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04 APR 2005 |
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LG
Flatron 1980U LCD Display
LCD displays have come a long way. LCD
displays for your computer are more desirable these days because they
offer larger screens, are much more affordable, and are more acceptable
for gaming. When gaming with an LCD monitor, one of the issues
involves "ghosting". In general, ghosting is a blurriness of the
screen when viewing fast paced images or content on a LCD monitor.
The reason behind this has to do with the pixel response time of a LCD
monitor. The pixel response time basically determines how fast a
pixel can be displayed on a screen. If you have a high pixel
response time, then ghosting is prevalent. On the other hand, a
low pixel response time translates to minimal or non-perceived ghosting.
Today, I will be reviewing the LG Flatron 1980U LCD display. This
monitor is ideal for gaming because of it's emphasized low 12ms response
time.
If pixel response time was the only important
factor when buying a LCD monitor, then all of us would be buying this
monitor right away. It is also important for a LCD display to have
good contrast and brightness while still providing a clear and sharp
picture. Also, there are also additional factors which come into
play such as extra features included, design, and setup. The LG
Flatron 1980U does deliver screen-wise, but does have an awkward stand.
Click Here for
More...
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03 MAR 2005 |
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PowerColor Theatre 550 Pro
Being able to watch TV on your computer
has not been a new concept. It's
been around for quite a while now.
T'he main reasons it has not been
adopted by many people is because of the
poor picture quality as well as software
usability. One of the reasons
behind the poor picture quality has to
do with the idea that a computer monitor
has a much higher resolution than a TV.
In addition, there are other notable
problems regarding picture quality.
The picture quality looks a bit noisy
sometimes, the colors bleed, etc., which
makes it a poor experience. With
the release of the Theatre 550 Pro chip
from ATI, the goal is to bring the same
home theatre experience to your
computer. These include features
like stereo TV sound and radio and most
important of all, a 3D comb filter and
noise reduction to improve the picture
quality.
Click Here For More... |
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03 JAN 2005 |
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A4Tech Battery Free Wireless Optical Mouse
Many people
have come to enjoy the freedom
from wires by owning a wireless
mouse. Almost all wireless
mice these days rely on
batteries. Rechargeable or
not, many people dread the day
where their mouse will stop
functioning right in the middle
of a game or when when working
on an important task.
Today, we will be taking a look
at a wireless optical mouse that
immediately sets itself apart
from all other wireless mice
because it does not use any
batteries at all. It is
A4Tech's Battery Free Wireless
Optical Mouse.
Click Here Fore
More... |
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13 DEC 2004 |
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Samsung Syncmaster 172X LCD Display
LCD
displays for the computer have
come to the point where they are
more affordable and are starting
to become more common.
Computer manufacturers now
provide consumers with the
option of choosing a CRT monitor
or upgrading to an LCD display.
When comparing LCD displays with
CRT monitors, each have their
unique features that tend to a
user's preference. LCD
displays are much thinner,
lighter, and definitely more
portable than a CRT monitor.
CRT monitors on the other hand
are much heavier, but are much
cheaper.
Click Here for
more...
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03 DEC 2004 |
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PowerColor A350A-VF Motherboard
When thinking about
motherboards, many people think of
popular companies such as Intel, Abit,
Asus, etc. They have provided quality
motherboards for many years now and are
brands that can be trusted. What I
wasn't aware of is that the fact that
Tul makes motherboards as well. With
the recent review of Tul's PowerColor
Radeon X800XT as well as other reviews I
had seen of their products, they have
made excellent graphics cards with their
award winning PowerColor series. Now,
Tul has brought the PowerColor series
name to their motherboards as well. I
was surprised when I first learned that
Tul made motherboards, because they have
released quite a few of them already. I
suppose that many of us have not really
heard about their motherboard products
because we simply have not heard much
news about them. Today, we had the
chance to review Tul's PowerColor
A350-VF motherboard.
There are two
important aspects that we will examine
in this motherboard. The most important
aspect about this board is that this
motherboard is based on ATI's 9100 Pro
IGP chipset. Second, in this review, we
will examine the quality and features of
this board. This can easily be
determined by benchmarking it in a
variety of tests and comparing it with a
chipset similar in features with Intel.
Click Here fore more |
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17 SEP 2004 |
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Lite-On SOHW32S/SOHW1213S DVD-RW Drives
DVD
recordable drives are starting to really take off in
terms of the features available and the speed of the
drives.
Today, I will be reviewing two DVD recordable
drives from a company called Lite-On. One has a maximum
recording speed of 8X and the other has a maximum speed
of 12X. Ever since DVD drives have been released,
things have been a bit more complicated. There are more
numbers to examine as well as the different technologies
used in the drives. This review will help demystify the
confusion involved when buying a DVD recordable drive as
well as what to look for. Since most people buying a
DVD recordable intend on using it mainly for creating
DVD’s rather than CD’s, the review will focus on the DVD
performance of the two drives.
Click
here for more.
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10 SEP 2004 |
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Logitech RumblePad 2
As an avid gamer
for many years now, I have witnessed and
played with all kinds of controllers for
the PC as well as different consoles. I
continue to use one of my favorite game
pads, Microsoft's SideWinder,
which I bought many years ago. This
game pad still serves me well in today's
games such as Need For Speed Underground
as well as classic emulated arcade
games. To this day, I still am slightly
disappointed with many of the game pads
out in the market today. They simply
fail because they don't have enough
features or most important of all, they
fail functionally. For instance, this
includes having the right number of
buttons as well as where they are
placed. A very important concept to a
consumer is the durability of the
controller. I have seen the directional
pad of many controllers break or wear
out over a period of time. In addition,
I even saw some controllers whose
directional pads or buttons simply
didn't work well.
Today, I will be
reviewing Logitech's RumblePad 2. This
game pad has extra features that will
appeal to most consumers. It has
built-in vibration for games and it is
cordless as well. These features are
great and all, but does this game pad
pass the test when it comes to basic
functionality and design?
Click
here for more
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07 SEP 2004 |
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Logitech LX501 Cordless Desktop
Logitech has been
the leader when in comes to mice and
keyboards. When Logitech recently
launched their new keyboard, I was a bit
confused as to where these would fall
relative to the MX series.
Today, I
will be looking at two products: the
Logitech LX 501 Cordless Desktop and the
Media Keyboard.
In Logitech’s press
release, they announced the LX 501, LX
500, LX 300 Desktop series as well as
the Media Keyboard. The LX 300 desktop
isn’t released until mid-September, but
we can only imagine it will be very
similar to the LX500 and LX501. The
only difference between the LX 501 and
LX 500 is the color. The LX 501 is
white and the LX 500 is black. Both of
these desktop sets use the Media
Keyboard which is the focus of this
review.
Click
here for more.
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04 SEP 2004 |
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ATI HDTV Wonder
The concept of being able
to watch TV on your computer has been around for
quite some time now. In fact, there are already
quite a few TV cards available in the market
today. Some of the more well known brands
include Hauppauge as well as ATI. ATI’s TV
tuners can be found separately in the ATI TV
Wonder series or integrated in video cards in
ATI’s All-In-Wonder series.
Unfortunately, the idea has
not been as appealing to consumers due to
several reasons. First of all, if you were to
compare the picture quality on the same standard
TV signal, you would immediately notice that
picture quality looks better on a regular TV as
opposed to a computer screen. This is because
the TV signal is not quite appropriate with the
resolution on a computer monitor. In addition,
there isn’t much visibility of these kinds of
products in a retail store because you rarely
see a computer demonstrating TV capabilities on
a computer. Companies have taken a slightly
different route with the introduction of LCD
screens with built-in TV tuners. This is great
in bringing awareness of being able to watch TV
on your computer, but it still has the same poor
picture quality.
Today, I will be reviewing
a revolutionary product that attempts to change
the TV-viewing experience on your computer. It
is called the ATI HDTV Wonder. HDTV technology
is starting to become standard in the latest
types of digital televisions costing upwards of
thousands of dollars. Now ATI is bringing the
same experience of HDTV to the computer user
with their HDTV Wonder package which retails for
$200.
Click
here for more.
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03 SEP 2004 |
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Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 Hard Drive
Hard disk drives are getting larger
and larger every year and they’re also getting cheaper.
I know that I require a lot of hard drive space on my
computer, but have you ever thought about how much space
is too much?
Today, I will be reviewing the Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 hard drive. Hitachi is proud to crown
this drive their king of hard drives. That’s because
this hard drive is capable of holding a whopping 400GB
of data. As the box states, this drive is intended for
gaming, home office, digital photography, and video
editing. In addition, this drive was also intended for
digital video recording so you can store large amounts
of high quality digital video.
This drive uses the Serial ATA
which will be main focus of the review. You are
probably aware of the current ATA standards such as
ATA100/133. The next standard trying to be pushed into
the consumer market is Serial ATA since we are seeing
more of those drives available on retail shelves. This
review will inform you on the basics of Serial ATA
technology. You will learn the main differences between
regular ATA and how Serial ATA might benefit you on the
purchase of your next hard drive.
Click
here for more.
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02 SEP 2004 |
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Canon LiDE 50 Scanner
Canon is
known worldwide for their excellence in digital imaging.
This can easily be seen in the quality of their digital
cameras and printers. They have been able to bring their
technologies into the realm of consumer scanners.
Today,
I will be reviewing the Canon LiDE 50 Color Image
Scanner. At the retail price of $99.99 (according to
Canon’s website), this product is aimed toward
individuals looking for a non-bulky scanner without the
compromise in performance.
Click
here for more.
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25 AUG 2004 |
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PowerColor X800XT Platinum Limited Assassin Edition
ATI and Nvidia are back in action as they compete for the
number one spot with their next generation video cards. ATI’s fastest
graphics card is the X800XT while Nvidia’s is the Geforce 6800 Ultra.
Today, I will be taking a look at PowerColor’s X800XT Platinum Limited
Assassin Edition (try and say that 10 times fast)! This graphics
card as the name implies uses the X800XT graphics chip, which is
currently the fastest offering by the Canadian company ATI. In this
article, we will examine the new technologies present in the chip and
review PowerColor’s graphics card to see how well it performs. The
graphics card will mainly be compared against ATI’s previous generation
card, the 9800. Although the X800XT is meant to be the successor of the
9800 XT, I apologize beforehand that I only had the 9800 Pro to compare
with it. The 9800 Pro is still only slightly slower than the XT
version, so you will at least have a general idea of how the new card
compares.
Check
here for the full review.
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23 AUG 2004 |
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Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Elite
In my mind, the two
major companies behind mice and keyboards are Microsoft and Logitech.
Yes, there are other companies that manufacture keyboards and mice, but
Microsoft and Logitech seem to compete more closely.
Today, I will be
reviewing Microsoft’s Wireless Optical Desktop Elite Desktop Set. This
set is a mouse and keyboard combination. In this review, I cannot avoid
mentioning Logitech’s MX 700 Wireless mouse which is the main
competition against Microsoft Wireless Optical Intellimouse, the mouse
included in this desktop set. Having used the MX 700 for quite a while
now, I will make references when comparing Microsoft Intellimouse with
Logitech’s. The ultimate goal of Microsoft’s Optical Desktop Elite is
to combine both style and performance into one outstanding package.
Click
here to
find out how well they succeeded.
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