Here today's reviews and articles, including Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide, Plantronics GameCom Commander Headset 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound Review, Infographic: 365 Days of Social Media, The ARM vs x86 Wars Have Begun: In-Depth Power Analysis of Atom, Krait & Cortex A15, and Talk to the Dragon, NaturallySpeaking



Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide @ Tech ARP

Covering 529 desktop graphics cards, this comprehensive comparison allows you to easily compare 23 different specifications for each and every card. If you need to find out about the specification of any card, just come over and check out our Desktop Graphics Comparison Guide.

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Plantronics GameCom Commander Headset 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Today we will be looking at the latest addition to the GameCom range, the Commander. The Plantronics GameCom Commander is a PC headset which offers us USB and 3.5mm connection along with a USB sound card for Dolby 7.1 surround.

Plantronics GameCom Commander Headset 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Gaming Mouse Review @ Legit Reviews

Thermaltake and DesignWorksUSA, a BMW owned design consultancy, have returned to develop a new Level 10 product that isn't a computer case. The Level 10 M joins the Tt eSPORTS branding as an ambitious gaming mouse with an aluminum base, an 8200 DPI laser sensor, five side buttons, and custom lighting zones. This is a large mouse at 5.8 x 2.7 x 1.5 inches (LxWxH) and 6.5 ounces. Despite the official specifications, the palm piece is 4.75 inches long...

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Gigabyte Force M7 Thor Mouse Review @ Hardware Secrets

When one gets a mouse named after the god of thunder of Norse mythology, one imagines a mighty peripheral, worthy of the son of Odin himself. However, the Force M7 Thor (from now on we'll just call it "the Thor" for short) is a low-cost mouse that is also low on features. It doesn't record macros, it's not indicated to MMORPG players, but it performs well enough as an FPS mouse. We'll talk about it more later, but first let's describe the product.

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Silverstone SUGO SG09 @ techPowerUp

Silverstone is taking it to the next level of compactness with the SG09. The case is tiny with just 23 litre volume, but can hold a mATX board, large CPU cooler, long GPUs, and potent PSU. We stuff the chassis full with such gear to see if it can hold it all in.

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Infographic: 365 Days of Social Media @ TechReviewSource.com

Was 2012 the year of the 7-inch tablet? Windows 8? The Samsung smartphone? Try social media. A new infographic from iStrategyLabs, based on statistics published by the Huffington Post, lists 100 of "the most fascinating" figures from 2012, focusing on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+.

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Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Memory Kit Review @ Bigbruin.com

This week we are reviewing our third Crucial.com 1600MHz DDR3 memory kit in the last few months. First we brought you the high-end Elite series memory, then in early December we looked at the mid-range Tactical memory. This time around we are looking at some Crucial Sport series memory, which is the lowest cost offering from Crucial as part of the Ballistix family. This kit consists of 2x8GB 1600MHz modules with a "VLP" (very low profile) design that it is marketed to mainstream users as a "budget-friendly" model.

Features and Specifications:

The Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP kit being reviewed today contains 2x8GB memory modules rated at 9-9-9-24 timings. Voltage requirements are lower than normal, and just like the Tactical series from Crucial, they are rated at 1.35v. The lower voltage requirement should allow for a bit more headroom when overclocking, which we will cover in this review. The specifications listed below were taken straight from the product page on the Crucial.com website.

» Memory Type: Desktop DDR3
» Part #: BLS2K8G3D1609ES2LX0
» Timings: 9-9-9-24-1
» Capacity: 16GB (8GB x2)
» Speed: DDR3-1600 (PC3 12800)
» Rated Voltage: 1.35 Volts
» Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
» Error Checking: Non-ECC
» Type: 240-pin DIMM
» Very Low Profile (VLP)

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The ARM vs x86 Wars Have Begun: In-Depth Power Analysis of Atom, Krait & Cortex A15 @ Anandtech

Late last month, Intel dropped by my office with a power engineer for a rare demonstration of its competitive position versus NVIDIA's Tegra 3 when it came to power consumption. Like most companies in the mobile space, Intel doesn't just rely on device level power testing to determine battery life. In order to ensure that its CPU, GPU, memory controller and even NAND are all as power efficient as possible, most companies will measure power consumption directly on a tablet or smartphone motherboard. The process would be a piece of cake if you had measurement points already prepared on the board, but in most cases Intel (and its competitors) are taking apart a retail device and hunting for a way to measure CPU or GPU power. I described how it's done in the original article. The previous article focused on an admittedly not too interesting comparison: Intel's Atom Z2760 (Clover Trail) versus NVIDIA's Tegra 3. After much pleading, Intel returned with two more tablets: a Dell XPS 10 using Qualcomm's APQ8060A SoC (dual-core 28nm Krait) and a Nexus 10 using Samsung's Exynos 5 Dual (dual-core 32nm Cortex A15). What was a walk in the park for Atom all of the sudden became much more challenging. Both of these SoCs are built on very modern, low power manufacturing processes and Intel no longer has a performance advantage compared to the Exynos 5. Read on for our analysis.

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Talk to the Dragon, NaturallySpeaking @ The Tech Report

In his latest blog post, TR's Geoff Gasior recounts how a broken finger drove him to speech recognition software. Dragon NaturallySpeaking lived up to its 99% accuracy claims, but not without some annoying quirks.

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Sennheiser U320 Gaming Headset Review @ t-break

Nobody keeps it simple anymore. Gaming headsets these days boast the most bombastic features, with names that would make the International Astronomical Union blush, and a price tag that would make our wallets cower in fear. Nothing short of (virtual) 7.1 surround sound, and gimmick-ridden features like voice morphing usually does, and they all account for nothing when it comes to delivering good quality sound.

Sennheiser tends to be a little wiser, usually keeping it simple with its proven brand of solid, outstanding stereo headsets. The U320 falls in that category, a one-headset-to-rule-them-all for your PC, Mac, PS3 or Xbox 360 needs.

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Corsair Hydro Series H55 Liquid CPU Cooler Review @ eTeknix

We’ve already taken a look at Corsair’s superb H100i Hydro series CPU cooler. You can read that review here. However, we are now going right to the other end of the Corsair Hydro series by taking a look at the new H55.

The Corsair Hydro series has been more or less entirely revamped in the past few months with new variants of all coolers that include either better tubing, better pumps, better fans or all of those improvements. The H55 is right at the lower end of the new Hydro series just above the H50 and H40 which are both very similar products. Put in simpler terms the H55 is an improved version of the Corsair H50 so will bring the benefits of all-in-one liquid coolers but without the size or price premium of the H80i and H100i. It also represents a maturation of the all-in-one liquid cooler concept that should give better performance with a smaller size compared to previous generation liquid coolers.

Corsair’s H55 features a 27mm-thick 120mm radiator, new and improved flexible rubber tubing, a single 120mm fan and an improved mounting system. Like most other Corsair Hydro Series products the Corsair H55 is manufactured by Asetek. More specifications are available here but now lets move onto to the review.

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Nyko PlayPad Bluetooth Controller for Android Devices @ Megatechnews

More and more, we find ourselves playing an increasingly large variety of remarkably robust games on our smartphones and tablets. As great as these games have become, touchscreen controls just aren’t as good as the more traditional console experience for many of these titles. So, what can you do?

One solution that you might consider is the Nyko PlayPad, a console-style controller that allows you to “control the future of Android gaming.” It’s wireless and pairs up with an Android device of your choosing via Bluetooth.

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AVerMedia RECentral Live Gamer HD Capture Card Review @ eTeknix

In a change to what I normally review, namely anything storage and networking based, I’ve decided to have a little change of scene and this week I’ll be looking at a HD capture card from AVerMedia. There are a large number of gamers out there, especially those in teams that like to record their games so that they can review them back to see where they go wrong or to show off their skills to others though the likes of YouTube or live through TwitchTV. Whilst there are a number of external options to chose from, not all give the flexibility to either record or stream and typically most of them are recorders.

What we will be having a look at today is a PCIe mounted capture card that allows you to stream you content straight to the masses on the internet via the use of XSplit or record your game for editing and uploading later on. AVerMedia have been around for quite a few years and this is one of their latest bits of kit that is very simple to setup and get going with barely any setup required. Sounds like a great bit of kit to me so lets see what this is all about.

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Rosewill RDED-12001 External Slim Aluminum Blu-Ray Writer @ Hi Tech Legion

It wasn't until the end of 2009 that we saw the introduction of the 802.11n standard. Originally, the N version still used the 2.4GHz spectrum, however, there was the introduction of the 5GHz band and 40MHz channel width to consumers. The 5GHz band is much less congested and offers higher capacity. The 40MHz channel width allows double the bandwidth (per channel) over the standard 20MHz channel. Many people still have old routers and a mix of old/new hardware. Without the proper setup, the newest hardware cannot work to its full capacity. Did you get a new iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S3? Those can both use 802.11n and the 5GHz band.

The ASUS RT-N56U Dual-band Gigabit Wireless-N Router might be the upgrade you need. The RT-N56U contains enthusiast grade hardware and software, at a mainstream price. The N56U combines extreme performance with a bit of style. As a Dual-band router, the RT-N56U can use both 5GHz and 2.4GHz speeds up to 300Mbps concurrently. Integrated is a 4 port Gigabit hardware NAT. There are two USB 2.0 ports with speed rating up to 15MB/s throughput. The USB ports can support external storage through FTP/SAMBA, and supports mobile modems. They are also fully powered for peripheral charging. Internally, ASUS doubled the RAM to 128MB for better operation under heavier, multiple user, loads. Internal software includes support for VPN, DLNA, torrent, and media sharing.

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Kingston SSDNow KC100 240GB SSD Upgrade Kit Review @ Nikktech

Just 2 days prior to getting into 2013 we had to sit down and pick the first product reviews which would get us into 2013 for good and since recently we promised to bridge the gap created in our SSD reviews section we decided to test yet another such product. Now if you read our Intel 335 SSD review you should be well aware that the performance factor regarding SATA III solid state drives hasn't really changed that much in 2012 (always compared to 2011) and so at least until the new controllers arrive in late Q1 (if all goes according to plan) we really can't expect to come across anything that will blow what we currently know out of the water. 2012 however did see a significant price drop in SSDs and so currently consumer models with capacities up to 240GB are surprisingly easy to acquire. Still there are some SSDs in the market with businesses as their target audience and the Kingston SSDNow KC100 240GB solid state drive we have here with us today is such a solution.

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Fractal Design Node 605 Review @ Techradar

This case is aimed squarely at the HTPC builder. It supports all motherboard formats, from full-sized ATX down to teeny mini-ITX. This is just as well, because if you want to add an optical drive, you can only do so by using a mATX or smaller board. Measuring 445 x 164 x 349mm, the Node 605's frame is constructed from steel, with a 8mm thick brushed aluminium front bezel. The whole thing is finished in black, with white hard drive mounts, expansion plates and cooling fan blades for contrast.

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