It's Here! The Holiday Buyer's Guide 2004

The 400 GB Gorilla

Are you running out of hard drive space? If so, upgrading to the 400 GB Hitachi Deskstar 7k400 should give you enough room to last you for a while - or at least, until next Christmas!

The hard drive comes in two versions, sporting either Serial ATA or Ultra 133 interfaces. It spins at 7200 RPM and has an eight MB buffer. Average seek time, according to Hitachi, is 8.5 milliseconds.

The Hitachi Deskstar 400 GB hard drive is available now. The street price is around $400, and you can purchase it from most of the major online retailers, like Newegg .

Portable Wonder

Most people have heard about the ATi All-In-Wonder, a card that lets you capture video from many sources. The TV Wonder USB2 does the same thing, but uses a USB 2.0 interface. This means you no longer have to open your computer to capture video, and you can even use your notebook!

The TV Wonder USB2 accepts Composite Video/Audio, S-Video or Coaxial antenna/cable inputs. Of course, you can watch your video or TV before you record. For more details, you can see our full review from September 1, 2004 here .

The ATi TV Wonder USB2 is available for only $99, straight from the ATi Online Store .