Make any stereo broadcast in Bluetooth

Subject: General Tech | February 6, 2006 - 05:45 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Bluetake BT450Tx Bluetooth Stereo Transmitter is a little device designed to pulg into an iPod, to allow Bluetooth headphones to not only play your music, but to allow some control over the iPod itself.  The neat thing is that anything with a 3.5mm plug-in can broadcast it's current music over Bluetooth.  Read the full story at A True Review.

A short time ago I reviewed the spectacular Bluetake i-PHONO mini Bluetooth Stereo Headphone.

Will Terratec's new device help you claw your way to victory?

Subject: General Tech | February 6, 2006 - 03:39 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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3DXtreme looks at the Terratec Mystify Claw, a customizable gaming device that will let you get rid of the keyboard for gaming.  Can it actually help your performance, or will it suffer the fate of most things that try to challenge the mouse+keyboard combe?

"Today 3DXtreme has the pleasure of reviewing a gaming device for the hardcore in the Mystify

Claw. Everyone is trying to make the gaming experience easier and more ergonomic and that's where

the Mystify Claw comes in.

VIZO gives you a choice in air cooling

Subject: Cases and Cooling | February 6, 2006 - 02:08 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Techniz reviews 2 of VIZO's fan lines today, the Muffle and the Windstorm.  The Muffle gives you some pretty good cooling, without trying to deafen you, the 120mm version moves 53CFM @ 28dBA, and the Windstorm will help with OC'ing, the 80mm model moves an impressive 84.1CFM, though it does so at 55.2 dBA. 

"The VIZO cooling products is design to provide the cooling solution for the enthusiast that

prefers low noise and also good performance.

SLI and Sempron together

Subject: Motherboards | February 6, 2006 - 11:56 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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TweakTown reviews a sweet little s754 board from EPoX, the 8NPA-SLI.  Now you can get an SLI setup, without having to upgrade your CPU, memory and everything else at the same time.  You get to save some money on the CPU as well.

Also from EPox, the EP-5NVA is an LGA775 board, and our own Jon Hung has posted a fresh review of it.

"Socket 754 has now made a comeback for AMD in the form of the budget line of Sempron processors.

A quick glance at AM2

Subject: General Tech | February 6, 2006 - 11:50 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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AnandTech has put together a 3 page look at the upcoming AM2 AMD processor.  If you don't fully understand what this new processor will be capable of, then give this summary a read to see what it can do beyond simply support DDR2.

"The new AMD technology refresh, now called AM2, will bring DDR2 memory to the Athlon64

on-processor memory controller.

ATI tries for the performance throne

Subject: Graphics Cards | February 3, 2006 - 06:21 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Bjorn3D tests the new x1900 to see if ATI will beat nVIDIA, or if they have been delegated to playing catch-up again.  For this batch of testing, they have grabbed PowerColors X1900XT.

"The late introduction of R520 had caused ATI to speed up the introduction of its new products.

Going by how the company handles kicker products, most of us assumed it would be just that; a

refresh of the older SKUs. All in all, it was a hasty and wrongful assumption.

Fileserver, on the rocks

Subject: Cases and Cooling | February 3, 2006 - 04:02 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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MetkuMods has posted a gallery of an extremely unique case by Janos Marton.  I can't begin imagine where the inspiration might have come from.

"I already had a powerful computer setup so I wanted something more quiet, small and low power

consumptioning to function as a basic home server. I love to tinker with hardware etc.

OCZ give you a higher OC with less power

Subject: Memory | February 3, 2006 - 02:53 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Motherboards.org pushed OCZ's PC3500GX memory as hard as they could, while keeping the voltage low.  If you are looking for RAM that OC's well, without the added wear and tear that overvolting can cause, this is one attractive module.

"Considering that we easily pegged 245MHz at 2-2-2-5 with just 3.2V and no errors, and 250MHz with

the same timings and voltages with only minor errors, OCZ has come out swinging with a winner, now

offering the same low latencies that VX offers albeit with much lowe

Crytek is ready to rock your world, again

Subject: Cases and Cooling | February 3, 2006 - 11:59 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Although we have little information yet, Gamehelper has translated a german interview with some Crytek employees and a German website (Gamestar) about the upcoming FPS, Crysis.  While it does not exactly seem to be a follow up to Far Cry, it certainly sounds like they took everything that made FarCry great, and improved it.

"There will be a high degree of interactivity with the environment.

Knoppix to the rescue

Subject: General Tech | February 3, 2006 - 11:45 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Extremetech has posted a guide on using the boot disk distros of Knoppix to aid in recovering a borked windows install.  Simply download the newest version of Knoppix, burn to a disk, and boot the troublesome PC using it.  The guide covers various ways to rescue yourself from data loss. 

"A bootable CD or DVD with Knoppix can be a lifesaver when your computer goes awry.

Danger Den is at it again

Subject: Cases and Cooling | February 2, 2006 - 06:46 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Red & Blackness Mods tests the new Danger Den Thermalchill radiator, and as you might expect, it performs admirably.  It also manages to cool without being larger than your average tower case.

"Today we take a look at a radiator from Dangerden, we know that Dangerden is one of the top

companies when it comes to watercooling and their previous products have got very good ratings. We

will see how good this radiator performs vs a Alphacool Cora 6 and vs a BlackIce extreme.

TeraStation's NAS Safe

Subject: Storage | February 2, 2006 - 05:21 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Extremetech has grabbed one of Buffalo's TeraStation home servers, a NAS solution that bears a remarkable resemblance to a safe.  It is home to 4 Western Digital Caviar 7200rpm 250GB EIDE hard drives, defaulted to give you a 700Gb RAID 5 setup, though there are other options. 

"Shopping for a terabyte NAS box can be conflicting. You wonder: "Should I build my own? Hard

drives are so cheap these days, and I am so gifted with technology!

ASUS' hybrid Crossfire board

Subject: Motherboards | February 2, 2006 - 02:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Tech Report reviews the ASUS A8R-MVP, a very inexpensive motherboard that combines 2 chipsets, ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition and ULi's M1575 southbridge.  Head over to see what advantages that gains over a motherboard that uses ATI's SB450.

"Fortunately, the CrossFire Edition chipset has an ace up its sleeve. Its north bridge is capable

of interfacing with alternative south bridge chips, including those built by ULi.

Corsair Launches XMS-3200C2 XPERT 2GB Kit

Subject: Memory | February 2, 2006 - 01:02 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Fremont, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />CA (February 2, 2006) — Corsair®

Is Crackberry withdrawl inevitable?

Subject: General Tech | February 2, 2006 - 11:58 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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CNET has gathered an FAQ on the Blackberry patent dispute for those trying to figure out if they will wake up one day to find the service dead.  If you have one, then you know the confusion this suit has caused.  If you don't have one, but know people who do ...

AGP is dead? Long live AGP!

Subject: Graphics Cards | February 2, 2006 - 11:48 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Today nVIDIA released the 7800 GS AGP card into the wide world.  This is very likely to be the last AGP board released, so you may want to plan your next upgrade around switching to PCIe, though this card will let you put that off for a while, it is quite powerful.  It's expected to retail at just over $300.  Head to Bjorn3D for a peek at some benchmarks, and a look at what makes the card powerful enough to play the newest games.

No piece greater than $400

Subject: Systems | February 1, 2006 - 06:22 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Firingsquad is putting together a powerful system, with one constraint, no component can cost more than $400.  Take a look to see what made it into the system.

"FiringSquad just posted an article describing a system build with a limit of $400 per component.

The newest HDTV - Liquid Crystal on Silicon

Subject: Displays | February 1, 2006 - 03:27 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Extremetech has posted a shootout between 5 brands, all offering the latest and greatest High Definition tech.  All are huge, between 4 to 5 feet, and either 720 or 1080 resolution.  This will be a series, this first installment discusses the technology, what it is, and how it works.

"Liquid Crystal on Silicon, LCoS, is a relatively new and obscure display technology that is now

making its grand entrance into the HDTV marketplace.