Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including Battlefield 3 PC Review, ASUS Maximus IV Extreme P67 ROG Motherboard Review, and Five $160 To $240 990FX-Based Socket AM3+ Motherboards



Battlefield 3 PC Review
TweakTonw posted Battlefield 3 PC Review

Some people may not be aware of this, but Battlefields roots began well before the 1942 iteration of the series hit the PC platform with such an impact in 2002. DICE, the developer behind the series, had already played around with large maps and vehicular warfare with their often forgotten Codename Eagle. Codename Eagle shares many traits with Battlefield - a huge multiplayer map with many players able to take on each either via land or air vehicles, or on foot.

Battlefield 3 is no doubt one of the most anticipated games of 2011 and comes up against what will no doubt be one of the biggest releases of the year; Modern Warfare 3. Can DICE take the challenge up to Modern Warfare? There is no doubt that if there is one game that was going to do it, it would be Battlefield and EA has promoted this fact for many months during the release cycle. However, after playing the campaign and many hours of the multiplayer, our opinion is that the game is good, but it isn't perfect.

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Plextor PX-PH500U3 USB 3.0 Portable Hard Disk Drive Review
Madshrimps posted a review on the Plextor PX-PH500U3 USB 3.0 Portable Hard Disk Drive

The PX-PH500U3 USB 3.0 HDD from Plextor comes with a lightweight casing and sports a professional, clean design. The performance is good for a 500GB 5400RPM drive and for added value we get three separate applications already preloaded on the HDD; the applications are full versions, with the serial numbers supplied in the box.

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SteelSeries Shift Gaming Keyboard Review
Techgage posted a look a SteelSeries' Shift gaming keyboard.

If you're the type gamer who spends more than the normal amount of time tweaking your peripherals, then the Shift keyboard from SteelSeries deserves your consideration. Not only does it allow you to configure every single key, it also enables you to record macros on-the-fly and even switch out the entire keyset for another.

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Seagate New Barracuda XT 3TB Review
OCC has published a review on the Seagate New Barracuda XT 3TB

A dual core ARM processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM on board, along with Seagate's OptiCache technology are said to improve performance by up to 45% over prior generation drives. Needless to say expectations were high going into the testing. In just about every test the "New" Barracuda XT outperformed the previous generation product. Higher average transfer rates and reduced access times mean an improved feel once you are in the operating system. The drive specification sheet shows a sustained read speed specification of 156MB/s, which the drive exceeded in my testing. This makes the New Barracuda XT the fastest spindle based drive I have tested to date, giving you capacity and speed all in one package.

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Antec SOLO II Mid Tower Case Review
Hi Tech Legion posted a review on the Antec SOLO II Mid Tower Case

The Antec SOLO II is the successor to the SOLO case and is part of the Sonata family, weighing in at 20.2 pounds. The SOLO II focuses on Antec's Quiet Computing design, introducing a new set of cosmetic and functional upgrades in comparison to the original SOLO case. Multiple features inside the Antec SOLO II contribute to reducing component vibration and dampening the noise including the dual-layer SECC/Polycarbonate top and side panels as well as HDD silicone grommets and a new TrueQuiet fan design. While Antec designed the internal chamber of the SOLO II to be extremely functional, the external appearance is just as well thought-out with an anodized aluminum front bezel and a piano black finish for an elegant, sleek look. For connectivity, the SOLO II's front panel houses four USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0 for ultra-fast transfer rates. If silence is the most important part in your system, then the Antec SOLO II case should be perfect for your next PC build.

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ASUS Maximus IV Extreme P67 ROG Motherboard Review
Bigbruin.com posted a review on the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme P67 ROG Motherboard

If you're a hard core overclocker, the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme will provide you with all of the tools you could ever need to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your hardware. If you are simply a beginner, it is simple enough to configure to give you the performance boost you crave with all of the tools you'll need as your overclocking skills mature.

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LEPA LPC302 Series Case Review
HardwareHeaven.com posted a review on the LEPA LPC302 Series Case

In the system component marketplace few areas are more crowded than cases with hundreds of manufacturers across the globe competing for consumers. It therefore takes a brave company to try and enter this area, even more so for one to take on some of the big players.

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Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB Solid State Drive Review
eTeknix.com posted Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB Solid State Drive Review

Solid State Drives come in a variety of sizes and from a plethora of manufacturer's but when we focus on what the consumer actually needs, it's all quite simple. They are after a SSD that is quick, cost effective and has the capacity that they need. For the mass market, 240GB upwards is still overkill, and the 60-96GB market isn't quite large enough, so for a company to offer 128GB capacities can only mean good things, as it offers an ample amount of space for your operating system and in most cases, for your favourite games.

Now we've seen an array of SSDs from the likes of OCZ and Patriot to name a few, but today we had the M4 from Crucial land at our desk. Being something new for us always gets us excited, especially when it's an SSD and it's from the likes of Crucial. We say this, because as we know, Crucial were one of the first to jump onto the SATA III interface with the C300 range of SSDs, even if the technology to support it wasn't quite there yet.

These days, we're seeing SATA III based SSDs everywhere, from a variety of brands including some lesser known names, but it all adds into the competition and if you can offer something unique or better whilst remaining cost effective, then you can't lose, right?

Crucial believe that they have the complete package with the M4 and with their trusted branding and reputation behind them, we can only hold high hopes for this particular SSD, so lets see what it can do as we take a closer look.

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OCZ Synapse Cache 64GB SATA 3 SSD Review
The SSD Review posted OCZ Synapse Cache 64GB SATA 3 SSD Review

OCZ has just released a performance solution for the hard drive user that wants to keep their hard drive yet gain the performance of an SSD. The SSD Review evaluated the OCZ Synapse Cache SSD and found its performance to match that of most upper tier solid state drives with a 14 second boot time to match. Our review is detailed, includes photos and test results and we think the Synapse Cache just might be a hit with the consumer SSD crowd, especially in this time of higher HDD prices.

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Asus P8P67 Pro B3 Rev 3.1 Motherboard Review
Rbmods posted a review on the Asus P8P67 Pro B3 Rev 3.1 Motherboard:

I know we have lacked in motherboard reviews lately, so today we are taking a look at a fairly new motherboard from Asus which is called “P8P67 Pro Rev3.1.” This board is equipped with loads of overclocking features and should easily push our cpu to around 4,5GHz or more. Lets find out how this board performs!

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Five $160 To $240 990FX-Based Socket AM3+ Motherboards
Toms Hardware compares five class-leading products using AMD's FX-8150 to see which offers the best combination of performance, overclocking, integrated features, and value.

When it comes to the popularity of our stories, CPUs run second only to new graphics cards (which seem to get everyone's blood pumping the fastest). Motherboards fall behind quite a ways. That's a shame though, because the right board is an absolute necessity for connecting processors to GPUs, and every other components inside your machine.

This is where AMD gives a lot of love to its customers, whereas Intel tends to skimp more often. Nowhere is the difference between both company's mainstream parts more evident than in the chipset segment. The 990FX's 42 total PCIe 2.0 lanes provide a lot more potential throughput than Intel's popular Z68 Express, which is limited to 16 lanes from the CPU and a handful more on the Platform Controller Hub.

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Corsair Hydro Series: H60, H80 and H100 Reviewed
Anandtech posted a review on the Corsair Hydro Series

Closed-loop liquid CPU cooling solutions are gaining popularity as more and more vendors are carrying their own variation. We've even seen both Intel and AMD announce the inclusion of liquid-coolers for their upcoming processor lines. Today we're going to take a look at the Corsair Hydro Series, consisting of the H60 High Performance, H80 High Performance, and H100 Extreme Performance liquid CPU coolers.

Corsair has teamed up with CoolIT Systems this time around, while they have also partnered with Asetek for other Hydro Series products (H40/H50/H70/H70 Core). For now, our focus is on the H60, H80, and H100. How well do these cooler work compared to top air-cooling solutions, and are they worth the added cost? Lets find out.

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ASUS Sabertooth X79 (Intel X79) Motherboard Preview
TweakTown posted ASUS Sabertooth X79 (Intel X79) Motherboard Preview

At launch it looks like ASUS is going to be covering a wide range of price points and user needs. The other week we managed to take a close look at the ASUS P9X79 Pro and Deluxe. If you're interested in living a bit more on the extreme side of things, then no doubt the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme is going to be the board that will grab your attention.

There was a missing piece to the previews we did; during the recent ASUS Press Event in Taiwan we managed to get a look at the new Sabertooth X79 which continues the Sabertooth name we saw introduced in the P67 range. Today we get a chance to take a closer look at the Sabertooth X79 and complete the ASUS X79 puzzle.

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EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win review
The Guru of 3D posted a review on the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win video card

Two GeForce GTX 560 Ti cards setup in SLI offer a lot of performance for roughly 400 EUR / 450 USD, and with that in mind EVGA has started developing a custom PCB, with two GTX 560 TI GPU's on-board. With games like Battlefield 3, Skyrim and Batman: Arkham City and Crysis 2 DX11, that might be a terrific alternative in the Q4 holiday season for many.

The newfangled card is called the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win. A card with cool looks, a pair of GF114 GPUs and heck it even comes a little overclocked for ya.

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