Do you know what to look for in anti-virus software?

You just bought yourself a new computer! Can't wait to get it out of the box. Maybe you have had a computer before and maybe this is your second or third computer. And, you don't want to have all those problems you hear about. This is the time to think ahead and go for a positive online experience.

You should realize that while you are unpacking your new machine, there are people all over the world who are plotting to spoil your computer with maliscious, well-thought out plans. Your computer will endure attacks moments after you go online. This is why we all have to use antivirus protection. You and I just have no choice. The single most important program on your computer is your anti virus program. And, it should be a really good one. Everything on your computer, from your valuable software, your work, to your personal financial records is contantly at risk. I will explain some of the features you should look for in anti-virus software.

Most of us make our choice on price alone. That is, after we use the product that comes with our computers. This is not the way to choose something so important. You need to look at several products before making your decision.

Look at your available options. Start with the anti virus software that came with your PC. You can get started by getting that software up and running. Don't try to postpone using anti-virus software. After a period of time, your software needs updated. While you are online, your software should be allowed to make daily updates. It is very important to make the first update as soon as your new computer is online for the first time. It is very likely there have been a lot of new threats and viruses introduced since the computer left the factory. Updating the software is the best way to keep your computer protected against these new online dangers.

As you use the software that came with your new computer, it is a good idea to make a list of what you like - and don't like - about it. Is it easy to update? Is it user friendly? Is it easy to see any problems? Does the software notify you if the update could not be completed? Are updates made available on a daily basis?

Now, you have a basis for establishing what to look for in anti-virus software. Read all you can online to get even more information. Some anti virus companies make their software available in trial versions, so be sure to check out a number of different products before deciding which one best suits your needs. Some of the best is free, without a trial.

Take some time to get the best protection you can for your computer. And, periodically back up your files. Al little planning can make your computer experience an enjoyable experience.

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Annoying Spyware And Its Elimination

Nowadays, you might have noticed of a threatening word "Spyware". Spyware software is becoming annoyance for the companies. Spyware is likely to be verified as a great damager to the companies. It is not so noticeable like spam and virus assaults to the systems. Spyware could be destructive and cause financial losses.

Spyware is almost an invisible software programs that collects and transmits personal or company's important data through the Internet without being noticed. The transferred data could be used for smashing up your company's credit or might hard hit its profits. Spyware is also commonly acknowledged as Adware, Malware, Sneakware and Snoopware.

Entry point of Spyware: It could enter your network by auto-download software that automatically downloaded to your network, even without user's acknowledgement. It could also enter with software, which is downloaded by user that includes Spyware program. Most common entry of this software is pop-ups, which appears while opening any site. The pop-ups are very attractively designed to allure user to click it.

The Spyware software is not even blocked by firewall programs, as user itself allows it, of-course, due to unawareness. Similarly, the usual antivirus programs are also unable not block it, due to they don't seem as wicked as viruses.

Safeguard against Spyware: User should completely read and understand the license agreement before downloading any software. Avoid downloading unknown and fallacious software from the internet. Keep away from clicking pop-up that put forward mouthwatering offers.

The constant use of anti-Spyware software: Often use of anti Spyware could prevent entering such harmful programs to your network. The best precautious step is that, a user could apply to block Spyware access via gateway security solutions like the NetApp Internet access and security (IAS) solution, which stops admittance to Web sites offering Spyware.

There are several anti-spyware programs available out there. These programs search and eliminate Spyware and adware. They can detect and sweep off huge number of adware files and modules.
Some of these programs also clean program and web-usage path from your network that is very helpful if the system is shared. There also some free downloadable software on authentic sites like www.1888softwaredownloads.com, www.download.com, www.mcafee.com, www.spywareinfo.com, www.all-internet-security.com, www.tucows.com etc or you can use keyword "free antispyware download" in search.

So be precautious while downloading any software from the net. Make sure you do not download or acquire anti-Spyware program without checking its authenticity. It doesn't happen often, but when it enters would create immense destruction.

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Tips on Understanding the Dangers of Spyware and Adware

Money is the very crux of adware and spyware. These pose several problems and are a security risk.

Adware is a program that displays advertisements on the computer whether you want them or not. They are not just connected to particular websites or free software but are programmed to start up whenever your computer is switched on.

Programs like Eudora mail client display advertisements in lieu of charging registration fees for use of software. It helps developers recover program development costs. Kazaa the file sharing application comes bundled with at least three ad-ware programs. Two of them serve ads to the desktop while another redirects the user's browser to a search engine with advertiser sponsored web results. Well known ones are: BroadcastPC; Comet Cursor; GeoWhere; Network Essentials, 123 Messenger, Direct Revenue, and so on.

Unfortunately, other guises of adware are spyware and malware.

Spyware is a program code that relays information about you and your work without your permission or knowledge. Some just "spy" on you conveying your Internet habits to marketing companies, while others are "thieves" they access credit card information as well as other sensitive files. In plain terms, it is malicious software that can intercept or take control of a computer's operation without user knowledge or consent. Termed as "malware" the redefinition of spyware, the programs can:

• Steal personal information and the address book.
• Flood the browser with pop-ups.
• Spam the system.
• Slow down programs and connection.
• Hijack the browser and redirect the user to a "con" page.
• Uses the computer as a server to broadcast porn.
• Can cause a crash.

Spyware reaches a computer through innocent web pages, game demos, MP3 players, search tool bars, and other downloads like free software. It installs itself and leaves a mark on the windows registry. It can hog the computer resources such as memory and hard drive and cause a crash or lock up. Keystroke-logging spyware can steal passwords and credit card information for thieves.

To protect the files one has to:

• Use anti adware and spyware programs. Examples: Spybot, Search & destroy, Pest Patrol, and Lavasoft's Adware.
• Keep windows as well as Internet explorer up-to-date by applying the latest security patches.
• Maintain the security level of the Internet Explorer at medium. Users must not lower the security level.
• Use firewalls and web proxies to block access to web sites known to carry spyware.
• Install layered protection.
• Update the antivirus program. An up-to-date program will stop spyware as well as Trojans.
• Install a startup monitor to protect your system.
• Never accept "free" as being free---check out free software and downloads, there will be a hidden surprise or catch.
• Never download software from warez sites. Pirated software is always distributed along with adware and spyware.
• Use Spy checker to determine if the download has spyware. This can be accessed from the free computer securities pages.

An anti-spyware coalition has been instituted by Microsoft, Earthlink, McAfee, and Hewlett-Packard. They are working towards anti-spyware legislation and putting protection systems in place. A survey shows that 87 percent of users know what spyware is and of this 40 percent through firsthand experience. Protect yourself and your work; keep your system free of adware and spyware.

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Bookmark Managers: Programs vs. Web Services

The rapid development of the World Wide Web in recent years has led to an explosive growth of information on the Internet. Our contemporary lifestyle would be unimaginable without access to such a super-abundant cornucopia of valuable information and web surfing has now become an everyday occupation for even the most diverse sections of society.

This rapid expansion of web resources raises some new issues for all of us. How could you possibly remember; after a long search, the address of that crucial web page? How will you be able to return to the page without repeating a tedious web search through hundreds and thousands of pages?
The answer is obvious, you need a program that will allow you to easily create and manage a database of web resources. Of course, this database must be quick, intuitive and convenient to use.

One way to resolve this problem is to use your web browser's bookmarks feature. Bookmarks are a popular term for the lists of web page links stored in web browsers, although they are called 'Favorites' in Internet Explorer. These web browser bookmark systems have some severe limitations. For example, each bookmark list will only be compatible with a specific web browser. If you use several different web browsers you will have to manage the bookmark system in each one. Web browser bookmark lists may become cumbersome to use when your bookmark list grows beyond a few items. Important features missing from web browser bookmark systems include:

• Powerful search functions
• Synchronization of bookmarks between different computers
• Detection and automatic deletion of duplicate bookmarks
• Checks for availability of bookmarked web pages.

Specialist programs and web services that store and organize bookmarks are now available and they offer a comprehensive solution to these problems. They are called bookmark managers or bookmark organizers (in this article both terms have the same meaning). The difference between online (web-based) bookmark managers and standalone bookmark managers is in the location of the stored bookmark database and in the way that the database is accessed. Web services called 'online bookmark managers' store the user's bookmarks on their remote servers and their bookmarks may be accessed from any browser. A standalone bookmark organizer is simply a program which runs on your local computer. It stores the bookmark database on a hard disk and allows access through its own built-in interface.

Here are some examples of web-based bookmark managers:

iKeepBookmarks.com - www.ikeepbookmarks.com

LinkaGoGo - www.linkagogo.com

Murl - murl.com

You can find more links to online bookmark managers here:
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Web_Applications/Bookmark_Managers/

Bookmark management software can be found here:

Link Commander - www.resortlabs.com/bookmark-manager/linkcommander.php

Linkman - www.outertech.com/index.php?_charisma_page=product&id=5

Powermarks - www.kaylon.com/power.html

Any software catalog will contain plenty of links to bookmark managers. For example: www.snapfiles.com/shareware/misctools/swurlorg.html

Offline and online bookmark managers each have relative advantages and disadvantages due to their differing methods of database storage and access.

An online bookmark manager does not depend on any particular computer. If you have an Internet connection you can access your bookmarks from any computer in the world. You don't need to synchronize the bookmarks on your home/work PC or notebook because they will all access the same bookmarks database. With an online bookmark manager you can access your bookmarks even when you are in an Internet cafe! Another advantage is that most of them are free. They will cost you time, though, because you access your bookmarks via an Internet connection. More importantly, most of the web interfaces are not as convenient as software based bookmark managers and don't have so many useful features. For example, they can't search for and delete duplicate database items. Here are some of the other potential disadvantages of using online bookmark managers:

1) You risk losing all your bookmarks if, for some reason, the web service closes down.

2) There is a danger of unauthorized access to your private bookmarks because your bookmark manager server may not be secure against hackers.

The advantages and disadvantages of offline bookmark managers are almost exactly opposite to those of online bookmark managers and will be discussed next.

Any offline bookmark manager is tied to the computer on which it is installed. It stores your bookmarks in a database (which usually has its own proprietary format) that is located on one of the hard drives. To use your bookmarks on several computers you will need to install the program on each computer and find a way to synchronize the bookmark databases. Most of the currently available bookmark organizers do have a database synchronization feature. Also, there are now devices with high data transfer speeds (e.g. flash drives) that can store an independent bookmark database and allow it to be shared between several computers.

Another disadvantage of bookmark manager software is the price. There are some free programs out there, but they don't have a great number of features and technical support is often weak or unavailable. The programs that require payment are inexpensive, though, usually costing from $20 to $40. The user licenses of such programs will normally allow you to install the programs on all of your computers.

In my opinion, the disadvantages of standalone bookmark managers are minimal compared to their advantages. The location of both the program and database on the same computer guarantees you fast access to your bookmarks and high security from hacker attacks. The convenience of the program interface and the number of useful features are limited only by the power of the computer and the skills of developers.

So, how should you organize your bookmarks? Should you use an online or offline bookmark manager? I don't think there is a definite answer. It all depends on your preferences and working habits. If mobility is your priority, if you travel often and wish to access your bookmarks no matter where you are and from any computer, then you should consider an online bookmark manager. If speed, ease of use, security and functionality is most important to you then an offline bookmark manager might be a better choice.

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The Black Art of Dual PSUs in Your Enthusiast PC

Introduction

Today, we are covering a group of products that all share one goal in common; running two power supplies in your PC system at once. The topic of running dual power supplies is one that comes up in the [H]ardForum with a good bit of regularity and the topic generally revolves around the concept of buying, or using, two less expensive power supplies in tandem to power your enthusiast rig instead of buying a more expensive PSU. With such a group of enthusiasts who are constantly pushing their systems to run faster, it really comes as no surprise that the enterprising spirit of making do with what you have on hand would turn its eye toward powering enthusiast PC systems in need of massive power making the concept of running two power supplies of significant interest.

Now while this dual PSU concept and the many DIY methods for accomplishing this are not new, it is a subject we have only briefly touched on before when we reviewed the ePower Juice Box 450W Auxiliary Power Supply. Surely, some readers will ask, "Why bother buying a product when I can do this myself?" and many of our readers fit firmly into that group. There are however more than a few reasons and applications where buying one of these products makes sense. We will cover some of those particular concepts throughout this article. Let's now take a look at some of the ready-made products on the market for accomplishing this task.

Double Team!

We will be looking at four different products and methods for running two power supplies at once. These will include the following:

1) Add2Psu

2) Lian Li Secondary Power Supply Starter Kit

3) Auxiliary Power Supply

4) Redundant Power Supply

These four options we are covering today include a range of price points, potential applications, and vendors. Some of these applications will be more broadly applicable than others, but all of these products fit into the niche of running dual power supplies in a system. The vendors of these products range from the very new and small, to the very large and well known. However, while we have selected four products these are NOT all that exist in the market, and these were selected for their representation of the range of different methods and applications included in running dual power supplies only. Additionally, we only selected products that result in dual power supply operation without the intervention of the user at start up beyond what they would normally do when hitting a single power button on their case.

Let’s first move on to see the Add2Psu to see what this product is and how this product integrates into a users system.

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Is IT Security Just an Illusion?

A recent survey by the Ponemon Institute found that the threat from cyber attacks is nearing statistical certainty -- 90 percent of U.S. businesses were hit by at least one security breach in the last 12 months. Almost one in two said there was a significant increase in the frequency of cyber attacks over the past year, and 77 percent said attacks are more severe or difficult to contain.

So is security just an illusion? Is it possible any longer to truly be secure, or is all corporate data only one click away from walking out the door?

Ponemon Institute chairman and founder Larry Ponemon said, basically, yes. “When we think about our endpoints, like cell phones and smartphones and tablets and notebooks, these things are getting very hard to secure completely,” he said.

Similarly, Bob Walder, chief research officer at security research firm NSS Labs, said breaches are all but inevitable. “We have to accept that it’s going to happen, no matter what defenses we put around our network. All the firewalls and IPSes in the world are not going to stop these guys if they really want to get into your network.”

So rather than seeking an impossible level of perfect security, Walder said, the answer lies in active monitoring. “Know what your network traffic should look like, monitor for anomalies, and track those back and figure out exactly what’s going on … good security is about minimizing the risk, realizing what risk you are still exposed to, and monitoring where that risk may be exploited,” he said.

One mistake many companies make, Walder said, is to equate regulatory compliance with security.

“Most smaller businesses will go through the motions of becoming compliant. They’ll install a UTM [unified threat management] or a firewall at the perimeter of their network and then they can just check a box, and they’re certified as complaint. But, compliance doesn’t guarantee security, it just means you’ve got a piece of paper with a few ticks on it.”

Edward Hamilton, head of Information Security and Assurance at research firm Analysys Mason, said the biggest security risk ultimately lies in a company’s employees. “Most security breaches still happen because of your employees doing something silly, like leaving a laptop on a train or accidentally e-mailing the wrong document to the wrong people."

And so, security breaches of some kind are unavoidable. “All you can do is have in place the right technology, processes and training to try and minimize the impact of them, be able to detect when you’re losing data, and have the team in place to rectify that and close down the loophole as quickly as possible,” he said.

 

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4GB kit (2GBx2) Upgrade for a Apple iMac 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (20-inch) System (DDR2 PC2-5300, NON-ECC, )

4GB kit (2GBx2) Upgrade for a Apple iMac 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (20-inch) System (DDR2 PC2-5300, NON-ECC, ) # Best Cheap Sale

Bad memory can cause anything from annoying error messages to complete system failures. Why risk it with cheap "mystery" memory? When you buy memory from Crucial, you're buying the same high-quality memory that leading computer manufacturers install in the systems they sell. In fact, because Crucial is a division of Micron, one of the world's largest DRAM manufacturers, chances are good that you have their memory in your system right now. While the "other guys" might claim to manufacture memory, they really just assemble modules out of chips made by someone else. Some don't have first-class assembly procedures, and some even use chips that failed to meet computer manufacturer's stringent testing requirements. Crucial memory goes through much more rigorous testing procedures than many other brands of memory. Some memory assemblers choose to accept a certain "defect rate" because it's cheaper to deal with returns than to test every part they sell. That may help their bottom line, but it's sure a pain in the neck if you're one of the customers who ends up with a bad module. That's why Crucial thoroughly tests EVERY module they sell and put their name only on the ones that meet their strict standards. You might expect memory this good to cost a lot more, but you'd be wrong. As an online memory upgrade provider selling directly from the manufacturer, Crucial memory is often available at lower prices than lower-quality modules.

#You can get best price for this brand Crucial and read review before you buy online#

• 200-pin SODIMM
• DDR2-667
• DDR2 PC2-5300 Unbuffered, NON-ECC, DDR2-667, 1.8V, 256Meg x 64
• The only brand of memory upgrade available directly from a DRAM manufacturer, tested to meet the most stringent industry specifications
• Install it yourself in about 15 minutes. The same top-quality memory that the worlds largest computer manufacturers install in the systems they sell

READ CUSTOMER REVIEWS CLICK HERE

If you are the one who love the best brand Crucial you must not miss this review of cheap 4GB kit (2GBx2) Upgrade for a Apple iMac 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (20-inch) System (DDR2 PC2-5300, NON-ECC, ). You can read all the reviews or compare special prices for sale. CLICK LINK BELOW.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jul 15, 2011 18:54:11

Dinghies For Sale KC Fog Lights

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Tom’s Hardware recommends GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3 in Z68 head-to-head

Writing for original PC Hardware review pioneers, Tom’s Hardware, the aptly named Thomas Soderstrom has put all his powers of adjudication to the test with a comprehensive comparison of some of the more affordable Intel Z68 motherboards on the market. Testing products from MSI, ASRock, Biostar, Intel and Gigabyte, we’re honored to report that Thomas eventually gave the final nod of approval to our Z68XP-UD3 board. Here’s a sample of what Thomas had to say about it:

“The Z68XP-UD3 firmly targets performance fanatics with a layout that eschews the use of integrated graphics as a primary output, instead favoring SLI and CrossFire.”

“Up against the limits of our intended budget, the Z68XP-UD3 is one of only two motherboards in today’s roundup to include a front-panel USB 3.0 header. The entirety of features would have made this a $160 board even if it had used the P67 chipset, so we’re not entirely clear how Gigabyte managed to retain this price with a Z68 product that includes Lucidlogix's Virtu license.”

“…After careful deliberation, Gigabyte’s Z68XP-UD3 gets our Recommended Buy award”.

Take in the entire Z68 head-to-head article on Tom’s Hardware here.

You can read the Chinese (中文版) version of this blog here.

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Evolution Of The 25 Paise Coin in India

type="html">No longer a legal tender: The road has finally come to an end for the humble 25 paise coin. The Reserve Bank of India is withdrawing from circulation coins of 25 paise and below from June 30, 2011. Coins of denomination of 25 paise and below will not be accepted for exchange at the bank branches from July 1, 2011 onwards. We trace the history of the 25 paise coin from the British era to contemporary India.

1830s: The first of the quarter rupee coins were issued in India during the reign of William IV. The coins were made of silver.

1840s: The longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria also held the title of the Empress of India. During her reign a number of quarter rupee coins were issued. Soon after her ascent to the throne, a silver quarter rupee coin was issued in India. The coins featured the bust of a young Queen Victoria. She was made the queen soon after her 18th birthday

1870s: The coins issued later in Queen Victoria's reign had a more mature looking bust of the queen. The one-fourth rupee coins were made of silver.

1890s: While Queen Victoria was adding to her years in real life, she also put in a bit of weight on the her image on the coins.

1900s: The new century also witnessed a change on the British monarchy. Following the death of his mother Queen Victoria, Edward VII was crowned as the King of the United Kingdom and also as the Emperor of India. All new coins issued during the time bore his name and face.

1910s: A new design of coins were introduced in 1919 that sought to replace the existing silver quarter rupee coins. The new equivalent of the quarter rupee coin was the 4 aana coin, that was made from cupro-nickel instead of silver. The rising silver prices following the First World War necessitated this change. These coins had the effigy of King George V.

1920s: George V was crowned the King in 1910. He was also the first reigning British Monarch to tour India. The 4 aana coins introduced in 1919 didn't gain popularity and soon the quarter rupee coins had to be brought back.

1930s: King George VI was the last of the British monarchs to rule over India. His predecessor Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. There were no coins issued for Edward VIII. While coins of other denominations went for a design change, the quarter rupee coins continued, with only a new monarch replacing the old.

Early 1950s: Following the Independence of India the currency system continued with the British series of coins till the establishment of the Indian Republic. The first coins of independent India were introduced on August 15, 1950 and it included the quarter rupee coin made of nickel. The coins had the words 'char aana' embossed in Devnagri script and had the Ashoka Emblem on one side.

Late 1950s: Another major landmark in the history of the 25 paise coin happened following the introduction of the decimal series in accordance with the Indian Coinage Act that came into force from April 1, 1957. The 19 mm 25 paise coins were called '25 naye paise'. The tern 'naye paise' was used for wider public recognition of the new coinage system and was discontinued from June 1, 1964 when the term 'naye' was dropped. The coins weighed 5 grams and were made of nickel.

1970s: By the late 1960s, Indians had become used to the new coinage system. The text 'rupaiye ka chautha bhag' (one fourth of a rupee) was also replaced by 25 paise. While other coins of lower denominations underwent a major change and moved to aluminium, the 25 paise coin didn't change much.

Late 1980s to the 2000s: In 1988 the 25 paisa coin went steel and was made of ferratic stainless steel. It was a little heavier than its predecessor at 2.83 grams but was of the same size. The last 25 paise coins seen in popular circulation were minted in the year 2002.

A new symbol: In July 2010 the Government of India unveiled the new symbol for the Indian Rupee and designer D Udaya Kumar also designed a new symbol for the paise. But with the 25 paise going out of circulation we are unlikely to see the image above anywhere.

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Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 2 shows strong progress

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101 Gadgets That Changed The World

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Welcome to the ninth World Cup Cricket 2011 !!!

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A glimpse of the past World Cups.

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Mozilla Firefox 4 Review

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Intel Unveils Intel Insider

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Audi R8 Spyder now in India @ Rs 1.47 crores

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Nokia To Give Symbian Operating System Update April 12

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Micromax Launches Bling-2 Android Phone

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Asus U41SV hybrid graphics linux -- acpi_call DSDT info

One of the team members posted the DSDT info for a ASUS U41SV laptop. The two calls to turn on/off the card are like this:

                                                    \_SB.PCI0.PEG0.GFX0.DOFF

                                                    \_SB.PCI0.PEG0.GFX0.DON

Code snippet:

        If (LEqual (_T_0, 0x03))

                                        {

                                            And (Local0, 0x03, Local0)

                                            If (LEqual (Local0, 0x01))

                                            {

                                                \_SB.PCI0.PEG0.GFX0.DON ()

                                                Return (0x01)

                                            }

                                            Else

                                            {

                                                If (LEqual (Local0, 0x02))

                                                {

                                                    \_SB.PCI0.PEG0.GFX0.DOFF ()

                                                    Return (0x00)

                                                }

                                                Else

                                                {

                                                    Return (\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.GFX0.DSTA ())

                                                }

                                            }

                                            Return (0x01)

                                        }

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Bumblebee for Ubuntu in two lines

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mj-casalogic/bumblebee

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install bumblebee

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Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update

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OCZ ZS Series 650-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Performance ATX 650 Power Supply (OCZ-ZS650W) (Electronics)

OCZ ZS Series 650-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Performance ATX 650 Power Supply (OCZ-ZS650W) (Electronics)
By OCZ

Buy new: $95.00

First tagged by joshsia
Customer tags: 650, zs650, cpu, sli, crossfire, modular, power supply, 80 plus bronze, computer

Review & Description

The OCZ ZS Series PSU is an affordable solution for driving today's value-oriented gaming systems, and can power both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX modes with an array of connectors. With the ideal combination of stability and sleek design, ZS is designed with gamers and modders in mind, sporting a compact form factor for compatibility with a range of case designs. Available in configurations ranging from 550W to 750W and backed with OCZ's 3-year Power Swap warranty, the ZS Series PSU gives you peace of mind to ensure stability, low noise, and efficiency of your home gaming system. Read more

Find out More for the best price at Amazon

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OCZ Technology 650 Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Performance ATX Power Supply OCZ-ZS650W (Electronics)

OCZ Technology 650 Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Performance ATX Power Supply OCZ-ZS650W (Electronics)
By OCZ

Buy new: $95.00
Price after rebate: $75.00

First tagged by joshsia
Customer tags: 650, zs650, cpu, sli, crossfire, modular, power supply, 80 plus bronze, computer

Review & Description

The OCZ ZS Series PSU is an affordable solution for driving today's value-oriented gaming systems, and can power both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX modes with an array of connectors. With the ideal combination of stability and sleek design, ZS is designed with gamers and modders in mind, sporting a compact form factor for compatibility with a range of case designs. Available in configurations ranging from 550W to 750W and backed with OCZ's 3-year Power Swap warranty, the ZS Series PSU gives you peace of mind to ensure stability, low noise, and efficiency of your home gaming system. Read more

Find out More for the best price at Amazon

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How to 'Download' Your Old Computer to the Highest Bidder

When you think trash, you surely don't think about your old, trusty personal computer. But that's exactly what will become of it when you make the inevitable move toward your next laptop or desktop. And, yes, buying a new computer is inevitable, considering the pace at which computer technology zips along. Just think-about a handful of years ago, a fast microprocessor for a laptop was at 233 MHz. Now you're looking at about at least 2 GHz! That's Giga, with a G.

So eventually, you will want a computer that can handle the latest software, the latest games, and the latest interactive Web sites, and then you'll have to throw away your old computer, right? Wrong. Try selling your used computer instead. Throwing out your computer is one of the worst things you can do. For one, your computer may be useful for someone out there, even if just for scraps.

Trashed computers and other digital equipment also make up one of the fastest growing, and most dangerous, new trash "categories" out there in your neighborhood landfill. On one hand, computers are generally bulky and made of plastic and other materials that won't be breaking down in a landfill for the next few million years. What's more, other materials in your old computer are highly toxic to the environment, like mercury, lead and cadmium. They're so toxic that their actually name in the waste-management field is "toxics."

You don't have to be a techie or a scientist to understand the danger in that-nor the benefits of selling your computer. On the Internet, there are a vast number of auction and classifieds sites, some better than others, where you can "download" you computer to a worthy buyer.

Before you boot up your replacement laptop or high-performance PC, however, be sure you read and compute the following tips. These tips will help you avoid the crashes and shutdowns that befall the computer seller who doesn't do his homework first.

Hold onto all of the operating system and software manuals that came with your old computer. This will add value to your sale, not to mention it will make you a trusted seller for offering up these helpful books to the buyer.

Erase all personal information from the hard drive. And we're not just talking about simply putting stuff in the "trash bin." It's extremely important to purge all data from your computer's memory repository, even from invisible backup files on the hard drive. If you're not sure how to do this, ask your IT expert at work or a techie friend for advice. You don't want the next user to have access to your bank accounts, old e-mails, and other private info, do you?

Uninstall any application from the hard drive that you'd like to use on your next computer, keeping the installation disk and the software serial number for yourself. When it comes to software, the manufacturers made sure that you never really own software, you license it. So you don't get free reign to keep software on multiple computers. You only get one license, so you need to bring your licensed version with you to your new computer.

Do your homework on your computer's worth. Just like you would for a car, check around at other classifieds and auction sites to see what other people are selling your make and model for.

Be sure you want to truly get rid of old faithful. You may be able to repair your old laptop rather than buy a new $2,000 Centrino model. Or you may be able to add RAM memory and a new hard drive to your four-year-old desktop rather than invest in a new $3,000 multimedia masterpiece. In other words, do a thorough cost-analysis of what it would take to rebuild your old computer, versus what it would cost to sell it and buy a new one. And check your heart too. You might be surprised just how attached you are to your old faithful.

Once you go through these steps, you are prepared to make your move and sell, sell, sell. And then, of course, you'll be ready to start on a whole new list of steps-for buying a new computer. But that's a topic for another article!

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Blu-Ray set to take the world by storm!

The Blu-ray Disc belongs to a new generation of optical discs capable of staging high density data. Blu-Ray technology is based on a blue-violet coloured laser. The blue laser operates at a wave length of 405 nm, while older technology such as DVDs and CDs are based on red and infrared lasers that works at 650 and 780 nm. Since the wave length is shorter with a blue laser, the new Blu-ray technology makes is possible to store much more information

The advantage with the Blu-ray technology is that the laser beam can be focused much more tightly at the surface of the disc. Tight focus means that a smaller spot will be produced on the surface on the disc, and when the spots become smaller there will naturally be room for more information on each disc. The minimum spot size of any laser depends on a naturally accruing phenomenon called diffraction. The narrow beam of light sent out from a laser will always diverge into a wider beam eventually, due to the natural diffraction of waves. Diffraction will also occur the waves meet an obstruction. By reducing the wavelength of a laser, we can affect the diffraction.

In Blu-ray technology, the diffractions is also affected by the fact that the lens used to focus the light has a higher numerical aperture than the lenses found in ordinary DVDs - 0.85 instead of 0.6. Blu-ray technology based appliances are also equipped with a dual-lens system of supreme quality, and the cover layer has been made thinner in order to prevent unwanted optical effects. All this makes it possible for a Blu-ray laser to focus on much smaller spots. The optical improvements are accompanied with a new method for encoding data which makes it possible to store even more data on the Blu-ray disc.

The standard for Blu-ray technology has been developed as a joint venture between several major manufacturers of PCs and consumer electronics, including Sony and Philips. The group is called the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). The first Blu-ray recorder was launched in Japan in 2003, by Sony. Today, Samsung, JVC, Matsushita (Panasonic) and LG Electronics are all examples of companies using Blu-ray technology in their products. Hewlett Packard has announced that they will release desktop PCs equipped with Blu-ray technology in late 2005.

The main competitor for the Blu-ray technology is the HD DVD format which is also capable of storing more information than a normal DVD. The Blu-ray technology does however allow for more information per layer than the HD DVD format - 25 GB compared to 15 GB. The Blu-ray technology will on the other hand most likely be more expensive to support, at least initially, which can make the HD DVD a tempting alternative. In a Blu-ray disc, the data is stored extremely close to the surface. This made the first Blu-ray discs extremely vulnerable to scratching and many users preferred the tougher HD DVD discs. Since 2004, all Blu-ray discs are coated with a clear polymer called "Durabis" which makes them much more durable. According to the developers of Durabis, the TDK Corporation, a coated Blu-ray disc will work even after being attacked with a screwdriver.

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Review: Genius Wireless Pen Mouse

Whatever you do, don't mistake the Genius Wireless Pen Mouse for a replacement for a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch graphics tablet, or even Genius' own G-Pen M609. This isn't a device for graphical artists to replicate their brushstrokes on the computer, and if you bought one thinking it was, you'd be disappointed.

What the Genius Wireless Pen Mouse actually is, is a pen-shaped mouse. Dragging the tip of the pen across a desk, we were able to control Windows pretty well. Pressing down on the nib replicates a left mouse button click, and there is another button on the shaft for right mouse button clicks.

It works rather well, with the familiar shape of a pen allowing you to get used to the new input device pretty quickly.

We found that the Genius Wireless Pen Mouse is best suited for working on large and multiple monitors, as you can move the cursor from one side of the screen to the other quickly, in a small space. You might find the Genius Wireless Pen Mouse a bit over-sensitive when you first use it, with its 1200 DPI sensor, but changing the mouse cursor speed in Windows can make a big difference.

It's a device that works well, and we can certainly see the appeal of it. It's not quite good enough to completely replace the traditional mouse for most tasks, however.

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Review: Medion Erazer X6813

Medion's Erazer X6813 – branded as a "gaming notebook" – might seem like an oxymoron to some.

Gaming is a traditionally immersive endeavour, and while casual gaming marches forward with the momentum of a sinister (but casual) army of men in silly hats, there are still serious games with serious budgets that offer serious escapism, if you've got the gear to render such visual finery.

Here's where the 15.6-inch Medion Erazer X6813 comes in. Like the MSI GT680 and the diminutive 11.6-inch Alienware M11x, it's designed to offer gamers the kind of frame rates they're used to on desktop machines, but on the go – at the expense of £1,000 or more.

Here's where the incongruity kicks in – how and why would you want to play such visually impressive, immersive titles in public places? Isn't that the point of notebooks, after all?

Well, maybe you're taken with the idea of using the Medion Erazer X6813 like a traditional notebook while you're on the move, working with office apps and browsing the web, then plugging its charger in when you get home and unleashing that powerful GPU on the latest DirectX 11 games. Some 'notebooks' such as Alienware's M18X throw that notion out of the window entirely, and compromise practicality for sheer performance.

Like MSI's GT680, the GPU that Medion has opted for with the Erazer X6813 is Nvidia's GeForce GTX 460M.

The GPU is an absolutely pivotal component for a gaming notebook, and while the GTX 460M's impressive architecture and performance are undeniable, Nvidia's release of the GTX 570M and GTX 580M Optimus mobile discrete GPUs shoves it down the pecking order somewhat.

Not only are the GTX 570M and GTX 580M the fastest notebook GPUs ever, but they at least promise to improve battery life, the mortal enemy of gaming laptops and notebooks.

With AMD's excellent Llano APUs already hitting shelves and offering comparative performances to notebook GPUs from an integrated graphics solution with much better battery life, Medion's Erazer X6813 comes at an interesting time in mobile gaming.

The biggest asset that Medion has given its Erazer X6813 is pure gaming performance. As the 3DMark 11 scores indicate, that GTX 460M under the hood does a sterling job with bleeding edge rendering techniques such as tessellation, bokeh filtering and advanced dynamic shadows and lighting.

The GTX 460M itself is based on the GTX 450 desktop GPU, which might be overshadowed by the GTX 460 (note the lack of an 'M') in the desktop market. It's a capable Fermi card with solid architecture.

It's not perfect, though. The chief drawback comes from the noisy fan and the hot air it chucks out. For a notebook, these are real drawbacks. MSI's GT680 is equipped with the same GPU and suffers the same problem, but as Medion's Erazer X6813 will set you back £400 less, the cash you save might drown out the fan noise somewhat.

The bottom line for the GTX 460M inside this Medion Erazer X6813 is that playing new games at max settings shouldn't be a problem, even at the screen's native resolution of 1920 x 1080.

Of course, it has help from the Intel Core i7 2630QM CPU, too. With four cores of eight threads at its disposal, and a Turbo Boosted running speed of 2.9 GHz, it's one mighty fine piece of Sandy Bridge silicon.

The downside is that although the integrated graphics processor (iGPU) in the 2630QM is capable in present day integrated graphics terms, early testing of AMD Llano chips blows this Intel HD Graphics 3000 engine out of the water.

And when the AC adapter's unplugged from the Medion Erazer X6813, you're relying on integrated graphics for rendering tasks. As is the status quo with gaming notebooks, you're only really able to make use of the notebook's full gaming performance when you're hooked up to mains power.

It's another element of the whole 'gaming notebook' concept that doesn't quite work, along with having to cart around peripherals such as controllers and mice.

Nowhere is this problem more prevalent than with Alienware's M18X. It'll set you back a cool £2,318, for which you'll get two AMD Radeon HD 6970Ms in a CrossFireX configuration, but as soon as it's separated from its AC adapter you're pretty much relying on that HD Graphics 3000 engine again.

Plumping for 8GB of DDR3 RAM instead of the oft-preferred 4GB among system builders, Medion has ensured the Erazer X6813 offers nippy file operations and CPU-intensive tasks. You won't see a whole lot of difference in gaming performance between 4GB and 8GB, but at this price point that extra memory comes as a welcome addition, rather than an unnecessary extra outlay, as is the case with the MSI GT680.

The choice of components inside the Medion Erazer X6813 can't be faulted, and represent real value for money. Gaming performance on Alienware's M11XR3 at the same price isn't as quick, even on an 11.6-inch screen with a smaller native resolution of 1366 x 768, and while MSI's GT680 can compete in performance terms, it's much more expensive and doesn't justify that extra cash.

But there's no such thing as a free lunch. In order to ensure the Erazer X6813 lands near the £1,000 price point, there are some less than premium elements to this gaming notebook's package.

The most obvious shortcoming is the screen. Clarity isn't the problem; it's the black-and-white saturation. Lighter colours appear washed out, and forget about trying to get a true black out of this screen – you can fiddle around with brightness and contrast until the cows come home.

For anyone prepared to pay £1,099 for a notebook, this is a major sticking point. You're paying for bleeding edge graphics, but for all the hard work that the Nvidia GTX 460M puts in rendering them, if the screen can't deliver a good picture it becomes a slightly moot point. The same goes for watching 1080p HD movies. If you want a good quality display, your best bet is to make use of the HDMI output.

There are further grumbles to be had about build quality. Alienware really has this area sewn up – both the M11XR3 and M18X offer unrivalled sturdiness and a reassuring feel to their keyboards and trackpads. You do pay through the teeth for it, though. MSI's GT680, on the other hand, suffers a poor screen, flimsy keyboard and dated visuals.

The problem for the Medion Erazer X6813 is likewise, with a slightly unresponsive trackpad and flimsy keys. The visuals won't set many gamers' hearts a-thumping either, but they're at least kept restrained and offer a welcome break from tacky neons.

Battery life isn't great, either. The GTX 460M is a power-hungry card and that results in gaming times of around one-and-a-half to two hours. Again that hobbles any notion of genuine mobile gaming, but it's a malady that spreads across the market – it isn't localised to the Medion Erazer X6813.

Benchmarks

CineBench R11.5: 4.99 pts
3D Mark 11: P1812 3D Marks
Battery Eater 05: 1h20min

The Medion Erazer X6813 stands up very well against competition from Alienware and its M11XR3 and M18X notebooks, and also MSI's similarly specc'd GT680.

At the same price point, Alienware's M11XR3 falls behind in gaming performance but does offer superlative build quality and the Haile Gebrselassie of batteries. The M18X is a frankly ridiculous beast, priced at £2,318, but it's about as mobile as an OAP.

We liked

Medion has done a lot right with the Erazer X6813 gaming notebook. The crucial components are all top-notch. A Sandy Bridge CPU isn't to be sniffed at and will excel in multithreaded applications, thanks to its eight available threads.

The component that gamers really care about is the GPU, and again Medion is on the money by sticking an Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M inside the Erazer X6813.

In mobile discrete GPU terms it's just been pushed out of the limelight by Nvidia's new Optimus cards, the GTX 570M and GTX 580M, but it still has more than enough clout to generate playable frame rates from demanding DX11 games, thanks to some solid Fermi architecture.

What the GPU gives the Medion Erazer X6813 in performance, the CPU and RAM add to with aplomb, and for just over a grand the gaming performance it offers looks almost bargainous.

We disliked

The problem is, the whole notion of mobile gaming doesn't stand up too well to scrutiny. For all the fancy mobile components, as soon as you factor in battery life, peripherals and integrated graphics, it seems a tiny bit pointless – the better a notebook performs in games, the heavier and more battery-draining it becomes, making it distinctly less 'mobile'.

The MSI GT680 is really close in performance terms to the Medion Erazer X6813, but costs around an extra £400, which makes the Medion's price tag look more and more appealing. Sadly there are compromises to keep that cost down but still include such quality CPU and GPUs. The Erazer X6813's screen is the worst of the MSI and the two Alienwares, suffering from some seriously washed-out blacks and whites.

Elsewhere, the track pad doesn't always recognise your taps, and the keyboard feels light and low budget. The aesthetic in general doesn't match the gaming notebook vibe and the high-end components inside.

Verdict

So can a gaming notebook with a mediocre screen and build quality be recommended on the grounds of gaming performance alone? It all depends on how you intend to use the Medion Erazer X6813. Its uses are limited by short battery life, but it does compare favourably to other manufacturer's offerings at this price.

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Review: Lenovo ThinkPad X1

Lenovo is well known for its ThinkPad range, a collection of rather serious-looking business laptops that often do their job in an efficient, if unexciting, manner.

When we first laid hands on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1, we were definitely impressed. The conventional plain black design remains, but the firm body measures just 27mm at its thickest point and weighs a mere 1.8kg, making it effortlessly portable.

This is also one of the most rugged ultra-portables we've seen. Sure, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 lacks the immediate beauty of the Samsung 9 Series or Apple MacBook Air, but it's solidly built in all areas, from the impressively tough lid to the rubberised frame. We're a sucker for rubber, which helps with grip and means no pesky fingerprints.

Unlike the fragile-feeling Sony SB Series, we're confident that this 13.3-inch PC laptop can survive a drop from a desk.

Not only can the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 survive a few whacks on the move, it can also handle accidental spillage. We witnessed a glass of tap water being poured into the keyboard by a gleeful marketing bod, which made the laptop shut down to protect its vital components. After tilting and shaking it to get rid of the water, we left it a short while then tried the power button. To the marketing bod's further glee, it powered up without a whimper.

When we got back to TechRadar HQ, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1's keyboard was thankfully dry again. We spent a couple of hours bashing out a lengthy exposition and were impressed by the comfort it offered. Each key is firmly set, poking through individual holes cut in the chassis, isolation-style. Even better, they're backlit for ease of use in the dark.

It's a great board for touch typing, although the arrow keys are a little cramped and we occasionally hit the PgUp/PgDn keys by accident. Our only other complaint is the corner position of the Fn key, which indents the left Ctrl key. We often hit Fn by mistake when using Windows shortcuts, which never failed to be bloody annoying.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1's touchpad is rather ropey, its bevelled surface proving unresponsive to our swipes and prods, while the mouse buttons are unfortunately integrated into the bottom corners. Lenovo has also built in its trademark 'nipple' pointing stick, which protrudes from the centre of the keyboard. We can't stand the thing, but others may disagree.

ThinkPad laptops always have a good range of features, aimed at business types, and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is no exception. To the right of the touchpad you'll find a fingerprint scanner that can be used to log you into Windows and even your favourite websites. It's a good alternative to remembering passwords, if your memory is as bad as ours.

A SIM card slot at the back allows you to access the web while roaming, and you have standard built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi if you're in range of a wireless network. Other ports include HDMI and DisplayPort connections for attaching monitors or projectors, and a SATA port that doubles as a sleep-and-charge USB port, for charging portable devices with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 powered down.

You only get 320GB of storage, but there are few laptops this slim that offer more. This should still satisfy most people, although anyone who wants to carry around a large media collection would be advised to get a portable external drive. There's also no built-in DVD drive.

Although the Lenovo ThinkPad X1's screen is rather compact, at just 13.3 inches, it's also vibrant enough to bring photos and films to life. HD movies look fantastic, and even sound great thanks to the surprisingly powerful built-in speakers.

We were particularly impressed by the wide viewing angles, and it's bright enough to make working all day a comfortable experience. Unfortunately the Super-TFT coating means annoying reflections appear when it's used outside.

One of Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors, a Core i5 2520M running at 2.5GHz, is the brains behind the Lenovo ThinkPad X1. We expected great things from our benchmark tests, and sure enough this laptop delivered.

The whopping Cinebench score of 10918 was only recently bettered by Dell's incredible XPS 15z, which packs an Intel Core i7 CPU. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 will happily run anything you want, and last you quite some time to come. We noticed no slowdown even when running the most demanding editing suites and memory-crippling software.

Unfortunately, there's no room in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1's slender body for a dedicated graphics card. While Intel's Sandy Bridge processors do a decent job of handling image rendering, more than doubling the performance of the previous generation chipsets, it's still nowhere near enough power to play the latest games on anything resembling a decent detail setting.

Still, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is a business machine at heart, and you definitely have enough graphical grunt to edit your media with applications such as Corel VideoStudio Pro. If you do want to kick back and relax, you'll at least be able to play older games such as Left for Dead 2 and stream HD video.

The battery uses Lenovo's RapidCharge technology, which recharges to 80% in a very impressive 30 minutes. However, we found the battery drained just as quick. If you watch a film on your hard drive with the screen turned up to full brightness, you'd better make sure it's a short one – our review unit died after just 107 minutes.

If you dim the screen and restrict your usage to web browsing or bashing out a chapter of your novel, you'll get another hour before the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 dies. It's still not massively impressive though, considering its ultra-portable status.

Benchmarks

Cinebench: 10918
3DMark 03: 7765
Battery Eater 05: 107 minutes

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 business laptop may look familiar, but it's impressively slimmed down from previous models and also reassuringly rugged. But can this ultra-portable hold its own in an increasingly competitive market?

We liked

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1's rubberised body is solid as well as slender, and can take a few knocks or drops and come back fighting. We were particularly impressed by how well it coped with water spillage, powering down quickly and returning to normal as if nothing had happened.

The latest Sandy Bridge Core i5 technology provides stunning performance, coping with any software we threw its way. Features are plentiful, from the built-in 3G roaming support to the integrated fingerprint scanner.

We loved the Lenovo ThinkPad X1's vibrant 13.3-inch display, with its rich colours and excellent viewing angles, while sound quality is surprisingly strong from the built-in speakers. And all this comes in a slim and light package that can be carried around everywhere you go.

We disliked

The lack of dedicated graphics on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is a shame, but you can still watch HD films and run media editing suites. More of a sin is the battery, which dies in less than two hours when watching films on the move.

Although the backlit keyboard is well-sized and comfortable to use, the indented Left Ctrl key made using Windows shortcuts a real pain. We also found the Lenovo ThinkPad X1's touchpad awkward to use at times. It's not as responsive as we'd have liked, and the integrated mouse buttons are a downer.

Finally, if you want an ultra-portable laptop for working outside, bear in mind the reflective glossy screen coating.

Verdict

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 presents a tantalising combination of impressive power and ruggedness that should appeal to anyone seeking a regular travel companion. Just don't expect it to last long without a power socket.

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Toshiba F750 3D Laptop Specifications and Price

Toshiba recently unveiled its new F750 3D laptop that is equipped with all the latest features and support. This 3D enabled device has a resolution of 1920X1080 pixels. The 3D viewing glasses are provided by the company itself. 

Here are some of the Toshiba Qosmio F750 3D specifications of the laptop:

Display: 15.6 inch Full HD screen that is capable of displaying 3D without any glasses.

Processor: Intel Core i7 (2.0 Ghz to 2.9 Ghz) processor

Graphics: NVidia GeForce GT 540M Graphics Card with a capacity of 2GB.

Hard disk: 640 GB SATA HDD (5400rpm)

RAM: 6 GB DDR3 RAM (1333MHz)

Drive: Blu-Ray RW drive

Webcam: HD web cam with eye tracking technology

Audio: Kardon Stereo Speakers with Dolby Surround

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)

Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11(b/g/n), Bluetooth 3.0, 1x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0 ports, Sleep and Charge. Multi Card reader.

Review: 

The Toshiba Qosmio F750 3D laptop doesn’t look much different from the earlier devices introduced by the Japanese giant in the past. But it does feel good to enjoy a 3D movie without any hassles of using glasses. For the people wearing glasses it doesn’t looks nice when they have to wear both of the pairs at once. The quality of images and 3D motion display and playback was quite impressive.

Another impressive feature that we found with this device is that the HD webcam tracks your head and more importantly your eyes so that it can adjust the images accordingly. This feature works great if there is a single user in front of the laptop but there are certain problems that have been detected when there are plenty other people around.  On the whole we will rate this feature as average and Toshiba needs to work a lot on it to make it a success in the coming models.

There some problems of crosstalk that we detected when we were seeing the two images at once. Another issue that came up with the 3D display is the minimum viewing distance is set to 60 cm. for viewing 3D efficiently. This can be quite awkward and inconvenient if you want to watch the movie on a nice lounge or somewhere you feel more comfortable. Only a single user can experience the 3D without glasses but if you want to watch movie with your friends than you must arrange for the glasses.

Toshiba has given an HDMI output slot and a Blu-Ray drive so that you can transfer your 3D footage's and content from your laptop to the other places. 

The company has also added some more 3D tweaks so that you can work with the 2D documents while watching the 3D videos. 

Overall we liked the Toshiba Qosmio F750 3D laptop and it will available on August 2011 in US, Uk and India. This product is appealing for those who want to have 3D experience without any hassles of glasses. Price at £1300 is a decent amount when compared with the features and specifications offered by Toshiba.

Toshiba Qosmio F750 3D Laptop First Look Video

Author Bio : Dan Jaslanek holds the following Certifications: CCNA, MCSE, A+. Dan’s company, EZ Support, provides a variety of services to customers in various parts of Ontario, and often relies on remote desktop solutions to resolve his customers’ issues. 

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Seagate GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage Review

Legit Storage Reviews

My 500 GB Apple iPad 2!

Wouldn't it be great to watch any one of many HD videos you own while on that 1 1/2 hour subway ride?  Well now you can.  Seagate recently released the latest addition to their GoFlex line of external hard drives, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage system.  The key words here are "mobile" and "wireless". 

This 500GB external HDD is more than just a shell on a 2.5" hard drive supporting USB 3.0 connectivity and external power brick.  This drive has its own battery supply and integrated 802.11n wireless access point all in the same form factor as other external drives in the GoFlex line. 

Since companies like Apple release fixed configuration devices such as the iPad and iPhone Seagate saw a need for people with large libraries of multimedia beyond the maximum 64GB on the largest iPad.  Since all these modern devices support 802.11n, Seagate thought: wireless + hard drive + battery = success.

The only limit is you can only stream to 3 devices at a time and the Lithium Ion batteries provide a maximum of 5 hours of streaming.  Each of the three devices are able to watch the same or different content so it is like your own local cloud storage service.  To supplement this, Seagate provides a wall to USB power plug and 12 volt car plug to USB power so you can take the Goflex on longer trips.

To transfer files onto the GoFlex Satellite, Seagate provides a USB 3.0 connection that is ultra fast giving me over 170MB/s transfer rates.  My 650MB file took mere seconds to copy onto the Satellite.

Seagate has the GoFlex Satellite at an MSRP of $199.99 and due to this being a very new device that is the price we found it at the few retailers that currently carry the GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless device.   I am sure once inventories increase we will see it avaliable in more stores.

Current Seagate GoFlex Satellite pricing:  

The GoFlex Satellite comes with a 3 year warranty from Seagate.

In order to show you all the features, the interface, and set up we did this review as a HD video that you can watch below.

Next Page - Final Thoughts and Conclusions

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GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 Intel Z68 Motherboard Review

Legit Motherboard Reviews

The GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 - The New Flagship

GIGABYTE has been building computer components for going on twenty five years now. Consistently improving, redesigning and bringing new features to the market, GIGABYTE is on the leading edge of the market. Over the past couple of years, I have used several GIGABYTE motherboards in some of my personal systems, and reviewed even more GIGABYTE products. Throughout my personal experience with GIGABYTE products, I have always been happy with the GIGABYTE products. Hopefully when all is said and done, today will be no different!

Today we have the top of the line Intel Z68 express chipset motherboard from GIGABYTE, the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3! Being the flagship socket 1155 motherboard from GIGABYTE, the Z68X-UD7-B3 isn't priced for faint of heart. It  is priced for those of us that will pay for the quality and want all the features that the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 had to offer! Right now you can pick up the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 for as little as $337.91 Plus shipping.

There are two main features that were essentially added to the Intel P67 Chipset to make up the new Z68 chipset. The first is Intel Smart Response Technology, a quote about Intel Smart Response Technology from Joe's article:

Using the latest version of Rapid Storage Technology drivers (10.5) and adjusting some easy settings in the Intel Control Center you essentially create a RAID configuration which treats the SSD as a cache for the most frequently used data. Access then comes via the faster SSD rather than the slower HDD, increasing performance markedly. Right now, some are thinking, wait, this isn't new...we've seen a version of this before! The voices in your head are correct. A while back we had a look at the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive which essentially employs the same concept, albeit all bundled on a single drive.

The second feature that was employed was the ability to use the Intel HD Graphics on the second generation Intel Core iX series processors. While the graphic aren't that spectacular for gaming purposes, they do have a number of capabilities that can be quite handy. One of which is Intel Quick Sync Video, also commonly referred to as Intel QSV. Intel QSV completes the video processing on the hardware instead of on the software.

For some reason, GIGABYTE chose not to implement the second half of the Intel Z68 chipset features on the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3. Gigabyte hinted that enthusiasts wouldn't be wanting that feature on a high-end board like the Z68X-UD7, but since consumers are paying an extra $55 for this board over the P67A-UD7 we think that choice should be up to them.

The GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 has 24 Phases of power being delivered to the CPU help to build a much more reliable power delivery system. The entire GIGABYTE 6 series of motherboards uses DUAL CPU Power Technology. This technology allows the CPU VRM power phases to split into a pair of power engines that work together. In the case of the Z68X-UD7-B3 12 phases will be inactive while the other 12 are supplying power.

If you are using your shiny new GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 for some light work like web browsing or any other task that isn't very CPU intensive, the Dual CPU Power Technology will drop the number of phases that are active. Fire up an application like Folding at Home that will really use the CPU power that you have and the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 will increase the number of active phases up to the maximum 24 for the ultimate power delivery system.

Speaking of power phases, all of the GIGABYTE 6 series motherboards use an Intersil PWM controller. The Intersil PWM controller has been approved by Intel and is VRD 12 compliant. The Intel approved PWM controller offers SerialVID (SVID); this transfers power management information from the processor to the voltage regulator controller. This allows a more efficient signaling control between the CPU and PWM controller. What does this mean for the end user? Ideally, a more energy efficient system.

Traditional power delivery consists of a pair pf discrete PowerMOS and a driver IC. GIGABYTE has incorporated these components into a single chip. Doing this gives us several advantages. One of these advantages is size. The area required to mount the Driver MOSFET's is reduced by 50%. This will leave real estate available on the PCB for other integrated devices. Driver MOSFET's can achieve increased efficiency and higher power transfer at higher switching frequencies. This will help satisfy the growing power needs of the current processors.

One aspect of the Intel Z68 chipset that is an issue for some is the limited number of PCI express lanes. Being limited to a total of 16 lanes some companies have thrown in a third party chip to add some lanes. ASUS used the PLX PEX8608 chip to add a few extra lanes on the ASUS P8P67 Deluxe to bring the total number of PCIe lanes to 24. 20 of which are usable by the PCIe graphics. GIGABYTE went a different route, they added the NVIDIA NF200 chip to give a total of 32 PCIe lanes to the P67A-UD7-B3. This allows the Z68X-UD7-B3 to operate a pair of cards at x16 each or four cards at x8 each.

GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 Z68 Chipset Motherboard Specifications

CPU	- Support for: Intel Core i7 processors Intel Core i5 processors Intel Core i3 processors Intel Pentium processors Intel Celeron processors in the LGA1155 package
Chipset	- Intel Z68 Express Chipset
Memory	4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory Dual channel memory architecture Support for DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules Support for non-ECC memory modules Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
Audio	Realtek ALC889 codec High Definition Audio 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel Support for Dolby Home Theater Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN	2 x Realtek RTL8111E chips (10/100/1000 Mbit) Support for Teaming Support for Smart Dual LAN
Expansion Slots	2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1, PCIEX16_2) 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1, PCIEX8_2)1 1 x PCI Express x1 slot (All PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.) 2 x PCI slots
Multi-Graphics Technology	- Support for 2-Way/3-Way ATI CrossFireX/NVIDIA SLI technology
Storage Interface	- Chipset: 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3_0, SATA3_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_2~SATA2_5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices  Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10  - 2 x Marvell 88SE9128 chips: 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3_6, GSATA3_7) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices  2 x eSATA 6Gb/s connectors (eSATA/USB Combo) on the back panel supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices Support for SATA RAID 0 and RAID 1
USB	- Chipset: Up to 8 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 on the back panel, including 2 eSATA/USB Combo, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)  - 2 x Renesas D720200 chips and 2 x VLI VL810 hubs: Up to 10 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (6 on the back panel, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)
IEEE 1394	- T.I. TSB43AB23 chip: Up to 3 IEEE 1394a ports (2 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394a bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394a header)
Internal I/O Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors 1 x CPU fan header 3 x system fan headers 1 x power fan header 1 x Chipset fan header 1 x front panel header 1 x front panel audio header 1 x S/PDIF Out header 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 headers 1 x IEEE 1394a header 1 x clearing CMOS button 1 x power button 1 x reset button
Back Panel Connectors	1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector 1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector 2 x IEEE 1394a ports 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports 2 x eSATA/USB Combo connectors 2 x RJ-45 ports 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
I/O Controller	- iTE IT8728 chip
H/W Monitoring	System voltage detection CPU/System temperature detection CPU/System/Power fan speed detection CPU overheating warning CPU/System/Power fan fail warning CPU/System fan speed control
BIOS	2 x 32 Mbit flash Use of licensed AWARD BIOS Support for DualBIOS PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b
Unique Features	Support for @BIOS Support for Q-Flash Support for Xpress BIOS Rescue Support for Download Center Support for Xpress Install Support for Xpress Recovery2 Support for EasyTune Support for Dynamic Energy Saver 2 Support for Smart 6 Support for Auto Green Support for eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D) Support for ON/OFF Charge Support for Cloud OC Support for Q-Share
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm

The GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 is identical to the GIGABYTE P67A-UD7-B3 that we took a look at a little over a month ago. In the above photo you can see that the boards are virtually identical. The only visual differences I was able to find was the color of the SATA III 6Gbps ports. If you are interested in the bundle, layout, or system BIOS of the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 please reference the appropriate pages of our GIGABYTE P67A-UD7-B3 review as they are identical. For now let's jump to the test system page and take a look at what we will be using for our system today!

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