Coolermaster inclined towards notebook accesories

FOR MOST people this was the first week back at work after a break over the festive period and if you're reading this then you made it. I think congratulations and trip to the pub are in order. But before that we should have a look at what the productive writers around us have been to.

Anandtech has offered up the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3: Lab Testing Update which has a look at the performance improvements since the release of the F9 BIOS for this already impressive motherboard.

Rbmods has reviewed the Silverstone SST-ST40EF 400W Power Supply. It seems to be stable, quiet and performs well which is really all you need from a PSU even if all the cables aren't sleeved, and 400W should be plenty to run most of today's mainstream PCs.

Virtual-Hideout brings us the Cooler Master NotePal S Notebook Accessory Review which is a nifty little device that will allow you to stand the base of your laptop at one of six angles, thereby allowing you to raise the height of the screen or make for a more comfortable typing setup.

When most of think of discrete sound cards Creative is usually the only name that immediately springs to mind, but this week alone the roundup has seen reviews of three sound cards including this Bluegears b-Enspirer sound card review from Elite Bastards.

BIOS magazine has snagged a UK exclusive review of the Swann Digital Private Eye. This quite cheap little security camera uses motion detection and stores images captured every three seconds to an SD memory card. The lack of features means it scores a disappointing six.

If you think the stock cooler on your graphics card just isn't quite good enough or perhaps is too loud for your liking then you'll want to check out the Thermalright HR-03 VGA Cooler Review by PC Perspective. It's a little bulky so it may not fit in a small form factor case, but it performs well and you may be able to forego a fan altogether.

PC Cases make for very subjective reviews because what people want out of a design and what they consider attractive vary widely. Madshrimps has written up the Antec Nine Hundred Hardcore Gaming Case Review, a case that has come up several times in my roundup and has always received broadly positive results and this time is no exception.

GamePC has reviewed the High Speed Octa-Core : Intel's Xeon X5355 Processors, which has a thorough look at the performance of an eight core workstation / server setup using a pair of Intel's new Xeon 5300 series processors. If you can find applications that can utilise all eight cores then the performance is impressive but the price and power consumption is also a considerable factor.µ

* SEND YOUR hardware news to Ian Williams.