NZXT Hale90 850W

NZXT has been expanding its product offerings beyond cases, with the latest being a lineup of efficient power supplies, dubbed Hale90. The Hale90 series of PSUs consists of models ranging from 550 to 1,000 watts.We had the opportunity to evaluate the Hale90 850W. The NZXT Hale90 850W sports a mostly modular design and a unique aesthetic, at least in the power supply space. Hardwired to the Hale90 850W unit are its 24-pin ATX power connector, 8-pin...

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Crosley Spins A Revolution

Call us old-fashioned, but we still buy new music on LP. Thus, it always does our analog heart good to see new digital-flavored turntables make the scene, including Crosley’s belt-driven Revolution (CR6002A), a $149.95 spinner (45rpm and 33 1/3 rpm) that takes “the record player out of the box.” Beyond being Crosley’s first battery-powered model (six AAs), the company claims the Revolution is its first with a “platter smaller than a teacup saucer”...

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LaCie Enters Wireless Space Impressively

  September was a busy month for LaCie. In addition to announcing the impish MosKeyto ($17.99 and up), a roughly 20mm USB thumb drive offering up to 16GB storage, the company detailed the new, intriguing, and handsome Wireless Space (starts at $229.99), LaCie’s first Wi-Fi-packing NAS for Mac and PC users. Wireless Space can function as a media server, Wi- Fi b/g/n access point, and full-fledged router. It’s compatible with UPnP/DLNA,...

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Crazy About Video? Then Take A Looxcie

If you think Bluetooth headsets are obnoxious, stop reading. The Looxcie ($199) isn’t for you. If, however, you don’t mind small devices dangling from your ear and video is your bag, by all means give the Looxcie a long, er, look. In addition to functioning as a hands-free Bluetooth headset, this bullet-shaped video wonder stores up to five hours (or as much as 4GB) of HVGA video. But that’s not all. Download an accompanying app to your Android...

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Shuttle XS35GT-804

  It’s easy to bash nettops in a power user magazine. Nettops like this XS35GT still can’t complete a default 3DMark Vantage run. (We had to drop into the Entry profile, yielding a score of E1792.) That said, no one buys a nettop for 3D gaming. These are the low-power, ultraquiet cloud clients meant to be power users’ second (or third) PC. In our June issue, we looked at View- Sonic’s VOT132 nettop. (See page 34.) Half a year later,...

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Gigabyte X58-USB3

  Jumping into one of Intel’s six-core Core i7s can be an expensive proposition, but with the X58-USB3, Gigabyte scales down the X58 features (no 6Gbps SATA or eSATA ports) to offer an affordable motherboard that can still handle the Core i7-970 or 980X. The X58-USB3’s layout is fairly well thought-out, but we didn’t like the placement of the front-panel audio connector, which was located above the expansion slots. On the plus side, Gigabyte...

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AMD Radeon HD 6870 & 6850

  AMD just launched its third-generation 40nm GPU, but there is very little new in terms of architecture compared to the 5000 Series. To add to the confusion, the new cards are actually closer in performance to the Radeon HD 5830 and 5770 than the Cypress cards with which these cards share a suffix. You read right: The Radeon HD 5850 and 5870 will outperform the wet-behind-the-ears Radeon HD 6870 and 6850, respectively. Read on to find out...

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Sony Puts The Walkman Out To Pasture

    Although early rumors stemming from a Microsoft Netherlands press release surfacing in mid-October point toward a Windows 8 release in 2012, Microsoft has plenty to celebrateright now with Windows 7. According to an Oct. 21 release fromMicrosoft commemorating Windows 7’s first birthday, Microsoft has sold 240 million-plus copies of Windows 7 in the OS’ first year. Reportedly, 65 million sales came in the last 90 days. Microsoft...

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