Last year, when Epson introduced its Stylus NX models, I reviewed the NX400 and came away impressed. By bucking the trend of designing all-in-ones (AIOs) for the dual role of home and home office, and focusing just on home use, Epson had come up with a home AIO that did some things—most notably printing photos—extremely well. The NX400 even came close to earning an Editors' Choice award, missing out only because the text quality wasn't quite good enough. Well, Epson's back now with the Epson Stylus NX515 ($149.99 direct), the text quality is much improved, and—not to keep you wondering yes, it's earned a spot as an Editors' Choice.

As with the NX400 last year, the NX515 is this year's top-of-the-line NX model. It's not the direct replacement for the NX400, however; it's a newly added step up, with Ethernet and WiFi support. (It also has a somewhat different print engine from the other models in the line, so except where I specifically say that a given comment in this review applies to other NX models, don't assume that it does.)

Whatever the relationship between the NX400 and NX515, it's very much worth mention that the NX515 addresses every shortcoming I saw in the NX400 last year, while carrying forward almost all of the NX400's strengths. And although it's designed primarily as a home AIO, it has some potential for the dual role of home and home-office AIO as well.

Home versus Office

The NX515 prints and scans, even over a network, and it works as a standalone copier. It can also scan to e-mail, by automatically launching the e-mail program on your PC and adding the scanned document or photo as an attachment.

The focus on home use shows in the printer's high quality for photos and scans; the ability to print from PictBridge cameras, memory cards, and USB memory keys; the 2.5-inch LCD for previewing photos before printing; and a special photo copy feature—in addition to standard copying—that can, for example, scan two 4-by-6 photos at once, and print each one on a separate sheet of paper. Unlike the NX400 (and NX415, according to Epson), the NX515 has enough memory for the photo copy feature to work with a letter-size original.

If you want to use one printer for both home and home office, the NX515's Ethernet and WiFi connections make it easy to share. And if you rarely need it for any office task other than printing, it will fit into a dual role quite nicely. It lacks two key office-centric features, however—a fax modem and an automatic document feeder (ADF) for scanning multi-page documents.

The lack of an ADF in particular makes the NX515 highly limited as an office tool. On the other hand, thanks to the pigment inks Epson uses in the entire NX line, output on plain paper is highly smear resistant, which can be particularly useful for business documents. You can, for example, use a highlighter on text without smearing it—something you can't do with the output from many ink jets.

Setup and Speed

Setting up the NX515 on a wired network, which I used for my tests, is standard fare. Once you find a spot for the 7.2- by 17.7- by 13.5-inch (HWD) printer and remove the packing materials, you can plug in the cables, load the four ink cartridges, load paper, and then run the automated installation routine from disc. I ran my tests using a Windows Vista system, but according to Epson, the disc that ships with the printer also includes drivers and a full set of software For Windows 7, XP, XP x64, 2000, and Mac OS X versions 10.3.9 and above.

No other ultraportable line captures the essence of thinking outside the box like Sony's. It was the first to introduce a sub-4-pound ultraportable with an optical drive and discrete graphics. Its keyboard, first seen on the VAIO VGN-X505ZP, was mimicked on Apple's MacBook, and the VAIO VGN-SZ170P was switching between two different graphics solutions long before anyone had heard of switchable graphics. Their latest ultraportable, the Sony VAIO VGN-Z590, breaks new ground once again. The dual SSDs, a Blu-ray drive, and switching graphics are features commonly found on an 8-pound media center, not a 3.2-pound ultraportable. It's amazing that Sony was able to fit the amount of technology it did into such a small frame. With the Z590, therefore, Sony retains the Editors' Choice in the ultraportable category.

The Z590 measures 8.3 by 12.4 by 1.2 inches and weighs 3.2 pounds

more compact and at least a half a pound lighter than its predecessor, the VAIO VGN-SZ791N. It's slightly heavier than the Apple MacBook Air (3 pounds) but lighter than the Voodoo Envy 133 (3.5 pounds) and the Lenovo ThinkPad X301 (3.3 pounds). When it comes to design, the Z590 is just as stunning as the SZ series. Clad in carbon fiber, the LED widescreen is as thin as several sheets of paper put together. Of course, since it's so thin, screen flex is a concern, but Sony has been using this design for several years now with no apparent ill affects. Aluminum, which covers the Apple Air's lid, is sturdier and arguably more elegant, while the Lenovo X301's combination of magnesium and carbon fiber materials better equip it for the bumpy road.

The Z590's 13.1-inch LED widescreen is smaller than that of the SZ791N (13.3 inches). This represents the industry's movement to the 16-by-9 screen form factor, which is common in HDTV displays. The size difference is barely noticeable, because the 1,600-by-900 resolution packs in more pixels than its predecessor did, and really makes high-definition content and high-resolution photos really pop. Until now, resolution this fine was unheard of on a 13-inch laptop: The Lenovo X301 tops out at 1,440-by-900, while the Voodoo 133 and the Apple Air have 1,280-by-800 resolutions. Although the higher resolution makes the text look smaller, it's still quite readable on screen.

The keyboard pitch (measured from the letters Q to P) on the Z590 is broader than on a traditional keyboard, because there's more spacing between each key. The slightly raised, non-adjoining keys are a departure from the SZ791N and are quite similar to those found on the Apple Air. Each individual key, however, measures 1.4 by 1.4 centimeters, tinier than the Air's (1.6cm by 1.6cm) and the SZ791N's (1.9cm by 1.9cm). Although the keys are smaller, your typing experience shouldn't be affected because the spacing is better.

The Z590 is dominant in features and performance. Not only does it have a built-in optical drive, the drive is a Blu-ray burner. That's the reason why the screen resolution is so high and why an HDMI port is included as well, in case you want to stream all this content to a larger display. The Lenovo X301, similarly, has a Blu-ray option, but HDMI isn't built in. In the same weight category, the Voodoo 133 and the Apple Air don't even have optical drives built in, let alone Blu-ray ones.

In what little space is left, the Z590 managed to fit dual 128GB SSD drives. Two drives, for a total of 256GB, is an amazing feat for a 3.2-pound laptop. It's also ridiculously expensive as a $1,400 option, and overkill for the average person. A 160GB (5,400-rpm) spinning hard drive is a good fit and brings the price down to a more realistic price point: $2,799. The Z590 comes standard with Centrino 2 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and mobile broadband through Sprint's EV-DO Rev A. This wireless bundle isn't as formidable as the Lenovo X301's, which has all of these plus UWB, WiMax, and Gobi Wireless (a technology that unifies all 3G carriers). Also included are two USB ports, one FireWire, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, and a fingerprint reader.

The Z590 comes from an excellent performance pedigree. Unlike the Lenovo X301 and the Apple Air, it doesn't sacrifice fast processors and discrete graphics cards to preserve battery life. And with the recent launch of the Intel Centrino 2 platform, inadequate battery life is no longer an issue, either. The Z590 runs on a 2.53-GHz Core 2 Duo P9500 processor. The P-series processors are designed with energy efficiency in mind, while adding the speed advantages of a T-Series processor like the one found in the SZ791N. It's a much faster alternative than the low-voltage processors found in the Lenovo X301 and the previous-generation processors found in the Apple Air and Voodoo 133. Helped by 4GB of memory, the Z590 yielded a SYSmark 2007 Preview Overall score that was more than twice that of the Air and the 133. It also surpassed that of the SZ791N by 55 percent and that of the X301 by 74 percent.

The SZ170P was the first laptop to house switching graphics cards, long before Apple and Lenovo jumped on board. Like its predecessors, the Z590 has a physical switch above the keyboard that lets you choose between the nVidia chipset ("Speed") and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD ("Stamina"). Performance, particularly with games and 3D applications, is better with the nVidia chipset, while the integrated graphics card favors battery life. A reboot is no longer required after a switch, either, thanks to the Intel Centrino 2's support for switchable graphics. When you switch to the Stamina setting, Sony's power management immediately prompts you with settings that optimize the battery, such as powering down a variety of ports (Ethernet, iLink, modem) and the optical drive, and cranking down the color bit and refresh rate of the screen. With the nVidia chipset enabled, the Z590 tallied a score of 4 hours 5 minutes on the MobileMark 2007 battery rundown test. The integrated chipset boosted the tested battery life by an hour, to 5 hours 6 minutes. An extended battery ($100) is available, too, potentially bringing battery scores well into the 7-hour range under the Stamina setting.

Three years ago, Sony would have had the ultimate ultraportable had it not been for inadequate battery life. The Intel technology wasn't quite there yet, and Sony wasn't about to give up discrete graphics and the horsepower that made its ultraportables so outstanding in the first place. The VAIO VGN-Z590 proves that technology has caught up, as it is now the ultraportable to beat. Yes, this configuration is overpriced. But even when you opt out of the Blu-ray drive and the dual SSDs, its base configuration ($1,899) still ranks as better than the competition. Not only does it have a built-in optical drive, switchable graphics, superb battery life, and top-notch performance scores, it's the lightest ultraportable to have them all under one roof.

Specification :

* Price as Tested: $4,199.00 Direct

* Type: Media, Ultraportable, Business, Small Business

* Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

* Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo P9500

* Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz

* RAM: 4 GB

* Weight: 3.2 lb

* Screen Size: 13.1 inches

* Screen Size Type: widescreen

* Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 9300 M GS

* Storage Capacity: 256 GB

* Networking Options: 802.11n

* Primary Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW DL with Blu-Ray

The ARES complete system from Hi-Tech Computers. The ARES system offers you the complete package of performance and style. This computer holds nothing back with the largest AMD desktop CPU on the market today, along with a Deluxe ASUS motherboard. We top it all off with a BFG’s 9800 GTX video card and Acer's crystal clear 22inch LCD.

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition 3.2Ghz,8MB Cache,AM3

Motherboard: ASUS M4N82 Deluxe

RAM: OCZ DDRII 4GB 8400

Hard drive: Seagate 320 Gigabyte 7200.11rpm

Optical: Plextor 22X DVDRW, Lightscribe

Video: BFG nVidia Geforce 9800 GTX 512 MB DDR3

Case: NZXT Lexa ATX with 650WATT Power supply

OS: R.C. Windows 7

Monitor: Acer V223W 22" Inch LCD

Inputs: Logitech keyboard and mouse included

DDR2 (Double Data Rate 2) memory has been available for quite some time. New computers, even computersreleased within the last three years or so come equipped with DDR2 memory. An improvement over DDR memory, DDR2 produces faster performance with less energy consumption. With the way that DDR memory products are designed, none is backwards or forward compatible with the other. For example, if you have DDR memory, you will not be able to upgrade using DDR2 or DDR3 memory. You can only upgrade DDR memory with other DDR memory.

DDR3 memory is still relatively new, and is the most advanced and up-to-date technology you could put on your computer. It does work faster than DDR2 memory, and even uses less energy to perform at such a high capacity. Because this technology is still fairly recent, you probably won’t find it a lot in new computers. One of the biggest setbacks in regards to DDR3 memory is its entry level price range. The lowest price you’ll find for DDR2 memory is about $18, whereas DDR3 at its cheapest ranges around $85. This comparison is used with a stick of 1GB memory for desktop computers.

Which is the Better Value?

As it currently stands, top-of-the-line DDR2 memory would be a far better investment than an entry-level DDR3 stick of memory. A lot of this has to do with how long DDR2 memory has been around and its overall popularity. DDR3 will eventually come of age, but it is still a bit too early.

In another year, perhaps less, we will see DDR3 memory begin to drop in price, and more and more will be seen in new computers. So, if you’re looking to buy a new computer in the next couple of months, you can consider DDR3 if you’re looking to acquire a cutting-edge gaming or multimedia computer. However, DDR2 is still the industry standard today. So don’t think that by getting DDR2 memory you’re getting obsolete technology.

Remember, if your computer supports DDR2 memory, you can only upgrade with DDR2 memory. Same goes with DDR3 and the original DDR memory.

Source from : brighthub.com

It's hard to shop for a PC when you don't know what to call it. Lenovo's inexpensive all-in-one is part of its consumer desktop line, so that would make it the IdeaCentre C300, but at only $450 it's part of the company's value line, too, which would give it the designation of Lenovo 3000 C300. Lenovo part number 3012-1AU? Forget it. We'll just stick with C300, even if it does make a Google search for the computer turn up Mercedes cars ... and even though using the $450 model makes us wish Lenovo had sent the $549 configuration instead. We can't say without hands-on testing, but we might call that machine something else altogether. Desktop of the year, maybe.

The C300 is a nettop, like the eMachines EZ1601 and Asus Eee Top ET1602 -- the Intel Atom CPU, 802.11b/g WiFi, and other components of a netbook built into a desktop LCD monitor. The latter is not a touch screen like the Eee Top's, but it's larger than both Asus' and eMachines' displays at 20 inches, with 1,600 by 900 resolution.

Indeed, the screen is so spacious and sharp it's a shame the silicon behind it is no better than the notoriously lame GMA 950 integrated graphics of Intel's 945G netbook chipset -- suitable for blackjack and Bejeweled but not fast-paced motion games (although DVDs and QuickTime 720p videos looked smooth), or for minor touch-ups but not in-depth image editing, let alone video editing.

Two buttons at bottom right of the front panel control brightness. As with the eMachines, we found ourselves wishing for one more notch or brightness level to make white backgrounds really dazzle, but it was a minor gripe at worst.

Two USB 2.0 ports and an SD/MMC/MS flash-memory-card slot are on the left of the display, with a DVD±RW drive on the right. Four more USB ports, an Ethernet port, and a lone PS/2 connector for the keyboard (the supplied mouse is a USB model) are at the rear, as are microphone and headphone jacks and a FireWire port.

There's also a user-accessible panel covering the C300's single DDR2 memory module, offering the RAM upgrade possibility that's missing from the sealed-envelope eMachines. (The standard 1GB is the most that Microsoft will let vendors sell Windows XP Home Edition with; Lenovo offers 3GB and 4GB configurations with 32-bit Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium, respectively.)
The one-piece PC measures 14.1 by 19.1 by 3.3 inches. An easel props the display at an adjustable angle between 12 and 40 degrees of tilt, while a cutout in the bottom bezel provides a pass-through for cables or a carrying handle when moving the 14-pound system. While most of the C300 is the glossy black we've grown used to on dozens of desktops, the base is decorated with a sort of Ye Olde Paisley Wallpaper pattern that provides a kicky touch.




Dreaming of Dual-Core
The Lenovo's 1.6GHz, one-core Atom processor with 512K of Level 2 cache is a familiar netbook component, although technically it's the desktop Atom 230 chip rather than the battery-power-optimized Atom N270 seen in most netbooks. Also part of the generic netbook recipe are its 1GB of RAM and 160GB hard drive, though the company does earn points for providing a 7,200-rpm Seagate drive instead of a 5,400-rpm model.

The DVD±RW burner, of course, is not found on any netbook; Lenovo provides CyberLink's Power2Go CD/DVD burning software and Corel's WinDVD player to make the most of it. The only other bundled software is the trial version of Trend Micro's Internet security suite; the C300 is the first PC we've seen in a long time that comes with neither Microsoft Works nor the trial version of the Microsoft Office productivity package. (Hint to buyers: Download the free, Office-compatible OpenOffice.org, or explore online apps like Google Docs.)

Netbook-class hardware yields netbook-class performance, meaning the C300 is perky enough for Web surfing, e-mailing, and routine productivity work but not built for demanding applications. The system racked up a PCMark05 rating of 1,687 (CPU 1,494; memory 2,375; hard disk 5,569; graphics 665) and 3DMark06 score of 94, and rendered Cinebench R10's sample scene in a leisurely seventeen and a half minutes.

The provided PS/2 keyboard and USB optical mouse are fairly generic pieces. The mouse has two primary buttons and a scroll wheel (no thumb buttons or other extras), while the keyboard has audio volume controls and a stiff typing feel.



We like the C300 pretty well, but say the same thing about it we said about the ET1601 -- that any PC fit for desktop duty needs at least 2GB of memory, and that an all-in-one with just 1GB is arguably a poorer choice than a notebook with 2GB or 3GB for the same price. This time we add two caveats, however. One is that the Lenovo's 20-inch screen is the best we've seen among bargain systems; compared to the 18.5-inch eMachines, it's that much harder to trade for a 15- or 16-inch economy laptop.

The other is that you can order the C300 with more than 1GB. Specifically, Lenovo part number 3012-2DU is a $549 rig with a full 4GB of memory, a fat 640GB hard drive, and the rarely seen dual-core Atom CPU -- the Atom 330 with 1GB of Level 2 cache and Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology that lets two cores pretend to be four. It's still no screamer (the clock speed is the same 1.6GHz), but the doubled Atom and quadrupled RAM and hard disk make the 2DU a much better candidate for Windows Vista Home Premium (and presumably Windows 7 after October 22). And as a bonus, the deluxe model also has ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4530 graphics -- a value rather than gaming-vanguard video solution, but still miles beyond the grisly GMA 950.

It adds up to the best $99 upgrade we've heard of -- a nettop that promises true desktop capability rather than mere Web-kiosk convenience, and a machine we'd love to get our hands on. Is anybody at Lenovo listening?

Nvidia announced today the immediate availability of optimized Quadro drivers for Autodesk’s AutoCAD 2010 software. This industry-leading graphics toolset can now benefit from parallel GP-GPU processing abilities through CUDA, providing a 5x speedup in ‘3D Hidden’ visual styles, as well as faster renderings in Conceptual and Realistic visual styles.

Nvidia’s Quadro products come in various flavors, depending on the level of compute throughput that’s required. This native support for AutoCAD 2010 is merely an accelerator for visual purposes, and not a technology breakthrough.

From the release:

Many folks prefer building their own PC systems rather than purchasing pre-configured solutions, and most typically go for a retail processor, as the fancy boxes from AMD and Intel typically include a cooler that each respective vendor considers "good enough." While low-end retail processors tend to be bundled with the lightest, least-effecitve coolers for the sake of keeping cost low, upper-mainstream and high-end CPUs do generally include decent cooling devices. Even so, we found that an aftermarket cooler, such as the new Zalman CNPS 10X, can do a much better job of cooling an overclocked Core i7-920.

Cool(er) Investment

The so-called “boxed coolers” that come included with retail processors such as the Intel Core i7-920, may look nice thanks to copper cores and many really subtle fins that increase the cooling surface. But their intended use is regular PCs, making them a rather poor choice for enthusiasts, overclockers, or users looking to assemble a truly quiet system.

There are many vendors that cater to users in need of more efficient, more powerful or simply quieter processor cooling solutions. Companies such as Coolermaster, Glacialtech, In-Win, Noctua, Prolima, Scythe, Spire, Thermalright, Thermaltake, Titan, Xigmatek and others offer aftermarket cooling solutions for various needs. We decided to use the latest upper mainstream cooler by Zalman, the CNPS 10X, to replace Intel’s Core i7 boxed cooler.

This is the cooler that comes with Intel's Core i7-920 processor. Although it has a copper core and a large surface area, every decent upper-mainstream aftermarket cooler will outclass it.

Cooling, in Short

Coolers are all about conducting heat away from a hot spot (the processor, in this case) and dissipating that heat over a large surface area into the surrounding air. System and power supply fans then suck the heated air out of the PC. The larger the heat sink surface, the easier it is to dissipate air quickly and evenly. So-called heat pipes, which are fluid-filled tubes, assist in distributing heat onto a complex heat sink. You will find that most state-of-the-art coolers have rather massive dimensions in an effort to provide maximum surface area.

As for materials, while silver and copper have excellent heat conductivity, these materials are rather expensive aluminum offers an acceptable compromise between cost and conductivity.

Source : tomshardware.com

The upgrade to Windows 7 could take all day and night, literally.

While we're not going to dispute that a clean install is the way to run Windows 7, there are going to be many users who will choose the literal upgrade path from Windows Vista and perform an in-place upgrade.

The reasons to do an in-place upgrade are numerous. First of all, the core software changes to go from Vista to 7 aren't as drastic as previous generations of Windows. Secondly, the convenience afforded by the in-place upgrade allows users to retain nearly all software and settings without the need to restore any previously backed up data.

Another possible advantage to doing an in-place upgrade is time – it's supposed to be faster than starting fresh and reloading all your old programs. But in some cases, the upgrade could be the more time-consuming route.

Microsoft's Chris Hernandez of the Windows Deployment team detailed Windows 7 upgrade performance as compared to Vista SP1's upgrade behavior. Hernandez found that Windows 7's upgrade speed was faster than Windows Vista. Interestingly, the time it took for Windows 7 to upgrade from Windows Vista SP1 outpaced that of a Vista SP1 to Vista SP1 upgrade procedure.

At its very worst the upgrade from Windows Vista to 7 was found to take a whopping 20 hours. At that rate, a user would likely have less downtime if he or she just did a clean install and restored/reinstalled programs.

Most users will average upgrade times lasting just a few hours, but those with slower systems or exceptional amounts of data will have to set aside a good portion of the day just for the automated process. All clean install systems upgraded in around 40 minutes or less.

Source: tomshardware.com