Wed Reviews

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The Logitech G51 Speaker System is rated for 155 Watts so while it's = not the most powerful set of Speakers in the Logitech product line these = can turn 2-channel sound into intense 5.1-channel audio. After using = them, I'm not quite sure if they were even created with the PC in mind. = Connecting these speakers to a game console or MP3 player seemed to = really be the driving force behind this product...

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Nearly everyone who's looked for a new PC case will have heard the name Lian Li who are celebrated for their aluminium enclosures. Lian Li have always aimed their cases at the conservative computer owner, who would rather have a light-weight clean looking case rather than one jam packed full of cold cathodes and LED encrusted fans. Today I have in my hands the Metal Boned K7 chassis that while being dressed with a 'LANCOOL' badge is manufactured by Lian Li and has a distinct taste of it manufacturers styling. In fact the badge could be changed for a Lian Li and no-one would bat an eye-lid.

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The 250GB version of the Western Digital Scorpio 2.5 inch SATA hard drive was reviewed at Bigbruin.com in September 2007, and it made a very positive impression. With an even higher capacity and faster transfer rates, it seems that the newer 320GB version would be destined for even greater accolades.

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In fact, just about the only clichéd thing about the game is the story - which is almost exactly the same as every other Mario title in existence: Mario's love interest, Princess Peach, has been kidnapped by the evil Bowser, meaning that the plump plumber must embark upon an epic journey across many different locations filled with devious platforming challenges to save her. No surprises there. The twist is that this time, Bowser's taken Peach into outer space, so Mario's quest will require him to visit extraterrestrial venues.

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"Normally at Phoronix we don't look at any digital photography products, but the DXG-110 from DXG USA had caught our attention as being the first 10 megapixel digital camera available for under $200 USD (it retails for $170 to be exact). Higher megapixel cameras are often misinterpreted by consumers as meaning a higher quality product, while that is not always the case and with the DXG-110 you shouldn't set out looking to take professional-grade photographs. In this article we are also looking at some of the photo management programs available to Linux users."

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There are so many companies out there now making their own thermal compounds now, most every company that makes a CPU cooler now has their very own thermal compound to go with it. Is that a bad thing? Not really, but how does a person know which one is really the best choice where the choices are so many? Well that's why there are sites like this one to help people make informed decisions by throughly testing these products and comparing them to the other leading brands out there. I just reviewed the Noctua NH-U12P CPU cooler and with it came a small sample of their new NT-H1 thermal compound, they also sent me a full tube as well to test for review purposes. It just so happened I was also in process of doing a thermal paste round-up comparison when this arrived for review so the timing was great to get a good comparison of the NT-H1 against the four others I'd already tested so far. So continue on to learn more about the new Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound and see how it compares to the leading brands out there today...

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"Back in November AMD had launched their "Spider platform", which is made up of AMD's first quad-core processor, ATI Radeon HD 3800 series graphics, and the AMD 7-Series chipsets. While we were quick to cover the ATI Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 graphics under Linux, today after much testing we are finally delivering our first Linux report from AMD's new 790FX Chipset. Is the chipset that's designed for PC enthusiasts and performance seeking overclockers worth anything under Linux? Does this chipset even work with the latest Linux desktop distributions? We'll be answering these questions and more, as we look at the Gigabyte MA790FX-DS5 motherboard."

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And Now, Predictions for 2008 Plasma and LCD will keep maturing but will not be replaced: These maturing technologies will continue to be bargains for consumers-that's the cool thing about maturing technologies-even as they get less and less profitable for manufacturers. Successors like OLED are on the horizon, but Sony won't bring OLED to the U.S. next year and Toshiba has no plans till 2010. Rumors that Samsung has a 40-inch OLED prototype will be confirmed or refuted at next month's Consumer Electronics Show. SED, which might have made a big difference in 2007 had Canon and Toshiba been allowed to introduce it, died in a fusillade of litigation.

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"As DDR2 ram becomes cheaper, some interesting deals become available. We have a look today at three OCZ kits, available for $70-$100. Which one to get ? Take a look to find out."

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Nothing goes better with digital media than an external reader for your desktop or laptop at home or on the road. Kingston's Media Reader opens a direct gateway between your digital media and a USB port by simply using expandable storage cards to move photos, music, data and more between devices and eliminating the need to carry cables to connect multiple devices. Read on to see how the new Kingston 19-in-1 media reader performs compared to previous generations!

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Ferrari automobiles, Rolex watches and Brioni suits. Each of these items commands respect in their individual fields. Standing as the pinnacle of engineering, each of these products fetch a high premium but with that premium comes the satisfaction of knowing you are getting the very best. While they may not be the most practical choices for one reason or another, they deliver on their promise of quality. Which brings me to the Maximus Extreme, a motherboard that offers the very latest in features and options. Keeping the enthusiast in mind, this motherboard was not designed for a casual gamer or even a hard-core gamer who only loves to play. No. This board was designed for those of us who must tweak and fiddle endlessly, eek out every last MHz of performance. Is it practical? Much like a Ferrari, there are cheaper ways to get to the store but this is the one we all dream about. So come with me as I dive deep into the inner workings of the Maximus Extreme and try to uncover t! he true potential of this board. And if nothing else, you get to use the line 'I have a Maximus, what do you have?'

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The ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB ZT-88TES2P-FSP graphics card features 1800MHz GDDR3 memory paired to an NVIDIA G92 GPU operating at 660MHz. Compatibility with Microsoft's DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0 ensures the ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT is ready for next-generation gaming titles, and with NVIDIA's Unified Shader Architecture the GeForce 8800GT features 112 stream processors for unparalleled 3D processing capabilities. Benchmark Reviews tests this new video card against the most widely used NVIDIA product: the GeForce 8800 GTS.

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Now comes a new material hot on the heels of a new breed of thermal interface material that is trying to knock off the industry leader from its high perch. Other compounds we have recently tested have done quite well, so now the big question is if OCZ can add its name to the list of products that can trounce the popular Arctic Silver line.

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Lately, I have been looking into other distributions that, like Ubuntu, are working to make strides to attract new users. I still have Debian Etch burned to a CD, waiting for a test in our lab. Next up is going to be Fedora. In the past, I have never been too impressed with RPM-based distributions, but to be fair, most of this came from nightmare scenarios with Mandriva and SuSE. And the last time I really took Fedora for a solid run was with Fedora 5, so it has been a while since I tested the Red Hat supported distro.