ASUS Lamborghini VX2

The second coming of the ASUS Lamborghini - half a sport car, half a laptop - almost happened, though it still might last a bit.

It's been almost a year since first pieces of information about the first Lamborghini - the VX1 - reached us. If you look now at it and at the relation between the price and the number of positive feedbacks about this gadgets, you understand that people have realized its true value. Since the VX1 made it on the marker there have been sites posting reviews, comments and simple post about this gadget. This way the Lamborghini series from ASUS became extremely popular.

The popularity of the laptop might be explained not only by the brand name ASUS, but by the name of the series - Lamborghini. I mean there's hardly a guy who wouldn't, at least once, dream of driving a Lamborghini - the sportiest of all the sports cars. But ASUS made it possible to hold this wild beast in your hands, having it on your knees and pushing its keys.

So anyway, this popularity gave the creators of VX1 the idea that there should be another model in the Lamborghini series. It's a series, after all, and a series must have at least two models in its range. So they have come up with the ASUS Lamborghini VX2.

The strategy of giving us information on this gadget was the same as in the case of VX1: it was like waving a nice, juicy bone in front of a dog's nose. In other words: they gave us almost nothing.

Many of the gadget geeks were really disappointed with the history repeating (and I fully support them in this), but I guess it's better than absolutely nothing. Now we have at least something to speculate on. I'll be thinking how it'll be, how fast, what will be it's 'interior' and so on. You know, because at this point we know almost nothing about it... not more than there will be two external variants of the VX2: a traditional yellow a black, both with the Lamborghini logo, of course.

The only thing known about the interior is the CPU, which will be an Intel Centrino Duo. However, as much as I love Intel, I couldn't say that it would match half of the Lamborghini powers. But it is absolutely the best candidate for the role of second fastest gadget!

After the launch of Vista all over the world, they stuff it everywhere; even the Lamborghini VX2 will have it onboard (why spoil such a gadget?)

Well, I guess we'll catch up more on this topic later in this year, and I guess ASUS should organize a full time presentation this April at CeBITT 2007. And be sure to see me there, VX2, my boy!

Logisys Optical Finger Mouse makes the world your mouse pad

When you're traveling by plane or train or using your laptop away from your desk, it's sometimes awkward to find a convenient place to mouse around. Attach the Logisys Optical Finger Mouse to your finger with its Velcro strap, and you can easily navigate your screen by pointing its 800dpi laser sensor at whatever surface is handy. Short of ditching the mouse altogether, it's ideal for people on the go, working equally well on either the left or right hand.

The mouse's unique design brings the thumb-operated left/right buttons and scroll wheel closer to your work, letting you keep the device attached to your finger as you type. Rather than moving your hand to grab the mouse, it's always literally close at hand. Then you can keep your hands on the keyboard, mousing around without moving them away because even the keyboard can be used as a mousing surface. Nice.

Looks like its $19.99 price is not an exorbitant amount to pay to change the context in which a mouse can be used.

Special Vista Keyboard and Mouse

Finally when Vista software is out on the market the M'zoft Corporation has released its new wireless mouse and keyboard. The M'zoft Wireless Entertainment desktop 7000 is a set of a keyboard and rechargeable mouse.

The mouse is the M'zoft’s first rechargeable mouse and they have made it great. First of all, the mouse and the keyboard work using Bluetooth technology. They can work from up to 30 feet away from you computer. Not bad for a keyboard, huh.

Why is it made for Vista? Additional buttons like multimedia and some gadget buttons are placed on the keyboard. These buttons will work only with Windows Vista because only Vista has a "gadget" side-bar. And there are a lot of them, in addition to multimedia buttons that have become usual for a keyboard. The multimedia buttons will let you remotely control all the devices that are connected using Windows Media Center; this makes your keyboard a cool remote control.

Mouse keys are specially created for Vista too. For example, pushing the middle button (scroll) will let you see the thumbnails of all the windows that you have opened. The other cool function that is added: You can magnify a portion of the screen. This will help you when viewing some pictures, or reading small fonts.

Being made in grey colors the keyboard and the mouse will match any computer white or black. Besides, the keyboard is made thin and the buttons are pressed easily and don't make much noise.

The first rechargeable mouse made by M'zoft? Yes it is. The mouse has a rechargeable battery and you can charge it when you do not use the mouse. I think that would be at night, or when you are at work.

COMPUTER COOLERS

Buying a new computer involves buying a new powerful and big cooler. Especially for those who are crazy about overclocking and upgrading your machine to the limits. Of course, the best way to cool a powerful machine is to buy water or liquid nitrogen cooling systems and these gadgets will dost you a fortune. However, for those of you who don't want to waste so much money on that we present you two of the top coolers nowadays. Eclipse from Cooler Master and Big Typhoon VX from Thremaltake are one of the best in their class.



The Eclipse

Cooler Master has shown itself as very good cooler producer and the names of their coolers are unique too. Remember the old Mars coolers. Well, the Eclipse is one of those interesting names; I wonder why they named it like that.

Eclipse is the best air cooler that is made by Cooler Master as it says on their web site. It is a very unusual looking cooler and it is bigger than most of its analogues. Its special construction of the fan built into the radiators and its form allows the fan to blow the cold air not only on the processor itself but on the other parts of you computer as well. This fan will make your whole system cooler.

Its weight is not small, I would say it is pretty heavy because it weighs 23,5 ounces (670 grams). Moreover, they used aluminum to make; so imagine how big it is.

The fan is one of the most important parts of a cooler and this one has a 66 x 68 mm turbine fan. They used a long-life bearing that should serve you very long. It says that it will work for 40,000 hours which is four and a half years of 24/7 work. I guess that it would be enough for you.

The package that the cooler comes in is the biggest cooler package I have ever seen. It has everything you need there: even the thermo paste to install it on.


The Big Typhoon

I do not need to tell you how effective the Big Typhoon VX is. It is a better version of one year old Bit Typhoon (no VX). Many people liked it very much and now the Thermaltake Company has created a newer version of it.

This new Big Typhoon VX measures 122 x 122 x 103 mm and it is obviously smaller then the Eclipse cooler. Well, we will compare them later.

The fan is the part that Big Typhoon can be proud of. It uses a 120 mm fan that blows not only on the radiator but on the base of the cooler itself and the surrounding area of the motherboard. (There are thermal tubes there on my motherboard that come from the chipset.)

They used thermal tubes on Big Typhoon however the distance between the tubes is 1 mm and it is crucial that there would be no dust. Otherwise the gaps will be all dusty and the tubes will not work properly.

Big Typhoon VX comes in a smaller box and it also has the thermo paste included.


Comparison

So what is better the Big Typhoon VX or the Eclipse from Cooler Masters? Let us check some of the parameters first.

1. Installation and size
First of all you need some place to install it because some motherboards have not that much space to install such a big cooler as Eclipse. Big Typhoon VX on the other hand has a very compact base that you can attach to virtually any processor it supports.
Eclipse is much higher although it is thinner then the Big Typhoon VX so you should choose what you need and weather you can fit it into your case. However, the cases nowadays are big and wide so you should have no problems with that.
2. Weight
Weight becomes crucial when you install the cooler on the vertically standing motherboard. Although I think that most of the motherboards will hold such a weight but I am not sure.
Eclipse with its aluminum radiators and thermal tubes weighs about 670 grams however the Big Typhoon is much heavier and weighs 827 grams. The difference in 160 grams can play a big role for somebody.
3. Cooling
Cooling our system that is what we all want from our coolers. We have tested the two cooler stars and now we present you the results on that.
On the low RPM which is under 1300 the best cooler is the Big Typhoon. The thermal emission practically has not changed when we have lowered the RPM. Besides, at these RPM the Big Typhoon VX has got the lead in cooling the motherboard around the processor. Eclipse is not much weaker but it will still cool your system worse than it would do the Big Typhoon VX.
How about the medium and high RPM? Well the situation is not much different here either. Eclipse is not as powerful as the Typhoon.
4. Noise measurement
Nobody likes noisy coolers and this sound frustrates me very much. At the very low RPM the Eclipse cooler is the quietest. However this cooler cannot cool a powerful processor rotating that slowly. The maximum it can do is to cool down an office 50% load of Conroe 3.2 GHz. However, on the medium RPM of 1900 it does a great job of cooling the same processor with 100% load and demonstrates the noise of 26 dB. It is pretty good. However, on the high RPM the Eclipse cooler is one of the noisiest ones and you do not recommend you to use it at high RPM.
Big Typhoon creates the same 26 dB noise on minimal RPM which is 1300. However, the thermal emission of this cooler is much higher at this state. On the highest RPM the noise becomes 32 dB and the thermal emission is not very different from the low RPM one. I think that there is no purpose of using this cooler at high RPM.

It is up to you to choose which one you would like to buy. Can we recommend you a $ 60 Eclipse from Cooler Master if there is $ 27 Hyper TX with about the same productivity (However the noise level is higher)? Choose from a more productive Big Typhoon that costs $ 40 and les productive but quieter at lower RPM Eclipse

By TECHNOCOO