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| | Thermaltake BlacX SE SATA to USB Dock
Last week we took a close look at the Thermaltake BlacX (USB Version) and found it to be a product that many enthusiasts will not be able to live without. Thermaltake has three versions of the BlacX; USB, USB + eSATA and finally a feature rich version called the BlacX SE. The BlacX SE is for users that want to optimize every product on their desk. Convergence is key when you only have limited space. The Thermaltake BlacX SE has everything the BlacX (USB) that we reviewed last week has, but it adds an extra feature; an integrated USB 2.0 hub. The SE version sits a little taller than the other variants and has a wider base, but the size difference isn’t something you are going to notice since it is such a small amount."
| | | | | | | Gigabyte DES X48T-DQ6 Motherboard Review
"INTEL's X48 chipset is the much anticipated follow up to the X38 chipset....which in turn was the much anticipated follow up to INTEL's hugely successful P35 chipset. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or industry insider to know that many in the enthusiast community are less than thrilled about the "marginal" improvements during the progression of chipsets, especially considering the prices some of these motherboards are going for (in excess of $300). While this isn't to say any of the three chipsets are poor performers, I find it a bit curious that INTEL has run these chipsets out as they have, taking the overall performance of each into consideration."
| | | | | | | Taking over the mainstream: the GeForce 8800 GT
Prior to the release of the GeForce 8800 GT, the GeForce 8600 GTS and 8600 GT took on the brunt of the work in the mainstream segment, and while NVIDIA’s 8600 GPUs were competent performers in comparison to the competition from AMD, neither card really captured the hearts and minds of gamers in the market for a $150-$200 video card who follow this website; many of you guys continually slammed the 8600s and Radeon 2600s for their lack of performance in comparison to their predecessors the GeForce 7900 GS/7950 GT and the Radeon X1950 Pro.
As you correctly pointed out, these mainstream DX10 cards often performed slower than their DX9 predecessors in the games that were out at the time (most of which were DX9 titles), yet they also didn’t have the shading horsepower necessary to deliver good frame rates in DX10 games either. Knowing this, many gamers and hardware enthusiasts decided to pick up X1950 Pro and 7950 GT cards instead of upgrading to the 8600 and 2600 cards that were available, or, if they had a little extra money to spare, they opted to get a GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB.
Priced at an MSRP of $299, the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB has been a very popular upgrade for enthusiasts who want to really crank up the eye candy and still get respectable performance. In newer titles though like World in Conflict and BioShock with 4xAA we’ve begun to see the limitations of the card’s 320MB frame buffer, particularly as you crank up the screen resolution. In these cases the card’s memory subsystem becomes a bottleneck – it just doesn’t have enough onboard memory to load everything and frame rates begin to become choppy as a result.
| | | | | | | Intel® Desktop Board DX48BT2
Pulse-pounding gaming and high powered multimedia experiences require the ultimate in performance from your processor and motherboard. Intel® Desktop Board DX48BT2 is designed to unleash the power of Intel® Core™2 Extreme processors. With support for 1600 MHz front side bus, fast DDR3 memory and overclocking, Intel Desktop Board DX48BT2 delivers the gaming performance you deserve. Intel Desktop Board DX48BT2 supports Dolby* Home Theatre and Microsoft Windows Vista* Premium WHQL certified.
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