News

"Office Starter 2010 is the Microsoft-designated replacement for its Microsoft Works product. Starter will be a low-end, free (but ad-supported) bundle of Word and Excel.

One (of many) criticisms of Works was that it didn’t support all the same file types as Microsoft Office did, making Works only somewhat compatible with Office. It looks like that same limitation will be present in Office Starter, based on a frequently-asked questions document from Microsoft that one tester forwarded to me. "

"Today we are going to look at two of the latest offerings from Active Media Products, the WWF BLU Penguin and the Executive I-Pen USB drives. These both combine novelty with function, instantly noticeable by their innovative enclosures."

"Intel's Core i5 and i7 CPUs might be getting all of the column inches and user interest at present, but the CPU giant aren't quite done with their Nehalem architecture just yet - Early 2010 should see the launch of their first Core i3 CPUs, with leverage this architecture while also proving to be the first CPUs to feature an on-chip integrated graphics core. In anticipation of this, ASUS have given us an early pictorial look at their P7H57D-V EVO motherboard which should coincide with this release - A part based around Intel's new H57 motherboard chipset but looking set to be an interesting hybrid of support for value CPUs wrapped around a relatively high-end feature set."

"When you think of Corsair you probably envision memory modules or USB drives. Maybe you even consider their more recent forays into power supplies and solid state drives. But it may come as a surprise to learn they have now expanded their product line to include cases and liquid cooling components! The Hydro Series H50 liquid CPU cooler is one of their new items we have for review today. It is a compact, pre-filled and sealed kit consisting of a combination pump and water block, along with a 120mm radiator and fan."

"For a DirectX 11 launching point, the HD5770 from Sapphire is surprisingly a very quick and powerful videocard for little money. Right out of the box it plays with the HD4850, bullies it around the school yard then takes its lunch. Then it runs over to the HD4870, runs circles around it, and then gives it a black eye."

"Kingwin is a fairly new brand name in the PC enthusiast power supply market, but they already have a strong line up of power supplies, from their value oriented 'Maximum Series' to their enthusiast oriented 'Mach 1' and 'Lazer' series. Both of the enthusiast series offer LED's that illuminate both the cooling fan and the modular connections. Today, we are going to be looking at a power supply from the Lazer series. The LZ-850 is an 850 watt power supply, featuring an 80Plus Bronze certification and a 3 year warranty."

"For a graphics card that retails for a suggested $130, the Radeon HD 5750 sure packs in a lot of features. In addition to its solid performance and superb power consumption, the card supports multiple monitor outputs, DirectX 11, Eyefinity and more. To top it all off, Sapphire includes a voucher for a free copy of Dirt 2 right in the box."