Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3

titleWhen it comes to motherboards, they really do come in every shape and size. With high performance gaming motherboards, generally you have to get a full ATX motherboard to get a wide selection of features. Micro ATX is a little smaller but not small enough for true portability. That’s where Mini-ITX comes into play. Most of the Mini-ITX boards on the market use the older 775 socket and have a limited number of features. Today we have the opportunity to take a look at Gigabytes H55N-USB3, their first Mini-ITX board. With my recent obsession with small form factor gaming rigs, you will have to forgive my excitement to check this out.

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Eyefinity for Budget minded gamers

titleAs much fun as it might be to play on three monitors using Eyefinity, the biggest hurdle to cost is the cost of three monitors, an Eyefinity enabled video card, and an active display port to DVI adapter. Two weeks ago I took a look at the HD5770 Flex from Sapphire that didn’t require an active adapter. Today AMD announced their newest active adapters, at 30% of the cost it should help keep the cost down.

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Cyber Power PC - Back to School P55 Configurator

mainIt's easy for us those of us that are PC enthusiasts to forget that not everyone has the inclination or know-how to build their own custom gaming computer. Most people just people just want to plug it in and play games, one of the reasons consoles do so well. But the current consoles are starting to show their age, which makes the PC more and more attractive. If you walk into the local brick and mortar, there's all kinds of computers, but none are all that good for gaming. This is where a good custom builder like CyberPower comes to the rescue. They sent along one of their "Back to School" builds to take a look at. Let see what they've got to offer

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Cooler Master Notepal U3

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A while back, we had the opportunity to review the Notepal U2, a simple laptop cooling base constructed of light aluminum. One of the most appealing features of the cooler was the unique adjustable fan system, which was effective and convenient to use. On my desk now sits the U3, the former's larger brother designed for widescreen models, which is perfect for a gaming notebook such as mine.

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Zaward Vapor 120

mainWhen I was told that I was doing a review of a heatsink from a company called Zaward, I asked around to see if I was the only one who had never heard of them. Since I wasn't the only one, I was glad to be the first to see what the guys from Taiwan had to offer.

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Sparkle GTX460 768MB GDDR5

titleAlthough we have reviewed countless ATI cards recently, we weren’t deaf to the recent release of NVidia’s GTX460. With people calling it the best mid-range gaming card on the market, I had to get my hands on one. After a few emails, Sparkle was nice enough to send one out to us to take a look. Using the reference design, we should get a good idea of their overall performance while also being able to compare it to my current favorite, the HD5770.

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Titan Fenrir Evo

mainA lot of us overclock our computer because we want high end performance without the high end price tag. But it seems all the cool guys want to convince you that you just have to go with water cooling. What? A good water cooling set-up can set you back more than the cost of the CPU. So why not get something that will keep your CPU cool, look cool, and won't break the bank. The Titan Fenrir Evo certain fills the "look cool" requirement. Let see how it does in the other two.

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ATI HD5550 and HD5570 GDDR5

titleWith a bump from the original DDR2 and DDR3 to GDDR5 on both its HD5550 and HD5570 cards ATI obviously hasn’t forgotten about its budget models. We have taken a look at their HD5550 twice before with both the ultimate edition and overclock edition from Sapphire. Today we get to take a look at both the HD5550 and HD5570 in their standard reference card configuration to see if there is much of a difference.

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Cytog's Guide to QuakeCon

titleThis week, the largest LAN party in North America begins in Dallas, Texas. As gamers, we dream of being among the thousands of like-minded gamers enjoying the four-day marathon. As fellow LAN party organizers, we can only admire what the once thirty-some attendee event has become. A group of our more dedicated community members, known as Team Waffle Train, have had the pleasure of attending the monstrosity more than a few times, and a member from TWT has been kind enough to share his guide to survivng the 96-hours of geekdom.

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Joby Gorillapod

titleSome times when you are taking photographs, you run into a situation where you cannot get that perfect shot. Sometimes it’s just a matter of not being able to hold the camera still while holding it in a weird position. The Gorillapod from Joby is designed to help in that situation, and with a price under 20 bucks it won’t even break the bank. Today we will be taking a closer look at it, we can finally perfect our myspace angles without worrying about hurting ourself!

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Sapphire HD5770 Flex

titleOver the past few months I haven’t hidden the fact that my favorite video card for a gamer on a budget is ATI’s HD5770. You even have the ability to run Eyefinity! The problem is, Eyefinity requires that you pick up an active adapter unless you are lucky enough to have a monitor with a display port connection. An active adapter can run you up to $100 unless you decide to go with a VGA model. Sapphire has introduced a cure for those budget minded gamers looking for their triple monitor goodness. The cure is their HD5770 Flex, let’s take a look at it.

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Samson Go Mic

titleThe pinhole-sized microphone input on your laptop is obviously not going to give the highest quality audio. For podcasters and some business people you just can’t accept anything but the best quality. Samson has a product for that core group of people called the Samson Go Mic. A USB powered high quality microphone that uses the high quality components of a studio microphone, but designed to be packed up with your notebook.

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Choiix Boom Boom

frontHow many times have you tried watching a Youtube video on your laptop/netbook and have not been able to hear the audio? The itty-bitty speakers they put in most of them are about worthless. Sure, plugging in any old set of speakers will give you better sound, but do you want to lug those things around with you to the coffee shop? You might as well be "that guy" who brings the whole office and sets up shop there. Wouldn't you rather have one that slips into a side pocket of your bag and doesn't weight a ton? The Choiix Boom Boom may have a funny funny name, but it could just be the answer to your sonic woes.

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SteelSeries Gaming Surface Comparison

 IMG_2423_PreviewAnytime input is provided to a computer, the human element is involved. This is most notable with the mouse. Every person is different, and so comes many different ways to control your cursor. Some simply think that this is the jurisdiction of the mouse itself, but since when do humans operate with DPI? You don’t go to your barber and have them cut your hair to the precise millimeter, do you? You want style, you want what’s fresh, and you want it to WORK FOR YOU! Jump into the article to take an in-depth read on three different styles of an under-appreciated aspect of your desktop, the mouse pad. Oh, and did I mention, STARCRAFT II?!?

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OCZ Vertex 2

vantageEven with the price of SSD’s still out of range of some users we see an amazing variety of models giving the most hardcore and wealthy enthusiasts a great selection to pick from. OCZ itself manufactures a model for any price or performance range. We already took a look at their budget/mainstream focused Agility; today we have a chance to put their new Vertex 2 to the test. Will the added cost equal better performance?

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RunCore Pro-V 200GB SSD

runcoreprov200gb_frontWhen you first visit RunCore's website, you'll have to chose what sort of consumer you are: professional or 'prosumer'. For those unfamiliar with the latter, it's a hybrid word to describe a 'professional consumer', or if you will, an enthusiast. Today we look at a solid-state drive, a piece of hardware any PC enthusiast drools over, provided by RunCore, a China-based manufactuer focused on the production of high-end solid-state storage options.

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Choiix Cruiser

100_3579_lanoc_front_lanoc_watermarkWith the flood of high-performance gaming mice on the market today, each contending with a myriad of features designed to provide the greatest aid in performance, it's easy to underestimate just about anything else. This reviewer, one who often games on a laptop in a recliner, using the nearest lamp stand as a mouse surface, can appreciate all the factors that create a good experience with a smaller factor wireless mouse. Today I kick back with Choiix's newest entry, the Cruiser, to see how it stacks up.

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Thermaltake Frio

frio_frontOverclocking is useful not only for pushing enthusiast cores to new records, but also for budget builders to get the most out of their money. Therefore, it would only make sense that a CPU cooler also be affordable, while of course keeping the processor from overheating. Today we review the Thermaltake Frio, a goliath cooler designed for overclocking capacity.

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Airlink Skyipcam777w

titleBeing a geek you tend to collect interesting gadgets and toys, and being into gaming that collection of toys turns into a high dollar collection of games, equipment, TV’s, PC’s, and computer parts. If you were to lose everything it would be almost irrecoverable. Our friends over at Geeks.com not only have a solution to help you keep an eye on everything, it’s also another toy to play with. In fact they carry an entire selection of Wireless Infrared Motion Cameras. Today we are going to take a closer look at their Airlink Skyipcam777w, a wireless IP camera with full motion capabilities.

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SteelSeries 7H Headset

titleSteelSeries has stuck with the 5H as their flagship headset for some time now so it was kind of a surprise when they announced the 7H a few months ago. Not wasting any time I made it known multiple times that I was very interested to take a look at their newest flagship headset. It's hard not to get a little excited, we enjoyed the Siberia v2 series when we tested them and we know their 5H series has a large following as well. What could possibly follow in those large footsteps?

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