When building a gaming computer, each component is important in its own way. Most people focus on their motherboard, CPU, RAM and video card. However, things like your case, hard drive and power supply also play a vital role in things. We’ve covered cases and hard drives, but haven’t really touched on power supplies. These are rather tricky to properly review without specialized equipment. We currently have an Ultra X4 850W Modular Power Supply, and I thought I’d share at least my initial thoughts with you.
Modular power supplies are nothing new, but they are something I would recommend to anyone building a new system (or just replacing their old PSU). I’m very picky about cable management, and having a lot of extra unneeded wires lying around drives me insane. Of course making the inside of your case look better is only one of the benefits, it also helps to maximize airflow thus keeping your components cooler.
Last week I showed you the M59 chasis from NZXT and promised reviews on a couple of their other new cases. Well you can stop holding your breath, as today I’ll be reviewing the Beta EVO Mid Tower Chassis. This is one of their sub-$50 cases, which makes it more of a budget offering. When you start getting into that price range, many cases tend to be lacking in both features and quality. Lets see if that’s the case here.
Features
Being the budget case that it is, it’s not surprising to see a general lack of extra features. You’ll find punched-out holes for cable management, as well as one beneath the CPU (just as the M59 had) and holes for accommodating a liquid cooling setup. You’ll also find room for 6 fans (only one is included) and a screwless installation solution for your optical and hard drives.
Being a gamer, I tend to watch the release of new video cards rather carefully. Well in case you missed it, AMD released the first DirectX 11 cards last month. This allowed them to take the crown for fastest card and left Nvidia in the dust so to speak. Anyone that’s paid attention to these releases over the years will know that Nvida won’t be far behind with their own DX11 cards. In fact, we now know that they will be hitting stores before the end of the year.
Nvida has stated that they will have their latest cards, dubbed the GT300 out in time for ‘Black Friday.’ That gives AMD a 2 month head-start into the market. The big question is whether or not people are going to jump on AMD’s offerings, or wait to see what kind of performance the new GT300 cards show. Either way, it’s going to be an interesting holiday season.
I’m all about having a kick-ass case for my gaming rig. I like having something to show off that not only look cool, but is easy to work with in terms of upgrades. I’ve owned and reviewed quite a few different cases over the years, and I have to say, this new Level 10 from Thermaltake tops them all.
The case was designed by BWM Designworks USA, where they were obviously thinking outside the box. Or rather, they were thinking about what’s usually located inside the box. Instead of having a big rectangle for a case, they chose to outline each component, putting it in its own compartment. Each compartment features its own cooling system, ensuring that you’ll never have to worry about overheating. You’ve got room for six hot-swappable SATA drives and three optical drives. My only concern is that you might not have enough room for some of the longer video cards. Oh, and that little $700 price tag might also be an issue for some.
If you’ve had your eye on Apple’s latest 24-inch Cinema Display, then you no doubt know that it doesn’t play nicely with older hardware. Specifically, it only has a Mini DisplayPort connector. Unfortunately unlike DVI and VGA, you aren’t going to find a simple $2 adapter. In fact, if you were running an older laptop without a Mini DisplayPort, there was no way to get the two to work together, short of buying a whole new computer. Well the folks over at Atlona have whipped up something to help you out.
The AT-DP200 takes a regular DVI connection from your computer and transforms it into a Mini Displayport connection that you can use with your fancy-pants monitor. The converter will still keep your full 1920 x 1200 resolution and HDCP compatibility. You’d better be really attached to that older computer though, as this device will set you back $179 when it ships next week.
I’m sure that I’m not the only one that has more than one computer at his desk. However, I doubt very much that many people have multiple computers inside a single case (I know I don’t). Well the people at DFI have created a new motherboard which allows for two completely different systems to be ran off of it. The above video goes into greater detail, but essentially you have a P45 chipset running a socket 775 CPU, and an Atom-based configuration on the board. There are shared ports between the two, and you’ll be able to transfer files back-and-forth.
This new board is going to set you back around $399 when it hits the market in October or November of this year. The price really makes me wonder how many people are going to find many real applications for this. Personally, I’d rather have two different motherboards inside two different cases. It would be cheaper, you’d eliminate the single point of failure between two computers, and you could use both at the same time.
Remember that spiffy Eee Keyboard that Asus announced back at CES? Well we’ve finally gotten a confirmation on a release. It seems that it will be shipping next month, for between $400-$500. In case you’ve forgotten, you’ll get an Atom-powered computer packed inside a keyboard with a 5-inch touchscreen and wireless HDMI. How awesome is that going to be?
When most people walk into my office, the first thing they notice is that I have a lot of monitors at my desk. Two of them are for my Mac, and two for my PC. However, I’ve always thought it would be cool to have more. I’m sure you’ve all seen movies where some hacker has six ore more monitors arranged in a nice rectangle. That’s exactly what I want, and it seems that with AMD’s new DirectX11 cards, I’ll be able to do this.
Now I’m sure you’ll point out that I can hook up plenty of monitors to my Windows machine just fine. That’s true, I’ve had up to four connected at once, but it does not provide the desired effect. When I launch a game, it still only plays on a single window. However, with AMD’s Eyefinity tool, Windows will think that all of the connected monitors (up to 6) are really just one large display.
That’s right, you can have six monitors arranged in a rectangle, and when you fire up your favorite game, it will show up on all six. Of course you’ll probably have some fun in getting the game to work at the proper resolution, depending on the title. The bezels will also be a little annoying, but AMD is working with Samsung to create monitors with extra-thin bezels for this sort of purpose.
I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these cards and try this out myself. Unfortunately it sounds like you’ll need to have at least one monitor hooked up using a DisplayPort, meaning you can’t just go grab a bunch of old 17-inch monitors and go to town. Still, count me in.
Have you been pining over that USB 3.0-equipped Asus motherboard that we showed you last week? Sure, there aren’t any peripherals that actually take advantage of the new standard, but at least you’d be prepared. At the time Asus hadn’t provided us with any pricing or availability on the board, however, now we know exactly when this baby will be shipping. That would be never.
Apparently Asus has decided to scrap the board, without really giving any reason. The only thing they mentioned was that they were working on other things. I guess maybe it is a little early to get excited about USB 3.0, but you can’t use peripherals without ports. Then again, what good are ports without peripherals? Now we’re back to the old chicken and the egg thing.
Related Tags: computer, GamerFront, Review
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