Intel’s X25-M SSD tested

CLICKING OUR WAY around the wibblesome web today, we’ve finally uncovered a review of Intel’s vaunted SSD drives. Since Intel did quite a bit of boasting about its SSD creds, PC Per and Hot Hardware have done us the favour of clearing up the matter by testing the X25-M 80GB Solid State Drive. After reading the review we guess there’s no shutting Intel’s gob about how good its SSD really is. Every competitor was blown away, but we guess you have to see it for yourself. This beastie will run you $595, but by the time Nehalem arrives it should be a little cheaper.

Tweaktown has reopened the debate on technologies that improve desktop power efficiency and even added a bit to it. Instead of picking the ol’ Asus vs. Gigabyte scab (which is now into its second generation), they’ve thrown in MSI with the Dr.MOS technology. Apparently MSI is fighting the good fight in this one and has a lot of work done for a first gen tech. Tune your browsers to this link here.

Niko at RBMods has a Thermaltake Toughpower 1200w PSU. If the power rating on the PSU doesn’t scare you, then the $330 price tag might. On the other hand, it might just be what the doctor ordered for that Tri-SLI rig you’re building (or the one you fried). Solid power, modular and big... Maybe too big, wethinks. Very efficient too, says Niko.

If you think add-in board makers are going the wrong way by plugging 2GB GDDR5 on graphics cards, then this article might soothe your homicidal tendencies: PowerColor has spawned an HD 4870 PCS+ 1GB card. This means a “slightly overclocked tricked-out graphics card”, all thanks to a simple ZEROTherm cooler bolted to the top of the GPU. Ratings are 800MHz core/925MHz memory (ie: 3700MHz effective). Ironically it runs cooler than the reference design HD 4870. Unfortunately it comes at a (high) price. Still, would’ve it been too much to ask to extend the cooling fins to the vent grill on the card’s bracket? That way your case would definitely remain cooler… Get your graphics fix here.

Maybe card readers tickle your fancy, maybe not, but TechPowerUp has on review the Vizo Mirrorbox Card Reader. It’s dubbed an “all-in-one” card reader, which is quite a claim, so TPU tried them all out, including SDHC which isn’t even advertised... It worked well, on par with the remainder of humanity and card readers, but it’s cheap as chips… $10-$15 thinks TPU. Read about it here.

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, that years-in-the-making game that many of us brits like to think of as the ultimate RPG/Wargame franchise is finally amongst us (at least the Beta). So you might give PC Games Hardware a visit, as they’ve published an article on what performance to expect from your gaming rig, and what you’ll need to play a decent game of WAR. That Chaos armour really deserves the right level of detail… This is Part 1.

When will someone pick up a Strontium Dog license, btw…? µ