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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.
Summer is full swing with the start of June. We have some huge Call Of Duty news. A new behind the scene's trailer for Battlefield 3 and the Steam Daily Deal / Midweek Madness sales. Are you ready for the hottest Gaming News of this year?
Call Of Duty Elite:
So this is going to cause a ruckus in the forums here at LanOC. Looks like Call Of Duty is going to a paid subscription for Map Packs and stats. Let me say this first and foremost.
Nothing will change on how you play online. The map packs will still sell individually. You don't need this to play online. Subscribers will not have an advantage online either.
Glad that we got that outta the way. You can kinda think of this as Halo Waypoint or Bungie Pro. You get more stat tracking and map packs built into the price. I know that most of the maps for the COD games are cheaper on Steam if you pre-order them. This will probably attract the "Hardcore" COD online players. I can see LanOC Member Shocka going for this cause that kids just PWND's people in tourney's. For people like that the stats that will probably help out. There is also social intergration that might help out but we have LanOC forums and Ventrillo for stuff like that. Don't get me started on Facebook, lol.
What will be interesting is how many people actually subscribe to this service and how much it is. If it's the price of say a Netflix or Gamefly account then it's not worth it. If it's say $30 a year with 2 map packs then its not a bad deal. Then again, you are buying map packs that you might not even want.
Thanks to Joystiq for the link.
Battlefield 3:
The nice people over at PWND have posted a vid of a Battlefield 3 Special. Here ya go.
Midweek Madness 1:
Who doesn't like building cities to watch them flourish? You may not want them to succeed but rather build it up then have them fail in your own weird way. Maybe your the type that likes to build a city that has no food or waste services. Whatever it may be CitiesXL 2011 can do it. I have town built right now that is falling apart, for some reason the people are jamming the roads and it takes 5 hours to go one mile, lol. Either way pick it up this week for 75% off.
Midweek Madness 2:
Check out Thief this week. If you don't have it now's a good time to pick it up. Don't eat lunch one day this week and use that $5 for this.
Steam Daily Deals:
Remember to check each day for the lastest deal. "GIANT" props goes to Lesar for keeping this up to date.
E3 2011:
It's that time of year again for a bunch of stinky nerds to jam a convention center to see the newest games and see what is coming in the next few years. I will be watching the Sony press conference for sure to see how the handle the DDoS and how that has impacted them. Should be very interesting to say the least.
Nintendo will also be showing off the Wii2/HD or whatever they are going to be calling it. Exciting times in the games industry for sure.
Make sure to be tuned in to LanOC for all the gaming coverage and your favorite blogs.
Singularity:
So I picked this up back when it was sale, if I remember right it was under $10. The game has some really interesting qualities about it. The gun mechanic is about the same in our beloved COD games. The way the health works is not my favorite. Overall though its been a fun game.
The guns in the game are pretty messed up, looking that is. Think 1940's with 2011 tech on them. 
Anyone for some crazy Russian Spelling? Why is it that this looks this cool?
This is one cool moment in the game. Time Transformation is a go!
Rewinding time for fast forwarding time will help you make it through the levels.
Getting thru time requires rifts. These are positioned throughout the level and are not hard to miss. See one? Jump in it.
Looks like somebody forgot to call the janitor in for the last 50 years!So the way the health works is you have to have a constant supply of "Med Kits". Any damage that you take will take away from your health bar. This becomes a burden always looking for packs when you should be exploring the game. Could it be differnet? Yes. Does it break the game? No.
The game did run excellent on my "Main Rig" with average 125fps with everything cranked. Nvidia Surround was not used in gameplay. I couldn't find one issue that hampered my gameplay at all with performance of the game.
The next time this game goes on sale for "El' Cheapo" I wouldn't have a problem recommending it. The time mechanic was just awesome to mess around with. Making enemies wither away before your eyes because you've sped up their aging is funny and ridiculous at the same time.
Well that's a wrap on Gaming News. Next week is going to be nuts. With E3 in full swing we will have no shortage of news coming out of LA. Hope everyone has a good week and stay up to date with everything that is going on with LanOC on our forums. Thanks everyone.
Wingless is out!
Perhaps I should start upgrading/replacing my computer now so I can run BF3 when it comes out..... I think it may be the one game I pay full price for this year!
yeah your going to need to toss your current video card lol. Get in touch i have a few cards that I have been given that are just sitting here, sometimes still wrapped in the box
garfi3ld wrote:
I have priced a few builds... need to clear one with the CFO of the family then we shall see. Hopefully it will be soon. btw, is there an official release date for BF3 yet?
yeah your going to need to toss your current video card lol. Get in touch i have a few cards that I have been given that are just sitting here, sometimes still wrapped in the box
Yeah! Ill put it in the kids computer....I have priced a few builds... need to clear one with the CFO of the family then we shall see. Hopefully it will be soon. btw, is there an official release date for BF3 yet?
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