Week of September 18, 2011

Since its inception in 2007, "Heatpipe Direct Touch" (HDT) technology has become almost an expectation for air-based heatsinks. Previously, dissipative heatpipes were merely welded to the top of the mounting surface, serving only to help remove excess heat in the most extreme circumstances. HDT has allowed huge gains in cooling performance, by directly placing the heatpipes in contact with a processor's integrated heat spreader (IHS). Unfortunately, HDT carries a major performance inhibiting flaw. Because of how each round heatpipe makes contact with the surface of the IHS, microscopic areas of the processor are not completely reached by the mounting surface; this results in a small, but measurable loss in cooling ability. Coolink's exclusive Gapless Direct Touch (GDT) technology has set out to fix that issue. With the copper fitted, gapless base and Noctua's famous SecuFirm2 mounting system, the Corator DS should have both impressive heat transfer capabilities and a user-friendly installation.

CLICK HERE FOR TWEAKNEWS.NET'S REVIEW ON THIS PRODUCT

Up until today Enermax was primarily known throughout the world for their excellent, award winning power supply units but with their latest ETS-T40 line of CPU Air Coolers it is quite evident that they also aim to be widely known for their CPU cooling solutions.

When it comes to Intel's Sandy Bridge motherboards, the MSI Z68A-GD80 just might have it all. The board boasts an impressive array of features designed to improve the overall value of the Z68A-GD80, but MSI has taken things one step further by increasing the warranty period to a whopping 5 years.

CLICK HERE FOR MSI Z68A-GD80 Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

The new Calibre X560DF video card from Sparkle is equipped with a new cooling system, a backplate for anti-bending purposes or to avoid scratches and features a noticeable increase in performance compared to the stock models, thanks to its overclock from the factory.

Another great feature of this case is the top panel which allows you to mount two 120mm or 140mm fans and even offers support for a dual fan radiator should you need it. The bottom of the case has support for single 120mm fan and offers the ability to mount your PSU fan side down, should you choose to do so. The bottom also features rubberized feet that help resist any sudden movement that may be acted upon the case.

We put the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III 1GD5 Power Edition/OC against the HD 6950 2GB to see which matters more: 1GB of memory, or a higher clockspeed. Keep reading to find out which came out on top!

The ASUS GTX 560Ti comes with a factory overclock from 822MHz to 830MHz, and while this seems to be a key marketing point from ASUS, it is a minor increase. However, ASUS includes an application to overclock the card more on your own, and my efforts resulted in almost a 120MHz increase in GPU speed. This simple overclock provided a nice boost in performance.

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS GeForce GTX 560Ti SHOPPING & PRICING

Concerning the TUF series, to which the Sabertooth 990FX from ASUS belongs, the manufacturer promises durability thanks to the use of high quality components. Furthermore this thing comes with a camouflage look, which in an elegant way, addresses a certain niche of gamers and in general users who demand quality.

CLICK HERE FOR ASUS Sabertooth 990FX SHOPPING & PRICING

The Olympus PEN E-PM1, nicknamed the PEN Mini, is the smallest, lightest and least-expensive entry in the current Olympus Micro Four Thirds lineup. This compact interchangeable-lens camera is designed to be easy for photography novices, but also offers more advanced menu options to satisfy experienced shutterbugs.

CLICK HERE FOR Olympus PEN E-PM1 SHOPPING & PRICING

Cooler Master is renown for designing top quality PC cases aimed at the enthusiast and gaming market. The CM Storm series is their high-end range, suitable for top performance gaming computers, these cases are specially adapted to ensure space and temperature is never an issue. The Enforcer is the latest PC enclosure to join this product line, let’s see how this gaming case scored in this Cooler Master Enforcer Review.

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master Enforcer SHOPPING & PRICING

CLICK HERE FOR TWEAKNEWS.NET'S REVIEW ON THIS PRODUCT

HPTX cases are usually so tall that they do not fit under a normal desk. Lian Li - the company who first offered such a chassis - has managed to shrink things down to mid tower size while still offering HPTX compatibility and the ability to install up to 12 hard drives. We rip the case apart to see how everything is suppose to fit in such cramped spaces.

While routers have never been essential, most people will have at least one in their house, especially with the rapid increase of wireless devices such as laptops, phones, tablets and lots more. Routers allow you to connect to several computers wirelessly or even via ethernet connections, allowing you to create a network with more than one computer. Lots of companies like Virgin Media and other ISPs provide routers with their broadband packages and as such some are installed and never seen again. While this is the simplest solution there are lots of improvements that can be made to a network, for instance, improving wireless coverage, which is where a second router or wireless bridge comes in handy.

CLICK HERE FOR Asus WL-330N3G SHOPPING & PRICING

VisionTek enters the high performance memory market with their Ultimate Performance EX kits. Neoseeker puts both the 8GB dual channel and 12GB Ultimate Performance EX triple channel memory kits to the test to see if they live up to their lofty product names, and if they can stand against more established competitors in the field.

The Western Digital My Passport Essential portable drive first came out in 2008 and not much has changed visually. WD nailed the looks of this drive since it was released and hasn't made any major cosmetic changes to the design over the years. The one thing that they did change just this year, was to update the interface from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 and that is huge for data transfer speeds...

CLICK HERE FOR WD My Passport Essential 500GB SHOPPING & PRICING

The AMD Lynx Platform comes at a decent price and offers DX11 compatible integrated graphics, which is more than enough for performing some of the daily tasks or watching HD multimedia content. For increasing the 3D performance even further, we can either overclock the APU or buy a separate graphics card from the supported models (RADEON HD 6400, 6500 or 6600 Series).

Bottom line, the 80mm really changed the temperatures in the home theater PC case. This will save on the thermal wear and tear over the years and perhaps get me a little more out of my machine. Maybe I will even push that OC up a bit again. The 140mm doesn’t make a huge change in a large airflow situation. Large fans by nature tend to be less noisy while still moving a lot of air. I will say I do like the vibrant color but beyond that I don’t see myself buying one over any other 140mm case fan. However, from what I’ve seen with the 80mm fan in small spaces, I’d love to see what one of these 140mm fans could do with a CPU cooler.

In our previous guide: Root Hacking the HP Touchpad Tablet PC, Benchmark Reviews showed you how to enable Developer Mode on the HP Touchpad, and, with the new capabilities this mode enables, to download and install the Preware applications manager. In this installment, we'll show you how to dramatically improve the performance of your Touchpad by disabling excessive logging functions and overclocking its dual-core processor.

CLICK HERE FOR HP Touchpad SHOPPING & PRICING

Mechanical keyboards, they’ve been a staple of the high end gamers for quite some time, but for a while it was down to companies like microsoft to make them. However, in recent years gaming peripheral makers like Razer, Steelseries, Zowie and more, have begun manufacturing their own mechanical boards.

The Samsung SyncMaster T27A950D is a 27-inch 3D HDTV that also doubles as a computer monitor. It has a sleek, unique design that will please everyone and quality is actually really good. It also has built-in speakers and a remote control for added functionality and control.

Overall, the Silverstone enclosure is a quality product. The mounting clips are durable and should handle multiple drive swaps over the enclosure’s lifetime. It dissipates heat fairly well and the USB 3.0 speed is a must-have for those with external storage needs.

OCZ, having the value-oriented user in mind, recently released a new PSU series. According to OCZ the ZS series PSUs offer affordable power solutions to value-oriented gaming systems.

CLICK HERE FOR OCZ ZS Series 750 W SHOPPING & PRICING

With some of the fastest BD read/write speeds available in the market today and with blazing fast CD and DVD read/write speeds the latest PX-LB950SA 12X Internal Blu-Ray Disc Writer by Plextor is their way of saying that they are on the right track and here to stay.

CLICK HERE FOR Plextor PX-LB950SA SHOPPING & PRICING

The Tempest 410 Elite we are going to be reviewing today promises to be an entertaining mid-tower with USB 3.0 support, resilient air cooling and a unique look that settles between the minimalist and gamer style. Will the Tempest 410 follow in the successful footsteps of the Tempest and Tempest EVO?

We enjoyed the performance of EVGA's top end version of the GeForce GTX 570 and found pushing this overclock further was as simple as dragging a slider in EVGA Precision software and clicking apply. Achieving our significant overclock did require a bit more work to figure out the thermals but now that you have read this you know our trick if you can handle the noise. Better yet get this card under water and you can run at least 31% above reference clocks silently...

The paper installation guide--while a welcome yet often neglected addition--seems quite poorly written. For instance, one of the first entries reads "How to remove the side panel". his single sentence is then repeated below in seventeen (yes 17!) different languages, followed by four diagrams. This single line of text and its multiple translations makes up one whole page of the installation guide!

CLICK HERE FOR Cooler Master HAF X RC 942 SHOPPING & PRICING

The MSI Z68A-GD65(G3) motherboard is another step in motherboard evolution. The MSI Z68A integrates the newest technology to future proof your system. The main feature being the first in the market with PCI Express Generation 3. We have been sitting on PCIe 2.x for 4 years now which limited us to 16GB/s bandwidth. The new PCIe 3.0 technology will double the bandwidth to 32GB/s leaving tons of room for the future video cards. Standard features include the Intel Z68 chipset. This supports the newest 1155 Intel Sandy Bridge Processors. Memory support is up to 32GB of 2133(OC) DDR3 DRAM. The Z68A-GD65(G3) also comes with the Military Class II technology. Their "Mil Spec" uses Hi-c CAPs, Super Ferrite Chokes, and Solid State Capacitors for extreme stability. The Z68A uses the newest UEFI with the ClickBIOS II software for a full GUI within the Windows environment. There are 4 total SATA III ports(2 being Marvell controlled, 2 being Intel controlled) and 4 Intel controlled SATAII ports. 2 USB 3.0 ports are integrated in the back panel I/O while there is expansion for 2 more with the included internal connector. Integrated audio uses the Realtek ALC892 chipset.

CLICK HERE FOR MSI Z68A-GD65(G3) Motherboard SHOPPING & PRICING

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA – SEP. 19th, 2011 – Rosewill the leading hardware solution provider bringing the best choice in value, announced its newest member of Rosewill computer case family, RANGER.

The RANGER represents Rosewill’s tradition of bring quality hardware at a reasonable price. This case has all the features that you have come to expect in top rank Mid-Tower case including USB 3.0 headers, top, rear, and front fans. Additional fans can be added to the side of the case to add superior cooling for video cards. The interior of this case adds contrast to the front panel LED lighting as the case is black and the back panel is red.

Today we're taking a look at GIGABYTE's newest offering of the G1.Killer line: the G1.Sniper 2. Let's find out what the first Z68-based G1 motherboard can do.

SSDs that utilize ‘Async’ NAND flash memory seem to be all the rage these days. Despite the initial concerns with ‘async’ SSDs, we stated our belief that the price versus performance difference would appeal to the consumer, a tradeoff that seems to be paying off in dividends.

Mechanical keyboards are certainly making a bit of a comeback and they are now a major part of the Gaming Industry. While they won't replace keyboards for everyday use, their speed, and reassuring click is always going to be liked by Gamers.

CLICK HERE FOR Razer Black Widow Ultimate Mechanical Gaming Keyboard SHOPPING & PRICING

Time for a videocard review here at Rbmods, it was awhile ago we had one so today we are taking a look at a 6770 from HIS. You can find this videocard for around 100$ so it's considered a mid class card on the market. What type of performance can you get out of this card?

As a user of 24GB of RAM myself, I can see the use in such a large amount of memory for anything from editing High Definition video personally, to people who want to use VMware. Up until now, though, we really only saw companies offer 16BG kits and if you wanted to make the move to a Z68 platform, massive memory amount options were limited.

That was 'till today. The Patriot kit we're looking at today is a part of the G2 Series or Gamer 2 Series and to be honest, while probably not the first market people think of when it comes to the need for huge amounts of RAM, if you've got the money to blow, the chances are you want to get as much RAM as possible.

The product we have on review today is one such item, the SteelSeries Sensei Pro Grade Gaming Mouse. Like all of SteelSeries’ mice, they are inspired by Japanese such as the Ikari (Anger) and the Xai (talent). As the name suggests, the Sensei is the very best, the ‘teacher’ in the dojo of mice. It’s a very apt name because if you want to be the very best in your art, you will need a master Sensei.

The performance of the 16GB Corsair Flash Voyager was inline with what Corsair said it would be. With benchmarks like CrystalDiskMark we found 81 MB/s read speeds and 22 MB/s write speeds on a USB 3.0 connection. The read speed of 81 MB/s is nice, but the write speed left us wanting a little more. Just for fun we tried this drive on the USB 2.0 port on the same test system and saw that it was hitting..

CLICK HERE FOR Corsair Flash Voyager USB 3.0 16GB SHOPPING & PRICING