Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including Will it Crossfire? R9 280X & HD 7970 Scaling Tested, MSI GeForce GTX 770 Twin Frozr Gaming OC Edition Video Card Review, V-MODA BoomPro Microphone C-BP-BLACK Review, Razer Ouroboros Wireless Gaming Mouse, and Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 450W and 550W review: affordable gold



Will it Crossfire? R9 280X & HD 7970 Scaling Tested @ Hardware Canucks

By now everyone knows that AMD’s new R9 280X uses a repurposed Tahiti XT core which has been overclocked, putting its performance numbers somewhere between a HD 7970 3GB and a HD 7970 GHz Edition. During our time with the card, we were wondering: would the architecture commonality between the R9 280X and its HD 7970 predecessors lead to Crossfire compatibility? With the launch date quickly approaching, we didn’t have time to find out but now, with a bit of breathing room until AMD’s next products roll out, it is time to find out.

At this point you might be wondering: why even bother doing this when HD 7970 cards are available for extremely competitive prices? Well, if AMD is to be believed and the sales of HD 7970 and its GHz Edition counterpart continue apace, they will soon be gone from the retail channels. According to some of our retail contacts, that day is actually right around the corner with their stocks expected to be depleted by mid-November at the latest. At that point, anyone who wants to give their HD 7970 3GB an infusion of performance via Crossfire will either have to look towards used cards or hope for another solution.

Read more: Will it Crossfire? R9 280X & HD 7970 Scaling Tested @ Hardware Canucks

Sony Alpha NEX-5T Review @ TechReviewSource.com

Sony's Alpha NEX-5T mirrorless camera is simply last year's NEX-5R with added NFC support for quick image transfer to a smartphone. And the price has come down. So this isn't a bad thing.

Read more: Sony Alpha NEX-5T Review @ TechReviewSource.com

MSI GeForce GTX 770 Twin Frozr Gaming OC Edition Video Card Review @ ThinkComputers.org

NVIDIAs GeForce 700 series of cards are made up of the GTX 760, GTX 770 and GTX 780. The GTX 770 is actually based on the same GPU as the GeForce GTX 680. It makes use of the 28nm GK104 chip. This chip features 8 streaming multiprocessors (SMX units), 1536 stream processors, 1218 texture units and 32 ROPs. The GTX 770 is clocked a little higher than the GTX 680 with a 1049 MHz core clock and a boost clock of 1085 MHz. The memory is also higher at 7010 MHz (effective). With these improvements and since many companies are already used to working with the GK104 chip this should make for better performance and a more powerful card. Today we are taking a look at a GTX 770 from MSI. It is their GTX 770 Twin Frozr Gaming OC Edition which features MSIs own Twin Frozr IV cooling solution, Military Class III components and 3 different operating modes (silent, gaming & OC). Read on to see if this is the GTX 770 for you.

Read more: MSI GeForce GTX 770 Twin Frozr Gaming OC Edition Video Card Review @ ThinkComputers.org

V-MODA BoomPro Microphone C-BP-BLACK Review @ Benchmark Reviews

The BoomPro Microphone (model# C-BP-Black) from V-MODA is creative yet simple. Its one of those products that begs the question: Why has't this been invented already? A 200 cm headphone extension cable with a built in boom microphone Its ingenious. The BoomPro Microphone converts your regular or studio headphones (with 3.5mm jack input) into a headset for gaming, communication and recording. Benchmark Reviews has seen many novel accessories and quite a lot of gimmicks in the technology news stream, but this one caught our eye. For $30 you cant really do much wrong.

Read more: V-MODA BoomPro Microphone C-BP-BLACK Review @ Benchmark Reviews

ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP Review @ KitGuru

This week AMD launched their new range of R7 and R9 video cards, minus the flagship R9 290X which is due for release sometime in the near future. This particular review focuses on the custom cooled, overclocked Asus R9 270X Direct CU II TOP.

Read more: ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP Review @ KitGuru

ASUS R9 280X Matrix Platinum Review @ KitGuru

It is a busy week for AMD partners as they release a slew of new graphics cards vying for sales. In this review we look at the high end Asus R9 280X Matrix Platinum which features a heavily customised three slot cooler and impressive out of the box overclock. Is this the card that you want next for a system upgrade?

Read more: ASUS R9 280X Matrix Platinum Review @ KitGuru

SteelSeries APEX RAW Gaming Keyboard @ NikKTech

There's a somewhat fierce fight taking place in the market nowadays between consumers who strongly support the typical membrane key technology used in the majority of keyboards and the ones who prefer the more durable mechanical keys used in a much lower degree. The only problem with this is that some manufacturers actually invest many resources to further improve membrane key technology and we've already seen such solutions one of which is the very good APEX Gaming Keyboard recently released by SteelSeries. The only downside however when you make a feature-rich gaming keyboard regardless of the type of keys used is its price tag and the APEX is really not the most affordable choice especially for a keyboard that uses membrane keys and thus is considered less "durable" by many people. Well SteelSeries has been around for a long time and they know first-hand that in order to cover most consumers they need to have variety and the cut-down version of the APEX named the APEX [RAW] Gaming Keyboard should tempt consumers on a tight budget a lot more than its brother.

Read more: SteelSeries APEX RAW Gaming Keyboard @ NikKTech

GIGABYTE Radeon R9 280X WindForce 3X OC Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Two days ago AMD allowed us to review, in a limited capacity, their new R9 280X. Today the review restrictions are released so we can now compare different versions of the card and that starts with Gigabytes R9 280X Windforce 3X model in its factory overclocked form. We will be comparing it to the two closest NVIDIA models (pricing wise) in the form of the GTX 760 and 770 (both OC models) as well as the part the 280X replaces, the 7970 GHZ. Added in is another 280X OC model and we are testing on the latest i7-4960X CPU, Windows 8.1 and games such as Battlefield 4, F1 2013 and Total War: Rome 2.

Read more: GIGABYTE Radeon R9 280X WindForce 3X OC Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

ASUS Radeon R9 270X DirectCU II TOP Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

This is the R9-270X and our version is the ASUS DirectCU 2 TOP 2GB, an overclocked version of the card which we will be comparing to the closest NVIDIA model (pricing wise) in the form of the GTX 760. We'll also throw in the ASUS 280X as well to show what that extra £90 or so gets us. We are testing on the latest i7-4960X CPU, Windows 8.1 and games such as Battlefield 4, F1 2013 and Total War: Rome 2 and by the end of the article it should give you an idea of which mainstream card is best for you or whether you should go higher up the product family.

Read more: ASUS Radeon R9 270X DirectCU II TOP Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X OC 2GB Video Card Review @ HiTech Legion

We are living in a world where everything seems to be running in hyper speed. 24 hours just does not seem to last as long as it used to. Now of course science would be able to disprove that idea, but many peoples days are just packed with more and more stuff to accomplish. In a sense 24/7 access to technology is a big part of why our days are so much more packed, especially things like social networking. All these things combined put me personally in time crunch and it is important to prioritize my tasks accordingly. But how do you fit gaming time in?

Read more: Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X OC 2GB Video Card Review @ HiTech Legion

MSI R9 270X HAWK @ PureOverclock

When AMD launched the 7000 series of graphics cards, an evolutionary approach was made, moving the bar by improving not only gaming horsepower, but also power efficiency and temperatures. AMD ruled the roost for a time, until Nvidia came along with their 700 series cards, pushing things and gaining the upper hand. Like two titans battling for supremacy, these two companies trade blows with each successive generation launch.

And that brings us to today’s launch of the latest AMD products; namely, the R7 and R9 series graphics cards. AMD is again looking to capitalize on their latest architecture and gain the upper hand this time, but the company has made it clear that framerates aren’t their primary goal. They want to make affordable products that offer strong gaming performance, which is arguably one of the most important criteria for gamers out there who may be hard-pressed to choose where to spend their hard-earned money.

Read more: MSI R9 270X HAWK @ PureOverclock

HGST Travelstar 5K1500 1.5TB SATA III HDD @ NikKTech

To my knowledge there are currently 4 types of consumers in the PC market, people who care not about cost just as long they can fulfill their needs (professionals and enthusiasts mostly), people who allow cost to be the decisive factor when choosing a device, people who only care about the specifications of a product and finally there are those who are looking to hit the sweet spot between performance and cost (price/performance ratio) or what i like to call the best value for their hard earned money. Roughly two weeks ago we had the latest and fastest 2.5" 9.5mm hard disk drive by HGST on our test bed the Travelstar 7K1000 (1TB SATA III). Now the Travelstar 7K1000 just may be the fastest 2.5" 9.5mm SATA III HDD out there as we speak but it has one small flaw, it only comes at 1TB capacity which although not bad on its own it's really not enough not when there are 1.5-2TB models in the market. Of course HGST is well aware of that so 5 months ago they announced the availability of the Travelstar 5K1500 a 2.5" 9.5mm drive with a capacity of 1.5TB and naturally we just had to check it out as we did.

Read more: HGST Travelstar 5K1500 1.5TB SATA III HDD @ NikKTech

Asus GTX 670 Direct CU Mini @ LanOC Reviews

In the world of Small Form Factor builds you are always compromising. You either have to give up some performance for a smaller size or give up some size to get the performance you are looking for. Recently though, this trend has been starting to change. My last LAN build was easy to carry around while having (at the time) the second fastest GPU from Nvidia and a high end CPU. Of course because of my GPU I couldn’t go any smaller. Asus has a new GPU that is going to change that. Their new GTX 670 Direct CU Mini is the same length of a MiniITX motherboard. With that size, my LAN rig is going to need a complete rebuild.. To go smaller!

Read more: Asus GTX 670 Direct CU Mini @ LanOC Reviews

Razer Ouroboros Wireless Gaming Mouse @ Custom PC Review

You gotta admit. Razer is one helluva an awesome engineering company. They make fantastic, forward thinking gaming mice, keyboards, headsets, and lately even top of the line gaming notebooks, but one thing they haven’t seemed to figure out is logistics. Time and time again Razer unleashes possibly the coolest, most groundbreaking new products for consumers just to find that whatever just got released is sold out within minutes of the pre-order button becoming available.

One such product, which we’re about to review today, is the Razer Ouroboros. The Razer Ouroboros is a gaming mouse released back in late 2012, nearly 1 year ago, and despite being introduced so long ago, Razer hasn’t done a very good job of keeping it on shelves since up until recently, it hasn’t been something that’s been readily available for purchase. Why’s it so difficult to find? Well, that’s a question for Razer, but let’s go ahead and talk about the features of the new mouse to shed some light on why people are picking these things up faster than Razer can produce them.

Read more: Razer Ouroboros Wireless Gaming Mouse @ Custom PC Review

MSI Radeon R9 270X GAMING 2GB Video Card Review @ Benchmark Reviews

When AMD unveiled their latest series of graphics cards, MSI was ready to improve upon their design by adding military-grade components cooled by Twin Frozr dual 10cm propeller fans. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the MSI Radeon R9 270X GAMING 2GB video card. For $199 gamers get a 1120 MHz factory-overclocked UltraHD 4K resolution-ready graphics card with 1280 Stream processors capable of fast frame rates, and support for the upcoming DirectX 11.2 API.

Read more: MSI Radeon R9 270X GAMING 2GB Video Card Review @ Benchmark Reviews

Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 Review @ PC Gamers

Fractal Design has released the Arc Midi R2 with one of the main improvements over its predecessor being water cooling compatibility and a side window to show off the innards of your rig. We saw this as a sign from the universe to do a custom water cooling build and really put this case through its paces.main

Read more: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 Review @ PC Gamers

SilverStone Raven RV04 Review @ Silent PC Review

Four years ago, SilverStone released the revolutionary Raven, a case that combined several interesting design elements to create a highly efficient performance tower. The design involved massive fans sucking up cool air from the bottom of the case (where the noise they emitted was better disguised) and blowing it through all the important components mounted to a rotated motherboard. Following natural thermal convection, the hot air then exhausted out the top. Built uncharacteristically with a plastic exterior, the next generation featured a more refined Raven RV02, and the aluminum-clad Fortress FT02. The interiors were identical — they were essentially the same chassis only decked out with different materials.

The latest incarnations, the Raven RV04 and Fortress FT04, are also closely related to one another. Both cases arrived at our doorstep together but given their similarities it didn't make sense to test them both. The more premium FT04 took precedence and while offering excellent performance, it left a bad taste in our mouths. Incorporating the Temjin TJ08-E's modular style design was an ambitious move but it didn't really add to its appeal aside from making it less deep. The well-crafted but over-engineered door created some fit and finish issues which never should have made it to the assembly line. The number of flaws was surprising for a SilverStone given their reputation for fastidiousness, but it was also inexcusable for a US$230 enthusiast case.

Read more: SilverStone Raven RV04 Review @ Silent PC Review

SteelSeries Flux In-ear Pro Review @ ChipLoco

SteelSeries is a leading manufacturer of the professional grade gaming peripherals. Apart from manufacturing keyboards, mice, mouse pads, controllers and headsets, they also develop software for their own products. Their products are mostly designed in collaboration with professional gaming teams so that they can fulfill every wish of a gamer. Over the years, SteelSeries have launched many headsets, among which Siberia V2 and Flux Guild Wars 2 edition are the ones we have already reviewed.

Read more: SteelSeries Flux In-ear Pro Review @ ChipLoco

Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 450W and 550W review: affordable gold @ Hardware.Info

A couple months ago, Cooler Master introduced two new products in its Silent Pro Gold power supply series. We tested both of them, with capacities of 450 watt and 550 watts.

With the new Silent Pro Gold power supplies, Cooler Master wants to offer efficient 80 Plus Gold PSUs for an affordable price. The 450W model costs £50 / € 67, and the 550W model costs £60 / € 77. That makes the 550W model cheaper than most other 450W of 500W Gold power supplies on the market.

Read more: Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 450W and 550W review: affordable gold @ Hardware.Info

ASUS Radeon R9-280X DirectCU II TOP review @ Guru3D

n this review we take a peek at the Radeon R9-280X from ASUS, they plastered the GPU on a custom PCB, tweaked it and then applied their DirectCUII cooling technology. As such the product should be interesting for many of you. Follow us into this review where we'll look at temperatures, noise, performance, Frame latency and we'll even give Ultra High Definition gaming a go with the hottest game titles on the globe.

Read more: ASUS Radeon R9-280X DirectCU II TOP review @ Guru3D