2011 March | TechREACTION

[Review] Thermaltake ARMOR A30 1 Comment By The Duke on March 31, 2011 The entirely black ARMOR A30 sports the familiar “bulletproof” armor design concept with metal mesh elements giving the ARMOR series a stylish appearance that will attract gamers and enthusiasts alike. Its small dimensions of 266 (H) x 291 (W) X 456 (D) cm make it an ideal solution for small form factor systems, Micro ATX and mini ITX, while still allowing for enough room to house some of the most powerful graphics cards available on the market today. Demanding LAN party-goers can now se...
[Review] SteelSeries Siberia V2 Headset 3 Comments By The Duke on March 30, 2011 The SteelSeries Siberia V2 Full-Size Headset is on the table for review today. The Siberia V2 comes in 5 different colors: white, black, blue, orange, and red, which will give most gamers a good chance of finding a color that they like. The Siberia V2 headset will provide comfortable long term use as well as passive noise reduction via the leather padded ear cushions built from sound dampening foam. To help with the comfort of the headset, it also has a lightweight headband suspension to help ge...
[Review] EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Superclocked Edition 4 Comments By The Duke on March 24, 2011 EVGA has supplied us with their take on the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, the EVGA Superclocked Edition. The EVGA SC edition is the second-lowest-clocked card of their factory overclocked cards. The first is the FPB edition, then the SC, followed by the SSC and the FTW editions. The EVGA GTX 560 Ti comes overclocked by about 75MHz on the core and 50MHz on the memory. Judging from previous overclocking results on past cards, this should still leave plenty of headroom to go higher. We will find out just h...
[Review] Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 – King of the Hill 18 Comments By The Duke on March 24, 2011 The GeForce GTX 590 is the new flagship for Nvidia that is finally hitting the marketplace after a long awaited release date. Based on the GF110 graphics processor, the GTX 580 was built to be the world’s fastest DirectX 11 GPU. For the elite gamers who are not satisfied with the performance of just one GTX 580, Nvidia created the GTX 590; combining the power of two GF110 GPU’s on a single graphics card to deliver the ultimate gaming experience. Nvidia has also equipped the GTX 590 w...
[Review] Arctic Equipment Breeze Pro 4 Comments By GSG-9 on March 23, 2011 Arctic Equipment Breeze Pro The ARCTIC Equipment Breeze Pro is the stylish USB-desktop fan giving you a light breeze on hot summer days. The integrated USB-hub comes in as a convenient feature too. Read on to learn more about the Breeze Pro and it’s functionality. Packaging: The Arctic Equipment Breeze Pro arrived in a rather unique blister packaging. The packaging is sealed using pressure and is easily reusable as a carrying case. Removing the fan from the blister pack was quite easy...
[Review] Thermaltake eSPORTS CHALLENGER Pro 9 Comments By GSG-9 on March 21, 2011 Introduction: The Challenger line of Tt keyboards includes the Challenger, the Challenger Pro and the Challenger Ultimate. Today we have up for review the Thermaltake Challenger Pro. Packaging & Contents: The Challenger Pro arrived in a glossed cardboard packaging with a rather eye catching design fitting to the design of the keyboard itself. Specifications: Red illumination back light Red illumination backlight design simulates the true-to-life gaming atmosphere. 64KB on board me...
[Review] ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP 3 Comments By The Duke on March 18, 2011 Introduction: With the new release of the GTX 550 Ti upon us, we have the ASUS factory overclocked GTX550 Ti DirectCU TOP for review today. The 550 Ti is not intended to a be top contender in the market, but rather a lower-end card with great upgrading potential via overclocking and SLI. With the ASUS 550 Ti coming with the DirectCU cooling solution, we anticipate seeing some very low temperatures. The ASUS GTX 550 also comes with SAP (Super Alloy Power) design which is said to deliver 15% perf...
[Blog] nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Steel HTPC 3000B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case 0 Comments By Archer on March 16, 2011 Introduction: Inexpensive cases are many times seen as sub standard and garbage; this is not always the case; though, it does apply (in part) to this case. Generally you get what you pay for and this case is no exception; though, the design, fabrication, fit and finish are of very high quality some things are substandard and to a point make this case a looser to the builder who has no patience. For the builder who does not mind fighting with a component here and there and removing parts this cas...
[Review] Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti 2 Comments By The Duke on March 15, 2011 The Sniper is on the prowl again as Nvidia reloads their 400-series lineup. The new GTX 550 Ti option for gamers is aimed at people who want more performance than the GTS 450, while maintaining a price point below the 460 (~$150). Equipped with faster clocks and a wider 192-bit memory interface, the GTX 550 Ti should provide you with about 28% faster performance on average, and 20% more performance/watt. Will the new Sniper lay waste to the older, slower 450 sniper? Continue on… The GeFo...
[Review] Arctic Equipment Breeze Mobile 3 Comments By GSG-9 on March 14, 2011 Arctic Equipment Breeze Mobile The ARCTIC Equipment Breeze Mobile is your portable USB-fan on hot summer days. Just plug it into a USB-port on your notebook and enjoy the cool air. Packaging & Contents: The Arctic Equipment Breeze Mobile arrived in standard blister packaging. Removing the Fan from the blister pack was uneventful and did not result in broken skin. The packaging itself is not friendly to being reused to transport the fan (because of the sharp edges of the PET plastic) we ...
[Review] SunbeamTech Twister 120 7 Comments By BoT on March 10, 2011 Introduction: We are very excited to have the latest product from SunbeamTech in the house. SunbeamTech has been in business since 2000 and has been just shy of being an enthusiast household name. The name really started sinking in when SunbeamTech spun off with the Tuniq line of CPU coolers. The Tuniq line quickly took the CPU cooling crown and held it for quite some time. SunbeamTech recently released the Twister 120 which is the cooler we will be reviewing today. The Twister 120 is SunbeamTec...
[Review] NZXT Whisper – Silent Full Tower 3 Comments By The Duke on March 8, 2011 We have a chassis today designed for the enthusiast that combines noise dampening features with expandability and storage. The Whisper silent full tower chassis from NZXT is improving upon the success of the NZXT HU-001 chassis. Featured in a large E-ATX full tower, the Whisper can support up to nine hard drives and a total of six 5.25″ bays with ample space for large expansion cards. The Whisper also provides mounts for 2.5″ SSD drives. The 10mm dampening foam, rubber grommets and p...
[Review] MSI Brazos E350IA-E45 4 Comments By Archer on March 7, 2011 Meet The New Kid In Town: MSI has seen the potential in the new AMD Fusion CPU. The MSI E350IA-E45 is a feature rich micro ITX board with the potential to be the heart of your next HTPC with it’s excellent integrated graphics; an effective home server with its 4x SATAIII ports, or even an adequate daily driver with DDR3 support and low heat output. The packaging is pretty standard, including two SATA cables. The rear panel has a nice set of external connections. With 8 USB ports (two of...
[Review] Zotac GTX 560 Ti 4 Comments By The Duke on March 3, 2011 Today we look at Zotac’s take on the “Hunter” – the GTX 560 Ti. Running at stock speeds (822/1000) this is Zotac’s entry level GTX 560 Ti card. They have three GTX 560 Ti cards on the market, the basic version which we have for review today, as well as the factory overclocked AMP! and OC editions. Using the GF114 silicon, we expect to see a noticeable improvement in power consumption, temperatures and performance. Let’s get down to business and toss the Zotac ...
[Review] Kingston HyperX Grey Series 2133MHz 4GB DDR3 4 Comments By Neuromancer on March 2, 2011 Introduction: On the test bench this week is the Kingston HyperX Genesis Special Edition Grey Series 2133MHz 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Kit (KHX2133C9AD3X2K2/4GX). A real mouthful of a nomenclature, so in the interest of brevity, X-Files fans might appreciate this reviews short name for them “The Greys.” These sticks might not be from “out there” but they do support blistering fast speeds and are designed for use with the second generation Sandy Bridge microprocessors. Dual XMP profile...
[Review] Nexus 7000B Silent Mouse 5 Comments By GSG-9 on March 1, 2011 Introduction: When you hear the name Nexus, no doubt one of the first things that comes to mind is silence without compromising performance. Nexus has a long line of products from cases, power supplies and heatsinks. Nexus designs these products with one over arching principle: performance should be silent. Today we are reviewing a first for Nexus in the the 7000B Silent Mouse. Packaging & Continents: The Nexus Silent Mouse 7000B arrived in a standard blister packaging with fairly minima...

Tech Reaction