Here the first reviews roundup of today with 17 new articles, including Razer Onza Tournament Edition Review, Fractal Design Core 3000 Case Review, and ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audiophile Sound Card



Razer Onza Tournament Edition Review
Overclock3D have just published a new article titled: Razer Onza Tournament Edition Review.

Today we take a look at the Razer take on the XBOX 360 Pad. Does it maintain their high standards?

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Sapphire Radeon 6850 Vapor-X with Dirt 3 Review
TechwareLabs.com posted a review on the Sapphire Radeon 6850 Vapor-X video card

Purchasing a video card can be very confusing. Looking at the different model lines and features across multiple manufacturers boasting over clocked memory, or specialty cooling can be enough to make your head spin. Focusing on AMD there are two series that are Direct x 11 compatible the 5000 and 6000 series GPU's. Released in 2010 the 6000 series cards are the second generation DX 11 GPU's and offer AMD PowerTune technology making the cards more energy efficient with lower operating temperatures. Today we have the Sapphire Vapor-X HD6850, here is what Sapphire has to say

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HP Pavilion Elite h8-1050 Review
TechReviewSource.com posted a review on the HP Pavilion Elite h8-1050 media desktop

The HP Pavilion Elite h8-1050 is a media desktop decked out with all the right components to satisfy power users. Blu-ray, TV tuner, and a powerful hardware tag team made up of an Intel Core i7 processor and AMD discrete graphics card is just the tip of the iceberg for this PC.

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Motorola Atrix Cell Phone Review
Hardware Secrets posted a review on the Motorola Atrix Cell Phone

Currently, 4G cell phones are very popular, and the Motorola Atrix offered in the US by AT&T is a 4G phone with plenty of special features. With a 1 GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor, a 5-megapixel camera, a fingerprint reader, and the availability of a docking station that can turn the phone into a laptop or a desktop computer, the Atrix seemed quite impressive. When we saw Motorola advertise it as the "World's Most Powerful Smartphone," we were anxious to take a look.

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Alienware M18x Gaming Notebook: A Tale of Two GPUs
HotHardware.com posted a review on the Alienware M18x Gaming Notebook

Big, bad and unapologetic. These three words accurately describe the Alienware M18x. Unapologetic about its size, this is a desktop replacement notebook that almost defies the entire category of portable machines. Sure, it's portable, in the sense that you can move it from room to room or perhaps pack it up for a LAN, but you're not tossing this bad boy into a dainty backpack or laptop tote. No, the Alienware M18x steps into the ring weighing in at nearly 12lbs (11.935) and thumbs its nose at would-be competitors.

In our efforts to evaluate Alienware's new gaming Goliath, the company decided to send us two machines with identical base builds, an Intel Core i7-2630QM quad-core at the helm, but with different graphics subsystems. One M18x came strapped with a pair of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M GPUs in SLI. The other came packing heat with dual AMD Radeon HD 6990M GPUs in CrossFire...

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Cooler Master Storm Trooper (SGC-5000-KKN1) Full Tower Case Review
TweakTown posted a review on the Cooler Master Storm Trooper (SGC-5000-KKN1) Full Tower Case

It seems like it has been quite some time since I had the opportunity to bring you a new chassis from Cooler Master, but today changes all of that. Let me start by clearing up some confusion. All of the Storm series cases we have seen up to this point were spin-off's of the Storm Sniper, which itself was a CM 690 II in new clothes. Gone is the misconception that the Storm series is only for mid-towers, as this chassis is most definitely a full tower, and then some!

What seems to have happened is that Cooler Master has taken hints from other case offerings we have seen from time to time. Two things that come to mind is that this new chassis offers a non-marking rubber coating on the plastic components of the chassis, much like what we see from BitFenix with the SofTouch. The second bit that really stands out is the hard drive cages and the way they are designed. If you remember back to the Antec Lanboy Air, you'd remember they had a hard drive system that will allow you to install the drives in either front to back, or even side to side. With the Cooler Master version of this idea, it is more solid and very well thought out to offer every user the option to make it exactly the way they want it to work.

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Fractal Design Core 3000 Case Review
eTeknix.com takes a look at the Fractal Design Core 3000 Case

Fractal Design are a Swedish brand who specialise in the engineering and designing of cases. Their concept is “to provide products with an extraordinary design level, without compromising the important factors of quality, functionality and pricing. “. They
took the market by the throat back in 2009 when the extremely popular and somewhat revolutionary Define R2 was released and soon became a fan favourite. The Define R2 was very popular due to its ‘no nonsense†appearance which lacked the ‘bling†factor that so many people hate. It offered some of the features that we have become accustomed to from the likes of Lian Li and Corsair, but at a significantly lower price. The Define R3 was a worthy successor which added useful features such as more colour choices, better cooling capabilities and improved cable management. The Define R3 however was a somewhat dignified exit, if only temporarily, to the quiet operating cases that the Define series were built to offer.

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ASUS Republic of Gamers G74Sx 3D Gaming Laptop Review
HardwareHeaven.com posted a review on the ASUS Republic of Gamers G74Sx 3D Gaming Laptop

The G74Sx is a 17.3" enthusiast machine featuring Core i7 CPU and GTX 500 Series graphics along with a long list of other impressive features. Today we have a sample on our test bench to find out whether ASUS can compete in this area of the market.

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Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120GB Solid State Drive Review
TweakTown posted a review on the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120GB Solid State Drive

Today system wide performance increases come from high speed storage products and Mushkin is still using their knowledge to help enthusiasts make everything better, faster and more reliable. Unlike many SSD manufacturers, you can buy Mushkin products on their website directly from the company. Mushkin also has a network of resellers, but in many cases the best prices come from Mushkin directly. Because of this, Mushkin, the SSD Company that you rarely hear about, has some of the lowest priced SandForce based drives available on the market today.

Mushkin has jumped head first into the SF-2281 era and released two products on the market. The Chronos brand is a low cost offering and uses asynchronous flash with a SandForce SF-2281 controller. Today we are looking at the stepped up Chronos Deluxe model that uses the same SandForce SF-2281, but pairs it with premium 3Xnm Toshiba Toggle Mode Flash.

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EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified Video Card Review
Benchmark Reviews posted a review on the EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified Video Card

EVGA designed the GTX 580 Classified to be the ultimate version of what the GTX 580 could be. It was co-designed between EVGA and professional overclockers Vince "k|ngp|n" Lucido, and Illya "TiN" Tsemenko with the single goal to overclock unlike any card out on the market while at the same time looking great, and staying cool. Benchmark Reviews will see if EVGA has perfected the Fermi equation to provide great looks, extraordinary cooling, and extreme overclocking ability.

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Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Full-Tower Chassis Review
Techgage posted a look at Thermaltake's Chaser MK-1 full-tower chassis.

Thermaltake has a large number of chassis lines, but it's time to welcome another: Chaser. The first model, MK-1, features a bold, gamer-esque design and borrows many cues from the Level 10 GT. It features an HDD dock, a headphone holder, and tons of cooling capacity. At $150, is this a full-tower that should top your list?

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ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audiophile Sound Card and Headphone Amp Review
Hi Tech Legion posted a review on the ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audiophile Sound Card and Headphone Amp

Keeping the audiophile spirit and philosophy alive, ASUS presents us with the Xonar Essence STX Sound Card and Headphone Amp. The ASUS Xonar Essence STX is a stereo sound card boasting an industry leading 124db S/N ratio, a figure worthy of the highest end discrete audio equipment. In addition, the Xonar Essence STX includes a dedicated headphone amp comprised of the highest quality components, including swappable OPAMPs to please even the most hardcore DIY audio enthusiast. The Xonar STX also features 24-bit Burr-Brown D/A converters for smooth, natural sound reproduction. To take your music a step further, sample rates of up to 192kHz/24 bit are available with a staggering 10Hz-90KHz (-3dB) at that sample rate.

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Pivos Aios HD Media Centre Review
OCC has published a review on the Pivos Aios HD Media Centre

The Aios had no issues playing any of the files I threw at it. Several raw camcorder m2ts files that I have trouble playing back on my own computer played flawlessly on the Aios. Although this is likely due to missing codecs on my part, the fact that the Aios can play them immediately and without work-arounds is excellent. Audio files were also played with absolute ease. FLAC files are indeed able to be decoded without issue, and I commend Pivos for choosing (and Realtek for making) the excellent RTD1185DD media processor. ISO image files were able to be played back as well and provided no difficulties. The remote control worked well, and all the buttons performed their functions admirably. Playing files from a hard drive or an external flash card saw no slow downs, skips, or any other unwanted occurrences.

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Bracketron Style-iT 2-in-1 Stylus Review
TestFreaks posted a review on the Bracketron Style-iT 2-in-1

I’ve got another quick review for you today of a product that I’ve found to be very useful in my day to day activities. The product is the Style-iT 2-in-1 Stylus and it’s from Bracketron. The 2-in-1 part is that it’s a stylus and it’s a pen so you’ve got both handy whenever you need it. it’s a great little product that works well and that’s well made. So read on…

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Tt eSPORTS Meka G Unit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
HardwareHeaven.com posted a review on the Tt eSPORTS Meka G Unit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

The Meka G1 isn't the only mechanical gaming keyboard that Tt's eSports brand offer, they also have the standard Meka and Meka G Unit. It is the latter we have on our test bench today, a model which sits at the top of the Meka range. Let's find out if the enhanced specifications allow the board to impress.

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Roccat Isku gaming Keyboard Review
XSReviews has a new review, on the Roccat Isku gaming Keyboard

We've done a lot of peripheral reviews here at XSR, with most recent keyboards being made up with mechanical switches. These were hailed as being the ideal for gamers, but not every manufacturer agrees.

Roccat have sent us their latest keyboard design, the ISKU. It's a traditionally rubbed dome switch board with backlighting, macro buttons, some thumb keys and Roccat's famed Easyshift technology. Priced up there with the best of them, does it stand up to some of the great mechanical boards we've reviewed recently?

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eVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified Review
The Guru of 3D posted a review on the eVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified video card

eVGA released the GeForce GTX 580 Classified. It is released in three flavors, the 'regular' version with air cooling, a liquid cooled version and then for the 0.000000001% of pro overclockers a kit with LN2 sub-zero cooling pots.

In-between these models you can opt for 1.5 and 3 GB versions as well. The card tested today comes with a funky dual-slot cooling design based on an 8 cm fan. eVGA overhauled the PCB design and wanted just the best on it so you'll spot a customized VRM and 14+3
phase design.

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