Siteom Wireless 300N XR Gigabit Gaming Router

Sitecom’s black wonder

As the name suggests, the Wireless 300N XR is fully gigabit router with full 802.11n Draft 2.0 support. What the name does not tell you is that this is a sexy router.

A fully rubberised base is only out done by the gloss black top and the secret LEDs that hide under it. The LEDs are bright enough let you know if any activity is going on, and yet small enough not to light up a dark room with an eerie glow.

The installation manual is easy to follow, and it comes with a CD with PDF versions if you don’t like paper work. The disc itself has a black surface circa PS1 era, which merely conveys the sense that Sitecom have gone to extra lengths to make sure they deliver a quality product.

The 300N XR Gigabit has been specially designed to prioritise traffic according to type with gaming and VOIP taking priority over such things as email and surfing, so little sister can surf the web at a reduced speed while you play games at low pings.

Sitecom guarantee lag free gaming for the local network which is hardly a hard claim to fulfill since its fully gigabit. Expect a full review soon.

Michael Reed

be.ez LArobe Classic

Designed for use with Mac books this Polyurethance sleeve comfortable fits 15.1” laptops.

Made from Low Resilience Polyurethane (LRPu) which has a thickness of 5mm on each side, the LArobe looks good, and does its job very well.

be.ez state that the material is shape-memory material, which is interesting as a concept but in practice if you poke it then the dent your finger left will never disappear.

After a while it will start looking like a golf ball with all its dimples. We never once worried about our test notebook in the sleeve, as the shape-memory material acts very much a shock absorber.

Price:
R300
“Looks good, but a bit weird after a while with all its dents.

PCF Monster Rig

Will you be in Menlyn Park Shopping Centre on Sat 28th or Sunday 29th?

If you are then head over to BattleLAN where PCFormat will have a monster rig setup and on display.

This rig will feature an Asus Striker II Formula motherboard, an Intel Quad Core Extreme chip, 4GB Mushkin DDR2-800, and an Asus 9800GTX.

The rig will also have some Steelseries products in use and whatever else the team can rustle up before the LAN. She’s a beauty and boy can she perform.

See you there!

MSI K9N2 Diamond

The K9N2 Diamond is truly a nice board to work with.


With a laundry list of features you will be spoilt if you buy one. Not only does it support quad and triple SLI, but also Hybrid SLI, and if you don’t buy an extra graphics card you at least get a DVI-D port and an adapter to support HDMI output.


The board has 2 ATA133 thanks to the nForce chipset design.


The layout has been carefully planned, the coolers have been specially shaped to allow the installation of large cards like the monster BFG 9800GX2 cards that we installed for quad SLI.


In fact the only area of the board that became inaccessible were the power, restart, and clear CMOS buttons that are on the board itself, but we have to note that had we installed the board into a case then we obviously would not have needed to use those buttons.


R3000
Pick up your August issue of PCFormat for the full review and final score.

Steelseries 5H v2 USB Headset

One does not often find a gaming headset that delivers perfect sound with music, movies and games; and giving brilliant sound is something that the 5H v2 excels at.


The 5H v2 is comfortable enough that it will not be the reason you go for a coffee break – more than likely you will suffer from Carpel Tunnel before this headset gives you a moment of grief.


The 5H v2’s mic is a masterpiece. Once calibrated in Windows, and the volume switch clicked up to High, then you can happily shout orders to your clan mates in true military style.


To help on the gaming front Steelseries have packaged a USB sound card in with the headset. The soundcard is USB 2.0 compatible, provides virtual 7.1 surround sound, and the equalizer has 12 channels.


R1100
Pick up your August issue of PCFormat for the full review and final score.

Steelseries QcK Heavy (XXL)

The Steelseries siege of the office has not yet abated and the team is not unhappy about this in the least.

Not only have we have the joy of using the Steelseries Ikari Laser mouse and the Steelseries 5H headphones, we have been using the Steelseries QcK Heavy which is the largest mouse pad we have seen in our lives and also the thickest.

For gaming there is nothing better, and yes it comes with a price tag of R319, but to be honest the price is not even a concern once you’ve used this pad.

It’s great for those people who like to rest their arm on the desk and it is impressive at work and at play.

Michael Reed

Quad SLI – Is it worth it ?

PCF explores the power of a quad SLI rig in the August issue

We decided to see what all the fuss was about and we decided to go all out with the BFG 9800GX2, and then we threw in another. These cards are monsters, both graphically and in terms of power.

When we took them out their boxes we were presented with thick slabs of graphical grunt. We plan to give these cards a thorough going over and then we plan to see what it takes to make them cry.

Poor little cards, they don’t know what we have install for them, but what we do know is that we will make them beg for mercy and then whip them even harder. Its time they get beating of note – then we’ll see how they pwn Crysis.

Check out the August issue for this feast of figures.

AMD Phenom X3 Range

The office was abuzz when I walked in the door carrying the latest AMD X3 chips.

We have at our disposal the AMD Phenom X3 8750, 8650, and 8450. Just to let you know what to expect we will let you in on our test rig’s spec; we have a MSI K9N2 Diamond which features the Nvidia Nforce 780a SLI chipset, we threw in some OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066 (our poor fingers), in went the two BFG 9800GX2 cards in SLI, and to power this beast we used our trusty OCZ Mod Xstream 900W Modular PSU.

This of course won’t be a stock review; we plan to see how high we can OC these chips using our air cooler, we’ll see if we can get the baby chip up to dizzying heights and maybe we might find an OCing gem.

Look out for the August Issue – oh and we are the first to get our hands on these chips... we smell and exclusive.

Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 5000

Keyboard and mouse combo’s are usually reserved for the family. They get bought for the purpose of an all-in-one package that will do the job. They usually disappoint on more than one front and then get replaced with yet another disappointing package. Microsoft has decided to give the public a desktop package that has features and doesn’t disappoint.

The Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 5000 is an impressive package. Microsoft happily announces on the box that estimated battery life is 6 months, and from our previous experience with Microsoft Wireless products we can firmly believe that claim. The keyboard is a dream to type on, and course comes with Microsoft’s standard Enhanced F Keys, and to help with the usual chores such as Cut, Copy, and Paste, Microsoft has labelled the shortcut keys and clearly indicates that Ctrl needs to be pushed. The keyboard features the best palm rest that we have ever used.

The mouse is a dream to move around. The 1000dpi laser is precise and the buttons are responsive, the four axis tilt smooth scroll wheel is a pleasure to use. This mouse even proved to be a very capable gaming mouse, although more hard-core gamers will laugh at this idea.

Rating:
79%

Price: R890
www.microsoft.co.za
“Check out PCFormat August 2008 for the full review.”
Michael Reed

Steelseries Ikari Laser Mouse

The Steelseries Ikari Lazer mouse’s buttons are precise and respond well, and thanks to the bundled software you can programme in macros. The laser is extremely accurate and works on every surface we tested it on. As with the latest gaming mouse, the Steelseries Ikari Laser mouse has on-the-fly adjustable sensitivity but Steelseries have taken this one step further.

On the bottom of the Steelseries Ikari Laser mouse is a LCD which displays the CPI, and can be used to adjust the CPI on-the-fly down to the single digit which we were really impressed with.

This helps when you need to use your mouse on another PC; you are able to adjust your sensitivity without the need to install drivers - this tops the charts for convenience in our books. Steelseries have designed this mouse to be used without the need for interpolation.

Rating:
95%

Michael Reed
Price: R1000
www.dynax.co.za
“Check out PCFormat August 2008 for the full review.”

Thermaltake BigTyp 120 VX

Modern processors produce heat, and at high load levels they produce lots of heat. Thermaltake have decided to help with that problem and have introduced the BigTyp 120 VX.

This large cooler is very easy to install and has its own 120mm fan (with attached fan speed controller). At high speed the sound levels are pretty audible but at low speeds it is almost whisper quiet.

The cooler performs well with the heat produced by AMD’s latest stove-like chip Phenom X4 9850. The cooler features six copper heat pipes which transfer the heat to the 142 aluminium fins which are cooled by the 120mm fan. Not a bad cooler especially for the price.

Rating:

79%

Michael Reed

Steelseries Gaming Glove

The steelseries is a big gaming brand. PCF was excited to find out that this amazing brand is now available in South Africa. We pulled some strings and managed to get a whole bunch of Steelseries goodies. Take a look at our July issue for more Steelseries reviews.

This week we decided to review the Steelseries Gaming Glove. The glove is designed to be worn on your mouse hand and can be used by either left- or right-handed players. While the glove provides no serious wrist support it does help movement over gaming surfaces and removes the worry of sweat interrupting your gaming session.Whether you really feel the need to spend R209 on a gaming glove is up to you, but we honestly wouldn’t mind it for a serious gaming session, but for everyday use it is uncomfortable and annoying.

Rating:
70%

Michael Reed