$80 E5200 does wonders

THERE ARE Core 2 Duos and there are Pentium Dual Cores. In fact they are very similar, the latter being a stripped-down Core 2 Duo, with a lower L2 cache and ever-so-slightly-slower bus (just like a Celeron). Currently they are all Wolfdales, meaning you get architectural enhancements on the cheap. Digit Life picked up a (Pentium Dual Core) E5200 and tested it in its labs. It is ahead of most of its brethren, and considering Intel’s current pedigree, it’s a great purchase for under $80. Read the review, here.

Techgage is showing off the green goblin’s latest driver achievements on a GTX 260 Core 216, with their QX9770 rig. As we’ve mentioned before, NV is being a bit too pro-active with the reviewers as they all seem to revolve around the same five games, which is to say, Forceware 180 will play slightly better on those particular five titles… Still, it’s fair to air.

Legion Hardware is finding out quite the opposite when it comes to those same drivers. Actually they’re quite open about the way Nvidia is pushing the graphics card and drivers. Steven’s tests showed little or no gain to be had with the drivers – although they did only test at 1920x1200. They suspect game developers are tuning the games to Nvidia hardware a bit more than usual, but until they get the HD 4870 1GB they won’t know fully. Read it here.

XS Reviews, here in Blighty, is testing an interesting bit of kit. It’s an eSATA/USB 2.0 docking station from AXP, supporting both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch HDDs. Just slide one in and you’re good to go. Crap performance on USB, of course, great on eSATA. Inexpensive and easy to use, should be good for getting data off a crashed PC too… Catch it here.

Legit Reviews is testing a Tagan Aplus Curbic case. It’s a mid-tower case that doesn’t break the bank coming in at $60 (no PSU, of course). On the inside the 3.5- and 5.25-inch drives lock in with the flip of a switch, something that’s become more or less a standard with this brand. No mobo tray, not much more to look at, except the pretty LED lighting. Read it here.

Hilbert at Guru 3D is testing that monster of a card, the Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe, a three-slot non-reference HD 4870 X2 card with 2GB of GDDR5. This is the type of card that’ll chew away pixels at 2560x1600 with every bit of eye-candy turned on, so it really needs a 30-inch panel. Guru 3D gave it top marks, even though it’s big, expensive and hot. Read it here.

German site, Hardware Mag is putting on a suit of armour (or armor, as it is). The Lian Li PC-P60 case, dubbed the “Armorsuit”. This aluminium box sports an unusual amount of cooling fans at the front (3x120mm, with filter and duly lit with LEDs), as well as some clever exhausts at the top of the case (hot air rises, right?). Lots of 5.25-inch bays, not many 3.5-inchers tho’. Pricing is around €180, so it isn’t really very cheap, but it is worthwhile, says Hardware Mag. Here, if you sprechst Deutsch, or here, for Googlenglish. µ