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Asus Z77 Roundup
When doing all of our Ivy Bridge launch prep we spent a LOT of time benchmarking and testing a whole collection of boards. You guys have seen our reviews of the Intel and Gigabyte boards. When it came time to write about the four different Asus Z77 boards I realized that most of you are not going to want to read through a lot of information that we would cover over and over on each review. We decided to roundup all four of the boards and cover them together. This way we can get to the point a little quicker, saving you time, as well as giving us a chance to talk more about the differences between the variety of boards that we tested.
ASUS P8 Z68-V/GEN3
Perhaps one of the most daunting tasks after making the decision that you do not wish to purchase an off-the-shelf computer is attempting to figure out which components go in the machine. There are fun aspects, like the graphics card and processor, and then there are the not-so-fun aspects, like the motherboard (at least in my opinion). Why do I think it is a whole lot of not fun? There are so many out there to choose from, with all sorts of features. When shopping you will likely come across the ASUS board that I am going to review today. Arguably, it is one of the better all-around boards out there, with features like good integrated graphics and killer sound. But to a gamer that generally does not mean squat. Does the ASUS P8 Z68-V/GEN3 board have what it takes to function as a serious gaming component? Read on to find out!
XFX R7750 Black Edition DD
Not everyone is looking to spend $500 on their video card, in some cases that is the total budget for a build. When you are up against a wall trying to pack the best performance you can get into a budget build you still want to get the most performance you can out of your video card. That’s where cards like the XFX R7750 Black Edition Double Dissipation come into play. XFX has taken the styling and cooling from their high end cards and combined it with the price of budget cards like the HD 7750. Today we are going to take a look at how those two things do combined in XFX’s R7750 Black Edition Double Dissipation.
Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X
Earlier this year when AMD introduced the HD 7770 we took a look at cards from both Sapphire and XFX. Although we were impressed with the cards performance it was a little ill-timed due to AMD still clearing out discounted back stock. Three months later we are able to revisit the situation with today’s release of Sapphires new HD 7770 Vapor-X. With Sapphires Vapor chamber cooling technology along with a nice overclock over the reference design, the Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X could be a great option for a gamer on a limited budget. Let’s take a look.
Motherboard Sizing
When we got in a few oddly sized dual CPU motherboards from EVGA and Asus I posted up a few pictures on our forums and on Facebook. The problem was that even though they looked large there wasn’t any prospective. So we tossed in a couple other boards to give everyone a little perspective. This lead us to digging out even more motherboards to put together all of the standard motherboard sizes all together for everyone to be able to see the differences. Along with the picture we also have a breakdown on the dimensions of each size standard; I hope this helps everyone as some point. Sometimes it can be hard to understand all of the different motherboard sizes and how they all relate.
Android to the Maxx, DROID Razr Maxx
The list of different Android based phones available at any time is both overwhelming and frustrating. It’s almost impossible to get good feedback from friends who have the same phone because of this. So it’s rare than you have any one phone that manages to stand out. Doing something different is the only way to do this normally, but most times this ends off coming off as gimmicky or just lame. When Motorola introduced the Droid Razr Maxx it caught my attention right away. This was just before our trip out to San Francisco for the GTX 680 Editors day, what a better way to put the Maxx’s proposed batter life to the test!
Lian Li PC 100 “The Hammer”
We have had a few different Lian Li chassis come through the LanOC Offices and there hasn’t been a time that we haven’t been impressed with the new and interesting features Lian Li always seems to slip in. When they wanted to ship over their new case “The Hammer” PC 100, we signed up right away. We had seen the case previewed from a few shows prior and this time around Lian Li took a new perspective with its design, I was very interested to see how their changes worked out. Let’s jump in and see what it’s all about!
Nvidia GTX 670
When Nvidia launched Kepler with the GTX 680 I was impressed with the launch price of the card but even at such a great value it is still out of reach for some people. Just because you can’t afford the top card doesn’t mean you don’t want to experience Kepler’s performance. Of course it was only a matter of time before we saw Nvidia filling in the gaps in their product line, starting first with the GTX 690 then going to the next step down from the GTX 680, the GTX 670. Today we get to have a look to see how the performance compares to both the GTX 680 as well as AMD’s offerings. We are also very curious how it compares to the GTX 580, a card that has found its way into most of our office PC’s.
ioSafe Rugged Portable
So you do the smart thing, you backup your data from your laptop and your home PC to an external or network drive and go on with life feeling confident that you have gone well and above what most people do. For the most part, you did. What about when you’re traveling, have you seen how much abuse a device can take when on the go? For some people, and I know I’m one of them, some of the data you carry with you while traveling is more important than the laptop or device that you actually carry it on. In that situation you need a way to not have to worry about your data, no matter the situation, and to have a guarantee to back it up as well. The folks over at ioSafe focus specifically on this crowd. Not only do they offer products that are according to them build to handle almost anything, but they back it up with data recovery if something does happen. Today we are going to take a look at that Rugged Portable hard drive to see what all of the fuss is about, without any more buildup, let’s dig in.
Cooler Master Storm Trigger
Just two years ago the only mechanical keyboards you would find were from companies like DAS keyboard trying to create a nitch market. Over the past two years things have really exploded with every manufacture you can think of introducing their own mechanical keyboards. Cooler Master has been especially aggressive with multiple unique designs like their Quickfire series. What they did lack was a full featured mechanical keyboard with full backlighting, until now. Today they officially introduce their Storm Trigger, although it you look around the board was available Globally before now. With full backlighting it falls into a small category of Mechanical Keyboards with very little competition. I am excited to see how it performs.
Cooler Master HAF XM
The topic of cleaning your computer out came up last week on our forums and it got me thinking about how often I really need to clean out my computer. As it turns out it’s not very often anymore. All because of improvements in case design like fan filters. You don’t really see them on low end cases yet but they have been slowly trickling down. At CES this year we had a chance to get our hands on one of Cooler Master’s upcoming chassis, the HAF XM. A mid-range case packed with the features we have come to love from their high end HAF line. Today we are going to dig into the final product and see how it came out.
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H
Z77 boards come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and prices. Just about every manufacture has a whole lineup of boards covering the whole range to make sure you can find what you are looking for. Gigabyte is no different; they have a whole selection of boards that will fit your needs. Today we are taking a look at their Z77X-UD3H, one of their budget boards. It may not be a high end board but it is still packed with features. I am curious how it will perform now that the cat is out of the bag with Ivy Bridge. Let’s jump in and see what it’s all about.
Maori Warrior Meets PC Case:
Introducing the New Tattoo Series
Made for Gamers by Gamers
09 December 2010, Xizhi City, Taipei County, Taiwan – Cubitek Co. Ltd., a Taiwan-based manufacturer of uniquely designed computer cases, today released the all new Tattoo PC case series: The Tattoo Beta, the Tattoo Pro, and the Tattoo Fire computer chassis. Inspired by tattoos worn by Maori warriors, the “tattoo” graphics on these cases make them aesthetically powerful and creates a whole new dimension in PC case designing. Furthermore, the Tattoo chassis features an innovation not found on any other PC case: Conveniently located on the top panel next to a mini USB cable & micro USB adapter, a tray is built into the case. This tray is ideal for holding mobile phones, as well as photographic, storage, and backup devices, making uploading pics, syncing, and internet tethering easy while keeping devices safe.
The Tattoo Beta is a black, 0.7mm SECC computer chassis. The Tattoo Pro has a black, powder-coating finish with a window on the side panel. The Tattoo Fire has a black exterior with a fire-red interior, shown off through a side panel window. All three cases sport tattoo graphics on their side panels with additional tattoo graphics panels available for purchase.
On the inside, the Tattoo series PC cases give gaming enthusiasts lots of build space. Five 3.5” and two 2.5” hard disk drives can be mounted. Additionally, there are five 5.25” optical disk drive bays located on the front panel. One of these can also be converted to mount an external 3.5” HDD. None of the ODD or HDD installations require any tools and the quick-bezel-removal design of the ODD bays make dusting that much easier. The motherboard tray features large cut outs for cable management and makes changing CPU coolers easy. ATX, M-ATX, or Mini-ITX motherboards can be used. There are seven PCI slots and all add-on card installations are tool-less. Power supply units, up to 290mm in length, mount above a vent at the bottom of the case to help keep them cool. The CPU cooler's max height can be 160mm and max VGA card length is 290mm.
Thermally, the Tattoo series computer chassis are beautifully designed. All three cases come with one 140mm LED lit intake fan on the front panel (tool-less installation) and one 140mm LED lit exhaust fan on the top panel. Both can be controlled by an On/Off LED switch, located on the top panel. Furthermore, all three cases have a 120mm exhaust fan located on the back panel. On the Tattoo Beta, there are two side panel mounts for 120/140mm fans (fans not included). Air flow, on all three cases, is further aided by four, extra tall leg-pegs, allowing lots of air in through the PSU vent on the bottom panel. If LCS is desired, two holes on the back panel prevent any need to make cuts. With one of the best thermal designs available, heat damage is not an issue for users of Cubitek's Tattoo series cases.
The top panel is home to the I/O switch, plus two USB 2.0 ports, one e-SATA port, and HD+AC97 Audio ports. A mini USB cable & micro USB adapter is also on the top panel, right next to a convenient tray where users can easily place cell phones for charging/syncing and cameras for uploading pictures.
Dimensions of the Tattoo series computer cases stand at 202 x 470 x 485mm (W, H, D).
Cubitek Co. Ltd.
We ARE gamers designing FOR gamers. Founded in 2002, in Taiwan, we initially focused on an OEM/ODM business model. In the Spring of 2010 we reorganized to be able to become a branded manufacturer and now develop our own interesting and unique PC chassis. For more information visit our website www.cubitek.com.
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