Battle of the dual workstations begins

VR ZONE checks the Corsair TWINX2048-3500LL PRO 2GB memory modules, ideal for the brand new Asus A32N-SLI motherboard you've just purchased for your dual core Athlon. This pair of RAM comes with some running LEDs on top of the edge of the modules, covering everything including the heatsink. While they are not bleeding edge (sic), they should be more than enough, especially if you are looking to add two more of them at a later stage. Not for gamers maybe, but I know some which will swear by them soon.

Mainconcept H.264 Encoder 2 is not a software you are going to tinkle with every day. That stand alone software might cost a couple hundred of quid, it does require hardware that costs ten or even twenty times more in order to function at its best. H.264 is the codec chosen by HD DVD and Blu Ray and is what you would have to use as a professional should you go HD. Test it with a free download to witness its fantastic value for money.

Some days ago we had a look a gaming Alienware PC, now Audiovideoproducer reviewed the Alienware MJ12 7550a workstation, a dual processor, dual core workstation that looks exquisite on paper. The workstation also comes with two 256MB Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 cards. Add in 2GB of memory, two Raptor disks. It is compared with a Dual Xeon 3.6GHz from Dell, a Dual Apple G5 and a Boxx workstation.

Meanwhile Hexus tests the Sapphire Radeon X1800XL and compares it tothe XFX Geforce 7800GT. Like the test we had yesterday from Hardwarezone, there, this battlematch yields no clear loser - or winner. Hexus though chooses to put its money on the XFX Geforce 7800GT for a number of good reasons - cheaper, available now and capable of supporting the widely available SLI.

We covered it some days ago but here's more about that article from Chris Tom of AMDzone. He compared the Crossfire technology from ATI to traditional and X16 SLI from Nvidia. Add in Battlefield, Call of Duty 2, Quake 4, FEAR, Black and White 2, HL2 and BF2 as test and you get one of the most extensive comparisons of those three platforms on the internet. His conclusion is simple: Nvidia wins from top to bottom.

Meanwhile Gamepc reviews the Tyan's Tiger K8WE Opteron, which they called the Compressed Thunder, with reference to Tyan's previous Opteron offering. This Opteron board can be used as the basis for a supercomputer as it supports Dual Dual-Core opterons, up to 24 GB of memory, up to 2TB of SATAII storage and Dual graphic cards. But nothing is perfect when it comes to performance and tweakability as you will see in the article.