Being a headphone guy myself, when Wes told me I was being shipped some speakers, my first instinct was either a portable speaker set for laptops or mobile listening, or maybe a small set of speakers for a desktop setup. To my surprise AlienVibes sent out one of their W401 model speakers. This is part of a new larger line of speakers that AlienVibes recently released. The W401 is a full size desk speaker setup with subwoofer. After clearing off some room around my desk it’s time we take a look and see what these guys are capable of.

Our pal’s over at Thrustmaster have once again sent us a review sample, the Thrustmaster HOTAS WARTHOG flight stick. While at CES 2012 I asked about this flight stick and what made it so special. After giving it a quick look over I knew I was in for something crazy. After reviewing the T500RS a couple of months ago I came to realize that Thrustmaster doesn’t make the cheapest products but they do make some of the best quality products. Read on for my impressions of the Thrustmaster HOTAS WARTHOG flight stick

Dinosaurs and rifles are a dastardly duo. Putting them together in a game is an interesting combination to say the least. It has been attempted before in games like Turok and Dino D-Day. Fans have shouted for a Battlefield 3 expansion with dinosaurs and Lukewarm Media may be here with the answer. Their new game Primal Carnage is a class based first person shooter that pits humans and dinosaurs against one another in an all-out slaughter fest.  Let’s take a look at Primal Carnage and hope that much like John Hammond, Lukewarm Media spared no expense.

Being in the LAN scene, mobility is something that is important to most of us. The solution for some is a laptop, for others it is a sling for their tower and dealing with the grunt work that goes into lugging around an entire system. More and more however folks are turning to smaller form factor motherboards that will fit into LAN boxes. Fractal has sent over one of their Mini ITX cases that can perform as a LAN boxe, the Node 304. Let’s take a look and see how it stacks up against the competition.

When it comes to cases there are two different types. The first is the flashy cases that are meant to grab everyones attention and show off all the cool hardware inside. The second is the sleek professional looking case that is all about style and function. When it comes to Fractal Design I always seem to place them in this second category. They don’t make anything flashy or over the top, but their cases are always functional, cool, spacious, and what I like to call business sexy. Their Define cases have always been a perfect example of this, today we are going to take a look at the Define R4, their lastest version.

We have taken a look at a whole collection of unique case designs in the past with two standing out more than the others. The Silverstone Fortress FT01 and the Silverstone Raven. Both stood out because of their 90 degree rotated motherboard design that works so well for cooling. Although no one else been making cases with the motherboard oriented that way, Silverstone is still working on perfecting the design now with their Raven 3. We loved the previous versions so I have high hopes for the Raven 3. Lets take a look to see what is new and how it performs.

A number of Lian Li chassis have made their way through the offices of LanOC. Each time they manage to surprise and impress us with something new or innovative. Today we get to take a look at their new PC-7HX mid tower chassis and see how it compares, not only to their own cases, but also to those of competitors. We expect it to have the same Lian Li quality that we have come to expect, but will this be your next case? Lets find out.

It wasn’t that long ago when we took a look at the OCZ Vertex 4, the first drive sporting the Indilinx Everest 2 controller. The Vertex 4 topped just about everything we put it through. When OCZ asked if we were interested in checking out the Asynchronous Agility 4, we jumped at the chance. With the difference between the drives just being the NAND used, it’s always interesting to see what real world performance difference you should expect when going with a budget drive. Not everyone can afford to get top of the line, especially when balancing capacity as well. Let’s see what you will be giving up and find out if it’s worth the difference in price.

We here at LanOC love to go to LAN parties for obvious reasons. The LAN staff especially like to make it out to other LAN events so that they can kick their feet up and just enjoy fragging, friends, and fun rather than spending the entire weekend working to bring a great event to the attendees. This weekend a group of us made our way out to Fort Wayne Indiana to the Indiana Tech college campus for the very first FortLan event. With great excitement we hooked up our PCs in preparation for the 27 hour long frag fest that was to follow.

One of the newer names out there that you may not have seen before is Oblanc. They are jumping into the market with headphones for gaming, music, cell phones and other products. One of their most recent items to hit the shelves are the NC2 line of U.F.O. themed headphones. The NC2 headphones are designed to be used with games, music, or listening on a mobile device.  All of Oblanc’s gaming headphones have a futuristic or alien theme to them, which in my opinion look very cool and it’s refreshing to see something new. The different models come with some unusual shapes, as well as colors and features. Today we will take a look at the NC2-2 (black and silver) model and see how the headphones will stack up against many other models and designs out there.