Affordable dual core sub-laptop reviewed

THE Thermalright XP-90c heatsink fan is tested at Techpowerup. It is an all copper model with multiple heatpipes and compatible with all recent sockets - except sockets A and AM2. It is heavy though but as a result, it will almost certainly cool your chipset and CPU better than lighter models. The Thermalright comes with thermal paste, fan clips and a complete set of accessories. The reviewer finds that the price of the cooler is quite high especially when you find that you have to add in the price of a fan.

3Dgameman tests the Crucial PC2-8000 DDR2 memory modules. The kit is a 2GB kit running at 1GHz and covered by a standard aluminium heatspreader used on all the Ballistix memory models. It does get the 100% kickass rating. The modules are tested on an AMD AM2 platform and is overclocked as well. The maximum attainable overclock was 1.1GHz with the default timing and an increased voltage of 2.5v. But performance and price are not everything, the kit comes with an excellent customer support and a limited warranty.

Bytesized reviews tests the Abit AT8 32x motherboard, a socket 939 socket which is Crossfire compatible. Surprisingly, it is built around the RD580 rather than the RD480 together with the ULI M1575 southbridge. The board has three passive heatsinks which covers the chipset and the southbridge. Abit has wisely thought about the layout of the board, including the fact that it has six fan headers controllable via the BIOS. The AT8 comes with a great bundle, above average overclocking capabilities, a good price and Abit's own uGuru utility.

Another MSI product tested at Hothardware is the Mega mPC 945 SFF PC. The SFF supports all LGA775 CPUs launched. The chipset used is the i945G which means that it has an integrated graphics - the GMA950. Onboard features also include TV Out, 7.1 HD Audio, GbE and Wireless LAN. The MSI SFF also includes Firewire ports and a card reader. The cooling system though might have been better designed especially under load. An impressive product with a few shortcomings according to Hothardware's reviewer.

If, like many of us, you want to upgrade your old AGP video card, you might want to have a look at the Sapphire X800GTO 256MB video card. Core/mem speeds are 400MHz/490MHz which are stock speeds plus VGA, TVO ad DVI connectors. The card is compared to a X800 Pro, a 6800GT and the 9800 Pro - which one is the faster depends on what games you are running. One good thing about the card is its ability to overclock wonderfully well as well as offering a good software package.

The latest issue of Computer Trade Only magazine has a review of the Megabook S262 laptop. MSI actually built an OEM laptop for Fortune Technologies. The laptop is pretty cheap but still does come with a Dual Core Intel Yonah processor plus a 945GM chipset, a 12.1-inch diplay, GbE connector, a DVD writer, 512MB memory and a 57GB drive. This OEM Megabook is actually as good as other MSI-branded Megabooks; sharing the same iBook-like design with grey colours. µ