WD’s Passport Elite goes down under

WESTERN DIGITAL’S MY BOOK external hard drive line has been growing on tech reviewers across the globe. Oz Hardware has a review on the portable version of the book-shaped enclosure – the My Passport (Elite), 320GB unit. “Elite” means you get better software for your device, but quite honestly we can’t remember the last time Microsoft’s free SyncToy tool didn’t do the job for us... Anyhow, it comes as a FAT32 unit, meaning you can read/write in any Windows 2000 or later and Mac OS X (OS X doesn’t really like NTFS, does it?). The aussies liked it, to say the least.

Bjorn3d is measuring up just how good a deal (or not) Asus’ EAH3870X2 is, especially since Asus threw away the “reference design guide” and took the layout up a notch. This version of the X2 comes with double everything and Greg did manage to eke out a little bit more speed from a mildish overclock. Unfortunately, it seems, no matter how much firepower ATI is bringing to the table, a couple of 9600GTs in SLI spank it thoroughly. Asus did a good job with the bundle, though. Read the review here.

Think Computers is also playing around with some Asus kit of the EN9800GTX TOP kind. Again, Asus throws the “Nvidia Guide to Building Reference Designed Graphics Cards” out window and to good effect. The factory-overclocked card chews through the frames like no other (although no SLI, Crossfire or X2/GX2 cards were used). Frank does warn it’s big as heck, won’t fit all cases, draws a lot of power and might be initially scarce. 10/10 they gave it. Read why.

With SSD on the verge of manhood, Anandtechie Gary is taking the SSD banner to the desktop with a Memoright 32GB unit. It’s a quickie article, but it’ll give you some idea of what to expect – the real thing will come later as DV Nation handed over 8 units for a special article he’s working on. You’ve got some numbers there for Samsung’s SSD and the Velociraptor, so it’s a three-way challenge for the desktop drive crown. Read it here.

Inside HW has a review on AMD’s Phenom X3 8750 (yes we double-checked this time). They managed to overclock the bugless CPU quite well (compared to other reviews we’ve read) but it all comes down to price and it’s a hard sell when you can buy a quad-core for a little bit more. Inside HW does talk about an upcoming 6x50 dual-core series that will bring the K10 architecture to the sub-€100 range... read about it here.

Mikhailtech has a review of the new Hiper Type R Mk.II 680W PSU. This SLI-certified PSU provides power for up to 2x7950GX2 (not 9800GX2, it seems), but doesn’t seem to be excessive when it comes to size (which is usually a problem with high-power PSUs). It also sports an integrated USB hub (nine ports) for the needy. Hiper also claims >85 per cent power efficiency, which seems to be more and more in the higher-end of PSUs. Although it isn’t modular, you’ll appreciate the extender cables and EZ-Grip plugs. The complete story here. µ