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Stories by Elias Plastiras

  • Altech Sputnik BTX Deluxe

    Systems based on the BTX form factor are a rarity, primarily because only Intel motherboards are available in this form factor, and there aren't many of them out there. BTX was introduced by Intel to improve system cooling. In this form factor the CPU is situated near the front of the case, where a case fan feeds cool air across it and through the rest of the system.

  • Fast 802.11g router

    Using the third generation of Airgo's True multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) chipset, Asus has laid claim to having the world's first 802.11g wireless router that is faster at transferring data than a wired 10/100 Ethernet network.

  • Versatile TV tuner

    AverMedia's Hybrid TV tuner card is a half-height PCI card, which ships with a mounting bracket and has broadcast driver architecture support, making it suitable for use in a media centre PC.

  • Quiet operation, piping hot graphics

    Quiet operation is the hallmark of Gigabyte's mid-range graphics card, which keeps cool by using three large heat sinks connected by heat pipes. This setup is designed to absorb the heat produced by the ATI Radeon X1600XT graphics chip during heavy processing workloads.

  • AirStation delivers speed, reach

    Buffalo's AirStation MIMO WZR-G108 is worth considering. It's a four-port router that can be used to distribute an ADSL or cable Internet connection and can provide a theoretical throughput of up to 108Mbps (13.5MBps) for wireless transmissions by using two radio channels.

  • Graphics card has high frame rate

    Leadtek's new mid-range graphics card is based on an Nvidia 7600GT processor, which has a clock speed of 560MHz, a memory speed of 1.4GHz and can process 12 pixels per clock cycle.

  • TV tuner card is off the pace

    While Asus is well-renowned for top quality motherboards and graphics cards, it still has a lot of work to do until it can be considered an elite TV tuner card brand. Its new My Cinema-P7131Dual card doesn't stack up well against other cards we have reviewed in the Test Centre.

  • Zippy but affordable SLI motherboard

    ASRock's products generally find a sweet spot between price and features. The 939SLI-ESATA2 is no exception, even though it does feature a lesser-known chipset. It's an AMD-based motherboard that uses a ULi instead of an Nvidia- or VIA-based chipset.

  • Asus P5WD2-E Premium provides intelligent overclocking

    If you enjoy tinkering and getting the best performance from your hardware, then this premium board from Asus will be a delight. It's based on Intel's 975X chipset and natively supports DDR2 memory up to 800MHz - providing good headroom for overclocking. The board will work with Pentium D and Pentium Processor Extreme Edition CPUs and has support for next-generation 65-nanometre (nm) CPUs.

  • Good looker has it all

    <b>The Asus W3H00V is a solid notebook with a 14-inch widescreen display</b>, good looks and plenty of great features. If it was a car, you would admire its lines - it's a sleek-looking machine with a neat layout and a refined design.

  • Sub-$1000 machines under the microscope

    <b>We challenged local system builders, Plus Corporation and TI Computers</b> to create a complete system for under $1000. There are many different ways you can approach building a sub-$US1000 PC system, so it's no surprise that both companies submitted two very different configurations to our Test Centre.