The latest articles and reviews found at PC Perspective. http://www.pcper.com This week we talk about the Slate of the Nation, NVIDIA's Quadro 5000 card, 50 Gbps silicon photonics, StarCraft II and AMD's AA stance, Apple dropping NVIDIA from systems, emails, hardware picks of the week and more!... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=411 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=411 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:00:00 -0400 The Phantom is well priced at $139.99 and comes in black, red, and white colors. It includes many high-end cooling features like a built-in fan controller and 7 fan cooling options with dual 200mm, single 230/200mm, triple 120mm, and front 140mm fans. Will it exceed the gaming community's expectations?... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=966 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=966 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:00:26 -0400 Today Intel held a press briefing to discuss a milestone in the development of silicon photonics reaching a reproducible 50 Gbps link between two modules. Silicon photonics is the process of creating, modulating and reading photons via lasers for communications entirely on manufactured silicon. The technology and work being done is very complex but the ideas are pretty simple: create a piece of silicon that can create a laser to transmit data and another chip that can receive and decode the data at a low cost.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=965 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=965 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:00:32 -0400 The new NVIDIA Quadro 5000 professional graphics card finally brings the Fermi GPU to the world it was originally designed for: content creators. Even though a whole new line of parts is being introduced it is really the 5000 model that will see the brunt of attention with a modest (!!) $2250 price tag. Performance might lag in gaming (clocks and specs are under a GTX 465) but in the world of CAD, design, animation and more the NVIDIA card has the edge over AMD's FirePro line.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=964 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=964 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:00:34 -0400 The ASUS N61Jv notebook offers a lot for its $900 price tag including a 16-in screen, Core i3 processor, NVIDIA GT325M GPU with Optimus technology, USB 3.0 and a nice keyboard and touch pad combination. Battery life isn't going get you through a full day without plugging in but for a mid-range price and impressive feature set it could be the perfect back-to-school notebook.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=960 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=960 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:00:15 -0400 Corsair Memory continues to expand their PC power supply offering with the introduction of the Professional Series Gold line of power supplies, which currently includes three models: the AX750, AX850 and AX1200. The biggest and the best – If you are looking for a high-power, high-quality PSU with 80 Plus Gold certified high efficiency, then check out Corsair's latest AX1200!... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=952 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=952 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:00:37 -0400 This coming quarter, we are going to see multiple slate devices hit the market by different companies. With each slate unique from its operating system to screen size, it's hard to even begin digesting all the specs and features. Luckily PC Perspective has you covered in this first installment of 'Slate of the Nation'. Be sure to check out the handy downloadable PDF guide as well!... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=959 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=959 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:00:34 -0400 AMD recently released their quarterly financial reports, and things were pretty stellar for the company as compared to previous performances. Questions were raised though about their competitiveness in the CPU market with Intel starting to churn out significant numbers of 32 nm parts. We look at their past performance, their current standing, and where they sit when looking towards the future.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=961 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=961 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:00:16 -0400 The past year has brought forth the evolution of the Superphone. More than just smartphones, these 1GHz devices with high resolution cameras are the new hot item. Today we take a look at the newest member of this group, the Motorola Droid X and see how it stacks up to the iPhone 4, HTC EVO and more.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=957 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=957 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:00:35 -0400 Psyko AudioLabs is bridging the gap between the benefits of a stand-alone 5.1 surround sound setup and standard gaming headphones with their Psyko 5.1 headphones. These $300 headphones were previewed at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and were even recognized with a 2009 CES Innovation Award. We will see if these high-end cans give us an edge in our favorite FPS games.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=950 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=950 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:00:20 -0400 The full release of StarCraft II is nearly here and we are getting you prepared by detailing GPU performance across current and previous generation offerings. Will the new game require the likes of the GeForce GTX 480 to run or will your Radeon HD 4850 make it through? And what about anti-aliasing and its affect on NVIDIA GPU performance?... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=958 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=958 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:00:11 -0400 The Kingwin LZG-1000 PSU features Crystal Cube modular cables and is 80Plus Gold certified, which translates to high efficiency, cool operation and minimal noise. This is one of the best PSUs Kingwin has released to date.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=944 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=944 Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:00:04 -0400 The days of window-less and beige PC cases are over and the age of aluminum, steel, mesh, acrylic, and LEDs reign supreme in today's mid-tower PC case market. Thermaltake has taken this evolution in case design a step further with the Armor A90 by adding multiple dimensions that create a stylish and revolutionary 3D surface that should appeal to gamers and PC enthusiasts.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=936 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=936 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:00:38 -0400 The Asus U30j is a brushed aluminum beauty that proves it isn't just about good looks. With NVIDIA Optimus under the hood, this slim notebook begs you to consider why you even both with netbooks in the first place. In this review, find out why you should leave your netbook at home.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=941 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=941 Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:00:52 -0400 MSI started the Big Bang series of motherboard to attempt to take back some of the ultra high-end market from the competition and the new XPower option takes it to a new level by offering impressive power and stability options along with overclocking goods and the ability to support as many as six graphics cards! Let's see if the performance and features on the board are worth the fairly high cost.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=956 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=956 Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:00:29 -0400 After publishing our look at the new GeForce GTX 460 we had several requests for an article that quickly compared the relevant NVIDIA and AMD options from top to bottom for the enthusiast PC gamer. I threw together some graphs comparing the $200 cards, $300 cards and $400+ cards from both vendors and added some of our own analysis to help gauge the market as we see it today.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=955 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=955 Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:00:31 -0400 NVIDIA has been attempt to gain ground back from AMD in the enthusiast PC gaming space since the Radeon 5000-series really put them on their heels. The release of the GTX 480/470/465 cards were one step in the right directions and the release of NVIDIA Surround was another. The new GTX 460 introduces the first new GPU redesign with the GF104 and offers top value for your $199. I think a lot of gamers are going to fall for this card!... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=954 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=954 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:05 -0400 If you are in the market for a solid 300W PSU for a Micro ATX Media Center or Home Theater PC, the Seasonic SS-300TFX deserves a very close look! This is a very different form factor than standard power supplies so stop in and see if it might work for your next HTPC build!... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=933 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=933 Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:00:18 -0400 Liquid cooling for CPUs, graphics cards, and even hard drives used to be reserved for hardcore PC enthusiasts who also happened to be the first to paint PC cases and install plexiglass windows and case handles. In 2010, regular Joes like you and me can now have premium, self-contained water coolers for around the cost of a high-end, air-cooled heatsink courtesy of companies like Coolit Systems. Coolit Systems is the original innovator behind this self-contained water cooling systems, and this year at CES 2010 Coolit unveiled an economical water cooler called the ECO Advanced Liquid Cooling System.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=939 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=939 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:00:43 -0400 The ASUS ARES is one of those things of legend; a card that is worth its weight in gold and actually costs just about as much. If you thought the days of the $1000+ graphics card were over, then you were wrong and ASUS would like you see one of the limited edition ARES cards that matches a pair of true HD 5870s with 4GB of memory to create the fastest single graphics card we have ever tested.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=953 http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=953 Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:00:24 -0400