6800GS is new darling in the ring

BIOS MAGAZINE has had a refit, turning from white to black. It reviews the super posh, Dell Ultrasharp 2405FPW LCD screen. It is a 24-inch LCD monitor with a four figure contrast ratio and a WUXGA+ resolution, enough for two side by side A4 pages. It even includes a memory card reader and four USB 2.0 ports. Add a S-Video, composite and component inputs and suddenly, this screen seems to have everything - except perhaps average colour handling.

Techlabs checks the EVGA Geforce 6800GS, plus some news of the 6800XT. The 6800GS is actually an overclocked 6800 - 30% speedier in core and 43% higher memory clock. As for the XT, unlike what you can think, it is actually a PCI-e version of the 6800LE. So the GS ends up much faster than the LE. The price is right and the cards come with lifetime warrranty and 24/7 support. The card beats the X1600XT, the X80GTO and the 6800GT. And we're not factoring in overclocking.

Xtremeresources has tested the Coolermaster Praetorian 730. It is a huge tower aluminium casing with twin rear exhaust fans and one intake fan. Now what makes the special is the attention to details as well as the finishing touch that makes the Praetorian so special. The casing is not thatmuch expensive but you will have to make some concessions.

Another casing, well, one which you won't even be able to buy is the Humidor NX, by Jeffrey Stephenson. He uses an uncanny combination, it uses an undervolted 9w mobile Athlon a.k.a Geode and looks quite superb. The author has quite a few photos as well as loads of details about how to build everything else. Next what? An aquarium casing? BTW, anyone knows where to get that Geode compatible motherboard?

Writing eleven pages on a technology as mature as DVD burners is a feat that Xbitlabs writers are used to that. They reviewed the LG-GSA-4167B Dual layer DVD burne. It supports DVD RAM as well. Anything special about it. Err... It does have some drawbacks especially if you have some scratched discs to read. My bet, buy the cheapest DVD writer you can get.

Single Core ain't dead yet. This is what Tomshardware said. The reviewers there compare two single core Opterons to a single Dual core Opteron. The conclusion leaves no doubt especially when money is involved. You're probably much better off buying two single core processors and a dual motherboard for now and then upgrade to dual core when prices go down. Not only is it futureproof but you might save yourself a bundle. µ