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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!

Post Tagged with: "SF-2281"

Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB Solid State Drive Review

Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB Solid State Drive Review

Solid State Drives are becoming the more cost effective upgrade to the traditional home computer.  Adding a solid state drive will speed up Windows boot up time, will allow your applications to load faster and make data transfers much easier.  Today we are taking a look at Kingston’s latest solid state drive, the SSDNow V300.  This drive boasts sequential read and write speeds of 450MB/s, which is about 7-10 times faster than your traditional hard drive.  The V300 is also Kingston’s first drive to use Toshiba’s 19nm NAND flash memory.  Kingston is aiming the V300 at consumers who want to get the most for their money.  Read on as we take a look…

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ADATA Premier Pro SP900 128GB Solid State Drive Review

ADATA Premier Pro SP900 128GB Solid State Drive Review

The SandForce SF-2281 controller has been powering many of the solid state drives we have reviewed in the past year or so.  When these drives were first released 28% of the storage capacity was used for over-provisioning.  So if you had a 128GB drive you would actually get 100GB of available space.  Later this 28% was brought down to 7%, now SandForce has released a 0 provision that allows for 0% of the capacity to be used for background activities.  Today we are taking a look at one of the first drives to use this 0 provision, the ADATA Premier Pro SP900.

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Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB Solid State Drive Review

Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB Solid State Drive Review

Solid State Drives are becoming more and more common.  I think I big reason for this is because people realize that they will give them the performance boost that they want when added to their system.  The market seems to be flooded with drives and it is really hard to choose which one to get.  One of the main determining factors to many people is the price.  Kingston’s new HyperX 3K solid state drive is designed to be very inexpensive as it uses cost effective NAND rated for 3000 program / erase cycles.  We will explain what all that means later on in the review.  This drive still sports the very popular SandForce SF-2281 controller and of course the quality you expect from Kingston.  Read on as we check it out!

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Unboxing the Kingston HyperX 3K Solid State Drive

Unboxing the Kingston HyperX 3K Solid State Drive

We have always known Kingston for trying to make products that are affordable. They recently released a new solid state drive in their HyperX line. They are calling this new drive the HyperX 3K, where the 3K stands for the number of program / erase cycles the NAND inside is rated for. The original HyperX drive is rated for 5K program / erase cycles, so this drives is going to be less expensive, about $100 cheaper for the 240GB version. Read on to check out our unboxing & overview video.

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Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review

Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review

When Patriot started to release their SATA 6GB/s solid state drives they started with 2 drives.  The Wildfire that was more on the high-end with Toshiba toggle memory and the Pyro which was the more consumer-focused drive that used asynchronous flash memory.  Now Patriot has the Pyro SE, which will be using Micron 25nm synchronous memory.  Using synchronous memory we should see better performance when it comes to incompressible data.  Today we will be taking the 120GB version through the paces, read on to see how the drive performs.

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Kingston HyperX 240GB Solid State Drive Review

Kingston HyperX 240GB Solid State Drive Review

If you know anything about Kingston you know their HyperX line.  HyperX is the name they give all of their high-end products.  Kingston entered the solid state drive market with the SSDNow series of drives, but it was about time the put the HyperX name on a solid state drive.  The HyperX solid state drive is a SATA 6GB/s drive powered by the SandForce SF-2281 controller, 25nm Intel NAND and boasts speeds of 555MB/s read and 510MB/s write.  Kingston sent us the upgrade kit that includes a USB enclosure, 3.5-inch mounting bracket, SATA data cable, screwdriver and hard drive cloning software.  Let’s take a look…

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Silicon Power Velox Series V30 60GB Solid State Drive Review

Silicon Power Velox Series V30 60GB Solid State Drive Review

Silicon Power is not a name you really think about when you think about solid state drives.  If you did not know Silicon Power was founded in 2003 and they mainly specialize in memory products.  Today we are going to take a look at one of their first SATA 6GB/s drives the Velox Series V30.  This drive is powered by the SandForce SF-2281 controller and boast speeds of 550MB/s read and 500MB/s write.  Let’s check it out!

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OCZ RevoDrive 3 240GB PCI-E Solid State Drive Review

OCZ RevoDrive 3 240GB PCI-E Solid State Drive Review

With all of the SATA 6GB/s drives coming out this year we have really pushed the limits of solid state drives.  Most of the solid state drives we have tested max out at about 550MB/s.  We are not going to see a SATA-connected drive go much faster than that until the next revision of SATA, which will not come for a while.  So if you want to get faster speeds you will either need to RAID your drives or choose a different interface.  OCZ has been at the forefront of PCI-E solid state drive development with the RevoDrive series.  Now on its third version of the drive it is powered by the latest SandForce controller and boasts speed of 1000MB/s read and 900MB/s write!  Let’s take a look at the 240GB version of the drive.

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OCZ Agility 3 240GB Solid State Drive Review

OCZ Agility 3 240GB Solid State Drive Review

OCZ has always been at the top of the list when it comes to solid state drive development.  A little while ago we took at look at their first SATA 6GB/s drive the Vertex 3.  This drive had blazing fast speeds and is considered an enthusiast or even business-level product.  OCZ has brought their ever-popular Agility series solid state drive to the SATA 6GB/s standard.  The Agility 3 is based on the SandForce SF-2281 controller and boasts read speeds of up to 525MB/s and write speeds up to 500MB/s.  Let’s check out this drive and see how it stacks up to the Vertex 3 and other similar drives.

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