TheTechLounge - Recent Articles

Palit HD 4870 512MB Video Card

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:13:14 -0500

The real win is having a $300 card: NVIDIA made a lot of money with the 9800 GTX before the 4850 forced them to sell it for $200. Now that bracket belongs to ATI, who, for the first time in years, is dictating hardware costs, not following prices set by NVIDIA. We'll have to wait for board partners to add innovation. So yes, the card isn't perfect, but like they say, it's lonely at the top.

VisionTek HD 4870 512MB Video Card

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:18:51 -0500

Picking out a video card should be a little more exciting than finding the cheapest one on the, er, "shelf" and going about your build. Unfortunately for now, the available 4870s are all stock. Performance and profiles being identical, you gotta check out boring stuff like warranties. VisionTek goes farther than other ATI partners with a limited lifetime warranty, but they really like the limited section.

Making the Switch to Digital TV

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:58:56 -0500

As the world changes so do the demands of consumers -- this is particularly true with technology. One of the most pressing issues today is that of digital television. But to most this subject is shrouded in mystery. Why are we being forced to convert to digital signals? What does going digital even mean? Most importantly, how will the shift to digital television affect me? These are all excellent questions, ones I hope to address sufficiently, and thereby purging the digital switch from its aforementioned shroud of mystery.

Zotac GTX 280 1GB AMP! Edition Video Card

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:02:42 -0500

Some of the glimmer has blown away; this is the fastest single-GPU card of all time, but HD 4000 is a whirlwind. It's all value, though, and the best has and will always require a price premium. NVIDIA people won't be dissuaded, and the GTX 280, despite competitive pressure, is selling well. A lot of work went into making this a new card, not a streamlined or overclocked G80 part. It's beastly, costly, and if you've any doubts about buying this card, they're warranted. Fortunately, you can know this: it's powerful, and there probably won't be anything like it for some time to come. ZOTAC has overclocked it, slapped their sticker on this card, and the rest goes like this:

iriver E100 MP3 Player

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:42:22 -0500

Despite their underdog status, iriver continues to impress with their ever expanding and evolving line of digital toys. I have generally been a fan of their various digital players and often refer friends to iriver's website when exploring non-Apple options. Their newest offering, the E100, boasts big league features at a budget price. But for $99.99, will this cheap model deliver quality or just quantity?

PowerColor HD 4850 512MB Video Card

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:45:51 -0500

Interestingly, there seem to be few, if any drastic, architecture changes for HD 4000. It's all scale down, add more. PowerColor, a long-time board partner, shows just how well this strategy pays out for the HD 4850.Even side-by-side, this card looks just like a 3850. That's really superb, because not only was its predecessor small, clean, and fast, it was also quiet. The sticker's adornment is a busty, armored model in Viking chic. But it's a stock card, with the same design that you'd get with any 4850 currently available.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots

Tue, 8 Jul 2008 00:09:22 -0500

Before MGS4 hit the shelves, a flurry of gameplay videos hit the web, and I couldn't help but watch a couple of them. These videos left me deeply worried about the game. Reservedly excited, you might say. The thing that really had me worried was that it seemed the formula might have been modified a bit too much - elements I had loved so much in the previous titles didn't seem to be there anymore. In a way, it just looked a bit like Call of Duty meets Splinter Cell, with some Metal Gear Solid rainbow sprinkles on top. So, after playing the game all the way through (and then some), were my reservations justified?

Diamond HD 4870 512MB Video Card

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 15:29:46 -0500

The 4870 is an excellent card, but for now, all the models are functionally identical, and there are yet to be factory-overclocked cards, let alone custom-cooled models. Variation ranges from changing the sticker to adding spiffy adapters. If you buy Diamond, you're not buying a different card, you're buying better service, only they're not charging extra.

Apple Wireless Keyboard

Tue, 1 Jul 2008 14:25:49 -0500

Mmm, Mac hardware. Sharp. Purposeful. Tasty. Downright industrial designelicious. Half of the people who make the vaunted switch do so because of this keyboard. I mean, not literally this keyboard, but because of the engineering and style that this wireless device is the apex embodiment of. The keyboard is small because it's cut down; the keys are standard but a lot is sacrificed to make the whole package as miniscule as possible without cramping digits. I see a lot of potential in this input device, and not because it's portable. But I also can't help but wonder, can design be taken too far?

Meridian F80 Audio System

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:58:28 -0500

If you've never heard of Meridian, well, I hate to say it, but it's probably because you're just like me and can't afford to spend your entire annual income on a pair of loudspeakers. While I think it's safe to say that the F80 won't set you back that much, it's definitely not a cheap audio solution either. Let's take a closer look and see what kind of value the unit has to offer...

Shuttle KPC K45 Barebones System

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:20:15 -0500

I've had this KPC for a month now. Maybe longer, actually. This review has seen setback after setback: I've had entirely too grand a time playing with this little Linux wonder to really bother with writing. Sure, it's got drawbacks--big ones, to be honest--but it also has this charm not readily engendered by other boxes, no matter how small, elegant, or polished they may be. And, pretty soon, I'm going to have to take it apart and stick its silicon organs into another machine so I can report on my KPC's performance. I want to delay that. I want to keep playing.

Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:58:35 -0500

This evolution of the Squeezebox should prove to be a winner for its new parent company. All the makings of a good sequel are there; extra goodies, unexpected surprises, a flashy new look and a slimmer and trimmer appearance. Logitech is unapologetically aiming squarely at Sonos with this one. Are the two systems direct competitors? Not exactly, but Logitech is bound to take a bite and woo away a few dollar conscious, tech savvy buyers. The included options and features are almost overwhelming to the average user. Acclimating oneself to all the various settings and streaming music account configurations takes a bit of time but pays out in a multitude of listening options. Once installed, Duet users will rarely need to fire up a browser for streaming music or launch an application to access their digital music reserve. If you are an obsessive hoarder of digital music files looking for a way to set them free, the Squeezebox Duet is tailor-made for your addiction.

Chaintech 9600 GT 512MB OC

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:40:02 -0500

Everyone recommends the GeForce 9600 GT first, and they should. It's got a price-to-performance ratio unlike any card before. I'm not exaggerating. This card could very well be the best deal NVIDIA has ever put to market. I spent a day with Chaintech's factory-overclocked card... And I found a couple things I didn't like. Deal breakers? Hardly.

Western Digital Launches Caviar Black - Three Flavors of Caviar

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:56:35 -0500

Welcomed by all, purchased by few: everyone wants a Western Digital VelociRaptor, but the people who have three hundred bucks to spend on three hundred gigs are... rare.

Without a doubt, Western Digital has wowed the enthusiasts, but they're not slowing down on the consumer and enterprise fronts. It's come to light that the very fast, very quiet, and very cool SE16s aren't the latest in hard disk tech, but the first with just a few of the new tricks up Western Digital's corporate sleeve. Today they are launching an all new desktop brand, Caviar Black, claimed to be "WD's best hard drive ever." The first products in this new line will be 750GB and 1TB models.

Of course, like all press, some of it's real and some of it's release, but Ted Deffenbaugh, Senior Director of Product Marketing, used to be one of the engineers; he doesn't like guile and was frank with me in our interview. He's quite proud of these new hard drives, and I'm, well, I'm actually excited about their new spinning metal.

A major part of this release is branding, which is an excellent idea on Western Digital's part. Even I don't like digging up reviews and part numbers to find out which hard drive might suit me best, and the new Caviar color scheme illuminates things well. Blue is boring. It's mostly for the cost-conscious, looking for a middle option. I don't sit on the fence, so Green and Black are more interesting. Green is, you know, "Eco." A low-power, very quiet option. Black is "Enthusiast," "Fast/Feature-Rich," and now brings with it a five-year warranty.

Western Digital still isn't getting great marks for long warranties, though. Blue and Green are only covered for three years, and five, while realistically greater than the practical lifespan of a hard drive, isn't, say, eight. Better than the warranty are the actual, metal-and-circuit improvements.

Logitech MX Air Cordless Mouse

Mon, 9 Jun 2008 14:28:41 -0500

Logitech continues to innovate and redesign one of the most basic elements of computing: the mouse. I've been fortunate enough to have reviewed several of their offerings over the past few years and have been impressed with nearly all. It's been several months since I first received the MX Air, and my schedule has finally slowed enough for me to get some words down. Rather than give a detailed account of every last feature, I thought I would share a little about what life is like with this quality mouse.