Tag Archive for 'review'

22
Sep

Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler Review

By Taylor 0 Comments
Categories: Hardware and Reviews

Noctua NH U12P CPU Cooler Review

If you’re the type who considers a trip to the BIOS standard fare for a reboot, and carefully considers the potential vdroop when choosing a motherboard; chances are that you may have heard of Noctua. Designed in Austria, Noctua has carved out an interesting niche - cooling products that strike the elusive balance between cooling power and silence. If you are the type who buys retail box CPU’s because the heatsink is included, perhaps you haven’t.
Today we will be looking at their latest NH-U series CPU cooler, the NH-U12P. When using the included NF-P12 fan, you’ve got a combo that promises cooler temperatures and lower noise at the same time. Since everyone talks about the packaging, I’ll touch upon it briefly. The NH-U12P comes very well packed. The shipping box was heavily damaged during shipping, but the contents within were securely packaged and entirely undamaged.

Noctua NH-U12P

We’re going to touch on the marketing stat sheet first. Noctua builds the NH-U12P with:

# 4 dual heat pipes
# Award winning NH-U design
# NF-P12 120mm premium fan
# Improved compatibility
# SecuFirm™ mounting system
# Incl. Noctua NT-H1 high-end thermal compound

The NH-U12P is large. If you’re working with a SFF (small form factor) or other pint-sized case, you can probably cross the Noctua off the list. The height of the heatsink is 158 mm, so if you aren’t sure if it will fit, measure the distance from your motherboard to the top of the case. If its less than 165mm or so, you are probably out of luck.
Noctua’s SecuFirm mounting system consists of a surprising variety of socket supports. With included support for LGA 775 (most modern Intel processors), AM2, AM2+, as well as Intel Xeon, AMD K8 (754, 939, 940) & Socket F on request. It is very straightforward to install, simply place the retention plate on the underside of the motherboard and then attach the legs on the top side. From there, you mount the cooler and screw it in using the high tension screws.

Noctua NH-U12P Mounting

A bit of advice to those who end up purchasing the NH-U12P is to do the installation in this order:
Install all the hardware that directly attaches to the motherboard first, install it in your case, then attach the heatsink to the support legs. If you do a complete installation (heatsink attached) before placing your motherboard in your case, you may have a hard time screwing it on to the risers.

Noctua NH-U12P Review

Because of its “raised fin-stack” design, there is plenty of clearance between the motherboard and the heatsink. This means that (depending on orientation), you aren’t going to have any issues clearing motherboard chipset coolers or RAM heatsinks.

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24
Aug

Shure SE210 In-Ear Headphone Review

By Taylor 3 Comments
Categories: Reviews

I’ve been sold on Shure earphones since I got the Shure E2c many years ago. In the time since then, I’ve owned several other brands (Sennheiser, Bose) but when it comes to in-ear monitors, Shure has it figured out.

I bought the SE210’s in July 2007, before heading onto a plane bound for South Africa. The included cord did not fit into the headphone jack of the first generation Apple iPhone, which I had intended to use them with, so I used a small knife to shave the plug down so it would fit into my iPhone. Since then, Shure has redesigned the plug to fit the old iPhone and the iPhone 3G has no problems with any headphones.

Shure SE210 Review

I love the SE210s. Using the medium black foam inserts, they fit my ears perfectly and provide excellent noise cancellation, especially because they’re not actively canceling. Its not quite the battery powered block-all that you get with the Bose QuietComfort, but its close and not even close to as bulky. That leads me to the next point, size. The SE210s are earbuds, not on ear or over ear headphones, and they’re small. When I’m listening to music, I’m almost constantly traveling and full size headphones were getting in the way. With the Shures, I can just coil the cord up and stick them in my pocket.

I touched on sound quality earlier, but let me reiterate that they sound great. I prefer the sound from the Shure ‘buds to what I got from my Sennheiser HD595, amped and unamped. Sound is a very personal thing and everyone’s ears are different, so take that with a grain of salt - but once you’ve found which tip fits your ear best and you’ve got a good quality source, these earphones put out some excellent sound.

Shure SE210

Support is the best part. Shure offers a 2 year warranty with the SE210’s and its an excellent warranty. I lost sound in one ear and I sent the headphones in. They were delivered overnight, and I had them back in 5 days; brand new in a retail box. A week total turnaround time is just about as good as it gets, and they’re very friendly people to deal with. They told me that I hadn’t cleaned it well enough and a build up of wax was the problem, but they still sent me a new pair of earphones for nothing, not even shipping. On that note, be sure to clean them regularly. Even if you can’t see earwax, clean it with the included tool to keep them performing ideally.

If you’re looking to spend $150 on headphones, you can’t do a whole lot better than the Shure SE210. They’re a great balance of price, performance and size - not something you see too often.

26
Feb

Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition Review

By Taylor 4 Comments
Categories: Laptop and Reviews

Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition Review

A question I’ve often been asked – how do I run two monitors using the single video port on my laptop? In 2005, Matrox answered that question with their DualHead2Go Analog solution. The small box allows a computer with a single VGA port (and enough graphics horsepower) to drive two external VGA monitors up to 1280×1024 pixels, the common resolution for 17 and 19 inch LCD monitors. In early 2007, Matrox released the second iteration of its product, the DualHead2Go Digital Edition. This new model allows for two monitors to be connected via DVI and provides support for higher resolutions as well.

Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition Box

Matrox, a Canadian graphics company known better in the professional imaging and architecture fields for their graphics products, created the DualHead2Go Digital Edition with the goal of high quality dual head capabilities for computers with only one (or two, in the case of a 4 or 6 monitor setup) video output.

See more. Do more. Be more productive.

This external multi-display upgrade is a compact box which sits outside your system and connects to the VGA output of compatible notebook or desktop computers. The multi-display configuration delivered by DualHead2Go Digital Edition permits working with multiple full-screen documents or applications simultaneously—eliminating the need to constantly open, close, or minimize applications. It is the ideal solution for professional and business users looking for a simple and cost-effective solution to quickly increase their productivity.
Through patent-pending technology, the operating system detects the DualHead2Go Digital Edition as an ultra-widescreen monitor which is then split into two or more standard resolutions compatible with the attached displays. DualHead2Go Digital Edition also enables support for high resolution panels, offering a stretched desktop of up to 3840×1200 (or dual 1920×1200)1 across two displays.

A big thanks to Matrox for providing us with a sample for this review!

Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition DVI Ports

We looked at the dual port solution, but there is a tri-port product called the TripleHead2Go available as well.

Initial Reactions:

It works! Anything else here should be preceded with the fact that the DualHead2Go very much works as advertised, and with little hassle. I will say that the software aspect of things does work more naturally in Windows, with the maximize function understanding the separation of monitors where the Operating System couldn’t. Mac worked well for the most part, but it lacked the sophistication of the Windows software.

Matrox Dual Head 2 Go Digital Edition

Installation:
Installation is not hard, but it has occasional moments of frustration. In Windows, it was very easy. Using the supplied driver disk, the installation went smoothly and we were up running dual (and triple) monitors in no time. When testing with a Mac, it often required a restart before anything would take hold (even though the software had given confirmation that the resolution was applied) and the software often was just unresponsive, which was frustrating. We later used version 1.1 of the Mac software, which was recently released and comes as a great improvement to the original shipping drivers and control panel. It also adds official support for 20” widescreen panels.

We tested using a pair of 15″, 20″ and 24″ monitors powered by an Apple Macbook Pro. Initial testing was carried out on a Sony Vaio laptop but the video card was found to be inadequate for full range comparison testing. The Macbook Pro was using OSX 10.5 Leopard, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows XP through Bootcamp. It has the nVidia 8600m-gt video card and a native resolution of 1440×900. The 15″ monitors required VGA adapters to connect, but the others had DVI native connections that matched the DualHead2Go.

Matrox Dualhead2Go Digital Edition Installation

Image Quality:
With a product like this, aimed at professionals, image quality is often going to be an important point. With that said, image quality is good. Using properly calibrated monitors and the “adjust image quality” button in the Matrox panels, the image quality is good. Its not great – I could notice a difference between a direct DVI connection from my laptop to a single monitor, versus the VGA to Matrox to DVI configuration that the DualHead2Go employs. I’m a little curious as to why there isn’t an all-digital, non-converted product of this nature available but for what it is, the image quality is between good and great. (Editor’s note: this is actually due to the fact that non-dual link DVI connections do not support the required resolutions to power two monitors combined; as well as the widespread presence of VGA connections on laptops). Definitely usable for almost any application, and I found photo editing to be up to par as well. The sharpness and clarity were also good, but not spectacular. I would say that this is a very reasonable compromise for the actual functioning operation of the product, but it should be noted.

Matrox Dualhead2go

Usability:

We tested the DualHead2Go Digital Edition with a number of applications and tested a variety of scenarios. Included were web browsing, photo editing, word processing, file management and gaming.

Across the board, things went well. It was excellent having so much real estate when it came to web browsing, and the ability to open 5 or more pages in a Word document is very useful.

Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition Windows Vista

Software:
The software is very capable, but it’s not perfect. In Windows XP and Vista, things feel very polished and features like snap to each monitor work wonderfully well. In Mac OSX, this is obviously a newer development and it caters to a smaller market, so the product is less polished but it is still very functional. Since OSX’s window maximize feature is barely functional to begin with, it’s not surprising that the snap to feature is not entirely functional.

Quirks:
For whatever reason, if you’re running a Mac, don’t expect to run two 15”, 20” or 24” monitors alongside your open screen. In our testing, we discovered that the only way we could get the build in display of our 15” Macbook Pro to work alongside the dual monitors properly was when running two 19” widescreen LCD monitors that had the same vertical resolution as our 1440×900 resolution laptop screen. Otherwise, the image would be skewed and distorted. This contributes to the lack of sophistication on the Mac side, as we were required to run our computer in closed-lid mode for it to operate normally. However, under Windows we did not have this problem and were able to successfully run a triple-monitor setup with the laptop display and our other pairs of LCD monitors.

Matrox Dual Head 2 Go

Closing Observations:
If you need more screen resolution then your laptop and just an external monitor can offer, you really don’t have much of a choice in the way of solutions. Docking stations provide a much less elegant option and USB video cards are often crippled and slow, and this is where the DualHead2Go shines. If you’re buying it for a Mac, make sure to install the latest drivers from Matrox’s website before anything else.

Through the testing, I found that a 20″ widescreen LCD monitor is the sweet spot, where performance is still good but image quality is also up to snuff. I would recommend a Dell 2007WFP LCD monitor for use with the DH2G.

For these reasons alone, the Matrox Dualhead2go is definitely worth a look. However, its also worthwhile on its own merit. The product works very well and even if you did have an alternate capacity, I would still recommend it providing that you are willing to deal with a few small quirks in an otherwise excellent product.

26
Jan

Apple iPod Touch 16GB with 1.1.3 Upgrade Review

By Taylor 0 Comments
Categories: Apple, Guest, Mobile and Reviews

Guest review written by Sam Hulse (samhulse.co.uk)

Basics
For people who already have phones on reasonable contracts (or for Crackberry lovers), Apple introduced the iPod Touch. And lets be honest, most people (especially those less tech-savy) don’t actually know the difference between the iPod and it’s bigger brother the iPhone. Lets face it - there’s not much difference - apart from the obvious lack of ability to make phone calls, send texts or take pictures.

Apple iPod Touch Review

 

Storage
Despite being the same price, the iPod does benefit from having twice the storage capacity of the iPhone; and let’s be honest with such a device boasting so many features: it does help to have room for some actual content. Storage wise the iPod Touch is sufficient but for those who like to take all of their music with them wherever they go the Touch probably isn’t a sensible choice.

Basic Applications
The music library is nicely organized, a customizable dock allows quick access to your music depending on how you like to browse (by Artist, Song, Album, Genre, Playlist etc) and the coverflow feature is definitely a good touch though it doesn’t have much of an everyday use. Videos are of decent quality and play fit nicely on the 3.5″ screen and the YouTube video application is a nice feature also, but again usage of this particular feature is limited in everyday life unless you’re an unashamed YouTube fanatic. The iPod Touch as standard also comes with Calendar, Clock (with World Clock, Alarm, Stopwatch and Timer features), Safari, iTunes Store and Contact Applications.

Extended Applications (Update)
Unfortunately the update which allows iPod Touch users to have the Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes applications comes at a price (unless your iPod was shipped with firmware 1.1.2, iPods shipped with firmware 1.1.2 or (1.1.3 from now on) can get the update free), However this update is beneficial to the iPod. The Mail and Contact applications work together - so having the Contacts application on there now has a purpose. The notes feature is also very handy. The ability to have multiple home screens and to add websites to them, along with the rearrange feature is another great bonus to the 1.1.3 update.

Conclusion
However, the iPod does have a few annoyances. The metallic back of the iPod scratches very easily. Many of the features including most of the new Apps rely on WiFi, so if you’re out and about and not in a WiFi hotspot you can’t use the Maps feature to find new locations or directions, which does limit the usefulness, the weather won’t be updated and you can’t download new emails. The iPod has an “intelligent” dictionary and will auto correct mistakes while you’re typing. It learns about common mistakes you make and picks up on your writing style, but also gives you the option to cancel these changes before they are made but this can slow typing down, and abbreviations like “lol” are automatically capitalized to “LOL” no matter how many times you press cancel on the auto correct, and there isn’t a way to edit this in the iPods dictionary.

I can’t help but feel incredibly let down by it Apple for charging for the iPod Applications as well, it’s a bad decision and forces people to pay extra money for something which either should have been included from the start, or come at a price for everyone. It’s not like it’s updated firmware or OS, it’s a set of applications and there is no reason to charge other than Apple wanting to make more money out of people who are already paying through the teeth. First gen users have also had to put up with a lot of bugs, updates and changes in software and still are being punished - and because of this, the iPod suffers.

The iPod is a great device, but unfortunately there are too many downsides. Maybe the next gen iPod Touch will be something special, but for now the cons outweigh the pros - just buy an iPhone.

28
Dec

Apple iPhone 8GB Review

By Taylor 3 Comments
Categories: Apple, Mobile and Reviews

Apple iPhone 8GB Review

No product in the history of mobile technology has garnered as much hype or fanfare as Apple’s iPod-in-a-phone, the aptly named iPhone. With an initial selling point of $600, naysayers predicted a failure because it was simply too expensive to have a widespread appeal. Clearly, that was not the case. Even with the prohibitive price, the iPhone was an undisputed commercial success and drove Apple’s stock straight up. Fast forward a few months, Apple drops the price of its overwhelmingly popular 8gb model to $400 and begins phasing its less popular (and less available) 4gb model out. After issuing a $100 credit of questionable intent to pre-reduction buyers, the “unreasonable” moniker assigned to the iPhones price suddenly becomes more realistic. And now, in January 2008, the iPhone is one of the most popular phones in the world.
iPhone 8GB Review

Large@Flickr
Hardware: The iPhone is revolutionary not only because of its unique implementation of multi-touch technology, but because Apple managed to cram a huge screen, 8gb of memory, a camera, web browsing power and a touch screen keyboard into one of the slimmest phones on the market. Apple veers off from the traditional full-chrome backside and instead goes for a more conservative and less scratch-prone matte aluminum finish. For the front, they surround the glass panel in a thin rim of chrome and accent the phone with glossy black. All in all, it’s a marvel to look at.
Apple 8GB iPhone Review
The lack of a 3g modem is a problem and one of the very few things I regret about moving from my old (3g) pda phone to the iPhone. Apple has excuses for why its not feasible, but I would gladly sacrifice much of my battery life for current-generation browsing speed. 3g is pretty much the only advantage Cingular/AT&T has over its GSM competitors and I was sad to see Apple not taking advantage of this. However, I knew what I was buying and purchased it anyways.
The headphone jack is a huge oversight and a real design flaw. Placed right on the beginning of the corner’s rounded edge, it is too deep for most aftermarket headphones! Without an adapter, the iPhone has alienated many of its buyers (who already own expensive, third party headphones). I was one of these people. Neither of my headphones (Sennheiser HD595 cans and Shure SE210 IEMs) would fit the iPhone. Admittedly, the usual suspects in the Apple accessory market (Griffin, Belkin and others) were quick to produce an adapter that allowed other headphones to circumvent the restrictive recessed jack, but this is one of those things that should have never made it past in-house testing.
Apple iPhone 8GB Review
Small flaws aside, its well built and amazingly strong. The glass is as scratch proof as they advertised it to be and I have no hesitation putting it in my pockets without any sort of case. I do have a screen protector placed on the front, but that is merely out of my own squeamish obsession with perfection. The camera is what cell phone cameras should be – it’s not perfect, and certainly not a replacement for a full featured digital camera, but it is good enough for snapshots and quick pictures with friends. I found the camera to be substantially better then my previous phone, the HTC Hermes (Cingular 8525).

Activation: Apple changed the way people activate cell phones forever when it set the iPhone to be activated on your home computer, through the bundled iTunes software, rather then at a cell phone store. This is the future of mobile products and I found it very well executed. As a launch day purchaser, I was one of the hundreds of thousands trying to activate their phones at the same time. I encountered some long waits, but was eventually successful on my first try.

Software: The software is where the iPhone breaks away from the crowd. Multi touch is nothing new (the HTC Touch versions 1 and 2 also attempt to do what the iPhone has done, but rely on the very limited Windows Mobile platform) but Apple’s software enables it to be pleasant and amazingly intuitive. Cover flow, however, is annoying. Every time I turn my iPhone on its side, cover flow springs into action. I am not a fan of it, and while the eye-candy is very nice; I find it less functional then the text piece. If there was an option to disable the in-iPod-mode cover flow, I would.
iPhone 8GB Review

Large@Flickr

Email: Email is straightforward and fairly basic. There is no push support, which is a large turnoff for business users and anyone who relies on mission critical email. For the average Joe, this is no big deal. Email can come in every half an hour and that is frequently enough for most people. The actual email display is very good and graphics come through well.

3rd party software: As with any popular device, people are always looking to get the most out of their new top. However, the iPhone is a cut above most “popular” devices; with enormous communities dedicated to opening its capabilities up sprung up across the Internet and the world.

Conclusion: For “Crackberry” junkies, the iPhone might not be the perfect fit because it lacks a true push email solution. However, for almost everyone else, it is an excellent option. Highly recommended!