Here today's reviews roundup with 24 new articles:

- StarCraft II performance index
- ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 motherboard gets tested
- Thermalright Silver Arrow Review
- OCZ Agility 2 120GB SSD Review
- Corsair F40 40GB Review - x2 in RAID 0
- Olympus PEN E-PL1 Review
- Sapphire Radeon 5770 FleX Edition Review
- Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic Platinum 1 GB Review
- XSPC Rasa Waterblock Review
- Cooler Master Choiix Power Fort Advanced Review
- Sapphire HD 5770 FleX Review
- Sapphire Radeon 5770 FleX Review
- XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB Single Slot Review
- Thermalright HR-02 Review
- Sapphire HD 5770 FLEX Review
- Mafia II Performance Benchmarks: PhysX and 3D Vision Tested
- SLI vs. CrossFireX: The DX11 generation
- Siig Wireless-N Router Review
- Akasa Scala HD Media Player Review
- 2K Games' Mafia II Demo Performance w/ a GeForce GTX 460
- ECS P55H-AK Motherboard Review
- ASUS EAH5870 V2 STALKER Edition Graphics Card Review
- Yurbuds Personalized Ear Buds Review
- Patriot Box Office Media Player Review



StarCraft II performance index
t-break posted StarCraft II performance index

Can your graphics card run it?

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ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 motherboard gets tested
The Guru of 3D takes a look at the ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 motherboard

We test and review the M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 motherboard. The ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 is loaded with all the regular features like the fast chipset, grand connectivity, decent audio subsystem, integrated graphics, cool design, tweakable and then stuff like SATA 6G, USB 3.0, automated overclock options and even two (physical) PCIe x16 slots and even core unlock functionality from within the BIOS are features to be found at this 100 EUR motherboard.

The 890G chipset oozes with value, features and performance as at any level it will not disappoint, the six-core Phenom II X6 processor was overclocked towards 4.1 GHz on a just cheapo CPU air-cooler on this mobo.

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Thermalright Silver Arrow Review
OCC has published a review on the Thermalright Silver Arrow

As I stated earlier, the 12v connector on the motherboard was difficult to access with the heatsink installed, and I almost had to unscrew the motherboard and tilt it out to get it to plug in. This is something that consumers will have to get used to either way, because as processors get hotter, the coolers will continue to increase in size unless a manufacturer has a mega breakthrough in cooling technology. Regardless, the Thermalright Silver Arrow is a significant contender to the current market of heatsinks and is a great choice for anyone searching for a new, high end heatsink and is not afraid of dealing with its massive size.

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OCZ Agility 2 120GB SSD Review
Kitguru posted a review on the OCZ Agility 2 120GB SSD

For many years OCZ have used tried and trusted Indilinx controllers but in recent months they moved to create units based around the Sandforce SF-1200 controller, which has helped them squeeze out more performance from the drives. This leads me into our review product today, the OCZ Agility 2 120GB which uses the very same controller.

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Corsair F40 40GB Review - x2 in RAID 0
KitGuru posted a review on the Corsair F40 40GB

There has never been a better time to pick up an SSD boot drive with many of the leading manufacturers releasing 30-40GB units at very reasonable prices. KitGuru has already looked at the Intel X25-V 40GB and we were very impressed with the price to performance ratio, especially when set into a Raid 0 configuration.

Today we continue along similar lines and take a look at the newest Corsair 40GB SSD – the F40. These are retailing in the UK now for £95 inc vat, so for under £200 you could end up with a killer Raid 0 boot drive based around the class leading Sandforce SF-1200 controller. A single 120GB SSD makes for a great boot drive, but two 40GB’s are faster, and cheaper. It’s a dead cert win-win.

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Olympus PEN E-PL1 Review
TechReviewSource.com posted a review on the Olympus PEN E-PL1

The Olympus PEN E-PL1 is a small camera that's filled with advanced technology found on larger cameras. It's a portable and easy-to-use digital camera that offers 12.3 megapixels, RAW image shooting, 720p HD video recording, and more.

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Sapphire Radeon 5770 FleX Edition Review
HardwareHeaven.com posted Sapphire Radeon 5770 FleX Edition Launch Review

Today we have another 5770 on our test bench and while it uses an enhanced cooler that is not the cards main feature, Sapphires 5770 FleX Edition offers a refined Eyefinity experience. Read on to find out what they have changed and how it offers a significant improvement over other Radeon cards.

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Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic Platinum 1 GB Review
techPowerUp checked out the Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic Platinum 1 GB graphics card

Running at 800 MHz GPU and 1000 MHz memory, Palit's GTX 460 Sonic Platinum is one of the highest clocked GTX 460 cards out there. It also comes with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory which can provide a performance boost over the 768 MB variants too. Being priced at reasonable $249 this card looks like a good alternative to a reference design purchase.

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XSPC Rasa Waterblock Review
XSReviews has written a review of the XSPC Rasa Waterblock

Besides standard passive- and air cooling there is also the enthusiast water cooling section in the computer industry. As a matter of fact, water is used by people who want a silent PC, a more chilled PC and even a more stylish PC.

Recently XSPC released their new cooling block, the XSPC RASA. We were lucky enough to get our hands on a prototype model and wanted to test and review it right away... With our apoligies to you and XSPC we are a little late with releasing this review but can assure you it was worth the wait. Ladies and gentlemen, I present: The XSPC RASA CPU cooler block!

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Cooler Master Choiix Power Fort Advanced Review
ASE Labs posted a review on the Cooler Master Choiix Power Fort Advanced

While most products on the market have a general "me too" feel, Cooler Master breaks out into the portable power source market with their Choiix Power Fort series. Combining some unique features and the ability to use standard cables, the Power Fort is a good competitor in this marketplace.

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Sapphire HD 5770 FleX Review
OCC has published a review on the Sapphire HD 5770 FleX

Although on paper the Sapphire HD 5770 FleX appears to be just a reference designed 5770 with a different heat sink, it proves that it is much more through the overclocking headroom and how cool it operates. Being able to benchmark at 1 GHz core is not an insignificant feat, especially without voltage modification. The core was tested with a 15% overclock and the memory tested with a 13% overclock, not bad at all and there was the possibility for more headroom with enough patience.

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Sapphire Radeon 5770 FleX Review
PureOverclock posted a review on the of the Sapphire Radeon 5770 FleX graphics card

Sapphire brings what promises to be a game-changer of a card to consumers: the Radeon 5770 FleX. What's so special about the FleX? Well, it's the first card that supports Eyefinity out of the box, and no expensive DisplayPort or adapters required at all. This means that your garden variety DVI-connector monitor can now run Eyefinity. Of course, you still need three monitors to begin with, but the implications, both cost and technological, are significant.

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XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB Single Slot Review
Hardware Canucks posted a review of the XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB Single Slot edition graphics card

There are countless HD 5770 cards on the market these days but there has been very little to distinguish one from another. XFX has decided to break with the pack and has released a single slot HD 5770 which should appeal to people looking for compact, well-heeled performance. In this review, we see if it can deliver.

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Thermalright HR-02 Review
OCC has published a review on the Thermalright HR-02

The Thermalright HR-02 has thoroughly impressed me with its performance. Even fanless, it hangs out with other coolers in its price range. It does weigh a hefty 1100 grams without any fans, but the mounting mechanism and the hardware handles it just fine. With the addition of a low speed fan, it pulls up to some of the high end coolers that are currently on the market. The idle temperatures are outstanding, and the load temperatures are definitely acceptable for a passive cooler handily beating the Intel stock cooling solution.

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Sapphire HD 5770 FLEX Review
Neoseeker posted a review on the Sapphire HD 5770 FLEX

The Sapphire HD 5770 FLEX brings EyeFinity to the HD 5xxx series of graphics cards, supporting up to three monitors on a single card without resorting to DisplayPort connectors unless you want to add a FOURTH one. Neoseeker puts the card through its paces to see how well it handles all those displays.

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Mafia II Performance Benchmarks: PhysX and 3D Vision Tested
Hi Tech Legion posted Mafia II Performance Benchmarks: PhysX and 3D Vision Tested

Unlike most sandbox style games, Mafia II puts emphasis in the narrative and the tone of it's setting. ESRB gave Mafia II a Mature rating for its liberal use of foul language, nudity, violence and all the other hallmarks of the gangster genre. Today we are going to look at the various PhysX effects implemented in Mafia II and how it adds to the violent atmosphere. We are also going to look at how effective 3D Vision is for this title since it is rated "3D Vision Ready" out of the box. These two features will be tested objectively by benchmarking it in a GF100 Fermi card and subjectively by comparing the gameplay experience of having the effects enabled vs having these features disabled.

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SLI vs. CrossFireX: The DX11 generation
The Tech Report compared 23 different single- and multi-GPU config under DX11

We've tested 23 different single- and multi-GPU configs to answer the question: are two mid-range cards better than a single expensive one?

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Siig Wireless-N Router Review
Bona Fide Reviews posted a review on the Siig Wireless-N Router

Today for review I have the last of the Siig Wireless-N networking related products, this one is a router. The router features all the latest security, and even WPS. There’s a ton of options at the control panel for you to fiddle with if you like or you can just use the Quick Setup to be up and running in three simple steps.

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Akasa Scala HD Media Player Review
DreamWare Computers posted a review on the Akasa Scala HD Media Player

In a world where digital media is becoming more and more popular, the need for an easy and affordable way to get that content from your PC to your TV becomes more present. HTPCs are of course the best option, but are often way out of the budget for someone who wants a simple and small solution to this problem. That's where we're starting to see the market for streaming media players increase.

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2K Games' Mafia II Demo Performance w/ a GeForce GTX 460
Legit Reviews takes a look at the performance of the Mafia II demo with a Geforce GTX 460

Early Tuesday morning 2k Games released a demo of their much anticipated 3rd person action shooter Mafia II. This demo really was interesting to us because it had a built-in benchmark that we could use to quickly and easily use to compare different settings and video cards. Read on to see how a GeForce GTX 460 1GB graphics card performs at various settings!

As you can see the MSI GeForce GTX 460 1GB Cyclone video card does well with AA and PhysX turned off (the test settings in the screen shot above). Once AA is enabled the FPS dropped by roughly 35%, but the GTX 460 was still playable at a resolution of 1280x1024. With AA disabled and PhysX enabled the performance dropped down by over 50%. Both of these performance drops were rather significant. We can only expect performance to go up from here once the drivers have been fully optimized for Mafia II when it comes out on August 24th here in the United States and on August 27th for the rest of the world.

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ECS P55H-AK Motherboard Review
Hardware Secrets takes a look at this high-end socket 1156 motherboard from ECS featuring three PCI Express x16 slots, two SATA-600, two eSATA-600, and four USB 3.0 ports

ECS is a company know for their cost-effective motherboards, and we were surprised to see them releasing a high-end socket 1156 motherboard with two SATA-600 ports, two eSATA-600 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, three PCI Express x16 slots, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, a POST diagnostics display, and a 14-phase voltage regulator circuit.

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ASUS EAH5870 V2 STALKER Edition Graphics Card Review
OCIA.net has posted their review of the ASUS EAH5870 V2 STALKER Edition Graphics Card

It was almost a year ago that ATI began introducing their new Radeon HD 5000 series cards, starting with the then-flagship 5870 model, for a price just under $400. Now here it is 11 months later and the market has held fairly steady, despite nVidia's release of the GTX 400 series in the interim, you still can't find a 5870 for much less than what they initially launched. However what you do find now is a bigger variety of manufacturers offering non-reference cards, overclocked editions and various game bundles. ASUS has combined all three of these into their latest EAH5870/G/2DIS/1GD5/V2 STALKER Edition that we will be looking at today.

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Yurbuds Personalized Ear Buds Review
Top Review Shop posted a review on the Yurbuds Personalized Ear Buds

The yurbuds are designed specifically to provide a more personalized fit to your ears, without the high cost of custom-molded ear tips.  Typical pricing for custom-molded ear tips is $500+, while a set of personalized yurbuds runs only $29.99. With such a huge difference in price, can the yurbuds really hold a candle to custom-fit models?

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Patriot Box Office Media Player Review
TechSpot posted Patriot Box Office Media Player Review

The digital age has brought about a new breed of media players designed to handle all your music, movies and television shows in a small compact package. With the growing popularity of Internet-based broadcasts, as well as the legal (and not so legal) distribution of movies, television shows and other multimedia content, traditional players are no longer cutting it.

To date every affordable digital media player that I have come across suffered from multiple flaws. The prospect of acquiring a capable digital media player for around $100 appeared bleak, until now. The search for the perfect affordable solution was reignited when Patriot sent us their new "Box Office" media player that sells for $99.

This small unit boasts full 1080p support along with a wide range of media formats, including H.264, ISO, VOB, DivX, xVid, MKV, MOV and MPEG amongst others. The Box Office supports internal and external storage along with wired or wireless network streaming for HDD-less operation.

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