There's been a good bundle of componentry pass through our labs this week. Our storage guru Chris kicked things off with a closer look at one of QNAP's new 4-bay NAS' in the TS-459 Pro which has proven itself to be well rounded enough in all aspects to be deserving of our Editor's Choice Award.
Has the fast growing all-in-one desktop craze got you thinking about going for a cleaner setup? Gateway recently rolled out a new family of sleek looking AIO machines and we checked out the ZX4800-06 touch screen model which should serve very well for standard tasks.
All this recent talk of 3D and movies in your home got you itchin' to learn more? - If you're a Sony fan you'll love what our home theater buff Ben managed to tee up this week. He had the pleasure of a hands-on experience with the first complete 3D Sony Bravia LCD TV, said to be the only one of its kind currently in Australia.
Any ill feelings about the path AMD seem to be headed down in the CPU/chipset market these days? Despite it looking like Intel have been running rings around them for several years, there are a number of reasons why AMD is such an important entity and Sean aims to give a logical analysis as to where exactly they fit in today's market.
Frame rates dropping a bit too much for your liking in some of the latest game titles? Rather than pushing your whole system aside and wiping the slate, perhaps all you need is a decent video card upgrade. Shawn checked out a beauty from GIGABYTE this week based on the ATI Radeon HD 5870 which thanks to being under the "Super Overclock" line-up comes out of the box with a solid jump in clock rates versus reference models and a very impressive looking cooler to boot.
When someone asks you what's the cheapest and easiest method to provide network/internet connectivity throughout the home, WiFi would seem like the most logical answer. However, this may not always be the case and if you're unlucky you'll experience weak or worse yet, dead zones in areas of the house where you need reliable access at all times. No need to resort to a lengthy reel of Cat 5 cable; there's another solution!
Building a new desktop rig or looking to give your existing one a new lease of life? What better way to compliment your upgrade than to give it a nice new home. If you don't have a lot of change left after going all out on your new hardware purchases, Cooler Master recently improved on an already proven design with the CM 690 II Advanced mid-tower chassis boasting all-black attire inside and out along with a very respectable feature-set for its asking price.
Until next week... adios!
