Asus U2E-A2B leather-bound lap warmer

IF YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE who has a leather-clad gadget fetish, then we’re more than happy to point you towards this review here. Asus’ U2x-series laptops have worn leather for some time now brown, black... even pink leather.

Now Laptop Mag has reviewed the latest calf-skin computer from this particular box maker: the U2E-A2B. Fashionable to a fault (if you aren’t a member PETA), this 3.2-pound (1.4Kg), 11.1-inch notebook is one expensive piece of hardware. It does have a monumental battery life – seven and a half hours – but you’ll have to fork out $2,700 for this special one. Let’s hope no one throws a can of red paint over yours.

XS Reviews in Old Blighty is concerned about CPU overheating – and considering the level of expertise that is required by watercooling and phase change cooling (not to mention the price, eh?) – air cooling is still the way to go. XS Reviews procured a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU cooler. This is another solution based on the heatpipe+fins+fan design – where Xigmatek attached a massive 120mm fan. Considering you can buy it for about £30 the cooling performance you get out of this is quite interesting. Read XS’ review.

Mushkin, like so many memory merchants has been expanding its portfolio to include other areas where its expertise can be put to good use – like the power supply market and graphics cards. Well, OCC tested the XP-800AP PSU and they were quite impressed with the outcome. The XP-800AP includes a number of features designed to make an enthusiast’s life easier: plugs galore and a switching feature that’ll let you change between quad and single rail power. It includes 4 PCIe connectors, although they didn’t manage to do quad VGA tests on it – they are pretty sure you’ll be satisfied with the final result. Catch it here.

Solid State Drives are coming into their own – by that we mean they are becoming the domain of the deep-pocketed enthusiast fringe and soon – very soon, we hope - the domain of world+dog. Well, Mtron markets the Mobi 64GB SSD – a slim SSD unit that’ll give your apps an “instant high” (quoting the words of one Intel Fellow). TweakTown reviewed it, and they liked it very much, yessiree, pity it still costs an arm, and a leg, and uhm.. a kidney... As long as they can type, right? Read the rave -.

The Elite Bastards have picked a ROG mobo from Asus to test – the Striker II NSE. Since they fooled around with the Striker II Extreme recently, they compiled the data into a straight-on comparison between the two (plus a Striker Formula for abuse). The new 790i SLi chipset makes the NSE every bit as worthy as its big Extreme (790i Ultra SLi) brother, and slightly cheaper, although cheap isn’t the right word to describe it, considering it costs £211+VAT to start with. If you want a next-gen SLI-supporting rig, this may very well be a good place to start.

Anandtech has been going out on the retail limb of the IT tree. They’ve begun reviewing retailers and boxmakers based not only on the quality of the PC itself, but also the quality of the purchase, warranty, after-sales, etc... Today they’ve gone after iBuypower.

These guys a sort of retail company but you get to customise your order online. So Anandtech’s crew rated the customisation / order system and later the system as shipped. Some minor gripes, but that’s what these reviews are intended to do – help consumers and box builders to get the right stuff out the warehouse door. Read on.

High end cards aren’t the rule when it comes to gaming. They actually serve a “higher purpose”: they allow companies to market cheaper, “performance-capped”, cards like the 8800GS Alpha Dog from XFX. Now, take “performance-capped” with a bit of perspective.

Most users have no clue what the ideal upgrade for their system is – they usually just want a quick cheap fix to play a certain game of their liking. Well, the Alpha Dog 8800GS offers decent performance and a decent price – and you know when we use the word “decent” twice, it means it’s not a high performer, but will run modern games at playable frame rates. Custom PC has the skinny on the Alpha Dog.