Here a roundup of the latest reviews and articles, including Corsair Neutron SATA III SSD Review, A Month with Apple's Fusion Drive, Ceton's My Media Center Controller Software Review, SilverStone Precision PS08 Case Review, and Assassin's Creed 3 Review



Corsair Neutron SATA III SSD Review @ HotHardware.com

Corsair tends to be somewhat measured in their approach to certain markets and only enters them with products that are clearly differentiated from the competition. That's true for their cases, peripherals, power supplies, and many other product lines. Corsair, however, has been relatively adventurous in regard to Solid State Drives. Over the last few years, Corsair has offered SSDs built around controllers from virtually all of the major players, including Marvell, SandForce, Indilinx, and Samsung, among others.

While Corsair has been open to working with multiple controller designs, they have not typically be first to market with drives based on brand new controllers. But that all changed with the recent release of the Corsair Neutron line of Solid State Drives. Corsair's Neutron SSDs feature a new controller from Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD) that is not yet available in any other consumer storage product...

Read more: Corsair Neutron SATA III SSD Review @ HotHardware.com

A Month with Apple's Fusion Drive @ Anandtech

Apple has the luxury of not competing at lower price points for its Macs, which makes dropping hard drives an easier thing to accomplish. Even so, out of the 6 distinct Macs that Apple ships today (MBA, rMBP, MBP, Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro), only two of them ship without any hard drive option by default. The rest come with good old fashioned mechanical storage. Given the extremely positive impact an SSD has to user experience, it seems inevitable that Apple would move all of its systems to SSDs. Moving something like the iMac to a solid state configuration is pretty tough to pull off however. While notebook users (especially anyone using an ultraportable) are already used to not having multiple terabytes of storage at their disposal, someone replacing a desktop isnt necessarily well suited for the same. Apples solution to the problem is, at a high level, no different than all of the PC OEMs who have tried hybrid SSD/HDD solutions in the past. The difference is in the size of the SSD component of the solution, and the software layer. I spent a month with Apple's Fusion Drive in the new 27-inch iMac. Read on to find out how it compares to other SSD caching solutions and if it can truly approximate a standalone SSD setup.

Read more: A Month with Apple's Fusion Drive @ Anandtech

Ceton's My Media Center Controller Software Review @ MissingRemote

Earlier today a new Windows 8 "Metro" version of Ceton's suite of applications for managing Windows Media Center joined the existing lineup of Andriod, Windows Phone and iOS companion apps priced at $4.99. As part of this effort they were rebranded from "Ceton Companion Apps" to "My Media Center". All the great functionality for browsing recordings, managing series and scheduling, and browsing the guide is still there, but this time Windows 8 tablet and desktop "Metro" users can also join the party. We had a chance to take an early spin through the updated UI, let's dig in.

Ceton's My Media Center Controller Software Review @ MissingRemote

SilverStone Precision PS08 Case Review @ Hardware Secrets

The Silverstone Precision PS08 is a case targeted to microATX motherboards, also supporting the Micro-ITX and Micro-DTX formats. It is bigger than traditional small form factor (SFF) cases, such as the Sugo series models from the same manufacturer.

Read more: SilverStone Precision PS08 Case Review @ Hardware Secrets

SteelSeries Free Touchscreen Gaming Controls and StarCraft II QcK Surface Video Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

A quick look at the Touch Screen Controls from the SteelSeries Free range as well as a glance at the new StarCraft 2 Heart of the Swarm mouse pad.

Read more: SteelSeries Free Touchscreen Gaming Controls and StarCraft II QcK Surface Video Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Oblanc NC2-1 UFO Headphones @ Benchmark Reviews

Finding a good quality set of headphones with a microphone that are compatible across multiple platforms is difficult. Either you get good sound, with no headset features, or you get a headset with less than stellar audio quality for music. The Oblanc NC2-1 UFO headphones aim to fill that slot. Us here at Benchmark Reviews have had the opportunity to put these headphones through their paces. With a padded headband, massive 50 mm driver, in line microphone with call control, and a 4-pole connector with adapter to work across smartphones, tablets, mobile phones, and computers; the NC2-1 headphones are packed with features, and we're going to test them out.

One of the problems I have run into when searching for headphones is finding headphones with good sound quality, good bass, as well as the ability to answer phone calls without having to unplug my headphones. The majority of the time, I use headphones when I'm out and about, listening to music on my smartphone, and I was excited to give these headphones a try. They promise good audio quality, with the features that I was looking for.

Read more: Oblanc NC2-1 UFO Headphones @ Benchmark Reviews

Cougar PowerX 550W Power Supply Review @ Legit Reviews

The Cougar PowerX 550W power supply obviously is a product designed to entice users into upgrading from a cheap unit of unknown (and, usually, extremely poor) quality to one of acceptable quality and performance standards. Considering that the MSRP of the power supply is just $69.99 and that the actual retail price usually is quite lower than the MSRP, the PowerX 550W might actually be a very good deal for casual users and gamers on a very tight budget. On the other hand however, the saying "you get what you pay for" fits perfectly in this case...

Read more: Cougar PowerX 550W Power Supply Review @ Legit Reviews

SilverStone Zeus ZM1350 Power Supply Review @ PC Perspective

After a four year hiatus, SilverStone's top of the line power supply series, Zeus, has returned. The all new Zeus ZM1350 was designed for elite IT professionals, PC power users, and overclockers and retains excellent characteristics from its predecessors with a continuous output capacity of 1350W (1500W peak) rated for 24/7 operation at 50°C, ±1% voltage regulation for exceptional stability, and careful selection of premium industrial grade components. Other aspects such as efficiency, modular cabling compatible with other SilverStone PSUs, switch for multi/single +12V rail selection, pots for tweaking voltages, and fan speed control are all improved to make the new Zeus ZM1350 the most sought-after power supply that SilverStone has ever designed.

Read more: SilverStone Zeus ZM1350 Power Supply Review @ PC Perspective

Lenovo IdeaTab A2109 Review @ V3

A functional alternative to Google's Nexus 7

Read more: Lenovo IdeaTab A2109 Review @ V3

Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2 Review @ XSReviews.co.uk

HToday I’m looking at the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2, what a name! I’m very much hoping it lives up to its name and is as quiet as the name would make you think. From just looking at it, it’s clearly quite a beast so let’s get into the review.

Specifications

Overall dimensions without mounting material (L x W x H): 147 x 138 x 166
Total weight (kg): 1.25
TDP (W): 220
LGA2011 ready: Yes
Socket compatibility Intel: LGA 775 / LGA 1155 / LGA 1156 / LGA 1366 / LGA 2011 / LGA 1150 AMD: FM2 / FM1, AM2 (+) / AM3 (+) / 754/ 939 / 940
Backplate Mounting: Yes
Fan model, number: 1 x SilentWings PWM 120mm, 1 x SilentWings PWM 135mm
Anti vibration fan fixing: Yes
Overall noise level: (dB(A)) @ 900/1250/100% (rpm)13.50 / 19.80 / 26.40

Read more: Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2 Review @ XSReviews.co.uk

Assassin's Creed 3 Review @ Hi Tech Legion

Like any big name game developer, Ubisoft is careful with handling the Assassin’s Creed title, introducing minor improvements to the game play with every consecutive launch while maintaining a curious fascination with history. With the current console cycle showing its age, Ubisoft has decided that the next evolution of the Assassin’s Creed franchise should involve updating the engine to take advantage of modern DirectX11 GPUs.

Assassin’s Creed 3 is the latest installment in the popular Ubisoft franchise. Despite being called “Assassin’s Creed 3”, there were in fact several other titles in between but are not completely necessary in fully understanding the narrative as the game begins with exposition to catch players up with the plot from previous titles. On the PC, Assassin`s Creed 3 has been optimized for DirectX 11 hardware, boasting higher resolution textures compared to current consoles and adds tessellation in the snow levels. Ubisoft`s new AnvilNext engine is now also able to support weather cycling and render massive crows of up to 2000 units. Users using NVIDIA 600 series cards can take advantage of Temporal Anti-Aliasing Enhancements, which significantly improve scenes while eliminating edge and texture flickering while in motion.

Read more: Assassin's Creed 3 Review @ Hi Tech Legion