Using the Turion as a desktop CPU

I'm very glad that Matbe reviewed the Turion Processor as a desktop offer and dared to compare it to the Pentium M. Suddenly, the latter does not seem to be quiet a bargain when compared to the MT37. Turion's direct ancestor, the XP-M was a heck of an overclocker and unfortunately matbe was not able to compare both the P-M and the Turion in this sector. I wonder what kind of performance would DFI famed board yield when coupled with a MT37.

Design Technica has a test of the Sony Vaio VGN-S480 which is a Centrino/P-M laptop which is expensive, sports an average battery life but also has bluetooth and a bright screen - on the bright side. One would be tempted to say - what can you expect else from Sony's best. With a 2.13GHz processor, DVD writer, 100GB HDD and integrated Geforce 6200, it is one of the most powerful ultra portable laptops around.

Anandech has a review of the last Shuttle product to come out from their labs and asks a very pertinent question. The XPC M1000 bears no ressemblance with no other SFF on the market. In fact, it looks more than one of those posh Marantz/Denon top of the range CD player than anything else. If you want the ultimate HTPC available. Go for it. It will not break records but will make your guest green with envy.

Motherboards.org plays with the Abit AW8-Max motherboard, an Intel-platform component based on the 955X chipset with googies like PCI express, Abit's own uGuru and Audiomax. Three Firewire ports are also an interesting additions though that many is probably overkilled.

Memory modules are on test at Viperlair. 2GB will probably be what you'll need to be able to run Vista smoothly. Hence the urgent need of buying that 2GB DDR kit from Corsair. The TwinX2048-4400 PRO memory modules come from the XMS line and feature a black coloured heat spreader and some activity LEDs. They overclock superbly and are great performers on their own. Throw in a nice price and lifetime warranty and you wouldn't ask for more.

Xbitlabs has its hands on the X1300Pro and concludes that it is an ill fated try from ATI to get a decent entry level performer. Yes, it does have AVIVO video engine and hardware HD format decoding plus SM 3.0. But it gets thoroughly outperformed by graphic cards that cost the same, either from ATI or from Nvidia. Most importantly though, it is not available right now. µ