Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including Alienware 17 Gaming Notebook Review, The Best CPU Coolers: 10-Way Roundup, Cooler Master CM Storm Havoc Gaming Mouse Review, Canon EOS Rebel SL1 Review, and The SSD Endurance Experiment: 22TB update



Alienware 17 Gaming Notebook Review @ Anandtech

Prior to the Haswell generation, the Alienware M17x was the gaming notebook to get. The new Alienware 17 has a fresh coat of paint and a new moniker, but it's still the notebook to beat.

Read more: Alienware 17 Gaming Notebook Review @ Anandtech

The Best CPU Coolers: 10-Way Roundup @ Techspot

AMD may not be getting as much enthusiast love as it used to, but the company's APU range is still where it's at for home theater-style systems, so I didn't hesitate to pick one up for a new compact media-streaming box recently. Unfortunately, while the chip was a relatively powerful yet affordable solution for playing 1080p content, it was surprisingly loud -- we're talking enough noise that I thought something was wrong with my power supply. Upon inspection, it wasn't the PSU and nothing was wrong per se, the stock AMD cooler was just being obnoxious, especially for a living room setup.

I thought I could get away with slowing the CPU fan in the BIOS, but that caused a drastic temperature spike and left me seeking a more elaborate solution. It's one that proved to be relatively simple: the Xigmatek Janus, a small heatsink and fan combo for Mini-ITX systems.

Read more: The Best CPU Coolers: 10-Way Roundup @ Techspot

Patriot Viper 3 Series Black Mamba PC3-19200 16GB Review @ OCC

Overclocking on Intel Haswell processors is quite a bit different from what we are used to in the last few generations, where the CPU clock speeds did not influence the clock speed the memory controller could handle. Entry to Haswell memory overclocking 101 shows that while the CPU may handle a nice overclock of up 4.7GHz to 5.0GHz on really impressive examples, the memory may not scale up past 1866MHz or 2133MHz at those CPU clock speeds, even though the memory modules are rated much higher. What I found on both of my CPUs was that anything greater than around 4250MHz on the CPU would not run the memory at 2600MHz or higher. The G.Skill Trident comparison modules would run just over 2600MHz at 4.4GHz, but the Black Mamba Viper 3 modules would cause a lockup at that speed. After plenty of trial and error, I was able to push the modules up to 2800MHz by relaxing the timings to 13-15-14-35 and letting the motherboard assign the rest of the parameters.

Read more: Patriot Viper 3 Series Black Mamba PC3-19200 16GB Review @ OCC

Asus' X79-Deluxe motherboard reviewed @ The Tech Report

Most motherboard makers are relying on existing LGA2011 models to complement Intel's latest Ivy Bridge-E CPUs. Asus has taken a different approach by rolling its recent innovations into a brand new board: the X79-Deluxe. Join us as we take a closer look at what may be the most advanced X79 board around.

Read more: Asus' X79-Deluxe motherboard reviewed @ The Tech Report

Hands-on review: IFA 2013: LG G Pad 8.3 @ Techradar

LG has sprung a surprise: a slick and well-designed tablet that impresses without the headline specs.When you first pick up the LG Optimus Pad 8.3, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was from another brand. That's no disrespect to LG, but more a statement showing that it's a company that's changing its mindset in the phones and tablets market.While the smartphone arena is dominated by the G2 for the company, with its rear volume keys, the G Pad 8.3 is a slim and mostly metal device, something LG tells us is inspired by car and aeroplane monocoques.The metal is surrounded by harder plastic, but LG also said that the decision to use metal for a large part of the rear of the device contributed to actually lower weight, rather than increasing it at the expense of using a more premium material.

Read more: Hands-on review: IFA 2013: LG G Pad 8.3 @ Techradar

External Storage Roundup: LaCie, Toshiba, and WD @ HotHardware.com

You have to appreciate a good external hard drive that faithfully ferries important data from one place to another, while safely stashed on a drive that's wrapped inside a slick-looking, durable chassis. These days, the storage capacity on a typical and relatively inexpensive external hard drive is large; 1TB is a standard size, and it isn't at all uncommon to see 2TB drives, too.

We looked at a few external hard drives from Toshiba, WD, and LaCie, all with similar specs to see how they stacked up against one another. All three of the units in our test bank employ a speedy USB 3.0 interface with capacities that range from 750GB to 1TB in size and, as it happens, all three are compact and highly portable...

Read more: External Storage Roundup: LaCie, Toshiba, and WD @ HotHardware.com

ASUS Maximus VI Impact Review @ Vortez

A number of vendors used Intel’s last generation Ivy Bridge and Z77 chipset to introduce a number of Mini-ITX motherboards and ever since, (along with the inclusion of numerous computer chassis) this particular form factor has been gathering lots of momentum as system builders choose to downsize their systems, opting for a condensed configuration and yet still harnessing plenty of horsepower.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) division have been hard at work in designing and bringing to market their perception of the very first Mini-ITX motherboard this series has undertaken. The Maximus VI series has thus far given enthusiasts and gamers alike, the choice of Hero, Formula and Extreme and today we are to look at the fourth instalment to the series by way of a dainty little offering named Impact.

Read more: ASUS Maximus VI Impact Review @ Vortez

Cooler Master CM Storm Havoc Gaming Mouse Review @ Legit Reviews

With so many gaming mice to choose from, one has to wonder what Cooler Master's newest mouse has to offer. On paper, the CM Storm Havoc looks like many other gaming mouse side buttons, a laser sensor, and macro profiles. On the other hand, a $45 mouse (Amazon.com) with those kinds of features is of good value when there are some mice cost nearly twice that amount. Read on to see how it performs!

Read more: Cooler Master CM Storm Havoc Gaming Mouse Review @ Legit Reviews

8Pack Releases Ultra High End Systems Range with OverclockersUK: Exclusive Look @ KitGuru

Famous for his record breaking overclocking achievements and benchmark scores, Ian Parry, better known as 8Pack, has spent many months perfecting his own range of ultra high end, watercooled systems. Since seeing a teaser picture back in August (http://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/carl/overclockers-uk-tease-with-exclusive-system-image/) , KitGuru couldn't wait to see what OverclockersUK and 8Pack had in store for enthusiasts who want nothing but the best.

Read more: 8Pack Releases Ultra High End Systems Range with OverclockersUK: Exclusive Look @ KitGuru

CM Storm Quickfire XT Mechanical Keyboard Review @ Benchmark Reviews

Cooler Master has a full range of keyboards with various prices and configurations, ranging from the fully backlit, full sized Trigger, to the minimalist ten keyless QuickFire Stealth. Adding yet another keyboard into the fray, Cooler Master has introduced the QuickFire XT, a full size companion to Cooler Master's very popular QuickFire Rapid. The Quickfire XT is a no frills, full-sized mechanical keyboard available with variety of switches depending on a user's needs. In this review Benchmark Reviews will be evaluating the Cooler Master CM Storm Quickfire XT (model SGK-4030-GKCL1-US) against its rivals in the very competitive mechanical keyboard market.

Read more: CM Storm Quickfire XT Mechanical Keyboard Review @ Benchmark Reviews

Canon EOS Rebel SL1 Review @ TechReviewSource.com

Canon's high-performing EOS Rebel SL1 is the tiniest digital SLR you can put your hands on, but it may be too small for some hands.

Read more: Canon EOS Rebel SL1 Review @ TechReviewSource.com

Dynatron R25 1U & Up Server CPU Cooler for LGA2011 @ Bjorn3D

Closer Look When looking at cooling solutions all too often we forget that besides the big names there are many solutions out there that never see the pages of many popular enthusiasts media or even get any coverage really at all. Especially when considering that besides the enthusiasts and gamer communities which we cater ...

Read more: Dynatron R25 1U & Up Server CPU Cooler for LGA2011 @ Bjorn3D

The SSD Endurance Experiment: 22TB update @ The Tech Report

We're testing six SSDs to see how many writes they can take before burning out and what happens to performance as the flash degrades. Today, we check in on our subjects after 22TB of writes.

Read more: The SSD Endurance Experiment: 22TB update @ The Tech Report

EVGA GTX 770 4GB Dual Classified w/ ACX Cooler Review @ Hi Tech Legion

There are a few different directions that we see businesses go when they reach a spike in popularity. For the sake of discussion here, let’s assume that the spike has occurred primarily due to a distinct advantage in product quality, not due to an “only brand to offer purple cola-flavored water” type of thing. So, what do you do when you have the best product out there and people have realized it? Do you push on to innovate the product further but risk possible glitches? Do you simply not fix what isn’t broken and stand pat? Or do you rest on your laurels, find ways to cut costs and let the reputation sell the product? This is not a decision that is lightly made.

As much as we would all like to think our favorite products stand by a mission statement, more often than not, it all comes down to dollars and cents. Whether it is your favorite brand of laundry detergent, your favorite restaurant or your favorite brand of computer components, this holds true. I’m sure you can think of quite a few brands that cashed in big when their name was hot, only to fold as they did not keep up their products to meet the market. At the same time, there are, thankfully, some that will settle for nothing but putting their name on the best possible product. You know the ones, that family owned restaurant that has been down the block since 1910 and is still crowded, Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls Royce….and a GPU manufacturer known as EVGA.

Read more: EVGA GTX 770 4GB Dual Classified w/ ACX Cooler Review @ Hi Tech Legion