Hypermemory makes it to midrange ATI cards

HEXUS previews the Asustek A7G laptop with ATI mobility Radeon X1600 video module. At ther heart of the sytem is a Pentium M 760 backed by 1GB of DDR2 RAM out of which though 256MB sems to be shared. The most interesting component is of course the Mobility Radeon. It should be able to compete with the 6*00 GO easily especially with a core/memory clock speed of 470MHz. More to come though as there's an NDA on the benchmark numbers.

Coolermaster has realeased a low profile design chassis for a full ATX motherboard. The CM Media 260 is featured at Sysopt. At 3.5-inch high, it is surprisingly slim. Notable specs include the use of aluminium and steel in its construction, up to five available bays - including a 2.5-inch one, firewire port, three 60mm fans, optional LCD display and remote control. The Media 260 though is far from perfect with such lackings like proper sound proofing, poor compatibility with ATX motherboards and some problems with video card coolers.

Epox's socket 754 SLI motherboard wonder is tested at Bit Tech. You can bet that a fair number of socket 754 systems are going to upgrade ot this one. The Epox EP-8NPA SLI motherboard looks to attract those upgraders by offering a compelling solution that will get them RAID SATA2 support, SLI support and ten USB ports. The platform has its flaws but as AMD is bringing down the barries of 64-bit - 64-bit Sempron 2500+ have been spotted, the possibility of having an overclockable SLI platform for less than £200 is tantalizing.

The same product is also tested at digitlife. Surprisingly Asrock has not come forward with such an innovative concept. Note though that reviewers found out that it was not totally stable when submitted to stress test. How successful the 8NPA will be depends on the propensity of some to buy a Value SLI solution and not bit the bullet and go 939 directly. In fact the biggest upgraders might in fact be socket 462 owners.

Trustedreviews tested the Matrox Dual Head 2 Go which is an innovative - if expensive way to add dual monitor capabilities to your laptop. Matrox has been particularly silent in the past few years. Make sure your laptop is present on the list though. TR even tested it on an Apple Powerbook successfully. I wonder though how long it will take before this concept is brought onboard laptops. If you want to try another solution, try Maxivista. It is cheap, compatible with everything but needs a slave PC to work.

Finally, Techreport checks the DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CD-DR which is the first Crossfire motherboard and designed by the Abit BP6 creator - for those too young to remember, the BP6 was the only mainstream Dual processor boards available for Pentium 3/Celeron. It was based on an Intel BX chipset and offered RAID, all at a fantastically affordable price. The RDX200 certainly rocks even when compared to the likes of the best Nforce motherboards on the market. It does come with its own set of issues though, most notably the well known USB problem and the fact that Master Crossfire cards are as available as Dodo Burgers. µ