Our Most Recent Reviews

Asus Z77 Roundup When doing all of our Ivy Bridge launch prep we spent a LOT of time benchmarking and testing a whole collection of boards. You guys have seen our reviews of the Intel and Gigabyte boards. When it came time to write about the four different Asus Z77 boards I realized that most of you are not going to want to read through a lot of information that we would cover over and over on each review. We decided to roundup all four of the boards and cover them together. This way we can get to the point a little quicker, saving you time, as well as giving us a chance to talk more about the differences between the variety of boards that we tested.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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LanOC Reviews and News

Gaming News PSA

Who's ready for some Super Monday Night Combat? It's ready for you. Download it now on Steam.

LanOC Gaming News 4/4/2012

gamingnews2 Wednesday is back again folks. After a week off after having the stomach flu on the way home from the LAN, I am ready to rock. We are having a special event on Friday afternoon. At 1pm EST I will be live on Twitch.tv streaming. Please tune in to get the big news. I still can’t say anything because of the NDA but it’s big and I think everyone will enjoy it. Microsoft Flight is now on the Steam store, Midweek Madness sales are here again, any Star Wars fans out there? The new Star Wars Xbox 360 bundle is out along with Star Wars Kinect and left field at the end. Grab your favorite webcam and let the streaming begin, Gaming News starts...NOW!

LanOC Gaming News 3/21/2012

gamingnews2 Welcome to Wednesday everyone! Only a couple more days till LanOC V10. Its right around the corner. Until then though we have Gaming News. Alan Wake received an update, Binary Domain is up for pre-order on Steam, two Midweek Madness games are on sale this week and a laundry basket full of news a the end. Strap yourselves in, Gaming News is a go.

Blizzard announces Diablo 3 Date

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/15/diablo-3-release-date-set-for-may-15/

Blizzard finally announced the launch date for Diablo 3 for those of you who have been waiting for years. May 15th is the day. Be sure to go ahead and put in for your vacation time now. Until then you can even pre-order on battle.net if you would like

https://eu.battle.net/account/activation/landing.html?product=D3

LanOC Gaming News 3/7/2012

gamingnews2 How’s everyone’s week going? Good I hope. Wednesday is here and that means Gaming News. This week, we have the Midweek Madness sale, Stacking is out on Steam, backlash on Metacritic over Mass Effect 3 and Left Field at the end. Get your F5 key ready, the iPad announcement is today but Gaming News starts now.

Spirit Tales Closed Beta

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- (March 1, 2012) -- KoramGame Ltd., a leading developer and publisher of free-to-play online games, announced today that the closed beta test phase for Spirit Tales, a cute 3D fantasyMMORPG developed by X-Legend, will launch on March 15. Players may register at the official Spirit Tales official Spirit Taleswebsite and the company has also partnered with several gaming websites to distribute beta keys with in-game prizes.

With an extensive character customization and progression system, as well as in-depth pet capture andtraining, Spirit Tales offers unlimited possibilities for players to interact with the world. Its unique horizonview adds a refreshing perspective on the vast and whimsical environment, drawing extra attention to characters channeling their Spirit Form ability.

"We want players to be immersed in the world of Spirit Tales," says Yann Wang, General Manager. "To that end, we integrated a wide range of customization options so that players can feel like their characters are truly one of a kind."

In Spirit Tales, players will embark upon a journey across a colorful fantasy world, battling fierce creatures and capturing magical pets to call their own. Unlock a character's Spirit Form to unleash devastating attacks on monsters or opponents during exciting PvP (Player vs. Player) battles. With six unique character classes to choose from and over 40 million customization combinations, Spirit Tales is designed to offer players a high degree of in-game freedom and an "Epically Cute, Massively Fun" online gaming experience.

For updates and contest giveaways visit Spirit Tales on Facebook: Spirit Tales Facebook Page

Spirit Tales will be available in North America and Europe.

LanOC Gaming News 2/29/2012

gamingnews2 Welcome to the 29th of February everyone. That’s right, Leap Year! We get an extra day of gaming this year for being good, or something like that. First off is a small preview of Super Monday Night Combat Invitational since I can now talk about it, we have the Midweek Madness sale and news at the end. Get your game faces on. Gaming News is here.

Mass Effect 3 contest

Here’s your chance to show off your knowledge on all things Mass Effect. All you have to do is complete the five Mass Effect 3-based trivia questions for your chance to win. Just for participating, you’ll get access to an exclusive Mass Effect 3 digital asset. There’s a new one each week, so keep playing! Plus, you can win awesome prizes like graphics cards—or even a complete gaming rig. Make the right choice. Enter today and gear up for victory!

Week 1 is now over, but Week 2 just started!

Week 1 prizing: Zotac 560 Ti, 570 and 580 (1 winner each) Complete

Week 2 prizing: 3 GTX 570 (1 winner each)

Week 2 Grand Prize: A MAINGEAR gaming PC valued at over 3K!

Mass Effect 3 Trivia Sweepstakes Global Landing Page:

http://www.geforce.com/LandingPage/me3-sweeps

Mass Effect 3 Trivia Sweepstakes US Contest Page:

http://www.geforce.com/LandingPage/mass-effect-3-sweepstakes

Gaming News PSA

Borderlands 2

I know many of you are Borderlands fans. Good news everyone. We have a launch trailer that came out today. Borderlands 2 anyone? Hopefully this will be just as good as the first. Can anyone say "MORE GUNS"?

LanOC Gaming News 2/22/2012

gamingnews2 Wednesday is back and that means its time for Gaming News. Nvidia has a new GPU driver out this week, Cities XL 2012 is the Midweek Madness sale, Alan Wake has made its money back in 48 hours, is SLi broken in Alan Wake? LAN support has been confirmed for DOTA 2 and Gaming Nights are back! Update that tired old computer, Gaming News is ready!