In April this year, we tested a large number of hard drives. In the category of external desktop drives, the 2 TB WD My Book Studio Edition II 4TB was pretty good. We now have with us the WD My Book Studio Edition II 4TB Hard Drive.

This is a huge drive mind you – it weighs around 2.63 kg, so it’s not ideal to carry very often. Four connectivity options are available – Firewire 800, Firewire 400, USB & eSATA.

WD My Book Studio Edition II 4TB

The specialty of this drive is that it supports RAID-O & RAID-1. RAID-O makes the entire 4TB usable. We haven’t seen too many drives that require drives, but this one does for the RAID function. When you first connect it, you need to install the driver & then set the RAID configuration.

There was nothing spectacular with the test results. The read burst speed was higher with the RAID- I configuration with both connection interfaces – USB & firewire. With our file transfer tests, We found that average read and write speeds to be similar with both RAID configurations. the 1 GB Photoshop scratch test showed a big difference in file transfer. With RAID-O, the speed was twice as good as raid-1, as you would expect. With Firewire, the performance was around 10% better than with USB.

The 4TB WD My Book Studio Edition II only works with Windows vista due to capacity restrictions of previous Windows operating systems. Using RAID-O is recommended, but if your data is very important, RAID-1 is the way to go. At $649.99, it surely is a costly thing to buy, therefor, we’d suggest our readers to wait until the price drops.

If there’s one part of the computing experience we’ve missed it’s something really high-end for audiophiles. And we are not talking about the dime-a-dozen 7.1-channel cards. Just looking at the STX you just get the feeling of quality. And it’s hard not to get impressed looking at it’s spec-sheet. The 124 dB SNR aside, the functional parts (opamps, DAC chip etc) are covered with an EMI shield. The Essence STX is built on a rather unusual four-layer PCB, ensuring excellent filtration of noise while the analogue output signal paths are also EMI shielded, ensuring that squeaky-clean signals are passed on. Additional power is required via a four-pin molex connector. This one is built on a PCIe x1 interface and ASUS has recently come out with a PCI version.

The DAC is a Burr-Brown (now Texas Instruments) PCM 1792A, considered an audiophile-grade component. beneath the EMI shield the opamps are mounted on sockets as opposed to being soldiered to the PCB. This allows swapping of opams to alter the sound signature according to taste. Note that the Essence STX is a stereo opamps on the card. Two opamps are the JRC 2114, considered good for audio applications. these serve as the current to voltage converters and are placed just after the DAC chip. They utilize the output of this chip and convert it, passing it on to the third opamp, the LM4562 which acts as the final buffer. Made by National Semiconductor, this opamp is quite famous and widely used by DIY audiophiles. Its claim to fame is excellent THD (Total Harmonic Distortion), quick slew rate and high bandwidth-all of these elements make for a superb choice for any discerning audience. Nichicon “fine gold” caps are used for all critical regions- a costly indulgence by ASUS and we highly approve.

Asus Xonar D2/PM

Now for the fun part – this sound card is the first one we’ve seen with an in-built headphone amplifier. This is good news for high-end headphone users, since headphone amps are very costly! The bundled software can switch between normal impedance,(up to 64 ohms), high impedance (60-300 ohms) and extra-high impedance (300-600 ohms), adding 0 db, 12 db and 18 db (respectively) to the gain to match headphones of varying impedances. The Essence STX has a pair of RCA outs for stereo, one 6.3 mm headphone jack, one 6.3 mm analogue input jack and digital-out supporting both coaxial and optical  connectivity on a single jack.

We tested the Essence STX with some stereo speakers first – our Genelec 6010A active loudspeakers with the 5040A active sub-woofer and some SACD .FLAC rips. The imaging (sound standing) is spot on. The bass, while ample, is not excessive and won’t intrude on the mid-range. But it goes low down and does so cleanly and with nary a hint of loss of control. The mid-range is liquid and wide with lots of detail to be plucked from between notes. Male and female vocals alike sound rich and lush without being overly warm. The highs are incredibly detailed and transparent. We felt the highs were slightly over emphasized, but not in ordinate. Quite the contrary, this is just the tool for discerning listening sessions; particularly pieces with instruments have great rendition. Next we plugged in some quality cans and we’re pleased to report the STX handles itself admirably – the sound is clean, without any sort of noise and very musical-the word balanced came to mind as the incredibly detailed Grado SR225 seemed to get a bit of needed bottom end grunt from the headphone amp unit. What is equally hard to miss is the immediacy  of the detail, there is no unnecessary delay to notes,attacks, decay, instrument  reverb-everything is spot on and tonally accurate. The Essence STX will also drive something as beefy as the Sennheiser HD 650 quite well, but not to the same level of analytical detail as a high-powered headphone amp.

Wealso tried the STX with games and movies, although not its forte, it handles games quite and with very accurate imaging-something necessary for a proper gaming experience. Movies are fun too, with action scenes getting their just rewards – the Essence STX never loses control and detail  and its surround imaging is superb, despite the lack of additional channels.

So ASUS finally delivers something “Stereophiles” (including some of us) around the world have waited for. So what’s the trade off ? Well, it won’t replace that Zana Deluxe Headamp you paid half a year’s salary for and some purists will sneer with contempt at people who use their PC for music. Moreover it isn’t cheap, at $249, but then quite frankly neither is a ticket to a Pink Floyd concert. We feel it is well worth the price with its premium quality innards and audio performance. It serves a niche segment and does so exceedingly well, therefore those on the lookout for something similar won’t flinch one bit.

The HP Photosmart C8188 has memory card slots and a lightscribe CD/DVD drive. Not only does this printer read from CDs, but it can also print labels directly onto the face of the CD or DVD. there is a 3.5 inch touch screen with an easy interface, that somewhat resembles a windows XP theme. Like the Epson Photo stylus TX700W, this too has Ethernet, WiFi, and olso come with Bluetooth, so almost any phone or laptop can shoot out prints without the hassles or wired connectivity.

HP Photosmart C8188

Some detail on our first test image was lacking and also the overall color tone of the print was on the warmer side. The second test image was more balanced, but again, a few details with regard to the textures were missing here and there. The combi-document, consisting of text and images, showed smooth and readable text and well distinguished colors on the images.

The HP Photosmart C8188costs $499, which may seem pricey, but if you do need a feature rich photo printer with all connectivity options including an optical drive that can read your digital media, then this is something you should buy.

Brother is best known for value-for-money products. We look at one of its latest MFDs-the MFC-7840N.

This MFD has a basic two-line LCD backlit display. There is full numeric keypad for the fax feature on the right and button options for fax,copy and print on the left.

The paper tray can be removed completely with three clamps to adjust your paper size-two on the sides and one on the back. There is also a tray on top of the device for ADF (Auto Document Feeder). The lid of the scanner can be extended when you need to scan a thick book.

Brother MFC-7840N Printer

Installation is simple the toner cartridge assembly slid into place very easily.configuring the MFD can be being done without connecting it to PC.Other than the many scanning options available,there’s also a unique one-scan your document to ftP (upload to an FTP server).

For printing, we used two modes of the test documents-economy and standard. The plain Word documents took 11.5 seconds with an upper and lower limit of two seconds in both modes.

There was a difference of a second between the two modes, but the image quality was not that great in economy mode. The standard mode was an improvement, but a bit of pixelation was still visible. Scanning gave some good results with the scanned picture quality not that bad and it took a total of 36.4 seconds.

We also scanned five pages using ADF-this took a total of two minutes 35 seconds. A Word document was used to test the copying capabilities, which did not turn out that great as the text turned out to be a bit rough, but this could be caused by the scanner. Even so, the copying took only nine seconds.

This MFD with its ADF feature makes a good overall purchase. There are some minor feature lacking, like a USB port to get instant printout from flash drives. This is still a really good buy, especially for small businesses, but it a bit on the pricey side at $399.

Hp is well known for its printing solutions, which include multifunctional devices. The HP photosmart C4588 is a new MFD inkjet aimed at home users or small businesses,but also for those who want photo quality printing.

The C4588 is a neat looking MFD with its smooth clean look. There is a one inch LCD color display on the right surrounded by buttons. The paper support tray feels a bit weak and breakable.The scanner lid didn’t feel very strong either.

HP Photosmart C4588

When you power on this printer, it gives you step-by-step instructions on how to start installing the cartridges right up to print alignment-all on the LCD display itself.You do not even need to connect the printer to the computer for these initials steps.

A unique feature of this printer is the WiFi support.You can either connect the printer to a network using a router or directly to a PC or laptop using ad-hoc networking.We ran the printer through a series of tests to check the print quality and speed in two modes economy and standard. The economy mode was quite unsatisfactory with very edgy lines in a full page text document as well as for a color document. The standard mode, on the other hand, was a great improvement in terms of quality, but printing speed  took a hit. The time difference between economy and standard for the test document (text) was 10 seconds, whereas the colored document was a whole 30 seconds. The quality of the photo test turned out to be exceptionally good. It took 164 seconds for printing, which is decent. The scanning performance was average.

The HP photosmart C4588 does live up to the mark for being a really good photo MFD as photo printouts were very impressive.

One might assume that there are only one or two big names that are making great gaming keyboards and Microsoft doesn’t want to be left behind. After reviving the Sidewinder brand, they have released the all new X6 keyboard.

The X6 is really a huge keyboard, and it has plenty of keys as well, up to 30 programmable keys. The quality could be better, but the design is not shabby. The first things you notice other than the dials is the red back light. The first dial is there to allow you to change the brightness of the lights, and the other one is for the volume control.

The keyboard has a matte plastic finish, except for the areas around the keys. The keys themselves don’t go deep into the keyboard, but aren’t too shallow like a laptop keyboard either. One of the unique features is the detachable numerical pad which can be attached either on right or left of the keyboard with the help of a magnetic strip on the side.

Microsoft Sidewinder X6

Using the keyboard is very confusing in the beginning, and it takes a while if you are upgrading from a standard keyboard. Once you do get used to it, however, it becomes a great stable keyboard to use. There are six macro keys on one side of the keyboard with a toggle to use three different settings for those keys. The numerical pad keys are also part of the macro keys.

There are a few other things missing in the X6. The right Windows key is missing and the size of some of the keys like the right [Shift] key are longer than usual. The drivers will let you customize it farther.

Overall, this is a very good keyboard for gaming use. Although $99, may seem like a lot of money for a keyboard, with the number of features it has, it’s definitely worth it. Besides, this is far from the most expensive keyboard around.

Belkin’s new router is rather compact and is excellent for cramped tables. The router can also be hung up in a wall if required. The design is pretty and the build quality isn’t too bad either.

It comes with four ports for clients and one for an Internet Connection – standard for a home router. The user interface is boring, and and way too bare for most people’s liking. The design doesn’t make it very easy to use either. It has all the features expected, including the ones for security. WEP, WPA and WPA2 are all supported, but the interface is painfully slow.

Belkin Wireless G Router

Routing, as expected, is possible too, and a unique feature is the list of application and games along with the list of ports used by them. This means you can just choose from a list and add to the port forwarding list. Filter can be set up to block access during specified hours or days. support for DynDNS and DtDNS is also available, which allows the router to automatically update your WAN IP using free DNS services. This allows easy access to your computer or router from other locations. This feature is increasingly popular on routers these days though.

The Belkin Wireless G Router performs well with wired connections, but not so well wirelessly. A gigabyte of data took around two minutes and four seconds to download accross wires, but the same data took close to seven minutes thirty seconds over the air. Uploading files took a little longer, but we didn’t have any latency issues. The router doesn’t support 802.11n, for those who might want it.

Updating of the firmware can be done using the web interface itself. With everything considred, we can not highly recommend this product because of it’s price.

At $50, it isn’t overly expensive, but for a little more you can get much better products with the same (or more) features and a much better interface.

However, if space constrains are your biggest concern, and you want something really small to hang on the wall or keep on your table, the Belkin Wireless G Router might just be what you are looking for.

Specifications:
Four 10/100 Base-T LAN Ports
One WAN Port
IEEE 802.11b, 802.11g

Intel introduced its most advanced desktop processor, the Intel Core i7 processor. The Core i7 processor is the first member of a new family of Nehalem processor designs and is the most sophisticated ever built, with new technologies that boost performance on demand and maximize data throughput.

The Core i7 processor speeds video editing, immersive games and other popular Internet and computer activities by up to 40 percent without increasing power consumption.

Intel Core i7

The Core i7 processor more than doubles the memory bandwidth of previous Intel “Extreme” platforms, speeding the transfer of computer bits and bites in and out of the processor with Intel Quickpath Technology. Designed with Intel’s Hyper-Threading Technology, the processor also allows multiple computing threads to run simultaneously, effectively enabling it to do two things at once. As a result, the Core i7 quad-core processor delivers 8-threaded performance.

The Intel Core i7 processor also offers unrivaled performance for immersive 3-D games – over 40 percent faster than previous Intel high-performance processors on both the 3DMark Vantage CPU physics and AI tests. The Extreme Edition uses 8 threads to run games with advanced artificial intelligence and physics to make games act and feel real.

The Intel Core i7 processors and Intel X58 Express Chipset-based Intel Desktop Board DX58SO Extreme Series are for sale immediately from several computer manufacturers online and in retail stores, as well as a boxed retail product via channel online sales.

The Core i7 processor is the first member of the Intel Nehalem microarchitecture family; server and mobile product versions will be in production later. Each Core i7 processor features an 8 MB level 3 cache and three channels of DDR3 1066 memory to deliver the best memory performance of any desktop platform. Intel’s top performance processor, the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition, also removes overspeed protection, allowing Intel’s knowledgeable customers or hobbyists to further increase the chip’s speed.

Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition works at 3.20 GHz, and it costs $999. Intel Core i7- 940 works at 2.93 GHz, and it costs $562. Intel Core i7- 920 works at 2.66 GHz, and it costs $284.

With prices of flash drives dropping drastically, higher capacity drives are flooding the market at prices that are previously unheard of.

Kingston’s new 16GB drive is one of the largest flash drive we have tested till now.

Kingston DataTraveler 400 16GB

In design, the DT400 is of the same size and format as most of the other flash drives. It comes with a swinging protection plate suspended on a hinge. This adds to the sturdiness of the drive and also gives it a nice look.

Password protection in the drive takes care of any security concerns, and performance is not an issue as well. It performs superbly in the sequential file tests. On an average, we got data transfer rates of between 25 and 30 MBps. Write speed are slower s expected. HD Tach showed average write speeds of around 10MBps, which is still quite impressive as compared to other drives of this capacity.

A software called Migosync comes bundled with the drive, and allows you to synchronize files. At $85, this drive makes good sense for those who are looking for good performance within a good budget.

The unusually designed object you see here is one of the latest pointing device from microsoft, and it’s called the Arc. The Arc looks something like the Logitech MX Air, but is in fact just another mouse with a different design.

The Arc is a wireless mouse that comes with a tiny little bluetooth dongle which also attachs itself neatly to the back and controls the device upto 30 feet range. The mouse can fold, very much like the foldable phones we see everyday. This both turns off the mouse and also useful for carrying it around.

Microsoft Arc

With it folded, the Arc can easily fit into any shirt or pant pocket. Its also very good looking, with its dark color and the transparent glossy finish.

There are no issues with using it despite the unusual shape. It has more or less the same comfort levels as any other mouse. Performance doesn’t suffer either. There is no lag whatsoever. It makes a good desktop mouse, but the same can’t be said as a gaming mouse. the mouse feet aren’t very large and don’t seem to help the mouse slide around as easily as the other mice we’ve tested.
The scroll wheel is OK, and apart from the standard three button setup, a fourth button is available on the left side that can be customize through the IntelliPoint drivers.

The mouse runs on two AA batteries, but is still pretty lightweight. The folding mechanism is sturdy and doesn’t look like it will give way anytime soon. The mouse is symmetrical, so left handed users will have no cause for complaint. A small pouch is also supplied, to help you carry the mouse.

The price for the Arc is around $85 and laptop mouse can be bought for well under this price tag. If you want something light and compact, with a stylish design, this is a good buy.