Mainstream SLI vs. High-end GPU

XBIT LABS AND MADSHRIMPS have both tried to answer an old question regarding SLI performance: how good is “mainstream” SLI, compared to the many many high-end GPUs out on the market? Well, this may come as quite a shocker, but XBit’s numbers show SLI 9600GT’s short work of some cards like the 9800GX2 and 9800GTX in some of our fave shooters, while Madshrimps gave a different perspective on the matter by showing not only the frame-crunching but the relative gains of each game with the SLI matchup.

Does a dual-9600GT kick arse? Yes. Does it conquer all? Only if the SLI support in the game is well implemented. A singled high-end card will still draw less power and has better stability, tho’. Mad Russians, here, Mad shrimps, here.

Metku Mods has a Silverstonetek TS01B on display on the site. This particular bit of kit promises a different type of security feature for your external hard drive – RFID, to be more precise. Yes, now you can walk into a store with your HD in your bag and make some alarms go off. Seriously, it’s a first as far as we know. The TS01B is an external HD enclosure with an RFID tag that controls encryption on the drive. We’re sure it’ll be a great hit with British public servants who are known to leave data lying around. Civil servants go here now.

Hilbert, the great Guru o’3D has a go at Hiper’s new Media Center HTPC Slimline barebone. As HTPC barebones go, this one is quite cheap, but don’t mistake cheap for “piece of junk” – it’s a 690G-based system with remote, PSU, memory card reader and a VFD. Hilbert thought it was quite a nice piece of DIY kit, especially considering it’s Vista MCE compliant. There is a drawback to all the niceties however, no support for Phenoms... Well it’s you can still make a full HTPC system for under $500. Read this bit o’ D-I-Y action.

Spring’s in full bloom and you’re thinking of getting out of doors – well, TomTom is thinking it’s time to spray you with their new GPSs. Joe at Devhardware has a hands-on with a TomTom GO 920T GPS unit. It’s quite expensive, but the feature list is also impressive – including a remote control. You can also look-up addresses with voice commands, which, according to Joe, is quite functional. It’s an all-round winner, he thinks.

59Hardware.net is writing home about a bunch of motherboards from Foxconn, Gigabyte and MSI. There are three X38-based and one P35-based cards here, and although it’s almost X48 and G45 time, these mobos are on the market right now. Sebastian ponders the pros and cons of the X38 mobos over the “cheaper” P35, and finds no fault of its own in Gigabyte’s EP35C-DS3R. Interesting little bunch of critters. Here for French. Ici pour Anglais.

SmallNetBuilder is reviewing Server Elements’ NASLite-2 HDD – a competitor to FreeNAS. This Linux-based NAS software can transform your old, now defunct, PC into a NAS device. The NASLite-2 provides Telnet, HTTP, Rsync, FTP, SMB/CFS, NFS and AFP services and system controls – and according to SNB’s numbers, it’s Ethernet performance is quite good, meaning you’re on your way to finding a new home network storage solution for next to nothing. Geek away.