Daredevil.Modz

ASUS RT-N66U Wi-Fi Gigabit Router Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:07:00 PDT

Building on the success of the RT-N56, ASUS has been hard at work trying to create the next 'next-best' wireless router. Today, Benchmark Reviews brings you the ASUS RT-N66U Dual Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router. As you will see in the images that follow, the ASUS RT-N66U certainly looks the part and is different in that way from 99% of routers on offer today.

Enter the element14 Pi Day “Raspberry RoadTest” Challenge for a chance to win a Raspberry Pi computer

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:05:00 PST

Online submission for ‘amazing innovations’ now open at element14

LONDON – Mar. 6, 2012 – element14, the first collaborative community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts, powered by Premier Farnell [LSE:PFL], is giving Raspberry Pi fans around the world a chance to win one of three of these hotly desired gadgets.

Launched today, the global “Raspberry RoadTest” Challenge poses the question: “What innovation will you create using the amazing Raspberry Pi computer?” Designers and enthusiasts can enter the challenge by signing up on the Raspberry RoadTest page on the element14 Community and submitting ideas for the innovations they would create using this credit card-sized computer. The winner will be chosen on “Pi Day” - 14^th March 2012.

element14 RoadTest has become increasingly popular among community members. Members receive a device to test and review from element14, then blog about their developments, discoveries and innovations on the community as well as their own blogs and forums. These blogs and reviews are used by other designers to connect with each other and be inspired.

The Community has experienced a 30 fold increase in traffic since the recently launched element14 Raspberry Pi Group and product launch last week. Additionally there have been over 30,000 downloads of the operating system software – amassing over 30 Terabytes of file transfers.

More information on the “Raspberry RoadTest” Challenge can be found at www.element14.com/roadtest. To join Raspberry Pi conversations visit the element14 Community.

OCZ Technology Talos SAS SSDs to be Deployed in Drobo’s Business-Class Storage Systems

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:04:00 PST

OCZ Enterprise SSDs Offer Exceptional Performance with Faster Access Times and Maximum Reliability for Small and Medium-Business Applications

SAN JOSE, CA – March 8, 2012 - OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced thatDrobo will utilize the OCZ Talos SAS SSD Series for integration into its B1200i iSCSI SAN solutions for business environments. Drobo, makers of award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, has chosen to provide customers with even faster and more robust storage systems by complementing the sophisticated feature set of the B1200i with the superior performance, energy efficiency, and maximum endurance of Talos SSDs.

Ideal for small-and-medium businesses (SMBs), the Drobo B1200i provides reliable, high-performance, and self-optimizing storage for server virtualization, email, and data protection and features seamless integration with existing infrastructures as an iSCSI SAN device. With innovative automated data-aware tiering, the B1200i delivers a level of automation and technical sophistication that is easier to use and less costly to deploy than typical enterprise solutions. The B1200i is the first Drobo product to leverage the benefits of SSDs for increased bandwidth, lower power consumption, and instantaneous access times.

“Drobo is a leader in data storage products for both professionals and businesses and we are thrilled that they have qualified and selected our enterprise-class Talos SAS SSDs for their business oriented solutions,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. “This collaboration is a perfect example of how our SSD technology can act within a complete solution to deliver superior application-optimized storage for small- and medium-business IT.”

“Just like larger organizations, SMBs should be able to afford and enjoy the benefits of SSD technology and performance,” said Tom Buiocchi, CEO of Drobo. “For the best capacity and performance, our unique automated data-aware tiering allows customers to easily and affordably add SSDs to the same Drobo environment that already has high-capacity traditional disk drives.”

Drobo will offer the B1200i Series with OCZ Talos 3.50-inch SAS 6Gb/s SSDs in 200GB capacities. For SMBs seeking an easy to deploy yet state-of-the-art storage system, Drobo with Talos SSDs offer incredible reliability, unparalleled responsiveness, and optimized energy efficiency when compared to traditional storage systems that only leverage mechanical hard drives. The new Drobo B1200i with OCZ SSDs will be available through Drobo’s worldwide network of authorized distributors and resellers.

ASUS USB-N53 Dual Band Wi-Fi Adapter Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:08:00 PST

Built on the same design slate as the black diamond series, comes the ASUS USB-N53 Dual Band Wireless-N300 USB Adapter. The USB-N53 has two built in antennae and can operate on 2.4GHz and 5GHz signals at up to 300Mb/s. On the box ASUS claim that the USB-N53 has a "Superior antenna design for extensive wireless coverage more than 150%" and this does show through in our tests, our testing threw out some good numbers but nowhere near 300Mb/s which is understandable to a certain extent.

Intel Core i7-3820 Extreme Edition CPU Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:06:00 PST

For most people, the Sandy Bridge LGA-1155 carries enough power for everything they need. This includes most gamers and many enthusiasts wanting to overclock and push their systems up as high as they can. Certainly for mainstream users, media users, and light gamers, the Sandy Bridge platform offers more than enough flexibility and features. Even with all that, it seemed like Sandy Bridge was lacking. For many of us, the Sandy Bridge-E LGA-2011 release brought a flood of appealing features that the LGA-1155 platform left out. For extreme gamers and enthusiasts, the number of PCI-E lanes on the Sandy Bridge platform fell short. With the release of the LGA-2011 platform, Intel fixed this. They also added Quad-channel memory support, PCIe 3.0 support, and the option for CPUs with up to six cores.

CM Storm QuickFire Rapid Keyboard Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:45:00 PST

Although mechanical keyboards have been making a comeback in recent years many of the design are quite bulky in comparison to their rubber dome counter parts. Looking to fill this area of the market Cooler Master designed the Storm QuickFire Rapid mechanical keyboard using the venerable Cherry MX Blue switches, fit into a comfortable 14" x 5" design. This makes the QuickFire Rapid perfect for LAN parties or mobile workers who may want a better typing experience than their laptops are able to offer. Benchmark Reviews will evaluate if the Cooler Master QuickFire Rapid is the perfect pint size keyboard or if corners were cut in order to meet size and price goals.

element14 drives Raspberry Pi revolution to educate a new generation of programmers

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:24:00 PST

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Harriet Green CEO of Premier Farnell and element14 signs distribution agreement with Eben Upton, founder of Raspberry Pi"

Global distribution deal agreed with Raspberry Pi Foundation with orders being accepted immediately ·

Units available to pre-order from 29 February in Europe, US and Asia ·
Raspberry Pi dedicated area on the element14 Community ·
Support materials and PCB tools available free in the Knode on element14 and the Community

LONDON – Feb. 29, 2012 – element14, the first collaborative community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts and a part of global electronics distributor Premier Farnell [LON:PFL], today announced a global distribution deal with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to offer its ground-breaking credit card sized computer. The element14 Community will support the conversations, debate and sharing of knowledge and information from the anticipated flood of enthusiastic developers and first-time programmers keen to get the most from their Raspberry Pi. Harriet Green, CEO of Premier Farnell, the company behind element14, said: “This partnership brings together the world’s biggest online design engineer community with one of the most exciting electronic/embedded computing products to be launched for decades. We believe it will provide the catalyst for a programming revolution. The opportunity to engage a new generation of engineers and computer experts is very much in our sweet spot as a company. Through our element14 Community we will encourage everyone from developers, modders, coders and programmers to discuss, share and develop their ideas and fully utilize the game-changing potential of the Raspberry Pi computer.” There has been real excitement in the marketplace around the launch of the Raspberry Pi computer, a device that takes its lead from a history of iconic educational-targeted computers that influenced the adoption of automation in industry, science and research from the late 1970s. Today design engineers and would-be coders across the world are clamouring to get their hands on the device to see how it can be modified and what innovative programs can be created to run on it. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charity formed and supported by some influential computing minds and businesses. It believes in the need for more developers to understand what truly goes on ‘under the hood’ of a computing device and is convinced there is a need to rely less on development tools and power hungry layers of code. The element14 Community has been supporting design engineers for over two years and offers organic support, expert advice and information to all members and a platform to share ideas and examples freely. Eben Upton, co-founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, commented: “The decline in core computing skills is something we really want to address with Raspberry Pi and the way the element14 Community supports developers of all skill levels makes it a really strong partner in tackling this issue. Overcoming the students’ fear of programming for the first time is a critical step in unlocking the full potential of the smartest people in any industry. I have no doubt that having the support of a community of like-minded developers will be a catalyst for success.” Robert Mullins, co-founder of Raspberry Pi Foundation, and Harriet Green, CEO of Premier Farnell, talk exclusively on video about why the computer was created, how element14 can support and why this is such a game changer in computing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gky68aE578 The distribution agreement, which will see Premier Farnell distribute in all its territories under the brands of Newark element14 in North America, Farnell element14 in Europe and element14 in Asia Pacific, offers the education-aimed computer available for just £22 or $35. Units are available for pre-order from 29 February on a first come first served basis and bundles of essential ancillary products such as cabling and power supplies have been added to the line-card to simplify users purchasing needs. See one of the first unboxing to “hello world” videos here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BbufUp_HNs Initially the Raspberry Pi will be sold in one uncased configuration – the Model B – which has two USB slots, 256MB of RAM, HDMI slot, SD memory card slot and an Ethernet port. This will be followed later in 2012 by the Model A which has 256MB RAM, one USB port. Raspberry Pi breaks new ground with a selling price of just $35 for the ‘Model B’, and $25 for the ‘Model A’. As a result the market opportunities in all areas of the world are huge as well as providing access to a wealth of literature and software, as well as a unique opportunity to start to learn coding and programming which has been created on a Fedora OS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gky68aE578

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BbufUp_HNs

Epic Gear Meduza Gaming Mouse Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:25:00 PST

What features make the best gaming mouse? Laser or Optical? High or low sensitivity? Epic Gear has released a new technology to make it so you don't have to choose. The new Meduza Gaming Mouse uses Hybrid Dual Sensor Technology (HDST) to combine the best of both paradigms. Along with their Hybrid Mouse pad they have benchmarked high mouse performance. In this article, Benchmark Reviews evaluates the Meduza (model EGMA1H-OB) and Hybrid Pad (model EGHP1-OB-M) in preparation for their upcoming release.

OCZ Introduces the High-Performance Fatal1ty 1000W Power Supply

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:21:00 PST

New Modular PSU Featuring Individually Sleeved Cabling, High Power Output, and Maximum Efficiency Ideal for PC Gamers SAN JOSE, CA—February 28, 2012—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: OCZ), a worldwide leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and power supplies for computing devices and systems, today announced the availability of the Fatal1ty 1000 Watt power supply, the latest high-performance PSU targeted at gamers and enthusiasts that demand maximum wattage, high efficiency, and a modular cabling configuration. Dedicated to delivering premium power solutions, OCZ’s latest PSU was co-developed with twelve-time world champion Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel to meet the specific needs of fellow gamers in performance, stability, and ease of integration to reduce system downtime. Featuring individually-sleeved modular cables, the Fatal1ty Series eliminates unnecessary wire clutter for a cleaner overall presentation and superior airflow in high end systems that are packed with components. “We are thrilled to partner up once again with Fatal1ty to build the ultimate PSU designed specifically for hard-core gamers,” commented Steve Lee, Senior Vice President of Power Management at OCZ Technology. “The new 1000W Fatal1ty PSU delivers exceptional performance for dual GPU platforms, enhanced reliability with premium components, excellent efficiency and robust features, including a large yet ultra quiet fan and high-end individually sleeved cables. All of these add up to a premium PSU that gamers can be confident in to power through the most intense gaming and enthusiast environments.” “When looking for the ideal gaming power supply, I look for plenty of power to support multi-GPU configurations, superior reliability, and features like quiet and efficient cooling that allow me to stay focused on the game,” said Wendel. “I also want modular cabling which makes it easy to configure my rig and make it look clean. With the new Fatal1ty 1000W modular PSU, gamers are armed with the perfect solution to power all of their high-end components, enabling them to design the perfect gaming rig. I want gamers to play to their full potential, and with this PSU your gaming rig will have every bit of power it needs to fulfill your hardcore gaming sessions.” Combining a powerful single +12V rail and premium components, the Fatal1ty 1000W balances the needs for both gamer and enthusiast standards with 100% Japanese 105°C capacitors, continuous output at a demanding 50°C ambient temperature, and heavy-duty protection circuitries. Key features include a large temperature and load controlled 140mm double ball-bearing fan with red LEDs for whisper quiet operation, well-regulated electrical noise and ripple, and 80 Plus® Gold certification with up to 90% efficiency at typical loads. The Fatal1ty Series is tested and qualified for the most component-heavy systems with multiple power-hungry drives and video cards by delivering 1KW of continuous power, and offers rock-solid, super-clean DC output and complete array of connectors including detachable CPU, and multiple PCIe, SATA, and peripheral cables. The Fatal1ty Series provides universal input and active PFC (Power Factor Correction) to effectively regulate input voltage and maintain a stable supply of power in an industry-standard ATX form factor to accommodate virtually all computer towers. With sheer power combined with maximum efficiency, the Fatal1ty 1000W is backed by a 5-year warranty.

Fractal Design BF3 Tribute System Giveaway?

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:27:00 PST

OCZ Octane Indilinx Everest SSD Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:14:00 PST

Nearly one year since acquiring well-known flash controller manufacturer Indilinx, OCZ has debuted their first storage product based on the Indilinx infused Everest platform with NDurance technology: welcome OCZ's Octane SSD. Offered in 1-terabyte capacities, the OCT1-25SAT3 series is designed to deliver optimized performance for mainstream users wanting to capitalize on near-instant solid state response times. OCZ Octane SSDs are good for up to 480MB/s read speeds over the latest SATA 6GB/s interface, and yield up to 35,000 Random Read IOPS. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests these specifications, and compares the OCZ Octane solid state drive to the leading competition.

OCZ Revolutionizes Storage in VMware and Citrix Environments with Launch of VXL Storage Accelerator

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:00:00 PST

SANRAD VXL Software and OCZ Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSD Transform Storage Management for Cloud and Enterprise Datacenters with a Seamless, Easy-to-Deploy Replacement for Tier-1 SAN-based Storage SAN JOSE, CA—February 21, 2012—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the immediate availability of the OCZ-SANRAD VXL enterprise storage accelerator, delivering flash caching and VMware acceleration for virtualized environments including VMware® ESX and Citrix® Xen. OCZ-SANRAD VXL drastically alters the available options for storage in the enterprise datacenter by allowing any PCIe-based OCZ Z-Drive R4 model including the newly introduced Z-Drive R4 CloudServ™, to be utilized as a accelerator for traditional iSCSI and FC storage. This eliminates the need for costly tier-1 SANs in a wide range of enterprise IT infrastructures from application virtualization to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). As part of this launch, OCZ will be arranging live demonstrations on-site with enterprise customers to showcase how data can be accessed by virtual machines up to 25 times faster than a traditional SAN alone, while also allowing seamless migration of virtual machines from one physical host to another without loss of access to the flash cache or a cliff-like performance drop. As an example, in virtual desktop infrastructure, VXL and the Z-Drive R4’s flash based storage is able to complete boot storms of hundreds or even thousands of users significantly faster than what is achievable with typical SAN storage. “Combining OCZ-SANRAD VXL software together with the Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSD enables the delivery of a complete virtual performance system for enterprise customers looking to efficiently distribute flash resources across virtual machines to maximize the performance of their key applications,” said Dr. Allon Cohen, VP of Marketing-Enterprise, OCZ Technology. “In contrast to other caching solutions, the Z-Drive VXL bundle does not require agent or driver installation on each VM. And, because cached data is treated as a virtualized storage entity, it can be migrated seamlessly between ESX servers along with the virtual volumes without performance loss. The result is a replacement for tier-1 SAN based storage that can be deployed seamlessly into existing infrastructures that is both simpler and more cost effective to maintain.” VXL fully supports VMware vMotion™, and guarantees cache migration where cached data is treated as a virtualized storage entity and can be migrated between VMware ESX servers along with the virtual volumes without performance loss. For ESX, Microsoft® Hyper-V™ and Citrix XenServer™ hypervisors, VXL does not require separate operating system agents to be installed in each virtual machine like other solutions, simplifying IT management and deployment from one central system. VXL ensures automatic support for any OS supported by the hypervisor including all modern versions of Microsoft Windows®, all major Linux distributions, OpenSolaris™, and FreeBSD among others. VXL provides robust tools for enterprise IT management including integration with VMware vCenter™ virtualization management console, as well as Storage Pro software for remote consolidated management of any OCZ Z-Drive R4 and CloudServ in the datacenter. Additionally, VXL provides dynamic policy-based caching tuned specifically for critical applications including Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, and other enterprise-class server applications. With these enterprise IT management features, VXL transforms the way storage is managed in the cloud and in enterprise-class datacenters. OCZ is now demonstrating the exciting Z-Drive R4 and VXL virtual performance system solution to clients. To arrange a live demonstration please contact your OCZ Account Manager, or new customers can get in touch with our enterprise team directly here. Click here for more information on VXL.

QNAP TS-879U-RP NAS Server Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:58:00 PST

How much is too much? For those who tend to answer "...it's never enough!" there is the QNAP TS-879U-RP Turbo NAS. With eight 3.5" drive bays available, there is a potential for 24TB of storage and transfer rates of more than 10 Gb/s. That's ten times more data than any home PC can pump through its ubiquitous GbE network interface, and twenty times faster than what the latest generation of SSDs can muster. This is for people who have serious data appetites and deep pockets. The cost to fill this unit up with HDDs, in the early days of 2012, is enough to give some people pause; for most business owners, it's a small and necessary cost.

MSI Reveals HD 7700 Series Dual-Fan Graphic Cards with Improved Cooling Performance R7770-2PMD1GD5/OC GPU Overclocks to 1.35GHz with Afterburner Overvoltage Support

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:54:00 PST

【Industry, CA】Today the internationally renowned graphics card and mainboard maker MSI released two new graphics cards. The R7770-2PMD1GD5/OC and R7750-PMD1GD5/OC feature the new Radeon HD 7700 GPU based on AMD's latest 28nm process with support for PCI Express Gen3. Core voltage adjustment is supported by the MSI R7700 graphics card. The R7770-2PMD1GD5/OC GPU core frequency can be overclocked by up to 32.4% using MSI's exclusive Afterburner graphics card overclocking utility to reach an amazing 1.35GHz*! MSI's R7700 series graphics cards also feature a customized dual-fan thermal design that effectively reduces the GPU operating temperature and ensures stable performance. Integrated support for 3D video, high-quality DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a outputs, along with AMD's exclusive Eyefinity multiple display output technologies make these the perfect choice for enthusiasts.

Read more here: http://us.msi.com/news-media/news/1373.html

XFX R7770 Black Super Overclocked Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:52:00 PST

AMD might have trouble keeping up with the competition in the CPU arena, but their acquisition of ATI allowed them to become a major player in the graphics world. AMD and NVIDIA regularly trade places in the "fastest video card" rankings, and while NVIDIA's been good holding down the title with its current high-end, the Fermi-based GTX 580, AMD's new "Tahiti" GPU decisively stole the performance crown in its 7970 form.

HIS Radeon HD 7750 iCooler Video Card

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:51:00 PST

If the you have read the reviews of the AMD Radeon HD 79xx series of video cards here at benchmark reviews you will know that owning the fastest single GPU video card will hurt your wallet. While we can all aspire to (or dream of) owning one or more of these high end video cards, the simple fact is that not everyone can afford such luxuries. In this article we take a look at the more moderately priced HIS Radeon HD 7750 iCooler 1GB video card armed with AMD's Cape Verde 28nm GPU Core. Sure enough it won't run your favorite games maxed out at 1080p but with an msrp of $129.99 you might be pleasantly surprised at its power to weight ratio. Benchmark Reviews aims to provide you with an unbiased review of the HIS Radeon HD 7750 iCooler 1GB video card and report back our findings, keeping you informed on the latest technologies available on the market today.

OCZ Launches Z-Drive R4 CloudServ™ 16TB Solid State Storage System

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:11:00 PST

Newest Product in the Z-Drive R4 Series Sets a New Bar in Performance and Capacity for Cloud Computing Applications SAN JOSE, CA—February 14, 2012—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCI Express (PCIe) flash storage solution, designed to dramatically accelerate cloud computing applications and significantly reduce operating expenses in the data center. The new Z-Drive R4 CloudServ features monumental data throughput, and raises the bar in performance and capacity. “The Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCIe solid state drive delivers game-changing performance and enables clients to process massive data-sets with up to 16TB of storage capacity on a single, easy-to-deploy card,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. “With this new solution, system architects are able to design more efficient and dynamic cloud computing infrastructures while simultaneously reducing system complexity and the high maintenance costs associated with traditional infrastructures.” With increasing emphasis on cloud computing and the sheer growth in data, PCIe-based flash storage systems have the ability to bypass traditional storage overhead by reducing latencies, increasing throughput, and enabling efficient processing of massive quantities of data. The Z-Drive R4 CloudServ is capable of transferring multiple gigabytes per second and delivering over a million IOPS with a level of concentrated performance that enables system architects to design more productive infrastructures while lowering costs associated with hardware failure, maintenance, structural footprint, and energy consumption. The latest evolution of the Z-Drive R4, the CloudServ, is specifically designed for the most demanding cloud computing applications with increased capacities and even greater bandwidth capabilities delivering up to 1.4 million IOPS. Melding hardware and software managed solutions with OCZ’s integrated Virtualized Controller Architecture™ (VCA) 2.0 and OCZ’s SANRAD VXL virtual acceleration caching software, the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ can be employed as a high-performing host-based flash cache that works in conjunction with the VXL to dynamically allocate flash resources to accelerate all virtual machines. This maximizes the performance of critical applications and provides a seamless migration from one host to another without the loss of cache data. As these virtual machines are migrated from one host to another, they must retain full access to the flash cache without loss of performance or interruption of service. OCZ’s SANRAD VXL software is the only software that allows for this seamless migration without loss of access to the flash cache. The Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCIe SSD will be available in models ranging from 300GB-16TB capacities throughout OCZ's global channel in the coming weeks. As with all OCZ enterprise products, customer-specific configurations and functionality are available upon request.

NZXT Switch 810 Full Tower Chassis Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:47:00 PST

What is it that you should look for in a computer case, exactly? The market is full of many different styles with plenty of different features and the prices range from next-to-nothing to arm-and-a-leg. When deciding on a computer case, those are the three areas you want to focus on; price, functionality, and style. Computer case manufacturers are constantly trying to find a balance between those three items by giving customers everything they want at a price they can afford and in a style that they'll like. NZXT is a company that tries hard to please gamers and enthusiasts and their products reflect that. At CES 2012, NZXT announced a completely new case design that offers a lot of functionality for its price. In this article, Benchmark Reviews is exploring the NZXT Switch 810 Full Tower Computer Chassis to help you find out where it fits for you within those three categories.

Linux VS Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:54:00 PST

ASUS VG278H LCD Monitor 3D Vision-2 Kit

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:33:00 PST

Think for a moment about how you watch movies. When the latest blockbuster movie comes out, people usually flock to the theaters so they can enjoy it on the 'big screen'. Conversely, some people prefer to watch movies at home on a widescreen HDTV. So while watching them on the big screen may make the viewing experience better, it doen't make it complete. Special effects such as 3D, and theaters such as iMax, provide an added level of realism that go beyond the big screen. Now imagine having that with everything you see on your computer.

Intel SSD 520 Series Solid State Drive Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:49:00 PST

For the past several years, consumers searching through the available selection of Solid State Drive (SSD) storage devices have noticed that capacity continues to favor the hard disk drive counterpart. While it could be a few more years before any SSD matches terabyte capacity with the HDD, Intel's NAND Flash produced at 20nm is closing that gap in terms of price and storage space. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the Intel SSD 520 Series Solid State Drive against the leading competition to see if it's capable of delivering SATA 6GB/s speeds up to 550 MB/s and 80,000 maximum 4K random write IOPS.

Fractal Design Define XL Computer Case Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:43:00 PST

“Long Live the Extra Large Full Tower PC Case?” My last review at Benchmark Reviews left off praising the shrink factor of technology and the maturation of micro cases (Silverstone PS07b micro case ). At the same time, Benchmark Reviews has been busy reviewing monster sized cases. One conclusion that can be derived from the size and options of PC cases is that the PC case is not nearly as dead as some surmise, be they large or small. Otherwise, we'd be getting less variety and more generic offerings, along with fewer manufacturers.

MSI Announces the R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC Graphics Card

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:23:00 PST

MSI Announces the R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC Graphics Card The Twin Frozr III's thermal design is up to 10℃ cooler and produces 13.7dB less noise than the reference design! Exclusive GPU and memory overvoltage for up to 37.5% higher overclockability! [Industry, CA] Today, leading global graphics card and mainboard manufacturer MSI officially announces the R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC graphics card built on the latest AMD 28nm Radeon HD7950 GPU with PCI Express Gen 3 support. MSI's exclusive Twin Frozr III thermal design features dual 8cm Propeller Blade fans to achieve up to 10℃ lower GPU temperatures and 13.7dB less noise under full load! MSI's exclusive Afterburner overclocking software can be used to unleash the core and memory voltage potential providing up to 37.5% overclockability! The R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC uses Military Class III components include Hi-c CAP, Super Ferrite Choke and All Solid capacitors that have passed MIL-STD-810G level testing to deliver the best graphics card performance and quality to gamers. MSI further expands its R7900 with two new products, the R7970-2PMD3GD5/OC and R7950-2PMD3GD5/OC to provide the best choice for gamers.

You can read the rest of the PR here: http://us.msi.com/news-media/news/1366.html

SilverStone SST-GD06B HTPC Enclosure Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:20:00 PST

In this article Benchmark Reviews gets to evaluate a HTPC case from SilverStone's Grandia line; the GD06. With these smaller cases, space is always an issue. This is becoming increasingly critical as high definition content becomes ubiquitous. Not only do we want to view our new content in more pixels than our brain can even process, but we want to upscale the old content, or view it in 3D, and do it upside down, right side up and inside out. While you're at it give me dish, cable, recording, streaming, email, gaming and the kitchen sink. Oh...and it needs to fit in a single box on my entertainment system. Well, SilverStone is at least trying to provide the box, the rest is up to you. They've expanded on past models to fit even more powerful toys inside your HTPC. Read on to see how model SST-GD06B crams the performance you demand and puts it on your shelf.

ASUS P9X79 WS LGA2011 Motherboard Review

noreply@blogger.com (Don Douglass) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:19:00 PST

Generally when we here at Benchmark Reviews get a motherboard in to test, it's aimed at a specific market: it might be an enthusiast-oriented motherboard for gaming, or a micro-ATX motherboard designed for a HTPC, or even just an inexpensive motherboard for users on a budget. Today, though, we have one of ASUS' "Workstation" motherboards: the ASUS P9X79 WS. How does it differ from other X79 motherboards, what's the performance, and should this board be on your short list for your X79 rig?

Links for 2010-04-27 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Virus Scan :: BitDefender QuickScan

Links for 2010-04-12 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Social Media News and Web Tips – Mashable – The Social Media Guide

Links for 2010-04-09 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Photo editor online pixlr free edit image direct in your browser

Links for 2010-04-08 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 PDT