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Func is probably a bit less well known computer accessory manufacturer. After a few years of silence Func published the MS-3 high-end mouse and the Surface 1030 XL mouse mat. Now we are going to take a look at these new products.
RC model airplanes and single rotor copter are so yesterday. Multicopters are taking the world by storm and this series of articles will clarify all the needed terminology, technology and skills needed to make one for yourself!
azer's newest gaming mouse, Ouroboros, is a wireless mouse with customizable ambidextrous ergonomics and excellent adjustment possibilities. Let's see if the newcomer is as good as Razer claims!
In last spring Silverstone published two HTPC cases to Grandia series. The cases' model names are GD07 and GD08 and their most important features are extensibility, cooling perfonrmance and silence. This time we are about to take a closer look at the GD07 model.
Lian Li is considered as a company that produces high-end and very well finished cases. Let's see if PC-7H can face the presumptions.
Classic hand-held gaming devices near to your heart? Take a look at this project where I combine one of the real classics with another arcade icon.
Competition open for Finnish readers.
Need something to shock your friends? Levetron Mech 5 gaming keyboard gets the looks for sure but how well it will fair in real work usage? Read and find out!
Updated: 28.10.2012
Radio controlled cars are nice but why not take the play to the air?! Multirotor copters are the latest hit and this new model from UDIRC is the cheapest way to experience it!
SilverStone has recently published an improved version of its TJ04 case, which was introduced in 2004. The new model is called Temjin TJ04-E, which has some nice new improvements. Knowing SilverStone's products' quality, the expectations are high for this newcomer.
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- MSI Radeon HD 7790 1GB OC Overclocked Video Card Review - TweakTown
Introduction   The battle of the mid-range video card models from both NVIDIA and AMD has been a strong one. They've both come in at a similar price point; saying that, though, we know that the NVIDIA GTX 650 Ti Boost comes in slightly higher, but at the same time offers double the amount of memory with 2GB, and slightly more performance.  The AMD Radeon HD 7790 comes in at around $20 less, is a little bit slower and also comes with only half the memory. Testing of the Sapphire HD 7790 2GB OC the other day also showed us that doubling the memory really did nothing for overall performance (literally), especially when talking about a real-world playable difference.  The problem is that between the two video cards we have quite a major difference that separates them and for us it's probably what makes the decision to choose one model over the other. AMD have become very aggressive with game bundling over the last six months, and that hasn't just stopped with the high-end models, it's also carried down to the lower-end ones as well.  We'll talk about that all more a little bit later, though. For now we've got to take a closer look at the package of the MSI Radeon HD 7790 1GB OC which we're looking at today, before moving onto the card itself. Due to the fact that we've already looked at a couple of HD 7790's already, we'll today be firing up MSI Afterburner and checking out the overclocking on this particular model.  Once we've covered both the out of the box specifications and what we did on the overclocking side of things, we'll look at our testbed, cover the cards that you'll see in our graphs here today, and get stuck into the performance. As we mentioned, though, the first thing we need to do is see what's going on with the bundle.  Package    Checking out the box you can see that the design isn't anything too fancy. Unlike the recent MSI GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB we looked at, this card doesn't fall under the new gaming series that MSI recently created. Overall it's a fairly standard layout, though, with the main information on the front and the back of the box giving us a bit more detail.   Moving inside the package you can see there's not a whole with just a Quick User Guide, driver CD and a DVI to VGA connector to round off the bundle. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentEVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost SuperClocked 2GB Video Card ReviewSapphire Radeon HD 7790 2GB OC Edition Video Card Review   Â
- HP Envy TouchSmart 4 Touchscreen Ultrabook Laptop Review - TweakTown
Introduction   We've got one of HP's touch-enabled Ultrabooks in the lab today. The Envy TouchSmart 4 is a 14-inch, touch-enabled Ultrabook inspired by Intel that is a bit easier on the wallet than some of the other Ultrabooks we've recently had through our lab.  Is HP's Envy branding all that it is cracked up to be? Or is the Envy TouchSmart 4 not worth our attention? During our testing, you'll want to pay attention to some of ASUS' budget offering as they will be most in line in terms of comparison.  Without further ado, let's dive in and see if the Envy is worth our envy.  Specifications, Configurations and Pricing   Our HP Envy TouchSmart 4 review unit is equipped with a capable Intel i5-3317U processor. This dual-core is of the low-voltage variety, meaning it features a TDP of just 17 watts. TurboBoost 2.0 enables this processor to dynamically clock up single-threaded performance, while remaining cool and power efficient at idle.  Coupled with the 3317U is 4GB of DDR3 RAM. 4GB of RAM follows my general rule-of-thumb of 1GB per thread available. Graphics are provided via Intel's somewhat capable HD4000 integrated graphics processor, which is the de facto Ultrabook graphics processor.  The screen is a rather low-resolution, touch-enabled panel. Cranking out 1366x768, the display comes in at 14 inches, making the low resolution more bearable. It's certainly more touch-friendly than the smaller 1080p Ultrabooks we previously tested.  Storage is provided by a spinning 500GB hard drive, meaning boot times and program loading will be affected versus systems installed with a faster SSD drive. On the converse, however, users have more storage available to them to hold media. Windows 8 64-bit is loaded onto the HDD as Windows 8 provides the best touchscreen compatibilities.  Packaging  The packaging has seen more than its fair share of shipping journeys to other reviewers and was beat up beyond recognition. For that reason, pictures of the packaging will not be included. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentAcer Aspire S7-191 Touchscreen Ultrabook Laptop ReviewAcer Aspire S7-391 Touchscreen Ultrabook Laptop Review   Â
- Seagate Laptop Thin 500GB Hybrid SSHD ST500LM000 Review - TweakTown
Introduction   With the constant SSD assault not wavering for a split second, HDD manufacturers such as Seagate have had to change up their game plan a slight bit, in order to compete in the ever shrinking platter based consumer market. However, the SSD isn't the only reason we see 2.5" drives becoming increasingly thinner.  In October of 2011, Intel released the first specifications for its Ultrabook code named Huron River. This specification mandated that the minimum battery life would be five hours and the drive must be able to resume from hibernation (S4) within seven seconds. The one thing that was left out was the minimum transfer rates for the internal storage. Chief River, or Ultrabook revision 2, which would be released in June of 2012, updated the specifications to include a minimum of 80MB/s transfer speed, effectively removing the HDD from competition, while retaining the same five hour battery life and seven second resume from S4 hibernation.  Due out later this year, Shark Bay or Gen3 Ultrabook, is aimed to set the bar a bit higher in terms of disk I/O per watt performance. While no information has been released to the public, allegedly this new spec will require nine hours of battery life, while carrying over the same 80MB/s minimum transfer and seven second resume from S4. Now it's quite obvious all of these specs really have HDD makers churning butter, but not all is lost, and no, the HDD is not dead.  Earlier this year Seagate chose to make a massive and rather bold move and discontinue its 7200RPM 2.5" lineup. In favor of this old standard, we find them being replaced by the all new Laptop SSHD and Laptop Thin SSHD. These 5400RPM drives are available in two capacities and what we call Z-Heights or thicknesses. The first of which is the Laptop SSHD which will carry a 1TB capacity with a 9.5mm Z-Height, and the second and the drive we will be looking over today is the 500GB capacity Laptop Thin SSHD which carries a 7mm Z-Height. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentKingston SSDNow E100 Enterprise SSD ReviewBang for Your Buck: Best 256GB Class SSD's under $200Corsair Voyager Air 500GB Wireless Storage Device ReviewTranscend StoreJet Cloud 32GB Wireless Storage Device ReviewTranscend 32GB Wi-Fi SDHC Review   Â
- Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [20 May 2013] - TweakTown
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!Icy Dock FlexCage MB975SP-B Tray-Less 5 x 3.5" HDD Dock ReviewSapphire Radeon HD 7790 2GB OC Edition Video Card ReviewWestern Digital My Book Live 1TB Personal Cloud Storage ReviewKingFast F3 Plus Series KF2510SCF Enterprise SSD ReviewBang for Your Buck: Best 256GB Class SSD's under $200Audiofly AF78 Dual Driver Headphones ReviewKingston SSDNow E100 Enterprise SSD ReviewSleeping Dogs Benchmarked with AMD Eyefinity in Portrait at 3240x1920SilverStone DS322 Dual-Bay RAID Enclosure Review   Â
- Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) Cinema Review - TweakTown
 In 1990, the year before his death, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry told the L.A. Times, "There's a good chance that when I'm gone, others will come along and do so well that people will say, 'Oh, that Roddenberry. He was never this good." Casual audiences might agree, but for the many lifelong Star Trek fans, J.J. Abrams franchise revival opened an interesting aside for a franchise fast approaching 50 years of age, but hardly represents a return to form of the core Star Trek ethos; the sense of wonderment, philosophical ideals and the promise of a brighter future.   Three years on from 2009's franchise reboot, whose plot controversially created an alternate timeline allowing the series to take certain liberties with established canon and events and grow into its own version of Trek, J.J. and company return with Into Darkness; a title both ill-fitting and borderline offensive to long term fans, which attempts quite desperately to appeal to firm and casual fans alike, whilst also appealing to a younger and hipper demographic, who find the franchise the antithesis of 'sexy'.   Following a suicide blast at Starfleet HQ and subsequent aerial attack resulting in the murder of Starfleet commanders masterminded by turncoat Starfleet agent John Harrison (Benedict Cumberpatch), the Enterprise crew headed by Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) are re-commissioned to mount a mission to assassinate Harrison at his hiding place on Kronos, the Klingon home world. Kirk being Kirk refuses to accept orders at their face value and decides to take Harrison hostage. After a brief battle, Harrison unexpectedly gives himself up, willingly boarding the Enterprise as a prisoner. Unfortunately, it's quickly revealed that neither the mission, nor Harrison are quite as expected, with the crew of the Enterprise finding itself in the middle of a much larger plot and grave danger.   For the uninitiated, Star Trek circa 2013 is an entertaining science fiction adventure, which commands viewers attention right from the opening scenes. But saddling itself with the name Star Trek automatically attaches 50 years of baggage and does this film no favors. The truth is, this modern incarnation of the franchise has little in common with it older siblings. Star Trek has always gladly worn its heart on its sleeve with the epitaph of 'thinking man's sci-fi', but ruminating about the plot only reveals the numerous holes that riddle the script, not least the mind messing alternate timeline, which try as I might to explain to my non-fan girlfriend, really struggled to do.   The next section discusses spoilers - you've been warned.  In true J.J. Abrams fashion, there's a few surprises, but perhaps the worst kept is that of the true identity of the mysterious John Harrison - he's Khan Noonien Singh from both the Original Series episode 'Space Seed' and the feature film The Wrath of Khan. But Khan was never an Englishman, nor does Benedict Cumberpatch looks resemble previous Khan actor Ricardo Montalban. Try explaining that to newcomers - and that's the whole problem with the film. It tries to be all things to all people and it just doesn't make sense. Why try and shoehorn Trek lore into a film and then not even attempt to make it cohesive? For every cameo by a tribble or inflection of a classic phrase, we have another franchise contradiction or out of character motivation.  Having been tapped to direct Star Wars Episode VII for LucasFilm, it seems that J.J. Abrams will now slink off from the franchise that he's revealed he was never a fan of, leaving the gates open for someone else to take the reins. I can only hope that that person will stay true to the core ethos of Star Trek rather than continue to churn out what amounts to, admittedly entertaining, but otherwise generic science fiction action, trading on the basis of Star Trek's branding.   ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentIron Man 3 (2013) Cinema ReviewAustralian Blu-ray Importing: May 2013 Buying GuideWreck-It Ralph (2012) Blu-ray Movie ReviewStar Trek: The Next Generation - The Best of Both Worlds (1990) Blu-ray Review   Â
- Thermaltake EVO Blue 2.0 850-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Review - TweakTown
Inside the Box   The inside includes a little less protection than we would like to see, but nevertheless, it proved to be enough to get our unit safely to our doorstep.   Thermaltake uses a semi-glass black finish on our unit which you can see along with the I/O specification label on the top of the EVO Blue 2.0 850W PSU.   Both sides feature the same EVO Blue 2.0 logo with X pattern stamped into the metal. It is inverted on the other side.   Moving to the back, we find the standard honeycomb mesh grill with AC input and on/off rocker switch. We also find the Turbo Charge button. You push it to get a 100-shot of nitrous... wrong subject. The button simply changes the color of the fan and forces it to operate at max speed, hence increasing cooling.  As such, Thermaltake feels that it is safe enough to pull 950W out of the unit when enabled. Essentially this means the power supply is underrated and probably so that it could hit the 80 PLUS Gold mark instead of being a 950W Silver unit. As the power supply is rated and advertised as an 850W model that is exactly how we will test it.   Towards the front we find the modular connectors as well as the flat native cables that extend all the way into the power supply.   The bottom of the unit houses the 140mm clear LED fan that cools the EVO Blue 2.0 power supply.   All of the modular cables are of the flat ribbon type.   Also included with the unit are zip-ties, mounting screws, AC input cord, user manual and warranty card. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentThermaltake GOrb II Portable Laptop Cooler ReviewThermaltake Chaser A41 Mid-Tower Chassis ReviewNZXT HALE90 V2 1000-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply ReviewSilverStone ST60F-PS 600-Watt 80 PLUS Silver Power Supply Reviewbe quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 1200-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Review   Â
- be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 1200-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Review - TweakTown
Introduction   As I stated not too long ago, the power requirements have been dropping for gamers and enthusiasts lately and will continue to do so with next-generation hardware right around the corner. Even though most will never need more than an 800W power supply to power a pair of video cards for their gaming rig, there are still quite a few who utilize three and four GPU systems for gaming with cards like the GTX Titan or Radeon 7990. These systems eat a ton of power and that's where today's review comes into play.  The be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 1200W power supply is a monster that is ready to take care of whatever you throw at it. We've taken a look at a few of their units in the past, and they've proven why they've been rated Germany's number one rated manufacturer for a while now. They're rapidly expanding their market and while the units we looked at in the past were a bit difficult to get your hands on in the US, they're now available via Newegg. With the quality we've seen from these guys, we feel it safe to say that it won't be too long before you can find them available everywhere you're able to get your hands on an Antec or Thermaltake PSU.  We've already looked at the 550W and 850W models and we wanted to see if their top of the line offering performed just as well.  Let's start looking at the specifications and see what the Dark Power Pro 10 1200W is made of.  Specifications, Availability and Pricing  As you can see, the Dark Power Pro 10 1200W is a quad rail power supply. Each 12V rail is rated for 35A with a combined maximum output of 99A or 1188W. As each of the 12V rails are capable of 420W, you should have no trouble with video cards like the dual-GPU Radeon 7990. Both the 3.3V and 5V rails are rated for 25A each with a combined maximum output of 150W. The 5VSB rail is rated for 3A or 15W. As with the other Dark Power Pro 10 series units that we have looked at, the power supply can be configured to run as a single rail power supply and that is how we intend to test today.   You don't become a number one rated manufacturer by skimping on features and that is exactly what we see here with the feature summary. All protections are present including SCP, OVP, OCP, OPP and OTP. The Dark Power Pro 10 is certified as 80 PLUS Gold. The unit is fully modular with the exception of the natively wired 20+4 Main connector and all cables are fully sleeved. The power supply is also rated for 100% continuous output at 50C.  be quiet! lists the Dark Power Pro 10 1200W power supply with an MSRP of $309. The cheapest we could find the unit was at Newegg for $319.99 with free shipping at the time of writing. This puts it towards the more expensive end of the spectrum of 1200W units. We suspect that the price is a bit high as Newegg knows they are currently the sole distributor in the US, but I bet that will change before too long. The Dark Power Pro 10 1200W power supply is backed by a five year warranty. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentNoctua NH-U14S CPU Cooler ReviewThermaltake GOrb II Portable Laptop Cooler ReviewThermaltake Chaser A41 Mid-Tower Chassis ReviewNZXT HALE90 V2 1000-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply ReviewSilverStone ST60F-PS 600-Watt 80 PLUS Silver Power Supply Review   Â
- Bang for Your Buck: Best 256GB Class SSD's under $200 - TweakTown
Introduction   Last week the Seagate 600 SSD hit the market and we were in an odd position, we had to speculate on the new 600 price. Given this was Seagate's first consumer SSD, the fact that the company doesn't own a NAND flash fab or their own controller, we guessed high. Hours after the NDA lifted, the Seagate 600 SSD hit Newegg, Tiger Direct and the few other price reference sites we use to base our conclusions on. Our over $1 per GB estimate on the Seagate 600 SSD was way off base - it was too bad we couldn't get the information before the launch.  While researching current pricing for a number of reviews, I observed a few issues that go against what we've come to expect in years past. For years, we could always point to OCZ as the price / performance leader. That is no longer the case. Vertex 3 and the new Vertex 3.20 are not on our list today at all. Vertex 3 was always at the top of our list when it came time to whip out the wallet, the price was always within the top of the class when shopping for a quality product with known performance and a low price. Newegg now shows the Vertex 3 240GB at $219.99 and the new 20nm variant, Vertex 3.20 240GB is a whopping $259.99!  While deep diving into the prices of the 256GB class capacity size, we also uncovered an issue we're glad to report on. Pricing differences between synchronous and asynchronous flash products are nearly equal between many brands. The ADATA Premier Pro SP900 (async) and ADATA XPG SX900 (sync) are both at $199.99 at Newegg. In our testing, we've concluded that no one should ever purchase a SATA III SSD with asynchronous flash. That is my professional opinion as a SSD reviewer, the guy who tests more consumer SSD's than anyone else in the world.  Asynchronous flash isn't the only black mark to look for when shopping for an SSD. Of the 23 2.5" form factor, 256GB class SSD's at Newegg under $200, 12 shouldn't be purchased unless they are the last SSD's on the planet. This list includes drives with asynchronous NAND, SATA II interfaces and known issues with firmware.  Today were looking at some of the options and we'll recommend a few products that we feel are the best bang for your buck. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentSilverStone DS322 Dual-Bay RAID Enclosure ReviewWestern Digital My Book Live 1TB Personal Cloud Storage ReviewIcy Dock FlexCage MB975SP-B Tray-Less 5 x 3.5" HDD Dock ReviewKingFast F3 Plus Series KF2510SCF Enterprise SSD ReviewKingston SSDNow E100 Enterprise SSD Review   Â
- SilverStone ST60F-PS 600-Watt 80 PLUS Silver Power Supply Review - TweakTown
Introduction   Up until today, we've focused on the high-end enthusiast offering from SilverStone. They make fantastic power supplies that hold up under torturous conditions with great performance and reliability. Today we are taking a look at something a little less high-end and more in line with what the "average gamer" or entry level enthusiast might purchase. The power supply in question is the SilverStone ST60F-PS 600W model.  The unit is designed to perform well for gamers yet keep the cost down, while not losing reliability. It forgoes some of the things we've come to expect such as top of the line efficiency, lots of accessories and large, silent fans, but still gives enough power for a single high-end video card. Sometimes modesty can be a good thing as you just want to get the job done and done well with breaking the bank. That's exactly what we expect the SilverStone ST60F-PS to do so let's dig into it and see what it has to offer.  Specifications, Availability and Pricing   Just as you'd hope from an entry level enthusiast style power supply, the majority of the power is supplied via a single 12V rail rate for 49A or 588W. Both the 3.3V and 5V rails are rated for 20A each with a combined maximum output of 130W. The 5VSB rail is rated for 3A or 15W. Maximum combined output is 600W. As we've said before, this should be more than enough to power a system with a single high-end GPU such as a Radeon 7970 or GTX 680.   One of the things that is nice to see in an entry level power supply is that features aren't skimped on. Many will cut protections such as OTP out of the lineup in order to save on costs. SilverStone doesn't do that and the ST60F-PS has a full complement of protections. Something else that we don't normally see in a power supply like this is a full modular design. This gives you the option to utilize SilverStone's PP05 and PP06 cable kits to customize cables to your desire. The cables that come with the unit are fully sleeved. The ST60F-PS is rated for 80 PLUS Silver efficiency and although it isn't rated for 100% continuous output at 50C, the power supply is rated at a more modest 40C. This isn't because the power supply can't handle it, but SilverStone certifies all of their power supplies at 40C including their high wattage enthusiast power supplies.  SilverStone says the MSRP on the ST60F-PS is $107.99 in the US. Newegg has the unit for $101.98 after a $10 rebate and $5.99 shipping at the time of writing. This places it towards the cheaper end of the spectrum and just what we were hoping for out of this unit. Warranty for the ST60F-PS is three years. While not the best of warranties, it is somewhat the standard for entry level units. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentCorsair Obsidian 350D Micro-ATX Chassis ReviewNoctua NH-U14S CPU Cooler ReviewThermaltake GOrb II Portable Laptop Cooler ReviewThermaltake Chaser A41 Mid-Tower Chassis ReviewNZXT HALE90 V2 1000-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Review   Â
- NZXT FZ-200 Airflow Fan Series 200mm fan - Modders-Inc
 NZXT, being no stranger to the world of PC gamers and enthusiasts, manufactures many different products just for gamers and enthusiasts. They have been busy of late with a their latest fan series, and in particular their new NZXT FZ-200 Airflow Fan Series 200mm fan. The new NZXT FZ-200 Airflow Fan Series 200mm fan [...]This post NZXT FZ-200 Airflow Fan Series 200mm fan appeared first on - Modders-Inc.
- Kingston SSDNow E100 Enterprise SSD Review - TweakTown
Introduction   Kingston's humble roots began with just one memory product back in 1987. With time, and a focus on quality and reliability, they have expanded into the world's largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Kingston's stellar reputation for quality products and service after the sale has secured them a large customer base in both the client and enterprise markets.  The Kingston SSDNow E100 is designed for entry-level enterprise applications and touts high endurance and admirable performance characteristics as its hallmarks. The reliable LSI SandForce SF-2500 enterprise-class controller in tandem with 32nm Toshiba eMLC Toggle NAND powers the SSDNow E100. This combination delivers 500MB/s in sequential read speed, and a tiered write speed depending upon the capacity utilized. The SSDNow E100 comes in capacities of 100GB, 200GB and 400GB; the largest provides 260MB/s in sequential write and the two smaller capacities sport a slightly lower 255MB/s write speed.  The Toshiba eMLC Toggle NAND is an important component that brings 30,000 P/E cycles into play. This durable NAND brings a tremendous amount of endurance to the table. Laying the solid foundation with high-endurance NAND is a great start, but any SSD is only as good as the controller.  The LSI SandForce controllers leverage DuraClass technology to extend the life of the SSD and provide enhanced speed. DuraWrite focuses around the use of compression logic that shrinks the amount of data written to the NAND. This provides a two-fold advantage, with less data written to the NAND users gain an appreciable boost in speed, and an accompanying increase of endurance, due to less NAND wear. Compressing the data also leaves extra free space on the NAND for the controller to use for its own purposes, helping to significantly lower write amplification. Many workloads in enterprise scenarios, such as database and OLTP applications, are composed of easily compressible data. This gives SandForce powered SSD's a tangible advantage in these environments.  Performance is not the most admirable trait in most deployments, reliability trumps all else. R.A.I.S.E. (Redundant Array of Silicon Elements) functionality is baked into all SandForce SSD's to protect the data on the NAND.  R.A.I.S.E is a NAND level redundancy scheme that uses one NAND die to provide parity data. Some manufacturers disable RAISE, and its accompanying data protection, in favor of gaining more capacity. There are also some current top-tier enterprise SSD's that do not provide data redundancy at the drive level. This extra level of data protection is critical in the majority of enterprise deployments.  The Kingston E100 rounds out its data protection features with end-to-end CRC protection and ECC recovery up to 55 bits correctable per 512-byte sector. This functionality is paired with a robust set of Tantalum capacitors that function well in high heat environments. This array of capacitors provide enough power to write any data in transit down to the NAND in the event of a host-power loss issue, and eliminates a single point of failure in the power hold-up solution. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentPNY Prevail Elite 240GB SSD ReviewSilverStone DS322 Dual-Bay RAID Enclosure ReviewWestern Digital My Book Live 1TB Personal Cloud Storage ReviewIcy Dock FlexCage MB975SP-B Tray-Less 5 x 3.5" HDD Dock ReviewKingFast F3 Plus Series KF2510SCF Enterprise SSD Review   Â
- Sleeping Dogs Benchmarked with AMD Eyefinity in Portrait at 3240x1920 - TweakTown
Introduction  We started off our Eyefinity benchmarks by looking into the most used monitor orientation - landscape. But there's something a little different out there in the form of multi-monitor gaming in portrait. Landscape Eyefinity is when you have your three monitors side-to-side, giving you a super-wide experience. Portrait sees them flipped on their sides, for some awesome gaming.  Portrait Eyefinity provides us with 1920 pixels high, because those same pixels are usually from left to right. This gives games an incredible sense of height, and personally, first-person shooters benefit from this the most. Instead of the fish eye view from the usual landscape multi-monitor use, nothing is stretched, it just feels like a massive screen.  06[/imgsbs] 04[/imgsbs]  Let's get into it shall we? For your information, I am running:  - Intel Core i7 3770K @ 4.8GHz- Corsair H100 Hydro Cooler- Corsair Force Series GT 240GB SSD- ASRock Z77 Extreme 9 motherboard- Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7970 Dual-X OC Edition (x2)- Lian Li PC-T60 Pitstop- Corsair Dominator Platinum - 16GB kit of 2133MHz DDR3 RAM- Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64- AMD Catalyst 13.2 beta 4 drivers  I'd like to extend a big thank you to Sapphire, Corsair and ASRock for supplying the parts for this machine, I couldn't write this article or any future articles without this hardware!  It's a seriously nice machine, and really powers through what I do each day. I've got the CPU clocked up to remove any potential CPU-based bottlenecks, the RAM is at stock speeds and everything else is at out-of-the-box settings.  Benchmark Results  What we've done with Sleeping Dogs is run it at the Extreme quality preset, with both 'Normal' and 'Extreme' AA settings. We've run this at 1080p with a single GPU stock, overclocked GPU stock at both Normal and Extreme AA settings - we ran this again with CrossFire enabled at both stock/overclocked and Normal/Extreme AA settings. We've run this same test yet again, at 3240x1920 with single/CF GPU, stock/overclocked and Normal/Extreme.  08[/imgsbs] 02[/imgsbs]  It takes some time, but it gives us a better idea of what stresses the cards out and where potential usefulness with CrossFire comes into play. The results:   Before we get into a talk about the results, I will add that I didn't expect much change in terms of the results between 5760x1080 and 3240x1920. This is because resolutions both equate to the same amount of pixels. In some games, there are some nice performance gains, in others, the difference is not much outside of the 5760x1080 results.   As you can see, a single HD 7970 is no match for 3240x1920 with 'Extreme' AA, nor is it for 5760x1080. Overclocking adds the usual 10% or so in performance. Throwing in a second GPU provides over 100% performance gains, which is great to see.  Turning down the anti-aliasing settings to 'Normal' AA, we find much better results. We're hitting 64.1 FPS with a single Radeon HD 7970 when overclocked, and at stock we have 56.3 FPS - great results. The monitors I've used for Eyefinity are 120Hz-capable, so I love to get close to 120 FPS or more.  CrossFire HD 7970's doesn't get too far off the mark, scoring 103.1 FPS and 108.4 FPS for stock and overclocked HD 7970's, respectively. This is some great results from two HD 7970's, but not enough to run the game at 3240x1920 at 120 FPS.  What we hope to do in the near future is offer you these same 5760x1080 and 3240x1920 results, with NVIDIA GPU's. In the not too distant future (2-3 months) we will also be offering a look into triple 2560x1440 screens for a whopping 7860x1440 and 4320x2560. These will be some very expensive setups, but glorious articles we'll be offering up shortly. ... Read the rest in your browser!   Â
- Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB 2133MHz Memory Kit - Bigbruin.com
The Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB 2133MHz DDR3 memory kit was able to run completely stable with CL10 timings at 2133MHz and 1.6V. For those looking to run at lower clock speeds there is an XMP profile onboard to run at 1600MHz with 9-9-9-27-2 timings at 1.5V, and testing also revealed that it is possible to run this kit at 1866MHz with 9-9-9-24-1 timings at 1.5V.
- KingFast F3 Plus Series KF2510SCF Enterprise SSD Review - TweakTown
Introduction   KingFast, based out of Shenzhen China, recently announced a merger (April 25, 2013) with the much larger SSD manufacturer RunCore. For now, KingFast is operating as a sub-brand of RunCore. In the future, we would expect there to be some consolidation of the product lines. RunCore is a much larger company, currently ranked as the largest SSD manufacturer in China and one of the largest in the world. RunCore has been growing at a tremendous rate with a revenue growth rate of 700% in 2012. The rapid expansion of RunCore and its high-end SSD products meshes well with the consumer and value-priced industrial SSD's that KingFast brings to the partnership.  The KingFast F3 Plus Series KF2510SCF SSD merges the LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller and Intel 25nm SLC NAND into one package. This arrangement features sequential read/write speeds of 556/530 MB/s, respectively. The random read IOPS are 55,735 and random write weighs in at a higher 83,221 IOPS. These are likely FOB (Fresh out of Box) numbers with 100% compressible data.  Recently we published a review of the SuperSSpeed S301 Hyper Gold Enterprise SSD, which also features a very similar build with the SF-2281 and Intel SLC flash. The real differentiator between these two products is that the SuperSSpeed is geared specifically for the client-side, and the KingFast F3 Plus Series SSD was designed and optimized from the ground up for datacenter applications.  With the same controller and NAND on both of these SSD's, we will put them head to head to see which can provide the best solution in an enterprise environment. There are always different variables to take into consideration beyond the normal 'feeds and speeds' when testing enterprise storage solutions. Typically, reliability and enhanced efficiency will trump less-refined solutions, even if they are faster.  The emergence of these value-oriented SLC SSD's brings forth an interesting product for those seeking tremendous endurance specifications at lower price points. The KingFast F3 Plus retails for roughly $2.50 per GB at the time of publishing for customers purchasing 10 or more SSD's. This is in the same price range of the SuperSSpeed offering, with its $2.00 per GB price. Part of the pricing disparity is due to the slightly larger capacity of the SuperSSpeed S301. The SuperSSpeed S301 features 128GB in comparison to the 120GB of the KingFast F3 Plus.  The reason for the capacity disparity is due to R.A.I.S.E functionality onboard the KingFast F3 Series SSD. The SuperSSpeed has this feature disabled. The SF-2281 controller is intended for consumer applications, but the use of R.A.I.S.E. functionality significantly boosts the capability of the SSD to deal with uncorrectable errors. This feature embeds a layer of parity in the NAND to allow for recovery from a failed sector, page, or even an entire block.  Enabling the R.A.I.S.E. feature creates a small loss of capacity, but yields huge gains in reliability. In conjunction with the 55b/512 BCH ECC this boosts the Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate (UBER) to 10-29, which equates to a quadrillion fewer uncorrectable errors than other controllers. Pairing this vigorous level of data protection with SLC NAND and its impressive 100,000 P/E cycles creates a very durable SSD that should handle the rigors of even the heaviest write workloads with ease.  Today in the comparisons of the two LSI SandForce SSD's we will learn that things aren't always what they seem when comparing raw speed of several SSD's. Even when performance results are mind-numbingly similar during the tests, there can be large differences in power and efficiency. With efficiency dictating the shape of today's datacenters, our results bring into focus the power efficiency metrics between two very similar SSD's. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentPQI Tiffany 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive ReviewPNY Prevail Elite 240GB SSD ReviewSilverStone DS322 Dual-Bay RAID Enclosure ReviewWestern Digital My Book Live 1TB Personal Cloud Storage ReviewIcy Dock FlexCage MB975SP-B Tray-Less 5 x 3.5" HDD Dock Review   Â
- Icy Dock FlexCage MB975SP-B Tray-Less 5 x 3.5" HDD Dock Review - TweakTown
Introduction   Last month we tested the Icy Dock FlexCage MB973SP-2B, a three HDD into two 5.25" drive bay adapter that includes dual USB 3.0 connectivity. Today we're back with another FlexCage product from Icy Dock. The MB975SP-B stuffs five 3.5" HDD's into just three 5.25" optical disk bays.  With optical media on the way out and digital media on the rise, the FlexCage products allow for an easy transition from unreliable, fragile and slow technology to the golden standard, mechanical disk storage.  Let's take a look.  Specifications   The MB975SP-B spec sheet is straightforward, five 3.5" HDD's in three 5.25" optical drive bays with a cooling fan, adequate power delivered to the drives via three SATA power plugs and an 80mm fan to keep everything cool.  The cooling fan has three speed settings - low, high and our favorite during testing, Smart Cooling, an automatic temperature sensing setting that eliminates any possible fan noise until you fill the cage and start crunching random data.  At the time of writing we couldn't find the MB975SP-B available at Newegg or through Google shopping. The SATA II model the MB975SP-B is replacing is on Amazon for $113.33, for reference only. ... Read the rest in your browser!Related ContentCorsair Neutron 128GB and 256GB (2013 Hynix Edition) SSD ReviewPQI Tiffany 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive ReviewPNY Prevail Elite 240GB SSD ReviewSilverStone DS322 Dual-Bay RAID Enclosure ReviewWestern Digital My Book Live 1TB Personal Cloud Storage Review   Â
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![This is how my IBM looked about 5 days before the 3 HDD's were mounted to the top inside of the chassis.
What you are looking at :
GPU
--> BFG NVidia GeForce 7800 GT OC
MOBO
--> ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
CPU [Although you cant see it]
--> AMD 3200+ s939 2000Mhz [OC to 2.5 - respectable for passive cooling and a stubborn chip]
--> Thermaltake Fanless 103 passive cooler
RAM
--> 2048Mb Kingston Hyper-X PC3200[ddr400] OC'ed to PC4200
Audio
--> SB Audigy 2 ZS
PSU [Right behind the big white and black label to the right of the pic]
--> HEC Power Op 475](http://allthemods.com/img/02/s335.jpg)
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