First off, Audioengine’s A5 speaker can achieve sounds that would seem you would have a subwooofer without actually having a subwoofer. The sound is deep and so crisp. The size of the speakers is also positive, the speakers can virtually almost fit anywhere. The left speaker which is the amp delivers 15 watts RMS. The difference from the A2 and the A5 is that the A2 does not have a front USB port charger and front panel volume control. Other than that the product is solid.
Many PC builders do not give much thought as to what sound card they are going to purchase to use on their motherboard. For many the latest SoundBlaster sound card suffices. However, there has been many products that are turning heads for those that use to overlook sound cards. The Asus Xonar D2 delivers HD audio and comes with 64mb XRAM. The only drawback is the price, as with anything that is new they are really expensive, if you are really into music and gaming I highly suggest getting one of these.
For those that are not tech savvy and would like the option to burn DVDs or other data that is space intensive, external optical drives is one way to go. Many of the external drives are easy to operate and plug-and-play. One external drive that is eye appealing is Lite-On’s 20A4PU. The write speed is tested at 20x DVD+R, which is pretty fast for an external, but not as fast as many internal drives. Overall, this is worth taking a look at.
Slacker’s Portable Radio is really innovative, at first glance I wondered who would purchase such an item, but it turns out this portable device is pretty cool. The device is about $200, and comes from a joint effort from Last.fm and Pandora. The device works with Slacker’s Internet radio service, and whats really cool is that when you are connected to the internet, the device can be populated with genres of music that you like so that when you are disconnected it will play the music. The portable radio has Wi-Fi capability and comes with a monthly charge.
CPU heat sinks are one of the most important components to any computer. An overheated CPU can cause the computer to crash and your motherboard to melt. CPU temps can easily reach 60+ Celsius when not cooled. Gigabyte came out with the Rocket II. The eye appeal to this heat sink is pretty cool. It is pretty weird however to install, and somewhat annoying, you may have to remove your motherboard just to install the mounting brackets. Other than that it does a fair job keeping your CPU cool.
With todays technology pushing the limits for gaming and computing in general, these blazing speeds have one downfall, and for all that speed comes heat. In general CPUs produce a lot of heat and it is the number one concern for computer builders. Keeping a cool CPU will increase the longevity and keep your computer running efficiently. Many companies have introduced water cooling as a means to cool your processor, for those that do not want to do water cooling I suggest the CoolIT Boreas. It is somewhat loud, but the CPU temps under 100% load is amazing low.
First off, this thing looks amazing cool, I wish that antenna would rotate while operating, that would be super cool. The only downfall is the price tag. The Linksys WRT600N can operate in both 5GHz and 2.4GHz simultaneously. This thing can tear through streaming of video, and the range is pretty impressive. I am probably going to get one once the price is a bit more in my price range.
As an avid computer person, I usually have a bitter aftertaste when buying an already build computer. There usually is nothing more satisfying then building your personal computer with the components you wanted. For those that are novice in computer building and want to have a media storage computer HP came out with the media vault mv2010. The model has the option for 300GB, 500GB, and 1TB. The software that comes with the media vault is user friendly and easy to navigate, however the sluggish speeds is the one downfall that is foreseen with this product.
Now I am positive that SSD will be the future of mass storage, but with the prices that it comes with, it will be some time. In the mean time check this video that compares the differences of the two.
Microsoft just released a new customized Xbox 360. In fact, there are only 500 of these in circulation. These are the Xbox 360 Elites with a customized paint job using “automotive-quality” paint. It also comes with a briefcase of items such as a controller, webcam, and headset. Seems like a major waste of money to me but then again, I am not the biggest fan of the GTA series. Maybe the readers will find it more glorious then I will. But it is a good way to get fans hyped for the GTA game that releases April 29th. Take a look:
