Sound cards: an industry that has long been dominated by the likes of Creative; with their Sound Blaster series of add-on devices. One could say that using the aforementioned company products is a mixed bag as they blessed us with decent voice synthesis to replace the old Adlib cards. Since then Creative has dominated the market with a slowly increasing line of products. However the other side of the coin is that a rising company back in 1992 (around the time when Doom was launched) going by the name of ‘Advanced Gravis’- released the Ultrasound range of cards (or GUS was its friendly moniker) they for a short while gave Creative a run for their money; with its first generation wave table cards, programmable musical instruments etc. However the world was hooked like sheep onto the Sound Blaster name and despite having a big name in the music world and being technically superior in every way, the advanced Gravis Ultrasound died a lonely death! This reviewer remembers this sound card with great fondness.

Recently Creative has courted controversy by deliberately disabling certain features in their drivers so as to cause complications in Windows Vista. This was done in order to force owners to purchase their Alchemy software which re-enabled those same features again. A gentleman known as Daniel_k discovered this issue and re-enabled the features again, by the use of a software hack. Creative then threatened to prosecute the aforementioned gentleman; however this all back-fired when Daniel reported this to the press and instantly Creative shares dropped by seven percent overnight. Anyone whom uses Creative sound cards will freely recognize the bloatware drivers and the issue of the aforementioned drivers causing a slower boot up time.

Today Overclockers Tech can possibly offer the consumer an alternative by Asus, namely the Xonar Essence ST! Billed as a musicians sound card first and a gamers card second, one can not help but be thrown back to the year 1992 and the era of the Advanced Gravis Ultrasound!

]]> http://www.overclockerstech.com/asus-xonar-essence-st-soundcard-review/feed/ 0 http://www.overclockerstech.com/gskill-pis-f316000cl6d4gbpis-2x2gb-kit/ http://www.overclockerstech.com/gskill-pis-f316000cl6d4gbpis-2x2gb-kit/#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:12:26 +0000 Lvcoyote http://www.overclockerstech.com/?p=2580

Introduction

Its not often that we see any major changes in the computing industry regarding your computers memory. Every few years a new standard of memory appears that offers the next boost beyond that of the old. DDR3 is no different to this trend, offering greater speeds at voltages that are gradually getting lower.  Today sees a new addition to the path that this trend adheres, one company has aimed to take this trend to a whole new level, a level only previously seen by a few select manufacturers before, at a cost that few can rarely afford. G.Skill set to take on the competition with insane performance without the insane price.

Company Background

Founded in 1989 by a select group of enthusiasts over in Taiwan; G.Skill was set from this day forth to develop and produce high quality memory for the desktop computer as we know it today. Only really hitting the mainstream as a reputable manufacturer of RAM in mid 2003; G.Skill set about developing high speed, high quality products for both the mainstream and enthusiast alike. The latest achievement has been that of the RipJaw range of high performance low voltage DDR3 designed with Intel’s i5/i7 in mind. With time comes the development and manufacture of newer and possibly greater products. Today faces no exception to this rule with the release of the PI series of memory for the i5/i7 range of Intel CPUs. Rated to run at speeds of 2000mhz (pc16000) with latencies of 6-9-6-24 2N and 1.65v out of the box; the PI series ram looks to set new standards in both the mainstream and enthusiast world. G.Skill produces some of the industry’s best memory modules however with competitive pricing towards the lower end of the pricing scale; G.Skill have products aimed at both the enthusiasts within the market and with these low prices across the board have also managed to keep the mainstream user in the loop too. To see if this new line of ultra low latency, high speed memory can keep up with the already proven range of already released memory we set this reviewer with the task of seeing exactly what the new G.Skill PI series modules are all about.

Introduction

What more does an enthusiast desire when they already have the edge with speed & performance? One might add aesthetics to the table! Today we will be focusing on Crucial with their flashy line of 1600 MHz Triple Channel Ballistix Tracer’s for the X58 platform. We opted for the blue, but Crucial provide Red and Green alternatives’ to fit best with both Nvidia and ATI fanboys no doubt. The problem these days (and in the past) is that most products that boost top specs and look flashy, tend to be over-hyped, over-exaggerated pieces of junk that are not worth their weight in gold. They may look great, but can they meet the mark and more so with the promise of great performance?

About Crucial

Crucial is a key brand in the Lexar Media family of products. As the Memory Expertsâ„¢, they are the only DRAM supplier that’s part of a major memory manufacturer.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Micron Technology, Inc., Lexar Media, Inc. boasts one of the most comprehensive offerings of memory product lines in the industry. They deliver high-quality, award-winning products in every memory category: USB flash drives, all popular form factors of memory cards and card readers, DRAM computer memory for PCs and Mac systems, and solid state drives (SSD). They back there products with outstanding customer support and industry-leading warranties, and strive to expand their offerings to meet the ever-changing needs of the customers.

The Lexar brand has long been synonymous with reliable, high-performance products, which is reflected in the award-wining memory products and USB flash drives sold under the Lexar name.

The Crucial brand reflects their status as the only consumer memory upgrade supplier that’s part of a major DRAM manufacturer. They sell high-quality memory that has been qualified and approved by most major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The Crucial.com website features innovative online tools and an intuitive design that makes it easy to find compatible memory and recommended upgrades.

Manufacturer’s Specifications:

Module Size: 6GB kit (2GBx3)

• PC3-12800 / DDR3-1600 MHz
• 8-8-8-24
• 1.65V
• Unbuffered
• NON-ECC

Introduction

Its not often that we see any major changes in the computing industry regarding your computers memory. Every few years a new standard of memory appears that offers the next boost beyond that of the old. DDR3 is no different to this trend, offering greater speeds at voltages that are gradually getting lower.  Today sees the beginning of a new eara where one company has aimed to take this trend to a whole new level, that only a few months ago would have seemed an impossibility!

Company Background

Founded in 1989 by a select group of enthusiasts over in Taiwan; G.Skill was set from this day forth to develop and produce high quality memory for the desktop computer as we know it today. Only really hitting the mainstream as a reputable manufacturer of RAM in mid 2003; G.Skill set about developing high speed, high quality products for both the mainstream and enthusiast alike. The latest achievement has been that of the RipJaw range of high performance low voltage DDR3 designed with Intel’s i5/i7 in mind. With time comes the development and manufacture of newer and possibly greater products. Today faces no exception to this rule with the release of the ECO series of memory for the i5/i7 range of Intel CPUs. Rated to run at speeds of 1600mhz (pc12800) with latencies of 8-8-8-24 and a mind blowing low of 1.35v out of the box; the ECO series ram looks to set new standards in both the mainstream and enthusiast world. G.Skill produces some of the industry’s best memory modules however with competitive pricing towards the lower end of the pricing scale; G.Skill have products aimed at both the enthusiasts within the market and with these low prices across the board have also managed to keep the mainstream user in the loop too. To see if this new line of ultra low voltage memory can keep up with the already proven 1.65v range of already released memory we set this reviewer with the task of seeing exactly what the new G.Skill ECO is all about.