P5Q Deluxe motherboard

The Digit test center received ASUS's latest offering- the P5Q Deluxe motherboard based on Intel's all new P45 chipset.The boards run on the P45 chip coupled with the new ICH10R whichis a step up from the ICH9R from the P35.One of the changes is that the P45 has a 1600MHz bus speed as compared to 1333 MHz on the P35.The motherboard has a really clean layout and there is the usual profusion of heatsinks and copper heat pipes running across the board.Overclocking features as usual are built in well like the other ASUS boards we have seen.BIOS settings can be saved and loaded as you wish.We ran the same barrage of tests and observed small jumps in performance in benchmarks such as PC Mark 2005 where it scored 2 to 3 percent more than the P35's from motherboard comparison test.3D Mark 2005 scores were also marginally higher than the P35.Small changes were noted in Doom 3 running at low resolutions too.
Although performance doesn't seem to be the new P45's forte,ASUS has added some unique features to their board.One of them is called Express Gate-an operating system built into the motherboard that works without the need of an attached hard drive.The environment has Skype,pidgin-an instant messenger- and a modified version of Firefox running on a customised Linux distribution called Splashtop.Should you lose your operating system in a data crash,Express gate wil give you complete access to the Internet.There are features for copying data from hard drives as well as USB drives.The new P45 chipest doesn't really do a whole lot more for performance.There is a marginal jump but nothing substantial that would convince anyone to move from a P35 based board to a P45 one,for example people who want to buy an enthusiast level board should consider the P45 but those who are already on P35 and X38s will just have to wait.

BenQX2200W
The 22-inch BenQ X2200W is a LCD monitor targeted at gamers and movie enthusiasts-the styling on this screen is clearly indicative of that.The screen and the body both have a matte finish.The screen has a medium-sized bezel all through but it is fatter on the sides, thin on the top and thick at the bottom.There are no buttons at the bottom of the screen but there is a metallic looking dotted pattern which gives the screen a fine look.When the monitor is in idle mode,a blue light is emitted from the gap below which adds to its style.All these cosmetics make the screen look really chunky and huge.The contrast ratio is good and the darks appear a little darker than most screens.The viewing angles are good too as long as you are as the same level level as the screen.When you move up and down things go horribly wrong-the display quality is pretty bad when you look at the monitor from the top or the buttom.One of the biggest plus points is HDMI connectivity which is very rare in 22-inch screens-or any other screen for that mater.HDMI means that this monitor can be used as a display for your gaming consoles or HD players.There is a head-phone jack for audio output as well.There is no doubt that this is better than most of the screens in the market today but those screens are priced very competitively.The X2200W isn't available right now and is expected in the next few months at a price of Rs16,500 which is asking for quite a bit.At this price,one enters the entry level 24-inch LCD price bracket.If you want a cheap LCD screen for the computer that doubles as your display for your consoles then this might just be the one for you.