High performance memory is Crucial

ATTEMPTING TO NAVIGATE Oxford Street yesterday, this hack came within a hair's breadth of committing mass murder, but if you're feeling brave enough to venture out onto the high street, or risk the world+dog stealing your identity on the interweb, then here are a few ideas on how to max out your credit card.

TweakTown has reviewed Crucial's High-Performance RAM - Ballistix PC2-8000 EPP, it's on the pricey side, but it supports EPP for nForce motherboards and overclocks like a demon. Its golden covers also that bling factor, but sadly they won't be releasing it in pink.

Now that Fedora Core 6 is out, Phoronix has a look at how the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA performs under this new version of Linux, but it seems that fails to rock anyone's world scoring a rather unimpressive 6/10. What I found most interesting is that the board supports both DDR and DDR2 memory and AGP and PCIe graphics which will help smooth the transition for those people who prefer to upgrade in stages.

Bjorn3d has given us an overview of the Reviews&Articles at Bjorn3d.com under 2006, which details the work they've done over the past year, so go and have a gander and see if there's anything you missed.

PC Perspective has completed the Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 Champ1on Series Gaming Case Review. The case has a great feel about it but seems to suffer from a number of flaws, which given its high price may put a lot of people off.

I'm not sure if they're mouse pads, mouse mats or mousing surfaces, but XSreviews has been testing out the Nova Raider Mouse Mat and according to the review it's noisy, can make you sweat and is a little on the small side, but I'm assured they're still talking about the mouse mat.

ChileHardware has reviewed the Super Talent MEGA Screen MP3 Player. My first reaction to the rather dodgy sounding name and cheap plastic look was to write this off, but from the reaction of the reviewers it appears that you cannot judge a book by its cover. By no means a masterpiece it looks like this little device can actually pull off a decent performance.

ChileHardware has also reviewed the far more immediately impressive looking CoolIT Freezone, a unique peltier + air + water CPU cooler. It makes for an interesting design, but it looks as though there are other cheaper and quieter options out there.

IT-review has continued the mammoth roundup with AM2 MBO Round-up: Part VIII, this time adding an Asus and an MSI motherboard to the increasingly large collection.

If storage and data backup are a concern for you then you may want to wander over to Hardware.info's review of the QNAP TS-101 TurboStation. This little NAS device will make a great addition to any small network looking for a bit more space.

This will be the last roundup from me this year, so you can safely leave the comfort of your PC and go and spend some time with friends and family and enjoy playing with all the new gadgets you'll hopefully receive come Monday.

So Happy Holidays or Festive Period or Yuletide or Winter Party… I can't keep up with the correct PC statement so Merry Christmas everyone.µ