Silverstone SST-FP54, AIW 9600XT, 3.4GHz Nacona & More

Good afternoon folks!  How is everyone doing today?  I take it you're all doing well.  We're all doing fine too.  Things here in the New York HH labs have been fairly busy recently, but that's just the way we like it!  Better to have too much hardware on the test-bench, than not enough, right? :)  While we're here cranking out the benchmarks, what do you say we hook you up with some hardware news?  I thought you'd like that...

 Silverstone SST-FP54 VFD Display Review @ Short-Media.Com:

"VFD displays are yet another popular add-on to the computer. VFD displays are an eye-catching addition and they can deliver useful information at a mere glance. Complete VFD systems can also be expensive. Saving money by assembling a complete unit from parts can be confusing to install and configure for the novice. Sundial Micro's economic answer for a highly-configurable, low-content data display device that's easy to install and configure was to put the SilverStone SST-FP54-B VFD display in our hands for a test drive."

 Thermaltake Silent PurePower TWV480 Review @ Hardware-Pacers:

"As back as some of us can remember, we always tried to bring out our computer at its peak performance which sometimes involved overclocking certain parts. When we overclocked such as the CPU, it drained more power, however we did not how much. With today's new power hungry CPUs and especially with extreme cooling such as with vapor, it is very important to monitor if there is enough power provided for the system. Today Thermaltake introduces a new revolutionary product that displays how many watts are used up on the front panel. As we go further into the review, we will finally see various power consumptions when the computer is idle or fully active at its overclocked state."

 ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 XT @ Beyond3D:

"For obvious reasons, the AIW 9600 XT uses the same board layout as the AIW 9600 PRO, rather than the Radeon 9600 XT. It eschews the colored PCB trend but courts favor with the more experienced buyer via the use of the substantial-looking heatsink. Composed of brushed metal, the fan unconventionally sits away from the chip - it draws cool air in and pushes it out over the sink fins."

 Intel's 3.4GHz 'Nocona' Xeon @ HEXUS.net:

"Look around the web for pre-Nocona Xeon vs Opteron articles and you'll generally find just one style of conclusion; the Opteron is great, the Xeon less so. Therefore testing the Nocona Xeon, based as it is on the desktop Prescott core which affords it a faster system bus, new cache layout, SSE3, tweaked HyperThreading and access to DDR400 memory officially for the first time, was a means to see if the update was worth Intel's time and effort.

And my opinion is yes, very much so. While it doesn't overtake and outrun the Opteron at any point in our benchmarks, there's seemingly a lot of improvement to be had from bumping up the new entry-level Xeon's basic specs to 800MHz bus with 1MB L2. 3400MHz doesn't do it any harm either."

 ECS Everex review @ Hardwarezoom:

"Everex CE PC represents the evolution of home PCs into digital media hubs that bring together entertainment choices and allow users to access them with one remote control. The Everex CE PC comes equipped with all the necessary hardware to deliver powerful computing and complete home entertainment experience: powered by Pentium 4-2.8Ghz, 256/512MB RAM (upgradeable to 1Ghz), 120/200GB hard drive, DVD-ROM/Writer, Radeon 9200 GPU, TV/FM Tuner card, 5.1 channel audio and best of all - a 17" Wide Screen LCD!"

 Logitech Z-2200 2.1 Speakers Review @ OCIA.net:

"Once upon a time, I owned a set of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Speakers. I purchased these speakers just over a year ago, dropping off nearly $ 200 USD for the setup. I was very pleased with the performance of these speakers, that is, until the left channel died a few weeks ago. It is just my luck for the speakers to malfunction just a month shy of the 1 year warranty. So then began my search for a suitable replacement. I had to look no further than Logitech for said replacement. Boasting 200 watt RMS, 400 watt peak power, would the Logitech Z-2200's have what it takes to compete with my beloved Klipsch system, or dare I say, outperform them?"

That's just about going to do it for this installment!  Check back soon, check back often!  And if you've got some spare time and want to learn how to help save some lives using your computer, check out this thread in our forum and join the team!  You'll be glad you did!