Reviews 51945 Published by

Here today's reviews and articles, including Intel DZ87KLT-75K "Kinsley Thunderbolt" Motherboard Review, XSPC AX Radiator Desk Stand Review, Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound Card Video Review with Kaeyi Dream, AMD FX-9000 Series Processors Available For Pre-Order, and SanDisk Extreme II 240 GB SSD Review



Intel DZ87KLT-75K "Kinsley Thunderbolt" Motherboard Review @ HiTech Legion
Intel has announced the availability of the 4th Generation Core Processors "Haswell" and with that the launch of the Z87 chipset, which you can find on all motherboards that support socket 1150. Z87 chipset features Intel® Smart Response Technology, enables the performance tuning features of unlocked Intel Core processors, native USB 3.0, SATA 6G and drives lower power, through enhanced link power management of the Advanced Host Controller Interface. Let's not forget, it supports three independent displays.

The Intel DZ87KLT-75K motherboard comes standard with many features. The DZ87KLT offers eight SATA 6G ports, support for 2400 MHz Memory (OC), back to BIOS switch, three Video out connectors, Thunderbolt, ten channel Intel HD Audio, dual Intel LAN, eight USB 3.0 ports, mSATA, and 3 PCI Express 3.0 slots, WiFi/Bluetooth and, of course, an onboard LED post Decode display. To wrap everything up, they even upgraded their UEFI BIOS to Visual BIOS 2.

Read more: Intel DZ87KLT-75K "Kinsley Thunderbolt" Motherboard Review @ HiTech Legion

XSPC AX Radiator Desk Stand Review @ ThinkComputers.org
One of the biggest limiting factors in what you can do with watercooling is how much room you have in your case. With so much equipment to pack in for watercooling alone, space ends up being one of the chief concerns for builders and modders. And the single biggest limiting factor: how much radiator one can fit. Radiators are large, bulky, and inflexible in how they need to be installed. This can easily lead to the builder having to sacrifice cooling surface for space. There is a solution to this problem though; external radiator stands. And if you have chosen to use XSPC's AX series of radiators, then you're in luck. Today we will be looking at the AX Radiator Desk Stand from XSPC.

Read more: XSPC AX Radiator Desk Stand Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Toshiba THNSNH 256 GB SSD @ techPowerUp
We recently tested the 512 GB version of Toshiba's latest SSD with 19 nm flash chips and a rebranded Marvell controller. Today, we are looking at the 256 GB version to investigate whether the smaller capacity reduces performance, or if it too manages to claim the performance throne.

Read more: Toshiba THNSNH 256 GB SSD @ techPowerUp

MSI GT60 2OD-026US Review @ TechReviewSource.com
The MSI GT60 2OD-026US is a gaming laptop with the latest 4th generation Haswell Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a solid-state hard drive. As a result, it has outstanding performance, a bright 15-inch 1080p display and a well-designed keyboard.

Read more: MSI GT60 2OD-026US Review @ TechReviewSource.com

Lexar S23 Jumpdrive Review @ MyCE
torage technology is moving forward at very fast rate, not only we are able to have more speed and more capacity, but we also get smaller size, and at a lower price. Lexar is doing all of that, and here at Myce I was fortunate to review the Lexar Triton Jumpdrive, a flash drive that for me is still the best drive that you can buy. Okay, it might not be the fastest drive on the market, but is still one of the fastest flash drives and it has outstanding build quality.

Now I am taking a closer look at the S23 Jumpdrive, and this time Lexar is providing a more affordable USB3 flash drive, that not only continues to have very good performance, of up to 100MB/Sec read and 55MB/Sec write, but also continues to have a very stylish look. The Lexar S23 Jumpdrive comes in four colours – an 8GB in orange, a 16GB in teal, a 32Gb in green and a 64GB in purple. All models are covered by a three year Warranty.

Read more: Lexar S23 Jumpdrive Review @ MyCE

Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound Card Video Review with Kaeyi Dream @ HardwareHeaven.com
Today Kaeyi Dream takes a look at the Sound Blaster Z from Creative. Be sure to check out Kaeyi's YouTube channel for more of her personal videos, and subscribe to the HardwareHeaven channel to keep up-to-date with our video reviews.

Read more: Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound Card Video Review with Kaeyi Dream @ HardwareHeaven.com

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3X 2GB Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
Gigabyte has come out with a rather impressive NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2GB/4GB video card that has the company's WindForce 3X GPU Cooler and a custom designed PCB. This card stands out from the crowd due to the WindForce 3X GPU cooler that uses six copper heatpipes (2x 8mm and 4x 6mm) and three cooling fans to keep this factory overclocked card running smoothly. Read on to see what we think of the Gigabyte GV-N770OC-2GD!

At the end of the day there are a ton of GeForce GTX 770 video cards available for sale. When we looked this morning we found one dozen different GeForce GTX 770 cards for sale ranging in price from $399.99 to $509.99 plus shipping. The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3X just happens to be on the low end of that price range and that came as a shock to us. This card is the least expensive GeForce GTX 770 that you can buy right now. It easily performed better than the ASUS and MSI cards that we compared it against and those cards cost about $10 more...

Read more: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3X 2GB Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews

Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Motherboard @ Hardware Secrets
Let's take a look at the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3, a mid-range socket AM3+ motherboard for AMD FX processors, based on the 990FX chipset. Let's see what this motherboard has to offer.

Read more: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Motherboard @ Hardware Secrets

Wi Reader and Wi Reader Pro @ LanOC Reviews
Cloud storage and wireless networking are pretty much staples in everyone’s day to day lives at this point. Being so used to the constant stream of data can leave you feeling disconnected at times where you don’t have access and even simple data transfers can become a hassle. Carry Technology seek to lessen this burden with their Apotop DW09 Wi-Reader and DW17 Wi-Reader Pro designed for use with Apple and Android/Apple mobile devices respectively. Join me as I take a look at this pair of wireless cloud servers you can fit in your pocket and see if they deliver as promised.

Read more: Wi Reader and Wi Reader Pro @ LanOC Reviews

AMD FX-9000 Series Processors Available For Pre-Order @ techPowerUp
On Friday, we published and commented on The Tech Report's FX-9000 insight and findings from their interview with an unnamed AMD official, among which was the undecided or improbable retail availability of the new processors. Today, the exact same two processors which made the object of AMD's Friday disclosure are available for pre-order from online retailers such as PCSuperStore, and while speculation on the causes or reasons of the apparent misinformation might be expected and could even be interesting, I will spare you the usual AMD bash and just point out the prices of these two new AMD processors, $ 960 for the FX-9590 and $ 576 for the FX-9370, vexing, to be blunt.

Read more: AMD FX-9000 Series Processors Available For Pre-Order @ techPowerUp

Streacom FC8 Evo Fanless Chassis Review @ Madshrimps
The FC8 Evo case from Streacom has a very clean, professional look and is ideal for people which want absolute silence when working at their PC. The installation instructions are explained with both photos and text and if we are patient, there should be no issues. Also, there are plenty of additional accessories that can be bought from them like the slot-loading optical drive, USB 3.0 cable or IR sensor + remote.

Read more: Streacom FC8 Evo Fanless Chassis Review @ Madshrimps

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen PlayStation 3 Review @ Madshrimps
The FC8 Evo case from Streacom has a very clean, professional look and is ideal for people which want absolute silence when working at their PC. The installation instructions are explained with both photos and text and if we are patient, there should be no issues. Also, there are plenty of additional accessories that can be bought from them like the slot-loading optical drive, USB 3.0 cable or IR sensor + remote.

Read more: Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen PlayStation 3 Review @ Madshrimps

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB SSD Review @ KitGuru
Today we are looking at the latest high speed Solid State drive from Sandisk, the Extreme II. This follows on from our review of the Ultra Plus 256GB Solid State drive (http://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/zardon/sandisk-ultra-plus-256gb-ssd-review/) which we reviewed back in March this year. The previous generation SanDisk Extreme adopted a SandForce controller however the latest Extreme II model has the Marvell 88SS9187 controller onboard. Is this a drive you should be shortlisting for a new system build this year?

Read more: SanDisk Extreme II 240GB SSD Review @ KitGuru

ASUS Maximus VI Extreme Z87 motherboard review @ Guru3D
For the Night is Dark and Full of Terror... oh hey back to work, hi everybody! We review the ASUS Maximus VI Extreme Z87 series motherboard. The Z87 ROG mainboard is intended for Intel's 22nm Haswell processors on Socket LGA1150. It is the high-end to enthusiast and pro-overclockers segmented product amongst the ASUS ROG series that comes with some nice features and decent overclock potential. There is a kind, of people, that feels enough is not enough. They want moar' and for exactly that kind of enthusiast end user, ASUS creates ROG EXTREME products. The Maximus VI Extreme main engine comes from the Intel Z87 Express chipset. But that's just the start of it, of course.

The motherboard comes with four DDR3 memory slots and eats many graphics cards for breakfast. You'll spot five PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots for multi-GPU graphics configurations (NVIDIA SLI / AMD CrossFireX) is what you get. To get you four Gen 3.0 links, ASUS had to apply a trick, that was adding a PLX PCI-Express 3.0 switch IC, responsible for the oh-so many slots. Two of the slots can operate in x8 (3.0) mode, three and four at 8x, and the black one at 4x - roaaar!

Read more: ASUS Maximus VI Extreme Z87 motherboard review @ Guru3D

AMD's A10-6800K and A10-6700 'Richland' APUs reviewed @ The Tech Report
AMD has taken its Trinity quad-core chips and tuned them so hard, a new code name sprouted forth: Richland. We've taken a pair of Richland-based processors on a tour of our exhaustive test suite. Oh, and we've tested the FX-4350 and FX-6350 chips from AMD, too. Come see what we found.

Read more: AMD's A10-6800K and A10-6700 'Richland' APUs reviewed @ The Tech Report

SanDisk Extreme II 240 GB SSD Review @ OCC
If you've read through the results pages you probably already know what I'm going to say here. At a very reasonable (in SSD terms) price of around 95 cents per GB, the Extreme II offers extreme value for the performance-minded enthusiast. In nearly every test the SanDisk Extreme II not only beat the field but in more times than expected it simply annihilated the competition! Clearly SanDisk has hit a home run here with its "nCache" system that utilizes the pseudo-SLC behavior of newer MLC flash dies. This does bring the cost up from very slightly over budget MLC-only drives from other manufacturers but the performance you get from the Extreme II more than makes up for that increase.

Read more: SanDisk Extreme II 240 GB SSD Review @ OCC

ASRock FM2A85X-ITX AMD Socket FM2 ITX Motherboard Review @ OcInside.de
Today we test a tiny AMD Trinity Socket FM2 motherboard on OCinside.de, which is ideal to build a fast HTPC or even a small gaming PC with its Mini-ITX form factor and AMD A85X chipset.
Just 17x17cm in size, the ITX motherboard offers many amazing features of the recently tested ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 ATX mainboard, which received our OverClocking Dream award.
The ASRock FM2A85X-ITX motherboard has one PCI Express slot, seven SATA3 ports, one eSATA3 port, Gigabit LAN, 7.1 sound with optical S/PDIF output and graphics output over D-Sub, DVI-D or HDMI.
We have tested and extremely overclocked the ASRock FM2A85X-ITX Socket FM2 motherboard with an AMD A10-5800K APU.
All overclocking-, benchmark-, and test results are published in the current review and in the extensive AMD motherboard comparison.

Read more: ASRock FM2A85X-ITX AMD Socket FM2 ITX Motherboard Review @ OcInside.de