Powercolor X800GT

Finally we saw an ATi card that has the potential to take down the strong Nvidia mid range market. Touted to be a 6600GT killer, the Powercolor X800GT is meant to target at the mid range mass market. Built from the high end X850 family, with 1/2 of the pipelines disabled, it is certainly ATi's best bet against the "designed for mid range" 6600GT. Though this card is found at Fuwell, at $ 329, VR-Zone members could get this card at a discounted price. Check here for more details!

 

The Powercolor X800GT, from the top. Available only in PCIe configuration.

 

The RAMs present on the card. Samsung GDDR3 2.0ns memory!

 

Dual DVI for this model. Usually a feature for the high end card, this X800GT spots such I/O too.

 

A large fan on this X800GT. Larger then those X800 and X800XL parts.

 

Very solid mounting of the heatsink via such spring loaded screws, to provide excellent contact on the core.

 

The packaging of this X800GT.

Leadtek Winfast PX 7800 GT

For those who want to own piece of the latest technology from Nvidia, yet is unwilling to blow on a 7800 GTX, here's something for you. The Leadtek Winfast PX 7800 GT is the first 7800 GT to lend on the retail shelves in SLS. Priced relatively low at $ 799, it wont burn a large pocket like how the faster brother could. VR-Zone had did a preview on this card, and more details could be found here. Found at Fuwell, this card is more value for money when compared to the GTX.

 

The bright yellow packaging of the Leadtek Winfast PX 7800 GT. A large sticker indicates that this card comes with 18 months warranty, covered by the local distributor, Ban Leong Technologies.

 

The card itself. It appears that the PCB of this 7800 GT is very different as compared to the GTX. Also, a smaller, and slimmer heatsink fan for this 7800GT, very much unlike those 7800 GTX.

 

The back of the card. Unlike the 7800 GTX, no ram chips could be found on the back of the card.

 

The I/O connectors for the card. Dual DVI and the S-Video out, that doubles up as a VIVO connector.

 

The fan on the Leadtek 7800GT, with a Leadtek emblem.

 

The sleek black Leadtek emblem on the heatsink of the card.

 

 

MSI K8N-SLI

Recently, MSI seems to be releasing a few new motherboards, with cut down features, and priced lower, to compete better. One of such boards is the MSI K8N-SLi. Unlike the K8N-SLi Platinum that was released to the market sometime ago, this board comes with some cut down features like standard audio, instead of the Dolby Digital EX on the Platinum model. Another distinctive difference would be the red PCB found on the K8N SLi, while matt black found on Platinum model. Found at DAT Computers, unfortunately, we could not get a pricing for this board at press time.

 

A refreshing orange MSI packaging for this model.

 

A label on the box, with a summary of the key features found on this board.

 

A bird's eye view of this motherboard. Red PCB for this model, unlike matt black on the Platinum model.

 

The SLi switch card to toggle between SLi and Normal modes.

 

The chipset fan found on the K8N-SLi. It's a disappointment to see such a simple looking chipset fan, especially when Nforce 4 chipset could run rather hot on load conditions.

 

This VIA VT6307 takes charge of the onboard Firewire connections on this board.

 

This Marvell 88E1111 chip would provide a Physical Hardware Layer to the on chip Nforce 4 Gigabit LAN.

 

A Realtek ALC850 sound controller would give 7.1 sound to this board.

 

A rather interesting looking push button switch present on this board, that could allow CMOS reset just by the touch of the button.

 

The I/O connections on this board.

 

 

MSI K8N Neo 2-FX

The other new MSI board we found is the MSI K8N Neo 2-FX. Being another cheaper model as compared to the more expensive MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum, this K8N Neo 2-FX features a cheaper Nvidia Nforce 3 250GB chipset. The K8N Neo 2-FX looks exactly the same as compared to the K8N Neo 2 Platinum. The only differences we found is perhaps just the chipset. Found at Fuwell, and going for just $ 195, it's a large discount, compared to the Platinum model.

 

The cool blue packaging for the K8N Neo 2-FX motherboard.

 

A label found on the box, giving a summary of the key features found on this board.

 

The K8N Neo 2-FX. It's a splitting resemblance when compared to the K8N Neo 2 Platinum.

 

This Marvell 88SR3020 chip would provide a Physical Hardware Layer to the on chip Nforce 3 250GB for SATA RAID capabilities.

 

The Marvell 88E1111 Physical Hardware Layer found on this board, that would work with the Nforce 3 250GB for Gigabit LAN capabilities.

 

The Realtek ALC850 would provide 7.1 sound for the K8N Neo 2-FX

 

The I/O connectors found on this board.

iCute ZL-02 Case

Looking for a cheap, yet decent looking case for your new system? This is something for you. We found the Icute ZL-02 case at ATF Multimedia. Comes in a very sleek Apple like white, it somehow copies the Antec P180's design for the front. While being an Icute case, this case goes for a very budget friendly price of $ 69 only!

 

The Icute ZL-02 case. It even comes with 1 top stealth drive cover, to provide the best color matching for your case!

 

The Icute logo at the front of the case. Although it's Icute, we must say it is a rather classy design for the front.

 

A picture of the front cover being swing open.

 

The stealth drive bay is spring loaded. The optical drive would push it's try out, and the springs will close the cover once the tray is retracted.

 

The back of the case. Just 1 80mm rear exhaust might be too little for overclocked systems.

 

The air duct mounted on the side panel, allowing hot air to be drawn into the case, by the action of the CPU fan. This also makes this case an Intel Thermally Advantaged case (TAG)

 

 

Misc items found in SLS this week

Over at Cybermind, we found the top end Intel Pentium D 840 processor. With a model number of "840" this processor operates at a core frequency of 3.2GHz, which is currently the fastest, for Intel's family of Dual Core processors. Priced at $ 993, it is a premium to pay, for a top of the line product.

 

The Pentium D 840 from Intel.

 

A label on the box, stating it's operating frequency.

 

A picture of the chip, with the chip markings.

 

Also at Cybermind, we found some interesting Corsair Valueselect 2x 1GB memory modules. Being sold in a pair in 2x 1GB configuration, these rams comes with Samsung -UCCC chips. Unlike majority of these Valueselect modules in the recent history, it had been a long time since we last saw a big name on the chips, instead of "Valueselect" marked chips. It would be very interesting to see the overclockability of these modules. Priced at $ 379, it is not a big price to pay for.

 

The usual green packaging for these Valueselect modules.

 

The label found on the modules. These modules operates at a default of CL3 memory timings, as detonated by "C3" in the model number.

 

Samsung K4H510838C-UCCC chips were found in these modules.

 

 

Alright, that's all for this week folks, catch you guys again next week in our Weekly SLS Walk About :)