Computer Hardware and Software News, Reviews, Tweaks, Guides and More...

AMD A8-3870K Socket FM1 CPU Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:53:00 +0000

The AMD A8-3870K processor is the replacement for the A8-3850, and is clocked 100mhz higher @ 3GHz. The 'K' moniker indicates that this is an unlocked processor, otherwise known in AMD terms as a 'Black Edition'. The CPU multipliers, GPU and memory multipliers are also unlocked which will prove useful. In the past, the user had to overclock the A8-3850 via base clock increases, which was less than ideal.
This time around, overclocking is possible by raising the multiplier, making it much easier and less dependent on other components in the system. Overclocking this processor really is simple, and we could get the machine posting at 3.6GHz without a problem. Source

AMD A8-3870K APU with AMD Radeon 6550 HD Graphics 3.0GHz Unlocked Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Processor - Retail - AD3870WNGXBOX Price $125.99

MSI Z68A GD65 (G3) Intel LGA1155 Motherboard Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:44:00 +0000

The Z68A-GD65 (G3) motherboard has some nice features such as UEFI BIOS, Military class components, PCI Express 3.0, OC Genie II, InstantOC, SATA 6Gb/s and THX TruStudio PRO audio. There is a OC genie button embeded on the motherboard. Just press it and it will automatically overclock your CPU, (iGPU) and memory thus incresaing the overall PC performance. The UEFI BIOS allows for a lot of various overclock settings so we can clearly see that this motherboard is aimed towards overclockers.
I would recommend the Z68A-GD65G3 LGA1155 motherboard to anyone who wants a really stable and extremely well performing motherboard. Source

MSI LGA1155 Intel Z68 G3 DDR3 CrossFireX & SLI SATA3 & USB3.0 ATX Motherboard - Z68A-GD65 (G3) Price $189.99

XFX Radeon HD7950 Double D Graphics Card Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:25:00 +0000

The XFX DD R7950 is perhaps the best looking GPU we have tested to date. The memory used on the R7950 are the very overclocking friendly HYNIX H5GQ2H24MFA T2C modules. Overclocking graphics cards has never been easier. There are a variety of overclocking tools available on the internet and some included with the actual driver, in this case, the AMD 'Overdrive' Utility. Our favourite overclocking utility though is the excellent Afterburner from MSI. A 1.1GHz overclock (28%) on the core is a fantastic achievement made all the more impressive by the fact it needed less voltage to do so than our best overclocking card. Overall it was a mighty impressive showing from XFX who have once again shown everyone how to make a GPU. Great cooling, magnificent overclocking ability and sublime packaging. Source

XFX FX795ATDFC Double D HD 7950 800MHz 3GB DDR5 2xMiniDP HDMI DVI PCI-E Graphics Card Price $501.56

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB Super Overclock Graphics Card Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:33:00 +0000

With the age of the GTX 580 designs, Gigabyte had plenty of time to perfect their PCB and cooler design. This model, the Super Overclock (GV-N580SO-15I), comes in well ahead of the standard reference speeds of the GTX 580 but sticks to the same 1.5 GB frame buffer.
The clock speed is set at 855 MHz core and 1025 MHz memory, compared to the 772 MHz core speed and 1002 MHz clock rate of the reference design. That is a very healthy 10% clock rate difference that should equate to nearly that big of a gap in gaming performance where the GPU is the real bottleneck.
Gigabyte should be proud of its GTX 580 Super Overclock card as it is one of the last and best NVIDIA GF110 graphics cards on the market. Source

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2x DVI-I / mini-HDMI SLI Ready Graphics Card, GV-N580SO-15I Price $526.49

ASUS Sabertooth X79 LGA2011 Motherboard Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:15:00 +0000

Today we continue our walk down the LGA2011 road and bring you another highly anticipated board from ASUS: the Sabertooth X79.
Looking at the design concepts of the Sabertooth X79 there are a few distinguishing features that stand out with the first feature being TUF Thermal Armor. TUF Thermal Armor utilizes the concept of a wind tunnel by providing direct airflow through the heat-critical components of the board. With improved cooling comes improved monitoring though TUF Thermal Radar's 12 onboard temperature sensors and 8 controllable fan headers that are used to bring the Sabertooth's thermal management to a whole new level. The last and probably our favourite feature of the Sabertooth X79 is Ultimate Durability. ASUS contracted an independent ISO and IEC/IECO certified lab to test the board’s VRM components to United States Military Standard and to show confidence in this quality, ASUS also added 2 years to the warranty for a total of 5 years.
ASUS has included a handy utility with the Sabertooth to automatically overclock the system: OC Tuner. OC Tuner allows for quick and easy CPU overclocking simply by enabling the feature in the BIOS. The board resets once you select OK and both a CPU and memory overclock are applied. The result is a boost from stock speed (optimized defaults) of 3,600Mhz to an instant 4,297Mhz on an i7 3960X with no effort whatsoever! Not only do we have a very nice CPU overclock with OC Tuner, but the Sabertooth also overclocked the RipjawsX to 2,022Mhz (9-11-10) as well. This is the best auto overclock we have seen to date of all the boards reviewed thus far. Source

ASUS SABERTOOTH X79 - LGA2011 - X79 - 8x DIMM - PCIe 3.0 Motherboards Price $330.11

Cooler Master GeminII S524 CPU Cooler Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:40:00 +0000

With the recent attention shift to closed loop CPU water cooling, air coolers are starting to move out of the limelight. But, the fact is, good air coolers still offer features that water coolers are not able to. That is exactly what Cooler Master has done with their newest CPU air cooler, the GeminII S524. Rather then compete directly with the new behemoth coolers, the GeminII shifts its focus from simply cooling the CPU to also cooling nearby components. Read on to find out if that will be enough to keep the competition at bay.
The GeminII performed pretty well with CPU temps hitting 32 degrees at idle and 51 degrees at load. But it really shines when we start to look at RAM and MOSFET temps. When the GeminII was pointed over the RAM, they hovered at 36 degrees under full load while they were closer to 42 degrees with the V8.
It’s the same story with the MOSFETs. They stayed around 43 degrees at full load with the V8 but only 37 degrees with the GeminII.
One thing that you have to take into consideration when looking at these results is that you must make the choice of what you want cooled. Although both the RAM and the MOSFETs have good temperatures with the GeminII, it is only able to actively cool one of them depending on its orientation.
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Geminii S524 Price $33.99

Samsung MV800 Digital Camera Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:30:00 +0000

The Samsung MV800 digital camera has a 16.1MP image sensor, 3-inch touch screen display, a whole range of image modes, as well as a very sleek and stylish design. The front of the Samsung MV800 features the lens, Schneider KREUZNACH 4.7 – 23.5mm lens, flash, and Samsung logo. Using the touch screen was fairly easy, although it felt slightly laggy at times. The MV800 software features a whole range of different options and settings though. The image quality appeared to of a fairly high standard, both on the camera display and on the computer. You can also choose from a range of different modes including 3D, panorama and scene, as well as a few others.
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Samsung MV800 Digital Camera Price $213.56

Lenovo IdeaPad U400 14" Laptop Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:51:00 +0000

The IdeaPad U400 is a sleek laptop, understated from top to bottom and aimed at mid-range buyers who have never had so many options. You can't really call this an Ultrabook, but it's still super slick. And in its roomier 14-inch weight class, you actually have fewer options to pick from.
The U400 is machined from a single slab of aluminum. This unibody approach has become more and more popular in recent years, but Lenovo has truly exceeded in producing a stunner in design. As far as PC notebooks go, there may be none more stunning than this on the market. As for internals, it offers mid-to-high range specifications, utilizing Intel's Core i5-2430M CPU @ 2.4GHz, 6GB of DDR3 memory and AMD Radeon HD6470M GPU.
Performance-wise, the U400 is a solid option, speeding through basic Windows 7 chores without too much lag. Multi-tasking is a fairly smooth affair as well, but expect a few seconds of load lag during the initial boots of heavier apps. When it comes to gaming, though, there isn't much to write home about. You'll need to use lower resolutions and image quality settings in order to get newer titles to be playable. Of course, Lenovo doesn't market this machine as one that gamers should take interest in. Looking deeper, the trackpad performance was a mixed bag. We loved having support for multi-gesture input, and the sizable pad was great to work with, but the response was definitely lagged from time to time. Finally, we can't finish this section without mention the thermals. Lenovo's new cooling system kept fan noise at a minimum, and it kept the palm rest and underside as cool as a cucumber even after hours of benchmarking. Impressive.
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Lenovo U400 099329U 14.0-Inch Laptop (Graphite Grey) Price $899.99

Antec 1100 Case Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:04:00 +0000

The Antec Eleven Hundred mid-tower case has nine expansion slots, and thus is clearly targeted to users building a system with three or four video cards with XL-ATX motherboards.
The Antec Eleven Hundred has two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and the traditional audio jacks, located at the top part of the front panel. The on/off and reset switches are located on the top panel. The USB 3.0 ports use internal connectors, so make sure you install a motherboard with two internal USB 3.0 headers.
The power supply is installed at the bottom of the case, and it can be installed with either its bottom fan facing up or facing down, so you can decide if you want the fan of your power supply pulling air from inside the case or from outside of it.
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ANTEC 1100 Advanced Gaming Case - Black Price $113.99

NZXT HAVIK CPU Cooler Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:11:00 +0000

NZXT released the Havik 140. Featuring six heatpipes and a pair of big 140mm fans, the Havik is impressively appointed and NZXT promises quiet operation with top cooling performance. Havik has wide compatibility and will support all modern sockets from Intel and A MD , including the newer FM1 and AM3+ for AMD and 1366 for Intel.
I'm a bit surprised, and very pleased, by the cooling performance. The Havik 140 held its own against the top performers in the group and managed to best a few of the most expensive ones as well. It also went about its work at a whisper, rather than a roar. While not strictly silent, it was pretty damn quiet.
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NZXT HAVIK CPU Cooler with Dual 140MM Fans Price $55.99

OCZ RevoDrive 3 240GB PCI Express 8 GB-s Slim SSD Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:22:00 +0000

The OCZ RevoDrive 3 240GB sample that we have features blistering performance rated at up to 1000MB/s read and 900MB/s write with 130,000 IOPS. This is 260MB/s read and 180MB/s write faster than the RevoDrive X2, a card that included four SandForce controllers to obtain such speeds. The RevoDrive 3 is able to trump those numbers with only two controllers thanks to new advances across the board.
The RevoDrive 3 includes dual updated SandForce SF-2281VB1-SDC controllers and OCZ-branded memory modules labeled M2501064T048AX21. These are 25nm asynchronus MLC NAND chips, 8GB per chip, 32 total chips on this 240GB card (256GB before provisioning). The real secret behind OCZ's RevoDrive 3, however, lies in the new SuperScale Storage Controller and OCZ's proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture 2.0 (VCA) technology.
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OCZ Technology Revo Drive 3 240GB PCI Express Price $574.99

XFX PRO 1000W Black Edition Full Modular 80PLUS Platinum Power Supply Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:32:00 +0000

Today we are taking a look at the new ProSeries 1000W Platinum PSU. It should offer enough power for nearly everyone out there and do so at high efficiency. DC output quality was OK from start to finish. Starting out, we were clearly able to see a ripple on the scope during Test 1 where we measured noise at a low 12mV peak to peak. This steadily increased as the loads also increased. By the time we had reached around 50% load, the unit ripple had crept up to 33mV. Under full load, we saw that the noise on the 12V rail had crept up to 53mV.
The XFX ProSeries 1000W is rated for 80Plus Platinum efficiency. This means that the power supply must perform at 90%/92%/89% efficiency at 20%/50%/100% loads respectively. As you can see, the XFX ProSeries managed to score a pass while on our test bench. There were several times that the power supply was right on the edge. This would explain why the 1050W ProSeries PSU is only rated for 80Plus Gold efficiency.
XFX has a great power supply with the ProSeries 1000W. It is loaded with features, has great cable selection and a ton of power to handle just about whatever you can throw at it.
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XFX 1000W Power Supply Price $245.41

Dell Inspiron 14z Laptop Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:09:00 +0000

The second-generation Core i5 processor is one of the best laptop processors to ever be available, so it’s little surprise that it is popular. Our Dell Inspiron 14z review unit came equipped with one of the less powerful versions, the Core i5-2410M, but it is still a quick processor. The base clock speed is 2.3 GHz, but Turbo Boost can run as high as 2.9 GHz. This is a quick laptop, and you’ll only significantly outrun it if you’re using a laptop with a Core i7 quad-core. The Dell Inspiron 14z should prove to be a solid, quick laptop that’s more than capable of handling anything besides demanding 3D games. In fact, this is the perfect laptop for anyone who is considering an inexpensive 15.6” laptop, but would like better battery life - without paying much of a price in terms of performance or, well, price.
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Dell Inspiron 14z Price $619.99

Gigabyte X79 UD7 Motherboard Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:22:00 +0000

The Gigabyte X79 UD7 motherboard uses a black PCB with orange color scheme and incorporates advanced overclocking features. You'll notice later on in the review that Gigabyte placed a series of voltage read points, controls for adjusting the processor ratio and BCLK on the fly, as well as dip-switches to change the PWM frequency in the lower right corner of the board.
Power to the CPU is delivered through a 20-phase VRM that uses POSCAP low-profile capacitors, while the additional current required by 4-way GPU setups is delivered through a series of angled SATA power plugs placed on the lower side of the board.
The uEFI BIOS is really handy to use and easy to navigate. Next to that it makes common functions really fail proof, features like flashing a BIOS is done in a jiffy and all variables can be managed and monitored really easy. A massive improvement over the classic BIOS alright.
The Gigabyte X79 UF7 motherboard is an impressive motherboard. It's feature rich, a great overclocker and has downright gorgeous looks. If you are a novice overclocker and go for easy, flick the OC button at the rear IO backplate and it will get you an instant performance boost. Overclocking itself with the new 3D BIOS is fun as well, it really is an easy to work in environment. Gigabyte implemented two uEFI BIOSes by the way, you can can switch in-between them (say a normal and high performance profile), good stuff.
For overclocking itself we reached 4800 MHz in a matter if minutes and 5 GHz after a while. That last step did need some fine-tuning though. Mind you though that we work with vanilla picked engineering sample CPUs, we can never guarantee you'll achieve the same results at home.
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Gigabyte X79 UD7 motherboard, price $378.79

Patriot Division4 DDR3 1600 MHz Quad Channel Memory Kit Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:44:00 +0000

As a part of Patriot's new Division 4 series, the kit includes four 4GB memory modules are designed to support the Intel X79 platform and 2nd generation Core processors. Overclocking the Division 4 memory proved harder than all the other quad-channel kits we have tested thus far. The reason was that the voltage was already set to 1.65V, so there was little headroom left to increase voltages. We still manged to get this kit to DDR3-1866 using CAS 10 latency. While we did have to loosen the timings considerably to get this kit to overlock to 1866MHz, we were still impressed it could reach this speed without increasing the voltage above the default setting of 1.65V. Overall, the Division 4 memory kit is a nice addition to the growing list of quad-channel memory kits for the Intel X79 platform. They come with the right level of performance, thermal efficiency and are cost effective to boot.
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Patriot Division4 DDR3 1600MHz Quad Channel Memory Kit, price $124.99

ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 LGA 1155 Motherboard Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:04:00 +0000

Our test bench has seen a flood of Z68-based enthusiast motherboards this fall and ASRock added their flagship Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 board to the top of the pile for testing. The Extreme 7 Gen 3 pulls out all the stops for extreme enthusiasts and ultra overclockers by arming this board with next-gen PCI-E 3.0 support and an NVIDIA NF200 chip to allow users to run dual graphics cards at PCI-E x16/x16 mode and three graphics cards at x16/x8/x8 respectively.
The Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 motherboard was able to handle multiple types of tasks and operations that we evaluated during the benchmarking portion of this review. While the gaming results were a bit inconsistent, I was able to determine that this motherboard is a superior performer in several areas including CPU performance, overclocking, and general PC tasks. I have a feeling that I was able to test the board with multiple graphics cards that I would have seen the truly gaming capabilities of this board.
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ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 Motherboard - price $269.99

Corsair Hydro H 100 CPU Cooler Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:53:00 +0000

The H100 is the best all in one liquid cooling solution in the Corsair lineup. It does exactly what it was designed for : outperform the rest !
All Intel sockets are covered, even the brand new s2011 ! Alike the H80, the pump/control unit is getting powered straight from the PSU via a molex connector. The little connector is hooked up to a fan connector on the motherboard to monitor the pump speed.
We tested the H100 at performance preset with the AMD FX 8150 running at 4.7Ghz, 1.47Vcore.
Without a doubt Corsair has managed to firmly secure the top spot with it's Hydro 100 all in one cooling solution. The 240mm radiator seems to pay off, besting the Hydro 80 with a few degrees Celcius.
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Corsair H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler - price: $113.49

MSI N560GTX-448 Twin Frozr III Power Edition Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:06:00 +0000

The new GTX 560 Ti has a GF110 core rather than the GF114 used before. Two stream multiprocessor clusters have been disabled out of 16 available meaning the card has 448 CUDA cores (14 clusters with 32 processors in each). This core is also used on the GTX 570 which has one cluster disabled and the GTX 580 with all 16 enabled. Consumers may find it frustrating figuring out which card is which since NVIDIA seems to enjoy mixing things up but this lineup is supposedly a limited run for enthusiasts. Some will appreciate that this card supports 3-way SLI versus the original GTX 560 Ti which could only do 2-way. This GTX 560 Ti 448 should be better than the GTX 560 Ti 384 and both are better than the GTX 560 performance-wise. Since the core is now a GF110 performance should be very close to the level of a GTX 570. Memory and memory bus size has been increased to 1280MB and 320bit just like the GTX 570 while the prior GTX 560 Ti had 1024MB memory and a 256bit memory bus.
MSI has taken this new revision and overclocked it on a custom PCB with 2 extra PWM phases for the core. As well as a total of 6+1 phase PWM and military grade components. Reference clocks are 732 MHz core and 950 MHz memory while the MSI is at 750 MHz core and 975 MHz memory clock speeds. This design is named the Power Edition for the upgraded power delivery methods. The Military Class II components include Super Ferrite Chokes, Solid Capacitors, and High-Conductivity Capacitors. The card is cooled by the MSI Twin Frozr III high density heat sink which has five heat pipes and two 80mm fans equipped. The copper base of the heat sink is nickel coated to improve conductivity and prevent corrosion.
Reference GTX 560 Ti 448s have a stock core clock of 732 MHz and a memory clock of 950 MHz, the MSI came overclocked to 750 MHz core and 975 MHz memory. In the end we have the core at 945 MHz and the memory at 1130 MHz, both are remarkable gains of ~29% and ~19% over reference speeds!
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Check the current price

OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 120GB SSD Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:56:00 +0000

OCZ has paired up the SandForce 2281 controller with Toshiba’s alternative Toggle flash – the 120 GB version has 8 chips with 4 channels each, sending 32 total channels of flash to the controller.
The Max IOPS only has 8 chips, although these particular chips carry 4 NAND parts per die. That means it still feeds the SandForce controller with 32 channels, as much as possible on a 120/128 GB drive.
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OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 120GB SSD Price $224.99

Thermaltake Frio OCK Universal CPU Cooler Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:35:00 +0000

The Thermaltake Frio OCK is a universal CPU cooler that supports a variety of socket types from Intel (LGA1366, LGA1155, LGA1156, and LGA775) and AMD (AM3, AM2+, AM2). This heatsink uses a dual-tower design with six copper heatpipes to dissipate heat from the processor. The unit also sports two 130mm fans in a push-pull configuration to wisk heat away from the CPU.
Thermaltake has refined and perfected what a truly exceptional heatsink should be when they created the FrioOCK. The massive size of the heatsink, combined with two 130mm fans in a push-pull configuration, helped us attain our highest overclock on an LGA 1155 processor we've every produced.
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Thermaltake Frio Overclocking Universal CPU Cooler Price $79.99

OCZ ZT Series 550W Power Supply Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:26:00 +0000

The ZT Series is found within OCZ’s High Performance category and is significant due to its fully modular cabling system. Most PSUs that name themselves modular refer to a certain group of cables that are removable but the ZT boasts a completely modular configuration – even the motherboard ATX cable is detachable. The ZT series adopts 80 Plus Bronze certification and is available in following variants 550W, 650W, and 750W. Today we will be taking a look at the first model and lowest rated wattage – 550W. Ideal for those who are looking to build a gaming system with a powerful graphics card and typical assortment of drives and devices.
Choosing the right PSU is an important decision for the enthusiast because it is the backbone of any system. The ZT 550W is an affordable PSU, not only is it within the same price-range as some of the other 500W PSUs that aren’t modular it obviously adopts this fully modular characteristic.
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OCZ ZT Series 550W Fully-Modular 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom Price $89.99

ASRock A55 Pro3 FM1 Motherboard Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:43:00 +0000

The ASRock A55 Pro3 FM1 motherboard is based on AMD's A55 FCH (Fusion Controller Hub) chip, and is the little brother to the A75 FCH. This motherboard provides CrossfireX support, and not just between the APU and a discrete HD6000 series GPU (models up to HD6670), but is also capable between two higher end cards should you choose. I think ASRock hammered out a pretty good motherboard with the A55 Pro3. It offers the end user some room to grow, or even room to experiment with overclocking by proving to be quite capable should you so desire and providing quite a lot for the price. The money saved could easily be the difference in upgrading to a higher end APU or the difference in having 8GB of DDR3 instead of 4GB.
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ASRock AMD A55 FCH ATX DDR3 1333 AMD-FM1 Motherboards A55 PRO3 Price $90.40

Patriot Pyro SE 120 GB SSD Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:32:00 +0000

The Patriot Pyro SE SSD has the added performance of synchronous NAND Flash memory, which allows for a whole host of new features that the SandForce SF-2281 controller can now deal with. This allows the Pyro SE to offer the very best read and write speeds of up to 550 MB/s read and up to 520 MB/s write as well as allowing TRIM support, DuraClass technology and DuraWrite technology.
When looking at the difference that the improved memory gives over the original Pyro with its async memory, we can see a clear improvement and the speeds that Patriot claim with the Pyro SE are true and that’s what we like about Patriot, as they offer no frills, no lies, just truthful products that do what they say on the tin.
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Patriot Memory PPSE120GS25SSDR (Direct) Pyro SE SATA 6.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive Price $224.22

ASUS P9X79 Deluxe Intel X79 Motherboard Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 07:31:00 +0000

The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe motherboard is more than capable of delivering some really good performance out of the box that's made better by a strong overclock. On the design side of things we've got a good layout - eight DIMM slots, support for three dual slot video cards and a really strong lineup of features.
Moving inside the box to look at the bundle, we've got everything needed to get up and running along with a few extras including the BT 3.0 header and an antenna to accompany it.
The Asus P9X79 Deluxe motherboard is a really good option at the moment for people who are looking at going down the path of an ASUS board, want a strong feature set, good overclocking potential and a really nice bundle, but don't want to go quite to the extreme that the Rampage IV Extreme offers.
The board is just very typical ASUS, and really, if you've used ASUS boards you will know that's only a good thing. The UEFI BIOS is also one of the most refined on the market and while nowhere near as insane as the Rampage IV Extreme BIOS, there's an excellent amount of options that help offer us a really strong overclock.
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ASUS P9X79 DELUXE - LGA2011 - X79 - 8x DIMM - PCIe 3.0 Motherboards Price $399.99

Raidmax Blackstorm ATX Mid Tower Case Review

noreply@blogger.com (PC Optimizer) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:27:00 +0000

The Raidmax BLACKSTORM case attempts to make assembling a system easier than ever before. It has a modular, tool-free design that makes the initial build and future upgrades simple. Both side panels latch into place for ease of access, so it could be for you as it is the latest version of one-click side panel case. A 120mm fan is mounted on the front of the case to draw cool air in and blow it across the hard drives, along with a 180mm optional fan on the side, and a pair of rear-mounted 120mm exhaust fans, all of which work in concert to keep the air moving Keep it cool and keep it functional is what the Blackstorm strives for, but will it?
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Raidmax Blackstorm ATX Mid Tower Case ATX-615WU Price $79.99