As we told you in an earlier issue of X-bit Watch, AnandTech named ABIT BH7 as “the most overclocker-friendly Pentium 4 mainboard”. Now it is time for the leader to change. The new owner of this title from AnandTech is MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R based on i875P chipset which was reviewed by AnandTech today. They guys even say that this mainboard meets all the requirements for the ideal desktop platform. Read the article here to know, why AnandTech is so enthusiastic about the product.

LostCircuits has completed their PC3200 aka DDR400 memory roundup. They compared overclocking potential of 8 modules, including memory sticks from Corsair and Mushkin as well as ordinary memory modules from KingMax and Samsung. If you want to know, for what you do you pay when you buy DIMMs that had been pre-tested for high-speed functionality, read the roundup here.

Computerbase.de has reviewed ASUS P4PE i845PE mainboard to see how well it performs coupled with the not-so-long ago released Pentium 4 with 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus processor. The result was a really strange since with the version 1002 BIOS P4PE performed significantly faster than with newer 1005 BIOS. I wonder if it is a bug or ASUS thinks that i845PE is not suitable for 800MHz QPB and wants to spread such point of view among customers by intentionally lowering performance of the product? Unfortunately, I think that we will never know it for sure. Read Computerbase.de review here (in German) and translated version here.

The problem of noise coming from personal computers is becoming more and more important, thus, more and more computer devices intended to lower system noise are appearing on the market. These are “silent” CPU coolers, passive graphics card’s heat-sinks, low-RPM case fans and, finally, “silent” PSUs. SilentPCReview, a special web-site dedicated to this kind of computer stuff, got one of such PSUs - SilenX 14dbA 400W unit in their lab. They put it into a number of tests, including efficiency testing, power factor measurements and in-case thermal simulation, measuring unit noise during each test. They concluded that it can be really called as “silent”, but that silence came with use of low-performance fan and the ability of this PSU to exhaust hot air from the case has been significantly lowered. Read the full review here.