X1800XL is the jack of all trades

THE Abit AW8-MAX v1.0 powered by the i955x motherboard. Uninspiring is what springs to your mind when you read reviews of Intel motherboards. They seem to come from the same mould. In this instance, you get the same Firewire, Intel Matrix RAID, SATA2, DDR2-667 support as well as the chocking price which might send some of you to the dark side. Add to that the fact that there is the i975x just around the corner and this would prove to be the main reason why you'd better steer clear of everything bearing the 955x name until January.

ATI brought an ace in the form of the ATI AIW X1800XL which is the perfect gift for Christmas. ATI actually brought the AIW quite quickly, which means that the X1800XL was probably in the labs as the R520 family was launched. Read the review to get a full picture of what this card is capable of. Not only is this card powerful enough to challenge the 7800GT, it comes with two Adobe software worth quite some pennies on their own, add in SCART support, H264 and DVB-T support and you'll understand why Nvidia has so much to learn from ATI.

Belgium website Matbe shows us the new Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000. Certainly Microsoft's best try to get a capable competitor to match Logitech's best combo models. The keyboard is actually an existing version while the Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 proves to be a worthy contender to the throne of best all rounder mouse. The laser marchitecture is apparently working and so are the transluscent buttons.

Hothardware has managed to test the ECS KN1 SLI Extreme which is the final proof that SLI has reach all levels of the market. Once ECS gets a product with a particular technology, you know that the mass market has accepted it - completely. This motherboard has to be one of the cheaper SLI out there but neverthereless comes with Dual LAN, 7.1 Audio solution, BIOS recovery, RAID and superb performance makes it a sure winner.

Meanwhile, techmods reviews the Samsung Spinpoint 250GB PATA HDD, a 250GB monster with only two platters. It does come however with a 7200rpm - not 72000 as in the article - spin speed, a 8MB buffer and some features like FDB motor technology, noiseguard and silent seek. The drive managed to outclass the WD Caviar 2500JD which is a SATA drive.

Memory module are the most important components in a computer. You know what performance shift occurs when you upgrade from 256MB to 512MB - it is worth much more than a 1GHz processor upgrade. Now Viperlair tests the Corsair TWIN2X1024-8000UL - memory modules are very rarely tested on their own nowadays. Almost always in pairs, like Siamese sisters. Covered by black heat spreaders, these 1GB models are rated at 1GHz with fairly tight timmings. Then using a proprietary card, Viperlair underclocked the module to match the motherboard and compared it to some other modules. Results are nothing short of spectacular. But they do come at a price.