Tech News
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Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC8500 2x1GB @ EclipseOC
Published: Friday, May 11, 2007 | By: DennisWhen it comes to buying high performance memory there are two things to keep in mind.
a) you can "assume" that if the company mfgs memory chips and then sells modules they will be using their own chips on the modules.
b) you cannot "assume" that they will actually horde the best stuff for themselves when other companies are willing to pay big dollars for "the good stuff"
so why does this quote not surprise me?
"As I have mentioned a few times in the past, Crucial is a part of Micron. As such, it is a sure thing that Ballistix sticks will come with Micron chips, just as they have since a few weeks after their introduction back in the DDR1 days. Upon asking which chips these DDR2-1066 kits use, I was told that it was not possible to know. I did some investigation on with this kit and found that underneath the heatspreaders lay D9GMH chips with a -18F marking. Crucial has rebinned the 333MHz, cas5 chips up to 533MHz with the same timings."
Well its because EVERYONE in the industry does this to a certain degree, an while faster chips exist the majority of 1066Mhz modules are CAS5 and have been “overclocked” from the factory. Why do you suppose it requires 2.3v+ to keep them running? -
Super Talent 4GB PC2-6400 @ Techgage
Published: Friday, May 11, 2007 | By: DennisThis has got to be one of the strangest comments I have ever seen related to memory heatspreaders…. ever...
"The heatspreaders leave a bit to be desired though. To me it looks like a spreader doused with a bunch of candy sprinkles and then painted over. Once again though, they do their job. I am unsure how this method would compare to others, but it's better than some I've come across."
I will admit the Super Talent heatspreaders are not much to look at but they do look and work pretty well to they can’t really be that bad.
Btw here are my picks for the best memory heatspreaders on the market...
Patriot = has the best looking
Corsair = the most functional
Adata = the cleanest -
News to follow
Published: Monday, May 7, 2007 | By: DennisHello everyone, Sorry for the lack of news postings, I've been a little busy with another major project that should see the light come Computex 07.
As the subject says, news to follow. -
Noctua_NC-U6_chipset _cooler Review @ OCC
Published: Monday, April 30, 2007 | By: DennisOne thing the enthusiast market needs is more high end Northbridge / MCP coolers as the stock ones rarely do anything to help high FSB overclocking.
Sadly the downside to good NB cooling is the cooler becomes rather huge in the process.
"Can you hear it? Silence, that's one of the calling cards for the Noctua NC-U6 chipset cooler we will be looking at today. This chipset cooler features heatpipe cooling, 29 aluminum fins, soldered connections and you guessed it, no fans. With today's hot-running chipsets, the stock cooling is marginal at best. For those who want to reach for and achieve the highest possible clock speeds, replacing the chipset cooling with something better is not optional - it is mandatory. Can a passive chipset cooler fit the bill for your performance needs? Let's find out." -
NL: Review Block - Motherboards
Published: Monday, April 30, 2007 | By: DennisNormally I try to break out each motherboard review with a few comments but for this round I've opted to just list them in a standard review block. I hope nobody minds, then again nobody says anything either way.
- EPoX Optimus EP-AD580 XR Motherboard Review @ Motherboards
- ABIT IN9 32X-MAX 680i-SLI Motherboard Review @ Virtual-Hideout
- EVGA nForce 650i Ultra Review at NVNews
- XFX 680i LT SLI Motherboard Review @ Motherboards
- Abit and MSI take on the nForce 650i @ TechReport
- XFX 680i LT SLI @ Bjorn3D
- DFI Lanparty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G @ EclipseOC
- DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G @ NordicHardware
- abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD Motherboard Review @ Motherboards
- Foxconn N5M2AA-EKRS2H AMD Socket AM2 Review @ Redaktion
- DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G @ TechReport
Be sure to check back as we'll have a new board review here shortly. -
NL: Review Block - Memory Modules
Published: Monday, April 30, 2007 | By: DennisIt is time for another review block featuring memory reviews from around the web.
- Crucial Ballistix PC8500 Review - XSReviews
- Crucial PC5300 2x1GB @ EclipseOC
- Crucial 2GB DDR2-1066 Ballistix Tracer @ Techgage
- Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 Memory @ 3DGM
- Mushkin XP2-6400 4GB Kit @ Bjorn3D
- Mushkin XP2-8500 2GB Kit DDR2-1066/PC2-8500 Memory Review @ Redaktion
Pretty much all Crucial and Mushkin, just a couple of US based memory makers; funny thing is I think they are both using the same memory chips.
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DFI LAN Party UT NF680I LT SLI-T2R Review Posted
Published: Monday, April 30, 2007 | By: DennisIn the Enthusiast hardware world "custom" is the name of the game. This is not a hard and fast rule but when you look at what people do to get the best performance you cannot deny that enthusiasts like to change things. It might start with something simple like watercooling or something extreme like voltage mods, either way the system is no longer stock.
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ABIT AB9 Pro Intel P965 Express Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 | By: Dennis"he ABIT AB9 Pro uses a rather distinctive layout, so at first glance some connectors look haphazardly placed. In practice the board is pretty easy to hook up, and where connectors look out of place there is actually extra room to accommodate them - the SATA connectors are a good example. The AB9 Pro has no less than six fan headers strategically located around the PCB, with at least one 4-pin PWM connection for the CPU fan heatsink. The board uses Rubycon electrolytic capacitors."
OMG, and you thought me making fun of Aopen for putting the floppy connector under the last PCI slot was bad! This one really takes the cake. -
April Fools Aftermath
Published: Tuesday, April 3, 2007 | By: DennisIn case some of you have not noticed our latest review featuring the Tyan Trinity is actually an April Fools joke.
and it just keeps on giving.
You see several years ago (before the whole nVidia SLI thing) I planning on doing this little April Fools review where I take some old piece of hardware and somehow make it new (or at least seem like it was new). As the K6 is really no longer something that people think of it seemed like the perfect candidate, heck you take the heat spreader off and it looks like an Athlon XP. I spent a few months getting stuff off ebay and raiding my own stash until I got the perfect combination of old and new hardware.
Since then I missed a few April 1sts for various reasons but each year I came back to the same idea hoping for just the right time to make it happen.
Well, as you have guessed the joke finally made it out into the open and not only did it get some good press but it's still getting it!
One thing everyone should know about the hardware review site world is that 10% of the sites out there get 90% of the traffic and well, getting your stuff out for others to read is sometimes a pretty big chore. So far the most reliable way to accomplish this is to spam the snot out of your fellow site owners.
Some sites are better than others in getting the daily news posted, most only post news from sites they know, and others post every little thing that comes in. We here at Ninjalane only post the stuff we find interesting which also means 8 times out of 14 we actually read the review in question. One thing is certain this is a lot of email and the majority of it rarely gets read (much like normal spam). after awhile the person in charge of posting the daily news just mindlessly post whatever they get and then go off to play Xbox or something.
Now don't get me wrong its not like anyone emailed me about the review saying "you suck" or "good job, that was funny" but I have to wonder…
Is that Xbox game really that good??, If so let me borrow a copy. -
ReadyNAS NV+ (Model RNV2-S4-0000) @ BRnR
Published: Saturday, March 31, 2007 | By: DennisThis might be one of the coolest NAS units I have ever seen, and spendy too.
"Not only are downloads, digital photography, movies, music collections, and personal data growing in Gigabytes; but the need to share that data between multiple computers and devices—such as networked media players and entertainment center PCs—is growing as well. Even more important, is the need to back up all of that valuable data quickly, safely, and easily."
This thing is about the size of an external SCSI drive tower with the added plus of external USB and a single Ethernet jack.
