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Introduction

I’m glad to see that mechanical keyboards are taking off with the gaming crowd. It used to be just me that was rocking a mechanical, then I slowly started getting my friends into it by selling them keyboards and inviting them to try out mine.

When I went back to the Computer Gaming Society IRC channel someone told me “Hey! Will! We’ve all got mechanicals now! Aren’t you proud?”

And I was, of course. Mechanicals make excellent sense for gamers looking for every bit of performance they can get, particularly if they’re playing competitively. They give you that slightest edge; they’re faster, more durable and they feel better than normal rubber dome keyboards.

The big difficulty is the price – where you can pick up a cheap dome keyboard for £3 and a gaming one for £20, a mechanical that costs £60 to £100 is a big step up.

What do you do then to justify a keyboard that’s nearly £200? You write a review on it, of course. Allow me to introduce you to the Topre Realforce 105UB – the Cadillac of keyboards.

Specifications

• Stroke: 4 mm
• Peak Force: Differential Peak Force
  Allocate 30g, 45g, 55g +/- 15g Peak Force
• Interface: USB (or PS/2 via supplied adaptor)
• Power Supply: DC5V +/- 0.25V, 100 mA (MAX)
• Cable Length: 1.5m
• Width: 455mm
  Depth: 168.5mm
  Thickness: 39.6mm

Packaging

The Realforce 105UB arrives in an understated plain brown box, the only indication that there’s a keyboard inside is the weight – about 1.5kg or 3.3 lbs.

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Inside, you’ll find the keyboard itself (in a clear plastic covering) and almost nothing else. There’s a brief manual, but that’s OK. This is a keyboard. We know what it does.

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Introduction

The LOKI from Xigmatek is in for testing today, very similar to its bigger brother, the Gaia.

We’ve all heard of Xigmatek, they came out of know where in 2005 with HDT (Heatsink Direct Touch) technology that not only performed well, but was very well priced too.  The Loki seems to be very similar to what we first saw from Xigmatek so we’ll see if the performance stacks up!

Specifications

Dimension: 92(W)x50(H)x134(D) mm

Fan starting Voltage: ≥7V

Fanspeed: 1200-2800 R.P.M.

Fan bearing Type: Hypro Bearing

Air Flow: 52CFM (Max.)

Air Pressure: 3.7 mmH2O (Max.)

Fan life Expectance: 40,000 hrs

Noise Level: 20-28 dBA (Max.)

Connector: 4 Pin with PWM

Weight: 330g

Unboxing

The box is made of a high quality card, shiny and is well designed.

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The back of the box has most of the important specifications listed.

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The bundled items include: Instructions, Intel and AMD backplate, Intel and AMD mounting bars, eight rubber fan clips, 16 mounting nuts and screws and a sachet of thermal compound.

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Introduction

‘Silent’ is a word that is greatly over used in the PC industry. Power supplies, CPU coolers and video cards are all marketed as being silent, despite featuring fans or other moving parts. These products may well be quiet, but they are definitely not silent.

Chillblast’s Fusion Vacuum PC is different. It is 100% passively cooled in nature, has no moving parts whatsoever outside of the optical drive, and the manufacturer claims that it makes no sound whatsoever.

Despite this, the Vacuum is designed to be an uncompromising general purpose PC, with credible gaming abilities, plenty of expandability and great overall performance.

Specifications

Lian Li PC-A05FNB Aluminium Tool-less Chassis in Black
AMD A8 3870 CPU
Nofan CR-95C IcePipe 95W Fanless CPU Cooler
Asus F1A75 Motherboard
Sapphire HD6670 1GB Ultimate
8GB Corsair Memory (2 x 4GB)
Corsair Force 120GB Solid State Drive
Samsung B123L Blu ray  ROM/DVD-RW Combo drive
Silverstone ST40NF 400w Fanless PSU

Chillblast’s choice of a Llano AMD chip is an interesting one. These processors may lack the raw grunt of a Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, but the integrated video solution is far more powerful. It also means that, despite being passively cooled, the Vacuum can actually be marketed as a Crossfire gaming rig.

Introduction

The Gaia from Xigmatek is in for testing today, we’ve all heard of Xigmatek, they came out of know where in 2005 with HDT (Heatsink Direct Touch) technology that not only performed well, but was very well priced too.  The Gaia seems to be very similar to what we first saw from Xigmatek so we’ll see if the performance stacks up!

Specifications

Dimension: 120(W) x 50(D) x 159(H) mm

Fan starting Voltage: ≥9V

Fanspeed: 800~1500 R.P.M.

Fan bearing Type: Hypro Bearing

Air Flow: 56.3CFM (Max.)

Air Pressure: 1.57 mmH2O (Max.)

Fan life Expectance: 40,000 hrs

Noise Level: 16-24 dBA (Max.)

Connector: 4 Pin with PWM

Weight: 460g

Unboxing

The box is made of a high quality card, shiny and is well designed.

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The back of the box has the most of the important specifications listed.

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The bundled items include: Instructions, Intel and AMD backplate, Intel and AMD mounting bars, eight rubber fan clips, sixteen mounting nuts and screws and a sachet of thermal compound.

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Mounting system

The mounting system of a cooler is an important part as without good contact between the base of the cooler and CPU heatspreader, you won’t get good CPU temperatures and could even damage your CPU.

The mounting system that comes with this cooler is excellent, it is clear that Xigmatek has taken time over refining and perfecting the system, I found it very easy to mount the cooler, fitting the fan after attaching the heatsink was fairly easy too. Intel socket 2011 mounts are provided too which is also good to see.

The provided thermal paste isn’t the highest quality in the world, in my testing the thermal paste did its job just fine but it would be nice if Xigmatek included some higher quality thermal paste.

Introduction

The Power supply is a component that has become increasingly important in recent years as the wattage requirements for parts ramp up and customers become more aware of their system’s impact on the environment – and their wallet.

Because of this many companies have begun producing PSUs, leading to a pretty convuluted marketplace, making it hard to decide which one to go for. While XSR doesn’t have the budget for a full power supply test run, we can do a couple of quick checks which will let you know whether you can put a unit on your maybe list, or strike it off altogether.

Today I’m looking at the Thermaltake Smart M650w unit. Let’s see where it belongs.

Features

• Support the latest ATX 12V V2.3 & EPS 12V standards.
• Guaranteed to deliver 650W continuous output @ 40℃ operating environment.
• High current & single +12V rail provides superior performance.
• 80 PLUS® Bronze certified: with 82-88% efficiency @ 20-100% load under real world load conditions.
• High quality Japanese main capacitor ensure superb performance and reliability.
• Ultra-quiet 140mm cooling fan delivers excellent airflow at an exceptionally low noise level.
• Active PFC with Universal AC input.
• Flat, low-profile modular cables allow for easy cable routing and increased airflow.
• Supports multiple core high-end graphic cards & CPU. (NVIDIA SLI & ATI CrossFire Ready)
• Dimension: 150mm(W)x86mm(H)x160mm(D).
• High reliability: MTBF>100,000 hours.
• Heavy-duty protection circuitry  of Over Current, Over Voltage, Under Voltage, Over Power and Short-Circuit protections.
• Safety / EMI Approvals: UL/CUL/TUV/CE/FCC and BSMI certification.

Specifications

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Introduction

Mechanical keyboards have become increasingly popular over the last year, particularly as peripheral manufacturers sponsor pro-gaming teams, and today we’ve got one more: The somewhat redundantly titled Cooler Master Quick Fire Rapid, a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard available with your choice of Cherry MX Blue, Brown, Red and Black switches.

Like many other manufacturers, Cooler Master started out in a specialised area (cooling) but has since branched out into a number of different areas, including peripherals. Corsair has followed a similar path and impressed me with their Corsair Vengeance suite of mechanical keyboards and gaming mice; can Cooler Master do the same?

Features

• Mechanical CHERRY MX switches
• Windows Keys disabled in GAME mode
• Extra key-caps bundled (with keypuller)
• Laser-marked keycaps
• Anti Ghosting
• NKRO in PS/2 mode
• 1000Hz/1ms response time in USB mode
• Multimedia shortcuts
• Rubber coated Keyboard surface
• Removable braided USB cable with cable routing

Specifications

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Introduction

Xclio have one mission in life: Make high quality cooling equipment to the best of their abilities. They have a huge range of cases made for gamers and tech enthusiasts alike, and the Touch 767 is one of the most recent additions to their Full Tower range.

The Touch 767 and Touch 787 are Xclio’s latest case design, a far mark away from the design of their almost iconic A380 tower. It’s all set up for water cooling and there’s enough spare fan slots that anybody who can invest in this case is looking at some serious cooling power.

Specifications

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Introduction

The HIS 7870 IceQ, the latest 7870 to come from HIS, it features a custom PCB and cooler. At first look, the card looks huge! At 29.7 cm long it’s longer than even it’s much more powerful brother, the 7970.  The combination of a fairly low power 28nm GPU and a massive cooler should make for a very fun graphics card overclocking wise and hopefully, quiet too.

Specifications

Core Clock: 1000 MHz

Memory Clock: 4800 MHz

Memory Size: 2048 MB

Memory Type: GDDR5

Memory Interface: 256 bit

Interface: PCI Express 3.0 x16

Card Dimension: 14 x 4.4 x 29.7 cm (HxWxD)

Box Dimension: 34.85 x 18.45 x 9.45 cm (HxWxD)

Box and Bundle

When compared to the last product I received from HIS, the 6950 IceQ, this is far more interesting. The box looks excellent and describes many of the features that the card has.

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Similar to the front, the back also shows many of the features of the card.

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The bundle includes:

CD driver

Installation guide

Crossfire Bridge

DVI to VGA adaptor

It’s quite a small package; I’ve certainly seen more feature packed bundles anyway.

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Introduction

The idea behind the Auna PS-7801s is a sound one – plug the transmitter into your hi-fi, MP3 player or PC, then use the speakers wirelessly up to 100 metres away. Admittedly at that range you’ll be in a bit of a fix if you want to change tracks, but whatever, we’ll go with it. With down-firing subwoofers, integrated handles and some very PC gamer blue LED lighting, the Auna PS-7801s could be a big hit if they live up to their promise of power and portability. Let’s have a closer look and find out.

Features

• 500W PMPO output
• Switchable blue LED light effect
• Easy transport with carry handles
• Three transmission channels for interference free transmission
• Transmission range up to 100 metres under ideal conditions
• Supplied with cable tie (!) and remote control

Specifications

• Transmitter input: 1x stereo RCA (with RCA to 3.5mm stereo cable)
• Signal to noise ratio: 65db
• THD: < 1%
• Channel seperation: 50db
• Transmitter power: 12V, 200 mA power adapter
• Speaker power: 9V, 1.2 A power adapter or 6 D batteries (for each speaker)

Packaging

As we can see, the speakers come in a rather plain looking box, with very little information about the product included. There is a nice ‘Achtung!’ warning, though.

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Each component is very well packed. Once we’ve gotten everything out of the box, we have two speakers, the transmitter box, three power adapters (one each for the three components listed earlier) and a remote, with batteries included. There’s also an RCA to 3.5mm stereo cable for use with the transmitter, and a manual in English and German. Finally, as these are a European product an EU to UK converter is included… but only one, and we need three. Hopefully this is a rare oversight, but it did delay testing of the speakers for a few days.

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Introduction

Every gamer has felt it at some point in their playing career. After a double digit hour session of console or PC gaming:  dry eyes, they ache, you can’t focus properly, they might even be watering. It sucks but its a price to pay for just one more game.

Apparently though, that’s not completely necessary. Gunnar Optiks have been making gaming grade computer glasses for a long time now and they’ve recently teamed up with Steelseries to produce some new branded pairs of the specs. Utilising a yellow tint, minor magnification and other lens features to make it easier on your eyes, the idea is to allow you to game and work for longer with less strain on those important eye balls.

Let’s see if they live up to the hype.

Features

SEMI-RIMLESS DESIGN
Provides a broad visual field without peripheral obstruction. See more. Win more.
TOTAL COMFORT CONTROL
Adjustable nosepads and twin-rail temples make the fit comfortable to any face.
HEADSET FRIENDLY
Unique SteelSeries temple design is comfortable and pressure-free with headsets.
REDUCE GLARE, IMPROVE FOCUS
Lenses designed to reduce glare, amber tint reduces harsh blue light for better focus.
MINIMIZE EYE STRAIN
Lessens visual stress and dry eyes.
IMPROVED FOCUS
Helps relax the ocular muscles to stay focused.
CHOOSE YOUR COLOR
Available in Onyx/Snow (exclusively sold on SteelSeries.com) or Onyx/Orange.
Rx COMPATIBLE
Custom order your prescription lenses through the GUNNAR Optiks Rx Program.

Unboxing

Steelseries use some generic “Gaming Eyewear” packaging for the Desmo glasses, with a big plastic viewer that lets you see them before buying.

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The back is similarly quite generic, but lists off some features of both the Desmo and the alternative Scope specs.

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Flipping the lid over gives you alternative language versions of the glasses’ features and a look at the arms.

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Along with the glasses you get a small, fold out leaflet explaining how they work – very vaguely and in laymans terms – and a white, cloth pouch to keep them safe from scratches.