Well, it’s another gadget blog post, and for about $10-15 this thing is a steal. It uses 3 bright LEDs, a very very flexible neck, and a USB power outlet to give off a pretty decent amount of light.

I’m not sure how Syba escaped our notice for so long, but now that we’ve started carrying most of their product line, I can really see how large a hole they’ve filled in our product catalogue. Something we’ve been working on quite a lot lately is filling in the gaps and it’s great to see how successful some of these projects have been.

Here’s a couple shots of the USB lamp. It looks great and very shiny in person. The base feels cheap and so does the lamp head, but the metal neck feels very robust and sturdy in my hands. For scale that is a 24″ monitor next to the extended and curled up lamp.

Yeah, it seems like a bit of a weird product for us to carry, but besides being a neat toy (spent the last 5 minutes going around the office walking up to people and telling them their temperature), it can be a useful tool as well.

The advertised accuracy is about +-2C and it reads from -55 to 220 degress Celsius. Here’s a couple shots of me using it to measure the temperature off the back of my HD 2900XT (running Folding@Home) and the exhaust temperature from my power supply.

At $45 the price is right. You never need to burn yourself finding out if a chip is running hot again!

They’ve landed! It’s been a long time coming, but these products really represent a tremendous value.

My original hesitation to bring in XSPC came about because of the reports I was hearing about some of their blocks leaking. That coupled with the low price made me think “cheap crap” and I don’t want to take a risk like that with my customers…

They’ve worked hard to turn that around though. They’re using a more expensive delrin substitute for their traditional plexi tops, and the machining on the base of the blocks looks more than adequate.

You can check out the range of XSPC products we’ve picked up at the XSPC store. I’m hoping to get images and product descriptions updated ASAP.

Well it finally arrived. First the German shipping company got confused about where it was supposed to go, then it got held up in customs, then Canada Post sent it to the wrong place….

But it’s finally here. We’ve only got a few, so if you want one of these, better move fast!

I’d never heard of this company before, but their double sided tape comes highly recommended for attaching RAMsinks and other such things.

The good news is we brought it in. It arrived in a box that I was amazed survived the trip in the condition it did. The merchandise itself was undamaged though.

The bad news (if you’re not an avid PC modder) is that you have to buy it in 50m rolls. Yeah… 50m.

The other good news is that a 50m roll is not as expensive as you’d think. It’s only $25 and it’ll probably last most people a lifetime.

Well based on my previous experience with eVGA motherboards (two of which I’m still using right now) and eVGA tech support, I can say with confidence that an eVGA engineered product is likely to be AT LEAST as good as what anyone else else puts out. Without further ado, here’s the press release:

EVGA is proud to show a sneak peak of a new motherboard based on the Intel(R) X58 Express Chipset, supporting the upcoming Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 processor. The EVGA X58 SLI FTW motherboard will feature 6 DIMMs of triple-channel DDR3 memory, and a board layout optimized for the enthusiast including 2-way and 3-way SLI support. EVGA VDroop control minimizes VDroop for the highest level of stability possible and EVGA E-LEET Tuning Utility gives you the power to Overclock at your fingertips. With these features and more, it is no wonder EVGA products currently hold the top 3DMark Vantage Performance Record! Product will be available in November 2008.

EVGA X58 SLI FTW Motherboard Features:

• Supports Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 Processors
• Intel(R) X58 Express Chipset with the ICH10R
• EVGA VDroop Control
• 100% Solid State Capacitors
• 6 DIMM triple-channel DDR3
• Enthusiast layout supporting 2-way, 3-way SLI and CrossFireX
• 10 SATA II 3.0GB/s ports (1 e-SATA)
• EVGA E-LEET Tuning Utility

Congratulations to hpo@_____.___ who won a $500 NCIX gift card!

The draw was done randomly by me and NCIX Greg from only about 400 entrants over the August/September period for the survey. Honestly it surprises me that more people don’t fill these things out. All you need to do is go to www.secure.ncix.com/survey and enter your invoice number for an in-store purchase to be eligible for this huge prize. The chances to win are great considering how few entries we sometimes get.

Had a chance to see the beauties in the warehouse today, so I thought I’d snap a couple of pictures for my loyal readers (you know, the ones that do nothing but sit in front of their computer on the F5 button waiting for my next blog post… ha… ha…). These things are gorgeous. The finish is so shiny you can see my pink/white sneakers reflecting off the case in one of them.

It’s been a long time since NCIX has seriously stocked any Shuttle SFF PCs for reasons unbeknowst to me, but the line has been rejuvenated, and we’ve got some pretty awesome little barebones PCs available now. One of the coolest ones is the X27, which includes the Intel Atom CPU that everyone’s been going nuts over.

There also a pretty good deal on some X38 crossfire ready ones right now. As far as I can tell the X38 model is the same as the X48 model, but cheaper and I think lower FSB support, but how many people actually OWN a QX9770? It’s the ONLY LGA775 CPU that uses a 1600MHz FSB, so I don’t think it’s a huge problem. Here’s a picture of that one.

Now all that’s left is for me to water cool one…..

These things are just hot. Bling in PC water cooling has finally arrived in a way that if people could do it they would probably put a water cooled computer on a chain and hang it around their neck.

The price is a little steep (these should be showing up on the site in the next day or so), but if you’re having trouble justifying it to yourself, remember that silver has anti-microbial properties, so you can run pure distilled water in an all copper/silver loop without worrying about any junk growing in it. Water performs better by itself than it does with any aftermarket additives, so this is a huge plus.

The gold ones just look awesome and you know you want them :p