Notebook with two 7900GS cards tested

ONE OF our British readers is asking if anyone has tested the Tyan VX50 - an 8-socket opteron - using the S4881 and the M4881 board because he encountered some weird results when playing with one of those monsters.

BIOS Magazine tests the Alienware Aurora m9700 laptop which is the first 17-inch dual graphics card model from Alienware. The laptop is relatively light weight but comes with two 7900GS with 1GB memory in total, MIMO compatibility from Airgo networks and dual SATA drives in RAID configuration. Alienware chose not to use Intel's Core Duo but went instead with the Turion 64. Alienware has also included a few bits and pieces which should keep you humming all the way home; a webcam, bluetooth, super sexy touchpad, TV tuner, Firewire and memory card reader.

Techreport spins the Samsung Spinpoint-T hard disk drive. The latest HD401LJ is benchmarked against the best from IBM, Seagate, Western Digital and Maxtor. The disk drive comes with a 3-year warranty but there's more on its platters. It is quieter than most of its competitors and has an average performance overall. That said, it is quite difficult to find Samsung models, which is paradoxical considered how popular Samsung products are around the world.

Trusted Reviews reports on the Kodak Easyshare Z650 digital camera. It is a 6.1MP SLR-style camera with a 10x lens and is available for around £150. The design and the handling is reminescent of some popular models from other manufacturers like Fujifilm. I like the pop up flash and the 2-inch LCD monitor as well a the electronic viewfinder. Performance though is sub par. Image are not that good though and there is no image stabilisation.You have to choose between looks and picture quality.

Italian website PCTuner - translator essential, a newcomer to our column, reviews the Enermax Aurora keyboard. This model is manufactured using hairbrushed aluminium with diamond-cut edges. It is available both in black and white versions. Its keys are designed in a similar way to act like scissors. It even have some connectors - two USB ports. microphone and earphone; a very good idea indeed. Enermax, who manufactures PSUs and Casings, also threw in a cleaning cloth.

Anandtech looks at the Epox EP-5P945 Pro, a budget 945P motherboard, that supports Conroe processors. Nothing exciting about the features, but look at the price and you will be surprised. Epox is known for excellent value for money. It is a good overclocker, has GbE, 5.1 audio and is supports multi GPU. Two 7600GS were used, not in SLI mode though. Performance is near leading class, according to Anandtech. Not the sexiest beast around, however, it works wonders.

Tweaktown has a world exclusive. The XFX Geforce 7950GT Extreme landed there. The card is passively cooled using a big sized Heat pipe. it has two DVI ports and an S-Video one. Contrary to my initial belief, this is a mono GPU model with the core clocked at 570MHz and the memory running up to 1.46GHz. You can increase those number a bit using Coolbits but that's it. If the price is good though, it should be a killer, especially as there a Ghost recon game in there. µ