Most people buying mousepads expect it to be small and light, so when the SteelSeries NP+ came rolled up in a bundle at half a meter tall, it looked more like a doormat than anything. Today Benchmark Reviews analyses the SteelSeries NP+ rough surface gaming mouse pad to find out what kind of innovation was put into making this unique gigantic gaming mat.

SteelSeries NP+ Rough Gaming Surface Mouse Pad @ BmR

Compact USB Flash Drives are certainly the direction companies are heading and rightfully so, everyone wants something small that can fit in a pocket and feel like nothing. The only problem with it becomes when you lose something so small. It would be a disaster if confidential data was leaked to the competition through an unsecure flash drive. With the Patriot Memory Bolt you can be confident that once encrypted with a password the data can't be accessed without unlocking the device. After ten brute force attacks the data is simply formatted from the drive.

News - Patriot Memory 16GB Bolt USB Flash Drive Review at CCEReviews

“Recently I was on the hunt for an affordable pair of headphones to use occasionally with my laptop. However not only did they have to be affordable, they had to sound good and look good. I really like the around the ear fit for its superior comfort and also I like the retro look with exposed frame and such, but those are hard to come by in the affordable range, until now. Upon my online research travels I fell across the ThrowBax lineup of EarPollution headphones from iFrogz. I immediately was drawn to the badass good looks and attention to detail. When I seen that they only retailed for $29.99, I was ready to try them. Then when I found them for under $20 at Amazon.com, I just had to have them. I was prepared for them to be junk, but I was delightfully surprised.”

iFrogz EarPollution ThrowBax Headphones Review @ Virtual-Hideout

"We are taking a look at the Thermaltake Element G ATX mid tower case today that is one of the high-end cases available today. It's not as big as the Element S but it still has lots of room and also has a nice touch of color with the TouchColor LED fans. It is a mid tower case with some very cool features."

Thermaltake Element G ATX Mid Tower Case Review @ BayReviews.com

The SmartSwipe does exactly what it is supposed to and it could not be any easier to use. There are however a few downsides with this product. At the moment Smart Swipe is only compatible with Internet Explorer and there is no Mac version yet. Also, the Smart Swipe is a bit expensive retailing around $80-$90 dollars U.S. If you think about though, it is well worth the price for the added security especially if you do a lot of online shopping. . .

SmartSwipe Magnetic Card Reader - BCCHardware

The LM200 is the middle child of Thermaltake's Luxa2 series of high-end HTPC enclosures. While the LM100 Mini offers a compact size along with a PSU and hefty price tag and the LM300 goes all out with space for a full size ATX board, the LM200 can hold a mATX unit and seems to hit the sweet spot on price / performance as well.

Thermaltake Luxa2 LM200 @ techPowerUp

Advanced Pro Wiring added to a growing list of iBUYPOWER Exclusive products and services

El Monte, CA – May 6, 2010 – iBUYPOWER, a leading innovator of gaming PCs iBUYPOWER and a three-time winner of Intel’s Most Innovative Desktop Solution award at the Intel Solutions Summit, is excited to announce it is now offering optional Advanced Professional Wiring on all its desktop systems.  Developed in the iBUYPOWER Labs, the new iBUYPOWER Advanced Pro Wiring service is currently available is designed to eliminate clutter and add to the systems’ aesthetic value. The Advanced Power Wiring Package includes individually-sleeved wiring for the 24-pin power, 8-pin CPU, and SATA power connectors and costs just $19. “We know part of delivering the ultimate gaming experience includes building systems that look the part,” said Darren Su, Vice President of iBUYPOWER.  “The new iBUYPOWER Advanced Pro Wiring service gives our systems a cleaner, more stylish look that matches the quality, computing power, and graphics prowess our customers have come to expect from iBUYPOWER.”Gamers looking to get the most out of their pro-wired systems can take advantage of the iBUYPOWER Labs’ Power Drive Overclocking Service or other iBUYPOWER exclusive products and services.  These include the Harmony sound reduction system, the Internal USB Expansion System, and free liquid cooling on all iBUYPOWER desktops.  iBUYPOWER also offers its Advanced Packaging System with expanding foam inserts to prevent damage during shipping.

It’s not a shocking revelation that the video game industry is mainly fueled by testosterone. According to a 2007 survey by Game Developer Magazine, women make up approximately 20 percent of employees. Moreover, it’s not a huge surprise that many of the top executive positions are occupied by men. However, there have been a small number of successful women who have broken through the “glass ceiling” and become valuable assets to their companies.

Futurelooks News Flash - Futurelooks Asks - Where Are the Women in the Video Games Industry?

- Available NOW in limited quantity from Corsair’s Web Store –

FREMONT, California, May 6, 2010 — Corsair, a worldwide supplier of high-performance PC components, today announced the launch of the Dominator^® GTX4, a new ultra-high-speed module with operation guaranteed up to 2533 MHz. These modules are available immediately, in limited quantity, from the Corsair Online Store.

 

We get a lot of cases from companies like Antec, Silverstone, and NZXT—companies that have been in the business a while. Every so often, though, a company new to the field decides to send something our way. That's the case today, as Microcool has sent us their first attempt at grabbing a foothold in the PC case market, the Banchetto 101. The Google translate-o-bots tell me that Banchetto is Italian for feast or banquet. We'll see soon enough if this case fills the bill, or leaves us hungry.

Microcool Banchetto 101 Case @ TechwareLabs

"The i3DSpeed informs you about performance of popular graphics cards and the best price/performance deals in the market. In this issue we added NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470, ATI RADEON HD 5570 test results."

iXBT Labs Review: i3DSpeed, April 2010

- a complete external PCIe expansion solution for customers

6 May 2010, Taipei, Taiwan – Netstor Technology today introduces its added external PCI Express expansion box series to its product line – the TurboBox-mini™ NA220A, a compact external PCI Express enclosure for ease-of-adding one extra PCI Express card to a laptop, desktop PC or server.  Netstor once again demonstrates its dedications in bringing complete and cost-effective PCIe expansion solutions to its customers worldwide.

6 May 2010, Keelung, Taiwan – Lian Li Industrial Co. Ltd. launches the PC-V352 Desktop/HTPC Chassis. The all aluminum design features right or left side mounts for ODD bays and multimedia I/O ports, giving users the flexibility to place the PC-V352 in any position they wish without sacrificing easy access. The sleek brushed aluminum chassis comes in black, silver and red, with a clean, easy-on-the-eyes front panel design. The dimensions stand at 279 x 262 x 373mm (W.H.D). The chassis comes with all the functional and user friendly design aspects that users have come to expect in a Lian Li’s case.

Dual fan towers have quickly become the aftermarket cooling standard for the PC. They are relatively compact, provide excellent surface area for cooling, and are limited only by the available room in your chassis and motherboard components. Of course performance is the key thing with aftermarket coolers and overall performance is a direct result of how well a company can combine everything together.

Thermaltake Frio Heatsink Review @ Ninjalane

You want a custom computer case really bad but you do not either have the time or means to make one, then what do you? Well guess what you are in luck! The guys over at Case Appeal have some really cool looking custom cases that you can choose from and even customize for about $200 USD.

CaseAppeal AV8 Custom Computer Case at Modders-Inc

It's always better to have and not need, than to need and not have. This Golden Rule applies to computer system memory as much as the other aspects in life, and having more RAM than your PC needs can only help matters. Multimedia editors require large amounts of memory to keep their encoding tasks moving at top-speed, otherwise the PC's much slower storage drive is called into play. Crucial offers the power-user a guaranteed boost to system performance, with their triple-channel 12GB DDR3 memory kit. The Crucial CT3KIT51264BA1339 UDIMM kit consists of three 4GB DDR3 modules rated for 1333MHz CL9-9-9-25-1 each. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the high-density RAM kit against memory big and small, fast and slow.

12GB Crucial DDR3 Memory Kit Review @ Benchmark Reviews

"Throughout the reviewing and testing, there wasn't really a whole lot I could pick as a problem with this cooler. It's cheap, quiet, cost effective, built well and best of all, it performs just like any other premier coolers I have tested on the market."

Zalman CNPS10X Performa Cooler Review @ Tweaknews

There is no denying that good cooling can make or break the stability of your system. Likewise there is no denying that water based cooling systems outperform nearly all other types of cooling for the same price. CoolIT Systems makes some of the highest quality and highest performing systems on the market. We take a look today at their new ECO ALC Cooling system to find out if it is worth your cash.

CoolIT Systems – ECO ALC Cooling System @ TechwareLabs

Like so many other memory vendors on the market, Kingston offers a wide array of solid-state disks for your perusal. For the low-end segment, it has the SSDNow V series, which at current time offer the best GB/$ on the market. We're taking a look at the latest release here, combining a recent JMicron controller with Toshiba NAND.

Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV425 128GB @ Techgage.com