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Link to article (Overclockersclub.com)A lot of times, the case for a computer is a secondary thought. However, the case, in addition to looking cool, can provide several other benefits, like noise reduction and cooling. By the same token, however, a case may not have any of these benefits, or even worse. Every component in a computer generates heat, including the major contributors like the CPU, GPU, and hard drives. The size of the case is also something that should be taken into consideration, as the more expansion cards you have and the more hard drives you have, the larger a case you will need.
This case, the AEGIS, is made by Chieftec, a company that prides themselves on "always bettering themselves." This case is the full tower version of the AEGIS, meaning it has more drive bays and more expansion slots than the typical mid tower case. While the mid tower didn't get a great review, hopefully the full tower performs better.
Link to article (Overclockersclub.com)All computer cases are created equal, right? Actually, wrong. When you are building your own computer, most people just skip over the case and get one that is cheap or one that they think looks cool. This isn't always what is best though. A computer case has many functions beside the basic "sit and look cool." For instance, a computer case can drastically change your temperatures on all your components: hard drives, RAM, CPU, and GPU are the big ones. Also, a computer case can have a large effect on how much noise you can hear from the internal components like fans and hard drives - pretty much anything that spins. Since the case is used to house your components, the size of the case and how many expansion slots it has available is something that needs to be taken into consideration. Pretty much any self proclaimed cooling expert or modding expert out there will agree, all cases are not created equal.
Now this is where the Chieftec AEGIS mid tower case comes in. With Chieftec's promise of "always bettering themselves," I expect a case that preforms well in all areas. The feature list is amazing, and hopefully it all works, as I will be testing each and every piece. I'm pretty excited to give this case a shot at glory, so lets get right into the testing.
Link to article (Overclockersclub.com)As computers have aged, files have gotten larger, and people have come up with alternative ways to store data. Of course, there are still hard drives, which are nice, but are not very mobile. There are CD-Rs which are mobile, but can only be written to once in most cases. However, many people now use USB thumb drives. These little guys can carry huge amounts of data rivalling a double layer DVD, and even in some cases, a Blu-Ray disc.
Today, we will be looking at a certain USB thumb drive. It is the Super Talent Pico-E, which is an 8GB drive. This drive is very small and only has the "half USB" connector as I like to call it. It also has a shiny finish. Super Talent makes a lot of other drives though, including an eco-friendly one and one that can be dunked in a glass of water, which have been reviewed by OverclockersClub before. These drives will be compared to the Pico-E later in the review.
Link to article (Overclockersclub.com)Television has been around for a long time, much longer than computers. However, it turns out that TV and computers complement each other very nicely. Who hasn't wanted to record a TV show on their computer so they could watch it later, or rewind a program to hear the punch line of a joke or see an instant replay of your favorite football team? Other people just don't have a lot of room available to them and would like to watch TV on their computer. While most computers don't come with the ability to do this, you can get an add-on card to allow you to connect a cable signal or antenna signal to your computer and tune in to any channels you have access to.
One such TV Tuner is the Asus My Cinema-PHC3-100/NAQ/FM/AV/RC (which from now on I'll simply refer to as the Asus My Cinema, even though this refers to an entire product line) which is a PCI card that can tune in FM radio as well as digital and analog TV signals. This is truly an all-in-one package, as it comes with a remote, as well as some software to make your experience complete. The software will let you tune in channels, record television, and watch TV on your Windows Vista sidebar. A final benefit that I will mention here is that the card also serves as a hardware MPEG2 encoder, releasing some of the stress off your CPU and onto the card.
Link to article (Overclockersclub.com)It used to be that if you needed a new video card there were only a few choices to choose from. There would be the ultra high end card, the mid range card, and the card for people who want to save money. While these same categories exist today, there are many more cards that fit into each category. This is great for the consumer because now we can weigh what features we want and have a smooth gradient of options to choose from, anywhere from the inexpensive cards to the 600 dollar cards that double as a room heater.
The MSI N9800GT is one card that fits into the mid range category, even though it has a high end name. The N9800GT has all the features of a 9000 series card and is based on the G92b chipset which is made on a 55nm fab. This card will support DirectX 10, however it is not entirely DirectX 10.1 compliant. With a core clock speed of 600MHz and a memory clock speed of 900MHz, this card is already pretty fast. It has 754million transistors which eat up 105watts of power, enough to run a normal house lightbulb. The question that this review will answer is whether or not that 105watts of power is worth it or if it is better spent on other hardware.
Link to article (Overclockersclub.com)USB drives today are like floppies of yesterday. We use them for everything, from moving small files from one computer to another, to storing applications that are customized to your liking. Almost everyone has one, and there are many different options for them. You can get them in all sorts of colors, from many different companies, and with very different styles - just like the floppies of yesteryear came in different colors.
ATP has produced a set of drives called the ToughDrive. The particular version of the drive I am reviewing is camouflaged, 2GB in size, and has a key ring included. Additionally, the ToughDrive is advertised as waterproof and shock proof, making it ideal for people who are on the go, and need something durable to store their data. The modest 2GB size is enough for most people, and its small physical size keeps the option to put it on a key ring open.
Link to article (Overclockersclub.com)Everyone needs more and more storage, and as files get larger, our smaller drives get less effective. After all, who wants to install a drive that can only store several movies or a vacation's worth of photos? On the other hand, something that is becoming very handy is the ability to take hard drives with you to work, a friend's house, or on vacation. This portability allows many forms of media to be shared, company secrets to be encrypted and sent long distances, and games and applications to be run on computers other than your own - without losing your settings.
The Tagan Icy Box is a device that will allow you to knock down both of those birds with one stone. It is an external hard drive enclosure that uses a JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) setup. This allows you to connect 2 drives, no matter what capacity, and they will show up in your OS as one physical volume. Not only is it portable, but it is also a nice way to combine multiple smaller capacity drives into one larger drive. Let's take a close look at it and see how it performs.
