Intel server chip compared to Intel desktop king

GAME PC pits the Xeon 5160 against the Core2 Duo/Extreme X6800 processor. Intel has changed the pricing strategy and charges more for the X6800 than the 5160 even if the latter has a faster clock speed and a higher front side bus. However, all is not black and white, as Xeon bundles are more much more expensive than the Core2 duo ones. One has to wonder if Asus or another motherboard manufacturer would nor make everyone a favour and come forth with a BP6-like successor and couple it with two Xeon 5110.

More Intel stuff, as the Asrock ConroeXFIre-eSATA2 gets an award from Hardwarezone. Asrock is well known for being an avant-gardiste mobo manufacturer and it proves it well with this board. Chipset used is 945P Express so you get HD Audio, a few SATA2 ports, Matrix Storage Technology, GbE, two Firewire ports and Crossfire compatibility. Not an outstanding overclocker but as it aimed at the value market and those who don't want to tweak too much, it deserves to get the most-value-for-money award.

Hothardware posts an article on the Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF which has been developed in partnership with Nvidia. This is a 2x1GB matched pair of DDR2 SDRAM DIMMs with a heatsink technology called Dual-Path Heat Xchange. The memory operates at 1.111GHz with ratings of 4-4-4-12-2T. The lice-comb heatsink also comes with an accessory consisting of an aluminium frame and three 4cm fans. Good memory but excruciatingly expensive.

Bigbruin.com checks the Auzentech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 sound card. It is based on the C-MJedia CMI8770 audio processor and is the first card to come with Dolby Digital Live and DTS connected certification. The card competes favorably with the likes of Creative's Audigy2. It can convert any audio source to DD and DTS and the only major issue is the lack of front IOs. The price is right for this type of audio performance although you have to bear in mind that onboard audio modules have improve massively since the years of AC97.

Xtremecomputing.co.uk reports on the Evercool VC-RG geforce 6800/7800 VGA cooler. It is bordeaux-red coloured with two 70mm transparent silent fans. Other features include a unique convection design that takes away heat from the card easily and a full copper design. The cooler itself is noisy, although the VC-RG is marketed as a neo-silent model. However, it is cheap and comes with a pure copper block. Now if they could have added a fan controller, that would be great.

Techfear tests the SteelPad Qck+ which is an oversized cloth-covered rubber mouse pad which is thinner than the previous model that Steelpad launched. The pad is used, almost the size of a broadsheet, think A3 sheet. Yet it is only 2mm thick and has a non slip rubber base. Plus it is cheapish and it will be helpful if you have long arms. µ