Antec are one of the big players in the market at the moment with a key role within the industry and with that in mind, have really been making a push across all regions especially with the gamer orientated markets.

Today sees us teaming up with Antec to offer some fantastic prizes for one lucky reader in the form of a LanBoy Air and High Current Pro 750W Power Supply

• You can find more information on the LanBoy Air Blue here.
• You can find more information on the LanBoy Air Yellow here.
• You can find more information on the High Current Pro 750W Power Supply here.

To win these great prizes, all you have to do is the following:

Not a lot can be revealed at the moment, but a small teaser picture should get your appetite going until the launch.

What we know so far is that the Z77A-GD45 will support the latest Intel 3rd Generation processors, but we will know more as Intel release it in the near future. Other models in the range will include the GD55, and GD65.

MSI feature wise, we will see Military Class III components, OC Genie II with 1 second overclocking, ClickBIOS II and a few more key features, which we will talk about more as things develop.

For now, enjoy the picture and keep looking back as we may leak some more very soon. From a first glance, we can see the heatsink design has changed quite a lot in terms of being longer, yet smaller in height. Not a lot more can be given away at this time, but we will be first as and when it happens.

With the 7950 official launch day being yesterday, we made sure to have a look at at least one card for launch to get the juices flowing, and now we can sit back and figure out how we can show different angles of this new GPU with its new technology.

This includes seeing how far things overclock, and of course obtaining more cards to show off the potential behind the 7950 cards in CrossFireX.

This will all come in due course, but for now, we were more interested to see what some of AMD’s other partners have come up with in terms of a custom 7950 and our prayers were answered when the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC landed with us. With an overclocked core clock speed of 900MHz and a custom cooler design, we’re very hopeful that this card can compete with the already mind-blowing XFX 7950 Black Edition that we already looked at.

For now, we thought that we’d give you a brief look at the card and its design and aesthetics, before we delve in and show you some of the performance figures behind it.

For more information, we will be publishing a fully written review showcasing the extensive benchmarks and tests, whilst looking at the card in a lot more detail, but for now; enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We were lucky enough to attend a seminar where Cyberlink were keen to introduce some new products to the market.

The main one being PowerDVD 12which offers up a whole host of new and exciting features, which left us excited with the new addon features in terms of connectivity.

Check out the video for a further insight.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With AMD releasing the Radeon HD 7950 today, we all knew that things would go a bit differently from when the 7970 launched back in December. The 7970 saw a reference launch with partners bringing out refreshed cards later down the line. The 7950 however was destined to see specialist models being released at launch including custom coolers and overclocked editions.

Today we take a look at the XFX Radeon HD 7950 Black Edition Overclocked 3GB graphics card which offers up a double dissipation cooler which XFX are famous for, as well as being overclocked past its stock speeds and being included in the Black Edition range of products.

Black Edition allows the components to be of the very best quality including a hand-picked custom GPU that is known to surpass certain limits in terms of overclocking.

Whilst this video review offers more of an aesethicc look at the card, we have all of the benchmarks in our full written review which offers a more technical look at things, and in a bit more detail. The video review gives a further look into the styling and design behind the card with our personal opinion on the card from a first glance.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here at the eTeknix headquarters, we try to stay as current as possible in terms of the machines used to test components.

The only thing that has really been holding us back as of late was our SSDs which were being run by a single 128GB Kingston V+ 100 SSD.

Not only was the speed and performance a problem, but the capacity was restricting us too, especially when it came to installing intensive benchmark software that can sometimes be almost 20GB per application.

Our good friends at Kingston have now graced us with FIVE Kingston HyperX 240GB SSDs for use in testing, so expect these to be installed in our test machines VERY soon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Roccat are one of the leading manufacturers in the UK when it comes to peripherals, with a lot of consumers longing for their latest products.

With this high demand for their products, we have teamed up with them for our latest competition to give you the fantastic opportunity to win a Roccat Isku keyboard and Roccat Kone[+] mouse.

To win these great prizes, all you have to do is the following:

With the 7000 series due to launch soon, and due to us having our hands tied, we can only say soon, meaning sometime in the next 365 days, but it could be sooner rather than later. With this new released eventually coming, we still find that the 6000 series is remaining steady and still going strong with the main contenders really being the Radeon 6850 and 6950 and of course not forgetting the 6970 flagship single GPU card.

With these cards being out a while now, a lot of manufacturers have been giving them a bit of a refresh by adding in extra features and added functionality. We saw this with the Sapphire 6970 FleX BF3 edition card that we looked at recently, which included a variety of technologies directly from Sapphire themselves. One of these technologies involved their fantastic cooling solution, which utilised a vapor chamber design known as the patented Vapor-X technology that has over time made Sapphire famous.

Today we find ourselves with another similar card that’s had the Vapor-X treatment, as well as a nice overclock. We introduce you to the Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 Vapor-X OC graphics card, which gives a slightly faster clock and memory speed and improved cooling to handle the overclock in a quiet and effecient manner as we’d expect from a market leader such as Sapphire.

With that all taken care of, let’s get straight into the packaging to see what’s on offer, as Sapphire usually take care of you when it comes to the bundled accessories, so let’s see if the 6850 Vapor-X OC sticks with that philosophy.

CES 2012: Inside the Kingston suite,we were able to see where the future of Kingston is heading with plenty of new HyperX branded products.

As we all know, when video editing or photo rendering, having large capacities of memory can be a vital requirement and can save time which can be very beneficial.

The first kit we were able to see was the new HyperX 64GB kit which was being pushed to its limits via Adobe After Effects by use of different layers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

CES 2012: As we attended the Gigabyte Meet the Executives meeting at CES, Las Vegas, we were comfortably sitting down when a loud knocking came from the next room and the doors opened to be greeted by Marketing Manager of Gigabyte; Colin Brix.

Colin blasted in causing quite a stir as he announced the boards in his hands were that of Intel Z77 origin and were “stolen” from his colleague in the R&D department of Gigabyte.

We were showcased with the G1.Sniper 3, G1.Sniper 3 M3 in Micro ATX form Factor, Z77X-UD5H, Z77X-UD3H and the Mini ITX form factor B75M-D3H in an early state which all support the new Intel Ivy Bridge processor utilising the Z77 platform, but Colin was unable to tell us this, due to restrictions from Intel. Bless him.

As we already know, Ivy Bridge will bring us a lot of new, vital technologies, including full PCI-Express 3.0 technology and native USB 3.0 support for the consumers who are eagerly awaiting for it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As CES 2012 is approaching ever so nearer, we find ourselves preparing in the only way possible, drinking beer and carrying on with doing work.

CES is only around the corner, and with it now being Thursday, we get ready to be leaving the United Kingdom on Sunday 8th January for a week of event coverage and checking out the latest goodies, ready to storm the market.

Hope you enjoy, and have a drink with us.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Look below to find out exactly what has been implemented and what is next to come, to make eTeknix bigger and better for you, our loyal readers.

As with change, new features come, and sometimes these aren’t fully functional and bugs are expected, so this is where we rely on you guys and girls. We have created a thread on our forums here where you can give us feedback on any bugs, fixes or improvements that you’d like to see us implement.

A list of what has changed includes:

• A whole new layout design with easy to use navigation
• Featured content slider that rotates through the latest reviews, articles and previews
• Competition box which shows the latest open competitions and giveaways

We’re big fans of Asus here at eTeknix, and we don’t shy away from the fact, and will shout it from the roof tops. Asus make top quality, solid built products that do what they are set out to do, but when we look at their ROG products, it’s a completely different ball game, as they do what they are set out to do and more.

You’ve probably noticed that our test machines consist of a Crosshair V for AM3+, a Rampage III Extreme for X58, a Rampage IV for X79 and a Maximus IV Extreme-Z for Z68 and that’s because they are some of the best boards around. Now if we focus on the Maximus IV Extreme-Z, you’ll find it’s one of, if not the most popular Z68 board on the planet and is aimed at all types of users, whether you want a basic overclock, an extreme overclock or if you are just a hardcore gamer, or even a mixture of these types of consumers.

Well, with technology becoming faster, things are also getting smaller and that’s where Asus have given the Maximus IV Extreme-Z the Gene treatment by creating a small form factor version, much like they did with the Rampage III Gene and Maximus III Gene to name a couple

From a first glance, it seems Asus have tried to condense the Maximus IV Extreme-Z down into a small form factor Micro ATX board, without leaving out the vital components and features that make it a ROG board leaving ample support for your vital components.

Though we now have a cut down sized version, does that mean performance will be cut down as well? There’s only one way to find out, keep reading for more.

We all knew that AMD were going to launch the 7000 series graphics cards, but not many anticipated that it would be quite this soon, with AMD bringing the date forward from the 9th January 2012 to 22nd December 2011.

By AMD bringing the date forward, the major downside to this is that it doesn’t give us much time as writers to get you the very best content possible, as we have to aim to test the card to its full capacity in a limited time frame, so that we’re ready for launch.

That aside, we are pleased to tell you that the 7000 series is here, or at least the 7970 is, with a reference design, while 7950 and 7970 partner cards will still be launched on 9th January 2012, so be sure to look out for that one. Not a lot of information was leaked about the 7970, but if previous card launches were anything to go by, we had a feeling that this could go horribly wrong and we say that for two main reasons. Generally when AMD launch a graphics card, they forget a vital thing, and that is to actually have the cards to launch. That involves making sure the reviewers have the cards, and so that stock is plentiful in stores and sadly this has happened again, but without digressing too much, we find one major flaw that tends to hiccup every time; rebadging.

When we’ve seen cards launch before, we’ve typically seen a bit of a rehash of an older card, much like we saw with the 5770/6770 and 5850/6850 and generally when they have launched, the performance has been slightly worse, so you can understand our downward view when we heard about the 7970.

From looking at the architecture however, it does seem that this card is a little bit different with a completely new GPU core and new technologies to back it up, and I can honestly say, from a first glance, it does seem as though AMD are learning from their mistakes.

The new GPU, codenamed “Tahiti” is part of the “Southern Islands” range of graphics cores and is now currently dubbed as their flagship graphics card with the 7970. Other cards are due to be released in the near future and with January 9th becoming ever so close to the present, we should see the 7970 being customised with different coolers and unique overclocks, but for now, let’s take a look at the reference Radeon 7970 from AMD.

]]> http://www.eteknix.com/reviews/graphics/amd-radeon-hd-7970-3gb-graphics-card-review/feed/ 0 http://www.eteknix.com/reviews/storage/hitachi-lifestudio-desk-plus-2tb-external-hard-drive-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hitachi-lifestudio-desk-plus-2tb-external-hard-drive-review http://www.eteknix.com/reviews/storage/hitachi-lifestudio-desk-plus-2tb-external-hard-drive-review/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:42:00 +0000 Andy Ruffell http://127.0.0.1/order45/?p=423