While at our meeting with Plextor at CES Las Vegas 2013, we had a conversation with respect to how TSSDR and Plextor could better serve the consumer in forming a bit tighter of a relationship with respect to upcoming product release.

In this conversation, the fact that we had yet to review the Plextor M5 Pro came up and we had to admit that this SSD had completely slipped our mind.

No sooner did we mention that we would love to review the M5 Pro than it was sent, in fact, hitting the ground at our office even before our return. Our SSD analysis today will take a close look at the Plextor M5 Pro SATA 3 256GB SSD, an SSD capable of over 500MB/s transfer speeds and 100,000 IOPS.

Mechanical keyboards are high demand these days as more and more people have realized how nice they are to game on with their quick response time and keys.
Today we are going to review the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate mechanical keyboard, it will be tested in various situations and also see if it is better than the competition that we have tested in the past.

Before current generation consoles were even conceived, PC gamers and enthusiasts have been able to enjoy the benefits that headsets offer. In recent years XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 users are now also able to enjoy those same benefits. Today Benchmark Reviews will be taking a look at the TRITTON Pro+ True 5.1 Surround Sound Headset from Mad Catz. The TRITTON Pro+ is compatible with PlayStation 3, XBOX 360 and PC (Europe) via an optional cable.

The TRITTON Pro+ boasts true Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound via eight individual neodymium drivers - four in each earcup (Front, Center, Surround, Subwoofer) - each with independent volume control. Visually speaking there isn't much that separates the Pro+ from the rest of the TRITTON range of headsets; it's all about what's inside, so let's find out more.

In 2012, Western Digital made changes to both its product-line naming schemes and also how it presents itself as a company. Changes so small, so subtle, that even I didn’t clue in until long after the fact.

For starters, when talking about the company’s products, “WD” is now preferred over “Western Digital” – the latter is instead designated for corporate stuffs. Remember the names “Caviar” and “Scorpio”? They’re a thing of the past. While at the start of 2012, we would have presented a review to the effect of “Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB”, appropriate naming today would be “WD Green 2TB”.

Even the company’s enterprise offerings have been affected. The drive we’re looking at today for example, is the “WD RE”. Had it been released a year ago, it would have no doubt carried the name of “RE 5″. Whatever WD’s goals are with these changes, they emphasize the need to keep specific model names (eg: WD4000FYYZ) in mind when on the lookout for a new drive. You wouldn’t rush out and buy a Toyota Corolla without knowing the year, would you?

OtterBox has traditionally sent over retail boxed versions of their cases for evaluation but this time around, we received a special "complementary sample" box that contained two different cases. It's worth pointing out that the actual cases are identical to what you'd buy at your local store - the only difference here is the packaging.

That is why it is important to recognize our strengths and weaknesses and realistically assess what we are capable of, especially if you plan to audition for American Idol for instance. When it comes to choosing components from your PC, you have to factor in the price-to-performance ratio and factor in whether you could live with choosing a more affordable component with less of the features you do not need. In terms of SSDs, Asynchronous MLC NAND variants offered the speed advantage on SandForce based drives without paying the premium for synchronous MLC NAND drive models. This however, raised the question of compressible vs. incompressible data for practical real world use and whether the penalty was worth it.

OCZ’s Agility 4 uses the Indilinx-infused Everest 2 platform, similar to the Vertex 4. The Agility 4 drive however, uses asynchronous MLC NAND so that it may be offered at a lower price point in comparison to the Vertex 4. Available in capacities ranging from 64GB to 512GB, the OCZ Agility 4 is a cost-effective SATA III solution that could fit any budget. The OCZ Agility 4 offers TRIM support, access latencies as low as 0.02ms and up to 85,000 random 4K write IOPS. The move toward Indilinx controller technology worked well for the Vertex 4 and OCZ wants to show that the Everest 2 platform could deliver a balanced performance in the Agility 4 despite using asynchronous NAND compared to the previous generation SandForce based drives.

�The i7 2600K at 4.4 GHz with 1.35 volts pumping through it is not a cool CPU and can easily overwhelm coolers that aren't up to the job. Even at idle, the coolers start to separate themselves by their relative performance, since all power-saving measures are disabled. Once I fired up Prime95, it became obvious which coolers could handle the heat and which could not. The new Water 2.0 Extreme matches the performance of the Corsair H100, albeit with less noise. Just behind the water coolers and ahead of the rest of the field, is the surprisingly good DEEPCOOL Neptwin. The TPC 812 and Ice Blade Pro V2.0 are on even ground here, but have jumped into the uncomfortable 80+C range that many wish to avoid like the plague. Again, trailing the rear of the pack is the NH-L12 low-profile cooler that just can't handle the heat that the 2600K can dish out at these speeds and voltages. It isn't quite in to dangerous territory, but at 87C in a relatively cool room, it is a lot higher than I'd like my CPU to be sitting for extended periods of time.

Microsoft set the standard for Windows RT-based hardware, but is there still room for partners to sell compelling alternatives? We take our first Qualcomm-powered Windows RT tablet for a spin to determine if Samsung's ATIV Tab is worth waiting for.

Lauren from TastyPC.tv takes a look at the Fractal Design Define XL R2 for HardwareHeaven, building a complete water-cooled system inside.

The 840 Pro SSD is Samsung's current flagship solid state drive. It comes with increased performance and better steady state long-time endurance. We pit the 840 Pro against ten other SSDs, including the OCZ Vector.

Designed for overclocking, usage of high grade military components and extreme durability are a few of the slogans the marketing people like to use to label a new product. The catchier the better, all of course to draw the attention of any potential buyer. Sometimes it's only the inclusion of an overclocking tool on the included driver CD that makes up for some of the bold PR claims. However for the enthusiast crowd almost each motherboard manufacturer has got a board or even an entire lineup specifically built with the highest quality components, OC friendly BIOSes and idem ditto board layouts. Sadly most of them boards retail at a steep price, as most OC designed boards are at the top of the lineup. Prices of over 350 dollars are quite common for an ATX format OC board. The Big Bang series are available already since the release of Intel's P55 chipset, MSI's range that are targeting gamers and enthusiasts. The Intel Z77 chipset based version is baptized as the BIG BANG Z77 MPOWER. Time to find out how this board reacts to the treatment at the Shrimps lab

In days gone by, it was rare to see PC gamers sitting anywhere other than at a desk when enjoying their favourite titles. With the emergence and widespread adoption of big-screen TVs and floor-shaking surround sound systems, PC gamers desks have a competing entertainment area the couch.

The Apollo case from Cygnett is a hybrid which means that it combines two different materials: silicone and hard plastic. The case sports a clean design and can be ordered in different colors and the manufacturer has also included a screen protector.

Hey there and welcome to a CPU cooler roundup. In this article we test roughly fifteen CPU coolers. We'll test them on a Core i7 3770K, one of the more difficult to cool processors on the market. In this group test we'll use Scythe, Noctua, Coolink, Deepcool, Alpenfohn, Gelid and Cooler Master coolers. We'll test the more standard low-cost heatpipe coolers, two low profile ones for HTPCs and some heavy duty heatpipe coolers targeted at the overclockers.

We will be testing these heatpipe based CPU coolers in several configurations. We'll have a look at the dBA noise levels, we'll look at default non-overclocked performance and we'll also overclock the Core i7 3770K processor towards a good 4600 MHz and then test the cooler performance based upon two voltage modes (1.2 and 1.3 Volts) on that very same processor.

The coolers submitted for review were initially intended for a LGA 2011 cooler review, but with the Core i7 3770K (and Ivy Bridge in general) being a harsh product to test as they get so hot we decided to use the coolers on that specific platform.