Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles: Gigabyte GTX 780 WindForce OC Graphics Card Review, Thecus N2650 2-Bay NAS Review, Antec KUHLER H2O 650 Liquid CPU Cooler, Roccat Kone Pure Optical Mouse Review, and Aerocool DS Dead Silence Cube Chassis Review



Gigabyte GTX 780 WindForce OC Graphics Card Review @ eTechnix

It’s that time of year again where NVIDIA have a new series of cards in the pipelines and as we have seen running up to today, the number of rumours and leaks that have been flying about are as profound as ever. For some this leads to pure confusion as to what is to be seen and what is complete rubbish, and for people like myself it leads to pure frustration as I know all the true facts and figures, meaning that when I see the rumours and false facts floating around I can do nothing but sit and wait until the NDA lifts to put a number of these claims to rest with the real specifications and performance figures behind the new cards.

So here we have it, the GTX 780 – the first in the new line of Kepler based 700 series cards and before we get too far into the nitty gritty of what’s new in the 700 series, I want to make the following fact clear and true – the GTX 780 CANNOT be flashed in any way to effectively turn it into Titan. There are a number of reasons for this; first off, whilst both cards share the same GK110 core, the 780 has far less CUDA cores, is a different revision of the core chip and has less texture units on-board. On top of this, there is also half the amount of video memory and a number of components in the power region of the PCB are missing as the 780 does not require these as opposed to Titan.

Point out of the way, NVIDIA’s new 700 series cards are here to replace the ever popular 600 series, although they are not a re-hash and re-brand of 6xx cards as some may presume. Whilst the GK110 cores may be featured on both 600 and 700 series cards, they will have subtle variances to them, mainly on the front of CUDA core count and texture filters and so forth.

Read more: Gigabyte GTX 780 WindForce OC Graphics Card Review @ eTechnix

Thecus N2650 2-Bay NAS Review @ eTeknix

In the NAS market, Thecus is one of the biggest names out there alongside QNAP and Synology and as we have seen in the past, the performance and features that they have to offer for the price are very well suited making them ideal for SOHO, SMB and enterprise users alike. Focusing today on the SOHO market, typical home users generally are in line to buy two and four bay systems for storing movies, music and photos on to share across their network to TVs, computers and wireless devices such as tablets.

Over the last year or so we have been seeing a slow migration by many vendors to produce products that are white in appearance to target the home user as they offer a cleaner and more conservative look to them that makes then more suited for a home environment rather than a black system that can look a little out of place or realistically – less stylish.

The N2560 that I’m having a look at today is one of the the first white systems that Thecus have produced, the first being its little brother – the N2520 – and following its showing at CeBIT back in march, the storage giant has been making last minute tweaks and adjustments to optimise its performance and functionality, in the process bringing the N2560 the the line-up as well as the N2520. Over the previewed N2520, the N2560 offers up double the RAM with 2GB of DDR3 and a slightly faster Atom SoC, clocked to 1.6GHz over the N2520′s 1.2GHz chip.

Read more: Thecus N2650 2-Bay NAS Review @ eTeknix

Antec KUHLER H2O 650 Liquid CPU Cooler @ NikKTech

Just recently we show everyone what a high quality, high performance custom watercooling kit is capable off even when used with one of the hottest CPUs currently available. However although the pros of a custom watercooling kit are undeniable at the end of the day only enthusiasts, hardcore gamers and overclockers will opt for such a solution not only because of the somewhat high cost but also due to the time required to install it and the various things you need to watch out for such as leaks (mostly at first use) and the need to add more coolant when needed. This is also the reason as to why a while ago many manufacturers decided to launch their very own AIO (All In One) liquid CPU Coolers that have all four parts (radiator, tubes, pump, waterblock) attached from the factory to simplify things for the masses. Antec became well known for their AIO Liquid CPU Coolers with the KUHLER H2O 620, 920 and just recently the 1220 model which unfortunately was not very widely distributed. Well Antec is back and so today we will be taking a look at the smallest member of their latest KUHLER line the KUHLER H2O 650 Liquid CPU Cooler.

Read more: Antec KUHLER H2O 650 Liquid CPU Cooler @ NikKTech

Roccat Kone Pure Optical Mouse Review @ eTeknix

It’s been a while since we had a Roccat product come through the eTeknix office, but some of you may recall the stunning Roccat Savu which we reviewed back in July, which earned itself our eTeknix Innovation Award. Today however we have something a little more unique and special from Roccat, the Kone XTD gaming mouse is a serious piece of gaming equipment and comes with a price tag of around £70-80 (prices from Google shopping).

When you start looking at any peripheral in this price range you expect to see a few things in exchange for your investment. The most important one I can think of will be performance, but also style, functionality, features and of course all these combined just justify a good chunk of value for money. Of course even a few of these can go a long way to making a great product, but the more boxes we see ticked from this list, the better.

Roccat are well known for their feature rich, stylish and well performing products and I’m sure many of our readers are already well award of the brand, what they do and their solid reputation. Will the Roccat keep the fires burning with their new product range? well that’s what I hope to find out today.

Read more: Roccat Kone Pure Optical Mouse Review @ eTeknix

Aerocool DS Dead Silence Cube Chassis Review @ eTeknix

This week I’ve been looking at the very striking BX-500 Evil Black Edition chassis from Aerocool, a full tower chassis aimed at the gaming market with an emphasis on cooling.

Aerocool have been around now since 2002, clocking up ten years of experience in thermal management and cooling solutions, with their range of CPU coolers, fans and a competent range of fan controller devices already under their belt, the knowledge of all this is clearly something they aim carry across into their PC chassis designs.

Read more: Aerocool DS Dead Silence Cube Chassis Review @ eTeknix