Intel’s Gen2. X-25M SSD benchmarked

INTEL’S 34-NM PROCESS Flash NAND has popped up on several websites in the guise of their second generation X-25M SSD drives. PC Perspective has some preliminary tests carried out on these units. PC Perps says it’s about 10 per cent faster overall than the Gen1 drives, while Anandtech suggests the drives will bring about a breakthrough in drive pricing.

If you’re intent on building an HTPC system but have been putting it off due to the lack of HD-Audio support in embedded chipsets… well, look no further than the Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3 Slim sound card. Benchmark Reviews has it.

Driver Heaven faces off a couple of Ion-based systems, one from Asrock and another from Zotac. Either one offers a solid HTPC experience, but Zotac seems to have some challenges to overcome.

If you’d like a fully silent graphics card, you might consider the Gigabyte 9800 GT Silent Cell. This uses a custom heatsink to passively cool the GPU but the fact that the card comes a bit underclocked also helps. Don’t forget heat is exhausted through a rear vent, though. Bjorn3D did the testing.

Hexus is looking at a Packard-Bell Imax (sic) mini Nvidia Ion nettop PC. It’s an extremely compact PC that can be attached to an LCD’s VESA mounting at the back. Plays good video, too.

We swear it wasn’t us, but the hardware sites are all banging the HTPC drum: Hardware Zone tests the Antec ISK-300-65 Mini-ITX enclosure.

Dave at Hot Hardware tried out EVGA’s dual monitor system. A dual 17-inch, 1440x900x2, LCD panel system for the price of $650. It does have some neat features, but you’re better off buying a couple of 22-inchers…

Guru of 3D is also getting down and dirty with a Point-of-View Ion 330 motherboard. Despite considering that the Ion platform is hot stuff, the fact of the matter is that the Atom just doesn’t pour out enough horsepower to drive everything.

The Hardware Canucks test the Patriot Torqx 128GB SSD. It uses an Indilinx Barefoot controller and with that, performance shot through the roof. The Canucks didn’t think much of it, but it eventually turned on them.

Inpai.com.cn does a nice little comparison of AMD and Intel’s budget CPUs, trying to prove which one is best for the student on a budget. Now… they benchmarked every single hot game on the market today… yes, students of game-ology. µ