Here today's reviews and articles, including OCZ's Vertex 450 solid-state drive reviewed, Thecus N5550 NAS Review, G.SKILL F3 12800C9D-8BSK Laptop SO-DIMM Review, Samsung Galaxy S4 Active hands-on review, and Assessing The Current Intel Haswell Linux Experience



OCZ's Vertex 450 solid-state drive reviewed @ The Tech Report

OCZ's Vertex 450 SSD returns to the family's roots, combining an updated Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller with the latest 20-nm NAND. We explore how this mid-range drive stacks up against the competition.

Read more: OCZ's Vertex 450 solid-state drive reviewed @ The Tech Report

ADATA XPG SX900 256GB SSD Review @ HotHardware.com

The SSD market is very competitive at the moment, to say the least, and though ADATA isn't always necessarily front and center, the company has a handful of interesting product offerings, including the ADATA XPG SX900 we'll be showing you here.

SSD manufacturers sometimes roll with proprietary controllers, such as OCZ and Samsung, while others adopt third-party products. ADATA falls into the latter category. The XPG SX900 packs an LSI SandForce 2281 controller, which is one of the more popular solutions at this time...

Read more: ADATA XPG SX900 256GB SSD Review @ HotHardware.com

Thecus N5550 NAS Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

So what can we do with our ever increasing library of digital content? How can we keep it all in one location and, in theory, safe from faults destroying data? We buy a NAS device and today we are looking at one of those very items, the Thecus N5550 which runs a 64bit OS, Intel CPU and has space for 5 internal drives and loads more via USB and eSATA.

Read more: Thecus N5550 NAS Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Luxa2 H1 Premium Mobile Holder @ LanOC Reviews

Smartphones have become a way of life in this day and age and with them, a mountain of accessories to choose from. The market for cell phone stands, however, has always been quite bare in the way of quality offerings with only a few of the more popular phones getting stands specifically designed for them. Thermaltake aims to change that with a single stand capable of supporting any device you may have now or in the future. Today I take a look at the Luxa2 H1 Premium Mobile Holder to see if the quality Thermaltake is known for in their coolers and cases has transferred over into the mobile market.

Read more: Luxa2 H1 Premium Mobile Holder @ LanOC Reviews

7-Way 550-600 Watt Power Supply Roundup Review @ Legit Reviews

It is natural for an enthusiast to be dazzled by monsters such as the Corsair AX1200i and the Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W; however, even the majority of the enthusiasts would not actually purchase such a beast. It is (or should be) common knowledge that even a very good gaming system does not demand more than 300W-350W and thus, as power supplies are being designed to optimally perform at about 50% capacity, 550W-600W units are plenty for the vast majority of gamers and common users. It is only with multiple video cards, large raid arrays and other “specialized” designs that power requirements may increase substantially. Knowing that and realizing the need to offer our readers insight on products which truly are of interest to them, today we bring you a roundup review of seven quality 550W-600W power supplies...

Read more: 7-Way 550-600 Watt Power Supply Roundup Review @ Legit Reviews

Case Mod Friday: Angel to Evil @ ThinkComputers.org

Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have Matahei Peretia's Angel to Evil build. Here is what he had to say about it: I'm not a PRO so just be cool, this is the first time I do the modding and watercooling which I learned through tutorials / videos on Youtube! 3 months later and I have completed this project. Big thanks to my wife for her patience!

Read more: Case Mod Friday: Angel to Evil @ ThinkComputers.org

G.SKILL F3 12800C9D-8BSK Laptop SO-DIMM Review @ Madshrimps

It doesn't always have to be high end to be interesting. Laptops nowadays are powered by so powerful processors that the bottleneck of the system is to get the data fed towards and from the processor. Upgrading your laptop with a Solid State Drive is one of the best upgrades you can ever give it. If however this option might be out of your budget and you still want to use them programs that eat up all of your memory resources, a RAM upgrade might be in order. Today we review G.SKILL's high end 8GB F3 1600C9 SO-DIMM kit.

Read more: G.SKILL F3 12800C9D-8BSK Laptop SO-DIMM Review @ Madshrimps

Microlab FC50 Review @ Vortez

Microlab started producing audio peripherals primarily for PCs around 15 years ago and by following their mission, they have been able to push out competitive products at accessible prices while funding research and innovation in acoustics. Coming in with Microlab's latest innovation is the FC 50 2.1 speaker system featuring HC2D (High Clarity Close Distance)technology alongside advanced DSP (Digital Signal Processing) and acoustic design that claims to offer uncoloured, 'super balanced' sound. If that isn't a nod towards nearfield monitoring, then the 'Desktop Nearfield Speaker' written on the back is definitely taking another step in that direction.

Read more: Microlab FC50 Review @ Vortez

MSI GTX 770 TwinFrozr Gaming 2 GB @ techPowerUp

MSI's new GeForce GTX 770 Gaming is optimized for the demands of gamers. It comes overclocked out of the box, but what's more important is that it runs extremely quiet in both idle and load. With no premium over the reference design it is also one of the most affordable GTX 770s out there.

Read more: MSI GTX 770 TwinFrozr Gaming 2 GB @ techPowerUp

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active hands-on review @ The Inquirer

Features a better design than the original Samsung Galaxy S4     

Read more: Samsung Galaxy S4 Active hands-on review @ The Inquirer

Humble Bundle with Android 6 Review @ OCC

Overall the Humble Bundle with Android 6 is not the strongest bundle we have seen, but certainly has its strengths. It is hard to see why you would not want to get at least the base games, while the two BTA titles may only be worth the few dollars more to a smaller group of you. No matter how you look at it though, the bundle is a great deal and even if it had only one strong title, it would be a great deal. If additional BTA titles are added at the halfway point, as typically happens, the bundle will only get better.

Read more: Humble Bundle with Android 6 Review @ OCC

Gaming at E3 Expo 2013 in Los Angeles @ MEGATech

If you love video games, there are few trade shows and events quite as massive and quite as intense as the Electronic Entertainment Expo. We made our way down to Los Angeles to check out E3, getting a first-hand look at the new home consoles hitting shelves this holiday season, as well as a portable gamer that ties into your PC and a system that effectively lets you really get into the game via virtual reality.

Read more: Gaming at E3 Expo 2013 in Los Angeles @ MEGATech

Assessing The Current Intel Haswell Linux Experience @ Phoronix

Going back to May, there's been Phoronix testing within our labs of the Core i7 4770K "Haswell" CPU, thanks to Intel courteously sending out an early Haswell sample. For the past week, testing has also commenced of a Core i5 Haswell-based Apple MacBook Air. Most of the Phoronix testing to date has been from the i7-4770K but more from the Haswell MacBook Air is coming up shortly with both OS X and Linux testing.

While you are encouraged to read all of the Phoronix articles about Haswell, the short story is that the Haswell processor is great. On the CPU side it's a decent upgrade over Ivy Bridge in raw performance, but the real kicker for thew new processor architecture is the lower power consumption but yielding an incredible boost in performance-per-Watt. On the power consumption, Haswell is freaking spectacular compared to older Intel CPUs as well as AMD's competition.

Read more: Assessing The Current Intel Haswell Linux Experience @ Phoronix