Daily Reviews Summary 10/12/11

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including GIGABYTE A55M-S2V (AMD A55) mATX Motherboard Review, ASUS BW-12B1LT Blu-Ray Burner Internal Drive Review, and ICY DOCK MB981U3-1SA Review

GIGABYTE A55M-S2V (AMD A55) mATX Motherboard Review
TweakTown posted a review on the GIGABYTE A55M-S2V (AMD A55) mATX Motherboard

Since the launch of the A8 and A6 series of APUs from AMD, the motherboards we've looked at have revolved around the A75 chipset. It's a great chipset, offering some great features like SATA III and USB 3.0 support. It seemed like everyone had forgotten about the A55 series chipset, though, which launched at exactly the same time.

Little differs between the two chipsets with the most obvious being that the A55 lacks both SATA III support and USB 3.0 support; instead it opts for only SATA II and USB 2.0 support. But what if you don't have any intention of using a SATA III drive and don't have any USB 3.0 devices? What if instead you want to save some money? In steps the A55 chipset and in this case, in steps GIGABYTE with the A55M-S2V. Sure, we use a SATA III drive for our tests and we use USB 3.0, but those technologies are both backwards compatible.
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Gears of War 3 Review
Vortez posted a review on Gears of War 3

Gears of War 3, takes place some 18 months after the flooding of the Jacinto Plateau on the planet Sera (Gears of War 2). All human survivors took refuge on boats, ships and the island of Vectes in an attempt to rebuild their lives. It is on one of these ships that we find the remnants of the COG Delta Squad who are beginning to succumb to life without war. A touching moment is when we see Dom tending to his plants which is a far-cry from his previous mannerisms! The silence is soon broken however when a transport chopper arrives on the ship with the COG Head of State, Chairman Prescott who hands over a disc which informs Marcus Felix that his father is still alive but a prisoner of the Locust Hive. And so the story is set with the main task being for Marcus and his crew to rescue his father who apparently has the key to end the Immulsion infection once and for all.
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Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM CPU Cooler Review
Hardware Secrets posted a review on the Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM CPU Cooler

The Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM is a huge CPU cooler with a tower heatsink and six heatpipes. It comes with one 120 mm fan, but supports up to two fans.
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Antec Basiq VP350P 350 W Review
techPowerUp posted a review on the Antec Basiq VP350P 350 W

Strictly power is Antec's primary slogan for the new members of their Basiq PSU series, the VPx50P units. As it seems only three things were the main concerns during the design/manufacturing of these PSUs: quality, performance and high price/performance ratio.
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Foxconn nT-A3500 Nettop Review
XSReviews has a new rundown of the Foxconn nT-A3500 Nettop

Today I'm going to be testing Foxconn's latest AMD Fusion Nettop. This kind of product is right up Foxconn's street and I am looking forward to seeing how it pans out. Based on the AMD Fusion platform the Nettop is a low power consumption computer with many uses. I will be finding out whether it's worth its price and whether it would be usable for day to day use.
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Antec High Current Gamer 520 W Power Supply Review
Hardware Secrets posted a review on the Antec High Current Gamer 520 W Power Supply

The Antec High Current Gamer power supply series is comprised of 400 W, 520 W, 620 W, 750 W, and 900 W models, all with 80 Plus Bronze certification, single +12 V rail, and no modular cabling system. Let's take a look at the 520 W model.
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Hitachi Travelstar 7K750-750 750GB SATA II HDD Review
Real World Labs posted a review on the Hitachi Travelstar 7K750-750 750GB SATA II HDD

Although SATA II may not be considered as the latest interface in terms of technological advancement the latest Travelstar 7K750-750 750GB 2.5inch HDD by Hitachi managed to surpass both SATA II and SATA III 2.5inch hard disk drives with relative ease.
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CoolerMaster CM Storm Trooper Premium Gaming Case Review
Futurelooks takes a look at the CoolerMaster CM Storm Trooper Premium Gaming Case

Coolermaster has given the DIY world some really popular computer cases over the last few years. Some of them were visual-gasms to behold such as the ground breaking Cosmos 1000, while some were cavernous like the HAF X gaming chassis. Following in those foot steps is the new CM Storm Trooper gaming case which has been many months in the making and it finally looks like it’s ready for the most demanding DIY users and enthusiasts. This is a premium gaming case bringing back many of the polished features we all love. Let’s see how all these features come together for the CM Storm Trooper![/quote6
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ASUS BW-12B1LT Blu-Ray Burner Internal Drive Review
ThinkComputers.org posted a review on the ASUS BW-12B1LT Blu-Ray Burner Internal Drive

Today we’ll be looking at a Blu-ray burner. Not just any normal looking burner, but one that has some style. Blu-ray discs are certainly becoming more and more popular with every month passing, so is it really worth buying a Blu-ray player for your home theatre or is it more economical to put a Blu-ray burner in your HTPC? Read on further to see if this high end burner will do the trick for you.
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CoolerMaster Storm Xornet Gaming Mouse Review
The SSD Review posted a review on the CoolerMaster Storm Xornet Gaming Mouse

Today The SSD Review takes a close look at the Cooler Master Storm Xormet mouse for the budget minded gamer. The Xornet may be a low end addition to the storm line, but we think you might be surprised at our thoughts on this great little addition to the Cooler Master family. Our review includes videos that, we believe, demonstrates our opinions much better than words alone. A big thumbs up to the Storm Xornet!
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Storage Options miScroll Tablet Review
eTeknix.com posted a review on the Storage Options miScroll Tablet

Tablets have definitely been the talk of the town this year with the release of some big contenders including the iPad 2 from Apple, Motorola's Xoom and the Blackberry Playbook. The downside with the three listed is that they cost an arm and leg to the majority of consumers, but as they do say in this world, you get what you pay for.

Is that really the case though or can you get everything you need for a cheaper price? Storage Options seem to think so with their much cheaper miScroll, which is said to offer a reasonable spec for a fantastic price as well as offering some unique features that even some of the big named brands don't in terms of personalisation. Storage Options believe that the miScroll will be a fantastic product for users wanting to personalise their tablet to their own acquired tastes by changing the back cover to various colours as well as having an interchangeable battery so that you're never faced with your battery running out of power during those vital moments when you really need it most.

Sporting the much loved Android 2.3 operating system, 1GHz ARM11 processor, 256MB DDR2 and built-in 4GB MicroSD card, that's expandable up to 32GB, as well having a variety of connectivity options, the miScroll certainly looks good on paper, considering its price point, b t how will it fair when we get down to the nitty gritty? Let's take a look to see if it really can keep up with the big boys.
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Foxconn nT-A3500 Nettop Review
XSReviews has a new rundown of the Foxconn nT-A3500 Nettop

Today I'm going to be testing Foxconn's latest AMD Fusion Nettop. This kind of product is right up Foxconn's street and I am looking forward to seeing how it pans out. Based on the AMD Fusion platform the Nettop is a low power consumption computer with many uses. I will be finding out whether it's worth its price and whether it would be usable for day to day use.
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ICY DOCK MB981U3-1SA Review
Vortez posted a review on the ICY DOCK MB981U3-1SA

So with this in mind, today we will be taking a look at one of ICY DOCK's latest addition, the MB981U3-1SA. The letters and numbers won't mean much to you but the MB981U3-1SA is a USB 3.0 SATA Docking Station for 2.5 and 3.5" drives and with the ability to support legacy IDE devices via a special adapter. With most motherboards now supporting USB 3.0 and similarly most cases featuring USB 3.0 front panel connectivity the MB981U3-1SA will be desirable because of the faster transfer rates.
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