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ASUS P8 Z68-V/GEN3 Perhaps one of the most daunting tasks after making the decision that you do not wish to purchase an off-the-shelf computer is attempting to figure out which components go in the machine.  There are fun aspects, like the graphics card and processor, and then there are the not-so-fun aspects, like the motherboard (at least in my opinion).  Why do I think it is a whole lot of not fun?  There are so many out there to choose from, with all sorts of features.  When shopping you will likely come across the ASUS board that I am going to review today.  Arguably, it is one of the better all-around boards out there, with features like good integrated graphics and killer sound.  But to a gamer that generally does not mean squat.  Does the ASUS P8 Z68-V/GEN3 board have what it takes to function as a serious gaming component?  Read on to find out!
XFX R7750 Black Edition DD Not everyone is looking to spend $500 on their video card, in some cases that is the total budget for a build. When you are up against a wall trying to pack the best performance you can get into a budget build you still want to get the most performance you can out of your video card. That’s where cards like the XFX R7750 Black Edition Double Dissipation come into play. XFX has taken the styling and cooling from their high end cards and combined it with the price of budget cards like the HD 7750. Today we are going to take a look at how those two things do combined in XFX’s  R7750 Black Edition Double Dissipation.
Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X   Earlier this year when AMD introduced the HD 7770 we took a look at cards from both Sapphire and XFX. Although we were impressed with the cards performance it was a little ill-timed due to AMD still clearing out discounted back stock. Three months later we are able to revisit the situation with today’s release of Sapphires new HD 7770 Vapor-X. With Sapphires Vapor chamber cooling technology along with a nice overclock over the reference design, the Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X could be a great option for a gamer on a limited budget. Let’s take a look.
Motherboard Sizing When we got in a few oddly sized dual CPU motherboards from EVGA and Asus I posted up a few pictures on our forums and on Facebook. The problem was that even though they looked large there wasn’t any prospective. So we tossed in a couple other boards to give everyone a little perspective. This lead us to digging out even more motherboards to put together all of the standard motherboard sizes all together for everyone to be able to see the differences. Along with the picture we also have a breakdown on the dimensions of each size standard; I hope this helps everyone as some point. Sometimes it can be hard to understand all of the different motherboard sizes and how they all relate.
Android to the Maxx, DROID Razr Maxx   The list of different Android based phones available at any time is both overwhelming and frustrating. It’s almost impossible to get good feedback from friends who have the same phone because of this. So it’s rare than you have any one phone that manages to stand out. Doing something different is the only way to do this normally, but most times this ends off coming off as gimmicky or just lame. When Motorola introduced the Droid Razr Maxx it caught my attention right away. This was just before our trip out to San Francisco for the GTX 680 Editors day, what a better way to put the Maxx’s proposed batter life to the test!
Lian Li PC 100 “The Hammer” We have had a few different Lian Li chassis come through the LanOC Offices and there hasn’t been a time that we haven’t been impressed with the new and interesting features Lian Li always seems to slip in. When they wanted to ship over their new case “The Hammer” PC 100, we signed up right away. We had seen the case previewed from a few shows prior and this time around Lian Li took a new perspective with its design, I was very interested to see how their changes worked out. Let’s jump in and see what it’s all about!
Nvidia GTX 670 When Nvidia launched Kepler with the GTX 680 I was impressed with the launch price of the card but even at such a great value it is still out of reach for some people. Just because you can’t afford the top card doesn’t mean you don’t want to experience Kepler’s performance. Of course it was only a matter of time before we saw Nvidia filling in the gaps in their product line, starting first with the GTX 690 then going to the next step down from the GTX 680, the GTX 670. Today we get to have a look to see how the performance compares to both the GTX 680 as well as AMD’s offerings. We are also very curious how it compares to the GTX 580, a card that has found its way into most of our office PC’s.  
ioSafe Rugged Portable So you do the smart thing, you backup your data from your laptop and your home PC to an external or network drive and go on with life feeling confident that you have gone well and above what most people do. For the most part, you did. What about when you’re traveling, have you seen how much abuse a device can take when on the go? For some people, and I know I’m one of them, some of the data you carry with you while traveling is more important than the laptop or device that you actually carry it on. In that situation you need a way to not have to worry about your data, no matter the situation, and to have a guarantee to back it up as well. The folks over at ioSafe focus specifically on this crowd. Not only do they offer products that are according to them build to handle almost anything, but they back it up with data recovery if something does happen.  Today we are going to take a look at that Rugged Portable hard drive to see what all of the fuss is about, without any more buildup, let’s dig in.  
Cooler Master Storm Trigger Just two years ago the only mechanical keyboards you would find were from companies like DAS keyboard trying to create a nitch market. Over the past two years things have really exploded with every manufacture you can think of introducing their own mechanical keyboards. Cooler Master has been especially aggressive with multiple unique designs like their Quickfire series. What they did lack was a full featured mechanical keyboard with full backlighting, until now. Today they officially introduce their Storm Trigger, although it you look around the board was available Globally before now. With full backlighting it falls into a small category of Mechanical Keyboards with very little competition. I am excited to see how it performs.
Cooler Master HAF XM The topic of cleaning your computer out came up last week on our forums and it got me thinking about how often I really need to clean out my computer. As it turns out it’s not very often anymore. All because of improvements in case design like fan filters. You don’t really see them on low end cases yet but they have been slowly trickling down. At CES this year we had a chance to get our hands on one of Cooler Master’s upcoming chassis, the HAF XM. A mid-range case packed with the features we have come to love from their high end HAF line. Today we are going to dig into the final product and see how it came out.
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Z77 boards come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and prices. Just about every manufacture has a whole lineup of boards covering the whole range to make sure you can find what you are looking for. Gigabyte is no different; they have a whole selection of boards that will fit your needs. Today we are taking a look at their Z77X-UD3H, one of their budget boards. It may not be a high end board but it is still packed with features. I am curious how it will perform now that the cat is out of the bag with Ivy Bridge. Let’s jump in and see what it’s all about.
Intel DZ77GA-70K Now that Intel has opened up the flood gates with Ivy Bridge we can finally take a full look at their latest chipset including testing with the i7-3770. When combining the two we get the latest CPU with the latest chipset and a load of new features. You can now take advantage of PCIe 3.0 along with USB 3.0 integrated into the chipset. We were very impressed with the DZ77GA-70K when we first took a look at it, let’s finally see how it performs!  

Shattered Horizon Releases Dedicated Servers

HELSINKI, FINLAND – December 3, 2009 – Futuremark® Games Studio today released the dedicated server for Shattered Horizon™, their multiplayer first-person shooter played in zero gravity. With dedicated servers PC gamers can choose how they want to play Shattered Horizon and who they want to play with, giving them greater protection from cheats, hackers and griefers and more control over the game’s settings. http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/



The release of the dedicated server was accompanied by a minor game update and a new bundle offer from the Futuremark Store that includes Shattered Horizon and 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition (Futuremark’s DirectX 10 gaming benchmark) together for only $29.95 / €24.95. http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/buynow/

"PC gamers expect dedicated servers in a multiplayer game," said Jaakko Haapasalo, producer. "We have been working closely with selected hosting partners to ensure that the Shattered Horizon dedicated server includes the features that are most important to our community."

Dedicated server features
- GUI for creating custom level rotations, game settings and player limits.
- Custom server name, graphic and information URL.
- Optional password protection for private matches.
- Remote admin console accessible within Shattered Horizon game client.
- Configurable auto-team balancing.
- Configurable auto-kick / ban for team-killers and high-ping connections.
- Built-in anti-cheat detection with configurable auto-kick / ban.
- Admin manual kick / ban.
- Support for VAC.
- Registered servers can submit player stats and achievements to the official leaderboards (registration is optional and free).
- LAN game support.
- Supported operating systems: Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Note, DirectX 10 is not required for running a Shattered Horizon server.

Players and server hosting companies can download the Shattered Horizon server files now from the "Tools" tab within Steam.

Shattered Horizon Update 1.0.3.6
The release of the server is accompanied by a minor game update.
- HUD: Ammo count is no longer shown in scoped mode when running silent.
- HUD: When a player tries to capture a control point that is blocked by an enemy player the word "Blocked" will appear on the HUD.
- HUD: Chat is now enabled during silent running or while EMPed.
- Network protocol updated to support new server features.
- Added console for remote server control.
- Added "rules" section to in-game server browser, so players can choose servers with or without friendly fire or team auto-balancing for example.
- Server disconnect messages now include more information about the reason for disconnection for example, kicked for cheating, team-killing or high ping.
- Bug fix: Improved error handling during start-up logo videos.

About Shattered Horizon
Shattered Horizon is the innovative first game from Futuremark Games Studio that immerses you in the cold reality of zero gravity combat in space.
- Multiplayer first-person shooter set in near-Earth space 40 years from now.
- Experience intense zero gravity combat and complete freedom of movement. Use your rocket pack to fly freely through space then land on any surface.
- Join your friends in action-packed 32 player battles fighting to control hollowed-out asteroids, huge fragments of Moon rock and the ruined remains of the International Space Station.
- Four more levels coming soon in the free Moonrise content pack.

Shattered Horizon requires DirectX 10, a DirectX 10 compatible video card, and Windows Vista or Windows 7. There is no support for Windows XP or DirectX 9. Suggested retail price: €19.95 / $19.95 / £14.95 Available now from Steam and the official website: http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/buynow

New offer from the Futuremark Store: Shattered Horizon + 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition value pack only $29.95 / €24.95 http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/buynow/

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