Here a roundup of today's reviews with 13 new articles, including ASUS ROG MARS 2 3GB Video Card Review w/ NVIDIA Surround, Corsair Carbide Series 400R Review, and ASRock CoreHT 252B Review



ASUS ROG MARS 2 3GB Video Card Review w/ NVIDIA Surround
Legit Reviews posted a review on the ASUS ROG MARS 2 3GB Video Card

Companies like ASUS have a their own design engineers and every so often the management will let them run free. When that happens you end up with a ridiculous product that pushes the boundaries for what can be done with current technology. ASUS took the Republic of Gamers (ROG) product engineers and challenged them to design the fastest NVIDIA graphics card possible. The result was the ASUS MARS II and we have a review on the card for you today!

The ASUS MARS 2 is a wonderfully designed video card that offers impressive single card graphics performance. The fact that ASUS got two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPUs running on the same PCB at the same clock speeds as a single GTX 580 cards is mighty impressive. NVIDIA wasn't even able to do that with the GeForce GTX 590, so you can see how big of a feat this was. If you want to own the ultimate NVIDIA graphics card then the ASUS MARS 2 is it, period...

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Samsung NX200 DSLR Digital Camera Preview
TechwareLabs published a preview on the Samsung NX200 DSLR Digital Camera

Samsung has been in the digital camera market for quite a while and has had several DSLR cameras it has introduced. Today Samsung announces the new NX200 a mirrorless DSLR follow up to the original NX100 with several key areas of improvement. Based on initial specifications the NX200 will definitely be of interest to consumers who otherwise would be interested in Nikon and Canon DSLRs.

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Corsair H80 CPU Cooler Review
Hardware Secrets posted a review on the Corsair H80 CPU Cooler

Let’s test the new sealed liquid cooling system from Corsair: the H80.

The Corsair H80 is a sealed liquid cooling system, a.k.a. a watercooler. Let's test it and see if it offers great performance.

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Cooler Master GX-650 Bronze Power Supply Review
ocinside.de posted a review on the Cooler Master GX-650 Bronze Power Supply

Cooler Master already enthused the ocinside.de online magazine with some Silent Pro Gold Series power supply units, which can be found in the upper price segment. Today we look at the much more inexpensive Cooler Master GX-650 Bronze power supply, which should have a good energy efficiency in spite of the low price. Let us compare the results of this non-modular power supply with the previous PSUs.

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Biostar TA75A+ LGA1155 Review
techPowerUp posted a review on the Biostar TA75A+ LGA1155 motherboard

AMD's new Llano APU lineup gets a stylish new addition with the Biostar TA75A+. Sporting an fancy color scheme, and a low price, the Biostar TA75A+ seeks to bring some enthusiast features to the entry-level market.

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Firestone Audio Bravo DP and Spitfire MKII DAC Review
The Guru of 3D posted a review on the Firestone Audio Bravo DP and Spitfire MKII DAC

According to Firestone Audio, their Bravo Digital Processor can convert USB to S/Pdif and also cleans and reclocks the S/PDIF signal producing a superior signal for your analog to digital converter. We have been working with many different S/Pdif based products in the Guru3D Audio Lab for quite awhile now so we are excited to have a look at the Bravo and use it for some testing. FSA also just released the second version of their popular Spitfire Digital to Analog Converter, known as the MKII version. So without any further delay, lets have a look at the Bravo Digital Processor and the Spitfire MKII Digital to Analog converter.

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BitFenix Alchemy Sleeved Cables Review
TweakTown posted a review on the BitFenix Alchemy Sleeved Cables

BitFenix sent me pretty much everything I would need to build a rig with full on custom cables. As far as the powering of the main components, these red sleeved cables are all terminated with black plastic ends. The major thing to note here is the lack of heat shrink tubing applied to the ends of the cloth sleeving. This sleeving is tied into the same clip that gets soldered or crimped to the wiring before they are inserted into the plastic clip. These are most of the more obvious wires we would need to adapt to make things look a lot more customized inside.

BitFenix didn't stop there, though. They went into this full on and offer things like USB, fan, a SATA power lead with connectivity for four devices, SATA cables, the works! With this amount of possibilities, you went from making a rig look somewhat custom with the main leads addressed, to something that covers all the wires and takes your build to the next level.

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Corsair Carbide Series 400R Review
OCC has published a review on the Corsair Carbide Series 400R

The Corsair Carbide 400R has continued my belief that just because there is a $300+ dollar case on the market, it doesn't mean a $100 case cannot perform similarly. Of course, we aren't going to see matching numbers as far as temperatures go. If you're only in it for the most airflow though, why fork out hundreds of dollars for temperatures that are just a few degrees cooler? With a case like the Carbide Series 400R that houses up to ten fans, you can find yourself wondering if spending an extra $30-$40 in fans would be worth it. From my perspective, it absolutely is. With just the three included fans, I can almost see the locations of the airflow dead spots inside the case. I can name two right off the bat: the graphics card and heatsink areas.

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Roccat Kone[+] 6000 dpi Laser Gaming Mouse Review
Hi Tech Legion posted a review on the Roccat Kone[+] 6000 dpi Laser Gaming Mouse

The Roccat Kone [+] is a high-end gaming mouse packed with plenty of features. The Roccat Kone [+] gaming mouse has a 6000 dpi capable laser sensor and has a 1000Hz polling rate. Weighing in at 126g, the Roccat Kone [+] is heavier than most gaming mice and can be made even heavier with the addition of adjustable 5g weights included in the package. Unlike most input devices, the Roccat Kone [+] has a 72 MHz Turbo Core and a massive 576 kB onboard memory that allows users to store up to 5 game profiles at a time and an entire library of macros. The Roccat Kone [+] is also equipped with an EasyShift [+] function which expands the 12 standard button assignments to 22 functions for extreme versatility without crowding the mouse surface with buttons.

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Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced nVIDIA Edition Computer Case Review
Tweaknews posted a review on the Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced nVIDIA Edition Computer Case

After reviewing the original chassis, I had high hopes for the CM 690 II Advanced nVIDIA Edition case. I wasn't disappointed. Cooler Master has basically taken the excellent design of the original and upped the ante with some tastefully done aesthetic upgrades that will almost certainly appeal to nVIDIA aficionados.

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Phanteks PH-TC14PE_RD CPU Cooler Review
Real World Labs posted a review on the Phanteks PH-TC14PE_RD CPU Cooler

Although Phanteks is the latest player in the CPU cooling retail market their long experience in the OEM segment has allowed them not only to create an great looking CPU Air Cooler available in 4 different colors but they have also managed to dethrone both the excellent Silver Arrow by Thermalright and the amazing NH-D14 by Noctua.

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VisionTek 700W Power Supply Review
HardOCP posted a review on the VisionTek 700W Power Supply

Our evaluation of the VisionTek 700W power supply is now online for your viewing pleasure. Without giving away the ending, the one thing I can tell you for sure is that VisionTek's PSU has joined a very select group of power supplies. You'll have to read the review yourself to find out if that is a good or bad thing.

VisionTek, once know solely by enthusiasts for its Made-in-the-USA video cards, now just a former shell of itself, has been quietly diversifying its business to help its bottom line. Today we look at a 700 watt VisionTek power supply that we saw being sold on special and decided to pick one up for ourselves and put it in the grinder. Quality buy or pig sty

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ASRock CoreHT 252B Review
Anandtech published a review on the ASRock CoreHT 252B

Approximately a year back, we reviewed the ASRock Core 100 HTPC which was a pioneer of sorts in the small form factor (SFF) HTPC space. Till that point, the pre-built SFF market was restricted to the anaemic Atom / ION based nettops. Core 100 was powerful enough to impress us and recommend it as a HTPC for buyers in the mid-range market.

Fast forward a year, and Intel has now moved forward from the Arrandales to the mobile Sandy Bridge CPUs for the notebook segment. ASRock has followed up their Arrandale based Core 100 with the mobile SNB based CoreHT series. In addition to the improvements that have been brought by the mobile SNB, we will also look at what ASRock has brought to the table in this review.

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