“One million iPads in 28 days—that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”

iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.*

Developers have created over 5,000 exciting new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. iPad will run almost all of the more than 200,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®.

*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

© 2010 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iPad, Multi-Touch, iPhone and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Tuniq lists the key features of the product as follows:

• Non-Toxic and Environmentally Safe
• RoHS Compliant
• Not Electrically conductive
• High Effective
• Easy Application

I cleaned several CPUs and coolers with the TR-1 and it worked quite well.  Compared to other cleaners I have used, it worked similar.  However with TR-1 being only a single step cleaner; it was nice to not have to clean the item and then treat it with a second product.  TR-1 comes in a 30 ml bottle and only requires a few drops per application, so it should last you a long time.

 Overall Tuniq has produced another good product and if you are in the group that doen’t like to use an old bottle of alcohol to clean your gear, go ahead and give Tuniq TR-1 a try.

The market for external drives is a busy one. It seems like everyone has at least one and they all are about the same in terms of performance. Granted some are better quality than others but they all pretty much fall into the same level of speed, size, etc. So what happens to those of us that want faster, or larger, or heaven forbid fault tolerance? Well it is a pretty easy answer; you grab an external box that has RAID 1 support. Thecus has a box like this; the N2050UD, it has dual connectivity (e-SATA and USB 2.0), Dual-drive support and can run in either RAID 0 or 1 without the need for complicated setup. Can this RAID enabled box give you the speed, redundancy and ease of use it shows on paper? Click on to find out.

Product: Thecus N2050UD 
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: September 15th 2008
Product cost: $129.99 (at Newegg.com)
Manufacturer: Thecus
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff

{mospagebreak title=Packaging and Accessories}
Packaging and Accessories:
Well the box that the N2050UD arrived in would not win any awards. Although this does not make a single bit of difference as to how it performs, the box looked like one of those “as seen on TV” products and had me laughing for a few minutes.
But ignoring the box and getting inside we find the goodies.
Thecus has included a PCI e-SATA card with the N2050UD this is powered by a Silicone Image SATA chip and has a single e-SATA port as well as a single internal SATA port. Thecus recommends using this over any e-SATA brackets that simply plug into a standard SATA port on you mainboard. Also amongst the goodies is a USB 2.0 Cable (interestingly enough it is an A to A Male to Female) and an e-SATA cable.

{mospagebreak title=Construction}
Construction:
The N2050UD has a very flimsy feel when you first pick it up, its outer shell is completely plastic and lends to this. The controls are simplistic, but this is not a bad thing, the back contains all of the needed inputs as well as a small fan to keep your drives cool.
By removing two screws on the back the top of the N2050UD slides off to reveal the inner workings.
Here sites a metal cage that holds the two drives, to install the drives you have to remove the cage and then mount the drives and replace the cage. Once installed the N2050UD has the weight and sturdy feel it lacked while empty.

{mospagebreak title=Setup}
Setup:
Ok now here things get complicated, to get your RAID setup you have to install two drives (they should not have any file system on them) flip the N2050UD over to the back. Move the switch at the bottom just left of the e-SATA port to the type of RAID you want (RAID 0 or 1), plug the N2050UD in and press the power button. After all of that you just have to push the INIT button with a paperclip or similar and you are on your way to external RAID goodness. You will still need to partition and format the drive in your OS of choice but other than that you can be up and running in about 5 minutes.
On the opposite end, shutting down is a little less straight forward. You have to push and hold the Confirm Button and then press Power Button. The Confirm Button is the long thin unmarked button on the front.

{mospagebreak title=Performance}
Performance:
Test System
Asus G2S X1 17" Notebook

The N2050 is not going to win any speed records. It does have redundancy, which to many users, should be the more important item.  I decided to keep this in mind and did all of my testing with the N2050 setup as RAID1. I used two Western Digital 160GB SATA II drives.
For testing I ran Sisoft Sandra 2009 and Everest 4.6 to cover my synthetic testing. For real World I ran AutoGK with my output going directly to the Thecus N2050 and I also did stock file transfers of a group of files totaling 13.25 GB. Tests were run using e-SATA and USB.

Interesting numbers here as it would seem that USB is faster than e-SATA.
Again this is not meant as a high-performance external solution but as a low-cost redundant backup solution. We also see good performance considering the RAID1 setup.

{mospagebreak title=Value}
Value:
With a price tag of $129.99 the N2050UD is not exactly dirt cheap but it is less than most others on the market  and in most cases much easier to use. The fact that it does ship with an add-in e-SATA card also helps offset the price. Considering the fact that you can get 250GB SATA drives for around $70 this makes the N2050UD look even more attractive.  Thecus offers a one year limited warranty on the N2050UD.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
My thoughts on the Thecus N2050 are pretty straight forward. It is a great device if you are looking for a low cost redundant backup solution for your notebook or desktop. With the ability to use both e-SATA and USB 2.0 you have a good deal of flexibility to throw around. The included e-SATA card adds value to an already well priced device. If you are looking for fast drive performance you might want to look elsewhere but if you are looking for data redundancy for personal files, pictures home video etc. The Thecus should be on your list.

When I first started playing around with computers you bought everything from a different company. If you wanted a mainboard, you bought from one, if you wanted a sound card, you bought from another. Now it seems like you can buy a complete system from a single vendor. Asus is this type of vendor, they make just about everything (I am waiting for the day I can grab up and Asus SUV). In fact one of my goals is to test out a system composed entirely from Asus parts (with the exception of CPU, HDD and RAM). But until that time I will happily take a look at the new products Asus sends our way. Today I have something for the HTPC enthusiast the My Cinema-PE9400 Combo TV tuner. This has just been released and looks to be another hit as Asus works on cornering the entire component market.

Product: Asus My Cinema-PE9400 Combo TV Tuner     
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: August 1st 2008
Product cost: $79.00 (MSRP)
Manufacturer: Asus
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff

{mospagebreak title=Packaging and Accessories}
Packaging and Accessories:
The My Cinema-PE9400 Combo ships in a white and green box. The box is covered with the usual claims about how wonderful the product is as well as listing the contents and specifications.

Once you have marveled at the artistic look of the PE9400’s outer shell and finally opened the box up you will find that Asus has packed quite a lot of loot in there. The PE9400 comes as a complete HTPC kit. Included are a Media Center remote, IR sensor with two control cables (for a set top box), audio and video adapter cables, and an external antenna TV and FM antenna. This is pretty much everything you would need to turn your desktop into an HTPC. The software included is the Total Media suite this is a nice piece of software weather you are using XP or Vista.

{mospagebreak title=Features}
Features:
The PE9400 is a combo TV tuner, this means it is capable of receiving Digital and Analog TV signals.
This gives you the option of watching HD “over-the-air” broadcasts straight from the card. The card truly has two separate tuners giving you the flexibility to view HD programming from Digital or Analog over-the-air broadcasts at the same time.  You can switch back and forth between the two and even record from one while watching the other. These two can be watched in two modes, PIP (Picture in Picture) and PBP (Picture Beside Picture).
Additional features include an FM tuner, an electronic noise reduction feature PCI-e x1 connectivity, hardware Mpeg2 encoding, Burning recorded video to DVD or VCD, home security camera connectivity (with Asus VideoSecurity Online Technology), and low profile design to allow the PE9400 to be installed in a slim HTPC case.

{mospagebreak title=Performance}
Performance:
How do you really measure the performance of a TV tuner? There are no real benchmarks to be had. No tests that you can run. It is all subjective and relies on the viewer to determine how well it reproduces the image on your screen. Along these lines performance can also be measured by ease of installation and use. A TV tuner can be said to perform poorly if it takes you an hour to figure out how to record a TV show.  With this in mind I will dive into the performance of the My Cinema-PE9400 Combo.

Installation and setup:
The My Cenima-PE9400 Combo was extremely easy to install and setup. It was a matter of plug the card into an available PCI-e slot, install the drivers (the setup application works for XP and Vista (both x86 and x64) then either install the included TotalMedia 3.5 software or use media center if you are running Vista.  The installer application also installs the IR sensor for the remote.  I was very happy with how simple the install went.
Configuration of TotalMedia was also a snap.

Picture was smooth until I activated PiP this slowed the main picture down quite a bit and in some cases caused a stutter.  The built in hardware encoder made the “time shift” (DVR) function work very smoothly when using Vista’s Media Center.
In Media Center the picture playback and sound were excellent and you were still able to make use of both Tuners, at one point I had my Digital Smart box plugged in as well as just the standard cable allowing me to record the “un-locked” channels while watching the upper ones. I also had no problems running the PE9400 with both Digital Cable and ASTC HD content. Sound reproduction was good although I did use a bypass for HD audio when using my Smart Box to get the full 7.1 surround from HD TV.

{mospagebreak title=Value}
Price/Warranty:
The MSRP on the My Cinema-PE9400 Combo is a very slim $79.00, combine that with a hefty three-year warranty and the PE9400 comes out on top in the Value category. There are very few cards that have the specifications the PE9400 has with anything near this price tag.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
TV playback was outstanding on the My Cinema-PE9400 Combo and the second Tuner was a huge plus when dealing with the some digital smart box issues. DVR recording was so-so using the bundled TotalMedia 3.5 package yet while running Vista’s Media Center this function was flawless. The PE9400 Combo is a must have for any HTPC builder. I would recommend it for new builds and to replace just about any existing TV tuner. 

For its outstanding value and performance we are happy to award the Asus My Cinema-PE9400 our "Best on the Planet" award.

Thanks to Eric Chen at Asus for his help in getting this evaluation put together.

For anyone that is into photography the name Lowepro will stand out in your head as the maker of one of the best (in not the best) soft-sided camera bags and backpacks on the planet. I suppose at this point you are wondering why a 64-bit hardware review site is taking a look at a Lowepro product, well that is simple to answer. As more and more photographers move away from film and into the Digital realm we see an increased demand for smaller and more powerful laptops. The market has responded to this demand with gusto so problem one solved. But there is another problem… How do I carry my Photography gear and my new powerful (possibly 64 bit) laptop with me without needing tow large bags? This is where the Lowepro connection comes in. Lowepro have been making combo bags to hauls around your gear and laptop for some time.

We recently were able to get a hold of one of the Lowepro Fastpack 350s, through Lowepro to see if they meet the needs of not only the photographer but the day to day laptop user.
Product: Lowepro Fastpack 350    
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: July 4th 2008
Product cost: $149.99
Manufacturer: Lowepro
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff

Forum Link

{mospagebreak title=Construction}
Construction:
The Fastpack 350 is made of a sturdy water resistant  Cordua Nylon material, it also has a thinner nylon internal barrier to help maintain breathability and water resistance. Stitching is done with a heavy gauge nylon thread. In areas where there is direct contact with the body, such as the straps or the padding on the back. Lowepro has used a breathable weave to help reduce the amount of heat and moisture retention.

General layout of the pack is along similar lines to your ordinary laptop backpack with the storage space for the book at the back of the pack (against the wearers’ body). Where the Lowepro design differs is that instead of loading from the top the access to the laptop compartment is along the side.  Lowepro state that the Fastpack 350 will hold most standard 17” widescreen laptops, yet we were unable to get an Asus G2S A1 inside it. Looking at the dimensions for most PC based 17” laptops I found that there were quite a few that would not work with this bag. I also discovered that the Macbooks fit in quite nicely. I was a little disappointed with this fact I would have thought Lowepro would try to be more accommodating. In the end I was able to get the G2S inside the FastPack but the material was so stretched that the pull tab for the zipper actually came off. I had to re-glue it back on before I was able to get my book back out.

The camera space on the FastPack is very well laid out and is setup perpendicular to the main axis of the pack. Lowepro again shows they know photographers by setting up the camera compartment for easy body access. As you can see in the images below you do not have to fully open the pack to grab your camera body.  The inside of the camera compartment is easily configured to hold your gear; Lowepro includes Velcro attached barriers to compartmentalize this area to your needs.  Full access to the camera compartment is granted by unclipping a simple flap. Under this flap is a storage space that is perfect for carrying DVD or CD disks.
At the top of the camera compartment flap are two spaces to store your extra media. These, like the camera body are also accessible without the need to open the whole case and are a very nice touch.

Above the camera compartment is a large storage area for your laptop peripherals, there is even a nylon bag for your power cord. This bag attaches to the inside front of this are with Velcro and helps to keep this area organized. This area also contains pockets for pens, two flapped pockets (one large enough for filters) and a mesh pocket perfect for a mobile mouse.  This large and friendly compartment zippers open from the top down and allows very easy access to the contents inside. On the front flap is another small compartment that is good for papers or other small items.

On the opposite side from the camera compartment opening is a small draw-string mesh area perfect for a water bottle or other items that do not need to be protected and that you may want for ready use.

{mospagebreak title=Performance}
Performance:
In general use I found the FastPack 350 to be very well done with a few exceptions. The first is the one I mentioned above, the small size of the laptop compartment. My other complaints were with day to day carrying. Lowepro made the straps on the FastPack 350 very comfortable, they are padded, very adjustable (adjustment straps at the top and bottom to provide best fit) and breathe well, but this did not translate to the waist strap. My problem whit this area was not during use, when you have this strap around your waist (during hiking or cycling) it is very comfortable and does not feel binding. It is when you do not need or want to use it. The waist strap becomes a bother; it either sticks out and ends up getting tangled or bunches up under you and becomes VERY uncomfortable. It would have been nice for Lowepro to provide an area for this strap to be tucked away when not needed. After carrying the FastPack 350 around for 30 days in my day to day, and photographic work I found it to work out well for me but I was left wanting more. 

{mospagebreak title=Price/Warranty}
Price/Warranty:
The Fastpack 350 can be picked up for the reasonable price of $149.99. This is a great price for a camera bag from Lowepro and the added laptop storage (as limited as it is) is a plus.
Lowepro has a lifetime warranty on all of its cases and packs. Warranty information can be found at http://www.lowepro.com/support/warranty.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
I like Lowepro, I own 3 other Lowepro bags and many other accessories. In my personal opinion you cannot get better than their gear for photographic carrying cases/packs. That having been said I was a little disappointed by what I saw in the FastPack 350. It is a great camera case with tons of room and fits the gear I have perfectly. I would not expect any less from Lowepro. The problem was with the laptop side and general comfort. Clearly Lowpro has some improvement to do on this particular pack. The fact that a large number of 17” widescreen laptops would not fit in this bag is surprising. I hope they improve this side of the FastPack. The added annoyance of the waist strap is also something to be very aware of.
In all the FastPack 350 is a decent entry level Laptop/Camera bag, but well below what most would consider LowePro’s normally high standards.

Forum Link
 

NZXT is known for its cases, although these have not really gotten as much press time as other companies. But NZXT also makes accessories for your system as well. We have recently been sent one of these. A nice five-fan, five temperature sensor controller called the Sentry LX. We took a look at this device, does it deserver the spotlight or should it say in the background with the other extras?

Product: NZXT Sentry LX      
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: July 14th 2008
Product cost: $59.99
Manufacturer: NZXT
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff

{mospagebreak title=Packaging and Design}
Packaging and Design:

The Sentry LX arrived in small box. This box has the obligatory picture of the device and the usual list of features. On the back you get a little more detail as to what is inside the box.
Upon opening the box you will find that the Sentry LX is tucked away nice and securely.

The Sentry LX itself is a rather large device and is going to take up some real estate in your PC. Before you grab this little device make sure you have two 5-1/4” bays free for occupancy. The reason behind this is the large LCD display, which I will cover later in this article. Flipping the LX around you get a glimpse of the mass of thermistors and 3-pin fan connectors that go to make up the Sentry LX.

One thing I do like it that NZXT kept all of the thermistor cables together. This eliminates a lot of clutter and allows you to pull each lead off as you need it. NZXT has also labeled each thermistor and fan connector with a large, easy to read, label this will make setting up the fans a sensors even easier. For power the Sentry LX will need a 4-Pin Molex connector to provide both 12v and 5v power. To keep your settings while your system is off the LX uses a small CR2303 coin sized battery. This is the same type used on mainboards for maintaining BIOS settings.
The front of the NZXT has a nice large LCD display, this shows not only date and time, but also what settings are enabled, the speed of each fan controlled (with a small bar to indicated where that speed is in relation to max fan speed), as well as the temperature of all thermistors. The large display allows for all of this information to be displayed at one time instead of needing to scroll through.
Along the left side are buttons that are pretty self explanatory and allow you to setup the options available to the Sentry LX.

{mospagebreak title=Ease of Installation and Performance}
Ease of Installation and Performance:
The Sentry LX was a snap to setup, there were no obstacles or headaches with configuration.
In fact the only issue I can foresee is cable management. The thermistor cables are thin and feel like they might be easily damaged. To set the Sentry’s modes you simply press the mode button. To set the date time and the auto alarm you press and hold the set button and then press set until you reach the desired setting.

Performance was excellent with the display viewable over a wide range of angles. I had originally thought there would be an issue with the amount of information displayed but this was not the case. I was easily able to check temps at a glance.
The display colors are not too bright and also do not glare out at you in low light.

{mospagebreak title=Price/Warranty}
Price/Warranty:
The Sentry has a retail price of $59.99 at this level the  LX is a great value.
Warranty on the Sentry LX is one year. Nothing out of the ordinary but then again not terrible either.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
The NZXT Sentry LX is one of the best (if not simply the best) fan controllers I have worked with. It was very simple to get running with no major headaches involved in plugging in thermistors and then routing them. The Auto setting was well done and with careful placement of thermistors can help to reduce overall case temps significantly while helping keep noise levels down while the system is idling.
In terms of pricing the Sentry LX is also at the top of the list. If you are looking to get a handle on the fans in your system or just want something cool to look at on the front of your case the Sentry LX takes center stage.

Thermal grease has got to be the number one topic on everyone’s mind. Day in and day out everyone is always chatting about thermal grease.  Well maybe that is not entirely correct, it is probably one of the least talked about items that goes into a PC, yet can be one of the most important.  You won’t find very many enthusiasts using the stock thermal pad that comes attached to your stock heatsink.  Most of us have a favorite grease that we use religiously on all of our builds; others will just use whatever is close by.  Tuniq has sent us a sample of their newest high performance thermal grease called TX-2 for us to try out.  We’ll try it out in two machines and compare it to another brands’ popular offering.

Specifications and Features:

Appearance – Grey
Viscosity – 285000 cP
Thermal conductivity – 4.5W/mK
Operating temperature – -45°C ~ 200°C
Specific Gravity – 3.96 @ 25°C
Volume – 3.5g

- Low thermal resistance for superior heat transfer, 4.5W/mK
– Small molecular size makes a better contact between the heatsink and heatsource.
– Thin bond line for hi-efficiency conductivity
– Low bleed under high pressure
– Spreads easy – clean consistency
– Help the low-pressure clip design of cooler to achieve better cooling performance.
– RoHS compliant
– Not electrically conductive

Overview:

Tuniq ships TX-2 in a plastic bag type packaging with a fold up flap at the bottom. This package is all set to be hung on a peg rack at your local computer shop.  The TX-2 itself comes in a syringe like tube similar to most other thermal grease products.  This allows it to be easily applied to your CPU.  There is a cap included so that the tube can be resealed after use to prevent the product from drying out or becoming contaminated with dust.

Performance:

Tuniq’s TX-2 was easy to apply to the CPU, it is not too thick and it isn’t runny.  The syringe made it easy to apply just the right amount. Two different systems were used to see how it would perform in different situations.  First up is a water cooled Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, followed up with an AMD X2 5200+ with a stock AM2 cooler. Both systems were run at their stock speeds of 2.67 GHz and 2.6 GHz respectively. Each system had fresh grease applied and then loaded up and allowed to cool half a dozen times to allow it to setup before the tests were run.  To load the CPUs SP2004 was run for 30 minutes on each core to ensure the CPU was fully loaded up. Each system was then allowed to idle for 15 minutes to get an idle temp.  All CPU throttling options were disabled to ensure that the CPUs were still at full speed when idling.

As you can see from those charts, TX-2 compares very closely to Arctic Silver 5.  Individual results may vary slightly.  My basement is by no means a perfect testing environment.  All tests were run as close together as possible but the room temperature did fluctuate slightly.  I am not sure why the 2^nd core on the AMD runs so much cooler then the other, several different monitors all reported a big difference in temperatures with that core, however temperature changes from load to idle remained consistent between the two cores.

Price/Warranty:

Tuniq has a suggested retail price of $5.99 on the TX-2 making it affordable to anyone.  A single tube should last you a long time.

Conclusion:

Many people will swear to you that AS5 is the greatest grease ever but other companies are now offering very competitive products such as Tuniq with TX-2.  Computer enthusiasts now have a choice as to which thermal grease they wish to use and not have to worry about a huge performance hit. Tuniq TX-2 is a great product and easy to work with.  I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new tube of thermal greasee.

Acknowledgements:

We would like to thank Tuniq for sending us this product for review.

Tuniq TX-2 receives our Best on the Planet Award

Introduction:
We have had Cooler Master on the Planet before but it has always been an Enclosure that we have tested.  But Cooler Master does not just make enclosures; they make many accessories for computers and not just desktops they also have accessories for laptops too. While looking around for something to help keep my laptop cool and to allow my wife to use her 17” laptop at work with an external keyboard I came across the NotepalS.  I inquired at Cooler Master and they were kind enough to send two one for me to test with and one for my wife to take to work. How did this pair work out? Well let me tell you…

Product: Notepal S         
Author: Sean Kalinich    
Reviewed on:  25th 2007
Product cost: $28-$40
Manufacturer: Cooler Master
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64.com Staff

{mospagebreak title=Packaging}
Packaging:
The pair of NotepalS’ arrived in plain but attractive boxes that reminded me of something that I could not quite put my finger on. The box is primarily white with a large picture of the NotepalS on it and two smaller images displaying the two color options. The text on the box describes the NotepalS as a “Must Have” device for transforming your laptop into a desktop.  There is more propaganda about the major features below this line in four bullet points. The back has more information and images to illustrate the advantages of the NotepalS.
Inside the box the NotepalS was nicely tucked away with sturdy foam end caps to keep it from shifting around in the box.

{mospagebreak title= Appearance and Construction }
Appearance and Construction:
On the front of the NotepalS box Cooler master uses the descriptive word “elegant” I have to say that they used the right word. The graceful curve of the NotepalS is elegant and eye-catching.  The color that Cooler Master sent out was silver (as you can see from the images below) this lends a nice industrial feel to the NotepalS and actually helps it visually bland in with the laptop used (more on that later).

The NotepalS is made of a single piece of aluminum for the upper surface with a plastic base and “lever” that controls the angle of incline (there are six angles to choose from). To prevent scratching your laptop Cooler Master has placed a rubber bumper on the inside of the curved lip and two rubber foot pads on the upper back portion for the bottom of your laptop to rest on.  These also ensure good non-slip contact. The curved aluminum surface has large slots cut into is to allow for airflow to the bottom of the note book and the aluminum itself helps to dissipate even more heat.
The NotepalS is an amazingly simple, elegant and functional design.

Eye-appeal:
Once I started bringing the NotepalS to work people started asking me about it.
I would get questions like:
 “What type of laptop is that?”
“Where did you get that?”
“How much is it?”
This was in addition to the comments on the looks of the NotepalS. I do not think a day has gone by that I have not gotten some sort of comment on the looks of the NotepalS.

{mospagebreak title=Performance} Performance:
For those of you that work off of a laptop you may have found that you begin to hunch over the desk to see the screen or to work with the keyboard. I know that personally find myself doing that with my new 12.1” book. It was not a noticeable on the 15” or 17” models I previously used but became horrible on this little 12”. That is not to say I do not like the tx1000 I use, on the contrary, I think it is the best laptop I have ever owned. Just that using it for extended periods of time has me leaning over to keep working.
Now to further aggravate this I was recently in an automobile accident and suffered injuries to my back and left shoulder for a short time this made working on the tx1000 for extended periods impossible.
Now I am sure by now you are wondering just where I am going with all of this, well I am trying to give background on what is going on and to justify the following euphoric statements I am going to make about the NotepalS.
Upon its arrival I pulled out the Notepal Sand set about trying it out at different angles. What I found out from my first night of testing is that with the way the tx1000 is elevated I could work without hunching over the laptop and it provided amazing relief for the usual burning ache in my neck and back. I also noticed that my shoulder did not “lock” on me while typing or begin to go numb as it often had before.
Needless to say I was ecstatic. I had found a way to continue doing what I love (yes I actually love writing and doing these evaluations) without pain and large amounts of medication. This is all due to the way the NotepalS raises the screen to a viewing angle that approximates the same height of a regular monitor. Now some of you may think that the increased angle of the keyboard would be uncomfortable to type on, this is not the case and it actually seems to reduce fatigue in the wrists and forearms. 
The raised platform and the small footprint of the base also lead to another and completely unexpected benefit, the NotepalS is a space saver, I found I was able to put my laptop in places using the NotepalS that I could not put just the laptop.  
Now I was not going to trust the impressions of one evening to complete my opinion of the NotepalS.
I decided that for a period of 30 days I would use this item both at work and at home bringing it back and forth with me.
For my wife she took hers to her office and left it there with the new keyboard and mouse we bought for her.
To complete this evaluation I will cover both of our views on this product.

His:
As I mentioned above I have a love for writing, I also have a love for technology I am at my happiest when my desk is covered with new “toys” for me to write about. This state of chaotic happiness means that the surface area of my desk rarely sees the light of day and is in short supply of space for me to put my laptop. Usually it sits sandwiched at an odd angle right at the edge of the desk with very little room for cables (power, network, etc) and nowhere to comfortably put my arms/wrists for typing.  It also puts the viewing angle of the laptop at an awkward position and one that means I have to bend over to read anything properly.  The same thing can be said for my area at work I have three 19” monitors on my desk and numerous other items in keeping with my work as SysAdmin.

Before, when I brought my laptop to work I would have it sitting in an awkward position right at the edge of my desk. With one of the corners actually hanging off of the desk! Not the most recommended way to work.
With the NotepalS I have a different work environment. The same space that I had problems with now fits my tx1000 with some extra room. This is (as I mentioned above) due to the fact that the NotepalS raises the laptop above the rest of the items on your desk and gives it a smaller foot print.
Now I use my laptop much more at work, I connect into our guest wireless and test our web-based applications with it, no more hunching over or uncomfortable positions to reach the keys. It is simply easy to work with now that I bring the NotepalS with me. At home the benefit has become more obvious; I can work longer without discomfort, I can position my laptop in a more accessible and usable position, I do not have to clear off quite as much to use it.
I know some of you may be wondering about transporting the NotepalS back and forth, what issues if any did I have? I can honestly say I had no issues other than the fact that my current laptop bag will not fit the NotepalS inside it. But it is light enough that I carry it by hand.

Hers:
For my wife the requirements were very different.  She wanted to use her Laptop Like a desktop, complete with external keyboard and mouse. Now the laptop she uses is a 17” Dell and as such it is a rather large laptop. Using a keyboard with this flat on the desk is simply not an option you are too far from the screen. So what was needed was a way to elevate the laptop so that the distance from the user to the screen (when using the keyboard) was minimized.
The Cooler Master NotepalS provided this; brining the 17” display up and in-line with a “normal” viewing angle while shortening the distance from your eyes to the screen.

I questioned my wife on her thoughts and feelings (as well as any comment from her co-workers) after using the NotepalS for 30 days. And found that she enjoyed having the screen of the laptop up and in a more normal viewing angle, but also due to the size of the screen the NotepalS allowed her to have the screen positioned at a good distance when using the external keyboard.  She did have the complaint that when moving the screen angle there were times when the whole unit felt like it would topple over.

This is not a good thing Cooler Master states, on the box (and on the website), that the NotepalS supports up to 17” laptops. Yet here we see that when a 17” laptop is on the NotepalS we have a stability issue. I was a tad disappointed, what for me was a great feature (the small footprint of the base) was a problem for my wife.
When I asked if people had made any comments her reply was a vigorous shake of the head and the statement “every day” She hears comments such as:
“Oh cool, now you can use it just like a desktop with a separate keyboard and everything.”
“That is a great idea.”

Performance conclusion:
It looks like the Cooler Master NotepalS performs as advertised with the exception of being a little unstable when using a 17” laptop.  Both my wife and I found it to be a great benefit to working from a laptop. I personally found it an amazing asset since it helped me alleviate the pain I was experiencing when working for long periods of time on my laptop.

{mospagebreak title=Price/Warranty}
Price/Warranty:
Price:
the NotepalS will cost you between $28-$40 of your hard earned cash. This is not terribly bad and I feel that the price is more than worth what you get out of the NotepalS.
Warranty:
For the warranty information I will let the Cooler Master site speak for itself:

"Warranty information

Thank you for purchasing this Cooler Master product. Cooler Master guarantees this product against any material or functional defects, and provides limited hardware warranty service for one year after the date of purchase. Please make sure to save your purchase receipt.

This product is designed exclusively for use with laptop computers. The warranty shall be void if this product is used for any other purpose. Please refer to these instructions if you are unfamiliar with installation procedures and method of use.

Warranty service applies only to malfunctions occurring during normal use, and is not applicable to the following situations: (1) damage caused by accident, abuse, modification, misuse, neglect, voltage supply error, water spillage, natural disaster, or use of other external device; (2) a non-Cooler Master product, such as a transmission line, has been used; (3) the function of a Cooler Master product or its parts has been modified without the written consent of Cooler Master; or (4) use of product serial number or date of manufacture to obtain warranty service when product the purchase receipt or invoice has been lost."

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
Cooler Master bills the NotepalS as a notebook cooling accessory, but in the long run that is not where the NotepalS stand out. Yes, it does help with cooling by allowing air flow under the laptop, and the aluminum construction does allow for heat to be pulled away from the underside of the laptop. Still where the NotepalS really stands out is in its ergonomics, simply put the NotepalS made using a laptop more comfortable for both my wife and I. The adjustable riser allows the NotepalS to be set to a height that is comfortable for just about anyone. To wrap thing up the NotepalS lived up to the writing on the box and really is a “Must Have” if you are looking for something to let you work on your laptop like it is a desktop, or if you are one of the unlucky few to suffer from “laptop hunch” after working on your laptop for a long period of time.

Pros:
Light weight
Adjustable angle
No-Slip pads
Reduces wrist and arm fatigue (yes it really does)

Cons:
Unstable when using a 17” laptop

The Cooler Master NotepalS has earned our Best on the Planet award

Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Michelle Wu at Cooler Master for arranging the two NotepalS’ used in this evaluation.  

nVidia enters the world of candy… or is it vitamins?

nVidia, the big green machine, maker of the (as of the moment) fastest consumer GPU on the planet, also not a big fan of Planetx64. I know you are thinking to yourself “What? That can’t be!” but sadly it is true. The story goes something like this… (Cue the wavy video and harp music as we slip back in time…)

Around the time the 590 SLI chipset arrived on the scene I was just beginning to build a relationship with nVidia. Then I received the reference board for the 590 SLI. This was manufactured by Foxconn (normally a pretty good company). However this time the sample was riddled with issues and failed to pass stability testing. I wanted to work with nVidia on this but by that time all of the “8-hour” evaluations had been published and the slavish masses had proclaimed that the 590 SLI was a winner, topped only by the second coming or maybe free beer and pizza.

Author: Sean Kalinich
Date: July 6th 2007
Manufacturer: Jelly Belly/nVidia
Released By: nVidia (PR TEAM)

Well, I still had a dead board (and a dead 7900GTX that was killed by the board). Eventually nVidia agreed to send me a new board (and I RMA’d the 7900GTX) to make a long story short. Both boards are still here, and neither were reviewed (as they never came close to approaching stability). I have several others with the same sad chipset also sitting collecting dust. (The only bright star being the CrossHair from Asus that I am using for a SubZero cooling review.) Nothing from the Great Green One about a fix to any of the issues I had.

Now let’s fast-forward a few months to the release of the 680i SLI, I was contacted, included on the briefings, and sent a sample board. This time the clunker was from eVGA (many of you know of the issues with the early eVGA and other manufacturers’ 680i SLI boards). Again this newest board from nVidia was plagued with stability problems. Again I tried to work with nVidia. They started by telling me that no one had encountered the issue I had. Then mysteriously I receive an e-mail (again after the market has been awed by the mass of reviews gushing about this newest chipsets’ greatness) telling me they (nVidia) have been able to reproduce the issue I had, and that they would let me know about a fix. 

Next were contacted by nVidia for the 8800 launch but saw no sample (we were not surprised), but after this began a long and sullen silence from nVidia broken only by the occasional “spam” from nVidia telling us how much their products cost in comparison to ATi.

Jump back to Monday July 2^nd 2007. I receive an e-mail informing me there was a package coming from nVidia!  There was no indication of who at nV had sent it and I had not heard of anything new coming out. I checked and it was a 6 pound package, what could it be!?

Well the day arrived for the package to be delivered; I was excited I was getting something from nVidia! What type of part would it be? I grabbed the box out of the FedEx person’s hands and wasted no time in opening it.

… Upon opening the box I was not sure I had been given the right package. I checked the label and sure enough it was addressed to me. What I found inside was a large jar (broken) of green Jellybeans.  I was floored, but since I had not received anything from nVidia for so long and being in fear of missing an unknown deadline, I began a review of the product. So without further ado let’s take a look at this newest offering from nVidia and see how tasty it is…

Packaging: 1.5 out of 5
The box that arrived at my door was plain and brown, nothing flashy, no specifications or features listed anywhere.  It also provided almost no protection as the jar of Jellybeans inside was broken (like many other products I have received direct from nVidia). Another item annoyingly absent was a manual.

There was no indication of how to use this product! While many other items are self explanatory these were not. The label on the Jar simply read “Overclocking Vitamins” with a footnote about taking 2 for Ultimate SLI performance and a small “Nutritional Information” label that I know never passed the FDA.

The serving size alone would put most people off their lunch, it reads 1,333 of these green little monsters!

Appearance: 2.0 out of 5
There is nothing attractive about a smashed jar of green candies and I am not even sure how to point out the major features of this bizarre entry into the enthusiast market from nVidia. I will point this out as it may be important to those of you that put your faith in nVidia. It would appear they completely outsourced this product. The individual beans were from Jelly Belly and the jar from another 3^rd party company. The only part that I could not determine the manufacturer for was the label.

As you can see this is certainly not designed by nVidia.

Performance: 0.5 out of 5
I could not get these to power on. When I connected them to the PSU they simply sizzled and melted. That was only after I jumpered the PSU as there was no power switch that I could find.

Overclocking was a complete failure. No matter how much voltage I put into them they only smoked, even with 1,333 in a pile (No I did not count them) and at one point they even caught fire. Perhaps nVidia should provide better cooling for these in the next generation.

Cost and Warranty: 0.2 out of 5
I have been unable to find this product for sale anywhere on the net. Warranty I imagine would be provided by Jelly Belly but I could not find an RMA link on their site.

Conclusions and Comments:
To be honest I think that nVidia has bitten off more than it can chew with this release. Perhaps with better part to performance ratio this would be a viable product but the need for 1333 pieces with each use is a little much. Overclocking needs some serious attention as this release still melts and smokes when voltage is applied. We attempted to contact nVidia and get a comment on this but they would not make an official statement. There are unconfirmed rumors that Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO, NVIDIA Corporation was heard to say "I wish people would stop smoking our beans".

In the end this product left me with a bad taste… not to mention shards of glass in my mouth. I can certainly say this is not "The Way It’s Meant To Be Played" or should I say Eaten. But with nothing else to review from the Big Green PR machine, it is what it is…

Pros:
None that I can think of

Cons:
Glass in my gums.
Weight Gain
Potential Diabetic coma.

Scores:
Packaging: 1.5 out of 5
Appearance: 2.0 out of 5
Performance: 0.5 out of 5
Cost and Warranty: 0.2 out of 5
Total: 4.2 out of 20

Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank the nVidia PR Team for sending me a box full of glass shards and candy.

P.S. if you cannot take a joke…. perhaps you should change your line of work.

Complain or comment here.

SuperTalent is a name that is becoming very well known in the enthusiast community for its high performance DDR and DDR2 RAM. What some may not know is that they also make flash storage and MP3 players.

Product: SuperTalent Mega-Screen 2GB MP3 Player
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed On: April 4^th 2007 
Category: Mainstream
Product cost:  $90.00 
Manufacturer: SuperTalent
Spelling and Grammatical Editor: Paul Mercer

Deciding to shift gears for a an evaluation or two, we have had the good fortune to have been sent SuperTalent?s 2GB Mega-Screen MP3 Player. This iPod Nano competitor has looks, but how is it on performance and ease of use. Grab your headphones and listen along? Follow the bouncing ball if you want to sing along kiddies!

{mospagebreak title=Packaging and Accessories}  

Packaging and Accessories:
The Mega-Screen comes in a black box that measures roughly 5"x5"x1? the front and back have a picture of the Mega-Screen and the words SuperTalent in embossed silver letters. On two sides of the box you can see a profile view of the player, on the bottom edge you will see the capacity marked with a red sticker. Our model, as mentioned above, is the 2GB version. Inside the outer slipcover is an inner box that opens up like a book. Inside this you will find the Mega-Screen nestled snugly in a small space. Under the Mega-Screen are all of the accessories and software. 

The accessories the Mega-Screen ships with are nothing to write home about, but are still what you would expect (not to mention need) to use it.

The packing list reads something like this:
 
1- Set Ear-Buds
1- USB Cable 
1- Recording Cable 
1- Manual 
1- Software and Drivers CD-ROM 

 {mospagebreak title=Construction and Features}

Construction and Features:

Construction:
The SuperTalent Mega-Screen is made of lightweight plastic.  The player measures a mere 3-3/8" x 1-5/8" x 3/8" this is roughly the same size as an iPod Nano.

On the front of the Mega-Screen is a 1-1/8 x 1-1/8" 256k color OLED display. This display can show photos and also allows for video music support. Below the display screen are a grouping of buttons, these buttons are plastic and sort of cheap feeling but during testing I had no issues with them.
On the left side of the Mega-Screen you will find a list of all of the formats it supports, a small microphone, a reset button, the USB port and a spot to attach a leash (although no leash is provided with the Mega-Screen). The microphone and reset holes look very similar, with the reset hole being only slightly larger. Although they are both labeled on the back of the player I would recommend double checking before using the reset switch to avoid damaging the microphone.

Along the bottom edge of the Mega-Screen is the headphones port. This port can also be used to connect the player directly to the line-in or line-out on a computer or other audio device for direct live recording or playback.
The right side of the Mega-Screen is unadorned, while the top side only has another spot for the annoyingly absent leash. The back side of the Mega-Screen has the labeling for the microphone, the reset button and the headphones port.

The Mega-Screen is powered by a 370mAh rechargeable lithium polymer battery that can be recharged by simply plugging the player into a USB port on a computer that is powered on. SuperTalent claims this battery gives you 8 hours of playing time.

The Mega-Screen feels very light and almost has a toy like quality to it. Compared to other 2GB MP3 players (such as the Sandisk Sansa)  it is tiny and very thin.

{mospagebreak title=Features}

Features:

The SuperTalent Mega-Screen is capable of playing both MP3 and WMA files as well as having a built-in FM tuner. Additional audio support includes real-time FM, Voice, and Line-In recording from just about any source with a 1/8? audio out or headphones jack.

SuperTalent also threw in Lyrics, limited Video Music support, a photo album and a host of other niceties. I will walk through the features and settings menu by menu.

Mode: Under mode you will find the different playback and recording modes.

Music : This mode allows you to scroll through and play any audio files (including recordings) stored on the player.

FM Radio : This Mode accesses the built-in FM tuner. Reception on the FM radio was fairly impressive. I was able to pick up stations that I sometimes have trouble getting on my car stereo.

The Mega-Screen allows you to set up and store up to 10 preset stations.

Voice -  This mode opens up the Voice recording mode.

Line In- This mode sets the player up to record from an external audio source.

Photo Album : this allows you to scroll through and display pictures you have stored on player.

Photos must be 128×128 pixels in size.
SuperTalent includes an application to resize the images for storage on the player. This application, called NXPhoto, can be found on the included CD-ROM.

Using another application, called NXvConverter, you can also convert video files to a format supported usable on the player.
The NXvConverter will convert avi, asf, mpg, mpeg, wmv, vob, dat, and asx video files.

Both the NXvConverter and the NXPhoto work without issue in XP x64 as well as Vista.

Sound – Is the next main menu entry. This menu item allows you to select different equalizer presets.

Play Mode: This menu allows you to set your play sets and playback speed.

Display Mode : Here you are given options for display preferences such as:

Play Time, Elapsed or Remaining.

Song Title which allows you to display file name, ID3 information or lyrics if the MP3 or WMA file supports it.

Scroll Speed of the Song Title information, Language and Back Light time. 

Time -  Here you can set the player clock, sleep time, and the auto off times.

Setting : This menu gives you your options for the following:

Recording, here you can set the quality of both voice and line in recording. For line in recording you can also turn on or off an auto sync function. For voice recording you can turn on a VDR function that stops recording when there is no sound and resumes when sound is detected.

Under the FM Radio submenu you can set the sound to stereo or mono as well as the recording quality for direct real-time FM recording.

The Information submenu give you current information about the player (like you could not have figured that out) including ; product version, total memory and available memory.

Under the upgrade menu you can update the firmware of the player. This is accomplished by the following steps:

Step 1: Turn on the MP3 Player and connect it to the PC USB port

Step 2: Create a "FIRM_UP" folder in the root page, then copy the

latest decompressed firmware file under the folder "FIRM_UP"

Step 3: Release the MP3 Player from the PC safely

Step 4: Under the Setting mode screen, select upgrade and confirm.

The MP3 Player will upgrade automatically.
Turn off the MP3 Player.

The Format menu lets you…; well I think you can figure that one out for yourself.

The Mega-Screen has a built-in FM Tuner, as mentioned above, this tuner also allows you to set preset stations that you can scroll through easily. This can be done automatically or manually.

{mospagebreak title=Ease of Use}

Ease of Use:

The Mega-Screen is only partially intuitive, to access and use many other advanced features you will need to read the manual, perhaps more than once.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, it is just that there are many functions and features that are only available in certain modes and a limited number of buttons on the player. For example, there is a way to change the display during MP3 or WMA playback to show a graphic EQ for each channel. To activate this you need to press and hold the record button during playback. This is not something that you would normally do.

This is not say that you cannot get used to using the Mega-Screen but that there is a learning curve involved.

One of the first things you have to get used to are the three types of button presses that are commonly used. The press once"  (pressing the button for approximately 1 second),  The "press" (pressing the button for more than 1.5 seconds), and the "press and hold" which is sort of self explanatory. 
These are used at different times to turn on or off different functions and features during playback or while in certain menus.

The Mega-Screen does take a while to get used to, it is not something you will be able to pick up and master right out of the box. 

Uploading Music and Files : Here we do find something very easy to accomplish. To transfer files to the Mega-Screen simply plug the player into a USB port (it will show as a drive) and move your music, photos and/or videos to the proper folder As you can see from this screen shot, the player works in just about any OS including Vista.

Charging : to charge the player simply  plug it into an available USB port. Once the player is fully charged it has roughly eight hours of play time. 

{mospagebreak title=Sound Quality}

Sound Quality:

Sound Quality is a very subjective topic. As I have mentioned before in previous reviews my personal tastes in sound, color, and configuration are going to be different from yours. To help me get the best feel for actual sound quality I chose my favorite subjective testing method.

I give or show the item to a few different people and get their opinion on it.

With the Mega-Screen I added a little twist to it. The people I loaned it to also happen to like very different music types, from country to hip-hop.

This gave me a good range of test subjects and allows me to give you the most complete evaluation of the Mega-Players sound quality. I have listed below a rating from one to five given by each person and the one or two word comment they made on the sound quality.

The Numbers came out as follows:

Sound Qaulity:
3
4
3
4

Comments:
Tinny (too much trebble)
Loud
Good
Nice

So taking the scores of 3+4+3+4=14/4=3.5 
That gives the Mega Screen a 3.5 rating for sound quality. 

{mospagebreak title=Value}

Value:

Cost:

The Mega-Screen is marketed against the iPod Nano as such it is competitively priced and also has many of the same features as the Nano. The 2GB Mega-Screen can be found for around $90.00 while the 2Gb Nano runs a hefty $185. The Mega-Screen is half the cost of the Nano and is not proprietary like the Nano is. The Mega-Screen work cross platform and in every OS (including x64) that I tested it on. This to me makes the Mega-Screen an  exceptional Value.

Warranty:

The Mega-Screen comes with a one-year warranty. RMA, if needed is handled through SuperTalent?s web site at http://www.supertalent.com/support/rma.php.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}

Conclusion:

After listening to and testing the Mega-Screen I can say that SuperTalent has done a great job.

They have entered a market that is over-shadowed by Apple, but have managed to release an MP3 player that stands up to the competition in features and simply kicks them around in price.

The sound quality is very good and even the FM Radio has clean and sharp sound. There is none of the static to be heard on many others. The ability to work properly in just about any OS is another plus in the Mega-Screen?s favor. In all I would say this light little player is a quality investment for those of you looking for an MP3 player to work with your 64 bit machines and if you are looking forward or even currently using Vista (x86 or x64) you can rest easy knowing that the Mega-Screen will still work for you. I know it will be replacing my current MP3 Player.

Pros:
Works in x86 or x64 seamlessly
Good Audio Quality
Low cost
Fully featured
Light Weight
Sturdy
Nice Display

Cons:
Learning functions can be time consuming

Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Joe James at SuperTalent for supplying the Mega-Screen for this evaluation.