Our friends over at Razer have been hard at work introducing a new product line called Razer Gear. Along with that product line you will find products ranging from T-Shirts to messenger bags. Today I am going to take a quick look at their 17 inch Laptop Sleeve to get an idea of what all of the fuss is about.

Everyone has their own idea of what perfect is, this is why you see such a wide variety or products. Mouse pads are the same way, one pad may be the end all be all for one person, and another person could hate it. Because of that we have seen Razer produce hard and soft mouse pads in the past year. Today I will be taking a look at their newest design aim directly at people who don’t like using a mouse pad at all. The Razer Sphex claims to be the thinnest mouse pad on the market. Let’s hope performance isn’t figured by weight!

In the past I have reviewed multiple Microsoft Sidewinder products including the X5 and X8 mice. I was impressed with the performance and features of both specifically with the wireless X8. The only problem is not everyone can afford to throw down the money for the gaming mice that are coming out. Prices for some high end gaming mice are over $100 now, add that to the other costs of a gaming rig and you are talking to much money for most gamers. Microsoft recognized this with the x5 making a mouse with all of the great features and a better price. Of course to some the x5 is still out of range, this is where the new x3 comes in. Price a little higher than a basic mouse, but with almost all of the same features found on the x5 and x8 at a regular mouse price the x3 promises to be a great value for budget minded gamers.

I recently decided to jump onto the Netbook bandwagon (a little late) as a portable replacement for my 14.1 inch laptop. The smaller size of my 10 inch Netbook gave me the ability to carry it on me most of the time without a heavy laptop bag slowing me down. Of course, this means that it is being transported with almost no protection. While looking into options I was peeking around at the Choiix website remembering that they had a lot of creative solutions for Netbooks at CES. A small professional sleeve caught my eye called the Easy Fit Netbook Sleeve. Today I am going to see how well this sleeve performs in everyday use. Will it protect your Netbook from damage? I will soon find out.

Not long ago I had the chance to take a close look at Microsoft's Sidewinder X8. One of the X8's main features was the BlueTrack Technology used with its optical sensor that boasts the ability to work on virtually any surface. In my testing I found this to be true, but not really needed in a gaming mouse. BlueTrack Technology would be perfect for portable use in a laptop mouse where you never know what surface you will be using as a mouse pad. Today I have the chance to test out this theory because Microsoft's new Explorer Mini mouse using BlueTrack and I will be putting it to the test.

Yesterday I took a look at Cooler Masters Hyper TX-3 entry level heatsink and was surprised considerably by its performance and value. Today I will be following that review by taking a look at what I can only call its older brother the Hyper 212 Plus due to the Hyper 212 Plus being the same design only larger. The Hyper 212 has been around for some time providing great performance in a mid range price. With the updated Hyper 212 Plus they have most likely updated the performance along with the added compatibility for the upcoming Lynnfield or i5 CPU later this year. I plan to put the updated version to the test and find out how it compares to a range of different heatsinks.

Running a expensive high end heatsink like the v10 or even the v8 is not feasible for everyone due to space or financial reasons. Also as crazy as it seems to me most people aren't looking for the most extreme cooling solution, some are only looking for an improvement over stock cooling. Cooler Master has recognizes this and has recently released the TX-3 CPU cooler for that market. Today I will be taking a closer look at the TX-3 to see how well it compares to other heatsinks that we have tested in the past along with if it fits the needs of the entry level market that it is designed for.

For years the idea of video conferencing and video phones was only a pipe dream or a prop in low budget Sci-Fi films. When the internet came around this dream started to become a reality but with many limitations. More recently the idea of video phones has gained a little more traction with the inclusion of microphones and web cams on almost every laptop and some home pc's (in fact I type this right now on a low budget netbook with the features needed to do this). Of course not everyone has this ability and this is where Microsoft comes in with their LifeCam series, specifically the VX-5500. With programs like MSN(windows) messenger and Skype along with the VX-5500 you have the ability to let people see you while they talk (of course this depends on if they really want to see you). Today I'm going to take a look at the VX-5500 to see how it performs at home and on the go to keep in touch with friends and family.

We've come to a day and age where having just one hard drive, regardless of its size, just isn't enough. Whether its a media, gaming, or task computer, multiple hard drives have become a necessity. In non-transparent cases, this isn't much of a problem, but for those who are lookng to show-off their rig all those SATA cables can become as unappealing as any other. A reasonable solution is adding UV lights to any case, which can be paired with VIZO's Starlet line, in our case the UV reactant SATA cables.

Cables suck. They're stubborn, thick, restrictive, and unattractive. While there have been countless attempts to try and eliminate the inconvenience, the cruel truth is that in our current generation, cords are a necessity. Even when wireless capabilites are available, a conflict of speed enters the equation. Bottom-line is they're not going away, so Vizo has come up with a way to help make cables a little more livable, and look good while doing it. Today we take a look at the Starlet Cable Binding kit.

When you pay hundreds of dollars or even thousands for a gaming pc, you expect quality.  That includes not having your machine sound like a sad excuse for a vacuum cleaner.  Fans are a critical component in any machine, cooling your vital components and allowing for optimal performance.  Unfortunately, typical stock fans or any fan short of the expensive ones often sound noisy at full power.  This is the point where you pick up a fan controller, a device that in truth, controls the amount of power your fans get.  Using one of these gadgets allows for minute adjustments in fan speed, allowing for a perfect balance of noise as well as cooling.  Now, fan controllers are an age old pc accessory, but that doesn't stop manufacturers from trying to perfect the technology.  Lamptron has cooked up three different iterations of this tech, and graciously sent us one of each to tinker with.

Antec has been slowly refining their case lineup one at a time. We haven't really seen a lot of completely new designs from them this year, this has a lot to do with the state of the economy. With the P180 series of cases Antec has always had a strong focus on the noise performance of their cases. Of course as we have learned in the past, quite can sometimes mean hot. In order to fix some of those issues they have released the P183. We are going to take a look at the changes along with the overall usability of the P183 as a gaming and HTPC chassis.

After living with an HTPC as a main source of television for months now I quickly learned that a wired mouse and keyboard just weren't going to cut it. In the world of wireless keyboards and mice there is an almost endless selection, a quick search on Newegg turned up round 100 keyboards alone. Of those 100 most of them have limited or no media center controls that are key features for an HTPC. One of setups that stood out was Microsoft's Entertainment Desktop 7000 with Blue-tooth, a wireless mouse included, and media center controls. Today I will talk about my experience spending time with this setup, did it live up to my expectations?

I'm not used to being spoiled when it comes to power supplies, being still somewhat new in the world of hardware I usually settle with what'll get me by. Lian-Li is a company that has had her share of the spotlight in our News section, so I jumped at the opportunity to test out one of the products I hear so much about. After seeing first-hand the quality Lian-Li invests in their products, especially power supplies in this case, I am beyond impressed. Heres how things broke down:

With the Socket 1366 platform becoming more and more popular many gamers have been looking for quality heatsinks to keep their rigs cool. This has been even more important with the overclockability of the i7 920. Our friends in Austria, of course, were on top of their game right away giving out free clips to owners of their heatsinks to anyone who wanted to upgrade to an i7 (this deal is still going on if you are interested). Of course, they have also brought out a special edition version of their NH-U12P specifically for i7 owners with a few small changes (socket 1366 mounting and dual fans included) to make sure keep everything cool. Today we will be taking a look at that model to see how it performs against a few other socket 1366 heatsinks.

A few weeks ago, I took a look at the super small PICO USB drive from Super Talent. I was extremely impressed with its size and portability along with its performance. Today I have an opportunity to look at another one of Super Talents USB drives. The Luxio series of thumb drives is a high capacity luxury design is for people who need to store larger amounts than can be found on the smaller PICO drives. Today we are going to test the performance and usability of a 64 gig capacity version of the Luxio series to see how it compares to its smaller PICO brother.

Cooler Master introduced their line of gamer focused cases at the beginning of this year. I was lucky enough to win a computer that included their Storm Sniper case, I have been using it for a few months and have been very impressed with the small details. Today we have the pleasure of taking a closer look at Cooler Master Storm's newest chassis the Scout. The Scout is a mid tower with a focus on portability for gamers who need to transport their rig to LAN Partys and tournaments, in other words its right up our ally!

Cooler Master has made their name producing PC cases for gamers that provide good cooling along with innovative styling. This past August Cooler Master introduced a new case called the HAF 932, HAF being an acronym for High Air Flow. If all of their cases have top of the line cooling, what is it they considered high air flow? With 4 fans adding up to 830mm's of fan along with a ton of mesh the HAF defiantly lived up to its name. Of course with it being a full sized case there was a demand for a mid tower version. Today we have the unique opportunity to look at what Cooler Master designed to fill that gap before you can even buy it in stores. Today we take a look at the HAF 922 and find out if it will live in the shadow of its big brother, or make a name for itself also.

Alright, it's time to come clean.  You can't deny harboring some inner desire to fly.  Unfortunately for humans as a species, we have all the the aerodynamics of a rock covered in silly string.  We are resilient, however, determined if you will, to dominate the skies.  Thus we fashioned great metal birds in order to pioneer yet another glorious frontier.  This innate desire to fly, and by proxy, pilot aircraft has translated into our entertainment with the Flight Simulator franchise and games like Tom Clancy's HawX.  Of course, on terms of reality, navigating a plane with any stock system controller is bunk.  Real cockpits are a literal slew of devices and mechanism all used to prevent the craft from going nose down.  So for a more interesting and realistic flight experience,  manufacturers have been developing special controllers for quite some time, in an effort to simulate as true of a flight experience as best as possible.  Thrustmaster, ever adept as they are at creating desirable peripherals, have a few such products and were kind enough to send us their T.Flight Hotas X to take for a spin.

Today I will be reviewing the Endo laptop messenger bag from Spire. Laptops are made to be portable and are also quite expensive . When taking your laptop out into the public you need as much protection as you can get. Is this the one messenger bag to top the rest?