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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.
Welcome to Wednesday everyone, we have some big news for ya this week. The Steam app is now out of beta, the Midweek Madness game is a good one, Serious Sam 2 is now out, The Darkness II demo is out, I have had my cherry popped with DOTA 2 and a couple of news items at the end. It’s February, it’s cold, let get the heat going. Gaming News starts...NOW!Written By: Skyler
Since we posted about it last week it was in a closed beta for iOS/Android. Starting yesterday, it has been opened up to everyone. It plays well on Android 4.0, as for iOS, I will have to talk to our resident Apple guru Chad. From what I have used, it works great. The chat feature is something that I think a bunch of us were waiting on. No, I haven’t bought any games thru the app but I plan on it if I am away from my PC and I see something that I want. If your a Steam user, have an iOS/Android phone, go ahead and download it. The best part about it, its free!
Midweek Madness
Midweek Madness
With all of the flak that Duke Nukem Forever took, pick this game up if you already haven’t. For $5 its worth your time to run through the game. Sure, it’s not the best game ever created but it is enjoyable and for five bucks, hard to beat. As always, the Midweek Madness sales end on Thursday’s at 7pm EST.
Serious Sam 2
As a regular Gaming News reader would know, Serious Sam is one of my favorite franchises. The games have always been about just having fun. The story, if any, is way at the back of the room for these games. This series is about throwing it back to the good old days of mowing down large groups of baddies. If you like guns and lots of them, check out the newest addition to the series. It can be picked up now for $9.99 on Steam.
The Darkness II
I am not going to lie here. I played the first The Darkness game and didn’t see what the big deal was with it. Sure, it did some interesting stuff but that’s when I was playing just on PS3. Thank goodness those days are over and I am PC and Android only now. The first item that I noticed after firing up the demo was the FOV. It is very narrow. Now i’m not one to puke during games or get sick or have any problems at all. But this game really needs the FOV help pill. Looking over on the forums for the game there are multiple people that stated this. With the standard dev reply of “we’ll look into it”. It kinda doesn’t put it’s best foot forward. Atleast let me change it in the menu, something, anything at this point. Regardless, The Darkness II drops on February 7th on Steam for $49.99.
DOTA 2
After sending out my survey for DOTA 2 as soon as it was released, I awaited my chance to get in. As months passed I lost hope. I really want to see what all of the fuss is about. Prayers answered, lol. With this latest installment into the DOTA series Valve is again, gonna have some players on it’s hand. With League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth out there and Free-to-Play its going to take some hard thinking on Valve’s part to pull people away from those other games. Lets get this out of the way, I am not a LoL fan and here’s why; players that play more, get more. You start out with an advantage the higher up you are. It would be the same thing as starting out with the “Nuke” in MW3. The game rewards players that invest hundreds of hours into it. Unlike HoN and DOTA where you all start out at the same level in each game. These games reward the best players, not the ones that invest the most time into them. Whatever you fancy may be you can’t deny the fact that all three games have a large following, tourneys, and prizes. The best part about all three is they are Free-to-Play. I am pretty sure that is why LoL has taken off like a mad person online.With DOTA 2 still being in beta I jumped on with the other LanOC Staff and readied myself for slaughter. One thing that I will say right off the bat, is, RUN, RUN like you stole something in these games. Don’t try to be the big man on campus, you will get trounced. Knowing this I tried to click as fast as my sausage link fingers could but, being a “Noob” I just wasn’t fast enough and was killed multiple times. I haven’t looked yet, but I hope there is somewhere in the game that shows me what items to buy and when. Should I buy something out of the gate? Or wait and save the gold for something down the road? Whatever it may be, the game is stupid fun when you are playing with friends, and that goes for most games. When your playing with people that you know they can offer advice when you need it and cheer for you when you do something good. Trust me, there wasn’t much cheering going on when I was playing. That is what gaming is all about though. Spending time with your friends doing something that all of you enjoy, together. DOTA 2, I will see you soon. Just take it a bit easier this time.
Left Field
If you haven’t noticed this thread please take a look at it for the most up-to-date sales that are going on that day on Steam. I try and post them up as early as I can but I do slip up some days. With over twenty nine thousand views, it looks like people are interested in seeing whats on sale.
Another thread that’s going on is the “Most recent purchases” thread. This is a great one to post up a pic of what you picked up recently. Don’t be shy either, some members have posted pic’s of milk that they bought at the grocery store. If you bought it, we want to see it.
Have you seen Wes’s reviews of the AMD 7970 and 7950? If not, take a look. The performance is there but they are a bit pricey. Weird to, AMD has been the cheaper of the two card makers for awhile now. Good to see AMD stepping their game up. With Kepler coming soon it shall be an interesting quarter or two for big red and big green.
That is all for this week LanOC. It’s going to get even busier than usual around here. If you would like to join us for some DOTA 2 action we have been playing on Tuesdays and Thursdays around 6pm. Let us know and we will reserve you a spot.
Want some IPV6 goodness? If you are on T-Mobile and have a select device follow this link over to Android Police to see how to set it up. I have had it working for a couple of days with no problems.
Until next week,
Wingless is out!
Until next week,
Wingless is out!
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