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Back in March we reviewed the System76 Serval Professional notebook and found it to be an excellent contender at the time. This notebook, which shipped with Ubuntu 8.10, had packed an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor with a GeForce 9800M GTS graphics card and other great hardware, but since then System76 has rolled out notebooks with newer and better hardware. One of the new notebooks to recently leave the System76 facilities is the Bonobo Professional, which packs an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 processor and an impressive NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M discrete graphics processor. In this article today we are seeing how this high-end notebook performs with Ubuntu 9.04.

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Quick swap Hard Disk Drive bays have been around for a long time. The reason is becuase many companies can not afford to have their servers down for an extended period of time, so they clone the drive and put in a brand new working drive to keep the system up. It is a fact that many of us are not buisness owners, so what use would we have of this technology? If you happen to have tech savy friends, this is very easy to answer. You can all get the same hot swap bay and swap HDD’s to share the latest game update without downloading the same file multiple times. This can save a lot of time in the long run.

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No matter how resistant USB flash drives are compared with mechanical drives, they can still be damaged or corrupted by serious physical abuse. The circuitry of a flash drive can even be harmed by improper wiring of a USB port. And while USBs flash drives are appreciated for compact size, at the same time they can be easily left behind. This brings us to the biggest issue of the DT200. While most of us will love having 128GB of highly portable storage at hand, that’s a heck of a lot of data waiting to get lost or stolen. Individuals and small-business users should question whether carrying around so much data is wise. In spite of the security issues, the DT200 is a very good drive that could be put to a wide range of uses. It’s not the fastest or most individually styled but it’s practical and functional. Having said that, I’d have liked some auto-backup software included in the bundle. The biggest drawback is price, which is shockingly expensive considering you can buy an external 500GB hard drive (2.5-inch) for under £100. Still, this is far pocket-friendlier. It is backed by a 5-year warranty and 24/7 tech support.

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Some users just like really tiny keybaords. Personally I am an ergonominc fan, so the wider my hands can be apart, the better. For those who like tiny keyboards (programmers love them for some odd reason), then you’ll be glad to know that there’s finally one that’s built like a tank: the Enermax Aurora Micro. This review was actually written using this keyboard entirely, in addition to some all-day testing.

At first look, the keyboard is very attractive. While the bottom of the keyboard is a sturdy plastic, the top frame is brushed aluminum, which has been anodized pitch black.

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CloneCD is a sweet tool to make backup copies of your music and data CDs. It’s easy to use and is mostly effective at removing and emulating today’s game copy protections. If you are looking to create high quality backups of your favourite games, data CDs and DVDs quickly and easily, CloneCD is one – if not the – best tool on the market. Downsides are that it can’t create a Virtual Drive, there’s no built-in copy protection scanner, and it can’t (currently) bypass SecuROM copy protection. In this case, BlindWrite or even Alcohol 120% are a better choice.

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PhotoPlus X3 is a very powerful program that’s up there with Adobe’s Photoshop Elements and Corel’s Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 in its ability to cater for digital photographers of all levels. While most of the editing can be done via the various tools in the toolbar, to the beginner the toolbar is overwhelming. That’s where PhotoPlus X3’s Quick Fix Studio comes in handy. You’ll love the way you can view your changes in real time with the Before and After pane enabled, and the Export Optimizer is great for getting the right balance between size and quality for both Web and print output. Sadly, organising your photos is clumsy as it relies on a second program, AlbumPlus SE Pro, and there isn’t a way to automatically publish your photos to image sharing sites like Flickr, Picasa, etc, or back them up to an off-site server. If you are an existing PhotoPlus user, PhotoPlus X3 is a major improvement and worth the upgrade. While Serif has done its best to cater for beginner and advanced users alike, PhotoPlus X3 isn’t as intuitive as some. If you’re not afraid to spend a little time following the 25 or so PDF tutorials, PhotoPlus X3 is one of the most powerful and flexible – if sluggish – image editors in its class. For a better all-round package, Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 7 or even Corel’s Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 are better choices.

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The Western Digital My Book World Edition II 2 TB network storage system uses RAID 1 (Mirrored) technology to automatically and continuously maintain a second copy of user’s data using supplied software that you need to install on each computer that you want to keep backed up. When running in RAID 1, if one drive in the two-drive system ever fails, the system continues to run and the data is safe. The My Book World Edition II storage device can be run in RAID 0 (Striped) mode as well if speed over redundancy is required. All My Book World Edition II’s ship in mirrored mode, though, as the main purpose of this drive is for data security. As a result, that means you can only use half the rated capacity for file storage since one drive is used for a mirror…

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The 212 Plus is the larger brother of the TX3, though there are several differences between the two. The 212 Plus is aimed at the individual who is looking for a little bit more performance, but doesn’t want to give up the bank to do it. Coolermaster accomplished this by giving the 212 Plus more surface area and four heat pipes to conquer the dreaded enemy named heat. We know this is enough to outperform the smaller brother, but is it enough to compete against the other big dawgs on the market?

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As an ATI user myself, I can not dismiss the fact that one of the most versatile computer components that is out today, is a Nvidia 9600GT based video card. Reason for me saying this, well it is cheap enough for just about any one on any budget for light to moderate gaming, can be used in a HTPC for Blue Ray play back, and finally can be used as a dedicated Physx card for those who wanting or needing that extra little bit in our Ageia Physx based games.

We at Bjorn3d, are going to look at ASUS’s offering of the 9600GT video card.

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Running Ethernet cable can be a hassle. Join Chris as he checks out an electrifying new product from Netgear that can help with your networking needs. The all new Netgear XAVB101. This handy little device lets you easily run ethernet all over your house using the already in place power lines. Will this Ethernet adapter be the biggest thing since Wi-Fi, or will it not even make it to the history books. Join us as we take a look…

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