"World Cup" of SLI cards begins

LOST CIRCUITS tests the Foxconn C51XEM2AA which is presented as the way Nvidia's motherboard was meant to be built. If you're an enthusiast, you're in for a real ride. The 590 SLI chipset is at the heart of the board and with Foxconn's tweaks, it manages to produces the best possible results on the AM2 platform. You do get your fair share of accessories together with an impressive list of features like 8-channel HDA, Dual GbE LAN support, four Firewire ports, ten storage connectors and an incredible seven PCI + PCI Express slots.

Pentarsys.com has a roundup of Multi-GPU solutions available on the market. What's interesting is that the roundup was performed by a number of well known hardware writers/websites, from Bjorn to Howard Ha and Tim Smalley of Bit-tech. ATI's and Nvidia's GPU's actually went through 60 benchmarks and applications. Boards come from a few number of manufacturers and what's more interesting is that even entry level SLI systems have not been neglected. Quite an astonishing way of doing benchmarks. Let's hope that this wasn't one of the graphic chip vendors' smart marketing ideas to shepherd - read control - the little hardware sites.

Still in the field of motherboard, Overclock Intelligence Agency tests the Biostar TForce 6100 motherboard which is a mATX model. Board runs on Geforce 6100+410 combination, the cheapest in the food chain. Takes DDR memory, has four expansion slots and eight USB ports. Sound is 5.1 quality and it also has a LAN connector. Dirt-cheap motherboard with a knack for overclocking - actually probably the best AMD budget mobo when it comes to overclocking.

Looking for UK's fastest personal computer, then you couldn't probably be far with the Hi-Grade Ultis Tachyon PC. Hi-grade is not known for Gaming PCs, but is aiming at capturing a small share of that lucrative market. The Tachyon comes with a Core2 Extreme X6800, a dual GPU, Nvidia Geforce 7950GX2 graphics card, other than that, you get a Raptor disk together with an Intel motherboard. A very very fast motherboard which is not even overclocked.

Tomshardware has a little nifty report on what to know about Video Streaming. It is actually the first article in the series and covers encoding, Bit Rates and Errors. This writeup is particularly useful in designing solutions where Wireless connectivity plays a significant role, just like in a HTPC configuration. Conclusions are interesting like the fact that it is hard to disturb files played using TCP-IP and that losing packets is something you would seek to minimize.

Modders-inc has some words on the Ultra Microfly case which is cheap and nasty. At $80, it might look expensive until you find out that it is one of those many neo SFF cases that are coming to the market. Obviously it accepts only mATX motherboard and has the following features: four expansion slots, five drive bays, two fans, a small LCD an aluminium chassis, a carry handle, a side window and even accepts standard size ATX power supplies. It is even available in three colours and will certainly grab the eyes of a few of you out there. Now, has anyone seen it in UK? µ