Hardware News for Friday, May 16
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| New Hardware Reviews (8) |
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| OCZ Reaper HPC PC2-8500 4GB Kit Review reported at 04:00 PM |
| category: DDR2 Memory website: Virtual Hideout |
 | Article Quote:
Well one thing is for certain, the OCZ PC2-8500 4GB Dual Channel Reaper HPC Memory is fully compatible with the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P and ASUS Blitz Formula Motherboards. The memory is definitely capable of exceeding it's rated specs. Given the complexities and obstacles associated with a 4GB kit, 1066 MHz is a worthy achievement in its own right. The 4GB Reaper kit remained completely stable throughout testing as well as passed several hours of further scrutiny from our trusty RST PRO 2 provided by Ultra-X. If there were any type of weaknesses in the memory, the RST PRO 2 would have definitely found them.
From 800 MHz 4-4-4-12 to 1150 MHz 5-5-5-15, you get sweet 2 x 2GB Dual Channel memory kit built with quality ICs backed by OCZ's Lifetime Warranty. Performance is top notch with excellent results for the most avid gamer or application guru. Vista users will also appreciate the larger capacity allowing their system to stretch its legs fully without worrying about system resources. This is the largest 4GB overclocking memory kit thus far I've had the pleasure of testing and now understand its hidden benefits. I highly recommend this kit the next time your seriously considering a DDR2 upgrade. | | more info: ·more p/reviews  Lowest prices check |
| Abit I-N73HD Review reported at 03:53 PM |
| category: Socket 775 Motherboards website: Tweak Town |
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abit has again done a fantastic job. While known for more of its high-end boards, the company now offers value boards that are extremely attractive options on the market. Overall, we found the board to have a great feel and good overclocking for the budget users. | | more info: ·more p/reviews Lowest prices check |
| Thermaltake DuOrb Review reported at 01:17 PM |
| category: CPU Coolers website: Overclockers Club |
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If you are like me and overclock every piece of hardware you get your hands on, then the Thermaltake DuOrb is, hands down, a no brainer. Just make sure you have the room to install it beforehand. | | more info: ·more p/reviews Lowest prices check |
| Visiontek Radeon HD 3870 X2 Overclocked Edition Review reported at 01:11 PM |
| category: Game Accelerator Cards website: Neoseeker |
 | Article Quote:
Less expensive cards than the HD3870X2, such as the XFX 9800 GTX in this mix, or even the factory-overclocked Asus EN8800 GTS 512, often gave the HD3870X2 a run for the money. And it is true that the HD3870X2 OC often came ahead in these match ups, but the 9800 GTX cards are selling for about 2/3rds the price of this HD3870X2, so the value just isn't as good as could be hoped. Likewise, the recently reviewed EAH3850X2 also was selling closer to $300, making this VisionTek card look somewhat overpriced.
But the VisionTek HD3870X2 OC does have some real advantages over other video cards, and overall, is defintely a capable performer -- so in the end, while perhaps not a video card that can be recommended to everyone, it is still one that would look good in any motherboard out there. | | more info: ·more p/reviews Lowest prices check |
| Visiontek Radeon HD 3870 X2 Overclocked Edition Review reported at 01:09 PM |
| category: Game Accelerator Cards website: AMD Zone |
| Article Quote:
Overall the Visiontek 3870X2 Overclocked Edition is a very cool card (figuratively, although it also doesn't get exceptionally card). It fixes the past issues with dual GPUs and offers a wallop of performance. However, for the overclock you receive it is on the steep side of things. It is $449 at Newegg while the cheapest 3870X2 can be had for $329.99 which is a fairly large gap in price for the overclock. That said again the cooling solution is quite good but it might be good to drop a mail-in-rebate there or some price cutting. Looking at the card's closest competitor in price and performance, the 9800 GTX from Nvidia, we think the card offers a great solution for those gaming at higher resolutions. One market where ATI might look for a bigger boost in selling graphics cards is Intel's chipset series which still only support CrossFire technology and not SLI unless you go for the incredibly expensive Skulltrail platform. AMD might not have the fastest CPUs to push these high-end cards but you can still find a home for them there which should fit nicely. | | more info: ·more p/reviews Lowest prices check |
| Seagate Barracuda ES.2 Review reported at 12:55 PM |
| category: IDE Hard Drives website: Hot Hardware |
 | Article Quote:
The Barracuda ES.2 SAS is not what one would consider a consumer level product and very likely won’t be a big seller in the end-user/enthusiast space. However, it should fill a long-empty hole in the workstation and storage markets, allowing true high-capacity storage at fairly low price points with SAS connectivity. It’s unlikely that there will be competition in this arena for quite some time, so if you need lots of SAS-enabled storage capacity, this is just about the only drive to consider right now. However, we would recommend perhaps waiting for an updated version of the drive as firmware revisions will likely smooth things out a bit for the platform. Beyond some slight performance variances and anomalies, the Barracuda ES2 1TB SAS drive is a solid storage product overall. It has low noise, lots of capacity and is capable of pushing out excellent performance in the right usage model. | | more info: ·more p/reviews Lowest prices check |
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