Pioneer BDC-SO2BK Blu-ray Drive

Manufacturer:Pioneer
UK Price (as reviewed):£89.99 (inc. VAT), £77.54 (inc. VAT) - OEM
US Price (as reviewed):$129.99 (ex. Tax)

Is Blu for You?

So, Blu-ray won the format war and whether you like it or not (I shed a tear for HD DVD at least), now at least we have a clear path of high definition movie purchases.

As you can see from the pricing of this unit listed above, Blu-ray drives are no longer a several hundred pound investment. Of course, it's no £15 DVD-RW drive you can now pick up anywhere, but £90 is not too much to ask if you're making a high definition capable HTPC. And what's more, Pioneer throws in some Cyberlink Blu-ray software as well if you purchase one of the retail boxes.

NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi 30" widescreen

Manufacturer:NEC Display Solutions
UK Price (as reviewed):£1,526.33 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$1,999.99 (ex. Tax)

I have a confession to make – when I was still at University, I remember telling one of my fellow course mates that I didn't like big monitors. He'd got a big 22-inch Formac CRT based on Sony's FD Trinitron tube and I didn't see a benefit to such a big screen – I'd probably end up just hurting my back when I was moving across London into new student digs.

Seasonic S12-II 500W PSU

Manufacturer:Seasonic
UK Price (as reviewed):£48.40 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$85.99 (ex. Tax)

Introduction

Seasonic is one of those rare companies that enjoys a continued reputation of recommendation from online communities the world over. Corsair contracts the company to make its own HX range, and while we didn't rate the last Seasonic unit we reviewed, this one looks a lot more promising. Based on our first impressions the price, style and quality look great so we couldn't wait to get a hold of one of the 500W units to see if it works as well as we'd expect.

GT200: Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 analysis

Manufacturer:Nvidia
UK Pricing:£411.10 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing:$639.99 (ex. Tax)

Nvidia has been comfortably riding on high ground ever since it introduced its last major architectural overhaul in November 2006 with the launch of the G80 graphics processor. ATI's numerous failings and delays related to R600 and with its mind focused on integrating its businesses with AMD following the acquisition, Nvidia had a pretty easy ride.

MSI P45 Platinum

Manufacturer:MSI
UK Price (as reviewed):£122.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$185.49 (ex. Tax)

Introduction

We've already looked at the unique Asus P5Q Deluxe along with the fully featured Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 and, since trilogies are in fashion at the moment, we complete our little P45 trilogy with a review of the MSI P45 Platinum. We felt the P35 Platinum was certainly a solid board—even if it wasn't exceptional at the time of launch—and although we didn't review one of the P35 Neo boards, we know MSI sold these very attractively priced boards more than anything else.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6

Manufacturer:Gigabyte
UK Price (as reviewed):£163.03 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$246.00 (ex. Tax)

Introduction

A few years ago, a high-end motherboard would have had oodles of features and overclocking capabilities – something that Gigabyte’s DQ6-branded motherboards fitted perfectly. But now the market is changing as there are more SKUs that specifically tailor to the consumers’ needs: essentially, the market outgrew the DQ6.

HP 2133 Mini-note sub-notebook

Manufacturer:HP
UK Price (as reviewed):£354.99 (inc. Delivery)
US Price (as reviewed):$749.99 (inc. Delivery)

Netbooks are, ironically, becoming quite big business. I say ironically because, just in case you aren't up to scratch on your gee-whiz tech jargon, the netbook is a new category of notebook that sits below traditionally-sized notebooks when it comes to size, weight and price.

These little laptops are worth such big bucks right now thanks mainly to the success of Asus' Eee PC range of sub-notebooks, which really hit the market hard and showed everyone that there was a new audience out there. The problem has been though that it is really hard to design a good sub-notebook – even the Eee PC didn't get it quite right and had a fair share of failings (the infinite 'Pending' network bug, anyone?)

Splitting the Atom: Inside the Eee PC 901

Manufacturer:Asus

Yet again my inner seven year old has taken hold of me and insisted I find out what's inside the new Eee PC 901 without general consideration about how it goes back together. It doesn't seem all that long ago when we broke the Eee PC 900 open to see what was inside its green, silicon innards, and now we're doing the same with the arguably more interesting 901.

After all, everyone seems genuinely excited by the prospects of Intel's Atom processor family.

Scythe Ninja Copper

Manufacturer:Scythe
UK Price (as reviewed):£43.35 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$58.95 (ex. Tax)

Weight (with fan): 1130g
Size (with fan): 110mm(W) x 120mm(D) x 150mm (H)
Fan Size: 120mm
Fan Speed: 800rpm
Noise Level: 10.70 dBA
Bearing type: Sleeve bearing
Warranty: Two years

Introduction

When you need to use your chin to fit a CPU cooler, something has gone very wrong indeed. I don’t really like starting on such a negative point when reviewing a product, but in the case of the Scythe Ninja Copper, it’s sadly true. We'll no doubt talk more about the chin fitting difficulty in a few pages, but let’s start out by looking at its background.

Saitek Cyborg Gaming Mouse

Manufacturer:Saitek
UK Price (as reviewed):£31.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$59.99 (inc. Delivery)

As far as inputs go, it’s hard to get much more fundamental than the mouse and, as far as gaming devices go, it’s hard to get much more important.

They proclaim the fact on the back of the boxes and in all the hype and press releases and we all roll our eyes and pretend not to be so stupid as to fall for these marketing ploys…but it’s true. A good mouse will last you for years and afford you a Zen like level of comfort that allows you to take your gaming to the next level.

Samsung SyncMaster 2253LW 21.6" LCD

Manufacturer:Samsung
UK Price (as reviewed):£205.00 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$269.99 (ex. Tax)


Another day, another samey 22-inch widescreen monitor kitted out with a TN+Film LCD panel. There’s a twist today though, because this monitor isn't quite so easily categorised as it actually sports a quirky 21.6-inch screen diagonal making it marginally smaller than the 22-inch masses.