Here a roundup of today's reviews, including Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2014, Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite Windows 8 Notebook PC, Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Volos MMO Gaming Mouse Review, DDR3-800MHz To DDR3-2133MHz Memory Testing With AMD's Kaveri, and Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini-ITX Case Review



Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2014 @ Toms Hardware

A handful of price changes on CPUs accompany the start of 2014, but the big news is AMD's Kaveri APU, powered by Steamroller and GCN, Intel's upcoming eight-core Haswell-E design, and the discontinuation of one of our most beloved gaming processors.

Read more: Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2014 @ Toms Hardware

Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite Windows 8 Notebook PC @ MEGATech Reviews

What do you do when you want to have a thin and light notebook PC, but your wallet is equally thin and light? It may have once been the case that you had to spend the bigger bucks in order to get your hands on a slim laptop, but that is no longer the case thanks to products like the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite. As its name implies, this is the “lite” version of some of its more premium cousins, but does that mean that Samsung had to cut all sorts of corners to cut down the price? Let’s dig in and have a look.

Read more: Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite Windows 8 Notebook PC @ MEGATech Reviews

InWin 904 Case Review @ Hardware Canucks

InWin’s new 904 may not be one of the most eagerly anticipated cases to be released in the last few months but it is certainly one of the most unique

Read more: InWin 904 Case Review @ Hardware Canucks

XSPC Razor R9 290/290X @ PureOverclock

With the release of the AMD R9 Hawaii series GPU came top notch single GPU gaming performance. The R9-290x quickly took the #1 spot in most reviews. However there was a universal gripe when it came to heat. The 290x packed 2816 stream processing units(cores) on a 438 mm²die, running at 1Ghz. This combination apparently was a recipe to reach epic load temperatures. While some of us were waiting for AMD partners to come up with after-market cooling solutions to correct this reported problem, XSPC went to work on an enthusiast class answer to the heat. The XSPC Razor 290/290x full cover water block was designed to provide the best cooling solution without having a large heatsink and the noise of air cooling. XSPC is known for providing great cost effective water cooling components for water cooling enthusiasts. We expect the Razor 290/290x to continue that trend. Let’s read on to find out if it does.

Read more: XSPC Razor R9 290/290X @ PureOverclock

ADATA DashDrive Air AE400 @ PureOverclock

Ever wish you had a bigger storage device for your tablet or mobile devices? How about sharing media files between a computer and your iPhone without connecting cables? Maybe you wish you bought the Apple device with more storage capabilities. ADATA has the solution. Introducing the ADATA DashDrive Air AE400. With its unique and limitless abilities, it delivers a number of unique functions” it can act as a Wireless Access Point or a USB drive and card reader. That’s not the only thing, it’s also capable of charging devices on the go with its 5000mAh battery pack. Is it really possible to fit all these features inside a device small enough to fit inside your pocket? Read on to find out!

Read more: ADATA DashDrive Air AE400 @ PureOverclock

Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SATA 3.0 SSD @ Phoronix

For those in the market for a solid-state drive, the Kingston SSDNow V300 series offers a 120GB Serial ATA 3.0 SSD for less than $90 USD. How well does this SSD work on Linux? We have benchmarks at Phoronix done under Ubuntu and compared to a range of HDD and SSDs.

Those that follow my Twitter feed know that I've been busy in recent weeks on Phoronix Test Suite 5.0 and establishing the new Phoromatic / OpenBenchmarking.org test farm. As part of dedicating a few more machines to publicly benchmarking some high profile open-source projects on a daily basis, I picked up a few more disk drives, among which was the Kingston SSDNow V300. The 120GB Kingston SSDNow V300 can be found online for $89 USD, which is quite a bargain given today's SSD prices and this drive normally retailing for around $110 USD. Prior to setting up the SSD in one of the new test machines I ran some comparison benchmarks to get an idea for the drive's performance should anyone else be interested in the Kingston SSDNow series; this is our first time testing a Kingston SSD at Phoronix.

Read more: Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SATA 3.0 SSD @ Phoronix

Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Volos MMO Gaming Mouse Review @ OCC

The Tt eSPORTS Volos gaming mouse is a mess of a gaming mouse if I've ever had one. It is literally a kluged piece of work that smashes an Xbox controller with one from PlayStation and births a reject even to Darwin's standards. You can't hold it like a controller, though the buttons are placed like you should just pick it up off your desk and attempt to do so. It's like it wants you to not only have two thumbs, but an extra small or ring finger as well. Finding the buttons while still trying to click and shoot, or even just look around, is like trying to actually do your homework while playing Warframe; it's just not going to happen.

Read more: Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Volos MMO Gaming Mouse Review @ OCC

DDR3-800MHz To DDR3-2133MHz Memory Testing With AMD's Kaveri @ Phoronix

For those trying to skimp on a system memory purchase for a new AMD Kaveri system or just curious about the impact the system memory bandwidth has on the latest-generation APUs, here are some benchmarks looking at the overall system memory performance when testing all major DDR3 system memory speeds between DDR3-800MHz and DDR3-2133MHz.

Going back two years was the last time I looked at the AMD memory performance when back then it impacted the Trinity APUs. The faster the memory, the better the overall system performance: with AMD's Kaveri this continues to hold true, if not more true, with the system craving all available memory bandwidth especially for the graphics tests with the more powerful Radeon R7.

Read more: DDR3-800MHz To DDR3-2133MHz Memory Testing With AMD's Kaveri @ Phoronix

Corsair Obsidian 250D Review @ Guru3D

Building a high-performance PC these days doesn't require you to have have a massive big-tower. I mean sure, taste differs, but the trend ever since last year seems to be "smaller". This is the reason why mITX form factor PCs have become so much more important. I mean you can build a simple HTPC, but within that same small form factor you can also house a Z87 mini ITX motherboard with Core i7 4770K processor, liquid cool that processor and then even add a GeForce GTX 780 Ti or Radeon HD 290X in there.

The trick is clever housing and that's what Corsair has been pursuing with the new Obsidian 250D. By compartmentalizing chambers inside this small chassis they can house the aforementioned PC components. Next to that it's Corsair .. that means a tool free design, a stylish design, heck even a see through panel is present. Then there's room for two 3.5" HDDs, two 2.5" SSDs and even a 5.25" Optical drive.

Read more: Corsair Obsidian 250D Review @ Guru3D

Corsair's Obsidian Series 250D case reviewed @ The Tech Report

No doubt about it, Corsair has developed a taste for small form factors. The company introduced its first microATX chassis last August, and today, it's back with a Mini-ITX solution: the Obsidian Series 250D, which combines diminutive dimensions with the amenities of larger enclosures.

Read more: Corsair's Obsidian Series 250D case reviewed @ The Tech Report

VisionTek 120GB mSATA SSD Review @ Legit Reviews

The mSATA rush is officially on as desktop PC usage plummets and laptops, especially ultra-portables are the hot sellers. These devices are cramming more and more hardware into an ever shrinking space so why use a 2.5 x 1/4 drive when you can use an mSATA drive that's roughly the size of a matchbook. VisionTek, best know for their graphics card products, has dipped their toes in the SSD pond and what better controller to start out with than the Über-popular SandForce SF-2200 series controller that has been used by nearly every SSD maker on the planet. We also saw them leverage this same controller paired up in their PCIe SSD recently. They sent us over a 120GB version to test out so we rolled up our sleeves and got to work...

Read more: VisionTek 120GB mSATA SSD Review @ Legit Reviews

Western Digital Black Gen. 2 (WD4003FZEX) 4 TB Hard Disk Drive Review @ Tech ARP

Desktop power users on a budget will often pair an SSD boot drive with a cheap, spacious 5400+ RPM desktop drive like the 3 TB Western Digital Green (WD30EZRX). However, while the latest 5400+ RPM hard disk drives can deliver very good throughputs, they are still much slower in random accesses. So, those who can afford it will still go for high-performance 7,200 RPM hard disk drives, like the new-generation Western Digital Black hard disk drives.

The new-generation Western Digital Black family differs from the previous generation by its use of Advanced Format Technology, which allows for greater capacity and throughput. The new Western Digital Black family now consists of five models, which differ only in their storage capacities.

Now, let's take a closer look at this new big daddy of the WD Black family of hard disk drives!

Read more: Western Digital Black Gen. 2 (WD4003FZEX) 4 TB Hard Disk Drive Review @ Tech ARP

Kingston DataTraveler 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive @ NikKTech

For the past year many of you have asked us to increase our USB flash drive related reviews and to also include several outdated and small capacity models since they are still being sold at some places. Unfortunately this is not something we can do not when new models get released all the time so i just wanted to mention this so people will know that it's not that we don't want to but we just can't. That being said as you all know roughly two days ago we tested the Spark 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive by Patriot Memory which left us with the best possible impressions not only because of its metal housing and tiny size but also because of its very good performance numbers. However although the price is right for what the Spark has to offer there are other similarly sized solutions out there which combine good performance levels with higher capacities at roughly the same price. The latest DataTraveler Mini 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive by Kingston is one such drive and today we will see how it compares both to the Spark and to every other drive in our charts.

Read more: Kingston DataTraveler 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive @ NikKTech

Supermicro 7047AX-TRF/72RF SuperWorkstation Preview @ KitGuru

The Supermicro 7047AX-TRF/72RF SuperWorkstation comes in a chassis that can be deployed either as a pedestal tower, or as a 4U rack mounted unit, which could be handy if you plan on using a bunch of them in a render farm, or need a transportable system built into a cabinet flight case. However, the processors inside this chassis are the main stars of the show.

Read more: Supermicro 7047AX-TRF/72RF SuperWorkstation Preview @ KitGuru

InWin 901: A Story of Tempered Glass @ Benchmark Review

The Taiwanese hardware manufacturer InWin hit CES 2014 with a slew of new items to announce, and the official availability of one announced a couple of months prior to the show. The story of InWin's CES 2014 announcement really centered on a single theme: Tempered Glass. Benchmark Reviews stopped by InWin's booth at CES 2014 to talk about their new cases and to take a look at some other products you might not normally expect from InWin.

Read more: InWin 901: A Story of Tempered Glass @ Benchmark Review

Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini-ITX Case Review @ HardOCP

Mini-ITX is getting to be all the rage. Primarily because mini-ITX motherboards have gotten to be as robust their full size ATX counterparts in terms of overclocking and features, just minus a few PCIe slots. Throw new Steam Machine excitement into the mix as a further catalyst, and Corsair has an answer for your new mini-ITX case.

Read more: Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini-ITX Case Review @ HardOCP

Corsair Obsidian 250D Case Review @ Anandtech

Corsair is a name familiar to any computer enthusiasts, and the company today offers numerous products: computer cases, power supply units, air and liquid CPU coolers, solid-state drives, and gaming peripherals can all be found in Corsair's product ranks.With the recent announcement of the Obsidian 250D, Corsair is starting 2014 by joining the Mini ITX case fever. The Obsidian 250D however has not been designed with minimum proportions in mind; despite the Mini-ITX format, it can still house very powerful gaming systems and advanced cooling solutions. Let's see what the 250D brings to the table and how it performs in our updated case testing suite.    

Read more: Corsair Obsidian 250D Case Review @ Anandtech

Seasonic S12G-450 Power Supply Review @ KitGuru

Today we are taking a look at the latest power supply from Seasonic, the S12G 450W. This is an 80 Plus Gold Design and utilises high grade Japanese components throughout. We have already reviewed (http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/seasonic-s12g-750-power-supply-review/) the excellent high end S12G 750W in November 2013 and it walked away with our highest award. The S12G power supplies are designed to target the mass market enthusiast audience and Seasonic back up the units with a substantial 5 year warranty. It may only cost £55, but how does the 450W version perform?

Read more: Seasonic S12G-450 Power Supply Review @ KitGuru

Motorola Moto G video review @ V3

Affordable Android smartphones are nothing new. Many phone makers have released a sub-£200 Android handset in the past few years, but so far none of these phones have been particularly good. At best the cheap Android handsets have been usable, often featuring disappointingly low-resolution displays, low-power processors and in general running using an outdated version of Android.

Motorola moved to change this when it released its new Moto G handset. Despite costing a modest £135 the Moto G actually features some pretty decent components. Chief of these are its 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 4.5in, 1280x720, 329ppi display. Even better, while the Moto G currently runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Motorola is rolling out an update to 4.4 KitKat now, so all devices should have completely up-to-date software soon.

Read more: Motorola Moto G video review @ V3