Opteron laptop is no slouch

DIGITAL MEDIA Networks - and Charlie White - test a Mobile station from Alienware. In times when a 19-inch Laptop with dual video card can be had for around £2000, nothing more surprises me. The Alienware MJ12 m7700a will gets some heads turning though. It comes with an Opteron 185 processor spinning at 2.6GHz. It has 2GB memory, two 7200rpm HDDs and a cool blue finish that stands to Dell's Precision portable workstation. It is heavy though - at more than 7Kg and noisy. You get a FX Go 1400 graphic card on a 17-inch monitor with a resolution of 1440x900. Superb workstation if you are ready to pay for it.

Rahul Sood of VoodooPC talks about how you can't make a baby in a month with nine wives. Some nice thoughts on how well technological companies like Intel or AMD take note of criticism. Some of them respond to comments - constructive or not - better than others. Some take heed whereas for others, it simply falls on deaf ears. Rahul also says something that many analysts have been seeing but not saying. AMD has gathered momentum and gained credibility. They won't lose that credibility overnight whatever Intel comes forward with.

Techarray tests the Gainward 7800GS video card. This is an AGP video model with a cooler from the Arctic Cooler Silencer Line. The Core/Mem speeds are 425MHz/1.2GHz - the card is even overclocked to 470/1.34GHz for good measure and well, it is surprising. The Gainward Bliss is twice as fast as an EVGA under DOOM 3 HQ and Fear HQ. That's a one page review but even then, it seems that Gainward has a definite winner on its hand. The card is not cheap and you might want to change everything than bet on an obsolete technology.

Neoseeker reviews the Asus P5WD2-E Premium motherboard. It sports an Intel 975X chipset with official ATI Crossfire through dual PCI-Express x16 slots. The board comes with six SATA cables with more accessories than one would think off. But after all, that's Asustek, known for high prices and premium brand. The board features eight SATA ports, two GbE LAN, eSATA ports and a handful of USB 2.0 ports. It is a fantastic overclocker but comes at a price that some might find exorbitant. You get what you paid for.

Extremetech tests the Asus P5WDG2-WS which is a workstation motherboard where corners are not cut while price is. You do get a pair of PCI-E, PCI-X and PCI plain expansion slots. You also get Hardware RAID, FC, Infiniband and iSCSI as well as a i975X chipset. Extremetech approves it to bits especially with some very impressive overclocking. The chipset is passively cooled and it comes with a 8-phase power supply. It is expensive, mind you, just like the model above - but again, you won't be let down. Server class for the desktop band.

Bit-tech.net compares the BFG Tech Geforce 7900GT OC to the one from XFX using four benchmarks amongst the most strenuous available on the market. The cards are both PCI-e versions and cost quite a bit and are of course overclocked by default. They come with some accessories - nothing exceptional. Performance wise though, they smoke everything existing in terms of high end value for money. Note that the X1800XT was not tested. The XFX model is a deal that Bit Tech admits is on the verge of the Pornographic. Find a better cooler and you might enjoy your ride even more. µ