have a dedication to style and comfort that we think most headphone wearers really appreciate. So when the PS210 in-ear headphones came across our desk, we looked forward to the opportunity to give them a good test drive. At $79.00, the Phiaton PS210 "half in-ear" headphones enter an arena thick with competitors promising to offer great in-ear sound for less than $100.00. In our review, we thoroughly test the PS210 to see how they stack up."
Link to the review: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mp3-player-reviews/phiaton-ps-210-review//

Dell P2210H DisplayPort Monitor @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=14930
Summary: "If you’ve been looking for a DisplayPort-capable monitor to connect to your new graphics card whether it be a FirePro V8800 or one of the new ATI Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards that are capable of using Eyefinity to drive many displays via this newest display connection standard, the Dell Professional P2210H monitor is worth considering. The 22-inch LCD display retails for around $200 USD and offers DisplayPort connectivity along with DVI and VGA."

Zalman ZM-M215W 3D Monitor

Link: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-M215W

Brief: The ZM-M215W is the part of the newest line-up of 3D monitors by Zalman. Instead of plucking down hundreds of dollars on NVIDIA shutter glasses and being bound to NVIDIA GPUs, you can pluck down hundreds over a normal 2D monitor of the similar size, but be free from the shackles, allowed to use any GPU of your choice. Is that still worth it? We put on the glasses and take a really close look.

Sony Alpha NEX-5 Review
"Sony hinted at this camera in February and we couldn’t wait to use it. What is "it"? A small, lightweight camera with the large imaging sensors found in DSLRs as well as interchangeable lens capability. Not only that, the new Sony NEX-5 shoots AVCHD 1080i video without the focusing hassles of bulkier DSLRs, has a 7 fps burst mode and will even take 3D-ready Sweep Panorama images. How cool is that? We didn’t really know until we took it out of the box and started shooting."
Link to the review: http://www.digitaltrends.com/digital-camera-reviews/sony-alpha-nex-5-review/

Mobile, Notebooks etc::

Arctic Cooling ARCTIC C2 4-Port USB Charger @ Vortez.co.uk
DESCRIPTION:
"USB-powered devices have become an integral part of any technology enthusiast. From media players to mobile phones, many of today’s portable devices can be recharged through a USB connection. Most manufacturers
include an AC-to-USB adapter to charge their devices directly from a power outlet whereas others simply include the required USB cable. Unfortunately, in most cases, the given adapter has a single USB port. What happens if you have multiple devices that need to be charged at the same time? A possible problem ensues: you might run out of power outsets or, even, USB ports! Another dilemma might arise: when you’re on the travel, would you carry multiple adapters with you or would that defeat the idea of travelling light?
LINK: http://www.vortez.co.uk/review.php?id=163

Elite Bastards Mobile Update: First Edition
"“Smart phones,” or those diminutive computers you (may) have in your pocket right now that also happens to handle your phone calls, are an undeniable fad as of late. Focus is changing in the computing world toward catering conventional media and products to mobile form factors and mobile-friendly designs in fevered attempts by corporate giants like Intel, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and many others to tap into the profit boon emanating from this trend."
http://www.elitebastards.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1547&catid=16&Itemid=29

Arctic Cooling C1 Mobile Solar Charger
URL: http://www.bcchardware.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8597&Itemid=40
Quote:The Arctic Cooling Mobile USB Charger with Solar Panel and 4440mWh Lithium-Ion battery is a very nice device to have around. If you travel or just going to the river for the day you don’t have to worry about your cell-phone or mp3 player dying. All you have to do is plug up the Arctic Cooling Solar Panel Charger and your good to go in about 2 hours with or without sunlight – thanks to the Lithium-Ion battery. . .

Microsoft Kin One Review
"As we all know, "different" does not necessarily equal "better." Yes, the operating system Microsoft has concocted for its ballyhooed Kin One ($49.99 with rebate and two-year contract) and Kin Two ($99.99 with rebate and two-year contract) phones, made by Sharp for Verizon, is way beyond different. Whatever the OS is called – and Microsoft hasn’t called it anything (it has design elements we’ve seen in demos of Windows Phone 7), it’s a whole new cell OS gestalt, with little that is recognizable from Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android OS, or even Windows Mobile, thank goodness. But does different mean it is better than any of these previous OSs?"
Link to the review:http://www.digitaltrends.com/cell-phone-reviews/microsoft-kin-one-review/

Snapfon ez ONE Cell Phone Review
Link: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/996
Summary: Tired of cell phones with thousands of functions and complicated to use? Snapfon ez ONE promises to be "just a phone", with big keys, talking keypad, an SOS button and more. Check it out.

Intel Wireless Display on the Toshiba Satellite E205 Notebook @ Legit Reviews
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1296/1/

Today, we look at Intel’s solution for users to share the content of their laptop with their home theater. Using a Netgear Push2TV adapter and the latest Core i5 processor for mobile computing we see just how easy Intel’s Wireless Display is to use. Is it time to toss out your old laptop for some 21-Century functionality? Read on!

New Asus NX90 Laptop – Pure flash

Asus have just released their new mega NX90JQ laptop over in Taipei. The machine not only brings a new meaning to the word ‘bling’ but it features Bang and Olufsen ICEPOWER speakers which surround the LCD screen. Finished in aluminum the Asus 18.4 inch machine is quite an eye catcher.

Read the news over here: On KitGuru

Joby Gorillamobile Flexible Tripod Review at CCER
Link: http://www.ccereviews.com/reviews/joby-gorillamobile-flexible-tripod/
Quote: The opportunities to use the Gorillamobile are endless. The rubberized feet leave no prints behind and with the compact and lightweight design there’s no reason why it can’t come with you on your travels. The days of having to ask a stranger to take a photo for you or carrying a large bulky tripod around are over.

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15-inch Notebook Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Review URL: http://www.thinkcomputers.org/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-15-inch-notebook-review/

Quote: “A few months ago we took a look at Lenovo’s ThinkPad Edge 13-inch notebook and we absolutely loved it. It was a great blend of consumer and business features not to mention it looked great. The 13-inch form factor is perfect for some people, but many people want a larger laptop with more power and of course a larger screen to work with. Knowing this Lenovo has released 2 more models to its ThinkPad Edge series, a 14-inch and a 15-inch. Both models feature the new Intel Core i3 processor, DDR3 memory, HD graphics and of course all of the extra features you would expect from a ThinkPad. Today we w ill be taking a look at the 15-inch model."

Griffin WindowSeat iPhone Windshield Mount Review @ Virtual-Hideout

Review link: http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/Griffin_WindowSeat/index.shtml

Quote: “There is nothing more frustrating, or dangerous than fumbling and bumbling with a cell phone while driving. Now multiply that by ten fold when said cell phone is a multimedia powerhouse like the Apple iPhone 3GS that can do a million things and therefore has a million things to lure you into messing with it while driving. The full touchscreen of the iPhone has been considered a drawback to some for it’s difficulty using in pocket or without eyes on it to see what you’re doing. However that same full touchscreen makes this next product absolutely great with the iPhone while driving. The Griffin WindowSeat iPhone/iPod Windshield Mount is designed to hold your iPhone or iPod touch while attached to your vehicles windshield much like a GPS would mount. We’ve all seen those GPS devices mounted on cars all over the place. Now you can mount your iPhone the same way.”

OtterBox Defender Series Phone Case – iPhone 3G/3GS @ TechwareLabs

Quote: Otterbox is well known for making cases for your personal electronics, valuables, and more. They are known for their waterproof and crushproof cases like the 3500 Series, but have recently blown into the phone case market with the release of the Defender Series case. With the Defender for the iPhone 3G/3GS coming in under $32 we show you why this is a must have item for protecting this expensive phone. See why we gave it our Awesome Hardware Award.
LINK: http://www.techwarelabs.com/otterbox-defender-series/

Camangi WebStation Android Tablet PC
Link: http://www.bigbruin.com/content/webstation_1

Quote: Tablet PCs aren’t anything new, but with the launch of the iPad the buzz is definitely strong these days. Camangi offers a tablet PC that first made its debut late in 2009, and after a bit of refinement was relaunched in the spring of 2010. This review is going to take a look at the "new and improved" Camangi WebStation 7" Android based tablet PC.

Assorted Stuffs::

C1E, Overclocking and power consumption of AMD Thuban:
http://www.planet3dnow.de/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=4219197#post4219197

NETGEAR Powerline AV 200 XAVB2001 Adapter Kit
QUOTE: "So what do you do when you want to push data out to a far corner of your house? Or you want to stream that 1080p MKV file from your new Windows Home Server? You may think “Wireless to the rescue!” – But unfortunately wireless has a wide delta for performance. You can often watch your connection speed jump up and down during the day. This makes it unreliable for HD video streams and in many cases even 802.11n cannot cut it.
Of course, running Cat 5 cable all over your house is not something you want to consider either. Well, there is an answer! This is a Powerline adapter. With a pair of these you can push Ethernet data over your home power lines. The data is encrypted over the line and decrypted at the opposite end, so security is fairly good. Plus you get a consistent 100Mbps in full duplex (meaning 100 up / 100 down for a 200Mbps rating). This is about twice what you need to get good 1080p streaming. So with that in mind, let’s dive in and look at NETGEAR’s Powerline AV 200 Adapter Kit. At $119 from Newegg.com we want to see if this is a good deal for people that can’t use wireless or want something a little more consistent for their HD video streaming."
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Flashing Your Video Card’s (GPU) BIOS.
SNIP:Unlike motherboard’s when you have a failed flash this normally renders that motherboard dead, or bricked. Video cards we can recover if we used the wrong BIOS, if we had a power failure, to having catastrophic computer failure during the flashing process. On today’s computers, anything can happen to us during our most vulnerable time. One of these ways is somewhat unorthadoxed, this way is called ‘Blind Flashing’ or what I like to call ‘ A Wing and a Prayer Flashing’, because we have no idea if the flash took hold until we reboot the computer. What makes this type of flashing more nerve racking we do not know when to reboot the computer, because we can not see anything hence why it is called ‘Blind Flashing’.
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1834

How To Install Windows 7 and Media Center on a HTPC @ Legit Reviews
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1300/1/

Everyone wants to see Windows 7 information and today Legit Reviews shows you how to install Windows 7 Ultimate on one of our personal home theater systems! We also show you basic setup of Windows Media Center and Media Browser. Follow through as we have over 25 pictures that will walk you through installation of the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate! This is a must read for anyone that is thinking of installing Windows 7.

Where does AMD fit in today?
QUOTE: "A few days after our review of the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T, we received a call from AMD. The call was some commentary on the actual review (okay, really it was of complaints). The first thing that was said was that we were wrong in our premise that we needed more voltage to get higher clocks on the PII X6. At the time of this writing we cannot debate this claim. AMD maintains that their silicon is mature enough that the CPU does not need extra voltage to attain higher speeds. The claim about maturity is true; the Phenom II CPU is a very mature design (bordering on old in CPU terms). It is also being made in FABs that have the lowest failure rate in the world.
Next was a complaint about the number of multi-threaded apps that we used. This one I take exception to. I mean, “Come on AMD; it is a six-core CPU. It should be able to handle multi-threaded apps. If it cannot there IS an issue”. But I will not belabor that point. Instead I will talk about the market position that AMD now finds itself in after some poor management decisions (poor decisions in both my and many other analysts’ opinions)."
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Understanding All Voltage Configurations from the Motherboard
Link: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/995

Summary:Confused about what each voltage configuration on the motherboard setup really means? Learn all about them in this tutorial.

The State of DirectX 11 – Image Quality & Performance:
http://hothardware.com/Articles/The-State-of-DirectX-11/

In terms of technology, DirectX 11 isn’t the API defining, behind-the-scenes reboot that DirectX 10 was. It’s an incremental update, much in the same way that Windows 7 is an update of Vista. At the end of the day, DirectX 11 is basically just DirectX 10 with a bunch of new features stuck on. However, we’d speculate that DirectX 11 should have a much larger impact on the end-user experience than DirectX 10 did because it brings several new features to the table that will make creating advanced graphical effects seldom seen in past games, much easier.

It’s Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux! @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=14924
Summary: "Valve Corporation has today rolled out their Steam Mac OS X client to the general public and confirmed something we have been reporting for two years: the Steam content delivery platform and Source Engine are coming to Linux. This news is coming days after we discovered proof in Steam’s Mac OS X Client of Linux support and subsequently found more Linux references and even the unreleased Steam Linux client. The day has finally come and Linux gamers around the world have a reason to rejoice, as this is the biggest news for the Linux gaming community that sees very few tier-one titles."

Nerd Fitness: Part 1 – Getting Started Review @ XSReviews

Review Link: http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/editorial/guides/nerd-fitness-part-1–getting-started/

Quote: "The online world is a weird one, as in some respects we all revert back to stereotypes. Partly for humour, and partly because we don’t know each other very well. Typically one of them is that us nerds, geeks and gamers are all fat, lazy, out of shape messes and considering how this is contrasted with the intrinsic hotness of the girl geek, it seems a little unfair.

Intel set to put cooler makers out of business?

The launch of Intel’s super-over-clocking 675 and 875 processors means increased performance. Super-charging your chips will mean you need one important thing, more juice. But that juice brings its own problems. Intel solution will send ripples through the cooler industry.

Read the news over here: On KitGuru

Intel Chisels Core i7 875K Street Price in (tomb)stone ?

From the dark days of the Pentium 4, Intel has come a long way in its attitude toward the overclocking community. From ‘all overclocks must be stopped’ to ‘the clocks that rock’. But how much will the latest overclocking chip of the Core generation set you back?

Read the article over here: On KitGuru