Here a roundup of the latest reviews and articles:

ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II - Watercooling EK FC-R9-290X vs. Aircooling
ASUS Z87 WS Motherboard Review
Corsair Raptor K40 Gaming Keyboard Review
CyberPowerPC Zeus Mini-I 780 SFF Gaming PC Review
DinoPC Pegasus 17.3inch GTX 765M Review
Enermax Liqtech 120X Liquid CPU Cooler Review
EVGA Hadron Air Review
Exclusive interview with Tobias Brinkman from OCZ
FUNC HS-260 Gaming Headset Video Review
G.Skill TridentX 32 GB CAS7 F3-1600C7Q-32GTX
Intel SSD 730 240GB review: consumer SSD with server DNA
Plextor M6e PCIe M.2 SSD Review
Raijintek Themis EVO Review
SilverStone Ensemble EB03 Headphone Amplifier Review
TechwareLabs Monster Build Part 1: The Gear
Thermalright HR-22 Passive CPU Cooler
Thermolab ITX30 Ultra-Low Profile CPU Cooler Review
Tt eSPORTS MEKA G-Unit Illuminated Keyboard Review

ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II - Watercooling EK FC-R9-290X vs. Aircooling

The R9 290X GPU is know to become rather hot and cooling this chip with a reference and even a custom aircooler can be quite a challenge. In almost any case you will see thermal throttling. In this article we're going to compare the results of an ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II watercooled versus the same card with ASUS DirectCU II cooler. At this point a little teaser: the differences can be as high as 25 percent!

Read full article @ ocaholic

ASUS Z87 WS Motherboard Review

In the world of custom PC Building, consumers and builders frequently ask what the best motherboards are for Gaming PC Builds. While these are always valid questions, some folks are looking to build a high end rendering or workstation PC. The Z87 series chipset has plenty of options from the budget friendly models to enthusiast gaming motherboards; however, workstation motherboards are not as readily available.

That changes today. We are going to be looking at a motherboard from ASUS, one of the few manufacturers who created a Z87 chipset based WS (workstation) motherboard to meet this niche market. We have the ASUS Z87 WS on our test bench, and we are going to put this baby to through the ringer.

As an interesting aside, one of the few features of this motherboard which immediately caught our attention is the available support of Quad SLI and Crossfire with 4 PCIe slots available. Not many Z87 motherboards offer this out of the box. There are also tons of other features that we typically don’t see with your “typical” Z87 chipset motherboard. Does this bode well for this unique new board? Read on to find out!

Read full article @ PureOverclock

Corsair Raptor K40 Gaming Keyboard Review

Today's product takes the rubber/membrane approach for keys and prices it at a competitive $70/£55 with a number of gamer and media features built in. Enter the Corsair Raptor K40...

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven.com

CyberPowerPC Zeus Mini-I 780 SFF Gaming PC Review

We've been hankering to test out one of CyberPowerPC's new Zeus Mini SFF gaming desktop models ever since we got some hands on time with it at CES, so we were happy to unpack the black and neon green Zeus Mini-I 780 that CyberPowerPC sent us this week.

Small form factor (SFF) PCs are something of a trend these days, and frankly, it's refreshing to see powerful machines on the market that don't take up much space and and don't weigh 50 pounds...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

DinoPC Pegasus 17.3inch GTX 765M Review

The DinoPC Pegasus 17.3” GTX 765M gaming laptop is a hefty slab of slate grey plastic that weighs in just over the 3kg mark. It combines a Full HD screen with Core i5 CPU, boot SSD with 1TB data drive and nVidia GTX765M graphics so the specification is broadly similar to the MSI GS70 2OD-Stealth (http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/zardon/msi-gs70-2od-stealth-17-3-inch-laptop-review/), however the price is a snip at £799 inc VAT.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Enermax Liqtech 120X Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Enermax is trying to establish a position in the All in One market, however battling against the big names alike Corsair with a very diverse gamma is not an easy mission to accomplish. Though Enermax is back with two new products: the Liqtech and Liqmax series, the former is the high end version, sporting a thick 120 radiator or large 240 radiator and an aluminum waterblock. The Liqmax is the more budget friendly 120mm radiator version available in a single or push and pull configuration. Enermax tries to step away from the others with some nifty features to enhance the cooling performance; secondly the aesthetics of the today reviewed Liqtech 120X have been seriously overhauled.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

EVGA Hadron Air Review

We review the cutest and most tiny chassis from EVGA, the recently introduced Hadron Air. A small mini-ITX form factor chassis that will house the smallest, but also the biggest stuff inside your computer. Heck even a high-end graphics card can even be installed. So yeah, it ain't mid, not full but mini and is intended for small form factor PCs. The Hadron, ladies and gents, is 305mm in height and 169mm in width and that makes the EVGA Hadron chassis small, it's probably the smallest chassis we've tested to date. Ah yes, then there is that name, Hadron. As in the Hadron Collider, where small particles create rather big explosions? We like that. It is an interesting release from EVGA alright as slowly they have moved from an all graphics card selling company towards a total PC solution, graphics cards, gaming peripherals, motherboards, coolers and now chassis as well.

The Hadron is currently being offered in two flavors, the AIR and the Hydro, with the latter obviously being cooled with a liquid cooler. The Hadron has a fairly okay tool free and stylish design and comes with a see through side panel as well. Based on the mini-ITX motherboard form factor you could pair the chassis with an Intel Core i7 Haswell CPU, and Z87 motherboard. Heck, even a full size GeForce GTX 780 Ti graphics card would fit in there as well, as we will show you later on in this article. To power the components you will however need a small power supply, as such the chassis has a pre-installed and rather flat PSU. It is a 500 watt Gold rated power supply. The Hadron is a sexy boxy chassis that measures 305mm in height and is 169mm wide in size. The shell has been made mainly out of black steel and looks and feels sturdy.

But sure, let's have a closer look shall we?

Read full article @ Guru3D

Exclusive interview with Tobias Brinkman from OCZ

The story of OCZ in recent years is nothing short of incredible. From an organisation that became famous for its Reaper 8500 memory and low cost power supplies, it is now part of Toshiba, one of the only genuine memory manufacturers on the planet. KitGuru was lucky enough to catch up with its Vice President of Global Marketing, Tobias Brinkmann.

Read full article @ KitGuru

FUNC HS-260 Gaming Headset Video Review

Today Kaeyi Dream has the HS-260 Gaming Headset from FUNC, let's find out how it performs.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven.com

G.Skill TridentX 32 GB CAS7 F3-1600C7Q-32GTX

G.Skill sent me a fancy new memory kit with huge capabilities, both in size and for overclocking! Clocking in at a normal 1600 MHz, but with CAS 7, the G.Skill F3-1600C7Q-32GTX's sticks aren't average, and their red and black tridents are nearly the perfect match for any watercooled and overclocked build.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Intel SSD 730 240GB review: consumer SSD with server DNA

The new 730 SSD is based on the Intel PC29AS21CA0 controller which, as previously mentioned is also inside Intel's DC S3500 and S3700 SSD's. The S3500 is a SSD specifically designed with servers in mind, where consistent performance is of the highest priority. The S3700 is a higher end model designed for servers with very write-intensive workloads, thanks to special memory chips the S3700 is capable of sustaining 10 full drive writes per day for five years.

Intel is now implementing this same controller in a consumer SSD, but in this case combined with "standard" 20nm ONFI flash-memory. Intel is describing the 730 as a "factory overclocked SSD", the controller now operates at 600 MHz instead of 400 MHz as with the server SSD's. The NAND bus speed has also been increased from 83 MHz to 100 MHz. Thanks to these improvements the performance of the SSD has increased compared to the previous models without affecting the lifespan, according to Intel. The 730 comes with a five year warranty in which you can write up to 70 GB per day, 127 terabyte in total. Based on normal use, i.e. writing 10 GB a day, the SSD should, in theory, last 35 years. These claims of endurance and reliability could be a deciding factor if your planning to use the SSD in an environment where you frequently write a lot of data, such as a video editing workstation.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Plextor M6e PCIe M.2 SSD Review

Some time ago, we conducted a review of a new PCIe Card called the IOSwitch Raijin and it was constructed of a M.2 to PCIe x4 adapter, along with the Plextor M6e native PCIe M.2 (NGFF) 256GB SSD. At the time, the M6e was an unreleased SSD and it seemed that even Plextor was caught off guard at the publicity that report received, politely asking us to lay low with our M6e samples for a while. A few days back, we received the 512GB version of the M6e PCIe M.2 SSD from Plextor and within the packaging, we found something unexpected.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

Raijintek Themis EVO Review

With the Themis EVO, Raijintek is bringen an updated version of their Themis cooler to the market. Compared to the predecessor there is one more eight millimeter heatpipes as well as an addtional fin. Other than that the heatsink has grown quite a bit bigger and we're rather surprised if this aggressively price cooler is going to convice.

Read full article @ ocaholic

SilverStone Ensemble EB03 Headphone Amplifier Review

Silverstone has recently introduced two audio products to their extensive collection of computer peripherals. The Ensemble Series now includes the EB03 headphone amplifier, which is the subject of this review, and the companion EB01-E DAC.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

TechwareLabs Monster Build Part 1: The Gear

You want to build a new rig and naturally you want the absolute best parts you can put in to it, but your budget is holding you back.As a fellow enthusiast you are probably very familiar with this situation.

But what if money wasn't really a concern? What if you could build your dream machine without having to make sacrifices to stay within a tight budget?

That's the idea behind our TechwareLabs Monster Build. We take some of the best parts on the market, slap them all together, and come out with one beast of a rig.

Read full article @ TechwareLabs.com

Thermalright HR-22 Passive CPU Cooler

If i had to pick a single thing that it's quite obvious that all consumers including myself would like to have that is a completely silent system however especially for overclockers and perhaps even serious gamers that’s not really possible. Of course technology keeps evolving and with it so does everything else so to be completely fair we have come a long way since even just a decade ago but we've still to reach a point where we can have powerful whisper-quiet systems (at least not without spending a respectable amount of cash in the process). Tower CPU Coolers have been around for many years now but with just a few exceptions most of them use one or more high RPM fans to increase their cooling efficiency. Thermalright is not one of the leading CPU Cooler manufacturers over a decade now for no reason at all so they know very well what steps they need to take and in what areas they need to focus in order to release a high performance solution and the latest HR22 is the result of all their combined experience.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Thermolab ITX30 Ultra-Low Profile CPU Cooler Review

I’m thankful that people’s perception is changing in relation to physical sizes. For decades we were force fed the belief that “bigger is better”. In certain instances, there is no denying that is true. A large bank account is certainly better than a small bank account. If you are battling rogue aliens, a big gun is certainly better than a little gun. Unless the little gun happens to be the “cricket” from “Men In Black”. I mean, really, we all had an inkling as to what was about to happen there, but it is still a classic scene from a classic movie. The look on Will Smith’s face when he fires it is priceless, ther has never been an expression that says “how did that little thing do that?” that has been quite as spot on.

That’s the thing, size isn’t always a telling feature of an item’s worth or capabilities. Just ask the bookies who lost their sheckles back in the day when they had everything riding on the heavy favorite, Goliath. The transition makes its way into technology on a regular basis, as we see smaller and smaller items consistently offering more power as technology evolves. But that typically excludes CPU and GPU coolers, simply because of physical limitations. Surface area is a required asset for heat dissipation, and the more you have, the better off you are….provided we are talking about a singular material. However, different substances have very different capabilities, with copper providing far and away the best dissipation of common alloys. With that in mind, it is easy to understand that a far smaller copper heatsink can provide the same heat dissipation than a larger aluminum piece. Using that as a base, it is possible to make coolers that are far more effective in a smaller size.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

Tt eSPORTS MEKA G-Unit Illuminated Keyboard Review

Over the past year we have seen a pretty big push into the gaming scene with many different manufactures. One of them has been Thermaltake with their Tt eSPORTS line. We have tested a few of their newer mice and headsets. Being pleased with them, we are quite excited to take a look at one of their keyboards to see if it holds up to the name of the rest of the Tt eSPORTS products we have tested. Today we are taking a look at the Tt eSPORTS MEKA G-Unit Illuminated Keyboard which features Cherry MX mechanical keys, 12 dedicated function keys, backlit illumination and much more. Let’s take a look…

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org