XGI does DVD better than ATI, Nvidia

OUR FRIENDS from Hongkong, HKEPC, have a Crossfire edition of the X1900XT running on the RD480 platform. The HIS X1900XTX and the XT version are both evaluated. One uses a 1.1ns GDDR3 memory while the other uses a 1.2ns. Not much of a difference here. For good measure they include a 512MB Geforce 7800GTX as a comparison. While I am not an ATI fanboy - I use a Matrox Dual Head G400, FYI - for now, ATI has a lead where it counts. Note that the XT version not the XTX version is tested in Crossfire. There are around twenty more reviews of the XTX at the time of writing with even more on their way. We even have a couple of our own here and here.

BIOSmagazine checks Website Pros Netobjects Fusion 9 which is apparently more user friendly than Dreamweaver and definitely better than Frontpage. NOF9 will satisfy both seasoned developers and novices. Plus you have better CSS capabilities, ASP.net and templates plus newbies only tools. HTML edition though could be better but then, that's one thing to be added in NOF10, isn't it. One interesting thing is that it is tightly integrated with Google offering Web search, Site search and Safe Search technology. NOF9 will probably be booed by hand coders but loved by the rest of us.

Trustedreviews has a look at the Sony Cybershot DSC-T5 digital camera. In a nutshell, Carl Zeiss lenses, 3x optical zoom, 5.1MP resolution and a tiny, itsy, bitsy size, only 139g with the battery. With a resolution close to VGA, you could even watch MPEGmovie on its screen. Unfortunately, size is not everything. Very low picture quality, over processing, image distortion, image noise and purple fringe ruin everything. Game over as TR puts it.

Laptoplogic has a review of one of the first perpendicular drives out there. The Seagate 160GB 5400.3 drive is a laptop drive, not a desktop one. It offers a near 7200rpm performance, a five year warranty and is quiet. On the wrong side, street prices are exhorbitant to say the least. As you might guess though, early adopters will be the ones paying the dearest price. It has a higher operating shock tolerance as compared to current models and with 8MB, performance is much higher than one could expect. With SATA, NCQ and L - Perpendicular - drive, storage in 2006 is even more exciting.

Gognet checks the Acceleron Series from Arctic Cooling which includes X1 and X2 for Nvidia and ATI respectively. Accelero will as from now represent their top line series while the Silencer series will go mainstream. Now if you even try SLI, all you PCI slots will be lost. Never ever have I seen such a crowded board. Perfomance though is very good. At 43% rotational speed, it is a full 18 degrees cooler than Nvidia's stock cooler.

Adrian Rojak's Pot reviews the XGI Volari 8300 video card. 3D Performance is definitely not its main selling point. However, its DVD playback quality is much better than even ATI or Nvidia - top notch Anti aliasing. The card does not heat up that much and is could even work passively. It is ideal for those looking for a cheap alternative for a HTPC - as long as you do not want to play much. The Volari 8300 fares worse than even the ATI X300SE with Hypermemory. In a nutshell, don't buy it for gaming. µ