Here a roundup of the latest reviews and articles, including Audyssey Wireless Media Speakers Review, ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 AMD Socket FM2 Motherboard Review, VTX3D HD7990 Review, Corsair Carbide Series 200R Mid-Tower Comptact ATX Chassis Review, and OCZ Vector 256GB Solid State Drive Review
Audyssey Wireless Media Speakers Review @ Dreamware Computers
ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 AMD Socket FM2 Motherboard Review @ OCinside.de
VTX3D HD7990 Review (w/ GTX690 & 6GB HD7970 Toxic CF) @ KitGuru
Corsair Carbide Series 200R Mid-Tower Comptact ATX Chassis Review @ eTechnix
OCZ Vector 256GB Solid State Drive Review
Sony Xperia TX Review @ t-break
Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 DS1 Mid-Tower Case Review @ TestFreaks
Audyssey Wireless Media Speakers Review @ Dreamware Computers
Near the end of the summer I had my first introduction to Audyssey through my review of their Lower East Side Media Speakers. The Lower Eastside Media Speakers were a set of stereo speakers with remarkable sound quality for their rather compact size. With a design inspired by Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood, the LES media speakers also had a simple but great looking design. Although the LES Media Speakers offered both analog and digital input (something not often found on stereo speakers in this market), the one area they fell short was the absence of an auxiliary input. Whenever I wanted to listen to media off my phone or tablet I had to constantly unplug the speakers from my computer and plug them into whichever device I wanted to listen from next. Audyssey listened to their buyers though, and where most manufacturers would simply slap an auxiliary input on to the speakers, Audyssey upped the ante and released a bluetooth pair (still supporting legacy analog input as well). Today I happen to have a set of the Wireless Media Speakers here for review and I am anxious to see if the addition of wireless Bluetooth audio will have any impact on the sound quality of these great speakers!Read more
ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 AMD Socket FM2 Motherboard Review @ OCinside.de
Today we are testing a new Socket FM2 Trinity motherboard on OCinside.de, which reached a new reference clock record during our OverClocking tests.Read more
The AMD FM2 motherboard is based on the AMD A85X chipset and has a total of five PCI Express slots, two PCI slots, seven SATA3 ports, one eSATA3 port, Gigabit LAN and 7.1 audio with optical output.
We tested the ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 Socket FM2 motherboard with an AMD A10-5800K Black Edition APU and overclocked it to the limit.
VTX3D HD7990 Review (w/ GTX690 & 6GB HD7970 Toxic CF) @ KitGuru
Today we are looking at the VTX3D HD7990 Graphics card, a flagship product created by partners after AMD failed to deliver an official dual GPU product this year. The VTX3D HD7990 in particular has generated a lot of interest as it is the least expensive HD7990 in the UK today available at £679.99 inc vat (http://www.dabs.com/products/best-value-vtx3d-amd-radeon-7990-hd-900mhz-6gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-8FJ7.html?q=vtx3d&src=16) , significantly cheaper than both Club3D and Powercolor models. Dabs are also offering a £40 cashback voucher in December, bringing the total price to £640 inc vat.Read more
Corsair Carbide Series 200R Mid-Tower Comptact ATX Chassis Review @ eTechnix
It wasn’t long ago that I was taking a look at the Corsair 300R, a budget friendly £65 offering that easily won our eTeknix Editors Choice award for providing rock solid build quality and performance in a neat and tidy package, that didn’t cost the earth. So what does the 200R have to offer us and will it be worth another eTeknix award?Read more
With a price tag of around £55 (at time of writing) the 200R is targeted at the higher quality end of the budget market, while of course there are cheaper chassis’ on the market than this, it’s rare to find anything note worthy below £40. Yet for more budget conscious consumers and system builders £50+ is still a big investment and no one likes to throw away their hard earned money on a cheap quality product.
Because of its price, I won’t be looking for ground breaking performance or lots of stand out features, what we want to see in this price range is typically a decent amount of component compatibility, build quality and a little bit of style.
OCZ Vector 256GB Solid State Drive Review
For a number of years, OCZ have been producing drives that have set not only technological milestones but also performance milestones as well. Such milestones have included being the first to debut the SandForce controller, the first 1TB SSD and in 2011 they unveiled the highest capacity SAS SSD at close to 1TB. Performance wise, OCZs have been at the forefront of what is possible and the Vertex 4 that we looked at earlier in the year was the latest to tickle our SSD tastebuds and show us why OCZ are one of the best in their class.Read more
The acquisition of Indilinx last year was a huge step forward in the companies history and this has meant that overall manufacturing costs have come down thus giving the end user a top level drive but at an even more affordable price. Since this acquisition, the Barefoot 3 controller is the first ground up design that they have created, tailored entirely to their specifications and this means that they can take performance to the next level, so now couldn’t be a better time to bring out a new line of drives.
OCZ have made this line of drives with not performance or price first in line, but quality, reliability and stability. This is not to say that they’re going to be B grade in relation to the Vertex drives. Performance is still high on the agenda and following the hype that the Vector has been getting, its time to see of OCZ can set another milestone and release a new yardstick to the SSD market.
Sony Xperia TX Review @ t-break
Sony has certainly been busy with its Xperia lineup of phones this year. I’ve checked out the Xperia Ion and the Xperia acro S previously, and both phones had their own merits. The latest Sony phone to land in our offices is the sleek Xperia TX, which Sony proudly advertised in the latest James Bond flick, Skyfall. So then, does the Xperia TX have all the bells and whistles that Q would approve of?Read more
Build quality & design
One thing is for sure, Sony certainly builds its handsets to stand out from the crowds. The Xperia TX comes in a white matte finish, and sports a slight curve at the back so it fits more comfortably in your hand. While the plastic back certainly looks pleasing and won’t pick up as many scratches, it did tend to get a bit scruffy around the edges quite quickly during my week of testing.
Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 DS1 Mid-Tower Case Review @ TestFreaks
Up for review today I have the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 mid-tower PC case. The Deep Silence 1 or DS1 for short is a rather special case in that its main function is silence, yes the case comes complete with plenty of sound dampening material on the side panels and several other places in the case. Being quiet isn’t the only thing going for this case though, the DS1 is full of many features that most anyone will appreciate including a special feature called an Air Chimney at the top of the case for an added cooling benefit. There’s plenty of space for many hard drive inside of the DS1, and the racks are removable and even movable, yes you can move the racks around in the case. Anyway, read on to learn more about a great little case…Read more
As usual we’ll start off with the packaging. The case comes in an attractive looking box with specs and features listed with plenty of pictures. Inside you’ll find the case surrounded by styrofoam for protection and wrapped in a plastic bag.
