AOpen MoBo, Evercool Notebook Pad, ASUS FX 5200 and Others

Good evening friends, welcome back.  From the looks of my inbox, the news has been flowing at a good rate throughout the day.  There seems to be articles from all different aspects of the hardware scene tonight, so, everyone should be happy.  Go grab a chair; I am starting to serve...

 AOpen AX4SPE Max II motherboard @ TrustedReviews

"At first glance the AX4SPE Max II doesn't look all that impressive as it has a fairly standard board layout and there are no special connectors around the back. Dig a little bit deeper in the box though and you realise that AOpen has actually included a lot more features than you initially think."

 Evercool NP-101 Notebook Pad @ TechTastic.ca

"We're all familiar with the concept of adding extra cooling fans to our desktop computers, but adding extra cooling to your laptop? Recently a few companies have created products to help get extra cooling by pulling the heat away from the bottom of laptops. One such company is Evercool with their NP-101 notebook pad."

 ASUS V9520/TD GeForce FX 5200 @ HEXUS.net

"The problem, if you can call it that, lies with the NV34 GPU. Comparative (and that's the key word) performance looks poor with other GPUs that hover around the £100 mark, so much so that running at 1024x768, with no image enhancement, can be problematic with new titles that make full use of DX9's feature set. This point is exemplified by the v9520/TD's performance in AquaMark3."

 MSI X48 CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive @ PC Stats

"The flexibility to read both DVD-ROM's and burn CD-R/RW discs with just one drive is really nice, and so in this review PCstats will be testing the new MSI X48 combo drive to see how it fairs with each of these tasks. The MSI X48 is capable of burning CD-R media at 48x, CD-RW media at 24x, reading CD's at 48x, and reading DVD-ROM's at 16x. Users of smaller/SFF PC's will be happy to hear that the MSI X48 is only 17CM in length, making for a nice and compact package. Along with what could already be considered a compelling feature set, the MSI X48 includes two interchangeable face plates which allow you to match the colour of the drive with your case. Whether you have a regular white case or a fancy black one, the MSI X48 drive can suite your style. Topping things off, the MSI X48 Combo drive also include a full copy of PowerDVD 5, and Nero burning ROM!"

 PimpRig Review: CoolingWorks Mini-CoolShroud

"Upon opening the Fed-Ex box, there were two boxes inside containing the shrouds. I found the shrouds wrapped in a plastic bag and to be in perfect shape. Included was a sheet of die-cut neoprene and a small package of hardware."

 ASUS P4R800-V Deluxe @ Viper Lair

"If this motherboard had better performance in our tests in either/both video and motherboard tests, then it would be easier to live with the faults. However the performance is not enthusiast level and our samples had some problems."

That's all for the time being friends.  I will see you back here tomorrow :) - Cheers