22 May, 2009
This net-top is ideal for web browsing, email and office work
Tne latest addition to the net-tops market is the A10100 from Advent. Net-tops are desktop PCs that use netbock hardware. For doing basic jobs such as email, web browsing and office work the AlC10C is really rather good. and may even spark a revival of the all-in-one PC.
The A10100 ignores the normal all-in-one approach of building everything behind the TFT panel and instead has a small base unit holding the hardware, with a height-adjustable strut built into it, holding the 18.4in screen, though it does feel a little flimsy. It's a good-looking compact design and ideal where desktop space is at a premium.
Five USB ports arc built into the base unit, with two on the right-hand side of the base unit and three on the rear panel. A 4-in-1 Flash card reader and two speakers are built into the top of the unit; The speakers aren't the worst, but they lack depth and volume.
Internally its standard netbook hardware with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, Intel i945GME Express chipset and 1GB of PC2-5300 DDR2 memory It's not fast, but its performance is adequate for its target market.
The 18.4in screen has a natve resolution of 1,680x945 pixels and, although it does have a glossy finish, it doesn't reflect office lighting too badly.
For storage there is a 160GB 5,40Orpm Fujitsu hard disk and a built-in dual-layer DVD burner. There's also 802.11b/g Wifi arid Gigabit Ethernet. 
The A10100 comes with a mini keyboard and a slimline mot:se Besides pre-installed Windows XP Home 5P3, Cyberlink's DVD Suite and Microsoft Works 5E9.0 arc included, along with a year's return to base warranty. Simon Crisp
Personal Computer World April 2009
17 May, 2009
Netbooks trounce this phone accessory 
THE REDFLY SMARTPHONE TERMINAL C8N from Celio is a laptop-like companion for Windows Mobile-based smart- phones. It features a bright, 8-inch LCD and a keyboard to make your smartphone more useful for data-intensive tasks. Priced at $299, the C8N aims to undercut every netbook on the market, but we're not convinced it's worth the price of admission.
Weighing 2 pounds, the C8N resembles many of today's ultraportables. Though compact, the C8N packs a full QWERTY keyboard that's responsive and comfortable to use. But the C8N lacks any internal guts or software. Instead, it relies on your smartphone's processor strength and storage space to create, store, and edit documents. To connect the C8N to your handheld via USB or Bluetooth, you must install a driver onto your Windows Mobile smartphone. When the C8N and the phone are paired, your smartphone's screen goes dim and its image shows up on the C8N's LCD.
In our tests, we experienced some lag when editing lengthy Word documents or when typing rapidly. Also, we found that the touch pad wouldn't always respond to our movements, and the mouse buttons were overly rigid and at times difficult to press. As you'd expect, though, browsing the Web on the C8N is more enjoyable than on a smartphone's screen. And we managed to get an impressive 7 hours and 40 minutes of battery life out of it. 
But despite the C8N's positive attributes, ultimately its nemeses are netbooks that cost little more. Until Redfly slashes its price or adds new features, most road warriors will benefit more from one of them. —L.R.
22 April, 2009
Cube-shaped mini-desktop is a big performer
WE'VE SEEN A LOT OF PORTABLE, small-form-factor (SFF) desktops, but never one quite like the Maingear X-Cube, with a full liquid-cooling system inside.
The system cools both the processor (a 2.83GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550) and the graphics cards (two ATI Radeon HD 4870 cards, in a CrossFireX configuration) while expelling the heat via two fans connected to a vented side panel. This resulted in only a faint bubbling noise, one of the few clues that the X-Cube is something other than a run-of-the-mill LAN-party box.
The cooling and the system's additional components-4GB of DDR2 RAM, the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium, and two 750GB hard drives in a RAID Level 0 configuration—help make the X-Cube as powerful as it is portable, as it proved by excelling in nearly all our benchmark tests
The X-Cube's $2,884 price puts it right in line with the upper midrange of current Core i7 desktops, but some compromises come along with that price. First, expansion of any kind is practically impossible. Of the four expansion slots visible on the back of the case, all are currently filled by way of those two double-width graphics cards.
Despite the appearance of two free 5.25-inch external drive bays on the system's front, one is filled with cables, and the other is so buried that you'd need to dismantle nearly everything else just to get to it. 
Then there's the question of front-panel connectivity: Aside from a single USB port, there is none—not even microphone or headphone jacks. You do get a standard array on the rear panel, however: two PS/2 ports, digital audio connectors, six USB ports, an Ethernet jack, and eight-channel audio ports. -Matthew Murray
Computer Shopper March 2009
08 April, 2009
Roomy, No-Frills Storage
The Iomega eGo Desktop is a 1-terabyte desktop-class hard drive that offers a lot of storage for not a lot of money. Its styling and features share similari- ties with the smaller, pocket-size Iomega eGo hard drives.
The hip-flask-shaped, painted metal chassis measures 1.8 by 4.8 by 8 inches (HWD) and comes in blue, red, and black. The drive doesn't come with any loaded software (leaving the entire 1TB at your disposal) but you can download the Retrospect Express HI) simple backup software from !omega's Web site.
The software is Windows only, but Mac users can always fall back on Time Machine if they're running Mac OS 10.5. Also, to use this drive with a Mac, you must reformat the drive to HFS+. In terms of performance, this drive is fairly speedy It took only 49 seconds to copy our 1.2GB test folder via Windows drag-and-drop. The Retrospect software took quite a bit longer, 2:02, because it does a post-copy verification and stores files in its own format. 
The eGo's score of 3,477 on PCMark05'sHDD test showed it to be much faster than other pocket drives, which usually score less than 3,000. Compared with a 500GB pocket drive like the Seagate FreeAgent Go, the eGo is a lot cheaper on a per-gigabyte basis. And all things considered, it's a decent drive in an attractive case, at a good price. But businesses and those who want more robust backup software should look elsewhere for a more complete package.—Joel Santo Domingo
PC Magazine February 2009
28 March, 2009
This Monitor's Got Game
Already counting down the days until the next World Cup? If so, Hannspree has a monitor for you. The Harms Soccer (one of four 19-inch sports-themed displays) is designed for users who want to express their love of the game.
This display's 19-inch (4:3 aspect ratio) panel is housed in a round cabinet covered with black and white leather, giving it the look and feel of a real soccer ball. The company also offers baseball and basketball models, as well as a 19- inch widescreen with a basketball-hoop stand.
The 1,280-by-1,024 display sits atop a sturdy black-and-silver stand with tilt and swivel capabilities. You can also pivot the display 90 degrees to view the screen in portrait mode. 'Iwo 1-watt speakers embedded below the screen are typical monitor speakers; they're adequate but can't handle loud volume without distorting. At the rear of the cabinet are audio, HDMI, and analog (15-pin VGA) inputs, but the monitor does not have a DVI connection. In testing, the 2-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response panel had no trouble handling fastmotion sequences. 
However, this monitor's viewing angles weren't quite as claimed, and it had trouble reproducing dark and light shades of gray. Fortunately, the flaw did not affect color quality, but if you'll be retouching photos or doing anything that requires grayscale accuracy, this monitor will likely disappoint.
Even with its Haws, this display is more than capable of fulfilling your basic viewing needs, as well as impressing your soccer buddies. John R. Delaney.
PC Magazine February 2009
21 March, 2009
Full 1080p HD resolution on a compact 16:9 22in panel
Full 1080p HD resolution on a compact 16:9 22in panel
Most widescreen PC monitors on sale today come in a 16:10 aspect ratio - 22in models usually providing a screen resolution of 1,680x1.050. While this is perfectly adequate for the majority of desktop applications. It's not quite enough if you want to view a full-HD movie in all its 1080p glory.
The E22081-IDS is different. Having an aspect ratio of 16:9 it's the same shape as a widescreen TV – a little wider than the usual PC monitor It also supports a screen resolution of 1,920x1,080, which means its capable of displaying a 1080p movie without losing any quality through scaling. Previously, this resolution would have required a considerably more expensive 24in monitor.
For a low-cost panel, this is a very neat and tidy display, with an attractive thin bezel and easy-to-use control buttons. The on-screen display is very basic: there are no preset display modes or fancy options,
but everything is very easy to set up and adjust. A simple tilting stand is provided, which incorporates a
small clip to help keep your cables tidy-Dual inputs, both VGA and DVI (with HDCP) arc provided, but there's sadly no HDMI connection, which would have been perfect for this display and it could have been connected directly to a Blu-ray player or games console.
In our tests, the E2208HDS produces a very clear, sharp picture with very good contrast. The colours aren't the most accurate we've seen, but with calibration you can achieve a very pleasing image.
If you search online you can find this display for a very reasonable £150 which, for a full HD display, is excellent value for money. Paul Monckton.
Contact liyama www.iiyama.com
Specifications 22in TN panel with 16:9 aspect ratio and 1,920x1,080 resolution • 1,000:1 contrast ratio • 10,000.1 dynamic contrast ratio • 300cd/m2 brightness • 16.7 million colours • 0.248x0 248mm pixel pitch • 5ms response time • Dual VGA and DVI connectors • HDCP support • 2 1W stereo speakers • Kensington lock • Vesa 100 mount • 516.5x193x286mm (wxdxh) • 4.2kg
Personal Computer World February 2009
Most widescreen PC monitors on sale today come in a 16:10 aspect ratio - 22in models usually providing a screen resolution of 1,680x1.050. While this is perfectly adequate for the majority of desktop applications. It's not quite enough if you want to view a full-HD movie in all its 1080p glory.
The E22081-IDS is different. Having an aspect ratio of 16:9 it's the same shape as a widescreen TV – a little wider than the usual PC monitor It also supports a screen resolution of 1,920x1,080, which means its capable of displaying a 1080p movie without losing any quality through scaling. Previously, this resolution would have required a considerably more expensive 24in monitor.
For a low-cost panel, this is a very neat and tidy display, with an attractive thin bezel and easy-to-use control buttons. The on-screen display is very basic: there are no preset display modes or fancy options,
but everything is very easy to set up and adjust. A simple tilting stand is provided, which incorporates a
small clip to help keep your cables tidy-Dual inputs, both VGA and DVI (with HDCP) arc provided, but there's sadly no HDMI connection, which would have been perfect for this display and it could have been connected directly to a Blu-ray player or games console.
In our tests, the E2208HDS produces a very clear, sharp picture with very good contrast. The colours aren't the most accurate we've seen, but with calibration you can achieve a very pleasing image.
If you search online you can find this display for a very reasonable £150 which, for a full HD display, is excellent value for money. Paul Monckton.
Contact liyama www.iiyama.com
Specifications 22in TN panel with 16:9 aspect ratio and 1,920x1,080 resolution • 1,000:1 contrast ratio • 10,000.1 dynamic contrast ratio • 300cd/m2 brightness • 16.7 million colours • 0.248x0 248mm pixel pitch • 5ms response time • Dual VGA and DVI connectors • HDCP support • 2 1W stereo speakers • Kensington lock • Vesa 100 mount • 516.5x193x286mm (wxdxh) • 4.2kg
Personal Computer World February 2009
Battle through 50 square kilometres of African war
Brand power is the only reason Far Cry 2 is called what it is, since it has a different development team, a different environment, a completely different set of characters and a different storyline to the original game.
Far Cry 2 does, however, build on the original Far Cry's lush graphics and large free-roam environment, for which the original game received high praise. Graphics aren't as crisp or detailed as those found in Crysis, but the sheer size of the open world makes this the biggest first-person shooter environment we've ever encountered.
You play a mercenary who is sent into an unnamed war-torn African country, tasked with killing an arms dealer known as The Jackal But things quickly go pear-shaped when you get malaria and your target disappears. With the mission on hold, your focus is to get anti-malarial pills and collect diamonds - the currency in African wars – to buy new weapons.
After a brief introduction, you can roam free and complete any mission you please. Soldiers on both sides of the conflict take shots at you wherever you go. so building relationships with other mercenaries is very important. Encounters with the mercenaries, enemy soldiers and a journalist arc all sprinkled in with some excellent voice acting.
The biggest innovation in Far Cry 2, however, is the long flammable grass present across the entire environment. Throwing Molotov cocktails near enemy bases means you can fry adversaries without even pulling a trigger.
Realism is one of Far Cry 2's main goals and the sheer size of the open world certainly cements it, since
going from one point to the next regularly takes 20 minutes by car (with a few gun battles along the way, of course). Guns jam as they age, so you need to buy new ones, and cars regularly need fixing.
Instead of health packs that magically make you better, you have to perform gruesome battlefield surgery on yourself. Alternatively, you can inject yourself with some mystery healing fluid, although that barely seems more realistic than the old system.
There are serious flaws in Far Cry 2's realism in other areas too. Although the world is massive, the scenery is simply repeated all over. This includes the same shop owner copied and pasted into every gun shop across the country. It's also not clear how you've managed to come by a useful map showing where every enemy outpost is. Combative outposts are packed too closely together and there's an eerie lack of civilians – apparently they've all fled, but you'd expect a handful of poor sods to be left behind.
If you manage to complete the single-player mode (there's over 50 hours game play). then there's also a
relatively poor multiplayer option. Our biggest complaint with Far Cry 2, however, is that it crashed to desktop every 30 minutes to an hour on one test system, but not on anothcr. A 64-bit copy of Vista appeared to be one potential problem, but the internet is rife with users experiencing similar problems in other versions of Windows. 
Far Cry 2 is an ambitious game where the developers have overstretched themselves. With a bigger budget and an emphasis on quality rather than quantity, Far Cry 2 would have been an excellent game, instead of an average one. Emil Larsen.
Contact Ubisoft Far Cry 2
System requirements Pentium 4 3.2GHz or Pentium D 2.66GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3500+ or better • 1GB Ram • Nvidia Geforce 6800 or ATI Radeon 1650 with 256MB Ram • 12GB hard drive space
Personal Computer World February 2009
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