Sony’s streaming audio wonder

DESPITE HAVING A SOLID REP in consoles and consumer electronics, Sony is moving into that grey area where PC technologies meet electronics and pimp out your house with multi-room audio (is that too specific?). The Giga Juke NAS-SC55PKE kit provides you the full setup to unwire music across the house, and it’s on review at Trusted Reviews. Streaming is cool.

Today, Shane from Tweak Town is exploring the details of CrossFire on two HD 4870s vs. one X2 – on a P45 mobo. Yes, not on the greatest, but on the latest of Intel’s chipsets. These mobos are limited to 2x8 PCIe channels, which raises another question: do you really need a mobo with slots for dual graphics, or can you rely on the X2 to do the job? Well, it seems you can and it does… read Shane’s article, here.

With the launch of the HD 4870 X2 some editors are re-assessing the price/performance ratio of Nvidia’s GTX 280. Hot Hardware took the time to review the MSI GTX 280 Redux, a mildly overclocked variant on the reference design. Performance is as you’d expect it to be, but pricing is becoming very interesting. It’s also less noisier and more power efficient than an X2… Check their review, here.

Legit Reviews was a casualty of war in our X2 coverage a couple of days ago. Just so everyone knows there’s enough love to go around, we’ve included them in today’s roundup. This turn it’s a Palit-labelled card. Nathan tested it in standard and CrossFireX mode – where the system power draw peaked at 755W. Ouch.

Hardware Secrets rounded-up several 320GB disk drives – nine to be more precise – and gives you the skinny on who’s going up and who’s going down in the HDD world. These include Samsung’s SpinPoint F1, WD’s Velociraptor and Seagate’s latest Barracuda, amongst others. Spin your drives this way, you’ll appreciate the literature.

Remember the Optimus Maximus, that absolutely obscenely priced 115-OLED/key keyboard? Well Nick at Digital Trends got one in the office and he’s stunned – with both the size and looks of the beast. 21.1-inches of keyboard and its own power supply are a bit over the top, but you need it to keep those 115-OLED displays turned on… This is art.

Maxtor is trying out new product ranges, including this BlackArmor 160GB Encrypted HD. As the name says it all, Big Bruin had a go at it. Your question is “neat, how much does it cost and how much of a performance hit do I get?” It costs you about $25 more than the average 160GB 2.5-inch disk but it’s a tad slower than your typical USB drive. Read the review here. µ