The SyncMaster 940B is slightly more expensive than most other 19" LCD monitors on the market. Samsung makes sure that you get bang for your buck with a competitive set of features and abilities. The MagicTune OS-based screen control gives more control over what you see over simple buttons and wheels. The 8ms response time provides flicker-free operation in games, movies, and anything else you can throw at it. Top it all off with Samsung's committment to making sure there are absolutely no dead pixels and you've got a well-rounded, high-performance display that doesn't take up much space.

Thermaltake has taken a stance in computer cooling since its inception and their original Orb products. They have come a long way and it really shows with their Bigwater line. The Bigwater 745 is only the latest addition to an already impressive venture in the liquid cooling arena. Their innovative design has given them the edge in the fact that this kit is BTX compatible, which currently, no other company can match. As a complete kit, the Bigwater 745 is a must to consider. However, a little investigation of whether your case can accommodate such a large system should be in order.

Home theatre veterans are finally receiving attention as serious computer enthusiasts. Thermaltake delivers a complete line of chassis built for those needing a slightly different set of features than ordinary system builds. Thermalrock's Mozart is a gorgeous Home Theatre chassis that features an external display for system configuration and a built in Home Theatre front end software package.

Samsung is determined in their quest to become the worlds leading MP3 player maker by 2007. Their first entry in this foray is the [YP-F1] which brings trendyness and functionality to the MP3 player market. The YP-F1XB is their 512MB model within this family which boasts excellent sound quality with additional features that make it an MP3 player truly worth looking at; making this a strong and determined step towards their goal of owning the market in 2007.

ThermalTake's subsidiary ThermalRock is pushing the bounds of case design by integrating design features that have proven themselves in other cases with new ideas that take their cases in a whole new direction. The Circle case is one such example. It takes time-tested drive rails, front-mounted USB ports, built-in lighting, and a spacious interior and combines them with fresh ideas such as a door that doubles as a DVD/CD holder, an inverted BTX-style chassis design, and several other unique features. The question with any case that mixes old and new is easy: was the manufacturer able to make it all work together?

Gigabyte is more known for their motherboards and to a lesser extent their video cards. However, in the past couple of years, they have expanded their horizons and started producing laptops, wireless routers and heat sink fans to name a few. With the cooling requirements of new generation processors getting larger, it is only natural that the heat sinks and fans get larger as well. The larger the area, the more heat dissipation is available. However, depending on some board designs, larger cooling products will not properly fit. Logically then, it was a smart move on Gigabyte's part to start developing their own heat sinks, since they know the exact space requirements for their motherboards.

As far as anybody can remember, the design of computer cases has pretty much remained standard. The power supply was always in the back, which is logically the best place suited for it. However, with the increasing wattage of power supplies and increasing thermal radiation from processors these days, thermal considerations have to be planned out. In most computers, the power supply sits right above the processor. Heat rising from the processor is generally sucked out through the power supply. However, does the power supply vent the heat generated? Arctic Cooling, a Swiss company, has come up with a fresh new design on the interior construction of computer cases. These cases were designed from scratch. They completely rethought the thermodynamics of the ATX design and have come up with their Silentium line of enclosures.

LCD monitors have come a long way since their early days. New LCDs are larger, thinner, quicker and most importantly cheaper with every passing day. One of the dominant forces in the LCD market is Samsung. Samsung is a world-renowned manufacture of an extremely wide variety of products, from LCD displays, TVs of all sorts, mobile phones, home theatre equipment, printers, hard disk drives, memory modules and even home appliances such as air conditioners. This review looks at one of Samsung's latest models, the 193P LCD display. Spanning 19 inches of screen real estate, supporting 1280x1024 resolution with 16m colors, and taking up far less desk space than comparable CRTs, this LCD looks to light up your desk. Over the next few pages, we'll take an in depth look at all this monitor has to offer.

Albatron’s a relatively newcomer to the North-American marketplace, but many of us has seen them with a different disguise: Gigabyte. Many of the engineers that jumped aboard Albatron as they launched their lineup two years ago were ex-Gigabyte employees. Products between both companies had more than a few similarities at the time. Both companies have different target audiences, as such, their product development has diverged somewhat. But as the old saying goes “The more things change, the more they remain the same”.

Do You Guru? That’s the question ABIT has been asking these last few weeks, especially since they added their new µGuru system to their three most popular chipsets. Of course you are going to see the µGuru system on the KV8-MAX3, the VIA K8T800-based chipset for the Athlon 64 CPU. Then, both my friend and yours, Ken O’Rielly reviewed the AI7 that’s based on the i865PE chipset. And we now come to today’s review, the AN7 that’s based on the ever-popular nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset which is basically a reworked NF7-S to support the µGuru system.

After having such an enjoyable review of the 875P IC7-MAX3 motherboard, I was interested to see what ABIT had to offer in the way of the 865PE chipset. As luck would have it I not only get to try out the ABIT solution of the i865PE chipset, but I also get hands on experience with the µGuru features in the form of an AI7 motherboard.

The MAX series of boards from ABIT for both Intel and AMD platforms have received much deserved success and recognition in the industry. Likewise, ABIT marketed cooling technology on their GeForce4 Ti4200 and GeForce FX 5900 by the name of OTES, or Outside Thermal Exhaust System. ABIT once again took home the bacon with a merging of both MAX and OTES, with the IC7-MAX3 motherboard. Equipped with an avant-garde MOSFET cooling system, this Intel Pentium4 mainboard sports radical features, without compromising on performance!

Ximeta has a different philosophy when it comes to portable storage. With the release of their NetDisk a few weeks ago, they put a spin on the interfaces. Not only are they using a high-speed 420Mbps USB 2.0 port, but are using a 100Mbps Ethernet port as well. This storage drive becomes the true network share - a must at home or small-office. Ximeta has varrying capacities and colors to suit all needs.

Air cooling is the most popular and cheapest form of radiational cooling available. The more fans connected, however, increases the power needed as well as the sound emanating from the box. Cooler Master designed the Aerogate II specifically with fan control and ease of use in mind. With the ability to control four separate fans, as well as monitor temperatures through four distinct probes, this baby does not fail to deliver.

Xitel is here to help you on your way to HTPC nirvana with the HiFi-Link. All you need is a PC (any speed) with a USB port and Xitel will help you turn your PC or Mac into the first step of any Home Theater PC: a digital audio jukebox. Now, a digital audio jukebox does not have to be the end-all to be-all. The HiFi-Link has superb quality, and is only limited by the quality of your home audio equipment. A crystal clear digital stream is only minutes away with its ultra-simple installation, and using the HiFi-Link is just as simple.