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OCZ's consumer-grade Vertex 3 SSD gets benched, SandForce SF-2281 helps it spank competition
We thought OCZ's Vertex 3 Pro was some flaming hot stuff, but solid state storage reviewers have mind-boggling news -- the plain ol' Vertex 3 will bring the same completely ludicrous 550MB / sec read speeds (plus even faster 525MB / sec writes) at a down-to-earth price. Previews found the Vertex 3's new SandForce SF-2281 controller and Micron 25nm flash memory chips edged out even its own enterprise-grade cousin in nearly every test -- with a few anomalies here and there -- and were reportedly too fast to achieve full performance with any SATA 6Gbps controller save the one in Intel's new Cougar Point chipset. Best of all, they claim that OCZ's targeting a price of just $250 for the 120GB version, or $500 for the 240GB drive benched here. That's still a chunk of change, but considering current-gen 120GB SSDs still cost over $200 street, it sounds like OCZ and SandForce are setting a bar that will drive down prices across the board. We can't wait. Read - AnandTech Read - Hot Hardware Read - Legit Reviews Read - PC Perspective Read - Storage Review
Olympus E-PL2 camera gets reviewed, deemed worthy to carry on the E-PL1's torch
Olympus's E-PL2 only surfaced on the public radar just last month, and already reviews are rolling in indicating The Schwartz is quite strong with this latest Micro Four Thirds entrant. Interestingly enough, both Photography Blog and Popular Mechanics saw the improved MSC 14 to 42mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens as the most important change to the new rig. That's because it's been retooled to be lighter, slimmer, and shorter, adding to the overall compact feel of the camera. A new internal focus is also apparently much faster and nearly silent -- making it more appealing for video shooting. Outside of the lens changes, both saw the camera's new 3-inch, 460,000-dot LCD, faster max shutter speeds, and greater ISO sensitivity as welcomed additions to the solid foundations laid by the E-PL1, resulting in a highly recommended rating from PB. Reviewers at Popular Mechanics also futzed around with the new Bluetooth-enabled photo sharing PENPal accessory and found it great for transferring photos to a phone -- but lamented how it blocked the camera's hot shoe in the process. To dive into all the juicy review details for yourself hit up the source links below.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti: second-generation Fermi for the $250 mainstream
Ah, NVIDIA, how far you've come. This time last year we were all wondering if your first Fermi GPUs would operate successfully without a nuclear reactor in our backyards, yet today you're introducing a successor to one of the best value-for-money GPUs the PC gaming world has seen in ages. Yes, the GTX 560 Ti has mighty big shoes to fill, but it's off to a good start with 384 CUDA cores running at 1645MHz, 1GB of GDDR5 RAM running at an effective rate of 4GHz, and an 822MHz graphics clock -- each one a clear and pronounced upgrade over its GTX 460 predecessor. You'll have to check out the reviews below for a detailed breakdown of what those numbers will mean on a game-by-game basis, but there's another way in which this new card is proving its impact already. ATI AMD has (conveniently) chosen to cut the prices of its Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6950 cards today, while also outing an HD 6950 with just 1GB of onboard memory to serve as a direct competitor to NVIDIA's latest. Competition, ladies and gentlemen, it's an awesome thing. Read - HardOCP Read - Tech Report Read - PC Perspective Read - techPowerUp! Read - AnandTech Read - Bit-tech Read - TechSpot Read - TweakTown Read - Hot Hardware
Pentax K-5 review roundup: solid but pricey upgrade from the K-7
Pentax's K-5 DSLR has been around for a little while now, but it's only just recently received enough reviews to establish something of a critical consensus. The short of it is that the camera largely addresses most of the criticisms leveled at the K-7 it's replacing -- namely, lackluster image quality and poor high ISO performance in particular -- but those improvements come at a fairly hefty cost. The K-7 costs about $300 more than the Nikon D7000, which Digital Photography Review notes has a similar sensor but a "significantly more versatile AF system." Photography Blog also came to some similar conclusions, but notes that the "headline-grabbing top-speed of 512000 is frankly unusable," and suggests that Pentax should have simply followed Nikon's lead and capped things at 25600. Despite that high price and some minor issues, however, DP Review says the camera is a "no-brainer" upgrade for current Pentax users, but obviously still something of a tough sell for Canon or Nikon users. Hit up the links below for some additional takes on the camera. Read - Digital Photography Review Read - Photography Blog Read - Imaging Resource Read - Pocket-lint
AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 launch assault on enthusiast gaming market
It's taken AMD a long time to refresh the top end of its graphics hardware, but today's culmination to that wait has to be described as somewhat bittersweet. Sweet, because we're finally getting a successor to the venerable HD 5870, one that offers improved power management and tessellation performance at a lower $369 price point, but also bitter because in terms of sheer firepower, the Radeon series doesn't seem to have made quite the leap many of us had hoped for. The new top of AMD's single-GPU pile, the HD 6970, offers 1,536 stream processors, an 880MHz core clock speed, and 2GB of GDDR5 RAM running at 5.5GHz for a total of 176GBps of memory bandwidth. Its partner in crime, the HD 6950, is expected to list at $299, for which saving you'll have to sacrifice some clock speed (down to 800MHz) and processing units (1,408 in total). There's a neat little addition to both new boards: a Dual-BIOS switch that will act like Google's hardware jailbreak toggle on the Cr-48, allowing tweakers to unlock the extra (unprotected by warranty!) performance headroom in their cards. Early reviews all seem to agree that both the Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 have struck a very fine price-to-performance ratio. The 6970 manages to spar with the much pricier GTX 580, but given that it's priced similarly to NVIDIA's GTX 570, it scores plaudits for being a more than viable alternative. The HD 6950 is seen as the real value item here, however, particularly since it occupies a relatively unique spot in the price range, and most reviewers tipped it as their new bang-for-the-buck leader. Read - HardOCP Read - AnandTech Read - Tech Report Read - Guru3D Read - PC Perspective Read - Hot Hardware Read - techPowerUp! Read - Hexus Read - TechSpot
Samsung 470 Series 256GB SSD review roundup: impressive performance, but pricey
If you've been scouring the virtual shelves for a new laptop SSD, you've probably come across one name more than any other: SandForce. Recently, both SandForce and Indilinx have all but taken over the SSD market in terms of controller use, but at long last we've got some formidable competition on the benchmarking trail. Samsung's 470 Series SSD range features an in-house controller, and it's obviously got a lot of work to do if it plans on ousting either of the previous two names from their place atop the pedestal. The good news, however, is that Sammy is well on its way. Reviews across the web have sung the praises of this her drive, with Slashgear noting that unlike most drives -- which only truly impress on the read side -- this one also generates drool on the write side. The critics over at Hot Hardware noted that while it won't take advantage of SATA 6Gbps, it doesn't "suffer from a split personality," meaning that performance was shockingly consistent in use. Of course, the rub that everyone points to is the price -- at $550 for a 256GB slab, it's far from cheap, but it's as close as one could get to being worth the premium. Drive in below to see for yourself. Update: The Tech Report found some fairly interesting caveats during its time with the drive. Feel free to have a look to see how it handled their torture test. Read - Hot Hardware Read - Storage Review Read - Slashgear Read - TechSpot Read - CNET Read - Gadgetsteria Read - The SSD Review
Phenom II X6 1100T review roundup: AMD's fastest desktop processor to date
When it comes to GPU and CPU releases, there are quantum leaps, and then there are baby steps. Based on the web's collective views on AMD's newest slab of silicon -- the Phenom II X6 1100T -- it seems as if this chip is a better example of the latter. According to TechSpot, the device "does little to improve upon the performance of AMD's hexa-core CPU series, [but] it does help improve the value of these high-end desktop processors by making the 1090T BE model even cheaper." By and large, that sentiment was mirrored throughout. Hot Hardware found that while it was easily "the fastest desktop processor released from AMD to date," it still couldn't topple Intel's (admittedly more expensive) six-core chips in terms of performance. But of course, AMD rarely competes strictly on benchmarks -- the 1100T lists for just $265, making it one of the more affordable desktop CPU options for this level of oomph. Those really looking for a bargain could snap up the now-deflated 1090T or 1075T, and while the bulk of the reviews below focus primarily on today's new flagship, the 3.4GHz Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition ($115) and 3.3GHz Athlon II X3 455 ($87) are also touched on. Read - AnandTech Read - Hot Hardware Read - TechSpot Read - HardOCP Read - Firing Squad Read - Hexus Read - Legit Reviews Read - PC Perspective
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 debuts: the 580 goes on a power diet to fit into $349 price bracket
Want to know what the famous act of cutting down a graphics card to match a given price point looks like? Well, here it is, the $349 GTX 580 (aka GeForce GTX 570): it has 480 CUDA cores running at 1464MHz, a 732MHz graphics clock, and 1.25GB of GDDR5 memory hurtling along at an effective rate of 3.8GHz. Each of those specs represents a moderate downgrade from NVIDIA's original 500 series GPU, while the physical construction -- including that vapor chamber cooler -- is almost wholly identical to the 580. Aside from the paintjob, the only difference is that the GTX 570 can live on a pair of 6-pin auxiliary power connectors. The best comparison for the 570, however, turns out to be NVIDIA's former flagship, the GTX 480, as reviewers found the new card's performance to be nearly identical to the old tessellation monster. Verdicts invariably agreed that the 570 is quieter, cooler, and more power-efficient, making it pretty much a no-brainer of a purchase in its price bracket. Of course, every recommendation comes colored with the warning that AMD should finally be unveiling its upper-tier wares next week -- we'd wait the extra few days before parting with our cash. Read - HardOCP Read - Tech Report Read - Hot Hardware Read - AnandTech Read - Bit-tech Read - Hexus Read - Legit Reviews Read - PC Perspective
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 reviewed: 'what the GTX 480 should have been'
You saw the key specs slip out a little ahead of time, now it's the moment we've all been waiting for: the GeForce GTX 580 has been thoroughly benchmarked to see if its claim to being "the world's fastest DirectX 11 GPU" stands up to scrutiny. In short, yes it does. The unanimous conclusion reached among the reviewers was that the 580 cranks up the performance markedly relative to the GTX 480 -- with some citing gains between 10 and 20 percent and others finding up to 30 percent improvements -- while power draw, heat emissions, and noise were lowered across the board. ATI's AMD's Radeon HD 5870 wasn't completely crushed by the newcomer, but it was consistently behind NVIDIA's latest pixel pusher. Priced at $499, the GTX 580 is actually praised for offering good value, though its TDP of 244W might still require you to upgrade a few parts inside your rig to accommodate it, while current online prices are closer to $550. Anyhow, the pretty comparative bar charts await at the links below. Read - HardOCP Read - Tech Report Read - Legit Reviews Read - Bit-tech Read - PC Perspective Read - Hot Hardware
Windows Phone 7 in review: the good, the bad, and the Surround
Windows Phone 7 has arrived in the US, and there are plenty of phones to choose from -- even more if you're looking internationally. So, which one should you get? Is the OS even good enough to bother with just yet? Which one is the prettiest? We answer all those questions and more in our exhaustive complement of launch phone reviews. You can find them all after the break. You won't be sorry.
ATI Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 reviewed, deemed worthy of the midrange
AMD's Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 graphics cards are here, but they might not be what you expect -- though alphanumerics suggest they'd succeed the lauded Radeon HD 5870 and 5850, these new "Bart" chips are actually a pair of solid plays for the PC gaming mainstream. $180 buys you a Radeon HD 6850 with 960 stream processors, a 775MHz core clock and 1GB of GDDR5 memory at a 1GHz effective rate, and $240 nets the HD 6870 with 1120 stream processors and 900MHz / 1,050 MHz clocks respectively. On paper that puts them a good bit behind the finest, but a collection of reviews show they can keep up with the pack, as the 6870 consistently manages to surpass the framerates possible with NVIDIA's $200 GeForce GTX 460, and even the cheaper 6850 can do the same in certain games. Some reports indicate they run a good bit hotter than their predecessors, however, so despite the bevy of ports they're probably not right for your next HTPC. Hit up the reviews below for some promising benchmarks, and if you aren't turned away by AMD's lipsticking of the pig, you'll find ten varieties already for sale at our source link. PR after the break. Update: NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 768MB now sells for $170, so there's definitely still some mid-range muscle in the green camp. Read - AnandTech Read (1), (2) - Guru3D Read - HardOCP Read (1), (2) - Bit-tech Read - Hot Hardware Read - PC Perspective Read - Legit Reviews Read - Techgage Read (1), (2) - TweakTown Read - Hexus Read (1), (2) - TechPowerUp Read - HotHardware Read - TechSpot Read - Vortez
NVIDIA launches sub-$80 GeForce GT 430 for single-slot cooler enthusiasts
The graphics card that doesn't require a fridge-sized cooler is turning into something of a rarity nowadays, but we doubt the market for quiet, efficient, and halfway-decent GPUs is ever going to disappear completely. NVIDIA is fleshing out its Fermi family today with a creature that aspires to such epithets, the 96 CUDA core-equipped GT 430. It's a patently humble GPU, as indicated by its $79.99 typical price, 49W TDP, 5.7-inch board length, and single-slot cooler design. Mind you, while those are typically considered positives, they do limit gaming performance quite significantly, with the GT 430 getting roundly beaten by ATI's (sob!) AMD's similarly priced Radeon HD 5670. So what niche is left for this card? Well, it's an upgrade over integrated graphics and it gets you on the 3D bandwagon, but on the whole we're left scratching our voluminous craniums as to why anyone would dodge AMD's more accomplished hardware for NVIDIA's latest. Hit up the reviews below and form your own opinion, if our one doesn't suit your outfit today. Read - HardOCP Read - AnandTech Read - PC Perspective Read - Hot Hardware Read - Legit Reviews Read - Hexus%Gallery-104721%
OCZ Ibis touts 2GBps High Speed Data Link, vanquishes SSD competition
What's after ludicrous speed? If you ask OCZ, the answer is HSDL speed, which is the company's new interface idea for bypassing the bandwidth limitations of standard SATA/SAS interconnects. Using a high-quality SAS cable to hook up its new Ibis drive to a PCI Express host card, OCZ has managed to deliver a cool 2GBps of total bandwidth -- that's one gigabyte up and one gigabyte down... every second. In order to feed this massive data pipe, the company's gone and stacked four SandForce SF-1200 controllers inside the Ibis and RAIDed them together for good measure too. The upshot isn't too dramatic for desktop applications, where'll you'll see performance that's merely world-beating -- reading at 373MBps and writing at 323MBps -- but if you throw in some deeper queues and enterprise-level workloads you'll be able to squeeze out 804MBps reads and 675MBps writes. Needless to say, the Ibis scooped up many a plaudit in early reviews, and though it may be expensive at $529 for 100GB, it still seems to represent good value for those who have the workloads to saturate its High Speed Data Link.
NVIDIA makes GeForce GTS 450 official, promises beastly overclocking
Say hello to NVIDIA's GF106 core (please pretend you've never met before). The company's third Fermi desktop iteration is described as "a little more than half of the GF104 implementation," which in real terms means 192 CUDA cores versus the GTX 460's 336, reduced memory bandwidth with a 128-bit-wide bus and a lower number of ROPs at 16. These disadvantages are ameliorated by 783MHz graphics and 1566MHz processor clock speeds as well as a much more forgiving power profile -- the new GTS 450 cards will require just the one 6-pin power connector for auxiliary juice. Pricing is aimed squarely at conquering the market currently occupied by ATI's HD 5750, which, as we saw over the weekend, plants the 450 around the $130 mark. You'll have to read the reviews below for confirmation, but NVIDIA promises "awesome" overclocking headroom on its new card, going as far as to suggest stable 900MHz graphics clocks aren't out of the realm of possibility. Read - HardOCP Read - Tech Report Read - Guru 3D Read - PC Perspective Read - Legit Reviews Read - Hot Hardware Read - TweakTown%Gallery-101980%
Lumix DMC-LX5 review roundup: great hardware for a not-so-great price
Reviews are starting to trickle out for Pansonic's LX3 successor, the DMC-LX5, and so far they all seem to echo similar sentiment. The form factor hearkens back to its Micro Four Thirds darling GF1, at least from the top, with "dinky buttons" (in CNET UK's words) on the back reminding you of its point-and-shoot bloodline. The pictures are solid if not characteristically warm -- and the ability to simultaneously produce RAW and JPEG files is a nice touch -- as is the choice of either Motion JPEG or AVCHD Lite video. The universal issue with this camera is the price; that £449.99 tag (the equivalent of $691 in US currency) doesn't quite seem to match the offerings, especially when it's about on par with entry-level DSLRs with interchangeable lenses (albeit without the slim look). As PhotographyBLOG puts it, Panny's gotta hard case to make for a camera "that looks, at first glance to be very similar to a £299 model." Hey, a hardware switch for changing the aspect ratio (just above lens barrel; 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, or 1:1) doesn't come cheap. Much more detail can be found in the reviews below. Note: It's worth mentioning that this camera can be had for $500 at Amazon right now. Still pricey, but not $700 pricey. Read - PhotographyBLOG Read - CNET UK Read - Pocket-lint Read - Trusted Reviews
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 becomes everyone's favorite midrange graphics card
It's rare to come across a universally lauded product nowadays, but NVIDIA's fresh new GTX 460 is just that sort of exceptional creation. Contrary to its GTX 465 elder brother, the 460 isn't a chopped-down top-tier part and is instead built on the new GF104 core. This smaller core, designed from the start to perform humbler functions, has ameliorated the famed power inefficiency that has been a Fermi signature so far, and has resulted in AnandTech describing the new card as "the $200 king." You'll get 768MB of onboard RAM at that point, but we'd splurge an extra $30 to make that a round gigabyte and enjoy some extra L2 cache and ROPs on the card. Either way, the GTX 460 seems to have completely killed off the market for the 465 and is stepping all over ATI's toes with its competitive pricing and, for once, decent heat and power metrics. Oh, and apparently it "overclocks like a monster" too -- hit the links below for the full reviews. Read - AnandTech Read - HardOCP Read - Hot Hardware Read - Tom's Hardware Read - PC Perspective Read - Bit-tech Read - Guru 3D Read - Legit Reviews
ASUS ARES cries havoc, lets slip the GPUs of war: a review roundup of the world's fastest graphics card
When you name your graphics card after the God of War, you'd better hope it brings some heat, but judging by early reviews, that's just what ASUS has done. The three slot monstrosity above is the ARES, a $1200 limited edition, fully custom board, sporting twin Radeon HD 5870 GPUs, four gigabytes of GDDR5 memory and practically enough raw copper to smelt a sword. We're not joking: the thing weighs nearly five pounds and requires a 750 watt power supply with three power connectors (two 8-pin, one 6-pin) to even run. Of course, you're getting a graphical behemoth for that kind of price, steamrolling every other GPU on the planet -- paired with even a 3.8GHz Core i7-930 CPU in 3DMark Vantage (on Extreme settings), Overclock 3D racked up a fairly ludicrous 15,000 score, and the card ripped past 25,000 with a Core i7-980X and a second ARES in CrossFire. The card was less impressive in actual gameplay, merely spanking the (much cheaper) Radeon 5970 and GeForce GTX 480 by a modest amount, and several reviewers complained it was fairly loud... but as the old adage goes, nobody needs a Ferrari to drive the speed limit, but we'll all drool over them anyhow. Bring on the liquid nitrogen, folks. Read - Legit Reviews Read - Overclock3D Read - Guru3D Read - PC Perspective Read - TechPowerUp Read - Hot Hardware
Panasonic FZ35 and Canon SX20 IS superzoom cameras shoot it out in group test, rise to the top
The DP Review gang (motto: "blood in / blood out") has just done another one of its world famous superzoom group camera tests, and the results are guaranteed to frighten and enlighten you. Both the Panasonic FZ35 and Canon SX20 IS were singled out for boffo kudos (that's right -- boffo kudos). Apparently they're "the most refined models in this test," with lenses deemed "sharp across the zoom range," and kickass quality images and HD video. Of course, each of these bad boys has its own character, with the Canon feeling more like an entry-level DSLR to the reviewer, even with "by far the best viewfinder in this test." Panny's entry, on the other hand, gets points for portability and an intuitive user interface. Besides those two guys, there are a half dozen or so other cameras in the test. How did your favorite hold up? Hit the source link to check it out for your own self.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 rounds up mostly positive reviews
Well, it's not quite June 1, but the GeForce GTX 465 reviews have come flooding out all the same. The official specs are exactly as a recent leak indicated: 352 CUDA cores running at 1,215MHz, a 607MHz graphics clock, and 1GB of GDDR5 memory operating at a 3.2GHz effective rate and exploiting a 256 bit-wide interface. With an MSRP of $279.99, this Fermi-lite GPU scored plenty of admiration for the value it offers, with one reviewer going so far as to call it "quite possibly the most powerful DirectX 11 graphics card for under $300." Others weren't so enthusiastic, citing the far cheaper HD 5830 from ATI as a better choice, but it's true enough that the next best GPU, the HD 5850, tends to be at least $30 more expensive than the 465, depending on brand. You'll want to delve into the game benchmark numbers in order to make up your mind about which card might make for the best bit, but be warned that NVIDIA's 465 retains the GTX tradition of ravenous power consumption -- something to consider if you're rolling along with an old school 400W PSU in your rig. Read - Hot Hardware Read - PC Perspective Read - TweakTown Read - Legit Reviews Read - Tom's Hardware Read - Guru 3D Read - techPowerUp
Intel Core i7-875K and Core i5-655K unlock multipliers, better performance
Intel's back in its familiar saddle today with the unveiling of a pair of new CPUs, marking the start of a new K-series that will cater to the overclocker inside all of us. The Core i7-875K is a 2.93GHz quad-core unit, which can scale heights of 3.6GHz via Turbo Boost, or even higher if you have the patience, tenacity and appropriate cooling to make it happen. Review action for this chip shows it to be Intel's premier offering short of the enthusiastically overpriced and overpowered Core i7-980X. Even more affordable will be the Clarkdale-based Core i5-655K, which trots along at 3.2GHz (with a 3.46GHz gallop option), but response to it was a little more muted. It's a dual-core CPU, after all, and if you don't plan on exploiting that unlocked multiplier to achieve some madness above 4GHz, you might be better off looking elsewhere. In amidst all the mad benchmarking, we've also found a review of a Falcon Northwest i7-875K rig as well, so give it all a read if you're mulling over a desktop upgrade. Read - Tech Report Read - AnandTech Read - PC Perspective Read - Hot Hardware Read - TweakTown Read - Legit Reviews
