Infra red mouse X-rayed

WITH NEW technologies just around the corner, GDhardware chose to test the Sapphire X700 and the X800XL AGP which are basically the last ATI AGP card we will probably see. The X700 is a $99 part while the X800XL cost 2.5x more; so it is a lower mainstream compared to a higher mainstream. Both cards' status changed very dramatically and are already has been. You'd be better off with the X800GT/O or the 6800GT/7800GT anytime. Sapphire better get prices down.

Clubic reviewed the PalmOne Lifedrive, which effectively is a cross between the Palm Pilot and the Ipod. A huge screen, an equally large 4GB Hard disk drive and you can easily see wherer the next Ipod could be heading. But access time and lack of snappiness put it straight in our could do better category.

Thinkcomputers, yet another newcomer to our column, gets the chance to test the FIC Ice Cube IC-HU61, an Athlon 64 barebone SFF. It comes with Firewire, a GbE port and 5.1 sound module, no integrated graphics plus it looks really good. On the bad side though, temperature is extremely high and SATA drives are not supported.

The Limited Edition of the Razer Diamond Plasma is reviewed at PCmoddingmy. It is the first mouse that uses an Infrared sensor, not optical or laser with a precision of 1600dpi. And the LE suffix does not mean that it is inferior to other mice; you can change the mouse sensitivity on the fly and with seven customisable buttons, gamer's wont complain. Slap a cheap price tag on it and you get the best gaming mouse ever.

Phoronix brings a short preview of the Nvidia 1.0.8xxx driver series for Linux. The new drivers introduce multi threading report, SLI support as well as Antialising and Anisotropic filtering, basically, everything that makes Nvidia great on the Windows platform.

Haven't seen a Chaintech motherboard review for ages. Not that they are not doing fine but somehow reviewers managed to ignore them. NGOHQ has a look at the S1689 motherboard which uses the M1689 chipset and is an AGP socket 939 platform. It supports SATA and 7.1 audio channel but a poor overclocker. Overall not a bad board, especially since it supports dual core and comes at a rock bottom price. µ