Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2 (Intel X79) Motherboard Preview, Acer Revo RL100-U20P Home Theater PC Review, and 15 microSDHC Cards, Benchmarked And Reviewed



GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2 (Intel X79) Motherboard Preview
TweakTown posted GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2 (Intel X79) Motherboard Preview

I'm a big fan of the G1 series from GIGABYTE. I get that some of the design decisions aren't for everyone, but the bottom line is that in the feature department the G1 series are one of the most stacked series on the market. With more and more people pulling away from separate sound and networking cards, the addition of high end components in these areas on board are appreciated.

The latest addition to the G1 series from GIGABYTE comes in the form of the new G1.Assassin 2 and of course carries the much anticipated X79 chipset that we've been waiting for what feels like forever now. While we're still just a little bit out from NDA, there's as usual a lot of things we can't tell you when it comes to the performance side of things, nor can we tell you some of the particular technologies implemented on the board.

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VisionTek Radeon HD 6850 Video Card Review
Benchmark Reviews posted a review on the VisionTek Radeon HD 6850 Video Card

Most of us love to look at the latest reviews of the most hardcore PC components and keep apprised of what's going on up in the clouds, but when it comes down to it, we are going to end up buying something that is a little more affordable. So while reviews of those items are certainly interesting to read, it's nice to see something a little more mid-ranged. I'm talking about something that will play the latest video games, even though I might have to turn down some of the settings. In this article, Benchmark Reviews is taking a look at the VisionTek 900339 Radeon HD 6850graphics card. The newest series of GPUs has been out for a while now, and we've seen the performance charts. We don't expect any surprises from the VisionTek 900339, but that's not going to stop us from putting it through its paces and overclocking it. We want to see where the VisionTek Radeon HD 6850 differs from other cards, especially since it sits near the top end of the price range for Radeon HD 6850s.

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Thermaltake Dr. Power II PSU Tester
OCC has published a review on the Thermaltake Dr. Power II PSU

On the side you will find the single button that runs the whole Dr. Power II. It looks like a power button but it really isn't one. It's basically the "everything" button. You are either allowed to toggle between tests in Mode A, or have it cycle through the tests on its own with Mode B. It really isn't complicated if you glance at the help guide. There you will learn that less than a 5 second press and the device will cycle through each test in Mode A, whereas a hold for 5 seconds or more kicks it into Mode B, which cycles through the tests for you automatically. No rocket science here.

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Enermax NAXN 650W Power Supply Review
Hi Tech Legion posted a review on the Enermax NAXN 650W Power Supply

The Enermax NAXN 650W power supply is amongst their most recent releases. The NAXN 650W is geared towards the average users, or budget gamers, that want to maintain excellent quality, while keeping costs low. The NAXN 650W power supply features an 80 Plus Bronze rating, meaning that can keep a 82-88% efficiency at 20-100% load. The NAXN is ErP Lot 6 2010 ready. This is a specification that can keep power draw to < 1W when running in standby mode. Most non compliant systems will run at around 4W. Built in is what Enermax labels "HeatGuard". This keeps the fan running 30-60 seconds past shut down to ensure total heat dissipation. The NAXN has a silent 12cm fan for air movement and an AirGuard design to reduce noisy turbulence.

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OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 1TB PCI-E SSD Review
Hardware Canucks posted a review of the new OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 1TB PCI-E SSD.

Searches for affordable high capacity SSDs usually come up blank so several manufacturers have begun releasing hybrid solutions which combine the performance of an SSD with the storage space of the hard drive. OCZ's RevoDrive Hybrid is the latest to take on this challenge by combining a 100GB SSD with a 2.5" 1TB HDD. This isn't exactly a match made in heaven but the benefits are tangible.

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Areca ARC-1882x RAID Card Review: Lightning Strikes at 4.7GB/s
The SSD Review takes a look at the Areca ARC-1882x RAID Card

Have You Ever Seen 4.7GB/s Performance Benchmarks Before? Would you think it possible from an enthusiast point of view? Our tests of the Areca ARC-1882x RAID Card, when accompanied by 8 x Micron C300 SSDs, will blow you away just as it did us. Heads up though because we are going to throw fifteen pages of tests and pictures at you as we check out both RAID 0 and RAID 5.

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Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H and Z68XP-UD4 Review
PureOverclock takes a look at the Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H and Z68XP-UD4 motherboards

We're looking at a couple of Z68 motherboard from Gigabyte, and we hope the winning ways continue. We've got the Z68X-UD3H and Z68P-UD4 on the bench, and while they share many similar features, there are some distinct differences. Let's take a closer look at these boards and find out if they can successfully push Gigabyte's reputation forward in the Intel arena.

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Acer Revo RL100-U20P Home Theater PC Review
MissingRemote posted a review on the Acer Revo RL100-U20P Home Theater PC

Many home theater PC (HTPC) enthusiasts dream of a system that is as slim as other consumer electronic devices such as a dedicated Blu-ray player. It is also an expensive and difficult proposition for most; thus, when Acer introduced its newest Revo 100, many took notice. Not only is the Revo 100 only one inch high, it also has a unique slide-out keyboard/touchpad clearly designed as an input device for the ten-foot experience. With a sub-$600 retail price, the Aver Revo 100 which packs an AMD K325 CPU and NVIDIA ION GPU certainly deserves a closer look.

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Gigabyte Aivia M6800 Wireless Macro Gaming Mouse Review
eTeknix.com posted a review on the Gigabyte Aivia M6800 Wireless Macro Gaming Mouse

Back towards the start of the year, we took a look at Gigabytes Aivia Gaming Keyboard which took us by surprise as to how well it performed in comparison to its other rivals on the market. Gigabyte have now paired up this keyboard with the Aivia M6800 macro gaming mouse to penetrate into both sides of the gamers needs - a high performance keyboard and mouse.

When it comes to mice, I've always been a Logitech man through and through, but I was the same with keyboards, but the Aivia keyboard won a spot in my eyes so much that I still use it today on my workstation so I'm wondering if this mouse can do the same.

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Scythe Kozuti SCKZT-1000 1.5U Low Profile Heatsink Review
FrostyTech checked out the Scythe Kozuti SCKZT-1000 1.5U Low Profile Heatsink

The Scythe Kozuti SCKZT-1000 is a really compact low profile heatsink that conforms to the 1.5U standard and measures just 40mm from tip to toe! That's not a lot of space in which to cram a heatsink capable of handling 150W heat loads... but Scythe manage it with average thermal results - impressive for such a low profile heatsink really.

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CM Storm Enforcer System Enclosure Review
Metku.net took a closer look at the CM Strom Enforcer system enclosure.

Cooler Master published a case to CM Storm -series; CM Storm Enforcer. Its price is under 100 euros so it sits at the inexpensive end of CM Storm -series range.

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PowerColor HD 6970 Devil 13 2 GB Review
techPowerUp posted a review on the PowerColor HD 6970 Devil 13 2 GB

PowerColor's HD 6970 Devil 13 is a brand-new premium class Radeon HD 6970 which comes with the highest clocks available on any HD 6970 card. The Devil 13 also includes voltage monitoring points for voltmodders and a high quality power conversion system. But is that enough to justify a price of $549?

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Round-Up: 15 microSDHC Cards, Benchmarked And Reviewed
Toms Hardware Guide published a review on 15 microSDHC Cards

With rated write performance as high as 10 MB/s and capacities as high as 32 GB, there's plenty of choice in the microSDHC marketplace. Do the contenders actually hit their performance targets? Interestingly, some of them are actually quite a bit better!

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