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Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell Processor Review
Just a year ago Intel launched their Ivy Bridge processors and now a year later we have another platform launch from Intel. The 4th Generation Core Haswell processors are the “tock” to Intel’s “tick” and “tock” release schedule. A “tock” represents a new architecture and a “tick” represents a process refinement. So Haswell brings with it a new architecture, but is still built on the same 22nm process as Ivy Bridge. Intel has introduced a new LGA1150 socket with Haswell and a new chipset so you will not be able to throw this processor in an older motherboard, you will have to buy a new one. Today we are taking a look at the top of the line Haswell desktop chip the Core i7-4770K. Of course the “K” denotes that it is an unlocked processor. This is a quad-core processor that has a default clock speed of 3.5 GHz and a turbo frequency that goes all the way up to 3.9 GHz.
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XSPC AX Radiator Desk Stand Review
One of the biggest limiting factors in what you can do with watercooling is how much room you have in your case. With so much equipment to pack in for watercooling alone, space ends up being one of the chief concerns for builders and modders. And the single biggest limiting factor: how much radiator one can fit. Radiators are large, bulky, and inflexible in how they need to be installed. This can easily lead to the builder having to sacrifice cooling surface for space. There is a solution to this problem though; external radiator stands. And if you have chosen to use XSPC’s AX series of radiators, then you’re in luck. Today we will be looking at the AX Radiator Desk Stand from XSPC.
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Win a NZXT Phantom 630 Case!
It is summer time and it is the perfect time to give you, our readers some free hardware! We have teamed up with our friends at NZXT to give away a brand new NZXT Phantom 630 Case! This Ultra Tower not only looks good it has room for quite a lot inside like long graphics cards, XL-ATX Motherboards, 8 hard drives and a lot of watercooling! Like many of our contests we will be running this one on Facebook and it is extremely easy to enter!
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Case Mod Friday: ReactorMod
Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have a builders ReactorMod build. Here is what he had to say about it: It's a modded Chieftec BX-03 case. I wanted to make it look like it's quite old and kinda shabby. I was thinking about this build for quite a long time, so I managed to collect some cool stuff that I've found on a nearby scrap yard (e.g. switch or steel sheet that I used to make the radiator cover). I also used some spare parts that I had lying around.
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Enermax Triathlor FC 550W Power Supply Review
Enermax is a brand whose strong product is their power supplies, especially when it comes to the high-end spectrum. Their Platimax and MAXREVO units are some of the best out there. But these units are not cheap in terms of cost. Enermax knows not everyone has a ton of cash to throw at a new power supply so they have created the Triathlor series of power supplies. There are actually the Triathlor and Triathlor FC units. The Triathlor units are lower wattage and non-modular and the Triathlor FC units are higher wattage and are modular. Today we are checking out the Triathlor FC 550W unit which is 80PLUS Bronze certified and offers quiet operation.
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SilverStone ARM22SC ARM Two Dual LCD Monitor Mount Review
We mainly know SilverStone for their cases and for good reason, they are high quality and look great. What if SilverStone took that same quality and put it into a LCD monitor mount? Then you would have what we are reviewing today which is the ARM Two ARM22SC dual LCD Monitor Mount from SilverStone. LCD arms are a great addition to any computer setup, especially if you are using a multi-monitor system. The ARM22SC is constructed with robust aluminum alloy and steel so this is a heavy duty piece of hardware. It will support two displays with VESA mounts. Read on as we get this installed and see how it transforms our desk.
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Win a Pivos XIOS DS Media Player!
Pivos is a company we have been working with lately and they make some pretty cool little media players. We have already reviewed their XIOS DS media player and it is a very unique device. Pivos was nice enough to give us one to give away to our readers! Just like all of our contests this one is very easy to enter and we will be running it on Facebook? So what are you doing get out there and get your entry in!
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Case Mod Friday: Black and White
Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have Christian Black and White build. Here is what he had to say about it: Well this is the first time I do something like this, and it really is interesting the world of case modding the project is BLACK AND WHITE and really was a design chosen because I began to paint the cabinet only and one thing leads to another as in all cases and was thinking of some ideas for covers.
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The History Of The Hard Drive
In 1953, engineers in IBM's California-based laboratory invented the very first hard drive. Since that first disk drive, technological advances have been made at an astonishing rate, with data capacity increasing and size and price decreasing exponentially, year on year. 60 years on, the hard drives of today are unrecognizable from the first models, which took up an entire room. Hard drives today are measured in terms of gigabytes and terabytes, rather than megabytes-an amount of data that would have been almost unimaginable in the early history of computers. Here we take a look back at the evolution of the hard drive as it grew from 5MB to 4TB.
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Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 Review
Lenovo has been making headlines with their IdeaPad Yoga. It is a tablet convertible that can be used as a laptop as well. There are 11-inch and 13-inch models. While the larger 13-inch model has the choice of Intel Core processors, the 11-inch does not and is rather powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 3 platform. Today we will be taking a look at that unit which does offer a very sleek and slim design, responsive 11.6-inch touchscreen, Lenovo’s patent-pending hinge design that allows the screen to flip completely over and it is running Windows RT. Let’s check it out!

Archive for category: Video Cards

Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! Edition 1GB Video Card Review

Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! Edition 1GB Video Card Review

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 560 Ti has been out for a few months now and just like pretty much every other card companies release a reference design and then they come out with an overclocked edition.  Today we will be taking a look at Zotac’s overclocked edition of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which they call the AMP! Edition.  This overclocked card brings the core GPU clock up from 823 MHz to 950 MHz and the memory clock up from 1002 MHz to 1100 MHz.  The card is also bundled with a free version of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.  Let’s take a look…

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Sapphire Radeon HD 6570 512MB Video Card Review

Sapphire Radeon HD 6570 512MB Video Card Review

When it comes to video cards the entry level segment is not something many people who visit this site might be interested in but for both AMD and NVIDIA it is a very crucial segment that brings in a lot of money.  Last week AMD has released 2 new cards in to the entry-level segment that have completely new GPU’s based on the HD 6800 series Barts architecture.  These 2 cards are effectively replacements for the HD 5770 and HD 5670 cards.  Both cards have increased clock speeds and added stream processors over the previously mentioned cards.  Today we will be taking a look at the Radeon HD 6570 512MB video card.

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Sapphire HD 5830 Xtreme 1GB Video Card Review

Sapphire HD 5830 Xtreme 1GB Video Card Review

I’m sure many of you remember AMD’s 5800 series of video cards, they were the first family of video cards in the world to support the advanced graphical features of DirectX 11.  It has been quite some time since their original introduction and Sapphire has decided to relaunch the series with the HD 5850 Xtreme and the HD 5830 Xtreme.  Today we will be taking a look at the HD 5830 Xtreme which features 1120 stream processors, 56 texture units, an 800 MHz core clock and 1GB of DDR5 memory.  Let’s check it out!

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ASUS HD 6870 DirectCU 1GB Video Card Review

ASUS HD 6870 DirectCU 1GB Video Card Review

AMD released the original 6870 back in October and almost every video card manufacturer had reference models.  It has been a while since the launch and now we are seeing manufactures come out with their own versions of the 6870, one such company is ASUS.  They have sent us their HD 6870 DirectCU which features ASUS’s in house PCB design, a slight overclock up to 915 MHz and the DirectCU (direct copper) GPU cooling solution, which ASUS says will cool the GPU up to 20% better than the stock cooler.  Let’s take a look at this card and see if it is perfect for your gaming needs.

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Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB Video Card Review

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB Video Card Review

Just last week we got our first look at NVIDIA’s GTX 580 based on the GF110 GPU.  NVIDIA went back and made some changes to not only make the new cards faster, but for them  to consume less power and run cooler.  While everyone has been excited about the GF110 GPU and the 2 new cards from NVIDIA we all expected AMD to come back with something before the end of the year and they have with Cayman.  Cayman is the codename for AMD’s new GPU design.  With this new GPU design they have released 2 cards the HD 6970, which is of course the high-end card and the HD 6950 is the mid-range card designed to fit in the $300 segment.  Today we will be taking a look at the Radeon HD 6950 from Sapphire that features a dual graphics engine, 2GB of GDDR5 and 88 texture units.

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Zotac GeForce GTX 580 1536MB Video Card Review

Zotac GeForce GTX 580 1536MB Video Card Review

Just about a month ago NVIDIA announced the new Fermi GF110 GPU and the GeForce GTX 580 video card.  This will be NVIDIA’s new flagship card replacing the older GTX 480.  The GF100 GPU was never what NVIDIA meant it to be and they went back and revised it a little bit for this new line of cards.  This means they were able to achieve higher clock speeds and all 512 CUDA cores are enabled.  Today we will be looking at a reference model from Zotac, the ZT-50101-10P.  Let’s see how this card compares to the competition.

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Sparkle GeForce GTS 450 1GB Video Card Review

Sparkle GeForce GTS 450 1GB Video Card Review

Today we have another GeForce GTS 450 video card on the test bench.  As we said in our previous GeForce GTS 450 video card review the GTS 450 is NVIDIA’s lowest end DirectX 11 card, and it’s $100-$129 price tag reflects that.  These cards might not be the most powerful cards out there, but they will not break your wallet so if you are a gamer on a budget this may be the card for you.  Also this card can make a perfect dedicated PhysX card.  Let’s take a look at the GeForce GTS 450 from Sparkle and see how it performs compared to the competition.

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Sparkle Calibre X480 GeForce GTX 480 Video Card Review

Sparkle Calibre X480 GeForce GTX 480 Video Card Review

With the release of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 580 a couple of weeks ago the GTX 480 is no longer the top of the line card offered from NVIDIA, but there are still quite a few different GTX 480’s available and many of the GTX 580’s are still the reference build.  Today we will be looking at the Calibre X480 from Sparkle, which is a GeForce GTX 480 video card that is slightly factory overclocked at 752MHz core (700MHz stock), 1536MB GDDR5 clocked at 3800MHz (3696MHz stock) and 1504MHz shaders (1401MHz stock).  This card is also cooled by the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme VGA cooler to provide you with the best cooling solution possible.  Let’s take a look…

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Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 1GB Video Card Review

Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 1GB Video Card Review

NVIDIA’s current lineup of graphics cards has the top performers like the newly released GTX 580 and the GTX 480 that has been out for some time now.  These cards will give you top of the line performance, but will put a considerable dent in your wallet.  If you are on a budget NVIDIA’s GTS 450 maybe be what you need to get yourself into the DirectX 11 game.  This is NVIDIA’s lowest end DirectX 11 card.  Today we will be looking at the GV-N450-1GI from Gigabyte which does offer a higher clock speed and better cooler than NVIDIA’s reference GTS 450 card.  This card also will not break the bank as it can be found online for around $119.  Let’s take a look…

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Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card Review

Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card Review

AMD’s 6800 Series cards are finally here!  If you have been following the news over the past couple of weeks you know that today AMD will be launching the HD 6870 and HD 6850 graphics cards.  These new cards are in no way a replacement for AMD’s 5800 Series of cards, but more or less a refresh.  They are still built on 40nm, but it seems AMD has focused more on efficiency and some other refinements.  With this refresh AMD hope to put themselves back in the graphics lead if they are not there already.  Today we will be looking at the HD 6850 from our friends at Sapphire.  This card features a clock speed of 775MHz for the core and 1000MHz for the memory.  Let’s check it out!

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