Many of our readers might not have heard of Grado, however in audiophile circles they are known as one of the best headphone manufacturers on the planet. They have been in the Audio industry for over 50 years now and are one of the leaders in design engineering for the …
Read More »AC Ryan Playon! HD 2 Network Media Player review
KitGuru has reviewed many of the AC Ryan Playon! products in the past and we have always been impressed with their pricing, user interface and build quality. Today we are looking at their new ‘full size' Playon! HD 2 which contains a 1TB hard drive and delivers gigabit lan connectivity. …
Read More »Sapphire HD5670 Flex Edition Review – low cost multiscreen productivity
KitGuru has been following Sapphire's excellent Flex series since it was introduced last year with their customised HD5770 FleX Edition. This card proved a good seller for Sapphire and they decided to expand their range with two new additions – the HD6870 Flex Edition which we reviewed earlier this month …
Read More »MSI P67A-GD65 Sandybridge Motherboard Review
KitGuru has covered the Sandybridge platform fairly regularly in the last month, analysing Intel's K processors, and pushing them to their limits. Today however we are taking our first look at an MSI board, the fully loaded P67A-GD65. This features MSI's clever Icy Choke Technology. These MSI chokes run up …
Read More »Kingston HyperX T1 2133mhz DDR3 8GB XMP Sandybridge Review – world first exclusive
Today we have something very special for review, one of the very few early samples of an upcoming kit developed by Kingston specifically for Intel's Sandybridge platform – a new certified 8GB HyperX bundle which runs at a very tasty 2133mhz. Kingston might not always come to mind first when …
Read More »Antec Soundscience Rockus 3D 2.1 Speaker Review
Antec are renowned among enthusiast circles for creating some of the finest computer cases and power supplies on the market. Like others in todays climate they are expanding into new territories and have turned their attention to speakers. This isn't a half hearted attempt however, with a new subsidiary entitled …
Read More »MSI R6870 HAWK (Twin Frozr III Thermal Design) Review
Today we are looking at a rather special card from MSI, the R6870 HAWK Edition with the new Twin Frozr III Cooler. With a 8+2 Phase PWM design and a dual fan speed profile switch connected to a new propeller blade design we have high hopes that this will be …
Read More »YOYOTech Warbird SB2500-460 System Review
We reviewed an impressive XDNA system from YOYOTech a few months back which impressed us with a tasty overclock and CPU water cooling ‘out of the box'. Sadly, this was priced for those people with deeper pockets, so we were very excited when YOYOTech offered us one of their latest …
Read More »Alienware M17x R3 Laptop Review (Core i7 2630QM / 256GB SSD)
Alienware are an iconic system builder. For years they have been building radical, futuristically styled machines which have featured in many high profile TV shows and movies. Several years ago Dell took over the brand, incorporating them as their high end, customised system builds. Today we are looking at the …
Read More »VisionTek Killer HD 5770 Combo Graphics-Network Card Review
Today we are going to be looking at a hybrid graphics/network card, featuring an amalgamation of technology from AMD and Bigfoot Networks. This card from VisionTek combines a 1GB HD5770 with a KillerNic 2100 to offer lower ping times with decent mainstream gaming performance. Focusing on high end graphics solutions …
Read More »Thermaltake opens new office, prepares new designs
While producing iconic designs like the Level 10 chassis, Thermaltake has been located in a small office on the outskirts of Taipei. Alongside a growth in the company's ambition, CEO Kenny Lin recently decided that he needed to grow the office. Champagne bottles at the ready, KitGuru sent a spy …
Read More »MSI CX623 Laptop Review – Core i5/Geforce 310M
MSI have a wide range of laptops for the enthusiast user and today we are looking at the rather sexy multimedia based CX623, complete with Core i5 460m, LED screen and nVidia 310M. In a perfect world, everyone would be equipped with a £3,000 laptop, but sadly in the real …
Read More »G SKILL RipjawsX F3-17066 CL7D 2133mhz (Sandybridge) Review
With the release of the stunning new Sandybridge platform from Intel, memory manufacturers are releasing kits designed specifically to maximise system performance. Today we look at a stunning new 4GB kit from GSKILL which operates at 2133mhz while maintaining the tightest possible timings. In the past, getting memory close to …
Read More »AMD releases latest (not) Stream SDK
Parallel processing is something which graphics cards do amazingly well and which regular CPUs are only slowly waking up to. AMD's developer kit has just been updated, so KitGuru decided to (in GPGPU's honour) multi-task by typing this story, while biting our nails, catching up on One Tree Hill and …
Read More »HIS HD6850 ICE Q X Review – the ultimate HD6850 ?
The HD6850 has been a strong seller for AMD since it was released last year, combining great gaming performance at a very competitive price point. Today we are looking at the new HIS HD 6850 which is supplied in a pre overclocked state and features a high performance ‘Ice Q …
Read More »Cooler Master Turbine Master Fan Review
Every performance enthusiast system needs high levels of cooling. An unfortunate side effect is that many fans on the market today can generate excessive noise. There is nothing you will regret more than buying a handful of cheap fans online without research. Unless you want to end up with a …
Read More »Jewel in EVGA’s European marketing crown moves to Asus
Today KitGuru can exclusively reveal that, in a stunning move, EVGA has lost its European Marketing Manager to arch rival Asus. Given how successful EVGA has been over the previous 12 months, this is a real surprise. KitGuru analyses the situation to see what it means. Toward the end of …
Read More »Sapphire Pure Black X58 Motherboard Review – overclocking performance
Over the years Sapphire have earned a reputation as one of AMD's strongest partners, bringing to market high quality, performance graphics cards. Their VaporX and Toxic Editions have garnered a passionate enthusiast audience who wait patiently for their release. In the past Sapphire have successfully delved outside the graphics card …
Read More »Antec High Current Gamer 900W Power Supply Review
Last month we reviewed Antec's new 80 Plus Gold Certified ‘High Current Pro 850W‘ power supply, and we were impressed. Today we are looking at the 900W model in their ‘High Current Gamer' range. As this series is 80 Plus Bronze Certified, it is a little more affordable, with the …
Read More »Can the Intel Core i7 2600k @ 5.1ghz slay its 980x Goliath?
The world's fastest desktop processor is the 6 core, 12 thread, Intel Core i7 980 Extreme Edition which comes purring out of its box at 3.33GHz. Costing more than £800 from UK stores, it's a monster in terms of raw processing power. Upon opening the latest shipment of second generation …
Read More »Dell XPS 15 (L501X): Intel Core i7 840QM/2GB nVidia GT435m Review
Dell have been releasing some great mobile products in 2010, and KitGuru has reviewed many of their range, including the fantastic Dell Streak smartphone which earned our coveted ‘must have' award. While Dell release a plethora of machines over the course of a year, one of their latest releases caught …
Read More »Eminent EM7080 hdMEDIA RT & EM7095 DVB-T Review
In a living room or bedroom the pleasures of high definition entertainment are becoming adopted by a wider audience. A large percentage of users however don't want a full sized computer chassis taking up precious space next to their television. KitGuru has reviewed many products from A.C. Ryan but today …
Read More »Dell Streak Review – ‘Ferrari red’ revisited with Android 2.2 (Froyo)
In August, KitGuru reviewed the Dell Streak and we thought it was one of the most exciting phones on the market. It was a dream combination of an iPad and a smartphone. The only downside was the early state of the Android operating system which meant it didn't quite walk …
Read More »Startech USB3.0 to SATA Adapter Cable and PCIe Card Review
Startech may not be very well known as a brand but they have been around for about 25 years and have a diverse range of products on sale. They specialise in connectivity so it’s no surprise that we have some of their latest USB3.0 gear to test today, more specifically …
Read More »XFX HD6970 3-way CFx & HD6950 CFx review
Ready for eye popping frame rates? This review today might just be the answer to your pre-Christmas hangover. We put AMD's latest and greatest through their paces in a variety of multiple card configurations. While AMD's 6800 series included solid products, the re-naming strategy confused many enthusiast users. AMD effectively …
Read More »Synology DiskStation DS211+ Review
Synology have been riding high in 2010, releasing some of the finest NAS systems ever to hit the consumer market. We use several of these devices in the KitGuru offices for our network file sharing and have found them to be both extremely reliable and fast. Last month we looked …
Read More »Inno3D Geforce GTX580 Review
While sales in the high end market are only a small portion of revenue streams, both nVidia and AMD are keen to be seen to dominate. With the imminent release of AMD's 6900 Cayman cards we thought it was a good time to have a look at the performance of …
Read More »Antec High Current Pro 850W Power Supply Review
Antec recently introduced a new range of High Current Pro series power supplies, including 750W, 850W, 1000W and 1200W models. All of these models have 80 Plus Gold Certification and are rated to 92% efficiency using the highest quality Japanese brand capacitors. The High Current Pro Series of power supplies …
Read More »Iiyama ProLite B2712HDS 27 inch Monitor Review
It has been a good year to invest in a new 23-24 inch screen, the technology is improving all the time while the price points are becoming almost irresistible. The 1080p market is booming and many high quality LED 24 inch screens can now be bought for less than £250 …
Read More »Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Motherboard Review
Here at KitGuru we have tested a whole host of motherboards from different manufacturers, encompassing all the major platforms on the market today. One variety that we haven’t ever tested is a Micro-ATX form factor board on any platform. Today we are going to look at the Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H motherboard …
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