Hardware News

SanDisk Ultra Plus 256GB SSD Solid State Drive Review

May 25, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


eTeknix have reviewed the SanDisk Ultra Plus 256GB SSD, which is based on the new Marvell controller 88S9175 and features 530MB/s read and 445MB/s write speeds.

Let's see what they had to say:

"Whilst this isn’t that fastest drive that I’ve looked at, it’s interesting to see that SanDisk have changed the way that SSDs are built and with a smaller PCB there is the possibility to reduce the physical size of drives in the future and also pave the way for denser storage in the future at the same time. As I mentioned above, this drive is an ideal candidate for the ultrabook market, due to its slim and featherweight build but also because of its reduced power consumption meaning that whatever ultrabook its put into will stay equally light and may also see a little more battery life at the same time. If its pure speed you’re after then there are other options but of an all round package, the Ultra Plus is a pretty good option to consider and with its innovative PCB I’ll give this an Innovation Award."


Much like the similar Plextor M5 Pro Extreme, this is a very good SSD and I'm glad to see SanDisk stepping up their SSD game.

Click here to read the full review.



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ZOTAC GTX 680 AMP! Edition Graphics Card Review

May 25, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


Hardware Heaven have reviewed the Zotac GeForce GTX 680 Amp! graphics card, which features a custom cooler and overclocked specifications.

Let's see what they had to say:

"We can often max out the settings available to us and maintain playable framerates. 5760x1080 sees us begin to make compromises though and while both cards still perform well they are right on their limits most of the time with high/very high detail.

Overall the GTX 680 AMP! Edition was the faster of the two cards and it was very noticeable how quiet ZOTAC's new cooler was. It is one of the quietest custom high end coolers we have used to date and really was near silent until we paired two cards in SLI and the fans had to work that little bit harder to keep the system cooler with the extra heat generated inside it. As a side note we also like the use of a metal shroud on the cooler, it is always a better look and feel to a card when this approach is taken."


The new Zotac GTX 680 AMP! is another option if you are looking for a triple slot GTX 680 video card. Though the Asus GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP offers a higher factory over-clock and longer warranty.

Click here to read the full review.

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Vertex 450 256GB Solid State Drive Reivew

May 25, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


Hardware Heaven have just tested the mid-range Vertex 450 256GB SATA 6GB/s SSD, which is based on the Barefoot 3 controller and features IMFT ONFi 2 20nm NAND.

Let's see what they had to say:

"Performance can't really be faulted, this drive performs right at the top end of the market despite being pushed as a lower spec/price alternative to the Vector. The video related performance is great and real world tests show the Vertex 450 to compete well with drives based on alternate controllers.

So that brings us to Value where the $269 RRP of the 256GB version seems fair considering the high quality build, decent 3-year warranty and good software suite. OCZ's support forum is also one of the best around and the bundled Acronis software to help us migrate our operating system to the new drive is a nice added bonus."


Thanks to the use of the Barefoot 3 controller this is easily the best Vertex 4 released to date. Check it out!

Click here to read the full review.

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Seagate HDD.15 4TB Hard Drive Review

May 25, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


Benchmark Reviews have posted a review of the new and humongous Seagate HDD.15 4TB  hard drive, which is an enthusiast-oriented 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s model.


Let's see what they had to say:

"Into their 15th generation of hard disk drive products, Seagate's Desktop HDD series offers consumers a two-year limited product warranty. This is an unfortunate departure from their previously offered 5-year warranty for all Barracuda XT drives, but has been the standard since their last-generation Barracuda debut. The drive's low operating temperature and power saving rotational shut-down features may possibly make long-term warranties a moot point, but that would also be reason to stand behind the technology.

Seagate delivers industry-leading quality and construction in all of their products, and the high-capacity Seagate Desktop HDD series is their end-result after years of proven industry experience. Since spinning mechanical storage technology is so mature, especially from a company like Seagate, there are no issues with hardware compatibility or firmware functionality - UEFI-based systems can utilize all 4TB right out of the box."


This is obviously a very impressive HDD, though the short warranty is rather disappointing.

Click here to read the full review.

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EVGA GeForce GTX 780 SC ACX Graphics Card Review

May 25, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


Guru3D have reviewed the high performance EVGA GeForce GTX 780 SC ACX graphics card, which features a custom cooler and overclocked specifications.

Let's see what they had to say:

"Smooth and fluid framerates is what you'll get thanks to the tremendous horsepower at hand. It does so while hardly making any noise and with dynamically adjustable temperatures you can decide yourself how hot your GPU may run. The card is a nice chunk faster compared to the GeForce GTX 680 and the Radeon HD 7970 GHz edition. Compared to equivalent multi-GPU products that dynamic changes though but I'm not even certain if we should compare to that. The SC edition with ACX cooling will however be a notch more expensive and we have seen it listed for €689,00 on EVGA's EU website.

The card is very silent and runs at Titan like performance. Next to that there still remains to be room left for tweaking. Overall the product is just incredibly impressive and has great looks. "


Though it is expensive, the GeForce GTX 780 SC ACX's custom cooler makes it is easily worth the small price premium over a reference design model.

Click here to read the full review.

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Lenovo Y500 15.6-inch Gaming Notebook Review

May 24, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


PC Perspective have posted a review of the brand new Lenovo Y500 gaming notebook, which features a 15.6-inch 1920x1080 display, quad-core/eight-thread 2.4-3.4Ghz processor, 16GB of RAM, 16GB SSD, 1TB HDD, and two NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GPU's in SLI.

Let's see what they had to say:

"The Lenovo Y500 won’t win any portability awards—it’s both imposing in its weight and subpar in terms of battery life (thanks to the lack of Optimus functionality). But in exchange, you get a seriously competitive gaming PC that leverages the power of SLI to provide a combination of value and performance that is literally unparalleled to date in the notebook gaming market.

This sucker tears apart nearly every graphics performance test we threw at it, besting models equipped with GTX 670MX cards and decisively conquering anything with a single GT 650M (of which the Y500 we reviewed has two). It can easily handle most any modern game on High settings, and many even on Ultra. And best of all, it’s got one heck of a nice screen, sporting 1080p with good color reproduction, decent brightness, and a respectable level of contrast. The only drawback is the glossy finish."


For the money, this is one of the best equipped gaming notebooks on the market.  Check it out!

Click here to read the full review.


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Google Glass Review

May 24, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


Tomshardware have posted a review of the unique Google Glass, which are augmented reality goggles.

Let's see what they had to say:

"As Google improves Glass through updates like XE5 and gets the platform onto more heads (hopefully at a better price than the $1,500 we spent), you’re going to see a lot of people using Google’s software products that weren’t before. I’m on Facebook fairly often. I use Twitter occasionally. Google+ is not in my regular rotation. Post-Glass, however, it’s obviously a lot more important. And there are clear paths to the company’s other technologies, too.

How about Glass in the Angelini household? It’s certainly not leaving with me every time I run an errand, and mostly because of the form factor. I’m just not comfortable wearing Glass everywhere, and I’m not carrying them around in a pouch when they’re off my head. I don’t have unrealistic expectations about the battery, the projector doesn’t give me a headache, and I had minimal trouble with Google’s voice recognition—many of the gripes I’ve read elsewhere haven’t soured my experience. But Glass is as inconvenient in your hands as it is helpful sitting on your head, I’m not particularly enthused about adding $20 to my cell plan, and some of the rough edges (like low call volume and poor A/V quality in hangouts) still need to be smoothed over."


While far, far from perfect the Google Glass' does hint at a very exciting future.  Check it out!

Click here to read the full review.


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Diamond Radeon HD 7790 1GB Graphics Card Review

May 24, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


Bjorn3D have posted a review of the enthusiast-oriented Diamond Radeon HD 7790 1GB graphics card, which features a custom cooler and uses the new Tahiti LE chip.

Let's see what they had to say:

"The Diamond model we got today showed small variances and performance overall that nudged ahead of the others, although that difference is slight. The performance from card to card in most cases is within a single FPS difference and the fact that they all shipped with the same clock speed explains that as they all are basically very similar functional parts.

The cooler for the Diamond model could definitely be better as it is bested by a decent margin from the other cards offerings which means less in chassis thermal dump and also more possible headroom should a program with a higher overclock limit come out. It is worth noting that the card even though it ran a bit warmer on overclock still was just as stable as the other models tested."


Although this is an OK decent video card, the market is filled with just as good to better 7790's already.

Click here to read the full review.


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Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Graphics Card Review

May 24, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


Hardware Canucks have the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 which based on the 'Kepler' GK110 core and features an immense 2304 CUDA cores, 48 ROPs, and 192 texture units. The 28nm core is clocked at 836Mhz core clock, but can Boost up to 900Mhz. There is 3GB of 6008Mhz GDDR5 mated to 384-bit memory interface, and capable of 288.5GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Let's see what they had to say:

"For someone buying a $650 graphics card, performance concerns always come first and the GTX 780 delivers in spades. It thoroughly outpaces NVIDIA’s own GTX 680 by an average of 31% and manages to stay well ahead of AMD’s HD 7970 GHz Edition while also treading dangerously close to the TITAN. In many titles it was a dominant figure in terms of framerates and frame times. NVIDIA still needs to work on optimizations for Tomb Raider and Dirt Showdown but even in these two instances, the GTX 780 had no trouble delivering a playable, stutter-free experience.

The GTX 780 is surprisingly efficient and provides an excellent performance per watt ratio, items which previous flagship GPUs couldn’t lay claim to. It requires the same amount of juice as AMD’s HD 7970 GHz Edition while offering much better framerates. This relative frugality is backstopped by one of the quietest fans we’ve come across on a reference card. "


While it may not compete against the already released Titan, this new 780 is one impressive new video card.  Check it out!

Click here to read the full review.


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Intel Z87 50+ Motherboard Line-up Preview

May 24, 2013 - Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan


Anadtech have just posted a preview of 50+ upcoming Z87 Motherboards, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI & more.

Let's see what they had to say:

"In an industry where Intel is continually putting more elements onto the CPU, the motherboard manufacturers have to innovate to differentiate themselves from each other.  As a result we now have a number of gaming ranges and overclocking ranges to choose from.  Of course motherboard manufacturers also have SIs to consider, some of which require specific connectors on various models.

There are a number of features I want to get my hands stuck into.  Having the first motherboards with 802.11ac is going to be interesting for sure.  Other features such as the ASUS OC Panel, the Maximus VI Hero, the Gigabyte OPAMP and x8/x4/x4 + x4 PCIe layout, the ASRock Waterproof coating and LCD screen, the MSI XPower, the EVGA one, and those ECS buttons are all piquing my interest."

While all of these models are exciting the Asus ROG and MSI XPower are real standouts.  Check it out!

Click here to read the full review.


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