http://www.ocmodshop.com/ en-US Copyright 2007, OCModShop alanm@ocmodshop.com (Alan McCloskey) Audio Video Computers: Audio Computers: Video OCMS Media RSS Engine 1.2 http://www.ocmodshop.com/images/ocm/newsnav/5.png http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/audiovideonews.aspx Sat, 10 May 2008 11:52:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35806&z=14 Sat, 10 May 2008 11:51:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35804&z=14 Sat, 10 May 2008 11:49:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35798&z=14 Sat, 10 May 2008 11:48:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35795&z=14 Sat, 10 May 2008 11:48:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35793&z=14 Sat, 10 May 2008 11:45:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35786&z=14 Sat, 10 May 2008 11:44:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35784&z=14 Fri, 9 May 2008 16:06:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35771&z=14 Fri, 9 May 2008 16:04:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35766&z=14 Fri, 9 May 2008 16:01:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35759&z=14 Fri, 9 May 2008 15:57:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35747&z=14 Fri, 9 May 2008 15:50:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35729&z=14 Fri, 9 May 2008 15:49:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35728&z=14 "I always enjoy being surprised by a product and the M-Play Blast was one such device. Not only did it exceed my expectations, it thoroughly impressed me. If you are looking for a remote setup for your media center and want something that looks at home with your VCR and other entertainment systems then the retro look of the M-play Blast should be right up your alley." )]]> Wed, 7 May 2008 11:25:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35653&z=14 While the average PC enthusiast may gawk endlessly over pages of reviews of high-end power-hungry graphics cards, jaw-slackened by the frame rates and 3DMark score that he or she might find there, at the end of the month it is the low to mid-range card that is purchased more often than not in the retail sector. Price typically is a primary consideration, but it's not the only concern. Availability, compatibility, and other issues factor in to a buyers decision as well. Today we take a look at Diamond's lower cost, mainstream Radeon HD 3650 that increases total on-board memory to 1GB, but in doing so, uses lower cost, slower GDDR2 chips. In the pages ahead, we'll aim to find out if additional on-board memory really impacts performance more so than a smaller footprint of faster GDDR3 memory. The answer may definitely surprise you... )]]> Wed, 7 May 2008 11:19:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35649&z=14 "We saw MSI mix it up just the other week with the 9600GT by overclocking it and going down the aftermarket cooler route. Aesthetically speaking, the card really didn’t do a lot for us, but as we dived deeper into the testing of the card we became pleasantly surprised by the performance the cooler offered. The latest 9600GT variant from MSI sports the same cooler along with an extra 512MB of GDDR3, giving us a grand total of 1GB. The card also carries with it the same overclock we saw on the 512MB model which should aid in getting some extra performance over stock clocked offerings." )]]> Thu, 8 May 2008 11:18:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35648&z=14 "The ECS N8800GT 256MB packs in double the memory with an available BIOS update giving you the performance of a true 8800 GT 512MB. The extra memory along with a nearly silent heat sink/fan combo and a $169 price tag assures it to be a great success!" )]]> Thu, 8 May 2008 05:13:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35644&z=14 Wed, 7 May 2008 11:09:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35643&z=14 The bundle and support are very well with the XFX Black Edition GeForce 9800GTX, it comes with COD4, which is one of the hottest PC gaming titles available at this moment and costs around $49.95 at most e-tailors or retailers making the card a more attractive buy. Support and warranty options are well taken care of BY XFX as they take very good care of their customers in the after purchase environment and quick RMA return times. Overall this card is a solid piece of equipment that excels in the 1920X1200 and below resolutions with moderate AA and AF settings. In the 1680 and 1280 resolutions you can turn up the AA and AF settings to their maximum values and get great FPS gameplay. Not quite a gamers gold card, but definitely a Gamers Silver card award winner. )]]> Wed, 7 May 2008 11:08:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35641&z=14 Looking for excellent gaming performance but also want to keep PC noise to a minimum? The EN9600GT Silent from ASUS is the card to buy. It couples the power of the 9600 GT with pure silence, and costs little more than the stock model, making it a great choice for either the HTPC or desktop. )]]> Wed, 7 May 2008 11:06:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35638&z=14 "The HD3870 features the latest PCI-Express 2.0 technology, which doubles the original specification's available bandwidth. The card is also bundled with 512MB of GDDR4 memmory clocked at 1152MHz, and a core clock of 800MHz. To keep the card's form factor to a single expansion slot, Sapphire developed the Vapor-X cooling solution, which utilizes heatpipes to transfer heat from the GPU to the cooling fins faster than traditional GPU coolers." )]]> Wed, 7 May 2008 11:05:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35637&z=14 "The worst thing about the exclusive V-cool heatsink (really the only bad thing) is that to get enough surface area for the passive cooling to be effective the normally single slot 9600GT becomes a dual slot design. I also found that the back edge of the passive heatsink blocked the retention clip for the six-pin power connector the card requires. I had to lift gently on the fins of the heatsink to get the clearance needed for seating the power plug." )]]> Wed, 7 May 2008 10:43:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35622&z=14 Scaling from one GPU to two doesn\'t necessarily result in doubling the performance as we\'ve seen in countless SLI and Crossfire articles. But what happens when you add a third GPU to the mix? That is what we\'re going to find out today by putting three 9800GTX SLI cards together. )]]> Tue, 6 May 2008 13:19:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35615&z=14 Tue, 6 May 2008 13:18:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35614&z=14 "The worst thing about the exclusive V-cool heatsink (really the only bad thing) is that to get enough surface area for the passive cooling to be effective the normally single slot 9600GT becomes a dual slot design. I also found that the back edge of the passive heatsink blocked the retention clip for the six-pin power connector the card requires. I had to lift gently on the fins of the heatsink to get the clearance needed for seating the power plug." )]]> Tue, 6 May 2008 13:17:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35613&z=14 Tue, 6 May 2008 13:16:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35611&z=14 "Audioengine's stellar A5 "bookshelf" speakers knocked me flat with perfect sound. The fact that this company would trust invisible air tubes over good ol' copper to not screw up their performance is a compelling sign that their new Audioengine W1 is dyed-in-the-wool wireless solution, but I'm hella skeptical. While I certainly don't believe that Monster's onto something with their oxygen-free copper and gold lies, I'm not positive that I won't be able to tell the difference between wires and nothingness." )]]> Tue, 6 May 2008 13:12:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35605&z=14 "Performance on the XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard was great! The majority of our testing showed that the motherboard performance was very close to what we have seen on recent Intel Express chipset based boards. Once we look at more recent gaming results like FEAR and Crysis, we see that the XFX 790i Ultra absolutely dominates compared to the boards we tested it against in this review..." )]]> Tue, 6 May 2008 12:02:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35595&z=14 Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35497&z=14 Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35496&z=14 Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35487&z=14 Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35486&z=14 Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35485&z=14 Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35484&z=14 Sat, 3 May 2008 09:32:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35456&z=14 Sat, 3 May 2008 09:30:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35454&z=14 What happens when you take a Radeon HD 3870 graphics card and slap a gig of memory on it? That is the question of the hour, since our subject is Diamond's new card with just such a configuration. The Radeon HD 3870 has established itself as a pretty decent option among mid-range graphics cards, although it's squeezed by formidable competition from Nvidia. Could doubling up on video memory allow the 3870 to distinguish itself from the likes of the GeForce 9600 GT and GeForce 8800 GT? We decided to find out. )]]> Fri, 2 May 2008 09:26:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35448&z=14 Fri, 2 May 2008 09:20:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35439&z=14 “When you are traveling you bring a ton of gadgets with you, I know I do. I have my laptop, cell phone, MP3 player, and digital camera with me at the very least. All of these gadgets need recharged, but it is sort of hard with the 1-2 extra outlets that most hotel rooms have. Usually I have to bring a large surge protector, that is a pain since they are huge and take up a lot of room in my carry-on. Targus has come up with the perfect solution, the Travel Power Outlets. It is a portable power strip that provides 4 outlets in a very small package.” )]]> Fri, 2 May 2008 09:16:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35433&z=14 "The latest 9800 GX2 incarnation to make its way into the labs comes from GIGABYTE and carries with it all the standard goodies that we expect out of the 9800 GX2. The latest 9 series of NVIDIA cards have impressed us, but like we’ve said all along they haven’t offered the revolutionary jump that we thought the 9 series would offer. With the standard clocks and cooler there isn’t going to be a whole lot out of the ordinary, but we will check out the bundle and box to see if there is anything that gets our tails wagging." )]]> Fri, 2 May 2008 09:14:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35431&z=14 Fri, 2 May 2008 09:07:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35423&z=14 Fri, 2 May 2008 09:06:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35422&z=14 Not too long ago, our very own Paul did a pretty intensive review of one of the latest ATi powered video cards to hit the market, the 3870 Toxic. Hot on the heels of that review, Sapphire sent us the 3870's little brother, the HD 3850 1GB. We already know that Paul loved the 3870, both for the performance, the price, and the sweet bundle, so will the 3850 keep us satisfied as well, or leave us wanting for more? )]]> Fri, 2 May 2008 09:05:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35421&z=14 "PC owners, rejoice: Gateway has unveiled its latest 24" widescreen LCD monitor, and it's a doozy. This glossy-coated behemoth delivers impressive image quality; more ports and connectors than you can shake a stick at; and a fast response time that will please gamers and movie-watchers alike. It's even relatively affordable at $500 - or at least is compared to other 24" LCDs. While the optional speaker bar integrates easily onto the display's chassis, you'll probably want to save your money for a set of regular speakers if you're a gamer. Still, it's a hardly a show-stopping drawback for what's otherwise a highly-recommended unit." )]]> Fri, 2 May 2008 09:03:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35419&z=14 Earlier this year we stumbled upon a widely circulated You Tube video (at least in tech circles), in which a man is seen ruthlessly abusing a poor LCD monitor. The protagonist starts by letting a child draw on the screen with a black permanent marker. Taking matters into his own hands, the man then proceeds to take a pen-knife to the surface of the screen, followed by multiple strikes with a hammer. The abuse of a perfectly good LCD monitor isn't what struck us about this particular video, however. The unique element that caught our eye and set it apart from similar videos is that the LCD monitor survived the episode completely unscathed. The monitor was ASUS' LS201. )]]> Thu, 1 May 2008 11:09:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35404&z=14 Skoda has run a pretty funny ad-campaign here in Sweden. The ad-movie starts with a voice telling us about Skoda’s high-tech factory. You get to see the robots that build the cars and how thorough everyone is checking everything is alright. Then at the end of the ad you just briefly see the guy who prices the cars; a clown, and the ad ends with “Skoda – built by professionals, priced by clowns”. It’s a pretty funny and clever ad-campaign. So what does that have to do with video cards? Well, I am pretty sure NVIDIA could have chosen to run a similar campaign saying “NVIDIA cards - built by professionals, named by clowns”. Harsh? I’m not sure about that. Today we are reviewing a NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB card from Sparkle. Some of you might remember that there also are 8800GTS cards with 320MB and 640 MB. And this is where the confusion starts. The 8800GTS 512 MB is using the newer G92 chipset while the 8800GTS 368MB and 640MB are using the older G80 core. The G92 core is much more efficient and has already proven itself on the 8800GT. In fact, it is the same GPU used in the new GeForce 9800GTX cards. This of course will just confuse buyers who might think that a 640Mb 8800GTS must be better than a 512 MB 8800GTS. It is extra unfortunate as the GeForce 8800GTS 512 MB turns out to be a GPU that offers a lot of bang for the buck. )]]> Thu, 1 May 2008 11:02:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35397&z=14 Today we are reviewing no ordinary Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card, as we take a look at the Visiontek Radeon HD 3870 X2 Overclocked Edition. This is quite possibly the most impressive 3870 X2 graphics card available today, with the only possible exception being the ASUS version we reviewed a few months back. Like the ASUS, this Visiontek card aims at offering a greatly improved cooling solution, quad DVI-outputs, along with some factory overclocking to top it all off. )]]> Thu, 1 May 2008 10:58:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35393&z=14 We have spent a lot of time at Benchmark Reviews talking about video cards recently - and with good reason. The discrete graphics segment of the market is currently afire with many outstanding price-to-performance options. When we looked at the offerings from the two biggest players, the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX and ATI/AMD HD 3870, we saw that game performance even when scaled to high resolution was simply outstanding. This begs the question; why with such low-cost entrance into owning cards capable of "high-rez" gaming, most users are still running a display of 19" or less?Monitors are arguably the most important component for users, getting more usage than any other component of a PC. The only reasonable answer would have to be cost, as until recently displays above the 19" mark have been prohibitively expensive. That's where the SAMSUNG SyncMaster 245BW enters the scene as very attractively priced 24" widescreen LCD monitor. )]]> Thu, 1 May 2008 10:57:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35391&z=14 Thu, 1 May 2008 10:56:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35390&z=14 The EVGA 8800GT 1GB AKIMBO is an interesting card in many respects. The performance is not up to the 9800GTX but it is close being that the two cards share the same video chip just with 16 SPs disabled. The main selling point of this card is the AKIMBO cooling solution as it kept the card noticeably cooler during operation, about 15-20C cooler according to NVIDIA’s temperature monitoring software. )]]> Thu, 1 May 2008 10:44:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35388&z=14 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:40:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35386&z=14 ..." DualGPU systems are very trendy in recent time and whole story begun with ATi "Gemini" project. Idea was born long time ago, when two graphics processors were integrated into one graphics card, but that idea didn't get much popularity until now. On the other hand, ATi Radeon HD 3870X2 turned out as accessible to most users and at the same time very powerful solution. So all doubts in making investment in such card can be shattered in pieces."... )]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:38:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35384&z=14 Has there ever been a more confusing time to buy a video card? ATI cards are still pretty straight forward, even after their dual card. It was team nVidia that threw us for a loop, spiking the 8800 series cards with a new GPU core and moving things around within the model naming scheme. nVidia gave us a sneak peak at the new G92 core on two cards; the 8800GTS and the 8800GT. At the same time, there are also cards available that use the original G80 core with the same name. Today we test Gigabyte's GeForce 8800GT based on the G92 GPU coupled with 512 Megabytes of on board GDDR3. With this card, the Windows Vista Aero Desktop will be no problem! Let's take a look at what the NX88T has to offer. )]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:36:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35382&z=14 When we took the initial look at the 9800GTX from nVidia, we were far from impressed. Over its previous counterpart- the 8800GTX, there was not much improvement in performance while the prices were about the same as AMD’s dual GPU based 3870 X2 cards which we preferred. )]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:30:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35375&z=14 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:24:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35370&z=14 As I eluded to above, a couple of ways around a high price tag is to use what you already have. Did you recently upgrade to a quad core CPU and have a perfectly good older dual core CPU and motherboard now just lying around? With a video upgrade, a case, and some storage upgrades, you could have a perfectly great HTPC to use. Perhaps looks aren't a concern and you have a mid-tower case that can be stuffed out of the way. Great! Buy a few hundred dollars in parts with the advice given below and you should be good to go. )]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:22:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35368&z=14 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:21:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35367&z=14 "Gigabyte customized their Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT Turbo Force Edition by increasing the clock speeds of key areas on the card, but they did not stop there. Ultra Durable2 is a fab process they use to increase the durability and longevity of their products. Ultra Durable2 is featured on both their graphics hardware as well as their motherboards. Lower RDS (on) MOSFET Design, Ferrite core chokes, and Lower ESR Solid Capacitors are the three main components of their design. These components will create less wasted energy, lower power consumption and last longer." )]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:19:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35365&z=14 "X3 ran quite well. With texture and shader quality set to 'medium' (and no AA or AF) the game had no absolutely no problems at all. Framerates would generally ranged from the low 30's to the high '50s. This was at a resolution of 1280x1024. Of all the five games we looked at, X3 was the game that ran the smoothest. So, if space-trading, dog-fighting, Elite/Privateer-type games are your thing, you can get away with not spending over a $100 on a video card to fly a starship. Check out this video of the HD3450 in action..." )]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:17:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35363&z=14 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:15:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35360&z=14 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:17:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35340&z=14 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:14:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35290&z=14 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:05:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35264&z=14 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:02:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35259&z=14 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:00:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35257&z=14 "What’s different about the Diamond HD 3650 from Diamond is that it carries with it a massive 1GB of memory. We’re not really big on huge amounts of memory added to a mid-range card, but we’ll have to see if Diamond is able to do anything with the HD 3650 here today that impresses us. Diamond does something that is quite common when companies increase the amount of RAM on lower end models. Instead of using 1GB of GDDR3, they’ve dropped back to GDDR2." )]]> Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:00:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35256&z=14 "Every year anew this does not exclusively refer to Christmas, but also to new benchmarks from Espoo, Finland, where the Futuremark guys come from. After releasing the last 3DMark in 2006 and starting a new category of benching with that combination of high performance graphics scenes, they today launched the new top of the class-benchmark with the 3DMark Vantage." )]]> Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:54:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35248&z=14 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:40:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35216&z=14 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:40:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35214&z=14 ASUS has heard the call for a product aimed at this budget-priced market and they are back from the drawing boards and off to market with another addition to their new line of PC soundcards: The Xonar 7.1 DX. They recently started to apply their considerable design talents to cement a solid name and reputation for themselves among PC audio fans with high spec, high quality soundcards even though the new Xonar DX 7.1 is clearly aimed at the entry level markets with a lower price tag and no-frills bundle. )]]> Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:38:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35212&z=14 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:36:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35209&z=14 If there’s one thing that you’ve got to hand it to the people at Samsung is that they know what it takes to make a seriously stylish product. We’re talking dollar sign bling action here! The company has been working hard to create a very distinctive style to the entirety of their product line and it’s really starting to show. Taking a look at their cell phones, you will inevitably find that the majority of those handsets have a piano black finish and a remarkably slim profile. Hopping over to the television department, you’ll discover the same glossy black finish and the same slender physique. Even when you look at some of the Samsung printers, they’ve got piano black finishes there too. This is why I was taken aback upon opening the box for the Samsung SyncMaster T220 LCD monitor. )]]> Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:30:00 PST http://www.ocmodshop.com/news/summaryviewer.asp?a=35203&z=14