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Gigabyte Force M7 Thor
"Deciding on a mouse can be an overwhelming process with literally hundreds to choose from as far as gaming mice alone. Seeing as how the mouse and keyboard are the only two things you interact with while on the computer, having the right mouse is very important. Selecting the right mouse for you can be a daunting task, but knowing where to start is even harder. There are still quite a few entry level mice on the market, and Gigabyte has kindly send over their version, the Force M7 Thor. Let’s take a look at this affordable piece of hardware and see how it holds up."
Gunblitz PC
"I will admit that when Wes first told me I would be reviewing Gunblitz I was nervous. This is because I don’t consider 2D shooters to be one of my favorite genres. This is because I tend to get frustrated and rage at games very easily. I cannot tell you how many controllers I destroyed trying to beat a high score on Geometry Wars Evolved! I am excited to do this review though, because not only is it a game developed by Rapture Studios, a place we recently toured and reviewed here but also because it will be a nice relaxing way to get back into the genre. Let us take a look at Gunblitz, and hope that I don’t break any keyboards in the process." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Thursday, February 07, 2013 @ 18:12:19 PST (20 reads)
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Evercool Silent Shark CPU Cooler
"Now in 2013 our second CPU cooler review will be for Evercool’s newest high performance cooler, the HPO-12025 aka Silent Shark. The dual tower-style cooler is designed with a little extra when it comes to its second fan. Just what is that ‘extra’? well, not only can it be used to configure a push-pull cooling setup for also blow cool air over some of the other important components in your rig."
OCZ Agility 4 256GB SSD
"Today, we have one of their latest drives on hand which is the Agility 4. The Agility is the second edition of an Indilinx controller after being purchased by OCZ. The controller is now called Everest or Everest 2 in case of the Agility 4. This is an attempt to bring reliable speed and performance to the masses but at a fair price." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Thursday, February 07, 2013 @ 16:10:07 PST (14 reads)
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| Hardware Secrets Two For One |
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PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 750W PS
"The PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III power supply series has models ranging from 400 W to 1,200 W. Models from 400 W to 600 W have the 80 Plus Bronze certification, while the 750 W and 850 W models have the 80 Plus Gold certification, and the 1,200 W model has the 80 Plus Platinum certification."
In Win Commander III 700W PS
"The Commander III power supply series from In Win, also known as "Desert Fox," has 600 W, 700 W, and 800 W models, all with the 80 Plus Gold certification and a modular cabling system. Let's take an in-depth look at the 700 W version." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Thursday, February 07, 2013 @ 16:03:45 PST (22 reads)
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Inno3D GeForce GTX 670 iChill
"Inno3D GeForce GTX 660 Ti copies the reference design, which is similar to that of GTX 670: a small PCB and 8 memory chip seats on the front side. However, there are only 4 memory seats on the back, not 8, like in GTX 670. The reason is that memory bus has been cut down to 192-bit from 256-bit. InnoVision could have filled all the dozen slots with different chips, but preferred placing the identical 8 x 2 GB chips instead to save money."
AMD & Intel CPU Comparison
"For today's tests we have prepared two groups of processors. The first includes Phenom II old-timers AMD has repeatedly cut prices on. The second is composed of the newer, budget Intel Ivy Bridge processors. Let's see what is preferable these days. Phenom II X4 955 is the most competitive AMD CPU for its price, if you build a PC with a discrete video (otherwise you should consider A6-3670K). For the same money Intel offers only dual-thread Pentiums, which isn't enough for thread-hungry tasks." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Thursday, February 07, 2013 @ 09:40:38 PST (12 reads)
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ASRock Z77 OC Formula Motherboard
"The Z77 OC Formula is one of the high performance motherboards from ASRock, was built in cooperation with the well-known overclocker Nick Shih and features a 12 + 4 VRM design covered by a massive waterblock/heatsink, an 8-layer PCB, measuring points, plenty of thermal sensors and more. What we also like about this board is the fact that they have removed the legacy components like Floppy/IDE interfaces along with the PCI slots, in order to have a clean motherboard PCB design in the end."
Corsair Hydro 90 & H110 Units
To our big surprise, two brand new Hydro units arrived on our doorstep. The Hydro 90 and 110, both being optimized for extreme cooling performances. Weirdly enough these brand new coolers are not based on the latest Hydro I series, but seem at first glance a revamp of the older Hydro 70 design, manufactured by ASETEK for CORSAIR. Biggest innovation is the usage of a 140mm radiator and ditto fan, instead of the 120mm version we are so accustomed too. More radiator surface should enhance the cooling capacity. Let's find out how these two Hydro units perform..." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Tuesday, February 05, 2013 @ 10:04:26 PST (15 reads)
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| Oracle Releases Another Patch |
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"Oracle has been under increasing pressure in recent months to finally fix the myriad of security flaws that have plagued Java. In an unexpected emergency out-of-band patch released Friday afternoon, Oracle has responded definitively to critics with a massive security patch fixing at least 50 different issues. The February 2013 Critical Patch Update for Java SE was originally scheduled for February 19th, but given that at least one of the vulnerabilities is being actively exploited, Oracle decided to expedite the patch update. Of the 50 fixes, 40 of them are specific to Java usage in web browsers, which has been the primary attack vector against Java." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Sunday, February 03, 2013 @ 19:10:04 PST (19 reads)
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| Hardware Secrets Two For One |
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Restore Old Computers To Original Color
"Plastic parts of older computers become yellow or brown over time, so you end up with a computer that looks yellow or brown instead of white or gray. In this tutorial, we will show you how to restore old plastic parts to their original color by using a homemade peroxide-based solution called Retr0bright."
SteelSeries Flux Headset
"With the cellphone being more and more a platform for digital entertainment (games and multimedia), it's just natural that the user would want a headset that is fit for gaming in a classic desktop/laptop configuration and also good for listening to music and making calls on a mobile device. Flux, the portable model from SteelSeries, is an answer to all those needs. It also features heavy rubber cables that don't tangle up, plus literally over a thousand choices of customization." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Thursday, January 31, 2013 @ 19:19:42 PST (12 reads)
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"There aren’t many people who begin their working lives with a burning desire to become a professional odour judge or a diver for golf balls. Some might not even believe that job titles such as dinosaur duster or dog food tester have ever graced a CV. But an American photographer has endeavoured to bring some of the world’s most unusual professions to our attention." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Thursday, January 31, 2013 @ 16:23:17 PST (15 reads)
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ZOTAC ZBOX ID83 Plus Mini-PC
"Sapphire recently released the AMD A8 based Edge VS8 mini-PC and now we get a chance to see what ZOTAC's latest generation of system can offer in comparison. The ZBOX ID83 Plus takes us into Ivy Bridge in a system which is comparable in size to a decent router, let's find out how it performs..."
Mad Catz Glide 7 Mousepad
"Mad Catz have long been producing gaming peripherals and accessories but more often than not they are under various sub brands. Tritton and of course Cyborg are two that many will be familiar with but recently products under the latter began transitioning to the main Mad Catz brand. For some items such as the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 keyboard that we reviewed recently this means a simple rebrand, in other cases we will see completely new products and for other items it is a mix. One item which gets a significant refresh in Mad Catz move away from the Cyborg sub brand to the main is the G.L.I.D.E. 7 gaming surface. Today we have the refreshed product and will find out what it is all about." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 @ 19:37:19 PST (16 reads)
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MSI Z77 MPower Motherboard
"They could boast such unique distinguishing features as the ability to support graphics cards from different makers or a large number of PCI Express slots, but when the MSI Z77 MPOWER mainboard joined this family, it seemed somewhat strange in the beginning. It seemed like a common mainboard that didn’t really stand out among others. It was also manufactured using high-quality “Military Class III” components, which reliability and stability were documented in an accompanying certificate, just like for other regular mainboards. The difference was that this mainboard underwent an additional test after all the quality controls have been successfully passed. This wasn’t just a common power-on test, but an intense 24-hour stress test of an overclocked system in the famous Prime95 utility, which generates heavy complex loads. This stress-test doesn’t just target the operation, but also confirms the board’s overclocking potential and allows marking it as “OC Certified”."
ECS Z77H2-A2X Motherboard
"If you decided to find an Elitegroup mainboard that would best fit your needs, this might be a pretty challenging task. It is fairly easy to visit one of the company web-sites and get to a page with all mainboard models listed, but how do you find the right one? The choice is even trickier because of the complicated model naming approach used for ECS mainboards. Yes, you can single out certain rules, for example, the first three positions in the model name indicate that Z77H2-A4 is based on an Intel Z77 Express chipset, while H77H2-M3 – on Intel H77 Express chipset. Moreover, you may notice that the first letter in the second part of the model name usually stands for the form-factor: “A” – for ATX, “M” – for microATX, “I” – for mini-ITX. Sometimes, you may see a letter “D”, which stands for the pretty rare DTX form-factor. Unfortunately, all the other symbols in the model name are hard to decipher. Moreover, the logical naming approach we have just proposed falls completely apart once you realize that there is no way to tell the chipset for the X77H2-A3 mainboard, or the form-factor for the H61H-G11." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Monday, January 28, 2013 @ 16:54:21 PST (16 reads)
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| Cooler Master Eisberg Prestige 240L Water Cooler |
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Our friends at OC Inside have a review of a Cooler Master Eisberg Prestige 240L Water Cooler, they also have some MP3 of the included fan sounds.
"We have already tested some liquid coolers and some pre-filled PC water cooling devices at ocinside.de and today it is time to publish the new Cooler Master Eisberg Prestige 240L review. A few months ago we had already the pleasure to take a look at the first preview versions of it and today is the official launch of the new improved Cooler Master Iceberg 240 version. The Cooler Master Eisberg 240L AIO water cooler is based on a copper dual radiator with two 120mm fans and a CPU heatsink with integrated pump and reservoir. The system is already filled but is nevertheless still upgradable - this is very important for overclockers and enthusiasts. In this review we will check if the system can keep up with our previously tested top coolers and how it sounds, as always at ocinside.de with several online cooler sound samples." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Sunday, January 27, 2013 @ 12:51:58 PST (18 reads)
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Corsair Neutron SATA III SSD
"Corsair tends to be somewhat measured in their approach to certain markets and only enters them with products that are clearly differentiated from the competition. That’s true for their cases, peripherals, power supplies, and many other product lines. Corsair, however, has been relatively adventurous in regard to Solid State Drives. Over the last few years, Corsair has offered SSDs built around controllers from virtually all of the major players, including Marvell, SandForce, Indilinx, and Samsung, among others."
Affordable Midtower Cases
"That's great news if you're tired of seeing full towers get all the high-end love from case manufacturers, but it makes the prospect of picking a single enclosure a bit daunting. We've rounded up options from Antec, Corsair, Fractal, and Rosewill, the Antec P280, Corsair C70, Fractal Design R4, and Rosewill R5 and have the full scoop for you here:" |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Thursday, January 24, 2013 @ 08:38:05 PST (22 reads)
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"Chipmaker AMD suffered yet another brutal knock to its financials as it came crashing to the end of the 2012 fiscal year with yet another poor quarter. The chipmaker reported a fourth quarter net loss of $473 million, or 63 cents a share, on revenue of $1.16 billion, down by 32 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 14 cents a share. Wall Street expected AMD to report a fourth quarter loss of 20 cents a share on revenue on $1.15 billion. For the year ending December 29, AMD reported a net loss of $1.18 billion on revenue of $5.42 billion. Full-year non-GAAP earnings per share stood at 16 cents." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Thursday, January 24, 2013 @ 07:18:04 PST (23 reads)
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| Benchmark Reviews Two For One |
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Oblanc NC2-1 UFO Headphones
"Finding a good quality set of headphones with a microphone that are compatible across multiple platforms is difficult. Either you get good sound, with no headset features, or you get a headset with less than stellar audio quality for music. The Oblanc NC2-1 UFO headphones aim to fill that slot. Us here at Benchmark Reviews have had the opportunity to put these headphones through their paces. With a padded headband, massive 50 mm driver, in line microphone with call control, and a 4-pole connector with adapter to work across smartphones, tablets, mobile phones, and computers; the NC2-1 headphones are packed with features, and we're going to test them out..."
Mad Catz Tritton Pro+ 5.1 Headset
"Before current generation consoles were even conceived, PC gamers and enthusiasts have been able to enjoy the benefits that headsets offer. In recent years XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 users are now also able to enjoy those same benefits. Today Benchmark Reviews will be taking a look at the TRITTON Pro+ True 5.1 Surround Sound Headset from Mad Catz. The TRITTON Pro+ is compatible with PlayStation 3, XBOX 360 and PC (Europe) via an optional cable. The TRITTON Pro+ boasts true Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound via eight individual drivers - four in each earcup (Front, Center, Surround, Subwoofer) - each with independent volume control. Visually speaking there isn't much that separates the Pro+ from the rest of the TRITTON range of headsets; it's all about what's inside, so let's find out more..." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 @ 15:37:38 PST (16 reads)
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Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme CPU Cooler
"Thermaltake are relative newcomers to the all in one liquid CPU cooler market, but like many other companies they have jumped straight onto the Asetek bandwagon to help get themselves established in this competitive market. The product we have here today, the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme, is Thermaltake’s top-of-the-line water cooling loop. It features a 240mm radiator that is 38mm thick versus the standard 27mm thick we normally see on 240mm-rad AIO loops. A thicker radiator in theory means better cooling performance – although the pump, tubing and fans all have to be able to take advantage of this extra potential."
SilverStone NT06 Pro CPU Cooler
"SilverStone are a renowned manufacturer of computer cases and we have reviewed a lot of their cases before. However, we've never really delved into any SilverStone CPU coolers despite the fact SilverStone have been making these for a very long time and they produce some of the best CPU coolers in the industry. SilverStone are very well known for their HTPC cases, such as the Grandia series, and as a result they also make low profile CPU coolers that can be used with these cases." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 @ 15:20:27 PST (20 reads)
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WD RE 4TB Enterprise HD
"There’s a relative lack of 4TB hard drive options on the market at the moment, but those looking for enthusiast or enterprise models are well taken care of. We’ve already taken a look at WD’s enthusiast part, the Black 4TB, so now it’s time to shift our attention to the feature-packed and enterprise-focused RE."
Fractal Design Define R4 Case
"Where desktops are concerned, some may consider bigger to be better, but sometimes, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a simple, classy-looking PC that you can barely hear. Helping to make that scenario a reality is Fractal Design, with its sound-dampened mid-tower Define R4." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 @ 14:39:15 PST (20 reads)
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"Holy cow, Batman! The original Batmobile was auctioned Saturday for $4.62 million, including commission, at the Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz. The crime-fighting vehicle was built by George Barris, who transformed a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car he bought for $1 into one of the most recognizable vehicles in entertainment history." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Monday, January 21, 2013 @ 19:07:04 PST (22 reads)
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HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB IceQ X2
"We continue to not really hear anything about the HD 8000 serious, though, when it comes to desktop parts and the latest we're hearing from companies is the second half of 2013 for launch. For anyone interested in grabbing a new video card the good news is that while the HD 7000 series might be a year old now, they're going to be around for at least another six months - at least that's what we're hearing."
Noctua NH-L9i Low-Profile CPU Cooler
"Since that time Noctua may no longer be the only silent offering out there, but they have kept their heads in the game and are always looking for new or better ways to innovate coolers. Whether we are discussing the D-14 behemoth, or even some of the C-Style coolers, Noctua has been delivering top-end performance even when the coolers had to be limited in size. On that note, Noctua has now developed one of the smallest coolers I have ever tested, and that includes low profile Intel stockers, and that SilverStone cooler that was essentially the same thing." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Monday, January 21, 2013 @ 08:48:16 PST (24 reads)
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Why Is Your Power Supply Important?
"TechwareLabs brings you the reason why your power supply is critical to your machine. We had the opportunity to sit down with some of the experts behind the NZXT line of power supplies and discuss the impact that a bad power supply can have. Protect your investment and watch this short video BEFORE you buy."
Western Digital RE 4TB Hard Drive
"While SSDs are by now the unquestioned performance kings when it comes to storage, their capacities are still too low and cost-per-gigabyte still too high for them to displace hard drives completely. While SSDs continue to improve at a meteoric rate, hard drive manufacturers aren't sitting still. Today, we'll be taking a look at Western Digital's latest attempt at pushing back the superparamagnetic limit, the WD RE SATA 4TB drive. Whether it's meant for large-capacity storage on a workstation, or as a way to expand the capacity of a high-load NAS device, this drive is WD's current cream of the crop for SATA drives. Let's take a look and see how it measures up." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Friday, January 18, 2013 @ 01:28:38 PST (23 reads)
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Seasonic G-360 & G-550 Power Supplies
"So far we have only come across Seasonic power supply units certified according to the highest standards in the upper price segment. However, the new G series units with 80 PLUS Gold certification belong to a much more affordable mainstream range."
Thermalright Archon SB-E Cooler
"In an attempt to improve the legendary Archon cooler even more, Thermalright made a few minor modifications to their heatsink, provided a new fan and slightly changed the retention mechanism. Let’s find out how good it turned out." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Thursday, January 17, 2013 @ 17:54:26 PST (30 reads)
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| Legit Reviews Two For One |
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Tt Toughpower Grand Platinum 700W PS
"With a MSRP price of $189.99 at the time of this review, the Toughpower Grand Platinum is one of the most expensive 700W power supplies available in the market; however, the high price could be possibly justified by the number of features and the performance of this unit. The list of features of the Toughpower Grand Platinum is so long that we simply cannot list them all in a single paragraph; however, we feel that the major highlights of this power supply are the 80Plus Platinum certification, the 7-year long manufacturer's warranty and its unique..."
Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Mouse
""Thermaltake and DesignWorksUSA, a BMW owned design consultancy, have returned to develop a new Level 10 product that isn’t a computer case. The Level 10 M joins the Tt eSPORTS branding as an ambitious gaming mouse with an aluminum base, an 8200 DPI laser sensor, five side buttons, and custom lighting zones. This is a large mouse at 5.8 x 2.7 x 1.5 inches (LxWxH) and 6.5 ounces. Despite the official specifications, the palm piece is 4.75 inches long..." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 @ 07:54:28 PST (33 reads)
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| Hardware Secrets Four For All |
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SilverStone Strider Gold 650W PS
"SilverStone released a series of power supplies with the 80 Plus Gold certification and a fully modular cabling system, with 550 W, 650 W, and 1,000 W versions, dubbed the Strider Gold. Let's see if the 650 W model, also known as SST-ST65F-G, deserves our recommendation."
Zalman LQ310 CPU Cooler
"The LQ310 greatly resembles the Thermaltake WATER2.0 Performer, which we tested some time ago. They both are manufactured by Asetek, but they are not the same product (at least the fans are not the same)."
Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler
"We tested the cooler with a Core i5-2500K CPU (quad-core, 3.3 GHz), which is a socket LGA1155 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 4.0 GHz (100 MHz base clock and x40 multiplier), with 1.3 V core voltage (Vcore)"
Gigabyte Force M7 Thor Mouse
"When one gets a mouse named after the god of thunder of Norse mythology, one imagines a mighty peripheral, worthy of the son of Odin himself. However, the Force M7 Thor (from now on we'll just call it "the Thor" for short) is a low-cost mouse that is also low on features." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 @ 07:52:35 PST (21 reads)
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Steelseries Flux Headphones
"Looking for a high quality headset or headphones? Then you should most definitely keep reading as we take on the Steelseries Flux headset. This is a 100$ headset so the expectations are high for me; let’s waste no further time and get on with the review."
NZXT Cryo V60 Bladeless Laptop Cooler
"Did you see those fans Dyson was promoting a year ago or so? Bladeless fans, well NZXT has made something similar by releasing a bladeless laptop cooler. The Cryo V60 has no visible fans and no fanblades you are going to have to worry about, but how well does it work?" |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 @ 07:50:51 PST (23 reads)
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Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3-1600 16GB
"With their Ballistix Sport VLP (Very Low Profile) modules Crucial are looking to offer a value packed product which appeals to consumers who need low voltage, compact memory in high capacities."
Sapphire HD 7870 XT With Boost
"Today we take our second look at Tahiti LE with the Sapphire 7870 XT (With Boost) and in this article will be maxing out its core and memory speed then checking how it performs in games like Far Cry 3, Assassins Creed 3 and Hitman Absolution against a max OC 660 Ti." |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 @ 02:55:43 PST (24 reads)
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| Pure Overclock Two For One |
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NZXT Phantom 820 Case
“The NZXT Phantom has been reborn, this time as the Phantom 820, an enthusiast steel full tower chassis, engineered to chill even the most demanding systems. The Phantom 820 is equipped with 200 mm and 140 mm fans in strategic positions for top airflow throughout the chassis. It is designed for the hardcore enthusiast or gamer, who wants or needs the very best. Can it measure up?”
Thermalright True Spirit 120m CPU Cooler
“Over the years we have seen hundreds of air coolers of various models and designs. From the smaller coolers to the larger twin tower coolers, performance is always a key factor when it comes to finding the right product. Today we are going to be looking to a new unique design by Thermalright. It is called the True Spirit 120m. Does it have the right aesthetic appeal and how does it stack up with some of today’s coolers in thermal performance? That is what we will attempt to answer in our review today.” |
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Posted by JimAdkins on Monday, January 14, 2013 @ 17:47:01 PST (22 reads)
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