Asus Crossbow-proof screen targeted

1 May 2008 | 09:36 BST

By Paul Taylor

HOTHARDWARE HAS AN ENCOUNTER with a unique piece of hardware – an Asus LS201 20-inch LCD screen. What’s unique is that this LCD seems like it received bullet-proofing (or something) with a 9H Hardness protection rating (is this Mohs scale? That would be impressive!). This is done thanks to a glass sheet that covers the entire panel. The LCD panel itself is TN and in 4:3 ratio, but due to the glass pane, it weighs twice as much as a standard 20-inch LCD. Crossbow-proof, according to the Russian video. Read the review here.

Boot Daily is doing a Gigabyte vs. Asus shootout in the X48 department. A couple of years back you’d have called the winner without reading the article, but today it seems Gigabyte has something to be quite happy about (Gigabyte used to have Asus build mobos for them some time ago, maybe that is still the case?). The Asus P5E3 Premium and Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 bench it out, with Asus winning overall performance and Gigabyte price/performance. Read the review here.

While the world is looking onwards to Green Goblin’s next generation of graphics cards, AMD’s partners are making an effort to put out special ones that can trump Geforce, somehow. Visiontek sent off a new Radeon HD 3870 X2 Overclocked Edition to Tech Spot, where Steven was waiting eagerly to put it to the bench. He used Catalyst 8.4 64-bit in his endeavours, and the results were quite impressive. Just when you thought Nvidia had pinned down ATI, here comes a card that matches the GX2’s performance. Quite impressive.

Memory manufacturers are moving more and more into another area of expertise – due to the need to supply enough clean power to the system components (including their precious RAM). Just look at Mushkin, OCZ and Corsair. Well, Anandtech has a review on Corsair’s latest PSU, the HX1000W – the first to receive Nvidia’s Triple-SLI rubber stamp. Efficient, powerful and not at all noisy, seem to make the Corsair kit something of a catch, thinks Christopher. Read it here.

French website Hardware.fr has reviewed Intel’s Q9300 and E7200, the two “budget” models of the Quad and Duo families, respectively. The tests reveal somewhat of a disappointment when it comes to the E7200’s overclocking potential, but it still outperforms its predecessor the E4700, says Marc. The Q9300 has a different issue altogether. It’s replacing the Q6600 but the performance on the Q6600 is slightly higher and the price is cheaper. Maybe when SSE4 comes into its own... Read the original here, or Google Franglais.

Abit’s AX78 is on the bench at CPU3D. It’s AMD770-based, matched up with a SB600 southbridge. CPU3D used an Athlon FX-62 for the tests and were pretty satisfied with the outcome. Sure, you still won’t be able to compete with Intel’s mainstream, but it looks like a very decent performer for a very reasonable price, considering the board is packed to the rim with features. Catch it here. µ

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