Our Most Recent Reviews
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.
I know everyone shed a tear for not being able to read Gaming News last week but have no fear, i'm back.
Midweek Madness:
Half-Life Episode 2 is on sale for the low low price of $1.99. This is just a quick blast cause we all know and love these games. If you don't own this on Steam, now is the time to pick it up.
Monday Night Combat:
This is the game that is going to be a staple at LanOC LAN's now. I know that we have a thread that Garf3ld started about getting people into a 4 pack deal. MNC was a huge hit at 7.5 and will be played at 8.0 here in April. Please, if you need this game please post up in the thread and we will do our best to pull more people in to get a better price on each game.
Left Field:
Gonna try something new out here for a couple of weeks and see how it goes, welcome to Left Field. Sometimes, gaming news goes beyond just just the same old stuff. Need to roll out some new sections and see how it goes. Most of you know me so you know that I can be way out in Left Field at times, so here we go.
Thanks for everyone that came out to the Mini LAN 7.5! From the sound of things, a great time was had by all. The internet thing did suck but we worked around it and mowed through it. When heading out to our LAN or any LAN make sure you read what you need to bring. I'm not knocking on anyone but having the right stuff makes things so much easier. There is a reason that the admin's put a list of stuff up.
I know that we have a couple of LanOC'ers coming down for LAN War at IU. I will make a seperate thread about meeting times and what you need/bring. Look for this in the coming week.
How about those Android tablets? The Motorola XOOM is looking good but over at Engadget they posted Big Red's aka Verizon's pricing. Who in their right mind wants to pay $20 for a gigabyte of data? These things need to be in the $300-$500 range. For that price you can get a nice laptop and still play games on it. Once the price comes down then i'll start looking. Until then i'm happy with my little Acer laptop for portability.
Windows 7 SP1 is out. If you are rocking Windows 7 hit up Windows Update in the Control Panel and update now. Just remember that you'll have to reboot after it's done, simple enough.
Venturing into even the more bizzare, Minecraft is coming to mobile platforms this year. We do know that iOS will be getting it but Android is a bit sketchy at this point. I have heard both yes and no so I will leave it up to you and pray. Will you pay for mobile Minecraft? I probably would, I bought the game on PC cause anyone that builds a game in their basement that attracts this much attention is doing something right. Lets just hope that you don't need 2.3 Gingerbread to run it.
Bulletstorm, I have to hate on this game for bit here. Why in hell would Epic use Games For Windows Live on Bulletstorm? Steam is like Xbox Live on PC. All of your friends are there and the interface is easy to use. One other thing that makes me mad is that there is no demo out yet. From Mark Rein's Twitter account he said that a demo will be out after the game ship's date. Put the demo out before the game ships. That way we can play it and see if we like it. Now, we have to wait for the demo then make our decision. Stupid idea in my opinion.
Have a good week everyone, Wingless is out!
Gonna try to end with a question each week from now on. This week's question is "What game are you looking forward to?"
That would be Crysis 2
Midweek Madness:
Half-Life Episode 2 is on sale for the low low price of $1.99. This is just a quick blast cause we all know and love these games. If you don't own this on Steam, now is the time to pick it up.
Monday Night Combat:
This is the game that is going to be a staple at LanOC LAN's now. I know that we have a thread that Garf3ld started about getting people into a 4 pack deal. MNC was a huge hit at 7.5 and will be played at 8.0 here in April. Please, if you need this game please post up in the thread and we will do our best to pull more people in to get a better price on each game.
Left Field:
Gonna try something new out here for a couple of weeks and see how it goes, welcome to Left Field. Sometimes, gaming news goes beyond just just the same old stuff. Need to roll out some new sections and see how it goes. Most of you know me so you know that I can be way out in Left Field at times, so here we go.
Thanks for everyone that came out to the Mini LAN 7.5! From the sound of things, a great time was had by all. The internet thing did suck but we worked around it and mowed through it. When heading out to our LAN or any LAN make sure you read what you need to bring. I'm not knocking on anyone but having the right stuff makes things so much easier. There is a reason that the admin's put a list of stuff up.
I know that we have a couple of LanOC'ers coming down for LAN War at IU. I will make a seperate thread about meeting times and what you need/bring. Look for this in the coming week.
How about those Android tablets? The Motorola XOOM is looking good but over at Engadget they posted Big Red's aka Verizon's pricing. Who in their right mind wants to pay $20 for a gigabyte of data? These things need to be in the $300-$500 range. For that price you can get a nice laptop and still play games on it. Once the price comes down then i'll start looking. Until then i'm happy with my little Acer laptop for portability.
Windows 7 SP1 is out. If you are rocking Windows 7 hit up Windows Update in the Control Panel and update now. Just remember that you'll have to reboot after it's done, simple enough.
Venturing into even the more bizzare, Minecraft is coming to mobile platforms this year. We do know that iOS will be getting it but Android is a bit sketchy at this point. I have heard both yes and no so I will leave it up to you and pray. Will you pay for mobile Minecraft? I probably would, I bought the game on PC cause anyone that builds a game in their basement that attracts this much attention is doing something right. Lets just hope that you don't need 2.3 Gingerbread to run it.
Bulletstorm, I have to hate on this game for bit here. Why in hell would Epic use Games For Windows Live on Bulletstorm? Steam is like Xbox Live on PC. All of your friends are there and the interface is easy to use. One other thing that makes me mad is that there is no demo out yet. From Mark Rein's Twitter account he said that a demo will be out after the game ship's date. Put the demo out before the game ships. That way we can play it and see if we like it. Now, we have to wait for the demo then make our decision. Stupid idea in my opinion.
Have a good week everyone, Wingless is out!
Gonna try to end with a question each week from now on. This week's question is "What game are you looking forward to?"
That would be Crysis 2
I think the reason a lot of people didn't have 25' ethernet cables is because we've never had a setup like that before. The switches have always been on the same table with the pcs, so anyone with a shorter cable would just sit closer to a switch.
So, does this mean I have to go out and buy a 25' cable now? 
I've never had to be more than 5-6' away from a box before lol I just took for granted that we'd have the same setup as always. My apologies gents
I've never had to be more than 5-6' away from a box before lol I just took for granted that we'd have the same setup as always. My apologies gents
We've always managed to have enough switches to cover tables in the past, especially for our full events. Mini's are a little different, and a little more difficult to plan for. You'd probably be okay with 5-6' or so, but a 25' ensures that you will reach the switch, regardless of the set-up. I think you can get one from monoprice for around $4 if you want to grab one and be safe. Sometime between now and 8.0 I'm going to pick up a few extra, and you can get discounted prices for buying larger quantities (like 2 or more, 5 or more, etc). So if we have enough that want one maybe we can Steam Pack it and get them really cheap.
I was planning on getting 2 25ers for myself, if we are looking into a big bundle I'd be up for that. I was going to order tonight, I'll keep an eye here if we'll do a bundle.
Here is what you should buy peeps.
This is what I have at my house. Just did it in black. Looks like for 20 of them with shipping it's $77. You can buy a bulk 1000ft run for $100 shipped. It's up to you guys.
Cat6
This is what I have at my house. Just did it in black. Looks like for 20 of them with shipping it's $77. You can buy a bulk 1000ft run for $100 shipped. It's up to you guys.
Cat6
Lersar wrote:
I'd be up for this, I could use a few extra.
We've always managed to have enough switches to cover tables in the past, especially for our full events. Mini's are a little different, and a little more difficult to plan for. You'd probably be okay with 5-6' or so, but a 25' ensures that you will reach the switch, regardless of the set-up. I think you can get one from monoprice for around $4 if you want to grab one and be safe. Sometime between now and 8.0 I'm going to pick up a few extra, and you can get discounted prices for buying larger quantities (like 2 or more, 5 or more, etc). So if we have enough that want one maybe we can Steam Pack it and get them really cheap.
I'd be up for this, I could use a few extra.
Be sure to add/follow us on your favorite social networks
