AGP alive and living everywhere

VR ZONE reviews the new mid-range level GPU, the 7800GS from Inno3D. And guess what? It is compatible with AGP and comes with 256MB DDR3 - burnt in 110nm, has 16 pixel pipes and six vertex pipes. The card comes with the staple heat sink fan from Nvidia. Note that the card fits in a single slot and is quite long. It is very overclockable - the reviewer says that it can go up to 600MHz from 375MHz - and for the price deliveres a lot of punch.

Motherboard maker Foxconn has a nice little model tested at Hothardware. mATX format, socket 939 support, Geforce 6150, SPDIF and Realtek 850 audio, the WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS shows the way to the better mATX boards. On top of that, it supports Firewire, GbE LAN, SATA2, RAID SATA etc. Accessory bundle is fairly basic - there's a TVOut adapter - and it is inexpensive.

The Rojakpot tests another motherboard, the DFI Lan Party UT NF4 SLI-DR nForce 4 SLI model - to say that it is an affordable, basic model would be a deceptive oxymoron. Rather, it is a flashy, top end, overclockers' dream machine. Don't believe me and just read the review. Nice little attention to details - like the UV reactive oarts, the parts chosen as well as the BIOS options make it a doodle to work with.

Secretly fantasising on the Apple iBook, then you can come out now. TT-hardware, a French website, has a three-laptop review roundup with ultra portables ressembling the iBook. The Averatec Serie 1000, serie 7300 and ultra 12 are tested - the lsat one being still unrealeased. All three use integrated chipsets, and the Averatec laptops are Sempron 3000+ equipped. Shop around though if you can afford to ignore white keyboards.

Xbitlabs checks the Highpoint RocketRaid 2320 hard disk controller. It is a RAID5 controller supporting SATA2 and SATA 150 drives, NCD and TCQ. Unfortunately, it seems that RAID5 drivers are not ready and that the product is therefore a rough one. If you only want a RAID1/0 controller and do not trust onboard RAID controllers, then, the RR2320 constitute an excellent alternative.

MVKtech launches a review on the Crucial Ballistix DDR500 PC4000 1GB Kit which is one of the popular memory brands around. The memory modules are covered with golden coloured aluminium heat spreaders. Extreme overclocker, very stable even under load and covered with a lifetime warranty, anything else? Well nice price and pleasing aesthetics - if you have a perspex window that is. µ