In Win has been known to release some pretty unique PC chassis; their design team have some pretty creative ideas when it comes to its aesthetics and overall style. Of course, that's not always true. Sometimes we've seen some pretty questionable designs and wonder what they were thinking? This can be true of any manufacturer. Regardless, the are other times when we just get that WOW factor. Today, we are going to look at an In Win chassis that gave us that WOW factor at first glance. The In Win 901 mini-ITX chassis has a very sleek and elegant design. Its aluminum construction combined with tempered glass just screams sophistication. Lets break down the In Win 901 Aluminum mini-ITX Chassis and see if this classy design meets the build quality and functionality to match its initial WOW factor.

AMD's APU series market has really picked up pace over the last few years. The most recent updates to their current road map, included the new FM2+ socket A88X based chipset and the Kaveri Processor. This has really generated a great deal of interest with many of today's budget conscious consumers. However, with no updates to AMD's enthusiast FX series chip road map, AMD's APU series is really the only new technology we are seeing at the moment from its consumer line. With that said, we are excited to see that AMD is starting to put more budget friendly APU technology out in the market and we are going to shed some light on what to expect. Today we are looking at a very new low-budget APU inspired motherboard. It includes the Kabini SoC processor (which runs the Jaguar APU Cores) on a Radeon HD8000 series graphics base, and it does it all in a tight nit space. At the beginning of the year, ECS (Elitegroup Computer Systems) announced this Kabini SoC processing unit which houses an AMD A6-5200 CPU. It also includes a Radeon 8400 GPU all in a small mini-ITX form factor APU combo. Today we got our nitty gritty hands on this tiny power house to put it to the test. We are excited to see what this Quad Core A6-5200 APU can do. Before we jump into the details of the ECS KBN-I/5200 motherboard, lets take a look at ECS (Elitegroup Computer Systems).

After Global Foundries was formed from the Advanced Micro Devices manufacturing arm, they have flourished into one of the top semiconductor foundries on the global markets. Part of their success can be contributed to their contracts with AMD to produce a portion of their processors. Recently, Global Foundries has been looking to even further increase their size by the potential acquisition of IBM’s semiconductor fabrication facilities. AMD and Global Foundries reached an agreement increasing the amount of production done by the company. With this agreement, AMD projects that they will pay Global Foundries around $1.2 billion by the end of 2014. Their production prices will be fixed for the duration of their agreement. AMD has made this decision reflecting their projections for this year, increasing production quantities of PC semiconductors and some GPU and APU products. Between the increase of production for AMD and the prospective purchase for Global Foundries, both companies seem to be in very good shape for the future. AMD is in a very good position to increase their own sales and finally stand up against the massive Intel market. In all, Global Foundries just continues to grow in success as AMD and other companies increase their demand for semiconductor products. As Originally Written by DanielB Sources: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2014/04/04/glofo-ibm/1 http://www.amd.com/en-us/press-releases/Pages/amd-amends-wafer-2014apr1.aspx

In the past several months, the push for Home Theater PC's (HTPC's for short) has started to grow wildly. The allure of a fully modular home theater machine that does more than just play your movies or music is simply too strong for many to resist, and rightfully so. Oftentimes the question we may ask is "What platform should I build a HTPC on?" The answers vary wildly based on individual hardware preferences. AMD seems to think that one of the best choices out there for the discerning HTPC enthusiast lies with their newest Kaveri APU. While there are many choices out there of associated hardware, with more on the way, Biostar has one now that appeals directly to the audiophile: the A88W Hi-Fi 3D. Designed with both a high-end isolated audio solution and potential for tuning an unlocked APU, this motherboard looks to be a very sensible choice for those who want a little bit from every buffet of tech; the question is, "does it deliver finely tuned notes for enthusiasts of all kinds, or does it fall flat?" We're here to find out just that.

Back in January, NVIDIA leaked specs for their GTX 790, a new dual GPU card. Now, AMD is doing the same. The last time AMD and NVIDIA went rounds in this market, it was a one sided fight with NVIDIA getting the first release, and AMD getting in the ring so late that everyone had already gone home. This time around, AMD has announced a new dual GPU chip, only shortly after NVIDIA, called the R9 295 X2. As expected, the specs on both of these cards look pretty monstrous. Some frequencies have been tuned back a tad to compensate for the two chips, but what’s really interesting is the architecture choices. In spite of everyone’s excitement about Maxwell, NVIDIA chose to keep to the GK110 GPUs in the 790. While it’s obvious that Maxwell still needs some time in development, it also seems like the perfect choice with the heat and power efficiency performance seen in a dual GPU card. While it might be worth the wait, AMD has Hawaii architecture coming to their dual GPU card now. And if bitcoin miners loved the performance of the R9 290X, there is no doubt the R9 295 X2 will be an instant success. As it is, Hawaii architecture has already made great strides in the gaming market and if it wasn’t for mining inflating the prices, AMD would be the top pick for many gamers. If everyone comes to see the fight, it’s good to know both competitors showed up this time around. Another exciting thing about these releases is the future of dual GPU card...

A terrible cry of despair could be heard around the world when AMD announced they would not be developing their steamroller cores into the FX CPU line up. If that wasn’t bad enough, leaked road maps showed us no future for the flagship series making it very hard to believe that AMD cares about high end at all. This is a dark time in the CPU world in that AMD fans have lost all hope and Intel can have a monopoly on the high end. But maybe there’s a glimmer of hope which might bring vibrant competition in the future. If you haven’t heard of cpubenchmark.net, go there, and let’s take a stab at what the future might hold for hardware enthusiasts. If you ever plan to purchase a new processor and know you have a limited budget, CPU Benchmark should be the first place you go to. They have performance graphs of almost every chip on the market showing overall performance, overclocking, single thread performance and even power to performance ratio. While the website does its own testing, they also pull their benchmarks from thousands of users who buy the software to bench their own systems giving a convenient average score to help users decide on a chip. This will help you find a good range of chips to sort through, then you can look at more specific reviews to make the best decision. It was from these charts that something interesting appeared about the new Steamroller chips, specifically the A10-7850K. When compared to the previous flagship APU, (the A10-68...

DirectX hasn’t seen an update for a very long time. PC gaming on the other hand, has seen some very interesting changes over the past years, but more significantly in recent times would be the Steam Machine and AMD’s Mantle technology. These two offer a direct competition to Microsoft so it’s no surprise that they’ve had to find a way to respond and quickly. Without going into too much of the speculation that’s already out, it seems that DirectX 12 may well be a direct response to Mantle technology. The Steam Machine obviously offers competition, but it also requires that games be designed to run for a Linux based OS and is less likely to fill the niche for work at home procedures. Mantle could be much scarier for Microsoft, because if game developers design to it, there could be very little need to upgrade to a new version of Windows while still enjoying peak performance from the latest AMD graphics cards. To modestly explain why this works, Mantle allows more graphics processing to go straight to the GPU rather than having to use the CPU as the middle man. Still run Windows 7? No big deal because you have the latest AMD drivers with Mantle software. DirectX 12 hasn’t revealed details yet, but if it tries to garner the same kind of performance that Mantle does, it will be easier for Microsoft to pin it to newer versions of Windows, forcing consumers to upgrade in order to keep peak performance out of their hardware. While this all ma...

Small form factor PC builds are among one of the more popular topics on many PC forums. Building affordable small form-factor power-house PCs has taken a huge leap forward recently as many manufacturers are starting to saturate the market with more small form factor hardware. Mini-ITX motherboards and small, yet powerful graphics card availability is on the rise. With that increased demand becoming more apparent, we are also starting to see other SFF (small form factor) accessories appearing on store shelves. With that said, today we are going to take a look at a Cooler Master Elite 110 chassis. This one is designed to meet those looking to build either a budget friendly or a powerful gaming PC in a tiny foot print. Just how much versatility and style can Cooler Master pack into the Elite 110?? Read on to find out!

Gaming headsets are one of the most popular peripherals today for most gamers. Whether you are a PC or console gamer you probably at one point had some kind of headset that you used and abused. Today we find that many manufacturers are developing a vast array of headsets for both gaming consoles like the PS3/PS4 and Xbox, and for PC users as well. However, It's not often you find a headset that can be used for both. While some do exist, your options are much more limited. So this brings us to today. We are going to be looking at a gaming headset that might bring the best of both worlds. We have in our hands today the Cooler Master CM Storm Ceres 500 Headset. The sleek look of the white and black aesthetics really makes a statement. The first overall impression of the Ceres 500 is very strong. Of course, at a glance feel and touch isn't enough for most of us. With the number of hours we spend in front of the TV or PC, we need to know it performs well, is comfortable, and has great durability for long heavy use. Let's dive in and see if the Cooler Master CM Storm Ceres 500 Headset ticks off all the boxes.

The running trend today in top-of-the-line CPU cooling performance seems to be water cooling. If it’s not under water then most seem to think you’re doing it wrong and will never achieve properly high performance. However, there are those enthusiasts who would rather have peace of mind, knowing that they will never have to worry about one of the lines in a water cooling loop springing a leak or their pump failing on them, destroying their high performance rig. How do you gain maximum performance while minimizing the risk? Cryorig seems to feel they have a proper solution with the R1 Ultimate. Designed with the expressed intent of providing the strongest air cooled solution available, we are here to find out if it can provide the cooling performance the enthusiast craves without the mess and maintenance. First, here's a word about Cryorig:

Small form factor PC builds have been very popular over the last few years and when it comes to cooling your processor with an mITX motherboard, we find very few low profile coolers on the market that perform well in small confined spaces. However, today we are going to be looking at a new lower profile CPU cooler that looks to fit the bill for not only great cooling, but also great aesthetic appeal. We have the DeepCool Gabriel CPU Cooler on the bench today and we have installed this massive low profile cooler into a very confined chassis to put the cooling feature to the test. DeepCool isn't as mainstream as some of the other manufacturers in the States, but our past experiences with DeepCool show they have released some very impressive coolers for both budget builders for high-end PC enthusiasts. Before we dive in and take a full look at the DeepCool Gabriel CPU Cooler let's talk about DeepCool.

We're focusing on the ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP, an upper-range peformance card that retails around $420. ASUS is a company that continues to challenge notions and offer cutting edge technology for enthusiasts, and as a result, we've come to expect big things from ASUS. In terms of competition, the R9 280X is positioned against Nvidia's GTX 770, but as you'll see in testing, it's not quite that simple, as there are some apples and oranges comparisons here in terms of features; after all, gaming framerates only tell part of the story. So, let's take a closer look at the ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP to find out how it measures up.

MSI CES 2014 – Overview This year we had the opportunity to meet with MSI at CES 2014 Las Vegas. We were excited to take a glimpse at what we can expect from MSI this year, but before we go over that, let’s cover something else first. Over the last few years, MSI has taken a leap in marketshare. We have seen this with their Gaming Series, their MPower line of motherboards, and with their Gaming and Lighting Series graphics cards. Their recent release with the NVIDIA and AMD line up really sparked a lot of interested with fans, and we hope to see MSI continue this trend in 2014. Thanks to MSI for spending time with us at CES! Now, let’s have a look at what we saw from MSI at CES 2014. We will first star off with MSI’s Intel line up. The Z87 Gaming and MPower series motherboards have been well received by consumers during the launch of Haswell. One item in particular which that sparked our interest was MSI’s new mITX format Gaming Series Z87 chipset motherboard. With the popular and growing demand of small form factor builds recently, we weren’t surprised that MSI started growing their Gaming series line up. Here is a glimpse at what we saw. We were quite impressed with the features this board offers. It also has great aesthetic appeal, which it shares with its bigger brothers the Z87M Gaming and Z87A Gaming Edition motherboards. The fact that it was shrunken down in size and now offers an on-board Wifi Adapter was a pleasant surprise. We ...

Today we're focusing on the Sapphire R9 290, an enthusiast-classed peformance card that's a reference design. We typically see custom cards from Sapphire, and that may yet be in store in the not-too-distant future, but for now the R9 290 is Sapphire's competition against Nvidia's GTX 780. Looking to offer excellent performance for higher-resolution gaming, the R9 290 looks to be a powerhouse. Let's delve a bit deeper into the details with a closer look at the Sapphire R9 290 to find out how it measures up.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today launches another high performance model which belongs to TurboDuo series, the PowerColor TurboDuo R9 280X OC. Featuring the most innovative GCN architecture, the TurboDuo R9 280X OC fully utilizes the AMD Eyefinity technology, and support ultra high resolution gaming, providing unrivaled performance without sacrifice a single detail. The new TurboDuo R9 280X OC runs at a factory-overclock of 880MHz, even reach to 1030MHz with boost, together with 1500Mhz for memory clock, using 384-bit high speed memory interface connects to 3GB of GDDR5 memory, indulging gamers with higher frame rates. In addition to default OC setting, the TurboDuo R9 280X OC takes advantage of PowerColor’s exclusive Gold Power Kit, which includes multi-phases design, DirectFET and Digital PWM, delivering the best OC performance with stability. Packed with TurboDuo cooling technology, the new R9 280X OC features dual 90mm ultra huge dual fan, easily takes away the heat from the cooling fin. With patent GSG-shape heat pipes design and enormous surface of aluminum cooling fin, the TurboDuo R9 280X OC can efficiently cool down the temp. and increases thermal efficiency. TurboDuo R9 280X OC delivers the high quality image to end users by using metal cover design, makes it one of a kind and more solid. PowerColor TurboDuo R9 280X OC Core Speed: 880MHz (1030MHz with boost) Memory Speed: 1500MHz (6.0Gbps) Memory: 3GB GDDR5 Memory:Interface 38...