http://www.it-review.net Hardware news & reviews Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 GMT en http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/Gigabyte_GA_P55A_UD7_review Third stop of our long Gigabyte product journey leads us to one of their best motherboards for P55 chipset, the P55A-UD7. Now this "best motherboards" might come from the number experience as all of the motherboards by Gigabyte we've tested so far were becoming better and better as the number (UD2, UD3, ... UD7) in the model name grew. But let's put that naming scheme into practice and check out what's true and what's not. Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:54:06 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/Gigabyte_H55M_UD2H_and_H55_UD3H_review This has been one very busy Gigabyte month as we got a whole bunch of their motherboards to test and - it's been a hell of a ride. Yesterday it was all about the budget-level X58 motherboards and today - let's go with H55 chipset which is a budget-level solution as well but - more an integrated one. Of course, we gathered some scores from our previous reviews of AMD-based integrated solutions so - this is a nice battle to go through. Ready or not - off we go! Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/Gigabyte_GA_X58A_UD3R_and_ASUS_P6X58D_E_review Intel's socket 1366 platform was the first to appear and support the new iX CPUs. It has been on the market for some time, and at first it was very expensive. The memory alone, and you needed a triple channel configuration, was pretty expensive at the time of the launch. However, over time, DDR3 has gained much more market share, so its prices are not that far from the DDR2 modules. This has prompted manufacturers to release a new generation of motherboards that incorporate USB 3.0 and SATA 6 GB/s, and in this new lineup, the budget versions were also refreshed. Although these boards are pretty far on features when compared to the likes of X58A-UD9, P6T7 SuperComputer or Rampage III Extreme with their multi GPU, twin EPS powered multiphase power regulators and so on, they are roughly the same if you are an i7-920, single or dual GPU user. Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:00:03 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Mafia_II_demo_preview_3D Mafia II is the highly expected sequel to the massively popular Mafia released back in 2002, and earning a 9.3 rating on GameSpot. It is expected to be released in a few weeks time, and we will be looking at what you can expect from Mafia II in terms of performance using stereoscopic 3D and physics acceleration.Of course, NVIDIA and 2K Games have been working very closely to make sure Mafia II functions flawlessly on NVIDIA supported 3D hardware and PhysX technology. Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:05:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Radeon_HD_5970_review AMD’s Radeon 5000 series has been on the market for almost a year now, and its dual GPU 5970 just a little bit less. Even with the introduction of NVIDIA’s DX11 flagship, it should - at least on paper - be the fastest card on the market. Let's see how the "on paper" thing translates to real-life performance. Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:40:22 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Gainward_GTX470_GS_and_reference_GTX470_review Recently I found one of the cards that really impressed us back in the day. It was Gainward's GeForce 6600GT Golden Sample Goes Like Hell. It was one of the cards that marked the NVIDIA 6 series, and a real good performer that had even more room for overclocking. Unfortunately, the Goes Like Hell is in the current generation only present on the GeForce GTX 460 GS GLH, so in the case of 470 we will have to be content with the ‘plain’ Golden Sample edition, and that is the card we will be reviewing today. Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/cpu/Overclocking_Intel_Core_i5_655K_and_Core_i7_875K This is turning to be quite a bit more interesting year then we expected, as big players didn't really "hold station" with development but rather pushed on with new products. NVIDIA released the GTX480, AMD released its six-core Phenom II and Intel released a whole bunch of stuff - 980X , new Core i3 and i5's and quite a few additions to mobile segment of the market. Today we're gonna play around with overclocking of two CPU's that Intel left unlocked on purpose - Core i5 655K and core i5 875K. Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/hdd/SSD_quad_battle_OCZ_vs_G.Skill SSD's are slowly (but surely) starting to be the "go to" hardware for upgrades. Whether it's the desktop system or any kind of mobile computer (laptop, nettop, tablet), it's probably the single most worthy upgrade that you can do to your computer to really feel the speed jump in both objective and subjective terms. So - we decided to test some of them - four of them today, exactly. We took OCZ's good old Vertex, G.Skill Falcon II, OCZ Agility 2 and OCZ Vertex 2 for a spin. Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:00:58 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/cpu/AMD_Phenom_II_1090T_review Unless you've been living in a cave (and, as Jon Stewart would say, by doing that you "made the soundest real-estate investment possible") , you've surely heard of some good ol' AMD CPU's like Athlon, Duron and - Phenom. Well, what we've got here today is the Phenom II 1090T, a cheapo six-core CPU by AMD that seems like a very reasonable choice for people without a whole lot of money to buy some more expensive Intel CPU's, but still want to have performance bar pretty high. At least, that's what it's supposed to be like. Is it? Let's check it out... Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:50:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/Gigabyte_GA_890FXA_UD7_review After a brief conversation with the simpler and cheaper GA-890GPA-UD3H yesterday, today we have a meeting with the bigger and stronger brother, the GA-890FXA-UD7. This is a high-end motherboard that's ment for enthusiasts and gamers that would like to overclock and squeeze every last bit of performance out of their motherboard, VGA and CPU so - pay close attention to this one... Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:45:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/Gigabyte_890GPA_UD3H_review Gigabyte's been really busy lately on the motherboard market so - we're trying to keep the pace with them, as well. We've seen quite a lot of new motherboards in the past couple of weeks - P55, H57, X58, and now finally, some really good motherboards for AMD platform as well. The past months have been really busy for Gigabyte R&D as they've switched to USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbit/s on almost every motherboard that's coming out now. We've put two of these motherboards through their paces - 890GPA-UD3H and 890FXA-UD7 - article due out tomorrow. We had to delay our initial idea of reviewing these mobos with some CPU problems we were having (defective CPU's), but now that everything's ready, let's check them out. Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:36:59 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA_GTX460_review_two_flavors_ Another important day seems to be rising on VGA market horizon - GTX460 launch day. We gotta say that this overall crysis thing that's been happening all over the world has left us wondering what's gonna happen with IT. But, strangely enough - it's been quite awhile since we've been this busy with testing VGA's so you can again expect a series of articles coming out of our labs in the following days. But for the time being, let's focus on GTX460, related technology and performance and try to gather as many conclusions from testing it as we possibly can. Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:52:32 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/network/AC_Ryan_PlayOn_HD_and_PlayOn_HD_mini_review It's been awhile since I had the distinct pleasure of playing around with any capable multimedia players or HTPC devices because - quite frankly - they haven't been worth spending time on. Buggy software, lack of support for some formats, problems with subtitles - all that amount to lack of interest and some e-mailing with manufacturers in order to make their products better. That was - until I got these two cool devices by AC Ryan. Although many users probably don't even know what AC Ryan is - let's just say that this is a company with some kickass multimedia products that are waiting to be made a part of your life on a permanent basis. Let's start with PlayOn!HD and PlayOn!HD mini... Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:12:50 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/cpu/AMD_CPU_small_roundup OK, time for round two of our dissection of current AMD offering so - stay put. Yeah, it seems that this week there's an awful lot of AMD stuff on the site but - if that's where the river is taking us... that's where we gotta go. This time, we're off to sail the sea of AMD CPU's, with some representatives from all parts of the portfolio - Phenom II X2 555 (X4 wannabe), Phenom II X4 965 (quad-core), Athlon II X2 255 (dual-core), Athlon II X4 635 (quad-core), and Athlon II X3 440. The last four don't have any L3 caches so - it's really top to bottom... Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:15:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/Pro_musician_fun_with_Jetway_s_smoking_gun Yeah, it's a product that's been on the market for awhile but - that just doesn't mean anything bad. We had some serious fun with this motherboard that - coupled with a right CPU - provides just about a perfect solution for many applications - easy-to-install mobile music production and live playing, multimedia applications and - it kind of "sits on top" of all of the current Atom offerings in a separate market segment. Let's take you through an interesting world of - Jetway NF93-LF. Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/AMD_low_end_and_mainstream_graphics_cards_review After NVIDIA released their competitors to the successful ATI’s 4000 series lower end cards, finally bringing us DX10.1 and GDDR5 and native audio support over HDMI, ATI has upped the ante with its new 5000 series cards from the lower segment. Today we are reviewing three such cards, the ATI Radeon HD 5450, 5570 and 5670. Mon, 24 May 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA_3D_Vision_GTX280,_GTX480_and_GTX480SLI_review As with all human interface devices, it is very hard to write a review that will give an accurate picture to every reader. The best you can do is report on your experiences and hope that your preferences are not too different from the average reader. So, today we are reviewing NVIDIA’s 3D Vision, and how it works with NVIDIA’s new flagship GPU, the GeForce GTX 480. Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:45:15 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA_GTX480_and_480_SLI_review After six months of losing to ATI in all benchmarks, NVIDIA is back with a vengeance. The long awaited GF100 GPU is finally here, in the form of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 480 card. It is built on a new NVIDIA architecture called Fermi, which should not only enable great gaming performance, but should also provide the ability to use its huge processing power in various other scenarios. Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:01:02 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA_Fermi_Launch_Tech_Brief There's a strong probability that there was no chip in the VGA business that was awaited for so long as the Fermi chip, or GF100 architecture, as NVIDIA called it. Yeah, it's been quite awhile since they started talking about it and showing some technical data about what they did with it but - no matter how many months have passed, the hype surrounding Fermi didn't seem to ease of with time. Why is Fermi so interesting? What's so good and new about it? Will it give NVIDIA's partners a chance to compete against their AMD-based competitors? Let's go through a short journey through time... Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:01:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Radeon_HD5870_Eyefinity6_review Last fall ATI managed to get out its 5800 series of graphics cards, and as we see now it was more than 6 months before NVIDIA managed to get out its Fermi architecture. Don't forget to check out the review tomorrow. Sometime after that cards from the lower market segments have appeared, as well as the top of the line dual GPU 5970. The one thing we were left waiting for was the multimonitor Eyefinitiy version of the 5870. We did have to do a fair bit of travelling to get our hands on it but... it's here now. Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/coolers/Cooler_Master_CM_Storm_Sentinel_Advance_review Testing mice and other peripherals is not an easy job. It is so subjective that almost anybody will have numerous objections and not share our opinions. However, we believe that certain products, event from this category, can get almost unanimous approvement. Cooler Master CM Storm Sentinel Advance is a very long named mouse. It is part of a CM Storm line of gaming peripherals, and aims at some more established companies such as Logitech. Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/cpu/Intel_Core_i7_980X,_Core_i5_650_and_Core_i3_530_review It's been awhile since Intel introduced any kind of "Extreme" edition CPU's. The new Core i7 980X represents just that - a new CPU that's supposed to be the fastest, the meanest, the conqueror, the benchmark for all others. Unlike other CPU's from the Core ix generation, this one has six cores and, thanks to Intel's HyperThreading technology - twelve threads to run at the same time. Based on 32nm Westmere architecture, this 3.33GHz CPU is - on paper - the king of the hill. Also, we tested two new additions to the i5 and i3 line. What kind of performance do they offer? Let's see them in action. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:29:49 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/CeBIT_overnight_testing_Gigabyte_GA_P55_UD5 Socket 1156 has been around for a while. Unlike the previous generation, where mainstream and high-end CPUs had the same socket, Intel decided that the expensive S1366 platform was too expensive for the average buyer. Socket 1156 platform was stripped of almost all high-end features, from the triple channel memory controller to the QPI interface.  Since it’s inception, there have been quite a few processors released for this socket, from the initial i7 and i5 to the later i3 and Pentium branded CPUs.  The chipset that first sported this socket was the P55, and today we are going to review a motherboard based on it. Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:19:25 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/hdd/CeBIT_overnight_testing_OCZ_Vertex_2_Pro_SSD CeBIT Overnight Testing (tm) thingy is up and running again with coffee and all of the necessary bits and pieces falling into their places. As always, first ones to get us something to push to its limits are good people from OCZ, with a Vertex 2 Pro sample. Even if this year hasn't really started with a lot of products being announced, we kind of had a feeling that we'll have at least something test-worthy at CeBIT. And boy, were we right... Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:03:42 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/cpu/Intel_Core_i5_661,_Core_i5_750_and_Intel_H55TC_review For about three months now, we have been talking about the next step in Intel's tick-tock strategy of introducing products. All of the new i series CPUs were made using Nehalem architecture, so the new 32 nm CPUs represent only a die shrink, in case of i5 661, a die shrink of the Lynnfield processor. Die shrinks are the tick part of the strategy, while the introduction of the Nehalem microarchitecture was a tock. To even talk about its accompanying motherboard, we must first see what the new CPU is all about. Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:05:32 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/hdd/OCZ_Agility_SSD_performance_review It's been awhile since we played around with some SSD's so, when the delivery man knocked on my door saying "here's a box for you" little did I know about all of the surprises I'm gonna experience in the next couple of days. I mean, yeah, I've been playing around with OCZ's Vertex for months now and, I gotta say - that drive changed a huge part of my workflow because - quite frankly - it's freakishly fast. I was really eager to see what Agility has to offer, having in mind that I already took Vertex through its paces. Let's see how the Agility did... Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:38:41 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Gainward_Bliss_GTX_275_review For quite some time, the only competition to ATI’s aggressively priced 4800 cards was the NVIDIA 9800 series. The GTX 260 was too expensive, and its performance was just equal to the cheaper 4870. The GTX 280, although with a lot more power, was in the price league of it’s own. Prices kept dropping, so NVIDIA had to react. Their first move was the transition to 55 nm production process. The GTX 295 and 285 were the first models, but they carried an even heftier price tag. What NVIDIA needed was a competitor to the highly successful, GDDR5 carrying 4870 and it’s upgraded version, the 4890 which launched about the same time as GTX 275 did. Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/ASUS_EAH4770_review Here we go again with the naming inconsistencies. Up until now, we had a clear rule, the bigger the number, the faster the card. Now, we have an ATI Radeon 4770, a number clearly smaller than 4830, yet we get a faster card, which can knock on the doors of 4850. ATI claims that the performance is not only indicated by the whole four digits, but the last two. The first two digits only represent the series, but in fact we never before had a situation where the fastest card of the lower series is faster than the slowest card of the higher one. All in all, ATI could have just as well named this card 4840 and nobody would complain. Instead, they went for the more complicated nomenclature that does follow a certain logic, but that will surely be lost on some people. Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:20:55 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/special/OCZ_Alchemy_series_Illuminati_Keyboard_review OCZ's peripherals are not something this memory and PSU manufacturer is well known for. It started with the Equalizer mouse, which was one of the best mice we have ever seen, completely on the level of competition twice as expensive. Although it was “just” a rebranded and visually redesigned A4Tech mouse, it didn’t stop it from becoming our primary mouse for testbeds and everyday use, replacing more expensive Logitech MX518. Today, we are reviewing a representative of another segment in the OCZ product line, a backlit keyboard cleverly named Illuminati. Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:15:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/Overclocking_workstation_motherboard_ASUS_P6T6_WS_Revolution It's been awhile since we tested some workstation boards and although this one isn't strictly that - here we go. By some strange chance, we got our hands on ASU P6T6 WS Revolution board, a product that's really packed with features for the workstation market. No matter if we're talking about its four PCI-Express slots or other available options, from the looks of it, this is set to be a high-class product from the very start. Let's see how it does. Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Gainward_GTS_250_2048_MB There was a lot of fuss over the ‘release’ of GTS 250 cards, as it is nothing more than a relaunched 9800GTX+. Granted, reference 9800GTS+ was a little bit different than the reference GTS 250 (the latter one is cheaper to make), but many manufacturers were already producing new, cheaper 9800GTX+ versions that the GTS 250 is a direct copy of. It has not been well received with the press, but the fact is that the card offers great value for money, a ‘feature’ that ATI has been dominating in for quite some time now. Today we will see how a different variation on the theme by Gainward will perform. Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Gigabyte_GTS_250_GV_N250OC_1GI_review After NVIDIA rereleased its 9800GTX+ under the name GTS 250, the card was received with a lot of criticism towards that practice. Users felt they were being cheated because the GPU actually belongs to the old G92 generation, rather than the GT200 used in other products that use the new NVIDIA naming system. Nevertheless, manufacturers were quick to adopt GTS 250 and make a lot of custom versions, trying to compete with price, or additional features like coolers or extra frame buffer memory. Gigabyte’s card brings us a new custom cooler, faster memory, but comes with stock frequencies. Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Sapphire_Radeon_HD_4850_Vapor_X_review Sapphire has been experimenting with different coolers for quite some time now. During the last year’s CeBIT, we spent some time playing with their Toxic cards that use the same cooling method as the card we have before us today. However, the new model is based on the next generation GPU, the RV770. Usually we start the review with the overview of the GPU, but since the RV770 is a chip present on the market for quite some time, we will first concentrate on the cooling solution of the card. Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/ASUS_EN_GTX295_review When ATI released its Radeon HD 4870X2, it temporarily took the flagship position from NVIDIA’s GTX 280. Dual chip cards have been present on the market for quite some time now, like ATI’s Rage Fury MAXX in 1999 or Gigabyte’s dual 6600GT card. However, it was NVIDIA who first launched 7900GX2 and 7950GX2 cards with a feature that they have kept since then, the dual PCB. And while 7950GX2 was hampered with not so great driver support and inadequate cooling, the 9800GX2 rectified the cooling problem with an innovative positioning of the second PCB. The chips now faced each other, so only one double sided cooler was necessary. The GTX 295 is only an evolution of that design, with the only practical difference being the next generation of GPUs. Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/coolers/CoolIT_Domino_ALC_review Not so long ago, water cooling was reserved for the selected few who had the nerves and guts to cut the pipes, mount radiators, and pour water into the reservoirs inside their PCs. For a normal user, that was just too much, and in reality, there was no need to go to that much trouble. Over time, even with the decreased production processes and voltages, the heat chips are producing rises all the time, and the air coolers are becoming bigger and bigger. This is where water cooling comes into play. Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/special/OCZ_NIA_Neural_Impulse_Actuator_review Our story with NIA began roughly two years ago, on the OCZ CeBIT 2007 booth. Back then it was a large metal box with an improvised headband with three metal sensors that attached to your forehead. In short, it is a very simplified electroencephalogram that registers the signals your brain is sending to your muscles. A device capable of registering such signals enables you to use them to control, in this case, a computer. Two years ago we played Unreal Tournament on the OCZ booth and with a prototype product we were able to compete with AI bots of significant level with just 5 or 10 minutes of explanation and practice. Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Gainward_GTX_285_review For quite some time NVIDIA has been lagging behind ATI in terms of the production process used for their cards. While ATI shipped all of their series 3 and 4 cards in 55 nm, NVIDIA started using that process quite a bit later, and then only in certain lower positioned products. The GTX 285 is the first high end product to be shipped with a 55 nm GPU, along with the dual chip GTX 295. Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/hdd/OCZ_Z_drive_review We've been using SSD's for quite awhile now, and have seen them gone from being super-expensive and not really worth it to a point where they became something of a "usual" thing that greatly enhances overall computer using experience. Yes, the fastest ones are still way out of reach for an average user, but still, if nothing else, when you mention the abbreviation "SSD" in general public, people do tend to raise an eyebrow and become very interested in what you have to say. Considering the amount of readers that were interested in our Vertex article, we decided to do one more round but using a product that's yet to be released. So, consider this as a weekend-gift for all of the SSD-loving people because, trust me, this will make your eyes bleed... Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:26:03 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/memory/OCZ_Vertex_120GB_SSD_review SSD's have been around the block for quite awhile now, coming from the age of complete unaforrdable-ness to the age where it's actually normal to buy a laptop with one - at least so you can install your system on them. Read and write speeds came up with developments of NAND flash technology and recently, those speeds have been far more superior then whatever the good old hard drives can offer. Even with top-notch hard drives used as a reference point, the picture is clear - SSD's are the way to go for the future. Vertex is just another proof of that concept - it's freakishly fast and there are no drives on the market that can touch its speed. Let's see how fast it actually is... Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:21:47 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/EVGA_GeForce_GTS_250_SSC_1GB_review For quite some time, NVIDIA’s graphics cards are under a great deal of attack from ATI’s 4800 series models. Granted, they have the current market flagship in GTX 295, as they did before with GTX 280, which was only briefly exceed by 4870X2. But NVIDIA’s problems come from volume. Flagships are nice, but they don’t sell much. The midrange is what’s most important, and where the real battle is fought. ATI’s 4850 and 4870 have been dominating that part of the market with better price performance ratios, although the difference wasn’t that big for them to make a segment clean sweep. Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:43:13 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/notebook/OCZ_Whitebook_and_Do_It_Yourself_Notebook_review After a long time, we're taking you through a test of some really high quality notebooks. I mean, we had our moments, testing Hypersonic notebooks at CeBIT which is now somewhat a tradition but - this is something completely different. Two models, with a great design and features, awesome ideas (Do-It-Yourself) and - a lot of horsepower packed under the hood. Also, in terms of DIY notebook - we're gonna take you through assembling of this baby step-by-step, from memory and CPU to battery and everything else. So, stay tuned, this is about to get interesting, especially having in mind that it's - and I mean literally - the dawn of CES... Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:07:18 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/ZOTAC_Nitro_Hardware_OC_Controller We all know of the programs such as RivaTuner, nTune, ATITool and a lot more similar utilities that enable you to overclock your graphics card. Unlike CPU overclocking, where you need to watch out for memory timings, voltages and numerous other options, overclocking a graphics card is not that complicated. Usually you take incremental steps to increase the memory and GPU clocks and sooner or later you will run into the limit for your card, where it will start showing artifacts or restart the display driver. Today we will be looking at a hardware product from ZOTAC, that will enable you to do just that, but while your game is running full screen. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Sapphire_ATI_Radeon_HD4550_review We all know that the primary role of a graphics card these days is to provide 3D acceleration. The two main rivals, ATI and NVIDIA have been at each other’s throats since forever, trying to squeeze that one more FPS out of the card. There are, however, many other aspects of a graphics card than just 3D, which is perfectly demonstrated by the card we have before us today, ATI’s Radeon 4550. Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/coolers/OCZ_Gladiator_MAX_review Quite some time ago, we got an interesting product from OCZ, called the Vindicator. It was a 120mm 6 heatpipe cooler that we fell in love with after just a couple of hours with it. It was easy to install, had great performance due to the huge surface area of the fins and it looked quite nice. Its successor, the Vendetta 2 was even better, with its heat-pipe direct touch design and the lumpy fins for better heat dissipation. The cooler we are reviewing today is an upgraded version of the Vendetta 2 model, called the Gladiator MAX. Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:27:44 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/cpu/Tick_tock,_tick_tock_Nehalem Having been blessed by nice support from our partners, namely - Intel, OCZ and Gigabyte, we do have a lot to cover in this article. Nehalem CPU architecture was launched just a few days ago, but we're already full of impressions that we'd like to share with you and tell you how we feel about this new CPU generation from Intel. So, let's dig in and get this show on the road... Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Palit_Radeon_HD4850_Sonic_review Radeon 4850 made a big impact in the days after its release, much more so than its bigger brother, which fell into the high end category. The 4850 became a true midrange card that filled a spot left by NVIDIA perfectly. It has a few flaws, the first being a loud and inefficient single slot cooler. Since its arrival, there have been a lot of manufacturers that equipped the cards with custom cooling. Today we are reviewing an overclocked model from Palit, the 4850 Sonic, which not only has a custom cooler but also a custom PCB. Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/coolers/Coolermaster_Geminii_S_CPU_cooler_review Even with the shrinking of the CPU production process, lower voltges, and much better performance per watt ratios, today’s CPUs still produce a lot of heat. A few years ago there was no need for 120mm fans or heatpipes, but with the increasing popularity of multi core CPU’s, the requirements for heat dissipation are providing us with a lot of new cooler models, one of which is the Coolermaster Geminii S. Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Zotac_9800GT_AMP_ At the same time NVIDIA launched 9500GT, which represents just a refurbished 8600GT, they revealed the 9800GT, which is, in essence, a 8800GT card. After ZOTAC’s 9800GTX+ AMP! we are reviewing a second member of their overclocked lineup, the 9800GT. It might just be a refurbished 8800GT, a card that is one year old, but it still offers us quite nice performance, especially in its overclocked version.  Unlike the GTX+, this time ZOTAC made some modifications to the PCB and the cooler, all in an effort to increase performance and lower the price. Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Zotac_9800GTX_AMP_ When ATI released their 4800 series, or 4850 card to be more precise, NVIDIA was forced to react. The 4850 outperformed their every offering except the new, expensive GTX 200 series cards, so their first move was to slash the price of the 9800GTX. The card we have here today was the next step. It is built around a die shrunk G92 GPU, and named 9800GTX+. Essentially, it is an overclocked 9800GTX. Zotac’s AMP! Version is an overclocked version of an overclocked card. Let’s see how it did in our benchmarks. Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:22:41 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Gigabyte_HD4850OC_1GB_review Ever since its emergence on the market the RV770, or the 4800 series cards became a big hit. ATI managed to offer just a tad slower card for a fraction of the price of NVIDIA’s competitors, which made NVIDIA radically slash prices not long after its own launch of the GT 200 series. The biggest hit was the cheaper model, 4850, which offered such performance that people were willing to forget the extreme temperature and noise it operated with. Now, a few weeks after the launch, we are seeing the emergence of the first custom-built parts based on the RV770. Let’s get introduced to the card Gigabyte colorfully calls GV-R485OC-1GH. Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Sapphire_Radeon_HD4670_review When ATI released its first HD4000 series cards, it made a big mess in the NVIDIA camp, which almost immediately slashed the prices of its new GTX200 series cards. ATI’s cards weren’t faster, but offered much more in terms of price/performance, because ATI can make the cards cheaper using a 55 nm TSMC production process than NVIDIA on 65 nm. Today we are going to take a look at ATI’s midrange threat, the 4670, that is designed to be positioned between 9500GT, 9600GSO and 9600GT. Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:30:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Zotac_9600GT_DP_ASUS_9600GT_Matrix_review Today we are taking a look at two cards from NVIDIA's very successful x600 line, started way back with the 6600GT and followed by 7600GT. Their successor, the 8600GT(S), however, did not get a very good market reception, simply because the advantage it brought over the previous generation was pretty small. Instead of doubling the performance, the 8600GT and GTS were only about 15% and 35% faster than 7600GT, respectively. So, NVIDIA needed a new contender and it came in the form of 9600 GT, the card which is roughly what 8600 was supposed to be. The two models we have before us today are both equipped with HDMI ports and are, as such, suitable for Home Theater PC use. Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:30:54 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Zotac_9500GT_AMP_review We all remember the not so well received 8600 series, which didn't follow in the footsteps of NVIDIA's two previous x600 generations. It was just too weak to provide a decent amount of value for money NVIDIA customers . In the meantime, we got the 9600GT, with twice as many shader processors that filled that spot. The 9500GT we will review today is basically a refurbished 8600GT, built on a 65 nm TSMC production process instead of the original 80 nm. Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Radeon_HD4870_review Today we are taking a look at the fastest ATI single chip card currently available, the Radeon HD 4870. Just like with the 3800 series, the 4870 is based on the same GPU as the 4850, but almost everything else is different. Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/MSI_P45D3_Platinum_review Days and days, hours and hours of testing is after me so, here we go, MSI P45D3 Platinum review. Having had the distinct pleasure of participating in MSI/OCZ EU Overclocking Challenge a week ago where this product was actually put through its EXTREME paces, I figured that the time has come to write a decent review of this P45 motherboard. Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/hdd/SSD_performance_review_OCZ_and_Samsung_drives_on_test For some time the biggest problem of memory business was very slow increase in performance. Memory capacity doubled every 18 to 24 months following the Moore’s law, but performance grew by mere 4-6% yearly. This effect is present in both system memory and storage, but it seems that solid state drives might radically increase the performance of storage devices. For months now we were very interested how SSD drives would turn up to be - wether they're really as fast as rumours said and how does that relate to real-life performance. So, here we go! Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:42:56 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Green_Team_Roundup_GeForce_GTX_200_9800_review A couple of weeks ago, NVIDIA launched by far the most complex GPU on the market, the GT200. With its 1.4 billion transistors, it is almost 50% larger than the current AMD/ATi flagship used in HD4850 and HD4870 cards. Today we are going to compare the two cards based on GT200, GTX 280 and GTX 260, but in their SLI configurations. We’ve also thrown in some good old 9800GTX’s, as well as 3-Way SLI GTX 260 configuration, just for flavor.. Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Gigabyte_Radeon_HD4850_review It all started with the pretty unsuccessful X2900XT, which tried to compete with NVIDIA’s flagship but failed to get close. It was leaking current like crazy, overheating, some things didn't work at all and left a bad impression overall. Since then, AMD has been offering us great value for money products, and the 4850 follows the same philosophy. Its bang for the buck should make users think twice before considering any other cards because - quite simply - it's dirtcheap for its performance. But let's check out what HD4850 has to offer... Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:17:30 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX_280_review Lately, NVIDIA has been somewhat confusing its customers with their product labeling policy. First there was the 8800GT which was faster than the GTS, while before usually more letters were an indicator of greater performance. Then we had another GTS, this time faster than the GT, but also faster than the old GTS. After that, the new 9800GTX was nothing more than an overclocked 8800GTS, yet NVIDIA decided to make it a new series card. Now, in expectation of series 10, NVIDIA changed its policy and decided to name the two new cards GTX 280 and GTX 260. Let's check out what does the first card in this new 2xx series has to offer - the GTX280. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:05:50 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/coolers/OCZ_Vendetta2_review Almost a year ago OCZ released its revolutionary OCZ Vendetta, which compensated for its smaller size with an innovative heatpipe design called HDT (Heatpipe Direct Contact). Today we are reviewing the second revision of the cooler, that doesn’t replace the original Vendetta, but is a larger version aimed at an even higher segment. Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:36:29 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Peak_Radeon_3870_review Today we are reviewing a graphics card from PEAK, which is certainly not well know as some other companies out there, but their products have an excellent price/performance ratio. Radeon 3870 is not a new product on the market, but custom versions are always interesting because of the extra features they offer. Sat, 10 May 2008 15:06:33 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/cases/Coolermaster_Cosmos_S_review It's just amazing what can a company do when it puts its mind into something. Coolermaster is just the perfect example of this logic, always pushing their own limits and raising the bar even further. Theme of this review is gonna be - how do you make something that's already pretty close to perfection even more perfect? Back in September when we reviewed the first Cosmos (check out that review here) we were already extremely happy with that case. Coolermaster obviously thought that they could do a bit better and - let's see how they did. Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:48:42 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/memory/16_32GB_Flash_Drive_small_roundup It's been quite awhile since we played around with some flash drives so - we decided it's time to change that. We're gonna run a series of articles about latest 16+GB USB flash drives as they come to our Lab and keep you updated on our opinions and impressions about these products - nowadays used by almost everyone. Flash memory prices are so low right now that just about everyone has at least one USB stick and with these prices , 16+GB sticks became available to the general population, as well. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:29:45 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Coolermaster_Hydra_8800_and_Glacier_600_GPU_water_cooling_review With the increasing GPU complexity comes increased power consumption. For both ATI and NVIDIA, the situation culminated with the 8800Ultra and 2900XT graphics cards. After them came models whose GPUs where produced in a smaller production process. So it is no wonder that the 2900XT and the ‘old’ 8800 generation is the logical choice to use with watercooling. Today we are reviewing two watercooling units for those cards from Coolermaster, the Hydra 8800 and the Glacier 600. Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:31:17 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Quad_Battle_Quad_SLI_vs_Quad_CrossfireX Today we are going to give you an overview of the performance of two of today’s available 4 GPU configurations. Although the market penetration of such configurations will be extremely low due to the price, it is always interesting to see how far technology has progressed. Both NVIDIA and ATI offer solutions that have their differences, but are essentially the same thing. Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:19:50 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/9600GT_roundup_pt.2 Today we are going to compare a few of the new NVIDIA mainstream cards, the 9600GTs. They were introduced to the market to fill the void that was left between the 8800GT 256 and 8600GTS. This void was quite big since NVIDIA decided to make 8600 a very weak card. We already did our coverage of the 9600GT launch, so now we are going to focus on the performance of the cards with a brief recount of their technology. Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:50:41 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/notebook/Small_notebook_shootout_part_III If you've been following the market trends in the past year, maybe you've noticed that MSI became a very serious player on that market as well. Very well-known MBO/VGA manufacturer decided to move in that direction and so far - it seems that they pulled it off. As a representative of their YA line of notebooks,I had a chance to test the PR200, a 12.1" notebook with unique green color MSI calls Wasabi Green. Strange name, but what's even more important - how does this laptop compare to already tested ASUS's models? Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:02:01 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/notebook/Small_notebook_shootout_part_II The second stop on our small laptop tour takes us to ASUS U6s, Intel-based machine with stylish look that's a bit out of the "ordinary" vibe. The basics have actually remained the same - 2GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M, 12.1" screen with 1280x800 resolution and 5400rpm drive (160GB this time). So, going from "white-blue" to "red-meets-white-green" brings us to the "star" of the show, Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz, 4MB cache). Everything else is pretty much the same when compared to F9Dc, except for the fact that U6s has four USB ports where F9Dc has three. The six-cell battery is still here, and the overall weight of this notebook is within the "limits" of the class - 1.55kg. Let's see what this baby has to offer... Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:22:34 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/notebook/Small_notebook_shootout_part_I So, it's been quite awhile since we reviewed any ASUS notebooks so - we kind of decided that it's time to change that. Initially, we actually got two of them - F9DC and U6s but - we're gonna do a two-part review, add MSI's PR200 to the mix and then do a complete conclusion since all of them are from the same, 12" class - just to spice things up a little bit. I have to admit that 12" or smaller are my personal favourites so - I'm also gonna add the fourth one to the mix, just to have a base to see how far did the overall technology get in the past couple of years. Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:05:21 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Zotac_9800GTX_and_SLI_review Today we are taking a first look at the new NVIDIA series 9 graphics card, the 9800GTX. So you might ask yourself what does the new GTX bring us, and how much is it going to cost us? We will try to answer that in the following article.The ‘new’ 9 series is, from what we saw in its previous incarnations, just a new marketing name for the G92 chips that were also used in 8800GT and GTS 512. So, there is nothing revolutionary here, the chip is virtually the same, with increased clocks. It wouldn’t be too far from the truth to say that 9800GTX is just an overclocked 8800GTS 512. Perhaps the word ‘just’ is not appropriate, since if you overclock a great card, you will get an even better one, but we are puzzled why didn’t NVIDIA then use the 9 series prefix on all G92 chips, like it did with G80 – series 8, or G71 – series 7. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:05:51 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/Gainward_Bliss_9800GX2_PCX_review After the first series 9 card, the 9600GT, it became clear that NVIDIA doesn't plan to make the series 9 the next generation one. It is still all about the G92 chips that are used in the 8 series cards. The GX2 is not an unknown suffix in the graphics market, and although NVIDIA’s first try in the form of 7950GX2 didn’t end as a bestseller, we will certainly keep an open mind, especially since SLI became a much more developed product. Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:59:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/CeBIT_Overnight_Testing_Sapphire_HD_3870_Atomic ATI's RV670, that is powering the 3800 series cards, represented the light at the end of the tunnel  it got itself into after the HD 2900 launch. The R600 was probably the longest delayed GPU in recent history, and it was a pretty underperforming product. The RV670 that came after is a much better GPU that can do almost everything R600 can, but at a lower price, and perhaps more importantly, with lower heat dissipation thanks to the 55 nm production process. Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:01:56 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/notebook/CeBIT_Overnight_Testing_Hypersonic_Aviator_SR7_and_EQ7_review Hypersonic, recently acquired by OCZ Technology Group, came to CeBIT showcasing a couple of their Aviator series notebooks.  Today we will be looking at two models labeled SR7 and EQ7. The whole Aviator series lineup is completely customizable, so  what we are reviewing today is only one of the possible configurations, with selectable CPU, GPU, HDDs and various other stuff. Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:08:14 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/ASUS_EAH3870X2_review Almost 10 months ago we saw ATI release HD2900XT, its first DX10 card, and after the first numbers from benchmarks we saw something that never happened before. ATI released a card that even didn't try to win the flagship position. They have surrendered to NVIDIA dominance employed by the G80 GPU in the 8800 series cards. Instead they aimed their product to a lower price segment, although realistically it should have cost more than $399, especially because it required a complicated cooling solution and power management. Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:45:21 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/CeBIT_Overnight_Testing_Galaxy_8800GT_1024_and_512_MB_Extreme_Tuner With everybody talking about the new 9 series cards here at CeBIT, we were actually surprised that Galaxy offered us a couple of 8800GT cards for reviewing. However, NVIDIA is keeping everything regarding the new products strictly tied up, so today we are bringing you this review, the main stars of which are two non reference 8800GT cards. Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:22:44 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/3210 Almost a year ago, NVIDIA launched its new lineup based on the G84 and G86 GPUs, which was labeled as either 8500 or 8600 series. Unlike the extremely successful 6600GT, or its successor the 7600GT, the 8600GT (and GTS) failed to live up to expectations. The reason for that was that the basis of the card was the GPU which was essentially only one quarter of the G80 flagship, with its 32 stream processors compared to the 128 of the G80. Both the 6600 and the 7600 had half of the processors, which made them a much more attractive offer. Today we are looking at the card that is looking to correct this problem, the 9600GT. Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:13:34 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/3208 Today NVIDIA is introducing the latest addition to its VGA family - the 9600GT. This card should be NVIDIA's answer to one of the most significant market needs - price/performance ratio in mainstream market segment. At the same time, NVIDIA claims that in this sub-$200 segment, 9600GT should offer significant improvements in terms of compression technology and performance-per-watt hype. Both of these terms should be used in close conjuction with "NVIDIA" and the word "best", according to green team. So, before we go to pure benchmark stuff, let's see what GF 9600GT is all about. Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:38:32 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/3157 Today we are taking a look at one of the most powerful G92 cards on the market, Gainward's 8800GTS 1024MB Golden Sample Goes Like Hell. Every gamer's heart will beat faster when he hears the GLH suffix, and we are going to check if this card deserves it. Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:53:37 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/memory/3124 The first OCZ memory stick I came across was the Rally 512 MB. Its compact design was a welcome change when compared to some other, bulky pieces. The Rally could be plugged into any USB port, because its dimensions were marginally larger than the USB connector itself. Next came the Rally2, a slightly larger version, with improved performance and capacity. Today we are taking a look at the Rally2 Turbo, an improved version which is supposed to bring even higher speeds, especially when you are writing data to your stick. Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:34:36 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2798 The new batch of 8800 series cards based on the G92 GPU has been around for a couple of months now, and it seems they finally overcame initial problems with availability. As it is usual after a couple of weeks on the market, we are starting to see some custom design models that offer some improvements over the original design. Today we will be looking at two such cards, one from Gigabyte and the other from Gainward. Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:22:25 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2587 Christmas is behind us so - no more leisure time, it's back to "green days" - we had some new experiences with 8800GTS and decided to share them with our readers. Also, NVIDIA published a new set of drivers so we decided to give them a run. Make sure that you check out out first batch of results/reviews in DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 here and here. Also, we decided to focus on per-game performance, per-resolution and per-setting, rather then fixing things on resolution only. This way, you'll be able to see the true scaling of this product with changed settings. Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:49:27 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2583 ATI's HD 3800 series appeared on the market a little over a month ago, and provided the buyers with an excellent value for money, especially since they are positioned between NVIDIA?s 8600 and 8800 series, and that?s a pretty big price gap that NVIDIA didn?t manage to fill. So if you can?t really afford an 8800GT, the two 3800 cards are right there for you. Today, we will be looking at the cheaper one, the HD3850 from Gigabyte. Sun, 23 Dec 2007 21:37:17 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/2513 Finally, it's Tri-SLI-meets-780i day and NVIDIA is ready to show this platform to the world. Tri-SLI is also doable with 680i chipset (if you have three 8800GTX or Ultra cards), but today we're gonna focus a bit more on 780i and see what's so good or bad about it. It's been more then a year since we had a high-end chipset launch (680i was launched on November 9th, 2006.) so this has been very much "expected". You can read all about the 680i and 680i LT technology and benchmarks here, here , here, here and here. Nice enough for the intro reading... Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2433 Second part of 8800GTS/SLI review takes us "back" to good old Windows XP and DirectX 9 testing suite - as much as the term "old" applies here. We've seen some pretty interesting scores/overclocking scores in Vista, so - a separate XP-related article was bound to have its place "under the Sun". For this round of testing, we chose to keep only the latest additions to our benchmark suite - F.E.A.R, Stalker and Supreme Commander - games that are more then capable of delivering some nice work for your graphic card. So, let's see how these new cards perform under XP. Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:00:10 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2432 A few weeks ago, NVIDIA launched the GeForce 8800GT, the first member of the new generation of 8800 series cards. For all intents and purposes, it is a great card, offering great performance at great price, with one not so great feature, low supply. 8800GT is nowhere to be found, and this is a big problem, since it is not a 7950GX2 or some similar extravagant card that only enthusiasts consider buying. The few units that make it to the market are sold in the first couple of hours, so buyers trying to get an 8800GT are rightfully frustrated. Today, we are reviewing the second member of the new 8800 series family, the GTS. Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:00:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/notebook/2354 Until recently, gaming notebooks came in a form of big and noisy models that usually contained desktop processors and graphics cards. Today, the situation is quite different, and MSI's GX700 is one of the new generation of thin gaming models. The GX700 we are reviewing today is labeled as Extreme Edition. The first thing you notice are the orange tribal and fire decorations all over the notebook. Its dimensions are the same as a normal GX700 model. Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:35:05 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/memory/2306 DDR3 has already entered the market, but that doesn?t mean that DDR2 has come to end of life. Actually, we might say that DDR2 is living through its best days. It has superb performance over available DDR3 modules, it is cheap and it works on all platforms available. Today we are testing OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 Reaper HPC Edition, a high speed kit with innovative cooling solution. Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:24:37 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2290 When NVIDIA introduced 8800GT, and the performance of the card became apparent, everybody thought NVIDIA shot itself in the foot. The whole GTS family, which was a big seller, became a surplus on the market, because the 8800GT with its high clocks was able to approach even the GTX, a card that costs almost twice as much. A couple of days ago AMD too launched its competitors in the budget high end segment, the HD 3850 and HD 3870 graphics cards. Sun, 25 Nov 2007 23:13:04 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2261 When NVIDIA introduced 8800GT, and the performance of the card became apparent, everybody thought NVIDIA shot itself in the foot. The whole GTS family, which was a big seller, became a surplus on the market, because the 8800GT with its high clocks was able to approach even the GTX, a card that costs almost twice as much. A couple of days ago AMD too launched its competitors in the budget high end segment, the HD 3850 and HD 3870 graphics cards. Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:00:17 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2197 Silent graphics cards have always had a special, but limited market space. If we disregard the low-end segment, which has passive coolers because they are cheap and they don't need active cooling, we are still left with a bunch of models that are present today, going all the way up to the very top of the mainstream segment, performance wise. Gigabyte HD 2600XT Silentpipe II is such a card. Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:14:12 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2121 NVIDIA's 8800 series has been around for almost a year now, and has established itself as a leader in market sales in the high-end segment. A lot of this success is due to the introduction of an affordable 8800GTS 320. The 8800GT is a successor to this model, which has now been withdrawn from the market. So, what is the news 8800GT brings us? Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:07:39 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/2009 When NVIDIA introduced its 8800Ultra model, it didn't receive very good marks in the reviews. Granted, it was and still is the fastest card around, but it came at an unreasonably high price. You could almost get two 8800GTS 640 cards for the price of one Ultra, and now with the price reductions you can get two GTSs and save some money. Still, NVIDIA wanted to ensure that ATI?s HD2900XT had as hard time coming to the market as possible, and that could be no mistake about who has the fastest model. EVGA wouldn?t be EVGA if they didn?t introduce a Superclocked version of this card as well to set some new standards for gaming. Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:26:58 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/network/1971 For the past two months, I had the pleasure of playing around with one of Thecus's latest models - N5200 PRO. With the latest addon that I was really missing in the past - iSCSI Thecus's stock market value just went up in my eyes by a large margin. Bare with me on this and check out the review... Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:19:43 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/1947 Gainward has always provided us with a few 'firsts' on the market each year. In relation to the 8600 series, they were the first to offer custom PCB designs, which were available immediately at launch. This time around they have introduced a passively cooled 8600GT with one extra characteristic, an HDMI port. Unlike ?normal? cards, this one features four connectors on the back panel. There is one DVI - I, one D-SUB and one HDMI connector. The fourth one is and SPDIF connector, which is there to route the audio signal to the HDMI connector. You will need to connect the SPDIF connector from your motherboard to the graphics card, in order to have audio throughput over the HDMI port. Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:27:50 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/1838 We're continuing our search for the best mainstream card with a little help from our friends from XpertVision, ASUS and Sapphire. This time, it's time to compare XpertVision's 8600GTS Super and 8600GT Super, Sapphire's good ol' 2600XT and ASUS's 8600GT "Interesting Edition", how we call it around here. Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:41:00 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/1731 We had to be pretty patient to get our hands on some of these cheap entry-level cards but in the end we managed to get them all. And it's a time of "firsts" - first Zotac card ever to come to IT-review.net Lab and the same thing with Xpertvision's 8500GT Super 512MB. Well, you gotta start somewhere. This serious money-making segment of the market (along with mainstream) is pretty interesting, having in mind the fact that AMD came very late with their competitors to the market... Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:18:45 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/1724 With most of the 8800 cards out there things look pretty the same - same specification, same frequencies, same cooler, the only difference being different sticker on cards. In a way, that makes our job a bit less interesting but there are still a few manufacturers that want to do something "on their own" - like pre-overclocked cards. We already had a chance to play around with ASUS Aquatank and Point of View 8800GTX XO, two pre-overclocked 8800GTX cards. Now it's time to see how NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC by MSI does against regular, stock 8800GTS 640. Mon, 03 Sep 2007 10:25:44 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/psu/1704 So, when is it exactly that you decide that your road to a perfect something for your computer is done? When you get the chills when you're opening a box? When you are just standing and scratching your head not knowing what to do with something? Or is it when it stands right in front of you all of the time (or, in this case, falls on your leg by accident - I think I can't count that number of stars I saw at that very moment) and you were just too blind to notice it's been out there all the time? :-) These are just some of the basic questions I had to go through all the time when I had the distinct pleasure of playing around with the Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR. Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:15:02 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/gpu/1662 AMD introduced four new cards to its DirectX 10 lineup a little less than two months ago, aiming to compete with NVIDIA's 8600 and 8500 series cards. Today we are reviewing a bunch of 2400 and 2600 series cards, with some of them being custom models from ATI's partners. ATI's 2400 and 2600 series cards came to the market later than 8600 and 8500, but they did fail to live up to the expectations, and all models performed worse than direct NVIDIA competitors. This prompted ATI to reduce the prices immediately, making their cards more desirable. Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:31:45 GMT http://www.it-review.net/article/hardware/motherboard/1651 Ever since AMD came out with the 690g chipset at the beginning of the year we've been slowly playing with it in the background from time to time, as evidenced here and here. As evidenced by our tests, Intel's 965G stood up very well in the test of time apart from the VGA tests - as expected. Gigabyte decided to treat us with a newer 690G motherboard called GA-MA69G-S3H, so we decided to update our previous charts with new results to see how and if the 690G evolved in any way. So, let's give it a decent shot... Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:14:47 GMT