Author Archives: Abhik

Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse

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Logitech’s G (for gaming) series features the highest pixel count sensors, and classy aesthetics that includes grip-friendly curves, and slicks-as-teflon feet for a smooth glide-something that gamers will appreciate. The G9 goes a little high tech; and includes a laser sensor that allows a whopping accuracy of 3200 dpi. Although gamers will recognizes this as marketing rubbish (no gamer worth his salt plays at even 2000 dpi), the fact remains that the sensor on the G9 is sensitive indeed. Also, onboard is the micro precision scroll wheel, which we will recognize as a clone of the excellent unit on the MX revolution, and two working modes. One you can use as a regular wheel with clicky feedback. We did mention modular-the G9 has changeable grips-the two are the regular stripped down grip and an additional bezel-like unit which clicks on to the outer body of the mouse ,making it significantly wider and hence the name wide grip.There are also other grips that you can purchase from Logitech,each customized for a certain type of usage. From its predecessor-the G5, the G9 gets a Weight cartridge,only this time its cleverly removed by applying pressure on its notch at the rear. The Weights on the G5 had a tendency to rust.Thankfully, these seem to have been adequately treated.One issue that we noticed right away(and what is possibly a major flaw)is the slight play between the weight tray and its housing-truly annoying while using the mous.Also,if you remove the tray,you get an ugly hole at the rear of the body,whereas the G5 was neater with the tray sloting underneath the body.

Practically, the side buttons feel a little too soft, mainly because there is a slight gap between the outer body and inner body,which has contacts for the buttons. There is a DPI indicator (whose color can be changed via drivers-neat but useless!),that is useful to let you know how much to dial up for dial down the DPI.
At $150, the G9 is very expensive for the innovations and features it offers. 3,200 DPI is just gimmicky because nobody will use this mouse at that resolution. The Lachesis from Razer is another similar high DPI product (4,000 DPI) that does a better job, at a slightly higher price. The polling frequency of 1 kHz is something though,so is the ability to store and load profiles. This is a good mouse for the serious fragger, but not at its current price.

Specifications:
Sensor 3200 dpi, polling frequency 1 KHz, customizable grips, customizable weights.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Supercomp Music Station SES 668

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The SES668 Music Station is essentially an iPOD dock with killer looks. The dome-shaped design looks good and the use of silver highlight on a jet black body adds that extra style some thing missing on most cheap docks. On the top of the speaker sits the dock receptacle. The receptacle accepts multiple connectors thus allowing the use of almost all generation of iPODS, expect for the newer wider body Nano. The base connector is large enough to hold most iPODS in place. On the corners of the squares, are the buttons for powering on and volume control, and one is dummy button. The buttons are hard to press with distinct clicks, however one can keep them pressed to increase/decrease the volume. The volume control isn’t smooth and boosts in huge steps. The dock requires 12 V and it is powered via an adapter that runs off the mains. There is no option for alternative power source like batteries, if the mains are down. The iPOD can be charged via the dock and the USB connector allows it to be connected to a PC for data transfer. The dock also has an auxiliary input thus allowing an alternate sound source. On the performance front, dock didn’t perform as per our expectation. Bass is non-existent and the drum beats often sound flat, highs are not reproduced at all and the midrange is completely muddled. Also there is no way to control the playback from the dock, and you will have to use the iPOD. Though affordable priced at $34, the SES668 Music Dock isn’t the right solution for your iPOD. We suggest that you up the ante and invest in JBL or Bose if you care for music quality, else stick to the stock earphones.

Specifications: USB charging, USB data transfer, Auxiliary input, mobilephone compatibility and CD/DVD player.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Tagan BZ800 SMPS

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tagan-bz800

Tagan is a relatively new name in the market for desktop power supplies. Enter their new BZ series,a funky product line, meant for discerning users and gamers and offering some show to what is usually just go.The BZ series do things radically differnt as far as visuals go. They’re modular, with pipe-like connector cables complete with circular pin arrangement(called piperock by Tagan) that ensure incompatibility with any other power supply. Then there cool looking LED-lit circular strips around each modular socket on the PSU that illuminate when a cable is plugged in. The cables are color coded as per the LED color. This ensures no mistakes while plugging in cables. If you have a transparent side window, the ensuing lighting is definitely one to get the drool out as intended. Add to that a large cooling fan(135 mm) with blue LEDs and the BZ800 is definitely lit to kill! There is a pair of branded nylon gloves free publicity for Tagan if you should chose to wear them around. The outer body itself is reasonably well built, but the gauge of sheet used isn’t as good as the CoolerMusteredRealPower 1000W or the Corsair HX series.
On the technical front the BZ800 sports six 12 volt rails. There is a Turbo mode which disables the power limitations on the 12 V rails allowing them to overdraw power , in case you should need it. Four PCIe (two 6 pin and two 8 pin) power connectors mean SLI/Crossfire is possible with the latest cards. With a combined load capacity of 64 amps on the 12 V rail (768 W) the BZ800 is no different from other recent power supplies, which concentrate on beefing up the 12 V rail that typically powers CPUs,graphics cards, hard drives, optical drives and case fans.
We fired up our nuclear reactor of a rig,consisting of our Core 2 Quad Extreme QX6850 CPU, ASUS Striker Extreme, two WD Raptor 80 GB HDDs, a500 GB WD caviar HDD, two DVD RW drives and an x-Fi Elite Pro. Just to make things interesting, we took our quad core to 3.6 GHz,and ran a gamut of benchmarks. Not once did it seem that the BZ800 ran out of juice, and performed well right through.
At $200 the Tagan BZ isn’t cheap by any means, but for a high-end power supply (which it most certainly is), the price isn’t too bad. The only better option we’ve seen is the CoolerMaster Real Power 1000W Pro-which is much costlier. Incidentally, the fact that the BZ800 is 80+ certified means your power bills will be in check. If you’re looking for an extreme PC or a super duper gaming rig, and need a powerful PSU with loads of visual appeal, you can’t go wrong with this.

Specifications:
800 W continuous power, max power (12 V)-768 W (64 A), 8x SATA connectors, 2×6 pin PCIe connectors, 2×8 pin PCIe connectors, 6x peripheral connectors (4 pin).

Popularity: 30% [?]