Site Studio 6 Pro Reviews

Site Studio 6 from Effective Studios is a Web designing tool that comes into an arena dominated by Adobe’s Dreamweaver. It therefore has a lot to prove. During installation, a video tutorial along with a voiceover is provided to explain some of the features. The interface of the program is pretty decent, with big icons on the toolbar. You can create a Web page using one of the ready-
made templates. The previews and the templates are hosted on the Net, so there is some waiting time involved. The problem, of course, comes in when there’s no Internet connection available. Text styles can be altered, and new ones can be created from scratch. You can add external images into the library of Site Studio 6. Images can be resized for the Web before importing. Multiple colour schemes for projects are available to choose from. If you aren’t pleased with the results, you can manually select colours for the various elements of your site. There is no way to view the source for your Web pages; modifying the source has to be done using an external editor. The documentation has plenty of images and steps. You can choose to upload created pages or sites to an FTP server or to a local disk with a click of a button. The entire program is set around templates, so you don’t have to do the dirty work of coding. It’s therefore very simple software in terms of features, and that’s what makes it easy to use—even those who just use word processing software will feel right at home. The price, however, isn’t very simple: Site Studio 6 Pro is priced at $389 (Rs 17,500). In comparison, Dreamweaver retails at $399, for which you get a lot more, but with a lot of added complexity as well. Site Studio 6 Pro would then be best suited for when what’s needed is software that is quick, hassle-free, and requires no knowledge of—or experience with—Web designing...

A-DATA PD7 4GB Reviews

The A-DATA PD7 4GB USB drive landed up in our test labs; we expected it to perform well, based on our experience with the last A-DATA USB drive we tested (a 512 MB). The drive is pretty compact; it has a brushed metal look to it. It is made of plastic, but is still pretty solid. LEDs are placed towards the rear that shows any drive activity. The LED region has a small bridge where you can attach a strap. We're not sure if it's strong enough though. The cap has some smooth sliding mechanism but it seems pretty loose and looks like it'll fall off after some use. Performance: it's good! It impressed us throughout all the tests we ran on it. Read speeds for 50 MB of data - a single file or separate files -hovered around the lovely 2-second mark. Write speeds for files of the same size were a fraction more. We then copied the maximum amount of data that we could on the drive, which is 3.86 GB. A single file took 3:19 minutes to write; reading took 2:07 minutes. Writing assorted files of 3.86GB took around 5:01minutes and reading the same size took 2:20minutes. In HD Tach, the average data read speed was recorded at 32.2MB/s and the average write speeds at 21.8MB/s . Random access times were a miniscule 0.8ms which was similar some of the best USB drives we've seen. HD Tach also reported the CPU Utilization was 0%. The drive happens to have security features built into it, but only after you install their software - which isn't provided with the drive. You
can download it for free, though, from A-DATA's site. The program lets you create a partition that can be accessed by using the software and a password. The package mentioned a USB extension cable, but we found none. The software and the manual could have been provided along with the drive. There's a label that says it's enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost, which
suggests it would go well with Vista - and it has the good performance to defend that. At $70, it is a bit costlier than most drives in its range, but definitely worth the money - if you value speed.
Specifications:
Size: 66 x 19 x 10 mm; weight: 15 gm; USB 2.0 and 1.1 compliant...

Acer PD527D Reviews

After Acer’s victory in our projector comparison in March, we wanted to test another model in their “PD” series: the PD527D looks diminutive compared to the massive-looking PD726W.
Built well, the PD527D has a silver and dark grey tone to it, which may or may not appeal. What did attract was the cosmetic blue/red LED embedded on the power button—very cool. With S-Video, Component, DVI, and D-Sub connectivity, the PD527D is quite well connected. The cheat is the secondary VGA, which connects to a Component connector which is provided (Component con-nectivity isn’t native). There’s a USB type B port too, though we didn’t receive a wired controller. The sleek remote looks like a minia-ture replica of the PD726Ws unit. The mandatory audio-in (3.5-mm) and RS-232 inter-face are also present. Wi-Fi connectivity is absent. With a lower brightness and contrast ratio than its larger sibling, we weren’t expecting performance to be in the same league. True to our expectations, the PD527D wasn’t up to the mark in the horizontal and vertical resolution tests, where there was noticeable
banding. Performance was good in the colour tests—no streaking or ghosting of any sort. However, we noticed some changes in shade inten-sity in the black level shift test; the white level shift test was, however, aced. Colour purity is good, and the great sharpness makes it good for working with Web pages, pre-sentations and documents. So it’s good for your office, but what about at home? To be honest, this isn’t for the gamer, who’ll be looking for a high con-trast ratio to begin with. F.E.A.R. didn’t look as good as we’re used to seeing it—lim-ited greyscale intensity.
Thankfully, movies are more forgiving, and the PD527D is a good addition to a home-
entertainment system. For just over a lakh, it’s well priced compared to its better-performing sibling (the PD726W), but hard to recommend simply because NEC’s NP40 handles every
task better, while occupying less space, and costing a good ten per cent less.
Specifications:
Specifications: 3000 ANSI, 2000:1 contrast ratio, 2.9-8.0 Throw distance, digital zoom,
keystone correction, 720p and 1080i HDTV compatible, DVI (HDCP) digital input and 2000
Hrs lamp life...

Antec 900 Reviews

Antec’s not been in the enthusiast league for a while, and their homage to that fraternity has been long due. Enter the Antec 900. A Plexiglas side window ensures that monster gets all the looks in and the drool out! There’s a very rugged, industrial look to the front, with an aggressively forward-sloping top. Although the body is made of cold rolled sheet steel, the Antec 900 feels very light, especially for its size. The 120mm fan that served the P180 topside has been ditched in favour of a colossal 200mm fan that serves as an exhaust. There are two blue LED-lit 120mm fans in the front, and draw in a lot of air (courtesy the perforated front). Antec adds another 120mm fan to the rear of the cabinet to aid removal of hot air; excellent thermal management all round. All fans have been provided with a 3-speed controller switch. The PSU is floor-mounted, reminiscent of the P180, but not thermally isolated. This is good since cable management in the P180 was a royal pain. To generate heat we ran a few 3D 2006 Marks, and played F.E.A.R. for around half an hour, on a Core 2 Duo X6800 and 8800GTX based rig. Then we monitored temperatures. Pretty impressive, isn’t it… though not without the odd fault, it does cater to its default audience rather well. You get decent build quality for the most part, very good cooling, plenty of expansion, and a body that will attract glances at any LAN party. What you don’t get is drive rails, a large bay to work in, and the sound of silence. At Rs 8,400 plus tax, cheap it’s not. But then you wouldn’t want to house a Porsche in a barn, now, would you?
Specifications:
Dimensions: 493 x 206 x 468 mm (L x W x H); weight: 8.4 kg; 4x fans (3 x 120 mm, 1 x
200 mm)...

Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000 Reviews

The LifeCam NX-6000 is a compact 2MP webcam with an inbuilt microphone, made for laptops, and it will easily fit into your pocket. The cam lens can be rotated vertically and also pushed
into the body of the device when not in use. The LifeCam comes with a carry pouch. The camera attaches to the laptop using a clip-on-like mechanism. A little indicator with “Microsoft” on it flashes when the camera is in use. Although not hot enough to cause any real damage, it still does get pretty warm. Pressing the sole button on the camera starts Windows Live Messenger.
Like all USB devices these days, installation is very simple. Plug it in and Windows XP (Service Pack 2) detects the camera and the microphone without your having to install any drivers. A Vista-styled software called LifeCam is provided. It lets you record photos, audio, and movies. Visual effects can be added as well to make things a little more fun. Panning and zooming can be done, but only at lower resolutions. The software lacks face-tracking features. The LifeCam software can send images and clips through e-mail or upload it to Windows Live Spaces at the click of a button. Video is a little grainy at lower resolutions such as 640 x 480 and 800 x 600 as expected from most webcams, but still image clarity is pretty good (but can be a little blurry at higher resolutions). Being interpolated, the 7.6 MP image quality is quite poor. Video resolution ranges from 160 x 120 all the way up to 2MP—1600 x 1190. Video recording performance drops considerably the moment the resolution crosses 800 x 600. Recorded audio quality is all right, but the mic picks up ambient noise easily. The Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000 retails at Rs 5,730—costlier than most desktop webcams, but for its small form factor and good image and video quality, it’s worth the money for anyone who demands quality in videoconferencing while on the field.
Specifications:
2MP; 3x digital zoom; inbuilt microphone; Vista Certified...

Kodak EasyShare V803 Reviews

Compact, sleek, and stylish best describe the V803. It is available in a range of eight eye-soothing colours from red to blue to pink; we received the matte-black one. The clean layout of the keys along with a menu that is easy to navigate are plus points of the V803; the tiny zoom keys, along with the joystick, make navigation tough, though. Twenty-two different scene modes including panoramic stitching make this point-and-shoot camera novice-friendly. The range of ISO speeds is from 80 to 1600; the large 2.4-inch LCD has clear and legible icons.
The inbuilt 32 MB of internal memory is not enough—just eight-odd photographs! Memory expansion is available, though, via SD/MMC cards. Surprisingly, the AV cable, a standard bundle with most digital cameras, is missing. The panorama mode can be used for stitching three photos side by side, discarding the originals. The red auto-focus assist lamp is precise over a short range; accuracy degrades in dim lighting. The auto-focus is time consuming; it’s buggy, focusing wrong areas in the viewfinder. The snaps we took were well-exposed, with the right amount of colour. The sharpness was pleasing as well. There was some amount of purple fringing, though. Kodak’s inbuilt Perfect Touch technology auto-enhances the snaps with dynamic colours and contrast, while also adding up some noise, unfortunately. Video mode allows taking 640 x 480 MPEG-4 clips at 30 fps. You can switch to a lower 320 x 480 to save space. Overall, the Kodak EasyShare V803 is an average performer; priced at about Rs 15K it might look attractive for an 8 MP camera, but there are better cameras available at that price point.
Specifications:
Dimensions (W x H x D):103 x 54.5 x 25 mm; weight: 141.5 gm; 8MP; zoom: 3x optical, 4x
digital; battery: 1050 mAh; direct printing: ImageLink, PictBridge...

Active WebCam 8.3 Reviews

There are surveillance applications aplenty, but Active WebCam is different. This easy-to-use application not only lets you use multiple cameras to monitor activity. You can also record the footage for later use. Wizards guide you through the camera setup process. You can then choose to send video with audio to any computer on your network that has the app installed, soundless video to HTTP users, and screen captures to FTP servers. Live audio and video
can be broadcast to the PY Software Web server (subscription to Dynamic IP Service is necessary, which comes as part of the 30-day trial), and Active Webcam can be configured to set permissions for users and groups, as also the maximum number of allowed visitors. For when the camera(s) detect(s) motion, it can be configured to sound an alarm, or e-mail the video footage / snaps it records, or start broadcasting live images and videos. So who can benefit? You can transmit live videos of your friends’ reunion parties over the Internet. You can use it as a surveillance mechanism at your front door. Jewellers will benefit from the multi-camera capabilities: keep an eye on multiple customers at the same time! You can set it to monitor your children while you’re away. Record simple video presentations… just use your imagination and think of more uses! In addition to all the above, you can use the Tools menu in Active WebCam to create and design a Web page to where you post videos and stills. Two nifty applications come bundled: a video player that can play captured videos in the native format, and a video editor that can convert captured videos to AVI with any installed compression, or to MPEG-1. Active WebCam works with any camera detected by Windows. For $29, this is a steal—no gripes!

XFX 8600GTS and 8600GT Reviews

NVIDIA’s G84 comes to life as we present 2 cores based on it a.k.a the 8600GTS and the 8600GT. One can immediately tell these are minnows com-pared to the colossal 8800GTX. Both cards are based around a 32-shader unit core, fed by 256 MB of GDDR3 memory. The differ-ence is only in clock speeds, both core and memory. From its look, the 8600GTS is the
higher-end card, with a larger heatsink. Heating doesn't seem to be an issue with either card, at least from preliminary tests. Unfortunately, the XFX 8600GTS uses elec-trolytic capacitors in
contrast to the solid-state ones on the 8600GT. Why such a backward step? Did XFX expect users to buy the 8600GT and overclock beyond GTS speeds? As features go, these cards are identical, expect the GT version doesn't sup-port HDCP. Pitched as mid-range cards, these are
expected to replace the 7600GT and GS Direct X 10 support. Driver support is spot-on with current-gen games, we played 10 games -no issues. Priced as they are (below) the 8600GTS is
costly for a mid-range solu-tion, and considering that clocks aside they’re iden-tical. The 8600GT really hits the sweet spot in this regard.
Specifications:
8600GTS/GT - 32 shader units; core speed 675/540 MHz; memory speed 2000/1400
MHz; shader unit clock -1450/1180; 289 million transis tors; 256 MB GDDR3 memory
(128-bit)...

TOP UPS Reviews

In an increasingly “me-too” product world, the TOP-UPS stands apart. It adheres to the “Form should follow function” design philosophy perfectly. Shaped like a small helmet, the TOP UPS has nifty features that enhance its usability. First, it has slots on top for storing CD cases. Second, there is a little flap in front with a bright white LED, which can act as a torch during power failures. Third, there is a digital clock at the front. A small socket at the front provides an alternative way of charging cell phones. Wipro has provided six different adapter plugs used by major cell phone manufacturers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson. The operating range for the UPS is specified as 140 to 280V, and with a transfer time of below 10 ms the UPS kicks in during power failures. Two power outlets are driven via the battery, while other one is surge-protected and not driven off the battery. The colour coded power outlets eases installation. The maintenance-free battery is rated at 12V, 7AH is user-swappable. On our test-bed consisting of a Pentium 4 3.06 GHz, Foxconn 945G7MA motherboard, and a 17-inch CRT, we got a backup time of 12 minutes—quite typical. At Rs 3500, the TOP-UPS is priced higher than UPSes with similar specs. However, considering the extra features on offer, we think the price is justified, though we’d have liked to see a better (read more sober) colour scheme
Specifications:
Dimensions: 184 (W) x 235 (D) x 236 (H) mm; weight: 6 kg; 600 VA, 360 W; supports cold
start ;transfer time: <10ms; input voltage: 140 ~ 280 V; output voltage: 230 V ± 5 per
cent (battery); RJ11 port surge suppression; typical recharge time 6 hrs to 90 percent capacity...

XFX nFORCE 680i LT Reviews

Let’s face it… Sure nFORCE 680i motherboards are blazing performers, feature-rich, and future proof (read 1333 MHz FSB support), but they aren’t exactly wallet-friendly! Neither is the
nFORCE 650i a very viable option for enthusiasts. NVIDIA finally acknowledges this and coughs up a “budget” variant of their top-end 680i, with the “LT” as a suffix. XFXs’ 680i LT uses the
reference NVIDIA PCB layout, which is now designated “Designed for NVIDIA.” One major annoyance: the power pins are squeezed between the memory modules, the four pin auxiliary power connector, and the IDE connector. This makes accessing the pins extremely difficult, and it’s not a good idea to have wires around the memory slots either. XFX has provided cooling fans for both chipsets; however, the Northbridge heatsink is quite large (which shouldn’t be necessary when actively cooled as in this case), and as a result, intrudes upon the CPU region. This will probably preclude installation of larger coolers like Thermalright’s XP-120 and Ultra 120, or Scythe’s Ninja and Infinity coolers. The BIOS on this board is the same as a regular 680i, minus a few SLI memory profiles, and some extra options like a PCI-Express slot (the 680i has three, while the LT version has two). So what’s different between the 680i and its LT version? Three main things. First, there’s no third PCI-Express slot between the two SLI x16 slots. Second, there’s one Gigabit LAN instead of two, making NVIDIA’s DualNet impossible. And third, SLI profiles are only supported up to 800 MHz (the 680i goes up to 1200 MHz). What you get in exchange is a much lower price tag, taking the 680i LT well and truly into Intel’s P965 territory price-wise. For Rs 11,000, the 680i LT offers very good value for money for the
enthusiast audience who wants features, performance, and decent overclocking potential—not
to mention SLI. In fact, if you don’t plan on a physics card and two 1 Gbps LAN connects, you can overlook the 680i altogether and pick a board based on the 680i LT chipset. Hardcore
overclockers will still look at the 680i and Intel’s P965, while casual users will settle for lower solutions like NVIDIA’s 650i and Intel’s 965G, which are slightly lower-performing options
and sans a few features.
Specifications:
nFORCE 680i LT chipset, Socket 775, Core 2 Duo/Quad ready, 1066/1333 FSB, DDR2 800 MHz
support, six SATA 2.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports...

Transcend T.sonic 630 Reviews

The T.sonic 630 is trendy-looking and small enough to carry around. It is being targeted at college students on the lookout for a feature-rich music player. It is available in three flavours—1 GB in orchid, 2 GB in pod white, and 4 GB in black. The bright white four-line OLED display is clearly readable in diverse lighting conditions. The menu is simple to navigate, but the keys have a hard tactile feel. There are six inbuilt equaliser profiles and a five-band customisable equaliser. The player supports one-touch recording, which is one-touch even when the power
is off. WAV recording can be from three sources—radio, microphone, and line-in, and the recordings are automatically stored in three different folders. Recorded files are named in month / date order. Two recording environments are provided, meeting and memo; the former is more sensitive. The voice activation detection works well only in silent surroundings, and allows for gapless recording. Playback quality is definitely not the best in its class. The earphones have good overall response, but bass lacks depth. The FM tuner stores up to 20 stations. The player does not require proprietary software to load songs: simply drag and drop. It supports USB 2.0, but in our tests, it took five minutes to transfer 600 MB of data—very slow. There’s bundled utility software as well: the boot-up function makes the music player USB-bootable, and the PC-lock makes the player an access key to your computer. The partitioning function allows creation of a partition with password protection. The recovery function allows you to reset the player to factory settings. The 2 GB white model retails at Rs 4,500. Though the player lacks great playback quality, it’s good enough for the price.
Specifications:
Size: 73 x 33 x 12.5 mm (L x W x H); weight: 30 gm;compression rate: 32 Kbps—320 Kbps; supported music formats: MP3, WMA, WMA DRM -10; charging and data transfer: USB mini port; 15 hrs playback when fully-charged...

Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 Reviews

There is nothing more painful than reinstalling your operating system and then going through hours and sometimes days of customizing and installing your favourite software one after another. Symantec is well known for not just its Norton Antivirus but also the well known data backup tool—Ghost. This latest release of the suite is aimed at both network administrators as well as standalone users. Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 comes with the latest Norton Ghost 11.0 which is a DOS based application. Creating images from partitions or hard disks from it is easy and straight forward. The interface has changed a little over the years. Restoring or creating images isn’t limited to local drives anymore. Ghostcast offers a unique way of accessing images from the server over the network. Opening and extracting certain folders and files from an image can be done with a little utility called Ghost Explorer. Administrating the Ghost enabled systems is made possible by the Ghost Console which gives the user an overview of all the computers on the network running the client. One of the main features with the Ghost Solution Suite is allowing the administrator to run a server with a session and then multiple clients connecting over the network to either dump or access images from the server. The whole suite comes packed with pretty much everything a network administrator would need to setup new machines. In addition to this, upgrading from a current OS such as Windows XP to Vista is also made easy as the Ghost console automatically can backup all the necessary settings and system files. The application even goes to the extent of checking the machines configurations to make sure they can run Vista properly. Such features are made to be very customizable. The printed documentation shouldn’t be of much use as it’s more of a brief of the features available. The real documentation is in the form of well explained interactive flash animations and screenshots on the CD. The entire package is very good for the network administrator managing several machines on the network; although a home user could have done with just a plain install of Norton Ghost. With a price tag of $39.20, it is a good buy for anyone who has to make clean installs of customized operating systems on several machines very often plus it also doubles up as a data backup utility...

Ashampoo Magical Snap 1.20 Reviews

This software is aimed at freeing you from the mildly irritating process of pressing [Alt] + [Prt Scr] and then opening MS Paint each time you want to take a screenshot. Installation is standard, but most of the chaos starts once the program has started. You are greeted with a dock-like bar at the top of the screen which lets you configure the program. Screenshots can be taken using predefined settings, manually selecting the region, or automatically, which takes the screenshot of the window under the mouse pointer. Multiple screenshots can be taken one after the other—a time-saving feature. Once the screen capture is complete, the user is automatically thrown into full-screen image manipulation mode, where basic changes to the screenshot can be done. Simple manipulations such as cropping and rotating are available on a dock-style toolbar. A separate toolbar can be used to add special effects such as “spotlight” or “draw shapes.” The
screenshots can be e-mailed, printed, or saved using a toolbar. Only three formats are supported—BMP, JPEG, and PNG. Even though Ashampoo Magica Snap is a simple little screenshot app, it is multilingual. The already hyperactive interface can be freshened by applying additional skins. A news channel can be enabled to alert you with updates ad news. Being a software concerned with imaging, we expected support for many more formats. Help is present as a Windows Help file with basic information on each of the features. Plenty of
screenshots do most of the explaining. Ashampoo Magical Snap is best suited for people creating documentation for software or sites, who need to take several screenshots and highlight certain
features of their software. It lets one effortlessly add special effects and make screenshots look a lot more professional. The price tag of $9.99 (Rs 450) means it’s cheap, and is very good value for money for someone who requires the features on offer. If it’s advanced features you’re looking for minus the crazy interface, HyperSnap-DX or WinSnap would perhaps be a better
choice, but be prepared to shell out a lot more...

GoToMyPC Reviews

GoToMyPC is a service that lets users remotely access computers over the Internet. After registration, the service requires you to log in into your account at the GoToMyPC site,
www.gotomypc.com. The next few steps involve installing a small host program on your desired machine. The user can access the host by using the default Windows application, which automatically downloads itself to your computer when you choose to connect to a host. A Web-based client called Universal Viewer, which is a Java applet, is also available for those with no privileges to run executables, or if they are at a public terminal. What makes GoToMyPC special is that you can sync files and folders between laptop and home PC on the move. Also included is access to printers and sound from the host PC, so you can listen to audio being played on the other end. You can even chat with the person on the other end. Guest users can be invited to share a session on a remote machine. The host machine could be accessed even when it used a proxy server to access the Internet. Basic performance tweaks such as reducing colour depth and disabling wallpapers are available to help improve slowdowns on a slow connection. The data sent and received is through the GoToMyPC servers, so some delay is evident. The connection doesn’t require much bandwidth; it worked pretty well even on a 256 Kbps connection, with transfer speeds peaking at 10 to 12 KBps. Control and data transfers are encrypted with 128-bit AES to prevent data being sniffed. In addition to the standard login and password combination, there’s a set of security checks called one-time passwords. Users not wanting any of the file transfers and sound features will be better of using VNC where possible. You shell out Rs. 8,250 for a year’s access to this service for a single PC, which is pretty high in our opinion...

IOGEAR Wireless Laser Travel Mouse1600 GME227R Reviews

The IOGEAR GME227R is a portable wireless laser mouse primarily aimed at laptop users. It features in an antibacterial coating of titanium dioxide and silver nano-particle compound. This coating prevents bacteria from surviving on the surface of the device. The ergonomics of this little mouse is asymmetric, and the design suits a right-handed person. It is wireless, is powered by 2 AAA batteries, and weighs only 82 grams—light enough for comfortable use. The GME227R has a 1600 dpi resolution, which is more than enough for regular use. The USB wireless transmitter effectively covers a distance of about 6 feet. The mouse also features a power switch at its base to conserve batteries when not in use. It’s a universal plug-and-play device—no drivers required; it support Mac as well. The mouse is so nimble as to respond to even the smallest of hand movements. Tracking is sensitive enough for speedy word processing and office use. The tactile feel of the right and the left clicks are delicate, whereas the vertical scroll wheel, integrated with the middle click, is slightly stiffer. The small size is a problem for prolonged use, as in a gaming session. A snap-in USB transmitter is missing; its inclusion would improve the portability of the product. The package contains an extremely useful USB extension, and also a velvet pouch. There is a comprehensive manual and a 3-year limited warranty. This is a decent laptop mouse, and best suited for regular office applications. Rs 3,000 is a littel steep for a mouse
Specifications:
Resolution - 1600 dpi; battery - 2 x AAA; operating frequency 27 MHz; 256 channel IDs; 6 - 8 kHz band; dimensions: (mouse) 3.74 (L) x 1.97 (W) x 1.18 (H) inches; weight: mouse 82 gm,
receiver 18 gm...

Buffalo DriveStation Duo Reviews

The Buffalo DriveStation Duo is an extremely well-built external drive, housed in a tough black polymer casing that looks good. Alas, it is a bit heavy at 2.9 Kg. Internally, it has two 250
GB SATA hard drives, 7200 rpm. The drives can be configured to work in three different modes: RAID 1 (250 GB with Reliability), Full Capacity Spanning (appearing as a single 500 GB drive for Maximum Storage), and also Normal mode (Default), where you are able to use the two hard drives independently (appearing as two separate 250 GB drives). A Windows-based utility lets you configure these modes. A little indicator at the front displays the power and
individual activity status. The Duo supports both USB and FireWire400, and there are two types of FireWire connectors—4-pin and 6-pin. You can daisy-chain more such units, but the physical design of the unit is not such that you can stack these one over another. FireWire800 is lacking.
The performance of the drive is not stellar by any standards, and it was, in fact, one of the slower ones in its category. It took 55 seconds for a 1 GB file to copy to the drive; a GB of assorted data
took 69 seconds. The Memeo Backup software that accompanies the drive is versatile, and

can automatically back up your files and folders to a wide variety of destinations such as hard disk, removable drive, FTP server, Network Places, iPod, and Memeo Internet Disk (a service provided by Tanagra Inc. for Memeo Backup users, where youcan back up data to asecure, private area ontheir servers). Secure LockWare is the other bundledapplication, which uses

256-bit AES encryption to encrypt your data. The Duo lacks appeal for system administrators
who need to take frequent backups, because of its slow performance, but the appropriate price and the software bundle seem to save its day—just about.
Specifications:
500 GB (2x250 GB SATA); 7200 rpm; Seek time: 11 ms; Interface: USB 2.0, IEEE1394a
(4-pin and 6-pin); software: Memeo Backup, Secure Lock Ware; Dimensions: 221 mm (H) x
163 mm (D) x 99 mm (W); weight: 2.9 kg...

Brother HL-5250DN Reviews

The Brother HL-5250DN comes from the same 52XX series and fixes the shortcomings of its younger sibling the HL-5240. The HL-5250 is the same as the HL-5240, except with duplexing and a network interface. The HL-5250DN is designed on similar lines as the HL-5240 and borrows all traits, good and bad. The printer is equipped with the stan-dard 250 sheet paper cas-sette and the capacity can be augmented to 800 sheets via optional paper trays. The manual feed has a 500 sheet capacity but that will be hardly used if an optional tray is fitted. The auto duplexing unit works as expected and allows printing on both sides of the paper. The HL-5250DN comes with USB, par-allel as well as Ethernet interface. Installing the printer via USB was simple and took very few minutes. However, when installing the printer on a net-work, some technical expertise of net-works is needed. Furthermore, the Web server, while quite extensive and granu-lar, isn’t easy to understand for a layman and isn’t polished enough. Once we got with installing the printer on network, however, we were thrilled at the options available for managing the printer. When it comes to performance, the HL-5250DN is up to mark. The claimed speed is 28 PPM and the printer delivered 26 PPM—very fast. It can print first page in less than 9 seconds—that’s really fast and comparable to the best printers around. The combi-document took 17 seconds; the same lower memory and complexity of the document seem to be the reasons. The photo-target image took 22 seconds—slow, but acceptable. Quality has no issues: toner density was perfect and spread was minimal. Image printouts weren’t striking, and the toner tends to saturate at darker regions in an image. The cartridge is rated to give 7000 prints and costs Rs 4590, bringing the approximate cost per page to Rs 0.6. The printer is priced at Rs 24,900 and consid-ering its extensive features, manageabil-ity, good performance and low running cost the Brother HL-5250 is a good buy.
Specifications:
600 dpi, 266 MHz CPU, 32 MB (upgradeable to 544 MB) RAM, 250-sheet paper cassette,
duplexing unit and Ethernet interface....

Samsung ML-2571N Reviews

Samsung’s ML-2571N is an entry level network laser printer. Though the design is simple and dated, this milky white printer is compact. The vertical profile design requires less desk space
and the paper trays fold back to save more space when the printer is not in use. The tray design is very similar to that seen on the HP LJ-1022n. Being an entry-level printer, the Samsung ML-2571N is devoid of any front control panel; it has one button for cancel and two LED’s for indicating errors. The input paper tray can hold 250 sheets; the output tray 150 sheets. A sin-gle-sheet manual feed is also present for on-the-fly printing needs. The ML-2571N isn’t equipped with a duplexer unit, but manual duplexing is possible. A high speed USB port and Ethernet connection are available on the printer. Installation via USB was quick and sim-ple, and when installing as a network printer, it was easily detected and a prop-er IP was automatically assigned. The Web server provides extensive and easy control over the device. The Samsung ML-2571N deliv-ered 19 PPM—claimed 22 PPM—which is quite fast. The heavy and complex combi-document page took 14 seconds to print—not the fastest. The complicated photo-target image file also took 14 seconds indicating that there is no lag in the print engine—it’s the underlying electronics that are slow. Overall, the Samsung ML-2571N delivers prints at reasonably good speeds. Print quality was as good as the HP Laserjet 1022n, with occasional differ-ences cropping up. Toner density was perfect and text showed very little spread. There was some banding in the grey scale gradation test, but it was within acceptable limits. The Samsung ML-2571N deviates when it comes to images—contrast is a prob-lem and in darker areas too much toner ruins the details. The cartridge is rated to deliver 3000 pages at Rs 3,800, thus the cost per page works out to Rs 1.27—superb. The printer is attractively priced at Rs.13,000—quite afford-able and definitely a good buy. Overall, great value for money considering its reason-able price, solid feature bundle and equally good performance. The running cost is also low, so any-one interested in a network laser for light loads should consider this one.
Specifications:
600 dpi print engine, 400 MHz processor 32 MB memory (max), 250 sheets paper input tray, 150 sheets output, USB and Ethernet interface...

HP LaserJet 1022n Reviews

The LaserJet 1022n is a networked ver-sion of the base model LJ-1022 and is aimed at those looking for a network printer for a small workgroups. The design is refreshing, and should fit the
décor of any modern office. The LJ-1022n sports a vertical profile design that uses less desk space. This design looks great, but the paper tray juts out of the body. Also, the translu-cent flap sits over the input paper tray and a mere push unsettles it. The front panel on the LJ-1022n has two buttons and three LEDs to indicate various errors. This printer comes with a 250-sheet input tray with no option to increase the paper capacity via addition-al trays. The 150-sheet output tray is quite flimsy. The LJ-1022n has both a USB as well as a network interface.
Installing the printer was as simple as it gets. The driver interface is neat and clean, simple to understand and feature rich. Installing the printer over the net-work didn’t take much effort—the driv-er detected the network printer immediate-ly. The Web administration
panel is very con-figurable and gives greater con-trol over the print-er. Anyone with
moderate technical skills can setup this printer on a network. The LJ-1022n fell short of the
claimed 18 PPM by just a page. The first page takes 8 seconds to print. The combi-document took 8 and 9 seconds respec-tively for normal and best settings. The photo file was printed in 9 seconds. Quality was crisp and dark. Finer details were reproduced exactly and reversed text was completely legible. Some banding was seen in the grey scale gradation test, but text was reproduced without any spread or jaggedness. At 2000 pages per cartridge, at Rs 2950, the cost per page is Rs 1.48. The LaserJet 1022n is priced at Rs 15,999—good value for money
considering its performance, above average quality and the network option. Overall, a good laser printer for small workgroups with light print-ing loads.
Specifications:
18 PPM, 266 MHz processor, 8 MB memory, 250 Sheet input tray, 150 sheet output tray, USB 2.0 and HP JetDirect Printer server...

TuneUp Utilities 2007 Reviews

After a few months of use, XP has this habit of slowing down and cluttering up your hard drive with use-ess files. TuneUp Utilities 2007 steps in and makes life easier for you by get-ting XP back on track. The program has several powerful and well-designed utilities that can access the Windows maintenance toolset in a fast, organ-sed, easy-to-use, mod-ular interface. One-click optimisa-tion makes managing tempo-rary files and cleaning the Registry and unwanted
startup programs easy. There s a variety of Internet and Windows acceleration tools. The crash-preventing MemOptimizer, a deleted file recovery tool, a file shredder, and an uninstall utility com-plete the toolset. The “Styler” tool tweaks Windows’ appearance, the Scheduler
automates maintenance tasks. In case of an errant program installer, use the RescueCenter to restore all changes at once or one-by-one. The system-analyzing Wizard generates thorough
reports and upgrade sugges-tions. Highly recommended!

APC Mobile Power Pack UPB-10 Reviews

The APC Mobile Power Pack (MPP) acts as a battery pack for charging mobile devices that have a USB con-nector. When your battery’s low, simply connect it to the MPP to charge it! The only button on the pocket-sized thing is used to show the remaining charge, represented by four white LEDs that light up according to the charge left on the unit. The UPB took about three hours to charge fully—which is decent. The UPB has two USB connectors, so you can con-nect one to either the AC-to-USB adapter or to a laptop to leech power from. You con-nect the other to a mobile device to charge it. Coming with a price tag of Rs 3,898, we can say it’s well worth it if you travel a lot and power outlets are hard to come by.
Specifications:
Dimensions: 100 x 65 x 13.7 mm; weight: 105 gm; 10 Whr capacity; 8 W maximum contin-
uous power; 10 W peak power (short duration); four white LEDs for capacity indication;
factory-specified charge time: 3.5 hours

Creative Zen V Plus Reviews

Flash-based, small and feature-rich—that’s the Zen V Plus. The trendy colour combination adds to its appeal. The 1 GB Zen V Plus is available in black or white with orange highlights; the 2 GB model has green highlights, and the 4 GB version comes with blue accents—ditto the 8 GB version. The device is well-built and feels very sturdy. The controls are easily accessible and the buttons well-placed; opinions differed about the joystick. FM radio and video playback round off the features list. The Zen V Plus interfaces with you via a bright, 1.5-inch, 128 x 128 OLED screen. A good software bundle comes along, and the device syncs with WMP 10 and above to transfer music and videos. It supports MP3, WAV, and WMA audio formats. Then there’s the excellent line-in recording feature that allows you to record to MP3 at 128 or 160 kbps. Videos such as those in the DivX and AVI formats are transcoded to the Zen’s proprietary format; however, the resolution at 128 x 96 @ 12 fps doesn’t really cut it. Audio quality is the Zen V Plus’ forte. It delivers rich highs and decent vocals. Bass is good, but not deep enough to be classified as excellent. On the default headphones, the Zen V Plus sounds similar to the iPod nano. Actually, the right set of phones will allow you to experience the full output range the device is capable of—we attest to this! With the feature set and user-friendliness on offer, the Zen V Plus is one attractive package. We don’t think the lack of good video playback should matter; think of it as an added feature. Creative has other products in their portfolio that handle video very well indeed. If you want a great-sounding, feature-rich MP3 player that’s on par with the iPod nano but much smaller, the Creative Zen V Plus is the way to go.
Specifications:
Dimensions (WxLxD): 43.5 x 67.5 x 15.9 mm; 43.5 g; screen: 1.5 inches (128x128 pixels); 1/2/4/8 GB; MP3/WMA/WAV; Line-in MP3 recording; JPEG support; transcodes video; embedded Li-Ion battery...

Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II Reviews

Western Digital sent us something we’ve never seen, a humongous external drive with—hold your breaths—1 TB (1,000 GB) capacity. That much space is enough to store 75 hours of DV video, 120 hours of HD content, 400 hours of DVD or 2,00,000 MP3 songs. This sturdily constructed drive has the looks of an extra-large reference book. The drive has a push-button on one side, which lets you take a one-touch backup of your data in conjunction with the provided Retrospect backup software. The button also serves as a capacity gauge. The My Book Pro appears larger than an average external drive because inside are two WD 5000KS 7200 rpm hard drives, 500 GB each. These drives are configured so that you can either choose RAID mirroring for extra data protection or RAID striping for speed and performance. RAID configuration is easy with WD’s intuitive RAID Wizard. The My Book sports a triple interface: USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and also the ultra-fast FireWire 800, which has a throughput of 800 MBps. The design of the drive is though not the best, was very good—as we had expected. It took just about 45 seconds to transfer a 1 GB sequential file to the drive and 34 to copy it back. Copying a GB to and fro simultaneously took just over a minute and a half. The bundled Retrospect Express 6.1 backup software can handle all common data backup tasks such as synchronising, incremental, etc. You can schedule these tasks, and it can even do a complete restore of your system if things go terribly wrong. A convection-cooling system driven by a thermostatically-controlled fan keeps the setup cool. The My Book happens to be quite bulky, weighing in at 1.93 kg. Even though it’s 1 TB, the Rs 27,450 price tag will take a toll on your bank balance.
Specifications:
1 TB; 2xWD5000KS 7,200 rpm HDD; latency: 4.2 ms; read seek time: 8.9 ms; interfaces: USB
2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800; cables: USB 2.0, IEEE 1394a/b; Dantz Retrospect
Express 6.1 backup software; HxDxW: 174.6 mm x 159.3 mm x 104 mm; weight: 1.93 kg...

HP LaserJet 2605dn Reviews

The LaserJet 2605dn is HP’s upmarket model from the 2600 series, but with additional features. It looks identical to the LaserJet 2600n, though under the hood it adds a duplexing unit. The paper cassette holds up to 250 sheets, and you can man-ually feed in a single sheet at a
time. The duplexing capability can be activated automatically via the driver, and is unchecked by default. Duplexing helps reduce paper usage and is useful when printing, say, an e-book. Installation was child’s play, and took no more than ten min-utes. HPs toolkit allows a user to administer the printer and set various options such as paper type and size, toner density, etc. We had no problems setting it up on a network either—a net-work address is directly added using the onboard controls or via the toolkit. There is a pletho-ra of options for managing the printer remotely—great for sys-tem administrators. HP claims a speed of 12 ppm for black, but it only managed 8 in our test. The six-page colour document took 2 minutes to complete—really slow. The Combi-document took 34 sec-onds to print, and the photo document took 48 seconds. Overall, the LaserJet 2605dn was a really slow printer. What it lost in speed, it made up for in terms of quality. The text document printed flaw-lessly, and the Combi-document saw every element reproduced as displayed on our screens. This is also the first colour laser printer we’ve seen that matched an inkjet’s ability to reproduce skin tone correctly. The LaserJet 2605dn is priced at Rs 26,999, and the total cost of the cartridges comes to Rs 13,515. According to the rated yield of the cartridges, the cost per page works out sim-ilar to that of the LaserJet 2600n—reasonable! The HP LaserJet 2605dn has good features, is reasonably priced for the features on offer, and produces excellent print-outs. The only gripe we have is the relatively slow print speed; except for that, the 2605dn is a good buy.
Specifications:
12 ppm (black and colour); 8 MB memory plus system memory used; 250-sheet paper cassette; USB 2.0; optional Ethernet...

HP LaserJet 2600n Reviews

The HP LaserJet 2600n is an entry-level colour laser printer with an Ethernet port; a version without inbuilt Ethernet is also available. The LaserJet 2600n is fairly bulky, but clever design makes it look compact. The paper cassette is located at the bottom, and fits snugly inside the body. It can hold up to 250 sheets; you can increase this by adding an optional paper cassette. A manual paper feed lets you feed in a single sheet at a time. The 2600n is targeted at work-groups, so it has a two-line LCD display. This is placed at an awk-ward angle; you’ll have to bend to be able to see it, and it’s not back-lit. It’s handy when setting up net-working, or while troubleshoot-ing. Apart from drivers, you also get Business Marketing Toolkit—links to How-Tos for marketing material, tutorials on Microsoft Office prod-ucts, and more. The front of the printer pops open to reveal the cartridges. Installation is simple. The devel-oper unit is on the inside of the front panel, so you have to be careful not to drop anything on it. HP claims 8 ppm for black printouts, and this one managed between 6 and 7. The same ppm speed is claimed for colour, but our six-page test document took 1 minute and 5 seconds to com-plete reasonable for this catego-ry of printers. The 2600n delivered crisp test printouts, and even 2-point text was sharply reproduced and per-fectly legible. With the Combi-document, finer details were spot on, and even colour gradations were near-perfect. In the photo- target document, only skin tone lacked a little. Cartridges cost Rs 13,515. The black cartridge is rated at 2,500 pages, and colour cartridges at 2,000. Cost per page works out to Rs 1.20 for black and Rs 1.70 for colour. Decent print speeds, good quality printouts, and reasonable pricing and running costs mak-ing this a good printer for small workgroups.
Specifications:
600 dpi; 35,000 pages duty cycle; 8 ppm (black and colour); 16 MB mem-ory (max); USB 2.0, Ethernet 10/100, 250-sheet input paper cassette; manual duplexing...

3ds Max 9 Reviews

The biggest thing to happen to 3ds Max in this version—which is what makes it 9 and not 8.5—is that it’s gone 64-bit. When you install it on Windows XP x64 Edition, it is capable of using up to 8 GB of RAM for its purposes, which means that you can work on more complex and resource-intensive scenes than ever before. Apart from this, plus a couple of new features, this release is all about improvements and enhancements.
What’s New
In keeping with the find-good-plugin-and-buy-it trend, Autodesk has integrated the ProBoolean tool in Max, to overcome the shortcomings of its own Boolean tool. Messing with Booleans isn’t a good idea otherwise—the resultant mesh can too often end up with bad triangles and can be a
nightmare to work with. Pro Booleans, however, are cleaner, and offer a lot more options,
including the ease with which more objects can be added to the Boolean. Taking a lesson from
Maya’s Trax editor, 3ds Max can now break animations into independent layers, bringing some sanity to complex animation. Using it is fairly easy—it’s similar to the functionality that’s
already existed for Character Studio—if you’re comfortable with that, there’s practically no
learning curve. Another noteworthy addition is the new shaders for Mental Ray—the CarPaint shader, which creates realistic paint for your car models (in case you didn’t guess), and the
Arch shader, which simulates rounded edges on objects (notice that none of the edges around
you in reality are perfectly sharp), so you don’t have to fiddle with chamfering any more.
What’s Better
The first noticeable improvement in Max is its ability to handle more polygon-heavy scenes without choking. Apart from that, some older features have been polished as well. Working with
Cloth is much easier now—tailoring clothes is much easier and more streamlined, and doesn’t require you to keep editing the original surfaces to get right. The Cloth simulator calculates collisions much better, and the new Cling parameter lets you make them “sticky”, much like
wet clothes. The Hair and Fur plugin, which demonstrated some instability in version 8, has
been tweaked, and didn’t crash the whole time we used it. It has also done away with the separate interface—which was, honestly, rather clunky—and now you can comb and style hair right in the viewport you’re working in. Other tweaks—including the optimisations to the
FBX file format which enables Max and Maya to work together better—are relatively minor, and were expected anyway.
Final Notes
Using 3ds Max 9, it’s hard to tell that it’s a new version—there’s nothing that comes off as special, at least on the surface. The improvements are there, no doubt, but the biggest thing that justifies this release is that it’s available in a 64-bit version. If you’re using Windows XP x64, and
have more than 2 GB of RAM, you’ll see the difference—if not, you’re better off waiting for the
next big release...

Access Digital Photo Frame Reviews

Here’s a unique way to, well, frame your memories. The Access Digital Photo Frame has the ability to store images and display them on its 7-inch frame, transferred from your PC or digicam via USB or memory card. Remote-controlled, it looks just like your average photo frame. It is supported by a desk stand, but can also be hung on a wall. But the frame can only be placed hori-zontally, requiring you to rotate your portrait-style images before transferring them to the device. In addition to image slideshows, it also supports MP3 and video. Larger Images larger are automati-cally resized. Niggles: the hard but-tons on the remote, and the lack of crispness in darker images.
Specifications:
7-inch 480 x 234 display; inbuilt stereo output; USB 1.0/2.0; CF card slot; memory card slot
(MS, SD, MMC XD)...

Gigabyte Wireless Presentation Kit Reviews

The GM-FPB is Gigabyte’s gift to all those lucky enough to be called upon to give e-presentations. This kit consists of a pen-drive-looking unit that’s the receiver and the actual remote. They’re both the same colour tone as well, and both units are built well. Best of all, the kit is extremely compact. The remote is contoured well, making for a comfortable grip—a good thing, considering its intended usage patterns. The receiver doubles up as a pen drive. We received the 128 MB version and there’s a 256 MB one as well. Gigabyte opted for wireless (as opposed to the regular IR configurations), so orientation and direction will never limit usage. In case you want to play tag, there’s a laser pointer built in—a complete presentation tool! Installation is a breeze: no driver CDs needed for Windows XP users. Just plug in the receiver into a USB port and you’re good to go. The GM-FPB toggles between presentation and media player mode. While presenting, you have full control over the mouse control button. This button is like the joypad button on many cell phones. Tactile feel is good, and the pointer accelerates proportional to the force exerted while pressing the button. There’s a scrollwheel on the side of the remote—which effectively replaces the keyboard and mouse combination for browsing on your PC. Switching to media player mode by pressing the Mode button for two seconds disables the mouse button, and your left and right click buttons become
stop and play buttons! The wheel becomes a volume controller. Slick! Signal range is good,
too. We tested it up to 20 feet, which is around the maximum distance a presenter would stand
from a screen anyway.
Specifications:
G-MAX flex pointer, USB 1.1, 64 ID Design, 128 MB in-built flash memory, 433.92 MHz frequency range, compatible with Windows 9x/ME/XP, Mac OS 10.0...

Mitashi MPF 1001 Reviews

Here’s a gift idea for the 14th: the MPF 1001 comes with two headphone jacks! The body is made of jet-black, non-reflective material, which seems to be scratch-resistant. A 2-colour OLED display provides basic navigational indications, and displays MP3 ID3 tags. OLEDs are
more energy-efficient as compared to LCDs, but the low battery life of the player hardly reflects this. The Li-ion battery can be recharged via USB, and Mitashi also provides a 2-pin power adapter. Button placement is not intuitive. There is a centre button and a button each in
the four directions. However, the centre button is just for playback (instead of the usual Select), while the top “Menu” button is for “Select”. The one at the bottom brings up the volume control during playback. The left and right buttons are for moving forward and backward, and also up and down. All the buttons are somewhat hard to press, and are sometimes sluggish or even unresponsive. The MPF 1001 recognises MP3 and WMA, but we would have liked support for formats such as AAC. Performance-wise, the sound lacks punch: while the treble is passable, the bass is seriously deficient. The bundled earphones don’t help either. On top of that, they aren’t comfortable, and we can’t recommend they be worn for more than a couple of hours. Storage capacity is 1 GB. The device supports two storage modes: Media Class Storage, in which the player is recognised as a removable drive, and Media Transfer Mode, which allows you to sync the device using WMP10 to transfer MP3s to the player. Despite support for USB 2.0, data transfer is quite slow: it took us two minutes to transfer 100 MB. Other features include a car stereo adapter, FM radio, and voice recording.
Specifications:
1 GB; audio formats: MP3, WMA; 2-colour OLED; dual-earphone sockets; earphones; car
stereo adapter; USB 2.0...

Xara3D 6.0 Reviews

With Xara3D 6.0, you can add that extra zing to your Web pages with animated 3D headings, logos, and buttons. It lets you create stunningly beautiful 3D graphics from TrueType fonts as well as imported 2D shapes. This new version has a better interface than the previous one. Similarly, there are newer styles such as new Bevel types, boards, boards with holes, and borders. You can change the lighting, texture, colour, depth, font size, etc., but the
controls are not very easy to use, especially for a novice. But once you get used to the interface, things get going pretty well. Creating a variety of animations such as multi- page sequences and even animated 3D screensavers is very easy. The anti-aliased graphics provide you the best possible visual quality, and it can also be optimised for use in Web pages. Xara3D can import from WMF/EMF, CorelXARA, and Webster, and can export to a variety of formats such as GIF, Flash, JPEG, PNG, AVI, and BMP. You can get yourself a 15-day trial at www.xara.com.

Altiris Software Virtualization Solution 2 SP1

Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) lets you place applications and data into managed units known as Virtual Software Packages. Small modules known as Virtual Software Packages (VSPs) are created for each software, which can contain the installations, and which
remain essentially disconnected from the OS. This only means that no Registry modifications are made to Windows and your system stays clean, while transparency means you won’t be able to tell this is a layered module. In case an application malfunctions, the problem is limited and isolated to its particular module, and your OS remains unaffected. SVS monitors software installations, and grabs Registry changes—in addition to the addition and deletion of files—and transfers these to a layer. Any file and Registry call is thereafter forwarded to this layer rather than to Windows. The application is great if you wish to try out certain applications without the risk of problems for your OS. It also supports transferring installations to other computers with SVS installed. Best of all, it is completely free for personal use on up to 10 computers—worth a try!

ECS PX1 Extreme Reviews

The ECS PX1 Extreme is one of the earlier Intel P965 chipset based mother-boards that support ATI’s CrossFire by means of two PCI-E x16 slots. The board has a spacious layout: the area around the CPU socket allows for easy installation of a larger heat sink and all the slots and connectors are neatly laid-out. Up to 8 GB of DDR2 RAM @ 800 MHz is sup-ported. Its ICH8DH Southbridge is compatible with Intel Viiv, and there’s 8-channel HD audio. This board’s performance is good, if not great. It returned decent scores in all our bench-marks: 149.7 fps in DOOM 3 with a 7800 GTX, and it encoded a 100 MB VOB file in 76 seconds with a Core 2 Duo X6800. The motherboard is certainly good for those who want to build an entertainment PC, but not for hard-core gamers or enthusiasts.
Specifications:
Intel P965 chipset; support for a Core 2 Duo CPU; dual-Gigabit LAN; E-SATA port; 8-channel
audio; upto 10 USB 2.0 and 2 IEEE 1394a; 7 SATA; ICH8DH Southbridge; 2 PCI-E x16 slots...

Zebronics ZEB-9000 HMV Reviews

The 900 HMV are full ear-cup USB-based headphones that use the C-Media CMI108 chipset. Yes, that’s right—you don’t need a sound card or even onboard sound to use these headphones! And best of all, they’re plug-n-play, though you’ll need drivers to configure the inbuilt 5.1 surround sound capabilities. Though these cans look heavy, they’re pretty light without sacrificing on build quality. It was a pleasant surprise to note that sound quality is really good: well-produced, deep bass, and the vocals crisp and istinguished—just the way we like our music! The extreme highs are slightly weak, but you will rarely feel the loss under most usage scenarios. Sadly, the headphones are rather uncomfortable for long music sessions, and after around three hours of use, we found our ears complaining. Though the vibration feature is little more than a gimmick—enabling it gives an impression of bass boost via vibrations—it isn’t uncomfortable to have a ear massage while listening to music, but this does get irritating after a while. The only scenario where the vibration could add to the immersive experience is while gaming. The Xear3D surround engine has been incorporated for this very purpose. Volume levels are really high, and you’ll rarely need to go anywhere beyond 50 per cent of what these cans are capable of belting out. Just as well, since you’ll encounter distortion beyond 85 per cent of the max volume level—this is rather normal for most headphones.
Specifications:
USB Interface, integrated C- Media CMI108 chipset, 5.1 Xear3D surround sound, vibration mode...

Canon LBP-3500 Reviews

The Canon LBP-3500 laser printer is meant for medium- to large-sized workgroups. It supports a range of paper sizes—A3, Legal, A4, and more. It connects via USB, and there’s also an Ethernet port to connect to a network. The maximum resolution is 1200 x 600 dpi, it can hold 350 sheets of paper, and build quality is rugged. The warm-up times of laser printers are progressively decreasing, but the LBP-3500’s warm-up time of just 10 seconds is quite commendable. A text document at the Draft setting was printed in 2.8 seconds. The print quality is good even at the Draft setting. Overall a very good printer suited for really heavy printing, but the price tag of Rs 64,000 seems a bit too steep.
Specifications:
Paper support up to A3 size, network support, 1200 x 600 dpi maximum resolution...

NVIDIA nForce 680i Reviews

NVIDIA’s holiday-season gift to Intel’s latest breed of processors, the 680i sports small (meaning better) chipset-cooling heatsinks which share a single heatpipe. The inclusion of a hex POST debugger is appreciated, as is the huge gap between the two x16 PCI-Express slots (no more issues with dual-slot coolers). The 680i sports a new BIOS aimed at the hardcore enthusiast. Voltages from CPU to memory to even the Northbridge and Southbridge can be tweaked, ensuring minimal bottlenecks while overclocking. LinkBoost—an NVIDIA trademark—automatically overclocks the individual PCI-Express lanes when you SLI with any of the 8 series cards or 7900GTX cards. There’s a couple of Gigabit LAN ports sporting something called DualNet technology. These ports can actually be clubbed together for twice the theoretical throughput, while the TCP/IP acceleration engine aboard each LAN controller reduces CPU utilisation. nTune has also been reworked, and now allows changing most BIOS options from Windows itself. This can be a huge advantage for overclockers who are in an
all-fired hurry, though the hardcore will still want to fine-tune the neatly laid-out BIOS.
We managed to get our QX 6700 (Core 2 Quad, 2.66 GHz default) to 3.45 GHz at a multiplier of 13 (default 10), without any tweaking…simply awesome! Super Pi 1M calculations took 14
seconds at this speed, and 18 seconds at stock. For the enthusiast who wants performance at stock and stability under overclocking, the 680i makes for a very a potent package. It’s future-proof, and a rock-solid overclocker as well. If you want the best platform for your new Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processor, you can’t go wrong here.
Specifications:
Intel Socket 775; 1333 MHz FSB; 2x16 SLi; third PCIe Graphics Expansion Slot; supports DDR2
800 MHz (SLI-Ready memory with EPP: 1200 MHz); 46 PCIe lanes and 9 links; 6xSATA II;
2xPATA; RAID: 0,1,0+1,5; Dual Gigabit Ethernet; 10xUSB 2.0; 5xPCI; HAD (Azalia) audio...

Symantec pcAnywhere 10.5 Reviews

Symantec pcAnywhere 10.5 is a 32-bit Windows-based application that allows users to collaborate across networks. Users can view their desktop from a remote computer or trans-fer files across net-works. Other fea-tures include con-figuration of rebootless Host PC and gateways. pcAnywhere can connect to desk-tops using various interfaces such as dial-up ISDN, IPX, TCP/IP and infrared. We tested it using a 100 Mbps Ethernet connec-tion on our Intranet. The installation is quite simple—you can choose between a wide range of options such as Host Only, Remote Only and Complete. The manual gives detailed information about configuring hosts and remote clients using various connection types. The Symantec Web site has a decent collection of tutorials that are of great help. The provided SpeedSend file transfer is extremely useful and swift. This is prima-rily because the utility detects and sends only that data which has changed since the previ-ous transfer. Data can be encrypt-ed using public key, symmetric or pcAnywhere’s encryp-tion methods. Of these methods, pcAnywhere’s encryption is the most simple and basic. The excellent security, data encryption and logging facili-ties provided by Symantec pcAnywhere 10.5 make it ideal for enterprise setups.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Requirements: Pentium 233 MHz, 64 MB RAM, Windows 98SE/Me/NT/2000/XP Package contents: One instal-lation CD, User manual...

Samsung Combo Drive Reviews

Samsung’s new CD-RW/DVD combination drive is aimed at home users—for whom money and space are top priorities. It features 48x CD read and write speeds, 16x DVD read speed and 24x write speed for CD-RWs—the fastest speeds currently avail-able for combo drives. It also has 8 MB buffer memory, which is a definite advantage. The Dynamic Vibration Absorber (DVA) reduces vibra-tions in the drive. Bundled Software includes Nero 5.5, InCD and Cyberlink PowerD-VD (an excellent application for reading DVDs). A sample DVD for demonstrating the drive’s performance would also have been appreciated. The drive performed noiselessly, thanks to its effi-cient damping system, and sailed through all the tests. One limitation was faced dur-ing the CD-R write test—Nero could write only at a maxi-mum speed of 32x, although the medium claimed to be 48x-compatible. Also, even though the blank CD-RW available for the test was 12x-compatible, Nero could write only at speeds of 10x. Thus, the times of the tests are equiv-alent to a 32 x 10 x 40 CD writer. However, it touched its claimed read speed of 48x in
the Nero CD Speed test. On paper, this drive offers the fastest speeds but, com-patible media are not bundled or available in the market. The higher buffer memory and re-write speeds don’t seem worth the extra money and the only advantage is that it’s future-proof—in other words, slight-ly ahead of its time.
SPECIFICATIONS:
128 MB capacity, Windows 98/SE/Me/2000/XP, USB power supply (4.5 V to 5.5 V), USB 1.0/1.1 interface, data retention of over 10 years, available in capacities ranging from 32 MB to 384 MB System Requirements: IBM PC or Notebook computer with USB port, Windows 98/Me/ 2000/XP...

LG L-112 IV Optical Mouse Reviews

The first LG mouse launched in India sports a low-profile design with a two-tone colour finish. The upper shell is made of a highly polished plastic, with a complementing orange trans-parent under-shell. less as far as gaming is con-cerned. The rubberized click-able scroll wheel is smooth, but lacks that special touch that goes into great mice such as Logitech’s MX500. Priced at a Rs 1,000, plus taxes, this mouse is very expensive. Other mice offer The mouse uses the stan-dard PS/2 interface, with two buttons and a clickable scroll wheel. The buttons are large and well-placed within easy reach, but are very soft and lack good tactile feedback. This results in frequent dead clicks that makes the mouse totally use-more in terms of ergonomics, precision and button quality at nearly the same price.
SPECIFICATIONS:
PS/2 interface, two buttons, one clickable scroll wheel and optical sensor...

Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550 Reviews

With the MegaWorks, you’re not watching a movie—you’re bang in the middle of it! The THX 5.1 are manufactured with the expert-ise of Cambridge Sound-works—makers of high fidelity speaker systems with a Signal to Noise ratio of 99 dB. The revolu-tionary BASH amplifier tech-nology produces high power levels without sacrificing on the sound quality. Setting up the speakers with the Audigy 2 Platinum soundcard from Creative sim-ple because of the colour cod-ing given for the connections to the individual channels. The acoustics are clear and loud enough for an out of the world experience. The bass is something that trance lovers will write home about. Turn down the bass and play a live orchestra track, and these same speakers produce the most soothing high-fidelity sound that transports you to a live concert. Having the covet-ed THX certification, it is a great system for watching a movie with intensive sound effects. The sound intensity can be adjusted by a fully func-tional remote control. The 150W RMS sub-woofer overpowers the higher fre-quencies. On the flip side, there are only analog inputs—there is no provision for connecting a digital input to the speakers. If you’ve got deep pockets, a large room and love music, don’t miss out on this system.
SPECIFICATIONS:
5.1 speakers, 150 W RMS subwoofer, 5 x 70W RMS satellites, 25 Hz to 20 KHz frequency range, 99dB SNR, 14.3 x 10.8 x 16.0 satellite speakers (with stand), 30.5 x 29 x 32.5 cm sub woofer
Bundled accessories: USB cable, desktop stands for satellite speakers, monitor stand for centre satellite speaker, quick start guide, instruction manual, wired remote control...

Neotech Keyboard Reviews

The Neotech K-9856, a blue and silver keyboard, has a USB connector, thus cannot be used with older PCs. It features a rubber grip for stability, and the plastic pegs that are adjustable to
three positions, so you can keep the board at an angle you prefer. The key-board has a regular layout with the hot-keys placed un-obtrusively on the upper part of the board. The top row of
regular keys has been made slightly smaller in order to accommodate the hotkeys. The keys do make a little noise when pressed. Besides, they don’t depress much, making you doubt if the key-stroke has been recognised by the system. We also could not get the hotkeys to work on the Win-dows XP test bench, even though the software installa-tion and key configuration went smoothly. Also, the software did not install cor-rectly with Windows 98, ren-dering the hotkeys useless. The lack of documentation also proved to be a major stum-bling block. This is a simple keyboard with a number of hot keys for speeding up frequently-used processes—if you can get
them to work. It might appeal to those who are tired of looking at the conven-tional black and white keyboards.
SPECIFICATIONS:
USB connectivity, 126 keys including 19 hotkeys, Window 98/2000/XP compatible drivers...

Maxtor 250GB DiamondMax 16 Reviews

Storage solutions provider Maxtor has become the first company to introduce a 250 GB IDE hard disk, run-ning at 5,400 rpm, and featuring the Ultra ATA/133 inter-face. The form factor is the same as any new disk drive. By jack-ing up theaerial density using the latest technological inno-vations, manufacturers are the ATA/133 interface is sup-ported, the low rpm definite-ly poses a bottleneck to trans-fer speeds. This is verified by the access time of the drive—11 ms, as compared to usual access times of 5 to 7 ms, which is the rated access time. The hard disk is cheaper as compared to other 200 GB hard disks, primarily because it skimps on performance. Thus, it is suitable only for increasingly packing the stan-dard drive with loads of stor-age capacity. Maxtor has main-tained the spindle speed of the hard disk at a low 5,400 rpm, as com-pared to other high-capacity hard disks—even the buffer is maintained at the standard 2 MB. Although those who are interested in finding a permanent solution to their storage problem, with no regards to the performance.
SPECIFICATIONS:
250 GB internal hard drive, DMA/ATA-133 (Ultra) Fast inter-face, 3.5-inch form factor, 5,400
rpm spindle side speed, 2 MB buffer, Dimensions: 1.02 x 4.02 x 5.75 inches, Weight: 600 grams...