Hardware

Written By: Joe Evans @ Legit Reviews

Ever since OCZ decided to solely focus on their SSD products, their drive offerings have leaned towards workstation and enthusiast level drives which has left somewhat of a gap in their entry-level or value oriented product line. Given the lower margins for such products and OCZ’s financial struggles (prior to the Toshiba buyout), it’s not very surprising. Their competitors have aggressively pursued this market segment however, and we’ve seen some very economically priced drives from Crucial/Micron, Samsung, SanDisk and others. This is an important demographic as it can be the gateway to building brand loyalty and win over customers who will potentially upgrade to a more performance oriented drive later on. To plug that hole, OCZ is releasing the ARC 100 drive which is aimed squarely at the entry level SSD market, although this doesn’t mean they’ve compromised on performance for the sake of price. They’ve equipped it with their Indilinx Barefoot M10 controller which we know to be a very solid part.

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Author: Daniel Dobrowolski @ HardOCP

MSI’s Z97 XPower AC is one of its flagship LGA 1150 motherboards and is specifically designed for the overclocking enthusiast. It carries a huge list of features, a rich bundle of accessories, and and a rich price tag as well at $379. Is the Z97 XPower AC actually worth that? We wondered the same thing.

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Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

• SteelSeries Announces Heroes of the Storm Gaming Mouse and QcK Mousepad
• SteelSeries Introduces an All-New Surface Design for Gamers – Fast Glide and Low Friction – The DeX Mousepad
• NVIDIA Announces Entry-Level GT 720 Graphics Card
• OCZ Officially Launches the ARC 100 Series Solid State Drive
• Acer Announces Full Line of 4K2K and WQHD Resolution Monitors
• Mad Catz Announces the Tournament Edition Gaming Mice and Keyboard for PC  - VIDEO
• Rapoo Announces VPRO V700 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
• Rapoo Also Announces VPRO V900 Gaming Mouse
• Kingston Memory Releases a Trio of New HyperX Products
• Noctua Provides Free Mounting Upgrade for Upcoming Intel ‘Haswell-E’ Platform (X99)
• EK Introduces 16 mm Variant of EK-HDC Compression Fittings
• EK Delivers EK-FC R9-290X SE for Non-reference Hawaii GPUs
• EK Launches the New Line of Pastel Nano-Coolants
• ASRock Shares Pictures of Upcoming X99X Killer Motherboard
• Gigabyte X99 SOC Force Motherboard Unveiled – Flagship OC Board Fitted With OC Panel
• Razer Goes Full Spectrum Color With All-New Chroma Feature
• Aerocool Presents New Chassis at Gamescom 2014
• Thermaltake New Power Supply with Smart Software Toughpower DPS G Series and DPSApp
• Digital Storm Reveals its Velox Customizable Gaming PCs
• Falcon Northwest Debuts the Tiki-Z Micro-Tower Gaming PC
• Plantronics Brings PC Games to Life with RIG Surround and RIG Flex Gaming Headsets

Author: SKYMTL @ Hardware Canucks

Though they are normally associated with being one of the few board partners entrusted with NVIDIA’s Quadro lineup, PNY also has a relatively large and expanding stable of GeForce products as well. The GTX 780 Ti XLR8 OC is their flagship single GPU card and while it doesn’t have a well-marketed name like Classified, Matrix, Lightning or Super Overclock but unlike those indirect competitors, its price is quite a bit lower. PNY intends the XLR8 OC series to compete against the likes of ASUS’ DirectCU II OC, Gigabyte’s Windforce OC and MSI’s Gaming-branded cards. In the face of such entrenched competition, the GTX 780 Ti XLR8 OC will need to emphasize its relative value.

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By Ian Cutress @ AnandTech

One of AMD’s main selling points it likes to promote is towards the gamer, especially those on a tighter budget. This subsequently suggests to the motherboard manufacturers to build models oriented for gaming. MSI’s Gaming Range has become a solid part of MSI’s plethora of motherboards, and now this extends to the FM2+ platform. Today we review the MSI A88X-G45 Gaming.

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Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

• BIOSTAR Preparing To Launch New “Hi-Fi Mainboard”
• ASUS Maximus VII Impact Takes it Vertical with Five Daughterboards
• Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1 Makes an Appearance
• AMD Radeon R9 285 with Tonga GPU Pictured
• SanDisk Debuts the Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive
• Apacer Introduces the 2 TB AC233 USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive

By Stuart Davidson @ Hardware Heaven

Over the years case designs have significantly evolved to the stage where a large portion of a system budget can be spend on that area of a build. In the enthusiast arena for example bigger tends to be better and the ability to install liquid cooling is a must, especially as GPUs are now available which have their own radiator block for a 12cm fan location. At the opposite end of the spectrum budget cases have changed too. Even in the last 4 or 5 years that has been the case and thanks to some great design we have a bunch of low cost, high quality and flexible options.

Fractal Design recently released their Core 3300 case, a model designed to appeal to those looking for a low cost chassis with plenty of flexibility. Today we take a look at it.

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By Kristian Vättö @ AnandTech

A couple of months ago we reviewed JMicron’s JMF667H reference design SSDs, which did relatively well in our tests especially when taking JMicron’s previous SSD controllers into account. As always, reference designs are only meant for evaluation and do not make their way into retail, so today we are taking a look at Transcend’s SSD340.

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Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

• ASUS Republic of Gamers Announces the Crossblade Ranger FM2+ Motherboard
• MSI Teases X99S Gaming 9 AC Motherboard
• ADATA Launches XPG Z1 DDR4 Overclocking Memory
• Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. M Wireless Keyboard Ships
• Galaxy Designs Special GeForce GTX 750 Ti HOF Graphics Card
• Plextor M6 PRO with PlexTurbo Now Available Worldwide
• Club 3D Introduces the Worldwide First Y-Cabled Docking Station
• Thermaltake Urban S71 World of Tanks Edition Announced
• Intel to Discontinue Five More Ivy Bridge Processors
• ASRock Intros Two J2900 Bay Trail Motherboards
• MSI and CyberPowerPC Introduce the Venom-X Custom Configuration Service
• 23.8-Inch BenQ Monitor Has an IPS Full HD Screen and 4 ms Response Time
• ROCCAT Integrates Keyboard and Smartphone: The Skeltr
• X2 to Release the Genza Gaming Mouse
• Acer Releases the B286HK 28-Inch UHD Monitor
• OCZ ARC 100 Series SSDs Show up on Amazon and Scan
• AMD Readies Radeon R7 Branded Client SSDs
• Gigabyte Essence Desktop Case Pictured
• LEPA Introduces the BOL.Quiet Series Case Fans
• BenQ XL2420G ‘Hybrid Engine’ G-SYNC Monitor Coming This Fall
• HGST Announces the FlashMAX III PCIe SSDs
• Dell Developing Gaming Headset that Senses when you are Bored
• Philips 28-inch 4K Ultra HD Monitor Now Available

Author: Marc Adams @ HardOCP

Enermax comes to us today with its Liqtech 240 AIO liquid cooling system for CPUs sporting healthy list of features including; copper cold plate with patented Shunt-Channel-Technology (SCT), seamless contact radiator fins, non-permeable flexible tubing, and a fan control system offering three cooling modes.

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