Dual-core powered Vista Beta 2 dissected

GAME PC previewed Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 which is freely available to anyone looking to test it, straight from Microsoft. The reviewer tested it on a Dual Core processor with 2GB memory and found it to be much more polished than the previous builds available. No blue screen of death registered even if Internet Explorer got some problems.

Laptoplogic checks the Lenovo Thinkpad X60s and grabbed the Editors' choice award. It has a very good battery life, is thin and light, has a dual core and carries the legacy of the IBM Thinkpad series until now. It has no touchpad, which is something which I sorely miss but if you can manage with the eraser head and shoulder its price, then, you have a winner.

The Leadtek Winfast 7950 GX2 TDH video card is reviewed by Bjorn3D and got a golden award for that. The card is surprisingly silent for such a powerful card. It is not that much expensive when compared to other brands , overclocks pretty well - both for core and memory - and comes with a more than decent array of accessories, both hardware and software.

Hardwarezone reviews the ECS KA3 MVP motherboard. This is a Crossfire Xpress 3200 based AM2 motherboard. ECS is no longer restricted to entry level, bargain basket models and the KA3 is there to prove it. This one has loads of accessories bundled. The KA3 features HD Audio compatibility, ten P/S ATA ports, one GbE and one 10/100 controller. It has a few drawbacks and you can bet that ECS is preparing a KA3++ model.

Motherboards.org tests the Foxconn NF4SLI7AA-8EKRS2 motherboard. Foxconn is one of the largest component manufacturers around. This is an Intel LGA775 only platform with the nForce 4 SLI MCP. All the usual features are here; 8-channel HD Audio, Firewire, GbE etc. You can guess that the Foxconn motherboard is an excellent product although there will be no support for the 9xx processors.

Xbitlabs tests the G.Skill 2GB memory kits - Extreme and Value editions. Both come with similar heatspreaders. One is a DDR400 and the other is a DDR500 model. For once, the value memory kit is a better value for money component than the Extreme model. It has an excellent overclocking potential with Infineon CE-5 memory chips. µ