by Grigoriy Gubankov
04/12/2003 | 09:37 PM
For the fourth time X-bit goes around the Web to watch for something fresh and interesting and here is what we have find.
<%BANNER[article]%>We could only dream of an i486-based computer 14 or 15 years ago and we never thought about it becoming so small to fit into a pocket even a decade ago. Now that we can play the original Doom game even on a mobile, we wonder when we are able to shoot all the monsters from the original Quake and I believe there is not so much waiting left. Unfortunately, we still cannot fit a computer we consider as a powerful one today into a pocket, but the power of conventional pocket PCs or PDAs can provide is enough for nearly all tasks we do everyday on our desktop PCs (unless we deal with some money-making or time-wasting software, of course). Brighthand has reviewed an ancient supercomputer recently developed by ViewSonic and based on Intel's XScale processor. They found that this device is powerful enough for sendin e-mails and even waste your time while playing games. Take a look at their article here.
If you still want to have the power of your desktop with you all the time, keep an eye on the Centrino notebooks. AnandTech has reviewed an ultra-portable IBM X 31 mobile computer, based on not-so-long-ago announced Intel Centrino technology. Featuring the 1.40GHz Pentium M processor, weighting only about 1.44 kilos (3.6 pounds), providing about 5.5 hours of battery life and boasting with WLAN features, this notebook, in Anand's opinion, is a perfect companion for frequent travellers. Travel here to find our more.
Have you ever considered Samsung’s hard disk drives as fast and reliable? If no, it may be a time to change your mind. Tech Report put Samsung's 1203N HDD in test against Seagate Barracuda ATA V, Maxtor DM 9 Plus and WD Caviar 1200JB, and the South-Korean HDD achieved the second to the third place in most of the benchmarks, and even beat its competitors in File Copy Tests. It appears that the only limiting factor in its performance was relatively small cache. And do not forget that Samsung is the only HDD manufacturer offering three years warranty on all consumer HDDs, at least, now. If interested, consider all the pros and cons over here.
Thermaltake recently started to sell its own Xaser computer-cases in addition to their CPU and GPU coolers. AthlonXP.com has got the Thermaltake V-1000D case from the newest Xaser III series and scrutinized it from top to bottom. They say it is near a perfect case, but it does not lack of a couple of shortcomings. Read it all here.
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