Here today's reviews and articles, including Top SSD Recommendations For May 2013, Sony SRS-BTX500 Review, GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3 Motherboard Review, USB Auto Update Guide, and An ode to the Kindle Paperwhite



Top SSD Recommendations For May 2013 - Samsung TLC Dehrones the SanDisk SSD Family @ SSD Review

It’s official! After an unprecedented time as the top selling SSD at Amazon and other similar retailers, the SanDisk Extreme and Ultra Series SSDs have been knocked off their perch by the Samsung 840 TLC SSD.

Typically , this position is held by the lowest price SSD and reflective of those migrating to SSDs, however, the new Samsung 840 is showing itself to be as reliable as it is cheap and Amazon reviews are glowing.

Read more: Top SSD Recommendations For May 2013 - Samsung TLC Dehrones the SanDisk SSD Family @ SSD Review

Sony SRS-BTX500 Review @ TechReviewSource.com

The Sony SRS-BTX500 is a Bluetooth wireless speaker that sports an impressive, sleek design and high-quality audio output. It can be used while on-the-go thanks to a rechargeable battery and can be used to charge smart phones via the built-in USB port.

Read more: Sony SRS-BTX500 Review @ TechReviewSource.com

MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST OC review @ Guru3D

The GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost edition. It is their answer to the Radeon HD 7790 that AMD unleashed recently. Is entry level finally reaching mid-range? Can the card play your most favorite games at 1920x1080/1200? Well, yes it does, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti deserves some explanation though, as the entire 650 range itself now is getting a little flooded with products that differ quite a bit from each other.

See when you take the regular GeForce GTX 650 it comes castrated a bit with just 384 shader cores whereas the regular Ti model is released with a far better 768 CUDA cores (shader processors) and a 925 MHz GPU clock (for the reference products). So that's already nearly double the processing performance and allows the product to compete with the Radeon HD 7770. With the Radeon HD 7790 being roughly a third faster than 7770, NVIDIA needed to out a product that can keep up with that rather significant performance boost -- and as such the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost edition now is introduced. So budget graphics card series for gamers therefore just got a little more interesting. Albeit we say that 175 USD/EUR should not exactly really carry the mark of being low budget. With that price tag the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost positions itself smack-down in-between AMD's Radeon HD 7790 and 7850, and that really is a comfortable spot to be in for many of you as Full HD gaming (a monitor resolution of 1920x1080) is now becoming a viable option. Obviously NVIDIA did not want to make yet another separate chip. So The GTX 650 Ti Boost is the very same one used on the regular GTX 660, yup the GTX 650 Ti Boost is using the "GK106" silicon opposed to the GK107 being used on the regular 650 model (it's confusing as heck, we know). The GK106 silicon is armed with 768 active shader processor cores divided over four processor clusters running at a 980 MHz base clock on the reference products. That means that the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost packs decent enough punch. There is a distinct difference though, Boost or better yet, dynamics clocking has been added to this model. That means instead of running a strict 925 MHz base clock on the regular GTX 650 Ti, the Boost edition will now have a base-clock of 980 MHz, but will be allowed to boost to 1033 MHz. Realistically though, the Boost functionality is dependant of many factors like power usage, heat and temperatures of the GPU. So yeah, this GPU will run quite a bit of games at almost 1100 MHz all by itself as well.

Read more: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST OC review @ Guru3D

Noctua NF-A14 FLX and ULN 140mm Case Fan Review @ Ninjalane

Aftermarket fans come in a variety of different configurations with size being the most distinctive. As we have mentioned many times larger fans tend to perform better because they can move large amounts of air without excess noise. Of course, there is also a physical limitation in how much air can be moved so the challenge is finding a balance between overall performance and noise output.

Cooling enthusiasts will be familiar with the name Noctua as being one of the premier companies dedicated to creating high quality cooling gear and takes pride in knowing they are also the quietest. We have reviewed a few Noctua fans in the past and found them to be extremely well crafted but felt a little underpowered when compared to the larger and more powerful counterparts. Therein lies the compromise, you can have a powerful fan that moves a great deal of air or you can find something with a less aggressive cooling profile where noise control is a primary factor.

Read more: Noctua NF-A14 FLX and ULN 140mm Case Fan Review @ Ninjalane

ASRock Z77 Extreme11 Intel LGA1155 @ techPowerUp

Fourteen SSDs, quad VGAs, 32 GB of RAM, and 8 threads of high performance Intel horsepower--is that what you are looking for? Look no further as the ASRock Z77 Extreme11 offers all that. ASRock's flagship Intel Z77 Express product, the Z77 Extreme11, does it all and includes an LSI SAS controller for an additional eight SATA ports.

Read more: ASRock Z77 Extreme11 Intel LGA1155 @ techPowerUp

GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3 Motherboard Review @ Techgage

The motherboard market is loaded with options targeted squarely at overclockers and the general enthusiast, but finding a board – much less an entire series – dedicated to gamers is difficult. GIGABYTE realized that back in 2011, and thus its G1 series was born. In this article, we’re taking a look at the company’s current Z77 offering, the G1.Sniper 3.

Read more: GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3 Motherboard Review @ Techgage

USB Auto Update Guide @ OCC

I do not actually have directories labeled 'Defrag' and 'Uninstall' but I did not want to name the programs I am actually excluding on my smaller drive. As you can see though, we are able to just list what we want excluded one after another. The 'wlx' files were something you are unlikely to see again as the program that used them is no longer supported. Because there are no spaces in the names we do not need the quotation marks, but I use them out of habit. At this point, you should be able to go through and generate the batch file(s) you will want to use. To test the batch file(s) I suggest inserting the USB drive you want to update, making sure the destination uses its drive letter, and run the batch file with the command prompt. This way you will be able to watch as the instructions are carried out, and see if any error occurs. Also, be sure you are using 'dummy' files and folders; if you accidentally setup the instructions to delete files, you will not lose anything important.

Read more: USB Auto Update Guide @ OCC

An ode to the Kindle Paperwhite @ The Tech Report

In his latest blog post, TR's Cyril Kowaliski expresses his appreciation for the Kindle Paperwhite using iambic pentameter.

Read more: An ode to the Kindle Paperwhite @ The Tech Report

ASUS CUBE Google TV Media Streamer @ Benchmark Reviews

Television and streaming multimedia content are staples to modern personal entertainment, allowing online providers such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, HBO GO, and YouTube to compete with premium cable and network programming. It's become clear that digital music, photos, and movies have practically replaced their physical counterparts. Likewise, the growing number of people who enjoy streaming and downloaded multimedia content could soon outnumber those tuning in to television broadcasts or renting movies on disc. The industry knows this to be true, which is why ASUSTeK Computer Inc. has introduced the ASUS CUBE Media Streamer with Google TV and given users 50GB of ASUS WebStorage space. In this article, Benchmark Reviews explores the ASUS CUBE and demonstrates how well this second-generation Google TV 'buddy box' fits into the modern home theater landscape.

Thanks to digital cameras and MP3 players, it didn't take long for the multimedia library that we once collected on physical media to start being saved as digital files. Most of us have been downloading multimedia onto our computer for as long as we've had Internet access, and any CD/DVD discs previously purchased were soon converted into digitally-stored backup copies. Once portable multimedia devices became commonplace, people began using them to play back their digital library. Unfortunately, the major drawback for watching anything on a smartphone or tablet device is that the screen is usually too small for high-resolution detail, or audio quality falls flat.

Read more: ASUS CUBE Google TV Media Streamer @ Benchmark Reviews

XFX R7790 Black Edition 1GB Review @ Neoseeker

As AMD continues to refresh the extremely popular 7000 product series we can expect to see several variants of AMD's latest Bonaire GPU, also known as the 7790. The Radeon HD 7790 is manufactured using TSMC's 28nm process and incorporates all the latest and greatest features of AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture; in fact the 7790 is a whole new piece of silicon. AMD designed the 7790 to fill a gap in their mainstream lineup, giving the budget mined gamer an alternative to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 650 and 650 Ti.

Now we can turn our attention to our review sample provided by XFX. The R7790 is priced at $159.99 placing it right in between NVIDIA's GTX 650 and the 650 Ti, giving XFX an excellent entry level GPU to compete with. Taking into consideration XFX's custom designed cooler, factory overclock and the Duratec professional grade components along with XFX's GPU Edging (Black Edition Selection Process) and you have the combination for an extremely potent GPU.

Read more: XFX R7790 Black Edition 1GB Review @ Neoseeker

Supermicro X9DRL-EF Motherboard @ Hardware Secrets

Supermicro produces products for servers, and the X9DRL-EF is a dual socket LGA2011 motherboard for Xeon E5-2600 series processors with a TDP of up to 130 W, based on the Intel C602J chipset. One of the highlights of this motherboard is the use of the standard ATX form factor (12 x 10 inches or 304.8 x 254 mm), instead of using a server-specific form factor such as EE-ATX, E-ATX, or proprietary. Let's see what this motherboard has to offer.

Read more: Supermicro X9DRL-EF Motherboard @ Hardware Secrets

Tesoro GUNGNIR H5 Optical Gaming Mouse Review @ NikKTech

Yesterday Ubisoft Montreal officially released Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (we received a copy a few days earlier) which is without doubt one of the very few game titles that have ever caught me off guard with their rather unique content and not so much with their graphics (in this case at all). You see this time over Ubisoft designed and released a game with very little eye candy (compared to today’s games) but with several clear references to some of my all-time favorite movies like the Terminator, ROBOCOP, Cyborg, Aliens and the Predator and like if that wasn't already awesome enough ontop of that Michael Biehn from The Terminator and Aliens (has played in several other blockbuster movies including The Abyss, Navy Seals and The Rock) has given his voice to the main character. I know that to some people these lines may seem weird but people around my age who know very well what I’m talking about will agree that there's no better way to enjoy such an amazing game than to play it using all the latest gaming peripherals and that's exactly what we did starting with the latest GUNGNIR gaming mouse by Tesoro.

Tesoro Technology USA Inc, a team of U.S.A gaming enthusiasts. With the objective of designing unique products specially catered to the gamers. We focused on PC gaming and our mission is to create products with better design, increase and reach for peak performances. In the recent years the gaming industry has developed into the ultra-competitive market that we see today. While we are still a relatively young company, established in 2011. Tesoro will continue to strive for the best and continuously evaluate our performance against the very best of the best. Tesoro could not exist without the gaming community who inspire us to excel in the design and production of our award winning gear. As a gamers company, we will continues to expand into new horizons and push the limits further with each product unveiling. We Strive to develop innovative cutting edge computer gaming peripherals to help improve your gaming experience. We maximize our ability to meet the needs of the fast changing PC gaming industry.

Read more: Tesoro GUNGNIR H5 Optical Gaming Mouse Review @ NikKTech

Gigabyte P2742G Gaming Laptop @ Modders-Inc

Gigabyte has introduced the P2742G. This is a 17.3″ 1920×1080 laptop with the Nvidia 660M at the core of this beast. With i7-3630QM processor and the ability to cram 24 gigabytes of ram in it, will the Gigabyte G2742G be enough to satiate my gaming-on-the-go appetite?

Read more: Gigabyte P2742G Gaming Laptop @ Modders-Inc

Tt eSPORTS MEKA G1 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Back at the end of 2010 TT eSPORTS introduced the MEKA G1 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard. It was an instant hit with its Cherry MX Black mechanical key switches and extremely sturdy and solid design. At CES this year we were introduced to a whole new set of gaming keyboard from TT eSPORTS that featured backlit keys, something that was missing on many of TT eSPORTS early gaming keyboards. So today we have the TT eSPORTS MEKA G1 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard. This keyboard has the same features you saw in the original MEKA G1 like the 1000 Hz polling rate, built in USB hub and audio connections and 1.5m military grade cable. This new version also offers a dynamic pulse-break backlight system with 7 different illumination levels. Read on as we take a look!

Read more: Tt eSPORTS MEKA G1 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Sapphire HD7790 2GB OC Review @ KitGuru

The graphics card landscape is constantly changing as AMD and Nvidia battle for increased market share. While the hot, steamy action always happens in the high end, the majority of sales for both companies are in the less exciting budget sector.

This 2GB board features a new cooler design, which uses a dual heat pipe system with a single aerofoil section fan assembly with dust repelling bearings for maximum efficiency and reliability.

Read more: Sapphire HD7790 2GB OC Review @ KitGuru