Four of us from LanOC left Ohio City around 3:30PM, right on schedule to arrive early in Wanamaker, Indiana early enough to drop our rigs off at the Stompfest event building. After hearing horror stories from MML late last year (a close call involving a car break-in), we were a bit gun shy to leave our equipemnt in a car over-night. Initially armed with Mapquest printed connections, Wes (garfi3ld) soon upgraded us with his TomTom.

When it comes to heatsinks little changes but just when you think that it's all been done someone comes along and says they can do better. Sometimes it's with a new design or shape, other times it's using TEC cooling, and then sometimes it's just plain ol' size. Noctua has recently introduced the NH-D14 and D14 apparently means "monster". This has to be the largest heatsink I have ever seen and now it's sitting on our workbench today begging to be tested, let's jump in.

Available at Acoustic PC

When the first Bioshock was released back in 2007, one may have considered it a sleeper hit. At least at first. It wasn't long before the title became immensely popular, even to the point of spawning perhaps one of the most substantial phrases in the current gaming era. Bioshock 2 has since enjoyed the limelight its predecessor had acquired, being one of the most anticipated games of 2010. Several weeks after it's release, and some fresh DLC, I take a look back on the title. Would you kindly join me?

With the SSD market growing it wasn’t a surprise when Western Digital joined the market recently with their SiliconEdge Blue SSD. Even with the prices dropping SSD’s are still out of range for most enthusiasts. The only way most people can pick them up is settling with a 30 and 60 GB SSD, of course this leads to a balancing act trying to keep from filling up your SSD. Today Western Digital is introducing their newest version of the Velociraptor, a 600GB (or 450GB), 10k RPM monster than should hold anything you need without any worries.

Named after a triple system that lies light-years away from Earth, the Keid is Mionix's first contender in the gaming audio realm. Mionix strives to create professional yet ergonomic products, two criteria kept well in mind during the development of their maiden headset. Today we sit down to see if the Keid 20 shines brightly or fades away.

Having the opportunity to play a game that hasn't gotten a lot of press is a chance to make known the truth about something most people may not have tried. It's kind of like when a new flavor of energy drink comes out. I mean you don't want to waste your money on it (FYI, RockStar Cola sucks). Hit the jump as I take you through the world of Trine and let you know what makes it good, what makes it bad and most importantly why loin clothes are making a comeback.

We recently took a look at Silverstone's RV02, better known as the Raven 2. With the entire motherboard rotated 90 degrees for ideal cooling performance we were very impressed. Today I have the chance to take a look at the RV02's more professionally dressed older brother the FT02, better known as the Fortress 2. With things being very similar to the Raven 2 I am curious to see how the Fortress 2 compares to the similarly styled Cooler Master ACTS 840. Which is my current case at the moment. Considering that, this review should prove to be most interesting for me.

A week or so ago we took a look at the Smog, Ozone's entry into the competitive gaming mouse industry. As any gamer is aware, however, a good mouse needs to be complimented with a good surface. Not to fall short in this category, Ozone has released two lines of mousepads of their own, and today with sit down with the more portable Ground Level series, which comes in three sizes.

With all of this talk about gaming mice recently it’s easy to forget that mice are only part of the package. A good mouse pad helps your mouse move smoothly and can help your mouse track more accurately. SteelSeries developed the 4HD along side of the Xai for best performance with the most current gaming mice. Considering the Xai's recent review I am excited to see what else Steel Series can do.

The NotePal laptop cooling line from Cooler Master has several options in it's arsenal, many (if not all) that we've had the pleasure of reviewing. However, when we saw their latest addition to the series at CES 2010, we we're anxious to get our hands on it. The ErgoStand boasts many of the features that have made past models so popular, and sports some great new additions of it's own. Fresh to the market, today I sit down with a sample to put to the test.

With a MSRP under $35 SteelSeries took a different approach to the Kinzu than with their other mice. At a price that is in direct competition to Microsoft’s X3 and Razer’s Salmosa the Kinzu could be a great  entry level gaming mouse. But after you take all of the costly features off, is it still a gaming mouse? Or has it been watered down to a step above your basic ball mouse? Let’s find out.

SteelSeries was fairly new to the mouse scene when they introduced the Ikari in August of 2007. The Ikari was and  still is an amazing mouse, when Steel Series told me that they have spent years perfecting their next mouse I definitely had to see what all the fuss was about. Today I will be taking a look at the Xai, SteelSeries' newest gaming mouse.

To be honest I've never used a gaming mouse before and I've never really understood why simply changing one's mouse can increase gaming performance and experience. Well that's how I felt until I tried out a hardcore gaming mouse. That mouse is the Cyber Snipa Silencer Superior Laser Gaming Mouse. I put it through the paces for a few weeks and here's what I thought.

With so many manufactures getting into the growing gaming mouse market some of the biggest manufactures like Razer must innovate and change what they are doing to stay competitive. An example of that was our review of their redesigned Deathadder mouse; today we have the chance to take a look of one of their newest mice, the Imperator.

Outside of the big names in the gaming peripheral business you can find many different manufactures fighting for even just a tiny piece of market share. A few of those names you may have even heard of. Cooler Master's Sentinel mouse for instance. Now Cooler Master isn't the only gaming case manufacturer who has a few ideas on what they think a gaming mouse should be. NZXT, has a 7 button gaming mouse called the Avatar that we have the chance to look at today. Can the little guys out-do the big names at their own game?

The Naos 5000 is Mionix's third entry into the gaming mouse line, holding true to the company's dedication to naming products after extraterrestrial beings. The Naos is one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way galaxy, whose trail is visible from Earth. It also has a peculiarly high rotation speed which comes from the interaction with other stars. In this brief history of the Naos 5000, similies to the mouse's performance are abundant. With a quick look over some of the features, it's clear why. Mionix has sent us a sample to test for ourselves, and today we sit down with the company's 'brightest' star.

This week we will be doing something new and interesting. We have a collection of mice from multiple manufactures sitting around for review. Enough in fact to fill an entire week. So to celebrate the most handled part of your PC we present our Rodent Week, we hope you enjoy it.

Confident newcomer to the American gaming peripheral industry Ozone has recently released their first model of a gaming mouse, the Smog. With several features that appeal to the gaming enthusiast, Ozone boasts that the Smog will 'give you the best gaming experience ever.' Of course, here at LanOC, we don't take a claim like that too lightly. Ozone has sent us a sample of the Smog to test for ourselves.

With SSD’s becoming more and more affordable they are slowly starting to reach the hands of eager enthusiasts and gamers. In fact, we are just now starting to see a few pop up in rigs at our own LAN parties. One of the biggest brands in this market is OCZ and they have a variety of models including the reasonably priced Agility series. One of which we will be looking at today.

Microsoft's Sidewinder line, specialized gaming peripherals for the PC, is starting to see quite a few pieces in it's roster. You may recall the Sidewinder X6, their first keyboard made entirely themselves, with several great features that appeal to gamers. This month will see the launch of the new Sidewinder X4, and Microsoft has sent a sample to check out.