Cheap socket 478 CPUs reviewed

HARDWARE DELUXX, a German site, tests the Club3D Geforce 6800 Ultra card. Club3D which is trying to build a four-pronged approach by using four GPU suppliers. That particular card is a PCI-e version clocked at 425MHz with 1.1GHz DDR3 memory. Not a good overclocker though with only a 5% overclock.

Xbit Labs, here, was off line most of this week following a hacker attack last weekend. Now it's back.

AMD Zone, based in Austin, has news here on how the AMD-Spansion business is taking steps to protect tax breaks it gets in Texas. The same site notes here about the availability of dual core Opterons - May the 4th and May the 21st, it appears.

Xtremeresources brings us the A-Top technology gladiator casing. It features patented screwless and tool-less mountin rails and a thick heavy duty 2mm brushed aluminium door panel complete with LED. On top of that you get a blue LED 80m fan and 10 drive bays. All powered by a 450W PSU.

Let's face it, not many people will buy the latest X2 AMD or the Intel EE series CPU although an overwhelming number of online reviews suggest that they are the next best thing to bread and butter. So it is refreshing that Digit-Life introduces us to their first Processors for common people test where they cover "old" Intel Socket 478 processors running at 2.8GHz. Five candidates are tested. Loads of scrolling but no overclocking. Find out for yourself how twice the price does not equate to twice the performance.

HardOCP reviews the Koolance EXOS-2 external water cooling system. They put it face to face with the hottest thing - literally - that Intel has to offer us. Koolance also claim that the system's heat dissipation approaches 750W, enough to warm a small room. Anyway, at $400, it might be wiser to invest in better components rather than buy a water block.

Guys at BIOS magazine send me the review of a HDTV ready LCD TV from Sony, the MFM-HT75W which has a relative low screen size - 17-in - with a native resolution of 1280x758. But it does feature SRS's WOW surround sound and Sony's own X-Black LCD enhancement. The price though will probably make you think twice at £399+VAT, enough to buy you TWO 20-inch LCD TV monitors. They also test the Deskjet 1280, a wide format inkjet printer, something HP needed. It is good value at £161+VAT, supports A3+ and is networkable. Ideal for professional studios. It feels a little passé though with its scant controls and the older PhotoRET III printing technology.

Belgium website Matbe tests six Neo MP3 players. Particularly interesting is the SAFA 2 which ressembles a Sony Ericsson mobile phone. It has a 65K colours screen. Now if someone could hack it to make it play video files it would be gr8. Also two rarities. Neo's are OGG compatible and the Safa2 has two speakers.

Last, French website Clubic reviews six mini MP3 jukeboxes including one from Olympus and another one from Teac. They are all as tiny as it can be and each targets a particular category. They are mostly 5/6GB players and should finally, pricewise replace minidisc, high quality CD players as well as top range Walkman. µ