Friday, May 15, 2009

Enermax Aurora Micro Wireless Keyboard in Star Trek style




Sick of all those Windows Media Keyboards that stood out like a sore thumb in your $10,000 plus awesome looking home theater system? Those days are over if you pick up one of these Enermax Aurora Micro Wireless Keyboard. With beautiful brush aluminum finish just like its wired keyboard series, you finally have the look that goes well with cool AV system. Comes with ultra-thin design, laser track ball that supports up to 1200dpi, 2.4Ghz RF wireless, LED battery indicator, and 7 Hot-keys on your laptop. Coming soon and estimated around US$80 street price. Captain, your are ready to launch!!

more details coming soon..

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Asus Eee PC 1008HA "SeaShell" 10 in Ultraportable Netbook



Asus Eee PC 1008HA comes with WinXP home / Linux, 10.1 inch LED WSVGA (1024x600) Glare type screen, Intel Atom N280, 1G DDR2 Memory, WLAN 802.11b/g/n @2.4GHz, Bluetooth2.1 + EDR, 160GB 2.5" SATA II 5400RPM HDD , 1.3megapixel Webcam, 6 hour battery life (5 cell battery), weighs 2.42 lb.. All the normal spec other than the beautifully design casing. We should call it the "MacBook Air" of netbook..




Saturday, May 2, 2009

Corsair TX650W Power supply - 650 Watt




First lets look at the spec off the Corsair website:

Corsair TX Series Features:

* Supports ATX12V v2.2 standard and older ATX12V 2.01 spec
* Ultra-quiet 120mm (140mm on TX750W and TX850W) double ball-bearing fan delivers excellent airflow
* 80%+ energy efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% load condition for less heat generation and lower energy bill
* 99% Active Power Factor Correction provides clean and reliable power to your system
* Universal AC input 90~264V automatically scans and detects the correct voltage
* Dedicated single +12V rail offers maximum compatibility with latest components
* Over Current/Voltage/Power Protection, Under Voltage Protection, and Short Circuit Protection provide maximum safety to your critical system components.
* High quality Japanese capacitors provide uncompromised performance and reliability.
* Extra long cables support full tower size chassis.
* TX650W Dimension: 5.9"(W) x 3.4"(H) X 5.9"(L);
* MTBF: 100,000 Hours
* NVIDIA SLI™-ready certified.

cover box open


Neat packaging with powersupply wrapped in the bag


PSU out of box with accessories: cables/screws/cable management (nice touch!)

PSU side view

PSU in the bag with cables sticking out (this is not a modular cables PSU)

PSU fan view


closeup shot on the label


another closeup.. look at the power is rated by "Max" instead of "Continuous"


side view

capacitors view through the mesh


another mesh view

Good --
* solid build
* nice packaging
* 80 Plus certified
* quiet
* descend midrange powersupply

Bad --
* no ATX 2.3
* runs warm ( can feel the heat through the aluminum PC case )
* rated base on "max" not "continuous", which usually translate to wattage overrate *tip*

Overall, we would give this powersupply 7 out of 10 stars.

For its pricing and position, it should give a more honest power rating especially this OEM power supply (by channel well). Our test machine contains Intel Q6600 /Gigabyte MB/ G Skill 1066 2Gig memory overclock to 3.2 Ghz with 2 DVD ROM, XFX 8800GT 512mb, 4 HD (2 Raid SCSI, 2 SATA HD) and we have trouble booting up the machine consistently after switch to this PSU. After removing couple drives, it boots more consistently. Our test machine should be consuming around 500watts tops and this PSU should have more than enough juice to supply consistent power if it rates at 650watt.
Heat discipation shows even on the outer case (not the PSU case) and stays warm most of the time. 80Plus powersupply should be more efficient and not as hot.
Overall, nice PSU at the first impression but performance is disappointing.

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Friday, May 1, 2009

Antec Veris Cooler


Antec Veris Overhead View

Antec Veris Cooler


Keeping your AV system cools has always been a challenge especially when you have it stuck into a custom cabinet. With more and more people utilize high end home theater system and media center based PC to watch HiDef BlueRay video (Bye bye HD video) in the comfort of their own home, how to keep all your heat generating equipments cool and quiet are becoming an focal point of many Audio/Video enthusiast. Antec, a well recognized name in computer component industry for Power supply, case, and cooling fan, presented a descend solution for this increasing need. Antec cooling system comes with a nice simple package with the cooling unit itself, AC power adapter, and a simple instruction.


Front Blue LED Closeup

Built Quality
Installation 5 Stars
Ease of Use 5 Stars
Comments – quiet, 2 speed setting on the fan, a bit pricy (Market Price $69~$99)
Efficiency – Cable box w/o any cooling 46C~50C
Cable box w/ Antec running for 40 min 40C
Cable box w/ Antec running for 2 hours 35C~37C

Content in the box:
Antec Cooling Unit 1pc
AC Adapter 1pc
Simple Instruction Sheet 1pc

*** Packaging and Open box impression ***
With a little handle on the side of the box, its easy to carry like a small brief case. Package is in nice color box and weight is relatively light. Unit has a Beautiful brush metal look finish on the top cover to compliment most stereo system. Two 8 inch fan faces the bottom looks small but it does its job efficiently, dropping temperature of the test unit 6C~15C.

*** Installation ***
Installation for this cooling unit is very simple and straight forward. Just hook up the AC power adapter at the back and place it “on top” of the unit that you wish to cool and turn on the switch in the front for either “low” or “high” setting. A little blue LED will light up to tell you that its working properly. There are two 8” fans facing the bottom to draw hot air away from the unit and force it out to the back of the unit.

*** comments ***
Well built enclosure, nice finish, looks like a slim DVD player.

view of two 8" fan from the bottom

*** other thoughts ***
You really have to dig the look to buy this unit since you can achieve the same thing with a OEM case fan (8 or 12inches) with mesh (optional, so the fan blade won’t hit your finger) Retail $15 plus a useless power adapter salvage from your old router with a little work on wire. Total $15 + about 15min of work vs $69~99/unit. I would say this unit would have a higher CP (cost vs performance) value if it is priced under $50. Again, if you are protecting the $1000+ pioneer amplifier getting burn out by the heat rather than cooling down the poor little inefficient, heater-like cable box, it is a worthwhile investment.

Power supply closeup

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