Daily Reviews Summary 04/27/12

The Intel Core i5 3570K is part of Intel's Ivy Bridge processor line retailing for $212. The Core i5 3570K is based on 22nm manufacturing technology and uses new 3D-trigate transistors to deliver better performance at a lower TDP than Sandy Bridge based LGA1155 CPUs. Coinciding with the 3rd Generation Core i5 3570K's release are the new Intel Panther Point chipsets which deliver native USB 3.0 and PCI-E 3.0 support to mainstream Intel systems. Equipped with 4 cores/4 threads with 6MB of L3 cache and having a maximum turbo frequency of 3.8GHz, the Intel Core i5 3570K has plenty of processing power for most enthusiast needs.

We review the ECS Z77H2-AX motherboard which screams gold and features. The Z77H2-AX is gold plated everywhere. The changes for Z77 primarily can be found in native USB 3.0 support as well as an upgrade towards PCie gen 3 PCIe x16 slots.

ECS however really pimped out the motherboard with a lot .. seriously LOT of extra's with even embedded WIFI and Bluetooth.

The one storage drive line that has bucked the trend over the years and managed to create noticeable separation between itself and its contenders/pretenders, and that is Western Digitals VelociRaptor line. Prior to SSDs hitting mainstream, the VelociRaptor line, with its 10,000 RPM spindle speed, was the pinnacle of performance and was the defacto choice for anyone that put performance before price. Fast forward to present day, where widespread competition is making SSD drives more and more affordable the VelociRaptor line isnt enjoying the same V.I.P treatment from enthusiasts it once used too. Today we take a look at the new Velociraptor