Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including Kingsoft Office Review, UtechSmart Gaming Mice Roundup Review, Camtasia Studio 8 Review @ HiTech Legion, MSI Z87-G43 Motherboard Review, and Ivy Bridge-E Not a Cut-down 8-core, 20 MB LLC Die



Kingsoft Office review @ Dedoimedo

I've written a review of Kingsoft Office, a Chinese office suite somewhat similar to Microsoft Office, covering download and installation, initial setup, language, missing fonts, look & feel, usability, powerful skin manager & customization, file formats support, and more.

Read more: Kingsoft Office review @ Dedoimedo

GIGABYTE GTX 780 OC Windforce X3 (Rev 2.0) Review @ Vortez

The reference cooled NVIDIA GTX 780 which features the TITAN cooler is held in very high regard here at Vortez. Any attempt at a custom cooler needs to push the envelope that little bit further than before because what was once an easy performance gain, the new reference cooler makes distinguishing performance of both acoustics and cooling prowess so much more difficult, such is the excellent NVIDIA design.

The GTX780 isn't a particularly hot GPU but thanks to the dynamic overclocking incorporated with GPU BOOST 2.0, in which temperature is a major factor, the lower the temperature is kept, the higher the theoretical dynamic overclock will be. It therefore makes sense to keep the GPU as cool as possible to obtain the very best performance from it. Step forward the Windforce cooling design.

Read more: GIGABYTE GTX 780 OC Windforce X3 (Rev 2.0) Review @ Vortez

SilverStone ARM11SC Arm One Monitor Mount @ Phoronix

hile we commonly associate SilverStone with manufacturing high-end computer enclosures and power supplies, recently they began venturing into the production of monitor arms/stands. The SilverStone ARM11SC is a single-monitor aluminum alloy and steel monitor arm that offers plenty of functionality and is the subject of today's Phoronix review.

SilverStone recently just expanded into producing monitor mounts but already they have many different monitor arm products for a variety of single and dual monitor configurations. The ARM11SC, also known as "ARM One", is described by SilverStone as "to significantly raise the value and usability of your monitor. ARM11SC is constructed with robust aluminum alloy and steel. It includes VESA Mounting Interface Standard (MIS) which fits most monitors on the market. Hassle-free adjustments can be made for height and reach to provide various viewing angles for the monitor so your view will no longer be restricted to traditional positions."

Read more: SilverStone ARM11SC Arm One Monitor Mount @ Phoronix

UtechSmart Gaming Mice Roundup Review @ OCC

Unfortunately the UtechSmart 8000 falls below this mark as something I'd buy. Sure it has some programmable features, but the shape of the mouse and overall comfort come forward to defeat these things (at least for me). The awkward button locations as well as the most ridiculous pre-set button settings I've seen makes this mouse useless to me out of the box. If I needed something quick on the go, I'd find anything else. The glowy logo and the DPI settings don't sell me this mouse. The mouse just falls short in an attempt to be cheap by being the literal definition of cheap crap.

Read more: UtechSmart Gaming Mice Roundup Review @ OCC

Galaxy GTX 770 GC 4GB Review @ Hardware Canucks

With the GTX 770’s launch, NVIDIA’s board partners saw an opportunity to create a wide number of variations since a reference design never officially created per se. Instead, the market has turned into something resembling the Wild West, with everyone clambering for a piece of the pie. The main reason for this is simple: the GTX 770 resides in a “sweet spot” and perfectly combines raw power and efficiency without costing a fortune. This benefits you and me since it has bred competition on a number of fronts and has brought highly appealing, overclocked solutions to within spitting distance of the GTX 770’s $399 price point.

So here we are covering yet another custom GTX 770, this time the Galaxy GTX 770 GC, which is particularly unique due to its 4GB of GDDR5 memory. Naturally, this comes tied to the hip with higher clock speeds, upgraded components and a high end cooling solution but that’s par for the course these days.

Read more: Galaxy GTX 770 GC 4GB Review @ Hardware Canucks

Camtasia Studio 8 Review @ HiTech Legion

TechSmith's Camtasia Studio 8 is a video editing studio that's available both for PC and Mac. Camtasia offers a selection of features including a Multi-track Timeline, audio and video effects, Remove a Color, Callouts, Zoom-n-Pan, transitions, Narration, webcam recording, closed captions, quizzes, and Screen Recording. Camtasia allows even an amateur to have access to the tools necessary to create intricate video projects. While $299 isn't bargain-bin pricing, it allows someone new to begin creating great videos without investing their life savings.

Read more: Camtasia Studio 8 Review @ HiTech Legion

ikan iLED312 Dual Color LED Light and MA210 Articulating Arm @ MEGATech

The folks at ikan Corp have been designing and building products for cinematographers and film-makers for quite some time now. They design, market and sell all sorts of gear including shoulder rigs, LED lights, and teleprompters and more. The products they create follow one simple motto and that’s to give the customer “features you need, prices you want”. This way of doing things has garnered them a devoted following. Today we’re checking out two products from ikan: The iLED312 Dual Color LED light and the MA210 Articulating Arm. I’ve been testing both products behind the scenes and I’m ready to tell you what I think of them. Check out the video below…

Read more: ikan iLED312 Dual Color LED Light and MA210 Articulating Arm @ MEGATech

CM Storm QuickFire Stealth Mechanical Keyboard @ PureOverclock

Keyboards come in many flavours, from the plain Jane, old-school PS/2 clackety-clack models, right up the outrageous OLED varieties, where you can program every key with its own picture and many different macros. Price then also factors into the equation, as different keyboards are available to suit just about any budget.

Of course there is the question of build quality; surely a $10 keyboard won’t be as solid as one that costs $85. At least, that’s the logical assumption. And what about features: backlit keys? Add-on pads and peripherals? The notion of a simple keyboard might not be so simple when you start to peel back the layers and delve a bit deeper into what’s needed and what’s being offered in the marketplace.

It seems, then, that specializations or niche designs are becoming the trend in keyboards. Gaming keyboards, and specifically mechanical ones, are quickly taking hold amongst the enthusiast crowd. The days of the cheap plastic boards that die after a few fragging sessions are becoming a distant memory.

Read more: CM Storm QuickFire Stealth Mechanical Keyboard @ PureOverclock

MSI Z87-G43 Motherboard Review @ HiTech Legion

Sometimes it is the little things in life that make all the difference. Like receiving a letter from a friend you have not heard from in a long time. Maybe the little thing is getting a few minutes to not worry about anything but yourself or your hobby. For me upgrading my computer systems is a pleasure and I take every chance I can to boost the power in my system. But what happens when your upgrade your systems and a piece of legacy equipment no longer is compatible. This happens in all industries when a major shift occur, for example when HDMI started to take hold it was impossible to find certain peripheral devices that had coax connections on them anymore. For the computer industry it usually revolves around upgraded ports and motherboard slots.

What if you are a business owner who desires to upgrade your systems but has some proprietary technology? One example might be a music studio that needs connectivity with some older equipment utilizing an outdated standard. Luckily there usually is an option with computers that provides a nice mix of modern connectivity and legacy connections. USB 3.0 is a good example, in that USB 3.0 devices can be used on USB 2.0 ports at slower speeds and USB 2.0 devices can use USB 3.0 ports. But what about PCI, most of the world has moved on to using PCIe cards but some still require PCI slots.

Read more: MSI Z87-G43 Motherboard Review @ HiTech Legion

Ivy Bridge-E Not a Cut-down 8-core, 20 MB LLC Die @ TechPowerUp

Unlike Core i7 "Sandy Bridge-E," chips, which were quad-core or six-core parts cut-down from a common silicon shared with Xeon "Sandy Bridge-EP," which physically features eight cores and 20 MB of L3 cache; the upcoming Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" is based on a silicon that physically features just six cores, and 15 MB (or maybe 16 MB) of L3 cache. On the Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition, practically no component on the die is disabled. The Core i7-4930K features just 12 MB of L3 cache, while the Core i7-4820K features two out of six cores disabled, and just 10 MB of L3 cache.

"Ivy Bridge-E" is a variant of one of three large 22 nm dies Intel designed, based on the "Ivy Bridge" micro-architecture, next to a 10-core die with 25 MB of L3 cache, and a 12-core die with 30 MB of L3 cache. Aside from up to six cores, "Ivy Bridge-E" features a PCI-Express gen 3.0 certified root-complex (certified in way that NVIDIA would approve of), and a quad-channel (256-bit wide) DDR3 integrated memory controller, with native support for DDR3-1866. Intel's Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" series should launch on or before the 10th of September. Parts in the series will run on existing socket LGA2011 motherboards, with a BIOS update.

Read more: Ivy Bridge-E Not a Cut-down 8-core, 20 MB LLC Die @ TechPowerUp

AMD "Hawaii" Press Sample Boxes Surface @ TechPowerUp

Some time in late September, the 25th to be precise, AMD is flying the press at large over to Hawaii, to unveil its "Volcanic Islands" GPU family, with its flagship part, codenamed "Hawaii." This chip is expected to succeed "Tahiti," on which AMD's top-end Radeon HD 7900 series is based. An poster on ChipHell forums leaked these pictures of a press-package of AMD's flagship Hawaii-based graphics card, which has things going both for and against its credibility.

To begin with, the picture shows an audio CD-type jewel case holding Battlefield 4. Given that the game won't launch until late-October, we find it implausible that its release DVDs will be ready a month in advance. There's also a graphic printed on the box that shows the shore of a volcanic island (where magma meets the ocean) in the background, and an AMD logo in the foreground. The thread also contains a few alleged x-ray shots from a different poster, but we're pretty sure that they're of a motherboard. Nice try. Sources: ChipHell forums, Expreview

Read more: AMD "Hawaii" Press Sample Boxes Surface @ TechPowerUp