AU$	Home Premium	Professional	Ultimate
Stand Alone	299	449	469
Upgrade	199	399	429

This is about AU$70 more than what it is retailing for in the US.

Microsoft's AU site also seems to be having problems. After clicking on an advertisement earlier today and then following the link to Get It Now we were presented with a 404 page. This 404 error is now gone but the Get It Now link now redirects visitors to the Microsoft UK online shop instead.

Very poor Microsoft...

Also absent is any detail about the Windows 7 'Famiy Pack' announced in the US. The Family Pack is a 3-license copy of Home Premium for US$149. Microsoft have said previously that this will be available in AU but expect it to come in at around AU$300 if it is made available at all.

Not the best news in the world but at least it is here!

Related posts:

1. We’re back baby!

For anyone not familiar with them, a Home Theatre PC (HTPC) is a personal computer that is designed to operate primarily as a Personal Video Recorder (PVR). Much like a TiVo box or Foxtel IQ, a HTPC records television to a hard drive thus giving you access to features such as scheduled recordings and pausing live TV. Windows Media Center PCs are in a world of their own however. Not only do you get a PVR but also a wealth of internet content and access to any and all functions of a typical home computer.

The key requirement for any Home Theatre PC is that it has to suit your living room. More specifically it needs to look good, and it needs to be silent.

The former is not too difficult to achieve, simply choose the home theatre case of your choice. Making this system quiet however will require a careful selection of components that are both silent and deliver the desired performance.

We decided to go with the aforementioned Silverstone ML02 which at 82mm tall is one of the shortest Micro ATX cases available. The ML02 looks much like a DVD player or Personal Video Recorder and right at home in the TV cabinet. It also utilises an external 120 watt power supply to keep the noise down but this also means that the system will be limited to a low power processor, and onboard graphics.

Case: The ML02 is a low profile case and at only 82mm tall it cannot fit a full height graphics card, a stock CPU cooler, a full size optical drive, or more than one hard drive. On the plus side it looks fantastic, has a 52 in 1 card reader, and it has an external power supply making it nice and quiet. The ML02 also comes with the Soundgraph iMon IR receiver and LCD display built in, as well as the iPad remote control.

Motherboard: The Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H - This AM2+ motherboard is based on the AMD780G Chipset and features onboard Radeon HD3200 graphics. It also has HDMI and Optical out, required for High Definition and 5.1 Surround playback, and the onboard graphics are easily capable of 1080p playback.

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4850e - The e range of X2 processors come with a thermal power design of just 45 watts making them ideal for a low power system.  With a clock speed of 2.5GHz and 1MB of L2 Cache it should be capable of all media playback and also some light gaming.

CPU Cooler: Silverstone NT07-AM2 - The ML02 case requires a low profile, silent cooler. Silverstone make the NT07-AM2 especially for this case. Sourcing the AM2 version was particularly hard in Australia so we bought one from the US.

RAM: 2 x 1GB Corsair Value Select PC5300 - Cheap and nasty.

Hard Drive: The Samsung Spinpoint  HD103UJ - The HD103UJ is a 1TB hard drive with a rotational speed of 7200RPM, 32MB DRAM Buffer, SATA 3.0, and a max transfer rate of 300MB/s. The Spinpoint hard drives are fast, quiet, and reliable.

Optical: Pioneer DVR-K06 - The DVR-K06 is a slot loading R/W DVD drive. There are slim line Blu Ray drives available but we did not feel the need.

Tuner: Hauppauge Nova-T 500 MCE - The Nova-T 500 MCE is a Dual Digital, High Definition tuner.

Remote: Genius 300 Universal Remote - The ML02 comes with a built IR receiver and iMon iPad remote. Sadly these are not the best products available so we have gone with this cheap alternative.

Keyboard: The Logitech Mediaboard Pro - sold as a PS3 keyboard, the Mediaboard Pro is a stylish, Bluetooth keyboard with a touchpad.

OS: Windows 7 RC

The Build

Putting together our low profile, Micro ATX system was not too difficult although we did have some difficulty with cabling. Most of the wires need to be routed under the optical drive and along the right hand side of the case to avoid being too close to the processor heat sink. The cable for the 4-pin ATX Power was too short to be routed around the outside so we purchased a 30cm extension cable online.

The case can only fit one PCI card via a riser-slot and this needs to be used by the TV Tuner. The hard drive is seated on rubber grommets to dampen the sound but as anyone who has used these before will know, they rarely leave a hard drive silent. Sure enough once running the vibration of the hard drive caused a noticeable humming sound. Given that this is a low profile case there is not enough room to soft mount it so our solution was to simply place two pieces of sponge under the rear stand. Thankfully this has worked well with the humming noise eliminated and the sponge safely hidden at the back of the unit.

Once everything was installed we proceeded with out installation of Windows 7 RC. This went without issue and we proceeded to install our software drivers. We were unable to find a working driver for the Soundgraph iMon software but we have replaced the iMon remote with the Genius 300 Universal Remote, a MCE remote clone. The downside to this is that we lose the functionality of the ML02's LCD screen but iMon drivers should be available shortly. Installation of the Genius 300 was simply a matter of plugging in the USB IR receiver and programming the power buttons.

Setup of Windows Media Center was quite simple. You can just navigate through the menus with the remote to configure your sound and screen resolution. Our system is running 1080i via HDMI to a Samsung LA32R81BDX 32" TV, and 5.1 Surround Sound via Optical to our Surround Sound Amplifier.

Performance

Together the Hauppauge Nova-T 500 MCE and the Radeon HD3200 GPU do a fine job of producing television images. TV image quality via HDMI is excellent however the desktop picture quality is rather poor. Conversly if you connect the TV via VGA connection the desktop picture quality is very good, but the TV image quality is poor. We have not been able to find a good answer as to why this is the case but for most users, HDMI will be the best option. The Hauppauge tuner is also quite fast at switching channels. This is an important point to consider as cheaper tuners can be quite slow and this seriously impacts usability. PCI Tuners simply are not as fast as a TV's built in tuner but you do need to lessen the impact as much as possible.

Another thing to be aware of with Dual Tuners is that they actually split the signal between the two tuners, thus reducing the quality. If your roof antenna has less than 100% reception then both of your dual tuners will receive less than 50%, most likely leaving you with a no signal error in Windows Media Center. This almost entirely depends on the quality of your roof antenna so check to see if that has a good signal first.

The limit of one hard drive can also be a problem if you have an extensive media library. High Definition TV recordings use up quite a lot of space, in the region of 37MB/s. A 1TB hard drive will give you about 420 hours worth of recorded TV in the default WRT format.

Using the sponge solution mentioned above, this Home Theatre PC runs very quiet. The combination of the external power supply, onboard graphics, and the low power CPU mean that the system produces very little heat, and requires very little work from the CPU fan to cool it. Incidentally the CPU fan is the loudest component in the system which at idle is almost completely silent. Under load it produces noticeably more noise but any sound is easily drowned out by the speakers.

The Silverstone ML02 also looks right at home in a TV cabinet. The low profile makes it look very much like a large DVD player or Amplifier, and the black aluminium and acrylic finish suit the dark bezel of most modern TVs.

The Pioneer DVR-K06 is aesthetically pleasing, being a slot loading drive, but unfortunately we found that the build quality was poor. When ejecting discs the pressure of the moving disc against the face plate causes it to become loose and ours has popped off several times. Eventually we decided to glue it to the frame with some Araldite. For anyone not familiar with it Araldite can glue a chair to the ceiling. Needless to say it has not come off again since.

Benchmarks

We have put the system through the standard PC mark 05 and 3D Mark 06 benchmarks:

This is not a particularly high score for 3D Mark. The Radeon HD3200 is one of the fastest integrated graphics solutions available but it is still only capable of basic gaming. We have found the Project 64 and Mame Emulators to be the most appropriate programs to play. Most modern games are not well suited, for example Street Fighter IV is playable on the lowest detail settings but it doesn't look very good.

According to ATTO Benchmark the HD103UJ achieves a read and write speed of  about a 110MB/s.

Boot up time from Hibernation is about 35 seconds to the desktop.

As far as system temperatures are concerned, we were able to measure the CPU with CoreTemp but the Radeon HD3200 GPU has not been compatible with any of the software that we tried.

Idling at 45° is on the high side but the high of 60° is very good for the AMD 4850e.

Summary

This HTPC based around the Silverstone ML02 is a very stylish system. It fits in perfectly with any home theatre cabinet, being both pleasing to the eye and remarkably quiet. Our only gripe comes in the form of the poor desktop picture quality through HDMI.

Related posts:

1. Genius 300 Universal Remote Review
2. Sony DAVDZ870w Review
3. Mini ITX Gaming System

Case: For the case we decided to go with the Silverstone SG05. The SG05 is a Mini-iTX system with space for two PCI-e cards making it the ideal casing for a mini gaming machine. The SG05 also comes with a quiet 300w power supply which is a bonus as it saved us from sourcing that additionally.

Motherboard: Zotac GeForce 9300 ITX WiFi - Zotac are a relatively new name on the mobo market but they are quickly staking their claim as the providers of high quality, enthusiast equipment. The 9300 WiFi is perfect for small form factor HTPCs as it comes with on board Nvidia 9300m graphics, HDMI out, Optical out, and WiFi support.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - We had wanted a Quad Core processor but the 300w power supply was also going to limit us to a 65w processor, and the 65w Quad Core was going over our budget. This left us with the E8400 which despite only being dual core still performs at a very high level thanks to its 3.0Ghz clock speed.

RAM: 2 x 2GB Patriot PC2-6400 800Mhz - We often skimp on the RAM and this system will be no exception...

Video: Inno3D GeForce GTS 250 512MB - The GTS 250 is the fastest card the SG05 can fit without modifying the case. A GTS 260 can fit but it requires you cut part of the case. Again we skimped on the RAM here and opted for the 512MB version.

Hard Drive: Samsung HD501LJ  - 3.5", 7200RPM, SATA 2.0. We are big fans of Samsung's hard drives at the moment. Fast, reliable, and quiet. 500 gigs doesn't go far these days but again we had to make sacrifices to keep within our budget.

Optical: Sony AD7590S - The SG05 requires a slim line laptop optical drive and the Sony was nice and cheap.

VGA Cooler: Accelero Twin Turbo - The stock cooler on the Inno3D is very loud so we opted for a 3rd party solution. The Accelero is meant to both quiet and cool.

Monitor: Benq G2020HD 20" 16:9 - On the cheap side but it looks fairly nice.

OS: Windows 7 RC

The Build

The SG05 is a very small case and this was always going to make the task of putting this system together difficult. One of the major criticisms that other reviews have pointed out is that the wires from the power supply are full length which is obviously not required for a mini-iTX system. They tend to get in the way and limit the available space. Our solution to this was to flip the power supply around so that the cables are coming from the far side. This shortens their length just enough to make it manageable, and saves you from having to cut them shorter.

The 300w power supply that comes with the case allows enough height for some 3rd party CPU fans, the Scythe Shuriken comes to mind. We have found the stock Intel cooler to be perfectly adequate however. If like us your main concern is noise then you need not worry. The stock cooler makes hardly any noise, and is a lot quieter than the VGA fan so it really doesn't matter how loud it is.

While on the topic of noise we should also point out that the SG05 comes with a very quiet 120mm cooling fan at the front of the case, and the exhaust for the 300w PSU also produces very little sound.

The Zotac 9300 ITX is a very small motherboard. Even the box it comes in is tiny so prepare to be surprised if you haven't seen a mini-iTX board before. We did have some trouble mounting the CPU on to the retention bracket. The bracket was simply too tight and the motherboard was bending considerably from us trying to force the clamp down. After a bit of reading online we realised that we should screw the motherboard to the case before fastening the CPU. Even when doing it this way the motherboard was bending more than one would like. We eventually got it fastened but the board was still bending after it was secured. Hopefully it holds!

After getting the motherboard installed we then proceeded to place the rest of the components in. A bit of fancy cable work is required to fit everything and users should opt for a right angled SATA cable for the hard drive as there is very little room between the back of hard drive and the VGA card. Builders should also be aware that a special 3 prong cable is required for slim line optical SATA drives. There is a single cable for both SATA and power. It has a SATA connection on one end, a 4 pin molex on another end, and combined mini sata/sata power plug on the other end. We found this cable a bit hard to come by and eventually bought one off eBay.

After getting the DVD drive in we noticed our first problem with this case, the slot on the front cover for the DVD drive is about a millimetre too low for the optical drive bay. The DVD drive has a large gap underneath it where as the top is pushed right up against the top side of the slot. After reading online we have found a number of SG05 owners who have had this problem and it is an obvious design fault on Silverstone's part. By loosening the screws a little and moving the drive forward it will still be able to open and close but it is not very aesthetically pleasing to have a drive that doesn't sit flush.

After getting the DVD drive sorted we put the case cover back on and fired it up. Our first reaction - damn that thing is loud. Really loud.  The Inno3D sounds like a bloody jet engine! We should also point out here that the SG05 case has very thin sides with a lot of venting holes, and no sound padding/dampening to speak of. The hard drive was also quite loud as the all metal case was rattling from the vibrations.

This simply wasn't going to do. We first tried a number of different fan control programs but the stock cooler is loud even on the lowest setting. Some sort of modification was going to be required. The VGA fan being the main culprit we decided to look into getting a 3rd party cooler. The Accelero Twin Turbo has had some good reviews and is said to be a lot quieter than a stock fan. We decided to give it a go and ordered one online.

Installing a VGA fan is not too difficult. One simply has to remove the exiting fan + heatsink and screw on the new one. The Twin Turbo also comes with ram heatsinks which the stock card does not have. After getting the new fan on and placing it back in the computer we hit another snag with the SG05.  While there is space for two PCI-e cards the Twin Turbo unit is actually a little bit taller than a standard 2-slot VGA fan, and we could not close the case cover.

The only way to get around this was to cut a hole in the side of the case. Using some metal cutters we cut out a spot for each of the Twin Turbo's fans in the side of the case. This is leaving them exposed and likely to gather dust quickly so we are going to have to look at installing a perspex window or something similar down the road.

After getting it installed we were happy to find that the Twin Turbo was indeed a lot more quiet than the stock VGA fan. It is certainly not silent however, and the VGA fan is still the loudest part in the system but it is a vast improvement.

The next problem was the hard drive. The Samsung's are very quiet drives but the SG05 case is so thin and open that it amplifies the vibration greatly. Some people recommend rubber grommets to be placed in between the hard drive and the screws but the hard drive bay in the SG05 is too tight and they will not fit. You could however try this with a 2.5" hard drive in the 3.5" bay.

Having already purchased a 3.5" drive, our solution to was to soft mount the hard drive. Soft Mounting means that you actually suspend the hard drive inside the case using cables and p-clips. We purchased some plastic p-clips that we found on eBay, simply screwed these into the case and the hard drive, and then run some hair elastics though them. Doing a good job of soft mounting takes a little bit of hardware skill and we certainly make no claims to be any sort of  handymen. Some examples of good soft mounting can be found here. Ours does not look quite that neat but it has got the job done.

After booting up again the loud hum of the vibrating case was reduced significantly. Together the new VGA cooler and the hard drive mod have reduced the noise of this system significantly, and it doesn't sound too much louder than a laptop computer with its exhaust fan running.

Performance

After the hardware mods it was time to get Windows 7 installed and start to put the system through it's paces. Installation with Windows 7 was a breeze and we did not have any problems finding drivers or with compatibility.

For hard drive performance we used ATTO Benchmark.

In this test the HD501LJ reported a read and write speed of about 100MB/s. We then ran PC Mark 05 and 3D Mark 06 which yielded the following benchmarks:

For CPU and GPU temperatures we have used Real Temp and the EVGA Utility:

The CPU rises quite a few degrees under load with the stock cooler but it is very quiet and 63° is well within acceptable limits. The Accelero Twin Turbo does a fine job with the VGA card and only rises about 10° under load.

The SG05 case itself does a good job of managing the system temperature. The large 120mm fan on the front creates a good airflow and the large number of ventilation holes on the sides give the fans room to breath. Unfortunately this also does nothing to dampen the sound of the fans and it mean that the system is not as quiet as one that is completely covered.

Summary

So what do these numbers mean? The performance of our Mini ITX gaming rig is consistent with the performance of the components installed. What sets this system apart is the its incredibly small form factor. It takes up very minimal desk space and can quite easily be hidden away behind a flat screen monitor.

Unfortunately the quality of the SG05 case is rather disappointing. The steel frame is not of the highest quality and several parts, such as the DVD slot and top cover, do not fit together properly.

Despite the poor build quality the SG05 is quite well thought out and its design does allow for good air flow, making the system run quite cool. Again the large number of ventilation holes are a doubled edged sword as they also allow a lot of noise to escape.

While the challenge of building a Mini-ITX gaming system was fun the end result is a case that is not the most attractive, and a little on the loud side.

Related posts:

1. Silverstone ML02 HTPC
2. HP Mini 311 Benchmarks!

It takes a lot to stand out in the Netbook crowd these days. With so many devices available and the vast majority of them having very similar specifications, users really are spoiled for choice.

The EEE PC 1005HA is the second device to be released in ASUS'  new Seashell form factor. The Seashell netbooks are slim line with curved edges, and to their credit ASUS have managed to fit the exact same specs as the 1000HE into a significantly smaller and more stylish package.

EEE PC 1005HA-P Specifications:

• Display: 10.1" LED-backlit WSVGA Screen (1024x600 pixels)
• Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP™ Home
• Processor: Intel® Atom™ 1.66GHZ N280
• Default Memory: 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMM
• Hybrid Storage: 160GB 2.5” SATA II 5400RPM HDD + 10GB Eee Online Storage
• Wireless Data Network WLAN: 802.11b/g/n @2.4GHz, Bluetooth2.1 + EDR
• Battery: 10.5 hours*
• Multi-media Camera: 1.3M Pixel
• Audio Codec: Hi-Definition Audio CODEC
• Speakers: Premium Dolby® and SRS Surround Sound Speakers
• Built-in Mic: Digital Array Mic
• Interface: 1 x VGA Connector, 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x LAN RJ-45, 2 x Audio Jack (Head Phone / Mic-in), Card Reader: MMC/ SD(SDHC)
• Physical Dimensions: 10.2” (W) x 6.9” (D) x 1.4” (H)
• Weight: 2.8lbs
• Colors: Black, Blue, and White

The 1005HA is similar to the earlier released 1008HA model with the only major differences being that the 1005HA has a longer lasting removable battery, the ports on the 1008 have plastic covers, and the 1008 has a mini VGA adapter as opposed to a regular VGA output. The battery on the 1005 is both longer lasting and physically larger, this makes it stick out from the bottom so the 1008HA may be more aesthetically pleasing for this reason.

The EEE PC 1005HA comes in two varieties, the 1005HA-P and the 1005HA-V. These tags stand for Value and Performance. The performance version that we have here comes with the faster Intel Atom N280 1.6G6hz processor, Bluetooth, and a longer lasting battery (10.5 hours compared to 8.5).

Build Quality

One of the major improvements to the Seashell line of EEE PCs is the vastly improved keyboard. Anyone who owned a 701 or 901 will know that compared to the more recent 10" devices the keyboards of those early models were very difficult to type on. The keyboard on the 1005HA is 92% of a full size keyboard, has a large right shift key in the normal position, and features the apple'esc chiclet style keys. These combine to make the 1005 keyboard the best EEE PC keyboard to date, and probably the best keyboard we have seen on any netbook. We put it up there with the HP Mini 110 which is also very easy to type on.

The 1005HA also features a uniquely styled multi-touch touch pad. The touch pad has no frame or borders, is the same height as the rest of the palm rest, and is only identifiable by the area of raised bumps where the motion tracking exists. This has taken a bit of getting used to and overall we think that this new touchpad is actually not much of an improvement. It is a little bit smaller than that of the 1000HE and 901 touch pads, and to top it off the unit ships without all of the multi-touch gestures pre-installed. Despite advertising the EEE PC 1005HA as having a multi-touch touchpad the default drivers only support the pinch to zoom feature. Notably absent is two finger scrolling which  makes browsing on a small device a lot easier. Fortunately these are simply driver issues, and the full suite of gestures can be implemented by following the instructions found here.

The 10.1" 1024 x 600 LED back-lit screen is a fairly standard affair. It looks good indoors but glare is a problem outside. The vertical viewing angle tends to lose contrast with only a few degrees either way but the horizontal angle looks good well over 45 degrees.

One particularly pleasing feature is the inclusion of an access panel for the RAM. This allows the user to upgrade the system to 2GB if required. We have done so using an OCZ 2M8002G PC2-6400 stick and it has performed without any problems.

One last point we will make about the build quality, although the seashell form factor is nice to look at we have actually found the craftsmanship of the casing to be sub par. The edges on our unit are actually quite sharp and can irritate the skin after a little while. The bezel of our monitor is also not securely fastened in places and clicks when pushed.

Performance

We have put our EEE PC 1005HA through the standard 3D Mark 06 and PC Mark 05 benchmarks:

3D Mark 06

PC Mark 05

Using the Toshiba NB205 as a reference we can see that the EEE PC 1005HA does quite well, besting Toshiba's offering in both tests.

For the Hard Drive test we have used ATTO Benchmark:

ATTO shows about a 55-56MB/s read and write speed which is a good result for a 2.5" hard drive. With this sort of performance we found the hard drive to run well within its limits and any system lag was usually due to the Atom CPU being the bottleneck.

The battery life of the EEE PC 1005HA-P is advertised at a whopping 10.5 hours. Manufacturers have a habit of overstating these things and the 1005HA is no exception. While 10.5 hours of battery life may be possible it requires reduced screen brightness, running the CPU underclocked, and turning off Bluetooth and WiFi. Running under normal usage conditions (wifi on, 80% brightness) we found the battery to last about 8.5 hours performing general email and internet surfing duties. This is still an incredible amount of battery life and it makes the EEE PC 1005HA-P the longest lasting netbook currently available.

Summary

While the 1005HA-P doesn't bring anything ground breaking to the netbook sector, it does represent a marked improvement in both performance and usability. Despite a few annoyances with the sharp edges and the multi-touch touchpad, the excellent keyboard, class leading performance, and amazing battery life make the ASUS EEE PC1005HA-P one of the best netbooks currently available.

Related posts:

1. EEE PC Touch Screen Mod
2. Torq Xponent Review

An enterprising German modder has hacked up an EEE PC 701 for use in a kitchen cupboard door. The simple but brilliant design required an EEE PC 701 and a 7" touch screen, both available on eBay.

They then simply cut a hole in the door, placed a frame around it, and then made compartment for the computer at the back.

What would you need a touch screen computer in a cupboard door your wife says? For any of the below reasons:

• online recipes
• listening to music
• watching TV or videos
• digital photo frame
• reading rss feeds
• checking weather information

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. EEE PC 1005HA-P Review
2. Sony DAVDZ870w Review

The M-Audio Torq Xponent is an advanced MIDI controller for a comptuer based DJ. Unlike a lot of cheaper devices in this space, the Xponent comes with a high quality, 4-channel sound card. Note that a 4-channel sound card is required if the DJ wants to play one track and listen to another. MIDI controllers that don't have a sound card are limited to simply controlling mixing software, and typically require a more complicated setup.

The Torq Xponent includes:

• 4 x RCA outputs for independent control of the house system and booth monitors
• ¼” TRS headphone output with cue and volume controls
• 16-bit/48kHz max sample rate
• ASIO and Core Audio compatible

Mixer controls:

Xponent Rear

• 2 x vertical volume controls
• 2 3-band EQ control knobs with kill buttons
• 2 x gain-control knobs with mute buttons
• Horizontal crossfader control with transform buttons
• 2 x LED volume meters

Player controls:

• 2 x touch-sensitive scratch wheels
• 2 x 100mm pitch adjust controls
• Built-in touchpad/assignable X/Y control surface for mouse or effect control
• 8 x assignable knobs for effect control
• 64 assignable backlit buttons, including Play, Cue, Seek, Loop, Key and Sync controls
• 2 x LED progress meters

The Xponent has a layout similar to a pair of CDJs and a 2-channel mixer. Each side contains a jog wheel and all of the typical deck controls including loops, effect knobs, and transport buttons.It should also be noted that like higher end CDJs the Xponent includes touch sensitive jog wheels. Touch Sensitive Jogs makes beat mixing a lot easier as it allows the DJ to simulate a throw. Many of the cheaper MIDI controllers do not have touch sensitive jogs so this is a major selling point for M-Audio.

Unlike most CDJs the jog wheels on the Xponent are at the very top of each side. This is a good thing as the whole unit is not very large, and having them at the top away from the faders means you wont accidentally skip a song while adjusting the volume. This was a big criticism of the similarly priced Vestax VCI 100 so M-Audio get a big tick for that one. We found the layout of the Xponent to be very easy to work with and so similar to a typical 2 channel setup that little learning is required. The Xponent is larger than the Vestax and most other MIDI controllers but it is still a rather compact and portable unit.

Performance

So how does it play? After a good few nights with the Xponent we can happily say that this is the best MIDI controller we have ever used. The Jog wheels are fantastically weighted and are very easy to mix with. The touch sensor works just like a CDJ and throws and back spins are easily performed. The buttons are rubbery and do not have that satisfying click feel to them but they are also quite large and LED backlit so you can look to see whether or not you have pressed one.

Not surprisingly the Xponent works best with the included Torq software but we also gave it a try with Virtual DJ. This is our mixing software of choice and the Xponent was still qutie easy to set up and use. The jogs don't feel quite as good in VDJ but that can be adjusted manually.

The Torq software has all of the popular functions such as beat matching, instant looping and effects. We were not fans of the interface however as it has a lot of detail and frankly they have tried to cram too much information on to the screen. Also consider that many DJs now use small netbook style computers and screen size is limited. Unlike Virtual DJ the skin cannot be easily changed either.

By default each of the buttons are pre-programmed to their listed functions in both Torq and Virtual DJ but they can also be re-programmed to perform whatever fucntions you desire. The X/Y pad above the EQ section can also be used as an effect controller and we had some fun using that as a TK Filter.

Summary

The M-Audio Torq Xponent is a great MIDI controller and for us the inclusion of the 4-channel sound card puts it above competitors such as the Vestax VCI 100. Even the recently released VCI 300 which does have a sound card still has the same, inferior layout with the jog wheels right next to the volume faders. Despite some minor annoyances with the rubbery buttons and the included software, for us the Torq Xponent still represents the best MIDI controller available.

Related posts:

1. Genius 300 Universal Remote Review
2. Sony DAVDZ870w Review

The Sony DAVDZ870w is a 5.1 Channel, Surround Sound Home Theater System with wireless rear speakers. 'Home Theater' system in this regard simply means that the amplifier has a built in DVD/CD player. The Sony DAVDZ870w includes:

• 4 x tower speakers (left front, right front, left rear, right rear)
• 1 x center speaker
• 1 x sub woofer
• 1 x amplifier
• 1 x remote the

The amplifier inputs and outputs include:

• 1 x AV Out (red, white, yellow)
• 1 x HDMI Out
• 1 x Digital Optical In
• 1 x Coax Digital In
• 1 x RGB Out
• 1 x USB Input
• 1 x mini-jack Out

For anyone not familiar with a wireless system it should be noted that the rear speakers are not completely devoid of wires. They do in fact plug into a wireless receiver, which it self plugs into a power point. For this reason the rear speakers are best placed up against a rear wall and behind a couch. The benefit of a system with wireless rear speakers is that you do not have to have wires running across the floor from the amplifier. If you own your own home that might not be a problem but for anyone who rents and is unable to modify their surroundings then a system with wireless rear speakers makes sense.

The Home Theater System itself is nothing special. Featuring a CD/DVD player, as well as a USB port and DivX codecs for playing AVIs. The DVD player is promoted as upscaling movies to 1080p but we have found there to be no noticeable difference between an upscaled and a normal DVD. Not through our Samsung LA32R81BDX anyway.

Setup of the speakers was not too difficult but we did find the automatic calibration feature to be completely useless. It left the rear and center speakers far too quiet to be heard and did not produce an effective 5.1 environment. Fortunately this can be overcome by setting up the speaker volumes manually through the same menu.

Once set up correctly the Sony DAVDZ870w sounds excellent. The towers themselves do have a fairly flat response but having the sub woofer there adds warmth to the lower frequencies. Music also sounds quite good through these speakers although not quite at the level of a good HiFi system. In either case they will sound vastly superior to any television's built in speakers.

The DAVDZ870w also has a number of different play modes with the optimal choice being A.F.D Multi. This will play audio in 5.1 Surround when available and 2 Channel audio will be split between the 4 towers for anything else. This is particularly good for music as you can have stereo audio in two separate areas of the house!

Summary

For about an $800 system the Sony DAVDZ870w is quite a good buy. Once set up correctly the surround sound experience is excellent for a system in this price range, and the wireless rear speakers add flexibility to your speaker placement.

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3. Genius 300 Universal Remote Review

The Genius 300 Universal Remote is a clone of the original Microsoft Media Center remote. The Genius 300 comes with 2 x AAA batteries, User Manual, and a USB Infrared Receiver. It has 44 programmable buttons and 4 different device modes: PC, TV, AV, AUX.

Each of the 44 buttons can be programed for any of these modes with the exception of PC. PC Mode is pre-programmed for Media Center control and cannot be changed.

This allows the user to control up to four devices with the most typical setup being Media Center, TV, and Amplifier.

Installation is quite easy. Simply plug in the USB Receiver and it will install itself. The remote will function immediately in PC Mode but any additional commands need to be learned by following the instructions in the manual.

The Remote is very light weight and the build quality is average. The buttons are soft and rubbery but the user should not have any difficulty registering button presses.

We found the remote to be very responsive, responding to button presses immediately and not having any lag. This is in contrast to our previously reviewed Logitech Harmony 890 which was very slow at responding to button presses.

The USB Receiver also has quite a good angle of reception. We found it is able to pick up signals from about 50 degrees which saves you from having to move in front of the machine.

We do have one major disappointment with the Genius 300 however, and that is the inability to make and changes to the pre-programmed PC Mode. Specifically the volume controls. By default the PC Mode volume buttons will adjust the Media Center or PC Volume. This means that for any user who has a separate amplifier to their PC or Television speakers you will have to change modes each time you want to adjust the volume. Simply using the PC volume is also not adequate as the PC volume has no effect on 5.1 audio. That has to be controlled the amplifier.

Despite this problem we have found the Genius 300 Universal Remote to be a very good unit for the price. Retailing for somewhere in the region of $35 this remote will allow you to control up to four devices, is very easy to set up, and performs to a very good standard.

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2. Sony DAVDZ870w Review
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If you have arrived at this page looking for a user review we are sorry to say that there is nothing here!

The Digitek site was hacked and taken down a few months ago. After much soul searching we have decided to bring it back bigger and better than ever.

Unfortunately our backups have been lost so we are going to be re-writing each article from scratch so bare with us while we get the content back up.

Regards,

The Digitek Team

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