CyberPower Gamer Ultra 2098 Budget Gaming PC Review @ Legit Reviews

CyberPower really did do a great job with the Gamer Ultra 2098! The part selection and the fit and finish of the components was superb for a budget gaming PC. For being just $574.98 we figured that CyberPower might cut some corners on wire management or something like that, but they really did a nice job for this build. The parts that CyberPower used on the Gamer Ultra 2098 worked well together and we had no major issues with any of the hardware during our testing. For a budget AMD powered gaming PC we wouldn't change anything with this system...

Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Computer Case @ Benchmark Reviews

In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I, which demands a higher premium but at the same time packs in more goodies and features. In my previous article I asked what you want from a case and how much are you willing to spend, well today we have a case for those willing to splash a bit more cash in return for some great features. The Overseer has front panel USB 3.0, e-Sata, and a 2.5"/3.5" HDD/SSD dock all conveniently located whether your case is on the floor or on your desk. Inside the case you have room for tall CPU coolers (up to 177mm) and long video cards (up to 344mm), cable routing is catered for and HDD installation will look neat too. When you have all of your gear installed there will still be room to spare, Thermaltake have once again made provisions for a 120.2 (240mm) watercooling radiator and you won't be short of space to mount a pump and reservoir either.

ASUS USB-N10 and USB-N13 Wireless N Network Adapters Review @ Bigbruin.com

One area where people might not necessarily think of ASUS is networking hardware. Whether you need a router, switch, or adapter - and whether you want to go wired, wireless, or over power lines - they have a few choices for you to consider. In this review we're going to take a look at two of their compact wireless N network adapters; the USB-N10 and the USB-N13.

ASUS BC-12B1ST Optical Drive @ Pro-Clockers

After winning the battle over HD media, blu-ray has quickly become a “wanted” luxury in a PC. But for years the price of such a drive kept many of us from purchasing one even if it was a player only device. Not in 2011, the prices of these drives including recording ones can be found for under $100. The ASUS BC-12B1ST is one of the blu-ray read only components that be had for this incredible often as low as $70. The BC-12B1ST is filled with engineering only ASUS can provide which we will talk about during the review. But did we mention it does support 3D playback? Well, it does.

Corsair Carbide 500R Mid-Tower Case Review @ Legit Reviews

We really liked working with the Corsair Carbide 500R as the design was very well thought out. The fit and finish were excellent with great paint work and the black and white theme is very attractive. Airflow is a non-issue in this case with more options than the majority of users would even consider or require. The cable routing was easy and the rubber grommets really add a polished look when you are done building in this case. The bonus integrated fan controller and LED on/off switch was a nice touch on the I/O panel but we really appreciated the inclusion of USB 3.0 ports on the front. Corsair was even thoughtful enough to include the conversion cable to USB 2.0 to extend the compatibility...

Raidmax RX-1200AE High Efficiency Bronze Power Supply @ TechwareLabs

The Raidmax 1200AE is a very large power supply aimed at large SLI/Crossfire systems but also has the active protection to keep everything safe from 1200 watts.  The Modular Design and Ultra-Quiet fan are also features of a great power supply.  Easy cable routing means better airflow and better overall look to the inside of the case.  The addition of a very usable case is a nice afterthought but should not really be a primary factor in the selection of a power supply. The 80 Plus Bronze rating assures you some comfort in efficiency rating while the 1200W rating assures you that this PSU is up to the task of delivering enough power for almost anyones needs. The 1200AE is positioned as Raidmax’s current Flagship PSU and carries a wide array of certifications including Nvidia’s SLI certification. With an online price approximately $199 (Newegg) or less the 1200AE is a bargain for 1200W power supplies.

ASUS P8P67 EVO REV 3.0 Motherboard Review @ HardOCP

The ASUS P8P67 EVO motherboard utilizes the power of the Intel P67 chipset to offer support for the following: the Intel LGA1155 Core i3, i5, and i7 processor lines; DDR3 memory operating in Dual Channel memory mode up to 1333MHz officially; and either NVIDIA SLI or ATI CrossFireX graphics mode using matched video cards. ASUS chose to integrate the following devices in to the board's design: 4 SATA II 3Gb/s ports and 2 SATA III 6Gb/s ports (RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capable) on the Intel P67 controller; 2 SATA III 6Gb/s ports on the Marvell controller; 2 e-SATA 3Gb/s ports on the JMicron controller; 12 USB 2.0 capable ports (6 in rear panel, and 3 onboard header supporting 2 ports each); 4 USB 3.0 capable ports (2 in rear panel, and 1 onboard header supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE 1394 ports (1 in rear panel, and 1 onboard header support 1 port each); 1 Intel GigE Ethernet port and 1 Realtek GigE Ethernet port in the rear panel; an integrated Bluetooth antennae in the rear panel; Realtek 8-channel HD audio codec with integrated S/PDIF optical and RCA component output ports; Power, Reset, and MemOK! buttons; and PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports in the rear panel.

Lian Li PC-TU200: On the Road With Lian Li @ Anandtech

Lian Li's goals with the PC-TU200 and its intended purpose are both admirable and, in my opinion, realistic...at least in concept. I'm not 100% certain Lian Li could be successful with what they're trying to do without adding an inch or two here and there to the TU200's dimensions, but I don't think it's out of the question either. The all-aluminum design Lian Li is famous for is a great fit for something that's supposed to be a portable LAN machine, and the handle is both sturdy and useful. The TU200 is small enough that the handle is actually practical as opposed to just being a cute idea.

Mad Catz F.P.S. Pro Wireless GamePad for PlayStation®3 Review @ Madshrimps

The Mad Catz F.P.S. Pro Wireless GamePad for PS3 has a solid build and comes with some unique features like anti-slip grips on the sides, adjustable backlight for the thumbsticks and two extra programmable buttons underside the device, to help us while gaming intensively with our friends.

Xigmatek Elysium Full Tower Case Review @ Madshrimps

Full tower cases are usually needed by end users that needs tons of storage capacity. Or by watercooling fanatics that need adequate space to house all of their huge radiators. Sometimes you don't have any option besides to go for a full tower case, as your motherboard's size is out of proportions. A few of those particular motherboards might be Intel's Skulltrail, eVGAs SR2/3 motherboards or even eg Gigabyte's X58 UD9. Due to their XXXL ATX size, only full towers need to apply for the job. Todays Elysium is Xigmateks high end full tower chassis, ready to take on any big size motherboard you throw at it. Fully ready to be fitted with your favorite watercooling gear.

CoolerMaster Storm Xornet Optical Gaming Mouse @ Benchmark Reviews

When it comes to PC gaming, precision control begins with the mouse. You can have the best computer and display, but without a durable pointing device to transmit your intentions, the entire system becomes point-less. Cooler Master has a plan: pack only the most essential performance features into a solid gaming mouse, and sell it for less than any other. Behold, the CM Storm Xornet 2000 DPI Gaming Mouse, model SGM-2001-BLON1. In this article Benchmark Reviews compares the value-priced CM Storm Xornet to the more expensive Logitech G9x and previous CM Storm gaming peripherals.

AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer Tested - Windows 8 vs. Windows 7 Performance @ Frostytech.com

AMD talked a bit about benefits for 'Bulldozer' when paired with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system. At the moment there is a Windows 8 Developer Preview available from Microsoft Dev Center. In this short article PCSTATS will test this claim by comparing identical computer systems running an AMD FX-8150 'Bulldozer' processor, under both operating systems. PCSTATS decided to compare the AMD FX-8150 processor against itself in Windows 8 and Windows environments and see what kind of performance gains AMD was talking about.

Zalman CNPS11X Extreme Heatsink Review @ Frostytech.com

The Zalman CNPS11X Extreme is equipped with one 120mm PWM fan that rotates at 1000-1950RPM and moves air through a pair of thin aluminum fin towers set at 80-degress to each other. Five 6mm diameter composite wick heatpipes conduct heat from the copper base plate to the twin 100mm fin stacks. Zalman use composite copper heatpipes on the CNPS11X Extreme heatsink; there's no way to illustrate the wick structure on the inside of the heatpipes without destroying the CNPS11X Extreme in the process, so Frostytech did just that with the aid of a diamond saw.

OCZ RevoDrive 3 240GB PCIe Solid State Drive @ Pro-Clockers

The new RevoDrive 3 up the ante and operates on greater bandwidth x4 PCIe slots allowing for increased performance. This new model according to OCZ allows read/write times up to 1000MB/s and 925MB/s respectively and 130k IOPS depending on the size of the drive.  Numbers like this makes snails out of any SATA-based solid state drives. The RevoDrive 3 is available in three different sizes 120GB, 240GB and 480GB. We will be testing the 240GB model with 1000MB/s and 900MB/s read/write times.

Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews

Today we are looking at a new offering from a company you might not have heard of before, Phanteks. There has been some buzz about their first HSF offering, the PH-TC14PE. It is a twin tower twin 140mm fan CPU air cooler. Join us as we see how well the Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU cooler handles our Intel Core i7-930 test system and if its worth of the buzz that brought it to our attention.

 

Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 CL9 Memory Kit Review @ Legit Reviews The Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 CL9 memory kit comes in what Corsair calls "Cerulean Blue", which Corsair claims is designed to match the color found on motherboards supporting 2nd Generation Intel Core Sandy Bridge processors. To our eyes, this particular shade of blue is only found on ASUS motherboards, although other manufacturers such as Gigabyte and MSI do offer motherboards with blue accents... Xigmatek Prime SD1484 Heatsink Review @ Frostytech.com On the heatsink test bench today is Xigmatek's Prime SD1484 heatsink which features a few notable changes to the standard, stock tower heatsink Xigmatek offers. For starters, the edges of the aluminum fins are squished slightly to form a blunt knife edge to reduce air flow resistance - Gigabyte tried this in 2006 with good results - Xigmatek have applied a 4mm chamfer to both edges of the fins. MSI 990FXA-GD80 AM3+ Motherboard @ Benchmark Reviews AMD's 900 series chipsets preceded the introduction of their Bulldozer processors by several months. While this chipsets offers no additional functionality to non-Bulldozer CPUs, manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon anyway, perhaps because Bulldozer was expected a little sooner than it was actually released, and MSI was one of the first. Benchmark Reviews takes a look at how MSI's 990FX-GD80 motherboard works, and we even use a Bulldozer CPU. Thermaltake Dr. Power II PSU Tester @ Pro-Clockers I am sure many of you that frequent friends and family members PC station, the first thing you hear when the PC fails to boot is “I think the power supply is dead”. This may or may not be the case but in order to confirm this is to give the PSU a quick test to see if all the rails are working properly. Several companies have sent their version of this particular type of product to our lab. Today, we will be taking a look at the latest Dr Power II from Thermaltake. The Dr Power II has an over-sized display and able to measure idle rails voltage with pretty good accuracy. Crucial Ballistix Elite PC3-14900 8GB Kit Review @ Tweaktown At just over $100, the Crucial Ballistix Elite PC3-14900 8GB kit offers us some strong performance and nice overclocking potential with very little effort at a great price point. The new black on black design looks really sexy as well and suits those dark colored PCBs from companies like ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI.

Mad Catz Street Fighter X Tekken Arcade FightStick Pro @ Benchmark Reviews For as long as I can remember, I've been a huge fan of arcade fighting games: Street Fighter, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter. Street Fighter was the original arcade quarter-goblin, and its sequels were financed by my paperboy earnings. Tekken and Virtua Fighter absorbed any disposable income I earned as a teen. So when game consoles replaced arcades, I was among the first to jump onboard and practice my moves at a discount. Because of exciting characters, you could hardly master one game before the others lured you in - which is why Mad Catz "Street Fighter X Tekken" theme makes sense. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the Mad Catz Street Fighter X Tekken Arcade FightStick Pro for PlayStation3. Foxconn A75M FM1 Motherboard Review @ Madshrimps For users which are not pretentious, the A75M FM1 motherboard from Foxconn represents a solution to consider, in case we want to get the benefits of the Lynx platform, like the powerful IGP or the quad core APUs. For making this board even more attractive, the Dual Graphics feature should be enabled, along with the ability to be able to modify the memory speed and its timings. ASUS Intel X79 Motherboards - P9X79, TUF, WS and ROG Rampage IV Extreme @ Legit Reviews There is a lot of anticipation about the new Intel Sandy Bridge-E processors. While we can't give away any performance numbers or to many specific details, we can give you a sneak peak at some of the new Socket LGA 2011 motherboards. ASUS sent us over some pictures of their new LGA 2011 product line. Inside you will find a few details on the ASUS P9X79, X79 Sabertooth, and the Republic of Gamers Rampage IV Extreme! Ineo I-NA309D Pro USB 3.0 to SATA Dual Bay RAID Enclosure Review @ BigBruin I ran a couple of runs of Crystal Disk Mark on a 300GB Raptor, and the Ineo Technology I-NA309 D Pro Super Speed USB 3.0 enclosure on the fast setting was roughly 10 Mbps faster on the read and write than the Raptor. I was blown away by this, and I am now going to use this drive enclosure and the two drives as my main storage for all of my games and music. SilverSton​e SST-EC03B USB 3.0 PCI Express Card Review @ Legit Reviews It goes without saying that PC technology moves at a furious pace; woe to the enthusiast who languidly sits around without an upgrade path planned out. The USB 3.0 specification is one of a host of new technologies that enthusiasts cannot afford not to invest in; its sheer performance over USB 2.0 is unquestioned. Unfortunately, for enthusiasts with old(er) systems, upgrading to the world of USB 3.0 can be an expensive proposition... until SilverStone introduced its new SST-EC03B USB 3.0 PCI Express card... MSI 990FXA-GD80 (AMD 990FX) Motherboard Review @ Tweaktown On the overclocking side of things, we did get to around that 4.7GHz mark which we saw on the ASUS board we looked at. It's just unfortunate our FX-8150 was met with the fate it did. Like I said earlier, I'd be inclined to blame the motherboard or myself, but it seems we're seeing this FX-8150 death thing show up a little on a few different brands of motherboards and every time seems related to overclocking. Hopefully it's nothing too serious and something AMD will be able to sort out quickly. Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1TB 2.5″ Hard Disk Drive @ TechwareLabs If you are looking for maximum storage capacity in a 2.5” form factor drive which has not only the most storage space to date, but also has out-performed 3.5” drives that has come before it, Western Digital has released their new Scorpio Blue 1 terabyte 2.5” drive. This small form factor has opened a whole new world to laptop users who are looking for storage space that can perform and still have a reasonable price.

Zalman CNPS12X Lower Noise Heatsink Review @ Frostytech.com The Zalman CNPS12X heatsink marks the first foray into exposed base heatpipe coolers for its Korean manufacturer. The other notable aspect of the CNPS12X is that it's equipped with not one, not two, but THREE low-RPM 120mm fans. Zalman's CNPS12X heatsink retails for around $80USD and happens to be the first Intel LGA2011 compatible heatsink to cross Frostytech's test bench! Something to keep in mind if your picking up an Intel X79 motherboard and socket LGA2011 Intel Sandybridge-E processor shortly. ASUS Crosshair V Formula 'Bulldozer' Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews The ASUS Crosshair V Formula uses the AMD 990FX/SB950 chipsets and is the first ROG motherboard with AM3+ CPU support. It is also the first AMD motherboard to support both 3-Way NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX as well as offering an advanced UEFI BIOS and DIGI+ VRM design. Legit Reviews benchmarked this board with both the AMD FX-8150 'Bulldozer' and the Phenom II X6 1100T 'Thuban' processors to see how both CPU's perform on this enthusiast board. Intel Core i7-2700K Sandy Bridge 3.5 GHz CPU Review @ Legit Reviews The Intel Core i7-2700K is clocked at 3.5 GHz, which is 100 MHz faster than the previous flagship model for socket 1155, the Core i7-2600K. Like the 2600K, the 2700K has a 95W TDP, an unlocked clock multiplier, 8 MB L3 cache, 4 CPU cores, and can execute up to 8 threads at once. If you have figured out that this processor launch is nothing more than a speed bump, then pat yourself on the back as that is what it is. There are no new architecture differences here, so the only 'new' thing with this processor is a higher multiplier. With the 100Mhz increase we can expect to see right around a 3% performance increase over the 2600K... MSI's R6870 Hawk Review @ Madshrimps In this review we take a closer look at this AMD based HD6870 video card. With the special built Twin Frozr III Cooler and a 8+2 Phase PWM design this one stands out of the crowd. MSI provides this card with a dual speed fan switch. And for a price around € 180 not even much that more expensive to the regular HD6870's. Even cheaper for a few models. Cooler Master Storm Xornet Gaming Mouse @ Pro-Clockers Today, we will be tackling a new mouse from the makers of the above, which is called the Xornet. The Xornet is a lesser feature packed version of the above but in a smaller packaging. The Xornet gives the user to game on a budget also it’s the perfect complement to a gaming laptop. OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 1TB PCI-E SSD Review @ Legit Reviews So, does the RevoDrive Hybrid really provide that speedy SSD feel with gobs of storage for a reasonable cost? The answer is yes - for the most part. Bear in mind that the whole premise behind the drive is to cache the 'hot' (most frequently/last used) data onto the SSD to hasten the read/writes. This it does very effectively once the data is identified by the algorithm and cached. Overall, this worked very well and we saw considerable improvements in boot times and data access in our real world tests... SilverStone Treasure TS07 USB 3.0 Enclosure @ Benchmark Reviews The SilverStone Treasure TS07 External 3.5" HDD enclosure allows you to grab one of the many 3.5" mechanical hard drives you might happen to have laying around, and use it as instant portable storage as long as you have access to a USB port. This 3.5" hard disk drive enclosure has a black anodized aluminum body with glossy black plastic end-caps and a clear stand. The concept is simple, open the case, plug in your SATA 3.5" drive, and via 5Gbit/s USB 3.0 super speed interface you get access to your data. In this article, Benchmark Reviews plugs in the SilverStone TS07 External USB 3.0 enclosure in and tests it out.

ASUS MARS II 3GB Dual GTX 580 Video Card Review @ Tweaktown The big "thing" about the MARS II is of course the fact it's a dual GPU card, but not an "official" NVIDIA one like the GTX 590. The MARS II uses two GTX 580 cores that run at GTX 580 speeds. Well, they actually run slightly above GTX 580 speeds with the core clock on each core coming in at 782MHz. This is actually 10MHz up on the standard GTX 580. This also means that the Shader is slightly up at 1564MHz. Z68 vs. X58 - Which Is The Better Gaming Platform? @ Tweaktown Most people will feel that it's a no brainer with the X58 being the better option due to the fact it natively supports x16 / x16 in dual card setups. For us, that's indeed the biggest draw for the platform; the Z68 one on the other hand has a lot of standout features that make it a better option as well. The big thing is that the Z68 platform can just overclock so much better. Our X58 / 980X setup is good for 4.2GHz, while our Z68 / 2600k setup is good for 5.2GHz - 5.4GHz. With high end setups, it's so important that we're not CPU limited and even though the 2600k doesn't carry as many cores as the 980x, its +1GHz should yield us more headroom. The other stand out for the Z68 platform, though, is price. A Z68 machine with a 2600k is just so much more reachable; verses an X58 and an expensive Extreme Edition processor. That means when it comes down to it all, the performance of our video cards on that platform mean more to you, our readers, verses the performance of them on a X58 / 980X setup. MSI Intel 1155 Z68 PCI Express 3.0 Motherboard Z68A-GD65G3 @ TechwareLabs MSI released the Z68A-GD65G3 with two “World’s first” features. While very excited to see what the PCI Express 3.0 and Click II bios had to offer. I can resolutely say I was not disappointed. In addition to bringing this level of innovation to the market MSI has included all of the features, and quality we have come to expect from them. If I was forced to find a flaw with this product it would have to be that the “OC Genie II” produced an unstable overclock on a locked processor. The issue is clearly with the locked processor, perhaps the algorithm should prevent processor overclocking on Locked processors. When you look at the included software, the innovative features, and the nearly flawless functionality. WD Scorpio Blue 1TB Notebook Hard Drive Review @ Legit Reviews Today, we'll be looking at a the WD Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT 1TB 5400 RPM 2.5" SATA II notebook hard drive. With a 5400 RPM drive speed, 8MB cache, and 3 GB/s SATA interface speed, the 1TB Western Digital Scorpio Blue hard drive is the largest capacity drive offered by Western Digital in the 2.5" SATA notebook standard. If you want to massive amounts of storage space in a laptop this is the drive for you! Before we dive into the specifics we should point out that WD has two Scorpio Blue 1TB notebook drives and you need to know what the differences are as they are two very different products. Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 Intel P67 Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS In this review PCSTATS is testing the Intel P67-based Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 motherboard. This is a mainstream ATX motherboard with a great set of workstation features and connectivity, all on a sleek matt-black PCB that looks fantastic in black computer chassis. The board supports 32nm socket LGA1155 2nd Generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 2xxx-series 'SandyBridge' processors, such as the Core i5 2500K, and can handle dual graphics cards. The Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 motherboard is equipped with four 1.5v DDR-3 memory slots that accommodate up to 32GB of dual channel DDR3-1066/1333/1600/1866/2133 memory (4GB for 32-bit operating systems). Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) RAM is supported, such as Crucial's Ballistix memory modules. Crucial M4 SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive @ Pro-Clockers Crucial hit the pavement running when they released the C300 series of solid state drives, the first available for the (then) new SATA III 6Gb/s interface. Capable of reaching read/write speeds of 355MB/sec and 140MB/sec respectfully, the C300 was no slouch. Then at the beginning of 2011 when Intel finally launched a chipset with an integrated SATA III controller, in the Cougar Point chipsets, many manufacturers felt it was time to let the new bus really stretch its legs. Crucial was one of those companies, releasing the new m4 series of solid state drives. What kinds of improvements number wise does the new model have over the older model?

Mushkin Redline Enhanced 2133MHz DDR3 Memory @ Benchmark Reviews