HP Pavilion p6787c-b

The HP Pavilion p6787c-b ($1,149 with two monitors at Costco) is in a category of one: It's the only dual-monitor desktop system that's available in a big box retail store. People who do a lot of multitasking, especially when working with digital media (photos, videos, music) will enjoy the extra room for toolbars, extra wide documents, or even HD video playback while you're working in the other monitor.

Design and Features
The p6787c-b is a variation of the HP Pavilion p6700 series we've seen before. It's a tower PC with room to expand, but the looks are a little different. The front panel is metallic gray instead of the glossy black we've seen on previous HP desktops, though the sides are still matte black. The front panel slides down to expose two USB 2.0 ports and audio jacks, and there are bays for two optical drives below the 15-in-1 digital media card reader. On the back, there are 4 more USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire port, more audio jacks, a digital audio port, and an HDMI and DVI port (on the ATI Radeon HD 6450 graphics card). Notably missing are eSATA and USB 3.0 ports, which would be important to a multimedia enthusiast or digital artist since these interfaces are much faster than the included USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces when transferring large files.

Inside the chassis is a decent amount of space, though, some expansion slots are filled. The desktop's 4 RAM slots are filled by the included 8GB of memory, which you probably won't need to upgrade anytime soon. An ATI Radeon HD 6450 graphics card occupies the sole PCIe x16 slot. On the other hand, there are three PCIe x1 slots available, as well as space for two more hard drives and an optical drive. If you're into collecting movies, you'll probably have to install a Blu-ray drive in the open slot: the p6787c-b's single optical drive is a DVD burner. The desktop has a 250W power supply, plenty for the ATI Radeon HD 6450 and a few internal drives, but you won't be able to put a new gaming-class Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 in this system (nor would you want to).

So let's get to the reason why this system is cool: dual-monitor support. People that use two (or more) monitors at work can tell you that more than one screen can help the mutlitasker get more done. You want to surf and watch Hulu at the same time? Sure, put Hulu on one screen and the browser in the other. You want to edit a six-page-wide spreadsheet? Go for it. You can set one screen up to be your workspace in Photoshop and the other for just your toolbars and IM program. You can even watch a 1080p HD streaming film on one screen while doing work on the other.

Specifications

Type

Mainstream, Multimedia

Processor Family

AMD Phenom II

RAM

8 GB

Storage Capacity (as Tested)

1500 GB

Graphics Card

AMD Radeon HD 6450

Primary Optical Drive

Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

SOURCE: www.pcmag.com

Before the end of our SideWinder X8 review, we lamented the fact that Microsoft released yet another SideWinder Mouse that looked just like two of its predecessors, offering just a few more bells and whistles yet with the same design. Give us something different, we mused.

Enter the SideWinder X3. While it does carry the SideWinder gaming brand, it does offer users a different look and feel over the three previous SideWinder mice. For starters, it's a bit smaller, boasts an ambidextrous design, and carries a side button on the left and right of the mouse. A price tag of $39.99 is also more like it too.

Let's examine the X3's speeds and feeds:

• 2.76" wide, 4.74" long
• Symmetrical design—suitable for both lefties and righties equally
• 2000dpi laser tracking engine; 500Hz polling rate
• Three on-the-fly dpi switching buttons
• Two side buttons (one on each side)
• Clicky scroll wheel
• Wide glide feet
• Ability to record macros via included software

Just by going over these specs can we see that this is engineered for gaming, most notably its quick enough laser sensor, on-the-fly dpi buttons, and clicky scroll wheel. Those features have become synonymous with gaming mice.

SOURCE: www.extremetech.com

WarMouse Meta

The relationship between the keyboard and the mouse has long been a rocky one, especially where PC gaming is concerned. One is loaded with buttons but offers no fine-tuned movement control; the other gives you near-complete freedom of movement, but few interaction options. It's been essentially impossible to play any but the simplest of games with only one or the other. But that could soon change thanks to the new WarMouse Meta ($79 list), a gaming mouse for Windows, Mac, and Linux that's loaded with 19 buttons—and a joystick. If this doesn't cure your button-hunger, nothing will.

With most of the buttons on the mouse's top face (including the scroll-wheel button), and one button and the joystick (or "altstick," as WarMouse calls it) on the mouse's left side, the WarMouse Meta does not look like any mouse you've ever seen. Nor does it behave like any other mouse—but whether that's a good thing or a bad thing for you will depend entirely on how you use your computer and how willing you are to relearn everything you thought you knew about mousing. One thing's for sure: Whether you love or hate the WarMouse Meta&, you'll never look at another mouse in quite the same way again.

SOURCE: www.extremetech.com

Microsoft's SideWinder X4: A Ghost-Busting Keyboard

Though die-hard typists will expound endlessly on the subject of whether this keyboard is better than that keyboard, gamers are a different breed—for the most part, they don't really care how a keyboard types. Oh, they may need to send an occasional e-mail or IM, but it's how the keys operate under fire, and what other sorts of features it has for keeping them out of harm's way in the first place, that really matters most.

Microsoft's new SideWinder X4 ($59.95 list) keyboard, which is currently available for presale and will be shipping early next month, types well enough, with a feel snugly between the squishy and clicky extremes that seem to polarize gamers and typists alike. Much more notable, however, is that the X4 aims to solve one of the problems that can lead to premature death or annoyance in games: the game not recognizing all the keys you hit, when you hit them. And, of course, the X4 also throws in a few dashes of the bling and bright lights that status-conscious gamers expect. Unfortunately, although Microsoft has made some impressive steps forward with the X4, it's taken a few back as well.

SOURCE:www.extremetech.com

Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 Video Card

The wait is finally over. After letting AMD own the next-generation video card market for months with its 5000-series cards, Nvidia has at last returned a salvo. Its ammo: two cards based on its new "Fermi" architecture, the GTX 470 and the GTX 480. These cards bring to Nvidia's family many similar technologies to those the new ATI Radeon HD cards enjoy: multimonitor support and DirectX 11 chief among them. There are even some special extras—multimonitor stereoscopic 3D!—thrown in as well.

With these cards, which Nvidia is announcing today and will be available for purchase the week of April 12, Nvidia would appear to be set to compete in the current state of the art. In the case of the GTX 480, the company even has bragging rights: That card does live up to many of Nvidia's boasts of its being the fastest single-GPU video card on the market. Whether it's worth the wait—or its $499 list price—is another, more difficult question.

Source:WWW.PCMAG.COM

Thermaltake Level 10 Case

When we first encountered Thermaltake's Level 10 case, which has been codesigned with BMW Group DesignworksUSA, at CES earlier this year, we found ourselves asking: "Does anyone really need a $700 case?" Now that one has finally arrived in Ziff Davis Labs, and the price has edged upwards to $799.99 (list) we have our answer: Probably not, but who cares?

That's the thing you have to always keep in mind about the Level 10: From its design to its pricing, it defies all conventional logic, but that doesn't make you want it any less. (In that way, if few others, we'd swear it was an Apple product.) So clever, so intense, and so innovative is everything about how it looks and works that during the time we spent with it, we had to keep reminding ourselves it was "just" a case, and ultimately only as good as the computer it houses. Working on it feels like working on a classic car: more a labor of love than a chore.

Still, on its own, and empty, it looked pretty amazing. But was its beauty only skin-deep, or was there real substance to be found beneath the flash? That—along with whether it's worth the price—is what we wanted to find out. Read on to see what we discovered, and learn why even among enthusiast cases the Level 10 stands alone.

Source:WWW.EXTREMETECH.COM

Xbox 360

Measuring 10.6 by 10.4 by 2.9 inches (HWD) and weighing 6 pounds, the new Xbox 360 is noticeably smaller than the 12-by-10-by-3-inch, 7.7-pound Xbox 360 Elite. Microsoft was able to reduce the system's size almost 17 percent by combining the CPU and GPU onto one chipset, and moving the swappable 250GB hard drive to the interior of the unit. The matte casing that has been associated with previous Xbox 360 consoles is no more; in its place is a glossy, piano-black enclosure that's very easy on the eyes. That is, until you touch it—the new Xbox is a fingerprint (and dust) magnet. The power brick is smaller too; it's about half as thick as those from older Xbox 360 consoles.

The primary fan and air vent that once wicked heat away through the back of the system now resides on the top of the console as a trapezoid-shaped grill. The fan is a bit quieter this time around, and the system is near-silent (except for when a disc is spinning inside). And vents along the left and right sides of the system manage to keep the console relatively cool. After playing UFC Undisputed 2010 for an hour on the new Xbox 360, the console maintained a cool 75 degrees, except in the vent areas where the escaping hot air pushed temperatures over 100 degrees. It remains to be seen if this new cooling setup helps prevent, or lowers the rate of overheating and system failure.

The Power button looks the same as on previous Xboxes, expect that it no longer flashes the infamous "red ring of death." This isn't because Microsoft has solved the problem; the red LED has simply been removed. The disc-eject button now resides to the upper left; previously it was to the immediate left, and designed to appear as part of the system tray itself. The new button is overly sensitive; I accidentally ejected the tray several times when repositioning the console on a desk, or lightly dusting it. The USB 2.0 port chamber that was previously aligned vertically, to the right of the power button, is now horizontal, which makes it a bit easier to attach USB devices as you no longer have to stack the connectors.

The rear panel reveals three more USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, S/PDIF, and composite A/V ports, an input for the power supply, and a single custom auxiliary jack that will let you hook up the camera for the forthcoming Kinect motion-based controller. Microsoft has also added an internal 802.11n Wi-Fi radio, so you no longer have to shell out for a wireless adapter to get your Xbox connected to your network wirelessly.

In the box you'll find a headset (for smack-talking on Xbox Live), composite cables, and one wireless controller loaded with rechargeable AA batteries. It doesn't feel quite as solid as the previous controller, but we were able to play without issue. You'll have to supply your own HDMI cable.

Source: WWW.EXTREMETECH.COM

Asus B43J-A1B

These days, business laptops have to meet a wide variety of needs. Professionals require a machine that provides computing power, networking options, connections galore, and hours of battery life. The Asus B43J-A1B ($1,199.99 street) fills most of these needs, but if battery life is a major concern, then this laptop is going to disappoint.

Design
Though quite a few manufacturers, including Asus, have brought some great looking business laptops to market, like the Dell Vostro 3300 ($910 street, 3.5 stars), most laptops, like the Lenovo ThinkPad T410s ($1,504 direct, 4 stars), tend to stick to the basics. The Asus B43J-A1B keeps a conservative look, but puts a fashionable twist on it that turns basic black into something more black tie

The frame around the screen and the base of the chassis is matte plastic, but the lid and palm rest get a stylish and protective aluminum casing that resists scratches and won't attract fingerprints. The 14-inch widescreen offers a 1366 by 768 resolution for 720p video viewing, and is topped with a 2-megapixel webcam that has a built-in lens cover. It weighs a hefty 5.46 pounds

The full-sized keyboard eschews the chiclet-style design that is so popular in consumer laptops, opting instead for a more traditional design. The keyboard is also spill resistant, so you can now have lunch at your desk without the fear that a spilled drink will destroy your work computer. The touchpad is comfortably smooth and supports multi-touch, bringing two-fingered scrolling and zooming to your work machine

Features
Connectivity is one of the most important aspects of any business laptop, and the Asus B43J-A1B offers a variety of ports. There are three USB 2.0 ports (including one combination USB/eSATA port), optical drive, and jacks for both telephone and Ethernet. Connecting to an external display is also easier thanks to the VGA, HDMI, and DisplayPort connections. ATI Eyefinity also allows connection of up to two additional monitors, providing significantly more visual real estate.

Security options abound, as the B43J-A1b comes with several built-in layers of protection. A fingerprint scanner provides biometric-based security. A Smart Card reader allows the use of security card-based user authentication. Intel vPro provides remote IT access and automatic disabling of lost or stolen laptops.

Our test unit had 4GB of DDR3 memory. The 320GB 7,200 rpm hard drive will likely offer plenty of storage space on its own, but users will still want to take advantage of the USB/eSATA port when connecting an external hard drive. The B43J-A1B also has an ExpressCard 34 expansion slot for further flexibility. Docking station support allows quick connection to peripherals, power, and communication devices, but will require purchasing a docking station separately.

For fast access to the Web, the Asus B43J-A1B features the same ExpressGate instant-on environment that has been used in several other Asus models this year, like the Asus U52F-BBL9($749 list, 4 stars). A dedicated ExpressGate power button allows you to enter ExpressGate from a powered-down state, skipping lengthy Windows boot times to provide instant web access.

Processor Name

Intel Core i5-560M

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

Processor Speed

2.66 GHz

RAM

4 GB

Weight

5.4 lb

Screen Size

14 inches

Screen Size Type

widescreen

Storage Capacity (as Tested)

320 GB

Networking Options

802.11n

Primary Optical Drive

DVD-R SuperDrive

SOURCE:www.pcmag.com