MSI Media Live Diva HTPC motherboard

MSI just released their latest HTPC Motherboard, the Media Live Diva. The board feautures a unique enhancement in the form of an intelligent digital amplifier, the D2 Audio DAE3. This expansion produces purely digital sound and supports THX, and because of the optional 5.1 or 7.1 add in card does not take up a lot of space in the media PC or generate a lot of heat.

Apart from the new sound solution the Media Diva sports DMI, VGA, RGB Component out, SPDIF in and out, Firewire, USB 2.0 and Gigabit ethernet. Graphics are provided by ATI's Radeon 3200 chipset paired with the AMD 780M southbridge. All AMD socket AM2 and AM3 processors are supported up to the latest Phenom X4 quadcore processor. For more information about the board please visit the MSI product page.

The Media Diva will be available as both a 5.1 package as well as a 7.1 package, boards can be found in stores as from today. Recommended retail prices are around US$ 159 for the 5.1 package and US$ 169 for the 7.1 solution.

author : Martin Birjs

Oakley Split Thump

Storage Type: Flash memory
Capacity: 512MB; 1GB; 2GB
File Types Supported: AAC; Audible; MP3; WMA
Screen Size (Diagonal): No
FM Tuner: No
Video-Playback Support: No
Mfr. Rated Battery Life: 7 hours

The Oakley Split Thump sunglasses/MP3 player combo is a good idea in theory but not so great in reality. In this day and age, when everyone has an iPod and MP3 players come in supersmall sizes, sticking an MP3 player into a pair of sunglasses seems unnecessary. And given the price—$249 for the 512MB version, $299 to $359 for 1GB, and $399 for 2GB—we're not sure these will appeal to many buyers.

Not to say they don’t work well. The sound is impressive. Walking down a busy street, for instance, relatively little background noise filtered through. The earbuds are flexible, too, to ensure comfort while in use and optimal audio quality.

Controls are located discreetly on the sides of the sunglasses but are not exactly easy to use when they are on your head. We found ourselves fumbling a bit to try and change tracks or adjust the volume. You are basically left looking a bit foolish while groping with your sunglasses.

Once you find the button and determine exactly where you need to press, though, the Split Thump works quickly. Tracks change in less than a second, and volume control is satisfactory.

Designed for sports use, the Split Thump is sweat-resistant and stays put nicely. It only comes in one size, though, so make sure your head is big enough to support these shades. While the Split Thump fit one reviewer's face perfectly, it was too small for another. Battery life is rated for 7 hours, and we achieved close to 8.

Loading music onto the Split Thump is a snap. Just connect the shades to your Windows or Mac computer via USB (a cable is included), and it shows up on your computer as a flash drive. Drag and drop the music onto the drive, and you're ready to go.

You can easily convert the Split Thump into a normal pair of sunglasses by pulling the earbuds out of the frame's arms. Once these are out, there is no way to tell that it's anything more than a regular pair of sunglasses. As a pair of ordinary sunglasses, the Split Thump looks incredibly stylish.

We don’t have many complaints about the quality of the Oakley Split Thump. We are just left asking whether they are really necessary. If you are a workout fiend and this kind of technology will function for you, then the Oakley Thump is a great way to go. But for the price, we think they are a bit superfluous, considering that you can buy a 2GB iPod Shuffle and a nice pair of ordinary Oakley sunglasses for less than what Oakley is charging for the 512MB model.

Price (at time of review): $249 (512MB, direct price); $299 to $359 (1GB, direct price); $399 (2GB, direct price)

author : Jonathan Rougeot

nForce 730i motherboard by XFX

XFX has introduced a new motherboard based on nVidia's 730i chipset. The chipset is designed for Intel's S775 processors and features an integrated GeForce 9300 graphics chip. The board has a Micro-ATX form factor and plenty of expandability. There are four DDR2-800 memory slots with room for up to 8 GB of RAM. A PCI-Express 16x 2.0 slot is also present to add a seperate graphics card.  

The board has a typical XFX color setting, combining a green graphics card slot with a black PCB. The GeForce 9300, as the board will be called, has a small heatsink on the nForce 730i chipset. A heatpipe connects it with another small heatsink on the CPU power mosfets. Thanks to the modern chipset, the board is compatible with all Intel socket 775 processors with an FSB of up to 1333 MHz. The onboard GeForce 9300 IGP features 16 shader units and supports DX10.0, CUDA and nVidia PhysX. 

 

XFX's new motherboard has six SATA II connectors, two PCI and a PCI-E 1x slot. The company has also placed a display on the board to show possible error codes. The I/O panel of the XFX GeForce 9300 has plenty of connectivity with 6x USB, an eSATA port, 7.1 audio (analog and optical) and a Gigabit LAN connector. The onboard graphics chip has a VGA, DVI and HDMI port, HDCP is supported on the latter two output signals.  

  
                                                     I/O panel with HDMI and eSATA 

 Author: Marc Mouthaan