Hypermemory, Turbo Cache, and heaps of hardware

HOT HARDWARE reviews the IBM Thinkpad R52 laptop. The system under test included a 1.7GHz Dothan P-M 740 with 512MB memory, 40GB HDD, Gigabit Ethernet, Wifi card and a 14.1-inch TFT display. The R52 is not meant to gaming though, only some light computing with DVD watching while on the move.

GDhardware checks the HIS Excalibur X800XL and the X850XT PE video card. HIS has a special place in the video card category. Its graphic cards are nothing short of superb while having a honest price. Both cards have massive heat sink fans meaning cool operation and ideal for overclocking, which is first class for both cards. The X800XL can reach X850XT speeds though it.

The chaps over at UK hardware and modding site bit-tech.net have the first review that we've seen on the net of XGI's new Volari card, the V3XT. It doesn't perform too well, with framerates below even an ATI 9200. However, more startling is the outrageous new website design the chaps have. Bright colours are the plate du jour, and apparently they're going to be updating more often, with a wider variety of content. So we're told.

ATI's Hypermemory faces nVidia's Turbocache in a face to face review by Trusted reviews. The reviewer's final advice: stay clear of these solutions. In fact, it might proove a better deal to buy a motherboard featuring the likes of the RS480 for a cheaper and better performance.

More video reviews, this time from Pureoverclock., which tests the Connect3D X850XT in its PCIe edition. Good card, nice overclocking, first class performance, extreme temperatures - 90 degrees under load - but expensive.

Digit-life checks a string of Intel 925XE motherboards, five in all - Foxconn, Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, MSI is the line up. Somehow the Gigabyte 8AENXP-D managed to outclass all of them and with rather large gaps - 10% in most tests. Of course, it should not have been the case as all the other parameters were kept constant.

The MSI P4N Diamond, one of those boards with the nForce 4 SLI intel edition, is on test at Tbreak. They compared it to one Intel 925XE board and to an Epox board with Athlon 64 3500+ CPU. It provides good performance and more than correct features like ten USB 2.0 ports and eight SATA/IDE connectors.

AMD Zone sends us two motherboard reviews. The first one is the nForce-4 powered Foxconn NF4K8MC-ERS which costs cheaper than you would think. This microATX board is an example of cost efficiency. Nothing flashy, nothing extra. Its cheap and it works. Plus there are some overclocking features as bonus. The second board is quite the contrary. The Epox 9NPA+ Ultra has seven PCI connectors as well as ten USB ports and much much more onboard. Not bad at all, except that there are still better nForce 4 Ultra boards out there. µ