Various hardware devices get inspected

OUR FIRST IN A LONG SERIES of none so far miscellaneous product launches and other bits are upon us. All of these things look cool, but none really warrant a story by themselves. So, enjoy this disjointed piece.

First up is Monarch with the NextGen P4 Hornet case here. This is a larger than a current SFF case that takes a standard MicroATX mobo. The news here is that it now comes in the latest and greatest Intel flavours, including a s775, i925 based P4 up to 3.6GHz.

Basically, this is about the highest end SFF machine you can get, and it uses standard parts. With the new 350/400w PS (In a SFF case!), it is about as customizable as you can can get. It is a bit bigger than a standard shoebox though, unless you play for the NBA. If you get the custom paint job, beware that people will rub the case when you show it to them, they did it to mine.

Moving right along, to something completely different, Visiontek is having a sale on Radeon 9800PRO 128MB cards.$50 off for the next few days if you buy it from the site. Not a bad deal on a good gaming card.

Getting back to analogue media (shudder), we have a 3 books for you, all from Paraglyph Press, here, a division of O'Reilly. They are 3D Game-Based Filmmaking: The Art of Machinima, Wil Wheaton's Just a Geek, and Online Investing Hacks. OK we lied, the last one is by O'Reilly proper, forgive us.

Whatever the case, no, not the Hornet above, the case meaning 'situation', all of these books should appeal to the INQ readership. If you are reading this, you have all the necessary skills to get through any of the 3 books listed, and at least one will hit your target demographic.

Running scared back to the digital realm brings us to Abit, with the 3rd eye. This is the name for the Guru Clock we told you about a while ago. It really is a neat product, and will be available as either a bundle with the latest mobos, or as a stand alone product. The list of compatible products is here.

Now, I am not one for marketing names, but this one works for me. It sure beats calling it 'that St. Louis Arch looking thingy with the LCD screen on the bottom that I can't photograph worth a damn. Yeah, 3rd Eye is better.

Last up is a way overdue product announcement from Tadpole. No, the product was timely, it just took me forever to write about it. For the 6 of you who are interested in a SPARC based laptop (I know it was 7, Ralph was killed in late May. Crushed by a falling Itanium heatsink, tragic.....), your salvation has arrived.

The new SPARCLE notebook line ranges from a 650MHz UltraSPARC Iii to a 1GHz UltraSPARC IIIi. All have a 15-inch display, Wi-Fi, and a range of storage and memory options. This will be the perfect thing to be seen using at a SJ Sharks game. µ