External HDD Enclosures are plentiful and cheap these days.  It's tough for a manufacturer to differentiate its products in the marketplace, and the competition on price is never-ending.  Silverstone Technology has introduced a new product that is completely unique in the market, with a security system that you won't see anywhere else.  Instead of relying on passwords to allow access to the encrypted data on the HDD, the SilverStone SST-TS01B uses a small RFID "Key" to identify an authorized user.  This is not new technology, it's in commercial use in other markets, but it's the first time I've seen it used to unlock an encrypted HDD.

Benchmark Reviews has looked at some HDD enclosures in the past and they have all done what they were intended to do, but in my mind, there was something missing.  None of them really stood out, in terms of features or performance.  None of them said, "BUY ME" in no uncertain terms.  This one does.  Let's see how it performs on the bench and in daily use.

After publishing the first quarterly comparison article of the series, our methodology was adjusted to include test results with both reference and performance cooling fans.  A follow-up article comparing the Vendetta 2 vs TRUE vs HDT-S1283 was later published using the new methods, and the results more accurately illustrated the performance an overclocking enthusiast might receive compared to someone who buys the product and uses it in the stock form.

Benchmark Reviews strives to offer the overclocker and hardware enthusiast community solid evidence reflecting the true performance of computer products through rigorous testing and evaluation.  I personally understand that many readers who visit Benchmark Reviews have been involved with other community websites for years, and therefore take our test results personally.  So now that our test process has been reworked, we have collected the most complete source of benchmark results possible and gathered in a controlled environment.  The purpose of this second article of our series is to document performance and declare the best CPU coolers available as of Q2 2008.

When it comes to ATI products Sapphire has always offered the most influential graphics cards available, and the new Radeon HD 4870 is no different.  For the first time in this industry, we have a fully-functional product equipped with 900 MHz GDDR5 video frame buffer.  The Sapphire 100243L model offers 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) on its 750 MHz 800-core RV770 GPU.  Benchmark Reviews tests the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 graphics card against the closest competition, and even compare CrossFireX performance in this performance review.

NVIDIA has recently launched the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 video cards.  Both the GTX 280 and GTX 260 products position themselves at the most elite segment of the GeForce product line, so just imagine how much more powerful the GeForce GTX 280 could become after ZOTAC give it their special AMP! Edition treatment.  The recent Radeon HD 4870 launch may have shown how close ATI/AMD can get to NVIDIA's bar of performance, but the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 AMP! Edition graphics card has just raised that bar much higher.  Benchmark Reviews tests the ZOTAC ZT-X28E3LA-FCP against the GeForce 9800 GX2 and 9800 GTX, as well as the new Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFireX configuration.

Shoppers today are faced with many options when choosing where to store their valuable data: from traditional optical media and hard drive based storage, to flash drives and even more exotic third party online storage - each with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this article Benchmark Reviews will look at one such option that's recently emerged in the storage market; the network-attached storage (NAS), in the form of the QNAP TS-209 Pro Gigabit SATA NAS. The NAS has lately gained popularity as more and more consumers realize the need for a reliable, cost effective, and easy to access centralized way to store their data.However, with so many competing products it's not always possible for buyers to easily compare what's on the market. Read on as Benchmark Reviews puts this "all-in-one" NAS through its paces. 

Big as a whale and about to set sail, Benchmark Reviews brings you a review of OCZ's overclocker grade, heatpipe-equipped ReaperX HPC 4GB DDR2-800 kit OCZ2RPX800EB4GK. Outfitted with massive heatspreaders and a frankly unorthodox cooling system designed to handle voltages up to 2.2v and beyond, OCZ's ReaperX HPC kit may be just waht the die hard overclocker is looking for.

Benchmark Reviews has tested several different monitors over the past year, and even though they all offer nearly the same features there still seems to be a high premium paid for some names.  Not SOYO.  Last year we reviewed the 24-Inch DYLM24D6, which was an extremely popular widescreen monitor that could be purchased for less than $300.  That was over a year ago, and so as you can imagine prices have come down a but since then.  Today we get to offer another excellent value: SOYO 26-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor MT-NI-DYLM26E6.  At the time of product launch this monitor was available for $379.99, which is an unbelievable price for any 26" widescreen LCD that can produce 1920x1200 WUXGA resolution.

The OCZ Core Series delivers the performance and reliability of the latest SSDs at a price per gigabyte other high speed offerings can't begin to approach. OCZ Core Series Solid State Drives enable enhanced productivity in everyday computing and intensive multi-tasking applications. Perfect for notebooks, the Core Series is ideal for energy-efficient mobile computing to extend battery life, increase access time, and provide a durable alternative to conventional hard disc drives with superior shock resistance. High capacities and low power consuming NAND flash technology provide the necessary performance and battery life boosts generated by the proliferation of mobile gaming and new ultra-thin laptops. With fast access and seek times combined with excellent reliability, Benchmark Reviews tests to see if the OCZ Core Series SSD is going to be the answer for consumers demanding the latest storage technology.