Samsung SyncMaster 305T | Massive 30″ LCD Monitor Excellent Image Quality

Posted on June 9, 2008

If your looking for an LCD monitor this size then you’re stuck with choosing from a just a few manufactures at the moment: Apple, Dell, HP, Gateway and Samsung. Which does mean the price is comparatively high compared to other lower end monitors in terms of Price to Inch ratio, but are defiantly worth it if you are looking for a lot of screen real estate.

The Samsung SyncMaster 305T is one of the few really large monitors out there and one of the more popular thanks to its relatively low price tag, compared to other 30” monitors and its great features.

The monitor supports a native resolution of 2,560×1,600 pixels, but can only be viewed at this resolution if you have a high end graphics card connected with a dual link DVI cable. If your graphics card doesn’t support it then you’ll be stuck displaying at 1,920×1,440 which isn’t bad, but I know you would rather get what you pay for.

One of the main complements everyone gives this monitor is the color quality, which is incredibly sharp and rich. The reason for this is the contrast ratio, which is a massive 1,000:1 allowing the monitor to display subtle differences in different color shades. Non of the usual menus can be found on this monitor as Samsung obviously feel their monitor is perfect for color ratios as the only buttons on the monitor adjust the brightness.

The number of ports on the monitor is a bit disappointing though, as the SyncMaster 305T only has one DVI port, no other connections limiting the number of devices you can attach it to. Although it does have 4 downstream USB connectors for desktop peripherals which is always a nice feature to have on monitors, saving you going under the desk to plug devices in.

The Samsung SyncMaster 305T does have a reality small amount of features than other monitors, but it more than makes up for it with its size and picture quality. This monitor would be great for video editors and graphics artists or anyone who needs a large amount of screen real estate. Although the monitor has an 8ms response time and most gamers look for a lower value than this, I don’t think your going to be complaining when your shooting people at 30 inches.

More info on the Samsung SyncMaster 305T

• Find the Samsung SyncMaster 305T on Amazon
• Find the Samsung SyncMaster 305T on Newegg
• Find the Samsung SyncMaster 305T Cheap on Ebay

Microsoft Digital Pro Keyboard | Wired Touch Typist Friendly Multimedia Keyboard with Programmable Buttons

Posted on May 10, 2008

The Microsoft’s Digital pro Keyboard is the cheapest keyboard that you may well find in Microsoft’s line of keyboards. Regardless of it being the cheapest, it has one of the best ‘feels’ when typing giving you the confidence not to make mistakes and become a better touch typist. If you’re wanting to learn how to touch type this would be a brilliant keyboard to learn from.

The keyboard also offers a lot of extra buttons such as the play/pause button, the volume button, five other programmable buttons and many others. One of the handiest buttons on the keyboard is the Calculator button which situated next to the numeric pad and the multimedia buttons are great for listening to music while you are working because you don’t have to stop the flow of typing and reaching for the mouse.

One of the great things about this keyboard, apart from its price of course, is the programmable buttons which are configurable through the software provided on the CD, although the Keyboard was first made available in 2004 so it would be an idea to check the website for the updated divers.

If you’re a Mac user, good news as unbelievably Microsoft has allowed you to use it on a Mac with everything working perfectly. The drivers given are fully compatible with Mac and work the same as in a Windows-powered PC. The only difference of course is the buttons that are different on a Mac keyboard, such as the Windows key but that isn’t anything to worry about.

As with any product there are of course draw backs, although they are quite small problems. One that stands out straight away is the position of the cable, it’s on the far left of the keyboard. Depending on how far away your tower is this could cause problems if your computer tower is on the right of you as it will stretch and twist the cable.

More Info on the Microsoft Digital Pro Keyboard

• More info on the Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard on Amazon
• Microsoft Digital Media Pro on Newegg
• Find the Microsoft Digital Pro Cheap on Ebay

Kensington Slim Type Keyboard 64365 | Notebook Styled Keyboard with Chrome Finish

Posted on May 2, 2008

If you use notebooks a lot then you might find it hard going back to regular keyboards where you have to press the keys in much further for them to activate. The Kensington 64365 slim type keyboard addresses this problem, needing only light touches to press the keys. This is because the keyboard is incredibly thin standing at 1inch when they stands are up.

The design of the keyboard is incredibly sleek, and with a chrome finish it looks very stylish. Problem is though, with extended use many people have reported that the sliver strip wears off exposing the plastic underneath.

Although the design of the notebook styled keyboard is to be as compact and as small as possible, it is large enough for normal use, unlike notebook keyboards that are cramped and can feel unnatural. The keyboard even has room for extra hot keys that perform functions such as, setting the computer to sleep, opening the calculator, volume control and a few others.

To save room on the keyboard the layout has been shifted a bit compared to a standard keyboard which will take a bit of getting used to. The Insert, Home, Delete, End, Page up and Page Down keys have all been moved to a straight vertical line and the arrow keys have been partially moved bellow the right Ctrl key, this could be problematic to some especially if you use those keys a lot.

Overall its a great keyboard, with some finishing issues. If you don’t mind the the layout change and the chrome color wearing off then this keyboard is great for all recovering notebook users which is recommended by a lot of satisfied customers

More Info on the Kensington Slim Type Keyboard

• Kensington Slim Type Keyboard on Amazon
• The Kensington Slim Type Keyboard on Newegg
• The Slim Type Keyboard on TheNerds.net

Asus Striker II Formula | High End Gaming Motherboard with Tripple SLI Support 780i Chipset

Posted on May 1, 2008

The Asus Striker II is one of the more expensive and feature packed motherboards on the market, primarily aimed at gamers it has the nVidia 780i Northbridge chipset, one of the better chipsets out there. Its simple and easy to overclock and has three PCI Express x16 slots using the nForce 200 chipset which means that its ready for triple SLI which you can use with the latest nVidia cards the Geforce9800.

There are a lot of cooling features on this motherboard which make it ideal for gaming systems that produce a lot of heat. The Northbridge is covered by a heatsink that uses pin fin technology which is better than the old stacked fin. The Striker II Formula also features quite a large heatpipe and heatsink that begins at the Southbridge , goes around the at the 780i chipset and ends at the heat circuits. Unfortunately there isn’t support for watercooling for the Northbridge, which is a shame since it’s the output for all three chipsets.

With the Asus Striker II you get SupremeFX II which is supposed to be “excellent high definition audio” but I wasn’t really impressed it’s just a slightly better version of standard onboard sound drivers and with you paying a good amount for the motherboard I’m sure you can invest in buying a better sound card.

Overall though the Asus Striker II Formula is good value for money for the features you get, this is considerably due to the massive customer support you get from ASUS as usual. If you’re a heavy gamer and like to have plenty of room to overclock then this Motherboard is likely to be right up your street.

More Info about the ASUS Striker II Formula

• Take a look at the Asus Striker II on Amazon
• Find the ASUS Striker II Formula on Newegg

eVGA e-GeForce 9800 GTX | Cheap and Fast High End Gaming Graphics Card

Posted on April 27, 2008

Today’s we are looking at the Nvidia9800 GTX by eVGA. Taking a look at these graphic cards you might think that they’re a tad on the big size, but these sizes are now common amongst the high-end graphic cards. Some consider the 9800GTX to be on par with the 8800GTX. However, the greatest difference between the two cards is that the 8800GTX is equipped with 768MB of memory while the 9800 GTX has a memory of 512MB and both cards are DDR3. What makes the 9800GTX different is that the market price of the card being cheaper than the 8800GTX

Looking at the specification the 9800GTX is more superior in terms of its core, shader, memory clock speed and many others. A difference between the two would be at its memory bandwidth and memory interface. In this area, the 8800GTX succeeded the 9800GTX.

Some games were tested using the Geforce9800 GTX: F.E.A.R, Dark Messiah, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Oblivion and Crysis. At lower widescreen resolutions (1680×1050 and bellow), the Geforce 9800GTX outperformed the 8800GTX but with only a minor difference in terms of frame rate. However, when the resolution was cranked up to 2560×1600 and pushed the limit of the two graphic cards the 9800GTX started to choke and decrease in performance.

Our conclusion is that the two graphic cards are quite the same so if you already have a 8800GTX then it isn’t really worth upgrading just yet. But if your upgrading from a lesser card then it might be an idea to go for the eVGA e-GeForce 9800GTX because it’s one of the cheaper Geforce 9800GTX’s if you’re looking at a performance for price perspective.

More Info about the eVGA e-GeForce 9800 GTX

• Get the eVGA e-GeForce 9800 GTX on Amazon
• eVGA e-GeForce 9800GTX on Ebay

Logitech G11 | Large Blue and Silver Backlit Gaming Keyboard

Posted on April 26, 2008

The Logitech G11 gaming keyboard is virtually the same as the old G15. The only difference between the two is that the G15 version had an LCD which some people considered useless. Other than that, the Logitech G11 gaming keyboard is exactly the same as the old G15. It also has programmable keys and could definitely be a lifesaver especially while gaming.

There is only one way to describe the size of the keyboard and that is “huge”. Logitech have made virtually no other changes to the G11 except remove the LCD, so it is its same huge self. It also has the same disappointing USB ports at the top. However, these ports are only 1.1 and not 2.0. So, any high-speed devices simply don’ work.

Like the G15, the G11 also has a blue back light for its keyboard keys. I have always loved this features as it allows you to play immersive games without having to turn the light on to see the keyboard, ruining the atmosphere of the game and also allows you to have late night gaming sessions, without having to disturb anyone by leaving the light on.

This keyboard is definitely with gamers in mind and could give you an advantage over other player because it picks up keystrokes faster than standard keyboards. A hardcore gamer would probably be interested in having shortcuts rather than clicking the items manually, especially in MMORG games such as World of Warcraft. That’s where this baby comes in. There are 18 programmable G button and above those are the M1, M2, and M3 buttons. What would this mean you would say? Well, you could program up to 48 macros per game! That could definitely save you some major time. Of course the G Keys don’t just have to be used in game, because you can select different profiles for different games you could have the buttons do something different on the desktop such as launching applications or even storing passwords.

This keyboard doesn’t just have to be for gamers. If you are doing a lot of working on the computer rather than playing games, then this keyboard might not be suitable for you. However, some people don’t want cheap feeling standard keyboards that you can buy and instead want something a bit more robust. The G11 can speed up repetitive tasks through its short cuts and can help gamer’s doge out the way quicker due to its quicker key presses. The old version of the G15 is still available if you’re really want the LCD, but it does cost a lot more and would be better off getting the new one. But if you’re a gamer who doesn’t want the LCD then the G11 is for you.

More Info about the Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard

• Logitech G11 on Newegg
• Find the Logitech G11 on Amazon
• Take a look at the Logitech G11 on thenerds.net
• Find the Logitech G11 Cheap on Ebay

CaseLogic Hard Drive Case | Hard, Durable and Small External Case

Posted on April 25, 2008

After reviewing a few External Hard Drives over the last few weeks I thought it would be a good idea to review something that would give some protection to the things I’ve been recommending. So today’s review will be on the CaseLogic Small External Hard Drive Case.

The Case is ideal for the recent hard drives that I’ve been reviewing as they have been on the small end of the scale, but the one that matches almost perfectly is the Western Digital Passport. It fits very snugly, but this just means that it doesn’t move inside of the case meaning it is less likely to be damaged.

The case has two compartments, one for the hard drive it’s self and the other mesh casing is for the cables that you’ll need. There is room however for another hard drive if you don’t want to carry the cables around in the case. Or you could put your ipod or phone in there for safe keeping.

Other than that there is not much else to say about the CaseLogic case, its durable and stops your hard drives taking knocks that could damage the data held on them. If you’re on the move a lot and your notebook case gets thrown around and dropped quite a bit then it would be a good idea to make the investment and get a case for your external hard drive to protect your data.

Main Features of the CaseLogic Hard Drive Case

• Durable and Hard shelled
• Compact and small
• Can hold two External Hard Drives

More Info

• CaseLogic External Hard Drive Case on Amazon

Amazon thinks Macs are out selling PC’s - What are they thinking?

Posted on April 24, 2008

Amazon have gone down in my expectations today, I’m a huge fan of Amazon for their great prices and wide product portfolio. Some of you may already know that Amazon has Meters to show how one product is out selling others.

Today Amazon posted one entitled “Apple vs Windows OS” showing that Apple Macs are out selling Windows PC’s. They have gotten the results by measuring the sales of 5 Macs to 5 Windows machines. There are two major flaws that I can see in this though. First one being that they are only comparing notebooks, yes Amazon sell a lot more Notebooks than actually desktop machines but it never stated this in its poll and Windows easily sells more desktops than Apple.

Second they aren’t even comparing the top PC’s, as they are with the Mac’s. These are where the compared Notebooks are in the best selling notebooks list on Amazon.

Yes looking at the best selling list the Mac notebooks do dominate the top, however there are Windows Notebooks that are higher up in the rankings that could have been compared, such as the HP Pavilion TX2120US at number 12.

I think Amazon have fiddled with the figures a bit to put Mac’s in a more favourable light to try and sell a few more. And only comparing 5 from each OS is flawed in its self because there are hundreds more PC’s than Macs meaning that PC’s can less of each specific model but still come top in overall sales, which they do.

More Info

• Take a look at the “Apple vs Windows OS” Meter

Canon CanoScan 4400F | Budget Photo Scanner - Scans Negatives

Posted on April 23, 2008

Today, we will be reviewing Canon’s sleek-looking CanoScan 4400F scanner. I would classify this scanner as a budget scanner and has an optical resolution of 4800×9600 dpi. The scanner also has a capability of scanning an image or document up to 48 bit depth. Though the number may seem to be large, it is however, common amongst all the scanners within this price range. That should be enough technicalities and now on with the review of the CanoScan 4400F.

CanoScan 4400F specializes in scanning films and hence the “F” after the 4400. A good thing about this CanoScan is that its slide holder could scan up to six negatives at once or four 35-mm slides. What was discovered however is that the slide holder is a bit too narrow for a glass mounted slide. A test of the scanning speed of a 35-mm frame at 2,400 dpi took almost 2 minutes for it to finish. This proves to be quite slow if you compare it with results of other scanners, such as the the Epson V100. We also discovered that the green scanned by the 4400F to be less vibrant than the original, which was quite disapointing. Other than that, the results made by 4400F are sharp and accurate.

Most of the software given by Canon, as most bundled software isn’t quite as useful as you would hope and there are a lot of better software on the market. One software that did catch my eye though was a piece of software specially made for film scanning. It quickly detected the strip of negatives and then split it so that we are able to choose which part of the film that we are interested in scanning. This software did prove itself to be quite handy when scanning film into the computer. The other software that Canon provides are the Arcsoft Photostudio, Scansoft Omnipage SE and Presto! PageManager these are bundled with the scanner.

All in all, it’s a good scanner for its price range, especially if you are looking to scan your films. However, the lack of vibrant in green could be quite a turn off. There are other scanners which could be better than the CanoScan 4400F in terms of scanning speed and color accuracy. This scanner also lacks an infra-red sensor which could eliminate the dust and scratches from being scanned during the scanning process. This feature however can be seen in the higher end products from Canon but not this budget scanner.

Main Features of the CanoScan 4400F

• Scans Negatives of Photo’s
• 281 trillion possible colors
• Ability to scan thick items

More Info

• Find out more on the Canon CanoScan 4400F at Amazon
• Find the Canon CanoScan 4400F Cheaper on Ebay

SimpleTech SP-U35 | Small Portable External Hard Drive USB Powered

Posted on April 22, 2008

Today I’m looking at another external hard drive specifically designed for notebooks and people on the go. Although slightly larger and heavier than the Western Digital Passport that I have already reviewed this SimpleTech disk is one of the smaller external hard drives I’ve come across.

As we have come to expect from portable external hard drives it is powered via its USB cable, the cable that comes with this SimpleTech hard drive actually has two USB plugs on it. This is so if your notebook isn’t sending enough power to the hard drive, you can plug the additional USB plug into another USB port to provide the extra power. Although there is a 5 VDC, 1.0A plug in the back of the hard drive should you find yourself in a situation where you would rather use a power supply father than drain power from your notebook. Although this cable isn’t supplied you can easily pick one up cheaply in most electronic stores, or you may even have one lying around the house.

In terms of file transfer speed it averaged around the 20mb/s mark but it did take time for the speed to pick up. Some times when you are not using the drive for a while it will switch into its power saving sleep mode, although this is a good way to save your notebook battery it isn’t great if you quickly want to open a file from your hard drive and you have to wait 6-8 seconds while it’s in its start-up sequence.

Overall I would say that this was a great little external hard drive for someone that is isn’t looking to spend a great deal of money, but is still looking to buy a great looking hard drive.

Main Features of the SimpleTech SP-U35

• Great looking Shell
• Dual USB Powered
• Fast Transfer Speeds
• Power Saving Features

More Info

• SimpleTech SP-U35 on Amazon
• Find the SimpleTech SP-U35 Cheap on Ebay