Review: Gelid Icy Vision Rev 2

You can really get bogged down in the pros and cons of opting for an aftermarket GPU cooler. Cooling kits, like this here Icy Vision Rev 2 from Gelid, are a great way to reduce temperatures and free up some extra overclocking potential.
But despite their obvious benefits they're tricky to recommend to everyone.
Firstly, it depends on whether you are simply looking to upgrade from the stock cooler that's attached to your existing card, or are looking into buying a stock card and third-party cooler as an alternative to a post-reference, factory-overclocked graphics card like EVGA's GTX 560 Ti DS.
The big difficulty is that buying a stock GTX 560 Ti and this Gelid cooling kit works out more expensive than simply bagging the EVGA card on its own. And you don't have to fiddle around with screwdrivers if you just opt for the factory-overclocked option.
That still doesn't make it a nobrainer, though. The real kicker here is the extra performance. We installed this Icy Vision Rev 2 kit to a stock GTX 560 Ti and compared it to EVGA's 'super overclocked' version. Gelid's kit on the reference card took all the spoils – stable core clockspeeds above 1,000MHz, memory running at 4,200MHz, and load temperatures that never exceeded 55°C.
If you're looking to upgrade a stock cooler, this kit's perfect for you. Compared to a third-party card, it works out more expensive, but the Icy Vision Rev 2's cooling performance doesn't disappoint.
But it's not just about the cooling performance – if you really want to get the most out of your reference graphics card then the Gelid Icy Vision Rev 2 cooler will push your GPU all the way.
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Review: Cooler Master Silencio 550

As its name suggests, Cooler Master's Silencio 550 is all about minimising noise.
The inner panel walls are foam padded. The front panel gets some sound-proofing treatment too. And the dust filter for the two 120mm front fans mutes internal whirring further still.
As a concession towards the 'near silent operation' promised, these two front fans are the only ones in the case. PSU, CPU and GPU fans in any system will augment that headcount, but the omission of any top case fans is notable.
Building a system inside the Silencio 550 is easy enough. It's not the biggest case, measuring 210 x 415 x 505mm, but there's plenty of room for large graphics cards and motherboards.
The removable storage bay's handy, and the side mounts for hard drives are a nice alternative to the flimsy cages found in most cases.
We like its understated visual design too. The big problem is that it's hard to feed cables through to the backplate, with just two small holes cut into the chassis. When this domino's knocked over, fixing the rear panel back on becomes a problem too. There is a revision on its way that's meant to fix this issue though.
It's not as quiet as we were expecting either, and temps suffer as a result of minimal internal fans. Cooler Master's own CM 690 offers much better cooling and isn't much louder.
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Review: Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate

As the name might suggest, this Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate is the direct replacement for the HD 5670 Ultimate. The Sapphire Ultimate graphics card again comes passively cooled and is only a little more expensive than its older brother.

So it's essentially more of the same then? Almost. This updated GPU comes with the AMD Radeon HD 6670, plus 80 extra shaders, a smattering of extra texture units and a small hike in core clock speeds. Other than that, it really is pretty much business as usual between the HD 5670 and the HD 6670.

All that GPU tweakery means you do get some extra performance out of this newer card, though admittedly not much. At most you're looking at 3fps faster across our benchmarking suite, though that can sometimes make the difference between choppy and playable gaming.

That will ring especially true once you knock some of the advanced graphics settings down a notch or two, especially the resource hog that is anti-aliasing.

Again you're looking at fairly playable frame rates in modern games at lower settings, and good performance in older titles such as Far Cry 2 on Max settings.

That does all come at a price, though, and we're not just talking about the money you're paying for this newer card over the old one.

The Turks GPU at the heart of the HD 6670 is clocked faster, with more transistors and a larger die size, and as such draws a good chunk more power than the HD 5670. That doesn't mean it requires anything over and above what the PCI-e bus can deliver in power terms, but this does mean the passive cooling heatsink strapped to the PCB is pushed to its absolute limit.

Under load we regularly recorded the GPU hitting the 100C ceiling, and that's absolutely no good for either the GPU silicon itself or the ambient temperature of whatever chassis you're hoping to drop this card into.

You can, of course, pick up the HD 6670 in vanilla trim with the basic reference active air-cooler, and that won't come with the crazy-high operating temperatures, but then you'll lose on the silence front.

TechRadar Labs

Thermal performance
100% Load: Degrees Centigrade: Lower is better
Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate: 100
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 80

DirectX 11 tessellation performance (2,560 x 1,600)
Heaven 2.5 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate: 5.9
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 4.6

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,920 x 1,080)
Shogun 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate: 16
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 14

Power performance
100% Load Watts: Lower is better
Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate: 141
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 135

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
DiRT 3 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate: 24
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 21

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Metro 2033 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate: 10
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 8

DirectX 10 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Just Cause 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate: 20
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 18

DirectX 10 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Far Cry 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate: 34
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 31

Llano partnership

There is one feather in the HD 6670's cap, though, and that involves its happy partnership with the new desktop AMD Llano platform in Hybrid CrossFire mode.

Youget little benefit from pairing the Llano APUs up with anything further up the graphics food chain, but the HD 6670 is the sweet spot in performance terms. With the graphics part of the Llano APU working alongside the HD 6670 you get proper gaming performance, jumping up to over the 30fps mark on modern DX11 games such as DiRT 3.

But if you're looking for a card to power the graphics of your system on its own then the difference between the HD 5670 and this HD 6670 is pretty minimal. The Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate is an improvement over Sapphire's previous generation, but not by a particularly huge amount.

You're better off picking up one of the more serious contenders, such as the XFX HD 5770, which won't tax your wallet as much as you might think.

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Review: Nvidia GeForce GTS 450

The Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 is in serious gamers' graphics card territory, without hitting the big prices.

Nvidia doesn't have a great lineup in the budget segment of cards, and anything lower than this here GeForce GTS 450 isn't really worth a look for those with any passing interest in frame rates. This venerable card does have some gaming chops to offer, and for the £81 cost it's a tough card to argue against.

The version we've tested is the standard reference version directly from Nvidia. That means it has no extras, no funky third-party cooling solution and definitely no factory overclock.

We've taken the price from the cheapest GTS 450 we've found available, and that's the version from Palit. It does come with a slightly different cooler, but the GPU itself is in reference trim.

Immediately you can feel the step up in performance terms with this gaming-oriented card. With DiRT 3 and Far Cry 2 we saw the card hit 32fps and 52fps respectively, and that's with 4x AA running at very playable speeds.

The Shogun 2 and Metro 2033 scores, though, are much lower, with the Shogun 2 score especially highlighting Nvidia's performance weakness with this title.

But for £80-odd you can't complain. You could drop this into any system and be hitting gaming speeds across most modern titles at the modest 1680 x 1050 resolution.

Should you not mind taking the performance hit, this card will also give you access to PhysX extras in game and 3D Vision, if you so wish. Realistically, the GF 106 GPU isn't powerful enough to really do either technology justice and still maintain playable frame rates. So in essence is more a check-box feature than a real selling point.

It's a well-engineered GPU, though, and stays relatively cool, even with the reference cooler at 100 per cent load. We measured it topping out at around 67C when it was constantly stressed at 100 per cent. It is, though, a rather power-hungry beast, pushing the system to 220W under load.

TechRadar Labs

Thermal performance
100% Load: Degrees Centigrade: Lower is better
Nvidia GTS 450: 67
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 80

DirectX 11 tessellation performance (2,560 x 1,600)
Heaven 2.5 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Nvidia GTS 450: 8.7
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 4.6

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,920 x 1,080)
Shogun 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Nvidia GTS 450: 17
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 14

Power performance
100% Load Watts: Lower is better
Nvidia GTS 450: 220
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 135

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
DiRT 3 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Nvidia GTS 450: 32
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 21

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Metro 2033 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Nvidia GTS 450: 11
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 8

DirectX 10 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Just Cause 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Nvidia GTS 450: 28
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 18

DirectX 10 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Far Cry 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Nvidia GTS 450: 52
Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate: 31

Nvidia win?

At this price both the Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate and Sapphire HD 6670 Ultimate are quite simply blown out of the gaming paddling pool – neither can come close to this Nvidia card's performance.

Unfortunately that doesn't equate to a price point win for the green company, as AMD's lineup of budget GPUs still has more tricks up its sleeve.

The big problem for the Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 is the fact the HD 5770 is still on the market for the same price, and that last-gen DirectX11 GPU is still one of the best budget cards around.

Sadly then, for Nvidia at least, the GTS 450 still has no place to call its home. It's head and shoulders above the lower-end AMD cards, but there are still more impressive options available to us consumers for the same price.

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Review: Sapphire HD 6770 Vapor-X

As much as we've railed against Nvidia in recent times for confusingly re-branding graphics cards and GPUs with newer series numbers without changing silicon, AMD is not averse to the practice either. The simple fact is there is almost no difference between its HD 6770 Vapor-X and the old school HD 5770.

Nvidia has done this before, re-badging the excellent 8800GTX multiple times, each vaguely dulling that excellence as it emerged. First it became the 9800GTX and then later the GTS 250, with very little modification.

Almost the same has happened here with the HD 6770 coming out with the exact same silicon onboard, in fact AMD almost seemed a little sheepish about the launch of this card and didn't really seem to make any noise about it at all.

Despite the 6-series naming update for the card though vendors don't seem to be asking for any more than the standard new HD 5770s still in the marketplace.

Though realistically it's going to kill any second-hand market of the HD 5770 as most people will automatically assume that the card with the higher number is going to be the faster chip.

If you look at the specs of both the Sapphire HD 6770 and XFX HD 5770 there is almost no difference at all.

They're both running the same Juniper GPU, with the same graphics core configuration. The only slight change on this VaporX version is that the HD 6770 here is running slightly overclocked at 860MHz versus the HD 5770's 850MHz.

TechRadar Labs

Thermal performance
100% Load: Degrees Centigrade: Lower is better
Sapphire HD 6770 Vapor-X: 64
XFX HD 5770: 73

DirectX 11 tessellation performance (2,560 x 1,600)
Heaven 2.5 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6770 Vapor-X: 7.9
XFX HD 5770: 7.9

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,920 x 1,080)
Shogun 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6770 Vapor-X: 26
XFX HD 5770: 26

Power performance
100% Load Watts: Lower is better
Sapphire HD 6770 Vapor-X: 205
XFX HD 5770: 188

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
DiRT 3 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6770 Vapor-X: 40
XFX HD 5770: 40

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Metro 2033 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6770 Vapor-X: 14
XFX HD 5770: 14

DirectX 10 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Just Cause 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6770 Vapor-X: 30
XFX HD 5770: 29

DirectX 10 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Far Cry 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
Sapphire HD 6770 Vapor-X: 53
XFX HD 5770: 53

Tiny clocks

In practice that means next to nothing in the benchmarking stakes, although you'd hope the combination of factory overclock and funky, third-party cooler would make for a bit of an overclocking monster.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much headroom left in the ageing Juniper core, so there really isn't much more you can get out of this newer card over the older HD 5770.

Compared with the XFX card this is also dual-slot so it's going to hogging a lot more chassis space compared with its compadre. That funky, VaporX cooler though does an impressive job of chilling the chip, dropping the temperature under load from the 73C of the XFX HD 5770 to a far more reasonable 64C.

The upshot of the extra cooling power and extra core clock speed however is a surprisingly large increase in the amount of juice the HD 6770 seems to require to keep running under full load. At 220W it's got a very high power draw.

We'd recommend the single-slot XFX HD 5770 over the HD 6770, but then those cards are going to become more and more scarce. So if there's no HD 5770s available, and you don't fancy going down the second-hand route, then the HD 6770 is a worthy substitute.

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Review: Acer Iconia Tab A100

Overview

Life is all about choices and trade-offs. With the Acer Iconia Tab A100, the main compromise is in size. This 417g tablet, the first to run the Android 3.2 operating system, is too big to be a smartphone and too small – at a 7-inch screen size – to watch movies on. It fills a small niche for those who want an ebook reader that also runs apps.

For some, the form factor might be just about right. While the HTC Flyer is now showing signs of age, both tablets fit into the same mould: both offer a compact 7-inch screen, the Tegra 2 processor running at 1GHz and 1GB RAM. The Acer Iconia Tab A100 is actually 3g lighter, but you won't notice.

However, there are a few differences between the two pocket-sized tabs. We say pocket-sized with a smirk – you really need pretty large pockets for that to work.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 runs Android 3.2 out of the box, whereas most HTC Flyers have to be updated to 3.2.

This version of the operating system, named Honeycomb, supports screen scaling to run apps made for smartphones. However, on the 7-inch screen the resizing for smartphone apps isn't that noticeable.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 also provides a few interesting apps. One is called Planner and it presents a handy all-in-one view of recent news, your email, calendar and notes.

Like the Acer Iconia Tab A500, the A100 uses an app categorisation system for grouping apps into bins for social networking, ebooks, games and so on. Sure, it's nothing more than an extra home screen system, and doesn't look that great, but at least we're not talking about plain vanilla Android here.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 also provides a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 2MP front-facing chat camera. The HTC Flyer's chat camera is only 1.3MP.

Most critically, the HTC Flyer uses a single-core CPU while the Acer Iconia Tab A100 stays current with recent 10-inch tabs by offering the Tegra 2 dual-core chip.

In truth, most of the other differences compared to the HTC Flyer are cosmetic, or related to usability and the screen technology used on the two tablets. However, the Acer Iconia Tab A100 gets the nod over the HTC Flyer if only for including a new version of Android.

And there's a smart fold-open case for the Acer Iconia Tab A100 where you can set it almost vertical on a desk.

We should mention the BlackBerry PlayBook, even though many tablet users have forgotten it exists. There are still no strong apps on it to speak about, but the PlayBook also has a 7-inch screen. We can't recommend it unless you really need the business security features or already use a BlackBerry smartphone. Both the HTC Flyer and the Acer Iconia Tab A100 are better buys because of the boatload of Android apps available.

Oh, and there's still the first-gen 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, which shares some similarity in size but uses the older Android 2.2 Froyo operating system. It enables you to rent movies, but otherwise its apps are all designed for smartphones.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 8GB model we tested costs only $330 in the US, and £299.99 in the UK. The HTC Flyer is priced at £480. That makes the A100 the better buy. But the reality is that 10-inch tabs aren't that much more expensive, not that much heavier – the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is only 148g heavier than the A100 – and better suited to watching movies and playing games.

Features


In some ways, we're not sure where the Acer Iconia Tab A100 fits. The larger size of a 10-inch tab such as the Apple iPad 2 is a bit unwieldy for books, so in many ways the 7-inch screen of the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is more suited to book pages.

Otherwise, the Acer Iconia Tab A100 comes with all of the expected specs for a modern tablet: the Android 3.2 operating system, a 7-inch screen with 1024 x 600resolution, Wi-Fi, GPS, tilt sensors, a micro USB port for connecting to your computer, a micro HDMI port for video and audio-out to an HD TV, a 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth 2.1.

The tablet is only 12.7mm thick and looks like an oversized smartphone.

The speakers are below the Home button in a portrait orientation. There are volume control knobs on the right, and a screen lock switch. There are no buttons on the left-hand side. At the top, it's easy to find the power button and the headphone jack.

Also below the Home button, you'll find the HDMI and USB ports, and a port for connecting the Acer Iconia Tab A100 to an optional dock. This dock includes audio connections for external speakers and one for running an HDMI-out cable to an HD TV.

One word of caution: even though the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is small and nimble, it's not long-lasting. The tablet is rated for only five hours of battery – the small size clearly means a small battery. Streaming videos will chew up the battery in about four hours, and other rich media might make the Acer Iconia Tab A100 die after four and a half hours.

The Tegra processor is faster than those on some tablets like the Flyer. I

Interface

Like the Acer Iconia Tab A500, the A100 comes with a few minor user interface enhancements, but none of them will make you want to rush out and buy the tablet.

It's more of a system for organising apps than a real UI addition – you run an app that groups other apps. There's an app for games that simply provides another place to put game app icons instead of the main home screen.

Acer doesn't provide any extra widgets beyond those offered as standard by Android 3.2 Honeycomb.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100's smaller screen size means the interface might be more cumbersome to use than that on a 10-inch tab. That's because, even though Android 3.2 is supposed to resize objects on the screen automatically, the screen still runs at 1024 x 600 resolution. So when you select some buttons, you might need to use a fingertip. When you do, the click might register on the capacitive touch screen.

The screen also shows a lot of glare and isn't that easy to view from a side angle, so the user interface is harder to use than you might expect.

We tested several apps made for smartphones, and the overall impression is that Android 3.2 doesn't really make much of a difference. The 7-inch screen is already not that much bigger than, say, a Samsung Galaxy S2.

Apps including Skype just space out the buttons a little differently.

Android market and apps


The Acer Iconia Tab A100 isn't exactly rich in first-party apps made by Acer, or in third-party apps.

We mentioned the lacklustre system for organising apps in the Interface section of this review. No tablet really enhances the Android experience all that much, but Samsung offers the most UI add-ons, which actually seem to work. For example, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 now includes a social networking aggregator for seeing feeds from Twitter and Facebook.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 includes a SocialJogger app, which is really just an entry point to Facebook and Twitter.

Worse, some of the apps on the Acer Iconia Tab A100 just don't add that much value. The Nemo music player provides another way to browse photos, music and videos, but isn't that different from the included Android apps, and has an interface that looks dated.

Unlike the Toshiba Thrive and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, there's no branded Acer app store, which is okay with us since most of the extra app stores are superfluous anyway. The only exception is the Amazon app store, where the prices are a bit lower in some cases, with a few special deals.

Acer offers its clear.fi service for streaming content to and from the Iconia Tab A100. The service works with DLNA, so you can connect the tablet to your Xbox 360 or TV streaming set-top box. Setting up this app was one of the smoothest processes we've seen, and worked well. However, the Wi-Fi on the Acer Iconia Tab A100 only works over 2.4GHz 802.11 and not the steadier 5.0GHz band.

Acer includes the Documents To Go app for opening Microsoft Office files, and it works fast in most cases. When you open a Word document in your email, for example, the doc pulls up quickly in Documents To Go.

Otherwise, the typical Android apps are all here. A Navigation app provides turn-by-turn directions, even though the interface is minimal, not showing any icons for points-of-interest along the route. A maps app and a music app that uses the Google Music service in the cloud are also included.

Acer includes an Air Sync app for syncing contacts, appointments, photos and videos to your computer.

The Planner app is the only notable new addition for the Acer Iconia Tab A100. As we explained in the Overview section of this review, Planner groups your email, calendar, social media news feeds and notes.

Screen


The screen on the Acer Iconia Tab A100 isn't fantastic, but it's not wholly terrible either.

There's a lot of glare coming off the screen. In bright light, the screen is almost not viewable.

And, some icons seem to glow like they're on a mirror, hovering just above a sheet of glass beneath. To picture this, imagine using a 3D screen like the one on the HTC Evo 3D, except not in 3D mode, and on a bigger screen.

Another problem is the screen isn't that responsive. You might have to press a button a few times before it registers. Oddly, for typing, the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is good but cramped, registering clicks accurately even with haptics to help give the sensation of tactile feedback.

Most of the issues we had with the screen were related to the size, however.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100's price isn't incredibly low compared to 10-inch models, so the tablet needs to sell itself on portability, readability and colour quality. You get portability. But the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Apple iPad 2 and even the Motorola Xoom all have brighter and clearer screens.

We rented the movie Priest using the Market and found that this dark film looked even more colourless than it should.

Connected to an HD display using a micro HDMI cable, the movie still looked too dark. We loaded up the Blu-ray version of the film and saw that there are dark scenes, but they're still viewable. The contrast is so unappealing on the tablet that we stopped the movie halfway through.

Usability


So, what about usability for the 7-inch Acer Iconia Tab A100? That's something we measure carefully over an extended period, using the tablet as any mobile user would – checking email in a cafe, checking directions in the car and listening to music using earphones. The trouble is, a smartphone such as the HTC Evo 3D serves all of these purposes, lasts longer and has a better screen.

Compared to the HTC Flyer, it's a toss-up. The Flyer looks better – with a white-silver design and an interesting slight curvature that makes it seem like something Steve Jobs wouldn't scoff at repeatedly. The Acer Iconia Tab A100 is just flat and rectangular. At least with the Toshiba Thrive, there's a snakeskin pattern for extra grip on the back.

The optional case for the Acer Iconia Tab A100 improves usability, because you can protect the tablet and be a little more careless with it. You can also fold the top cover back and prop the Acer Iconia Tab A100 up on a desk, and use it occasionally as a secondary display next to your main computer.

The categorisation system isn't that helpful for usability. It's much easier to just group apps on home screens in your own way, and saves on extra finger presses. Most users will probably end up doing that anyway, and the Acer UI for these category apps has a faint glimmer of Microsoft Bob.

Still, the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is small and agile – it has the same benefits and detriments as the HTC Flyer. For those who read ebooks and tend to use a tablet in short spurts and don't watch movies, the A100 isn't a bad choice. There are hundreds of compelling apps compared to the BlackBerry PlayBook, which seems to have languished in the unknown land of RIM.

Media


Media consumption is either a blessing or a curse. For movies, the Acer Iconia Tab A100 isn't that usable, and you might decide not to watch them on it. The screen looks dark, and there were a few times when test movies – loaded using the microSD port – and a few YouTube HD videos, would pause for no apparent reason.

For music, we tested the MusicA app included with the Acer Iconia Tab A100 and the Google Music app. We loaded albums from The Boxer Rebellion, some techno from Daft Punk and a few pop hits as a sanity check. The Acer Iconia Tab A100 isn't bad as an MP3 player, and the speaker quality gets a boost from Dolby Mobile in terms of tonal clarity – basically, like someone adjusted the EQ in a good way.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 isn't bad for viewing photos on, but some images had a glossy look thanks to the mirror-like effect of the screen. They screen isn't warm and rich like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, or clear from any angle like the iPad 2, and it's a bit too small for detailed images. In this regard, the HTC Flyer looks about the same.

However, as an ebook reader, the Acer Iconia Tab A100 was serviceable. Pages turned quickly, and you can hold the device in one hand without a lot of effort. It has a good degree of portability to start reading anytime without the extra heft of a 10-inch tablet.

The Google Books app has good prices and a wide selection. You can also download the free Amazon Kindle app for an even wider array of ebooks.

Camera


Screen crispness isn't a major selling point of the Acer Iconia Tab A100. So when you use one as a camera, the images will look passable, but this isn't a tablet that makes you want to go around and show the masses your recently snapped photos – they just don't pop that much on the screen.

Fortunately, the 5MP camera does take good photos, and the smaller tablet is easier to grasp without shaking and position for a good shot. The camera app has few extra settings beyond what is included with Android 3.2, including sepia and black-and-white modes.

NORMAL: Images are clear from the main camera

See the full-res version

SUNNY: Glare takes over here

See the full-res version

CLOSE: We got in pretty close here with no issue

See the full-res version

COLOURFUL: Colours are reproduced well

See the full-res version

LIGHT: Sunlight spots take over this photo

See the full-res version

NO BLUR: The 7-inch size of the tablet means shots are less prone to shaking and blurring than those from larger tablets

See the full-res version

BLACK-AND-WHITE: Sepia and black-and-white options are available

See the full-res version

In the video camera, there are no surprises either. The tablet's easier to hold steady for shooting video than a 10-inch tablet, simply because of the smaller size. Our clips of a cat on a sunny day looked fairly smooth, although they had a very slight jittering look compared to those we captured with the Toshiba Thrive.

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guG4YKfwtLk&hd=1

It still feels a bit awkward shooting video – a smartphone makes more sense because you can be a bit more subtle. You can't use such a bulky device to record events such as football matches without feeling awkward and getting shaky results.

The front camera on the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is passable. We snapped a few photos and videos, and they looked predictably washed out and less clear than the rear-facing camera.

One obvious note is that people on video chats will look smaller and maybe not even that recognisable on the smaller 7-inch screen.

Verdict


It's hard to recommend the Acer Iconia Tab A100 in light of the 10-inch alternatives. Yet, for such as ebook fans and those who like smaller tabs, this is the best of the 7-inch lot.

We liked


The Android 3.2 operating system is a smart option. In our tests, older apps looked more reasonable on the screen. All of the benchmarking apps we tested, which are designed for smartphones, filled the screen correctly. Even the Astro File Manager app filled the screen to the edges and lined up icons in a neat row.

Ebook reading works well, although the screen's a bit glossy with a slight mirroring effect that might cause some eye strain.

Android 3.2 resized most apps well, but that's not a huge problem at this screen size.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 is fast – it blew through several benchmark tests, even if the basic operation of loading apps, playing games and watching movies didn't seem to benefit that much from the CPU speed.

We disliked


The screen on the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is mirror-like, with a weird glare, as if it's in 3D but not quite. From a side angle, the screen looks too shiny. Contrast ratio for movies wasn't good at all.

The battery life is only about five hours, because the battery's so small. If you stream a lot of movies online, the battery will last for four hours or so.

Processing was fast for our benchmark tests, but Android 3.2 runs about the same for most apps as it does on a 10-inch tab. The smaller size doesn't make it quicker.

Verdict


Somewhere, there's a niche for this tablet. It's mostly for folks who want a smaller tablet, but then they could just select a smartphone with a large screen, such as the HTC Evo 3D. Ebook reading worked well, if you can live with the somewhat glossy screen.

To say the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is the best 7-inch Android tablet is a bit misleading. But we do prefer it over the HTC Flyer, due to the included Android 3.2 operating system.

In some ways, the BlackBerry PlayBook is better in a technical sense – at least it does real multitasking – but it has too few apps. We like the A100 for an express purpose: greater mobility and book reading. For most tasks, a 10-inch tablet is a wiser bet.

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Review: Advance Tec AT-FX Polaris

We may have mentioned once or twice how much we like Corsair's Graphite Series 600T case. Not only did we give it 4.5/5, we stuck it on last issue's cover too. If any system is going to win us over, this is the outfit to do it in.
But by the same principle that got Susan Boyle recording contracts and Wayne Rooney a career in professional football, it's what's inside that counts. Do the components inside deliver the goods, or is the pretty case a distraction from a mediocre build?
Categorically, yes they do and no it isn't. The AT-FX Polaris is a really powerful, future-proofed, well-cooled, highly overclockable machine that manages to keep a reasonable price tag despite some fairly luxurious features.
The feature-rich ASRock Z68 Fatal1ty Pro Gen3 is a worthy motherboard for this rig. Its most enticing feature, in our opinion, is PCIe 3.0 compatibility. It offers not only a bit of future-proofing peace of mind by means of compatibility with PCIe 3.0 graphics cards further down the line, but also improves the performance of PCIe-based flash storage drives such as the OCZ Revo Drive.
There's still no word on when we may see PCIe 3.0 graphics cards, but then we're waiting for Ivy Bridge for that fun to begin in earnest.
Fatal-one-tified
As you might expect from a board endorsed by a rather famous pro gamer, there's an emphasis on overclocking, too. Along with an all-in-one auto-overclocking program that tweaks everything from memory frequency to fan speeds, there wellare gold capacitors and huge heatsinks over both bridges and PLL.
You're not starved for USB 3.0 or SATA 6Gbps ports either. That sets the stage nicely for a graphics card and CPU both ripe with overclocking potential. Advancetec has pumped the i5 2500K in this rig up to a very respectable 4.8GHz, and the overclocked KFA2 GTX 580 runs incredibly cool at 48ºC under load, especially considering that GF 110 core's running at 800MHz.
Out of the box, the 1TB hard drive and 60GB Corsair F60 SSD are set up in a Smart Response array, which is becoming increasingly popular among system builders and with good reason – it's a great way to bridge the gap between solid state and magnetic platter storage while keeping costs down by opting for a smaller SSD; 60GB is more than enough capacity to work as an effective cache device.
In all areas, the AT-FX Polaris delivers with bags of power. So how does it measure up against the competition?
TechRadar Labs
CPU rendering performance
Cinebench R11.5: Index: Higher is better
AT-FX Polaris: 7.80
Phoenix Hydro X: 7.84
DirectX 11 tessellation performance
Heaven 2.5: Frames per second: Higher is better
AT-FX Polaris: 21.7
Phoenix Hydro X: 38.4
DirectX 11 gaming performance
Shogun 2: Frames per second: Higher is better
AT-FX Polaris: 47.5
Liquid i7 High: 48.8
Well, it's a hugely more enticing option than the last rig we looked at from Advancetec, the AT-FX Tron, priced almost identically.
Last month's Liquid i7 High from Cyberpower arguably offers better value with the inclusion of a screen and peripherals, but if you're already set for those then we think the Polaris matches it in the components department, considering the overclocking and cooling on offer.
The current cream of the sub-£1,500 crop is still Palicomp's Phoenix Hydro X, offering an i7 2600K and two 2 GB HD 6950s.
Advancetec's Polaris is cheaper though, and ideal for any gamer who can afford it.
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Review: EVGA GTX 560 Ti DS

We'll come right out and say it – there are too many 1GB GTX 560 Ti cards on the market. EVGA is the major culprit, producing an astounding five slightly different takes on Nvidia's reference card.
This, the GTX 580 Ti DS edition, comes overclocked to 900MHz to the reference card's 882MHz, and two cooling fans to trump just one on the original model.
The memory's been cranked up 200MHz or so in this 'super overclocked' edition too, but for the majority of people this card's aimed at, it's not so much the clock speeds EVGA has set that matters, it's what's possible to achieve by tweaking it yourself.
It's not just the fans that bolster this particular GTX 560 Ti's overclocking potential. Under the unusually stylish outer case lie three heatpipes, as well as heatsinks for the memory and voltage regulator. That amounts to clock settings that teetered around the 1,000MHz mark in our test rig, with the shaders operating at 2,000MHz. Bonkers, no?
Even if you're happy with the ready-baked overclock that EVGA has supplied, you're looking at an extra 5-10 frames per second in games like DiRT 3 and Shogun 2 over the stock card.
Our chief concern is that at £190, this is a GTX 560 Ti in AMD HD 6950 territory. In short, the 6950's a superior card out of the box, and if you can still flash the 6970 BIOS onto it, it overclocks better than any other.
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Review: Toshiba Thrive

Overview

The Toshiba Thrive is the latest Tegra 2 Android tablet to come from one of the world's big tech companies.

In the world of iOS and Android tablets, it's often not a question of having all of the best features.

Sometimes, having a few unique and well-targeted offerings can help you carve out a niche.

That's especially true of the Toshiba Thrive. While it seems like yet another Android 3.1 tablet that might suffer the same fate as the ill-conceived HP TouchPad – which has now been discontinued – the Thrive does offer some appeal for more advanced, technically-minded users after customisation options and high benchmark scores.

Both the HP TouchPad and the Toshiba Thrive are a bit bulky and heavy. Yet, the Thrive differentiates itself from the Apple iPad 2.

It has full-size ports for HDMI, USB and SD cards – no adapters required, and no "micro" anything. The rear camera snaps photos at 5MP.

The rear cover snaps off – there are optional back covers available in five colours – so you can gain access to remove the battery.

Most importantly, enterprising individuals who snap the back cover off will find there are actual screws you can remove and... well, let's just say the Toshiba Thrive is friendlier to potential customisation.

Weighing 725g, the Toshiba Thrive is a bulky monster. That's 160g heavier than the lightest of the light Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Some users might appreciate the heft though, and the back cover has a snake-skin pattern that's easy to grip.

You can imagine pulling out the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, at 8.6mm thick, and seeing everyone squint to see it in profile. The Toshiba Thrive is big and bold at 15.7mm – a hair thinner than the Apple MacBook Air.

The Toshiba Thrive's 10.1-inch screen has a 16:10 aspect ratio at 1280 x 800 pixels resolution. Toshiba touts its Resolution+ technology, designed to make videos snap. Yet, the screen is not nearly as bright or colourful as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and looks a bit washed out compared to the iPad 2.

The Toshiba Thrive 8GB version costs $400 in the US, which is the same as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. We tested the 16GB version of the tablet, which costs $430. Toshiba hasn't yet announced a UK launch date or price.

Features

We started this review by saying the Toshiba Thrive stands out because of some unique features.

Unfortunately, some of the basic hardware specs betray that claim, which we'll go into a bit further down this page.

The tablet runs on the same processor as most Android tabs – the 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core CPU with GeForce graphics.

The tab has 16GB of internal storage and one external SD card slot, 1GB of RAM, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0.

The full-size ports on the Toshiba Thrive were a surprise. There's a standard HDMI port for connecting to your HD TV. You can use a standard HDMI cable instead of the more common mini-HDMI.

The full-size USB port is very handy too. We were able to quickly add movies form a USB flash drive to the device. When you insert a mouse, a cursor magically appears (even though it runs a bit too fast). Attach a USB cable for your keyboard, and you can type up longer documents much faster.

Other ports include a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro-USB port for connecting to your computer, two speakers below the screen on the edge of the tablet, buttons along the top for power, volume and screen lock, a front-facing 2MP camera and dock connector.

The full-size SD card slot is particularly appealing. You can insert an SD, SDHC or SDXC card up to 128GB, adding a colossal amount of space for movies and other media without a lot of hassle.

The major bonus here is that, if your digital camera uses an SD card, you can pop out the card and insert it into the Toshiba Thrive for a quick back-up or for viewing images on the tablet's 10.1-inch screen.

The 1GHz Tegra 2 processor didn't feel faster or weaker than any other Android tablet.

Our only complaint here is that the video processing felt weak. Compared to the Samsung Galaxy S2, which is a fast smartphone, the Toshiba Thrive felt sluggish at times. We played several YouTube videos in HD, loaded the movie Priest from a USB flash drive, and found videos would pause every so often.

We also ran extra benchmarks to test the processor and video. The BrowserMark score was 83584, compared to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 score of only 76876. The Toshiba Thrive's Linpack score was 41.46 compared to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1's measly 34.06. And, the Toshiba Thrive scored a 994 on the Vellamo test. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 only scored 890.

In terms of bulk, it's not all bad news. The Toshiba Thrive is twice the thickness of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Apple iPad 2, but it's also easier to grip and has full-size ports. That means it'll stay put next to your HD TV when you connect to watch a video.

Unlike the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, we felt the bulk wasn't a major irritant, but the extra weight is disappointing. For comparison, that 160g of extra weight compared to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the same as an ebook reader such as the BeBook.

In terms of the size and weight, it's important to decide whether the full-size ports are worth having less mobility. We generally prefer the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.


Interface

The Toshiba Thrive tablet runs on the Android 3.1 operating system, also called Honeycomb, making it a pixel-for-pixel interface match with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, and Acer Iconia A500. However, there are some differences.

You can connect a USB hard drive or flash drive that contains movies and play them that way. When you do, it's also easier to connect the Toshiba Thrive to your HD TV.

The other major difference is that Toshiba includes three first-party apps. One is called App Place, and it's essentially just another app store to compete with Android Market. Unfortunately, during our testing, the app didn't work and a message said the app was experiencing technical difficulties.

Start Place shows news headlines and has a few categories for world and sports news, a search and a timeline dial that you drag to the right to see older clippings and news photos. Many news magazine apps, including the one for USA Today, do a better job of presenting this info.

The Book Place app is another somewhat negligible addition, in that it shows you yet another book rack in addition to Google Books and the Amazon Kindle app, with a way to buy books through a Toshiba ebook portal. Book prices looked reasonable, though – about $10 for several books. The store was running quite a few specials, including some bestsellers for just $1.99 each.

Otherwise, the Toshiba Thrive sticks to the typical formula for Android tablets in its interface: widgets you can drop onto one of five panels that include Google Search, a Gmail summary widget, a clock, contacts and a picture viewer.

Toshiba also includes a music player widget, but it works just like the one included on all Android tabs.

Android market and apps


The Toshiba Thrive follows the lead of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer in including several extra third-party apps beyond those normally included with Android 3.1.

Interestingly, while the apps are different and helpful, they eventually match up to the Transformer in terms of overall value.

Toshiba includes QuickOffice on the Toshiba Thrive, for opening documents and spreadsheets (the Asus Eee Pad Transformer includes the similar Polaris Office app).

There's also an app from Kasperky Labs for running a virus check on your files, which is helpful if you transport those files to a computer.

There's also a nice-looking Backgammon game and several card games, but no hardcore visually intense games from, say, Gameloft, are pre-installed for you.

Toshiba includes a file manager app, a Media Player app and a few extra utilities for getting support from Toshiba and an online manual.

Toshiba also includes the rather expensive app LogMeIn Ignition, which costs $14.99 on the Android Market, and enables you to access your main computer from the tablet. We tested a connection over Wi-Fi to a desktop in a home office and the app ran smoothly. Being able to attach a mouse meant we could run Windows quite easily in a virtual window.

Most third-party apps we tested worked well. Once again, the GeForce graphics pump up the speed, but the Android 3.1 operating system seemed to run about the same.

When you start the game Paradise Island, there's still a good 30 second load time. Android is designed to run well on Tegra processors, but load times are still CPU-intensive. The GeForce graphics adds some punch at times, but not for most of the typical UI operations.



Screen


One of the weaknesses of the Toshiba Thrive, compared to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Apple iPad 2, is that the screen's just not that impressive.

The theory is that Toshiba has borrowed screen technology from its home displays, which it calls Resolution+, to bring out extra colour and brightness. The reality is that, in a side-by-side comparison, the Samsung screen looked much brighter and better.

When you crank up the brightness on the Toshiba Thrive's screen, the colours start to look washed out like they do on some notebook computers. That means brightness doesn't make the screen easier to read for ebooks, or make colours pop out for movies and games.

In fact, from a side angle, the Toshiba Thrive's screen looks even less crisp and colourful. The surface is remarkably shiny, which means in certain lighting conditions you may not even be able to use the device, because there's so much glare.

Regrettably, in the final days of testing, our test unit also developed a hairline crack that evolved into a noticeable three-prong break. We transported the tablet in the same highly protected Booq bag that we've used for many other tablets, so the crack was quite surprising.

The Toshiba Thrive's touchscreen wasn't that responsive. In a few cases, we had to press a button twice. The screen doesn't use haptics, so there's no soft buzzing sensation when you type.

The soft keyboard is spaced evenly and comfortably on the 10.1-inch screen, but without the haptics, we found our typing speed was a little slower than it is on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Usability


The rubber meets the road when it comes to everyday usability for the Toshiba Thrive. And by rubber, we mean that the hard backing case, which is interchangeable with other colours, does add some novelty. There's something refreshing about being able to take the cover off and inspect the internal hardware.

Still, the Toshiba Thrive is just too heavy, too thick, and too big overall. It feels a bit like a tablet PC from yesteryear. You never feel like it's a gadget you want to grab in a moment and use on the sofa, and that is perhaps its ultimate death knell.

Tablets such as the Apple iPad 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 afford an immediacy of media consumption and quick browsing sessions on a whim. Given the choice between a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Toshiba Thrive at home, we ended up grabbing the Samsung most of the time.

Another issue is the buttons and port covers. The power button is almost flush with the top of the tablet, which means it's hard to find unless you look around. On the side, there's a button that locks the back cover, but some new users might mistake it for a screen lock button (which is on top). The port cover is annoying because it dangles to the side when you connect a USB key, HDMI cable or micro USB.

The cover felt rigid enough that it probably won't snap off over time.

That said, some users will appreciate the bulky size if it means having easy access to the USB and HDMI ports. We tested an HDMI connection to a Sony HD TV using an extra-long cable, and sat back to play YouTube videos and games on a 55-inch screen. In that setting, the 725g weight wasn't that noticeable.

Toshiba also uses a fast-charge technology for the Thrive, which lasts about 11 hours.

The tablet boots up in 30 seconds, which is an eternal age when you just want to use Google Talk. The tablet shuts down in about 10 seconds. The half-second wake time from sleep is quite quick.

The screen's shiny finish means you may experience some eye strain using the device for long periods, while the rich colour quality of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 means long sessions are less headache-inducing than those on the dull Toshiba Thrive.

Media

Watching media on the Toshiba Thrive is not as enjoyable as it is on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the Apple iPad 2.

Its extra bulk, fuzzy and shiny screen means it ranks at the bottom of the Android tablet list for media consumption.

HD playback wasn't that great, either. We watched the movie Priest using the built-in media player app, but the movie paused a few times.

The Toshiba Thrive supports most common media formats for music and movies including MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, MP3, AAC, and WMA.

Toshiba includes SRS audio enhancement, but we found the audio playback to be just average. Sound seemed to emanate from the back of the tablet, which doesn't make any sense at all considering that the speakers are on the side of the tablet, below its screen.

For books, the Toshiba Thrive is OK. Screen glare is a major issue, but if you're in a bedroom or on the sofa reading with a lamp nearby (not blaring down on you), the screen works fine. Games ran smoothly – we tested Need for Speed: Shift, and the tilt features worked smoothly for controlling the car.



Camera

The Toshiba Thrive offers a 5MP rear-facing camera for taking photos and video, and a front-facing 2MP camera that you can use with Google Talk or other video chat apps.

Shots with the rear-facing camera looked clear, as long as we were in a brightly lit location.

As is true with every other Android tablet, it's often difficult to position the 10-inch screen in a way that makes photography anything more than just a point-and-shoot exercise. When you're also dealing with screen glare and can hardly see what's on the screen, photos tend to turn out poorly.

Camera settings aren't that impressive: there are just a few settings for shooting in sepia or controlling exposure, but no cool effects a la the Instagram app for the Apple iPhone. Still, the final results when we could see the screen turned out clear, colourful and worth the effort.

GLARE: Shooting into direct sunlight produces some light spots

See the full-res version here

NORMAL: Images from the 5MP rear camera are crisp and clear

See the full-res version here

CLOSE: Getting close to subjects isn't a problem, with no focus issues here

See the full-res version here

COLOURFUL: Our best shot – colours are vibrant and true to life

See the full-res version here

TOO SUNNY: Our worst shot – whereas before there were a few sun spots, here the bright sunlight takes over and causes the tree to darken so much it's almost a silhouette

See the full-res version here

BLACK-AND-WHITE: Sepia and black-and-white shooting worked well

See the full-res version here

For shooting movies, the Toshiba Thrive records in 720p definition, and we found the capture and playback to work smoothly, as long as we dealt with movies we shot on our own. With some Hollywood films we loaded onto the tablet, playback sometimes paused.

Like the camera, video capturing doesn't afford any extra features such as adding a cartoon effect. There's little sense that the Toshiba Thrive adds any extra features or apps to turn the tablet into an adequate camera or camcorder.

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjxdeTjJwzc&hd=1

Android 3.1 includes a simple movie editing app for dropping clips into a timeline – adding photos and splicing the whole affair together into one long feature. We're not talking about Adobe Premiere, but at least there's an app you can use for making your own movie.



Verdict


There's a predicament with the Toshiba Thrive: it has a certain appeal for advanced users who'll appreciate the GeForce graphics and speed, but the bulky size is a major problem.

We liked


On the plus side, the Toshiba Thrive is fast. In benchmarks, this tablet smoked the competition. That finding didn't really play out in average daily use, because Android felt about the same speed as always.

Yet, if Toshiba stays with the device and doesn't pull a TouchPad-style about-face, we may see games and other apps that take advantage of the faster speed and the GeForce graphics.

One brilliant move was to make the USB and HDMI ports full size. You can just unplug your Xbox and snap in the Toshiba Thrive when you want to watch on an HD TV. The tablet enables you to plug in a regular keyboard and mouse – this ease of adding peripherals is a win.

Battery life is another bonus. You'll find that the time you can use the tablet depends greatly on how you use it, but Toshiba claims about 11 hours of use, and we didn't see any great disparity with that claim when we used the Thrive for typical tasks including checking email and web browsing. Playing a movie continually will suck the battery power up quickly, though.

Toshiba includes a few choice apps, including QuickOffice and several card games. The Toshiba apps, when they worked, added some value for finding ebooks and catching up on the news.

We disliked


We've harped on about the hefty size, and that's the most critical black mark. There just isn't a sense of pick-up-and-go mobility with the Toshiba Thrive, and it seems too bulky and heavy to lug around every day.

The screen isn't outstanding. Images looked a bit dull and washed out, without the colour depth of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the Apple iPad 2. You can hardly see the screen in direct sunlight.

The camera doesn't add any extra features beyond the Android basics. Despite the GeForce graphics on the tablet, Android apps tended to run at roughly the same speed as on other Android tabs.

Verdict


In the end, the Toshiba Thrive is a good choice for those who really need the full-size HDMI and USB ports and can envision a day when games run faster on the GeForce graphics.

For a specific use, including customisations and future upgrades, the Toshiba Thrive offers some extra flexibility. Maybe you want to be able to claim your tablet has the highest score in several benchmarks.

Yet, the hefty size and weight (plus the passable screen quality) is the main reason we prefer other recent tablets.

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