Patriot's Torqx 2 128 GB SSD is based on the less-well-known Phison PS3105 flash controller which is a cost effective alternative to more expensive controllers from Indilinx or SandForce.
ZOTAC recently announced their mini-ITX Z68 motherboard. Supporting standard desktop parts for expansion, the ZOTAC Z68-ITX WiFi offers all the features of the Intel Z68 chipset, including some decent overclocking. We put the Z68-ITX WiFi through the paces, and take this little roadster for a wild ZOTAC ride.
Corsair presents the love child of the Obsidian 800D and the Graphite 600T series. The result is certainly stunning, as the Obsidian 650D offers the best of both worlds, with excellent interior design and great exterior looks & functionality
PowerColor's exclusive HD 6870 X2 unifies two HD 6870 graphics processors on a single card. This approach offers performance that can compete with other high-end cards like GTX 580. In our testing we saw nice results that make this card a worthy alternative in today's high-end graphics card market.
The AC Ryan PlayOn!HD2 is a networked multimedia player with HDMI and SPDIF output. It supports all common file formats, including 1080p HD up to 80 Mbps bitrate. Since the device based on a Realtek system-on-a-chip its power consumption is amazingly low, only around 10 W - lower than any HTPC you can build.
Lamptron Touch is the first touch screen fan controller in a series of notable releases from Lamptron. The Touch places excellent customization at your finger tips while an external brushed aluminum front will certainly go well with any case. We'll place this high end controller under our thumb and see how it stacks up against the competition.
OCZ's Agility 3 is the company's latest mid-range solid state drive based on the Sandforce SF-2281 which supports the SATA 6 Gbps interface. As flash chips Micron 25 nm chips are used which promise to provide excellent performance for this 240 GB SSD.
The dust has settled after the huge splash of the NZXT Phantom, the silence was taken by the H2 - what now? The Source series of cases aims to take on the budget market, but still offer the distinct NZXT looks we have come to expect. How does it turn out?
Most of you will probably know Scythe from its cooling products, but the company also has several power supplies in its arsenal. Today we will test the second strongest PSU from the Chouriki 2 Plug-In line, which has 850 W capacity and is 80 Plus Silver rated. All Chouriki 2 Plug-In PSUs use a semi-modular cabling design and are backed up by a five-year warranty.
After 25 years in the market, Biostar recently released their latest product, the T-series TZ68A+, based on the new Intel Z68 Express chipset. Featuring Lucid's Virtu technology, the entry-level TZ68A+ seeks to meet the needs of mainstream enthusiasts with affordable pricing, with everything the Z68 offers ready and waiting.
Intel's latest 510 Series SSD is designed to deliver maximum performance at today's workloads. It supports the SATA 6 Gbps interface for maximum transfer speed and comes with a custom firmware that is optimized in performance. Being priced at $600 for the 250 GB version the drive is not cheap, but worth it?
Sapphire's HD 6450 comes with a low-profile design, passive heatsink and native full-size HDMI. Together with AMD's UVD 3 video encode acceleration that provides excellent video decode capabilities this could well be your next HTPC card.
The SpineRex is the latest, full tower chassis from Enermax. Taking its name from the top spine cover, we dig deeper to see if the cool, multi-mode and multi-LED fans are trying to draw your focus away from something, or if they are the triumphant sights of a cool chassis.
At Computex 2011 Corsair revealed a new model for the Professional HX series, the HX1050 which will replace the successful HX1000. The OEM remained the same, Channel Well Technology, the capacity increased by 50 W and efficiency remained at 80 Plus Silver. It seems like this PSU has what it takes to be a cost-effective alternative to the Corsair AX1200.
Recently, Cooler Master released their new GX Gold Series. The two most significant improvements of the new models are the change of the OEM from Seventeam to Enhance and the upgraded efficiency from 80 Plus to 80 Plus Bronze. The test subject of today’s review will be the CM GX650W Bronze, which offers similar specs as the previous model but sports the popular 80Plus Bronze certification.
Headphone producer Head-Direct seems unstoppable when it comes to releasing new orthodynamic based headphones. The newest arrival is named HE-500 and slots in between the HE-5LEs and the HE-6s. New for the HE-500s is a special driver setup that allows for much higher efficiency.
Be Quiet's Straight Power E8 400W is a non-modular power supply coming at a very aggressive price point. According to the manufacturer it boasts an impressive 89% efficiency, also the unit is very quiet - no surprise, given the company name.
PowerColor's Radeon HD 6850 SCS3 is the first completely passive cooled Radeon HD 6850. This makes it the fastest zero-noise graphics card available today. Instead of the fairly compact heatsink of the reference design, PowerColor is using a massive triple slot cooler which provides the cooling required for the HD 6850 SCS3.
The brand-new ASUS M5A99X EVO, sports AMD's 990X and SB950 chipset. It is one of the first boards to offer full support for NVIDIA SLI and is also optimized for CrossFire configurations with its three PCI-E x16 slots.
Club 3D has recently entered the PSU market. Their new CSP-X1200CS is a high-end 1200 W model which addresses users with up to three graphics cards. Compared to the CSP-X1000CS the CSP-X1200CS, offers more power and better efficiency with its 80PLUS Silver certification.
The Kingwin Lazer Platinum LZP-550 is based on Super Flower's platinum platform (Golden King 550W) and according to the manufacturer achieves over 92% efficiency. The power supply's fan will only spin beyond a certain temperature, so the PSU will emit no noise at low loads. In our review we find that this power supply is the best model available in its power range at this time.
First seen at Computex this year, the ASUS GTX 580 Matrix Platinum is an overclocker's dream. It offers multiple voltage control via both software and hardware, a quiet running, powerful triple slot, dual fan thermal solution and easy to reach voltage measurement points. This card is also the first to be supported by ASUS' new GPU Tweak software.
Released on May 31st by ASUS, the M5A97 EVO is a new AM3+ motherboard, boasting support for AMD's upcoming AM3+ CPUs, as well, as current AM3 Phenom II CPUs. Sporting the now familiar black and blue color scheme from ASUS, the M5A97 EVO seeks, like its brethern, to turn the competition black and blue too.
Computex Taiwan is one of the leading computer tradeshows in the year. Thanks to its asian location the booths are full of hot show girls in short skirts. TechPowerUp brings you the complete collection with over 175 girls - including high-res images.
We are always thrilled to see new companies enter the PSU market because this leads to more choice for the end users and competition gets tougher, reducing prices. Today we will take a look at RASURBO's Real&Power 550 W, which is 80 PLUS certified, utilizes a semi modular cabling scheme and comes with attractive pricing.
