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.
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.
Welcome back to Wednesday. It has been a couple of trying weeks in the auto racing industry. But onto good news, Battlefield 3 is out, I have been having a load of fun with Orcs Must Die, there are two Midweek Madness games on sale, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is out, and Left Field is becoming a regular edition to Gaming News. Grab your favorite energy drink and some LN2. It’s Gaming News time.
Battlefield 3 came down the intertubes last night. I played the Alpha and also the Beta and I did have fun with it. Still I am not sold on the whole “Origin” idea. It seems as if EA just wants to control everything ala Apple. I am more of a Steam fan as everyone knows. But beyond that the game is out. Go now and download it now. The team over at [H]ardOCP has done a quick performance review of the game that you should take a look at to see where your PC is going to perform. Also, be sure and watch this thread, thanks Dreyvas, for LanOC'ers to add on Battlelog. Thanks to the team over at [H]ardOCP for the link.
Orcs Must Die:
I think I may have found my new crack. Defense Grid has been my go-to-game for the last year now. It’s so easy to play but so hard to master. If you like Tower Defense games and Third Person shooters then this your game. Picking off headshots on enemies that are halfway across the map is more rewarding than in other games. A massive “Headshot” icon comes across your screen letting you know that you are the king of crossbow.
The game runs great with awesome frame rates. On the LanBox it easily pulls over 100fps on max settings. The graphical detail is also top notch. The way Orcs die in packs in great. From flying through the air, getting impaled on spikes or getting shot from arrows all of the animations are funny and have a fluid motion to them.
I really can’t say enough good things about Orcs Must Die. From great strategy sections to awesome shooting elements to upgrading your skills I can see myself playing this game for months to come. Not to bad for $15! Also released today was the Artifacts of Power DLC. This adds two more weapons and two more traps for you to punish those naughty Orcs. The DLC is on sale right now for $1.99 until Novemeber 1st.
Midweek Madness 1:
Who doesn’t like the 80’s? The Back To The Future Trilogy has always been one of my favorites as movies go. With the release of the video game you can continue your adventure of Marty and Doc. Pick it up this week for 60% off for $10.
Midweek Madness 2:
In need of a El Cheapo racing game this week? Check out GRID for 75% off. From the same studio that brought you Dirt, GRID is an easy pick up and play game. Even better is the price! Can you say $3.74 for a full fledged racing sim? That is a no-brainer. Remember though all Midweek Madness sales end on Thursdays at 7pm EST.
Serious Sam: The Random Encounter:
Looking for a tie over until BFE? Check out the newest Serious Sam. With a side scrolling perspective this one is just begging for your $4.49. There is no demo but for only $5 its not that big of a risk. Check it out today before the price goes back up.
Left Field:
If you haven’t noticed by now I like to post some strange/weird stuff in Left Field. It’s supposed to be a rant/off the wall news section. From now on I am going to include it in every Gaming News.
Samsung and Google had their big event last week about the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich. If you are an Android user, this is what we have been waiting for. A new font, Face Unlock and new resizable widgets. What really grinds my gears is that most Android phones have to have carrier approval before your handset gets the newest OS. Most phones don’t even get updated. For the last ten months I have been using the Nexus S. I will not be going to back to any other phone again. With the Nexus phones you get the latest OS and the fastest updates. The carriers don’t play a role in the OS approval process. Everything is controlled by Google. What that means is your Nexus phone is always going to be up to date and that is what you want. Not having to deal with the carriers messing around with bloatware on phones is the big reason that I changed from an HTC EVO 4g to the Nexus S.
Picked up a SteelSeries Sensei mouse this weekend and I have been getting used to it all week. Mice are very finicky for me. Either I love them at first touch or I hate them. I can say after reading Wes’s review that I am really coming around on this one. The grip is right and it weighs nothing. Gonna give it a couple more weeks to see if it really will replace my Logitech G500 but so far it seems that it will.
Anyone else a fan of the NFL this season? My Colts are embarrassing but the streak couldn’t last forever. It seems that every Sunday at least four of the games come down to the wire. Couldn’t be a better time to be a fan of the NFL.
In some very sad news we lost another racer. For those of you that don’t know what MotoGP is you need to look it up. The racing is very close and the bikes are on the verge of insanity. On Sunday rider Marco Simoncelli lost his life in a terrible crash. No matter what type of racing it is we always have heavy hearts at work when something like this happens. It’s just so sad to lose two great people in a short amount of time. Thoughts go out to his family. We are thinking about you in the USA.
New AMD and Nvidia drivers are out now for your downloading pleasure. Make sure to update these ASAP as they improve Battlefield 3.
It looks like my Galaxy Tab 8.9 is going back. I really do like the device but for me a laptop just works better. Flash is still a big problem as it doesn’t work like it does on a PC. Sucks too, I enjoyed what the device had to offer but with the Galaxy Nexus coming out in a few weeks I would rather have a new phone than something that I use every once in awhile. If you are in the market for a tablet I would take a look at the 8.9. The device feels good in the hands and the performance is top notch.
Is anyone else excited about the X79 platform? The screenshots of the newest board offerings look crazy. If you are a true multi-tasker say goodbye to low amounts of RAM. With some of the new boards 8 DIMM slots will make your workload cry. Can’t wait to see how much upgrading will be and if it will even be worth it.
The newest FRAPS is out now. Version 3.4.7 is the newest build and has some hotfixes the biggest one being “Increased video capture performance at high resolutions”. I know not everyone plays on three monitors but not everyone plays on CRT’s either. Go ahead and download it today and check it out. I know that our staff uses it all the time and so should you.
The new Steve Jobs book released on Monday. If you where a Jobs fan then I encourage you to give it a read.
GTA V was announced yesterday. Look for the reveal trailer here on November 2nd. I miss running over hookers and pimps. Maybe, just maybe i’ll pick this one up. I just can’t seem to get into these games I always get distracted and end up just screwing around for hours on end. Then get mad because I have done nothing with progressing the story.
For those of you still on XP WTF is wrong with you? Windows 7 is what you should be running, but just for today you can say happy birthday to your XP machine. Just remember to give that old dog of a machine a cake. XP is 10 years old!
Nokia World is this week also. Hats off to L0rdG1gabyt3 for the scoop. For everyone that likes Windows Phone make sure and check in on this. Gotta love that Nokia 800, slick looking phone if I do say so myself.
Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Wingless is out!
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