Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including NZXT Kraken G10 GPU Water Cooler Review on a Radeon R9 290X, Cooler Master Cosmos SE Case Review, LED vs. Plasma: Which HDTV Type Is Best?, Turtle Beach PS4, PS3 & Mobile Ear Force PX4 Wireless Gaming Headset Review, and Nvidia ShadowPlay Gameplay Recording Software Review



NZXT Kraken G10 GPU Water Cooler Review on a Radeon R9 290X @ Legit Reviews

When we heard that NZXT was coming out with a low-cost water cooling kit for video cards we were ecstatic and couldn’t wait to get one to try out. At first we thought NZXT was coming out with a product that included a water cooler, but the end result is basically a $29.99 mounting kit for a water cooler. The Kraken G10 from NZXT allows you to install ANY Asetek based All-In-One (AIO) water cooler to your video card. Read on to see what happens when we install the NZXT Kraken X40 to a Radeon R9 290X video card with the NZXT Kraken G10 mounting bracket!

The results are amazing and there was a 50C temperature drop at load!

Read more: NZXT Kraken G10 GPU Water Cooler Review on a Radeon R9 290X @ Legit Reviews

ADATA DashDrive Choice HC630 USB 3.0 Hard Drive Review @ ThinkComputers.org

An external hard drive is something that is always in my laptop bag. With smaller devices like tablets and Ultrabooks becoming more popular the hard drives inside are much smaller than what you will find in a desktop. External hard drives give you that extra storage space that you need and are usually small enough to fit in your laptop bag or backpack. Today we are checking out the DashDrive Choice HC630 500GB External Hard Drive from ADATA. This drive not only has an attractive outer-casing, but it features a high speed USB 3.0 connection for fast transfers. Read on as we take a look...

Read more: ADATA DashDrive Choice HC630 USB 3.0 Hard Drive Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Cooler Master Cosmos SE Case Review @ Modders-Inc

The Cosmos SE is the full size Cosmos little brother. The Cosmos SE is packs a massive amount of features into a small package. The case is modded from the factory, but there is so much more to be done.

Read more: Cooler Master Cosmos SE Case Review @ Modders-Inc

ADATA DashDrive Elite SE720 128GB External SSD @ Custom PC Review

Last week we reviewed the Transcend StoreJet 25A3 1TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive and while hard drives are great from a cost per gigabyte standpoint, they’re still miles behind SSDs when it comes to performance. With the now widely adopted USB 3.0 interface standard along with its 5 Gbps theoretical maximum bandwidth, the USB interface is finally capable of better meeting the level of performance that’s available through SSD technology.

Today we’ll be doing a review on the ADATA DashDrive Elite SE720 128GB. The DashDrive Elite SE720 128GB is a USB 3.0, bus powered portable SSD that, unlike portable hard drives, should easily be capable of saturating USB 3.0′s 5Gbps bandwidth. The drive is unfortunately only offered in the 128GB variety and ADATA simply lists the drive as capable of 400+ MB/s reads and 300+ MB/s writes without any mention of specific figures.

Read more: ADATA DashDrive Elite SE720 128GB External SSD @ Custom PC Review

LED vs. Plasma: Which HDTV Type Is Best? @ TechReviewSource.com

For a long time, it was tough to call, but today's rapidly evolving display technologies and market changes have made it easier to crown a winner in the HDTV wars.

Read more: LED vs. Plasma: Which HDTV Type Is Best? @ TechReviewSource.com

Corsair Vengeance K70 Review @ Hexus

It's been a while since we let our fingers loose on Corsair's original FPS gaming keyboard, the Vengeance K60, but ever since, we've been eager to get our hands on a second-generation successor.

You see, the company's first effort had its merits - the sturdy and beautiful aluminium frame being top of the list - but there was obvious room for improvement. Reviewers and users alike lamented the lack of a full mechanical layout (the function keys, remember, were of the rubber-dome variety), and some were put off by the absence of backlit keys.

Read more: Corsair Vengeance K70 Review @ Hexus

Gigabyte Brix Projector i3-4010 review: Mini-projector PC @ Hardware.Info

Gigabyte makes very interesting mini-PCs along with their hardware components, but a special product in their Brix catalogue is the Brix Projector. We recently had the opportunity to try it out.  
The Brix mini-PCs are about the size of a human hand, so finding a spot for it should never be a challenge. You can even mount them on the back of a monitor or TV. But that's not what the Gigabyte Brix Projector i3-4010 is meant for.

Read more: Gigabyte Brix Projector i3-4010 review: Mini-projector PC @ Hardware.Info

WD Black 2 SSD + HDD Dual Drive Review @ HotHardware.com

The price disparity between solid state and hard disk drives often forces mobile and small form factor users into the unenviable position of choosing performance over capacity. Provided they've got the budget, desktop users needn't compromise, because their systems can accommodate multiple drives of different form factors without issue. But SFF, all-in-one, and mobile systems are usually outfitted with only a single 2.5" drive bay, so if you want the performance of an SSD, but need a large capacity drive, you've got to shell out big bucks for a high-capacity SSD or settle for the lower performance of a hard drive.

WD recently released a totally new class of product that aims to resolve this conundrum, however. The new WD Black 2 Dual-Drive (SSD + HDD) pairs 120GB of solid state storage with a 1TB hard disk, in a single 2.5" device. The WD Black 2 is not a caching solution, though, like some other hard drives outfitted with flash memory. Rather, the WD Black 2 operates as two independent drives-a fast SSD for your OS and most commonly used apps and a large hard drive for bulk storage...

Read more: WD Black 2 SSD + HDD Dual Drive Review @ HotHardware.com

Corsair H75 Review @ ocaholic

Corsair, famous for its quality memory, PSU and recently, PC cases and gaming peripherals, have been also making quite a push in the All-in-One water cooling market and some of its Hydro series coolers have been quite impressive. Today, we are looking at the latest Corsair Hydro H75 series AIO water cooler which stands out with its impressive manufacturing quality as well as new Asetek design. We will certainly try to find out if it has what it takes to compete in the quite crowded AIO water cooling market.

Read more: Corsair H75 Review @ ocaholic

MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti Gaming Review @ Guru3D

In this review we test the GeForce GTX 780 Ti Gaming edition from MSI. The customized product is equipped with MSI's popular TwinFrozr IV cooler armed two fans. It remains to be quiet and keeps temperatures under the 70 Degrees C marker as well. Next to that MSI factory overclocked this product for you towards a very nice 1020 MHz on the GPU core, that means it can boost towards 1085 MHz on all of the unlocked 2880 Shader processors available.

NVIDIA unlocked the GPU completely meaning all 2880 Shader processors are available. That combined with increased core and memory clock frequencies and nice overclock potential will make this the top 699 USD flagship product to purchase for the Christmas holiday season. So yeah, this means it is based on the GK110 revision B GPU and has an whopping 7.1 Billion transistors. That makes it a nice, one of the fastest graphics cards available on the market today. We test the product with the hottest games like Metro: Last light, Battlefield 4, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Hitman Absolution and many more.Just like GTX Titan, the GTX 780 Ti is based on the GK110 GPU with the distinctions that the Titan has a GK110-300 GPU and the GeForce GTX 780 a revision B GK110 GPU. Same stuff, yet with some changes. The recipe for the GTX 780 Ti is fantastic though, as the product has the full 15 Streaming clusters thus 2880 Shader Processing Units enabled. That's 240 TMUs and 48 ROPs on a 384-bit memory interface of fast GDDR5. So yeah, NVIDIA in a nutshell that is a 45 mm × 45 mm 2397-pin S-FCBGA GK110b GPU with 2880 shader/stream/CUDA processors. But wait Dave, there's more. Memory wise NVIDIA equipped the GeForce GTX 780 Ti with 7Gbps memory, the fastest GDDR5 memory you can find on a graphics card today. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti ships with 3GB of this memory, providing up to 336GB/sec of peak memory bandwidth. That is still huge (12 pieces of 64M ×16 GDDR5 SDRAM) of memory (384-bit) on there and started designing a bunch of new tricks at BIOS and driver level. Combined with GPU Boost 2.0 you will see this product boosting towards the 1000~1050 MHz range once you tweak it. The reference clock is 875 MHz with a boost clock of 928 MHz. Looking at the specs you must think that this product must consume heaps of power, well it's not great, but definitely not bad at all either. Another improvement that Nvidia implemented to the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is a new power balancing feature that’s been made so enthusiasts can get the most out of their overclock. Typically GPU gets its power from three sources: the 6-pin and 8-pin power connectors, and the PCI Express interface. Under normal conditions, the power sent to the GPU is balanced across these three sources, but when a user overclocks their graphics card they can unbalance the power delivery and draw more power from one source than the others, potentially maxing it out. With this new feature we can steer power from one input to another, so if you max out one power source, you can draw more power from the others to make up the difference.

Read more: MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti Gaming Review @ Guru3D

Sony Xperia Z Ultra 6.4-Inch Android Smartphone Review @ MEGATechNews

How big is too big? There is absolutely something to be said about having a larger display on your smartphone, because having that bigger screen makes it so much easier to play games and watch videos, but at what point does a so-called “phablet” become unwieldy? Definitely pushing the envelope in this sector is the positively mammoth Sony Xperia Z Ultra. With an extra large 6.4-inch display, some may say that this superphone is almost comical, but is that such a bad thing?

Read more: Sony Xperia Z Ultra 6.4-Inch Android Smartphone Review @ MEGATechNews

NZXT Kraken G10 AIO Graphics Card Adapter @ PureOverclock

When it comes to graphic card cooling, aftermarket air coolers were the best option in the past. Also, unless you were going full water cooling, your options were pretty limited. Recently we have started to see a mass of AIO (all in one) water cooling products come to market giving users many more options for CPU cooling; however, up until now there have not been too many similar options for graphics card cooling. The new NZXT Kraken might be the answer for those who want liquid cooling but may not have the ability for a full DIY custom solution.

Read more: NZXT Kraken G10 AIO Graphics Card Adapter @ PureOverclock

Cooler Master Nepton 280L Liquid CPU Cooler Review @ Benchmark Reviews

The 280mm closed-loop all-in-one liquid cooling selection is about to grow by one: The Cooler Master (RL-N28L-20PK-R1) Nepton 280L. Sporting new dual 140mm JetFlo fans with POM bearings and a new pump design with LED, the 280L is Cooler Master’s answer to the Kraken X60 and H110. Will an all-new pump, high-flow fans and a 280mm radiator be enough to take on the competition? Benchmark Reviews will find out if the Nepton 280L can handle an overclocked FX platform and see how it stacks up against the competition.

Read more: Cooler Master Nepton 280L Liquid CPU Cooler Review @ Benchmark Reviews

Cooler Master Storm SF-15 Laptop Cooler Review @ APH Networks

As a diehard Calgary Flames fan, I have been following this hockey team since they made the Stanley Cup Finals in 2003. Even after the more recent blowup and rebuild of the organization, I have not wavered in my adoration. But ask me what makes me boil about the Flames, and I would say that Calgary's team lacks any finish. Every game I watch, I see an amazing beginning followed by an even more amazing fall in the third period. They would come out of the gate, sticks swinging and skates speeding down the ice. With decent goaltending, the Flames would head into the first intermission with a feeling of safety, and all of a sudden, like a light switch, they stop trying. They just seem to give up the best of leads. Watching more and more, you can tell the root cause of this issue is the Flames think they have already won. This kind of “foot off the pedal” mentality has plagued the Flames, placing them near the bottom of the Western Conference. Of course, this is supposed to be their reconstructing year, but if they just played badly the entire year, I would have nothing to say of this (And I also would need to find another introduction topic, haha). The fact they give an impression that they cannot hold steady throughout gives an early false sense of security for the team, making it really hard to be a fan. Likewise, if computing products were like the Calgary Flames, where they do not have the ability to finish the job, they would come under the ire of reviewers like me. No one wants a product that has one or two features that stand out, but fails in other areas. Rather, the best product would be something that impresses from the beginning to the end. When I see the Cooler Master Storm SF-15, do I see a product with a pretty face, or something with more substance? Is it something that stays consistent, whether good or bad? Read on to find out!

Read more: Cooler Master Storm SF-15 Laptop Cooler Review @ APH Networks

Thermaltake Commander F5 Multi-Fan Controller Review @ Neoseeker

If there is one component I include with almost every enthusiast computer build, it would be a dedicated fan controller. Despite motherboard manufacturers recently opening up control for fan speeds with software such as Gigabyte's EasyTune suite, there is little that can replace the versatility and ease of control from the flick of a switch or turn of a knob. Over the years, many cooling manufacturers have stepped to the plate to provide their own versions of this class of peripheral. We've seen solutions festooned with bright LEDs and colored screens while others adhere to designs as simple as a knob on a PCI bracket or plastic enclosure.

Known for its lineup of heatsinks, cases, and mice, Thermaltake has been in the PC component cooling business for years. Today, we will be taking a look at its newest multi-fan controller, the Thermaltake Commander F5. Designed to fit a front panel 5.25" bay in your rig, it features fan speed sliders controlling five individual 8W channels, a honeycombed mesh design, and indicator LEDs for an extra bling factor.

Read more: Thermaltake Commander F5 Multi-Fan Controller Review @ Neoseeker

Turtle Beach PS4, PS3 & Mobile Ear Force PX4 Wireless Gaming Headset Review @ eTeknix

Turtle Beach have long been one of the leading brands in the gaming audio market, offering some of the best headsets for console and PC gaming. They cross a wide band of budgets too, with models ranging from the budget friendly to enthusiast models that cost in excess for £200 / $300. We’ve had a lot of fun reviewing Turtle Beach products in the past and it was only a few months ago that the Turtle Beach PX22 and the Turtle Beach Ear Force XP Seven earned our Games Choice Award.

the last two headsets we reviewed from Turtle Beach were two extremes of what the company has to offer, the PX22 was priced at around £60-70 and the XP Seven would set you back a staggering £250. The Headset we are looking at today comes in at a still expensive, but not unaffordable £150 and given that it is also wireless, and the only wireless headset to officially work with the PlayStation 4, it is also rather special.

Read more: Turtle Beach PS4, PS3 & Mobile Ear Force PX4 Wireless Gaming Headset Review @ eTeknix

Nvidia ShadowPlay Gameplay Recording Software Review @ eTeknix

We don’t often take a look at software when it comes to graphics cards but Nvidia latest (beta) software is something quite unique. They’ve attempted to integrate functionality that gamers use a lot, that of recording their in-game footage, and make it not only free for their customers to use but also incredibly easy to use and access. Enter Nvidia ShadowPlay which is Nvidia’s (relatively) new beta software that utilises a built in H.264 hardware encoder on the Kepler GPU. ShadowPlay is part of Nvidia’s free GeForce Experience software and it is supported on the GTX 650 desktop graphics card or higher.

Read more: Nvidia ShadowPlay Gameplay Recording Software Review @ eTeknix

CM Storm Ceres 300 & 500 Review @ Vortez

Revamping the entry level headset stable from CM Storm we have the latest in the Ceres series, being the 300 and the 500. The latter of which is aimed at multi-platform/ console gaming. Edging away from the aggressive black and red designs and opting for a more minimalistic, clinical black and white design that displays a clear shift in culture from CM Storm.

The Ceres 300 is a sleek non-folding design that connects using a pair of traditional 3.5mm jacks, while the 500, similar in design aesthetic, uses a combination of USB and a 3.5mm jack depending on which platform it is used with and is foldable. Both are armed with 40mm drivers and equipped with detachable, flexible microphones.

Read more: CM Storm Ceres 300 & 500 Review @ Vortez

Cooler Master HAF Stacker 935 Chassis Review @ OCIA.net

Not since Shawn reviewed the Mountain Mods U2-UFO Duality have I seen a case specifically designed to house two individual computer systems. There are several reasons a hardcore computer enthusiast may have for needing room above and beyond what even your typical full tower case provides, but not many options are available without building your own... until now. Earlier this fall, Cooler Master revealed plans for a customizable, modular case system combining the cooling capabilities of the High Air-Flow series with the discontinued Stacker name, the HAF Stacker.

Read more: Cooler Master HAF Stacker 935 Chassis Review @ OCIA.net

Cooler Master N200, N300, N500 & N600 Review @ Hardware.Info

Cooler Master has a series of affordable chassis called the N series. They're supposed to cool well and are made for liquid cooling including 240 mm radiators, perhaps making them a good and affordable option for a powerful rig. We'll take a closer look at four N series models and compare them to 28 other chassis in the same price segment.

The N series consists of four ATX models and a micro-ATX chassis called the N200. We tested that one along with the N300, N500 and N600. Only the N400 won't get our attention today. The N200 costs an average of £33 / € 39 and the N300 costs almost the same but can fit full-size ATX boards. The flagship N600 is available for £ 64 / €75. All models are available with and without side window. We tested the versions without.

Read more: Cooler Master N200, N300, N500 & N600 Review @ Hardware.Info

Sandboxie Review @ gHacks

Sandboxie is a program for Windows that sandboxes applications on the operating system. A sandbox separates programs run in it from the underlying operating system, other software and data, effectively preventing those programs from making permanent changes to the system.

Read more: Sandboxie Review @ gHacks

Ashampoo Movie Studio Review @ gHacks

It is a lot easier nowadays to create digital videos than it was ten or even five years ago. Today, nearly every smartphone in existence comes with cameras and apps that you can use for that purpose.

Read more: Ashampoo Movie Studio Review @ gHacks