Desirable laptops, undesirable characters

FRENCH OUTFIT TT-hardware tests the ECS G900 which is slightly similar to a £999 Tiny Laptop sold here. This 17-inch TFT monster comes with a remote control, 80GB hard disk, 512MB memory, a tuner, a Radeon 9700 and a 3Ghz Pentium IV.

Fellow geekers from Xbitlabs introduced the Corsair Xpert memory which have some LEDs plaed just above the memory modules. These are TwinX1024-4000PRO DDR500 type and owners of transparent cases are going to salivate with joy.

The joys of SLI. Look here to see what setting up a system can really mean.

The Asus A8N-SLI deluxe is scrutinized by A1 Electronics in a two page review. The board is probably one of the most sought-after AMD board currently on sale. With first class overclocking capabilities and SLI support, it will satisfy even the more demanding geekers.

Belgium Madshrimps overclocks an AMD FX55 CPU to the extreme with the help of DryIce and Liquid Nitrogen. He achieved only 3796MHz, some megahertz short of Memesama world record of 3828MHz.

Italian website Hardware Upgrade tests the Abit SV1a server motherboard which surprisingly is based on the VIA K8T800PRO chipset. The motherboard has four memory slots and three PCIx slots. The board also comes with one ATI Rage XL video and two Gigabit LAN ports.

UK magazine Micromart ponders on the purchase of budget graphic cards and several solutions for your gaming fits. We reckon that Geforce FX 5x00 and the Radeon 9800 range still have a lot of success out there.

Chinese website GZeasy review what will probably replace the Geforce 4 MX at the very end of the low graphics card spectrum. They compare the 6200TC to the Radeon X300. The 6200 Turbo Cache might be based on the Geforce 6 family but will its performance be hampered too much by onboard memory?

Gamers depot reviews the VIA PT-Series chipset range which brings some features not available to the Pentium IV family. Vinyl Audio, Drivestation and DualGFX. Gamers-depot actually benchmark them and gives Intel's range a hard time. The same conclusion is reached at VR-zone, even though they doubt that the DualGFX feature will be worth it.

Two interesting reviews come from chinese website HKEPC. The first one is that of the Tyan Thunder K8WE S2895 which basically proposes the nForce 4 professional which allows for dual x16 SLI. Will that improve your DOOM III performance and improve your ego? Some pages further, they pre-test the GammaChrome S18 chip from S3. The particularity of this GPU apart from supporting SM2.0 is that it proposes a 4x4 pipeline structure.

Another French website, 01net, plays with five one-megapixels digital camcorder which have seen their prices plumetted to new lows. Models from Canon, Sony, JVC, Sharp and Samsung compete with one another and the result is here

One of the most desirable laptops come to Akihabara news. The Sony X505 carbon is probably the lightest laptop ever built. The lucky guy tests that Pentium M laptop which weighs only 780g. Most computer magazines are larger than this diminutive yet powerful laptop. He evens install Knoppix on it before letting it go back to where it belongs.

MIMO comes extremetech's way. Multiple I/O hardware from Linksys is tested at extremetech. The WRT54GX apparently might change the face of domestic wireless LAN as we know it. The technology is simple to understand though. MIMO simply multiplexes along a single channel using multiple receivers and emitters.

Two weeks after being reviewed by Techreport, Hexus lays its hand on the TriGem KLOSS KL-i915A small factor PC. It is expensive but you do get a lot for your money. This PCI express DDR2 SFF might be a better gamble than others.

Justin Allman from Auphanonline reviwes the XFX Geforce 6600GT graphics card still based on AGP slot. Auphan reckons that this card should win the mid-range AGP contest hands down. We're not so sure though.

The Windows XP Tweaking Companion is presented to you by Koroush Ghazi. Basically it is a complete 170 page Windows XP and System Optimisation guide. Have a look at the other guides as well on the same website. µ