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Review: A-Data XPG Gaming V2.0 Series DDR3 2000G

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Right now is a slightly confusing time to buy RAM. Those upgrading from a dusty old system with DDR2 support to a current platform such as Intel's Z68 or AMD's 990FX, will need to invest in some DDR3 memory to play nicely with your new chipset.</div>
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If you're on a triple channel chipset such as Intel's X58, you'll need three DDR3 modules instead of two. Why? Because there are three slots and you need to fill them. Just keep looking at the slots, manufacturers keep saying.</div>
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Sadly for most of us the practical benefits of tri-channel memory are next to none, and the additional financial outlay for triple-module kits makes that sting all the more. Best stick to dual channel, then.</div>
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That's only the beginning of your long road of decisions as a potential RAM buyer, though. 'What capacity should I go for?' we hear you say. 'What's more important, low latency or high frequency?' Good question. Let's… 'How much difference does RAM make anyway and how much should I pay for it? Am I ugly? Why did Dad leave?'</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Multi-tasking</span></div>
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Calm down! Wipe your worried brow and consider this – if you multi-task a lot, working on a desktop full of minimised applications, multi-tabbed browsers full of flash-heavy sites, then 8GB of RAM is a good idea. More, if you can afford it.</div>
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For the gamer, those priorities shift towards low latency and high frequency, at the expense of capacity, if need be. Enter (deep breath) ADATA's XPG Gaming v2.0 Series DDR3 2000G 2x 2GB kit.</div>
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Aimed squarely at gamers with more sense than money, it hits the ground running at 2,000 MHz, which spells good news for memory throughput and CPU-heavy tasks.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Speed trap</span></div>
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Is 4GB enough for a gaming rig? Absolutely. RAM has precious little effect on frame rates at any capacity, and while doubling up to 8GB will make heavy desktop use run smoother, 4GB isn't going to hobble your favourite games.</div>
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In that regard, ADATA's Gaming series has all the bases covered. Another impressive feather in its cap is an operating frequency of 2,000MHz. 1,600MHz is the standard at this price, although overclocking headroom varies wildly between sets. Slightly surprisingly, this set won't budge up to 2,133MHz; it's apparently operating pretty damn near maximum frequency.</div>
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There is some room for manoeuvre in latency timings, though. Stock settings are an underwhelming 9-11-9-27; a rather lethargic set of figures. The first figure: CAS latency, controls CPU communication speed and has a noticeable effect on performance. We managed to clock CAS latency down to a much more acceptable seven in the BIOS menu.</div>
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Tech Labs</h4>
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Despite our own tweaking though, ADATA's XPG Gaming v2.0 Series DDR3 2000G just doesn't have the raw speed we would expect. Corsair's Dominator GT 4 GB kit is a tenner more expensive and despite running at 1,866MHz, its lower latencies and robust, overclockable build make it more attractive.</div>
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Review: A-Data XPG Gaming V2.0 Series DDR3 2000G

Right now is a slightly confusing time to buy RAM. Those upgrading from a dusty old system with DDR2 support to a current platform such...

Review: Asus M5A99X Evo

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Normally, in the case of a big new processor launch like AMD's forthcoming Bulldozer chips, you'd expect the motherboards that support it to play second fiddle. But Asus' M5A99X EVO is just one of many new boards that have been kitted out with a 9-series chipset without said CPU being close to sampling.</div>
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Specifically, the M5A99X makes use of an AMD 990X chipset with an SB950 southbridge. Translated, that puts it in the second tier for features: below it are AMD 970 boards, designed for value, while above it are models based on the all-powerful 990FX.</div>
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The differences between the three, though, come down to relatively minor things like the number of SATA ports, USB slots and, more significantly, how many x16 PCI Express ports there are.</div>
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The 970 has just one, while the 990X has two – although if you do plug in a second card for CrossFire or SLI graphics, both slots run at just 8x speed. In other words, if you want the best dual (or more) graphics performance, you'll want a more expensive 990FX board. If you want a cheap build, get a 970.</div>
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So does the Asus M5A99X Evo have anything else with which to overcome its middle child syndrome?</div>
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Overall performance at default settings is fairly mundane: slightly better than the 970-based Gigabyte 970A-UD3 also reviewed recently, but not enough to be strikingly significant. What you do get with the M5A99X EVO, though, is a lot of easy-to-get-at options.</div>
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Asus's Windows-based application for handling overclocking and so on – EasyTune – is still buggy and hard to uninstall, but it's much better than it used to be. Importantly, it has just one interface for everything, which helps to make sense of the extra hardware features Asus has added to the stock 990X layout.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Highly configurable</span></div>
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That includes the dual chip, and highly configurable clock controls for components other than the CPU, known as EPU and TPU. EPU underclocks parts of the board when not in use to save power, TPU gives you instant overclocking when you need it. Clicking the auto-overclock button got us a cool 27 per cent performance boost.</div>
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Asus' take on the new UEFI graphical BIOS manager is the best around by far. It not only looks better than a traditional BIOS, it's cleverly layered too.</div>
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On the front page, there's a one-click control for overclocking or dragging and dropping boot devices into order. Behind that there's a set of basic options for top-level tweaking, and behind that you have access to everything. For a £115 board, this is an overclocker's paradise. If, that is, you're willing to make do with one GPU and take a punt on Bulldozer being any good.</div>
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Right now, the problem for any 9-series motherboard isn't that there's no big performance difference between any of them; it's that the only reason to upgrade from an 8-series is Bulldozer. And if that's a flop, your next build will likely be Intel anyway.</div>
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Which leaves the M5A99X EVO the dubious honour of being a good motherboard – but for reasons beyond its control you may not wish to buy it yet.</div>
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Review: Asus M5A99X Evo

Normally, in the case of a big new processor launch like AMD's forthcoming Bulldozer chips, you'd expect the motherboards that ...

Review: Sony VAIO E Series

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Sony has a different VAIO range for each type of user, but has always valued solid multimedia performance and good looks for all its laptops.</div>
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Curiously, though, the Sony VAIO VPCEEL1E1E (E Series) didn't produce the usual spark of excitement for us. By shunning an Intel processor and instead opting for an AMD E-350 Vision CPU, Sony has kept the cost down. And while there's no dedicated graphics card, AMD's Vision brand of CPUs includes the integrated graphics chips in the form of the Radeon series.</div>
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The VAIO has an integrated Radeon HD 6310 that will handle some pretty demanding programs. We got a respectable score of 5651 from our 3D benchmark program, and were impressed when we loaded up some high definition (HD) video.</div>
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Battery Eater '05: 177 minutes<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />Cinebench: 1237<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />3DMark 2006: 5651</div>
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The screen is well suited to watching movies or light gaming, thanks to the Super-TFT coating that gives it that distinctive reflective sheen. The native 1366 x 768 pixel resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio are standard nowadays for comfortable movie watching without the letterbox black boxes at the top and bottom of the screen. We also found we could get good viewing angles from the screen.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Good usability</span></div>
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When it comes work, you'll find the usability is pretty decent. The touchpad has a textured coating which makes it comfortable to use and stops you slipping or brushing it accidentally. It is responsive and both the left and right-click buttons are chunky and feel solid.</div>
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The same can be said of the full-sized keyboard, which is designed with Sony's favoured isolation-style keys and gives you plenty of space, so you won't end up hitting the wrong button when typing at speed. There's a dedicated numeric keypad added in, as well as Sony's now standard VAIO, ASSIST and WEB hotkeys.</div>
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The chassis is sturdy, apart from the lid, which flexed quite badly when we pressed on it. The black embossed design unfortunately does little to stand out from the crowd.</div>
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Connectivity is standard fare, with four USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI sockets for connecting to an external monitor, and an Ethernet cable for hardwired internet access – something you might not need, because the VAIO is equipped with 802.11n wireless capability.</div>
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Admittedly, we are so used to seeing Sony turn out brilliant high-end laptops, that when it produces a simple mid-level machine (at a reasonable price) we are left feeling somewhat underwhelmed.</div>
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There are a number of positives to take away from the laptop, however, particularly if you plan to watch a lot of HD video from services such as the BBC iPlayer, or if you want to use your machine for working at home. The keyboard is up to Sony's usual high standard and will benefit students or writers.</div>
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All in all, this is a good, if unremarkable, mid-level laptop from Sony, especially if you value the VAIO brand</div>
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Review: Sony VAIO E Series

Sony has a different VAIO range for each type of user, but has always valued solid multimedia performance and good looks for all its la...

Review: Canon Pixma Pro9500 Mark II

Review: Canon Pixma Pro9500 Mark II

The Canon PIXMA Pro9500 MkII has the same full range of coloured inks as the Pro9000, but adds grey and matte black cartridges. As wi...

Free Nikon Coolpix P300 with Nikon binoculars

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="90" src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/PhotoRadar/Nikon%20Coolpix%20P300/free-nikon-p300-with-binoculars-200-200.jpg" width="120" /></p><br/>Nikon has announced a new promotion entitling customers to a free Nikon Coolpix P300 with an RRP of £300 when purchasing any binocular from their EDG range.<br/><br/>Until the 31st August 2011, customers will be able to claim a Coolpix P300 with purchases of one of the 5 models in the binocular range. The EDG binocular range features dielectric high-reflective multilayer prism coating.<br/><br/>The Coolpix P300 is a premium compact, packing higher quality features into a small and lightweight body. A bright f/1.8 lens allows for fast shooting in low light. With 4.2x optical zoom and full manual control allow for creative shooting.<br/><br/>Customers purchasing a pair of binoculars from the EDG range have until 30th September to file their claim. For more information on how to claim, visit the Nikon Coolpix EDG promotion website.

Free Nikon Coolpix P300 with Nikon binoculars

Nikon has announced a new promotion entitling customers to a free Nikon Coolpix P300 with an RRP of £300 when purchasing any binocular from ...