Asus Maximus II Formula

Manufacturer:Asus
UK Price (as reviewed):£141.59 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$186.00 (ex. Tax)

When we first saw the Maximus II Formula truth be told we were blown away by its style and level of innovation. It's not often that this happens because, for the most part, the Taiwanese are conservative about what they make. They often build to predetermined guidelines so as to maximise potential sales across all regions - this is partly why we keep seeing multi-coloured boards with floppy ports, PS2 mouse sockets and RS232 serial connectors on motherboards. Please let them fade into oblivion!

Silver Power SP-S850 PSU

Manufacturer:Tagan
UK Price (as reviewed):£72.07 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): TBC

If you're wondering who Silver Power is - look no further than to its parent company: Maxpoint in Germany (or Nanopoint in the UK), and you may be more familiar with the Tagan brand, which it also manufacturers. In the past, Silver Power has found its way into many pre-built machines sold by large brands, but only recently has the brand made its way into the channel for us to buy.

Zalman ZMachine LQ1000

Manufacturer: Zalman
UK Price (as reviewed): £405.36 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$649.95 (ex. Tax)

Case Supplied by:Quiet PC, £419.99

Water-cooling is the arguably one of the most defining factors of a true PC hardware enthusiast. Just by seeing someone with a water-cooled machine, you immediately know that they are someone who has a great deal of enthusiasm and respect for their hardware – why else would they go to the trouble of using water over air cooling, considering the significantly higher costs, maintenance and chance for failure cooling using water brings with it?

Akasa PowerMax 1000W Gaming PSU

Manufacturer:Akasa
UK Price (as reviewed):£114.95 (inc. VAT)

Another day, another 1,000W power supply. Everyone seems to have one these days and Akasa is a relatively little considered brand and if we'll be brutal here, is this only because of the extensive marketing coverage other brands get or because Akasa is a considered better at making low cost heatsinks and nic-naks like SATA cables?

For £115 the PowerMax is £25 less than even the Corsair HX1000W we already gave a value award to. But is it

Akasa PowerMax 1000W Gaming PSU

Manufacturer:Akasa
UK Price (as reviewed):£114.95 (inc. VAT)

Another day, another 1,000W power supply. Everyone seems to have one these days and Akasa is a relatively little considered brand and if we'll be brutal here, is this only because of the extensive marketing coverage other brands get or because Akasa is a considered better at making low cost heatsinks and nic-naks like SATA cables?

For £115 the PowerMax is £25 less than even the Corsair HX1000W we already gave a value award to. But is it

QNAP TS-209 II Turbo NAS

Manufacturer:QNAP
UK Price (as reviewed):£243.71 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$399.00 (ex. Tax)

Unless you're a digital hoarder who has more porn media than you can shake a DVD collection at, two terabytes (or more in the future) is plenty for most people as a bit of communal storage. Four disk NAS boxes are expensive and simply excessive for many, so what can you get for just a pair of drives?

Gigabyte GA-GC230D Atom Mini-ITX

Manufacturer:Gigabyte
UK Price (as reviewed):£54.05 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$69.99 (ex. Tax)

We've covered Intel Atom netbooks in quite considerable depth to date, having looked at the Eees, the One and the Wind to name but a few. Mini-ITX has also been a favourite niche of ours - we've covered VIA EPIAs for many years here at bit-tech and more recently more powerful Nvidia GeForce 8200 and AMD 780G motherboards.

Foxconn DigitaLife A79A-S

Manufacturer:Foxconn
UK Price (as reviewed):£195.11 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$214.99 (ex. Tax)

AMD recently launched its new SB750 southbridge in conjunction with its fresh 790GX integrated graphics northbridge. The SB750 offers better overclocking for Phenom Black Editions especially, by including a clock calibration option in the BIOS. The only thing is, the 790GX is not the 790FX - the change of letter makes all the difference.

Foxconn DigitaLife A79A-S

Manufacturer:Foxconn
UK Price (as reviewed):£195.11 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$214.99 (ex. Tax)

AMD recently launched its new SB750 southbridge in conjunction with its fresh 790GX integrated graphics northbridge. The SB750 offers better overclocking for Phenom Black Editions especially, by including a clock calibration option in the BIOS. The only thing is, the 790GX is not the 790FX - the change of letter makes all the difference.

Foxconn DigitaLife A79A-S

Manufacturer:Foxconn
UK Price (as reviewed):£195.11 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$214.99 (ex. Tax)

AMD recently launched its new SB750 southbridge in conjunction with its fresh 790GX integrated graphics northbridge. The SB750 offers better overclocking for Phenom Black Editions especially, by including a clock calibration option in the BIOS. The only thing is, the 790GX is not the 790FX - the change of letter makes all the difference.

Akasa PowerMax 1000W Gaming PSU

Manufacturer:Akasa
UK Price (as reviewed):£114.95 (inc. VAT)

Another day, another 1,000W power supply. Everyone seems to have one these days and Akasa is a relatively little considered brand and if we'll be brutal here, is this only because of the extensive marketing coverage other brands get or because Akasa is a considered better at making low cost heatsinks and nic-naks like SATA cables?

For £115 the PowerMax is £25 less than even the Corsair HX1000W we already gave a value award to. But is it

QNAP TS-209 II Turbo NAS

Manufacturer:QNAP
UK Price (as reviewed):£243.71 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$399.00 (ex. Tax)

Unless you're a digital hoarder who has more porn media than you can shake a DVD collection at, two terabytes (or more in the future) is plenty for most people as a bit of communal storage. Four disk NAS boxes are expensive and simply excessive for many, so what can you get for just a pair of drives?

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 260 OCX Maxcore

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£252.17 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$329.99 (ex. Tax)

Nvidia first introduced the GeForce GTX 200 series in the middle of June, where it announced two new graphics cards—the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260. At the time, both cards were introduced at high price points and in some ways it felt like neither product was doing enough to justify the price.

Gigabyte GA-GC230D Atom Mini-ITX

Manufacturer:Gigabyte
UK Price (as reviewed):£54.05 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$69.99 (ex. Tax)

We've covered Intel Atom netbooks in quite considerable depth to date, having looked at the Eees, the One and the Wind to name but a few. Mini-ITX has also been a favourite niche of ours - we've covered VIA EPIAs for many years here at bit-tech and more recently more powerful Nvidia GeForce 8200 and AMD 780G motherboards.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 260 OCX Maxcore

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£252.17 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$329.99 (ex. Tax)

Nvidia first introduced the GeForce GTX 200 series in the middle of June, where it announced two new graphics cards—the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260. At the time, both cards were introduced at high price points and in some ways it felt like neither product was doing enough to justify the price.

J&W MINIX 780G mini-ITX HTPC mobo

Manufacturer:J&W
US Price (as reviewed): $189 RRP

While we've had a loose but intimate relationship with mini-ITX boards over the years here at bit-tech, these have mostly been limited to the proprietor of the standard - VIA and its EPIA boards. As these feature CPUs that are soldered to the board the whole unit is seen as one package and the performance has been limited. This was in some ways further developed by the use of mobile (Intel) CPUs, but both these and the boards were often mightily expensive.

QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS

Manufacturer:QNAP
UK Price (as reviewed):£421.82 (inc VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$599.00 (ex Tax)

NAS boxes are becoming an increasingly popular commodity in people's homes - whether it be for creating redundancy of your data (loosely called "backing up"), having a central storage of music, movies and media, for business and SOHO needs with a few dozen users, or, in this case all of the above and a whole load more.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

Manufacturer:Sapphire
UK Price (as reviewed): £327.98 (Inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$559.99 (Exc. Tax)

Core Clock: 750MHz
Memory Clock: 3,600MHz (effective)
Memory: 2GB GDDR5
Warranty: Two years (parts and labour)

In the few short weeks since its release, the 4870 X2 has gone from strength to strength, cementing its position as the fastest single graphics card available. In our initial review, we were amazed at the performance advances made by the 4870 X2 over Nvidia's competing GeForce GTX 280 in numerous benchmark tests, although ATI/AMD's wonder card did show a few chinks in its armour in un-optimised games, demonstrating the reliance of dual GPU cards on game specific driver profiles with a few unimpressive results in a couple of less popular games.

QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS

Manufacturer:QNAP
UK Price (as reviewed):£421.82 (inc VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$599.00 (ex Tax)

NAS boxes are becoming an increasingly popular commodity in people's homes - whether it be for creating redundancy of your data (loosely called "backing up"), having a central storage of music, movies and media, for business and SOHO needs with a few dozen users, or, in this case all of the above and a whole load more.

QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS

Manufacturer:QNAP
UK Price (as reviewed):£421.82 (inc VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$599.00 (ex Tax)

NAS boxes are becoming an increasingly popular commodity in people's homes - whether it be for creating redundancy of your data (loosely called "backing up"), having a central storage of music, movies and media, for business and SOHO needs with a few dozen users, or, in this case all of the above and a whole load more.

QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS

Manufacturer:QNAP
UK Price (as reviewed):£421.82 (inc VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$599.00 (ex Tax)

NAS boxes are becoming an increasingly popular commodity in people's homes - whether it be for creating redundancy of your data (loosely called "backing up"), having a central storage of music, movies and media, for business and SOHO needs with a few dozen users, or, in this case all of the above and a whole load more.

Akasa Blue Aurora

Manufactuerer:Akasa
UK Price (as reviewed):£24.66 (inc VAT)

Weight (with fan): 750g
Size (with fan): 165mm(H) x 127mm(W) x 116mm(H) D
Fan Size: 120mm
Fan Speed: 500-1700RPM
Airflow: 16.87-57.33 CFM
Noise Level: 12.67 - 27.18dBa
Warranty: One year standard warranty
Supported Motherboards: Intel LGA 775 ONLY

As we’ve seen in the last few months, building a truly excellent CPU heatsink is perhaps a bit more difficult than many would give manufacturers credit for. As well as striking the fine balance between cooling ability and fan noise, the mounting system of the heatsink and fan also prove a stumbling block for many, and a truly excellent cooler will be able to do all this at a price that isn’t equivalent to that of the processor it’s cooling.

Scythe Zipang

Manufacturer: Scythe
UK Price (as reviewed):£38.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed)$49.00 (ex. Tax)

Weight (with fan): 815g
Size (with fan): 1137mm(H) x 145mm(W) x 148mm(H) D
Fan Size: 139mm
Fan Speed: 1000RPM
Airflow: 51.82 CFM
Noise Level: 21 dBa
Warranty: Two year warranty via retailer
Supported Motherboards: Intel LGA 775, Intel 478, AMD 754,939, 940, AM2

XFX GeForce 9600 GSO 680M XXX Edition

Manufacturer:XFX
UK Price (as reviewed):£64.96 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): TBC

Core Clock: 680MHz
Shader Clock: 1,700MHz
Memory Clock: 1,900MHz (effective)
Memory: 384MB GDDR3
Warranty: Two years (parts and labour)

It’s fair to say that Nvidia has lost the plot in recent times when it comes to the way it is naming its products. The first product affected by the landslide was the GeForce 8800 GTS 512, which was a card with completely different performance characteristics to the original GeForce 8800 GTS.

Acer G24 - 24" widescreen gaming monitor

Manufacturer:Acer
UK Price (as reviewed):£352.49 (inc. VAT)

There are lies. There are damned lies. And then there are monitor specifications. More than most PC components, buyers should be extremely wary of the specs monitor makers attach to their produce.

Partly, the problem is down to the fact that it typically requires expensive specialist kit to confirm or deny screen performance stats. If you buy a CPU advertised with a 2.5GHz operating frequency, it's straight forward to get a reliable confirmation that the chip is behaving as promised.

AMD ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB

Manufacturer:AMD
UK Price (as reviewed): £55 - £60 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): around $79.00 (ex. Tax)

AMD's Graphics Product Group has been on a bit of a role since the release of its new ATI Radeon HD 4000 architecture at the end of June, as it managed to catch Nvidia with its pants round its ankles. Overnight, AMD's position in the market changed from one of damage control to one where its products offered significantly better value in the crucial enthusiast segment.

Powercolor Radeon HD 4850 PCS+

Manufacturer:Powercolor
UK Price (as reviewed): £121.17 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): N/A

Core Clock: 665MHz
Memory Clock: 1,986MHz (effective)
Warranty: Two years (parts and labour)

ATI/AMD’s RV770 architecture and the cards based upon it, the Radeon 4850, 4870 and 4870 X2 have significantly changed the appearance of the graphics card market since their arrival in the last few months. AMD has shrugged off the title of underdog and has produced cards that have claimed not the performance, but also the value for money crown from Nvidia.

J&W MINIX 780G mini-ITX HTPC mobo

Manufacturer:J&W
US Price (as reviewed): $189 RRP

While we've had a loose but intimate relationship with mini-ITX boards over the years here at bit-tech, these have mostly been limited to the proprietor of the standard - VIA and its EPIA boards. As these feature CPUs that are soldered to the board the whole unit is seen as one package and the performance has been limited. This was in some ways further developed by the use of mobile (Intel) CPUs, but both these and the boards were often mightily expensive.

Scythe Zipang

Manufacturer: Scythe
UK Price (as reviewed):£38.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed)$49.00 (ex. Tax)

Weight (with fan): 815g
Size (with fan): 1137mm(H) x 145mm(W) x 148mm(H) D
Fan Size: 139mm
Fan Speed: 1000RPM
Airflow: 51.82 CFM
Noise Level: 21 dBa
Warranty: Two year warranty via retailer
Supported Motherboards: Intel LGA 775, Intel 478, AMD 754,939, 940, AM2

Foxconn DigitaLife A79A-S

Manufacturer:Foxconn
UK Price (as reviewed):£195.11 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$214.99 (ex. Tax)

AMD recently launched its new SB750 southbridge in conjunction with its fresh 790GX integrated graphics northbridge. The SB750 offers better overclocking for Phenom Black Editions especially, by including a clock calibration option in the BIOS. The only thing is, the 790GX is not the 790FX - the change of letter makes all the difference.

AMD ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB

Manufacturer:AMD
UK Price (as reviewed): £55 - £60 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): around $79.00 (ex. Tax)

AMD's Graphics Product Group has been on a bit of a role since the release of its new ATI Radeon HD 4000 architecture at the end of June, as it managed to catch Nvidia with its pants round its ankles. Overnight, AMD's position in the market changed from one of damage control to one where its products offered significantly better value in the crucial enthusiast segment.

Gigabyte GA-GC230D Atom Mini-ITX

Manufacturer:Gigabyte
UK Price (as reviewed):£54.05 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$69.99 (ex. Tax)

We've covered Intel Atom netbooks in quite considerable depth to date, having looked at the Eees, the One and the Wind to name but a few. Mini-ITX has also been a favourite niche of ours - we've covered VIA EPIAs for many years here at bit-tech and more recently more powerful Nvidia GeForce 8200 and AMD 780G motherboards.

Akasa PowerMax 1000W Gaming PSU

Manufacturer:Akasa
UK Price (as reviewed):£114.95 (inc. VAT)

Another day, another 1,000W power supply. Everyone seems to have one these days and Akasa is a relatively little considered brand and if we'll be brutal here, is this only because of the extensive marketing coverage other brands get or because Akasa is a considered better at making low cost heatsinks and nic-naks like SATA cables?

For £115 the PowerMax is £25 less than even the Corsair HX1000W we already gave a value award to. But is it

Akasa Blue Aurora

Manufactuerer: Akasa
UK Price (as reviewed):£24.66 (inc VAT)

Weight (with fan): 750g
Size (with fan): 165mm(H) x 127mm(W) x 116mm(H) D
Fan Size: 120mm
Fan Speed: 500-1700RPM
Airflow: 16.87-57.33 CFM
Noise Level: 12.67 - 27.18dBa
Warranty: One year standard warranty
Supported Motherboards: Intel LGA 775 ONLY

As we’ve seen in the last few months, building a truly excellent CPU heatsink is perhaps a bit more difficult than many would give manufacturers credit for. As well as striking the fine balance between cooling ability and fan noise, the mounting system of the heatsink and fan also prove a stumbling block for many, and a truly excellent cooler will be able to do all this at a price that isn’t equivalent to that of the processor it’s cooling.

Acer G24 - 24" widescreen gaming monitor

Manufacturer:Acer
UK Price (as reviewed):£352.49 (inc. VAT)

There are lies. There are damned lies. And then there are monitor specifications. More than most PC components, buyers should be extremely wary of the specs monitor makers attach to their produce.

Partly, the problem is down to the fact that it typically requires expensive specialist kit to confirm or deny screen performance stats. If you buy a CPU advertised with a 2.5GHz operating frequency, it's straight forward to get a reliable confirmation that the chip is behaving as promised.

RV770: ATI Radeon HD 4850 & 4870 analysis

Manufacturer:AMD

It's fair to say that for the last two generations, the ATI graphics team has had a pretty tough time. R600 was too hot and too late and this caused many to believe that the Radeon HD 2900 XT was indeed a failure. In fact, many went so far as to say that it was almost as big a failure as Nvidia's infamous NV30 (GeForceFX) disaster.

While I'm not sure that's a fair comparison on ATI’s part, I think the decision to replace the product after just over five months was a big enough sign that there were significant problems. Thankfully, ATI's graphics team made the best of a bad situation when it introduced RV670 and the Radeon HD 3800-series of graphics cards.

Hiper Osiris

Manufacturer: Hiper
UK Price (as reviewed): £79.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$159.99 (exc. Tax)

It seems that every week recently we’ve had a big name case come across our desks. In the last few alone we’ve looked at the excellent Akasa Omega, along with the innovative but flawed X2000 and XB01 from Lian Li.

Today though we felt it was time to look at a case from one of the less well known manufacturers, Hiper, who had a great entry into the market with the Anubis case which Joe reviewed back last autumn. Joe liked this case so much that not only did he award it a 9/10, he also took it home and put his own system into - high praise indeed!

Acer G24 - 24" widescreen gaming monitor

Manufacturer:Acer
UK Price (as reviewed):£352.49 (inc. VAT)

There are lies. There are damned lies. And then there are monitor specifications. More than most PC components, buyers should be extremely wary of the specs monitor makers attach to their produce.

Partly, the problem is down to the fact that it typically requires expensive specialist kit to confirm or deny screen performance stats. If you buy a CPU advertised with a 2.5GHz operating frequency, it's straight forward to get a reliable confirmation that the chip is behaving as promised.

OCZ Vendetta 2

Manufacturer:OCZ
UK Price (as Reviewed):£22.80 (inc VAT)
US Price (as Reviewed):$34.99 (ex TAX, including rebate)

Weight (with fan): 746g
Size (with fan): (W)120mm x (D)50mm x (H)159mm
Fan Size: 120mm (Rifle Bearing)
Fan Speed: 800-1500 RPM (65-81 CFM)
Noise Level: 20-32 dBA
Warranty: Two year standard warranty

Today we’re looking at the first second generation direct contact heatsink to arrive in the

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

Manufacturer:Sapphire
UK Price (as reviewed): £327.98 (Inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$559.99 (Exc. Tax)

Core Clock: 750MHz
Memory Clock: 3,600MHz (effective)
Memory: 2GB GDDR5
Warranty: Two years (parts and labour)

In the few short weeks since its release, the 4870 X2 has gone from strength to strength, cementing its position as the fastest single graphics card available. In our initial review, we were amazed at the performance advances made by the 4870 X2 over Nvidia's competing GeForce GTX 280 in numerous benchmark tests, although ATI/AMD's wonder card did show a few chinks in its armour in un-optimised games, demonstrating the reliance of dual GPU cards on game specific driver profiles with a few unimpressive results in a couple of less popular games.

RV770: ATI Radeon HD 4850 & 4870 analysis

Manufacturer:AMD

It's fair to say that for the last two generations, the ATI graphics team has had a pretty tough time. R600 was too hot and too late and this caused many to believe that the Radeon HD 2900 XT was indeed a failure. In fact, many went so far as to say that it was almost as big a failure as Nvidia's infamous NV30 (GeForceFX) disaster.

While I'm not sure that's a fair comparison on ATI’s part, I think the decision to replace the product after just over five months was a big enough sign that there were significant problems. Thankfully, ATI's graphics team made the best of a bad situation when it introduced RV670 and the Radeon HD 3800-series of graphics cards.

Hiper Osiris

Manufacturer: Hiper
UK Price (as reviewed): £79.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$159.99 (exc. Tax)

It seems that every week recently we’ve had a big name case come across our desks. In the last few alone we’ve looked at the excellent Akasa Omega, along with the innovative but flawed X2000 and XB01 from Lian Li.

Today though we felt it was time to look at a case from one of the less well known manufacturers, Hiper, who had a great entry into the market with the Anubis case which Joe reviewed back last autumn. Joe liked this case so much that not only did he award it a 9/10, he also took it home and put his own system into - high praise indeed!