Hardware Roundup

HD 5870 main event

MANY OF YOU are waiting for our analysis of the ATI Radeon HD 5870, but between IDF and travel we don’t have that done quite yet. In the meantime, we do have this week’s hardware roundup.

We’ve been all over the place picking up reviews for you to read up on, while you wait for the main event. So, geeks and geekettes, here they are (deep breath):

Anandtech, Bit Tech, Bjorn 3D, Chile Hardware (Google-Spanish), Computerbase (Google-Deutsch), Driver Heaven, Extremetech, Firing Squad, Fudzilla, Guru of 3D, Hard OCP, Hardware Canucks, Hardware.info (Google-Dutch), Hardwareluxx (Google-Deutsch), HT4U (Google-Deutsch), Hexus,Hot Hardware, Inside HW, Legit Reviews, Motherboards.org, Overclockers Club, PC Gameshardware, PC Perspective, Rage 3D, Tech Power Up 1 + 2 + 3, Tech Radar, Tech Spot, The Tech Lounge, Tom’s Hardware, Trusted Reviews, Tweak PC (Google-Deutsch), TweakTown 12 + 3 ,VR-Zone, Xbit Labs

We’d actually recommend the German reviews as they usually have a bit of perspective and less marketing hype than some sites in the US. You’ll also see for how much Europeans get ripped off in the process.

If you can dig yourself out of that heap of reviews, we’ve got some more for your browsing pleasure.

Benchmark Reviews went for some SSD Raid glory using Corsair’s P64-RAID-PK1 SSD kit. This is a first, a vendor selling dual-packed SSDs so you can set up a RAID 0 configuration right from the get-go. Works quite well, although write speeds in RAID 0 seem like they could be better. Also, says Olin, it doesn’t seem like TRIM works on RAID 0 arrays, and that’s a shame.

Tom’s Hardware has an interesting proposal for its readers. How does Windows 7 fare as an HTPC rig, and how would you build your own rig? Low power AMD CPU, Hybrid Crossfire, that’s the easy part. The audio bit is a bit trickier, as you can see.

Anandtech has spent some quality time with Clarksfield, over at IDF. Jarred’s managed to generate some benchmarks for some sample units there, and you can see the sheer overkill of a 920XM-driven laptop. Your only limitation will be the GPU of choice on these monsters. Go here.

At Tech Report you can find the latest on Asus’ UL30A 13.3-inch notebook. This is a first go at the CULV market (within Intel’s parameters) although Asus has been doing little 12-inch and 13.3-inch notebooks with low-power CPUs for as long as we can remember.  Right here.

Just north of the border, you’ve got the Hardware Canucks reviewing Evga’s X58 SLI Micro-ATX motherboard. The company shows it can do not only a great enthusiast micro-ATX board for your Core i7 (at least one type of Core i7), but they can also do it in style. Take that, competition!

Tech Power Up whom we know and love for providing some of the most relevant diagnostics software today, has a review of the Origen AE S10V. This case will pack a mini-ITX mobo and will most likely be used for HTPC applications. IR receiver and remote included and has an external 150w brick.

If you haven’t done so already, you too can read up on OCZ’s ultra powerful Agility EX series of SSDs, right at Driver Heaven. It isn’t MLC, but SLC-based – and expensive. But if you want the best – better than Intel’s even – you pay the piper.

For a matter of comparison, we’ll put in this little test, it’s the same drive, only based on MLC cells. Available at Test Freaks. That’ll give you an idea of how awesome the EX is. S|A

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