I think it’s fair to say that Microsoft has a much better reputation for its hardware than its software products. And I admit I’ve been a fan of Microsoft mice and keyboards for years now.
Being wireless, the Laser Mouse 7000 comes with a single AAA-sized NiMH battery and a cradle where you attach the supplied AC adaptor so you can charge the mouse.
Computer mice have come a long way since its introduction a couple of decade back. No one would have thought that the unexciting mouse will evolve until what we have here this month, the Microsoft Arc Mouse.
This month we see more red, because we have the RX3850 on review and it is the 256MB plus overclocked version of the card. As usual the card sports a red PCB that is a signature of ATI cards. There isn’t any enclosure really, just the cyborg themed sticker with a rather large fan with an equally large heatsink. The cooling system seems no different from the that of the reference card though. It works though since heat doesn’t get trapped so it’s cooler and the design of the cooling system will ensure that fan noises are kept to a minimum.
We saw the impressive GTX 280 take the stage last month with power beyond what we imagined. But being the best card in the world has its limitations, such as the high pricing that NVIDIA has placed on it. ATI has been improving largely in the performance area as well as competitive pricing, which according to DailyTech recently, has given NVIDIA some pressure as people are starting to fix their attention on ATI’s 4800 series. As a counterattack, NVIDIA has slashed its prices on the GTX 200 cards, one of which is the subject of review this month – the GTX 260.
All the while, gamers were only concerned about whether a graphics card could deliver the power they needed for the latest games. But after one need is satisfied, another comes up. It wasn’t just performance that gamers were bothered with, now there was the issue of overheating, design, noise, etc. Come today, people are now more inclined to tweak their own cards to boost performance. It was this that gave birth to the Republic of Gamers by ASUS. This month we get our hands on the 9600GT Matrix from the ROG series!
Apple’s effort looks slicker than an oiled up Italian on a Maldives beach, but is less likely to steal your girlfriend. The only thing putting a banana skin under its swagger is a puny 40GB hard drive, which holds 50 hours of a video - a 160-gigger costs an extra dollar.
The new HP Compaq DC7800 Ultra-slim Desktop is an impressive 46 percent smaller than the previous generation of HP DC7700 Ultra-slim Desktop, shrinking its footprint while at the same time providing more power for demanding applications users.
