Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, incuding AMD Radeon HD 7990 reviews, Rosewill RPLC-500 500 Mbps Powerline Networking Kit Review, Nouveau vs. NVIDIA Linux Comparison Shows Shortcomings, Datacolor Spyder4Elite monitor calibration tool Review, and How To Set Your Bluetooth Headset As The Default Audio Device



NZXT Phantom 630 Case @ Modders-Inc

The NZXT Phantom 630 High Performance Modular Ultra Tower is one of the best cases on the current market. The features that it possesses are outstanding to say the least. I enjoyed checking this case out, and look forward to possibly modding it.

Read more: NZXT Phantom 630 Case @ Modders-Inc

Rosewill RPLC-500 500 Mbps Powerline Networking Kit Review @ ThinkComputers.org

In terms of getting a network connection from one point to another in a way that most folk consider neat and orderly, some ways are easier than others. Running Ethernet or coaxial cable can be messy for existing structures, and sometimes there's a reason not to use WiFi. When those two standard options are out, the next one to consider is Powerline networking. Powerline is oft-forgotten, because most folk reach for a better WiFi router when they need it. The 500 Mbps RPLC-500 Kit from Rosewill is a new contender in this space. It offers a smaller wall wart adapter than some of its competitor offerings and great power saving features. Its plug-and-play operation lets users get up and running in no time.

Read more: Rosewill RPLC-500 500 Mbps Powerline Networking Kit Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt SSD HD-PATU3 Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

So it is always great when we see a portable drive that contains an SSD and uses USB 3.0, both of which should remove the USB 2.0 connector and mechanical drive bottlenecks which we regularly see. Thats where the MiniStaion SSD Edition enters, but Buffalo havent stopped there, they also provide a Thunderbolt interface for Mac users (and those who have an appropriate motherboard for PC).

Read more: Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt SSD HD-PATU3 Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Cooler Master Eisberg Prestige 240L Review @ KitGuru

Today we are going to look at the latest all-in-one CPU water cooler from Cooler Master, the Eisberg Prestige 240L which competes with the latest models from the likes of Corsair and NZXT. The Eisberg range is targeted specifically at enthusiasts and boasts a number of exciting features that differentiate it from the competition.

Read more: Cooler Master Eisberg Prestige 240L Review @ KitGuru

Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler @ Hardwareoverclock.com

Hardwareoverclock.com has just posted another review. Last week we have taken a look at the new Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler.

Read more: Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler @ Hardwareoverclock.com

Nouveau vs. NVIDIA Linux Comparison Shows Shortcomings @ Phoronix

One week after delivering updated Radeon Gallium3D vs. AMD Catalyst benchmarks on Ubuntu Linux, we have to share this morning similar results for the open-source and reverse-engineered "Nouveau" Linux graphics driver compared to the proprietary NVIDIA Linux graphics driver. While the Nouveau driver has come a long way and does support the latest Fermi and Kepler GPUs, it's not without its share of shortcomings. Eleven NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards were used in this latest Phoronix comparison.

As highlighted numerous times now, one of the biggest issues with the Nouveau driver is the current lack of proper re-clocking support: in other words, allowing the graphics card's GPU core, shader, and memory clocks change. With modern NVIDIA (and AMD/Intel) GPUs, there's multiple power/performance states so the frequencies and voltages can drop for less demanding workloads. The frequencies/voltages set by the hardware's video BIOS at boot time is often in one of these lower states. For the Nouveau driver right now, it continues to use the frequencies that were programmed by the video BIOS at the time of hardware initialization. For most modern GPUs, these frequencies are dramatically lower than what's the hardware advertised to run at, which is costly when it comes to the OpenGL performance.

Read more: Nouveau vs. NVIDIA Linux Comparison Shows Shortcomings @ Phoronix

Enermax Triathlor 650W Power Supply Review @ HardOCP

Today we bring you an "athletic" power supply from Enermax that weighs in at 650 watts. The new Triathlor series sports plenty of features that enthusiasts will like including Silent Cooling, Flexible Cable Management, is marketed as being Rock Stable at All Loads. Enermax ads that, "The Triathlor FC is not a blinky poser."

Read more: Enermax Triathlor 650W Power Supply Review @ HardOCP

Origin Genesis Review: Triple Titan Terror @ Anandtech

At long last we're taking an in-depth look at Origin's latest generation Genesis desktop system. Backed by a heavily overclocked Core i7 processor and no less than 3 GeForce GTX Ttians, it is unquestionably among the fastest gaming PCs available today. Diving into Origin's powerhouse we'll see just what kind of performance such a machine can achieve, and how well GTX Titan scales out in a tri-SLI setup.

Read more: Origin Genesis Review: Triple Titan Terror @ Anandtech

Thermaltake NiC C5 Untouchable CPU Cooler Review @ NikKTech

During the past decade PC Cooling has clearly advanced but nowhere near compared to other interior hardware parts like storage media, mainboards, CPUs and graphics cards. Of course there were some bold attempts from certain manufacturers like Danamics that tried to introduce liquid metal cooling to the masses but although their last solution yielded quite impressive results its price tag made it very unattractive to consumers especially since one could get a more complete water-cooling kit/loop at around the same price tag for use with both the CPU and GPU. Unfortunately the trend didn't continue and so today we still need to pick between the regular and all time classic air-coolers (U/C designs) or the more advanced and most of the time better water-coolers (AIO/Kits) both of which are more than capable in delivering on what they promise. However there's always been clearance issues with most of the tower design air-coolers that forced people either to purchase low-profile memory kits or change the placement of the cooler resulting in reduced performance. Well Thermaltake seems to have a solution to that problem with their latest NIC (Non Interference Coolers) line of air-coolers.

Read more: Thermaltake NiC C5 Untouchable CPU Cooler Review @ NikKTech

Datacolor Spyder4Elite monitor calibration tool Review @ XSReviews

Today we’re going to be looking at the Datacolor Spyder4Elite, a display calibration tool that uses a sensor suite to correctly adjust your display to your surroundings. The Spyder4Elite works on a wide range of displays too – monitors, laptops, HDTVs, projectors, iPhones and iPads are all supported. We’ll be judging the Spyder on its ease of use, its calibration results and its uncanny resemblance to a Facehugger. Let’s get started.

Read more: Datacolor Spyder4Elite monitor calibration tool Review @ XSReviews

Silicon Power 16GB UHS-1 Class 10 SDHC card Review @ MyCe

Silicon Power was kind enough to send us a 16GB UHS-1 Class 10 SDHC card for review. What makes this card special is its UHS capability, allowing far greater read and write transfer speeds than possible with SD cards lacking this capability. A typical Class 10 rated card has a bus speed of up to 25MB/s, while UHS-1 rated cards have a bus speed of up to 104MB/s.

The vast majority of modern digital cameras use SD cards and with many professional level DSLR cameras now using SD cards, speed is a very important factor, for sports and press photographers, especially those who need to take many photos in rapid succession. As this card has a Class 10 rating, this means that it must sustain a minimum write speed of 10MB/s even in a fragmented state. With a camera that supports UHS, this card claims to deliver up to 45MB/s write speed. So in this review, we will focus our testing on write performance and throughput. This includes tests with a clean card and filled to capacity, with random photos removed to introduce free space fragmentation.

Read more: Silicon Power 16GB UHS-1 Class 10 SDHC card Review @ MyCe

Rosewill RK-9100 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard @ techPowerUp

Rosewill recently updated its mechanical gaming keyboard lineup with the introduction of the RK-9100. New for the 9100-series keyboards are LED lit key modes. This keyboard features the same sturdy steel base plate design as its predecessor.

Read more: Rosewill RK-9100 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard @ techPowerUp

SteelSeries Apex [RAW] Gaming Keyboard Review @ Hardware Secrets

SteelSeries removed all the bells and whistles from the regular Apex keyboard and released a [RAW] version of the peripheral – without the spare USB ports, cloth-wrapped cable, and selective illumination by zone, among other things. However, it kept the basics: 17 macro keys (that can store 34 macros), the excellent configuration software, and the stylish angled design. Let's describe it first and then see how this "less sophisticated" Apex fared.

Read more: SteelSeries Apex [RAW] Gaming Keyboard Review @ Hardware Secrets

How To Set Your Bluetooth Headset As The Default Audio Device @ Tech ARP

Setting up your Bluetooth headset with a Windows 7 PC or laptop seems easy. Just power up the Bluetooth headset, link it up with your PC or laptop and you are good to go, right? Well, not exactly.

Even though you may have successfully linked your Bluetooth headset to your computer , Windows may not use it as an audio output device. You will need to enable the "Listen to Music" service for your Bluetooth headset before audio gets piped to it, instead of the computer's speakers.

Even if you get to that point, you will notice that your Bluetooth headset will disconnect itself whenever you recharge its batteries. That's okay, but it's supposed to automatically re-enable the "Listen to Music" service when it reconnects to your computer. In some cases, it will refuse to do so, forcing you to manually enable the "Listen to Music" service every single time you connect your Bluetooth headset to your computer.

Read more: How To Set Your Bluetooth Headset As The Default Audio Device @ Tech ARP

AMD Radeon HD 7990 Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Today we take the 7990 through a selection of real world gaming tests which include Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3, Assassins Creed 3, StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Battlefield 3, Tomb Raider, DOTA 2, SWTOR, F1 2012 and Borderlands 2. Mix that with the latest 3DMark, Heaven Benchmark, GPU computing, Media playback and all the usual power/thermal and overclocking tests add frame latency and we have quite a lot to get through today.

Read more: AMD Radeon HD 7990 Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

ASUS Orion Pro Gaming Headset @ Benchmark Reviews

In the words of ASUS, the ASUS Orion Pro Gaming headset was designed to deliver the "finest audio immersion and positioning needed in any game and at any location." In order to get the quality of audio that the ASUS Orion Pro gaming headset was designed to deliver, you must employ the Spitfire USB audio processor. The Spitfire is a driver-free piece of hardware that enables you to manipulate the audio, producing the desired audible effects for any application. You are able to use the ASUS Orion Pro gaming headset without the Spitfire by simply plugging in the 3.5mm headset/microphone connectors into your PC. At that point, the quality of audio is dependent upon your soundcard, and in most cases, the audio is still very good. Benchmark Reviews will test the ASUS Orion Pro gaming headset and review not only the audio quality, but also the other characteristics of the headset.

In order to determine the level of performance one can expect from the ASUS Orion Pro gaming headset, I will utilize a number of different programs and applications. These applications will include a variety of games, streaming audio and video programs, and interactive applications, such as Skype.

Read more: ASUS Orion Pro Gaming Headset @ Benchmark Reviews

AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB Malta Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews

The AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB GDDR5 graphic card has 806 billion transistors, 4096 stream processor, 8.2 Tflops of computing power, 48 lanes of PCI Express 3.0 for 96GB of interGPU bandwidth and can power up to 5 simultaneous monitors with AMD EyeFinity Technology. Read on to see how this mighty dual-GPU video card that retails for $999 and comes with eight game titles does when we put it to the test!

The AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB dual-GPU behemoth is finally here. We've been talking about the AMD Radeon HD 7990 for years, so to finally see AMD release a card is exhilarating and saddening at the same time. This card is the culmination of years of work and likely marks the pinnacle of the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series of GPUs. Then again it's also likely the fastest AMD Radeon HD 7000 series card to ever be released by AMD...

Read more: AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB Malta Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews

Samsung Galaxy S 4 Review: Bigger, Faster, Stronger @ HotHardware.com

Samsung has done an exceptional job the past few years building interest and recognition for their Galaxy-branded smartphones. The fervor isn't quite on the level of Apple's iPhone launches, but if the attendance of their "Samsung Unpacked" event at Radio City Music Hall and the buzz on-line for today's introduction is any indicator, Samsung has tapped into something big and earned a cult following, very much like Apple has over the years. And the sales figures back this up, of course, all of which show Samsung dominating the Android-based smartphone market.

When a company is clearly on top, people tend to scrutinize every move a little (or lot) more closely, depending on where their allegiances lie. For Samsung, and perhaps Android fans as well, availability of the Galaxy S 4 is a momentous occasion...

Read more: Samsung Galaxy S 4 Review: Bigger, Faster, Stronger @ HotHardware.com

AMD Radeon HD 7990 Review: The Quiet Beast @ HotHardware.com

Today marks one of those funky occasions when you've probably been aware of the "new" product we're going to show you for quite some time. And we're not talking about a few days or weeks here either. In fact, it was all the way back in December of 2011, when AMD introduced the original Radeon HD 7970, that we first dropped hints that the dual-GPU powered Radeon HD 7990 was in the works. We dropped those hints back then because AMD dropped them on us in the lead-up to the Radeon HD 7970's release. That little tidbit alone should give you a good idea as to how long the Radeon HD 7990 has been simmering in AMD's kitchen.

Though the product has obviously been in development for quite some time, the Radeon HD 7990 is still an exciting proposition. Despite the relative age of its GPUs, the 7990 still has the potential to be the fastest graphics card to hit the market...

Read more: AMD Radeon HD 7990 Review: The Quiet Beast @ HotHardware.com

AMD Radeon HD 7990 6 GB @ techPowerUp

Today, AMD releases their highly anticipated HD 7990 dual-GPU flagship. It is based on two full Tahiti GPUs running at 1000 MHz. AMD has also worked hard to keep power draw and noise in check, but can this $1000 card compete with NVIDIA's GTX 690 and GTX Titan?

Read more: AMD Radeon HD 7990 6 GB @ techPowerUp

Radeon HD 7990 Gets Frame Rated, with a possible fix! @ PC Perspective

Today is a very interesting day for AMD. It marks both the release of the reference design of the Radeon HD 7990 graphics card, a dual-GPU Tahiti behemoth, and the first sample of a change to the CrossFire technology that will improve animation performance across the board. Both stories are incredibly interesting and as it turns out both feed off of each other in a very important way: the HD 7990 depends on CrossFire and CrossFire depends on this driver.

If you already read our review (or any review that is using the FCAT / frame capture system) of the Radeon HD 7990, you likely came away somewhat unimpressed. The combination of a two AMD Tahiti GPUs on a single PCB with 6GB of frame buffer SHOULD have been an incredibly exciting release for us and would likely have become the single fastest graphics card on the planet. That didn't happen though and our results clearly state why that is the case: AMD CrossFire technology has some serious issues with animation smoothness, runt frames and giving users what they are promised.

Our first results using our Frame Rating performance analysis method were shown during the release of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan card in February. Since then we have been in constant talks with the folks at AMD to figure out what was wrong, how they could fix it, and what it would mean to gamers to implement frame metering technology. We followed that story up with several more that showed the current state of performance on the GPU market using Frame Rating that painted CrossFire in a very negative light. Even though we were accused by some outlets of being biased or that AMD wasn't doing anything incorrectly, we stuck by our results and as it turns out, so does AMD.

Read more: Radeon HD 7990 Gets Frame Rated, with a possible fix! @ PC Perspective

AMD HD 7990 Review; Malta Arrives @ Hardware Canucks

The story behind AMD’s HD 7990 has been anything but straightforward. What was originally a dual GPU product code named New Zealand has gradually morphed into the card we see today. Originally, it was to be released in the first quarter of 2012 but various delays and technical hurdles pushed the card’s –now named “Malta”- release date back to today.

This isn’t the first HD 7990 around either. In order to combat NVIDIA’s GTX 690, AMD gave the HD 7990’s naming rights to their board partners and PowerColor eventually came out with their HD 7990 Devil 13. That card paired up two standard HD 7970 cores but also offered a secondary BIOS which pushed core speeds to 1GHz. As one might have expected, the Devil 13’s price was stratospheric at a cool $1000 but that was eventually reduced to $899 before its discontinuation prior to AMD’s own launch.

Read more: AMD HD 7990 Review; Malta Arrives @ Hardware Canucks

AMD Radeon HD 7990 Review: Dual GPU Comeback @ Techspot

The current generation AMD GPU series collectivelly known as "Southern Islands" were released over a year ago, with the beginning of its rollout in January 2012. Sixteen months later, the Radeon HD 7000 series is still very much relevant, as AMD continues to release new models under the same GPU family.

The Radeon HD 7790 released last month it’s a product most gamers have the potential to enjoy considering its $150 price tag. The HD 7790 took the chip count for the series to 10 distinct 28nm GPUs. Today AMD has a wide range of prices covered starting at $100 with the Radeon HD 7750 up to $450 with the 7970 GHz Edition.

Those able and wanting to spend in excess of $450 on a single graphics card need to look in Nvidia’s direction at either the GeForce GTX 690 or the mighty GTX Titan, both extravagant $1000 options. Alternatively, if you can support multiple graphics cards, which let's be honest most gaming systems can, then a pair of Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition graphics cards should work nicely (well, kind of).

Read more: AMD Radeon HD 7990 Review: Dual GPU Comeback @ Techspot

AMD Radeon HD 7990 Review @ Guru3D

We take a look at the new AMD Radeon HD 7990. The dual GPU product that you guys learned to know under codename Malta is finally released. AMD it doing it doggy style... two fully equipped Tahiti XT2 GPUs versus good yet silent cooling. In this review we'll look at the product, the architecture, the benchmarks, including time-frame based FCAT measurements.

So I started with the line "It's been a long time" and did so deliberately, AMD has waited long, perhaps even way too long before releasing this product. See back in December 2011 the Radeon HD 7970 graphics card was launched. June last year released the GHz model of the 7970 card. AMD ever since has been binning the Tahiti XT GPUs and the "better" batches have been labeled as Tahiti XT2. That tweak brought advantages as the design combined with the right amount of voltage allowed for faster clock frequencies towards 1050 MHz (925 MHz is reference for the standard 7970). That specific SKU was is called GHz edition and comes with a Boost feature, pretty similar to what NVIDIA has been doing on the 650/660/670/680/Titan cards. The R7970 GHz edition can "boost" from 1000 MHz towards 1050 MHz if it meets the right conditions. So the board power (maximum power draw) needs to allow it to do so, if not it drops to 1 GHz or whatever board power range is allowed. Why such a long intro on R7970 GHz you ask? Well, AMD today launched the R7990 with two Tahiti XT2 better known as R7970 GHz GPUs, and that is important to know, alright.

But yes you read that right, AMD is using chip designs from December 2011 in this new Radeon HD 7990, anno 2013. So two Tahiti XT GPUs that can boost, are being used on the R7990 (codename: Malta). AMD is running a baseclock of 950 MHz per GPU with a boost allowance towards 1 GHz. So that is 50 MHz below the 7970 GHz edition spec. Other variables like memory are kept in-tact, that means 6 Gbps memory over two 384-bit memory interfaces. Each GPU will receive a full 3 GB of graphics memory (GDDR5). The Radeon HD 7990 GHz edition will be introduced in the 800~900 EUR price range. The product thus will have to compete directly with the GeForce GTX 690 and Titan. The results that you'll witness today will not disappoint. Where it matters (the latest and newer games) the Radeon HD 7990 GHz edition will be fast, seriously fast. There is of course that other issue we'll look into as well, micro-stuttering as we have introduced FCAT (Frame Capture Analysis Tool) measurements as part of our benchmark sest suite and configuration.

Read more: AMD Radeon HD 7990 Review @ Guru3D

AMD HD7990 Malta Review @ Guru3D

The battle for the title of world fastest graphics card has been hotly contested for as long as I can remember. This week AMD are releasing their official HD7990 Malta graphics card a dual GPU solution comprising 8.6 billion transistors, 4096 stream processors capable of 8.2 TFLOPS of compute power.

Today we test the HD7990 against the two fastest graphics cards from Nvidia, the GTX690 and the GTX Titan.

Read more: AMD HD7990 Malta Review @ Guru3D

The SSD Optimization Guide Ultimate Windows 8 (And Win7) Edition @ SSD Review

Welcome to The SSD Review and congratulations on finding the internets most sought after resource in the optimization of solid state drives; The SSD Optimization Guide.

The SSD Optimization Guide consists of several optimizations that will increase the longevity and performance of your SSD, these ranging from very simple to somewhat advanced in nature. All optimizations have been laid out in a very easily understandable format, and many with detailed explanations as to reasoning for that ‘tweak’.

Read more: The SSD Optimization Guide Ultimate Windows 8 (And Win7) Edition @ SSD Review

Cooler Master Storm Power-RX @ LanOC

When it comes to mouse pads there are a few things to consider, but for the most part people don’t really put much thought into them. As hardware enthusiasts we rarely see people who change out their mouse pads often like we sometimes see with PC hardware, mice, and keyboards. Because of that its easy to just ignore them, but a proper mouse pad can still play a good roll in your pc/gaming experience. That is why we still see companies innovating and trying new things like with the Power-RX mouse pad from Cooler Master Storm. Today I’m going to take a look at the Power-RX pad and put it to the test with a few different mice to see how it performs.

Read more: Cooler Master Storm Power-RX @ LanOC

Acer Aspire S7 Review @ Hexus

We've seen stunning Ultrabook designs in recent years, and the Aspire S7 is up there with the utmost beautiful. The silky-smooth exterior and ludicrously-thin chassis combine to stunning effect, creating a meaningful design statement. You see, Acer isn't just trying to make another good-looking Ultrabook, it's attempting to elevate its image from a purveyor of cheap-and-cheerful computers to a producer of exquisite machines that cost the best part of £1,000.

Read more: Acer Aspire S7 Review @ Hexus

Enermax Platimax 1350w PSU Review @ Funky Kit

We're back for another high wattage high efficiency PSU review! We've done this before with a 1200w Platinum and a 1275w Platinum, but today's unit eclipses those units in three important ways: It's fully modular, and it's higher wattage. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the highest wattage 80+ Platinum unit out there.

It comes from Enermax, an accomplished power supply manufacturer. That's right folks, Enermax actually makes PSUs themselves! That's rather different than most (all?) of the other >1200w 80+ Platinum PSU brands out there, which adds an extra level of interest to this operation. Enermax doesn't make all the PSUs sold under their label, but they do make the vast majority of the high end units.

Read more: Enermax Platimax 1350w PSU Review @ Funky Kit