With the Z87 launch, Asus made a few big changes with their mainstream motherboard line, the biggest being the change to the gold color scheme. That change came with a mixed response but the high quality and big feature set that Asus includes on all of their boards they were still very popular. With the Z97 launch, they have stuck with the gold theme but they have softened the color slightly to make it a little less polarizing. Today I will be taking a deeper look at the Z97-A, one of Asus’s mid ranged mainstream boards. I can’t wait to see what they changed for the Z97 launch and to see how the softer gold looks as well.

Typically, Intel keeps their chipset launches timed with new CPUs but todays (official) launch of the Z997 chipset does not come with shiny new silicon from Intel. There are rumors of launch days for a Haswell refresh but as of now, there isn’t anything official. Even without new CPUs we can still take a look at the latest in motherboards. To start things off, today I will be taking a look at MSI’s Z97 Gaming 5. With their new naming scheme we can tell right away that this is a gaming motherboard (of course) and the 5 is their entry level full ATX board with a 7 and a 9 that will round out the line. I’m excited to see what has changed and what remained the same!

Silverstone has been involved in the Mini-ITX gaming market for a long time now. Not only have they had a wide variety of case options, but they have also provided short cabled power supplies and more recently they have been the only manufacture with a good SFX power supply for small form factor gaming. On top of all of this, they have been known to really change things up with unique case designs. Their most recent Raven design would have to be considered unique as well. With a look that reminds me of modern day consoles, I suspect that the Raven RVZ01 could be the perfect case for a Steambox build. Let’s see if that is the case.

Once Fractal designs a case they normally go back through and make sure to design similar models that fit the needs of people who need small, medium, and large sized builds. There isn’t anything worse than finding the perfect case for you then finding out that it’s not going to fit your build. We already have taken a good look at the Arc XL from Fractal, so when the Arc Mini R2 came in the similarities were too hard to ignore. If it’s anything like its much larger brother we will most likely love the Arc Mini R2, but of course we have to take a much closer look to find out more about it.

The Mini-ITX market has been growing both in popularity and in options. That means where we used to have one or two motherboard options, nearly every manufacture has multiple options now. Along with that, we now have Mini-ITX focused heatsinks and video cards. Cooler Master is no different with them expanding out their Mini-ITX case lineup beyond the Elite 120 that we reviewed a while back. Today I have the chance to take a look at one of their other options, the Elite 130. It is very similar to the Elite 120, but with a little different styling. Let’s see if the Elite line can still hold its own against the growing competition.

Recently we reviewed the NH-U12S from Noctua, an efficiently designed tower cooler sized to combat most of the negative aspects that air coolers tend to face and we were pleasantly surprised by the performance. Today we take a look at the much larger NH-U14S from Noctua with a similar focus reasonable sizing and space for RAM and other board components while still bringing that top tier Noctua performance we have all come to expect. Will the U14S improve upon its smaller counterparts numbers or will we be left wanting? Join me to find out.

It’s a little crazy to think that just a few years ago Fractal stormed the market with their Scandinavian designs. Now Fractal is a common name in the enthusiast scene. They were able to do this because they never compromise on their design philosophies and their high build quality. As it turns out, people want a good product at a reasonable price, who knew right? Well today, I have the chance to take a look at a case from their Arc series of cases that are designed for increased cooling while still giving you the “fractal” styling that we know and love. Specifically today, I will check out their Arc XL, their largest model. I’m excited to see what sets the Arc XL apart from the competition and from Fractals other product lines.

Over the last few years In Win has really stepped up their game. They have been introducing limited edition case designs that are extremely unique and nothing like anything else on the market. After the first few designs I assumed they would run out of ideas but they have continued to innovate by incorporating tempered glass into some of the case designs. As most of you know I am a big fan of Mini-ITX builds so when In Win asked me if I wanted to check out their 901, a Mini-ITX case that incorporates some of the unique features of their concept chassis.

Over the past few years AMD has invested most of their efforts into their APU line. This has paid off for them in the way of performance improvements every launch and even more importantly this focus helped them score all three of this generations gaming consoles. Considering how many of the PC games that we play today are ports from those consoles AMD is in a great position to benefit from all of the fine tuning done on their console hardware. They recently introduced their Kaveri APUs and after spending some time making changes to our CPU test suite and retesting some of the competition I finally have the chance to sit down and talk about how their latest APU performs both from a compute side of things as well as the performance of the integrated graphics processor.

Noctua has always been known for their quality products and high performance air coolers. The issue with tower air coolers is that they often tend to be large, heavy and cover up portions of your motherboard under their bulk. While most companies have shifted their focus to the less intrusive all-in-one liquid coolers, Noctua has stayed true to their air cooling roots. Today we take a look at their NH-U12S performance cooler; a tower cooler in a smaller, more space friendly package that promises the same performance you would get out of larger, bulkier models and run it through our tests. Is the age of air cooling at an end or just in transition? We’ll find out.

I’ve spoken about it in a few previous reviews but it’s really important to remember that there are a few things beyond your PC itself that will really improve your gaming experience. A few of the obvious examples are your keyboard and mouse but there are others that you might not even consider. A perfect example of something that most people skimp on is their chair. The ironic thing is that your chair is used more than any other product at your desk. As someone who spends both their work and recreational time in front of a PC, a high quality chair is even more important. I have been using the same “racing” style office chair for nearly 10 years now, after being repaired multiple times the chair has seen better days. When I came across the chairs from a company called DXRacer they fit the bill perfectly. Let’s see if their M-Series Gaming Chair can keep me gaming for the next 10 years.

Variety is the spice of life, this applies to anything in your life. This is especially true in the phone market. Most people think of Android and iOS phones when thinking of modern smart phones but the third largest in popularity are Windows phones. Not only are they third, but their popularity has continued to grow. It’s about time that we get one in and see what all of the buzz is about. The latest and greatest Windows phone is the Nokia Icon, I have been living with it for a few weeks now and I am excited to tell you guys/girls about the phone and my experience with it.

The power supply is the single most important piece of hardware you can put into your system and while most enthusiasts like to go big and powerful, some of us are left with a much more down to earth budget for a new build. Cooler Master looks to fill this niche with its i-series power supplies that are meant to have a more budget oriented price tag while still providing high quality power and protection for your components. Today we preview the i500, the smallest in the line, and give it a once over to see if it is worth your attention.

At this point Logitech’s gaming mouse lineup is extremely well rounded. They have a mouse for just about every price point and gaming style. Some of you might remember back in the day when all they had was the G5 and later the G7 for gaming mice. The design of the G5 has carried through into a lot of their current day mice, especially the G400s. At a first glance the G400s has carried on with the same design that made Logitech gaming mice so popular back in the day. Today I’m going to take a look at the G400s and see how well that design is holding up compared to competition as well as Logitech’s own product line.

With so many keyboard options on the market these days it’s really surprising that there hasn’t been very much competition with Logitech’s gaming line of keyboards with their display screens on them. This past year Logitech went through and refreshed their gaming lineup including the G19s with its full color screen. Having a screen on your keyboard can be a little gimmicky but considering how popular they have been for Logitech I was excited to see what they did with the G19s.

Everyone has their short list of preferred gaming mice for various reasons and we rarely step outside our comfort zone with these choices, which is why I was excited when Wes offered me the opportunity to take a look at a gaming mouse from ROCCAT. It was an opportunity to take a look at something different from a company we have heard encouraging things about as of late and try out a gaming mouse that offered nearly infinite customization. Join me as I take a look at the Kone Pure and see if its deserving of joining our personal short list.

Even though it seems like the mechanical keyboard market has been blowing up. It might surprise some of you when you think about the fact that the mechanical keyboard switch market hasn’t changed a bit. The closest thing to change was a few companies putting to use a few rarer keyswitches from Cherry, the manufacture of nearly all of today’s mechanical keyswitches. If you don’t have a lot of knowledge about mechanical keyboards, Razer’s introduction of their latest Blackwidow keyboard may not of caught your attention. But they did something no one else on the market is doing. They introduced a keyboard with their own mechanical keyswitch design. At first glance the switch looks a lot like a standard Cherry switch, but today I’m going to take a closer look to see what it’s all about and how it compares to what everyone else is running.

As we get farther away from the initial launch of AMD’s lineup they have continued to fill in the blanks with a few other cards. One of those is the R9 280 that sits in between the R9 280X and the R9 270X. Sapphire sent over one of their overclocked models for me to check out. I have been extremely impressed with Sapphires product line this generation but this will be the first of their Dual-X cards to come in the office so I will reserve my judgment until we see how well it performs in our test suite. 

External enclosures have always been useful in turning veteran hard drives from old machines back into useful storage mediums but lately they have been making a comeback with more and more focus being placed on mobility and flexibility. Today we take a look at a new form of external enclosure with performance on its mind. The Blizzard series external enclosure from Icy Dock promises to give use the mobility we desire with not swap and plug-n-play functionality with the ability to keep our drives icy cool during operation.

A week ago at the time of this writing, we were within hours of LanOC v14.0 coming to end, though things certainly showed no signs of winding down. We were right in the middle of two tournaments with plenty of spectators watching over shoulders, attendees and staff alike roaming the floor to take a final look at the case show-off entries, and our network gear receiving no reprieve from the remainder of over 130 gamers in their title of choice. Before we revisit the final wrap-up of the event, let’s start back at the beginning of LanOC v14.0, which truly started the day before.