Microsoft has announced a Splinter Cell: Conviction Xbox 360 bundle set to arrive this April in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The bundle will retail for $399 and will include two controllers, a standard edition copy of Splinter Cell: Conviction and a 250GB hard drive.

What better way to start your Saturday afternoon than with another Nexus One release rumor. Without further ado, today we’ve got whispers care of Neowin that the recently-FCC’d CDMA device is launching on Verizon’s network March 23rd, perfect timing for the beginning of CTIA. And while that fits pretty neatly into that initial ”Spring 2010″ launch window, there’s really no way for us to corroborate at this point other than just taking their word for it. You can wait diligently, can’t ya?

Lately the hardest choice when building a mainstream computer is video, there are a ton of mainstream video cards and while many are the same with different brand labels the average consumer may find it hard to decide which is which. The next phase would be to decide if you want an ATI based or NVIDIA based video card. DirectX 10 or DirectX 11 is another choice as well as how much memory 512MB or 1GB. The PowerColor Radeon HD 5670 PCS+ is a budget mainstream gaming video card and comes with a factory overclocked speed of 10MHz higher than a stock HD5670.

Provided By: PowerColor

Price:

Closer Look:

The PowerColor Radeon HD5670 PCS+ graphics card comes in a Black and Blue box with a Racing car image in the center of it. The back contains the many features of the graphics card, with power and system requirements on the side. Inside the exterior packaging is a brown protective box which contains the video card and its accessories.

The PowerColor 5670 PCI+ comes with a supplied DVI to VGA dongle. Also included are a specifications sheet and the driver installation disk.

Once out of the bag you can see that the PowerColor 5670 PCS+ has a black fan with the PowerColor Logo on it. The Heatsink/fan combination contains a 92mm low noise fan. It is PCI-e 2.1 compatible and it has one DVI, HDMI and Display Port output.

Testing:

My System:

CPU: AMD Phenom 8450@ 2.1 GHz

CPU Cooler: EverCool Buffalo CPU Cooler

Motherboard: ASUS M2N-MX SE PLUS

Memory: G.SKILL 4GB 1066 MHz

VGA: PowerColor Radeon HD 5670 PCS+ Video Card

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922

My testing suite runs the gamut of synthetics and gaming engines that will help provide a more complete picture of a graphics card’s capabilities. The testing included the following software:

• Team Fortress 2
• FurMark
• Torchlight
• GPU-Z

Gaming tests were run at 1024X768, which reflects the resolution of my test setup’s monitor.

The Power Color 5670PCS+ has a strong showing, posting respectable frame rates with an average frame rate of 65 frames per second.

Torchlight gets an average frame rate of 66 frames per second.

OverClocking:

As always, mileage will vary when overclocking, so monitor temperatures and be sure to always test for stability after each incremental change. I recommend FurMark for stability test as it’s the most taxing application you’ll find out there, drawing even more power and causing higher temperatures than your favourite game or 3DMark benchmark.

With that out of the way, I start overclocking the core and memory clocks in MSI Afterburner. The PowerColor PCS+ 5670 does indeed have some gas left in the tank, I was able to achieve a final stable overclock of 845MHz Core and 1065MHz Memory.

Conclusion:

The PowerColor PCS+ 5670 is a very good budget gaming card, lower on the performance ladder than the 5750, and clearly geared to consumers who occasionally do some light gaming. It is a small, quiet, low-power card that is a great upgrade option for people with an older system that want to easily improve their graphics performance.

PowerColor has also silghtly bumped up the clock speeds on the PCS+ 5670, giving a 1-2% performance increase over the reference card, nothing spectacular but measurable. More interesting, however, is PowerColor’s decision to use Samsung memory chips instead of Hynix, resulting in some good overclocking headroom.

The PowerColor PCS+ 5670 512MB is a great video card with a minor bump in clock speed, some good overclocking headroom available, and running cool and quiet, this card is a very good budget gaming card for consumers who do only moderate gaming and may be looking for a good value upgrade in their performance.

The Buffalo is one of the many heat sinks on the market that utilize ‘heat pipes’ to transfer heat from the base to the cooling fins. Heat pipes have revolutionized the high-performance cooler market since they are able to transfer much more heat than a more conventional heat sink made from copper or aluminium that you would be accustomed to not so long ago. Because of this heat pipe coolers have become pretty much the norm for cooling any high-end components, and there are a lot of coolers by various brands on the market now.

Provided By: EverCool

Price: $15.99

Closer Look:

The cooler uses a heatpipe system to disapate heat to create it’s cooling solution. There are 2 cooper heatpipes shaped to form a U - so the cpu block sits on the base of the U heatpipes. To aid in the cooling the heatpipes go up through 60 aluminium fins which are cooled by a 100mm fan which is suspended to the site of the cooler. The fan is held to the cooler via a simple wire bracket, and controlled via 3 pin connector.

I love the way the product logo is printed on the top fin of the cooler - nice touch! The ends of the heat pipes have also been covered to improve the looks of this cooler.

Features & Specifications:

Testing:

My System:

CPU: AMD Phenom 8450@ 2.1 GHz

CPU Cooler: EverCool Buffalo CPU Cooler

Motherboard: ASUS M2N-MX SE PLUS

Memory: G.SKILL 4GB 1066 MHz

VGA: PowerColor Radeon HD 5670 PCS+ Video Card

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922

The testing will consist of idle and load temperature tests. All of the testing will be done in a 22 Degrees Celsius regulated room for consistency in temperatures. To place stress on the CPU, I used Prime95 to place 100% load on all cores for an hour. That was of course after letting everything idle for 30 minutes to get the idle temperature.

Conclusion:

When it comes to external hard drive enclosure’s the 2.5-inch market is not that popular. Mainly because so many people use older 3.5-inch drives with 3.5-inch enclosures. The thing about 3.5-inch enclosures is that they are large and not easy to carry with you. The  MB668US-1SB 2.5-inch enclosure from ICY DOCK is not only small and light it also allows you to install a hard drive with no tools at all. Another interesting thing about this enclosure is that not only does it have a USB connection it has an eSATA connection as well.

Price: $24.99

Closer Look:

The MB668US-1SB is packaged in a box that breaks away from its unoriginal name, sporting a clean white facade around the sides and half the top a clear, plastic window allowing you to see the actual external itself.

Inside you will find the  MB668US-1SB enclosure, carrying case, USB power cable, USB cable, eSATA cable, software CD, The software itself is not that powerful but does allow you to use the one touch backup button on the back of the drive. Although it seems it is only limited to USB devices so if you have the drive connected via eSATA you cannot use the one touch backup backup feature on the drive.

Features
- Fits any standard 2.5″ SATA HDD or SSD.
- Universal USB 2.0 connection, featuring Plug & Play for Mac & PC.
- User friendly Screw-less design just plug in the hard drive and play.
- Stylish aluminum construction provides protection, mobility, and optimal cooling.
- Built-in blue LED. Less bright, less visible, less annoying.
- Leather pouch included to keep your drive clean and scratch-free.
- Built-in OTB (one touch back up) function for quick and painless backups (PC only).
- Included “DC to USB A Type” power cable for high performance HDD usage.

Specifications
Item Number: MB668US-1SB
Drive Fit: 1 x 2.5″ SATA I & II HDD / SSD (9.5mm thickness)
Drive Interface: SATA
Host Interface: USB 2.0 & eSATA
Transfer Rate: Up to 480/Secvia USB, Up to 3Gb/Sec via eSATA
LED Indicator:
- Device Power: Orange LED
- Drive Activity: Blue LED
Structure: Aluminum body w/ partial plastic
Drive Cooling: Aluminum heat dispersion
Power Source: USB Bus Power, 5V DC (Optional)
Support Platform: PC Only (Window Base)
USB Connection Support Platform: Mac & PC
Dimension (W x H x D): 76.3 x 13 x 150 mm

Testing:

When you power this external on, you’ll see the light on the left ‘D’ of Icy Dock flip orange, and during activity will change to a blue LED. Since the drive docking head is made mostly of a plastic and the actual body is a thin aluminum it will not absorbers any kind of hum or other noise from the drive.

Conclusion:

The MB668US-1SB does a great job performing just as it should, though additional features such as shock absorbents and coolants are absent. However for the price, Icy Dock has opted to design this external for simplicity, practicality, and affordability, and in each area performs exceedingly well. The MB668US-1SB is light-weight, portable external that compliments traveling with any hard drive, and the leather carrying sleeve completes the package.

The only real problem I had with this enclousre is that it did not come with an eSATA bracket, while most new cases do have eSATA ports many cases do not so you are left in the dark if you do not have a bracket.

Icy Dock has sent me over quite a ingenious product, it takes any 2.5″ hard drive and essentially turns it into a 3.5″ one. This can come in handy for many things including of course using it inside of your PC, or even inside of an external enclosure, the Icy Dock Convertor can make your 2.5″ drive go anywhere a 3.5″ can.

Provided By: ICY DOCK

Price: $24.99

Closer Look:

The package is a simple box with features and specifications; which I really like.

In addition to the enclosure, four mounting screws and an instruction manual are also included. There is no software or anything to worry about; everything is plug-and-play.

Features & Specifications:

Item Number: White	MB882SP-1S-1
Item Number: Black	MB882SP-1S-1B
External Interface	SATA
Compatible Drive Type	2.5″ SATA I/II HDD & SSD (9.5mm)
Device fit	3.5″ SATA hard drive bay
Transfer Rate	up to 3 Gb/sec
Support HDD Capacity	No limitation
Structure	Plastic body with stainless steel 2.5″ hdd bracket
Dimension (L x W x H)	145 x 101 x 25mm
Weight	195.3g

Conclusion:

The way the Icy Dock HDD Convertor works is rather slick, you set the drive on the rail, then you close the lid, closing the lid pushes the drive forward into the SATA connections on the PCB board inside and effectively locks it into place.The Icy Dock 2.5″ to 3.5″ Hard Drive Converter is a great little product that can be very useful, it’s well made and really it’s just a great little product.

I can easily recommend this product as it’s simple and works great.

Is your current mouse just not cutting it? Not performing to the level you need in your games? A good mouse can make you or break you no matter what games you play. Today I have a look at Cooler Masters first gaming mouse.

Provided By: Cooler Master

Price: $69.99

Closer Look:

The Cooler Master Sentinel Mouse box is black with red lettering, has a large clear plastic section to show off the mouse, and has  a full list of features.

Besides the mouse you get a package of what I believe is replacement mouse pads, and of course the essential driver disc.

The mouse itself is matt black across most of it and soft rubber material down the sides and around the back of the mouse. The middle around the LCD is a grilled section, with the front buttons made of a hard plastic.

At the back it has a section for adding or removing 4.5 gram weights, these weights are removable to allow the end user the ability to customize the weight and feel of how the mouse responds.

Features & Specifications:

• Available Color: Black and Gray
• Material: Rubber Grip / ABS Plastic / Mesh Bezel / Metal Plate
• Dimension: (W) 83.5 X (H) 135 X (D) 40 mm
• Weight: 161.5 g / 0.356 lb
• Sensor: 5600 DPI Storm Tactical™ Twin-laser Sensor
• X&Y Axis Configuration: Independent and programmable
• Maximum Tracking Speed: 6.00 m/s 235 IPS
• Maximum Acceleration: 50g
• Polling Time: 1.0ms
• Speed Measurement: Real-time
• Dynamic Surface Adaptation: Tracks on most surfaces, ensures minimal lift-off distance
• Onboard Memory: 64Kb
• Form Factor: Right Hand Ergonomic
• Button Assignment: 8
• Illumination: IC controlled Illumination with 7 colors and variable lighting effects
• DPI Display: OLED
• Weight System: Yes, 4.5g X 5 pcs

Software:

The software for the CM STORM Sentinel Advance Gaming Mouse is full functional and will let you customize this mouse in dozens of different ways.  From the main control screen you have access to all the available settings for this mouse.

You can assign buttons, create up to 5 different profiles for your different games, adjust the DPI settings, upload your personal game or clan logo to the OLED, and so much more!

One of the great features is the ability to save all your settings inside the 64KB Sentinel-X Onboard Memory.  All settings are stored internally allowing them to be used on any computer without installing the Tactical AP Software, You can copy source files to a flash drive and then when at another computer all you do is copy files to the new system and start CMSTORM.EXE and choose Driverless Execution.  This will load initial mouse settings into the Sentinel Advance.

Conclusion:

There is a lot to be excited about with Cooler Master’s Sentinel Advance Gaming Mouse. For the individual that has large hands, they will like the mouse as much as I did; it is slightly longer than most mice and settles right into your palm. When you are serious about gaming a few extra dollars is well worth it. For the asking price you get a lightning fast mouse with plenty of features and the software that accompanies the mouse will allow you to change every aspect of the mouse down to the lighting.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – February 11, 2010: Lenovo (HKSE: 0992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced three new PCs for consumers – the Lenovo G455 and G555 notebooks and the Lenovo C315 all-in-one desktop – all based on the AMD platform featuring innovative Lenovo software to improve the overall computing experience. Designed for mainstream consumers, they support up to the latest AMD Turion™ and Athlon™ processors and ATI graphics. With Lenovo applications such as OneKey™ Rescue System and Energy Management on the G455 and G555 and IdeaTouch multitouch applications on the C315, these new PCs deliver affordable, dual-core, worry-free computing.

“Our new G series notebooks and C series all-in-one desktop are designed for users who want a simple but powerful computing experience without any headaches,” said Dion Weisler, vice president, Business Operations, Lenovo. “By working closely with AMD engineers and leveraging AMD advanced technologies, we have created products that offer superior performance in the areas of graphics and power efficiency at an affordable price point.”

“These innovative Lenovo notebooks and all-in-one desktop solution are prime examples of how VISION Technology from AMD helps our key partners design compelling consumer products,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. “The expanded technology partnership with Lenovo demonstrates our commitment to deliver solutions that meet the evolving needs of the mainstream consumer market.”

Lenovo G Series Notebooks for Versatility and Reliability with Affordable Appeal

The Lenovo G445 and G555 notebooks include 16:9 widescreen High-Definition displays and  support up to an AMD Turion™ II Dual-Core processor and ATI Radeon™ HD integrated graphics. Users can enjoy rich digital content with High Definition video and DirectX^® 10 for running Windows 7 and advanced graphics features such as Aero Peek and Aero Flip. These stylish notebooks boast an ergonomic keyboard designed for rigidity and support to improve typing accuracy and key responsiveness. Both the G455 and G555 come with Lenovo Energy Management 5.0 which lets users select from several energy-saving modes to help decrease energy consumption and extend battery life. Energy Management 5.0 also protects the long-term durability of a PC’s battery by preventing unnecessary recharges. These notebooks also feature OneKey™ Rescue System, a one-touch backup, repair and recovery tool, as well as VeriFace™ facial recognition, which give users a fun and interactive way to log on to the PC.

Lenovo C315 All-In-One Delivers Multitouch and Entertainment for the Interactive Family

The new Lenovo C315 allows consumers to enjoy videos, music and games without sacrificing computing power and ease-of-use. The C315 With AMD , 4GB of memory and ATI Mobility Radeon™ graphics, C315 offers dependable performance in a compact and stylish design. The C315 also features Lenovo IdeaTouch - a suite of touch-optimized multimedia applications, which includes PowerCinema, AutoCollage and VeriTouch™ software that adds a fun and interactive way to log in. In addition, AutoCollage automatically creates a collage from any selection of photos on the PC – an exciting way to enjoy photos of family and friends.

Pricing and Availability

The Lenovo G455 and G555 notebooks start at $449.99 and will be available in the US beginning in March 2010.  The starting price of the Lenovo C315 all-in-one desktop is $649.99.  It will be available in the US beginning in April 2010.

For the latest Lenovo news, subscribe to Lenovo RSS feeds and follow Lenovo on Twitter and Facebook.

About Lenovo

Lenovo (HKSE: 0992) (ADR: LNVGY) is dedicated to building exceptionally engineered personal computers.  Lenovo’s business model is built on innovation, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction as well as a focus on investment in emerging markets. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services worldwide. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.

Motorola already dropped word that Android 2.1 would be rolling out to the Droid this week, and it’s now followed that up with some eagerly anticipated details on just what’s in store. As expected, that includes full multitouch with pinch-to-zoom in the browser, gallery and maps applications, along with some voice recognition and virtual keyboard enhancements, a new 3D gallery, a news and weather app, an enhanced music app (with tabs for navigation) and, of course, the Google Goggles app, among other more minor updates. Still no indication that the update is rolling out just yet, however, although Droid users should get a notification as soon as it’s available.

Today I have a look at a new power supply from Cooler Master, The Cooler Master GX Series power supplies stand for Gamer Xtreme, the evolved version of Extreme Power Plus. Cooler Master GX power supply series comes in a  550 W, 650 W and 750 W models. Let’s see if the 750 W model is a good buy.

Provided by: Cooler Master

Price: $119.99

Closer Look:

The Cooler Master GX’s box really looks great I like the design, the colors they have chosen really make the box stand out. The Cooler Master GX’s box really looks great I like the design, the colors they have chosen really make the box stand out. On the front you can see the five year warranty and an 80+ Silver certification.

Features & Specifications:

The Cooler Master GX series comes with a range of advanced features such as a powerful single +12V rail, huge bulk capacitors with a >17ms hold up time which means that the power supply will be able to handle peak loads better, low noise dual layer EMI filters that reduces noise in the power lines, an energy efficient dual mode Active PFC/PWM controller, an efficient transformer that reduces the 5Vsb power loss when the system is in standby mode and a wide range of protection designs that will prevent damage to the system in case of a malfunction.

Testing:

In order to test the Cooler Master GX 750W Power Supply I will run two tests  a load and idle test on the power supplies.

My System:

CPU: AMD Phenom 8450@ 2.1 GHz

CPU Cooler:  Gelid Solutions Tranquillo

Motherboard: ASUS M2N-MX SE PLUS

Memory: G.SKILL 4GB 1066 MHz

VGA: EVGA GeForce 9500gt

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922

Idle/Load:

I was very impressed by the Cooler Master’s performance. It stayed very close to ideal voltages and even under a considerable load it stayed solid at the exact same voltages as idle.

Conclusion:

The Cooler Master GX 750W looks like a good option for users looking for a mainstream 750 W power supply; however the power supply only has four Molex connectors. This PSU ran solid through everything I threw at it.

Would I recommend the GX Series? Absolutely! If you are in the market for a great PSU with rock solid voltages the GX series is for you.