Reviews 52162 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews, including Synology DiskStation DS213 Review, Cooler Master Scout 2 Advanced Case Review, Nextbook Premium7SE Tablet Review, In-Win GT1 Case Review: Fighting an Uphill Battle, and Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and KNOX for Enterprise BYOD



Synology DiskStation DS213 Review @ HardwareHeaven.com
Not everyone has the budget, or need, for a 4-bay NAS and so Synology offer models such as the DS213 with two bays. Today we will be reviewing that model while also taking a look at their latest software, DiskStation Manager v4.2 (March 2013 release).

Read more: Synology DiskStation DS213 Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Cooler Master Scout 2 Advanced Case Review @ Ninjalane
Carrying handles aren't a new thing. In the early days case modders would attach their own to make moving their system around a little easier. This sort of thing was often associated with LAN gaming and the trend just kinda stuck.

Read more: Cooler Master Scout 2 Advanced Case Review @ Ninjalane

Case Mod Friday: Monochromos @ ThinkComputers.org
At first I started only to design the side panel. Because the original side panel was lost by the courier or claimed so after I sent it for custom window. But then more and more ideas came in, even though this is my first time modding, I said to myself just to give it a try. Monochromos means single color, which is why I used black and white. Because black is one color while white is sometime known as not color because it is the result of combination of all the rainbow colors.

Read more: Case Mod Friday: Monochromos @ ThinkComputers.org

Nextbook Premium7SE Tablet Review @ TechwareLabs
Today we are taking a look at the Nextbook Premium7SE tablet which offers the expensive tablet experience at the cheap tablet price. With a 7 inch screen, Micro SD slot, HDMI out, and Android Ice Cream Sandwich with the Google Play Store, all at a price point of around $130, things are looking mighty promising. Read on to see if this little tablet can stand up to the big boys.

Read more: Nextbook Premium7SE Tablet Review @ TechwareLabs

Fractal Design Define XL R2 Review @ Vortez
Known for their passion with elegant case manufacture and silence, Fractal Design are back again with an update to the popular Define XL. Those who liked the original Define XL or even have a soft spot for the new Define R4 but want something bigger are in a treat today.

The new XL R2 is not that dissimilar to XL but in true Fractal Design fashion, little tweaks have been made here and there to build on the success of a firm favourite. Minimalism continues to feature highly with this new addition but there are some new features which include a fresh new layout which boasts oodles of space and silence as a forte.

Read more: Fractal Design Define XL R2 Review @ Vortez

In-Win GT1 Case Review: Fighting an Uphill Battle @ Anandtech
If you've ever looked at a builder's guide for a desktop system on any major tech site (including this one), you've undoubtedly noticed that the first thing to get cut to make room in the budget is the enclosure. It's not hard to see why; as long as a case keeps things cool enough and runs quietly enough, for the most part it's doing its job. It's only when you look at the greater ecosystem of cases that the real sweet spot of the market ($99-$139) becomes more apparent. What this means, though, is that the sub-$99 market is very competitive, and when you start hovering between $50 and $70, it's downright brutal. That competitive nature has forced manufacturers to get creative about fitting feature rich cases into lower price tags, and one of those cases is on hand today: the In-Win GT1. The GT1 features a hotswap bay, USB 3.0 connectivity, a semi-modular drive bay, and fan control, and comes in with an MSRP of $69. There's certainly potential for this case, but does it offer enough to beat the incumbent in this bracket, the $10 cheaper Antec GX700?

Read more: In-Win GT1 Case Review: Fighting an Uphill Battle @ Anandtech

Razer Naga Hex, Goliathus League of Legends Gaming Peripherals Review @ Custom PC Review
While I’m not a hardcore gamer by any means, one of the games I’ve found myself playing quite often over the past year or so is League of Legends (aka LoL). It’s a fast paced, team based game based on the popular Defense of the Ancients (DoTA) map from Warcraft III and lately it’s become extremely popular.

How popular you may ask? Over the past couple years, LoL has seen so much growth that a number of LoL tournaments have had multi-million dollar prize pools, the highest ever seen for competitive gaming to date. Being popular of course also means that there’s lots of money to be made in licensed gaming products and when it comes to licensed gaming products, you can pretty much count on either Razer or SteelSeries to be the ones to provide them.

Read more: Razer Naga Hex, Goliathus League of Legends Gaming Peripherals Review @ Custom PC Review

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and KNOX for Enterprise BYOD @ MEGATechNews
We had the chance to sit down with Steven Cull from Samsung Canada earlier this week to discuss two of the big announcements that the company had at Mobile World Congress earlier this month. As was expected, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 made its debut, filling the gap in the Galaxy Note series between the Note II phablet and the Note 10.1 tablet.

All of the features that you saw in the Galaxy Note II have pretty well translated their way over to this larger screen, including the “hovering” S Pen “Air View” functionality, hand writing integration, and so on, as well as Samsung AllShare Play, AllShare Cast and AllShare Framework. The usual assortment of Samsung Apps are here as well, riding on top of Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

The core specs include the 1.6GHz Coretx-A9 quad core processor, 1280 x 800 pixel 8-inch touchscreen display, 5MP rear camera, and 1.3MP front camera. For Canada, they have confirmed that the Wi-Fi version of the Galaxy Note 8.0 will launch likely in the second quarter of this year, but they have not yet decided on pricing. It is also unclear whether there will be an LTE model and, if so, whether it will support voice like some of the international versions being planned. Fro now, we’ll just have to sit tight and see how the Note 8.0 prepares to stack up against the iPad mini and other tablets in this size.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and KNOX for Enterprise BYOD @ MEGATechNews

Zalman CNPS14X Cpu cooler @ Rbmods
Today we are taking a look at a cpu cooler from Zalman, they sent us their CNPS14X with a huge heatsink and apparently superb cooling performance.
How well does it really perform then? Lets find out!

Read more: Zalman CNPS14X Cpu cooler @ Rbmods