Big Daddy o’HP notebooks reviewed

HP’S DRAGON NOTEBOOK has been making a lot of noise thanks to its 31daysofthedragon.com competition/giveaway. But there is reason for one to crave ownership of such a laptop – it’s simply the biggest, most powerful, insanely expensive “consumer” laptop ever to crawl out of HP’s design labs. Officially it’s called the Pavilion HDX 9399sx and it’s a 20.1-inch monster of a DTR. PlanetX64 has a review for you to peruse, and we can say they were pretty much ravaged by the monster.

On the extreme opposite of notebooks, VIA has just announced their VIA OpenBook Mini-Note Platform – which PC Perspective is dissecting right here. The biggest surprise Ryan had was the release of this platform with a C7-M processor, which is usually lacking in muscle compared to most other mobile processors. So where’s Isaiah? You ask. Rightly so, but Ryan expects that to come down the line in an OpenBook refresh.

Tweaktown is performind some RAID 0 tests with a couple of MemoRight GT Series 32GB SSDs. Chris got a couple from DVNation.com (errr... is it us or is DVNation the official SSD supplier to all the review sites... hint hint). Well, once again you have that Raptor vs. SSD face-off - where SSD once again obliterates the Raptor. However, if you look at the numbers, you’ll be hard-pressed to justify dropping twice the buck for about 10 per cent the extra bang. Chris’ got the info for you.

OCC has a review of Aeneon’s XTune DDR3-1600 (2x1GB), a small wonder that pushes 1600 speeds at just 1.5v. The timings are a bit loose once you start overclocking the memory and you can’t get much more mileage out of them, but if you are a “default” kind of geek, then these memories seem to be aimed right down your alley. Catch it here.

LG is pushing their Scarlet LCD-TV persona right now, and since LCD-TVs are essentially big panels with true HD resolutions (something you get from 24-inch upwards). Trusted Reviews got one at their office. LG’s 42LG6000 Scarlet sports the TruMotion processing engine that promises to deliver a bit more realism to your screen, but it does struggle sometimes to keep up – sez John. Design, however, seems to be the key to this (and other similar) product. The Scarlet does look awfully like the Samsung LCD design of a couple years back, but maybe that’s just us... Read on.

If you’re into running home networks or you’re the unlucky bastard that gets to sort out the hardware at the SMB, you’ll enjoy reading this review of the Edimax EnduraLINK BR-724 – a dual WAN in/out load-balancing router. That’s just a router that you can hook up two internet connections and splits the traffic equally. It’s got a decent admin interface and plenty of features, but performance isn’t really the greatest. It might be a better solution for small offices than home offices. Strewth. Read the verdict here.

Oh, by the way – we thought you’d be interested in knowing: Jeff at Expreview is giving away 10 copies of 3DMark Vantage, so drop by the site if you’re interested in getting this coveted benchmarking tool – the legal way. Check out the site. µ