4.1GHz Pentium D 805 grabs overclock diadem

TOM'S hardware tests the Pentium D 805, finally and finds out that this 2.66GHz processor can overclock to 4.1GHz, which is quite a feat and allows the P D 805 to retake the crown of best overclocker around. In terms of performance, it puts Intel and AMD's best to shame, especially when the FX60 and the PEE are not overclocked. The P D 805 is available for around £80 in the UK while a compatible mobo should not be more expensive than £50. In fact, you could easily build a whole overclocked computer for the price of one of those beauties. Wicked.

Anandtech has a mid range buying guide covering the yet to be announced AM2 processor as well as the Core Duo 2. All these new technologies will sure make head turns but as Anandtech puts it rightly, upgrade when you are unhappy with your current level of performance. Intel still has the cheaper Dual Core technology and one which can run faster than AMD's system when overclocked - even though it runs hotter and requires more power. There are also a few other peripherals recoomended like LCD's, memory and hard disk drive, as well as cheap 20-inch LCDs.

3DProfessor tests the ATI Fire GL V5200 which is the Midrange Level Professional Graphics solution. It delivers punches that clearly puts it almost in the category above. SPEC Viewperf performance was nothing short of exceptional, almost matching the V7300. It is relatively cheap, quiet, draws little power and is available. Stability was not an issue and overall, there was little to complain about. The V5200 was tested using a K8N motherboard with two Raptors and one Opteron 180.

The Abit AN8 32X motherboard is tested at Xbitlabs. Xbitlabs asks themselves whether they are not witnessing the comeback of an ex-darling - whose was unseated by DFI not so long ago. The card comes with ten USB ports, Firewire, loads of SATA and PATA ports, Integrated sound and Network as well as Abit trademarked OTES and mGuru. All in all, a very good product with issues though. No COM and LPT ports - finally - as motherboards finally lay these dinosaurs to rest.

Our friends from HKEPC sends us some pictures of a socket 939 Sempron - a 3200+ version has cropped up and it is a Palermo core, running at 1.8GHz with 256KB of L2 cache and marked "E6 revision". They also reviewed the Albatron Geforce 7900GX2 which is the backbone of a Quad SLI gaming gear - a big fat dirty computer which is bloody fast and bloody expensive. Takes up four slots and runs at 500MHz/1.4GHz core/mem.

Neoseeker reports on the Aerocool ExtremeEngine 3T case, a bigga of a casing, with a 140mm fan and a 250mm side model - blue glowing fans - which is much better for cooling than a window or a honeycomb design, just make sure that your toes does not reach the blades - there's a grill on it anyway. The case has seven expansion slot and comes with the usual front io's. All these fans push a lot, a lot of air and the fan controller is a nice plus. Some of you may find the paint job slightly dodgy but it is silent. µ