Tech News
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NL: Review Block - Catch Up Edition - Lots 0 Stuffs
Published: Saturday, August 13, 2011 | By: DennisVideo Cards
- ASUS GTX 580 Matrix Platinum @ PureOverclock
- Diamond Radeon HD 6770 XOC Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- OC3D: HIS HD6770 IceQ X Turbo Crossfire Review
- MSI GTX560 Ti Twin Frozer OC Review @ Madshrimps
Cases
- SilverStone Precision PS06 PC Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Full-Tower Chassis Review @ Techgage
Coolers
- Rosewill ZAIO RCX-ZAIO-92 CPU Cooler Review @ Tweaknews
- Thermaltake Frio Overclock King TT OCK 1155 CPU Cooler Review
- GeForce GTX 590 Water Block Roundup @ PureOverclock
- NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU Cooler Review @ Techgage
- NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers
Motherboards
- Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H @ techPowerUp
- Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD Intel Z68 Motherboard & 20GB SSD Review
- ASUS Crosshair V Formula review
- ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z (Intel Z68) Motherboard Review
- GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2: A Preview @ Bjorn3DMemory and Storage
- Crucial M4 SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive @ Pro-Clockers
- G.Skill DDR3 RipjawsX 1866MHz Memory @ Pro-Clockers
- Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD review
- Corsair Performance 3 256GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
- OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 - 480GB PCIe SSD Review @ HardwareHeaven
- G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB DDR3-1866 @ PureOverclockMore news to come so stay tuned!
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Z68 vs. X58 - Which Is The Better Gaming Platform?
Published: Friday, August 12, 2011 | By: DennisI do really hate posting this kinda stuff since I am both in awe and disgust that effort was put into an article like this. My awe is that people will likely read this article so I'm a little mad that I didn't think of it first.
Sadly the conclusions drawn from this article are based on hardware assumptions using common software instead of software performance using common hardware.(The first rule of scientific theory is, you will have a control for which to measure your performance against. The second rule of scientific theory is, you will have a control for which to measure your performance against)
For instance this article starts out running 3D benchmarks attempting to determine a platform difference. As anyone can glean from our motherboard reviews CPU power plays a big role in how fast GPUs can process the available data. It is a no brainer that the faster clocked Z68 will always win despite the 8x/8x SLI config.
This is an article I've wanted to do for a while now and as this month started, I told myself it was time to get it done as my testbeds here are making some changes. I've been tossing up if I should make the move to Z68 for our VGA reviews, or stick with the tried and trusted X58 platform. 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.An accurate test would be to do something like what we did in our Multi GPU Index Introduction article where we matched CPU power across the different platforms to rule that out cpu speed as a contributing factor. In doing so we saw the benefits of architecture over CPU technology which is what you need to determine a platform winner.
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Sapphire Pureblack P67 Hydra Review - XSReviews
Published: Thursday, August 11, 2011 | By: DennisHere we have a rather short review of a popular P67 from Sapphire. The Pure Black is an enthusiast level motherboard for Sandy Bridge systems and is one of the few motherboards left to feature the Lucid Hydra processor.
Be sure to check out our review of the Sapphire Pure Black P67.
Sapphire are GPU manufacturers at their heart, but they’ve been known to dip into other markets in the past few years; perhaps one of the most interesting ones being motherboards. Today I’m looking at their latest foray into the mobo game, the Sapphire Pureblack P67 Hydra. It’s got 4 PCIe ports, an onboard post and CPU temperature readout and some nice onboard power switches. Lets get investigating.
It wouldn't seem they were too impressed with the motherboard with most of their complaints focused on the Hydra chip.
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Zalman VF3000F GTX 570/580 GPU Cooler Review @ Techgage
Published: Thursday, August 11, 2011 | By: DennisI got to look at these coolers in person at Computex, at first glance they look rather cheesy but do have some good qualities. The radiator is a long twin tower design that overlaps to use as much of the incoming air as possible.
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580 is a beast of a card, able to reach 80°C with minimal effort. So what about those who value high performance along with silence? There are some options, such as Zalman's VF3000F after-market cooler. But with it requiring three slots in your PC, and $75 from your wallet, can it deem itself worthy?
The best part of this cooler is the heatsink they include to cool the VRM and memory chips. It does limit what cards can actually use the Zalman cooler, though you'd be surprised at how many "custom" cards are still using reference designed PCBs
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NL: Review Block - Cases and Cards
Published: Tuesday, August 9, 2011 | By: DennisCases
- Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid Tower Case Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Cooler Master Silencio 550 Computer Case Review @ APH Networks
- Xigmatek Pantheon Computer Case Review @ Tweaknews
- Fractal Design - Define Mini reviewed in Metku
- Silverstone Fortress FT03 mATX Tower Case @ Pro-ClockersCards
- Funky Kit Review: Zotac AMP! Geforce GTX 560 (1Gb GDDR5) graphics card
- Sapphire HD 6950 Toxic Edition 2GB Review @ Kitguru
- KFA2 GeForce GTX 560 Ti MDT x5 reviewMore news to come, stay tuned
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Direct Link to the Ninjalane Podcasts
Published: Saturday, August 6, 2011 | By: DennisI have been getting a few suggestions to post a navigation link directly to the Ninjalane Podcasts. Well that link has been placed and is ready to be used.
Currently, you can find the Ninjalane Podcasts in the Articles section of the website. While this is not an ideal location it was done out of convenience until I could fully develop the Podcast section.
Sadly that section has yet to be completed but, that doesn't mean I can't give you a shortcut.
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GIGABYTE Unleashes G1.Sniper 2 Gaming Motherboard
Published: Thursday, August 4, 2011 | By: DennisIt is the return of the G1 KIller, the Gigabyte board designed for gamers to provide the best gaming experence without resorting to expensive addon cards beyond a top notch video card.
City of Industry, California, August 4th 2011 - GIGABYTE TECHNOLGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced the launch of the new G1.Sniper 2 motherboard, the latest G1-Killer Series motherboard designed for extreme gaming on the latest Intel® Z68 chipset and Intel® i7 Core 'Sandy Bridge' processors. Featuring several state-of-the-art onboard solutions from renowned industry leaders Creative and Bigfoot Networks, as well as many additional and exclusive GIGABYTE features, the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2 motherboard takes no prisoners in its quest for gaming supremacy.
"The GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2 brings our acclaimed no mercy G1-Killer gaming philosophy to Intel's mainstream Z68 platform", commented Henry Kao, Vice President of GIGABYTE Motherboard Business Unit. "From listening closely to the gaming community, it's clear that this is an eagerly anticipated motherboard, and one that will guarantee the fearlessly uncompromising gaming experience that so many of our customers crave."For more details check out http://www.gigabyte.us/ and the press release in the Ninjalane Message Forum.
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ASUS Rampage III Black Edition Review @ Bjorn3D
Published: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 | By: DennisNot sure if I like the black and red edition or the black and gray but you cannot argue that the Black Edition Rampage III is quite amazing.
Considering that the aging X58 chipset has already been replaced, we were surprised to see yet another offering in the X58 lineup, even with the recent release of Sandy Bridge and the Z68 chipset. However, looking over the specs and feature, on this board we would dare to say that the X58 is back in black.
Sadly it seems most hardware editors have given up on X58 looking for the next great thing to report on. Personally I see X58 still having some fight left, heck X79 is on the roadmap but it won't be here until after Christmas (or so they say).
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Fractal Design Define R3 Mid-Tower Chassis Review @ Techgage
Published: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 | By: DennisNot a bad looking case, its like a clean black box.
With the chassis market dominated by a small group of major companies, it's easy to get excited when we receive a model from a company that's not that well known - at least on these shores. In this particular case (no pun, of course), that company is Fractal Design, and its the silence-focused Define R3 mid-tower on deck today.
I have never liked having foam on the side panels but it seems to work in certain situations.
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NL: Review Block - ASRock Review Day
Published: Monday, August 1, 2011 | By: DennisI don't normally post reviews dealing with ASRock hardware but there were a bunch today so here it goes.
Motherboards
- ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Motherboard Review @ Motherboards
- ASRock Z68 Fatal1ty Gen3 Motherboard Review @ HardwareHeaven
- ASRock Z68 Extreme4 @ Hardwareoverclock
- ASRock Core HT @ PureOverclock
