Tech News

• NL: Review Block - Gigabyte Motherboards and Cases

  Published: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Motherboards
  - Gigabyte E350N-USB3 @ LanOC Reviews
  - Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H and Z68XP-UD4 @ PureOverclock
  - Gigabyte G1.Sniper2 Z68 Motherboard Review
  - Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 @ LanOC Reviews
  

  Cases
  - Cooler Master Storm Trooper Case Review
  - CM Storm Trooper @ techPowerUp
  - Lian Li PC-6 @ Computing on Demand
  

  Full ArticleVisit Website

• Areca ARC-1882x RAID Card Review: Lightning Strikes at 4.7GB/s

  Published: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Did I ever tell you I LOVE hardware RAID? 

  Of course hardware RAID is only beneficial in a few situations, namely when parity calculations need to be preformed  or when data is being accessed by a wider audience.

  Have You Ever Seen 4.7GB/s Performance Benchmarks Before?  Would you think it possible from an enthusiast point of view?  Our tests of the Areca ARC-1882x RAID Card, when accompanied by 8 x Micron C300 SSDs, will blow you away just as it did us.  Heads up though because we are going to throw fifteen pages of tests and pictures at you as we check out both RAID 0 and RAID 5.

  The interesting thing about the controller is that it requires two PCBs indicating that the transfer speed is greater than what a single PCI Express 4x slot can provide.

  Full ArticleVisit Website

• ASUS ROG MARS II GTX 580 Quad SLI Video Card Review @ HardOCP

  Published: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Looking at the details of the GTX 590 you have to wonder why nVidia didn't spec to use GTX 580 GPUs instead of the trimmed down versions the card comes with.  Of course cost plays a big factor in this decision along with availability but if we are talking about high performance why not push the boundaries.

  The ASUS ROG MARS II Limited Edition video card brings true dual-GeForce GTX 580 GPUs to the table. Take two of these and you can have a true GTX 580 Quad-SLI system. We'll dive into performance, including Battlefield 3, and see what these can do directly compared to 4-way CrossFireX.

  This is he dual GPU single card solution I would expect to see.

  Full ArticleVisit Website

• NL: Review Block - Motherboard Round-Up

  Published: Monday, November 7, 2011 | By: Dennis

  This is what we do when we have some reviews and don't wanna say anything

  Motherboards
  - ASUS Maximus IV Extreme P67 ROG Motherboard Review @ Bigbruin
  - Asus P8P67 Pro B3 Rev 3.1 Motherboard @ Rbmods

  Be sure to check out our reviews of the Asus M4E and Asus P8P67 Motherboards for comparison purposes.

  Full ArticleVisit Website

• Lion on a Hackintosh and an intervention for Battlefield 3

  Published: Monday, November 7, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Have you played the Single Player in Battlefield 3??  Omg it is the worst thing ever!  Back in the day you would have an excellent single player game but multiplayer just sucked.  Well it would seem the roles have been reversed.

  Let's hope Modern Warfare 3 is better else I'll be boycotting the entire series.

  Imagine my disappointment when I realized that, while you looked like the prettiest girl at the dance, your gameplay was essentially Modern Warfare 2 on steroids—or canned air. From the outset, you coaxed me along set paths filled with dreary cut scenes, endlessly respawning enemies, and unforgiving quick-time events (you know, those things where the game randomly gives you half a second to click a mouse button... or else).

  Creative look at the subject btw worth a glance/read.

  Full ArticleVisit Website

• VisionTek Ultimate 6GB DDR3-1866 @ PureOverclock

  Published: Monday, November 7, 2011 | By: Dennis

  This just in from the WTH category.

  VisionTek is a company probably known by most for producing graphic cards but unknown by some; they have been a jack of many trades for some time. They produce graphic cards, network cards, TV tuners, power supplies, and recently, memory. VisionTek has introduced a comprehensive memory line that features triple channel memory kits, among others.  Can their Ulimate series memory compete in the PC marketplace with enthusiasts like us? Let’s find out

  Lets all hope this gamble of theirs pans out and we finally start to see more performance memory in retail channels.

  Full ArticleVisit Website

• ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional Motherboard Review @ Tweaktown

  Published: Monday, November 7, 2011 | By: Dennis

  The Fatal1ty brand has really started to fade from the public eye but that won't stop mfgs from using it to help promote their products.

  We're getting through the boards, though, and the latest one for us to fire up comes from ASRock and follows the Fatal1ty series. The ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional looks the part, but today we'll see how it performs with the new AMD FX-8150 from AMD.
  
  As usual, the first thing we'll do is check out the package to see what's going on. Once we've done that we'll start to move onto the board and see what features we've got on offer. After we've done that, we'll check out the BIOS to see what's going on before we get into the BIOS and have a look at that while also taking the time to overclock our processor.

  There are a few benefits from getting a Fatal1ty branded motherboard, but for the life of me I couldn't find them in the review.

  Full ArticleVisit Website

• EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win

  Published: Friday, November 4, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Ok so we have seen the heatsink, we have seen the silkscreened PCBs and have even seen a demo mockup a few years ago (from another company).  So, what is this thing we have seen you ask?
  
  Dual nVidia GPUs on a single card!. 

  Now before you can say GTX 590 lets pull it back and qualify this statement a bit. "Dual affordable GPUs on a single card".  Yes its true, for the price of a single GTX 580 you can have the power of dual GTX 560 Ti's together on a special built PCB.

  

  Friday, November 4th. 2011 - Introducing the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win! This card harnesses the power of two EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU’s for blistering fast DirectX 11 performance, including tessellation performance that destroys the competition. Experience a whole new level of interactive gaming and combine up to three displays off a single card for the ultimate in 3D entertainment, or disable Surround and combine up to four displays for maximum productivity. With these features and more, the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win gives you double the win!
  

  Key Features:

  • Dual GTX 560 Ti GPU's
  • Over 30% Faster than GTX 580
  • 850MHz Core Clock
  • 3D Surround on a Single Card

  As you can imagine, you get all of the benefits afforded to you by the GTX 590 such as 3D Vision Surround and faster performance due to onboard SLI.  However, the one thing not mentioned is for the first time ever you will be able to run Quad SLI from a GTX 560 Ti.  
  
  Of course you can run SLI with a GTX 560 but since the cards only came with a single SLI bridge you were limited to only a two way SLI configurations and no way to add a third card except for running PhysX calculations.
  

  Full ArticleVisit Website

• ASUS Rampage III Black Edition X58 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers

  Published: Thursday, November 3, 2011 | By: Dennis

  What happens when you take one of the most popular motherboards on the X58 platform and try to appeal to a younger and more hip crowd?

  The Rampage III B.E. offers more than what would normally come with a motherboard. First, there is the ThunderBolt add-in card that gives the user the Killer E2100 chipset as well as outstanding audio. Is enough to charge the heavy price tag the motherboard caries? Well, what if we state the motherboard supports four GPUs, out-of-these-world overclocking ability as well as BlueTooth, Wi-Fi, ways to start and stop PCIe slots real-time? Well then, if that didn't impress you then read on and find out what else this motherboard has to offer.

  Looks a lot like what Gigabyte did with the G1 Killer line doesn't it. 

  Even though X58 is an aging platform and that triple channel memory kits are no longer available you can't deny that the X58 is still extremely cool.  Had memory companies continued to produce "good" triple channel kits there is a good chance more LGA1366 motherboards, and processors, would have been sold.

  Full ArticleVisit Website

• NL: Review Block - Cases and Cooling Reduz

  Published: Thursday, November 3, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Cases
  - Fractal Design Define Mini @ LanOC Reviews
  - Thermaltake Level 10 GT @ techPowerUp
  - Corsair Carbide 500R Mid-Tower Case Review @ Legit Reviews
  - Xigmatek Elysium Full Tower Case Review @ Madshrimps
  - Ikonik Ra2000 Liquid Full-Tower Chassis Review @ Techgage
  - Coolermaster Silencio 550 Midi Tower @ Hardwareoverclock
  
  Coolers
  - Thermalright True Spirit 140 CPU Cooler Review on Technic3D
  
  Bring it!

  Full ArticleVisit Website