Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including Nokia Lumia 925 Review, Silicon Power Blaze B20 USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review, AMD Radeon HD 7730 Review: A Harbinger Of The Kaveri APU?, Hauppauge HD PVR2 Gaming Edition Plus Review, and Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H Motherboard Review



Nokia Lumia 925 Review: Windows Phone at its best, but is it enough? @ Techspot

Enter the Lumia 925, Nokia’s answer to the complaints. It ditches the thick polycarbonate shell, hefty slab of glass and space-consuming LCD display for a mostly aluminum body with an AMOLED screen. In the process of changing a few components and materials, the Lumia flagship has shed some weight, dropping to 139 grams and 8.5mm thick (from 185g/10.7mm), giving it an all new breath of life.

Aside from the size, a few other aspects of the phone have been optimized, including a some cool software tweaks by Nokia, and revamped camera firmware that should take better advantage of the 8.7-megapixel rear camera. But are the changes too late? Is this the Lumia we should have had at the launch of Windows Phone 8?

Read more: Nokia Lumia 925 Review: Windows Phone at its best, but is it enough? @ Techspot


Razer Naga (2014) MMO Gaming Mouse Video Review with Kaeyi Dream @ HardwareHeaven.com

Today Kaeyi Dream has her hands on the brand new Razer Naga, updated for the 2014 Razer range. In her video Kaeyi compares the new 2014 edition to the previous editions and the Logitech G600.

Read more: Razer Naga (2014) MMO Gaming Mouse Video Review with Kaeyi Dream @ HardwareHeaven.com

Avexir Core Extreme 3000MHz 8GB Memory Kit Review @ KitGuru

Featuring a frequency of 3000MHz and timings of 12-14-14-35-2T, Avexir has some of the fastest memory available to purchase in its Core Extreme Series. Featuring high performance, but unobtrusive heatspreaders, Avexir is targeting extreme users and dedicated benchmarkers with its 3,000MHz Core Extreme Series memory kit.

Read more: Avexir Core Extreme 3000MHz 8GB Memory Kit Review @ KitGuru

Silicon Power Blaze B20 USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review @ Madshrimps

The new Blaze B20 USB 3.0 Flash Drive from Silicon Power comes with a fashionable design and a slide-in mechanism so we won’t need additional protective caps during transport. The drive comes with decent write speeds and very good reads, which recommends it for storing small to medium-sized files.

Read more: Silicon Power Blaze B20 USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review @ Madshrimps

Noctua NH-U14S and NH-U12S High Compatibility CPU Cooler Review @ HiTech Legion

To this day, some forty years later, I have very vivid memories of Christmas morning in 1968. I was all of four years old at the time, and the memories have been helped by a picture from that morning that is displayed in my parents’ house, but there are pieces I remember very well. The picture I mention shows my uncle and I sitting in front of the board game “Ka-Bala”, complete with its glow in the dark eye floating in its ring. Frankly, I have little memory of the game other than taking it into the basement to play since it glowed. What I do remember well is the anticipation I had to get it; the Christmas Eve excitement that Ralphie so well projected in “A Christmas Story”.

So, I never shot my eye out with the Ka-Bala game, and the feeling isn’t necessarily about Christmas, per se. It is really about the anticipation. Everyone has their own “Christmas” for that. Gamers get that feeling while waiting for the download of “Call of Battlefield7: The Stargate Chronicles” to begin. Others wait on the doorstep for UPS to arrive with their new processor. Being that cooling guy, it happens to me when I know something new, different and of impeccable quality is on the way to keep my CPU cool and quiet. Breaking it down that way, it’s easy to see why I see every delivery from Noctua the same way I see Christmas morning.

Read more: Noctua NH-U14S and NH-U12S High Compatibility CPU Cooler Review @ HiTech Legion

SteelSeries APEX Gaming Keyboard @ NikKTech

During the past 3 years or so most gaming keyboards we've seen roll-out from the majority of the gaming peripheral manufacturers out there have been mechanical ones since they offer superior durability (build quality), much longer lifespan (key presses) and tactile feedback compared to regular membranes ones (or at least that's what the general opinion is). Of course one of the things i love about this industry is that there's always at least one manufacturer out there who likes to stand out from the others and do things quite differently and Mad Catz did exactly that with their S.T.R.I.K.E. line of gaming keyboards a while back since they went with a special membrane design instead. Well although i can't really say if that was the right choice or not (time will tell just how good these keyboards were) SteelSeries has also decided to launch two new membrane (rubber dome) based gaming keyboards the feature-rich APEX and the more "mainstream" APEX[RAW] and so today we will start with the APEX.

Read more: SteelSeries APEX Gaming Keyboard @ NikKTech

Thermaltake Chaser A41 Review @ OCC

The A41 really surprised me. As you can see, these cases are virtually the same during the tests. When I first looked at this case, I admit that I thought for sure that there would be a much larger difference. I really expected a lot of heat build up in the A41. And the Ostrog GT has two 140mm front fans, so certainly it would have to be much cooler, right? Now I'm certainly not disappointed; just surprised. Neither the A41 or the Ostrog has side fans, and as much as I like side fans, having them probably wouldn't make much difference here. And while I have always had a weakness for cases loaded up with fans, perhaps I need to rethink my "More fans!" philosophy. Regardless, the airflow of the A41 is just fine.

Read more: Thermaltake Chaser A41 Review @ OCC

AMD Radeon HD 7730 Review: A Harbinger Of The Kaveri APU? @ Tom's Hardware

We got our hands on two Radeon HD 7730 cards from Sapphire: one with 2 GB of DDR3 and the other sporting 1 GB of GDDR5. How do they compare to AMD's Radeon HD 6670s, and what might we glean from these boards about the upcoming Kaveri-based APUs?

Read more: AMD Radeon HD 7730 Review: A Harbinger Of The Kaveri APU? @ Tom's Hardware

Hauppauge HD PVR2 Gaming Edition Plus Review @ KitGuru

My colleague Simon Telford got hands on with the Hauppauge HD PVR2 Gaming Edition late last year and if you missed his review you can catch up here (http://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/simon-telford/hauppauge-hd-pvr-2-gaming-edition-review/) . Simon had some concerns about the build quality but felt confident enough to award it our Worth Considering Award.

Today we are going to take a look at the Hauppauge HD PVR2 Gaming Edition Plus. The big question is, does the Gaming Edition Plus have what it takes to get our coveted Must Have Award?

Read more: Hauppauge HD PVR2 Gaming Edition Plus Review @ KitGuru

Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H Motherboard Review @ Bjorn3D

Just a short time ago we looked at the Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H and now we grabbed up its little brother, the UD3H. This board offers similar feature sets as the UD4H but a little more on the value side which means it will omit small bells and whistles to keep it

Read more: Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H Motherboard Review @ Bjorn3D