Today I will be reviewing an external HDD enclosure from Icy Box called “IB-318STU3-B” (wonderful name). It has a USB 3.0 interface which should boost the data transfer speeds significantly, at least according to the specs.
INTRODUCTION
Only months ago, the third revision of the USB standard appeared. I’ve seen it called both “USB 3.0” and “USB SuperSpeed”. What is clear is that the new version includes several improvements compared to USB 2.0.
The most important update is of course the increase of the data transfer speed (theoretical) to 4.8Gbps (600MB/s) compared to USB 2.0’s 480Mbps (35MB/s). This is really a huge difference.
Another important change is the maximum power output of USB 3.0 of 900mA (500mA in USB 2.0), which will allow USB 3.0 ports to power a number of devices and accessories to laptops. In real world, this means fewer AC adapters to accessories like external harddrives, notebook cooling pads etc.
Prolimatech sent us the Mega Shadow, an improved version of its “Megahalems” with extended compatibility and some aesthetic modifications.
INTRODUCTION
Prolimatech was created by a group of cooling enthusiasts in 2008. When they released their Megahalems cooler they got a lot of buzz from news and reviews sites all over the world.
The “Megahalems” can be derived from the “Nehalem” chip name (Intel) and the cheer size of the cooler. You should definitely check out reviews of the Megahalems at testseek to see what the buzz was about.
Prolimatech’s latest product will be on display today, the “Prolimatech Mega Shadow”. I’m thrilled to have the work of fellow cooling enthusiasts in my hand and it’s going to be very interesting to see what its performance results will be.
AMD is back with a new medium range card which promises a good price/performance ratio, the Radeon HD 5670.
INTRODUCTION
The first member of the Evergreen family hit the market back in September (2009). AMD has since then not said much about what would follow.
AMD chose to release the 5670 card at last week’s CES 2010 event. The 5600 series chip is called Redwood and currently only includes the Radeon HD 5650 and 5670 chips. The 5600 series is clearly directed to the mid range segment of the market as illustrated in AMD’s release strategy below. AMD has release two versions of the HD 5670 card, one with 1GB GDDR5 and another with 512MB GDDR5. This review covers the latter one.
ZOTAC GeForce 220 with 1GB GDDR3 is a new card targeted towards the low end market. It has a customized cooling system and should satisfy most consumers looking for a card with good High Definition capabilities.
INTRODUCTION
In July 2009, NVIDIA began the transition to a 40nm manufacturing technology with two new models destined for the low end market: the GeForce GT 210 and GT 220. They were actually never destined to be sold as full retail cards but as the market has developed, NVIDIA now has full retail version of both of them.
The basic model (GT 210) has the “gt218” GPU which has 16 “CUDA cores”; a 64-bits interface; 512MB GDDR2 memory; 1 D-Sub, 1 DVI and 1 HDMI exit. The reference model runs on the following frequencies: 589MHz, 1402MHz and 790MHz (GPU/Shader/Memory). It replaces the old 9400 GT in NVIDIAS lineup.
The NVIDIA GT 220 reference card is based upon the “GT216” GPU which has 48 “CUDA cores”; a 128-bits interface; 1024MB GDDR3 memory; 1 D-Sub; 1 DVI and 1 HDMI exit. The reference model runs on the following frequencies: 625MHz, 1360MHz and 790MHz (GPU/Shader/Memory). It sells at around $60-$80 and it replaces the old 9600 GT and 9500 GT cards.
The Lian-Li PC-8N is a high quality medium range aluminum case with a sober design at an interesting price level.
INTRODUCTION
Just a couple of weeks back I had the immense pleasure to review the LanCool Dragonlord PC-K58 case and as I mentioned in the introduction to that review, LanCool is a member Lian-Li family of brands.
The Lian-Li PC-8N is a medium tower case without too many “extra” features. It is a sober looking case made in aluminum that should attract anyone looking for a high quality case at a reasonable price level.
In the TestSeek Labs blog you will find our own hands-on reviews of hot computer and electronics products. To find all reviews from other sites as well you should check out our main site TestSeek.com.
