WD Raptor WD740GD, QuakeCon 2005, Sapphire X550 & AOpen 6600GT
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74 GB Hard Drive Review @ The TechZone
"Designed for servers and NAS/SAN systems, the drive of choice for high-performance workstation and gaming systems, the WD Raptor hard drive is a new class of drive that matches SCSI performance and reliability while providing simplified connectivity. Make no mistake about it, the Raptor is for serious speed freaks. If you don't run a server farm or play cutting edge 3D games then this is not the drive for you. However, if you're a power nut who wants - no needs - the fastest ATA drive available then this is your baby, or dinosaur as the case may be."
QuakeCon 2005 Day Three Coverage @ TheTechLounge:
"Our third and last day at QuakeCon 2005 went well, though perhaps not terribly exciting. We got to witness the unveiling of some promising new products from Logitech, watched some very cool demos from AGEIA, heard that ATI's R520 should be here in September (cross your fingers), and it was cool to hear what the AMD guys had to say."
Sapphire Radeon X550 Review @ AMDZone.com:
"The X550 is based off the older core of the X300, the RV370, featuring four pixel pipelines and two vertex engines but not without it's improvements. The clock speed has been given a boost from 325MHz to 400MHz, giving the card a much nicer fill rate. Not only that but Sapphire's X550 features 256MB of DDR SDRAM running at 500MHz with a 128-bit bus, doubling the amount over the previous card."
AOpen 6600GT Graphics Card Review @ CoolTechZone.com:
"Although it's a minor thing in the grand scheme of features, the black PCB color and orange copper actually make this card attractive than standard versions we see from manufacturers these days. The heatsink and fan combination are a needed accessory to dissipate heat off of the modern GPUs. Not too impressively, the combo isn't the quietest in the market."
