NZXT HALE90 750W Power Supply

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

Aug 28th, 2010 | By Anthony

Manufacturer: NZXT

NZXT is an unlikely name to come across in the world of power supplies. But with all the 80 Gold Plus power supplies just rolling off the lines, NZXT, a company better known for cases and cooling accessories has decided to jump in the fray. The HALE90 series of power supplies is a single 12V rail unit with modular cabling and quiet operation and designed for quiet operation.

Just recently launched, the HALE90 series is NZXTs champion for their return back into the world of power supplies. The unit we have today is the 750W variant which falls right in between the family of units running from 550W all the way up to 1000W.

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Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

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HP TouchSmart 520-1050y

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

Review:

Hewlett-Packard missed the mark with its retail-only HP TouchSmart 520-1050y. Yes, this system hits most of the major notes I expect of a $1,049 all-in-one, but the fact is that you can buy an identical version of the TouchSmart 520 directly from HP for $50 less. You can also buy a more useful, though slower, Toshiba all-in-one for $899, which–unlike this HP system–has a versatile HDMI input. Or you can add an HDMI input to the TouchSmart 520 on HP.com to bring the price back up to $1,049.

In short, as I hope is obvious by now, … Expand full review

In short, as I hope is obvious by now, I can’t recommend that you buy this retail model when you can get the same thing for less directly from HP.

As of this writing, you can buy a TouchSmart 520xt that’s identical to the retail-only TouchSmart review unit for $50 less on HP.com.

The TouchSmart 520-1050y is the lower-end cousin of the TouchSmart 520xt we reviewed a few weeks ago. We found that model bumped up too closely to HP’s flagship TouchSmart 610 line, but had HP sent me a 520 configuration around $1,000 or so, it would have seemed just about right for a midrange all-in-one. Too bad, then, that HP didn’t get the pricing right on this in-store-only TouchSmart 520, since it mostly makes sense on paper.

Price	$1,049	$1,099	$899
Display size/resolution	23-inch, 1,920×1,080 pixels	23-inch, 1,920×1,080 pixels	23-inch, 1,920×1,080 pixels
CPU	2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2400	2.7GHz Intel Core i5-2390T	2.4GHz Intel Core i5-2430M
Memory	8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM	4GB 1,333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics	64MB Intel HD Graphics 1000	64MB Intel HD Graphics 1000	64MB Intel HD Graphics 3000
Hard drives	1TB, 7,200rpm	1TB, 7,200rpm	1TB, 7,200rpm
Optical drive	Blu-ray/DVD burner combo drive	dual-layer DVD burner	dual-layer DVD burner
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Next to the competing Samsung Series 7 all-in-one and Toshiba’s lower-end $899 DX735, the TouchSmart 520-1050y seems reasonably, almost aggressively priced given its Blu-ray drive. But, again, not listed on the above chart is the rather salient fact that the HP unit lacks an HDMI input.

HDMI inputs bring more versatility to all-in-one desktops than almost any other feature. By letting you use the large all-in-one as a standalone monitor for a game console, a cable box, or some other external video device, an HDMI input essentially fulfills the promise of the all-in-one as a one-stop home entertainment kiosk.

I’d trade a Blu-ray drive for an HDMI input in an instant, and especially if you care more about using a computer for consuming digital entertainment than for productivity, the cheaper, HDMI-equipped Toshiba will look very tempting next to this HP system. Or you can purchase the HP TouchSmart 520xt from HP.com and configure it with the HDMI input option for an additional $50, taking it up to the same price as the retail HP TouchSmart 520-1050y.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5-2400S, fall 2011)

HP TouchSmart 520-1050y (Core i5 2.5GHz, fall 2011)

Adobe Photoshop CS5 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

HP TouchSmart 520-1050y (Core i5 2.5GHz, fall 2011)

245

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5-2400S, fall 2011)

286

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

HP TouchSmart 520-1050y (Core i5 2.5GHz, fall 2011)

108

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5-2400S, fall 2011)

110

Multimedia multitasking (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

HP TouchSmart 520-1050y (Core i5 2.5GHz, fall 2011)

361

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5-2400S, fall 2011)

362

CineBench 11.5 (score)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5-2400S, fall 2011)

4.91

1.25

HP TouchSmart 520-1050y (Core i5 2.5GHz, fall 2011)

4.14

1.29

The value confusion is also frustrating on this model since it’s a decent performer for its price. Our benchmark tests show that the TouchSmart 520-1050y is at least as fast, and in most cases faster than, the competing systems from Samsung and Toshiba. I don’t believe that performance is the prime driver behind all-in-one sales, particularly models like these designed with home entertainment in mind. Still, it’s fair to demand a certain baseline capability, and the scores show that this TouchSmart indeed meets those expectations.

I’ve already lamented the absence of an HDMI input on this PC, but I can at least give HP credit for providing a pair of USB 3.0 jacks. USB 3.0 is becoming more common on mainstream PCs; the industry is perhaps even at the point where you would be right to demand USB 3.0 in a PC at the $1,000 price point. I thought that was the case with HDMI inputs as well, though, so you never know.

For other inputs, the TouchSmart 520-1050y has the usual assortment of older USB 2.0 and analog audio jacks. The one standout hardware feature other than USB 3.0 on this system is its TV tuner. Not that TV tuners are all that exotic, but it at least gives you one point of interactivity with the non-PC-based media world.

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OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

Nov 25th, 2010 | By Anthony

Manufacturer: OCZ

Ever since OCZ’s humble beginnings back in 2002, OCZ has been on a non-stop conquest into all reaches of the enthusiast market offering everything from cooling to memory to well, of course power supplies! Despite their success, OCZ has held true to their founding philosophy, to ensure satisfaction for each and every customer.

As the name suggests, the StealthXStream 2 is the successor of the original OCZ StealthXStream power supply. Like the original, the StealthXStream 2 power line of power supplies is designed for the price conscious value seeking performance crowd with models ranging from 400W to 700W. We will be looking at the 600W version today.

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New Digital Spam: How Bad Guys Try to Trick You; How to Avoid the Traps

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

online fraud 11217786 New Digital Spam: How Bad Guys Try to Trick You; How to Avoid the Traps Like Whack-a-Mole, new forms of digital spam pop up faster than security software can knock them down–and the problem is just getting worse. In fact, according to search engine newcomer Blekko, 1 million new spam pages are created every hour.

At the outset, let me offer my defininition of spam: any kind of unwanted communication delivered by any unknown source. That’s a broader description than many people would make; but much of what’s happening online is not only annoying and a waste of time, but also sometimes injurious and costly.

Here are some of the latest forms of digital spam, together with some steps you can take to avoid them.

Fake News Sites

zoomIcon New Digital Spam: How Bad Guys Try to Trick You; How to Avoid the Traps spam20fake20news20site20from20screen20capture 11217535 New Digital Spam: How Bad Guys Try to Trick You; How to Avoid the Traps An example of a fake news site.I recently wrote a story that resonated with readers. As I read through and responded to some of their comments, I saw this one:

“my roomates [sic] aunt makes $83/hr on the laptop. She has been without work for 8 months but last month her pay was $8682 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on this site [URL].”

Really? All that money for just a few hours of work?

Sadly, some people actually fall for this spammy scam, click the link, and end up on a fake news site, which lures them to another page. There, if they hand over their name, phone number, and email address, they can gain access to the spammer’s “incredible work-at-home opportunity.” But you should never offer your personal information to any source you’re not absolutely sure can be trusted, because hackers can use it to do all sorts of nefarious things.

The fake news sites, which have titles such as “News 6 News Alerts,” falsely indicate that the reports they display have been “seen” on major media outlets, such as CNN, USA Today, and Consumer Reports; in reality the reports are merely ads meant to entice people to buy things.

The FTC recently shut down several groups peddling acai berry weight-loss and colon cleanse products, and informed the public that the reporters or commentators pictured on the sites were fictitious and had not conducted the tests or experienced the results described in the reports. Even the comments posted following the reports were additional advertising content, not independent statements from ordinary people.

Advice: One way that sneaky sellers hook consumers is by offering them free product trials. Remember the old adage, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” That goes for free trials as well. Most often the fine print about these deals goes unnoticed or unread, increasing the likelihood that the hapless consumers’ credit card will get billed or they’ll be stuck with a long-term contract if they don’t unsubscribe by a certain date.

Clickjacking or Likejacking

zoomIcon New Digital Spam: How Bad Guys Try to Trick You; How to Avoid the Traps spam20clickjacking20source20is20sophos20blog 11217522 New Digital Spam: How Bad Guys Try to Trick You; How to Avoid the Traps An example of a questionable “like”Sometimes on Facebook you may see your friends “liking” items that seem questionable–say, your skinny 12-year-old niece touting a diet that helped her lose 10 pounds in two weeks.

The likely explanation is that your niece was the victim of clickjacking (aka likejacking). The scam works like this: Your niece sees that one of her friends has posted a link to the best Justin Bieber video ever. She clicks it–but before she can view the video, she is asked to complete an online survey and share personal information. Or she is taken to an ad to sign up for some kind of service or product.

Code embedded in links she uses then spreads the link to her own Facebook page, making it seem as though she “liked” it. This is all done with the aim of attracting clicks from her friends on the same material.

It’s a big problem. Facebook recently filed two separate lawsuits in federal courts in California and Washington state against Delaware-based Adscend Media LLC, a company that officials allege is some of this type of spamming.

Advice: If you’ve been hit by a scam like this one, remove the messages and the likes from your Facebook page and warn your friends not to click the offending links. Also, keep in mind that clickjacking can happen anywhere on the Web. If a link sounds enticingly shocking or salacious, or contains an offer that seems too good to be true, don’t click it.

Facebook Subscribe Feature

zoomIcon New Digital Spam: How Bad Guys Try to Trick You; How to Avoid the Traps spam20facebook20subscribe20source20is20facebook 11217520 New Digital Spam: How Bad Guys Try to Trick You; How to Avoid the Traps Facebook SuscribeSimilar to Twitter’s “follow” button, the Facebook Subscribe feature allows anyone to read someone else’s public posts even if the two people are not friends. Some people are finding the function to be a haven for spam.

The button is meant to create a viral effect by notifying your friends when you subscribe to a person’s profile, and it works. Many public figures have opened up their profiles for subscribers to see, including The Travel Channel’s Nisha Chittal, who amassed 80,000 subscribers in just six months, compared to the 5000 followers she has on Twitter.

Little did she realize the kinds and amounts of unwanted messages she would get because of Subscribe.

Chittal hoped to connect with a community that shared her passions for travel and social media. Instead, she received sexually explicit messages, pornographic photos, and spam from thousands of users around the world. The New York Daily News reported that she said she was getting messages from random men every few minutes and that “For every one or two legitimate comments, I would get 20 from creepy men who would say weird or strange or sexual things.” Bloomberg producer Anne Torres had a similar experience. Both women have since locked down their profiles so strangers can no longer send them messages.

Advice: Consider yourself warned. If you don’t want this type of unwelcome oversharing to happen to you, don’t let strangers see your posts.

Next: Bad uses of Google+ and Twitter; also Sockpuppets

Dell Inspiron One 2320 all-in-one

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

Dell’s goal is for this $1,250 Inspiron One 2320 to become your digital media command center. At least that’s what I assume based on the assortment of video inputs and other multimedia features festooning this all-in-one. Dell would have been wiser to balance those features with more-powerful computing components, and an aggressively priced Lenovo all-in-one gives the Dell a value challenge, but overall I can recommend this desktop if you’re looking for a Windows PC to anchor your digital entertainment consumption.

The design of the Inspiron One 2320 is almost identical to that of the Inspiron One 2305 we reviewed this time last year. Along with HP’s TouchSmart 600-series, the Inspiron One has one of the more-polished all-in-one designs out there. Dell says this new model is thinner than the previous version, coming in at 68mm/2.68 inches with the touch-screen option. The unit doesn’t feel particularly thin in the grand scheme of all-in-ones, though, particularly next to the Samsung Series 7 all-in-one’s razor-edge bezel.

Price	$1,249	$1,099	$1,299
Display size/resolution	23-inch, 1,920×1,080	23-inch, 1,920×1,080	23-inch, 1,920×1,080
CPU	2.5GHz Intel Core i5 2400	2.7GHz Intel Core i5 2390T	3.4GHz Intel Core i7 2600
Memory	8GB 1,33MHz DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics	1GB Nvidia GeForce 525M	64MB Intel HD Graphics 1000	2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 555M
Hard drives	2TB, 7,200rpm	1TB, 7,200 rpm	2TB, 7,200rpm
Optical drive	Blu-ray RW burner	dual-layer DVD burner	Blu-ray/DVD burner combo drive
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

From a specification standpoint, the Dell Inspiron One 2320 is well-equipped compared with other all-in-ones in its price range, although the exceptional Lenovo IdeaCentre B520 continues to throw off the comparison. In light of that Lenovo unit, we can’t recommend the Dell outright if you’re after traditional computing performance since it lags in both its CPU and its graphics card.

The Dell does make sense, though, if you’re in the market for an all-in-one desktop with the ability to connect to all manner of home entertainment devices. The Lenovo has an HDMI input, an HDMI output, composite video input, and a TV tuner. In comparison, the Dell has an HDMI input, composite and VGA video inputs, a VGA output, a TV tuner, and an S/PDIF optical digital audio out. We wish the Dell had HDMI-out, but otherwise, it’s equipped to work with almost any home audio or video component, and it can also field a second monitor. No other all-in-one we’ve recently reviewed offers as many options in its device interoperability.

What all those inputs mean in practical terms is that you can connect a cable box, a separate laptop or a desktop, a game console, an HDTV camera, and even older analog devices or CRT displays to the Inspiron One to use as a standalone monitor. The optical audio output means you can connect the Inspiron One to a digital audio receiver and to route sound from the system to a more robust speaker set. And although distinct DVI or HDMI outputs would make it easier to connect a second monitor for expanded screen real estate, you can still make any additional computer display work with the VGA output and the appropriate adapter.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5 2400S, Fall 2011)

Adobe Photoshop CS5 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5 2400S, Fall 2011)

286

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5 2400S, Fall 2011)

110

Multimedia multitasking (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5 2400S, Fall 2011)

362

Cinebench
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron One 2320 (Core i5 2400S, Fall 2011)

4.91

1.25

Although the Inspiron 2320 is not as fast as the IdeaCentre B520, the Dell system still performs with appropriate speed for its price. I’m surprised its Photoshop CS5 performance isn’t faster, since the Dell’s discrete Nvidia graphics card can boost certain aspects of that test, but on the whole this system will provide respectable performance for mainstream tasks at home.

Given the Dell’s discrete graphics card, as well as its 8GB of RAM, I also looked into this system’s gaming capabilities. I used Bethesda and id Software’s relatively demanding new 3D shooter, Rage. In the Dell’s native, 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution, with 2x anti-aliasing and all other details set to maximum, the game ran like a dream. I’d expect that an even more challenging game like Battlefield 3 might give this system some hiccups if you pushed the graphics settings to their highest, but at least for current titles, this Inspiron One 2320 makes a competent gaming computer.

Like most current all-in-ones, the Inspiron One 2320 offers touch-screen functionality (although Dell will also let you buy a nontouch version for $100 less). With the touch screen comes Dell’s Stage interface, a low-profile but reasonably well-done set of touch-friendly icons and associated applications.

The apps are mostly straightforward media players and the like, although Dell has also included the Nero-made SyncUp program for streaming media files between devices on a network. You can drag and drop your own shortcut icons to the Stage bar. In all, Stage is an accessible, unobtrusive approach to touch. It’s not quite as produced as HP’s similar TouchSmart software, but the overall benefits are similar.

Hide Review

Corsair Gaming Series GS800 Power Supply

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

Dec 2nd, 2010 | By Anthony

Manufacturer: Corsair

As of recent years, Corsair has had quite the run. The incredibly popular and rightfully successful TX and HX lines are favorites among computer enthusiasts, overclockers and casual users alike. Corsair has been in the industry for quite some time now and they certainly have brought with them a long list of credentials. Since 1994, Corsair has been producing performance memory modules targeting specifically demanding computing applications such as servers, work stations, and gaming computer systems. Since then, Corsair has expanded their reach to include power supplies, cooling products and flash memory modules.

It would be difficult for one to find something missing in Corsair’s current line of power supplies starting with the AX series 80Plus Gold power supplies at the top. Corsair however does feel that something is missing and has introduced the Gaming Series, GS line of power supplies. While not priced all too differently than the HX or TX line of power supplies, the GS series is intended for the more mainstream market. It is available in three outputs from 600W to 800W.

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Cutting the Cord: How to Ditch Your Cable Company

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

cable box money 5190067 Cutting the Cord: How to Ditch Your Cable Company By now, the fact that anyone can watch TV online without paying a dime to a cable company is practically common knowledge. But lucky for most cable companies, time-sensitive television programming such as news, sports, and popular shows the first night they air are still somewhat off-limits unless you know where to look. Here are some quick and dirty ways to get TV programming with just an Internet connection and a computer or a mobile phone–no gazing into neighbors’ living rooms required.

News

If you’re a news junkie, you probably already have places you visit for free news updates–you’ve bookmarked all the good websites, for instance, and maybe you listen to the radio on your way home from work. But what about watching TV news for free? Of course, basic cable can bring you all the local news you need, but sometimes you want a national perspective.

zoomIcon Cutting the Cord: How to Ditch Your Cable Company newsy1 11215457 Cutting the Cord: How to Ditch Your Cable Company Newsy is a Web and mobile app that produces video clips about the events of the day.For starters, big events such as presidential debates or State of the Union addresses are usually available live on CNN.com or MSNBC.com for free. And all major news outlets offer clips of their previously run programming for free, often in linked clips; when one clip ends, the next begins, in a decent approximation of a live news TV broadcast. Some local stations will even let you watch live news broadcasts in their entirety through their website.

If watching clips doesn’t bother you and you’re not tied to a specific news station, give the free app Newsy a try. Newsy produces its own high-quality video blogs using media from major news and sports cable channels. Sure, the result isn’t Pulitzer-winning stuff, but it is a fast way for you to gauge what’s going on in TV from your phone or tablet.

If you already subscribe to cable, and you just want to watch CNN or BBC America from a cable-free place, those two news networks will allow you to access their live programming over the Web through a sign-in code that you can obtain from your cable provider. MSNBC streams programming clips every day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., although it isn’t truly live because the spots air on MSNBC first. Similarly, Fox News Live streams online–along with a chat room beneath the video player for viewers to share their thoughts–but although the broadcast is supposed to air between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST, in my trials I usually wasn’t able to access the live stream until 10 a.m. EST.

Sports

A lot of what applies to news also goes for sports, but you should keep some caveats in mind. Networks that cover sporting events usually clamp down more on live streaming sports broadcasts than they do on news, and you won’t find as many options available. While news broadcasters have dozens of competitors that offer the same information, coverage of big games often belongs exclusively to a single network.

Still, you have a few ways to get down-to-the-second coverage of important games without streaming the broadcast illegally. You can always listen to games on AM radio; or, if your event is halfway across the country, you might be able to find a local radio station that streams its broadcast online. The latter isn’t always the case, though, since some professional sports leagues require listeners to use a paid service to access nonlocal audio broadcasts. For example, if you want to listen to an out-of-town Major League Baseball game, typically you’ll have to use MLB’s mobile app or sign up for its paid Gameday Audio service.

In addition, most major pro sports leagues offer some sort of paid online streaming service in which you can watch most (or all) of that league’s games on your computer. The NBA, NHL, and NFL, along with MLB, all have online streaming services, though in some cases they block you from watching locally televised games.

ESPN frequently offers its programming after airing, and at WatchESPN you can see replays of recent games (for instance, I watched a Gonzaga vs. BYU basketball game the morning after the teams played).

ESPN zoomIcon Cutting the Cord: How to Ditch Your Cable Company ustream 11215401 Cutting the Cord: How to Ditch Your Cable Company Ustream offers lower-profile sports events on a pay-per-view basis.usually posts its SportsCenter content online as short clips, but if you watch the clips on autoplay you’ll get frequent–and annoying–replays of the same commercials over and over. ESPN also has a mobile app that lets you stream live programs to your mobile device; to access the cordless cable service, however, you have to subscribe to Brighthouse Networks, Time Warner Cable, or Verizon FiOS.

Another option for smaller-name sporting events is to check out Ustream. Although Ustream offers all kinds of programming, from Campaign 2012 coverage to spirituality shows, a lot of the nonsports programming consists of independently run video streams–usually radio hosts who don’t mind having a webcam on them while they work, and made-for-Internet video shows that don’t always have access to interesting primary-source video. But Ustream does offer live coverage of smaller events at pay-per-view prices, such as the World Series of Boxing ($25) and the Alpine Skiing World Cup ($6). If you don’t want cable but you have a few must-see sports entertainment events, this service will fill in some of the gaps, depending on what your interests are.

Next page: Find TV shows and general programming online

Falcon Northwest Mach V (Core i7-3930K, fall 2011)

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

Like most boutique PC vendors, Falcon Northwest has a mandate to offer its customers the latest PC hardware. That means the company has an inclination to showcase Intel’s latest CPUs, even when those chips aren’t the most obvious fit for Falcon’s hard-core gaming clientele. Well-heeled gamers who also engage in professional content creation or other CPU-intensive tasks should consider this $4,995 Falcon Northwest Mach V and its new six-core, 12-thread Intel Core i7-3930K processor. Pure gamers can get a similar gaming experience from PCs with older Intel chips that cost half as much.

The 3.2GHz Core i7-3930K in the Mach V is a new, high-end variant of Intel’s second-generation Core architecture. Code-named Sandy Bridge-E, the new chip is joined by two other new models, the higher-end 3.3GHz Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition, and, coming in early 2012, the quad-core, 3.6GHz Core i7-3820.

Like earlier second-generation Core i7 CPUs, these new models all feature Intel’s Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost 2.0 technologies. Hyper-Threading emulates a second full set of processing cores, effectively doubling the number of threads. Thus these six-core variants can behave as if they have 12 processing threads, and the quad-core model becomes 8-threaded.

Turbo Boost works in conjunction with Hyper-Threading, ratcheting the clock speed per core up in accordance with the software workload and the chip’s thermal restrictions. Thanks to Turbo Boost, the Core i7-3930K in the Mach V can potentially hit 3.8GHz, at least on one core, before any tweaking.

The tweaking factor is important. The “K” designation of the chip means that its core multiplier is unlocked, and can thus be overclocked. Falcon Northwest has pushed the base frequency of the Core i7-3930K to 4.4GHz. A competing system with the same chip from Velocity Micro hit 4.7GHz.

That overclocking means significant added performance from Intel’s K-designated chips. Older CPUs like last year’s Core i7-2600K regularly showed up in the CNET lab clocked to 4.8GHz from their 3.6GHz standard clock speed. Notice how that range of speed overlaps that of Intel’s new chips? Remember that.

Along with the extra cores in the new Sandy Bridge-E CPUs comes a new motherboard chipset, the Intel X79. Most important of the new chipset’s features is that in tandem with the new CPUs’ integrated memory controller, it now natively supports four-channel 1,600MHz DDR3 memory, up from last year’s two-channel, 1,333MHz standard.

The X79 chipset has some other new features. It’s one of the first comparatively mainstream motherboards to offer eight memory slots, which should interest content creators. It also offers new PCI Express 3.0 graphics card slots, a perhaps too forward-looking feature, as it will only benefit future graphics cards with more bandwidth.

Price	$4,995	$4,999	$2,399
Motherboard chipset	Intel X79	Intel X79	Intel P67
CPU	4.4GHz Intel Core i7-3930K (overclocked)	4.7GHz Intel Core i7-3930K (overclocked)	4.8GHz Intel Core i7-2600K
Memory	16GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM	16GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics	(3) 1.28GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 570	(2) 1.5GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 580	(2) 1.28GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 570
Hard drives	128MB Crucial SSD, 2TB 7,200rpm Samsung hard drive	(2) Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSDs, 2TB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive; 2TB 7,200rpm Samsung hard drive	120GB Intel SSD, 1TB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive
Optical drive	Blu-ray writer/dual-layer DVD burner	Blu-ray writer/dual-layer DVD burner	Blu-ray/DVD burner combo
Operating system	Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Expect every major boutique vendor to offer Intel’s new chip and chipset. I’ll have more reviews of such systems following this one over the next few weeks, but for now I’ll compare the Falcon Northwest with the similar Raptor Z90 from Velocity Micro, as well as with the Editors’ Choice Award-winning Digital Storm Ode Level 3. That last desktop costs half as much as these luxury boxes, and runs on Intel’s previous top-dog CPU, the Core i7-2600K.

Next to its competition, the Falcon Northwest Mach V primarily stands out for its imposing case and its triple-graphics-card configuration. Falcon submitted a Mach V with its new up-venting case earlier this year. Maingear offers a similar design in its flagship Shift.

The Mach V case design is unique enough, and projects a more boutique-looking profile than the plain-but-sturdy Raptor Z90. I’m also happy to report that Falcon has shored up the power button design. The earlier power button wasn’t mounted securely enough: push down on it too hard and it would fall into the case, drawing you into a comically arduous process of disassembling the entire front panel to fish it out.

Overall, the Falcon Northwest Mach V offers competitive pricing for its configuration, particularly when you consider the costs of its intimidating case. Velocity Micro achieved a higher overclock setting in the Raptor Z90, though, and offers two solid-state hard drives to the Mach V’s one. While you might not be overly price-sensitive if you’re shopping for a gaming desktop in this price range to begin with, you can expect to pay a touch more for the Mach V part-for-part than for its competitors.

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)