Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including Xbox One and Playstation 4: Which Promises Will be Broken?, OCZ Vertex 3.20 240GB SATA III 2.5'' SSD Review, Metro: Last Light, A Stroll Down Memory Lane: Best 3dfx Glide Games, and Gigabyte Radeon HD 7790 2GB OC Review



Xbox One and Playstation 4: Which Promises Will be Broken? @ HCW

Announcing a new console must be tough for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. They need to make it sound better than the one it’s replacing, without exaggerating too much, or making flat out promises meant to be broken. I say it must be tough, because over the years, it has been easy to pick out the broken promises from the kept ones. I’m sure everyone remembers the amazing demo that showed the PSP working in conjunction with the PS3, acting as a rear-view mirror for Gran Turismo 5…

Read more: Xbox One and Playstation 4: Which Promises Will be Broken? @ HCW

OCZ Vertex 3.20 240GB SATA III 2.5'' SSD Review @ Madshrimps

The latest SSD from OCZ is the Vertex 3.20, a revised model of the winning Vertex 3, which now features 20nm NAND flash along with a proven SandForce SF-2281 controller. Considering that the Vertex 3 price has been also dropped, both SSDs fight for the same price point and deliver comparable performances.

Read more: OCZ Vertex 3.20 240GB SATA III 2.5'' SSD Review @ Madshrimps

OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB SSD Review @ Techgage

Recently, OCZ began simplifying its SSD product line quite significantly in order to make the decision-making process easier for consumers. This was also encouraged by the fact that even budget models today offer some great performance. OCZ’s Vertex 3.20 targets that market, replacing the Agility and Vertex 3. Is it a worthy successor?

Read more: OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB SSD Review @ Techgage

Metro: Last Light @ LanOC Reviews

With the first-person shooter genre all but locked down by staples like the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises sometimes it is refreshing to get the chance to see something new. The release of 4A Games’ Metro 2033 in 2010 was one such breath of fresh air so much so that a sequel was in the works almost immediately. Mired in delays that had very little to do with the game itself, however, it isn’t until now that we have gotten the chance to play it. It is finally time to see if Metro: Last Light stands up to the amazing visuals and story-driven single player that the original did so well.

Read more: Metro: Last Light @ LanOC Reviews

HP EliteBook Revolve 810 Review @ TechReviewSource.com

The HP EliteBook Revolve 810 is a revival of the convertible laptop design that never really caught on several years ago. This model has a good exterior, a comfortable keyboard and a high-quality touch screen. It is expensive and has below-average battery life, however.

Read more: HP EliteBook Revolve 810 Review @ TechReviewSource.com

Fractal Design Node 605 HTPC Case Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Not that long ago we took a look at Fractal Designs Node 304 case. This small form factor case was made for mini-ITX motherboards. Today we have the Node 304s big brother the Node 605. This case is designed the be a home theater PC case. It supports full ATX motherboards, which is great as many people repurpose old systems into home theater PCs. The front of the case has a nice brushed aluminum finish and inside you have room for up to 4 hard drives. Other features include USB 3.0 support, a card reader and two 120mm fans included. Is this the case for your next HTPC build?

Read more: Fractal Design Node 605 HTPC Case Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 26.5 @ Tech ARP

These days, there are so many graphics card models that it has become quite impossible to keep up with the different configurations. Therefore, we decided to compile this guide to provide an easy reference for those who are interested in comparing the specifications of the various desktop GPUs in the market as well as those already obsolescent or obsolete.

Currently covering 537 desktop graphics cards, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare 24 different specifications for each and every card. We hope it will prove to be a useful reference. We will keep this guide updated regularly, so do check back for the latest updates.

To make it easy to compare the specifications, we split it up into three sections for your convenience. Just click on Split List to access them. However, if you prefer to compare all the graphics cards for each company in a single table, we also have a single list which can be accessed by clicking on Full List. Just click on the company and the type of list you prefer.

Read more: Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 26.5 @ Tech ARP

Kingston HyperX Predator 2400 MHz C11 2x 4 GB @ techPowerUp

Prowling the depths of extreme environments, the Kingston HyperX Predator DIMMs come out from Kingston's lab to settle within the hot jungle of your PC case. Today, we take a look at the 2400 MHz C11 2x4 GB kit, one of the few affordable higher-end kits on the market.

Read more: Kingston HyperX Predator 2400 MHz C11 2x 4 GB @ techPowerUp

Thermaltake Chaser A31 Thunder Case Review @ Ninjalane

We first laid eyes on the new Thermaltake Chaser A31 Thunder back at CES and boy did it make a good first impression. Combining the front bay looks we have come to love in the Stacker cases with a head turning black and blue style that looks even better in person. Now that we have our hands on this budget friendly gaming case, we can see if the A31 performs as good as it looks!

Read more: Thermaltake Chaser A31 Thunder Case Review @ Ninjalane

A Stroll Down Memory Lane: Best 3dfx Glide Games @ Techspot

The year was 1998. It was Christmas time and I had just received my very first computer, an AMD K6-2 running at 333 MHz. Little did I know, from that day forward, my life would be changed forever.

One of the first such changes was my focus shift from console games to PC games. Just a few months after owning my computer, I added a Diamond Monster II 3D graphics card based on the 3dfx Voodoo 2 chipset. It was an absolute screamer and took my gaming experience to a whole new level.

We all know how the story played out for 3dfx, the graphics company that dominated the 3d graphics industry for several years in the late 90s.

Read more: A Stroll Down Memory Lane: Best 3dfx Glide Games @ Techspot

240GB OCZ Vertex 3.20 Solid State Drive @ Benchmark Reviews

OCZ Technology launched their Vertex 3 solid state drive based on the second-generation LSI-SandForce SF-2281 processor back in early 2011, making it a familiar storage product among high-performance enthusiasts. Two years later they've revisited the popular design, and made several improvements. Now available with 20nm Synchronous Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash components, Vertex 3.20 is designed to offer better performance for less cost. Vertex 3.20 arrives in 120GB and 240GB capacities, both offering 550 MB/s reads and 520 MB/s writes. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the 240GB OCZ Vertex 3.20 SSD (model VTX3-25SAT3-240G.20), and compares it against both the 120GB model as well as the fastest SATA 6GB/s storage solutions available.

What makes the Vertex 3.20 different than it's original namesake is the use of 20nm Synchronous Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash components, and refined controller firmware. The Vertex 3.20 SSD is based on the second-generation LSI-SandForce SF-2281 SATA 6Gb/s controller, which debuted back at the start of 2011, making it one of the most mature SATA controllers found in modern storage devices. Vertex 3.20 arrives in 120GB and 240GB capacities, both offering 550 MB/s reads and 520 MB/s writes.

Read more: 240GB OCZ Vertex 3.20 Solid State Drive @ Benchmark Reviews

The TR Podcast 134: Xbone, Kabini, and not quite a Titan @ The Tech Report

This time on the TR Podcast, we answer listener mail, examine Haswell mobos, and discuss the GeForce GTX 780 from Nvidia and the A4-5000 "Kabini" APU from AMD.

Read more: The TR Podcast 134: Xbone, Kabini, and not quite a Titan @ The Tech Report

Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Keyboard @ PureOverclock

The Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 brings a whole new level of gaming experience with its completely modular design. This feature packed keyboard is like nothing we have seen before. As we dive into the experience of the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7, we are going to see how this keyboard stacks up to today's popular mechanical keyboards as well as the membrane style keyboards.

Read more: Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Keyboard @ PureOverclock

Solidata K8 1920E SSD Review - SandForce Driven and an Amazing 2TB Capacity @ TechnologyX

SSD technology has seen some massive leaps since it was introduced in the mass consumer market a few years back. Throughout that time we have seen faster speeds, newer interfaces, and smaller designs. One drawback that has remained constant throughout is size, and it still is the major issue today for those looking to make the jump from mechanical to flash storage.

Read more: Solidata K8 1920E SSD Review - SandForce Driven and an Amazing 2TB Capacity @ TechnologyX

ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion Motherboard Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

One of the more recent additions to the high end X79 market is ASRock's Fatal1ty X79 Champion motherboard. With a bunch of high end features such as enhanced on-board audio (including headphone amp) and support for quad SLI as well as the fastest CPUs around there is a lot to make this product worth more than a little consideration. So today we take a look at the Fatal1ty X79 Champion board.

Read more: ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion Motherboard Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Seiko SNE093P1 Solar Watch @ NikKTech

Although I've been using wrist watches since the early 90's (back then i only used Casio models as some of you know) i can't really say the same about all the people i know not even about my really close friends. However as we are getting older and time passes us by it seems that habits change and that's perhaps the main reason as to why right now pretty much everyone i know of wears a wrist watch while some even own more than just one. Of course as we are getting older we also try to come up with new ways to avoid doing things that we are bored of and one of those things is without doubt the visit to the local licensed watch store in order to change the battery of our watch. That combined with several job descriptions that require a working wrist watch 24/7/365 is the reason as to why it didn't take long for watch manufacturers to develop several technologies for such use including automatic, kinetic and solar powered mechanisms. According to many people however solar watches can be more reliable compared to automatic and kinetic watches (when it comes to time accuracy) and since these seem to be what people prefer nowadays today we will be taking a look at the SNE093P1 Solar Watch by Seiko.

Read more: Seiko SNE093P1 Solar Watch @ NikKTech

Fitbit Flex Review @ Techradar

It was always just a matter of time before the folks at Fitbit turned their engineering skills towards a wrist-mounted step tracker. Announced at CES this year, the Fitbit Flex combines the step-counting technology that made its One and Zip products so useful, and places it on the wrist for convenience.This big design change has some pretty big advantages. For a start, the fear of having the small sensor pop out from a pocket while walking is gone. With the wrist mounted option, you always know where the device is.The second major benefit is for sleep-tracking. While the Fitbit One offered the ability to track sleep by slipping the sensor into a soft, felcro arm band, the Flex leaves the sensor permanently attached, allowing you to switch modes without removing the device at all.Unlike the Jawbone Up, the Flex consists of two separate parts - the sensor and the strap. The sensor itself is smaller than the One, thanks to the fact that it doesn't include an LED display.

Read more: Fitbit Flex Review @ Techradar

Gigabyte Radeon HD 7790 2GB OC Review @ Guru3D

We test and review the Gigabyte Radeon HD 7790 2GB OC edition, also known under SKU code GV-R7790OC-2GD. We benchmark the product incl FCAT Frametimes. The new graphics card is intended to boost a little more performance into entry-level gaming. The Gigabyte HD7790 OC 2GB clocks in at 1075 MHz on the boost engine, packed with totally silent custom cooling.

So if you draw up a pie chart then you'd be surprised that the biggest chunk of the market for graphics cards is entry level. Obviously that makes a lot of sense as OEMs love to include the cheapest card available in a PC. But considering the price level, many people that do not have or want to spend heaps of cash to play a game might pick up one of these cards. I mean think back a year or three, I really liked the Radeon HD 5770 at the time. You know what? Here is a little history lesson on AMD's lineup over the years. It was October 2009 when ATI released the Juniper GPU, you know the product as the Radeon HD 5770. It has been one of the best selling graphics cards for ATI-AMD evah, for the very simple reason that for not a lot of money you received a product with 800 shader processors. So for a price just above entry level that made a thing or two possible, gaming at 1600x1200 became a viable reality and next to that a grand feature set was introduced (Eyefinity etc). Later on the 5770 got refreshed as the 6770, which mostly was the same product. Last year, in February 2012 AMD released a product developed under the GPU codename 'Cape Verde', the graphics cards derived from that GPU were the Radeon HD 7750 and 7770 One GHz Edition. That was not a refresh, it was a completely new GPU based on their GCN architecture. Interesting was that with less shader processors AMD was able to make these products faster. They benefited from the GCN architecture but also had a trump card at hand, as this was the first ever reference card that was clocked at 1 GHz - hence AMD gave all these cards a 'GHz Edition' extension. The 28nm node allows them to place a good 1.5 billion transistors onto the GPU's 123 mm2 die, and that made the card a good 25% faster. AMD has been focusing on three primary features and key selling points ever since the series 5000 products were released. The new graphics adapters are of course DirectX 11 ready. With Windows 7/8 and Vista being DX11 ready, games immediately took advantage of DirectCompute, multi-threading, Hardware Tessellation and new shader extensions. Back to the year 2013 though - it's fairly similar to the tick-tock release model from Intel, but yes, we arrive at the tock from AMD, the radeon 7790 is introduced today. The Radeon HD 7790 is still based on a 28nm fabrication process, the GPU empowering these new cards will however be the new Bonaire GPU based on GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. Despite the earlier rumors of 768 shader processors, the GPU actually has 896 stream processors. With 1 GB of GDDR5 graphics memory running over a 128-bit GDDR5 memory bus the card will bring the overall game performance close to the Radeon HD 7850 and beyond the competing GeForce GTX 650 Ti. The card will get a 85 Watt TDP rating and, depending on the model released of course, a reference clock frequency of 1000 MHz whilst boosting the memory clock up to 6.0 GHz (effective data-rate / GDDR5 / 128-bit).

Read more: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7790 2GB OC Review @ Guru3D

Sapphire Edge HD4 @ Bjorn3D

Sapphire has long been known for its AMD graphics offerings but a little known part of their business has to do with their small form factor Edge based systems. Today we look at the Intel Celeron powered Edge HD4. Lets see what it has to offer!

Read more: Sapphire Edge HD4 @ Bjorn3D

Nixeus NX-VUE30 30" : A $699 WQXGA (2560x1600) IPS LED Monitor @ Anandtech

In August 2012, Nixeus launched the VUE27, a 27" WQHD (2560x1440) S-IPS LED monitor with a $430 price tag. By providing US-based service / warranty, they managed to win over quite a big segment of the market which was being served by eBay sellers based in Korea. In addition to undercutting the price, the Nixeus unit also provided a wider variety of input ports. Our review found it to be a very decent performer for the price.

Read more: Nixeus NX-VUE30 30" : A $699 WQXGA (2560x1600) IPS LED Monitor @ Anandtech