The Ben'enator » Zalman

Busy with Reviews

Benjamin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:54:46 +0000

Things have been wicked busy around here lately. My real job has kept me hopping as well as helping Daniel of SLAGD with his house roof (weekend before last). Regardless, products have been rolling in, and rolling through the shop before they roll back out and the last three reviews off the bench are as follows:

1) Cyber Snipa Battle Bag

This is a handy-dandy backpack that holds your laptop, some extra gear including a full-sized keyboard. The keyboard is stored in a removable pouch and this makes the Battle Bag a great accessory for taking to a LAN. Even if you don’t have a gaming laptop, you can still take a ton of gear on your back. Sweet.

2) WMWifiRouter

This handy piece of software is designed for your Windows Mobile device and turns your phone into a Wifi Router. It takes your data connection (EVDO, EDGE, 3G, etc) and pipes it back out of your phones WiFi connection and enables you to share your data plan with almost any wireless device. Think of it as a free EVDO Air card.

3) Zalman GS1000 Full Tower Chassis

The latest review we’ve posted is the Zalman GS1000 case. This is a great case that fixes most of Zalman’s previous issues and brings some great features to the table. Integrated Hot-Swap SATA bays? Check. Tool-less ODD and HDD installation? Check. Good looks and silent performance. Roger that.

Make sure to check out BCCHardware.com for the latest reviews and daily tech news.

New Toys, New Gear, New Reviews

Benjamin — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:19:13 +0000

I just got a call from Dallmann Computers saying that I’d just received some new gear. I’ve been waiting for a few things so I eagerly dropped it to see what was up. It seems that BCCHardware has just received the GS1000 case from Zalman as well as the CNPS 9300 AT HSF. These products will be featured in future reviews on BCCHardware.

Also on the truck was some hardware that I’ve been waiting for to put together my HTPC. I got a pair of 640GB Seatage HDDs, a Palit HD 3850 GPU and a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150. I know this won’t be a killer PC or anything, but it should do fine with a ASUS M3A78-EMH motherboard and a Phenom 9550 CPU. It will be sitting comfortably in the Thermaltake DH-101 HTPC case and be hooked to my 40″ 720p LCD TV and the Axiom Audiobyte speakers. It will be a nice change and will support both BD and HD-DVD playback and be hooked to a network media server for kicks.

It will replace a DVD-Recorder, HD-DVD player and BD player that currently sit under my TV. It will also have a pair of Wireless XBOX 360 controllers for some easy Windows gaming (such as DMC4 and Lego Indiana Jones). When it’s all up and running I’ll post up some pictures.

Faves Added – Still Under Construction

Benjamin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:47:37 +0000

BenHeide.com is slowly coming together. I’ve added some of my “Faves” that you can check out on the self-titled page. There is always fresh news there from other sites.

Things have been busy over at BCCHardware since I got back from Seattle as well. We’ve posted up a couple of new reviews this weak and should actually have something for every day. We have a lot on the go and should have a nice shiny new motherboard review for you shortly. In the meantime, check out the latest review – a 1000W PSU from Zalman.

Below is a quote from the review:

The voltage is very solid with the Zalman ZM1000-HP. It starts a little above the rated value and drops only slightly on any of the lines. The highest 12v rail (12v2) drops 0.2v and levels off at 12.2v with a heavy load. The 5v rail stays above 5v at 5.08v – down from the non-load 5.09v. The 3.3v line is even more solid and we didn’t measure any drop in voltage when going from a non-load situation to a heavy 850W load on the entire PSU.

Enjoy!