Tech News
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AuzenTech HDA X Plosion 7.1 Review - XSReviews
Published: Monday, July 9, 2007 | By: DennisI can agree with this quote, never been a big can of Creative even though my very first sound card was a Sound Blaster 16 I got off their band wagon as soon as I could in hopes of finding something better. AuzenTech might have that base covered.
Whetheryou love or hate them, Creative has become the most well-known PC audioadd-in card supplier. While their X-Fi range of cards pleased manygamers, the lack of Vista drivers caused an equal quantity of miffedcustomers. Auzentech are now out to prove there are alternatives outthere, and they are even releasing an X-Fi chip card soon. Todayhowever I have their HDA X plosion 7.1 DTS Connect card. The X-Fikiller? Find out below… -
DSL Downtime - Fun times
Published: Sunday, July 8, 2007 | By: DennisBack in the early days of High-Speed Internet outages and general issues with your Internet connection were very common. I remember having to resort to Dial-Up for over a week when my Cable connection went down but after moving into the new Ninjalane Labs and switching to DSL outages and general problems became a thing of the past.
That is until Saturday evening @ 10pm MST when (as reported by Qwest) one of the DSL servers hosting the Ninjalane account went down. I their reason was a cop out for a larger issue but it still met we were Internet access here in the Lab until the issue was resolved.
As you can imagine access has been restored. News and Articles are to follow.
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Happy 4th of July
Published: Wednesday, July 4, 2007 | By: DennisFor our readers here in the US we would like to wish you a Happy 4th of July!
Of course everyone celebrates their independence differently. Traditionally we here at Ninjalane we try and compile a nice fireworks show along with some good brew and something sizzling on the grill. So however you plan to spend the day, kick back and have a good time.
Oh and watch them fingers, you'll will want try and have all 5 for putting that next Upgrade Alley system together.. -
NL: Review Block - Misc
Published: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 | By: DennisMore news, minus my chatter
Cases
Antec P182 Mid-Tower Case @ TheTechLounge
Antec P190 Case @ Bjorn3D
Nexus Morpho Premium Aluminum Case Review @ Tweaknews
SilverStone Temjin TJ09 @ BRnR
Antec P182 ATX Case @ Viper Lair
Antec "Performance One" P190 Enclosure @ Tweaktown -
Overclocking Made Easy Guide @ TechwareLabs
Published: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 | By: DennisThis is actually a pretty good guide and worth reading.
Many people hear about overclocking and ask themselves what it is and if it can help them. While there is no simple answer to this question, this guide will help you try to decide for yourself if overclocking is for you. We step you through the basics of overclocking and the concerns and pitfalls so that you can achieve results without fear. Read our guide to achieve better results -
Auzentech X-Tension DIN review @ Elite Bastards
Published: Thursday, June 28, 2007 | By: DennisCleaver use of words
When we reviewed Auzentech's X-Meridian sound card at the turn of theyear we were, quite simply, mightily impressed. Although there are nowa myriad of boards featuring CMI's 'Oxygen HD' CMI8788 audio processoron the market, none could match the X-Meridian's outstanding audioquality. -
Neoseeker MSI P35 Platinum Review
Published: Thursday, June 28, 2007 | By: DennisOk so here is a fun review of the new P35 board from MSI. Most companies have been moving away from custom board colors and settling on bad ass black. Personally I'd like to see more Sexy Red boards but... what can you do.
In fact, I really like how the cool exhaust air passing though one of our Noctua coolers spills over onto the chipset cooler. Perhaps that'll help get us some sweet overclocks. Hey, wait a second . .
Silly monkeys, how'd they get in here?
No matter. We'll let them play as we look over all of the bundled hardware MSI included with their P35 Platinum motherboard. -
XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra XXX Edition Review @ NVNews.net
Published: Thursday, June 28, 2007 | By: DennisBack in my days of heavy gaming Ultra edition was the only card I even considered buying, and for the most part remains true. As of late the nVidia GTX replaced the Ultra as the launch edition with the Ultra coming out several months later. in a way just to annoy the early adopters which begs the question. Is the Ultra just an overclocked version of the GTX? Or does it demand a second look?
The core speed of the reference GeForce 8800Ultra increased a modest 6% over the GeForce 8800 GTX (612MHz vs.575MHz) while the shader processor increased 11% (1500MHz vs. 1350MHz).A 612MHz core is usually attainable by overclocking a GeForce 8800 GTX,but the 20% increase in the memory frequency (1080MHz vs. 900MHz)ultimately sets the Ultra apart from the GTX. -
Upgrade Alley Budget System Updated
Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 | By: DennisThis is Version One of the 'budget reliable' system. This system isdesigned to fit within an extreme budget, but have enough performanceand upgrade life to become the basis of a great upgrade.
Somegreat features of this upgrade include a MSI motherboard with on-boardvideo and an additional empty 16x PCI Express slot. This will allow fora future video upgrade. A single stick of DDR2 will get you by howeveradd a second for dual channel support. For this system we spent themajority of our money on the processor since the motherboard was notdesigned for overclocking.
All this and we still kept the total cost of the system below $500! -
Noctua NC-U6 Chipset Cooler @ Bjorn3D
Published: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 | By: DennisHow true this is, although I'm not sure I'm ready to replace my Northbridge heatsink with an even larger heatpipe radiator.
The overall majority of typical motherboard chipset heatsinks and"fansinks" typically offer only just sufficient cooling, but nofurther. If that wasn't enough many of the lower cost enthusiastmotherboards will often sacrifice silence for a high-speed fan in theprocess. Typically these fans only last one or two years at most beforewearing out and needing to be replaced, as some computer usersunfortunately discovered only after their board had overheated andfailed.
