Posted in | 10:28 PM
Using the Biostar TA785G 128M, I can unlock the AMD Phenom II x2 550 to enable the 3rd or/and 4th core on the processor.
With the 3rd or 4th core unlocked, you get a phenom ii x3/x4
+ a little bit of overclock you are about to get a processor that is almost as good as the phenom ii x4! best performance for the value!
Posted in | 6:49 PM
I got my chance to get hold on one of the 1000 limited edition Asus Ares available in the world. I believe that this is the first card to reach our tiny island shores (Singapore). Featuring a dual GPU solution, this card possesses two 5870 GPUs to provide ultimate performance for games. In fact it is the fastest graphics card on the market (actually not yet in the market at this point of time when the video is made) right now, even faster than the Nvidia GTX 480 as well as the ATI 5970. The 5970 is a dual GPU feature a GPU clocked between the 5850 and 5870, while Asus Ares is equipped with a full 5870 gpu. That also explains the high power requirements featured by 2 8pin PCI-e connector and a 6pin PCI-e connector.
This card boast airflow 600% more than the actual factory design of the 5970, performing 32% faster than a reference 5970. Despite the fact of a higher airflow, the high quality fan produces less noise than the reference 5970 at only 37dB, compared to 5970 at 44.5dB.This is a graphics card on drugs. 4GB of Super speed GDDR5 memory supersedes the entire range of high end graphics card on the market, undoubtedly the best graphics card on the market, scoring 15473 on graphics score while the 5970 only scored 11506.
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present you with the Asus Ares, a Dual 5870 graphics card.
Posted in | 10:06 PM
The Dell Vostro is an ultraportable and ultrathin and light laptop from dell. From the makers of Adamo and Adamo XPS, Dell has made those with a budget get the Dell Vostro V13 as a alternative. With Just 0.65" thick and 1.6kg light, this laptop is easy for you to bring around your school or your workplace for presentation. It will certainly amaze your colleagues and schoolmates as well.
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 @ 1.3GHz
Intel GS45 mobile chipset
2GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
Intel GMA4500MHD Integrated Graphics
13.3" Anti Glare 1366x768 LED Backlid Display
Full Size Keyboard
Full Aluminum body
You may be very interested in this model if you move around quite a lot.
I give it a 4.5/5.0 for the good pricing and especially for the lightweight and thin profile. Ultraportability and ultradurability for the win
Posted in | 10:05 PM
The Asus M4A88TD-V EVO USB3 is for someone who wants to be future proof, yet restricted by budget. When you go AMD, you are generally regarded as an AMD fanboy, or you know that AMD provides better value to Intel or you know that ATI and AMD goes well together.
AMD 880G Chipset
AMD SB850 Southbridge Chipset
EPU(energy saving processor)
Core unlocker
Turbo V key
THIS BOARD HAS ANTI SURGE PROTECTION! This is a really cool feature and one of a kind with innovation from ASUS.
Highly recommended that you pair this motherboard with an ATI graphics card because you can run Hybrid Crossfire on this motherboard with a 34XX series card.
Support for USB3 and SATA 6Gbps. Of course, you're sure that you're future proofed. It is compatible with all the future products using USB3 and SATA 6Gbps interface.
There is also another alternative of a similar board of micro ATX form factor. That board will be great for HTPC.
This board is priced more on the high side because you have all the features such as the Core unlocker and Turbo Key. Unleash the maximum performance from your processor with this motherboard.
Posted in | 10:05 PM
This is a pretty new case just released last week and I've got my hands on them. Introducing Cooler Master Elite 370 Mid Tower Case, this case is the choice for your new computer build if you want the full features of a computer case and also at a price deemed affordable.
Black front glossy panel brings out the futuristic looks of the case, together with the side window that you get, you can definitely show off your expensive hardware inside to people around you. You can't really get a case with a side panel at this price. The Cooler Master Elite 370 Mid tower Case is certainly a case worth noticing.
It supports 1 140mm fan at the front for intake, 2 140mm fan at the top for exhaust, 1 120mm at the back(provided) for exhaust and 1 140mm at the bottom for intake.
Tooless drive bays designs ensure system builders will get their build done in not time at all.
Support for 2.5" HDD and SSD- Also using the tooless design. You need not buy any adapter for your SSDs now.
7 Expansion slots for you expansion cards.
Bottom Mounted PSU ensures that cable management looks neater.
Overall, I would give this case a 4/5 for the perfect price for a good steel made chassis. I would have preferred a black interior instead. But for this price, there is nothing much you will want to ask for.
GOOD VALUE!
Posted in | 10:04 PM
ECS GTS250 Black edition has a 3rd party cooler from arctic cooling, and its box really has got a nice looking lady over there! Bought it at a local store in Singapore and the price is really low because Nvidia has already stopped making these cards and moving on to the fermi architechture.
You can call this a renamed 9800gtx, but comparing the price, it is still a lot cheaper. GTX9800 is quite a old card already. Nvidia improved power consumption on this card
It requires only a 6-pin pci-e power connector.
Outputs HD audio via you HDMI cable to your HDTV. You need to use the DVI to HDMI converter provided in the box.
Manufacturer: nVidia
Series: GeForce GTX 200
GPU: G92+
Release Date: 2009-03-03
Interface: PCI-E 2.0 x16
Core Clock: 738 MHz
Shader Clock: 1836 MHz
Memory Clock: 1100 MHz (2200 DDR)
Memory Bandwidth: 70.4 GB/sec
FLOPS: 470.016 GFLOPS
Pixel Fill Rate: 11808 MPixels/sec
Texture Fill Rate: 47232 MTexels/sec
Posted in | 9:55 PM
AMD was the first to introduce processors that are based on the x64 instruction sets. Now that 64bit computing has become mainstream, both intel and AMD are working hard to provide their consumers with the best CPU available. What do i think about AMD? I believe that comparing both AMD and Intel, Intel is like your branded goods while AMD is like your normal goods. Intel sells things more expensive than AMD that is a fact, but AMD can certainly provide some extra features on their chips as well.
Introducing the AMD Athlon II x4-635 this 2.9GHz processor is actually a quad core processor that can perform as well as Intel's corei5 750 cpu at half the price! Besides that, the possibilities of unlocking this processor into a more powerful phenom ii series just by using amd chipsets of 710 and above and wada! You can a phenom ii x4 at the price of an Athlon II with that L3 cache unlocked!
No matter what. I have to insist that you get this processor if you really want value.
Forget about the brands. A computer is just a box that contains hardware. You want something cheap and powerful. Go AMD.
Posted in | 9:54 PM
Singapore has started making their own Memory Chips. Companies such as strontium and nyxtron are slowing crawling into the local markets with their consumer RAMs.
What we have here today are 2x2GB Nyxtron 800MHz DDR2 RAM
They are competitively priced below well known brands such as kingston and ocz and work just as well.
Put these 2 rams together and it will work in dual channel!
Posted in | 9:40 PM
What else can you expect? ECS A785GM-M5 is the only choice you can make if you're really on a budget but yet still get quality chipset from AMD.
ECS is actually a mainboard manufacturer more as an OEM brand. They make boards for different companies just like how foxconn makes chips for apple and dell. However, foxconn don't brand their own motherboard. ECS does. Today, we have the A785GM-M5 from ECS, and let us take a look at what really makes this board worthwhile to buy.
Firstly, it uses an AMD 785g chipset. That means you're good to go without a discrete graphics card. Integrated 4250 ain't that powerful compared to a beefy 4850, but can certainly meet the expectations of your normal video playback, youtube video watching, word processing, powerpoint creation and things like that. A certain must go if you're planning to build a home theatre PC. The competitor chipset from Intel, the corei3 and corei5 with integrated graphics on the processor core itself is too expensive. I'll still stick to the 785g chipset no matter what. Add on an athlon ii x4 for superior price to performance ratio. You're good to go.
Next, is the pricing. If you plan to use this as an home theatre pc, there is no need for a very high end system. This motherboard is the cheapest on the list of all the motherboards available on the market(as of the date I bought the motherboard). Besides, you need to think about the components that fits into the motherboard as well. DDR2 Dimm slots compared to the newer DDR3 are preferred because they are cheaper.
With an inclusion of a pci-e x16 certainly allows you to upgrade your graphics solution in the future if there is a need. Besides, hybrid crossfire is enabled on this motherboard. Just add on a compatible graphics card to the pci-e x16 slot to have a gpu performance level up with both the integrated graphics chip as well as your discrete graphics chip. It saves a lot more electricity as well(because of the technology of hybrid crossfire).
This whole motherboard is a very simple and micro atx which is certainly a board worth considering when building your hometheatre pc.
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