Mainboards

AnandTech has reviewed EPoX 9NDA3+ mainboard which is designed for AMD64 PGA939 chips and is based on NVIDIA nForce3 250 Ultra core-logic and equipped with almost all necessary capabilities, including NVIDIA Firewall, NVIDIA RAID and so on. The reviewer found out that this product brings outstanding overclocking capabilities, however, has some major problems with overall performance.

The Tech Report has reviewed Albatron’s PX915P-AGPe mainboard. Unlike the majority of i915P-based mainboards, this one is equipped with both PCI Express and AGP slots. While such approach allows end-users to use their old graphics cards with newer systems, the technology behind the so-called ‘AGP Extension’ dramatically slashes performance of graphics cards, as ‘AGPe’ is basically two PCI slots working in parallel.

Barebones, Small Form-Factor Systems

AMDZone has reviewed TYAN Transport GX28 B2881 Dual Opteron 1U barebones server. This product delivers all the components you would need to build out a mid priced 2P Opteron server. TYAN backs the GXB2881 with great documentation, along with solid and stable performance. 

EPIACENTER.com has published the review of MB860, the world’s first Mini-ITX mainboard to make use of Transmeta's fanless Efficeon TM8600 processor. Apart from a typical performance observations and benchmarks the review also includes a detailed look at power consumption and thermal throttling.

Graphics cards

Viperlair.com has reviewed Albatron Trinity PCX 5750 graphics card. This NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5750 graphics card is aimed at entry-level market, though, it boasts with some things in the bundle and with extraordinary capability.

Looking at the purely reference ABIT RADEON X800 PRO, there does not seem to be much to make a potential customer choose it over a competitors card. No games in the bundle and not much to look at, however, ABIT has done a lot to provide wicked overclocking capabilities to the product that has been reviewed by Rage3D.

Memory

Bytesector.com has reviewed Mushkin PC3200 L2V2 dual-channel memory module kit. This is the latest low-latency DDR memory from Mushkin, it comes with Mushkin’s jet black colored six layer PCB, gold contacts and CL2 2-2-5 timings at 400MHz frequency.

Modding, Cooling, etc

TrustedReviews has taken a look at a number of water coolers. The article compares Asetek’s WaterChill KT03A-L30, Eastar’s Cool River Deluxe Version, and Koolance’s Exos-Al PC water cooling solutions in terms of performance and price criteria.

techPowerUp! has reviewed Thermaltake XTunner infrared remote control device. Thermaltake is the first manufacturer to create a fan controller that can be controlled via infrared remote. This is a quite useful if you use your computer to watch movies, as you can turn down the fan to reduce noise while you are watching.

Mobile devices

PimRing.com has posted an article about AL Tech’ Anydrive CarMP3 FM transmitter. Instead of storing MP3 files on the actual device itself, the Anydrive reads MP3 files from an attached USB device. This idea leads to almost countless music files since you can use any size USB storage device. The Anydrive then uses its built in FM Transmitter to broadcast the signal to a nearby FM receiver/tuner.

Cable vs Fiber

Just as the cable industry is going after telecom's bread-and-butter voice business, the Bells are about to wage war on cable's home territory: video. Their ace: Ultrafast fiber-optic networks that match or surpass the capacity of cable's digital system. On October 21, 2004, Verizon Communications Inc. was expected to announce plans to build fiber systems in six Eastern states from Massachusetts to Virginia. Along with lines Verizon is already stringing in Texas, Florida, and California, the company expects to bring fiber connections directly to 3 million homes with expensive, state-of-the-art technology by the end of 2005.

By replacing miles of old copper wires with superfast fiber, the Bells can deliver to consumers telephone dial tones, high-speed Web access, and, for the first time, TV shows, to fend off cable operators offering the same bundle. "We want to build a network that's future-proof," says Mark A. Wegleitner, Verizon's chief technology officer. "Fiber is the right answer." Read the whole story at BuisnessWeek Online.