Reviews

With the Radeon HD4800-series videocards only having been released a few short months ago, Sapphire has already released a factory-overclocked version of the HD4850. Under Sapphire's Toxic branding, the new card promises better performance with cooler temperatures with a quieter Zalman cooling solution.

Palit recently sent their new Radeon HD4850 videocard our way, and while it lacks some of the improvements I saw in the GeForce 9600 GSO Sonic, I'll look at a newer firmware version than the Sapphire Radeon HD4850 BIOSLEVEL.com previously looked at.

The TS-409U is a powerful embedded Linux system featuring a 500MHz System-on-Chip (SoC) CPU and 512MB of DDR2 memory. It fits in a 1U rackmount space, and has four SATA II hotswap bays supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6. On top of this, the TS-409U is a multi-functional all-in-one NAS server supporting various functions from webserver, to MySQL server, to an iTunes server.

Corsair, legendary provider of computer memory, has expanded their range of quality products from memory hardware and flash products. With the introduction of their various series of power supplies they have proven that they, too, belong among the big guys in the power supply market. Corsair's new CMPSU-750TX is one of two recently released units for the "gamer, overclocker or enthusiast and high-end system builder." Here at BIOSLEVEL we take a look at the higher-end 750TX.

Sapphire supplied us with one of their initial Radeon HD4850 videocards, which features 512MB of GDDR3 memory, CrossFireX support, and is probably one of the fastest cards we've looked at yet. The Sapphire Radeon HD4850 promises cutting-edge performance, but incredible multimedia processing capabilities as well.

Palit recently sent us the GeForce 9600GSO Sonic, which is an enhanced GeForce 9600GSO. Palit has added its own cooler, as well as factory overclocked the unit, and improved upon the power phases. The 9600 GSO is nVidia's latest foray in the mid-level 9000 series of GeForce cards, and is also the cheapest for a performance card. Despite the price point, the 9600 GSO should be a fair competitor to both the GeForce 9600 GT and Radeon HD3650.

Thermaltake has always been one of my favorite case manufacturers for their quality and creative designs. The M9 is yet another example of one Thermaltake's fantastic chassis, featuring nine 5.25" drive bays, tool-free drive and add-on installation, and dual 120mm fans. Will it stand up to the Thermaltake's claims of excellent ventilation and silent operation?

Scythe came to the U.S. in 2004 after being founded in Japan in 2002. Scythe set out to develop a super powerful yet super quiet CPU cooler. Scythe recently sent us the Katana II CPU cooler, which carries on the ideas of their initial venture. The Katana II features a 100mm fan, three heatpipes, and a vertical design. I'm going to put it to the test.

Hitachi was the first company to release a one terabyte hard drive, and they've sent us the DeskStar 7K1000 model for review. The DeskStar 7K1000 features SATA II compatibility, 8.5ms seek time, and 7,200RPM rotational speed.

There's nothing more dissatisfying than when everything in a computer case is silenced except the video card. Water cooling is always an option, but there's always a certain level of risk with it. Sapphire has answered this question with the Radeon HD3870 ULTIMATE video card.