ULTRA GRID PC Case w/700W PSU

ULTRA is really working hard these days to produce and provide quality components for the PC enthusiast. From Power Supply Units (PSU) to CPU coolers, RAM, and all the way up to full PC cases, ULTRA wants to be an overall supplier for the computer hobbyist. We’ve recently reviewed some really nice PSUs from ULTRA and given them some high awards here at Driver Heaven. Today, we want to look at a newly released PC Case. It’s called the GRID. It’s an ATX Mid-Tower PC Case and comes packed with a wallop and loads of features. Included with the case is a 700W modular PSU. We’ll look first at the case and then consider the PSU.

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Harvest Moon (Harvest Moon) - PSP

Before starting the review this reviewer would like to apologize in advance for what may be an undeservedly negative stance towards the Harvest Moon series. It’s just that years ago when I first heard the game’s title I imagined a gore-fest of a game, where every month (on the full moon) creatures harvested human lives all over the place. Imagine my disappointment when I figured out that the Harvest Moon series actually tackles with the other kind of harvesting, namely vegetable harvesting. With that out of the way, let the review begin!

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DDR2 Roundup: Crucial, OCZ and Patriot

In the current marketplace buying memory for a high performance PC can be one of the most difficult tasks. It wasn’t long ago that everyone (except the hardcore overclockers) could safely purchase PC3200 sticks with tight timings and be assured of great performance. With motherboards on the Intel platform allowing speeds in excess of any memory currently available manufacturers are releasing sticks which vary in their methods of being the “fastest”. Some go with relatively low speeds of 800Mhz and use tight timings. Others go with higher bandwidth 1066 MHz modules and looser timings. Today we are going to take a look at 3 different brands of memory which are all aimed at the enthusiast market, however each has its own unique selling points, which one should you go for?

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Building a PC (Step by Step Guide)

Are you a PC building virgin? Don't worry we all had our first time and it really isn't the black art you might think it is. Today Driver Heaven shows you how to pop your electronic cherry and by following our step by step guide you will no longer be a slave to overpriced OEM PC systems. Combine this with the ultimate satisfaction you can get from building your own machine and it is a guide well worth reading!

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Theatre of War PC Review

TTGamer have posted a review of Theatre of War for the PC, which is a game that proves realistic gameplay can match up very well with the RTS genre, albeit at the cost of its mainstream appeal.

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Out of the Park Baseball 2007 PC Review

TTGamer have posted a review of Out of the Park Baseball 2007 for the PC. If you fancy yourself a savvy baseball GM/Manager, then this game will surely put you to the test.

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XIGMATEK 082 Cooler

Ever hear of "the point of diminishing returns", where something gets to the point where you can't improve on what you have unless you come up with a completely new idea? With air coolers, manufacturers are hitting that wall, but recently some companies have devised a new means of heat sink technology. Direct touching heat pipes - Today we take a look at Xigamtek's new cooler using this design.

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Ideazon Fragmat

The Ideazon Fragmat rounds up the company's offerings with a unique mouse pad, which features a hard plastic surface with a thin but soft underlining. It is also available with multiple themes and is big enough for high and mid sensitivity gamers. We try the pad out and let you know if it is something for the crowd of all-round gamers.

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Zotac GeForce 8500 G

Zotac is a new player in the NVIDIA video card business and one of their first new cards is the GeForce 8500 GT which is based on NVIDIA's brand-new G86 graphics processor. Unlike the reference design Zotac's card is factory overclocked to a GPU clock of 700 MHz which gives the card a healthy performance boost for a price increase of about $10.

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New HTPC Cases To Debut!

Today we have an exclusive on an up and coming HTPC case manufacturer.

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Radeon HD 2900XT launch and for sale May 14 – not the 2nd

"Reading around today, some over excited folk got their wires crossed and claimed AMD would be launching their upcoming R600XT on May 2nd. That’s simply not correct – Nvidia is launching the 8800 Ultra on May 2nd at a retail price of at least $999 USD but supply will be very low due to yield and pricing related issues. The word on the streets of Taipei tells us that unless Nvidia reduce their 8800 Ultra pricing, you’ll have a hard time actually buying this part."

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Nvidia nForce 680i LT motherboard reviewed, DFI UT SLI-T2R on trial

"680i LT is the bridge that everyone has been looking for. Its design implements the most important feature we wanted to see, full-speed SLI, with two PCI Express x16 slots running at full x16 speeds, one running off the SPP and one off the MCP. The 680i LT lacks the extra 8 lanes that a full fledged 680i SLI has for a physics engine setup, however, there are ways around this, as even the latest hardware dedicated card from Ageia only requires a PCI slot, so a single PCI Express x1 slot should give these cards all they need. "Today we have got our hands on the first, we hope, of many 680i LT boards. This one comes from DFI, who has really put its all into the product. So let us take a look and see if it is worthy of your dollars. It comes under the famous LANParty name, so we are expecting quite a lot."

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The gradual demise of AMD What happened and what to do next?

"We have distributors, companies who import goods into each country and resell them. In the AMD heydays, those distributors that imported brands like DFI, Gigabyte and ASUS were going great guns - 939 boards where selling hand over fist - and they could not see AMD going anywhere but up. When AM2 was released, huge quantities of AM2 boards were imported based on the fact 939 systems were selling 500-, 1000- and more units a week. Distributors understand that there is a transition period, so they ordered a few hundred boards via air in order to get them within a week, and then proceeded to order a larger quantity to come in by sea; maybe 1000-units, maybe 3000-units. Based on our conversations with Aussie distributors, coming to Australia, a sea shipment is going to take about 6 weeks from Taiwan or China, by which time the distributor feels comfortable that people will be phasing out 939, and AM2 should really be beginning to pump along with their sales figures. As week 6 draws closer, however, things are not looking quite right and a large number of AM2 boards from the air shipment are still sitting in warehouses gathering dust. Oh no."

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BFG Tech GeForce 8600GTS OC - SLI Performance Analysis

"Someone asked me the other day if I thought SLI was just a marketing gimmick or a real technology that is actually worth considering. SLI is a great upgrade option for a lot of people, especially now with a large amount of SLI motherboards available for the impressive Intel Core 2 Duo processor lineup. Generally unless you are buying top of the line graphics cards like the GeForce 8800GTS or GTX, going out and buying a pair of lower-end cards for SLI is not really what we would consider good value for money. What the extra dollars equate to means that you could get a faster single card solution and not have to worry about some games not supporting SLI. The technology is best when implemented with someone buying a card like the new GeForce 8600GTS today, and then three months down the track, when they have some extra dollars, add a second card into the mix."

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Nokia N80 Internet Edition Review

Nokia has loaded the phone up with some great features like support for quad band GSM, 3G WCDMA, and 802.11g WiFi. There are two cameras in the phone, a 3 megapixel camera for photos and a secondary camera that can work with conferencing and video calls. The built in WiFi support is a huge plus for the N80, just ask any BlackBerry user and they’ll tell you they wish they could switch to WiFi when available. Many places are already covered in WiFi and you can hop from hotspot to hotspot in just about every major city. The connectivity is great, but what else does the phone have to offer?

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Thermaltake Soprano DX Case Review

The Soprano DX is one of Thermaltake midtowers and though it's exterior is quite different the interior and chassis are practically identical to that of the Bach VX. A quick glance at the Soprano would have us believe that it is quite different from a case like the Bach VX and, if you are only concerned with the exterior, this is true. The Soprano DX is has a "piano black" paint job with a thick aluminum door at its front while the Bach has a light aluminum bezel with glossy bay covers and no door. Both cases are available with or without a side window and the Soprano comes in black while the Bach is silver.

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Akasa Pro-Grade AK-460

"The heatpaste crown has generally always been awarded to Arctic Silver, whether it is because of widespread publicity or top class performance. But since testing Jetart's attempt, I've seen that the most well-known isn't always the best. Today I have Akasa's 'pro-grade' AK-460 paste. Let's see if its name is warranted"

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Crucial Ballistix PC8500

"Crucial has been one of the top memory manufacturers for a while now, and their Ballistix kits are some of the best loved performance products on the market. Today I have their PC8500 2gb kit, hopefully it can live up to the standard we have all come to expect of products wearing the Ballistix tag."

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Antec Veris MX-1 enclosure

"External HDD enclosures have always been just a box with a USB cord out the back. No regard was given to cooling, or very high speed access. But today I have the Antex Veris MX-1 enclosure with not only e-SATA support, but a large blower fan that circulates air around your HDD."

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Anydrive 3. CSFM07 Wireless transmitter and Card Reader with LCD

"If you're looking for a stand alone MP3 player for the money there are much better choices out there than the Anydrive, But if you are looking for a way to transmit the music from your MP3 player to an FM receiver the Anydrive is a great choice. Sure there are a lot of FM transmitters on the market but the Anydrive also provides the ability to play MP3's from other media sources not just an MP3 player. "

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APEVIA X-QPACK2 Aluminum Case w/ 3 Windows

Well, with the X-QPack2 of course. The new and improve SFF from Aspire sports pretty much everything the older unit does but adds a little bit more. 'In what way?' you may ask. Well, lets start with a more powerful power supply and better cooling. And this is just a start. Is the new version the SFF case that can replace your tall tower style unit? Check out the article.

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SteelPad S&S Gaming Mouse Pad

In addition to the SteelPad S&S professional mouse pad itself, you also get a couple of "free" extras included in the package. There is a soft nylon zip-up case that will help you transport the pad to gaming sessions away from your home base. There is one main compartment where you can place the mousepad, as well as a smaller zipped up compartment on the outside for you to put other (small) accessories. The second "bonus" item is a set of S&S padsurfers, provided courtesy of SK Gaming.

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Silverstone Temjin TJ09 Case Review

"The Silverstone Temjin TJ09 is the next PC Case in the Technic3D Editorship. See you in the following Review which qualities the High-End TJ09 with a new Cooling concept presents."

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Terratec Master 5.1 USB-Headset Review Review

"The Terratec Master 5.1 USB-Headset arrived Technic3D. See you in the following Review a 5.1 USB-Headset with all speakers in the Headset, no simulated. Is this better?"

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Windows Vista Wireless Connection Guide

The majority of mobile computer users require the ability to connect to the internet with ease. Windows Vista can often be frustrating due to its unfamiliarity and complexity. This guide will assist users with connecting to a wireless hotspot using Windows Vista and also shows users the similarities and differences between Windows XP and Windows Vista with regards to wireless connections.

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XClio 188 Super Tower

The 188 case is very top notch. It is very well built and has solid construction with no creaks or rattles. The minimalistic design gives the case a very attractive aura, and it's cooling performance is excellent. The theme of being simple has been shown throughout this review, with screws being needed everywhere. This does not exactly mean it is going to be harder to install your system, tool-less designs can be sometimes flimsy and can even bring up compatibility problems. This is the first case in a while that has not been provided with thumbscrews (which appears to be a must in almost all cases), but that doesn't put this case off one bit.

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Thermalright HR-03 Plus VGA Cooler Review

"Those looking for some extreme cooling/overclocking are certainly in store for a treat. With a high performance cooling fan, I was able to obtain some of the best temperatures I have seen on an 8800 GTX card to date - even better than what most watercooling options can offer. When it comes to overclocking, I was able to push the 8800 GTX well beyond the previous 650 MHz barrier with stock cooling."

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Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 Case Review

"Gigabyte has attempted to pull out all the stops with their new 3D Aurora 570. With a multitude of vendors scrambling to capture your hard-earned dollar for their enclosures, can Gigabyte be the one you want? And with long established names like Antec, CoolerMaster, ThermalTake, ABS, SilverStone, and others fighting it out in the enthusiast market, can the Aurora pull out in front? That's what we're going to find out..."

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Hiper Type-R 580W Power Supply Review

"The evolution of the ATX power supply seems to be a constant process as computer hardware becomes more powerful and power hungry. First we had simple units with three basic +3.3V, +5V, and +12V rails, then came extra features like Power Factor Correction (PFC) to help deliver cleaner, more efficient power, then came the introduction of SATA hard drives and the PCI-Express interface spurring on the introduction of a new ATX 12v 2.0 standard. Among other things, this new power supply standard includes four extra pins on the main 20-pin ATX motherboard connector (for a total of 24-pins) and multiple 12V rails for increased power delivery to new modern power hungry processors and video cards. Companies then started to develop a modular cabling system that allowed the user to customize what cables and connections they want and what they don't. This helped reduce wire clutter inside the case and set particular products out from the crowd of the usual power supply suspects."

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Cingular Wireless 8525 Smartphone

"The smart phone sports a jog wheel on one of the sides in company with some assignable buttons. The reset button is aptly placed at the bottom of the phone that plainly relieves a user from unnecessary hassles. The handset also reserves a button on one side for Cingular's upcoming push to talk service, indicating it can be accommodated. However, there is something that is missed too. The smart phone device leaves the user navigating through the entire menu in order to control the volume in the phone. This means in case you are supposed to keep your handset quiet in a public place and you forget to put it to silence, it will take at least few seconds of focused attention to your handset before you are able to mute your phone. Searching down the menu for volume or audio silence control, reaching out the menu options and selecting suitable options is imperative procedure to follow to set the handset for soothing speaker settings."

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Logitech MX Revolution

Logitech is a company that has been setting the standards in the mousing community for quite some time now. Today I have on the bench what Logitech calls "The world's most advanced mouse" by being smarter and faster then ever before and it's all in one little package called the MX Revolution. Follow along as I take you on a journey to see what the worlds most advanced mouse looks like and how it operates.

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NZXT Adamas Classic Series ATX Case Review

"NZXT delivers a high quality aluminum chassis with the Adamas, does this mid-tower have what it takes to keep a Core 2 Duo / Geforce 8800 GTX system cool and quiet? We find out"

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10 Geforce 8800 GTS 320Mb Video Cards Compared

"We continue our Geforce 8800 320Mb tests with the additional of models from Asus, Albatron, Leadtek and the TEC cooled Calibre, comparing gaming performance, overclocking potential and cooling capability with the previous tested cards. This roundup will help you decide what card to get; read on if you´re in the market for a higher end VGA upgrade."

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GeForce 8800 Ultra Preview Benchmarks

Everyone is speculating about the performance of the upcoming GeForce 8800 Ultra. We calculated the benchmarks of a 8800 Ultra in a mathematic way (we don't talk about how we did that exactly) and can offer an outlook to the real performance of this card.

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Thermaltake Bigwater 760i

"Thermaltake showed us a working prototype of what can be their next water-cooling system, Bigwater 760i. They are, however, still studying whether they are going to release this product in the US market or not. Bigwater 760i is an all-in-one water-cooling solution that can be easily installed on two available 5 ?? bays of your PC case. Check it out."

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XFX 680i LT SLI Motherboard Review

At the sales counter XFX is a company that can be trusted and that is the priceless equation when it comes to making a buying decision. I give the new XFX 680i LT SLI board a Hot Product Award as we all know it's a very solid chipset motherboard and XFX has great customer support. nTune was used first for our overclocking tests and were very surprised to see how well it worked on this board. We were able to achieve an almost 14% gain using NVIDIA's OC tool with our test CPU on the XFX 680I LT SLI board.

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Silent Hunter-Wolves of the Pacific Review

If submarines is your passion, you'd be a fool to overlook this great title, but at the same time, if naval warfare is not at the top of your list, you will hate yourself for making this purchase because this game can get boring extremely, extremely fast. The redundancy of the game is also noted in the sense that after a while everything looks the same (you looking through a periscope trying to sink another boat).

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R Review

THQ produced one hell of a game when they picked up STALKER. This is “The Elder Scrolls” for FPS Fans, or at least the closest we’re going to get for quite a while. There is a ton to do in single player, and that’s without even touching on the main storyline. I am looking very forward to any future expansion packs or anything else released for this game.

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Micron PC5300 2x1gb ECC

The term "Micron Fatbody" should be familiar to many of you. While not easy to get ahold of, it is special ram that deserves a place in our hearts for being the first high performance DDR2 chip. We have a look at how good its performance is in comparison to the latest batches of high performance memory.

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Crucial PC5300 2x1GB

Who doesn't love cheap computer hardware? Today, we take a look at Crucial's 2x1GB DDR2-667 kit, which comes in at $120 at the time of writing. Can it compete with the more expensive performance kits? We plan to find out.

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EPoX Optimus EP-AD580 XR Motherboard Review

The AD580 XR motherboard has all of the features you would expect from a Crossfire compatible motherboard and if you're in the market for an ATI graphics card would make an excellent choice. The board has 6 SATA ports, and many expansion slots, making it an excellent choice for the tweaker that wants to expand.

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XFX 680i LT SLI Motherboard Review

At the sales counter XFX is a company that can be trusted and that is the priceless equation when it comes to making a buying decision. I give the new XFX 680i LT SLI board a Hot Product Award as we all know it's a very solid chipset motherboard and XFX has great customer support. nTune was used first for our overclocking tests and were very surprised to see how well it worked on this board. We were able to achieve an almost 14% gain using NVIDIA's OC tool with our test CPU on the XFX 680I LT SLI board.

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Data-Tec DS350 HDD Enclosure Review

Between the lack of thought and the even more apparent lack of craftsmanship this HDD enclosure puts itself damn close to being useless. With a current market flooded with HDD enclosures a manufacture has to employ careful planning and flawless execution to merely produce a viable product let alone one that will stand above the rest.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W90

"The DSC-W90 seems like a nice package with its 8.1MP CCD, 2.5-inch LCD, 3x optical zoom, optical image stabilization, HD output, and sub $300 price."

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Wal-Mart HD DVD: To Be or Not To Be?

"Wal-Mart denies any deal with Chinese-based HD DVD manufacturers. But the message is clear when you read between the lines."

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HP Pavilion s3020n Slimline PC

"The HP Pavilion s3020n Slimline PC is a vertically-oriented, small form factor PC with plenty of power, good looks, and a very affordable $500 base price. "

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Moneual MonCaso 932P Platinum HTPC Enclosure Review

"Moneaul was very gracious in sending us what appears to be the most impressive looking HTPC enclosure currently available. The Moncaso 932P Platinum Enclosure is aimed at replacing and changing the image of your current entertainment center with something that proprietary audio-video companies only hope to emulate. Of course, this is just the enclosure and it's up to you to decide what goes in it. Allow me to show you why Moneual has succeeded in taking the home theater market to the next level."

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ABIT IN9 32X-MAX 680i-SLI Motherboard Review

"As performance champions go, the 965X has had more success in the overclocking and price to performance area for many makers. Some 975X motherboards like the AW9D-MAX, have helped in regaining and setting some very good overclocking records among the enthusiasts the past few months. Half of the credit goes to ABIT's ability to release better and better BIOS revisions while the other half goes to the electronics quality. At some point though, a BIOS begins to out pace the motherboard, so it becomes necessary to update revision or chipset based motherboard. I'd like to thank ABIT for sending us one of their newest motherboards that comes prepared for speed and ready to show off in any windowed computer enclosure. So, what does their IN9 32X-MAX 680i SLI Motherboard have to offer besides good looks and frame rates? You'll just have to read on."

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How to find a Nintendo Wii

If you’re like me, and you just might be, you may have noticed the poll results on the front page these past couple days. With BonaFide Reviews dipping its feet in the gamer pool, so to speak, its important to keep track of where the demand is in the gaming market, and if you haven’t been living under a rock for the past six months, its pretty easy to see that the Wii continues to be the most sought after next generation console.

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Cooler Master GeminII CPU Cooler

The GeminII has performed great in the test rig. It was able to generate temperatures close to the Ultra Chill Tec Cooler, which was impressive I must say.

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Logitech MX Revolution Rechargeable Wireless Laser Mouse

Mice have come a long way from the days of dirty and dusty balls that always got clogged up at the worst times to the super futuristic optical mice with the cool looking red-light beaming from the bottoms. Now we have mice with "friggin-lasers", as Dr. Evil would say, that work on pretty much any surface you use them on. The next evolution of mice will extend beyond the basics of being accurate with movement tracking and having three buttons; Logitech is leading the way and their latest product, the MX Revolution is evidence of this.

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Icydock MB561 4-Bay External SATA Removable Hard Drive Enclosure Review

"In my last review I talked about how external drives are becoming very popular and today I will be taking a look at a very big external hard drive enclosure. This enclosure can hold 4 SATA drives that are connected to your PC via eSATA cables for maximum speed. Also did I mention the drives are hot swappable so you can take a drive out and use it in another enclosure. The enclosure I'm talking about is the Icydock MB561. Let's take a look..."

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Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision Webcam Review

"I got my first webcam many years ago. It was cool to have, but I really did not get that much use out of it because there were not a lot of applications out there that I could use it with. Now there are a ton of programs that utilize webcams for video chat and video calling. Today we will be taking a look at the QuickCam Ultra Vision from Logitech. It is one of the best webcams I have seen in a long time and offers many features other webcams just don't have. Let's take a look..."

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (PC DVD-ROM)

"Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness, seeks a mortal champion to save his realm from annihilation at the hands of the mysterious Jyggalag and the Greymarch. Face new challenges and dangers, and fight with exciting new weapons, spells and armor, in a world split between Mania and Dementia in the official expansion to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion—the 2006 Game of the Year—and survive to claim the greatest prize of all in The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles!"

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