Last week I told you not to get your hopes up about the AMD teasers floating around. This week, I’m glad I said as much because news has come out about what AMD is supposed to be releasing. Actually, there are several somethings announced with an FX processor only being a tidbit of the new CPUs coming in Q3 of this year. Am I saying I’m glad because we were all going to be disappointed? On the contrary, I’m actually saying that I’m much happier today because it seems like AMD is finally living up to the teasers rather than building hype. Let’s look at the chips for the FM2+ socket. On the APU side, AMD is releasing the A10-7800, the A8-7600 and the A6-7400K. It’s pretty safe to say that these variants will most likely add more selection to the 7k series APU line up and not much else. The Athlon CPUs, on the other hand, might be offering some improvements. The Athlons feature the X4 860K, X4 840 and the X2 450. While info is limited, the flagship chip here will clock in at 3.7 GHz with a possible boost of 4.0 GHz and will also have a 2MB L2 cache at 95W TDP. What will be interesting to find out is if AMD “evolved” the architecture here. If you remember, the teaser talked about a hero evolving and regardless of the details, the new naming scheme would indicate that these chips have at least been optimized to increase performance. However, when I think of hero chips, budget CPUs aren’t the first thing to come to mind. Find...

FinalWire Rolls Out AIDA64 v4.60   Enhanced Support for LCD and VFD Screens BUDAPEST, Hungary – July 30, 2014 – Today FinalWire has announced the immediate availability of AIDA64 v4.60. As is known, the popular PC diagnostic utility can provide detailed information about both the hardware and software environment of individual PCs or a network of computers. All four editions of the portfolio have been updated to the new version, including the award-winning PC diagnostic and benchmarking tool, AIDA64 Extreme, as well as the company’s flagship IT asset management solution for business customers, AIDA64 Business. The new release comes with support for a wider range of external LCD and VFD displays, including alphanumeric, monochrome and color panels, on which AIDA64 can directly display temperatures, voltages and fan speeds as well as other system information. The July update also introduces support for the latest and upcoming processor and graphics technologies and storage devices. “While working on the latest release, we focused on providing our users more opportunity to monitor sensor values on external displays. We also paid special attention to implementing functions requested by our business customers: among other things we have added such smaller but important options to the feature set as support for embedded XSL style sheets in XML reports and SSL encrypted SMTP. For example, this latter option can ensure that the software sends inventory reports...

   Introduction   Thermaltake shook up the market a few years ago with the release of the Level 10 chassis. It took everything we knew about what a computer case was supposed to look like, and tossed it out a window. It won Thermaltake (sometimes referred to as TT) many accolades and awards for design and innovation. The down side to this was the Level 10 set a high level of expectation that Thermaltake could not live up too with follow up cases. It is hard to please everyone and even harder to please the most hard core enthusiast as they set the tone for what makes for a great case. When faced with such a monumental task as this, it is good to take a step back and reset. The Urban series of chassis is exactly that, a reset of Thermaltake’s design team. The days of boisterous designs are being replaced with sleeker lines and more modern curves. This is an effort to attract gamers, water cooling and overclocking enthusiasts with this new Urban series of chassis. The flagship model, the Urban T81, will be put to the test in this review. We will attempt a build that should please all three segments.    About ThermalTake The brand personality of Unique, Aggressive, Vivid, and Stylish makes Thermaltake an expert in creating Exciting things and Fascinating environment for gamers and enthusiasts, also Keep them Constantly High physically and mentally. Moreover, Thermaltake Technology get close to consumers and observe lead users’ behavior and requirem...

Super Talent Updates its 1.8” MasterDrive KX3 SSD Highly popular space saving SSD with a microSATA connection San Jose, California – July 28, 2014 – Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND Flash storage solutions, announces their updated MasterDrive KX3, a 1.8” SSD. Super Talent’s MasterDrive KX3 comes in to solve the problem of physical space constraints in a computing system. This SSD is built using high grade NAND flash components and is connected through a microSATA interface. Additionally, an industrial temperature version using carefully selected thermal range components allows the MasterDrive KX3 to handle temperatures ranging from -40°C to 85°C. Capacity Part Number Part Number (I-Temp) 32GB FUM32G818H FUM32G818I 64GB FUM64G818H FUM64G818I 128GB FUM28G818H FUM28G818I 256GB FUM56G818H FUM56G818I The MasterDrive KX3 is highly popular for data logging in a variety of environments with sequential read speeds of up to 250 MB/s and write speeds of up to 130 MB/s and available in capacities from 32GB to 256GB. Additional information on the MasterDrive KX3 can be found here. Super Talent actively pursues the latest storage trends in the market and responds by creating storage solutions that meet the needs of customers. About Super Talent Technology Super Talent Technology Corporation based in San Jose, California, designs and manufactures flash based SSD and USB storage devices for computers and consumer electronics. An ISO 9001 certified compa...

Aerocool GT-A: High-End Midi-Tower for Gamers and DIY enthusiasts 28.07.2014, Taipei, Taiwan – Aerocool Advanced Technologies, one of world’s leading manufacturers of excellent gaming PC gear, announces a new member of the GT case series. The GT-A Midi-Tower is aiming for Gamers and DIY enthusiasts seeking a High-End chassis with a superb design and a great cooling concept. Main features include a special top-panel docking station for 2,5 and 3,5 inch drives, built-in 2-channel fan controller, two preinstalled case fans as well as much space and many options for latest high-end hardware. Aerocool’s GT-A utilizes the unified and futuristic GT series exterior design with the choice between a white and a black version. Both versions are coming with a window in the side-panel, allowing insights on user’s hardware. Aerocool even implemented a really useful docking station into the GT-A’s top panel, which allows easy access to hard drives and SSDs without the hassle of opening the chassis and installing the drive into a vacant bay. The docking station can be accessed by simply sliding down the top-cover. The inside of the GT-A Midi-Tower is well structured and comes in a dual-color design, where black edition features the colors red and black, while white version combines the colors black and white. The chassis supports common mainboard form factors including ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX. Latest on-market VGA cards with a maximum length of 310 millimeters and CPU cooler...

A few months ago we had the honor of reviewing the new MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboards during the launch of the Z97 chipset. Today, we are here again to look at another MSI motherboard. We have MSI's flagship Gaming Motherboard the MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC. At first glance the MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC motherboard looks rather close aesthetically to the Gaming 5 we reviewed. While the looks are similiar, the Gaming 9 has some additional features and aesthetic improvements that make it stand out on its own. The first obvious improvement on the Gaming 9 motherboard is the shield that covers the rear I/O port section and the isolated PCB for its sound card. During the Z97 chipset many manufacturers started to switch over to using higher quality Japanese capacitors and while the caps were much better in quality they looked rather ugly on many of the new boards. It was nice to see that MSI designed the Gaming 9 series motherboard with the shield to cover up that section making the motherboard look much sexier. Let's dive in and put the MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC Motherboard to the test and see how it performed against its little brother the Gaming 5. But before we do that, let's talk a little about who MSI is.

AMD teases are starting to become a bit of a joke. The last exciting release from them (for CPU enthusiasts) was the FX-8350. The chip made some good improvements on the previous Zambezi architecture, but after that things went downhill. Of course the FX-9590 was nothing more than a factory overclocked 8350. AMD announced they were done with the FX lineup. They refused to adopt Steamroller to the FX series. They announced FX but then said it wouldn’t come out til 2016 and finally, they teased an FX chip that was just a 9590 with a new liquid cooler even though they knew that AMD fans are wanting a new FX chip. So when AMD releases a video that says “Core is Back,” you can probably understand why we need to be slightly skeptical. With absolutely no official info, all we know is that there is an A series logo and a possible promotion image that shows 12 cores. At this point, the A series logo seems to negate the possibility of an FX refresh. If that’s the case, then it seems pretty confusing to put this much hype into an APU. While APUs can fill a very appropriate computing niche, they usually don’t make up the kind of material that deserves major hype build up. Enthusiasts would want to see something big so that should leave two options here. Either this is going to be a type of high end APU aimed more at the enthusiasts market, or this is a marketing gimmick to try and pick up sales for something that may not deserve it. This brings us to the ...

ADATA Launches XPG V3 DDR3 Overclocking Memory Ready to Fire With XPG! Taipei, Taiwan – July 24, 2014 – ADATA® Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today launches the latest XPG V3 series overclocking memory, running at a stellar 3100 megahertz. Its dual channel is designed to bring gamers and PC enthusiasts ultimate performance by Intel® Core™ fourth and fifth-generation processors and the latest Z97 platform.   The Thermal Conductive Technology for Great Heat Dissipation With speed up to 3100MHz and transfer bandwidth reaching 24.8GB/s, the XPG V3 series once again pushes gaming to the next level. It supports Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) version 1.3 and utilizes the Thermal Conductive Technology (TCT), which reduces the system temperature effectively. It enables every chip have contact with the heat sinks directly, ensuring IC and PCB operate in an environment of equal temperature for the best stability, even in full-speed operation.   No Crash with Great Stability  Thanks to the detachable fins extended upwards and 8-layer PCBs with 2oz copper, the XPG V3 series provides superior cooling performance and stable data transfer. The 2oz copper can greatly decrease electric resistance and consumes less power for higher efficiency. It also helps to improve the integrity of signal transfer by the lower EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference), enabling overclockers to get excellent benchmarks in the circu...

Today we're focusing on two cards from HIS, a company we're very familiar with, having seen many of their products in the past couple of generations in AMD cards. HIS typically produces cards with custom coolers and aggressive factory overclocks, but these two are a bit different. The R7 260X and R7 250X are budget-oriented cards for those with modest budgets and looking for some affordable gaming, and perhaps even something suitable for an HTPC setup.

AIO (all in one) liquid cooling units continue to gain popularity due mostly to the cheaper cost to performance ratio, as well as their leak-proof and low maintenance design. If we look back a mere 2 years ago, liquid AIO cooling units were few and far between, and only a few manufacturers offered this type of cooling solution. Today we find a lot of AIO units flooding the market, and as you may already know, selecting the right one can be a hard choice with so many different styles and types readily available. I am very excited today, because I will be putting three new units on my test bench from NZXT. The NZXT KRAKEN X31, X41 and, Kraken X61 AIO coolers. These three closed-loop liquid coolers are follow-up products to the Kraken X30 X40 and Kraken X60 that were reviewed last year. The NZXT X31 X41 and X61 have kept their same 120mm, 140mm, & 280mm respective CLC design; however, they now come with some new additions in the form of variable pump speed control, increased radiator thickness, and Cam software. Before I continue, let me tell you a bit about NZXT.