IEEE1394b peripherals do exist

THE CANUCKS of Hardware fiddle around with some external HDD RAID enclosures from Mediasonic. These come in two flavours: USB2.0 and FireWire 800, and support RAID 0 and 1. You can stick two 3.5-inch HDDs in each of them and create bad-ass RAID 0 configurations, not that the USB 2.0 will let you rake in the benefits, but the Firewire 800 will definitely do it. As usual, you get stuck with paying big money for a measly Firewire chip – hard to justify, but maybe you really need the performance, or just need one to couple up with your Mac. Zoom across the pond here.

ITX is a form factor that has never fully matured due to a lack of interest from the big boys. However that hasn’t stopped them from putting out the occasional ITX mobo like this one here an Intel D201GLY2, reviewed at Aselabs. You get a Celeron 220 on a really basic mobo with an SIS chipset, rather than an Intel one, and it’ll cost you about $80.

Not really a review but the recognition of a seemingly hot mobo from MSI, Bit-Tech got something in their inbox from MSI, a P35 mobo which is actually equipped with EFI instead of a standard BIOS. The mobo’s a P35-Neo3, but what caught their attention was something else… some screen caps of CPU-Z where a Wolfdale (Engineering Sample) is running at 548.7MHz FSB (2194.7MHz in Intel numbers) synced with the DDR2 RAM at the same speed. Nice.

Noctua is making a name for themselves when it comes to CPU cooling. The Austria-based company gave OverclockersOnline.net a taste of their new NF-P12 fan. The P12 is, as you might be guessing, a 120mm fan, but it’s targeted at cooling components rather than creating airflow within the case. It’s all about stealth, rather than cooling power and if it breaks – you’ve got a 6 year warranty. Cool your CPU here.

If you happen to go to a LAN party, or simply travel by plane a lot, you’ll appreciate this review here. The Creative Aurvana X-Fi headphones get reviewed at Trusted Reviews. Noise Cancellation, X-Fi Crystallizer and CMSS-3D are the marketing tools trigger-happy salesbeings will be throwing at you, but TR thought it all came together. At £139 a pop, let’s hope they give you a massage too.

The very legit people at Legit Reviews have a Foxconn mobo under review – an X38A. They point out that mobos that support both DDR2 and DDR3 usually take a hit in either mode, but their tests seem to show Foxconn has overcome this situation and actually spanked some ASUS booty. Upgradability seems to be the keyword here. Benefit from dirt cheap DDR2 memory now, and move onto DDR3 as soon as it comes crashing down (memory does that, you know?).

Anandtech goes from deep engineering literature to enthusiast grade adrenaline shots with its ZEROTherm Nirvana review. This butterfly-shaped will get you “superlative” performance at the cost of extra noise, they guess. We didn’t get the price, but Anandtechies state it has great value and competes with top-end coolers. Click here if you like butterflies… and CPUs. µ