One gig on graphics cards is great but a quart is not a half

EVER WONDERED if its worth buying a 1GB graphics card over a 512MB one? Expreview has an interesting take on the matter of “which frame buffer interests gamers the most”?

They’ve pitted 3 different 8800GT’s, all set to the same clock rates, but 256MB, 512MB and 1GB frame buffers. The result will deter people from running out to buy 1GB versions of the 8800GT beast. We couldn’t find a reference to the Graphics Aperture Size and if it makes any kind of difference in the results of the 256MB 8800GTs, tho’.

256MB seem to be enough to satisfy the chaps at Hardware Logic that finally got their hands on an HD3850 from ATI. They think this generation of GPU’s from ATI are a great improvement over the previous one. Take into consideration the price, overclockability and other goodies, they think its a great buy at $180.

Overclockers Club believes its found the Holy Grail of LAN Partying - or at least a case that seems to be able to fit all your high-end kit (except for one in particular) and still be able to carry it around. It’s the GTR Tech GT3-BH case.

It fits a standard-sized ATX mobo, can lay down on its side and is very quiet (not that you’d notice at a LAN Party). It also sports a very convenient handle to ease transportation. If you stuck two wheels at the bottom/back, you’d think it was a suitcase. Give it a look.

950Watts of power in a standard PS2-sized casing. That’s what Tuniq has to offer with their Miniplant series of PSU’s. Overclocker’s Cafe really loved it ‘cos it’s petite for its power output, and efficient too. The only drawback is the non-modular design of the PSU, which means unaesthetic dangling cables that you’ll need to cuff together and put away.

G.Skill has given HardwareXL a chance to review their enthusiast-grade DDR2 memory, the F2-6400CL5Q-4GBNQ. It’s a 4x1GB kit, so it’ll fill your slots completely – in other words: forget “upgrading”... this here is a replacement kit, designed to populate your slots all the way. The chums at HardwareXL think it’s a no-brainer and affordable to boot. The only thing they couldn’t do was overclock the memory.

Mikhailtech plays around with the Western Digital WD10EACS – a 1TB HDD - benching it against its smaller sibling, the 500GB WD5000AAKS. Since green is the thing to be, the 1TB drive isn’t too big on performance, but great on power saving, they think. Both in acoustics and power consumption, this HDD is ahead. Maybe they’ve found an ideal HTPC drive? Read all about it, here.

LG seems to be holding its own against other players. This time ‘round, it's had their L204WT tested at Think Computers. It’s a 20.4-inch LCD panel with a high resolution (1680x1050) and a relatively low power consumption (something everyone likes, nowadays). They scored it 8/10 points, and you can find out why, here.

Linksys is expanding into enemy territory by bringing to market some new NAS devices. Trusted Reviews got a go at the new Linksys NAS200, a NAS enclosure (no drives included) that costs a little under £100. They liked most of it – software and features, but what they didn’t like might be the deal-breaker for many of us: 100Mbps Ethernet, which seems to account for some seriously limited performance.

We’d like to know what directory services are supported, if any. µ