With a brand new BIOS designed around the AMI UEFI implementation, Gigabyte has a new mid-range overclocking master, clad nearly all in black. The GA-X79-UD5 recently hit the news with the recall of previous BIOS, and the introduction of a new BIOS that boasts some serious clocking abilities. We put the new board, and the new BIOS through testing, and the results may surprise many.
Corsair's Professional Gold series consists of four PSUs with the most recent addition being the AX650, which as its name implies has 650W capacity. Since more and more users finally find out that they actually need a mid-wattage unit to power their systems, Corsair decided to offer a high quality PSU which addresses all the enthusiasts who defy cost and seek the best possible performance along with top efficiency.
The Tempest 410 is intended to carry the genes of the original Tempest series, with the updated guts to offer modern features. Clocking in at 80 or 100 US Dollars it will be interesting what makes this chassis stand out from the crowded market.
In our CPU scaling article we investigate gaming performance of AMD's latest Radeon HD 7970 flagship. The processors in our test group have been selected to match popular CPUs used by gamers and enthusiasts: AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer, Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge and Intel Core i7-920 Nehalem.
Antec made a big splash with the P280 and now is following up with a new gamer case called Eleven Hundred. Will the chassis manage to put Antec back on the map for pure gamer/enthusiast cases or leave us unimpressed with a lack of functional features?
Parrot's AR.Drone is a remarkable piece of kit which incorporates video games with RC-piloting. The AR.Drone is a fully fledged drone with on-board cameras and hardware which allows it to almost fly itself.
When most people think of ASUS, they immediately think of the "ROG" product line, one that has set itself apart from the rest due to extensive functionality, and top-level overclocking ability. however, ASUS does have a few other products out there that offer the same, if not more, and the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe that recently arrived on our doorstep is definitely one of those products. Boasting ASUS's improved "Dual Intelligent Processors III" VRM design, the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe offers performance customization abilities that few other products do, easily setting it apart form the rest.
Today AMD launches their new Radeon HD 7970. The card is based on brand-new 28 nanometer silicon which promises reduced power consumption. Another important change is AMD's move to a new shader architecture, enabling increased performance, easier design of future products and more efficient rendering.
SteelSeries' newest rodent, dubbed Sensei, gets put to the test. The Sensei mouse features a few new tricks due to the implementation of an ARM CPU. The addition of a CPU makes the mouse capable of running all acceleration and smoothing corrections onboard and even allows for interpolation up to 11400 DPI.
Thermaltake recently added three new models to the Toughpower XT series. Today we are testing the 1275W model, which is the first Platinum unit that Thermaltake releases. With more and more Platinum certified models on the market, it will be interesting to see how Thermaltake's latest power supply manages.
Today we test the middle member of Coolermaster's fresh Silent Pro Hybrid series, which with its 1050W will easily power even the most power hungry systems and at the same time will save you some money from electricity bills, thanks to its Gold efficiency. This PSU will be loved by all silence fans out there since it goes fanless at low loads and on top of that you can control its fan speed.
Ultimate Ears have quite the reputation in the in-ear industry. Today we will be taking a thorough look at the In-Ear Reference Monitors. The name tells us that Ultimate Ears are excited, we put them to the test and see how they compare to the very best in-ears available today.
With the launch of Intel's latest well under way, ECS has sent us another warrior to battle the twin dragons of injustice, the ECS X79R-AX. Undoubtably the best board ECS has ever released, the ECS X79R-AX is ready for battle, after receiving training no ohter boards has. Set to finally banish the dragons back to the demise they planned for humanity, the ECS X79R-AX has hit the TechPowerUp testing battlefield.
The NZXT Tempest 210 is the entry level chassis for the current Tempest family. While costing a bit more than the Source line-up, it shares a lot of functional similarities. We take the case for a spin to find out if it is all a more expensive deja vu or if the Tempest 210 offers more than just higher price tag when compared to the Source variants.
The Xigmatek Midgard chassis has been one of the most popular cases in its price class. After almost 3 years, Xigmatek now presents the successor simply called Midgard II. It features a timeless design just like the original one, but includes a long list of new and updated features. The Midgard II has some big shoes to fill - let us see if it manages to impress as much as the original.
The Silicon Power Velox V30 60 GB SSD is built around Sandforce's successful SF-2281 flash controller which promises outstanding performance and full support for the SATA 6 Gbps interface. After a closer look we noticed that the drive uses only half the flash channels available, will this turn out to be a dealbreaker?
There are very few cases out there, which allow you to cool the CPU passively. Of those most only allow for Mini-ITX boards to be installed. Streacom breaks that tradition by offering the FC5 OD, able to take a mATX board and three 2.5 hard drives, while still offering enough cooling power to keep modern, high-performance CPUs cool. Can the 250 Euro enclosure deliver on all these promises and stand the heat?
The Commander MS-I case is the most affordable of the new cases from Thermaltake. With the choice between a model with two USB 2.0 and one with a mix consisting of a single 2.0 and a single 3.0 connector at the same price point, it is interesting to see what difference such a feature makes in terms of alternatives and placement in the crowded sub 50 US Dollar range.
The Silicon Power Diamond D05 aims to combine the stylish look and feel of brushed Aluminum with a good price/performance ratio. We take a look a the unit to see if all that shines is golden, or if the D05 is just a dull performer.
The Thermaltake Overseer RX-I is positioned just below the Chaser chassis. It costs slightly less, is slightly smaller, but still has a very similar feature set. We take a close look if there is more to it than meets the eye or if the Overseer RX-I offers the same price/performance value as its bigger counterpart.
The NZXT Phantom has been a huge success, spawning various color options including pink and black/orange. The Phantom 410 continues with the same design elements, but at a much smaller overall size - lovingly called "Phantom Mini".
Once again the dragons are upon us, and once again a challenger emerges to defend humanity from their wrath. ECS's A990FXM-A socket AM3+ has landed on our testbench, ready for battle, sword and shield in hand. Will the ECS A990FXM-A save us from the black hole that is slow computing? We find out.
After testing its bigger brother with 600W capacity, it's high time for the PC P&C Silencer MK3S400 to prove its worth. The new Silencer units pose a big change for PC Power & Cooling since they are the first ever modular PSUs that this company introduces to the market. Along with the top mounted 120 mm fan all PC P&C traditions are broken in these new units.
There are a few cube chassis manufacturers out there, but CaseLabs guns for the ultimate chassis with their MAGNUM M8 and M10, right out of the gates. Will it come out guns blazing and mowing down everything in its path or end up shooting nothing but blanks? We aim to find out!
ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores comes with some of the highest overclocks out of the box, compared to other GTX 560 Ti 448 cards released today. The card also uses a more compact form factor, which should help it fit smaller cases or compact media PCs.
