[Review] Enermax Briskie0 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on January 16, 2012
The Briskie keyboard is equipped with a durable membrane key stroke technology with up to 10 million key strokes lifetime. It ensures a smooth and comfortable typing experience, even over a longer period of time. The height can be adjusted in two steps to match your needs. To avoid damage caused by accidental spills and to ease the keyboard cleaning, Enermax further applied a spill-resistant structure.
The Briskie mouse is designed for prolonged, ambidextrous use. The ergonomic shape offers an e...
Arctic E461-BM Earphones1 Comment By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on January 5, 2012
Arctic has been a well recognized and respected name in the custom PC building world for many, many years due largely in part to their PC cooling solutions. These solutions range from case fans, heat sinks, and of course their renowned thermal compound (MX family, please take a bow).
Unknown to some in the PC world, Arctic, under the guise of Arctic Sound, has been in the business of putting out audio devices to the public for a few years now. These products include headphones, headsets, spe...
[Review] Tt eSports Challenger Pro Gaming Keyboard1 Comment By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on November 19, 2011
In the not so distant past, it was widely assumed that if you wanted quality PC gaming peripherals you would have to go to companies like Razer, Logitech, or SteelSeries to satisfy your high quality peripheral needs. Recently companies who have previously never offered gaming peripherals in their product line are now throwing their hats in the arena, attempting to dispel the belief that only established companies can offer really good gaming mice, headsets, keyboards, and other input devices.
...
[Review] CM Storm Sentinel Z3RO-G Gaming Mouse1 Comment By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on October 3, 2011
A few weeks ago, we brought to you a review of CM Storm’s latest gaming peripheral, the Sirus Gaming Headset, which earned high marks. Today, we bring to you our review of another of CM Storm’s gaming peripherals, the Sentinel Z3RO-G Gaming Mouse, on a few sites called the Zero-G Gaming Mouse, which was released on July 4th of this year.
Lets see if this mouse is a Yankee Doodle Dandy, or if it should be tied to a bunch of bottle rockets.
Packaging and What’s Inside
The m...
[Review] Logitech Laptop Speaker Z3052 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on September 26, 2011
Today we will be running the Logitech Laptop Speaker Z305 through its paces to see just how well it holds up and to find out if it will be a good replacement for your laptop’s stock speakers. The Z305 speaker projects sound more evenly in all directions, so you do not have to worry so much about positioning yourself or the speaker precisely for optimal listening. The 360-degree speaker should (in theory) provide crisp, clear sound no matter where you are in relation to the Z305. It has bot...
[Review] Tt eSports Shock Spin Gaming Headset1 Comment By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on September 16, 2011
For years, Thermaltake has been synonymous with providing PC cases, power supplies, and cooling solutions for various computer hardware to the PC community. Now, with the creation of their new division, Tt eSports, Thermaltake is trying to associate themselves with quality gaming peripherals. Tt eSports already has a few weapons in their fight against mediocre PC gaming accessories, such as the Challenger Pro Keyboard, the Shock & Shock One Gaming Headsets, and even gaming gloves.
Today ...
[Review] Silverstone EC03 Internal USB 3.0 PCIE card2 Comments By NeuromancercloseAuthor: NeuromancerName: Rich Smith Email: rsmith@nettronic.net Site: About:See Authors Posts (27) on August 31, 2011
Silverstone is a company that is known for providing high quality merchandise to support your computing needs. From cases and power supplies to peripherals and NAS solutions, Silverstone makes products to increase performance and expand storage. Despite being less than a decade old, Silverstone has made a mark for itself, especially in the high end case and power markets.
Today, we look one of their peripheral offerings – a PCI Express expansion card that provides a internal 19 pin USB 3.0...
[Review] CM Storm Sirus True 5.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset2 Comments By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on August 29, 2011
Cooler Master has been synonymous with top PC related products for many years ranging from CPU coolers, fans, and of course cases. In 2008, Cooler Master seemed to have “declared war” on inferior gaming peripherals by introducing a new division, called CM Storm. Co-developed by what Cooler Master stated were the world’s most prolific enthusiasts and e-Sport prodigies, CM Storm promises to deliver truly ground-breaking, military grade hardware for the gaming revolution. Their mo...
[Review] Lamptron FC9 Fan Controller3 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on August 15, 2011
The FC9 is Lamptron’s newest 4 channel fan controller design, featuring a CNC milled front panel. A unique multiple-color (White, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Purple, and Yellow) channel system enhances the look of this 50-watt, 4 channel controller. With all the color options, you should be able to find something there to suit your style needs whenever necessary. Each channel color is easily customized through a three-jumper system via the back of the PCB (we will cover the specifics, no worri...
[Review] Enermax Aurora Lite Model KB010U-B2 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on July 25, 2011
The Enermax Aurora Lite keyboard has an ultra-slim design that makes it very space efficient. The simplicity in the design of this keyboard embraces style, quality and functionality. Although the keyboard itself is small and thin, it has two USB 2.0 connections embedded and a fullsize NumPad. It has a great-looking black brushed-aluminum exterior which helps it stand out among other keyboards. Read on to learn how the Aurora Lite keyboard fairs in our testing.
Packaging:
Specifications an...
[Review] eVGA Frostbite vs Arctic Silver Céramique1 Comment By miahallencloseAuthor: miahallenName: Jeremiah Allen Email: miahallen.ironmods@gmail.com Site:http://www.ironmods.com About: Well, I was playing with computers ever since my Dad got a Commodore 64 when I was 6 years old (1986), when I was 10 (1990) he bought a custom build 486DX33, and I was in love. Mostly back then I was just a kid playing games, but my fascination with computers had a start. Because I had no money of my own, I was stuck playing with my Dad's computers, and really couldn't "play" too much. So in 1998, the year I graduated, I spent some of my college savings to by a "computer for school", haha. It had two Voodoo2 12MB 3D accelerators in it, so you can imagine how much school work was done on it ;-) It had an AMD K6-233 that I had a really mild OC on, but my custom computer builder friend Aaron had done all the work. So I can't really take the credit there. My fascination with graphics just kept growing and growing over the years, and I was constantly in a struggle to keep my games looking as sharp and smooth as possible. OCing played a big role.
My whole world was rocked in 2004 when I was deployed to Iraq as a US Army soldier. The whole year I was there I had a cheap IBM Thinkpad R40 with a 2GHz Celeron, 1GB DDR-333 RAM, a 60GB 4200RPM HDD, and ATI Radeon Mobility graphics (same technology as a 7000 series with only 16MB of memory). It started out rough as I was really into Command and Conquer Generals at the time, and the machine would only play the C&C slide show LOL. So, I downloaded PowerStrip, and OC'ed the GPU by 40%...amazingly, the game was playable!
Things changed dramatically in 2007 when I met a guy named Matt while I was stationed in Japan. He introduced me to www.ocforums.com, and the "Benchmarking Team" there. I had not had much interest in benchmarking previously, I always though of myself as more practical. But, I thought I'd play along and I joined the team. My first introduction to an actual competition was was is "The Raptor Pit", "Forum Warz 2008" in the spring of 2008. I was running a Q6600 and an 8800GTX. With air cooling I was able to bench my Q6600 at over 4GHz, and tore up the competition in my class. Overall OCF won the Forum War in 2007, Winter and Summer of 2008, and 2009...that means five in a row. I was not part of the first one in 2007, but the four since then, I have participated in. After winning the 2008 Winter and Summer Warz, Tom's Hardware Guide announced they were looking for nominations for individuals to compete in their first ever international overclocking competition, called "Overdrive". I was nominated, and chosen to compete in the North American semi-finals in Los Angeles in November 2008. I was placed on "Team IRONMODS" as they only had two guys, yet three man teams were allowed. We won the semi-finals in LA, and our prize was a trip to Paris the following month, to compete with the best in the world.
The following month, Ton, Jake, and myself flew to Paris as "Team USA" to face off against the best from Taiwan, France, Germany, and Italy. It was a very intense competition, but after two heated days of battle (16 hours of benching), we emerged the victors. Amidst our celebration, Ton and Jake officially invited me to join "Team IRONMODS" on a permanent basis, and I graciously accepted. Ton, aka "TiTON", is a world renown case moder, and is also very well known for some of the AMD overclocking he has done. Jake, aka "CPT.Planet", is a genius overclocker, and a really fun guy. The team has a great synergy when working together, we really have complementary styles.
After winning the world championship in December 2008 things were a bit quite for a couple months, then in the spring of 2009 I received an invitation to the 2nd annual Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship "GOOC". I would compete in the North American semi-final in LA, where the winner would win a ticket to the world championship in Taipei Taiwan during CES in June 2009. The competition was tough with 14 of the best from North America gathering for a 1 on 1 competition of OCing. But once again, I completed the competition well, and rose above the others. I won 1st place and the trip to the world finals in Taipei.
My luck ran dry in Taipei where I started off with a bad motherboard, and went through 5 more during the course of the competition due to various reasons. Despite the poor finish in Taipei, I have high hopes to redeem myself next year.See Authors Posts (24) on July 20, 2011
Introduction
With the market for extreme PC cooling growing at a rapid rate over the past few years, we are seeing a much greater number of PC components and accessories geared to this end of the spectrum. This goes back to the Foxconn “Quantum Force” line, which was kicked off with a killer mainboard, the BLACKOPS with features that had never been seen before. Fast forward a few years, and now all the top manufacturers are mimicking elements from that board, and pushing forward ...
[Review] Steelseries Shift Gaming Keyboard1 Comment By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on June 20, 2011
The Steelseries Shift gaming keyboard is designed to change and adapt to real-time strategy (RTS), and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games through interchangeable keysets. Powered by the Steelseries Engine software, the Shift provides gamers with predefined game mods and an intuitive layout of the most common commands and actions for specific game genres and titles. With the functionality to customize every key on the keyset, on-the-fly macro recording, and the anti-ghosting of up to 7 simu...
[Review] Enermax AURORA Micro Wireless Keyboard1 Comment By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on June 7, 2011
The AURORA Micro Wireless, from Enermax, is a wireless compact keyboard featuring total media functionality. With integrated trackball, left-right buttons, and a scroll-wheel, this wireless compact keyboard is looking to be one of the best solutions for using media center and home theater software. This product won the prestigious “red dot design award: product design 2009″ against 11,000 submissions from 61 countries in 14 categories. With the sleek brushed aluminum look of the ...
[Review] Cooler Master NotePal LapAir3 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on May 17, 2011
The Cooler Master NotePal LapAir is intended for use with notebooks at work, during travel, and at home. It has an ergonomically advantageous angled design for comfortable typing, and features a top-intake / rear exhaust system to help keep your notebook cool by drawing the hot air out from beneath it, which will help prolong its lifespan. The comfortable foam pad on the bottom will help with extended use if you have to place it on your lap (in addition to keeping the hot underside of your lapto...
[Review] Lamptron FC5 V23 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on April 24, 2011
The new take on the Lamptron FC5 is the V2, which we have here today. The first edition FC5 V1 ran into a few problems, including the screen not being all that great and a whining sound produced when the voltage was lowered on fans. The faceplate of the V2 is CnC milled from aluminum with room for four control knobs and a new improved LCD over the old FC5. The LCD screen can be changed to seven different colors as well as two different temperature readouts, Fahrenheit and Celsius and voltage r...
[Review] SteelSeries Xai Pro Gaming Laser Mouse3 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on April 6, 2011
At first glance, the SteelSeries Xai mouse looks like an ordinary run-of-the-mill type budget mouse. Not until further investigation did we really understand what makes the Xai a high quality gaming mouse. The ability to program buttons and create your own macros with precisely timed key press sequences would be a start to figuring out the Xai. If we stopped there, it would already be an OK mouse, which would probably be somewhat popular. Once you dig further into the Xai however, the true bea...
[Review] SteelSeries Siberia V2 Headset3 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) 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] Arctic Equipment Breeze Pro4 Comments By GSG-9closeAuthor: GSG-9Name: Levi Tomes Email: gsg-9@mediocrocy.com Site:http://StypticDesign.com About:See Authors Posts (13) 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 Pro9 Comments By GSG-9closeAuthor: GSG-9Name: Levi Tomes Email: gsg-9@mediocrocy.com Site:http://StypticDesign.com About:See Authors Posts (13) 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...
The Briskie keyboard is equipped with a durable membrane key stroke technology with up to 10 million key strokes lifetime. It ensures a smooth and comfortable typing experience, even over a longer period of time. The height can be adjusted in two steps to match your needs. To avoid damage caused by accidental spills and to ease the keyboard cleaning, Enermax further applied a spill-resistant structure.
The Briskie mouse is designed for prolonged, ambidextrous use. The ergonomic shape offers an e... 
Arctic has been a well recognized and respected name in the custom PC building world for many, many years due largely in part to their PC cooling solutions. These solutions range from case fans, heat sinks, and of course their renowned thermal compound (MX family, please take a bow).
Unknown to some in the PC world, Arctic, under the guise of Arctic Sound, has been in the business of putting out audio devices to the public for a few years now. These products include headphones, headsets, spe... 
In the not so distant past, it was widely assumed that if you wanted quality PC gaming peripherals you would have to go to companies like Razer, Logitech, or SteelSeries to satisfy your high quality peripheral needs. Recently companies who have previously never offered gaming peripherals in their product line are now throwing their hats in the arena, attempting to dispel the belief that only established companies can offer really good gaming mice, headsets, keyboards, and other input devices.
... 
A few weeks ago, we brought to you a review of CM Storm’s latest gaming peripheral, the Sirus Gaming Headset, which earned high marks. Today, we bring to you our review of another of CM Storm’s gaming peripherals, the Sentinel Z3RO-G Gaming Mouse, on a few sites called the Zero-G Gaming Mouse, which was released on July 4th of this year.
Lets see if this mouse is a Yankee Doodle Dandy, or if it should be tied to a bunch of bottle rockets.
Packaging and What’s Inside
The m... 
Today we will be running the Logitech Laptop Speaker Z305 through its paces to see just how well it holds up and to find out if it will be a good replacement for your laptop’s stock speakers. The Z305 speaker projects sound more evenly in all directions, so you do not have to worry so much about positioning yourself or the speaker precisely for optimal listening. The 360-degree speaker should (in theory) provide crisp, clear sound no matter where you are in relation to the Z305. It has bot... 
For years, Thermaltake has been synonymous with providing PC cases, power supplies, and cooling solutions for various computer hardware to the PC community. Now, with the creation of their new division, Tt eSports, Thermaltake is trying to associate themselves with quality gaming peripherals. Tt eSports already has a few weapons in their fight against mediocre PC gaming accessories, such as the Challenger Pro Keyboard, the Shock & Shock One Gaming Headsets, and even gaming gloves.
Today ... 
Silverstone is a company that is known for providing high quality merchandise to support your computing needs. From cases and power supplies to peripherals and NAS solutions, Silverstone makes products to increase performance and expand storage. Despite being less than a decade old, Silverstone has made a mark for itself, especially in the high end case and power markets.
Today, we look one of their peripheral offerings – a PCI Express expansion card that provides a internal 19 pin USB 3.0... 
Cooler Master has been synonymous with top PC related products for many years ranging from CPU coolers, fans, and of course cases. In 2008, Cooler Master seemed to have “declared war” on inferior gaming peripherals by introducing a new division, called CM Storm. Co-developed by what Cooler Master stated were the world’s most prolific enthusiasts and e-Sport prodigies, CM Storm promises to deliver truly ground-breaking, military grade hardware for the gaming revolution. Their mo... 
The FC9 is Lamptron’s newest 4 channel fan controller design, featuring a CNC milled front panel. A unique multiple-color (White, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Purple, and Yellow) channel system enhances the look of this 50-watt, 4 channel controller. With all the color options, you should be able to find something there to suit your style needs whenever necessary. Each channel color is easily customized through a three-jumper system via the back of the PCB (we will cover the specifics, no worri... 
The Enermax Aurora Lite keyboard has an ultra-slim design that makes it very space efficient. The simplicity in the design of this keyboard embraces style, quality and functionality. Although the keyboard itself is small and thin, it has two USB 2.0 connections embedded and a fullsize NumPad. It has a great-looking black brushed-aluminum exterior which helps it stand out among other keyboards. Read on to learn how the Aurora Lite keyboard fairs in our testing.
Packaging:
Specifications an... 
Introduction
With the market for extreme PC cooling growing at a rapid rate over the past few years, we are seeing a much greater number of PC components and accessories geared to this end of the spectrum. This goes back to the Foxconn “Quantum Force” line, which was kicked off with a killer mainboard, the BLACKOPS with features that had never been seen before. Fast forward a few years, and now all the top manufacturers are mimicking elements from that board, and pushing forward ... 
The Steelseries Shift gaming keyboard is designed to change and adapt to real-time strategy (RTS), and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games through interchangeable keysets. Powered by the Steelseries Engine software, the Shift provides gamers with predefined game mods and an intuitive layout of the most common commands and actions for specific game genres and titles. With the functionality to customize every key on the keyset, on-the-fly macro recording, and the anti-ghosting of up to 7 simu... 
The AURORA Micro Wireless, from Enermax, is a wireless compact keyboard featuring total media functionality. With integrated trackball, left-right buttons, and a scroll-wheel, this wireless compact keyboard is looking to be one of the best solutions for using media center and home theater software. This product won the prestigious “red dot design award: product design 2009″ against 11,000 submissions from 61 countries in 14 categories. With the sleek brushed aluminum look of the ... 
The Cooler Master NotePal LapAir is intended for use with notebooks at work, during travel, and at home. It has an ergonomically advantageous angled design for comfortable typing, and features a top-intake / rear exhaust system to help keep your notebook cool by drawing the hot air out from beneath it, which will help prolong its lifespan. The comfortable foam pad on the bottom will help with extended use if you have to place it on your lap (in addition to keeping the hot underside of your lapto... 
The new take on the Lamptron FC5 is the V2, which we have here today. The first edition FC5 V1 ran into a few problems, including the screen not being all that great and a whining sound produced when the voltage was lowered on fans. The faceplate of the V2 is CnC milled from aluminum with room for four control knobs and a new improved LCD over the old FC5. The LCD screen can be changed to seven different colors as well as two different temperature readouts, Fahrenheit and Celsius and voltage r... 
At first glance, the SteelSeries Xai mouse looks like an ordinary run-of-the-mill type budget mouse. Not until further investigation did we really understand what makes the Xai a high quality gaming mouse. The ability to program buttons and create your own macros with precisely timed key press sequences would be a start to figuring out the Xai. If we stopped there, it would already be an OK mouse, which would probably be somewhat popular. Once you dig further into the Xai however, the true bea... 
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... 
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... 
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... 
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