With a light dusting snow outside we can hardly call this winter here in Ohio. We are nearly to spring with only a couple small snow storms that show us that it’s even winter.  This year has been one of the most interesting years for weather. Here are the reviews from our affiliates for the first half of the week this week.

Motherboards

GIGABYTE GA-X79-UD7 Motherboard Review  @ Legit Reviews

MSI Z68A-GD65G3 Motherboard @ Rbmods

ASRock X79 Extreme6/GB Motherboard @ Hardware Secrets

CPU’s

Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Processor Review @ Legit Reviews

Cases

BitFenix Raider Mid-Tower

Antec Eleven Hundred Review @ Neoseeker

NZXT Switch 810 White Case Review @ Legit Reviews

NZXT Phantom 410 Case @ TechwareLabs

Antec P280 Super Mid Tower Case Review @ Bigbruin.com

BitFenix Raider ATX case Review @ XtremeComputing

Xigmatek Midgard II Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Cooler Master Cosmos II @ techPowerUp

Antec ONE Preview @ techPowerUp

Rosewill Thor V2 Full Tower Computer Case Review

Fractal Design Define XL Computer Case Review @ Benchmark Review

Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Full Tower Case Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Cooler Master Silencio 450 Mid-Tower Case Review @ Hi Tech Legion

Raidmax Viper Case @ TechwareLabs

Antec Three Hundred Two Case Review @ Hardware Secrets

Video Cards

Sapphire VID-2X Review @ OCC

ASUS GTX 560Ti 448 Cores DirectCU II 1280MB Video Card Review @ Hi Tech Legion

HIS Radeon HD7970 3GB Review @ Vortez

AMD Radeon HD 7950 CrossFire & TriFire Review @ Neoseeker

Club 3D SenseVision CSV-2000D USB to DVI Graphics Adapter Review @ eTeknix.com

AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card Overclocked

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB OC Video Card in CrossFire

Memory

G.Skill Ripjaws Z 2133CL9Q-16GBZH Memory Kit Review @ Madshrimps

Patriot Memory Division IV Viper Extreme 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Quad Channel Memory Kit

Kingston HyperX Limited Edition DDR3-1600 4GB Dual Channel Memory Kit Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Mushkin Blackline PC3-17000 (994015) 16GB Quad Pack Memory Kit Review @ Hi Tech Legion

Input Devices

ROCCAT Isku Illuminating Gaming Keyboard Review @ HardwareLOOK

Corsair Vengeance M90 Performance Laser Gaming Mouse Review @ Madshrimps

Cyborg GLIDE 7 Gaming Surface Review @ eTeknix.com

ROCCAT Alumic Mouse Pad @ techPowerUp

Audio

Phonak Aud PFE232 +mic In-ear Headset @ techPowerUp

ROCCAT Kave 5.1 Headset Review @ Hi Tech Legion

Microlab M700 2.1 speakers Review - XSReviews

Network

Synology DiskStation DS212 2-Bay NAS Server Review @ Bigbruin.com

Synology DS-212 Two-Bay NAS Review @ Tweaknews

Storage

Diablotek SSD to USB 3.0 SATA Adapter @ TechwareLabs

OCZ Synapse Cache 64GB SSD Review@ HardwareLOOK

Intel 520 SSD Review (Round Two) - RAID Testing at 1.5GB/s With Highpoint 2720SGL RAID Controller

Intel 520 Series 240GB Solid State Drive Review @ eTeknix.com

OCZ Technology Octane 128GB Solid State Drive

OCZ Synapse Cache 64GB Solid State Drive Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Meet Intel's Cherryville: 520 Series 240GB SSD Review @ Techgage

Intel SSD 520 Series 240 GB Solid State Drive Review @ Hardware Secrets

Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB Retail Solid State Drive Bundle Review

Intel 520 Series 240GB Review @ OCC

Intel SSD 520 Series Solid State Drive @ Benchmark Reviews

Intel's 520 Series solid-state drive

Intel 520 'Cherryville' Series 240GB SSD Review in RAID 0 @ Legit Reviews

Intel 520 240GB SSD Review (Round One) - Intel Releases Amazing SATA 3 SandForce Driven SSD

Intel SSD 520 Series Solid State Drive Review @ HotHardware.com

Samsung's 830 Series solid-state drive

MyDigitalSSD 'Bullet Proof' 128GB mSATA SATA 2 SSD Review

Seagate Barracuda 3 TB Hard Drive Review @ Hardware Secrets

SSD performance scaling across the spectrum

Corsair Performance Series Pro 128GB Solid State Drive Review

Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 Thumb Drive Review

Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 120GB SATA III SSD (Upgrade Bundle Kit) Review

Cooling

Alpenföhn K2 CPU Cooler Review @ Vortez

Cooler Master Gemin II Review - XSReviews

Kingwin 120mm Fan Review @ OCC

Xigmatek Prime SD1484 Review @ OCC

Noctua NF-F12 Focused Flow Fan Review @ Ninjalane

SilenX Effizio EFZ-120HA5 CPU Cooler Review

Cooler Master GeminII M4 CPU Cooler Review @ Madshrimps

Prolimatech Genesis CPU Cooler @ TechwareLabs

Enermax ETS-T40-VD CPU Cooler Review @ eTeknix.com

Gaming

Unstoppable Gorg Review - The Aliens Are Coming! @ Techgage

Need For Speed: The Run PC Review @ eTeknix.com

Systems

Razer Blade 17.3-inch LED Gaming Laptop Initial Impressions Preview

Scan 3XS FT03 ROG SLI System Review @ Vortez

Razer Blade Switchblade User Interface Panel Hands-on

Other

NEC MultiSync EA273WM-BK 27-inch LED Monitor Review @ HotHardware.com

Asus BW-12B1LT Internal 12X Blu-Ray Writer Review @ Tweaknews

Vaja Libretto Limited Edition iPad 2 Case Review @ Madshrimps

Tt eSPORTS Battle Dragon Bag Review

AC Ryan Veolo @ techPowerUp

ARCTIC MC001-BD Review @ Vortez

Contests

Corsair Vengeance M60 FPS Gaming Mouse Contest @ Legit Reviews

Twinsburg, OH – February 6th, 2012 AVADirect, a leading provider of custom notebooks, is the first to offer Clevo's P270WM mobile gaming notebook.

The future is here, and AVADirect is readily expanding its offerings with hardware to prepare for it. For those who need ultimate performance on the go, AVADirect can feed your need for mobile speed with the Clevo P270WM. Based off of the Intel X79 chipset and Sandy Bridge-E processors, end-users can expect performance increases as much as 35-50 percent while keeping current and ahead of the curve for their much needed productivity, efficiency, and entertainment. Promising new features give the Clevo P270WM a name and reputation that is surely to leave a lasting impression for those who have it at their fingertips. The industry rookie, relative to age rather than experience, has no limits to its depth of functionality.

The P270WM's design shapes the ground we stand on by creating new standards for mobile desktop replacements. The revolutionary X79-fueled P270WM, being the successor of the world renowned Clevo X7200, supports all of the functionality provided by its older brother. Three 9.5 inch hard drives, with optional RAID, two USB 3.0 ports, SLI support, HD LED screen, HDMI 1.4a support, and the recently re-designed express card slot for third-party expansion are still key features of the newly offered Clevo P270WM Gaming Notebook.

The Nvidia GTX 580M 2GB comes standard in the Clevo P270WM and offers SLI support for gaming duality. The GPU offers 384 CUDA cores, or 768 when in SLI. Furthermore, the victor of desktop replacements offers the Quadro 5010M 4GB for the elitist AutoCAD or developing engineer. Combined with the support of Quad-channel DDR3 SODIMM RAM and speeds up to 1866Mhz, creating a configuration suitable for your tasks is as simple as a few clicks on AVADirect's website. The board features a total of four SODIMM slots expandable up to 32GB. The P270WM includes full 3D support, which has never been provided in a desktop replacement until now. End-users will more importantly be interested in the first-ever backlit keyboard integrated in the P270WM notebook. Clevo has not received outstanding remarks in the past for their lack of aesthetically pleasing designs, but a backlit keyboard changes everything enthusiasts have grown to know about Clevo's design.

AVADirect will begin to accept pre-orders for the X79 high-end gaming notebook as of today. The base price starts at around $3000.00 and will feature the Intel core i7 3930K, GTX 580M 2B, 4GB of DDR3 RAM at 1333Mhz, 750GB 7200RPM hard disk, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

About Us
AVADirect is a privately owned custom computer manufacturer based in Twinsburg, Ohio, (within close proximity to Cleveland) specializing in the design, engineering and manufacturing of personalized high performance computer systems. The systems span the spectrum from Windows or Linux manageable and highly-reliable servers, to high-end workstations and gaming systems, to business PC’s, notebooks and barebones systems and parts, focused on the commitment to meet the everyday demands of the marketplace, while creating a footprint within the industry. 

Earlier this month Star Trek: Online went the Free To Play model, meaning anyone can have their own starship and participate in one of the best science fiction franchises of all time! Why is that significant to this article?  It is significant because I am a Trekkie. I openly admit it. When HornetTek contacted us to do some reviews on their products, this product definitely caught my eye for two reasons. One, I like hard drive enclosures and external storage solutions. Two, it is named "Enterprise". There is even a glimpse of the good 'ole 1701 on HornetTek's website.

The question is; is the HornetTek Enterprise 4X an enterprise-level device that performs like the Federation flagship would, or is it just as useful as a self-sealing stem bolt? Read on to find out!

Hoping to show off the differences between their Momentus Hybrid drives Vs. SSD's, Seagate sent over this Infograph. I thought it had a few good points. As you guys know I have been saying that Hybrid drives will be the most popular drive in the future for mainstream PC's and Laptops. 

This is a different review then what we have done in the past on the website, but change is good. I was provided with a LELO Lyla, a premium egg-like couple's massager with SenseMotion. SenseMotion is a technology where bluetooth signal is used in a wireless remote and the pleasure object varies depending on the set. This item is an awesome couple's toy which everyone should experience.

With AMD’s new HD 7970’s rocking the boat slightly with both price and performance it’s about time we started to see the slow trickle of GPU’s that will fill in the rest of the HD 7000 series video cards. First on the list is the HD 7950, a card that a lot of people have been waiting for because of the high price of the HD 7970. There is no doubt that it’s not going to outperform the HD 7970, but how will this new card compare to the GTX 580? Today I’m not taking a look at a reference card, we have skipped directly to the XFX Double Dissipation Black Edition Overclocked version, similar in design to what we saw with their R7970.

I recently posted up our HD 7970 crossfire results. AMD released their 8.921.2 RC11 driver update the same day as our last post. Here are updated graphs showing the crossfire performance with the new drivers. I still experienced flashing and artifacts when in game water was in view and our test bench would have odd lockups when left sitting idle for a while. The performance increases with the new drivers are impressive, I hope they work out the rest of the bugs. Two HD 7970's is the best performance you can get currently (short of adding even more cards, lol) but without the driver support its going to be a tough sell. 

Everyone and their mom have jumped into the mechanical keyboard party over the past year. Typically each of the keyboards has a fairly standard layout with a few small differences to help them stand out. When we saw Cooler Master’s new offering I was excited to see something a little different. If you have ever seen a Filco keyboard this may look familiar. The new Cooler Master QuickFire Rapid is a compact keyboard without a number fad for those looking for something that doesn’t take up very much room on your desk. Sounds like a perfect keyboard for going to LAN’s doesn’t it? We thought so, let’s take a look.

I have been waiting for this anouncment for a LONG time. Today Steam introduced their mobile app for iOS and Android. With the app you can chat with your steam friends and buy steam games. That means no missing out on sales because your away from your PC. We should be taking a closer look at the app here soon to see what else its capable of doing, stay tuned!

It should also be noted this is still in beta. The only way to sign up is to download and try to sign in. Some people will get to try it right away, others will have to wait a little longer

http://store.steampowered.com/mobile

When looking at cases for your next build, there are several ways that you can go.  On the high end, you have a plethora of options and can spend hundreds of dollars on one.  Then, there is the middle-of-the-road good quality case.  For a budget build, there are is also a litany of options.  When looking at a budget case there are some sacrifices that you make for the sake of price.  Today we are looking at the MSI Raptor case, a budget case with some interesting options.  Does this case’s unique options make up for the shortcomings of being a budget case, or is this another case you should skip even on a budget build?  Let’s put it through its paces and find out.

www.pcgamer.com/2012/01/25/blizzcon-2012...will-return-in-2013/

Blizzard have announced that their massive annual convention won’t be happening this year. Instead, they’ll be devoting more time to finishing their many projects. “In light of our jam-packed schedule, we’ve decided to hold the next BlizzCon in 2013,” Blizzard say in a statement on Battle.net, mentioning that they’re currently “heavily focused on getting Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria, and Heart of the Swarm into players’ hands as soon as possible.”

With the release of the Meka G Unit, the keyboard category has the most players in Thermaltake's eSports line. The G Unit itself is the third reincarnation of the Meka family, featuring mechanical switches among other gaming enthusiast features. The professional gaming market has never been hotter, nor more demanding. Let's see how Thermaltake handles the heat.