Weekly Hardware Review Links

Weekly Hardware Review Links
Posted :: Jun 23, 2005 by Haggs

You wanted more, so we've brought you more. Highlights this week include a review of nVidia's latest 7800GTX brought to you by Tom's Hardware, Abit's AA8XE motherboard from Guru3D, ECS KN1 Extreme AMD Motherboard by TheTechZone, and last but not least a DDR2 Memory Module Roundup from Lost Circuits. So what are you waiting for?

1.) nVidia 7800 GTX Graphics Card -
An article from Tom's Hardware examined the card in more ways than one. Tom's staff tested the nVidia 7800GTX's power consumption, benchmark performance, and product features. At $599 it is still a questionable buy.

2.) Abit AA8XE Motherboard -
Guru3D has crafted an article that shows off Abit's recent AA8XE motherboard. This orange motherboard is based on Intel's 925XE mainboard chipset, and supports the latest DD2 and PCI-E standards. The Guru3D staff conclude that "whether you are an office user that needs maximum performance or a hardcore gamer that likes to tweak his system to the max really doesn't matter. The AA8XE offers pretty much all of it."

3.) ECS KN1 Extreme AMD Motherboard -
Due to bad experiences with entry level ECS motherboards in the past (the death of 3 motherboards after a year or two of use), Absolute Insight staff member Haggs has been a bit skeptical of ECS motherboards, but a recent review of a higher end ECS board from TheTechZone praises the company for a job well done (taking the price into consideration of course). TheTechZone concluded that it is definitely a worthy investment for anyone on a budget. Unfortunately, at no fault of their own, TheTechZone probably won't test the board long enough to see how long it holds up.

4.) DDR2 Memory Module Roundup -
Lost Circuits examined DDR2 modules from manufacturers such as Corsair, GeIL, Mushkin, Kingston, Crucial, and PDP. Each module's performance in both synthetic (SiSoft Sandra 2004 S1, Everest, PCMark2004, and more) and real world applications (Doom 3, FarCry, and more) was tested. Take a look at their comprehensive review to learn more about the difference between some of today's hottest DDR2 memory modules.