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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.

Business PCs Arrive with New Intel® Core™ vPro™ Processor Family

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 4, 2010 – Intel Corporation today unveiled its 2010 Intel® Core™ vPro™ processor family to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes for PCs with greater, more flexible performance, theft prevention and cost savings in a rapidly changing business computing environment. These and several other capabilities are at the heart of many new Intel-based business laptop and desktop computers beginning to roll out from computer manufacturers worldwide. The Intel Core vPro processors arrive as business computing evolves with the emergence of video, Internet telephony, social networking and other heavyweight applications – in many cases running at the same time – making a computer's performance an even bigger priority."Businesses, particularly those that haven't purchased PCs for several years, face a computing environment that no longer handles the applications many workers and IT are adopting," said Rick Echevarria, vice president, Intel Architecture Group, and general manager, Business Client Platform Division. "The integration of intelligent performance along with smart security and cost-saving manageability features in the Intel Core vPro processor family provide IT and SMBs a no-compromise platform. We also are excited about how Intel vPro Technology gives IT the flexibility to look at client virtualization, consumerization and rich cloud applications."

The platform based on the 2010 Intel Core vPro processor family includes the new Intel® Q57 Express chipset, and new Intel® 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection for notebooks and Intel® 82578DM Network Connection for desktop PCs.

Computer manufacturers worldwide, including Acer*, ASUS*, Dell*, HP*, Lenovo* and Toshiba*, are rolling out business PCs based on the 2010 Intel Core vPro processor family. In addition, developers of software solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises such as Bomgar*, Kaseya*, LANDesk*, Level Platforms*, LogMeIn*, Microsoft*, RealVNC*, Spiceworks*, Symantec* and WinZip* will support the new features in their upcoming products. IT service providers, including AT&T Tech Support 360* and PlumChoice*, plan to adopt Intel Core vPro Technology capabilities into their SMB offerings.

Thinking Fast

The processors are based on Intel's award-winning "Nehalem" microarchitecture and manufactured on Intel's groundbreaking new 32-nanometer process. Intel has integrated high-definition graphics in its processors for the first time, and incorporated Intel's second-generation high-k metal gate transistors that help increase computing speed and battery life. The 2010 Intel® Core™ i7 processors and Core™ i5 processors feature Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology for adaptive, "smarter" computing. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology automatically adjusts the speed of the processor when it senses a workload change – faster when the user, for example, is multitasking or watching a video, and slower, more energy-efficiently when the worker goes for coffee and only background applications are running. Contributing to the industry-leading speed and energy efficiency of the processors, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology interconnects multiple processor cores with multiple "threads" that enable faster processing of instructions in parallel. Using standard benchmarks, a notebook with the 2010 Intel Core i5 vPro processor can run business productivity applications up to 80 percent faster1, multiple applications up to twice as fast1, and protect confidential data up to 3.5 times quicker1 compared to a 3-year-old mainstream notebook.

Outsmarting Evil Doers

Intel® Anti-Theft Technology, available with Intel vPro Technology frustrates thieves by locking access to a PC if a central server or built-in intelligence concludes it is lost or stolen. New Intel Anti-Theft Technology version 2.0 (Intel® AT 2.0) enables encryption solutions to disable access to cryptographic keys through hardware to completely block access to data, and also makes it simpler to reactivate a PC once in rightful hands. Also, a custom message can be displayed in a pre-OS screen of the disabled PC for anyone who tries to access the computer. Many computer makers plan to support Intel AT 2.0, such as Fujitsu*, HP, Lenovo and Panasonic*, and such security companies as Absolute Software,* PGP*, Phoenix* and WinMagic*.

Thinking Straight on Management

The new Intel Keyboard-Video-Mouse Remote Control (KVM Remote Control), features available with dual-core Intel Core i5 and i7 vPro processors work in conjunction with Intel® integrated graphics, bringing a stop to IT administrators' frustration with having to ask users, "What do you see?" Instead, they will see users' displays just as the users do and have full control of the PC, even if the operating system is inoperative. Previously, KVM functionality required appliances that cost as much as $200 and more per PC. As encryption becomes more prevalent in business PCs, Intel has added features that avoid productivity slowdowns. First, Intel incorporated new instructions for the Advanced Encryption Standard into the hardware, speeding up encryption and decryption. Second, new Intel® Remote Encryption Management enables distant IT personnel to manage PCs with encrypted hard drives by more securely unlocking those drives, making all of the Intel vPro Technology capabilities available. Another new feature, PC Alarm Clock, can wake a PC from off at a predetermined time to perform maintenance, security and other tasks on its own.

Boost for Small-, Medium-sized Businesses …

Today, Channel OEMs and system builders, including ASI*, Equus* and Seneca Databegan* introducing notebooks for SMBs based on the 2010 Intel Core processor family and other Intel building blocks. The full-featured line of notebooks, supported by an Intel enablement program called "Spring Peak," are being developed by original design manufacturers such as Gigabyte* and Pegatron*, and sold through Intel channel distribution. The Spring Peak platform offers distinctive design, docking station, 15.6-inch LED LCD performance notebook and supports Intel Anti-Theft Technology.

... and Enterprises

Intel launched a workstation platform based on the new Intel Core i5 processor and the Intel® 3450 chipset. The platform creates an innovative category of entry-level workstations that delivers workstation efficiency, power and reliability at near-traditional business PC prices. The platform is aimed at SMB and enterprise users who run such applications as digital-media creation or entry-level computer-aided design. The platform takes advantage of new Intel HD graphics and has been certified on applications from ADOBE, Autodesk and others. Workstations based on the platform are being introduced by Intel channel providers, including Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo and NEC.

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