In this third and final segment of our look at the gaming peripherals set sent to us by the good folks at Genius we took a look at their gaming headset named the Cavimanus.

Headsets are another of those peripherals that you have to judge as much by tactile experience as specifications do to the fact that they are one of those human/machine interface devices. Because of that, no matter how well they perform in a lab, if it is not comfortable and easy to interface with you will not get good results.

Out of the box the Cavimanus has a striking angular style to it, add to that a red trimmed black color scheme and you can tell immediately that this headset was meant to match the Gilla mouse we looked at last week. The Cavimanus headset is of a clamp design and has vinyl rimmed squarish large ear cups. Well padded and light, it seems built solidly and with comfort in mind. Indeed, donning the Cavimanus reveals an initial comfort level higher that I have seen with most clamp style headsets.

Visible features of note are a swing down mic boom that in the up position locks into a recess in the left ear cup. Also we see a volume knob on the left ear cup and a button. Button? Hmmm what is this? It is labeled simple “((V))”. A mystery. I like mysteries as long as they don’t involve a creepy guy in a rubber mask. What could ((V)) mean? Volume seems the most obvious answer but there is a volume knob already on the Cavimanus. Vanish, maybe it’s a stealth mode? No not vanish, that would be silly, I think. Hmm, vector, vision, venture, nothing made sense. Oh well it will come to me eventually I’m sure.

As with the other items we have looked at from this set the Cavimanus rocks the cool scorpion logo, again reassuring us that this headset is meant to be part of a GX gaming set. One last observation, the Cavimanus is done up in a brilliant high gloss finish which though beautiful shows finger prints terribly bad. At this point I decided to wash my hands and stop eating Pizza Rolls till I was done handling this thing.

One other thing on initial inspection that did not thrill me was that unlike the other components of this matched set the Cavimanus does not sport a nice braided cord. Unexpected since this is all part of the same line of GX-Gaming items.

Ah well enough on the looks this is a headset and I won’t be able to wear it and look at it at the same time. Time to put this thing on, install the software and see what it can do.

As with the other GX items we have looked at the software is a breeze to install and use. Here you can adjust about anything in the way of performance from equalization to surround effects up to simulated 7.1. So far so good, lets try some music to start. I have a standard set of music that I try on all headphones and headsets that I test so that I am comparing them based on the same set of expectations. Trying to cover a wide spectrum the play list ranges from light flutes in Fisherman’s Dream by Spencer Brewer to light and tight strings of Southwind by Joemy Wilson, to heavier rock like Tom Sawyer and Bastille Day by Rush, and When We Stand Together by Nickleback. The mix includes a lot of others but I like to give an idea of the range of music I use so you understand I am not just looking for volume and base as indications of quality like many others seem to when testing headphones. Imaging and transparency would seem like a given thing when you have speakers one inch from your ear drums but I have seen some headphones that did not pass muster.

The Cavimanus as expected starts out pretty flat with a slight emphasis on the mid bass until you set up the equalization software, then this thing really starts to shine. The 40mm neodymium drivers put out good amounts of volume and little to no noticeable distortion. I started off with about 2 hours of on and off listening and switching back and forth between other headsets for comparison. Overall I found the Cavimanus performed very well on a wide range of music not quite the best but definitely in the top 3. Once I got the equalization set the way I like with a couple of songs I found that I did not need to go tweak it when I switched back to other types of music. Oh that mystery button on the left side? Stands for Vibration. Think of it as a subwoofer that you can engage or disengage at the touch of a button to add a LOT of lower rumbling bass when you want it for your gaming and music. I found that it added a great depth to most of the music I listened to sometimes though it was a distraction and when that was the case a quick touch and it was gone until I wanted it again.

In game the Cavimanus shines, letting me be immersed in my game and greatly cut off from the distractions of my gaming environment. The simulated surround performed admirably adding to the depth of the experience.

Comfort on the Cavimanus as predicted was pretty nice. The set clamps tight enough to stay put and yet light enough to not feel like a vice. The large ear cups provide plenty of room for all but maybe Vulcans and High Elves, though I would like to have seen them trimmed in cloth or better yet a set of each that I could switch depending on what I like. They can become a little sweaty after a couple of hours but much better than most headsets that are this solid and discrete.

The lighting on the Cavimanus is almost non-existent which is not a huge deal since you can’t wear them and look at them at the same time so I’m not going to ding them for that.

The microphone performed admirably, though I have not yet had a chance to let Ed run them through his normal test and when that happens we will do a small follow-up segment on the show to see how it compared to others. I found that it worked good for my voice comm needs. Also the swing down boom has stood up to wear and tear very well and the fact that it clips back into its own recess slot makes it a lot less vulnerable to breakage when not in use.

We will keep you updated from time to time as we do with all the peripherals we test here but for now the Cavimanus seems to be durable and dependable. I personally dropped it three times from a height of three feet onto my chair mat and once onto a tiled floor with no noticeable damage, so that seems to indicate to me that it will stand the test of time.

In the end I have added the Cavimanus headset to my short list of headsets to recommend to anyone looking for a great all around headset that will fit your game, music and voice communications needs at a reasonable price. It performed admirably under all conditions and at a price point of less than 50.00 it is a great value to boot. Check it out if you are in the market or know someone that is.

Many thanks to the good folks at Genius for sending us this set to look at, they have been a joy to test out and I think we will be hearing great things about their gaming line-up in the future.

Pros:

• Sub-Woofer great for most music and gaming
• Volume knob in convenient
• Comfortable for a clamp system
• Discrete solid build.
• Flip up mic works great, will have to wait and see if it stands the test of time.
• Sound quality is good, volume is good, easy to use equalization software makes it easy to customize and switch between profiles such as gaming and different types of music.

Cons:

• Shiny finish shows smudges and I’m a messy guy.
• Where is my braided cord?
• Can get sweaty with prolonged wear but that is to be expected from a discrete ear cup which has to hold in the sound.

Notes: The scorpion log rocks. Wish it lit up on all of these items.

Thank you to the folks at Genius for sending us the GX Gila for review.

In part two of the trilogy of GX gaming line of peripherals we take a look at the GX-Gila Gaming Mouse.

Out of the box the first thing to catch my eye was aggressive angular styling. This coupled with a red and black color scheme makes it very eye catching. We have seen aggressive angular styling in the past and it has not always been comfortable in the hand. The Gila however manages to pull off that great angular look without feeling uncomfortable in the hand. This thing turned out to be surprisingly comfortable to myself and anyone else that I had try it out.

The finish on the Gila is a flat black with a very pebbly textured rubber on each side, the result being that the Gila does a great job of not showing finger prints and smudges and also offers a very positive grip in any condition.

More and more we are seeing gaming mice debut with more and more buttons and the Gila is no exception. Besides the three primary buttons the Gila sports a total of eight additional buttons that can be assigned to various tasks. Unlike many other gaming mice they do not clump them all in one spot. Instead the Gila does a great job of placing them in groups of two around various locations that are all pretty easy to reach even with my large and clumsy fingers. From the pictures you can see they have placed them on the front left and right shoulders, in the middle just behind the DPI select button and at the top of the thumb rest. Speaking of DPI, the Gila lets you switch between 5 different setting unlike many other mice of the same or greater cost which limit you to 2 or 3.

As with the keyboard, the software to set the Gila up in very easy to use and understand without having to resort to reading a page of instructions and watching two YouTube videos to make any sense of it.

The Gila offers not only infinite light colors but breaks the lighting up into three groups. Front lights which illuminate the area in front of the mouse, center for the scroll wheel and GX logo and tail lights that follow the contours of the rear of the Gila. Using the setup software each group can be set to its own color and behavior. So each can be the same or different shades of color and can be on, off or pulse. Additionally there is a row of five tiny lights on the left side top which tell you what DPI setting you currently are set to.

Like the keyboard we looked at last week the Gila also sports a braid reinforced cable protecting the wires inside from most normal stress it is likely to encounter. Another benefit I have found in braded cables especial with mice is that they tend to move and slide around on the desk easier than rubber cables which tend to get stuck and hang up on obstacles in my work environment.

Another trend we have seen in recent years for gaming mice is adjustable weight. This is a feature that many of us have come to expect since it adds to the custom feel of a mouse and enhances the experience. Again the Gila does not disappoint in this department. A compartment located in the rear of the Gila will hold up to six weights allowing you to adjust its overall weight from a svelte 140 grams to a portly 172 grams making the Gila at maximum weight the heaviest mouse in our stable by far.

With two months of daily use in gaming and production the Gila has performed flawlessly. I have seen no wear or scratches on the finish, and I have tried it on various moussing surfaces from a cheap mouse pad to denim fabric and vinyl. In every case the Gila tracked perfectly without one twitch or hiccup.

Price on the Gila is about what you would expect in a mouse of this quality, at $70.00 it in fact comes in cheaper than many of its competitors that offer fewer features.

I find it hard to find any real fault in the Genius Gila Gaming mouse. If I had to pick one thing I would change it would be that rather than have the GX logo lit at the rear, I would like to see the scorpion logo lit. The scorpion does make an appearance on the Gila, but it is very subdued unlike the one we saw in holo foil on the keyboard.

All in all if you are looking for a good gaming or all around mouse and if you enjoy aggressive styling and comfort at an affordable price I suggest you add the Gila to your short list of mice to get your hand around and consider for your purchase.

Pros:

• Adjustable weight can set from feather light to very heavy.
• Multiple light groups separately adjustable gives a huge range of customization.
• Aggressive style but still comfortable in most hands.
• Lots of buttons placed in well thought out locations like on the raised shoulders.

Cons:

• None of note, but I would like to see the scorpion logo lit up.

Genius is not a brand that Ed or I had heard of until we were given the chance to looks at these peripherals but judging by what we have seen thus far I expect we will be hearing lots about them in the future.

Check back next week as we will be taking a look at the third and final item in the GX gaming lineup from Genius, the Cavimanus headset.

Thank you to the folks at Genius for sending us the GX Gila for review.

Show segment from show airing the weekend of May 18th, 2013

By Doug “Doug Dot Com” Berner

Last year Ed and I took the time to go through a few keyboards, mice and headsets, we needed with a Gaming Peripheral Shootout.  While we were grateful to the three companies that took part the truth is we wanted to do more. Well this year we have Steelseries returning but they are joined by Genius and Logitech for our second shootout round, first in our sites, Genius and the Imperator Pro keyboard.

Lets start with the unboxing experience: Well it came in a box that was attractive, informative and protective. What else could you want in a box, or a significant other for that matter? Seriously you all know how I feel about unboxing stuff by now so you were not expecting a full page of glowing words about how much of a joy it was to see the quality of the plastic bags used. I see it as the equivalent of talking about how comfy the airbag cloth is in a car. It works and that is what matters.

On first examination I was impressed with an overall styling that was aggressive but no so aggressive that it looked alien. A nice textured and rather flat finish did not show finger smudges as I pawed looking for faults in the finish. It boasts reinforced cord with two USB plugs indicating that the two USB ports on the upper edge are powered and not passive, which is a plus if you are trying to charge things like your phone with them. A bank of 6 macro keys are located on the left side and there 3 mode buttons which let you quickly switch between pre-defined customized setups and there is a light dimmer button also at the top allowing you to adjust the brightness to any of 4 levels plus a pulse on/off mode. Also a full set of multi-media keys let you adjust volume and playback on the fly.

So far so good. Lets plug this puppy in and get to banging on it.

Immediately after booting up with the GX-Imperator installed I went to the GX gaming website and downloaded the latest and greatest software, installed it and got down to business.

The setup software is easy to understand and use and even a beginner should have no trouble with setup on this keyboard.

Immediately I noticed the keys display a unique font that makes it stand out in a crowd. This adds a nice flare to the appearance that heretofore I have only found in more expensive keyboards.

Another thing I like is that the Imperator’s software allows infinite color choices so matching to you other peripherals is no problem. On the down side the overall lighting is lacking in couple of ways. Even on the brightest setting the best that can be said for it is that it is subdued. Depending on the color you choose it may be bright enough for your needs. For example I found that the lighter blue shades showed up much better than full reds. I have noted in other reviews that I work in a room with both artificial and natural sunlight and being a stickler for a lighted keyboard, I am often more sensitive about this than other reviews. It all depends on your personal preference but since you can dim this keyboard I would rather have seen them go for an overly bright approach that I could then dim down to what works for me.

Also the lighting on the number keys is uneven which results in the symbols at the tops of the keys are only half lit. Well that’s not totally accurate, if you look straight down on the keys they are fully lit but when you put the Imperator out in front of you in a typing position the top half of each symbol is dark. While this does not affect performance it is a tad annoying.

As for performance the Imperator is a membrane keyboard so it does not feel quite like the mechanical that I am used to, but this is not a bad thing. Mechanical keyboards are not for everyone, they are normally heavier, louder and more expensive than membrane keyboards and as such the world needs both if we are all to be happy. The imperator is very firm and responsive and has a comfort level that is among the best I have experienced. Being a membrane design also means that it is very quiet, a handy thing if you are in a room where other people don’t want to listen to your typing or gaming sounding like Woody Woodpecker had one to many Red Bulls. Thus far I have worked and gamed on the Imperator for nearly 2 months without a problem. It easily fills both roles because the easy to set and use macro and mode switches mean I can switch back and forth between looks and tasks with simple a push of a button.

All in all the Imperator Pro performed as well any keyboard I have had the opportunity to test over the last several years.

Aside from the lighting issue I mentioned above, I would recommend the Imperator to anyone looking for a reasonably priced great performing keyboard for gaming and or production.

Oh and did I mention that all of the GX line rocks this cool scorpion logo? Well it does and let’s face it you just can’t put a price on cool. Seriously it is a cool logo and on the Imperator it makes an appearance on both the space bar and in holo-foil form on the wrist wrest.

When you consider that this can be bought on-line for $70 you have a great combination of quality, performance and affordability. If you do not want the inifitie lighting color options or the USB hub then you can get the none Pro model for $50. Whether you are in the market for yourself or a gamer in the family I recommend add the GX-Imperator keyboard by Genius to your list if keyboards to choose from.

Pros:

• Quiet, but you expect that from a membrane keyboard.
• Six macro keys, which is plenty considering 80% of users never any.
• Infinite adjustable colored backlighting.
• Lockable windows key.
• Powered USB pass-through instead of passive means you can charge and operate a larger range of items.
• Custom font lettering is a nice touch.

Cons:

• Uneven backlighting when not viewed from straight down.
• Backlighting needs to be brighter even on light blue which seems to show the best it is among the dimmer lighting systems we have seen.

In the coming weeks I will also be sharing my experience with the GX-GILA gaming mouse and the GX- Cavimanus . So stay tuned to learn more about this complete set that the good folks at Genius were kind enough to send to us for review.

Thank you to the folks at Genius for sending us the GX Imperator Pro for review.

Show segment from show airing the weekend of May 11th, 2013

To begin lets make sure we have a good work area. A nice open table with good overhead lighting is a must to make the build go smooth. Depending on the table and your significant other you might need a table cloth to cover the table and protect it while you build. If you cannot get enough light to work on the computer from any angle then I have found the little head lamps you can buy very useful. Yeah I know people look dorky in these but we are building a computer not doing a fashion walk. A well lit area goes a long way to making a build go smooth. These headlamps will also come in handy during repairs and other jobs around the house.

The most often used tool in building a computer is the one most new builder overlook, the screw driver. This is a simple little tool that is every home and so we take it for granted. However when you work with any tool often enough you realize a good quality tool makes the experience much better. For building a PC I suggest getting a Number 1 and Number 2 phillips screw driver. Ask in the hardware or home improvement store, they will help you find these. Do not get the screw drivers with interchangeable heads. These sound like a good idea but in practice with day to day computer building I have found them a massive pain in the behind. Your want a should shaft screw driver and try to get a middle of the road shaft length. The shafts come in two basic styles, round and hex shaped, always if you can get the round. In some tight places the hex shaft, which is thicker, can catch on surrounding components. For the handle, get a grip you find comfortable, there is no right choice. Finally make sure the tip is magnetized, this is more helpful than you can imagine and it does not risk harming the computer.

Next on the tool list I suggest a forceps, clamp or needle nose pliers. The key is to try and get the tool with the curved end and if possible a long throw, or arms. This allows you to work with small parts in tight areas easily. Now in fairness just one of these is enough, personally I have a set of clamps and a set of small needle nose pliers. Always having a spare can be useful.

With these basic tools you are pretty much set for building your PC. However, while this is all you need to build a PC I have some other suggestions the DIYer should always have in their kits.

Wire ties are a handle little thing to have on hand for numerous projects. When building as PC these are great for helping to get cabling bundled together or out of the way. While cable management is not a big deal in a larger tower, in an ITX build it is very important. The most commonly used are the nylon wire ties that can be bought in bags of 50. These work well but they cannot be easily reused. I like to tie up wires as I build and then move the tie once the build has progressed and I found a better location to put the tie. For this reason I use velcro wire ties whenever I get the chance.  These are a bit more expensive but since you can reuse them easily the price balances out. I still keep a bag of the nylon ties on hand as well, the velcro ties are a bit bigger and sometimes cannot fit into smaller places. I always supplement my wire ties in my kit by making sure I also have a roll of 3M two sided tape and some poster tack as well. This will give you a full range of options to create the best cable management possible within your build.

The above tools should give you everything you need for a smooth build experience. However I have a few other items I always keep in my build kit. You might not need these extras but I thought I would mention them quickly.

Thermal compound is the stuff that allows your heatsink and PCU to efficiently exchange heat. Most heatsinks come with compound on them but if you need to reseat the heatsink or put a new CPU in you will need some thermal compound. Now a lot of people will suggest various compounds for various reason. I have found in the end that a decent quality compound will be within 2C to 3C at most of the expensive stuff so I looked with a different thought in mind. I wanted a quality compound I can get locally. With this in mind I have found most Radio Shacks, an easy to find store, carries Artic Silver 5 or Artic Silver Ceramique and Staples usually has Antec’s two Diamond compounds in stock. These are great compounds that work well and being available locally means if you have a need you can jump in the card and have it when you need it.

I always keep on hand a few cans of compressed air, now these are not really so much for building but are invaluable when you need to repair or clean a system. Depending on how much air you go through there are some specialty compressors made that are super small just for cleaning electronics. I actually invested in one of these.

I could go on and offer a lot of other ideas such as motherboard power cable extenders for the 4/8 pin and 24 pin power. I also keep on hand a supply of PWM (4pin header) splitters for builds and a few other parts meant to expand on existing parts. However I build and repair enough PCs daily that this is needed for me, it might not be needed for you.

Now the truth is you need really nothing except a phillips screwdriver to build a PC 90% of the time. However over the years I have found that having a few extras on hand means the experience goes much smoother. Now matter the tools however take your time and enjoy the build experience. Even an experience builder that has never built an ITX system should take their time, the ITX build is a very different beast. before you put in each part think a few parts ahead, imagine the build in your mind before you put the parts in. Also there is nothing wrong if you get through the whole build and want to tear it apart to try a new way of placing the parts you just discovered, explore and enjoy the experience of building a PC.

Show segment from show airing the weekend of May 4th, 2013

The stock Node 304 (the case for our build) comes with some pretty solid cooling out of the box. It has dual 92mm fans for intake and a 140mm fan for exhaust. Add to this the fact that with a stock Intel cooler we can get our overclock of 3.9 GHz on our 3450, we should be all set right? Well doing good is okay for most but I hate mediocrity so I want to push this a little.

Lets being by addressing our CPU cooler, I HATE stock coolers and am not a huge fan of after market tower coolers. So that leaves me with my cooler of choice, the all in one liquid cooling solutions.

Now because of the size of our case and the fan layouts our choices are limited to a standard 120mm cooler, a 140mm cooler or a double width 120mm cooler. For our build I wanted some decent cooling power but I wanted to keep things small as well so I chose a standard 120mm cooler.

For this build our friends over at Thermaltake sent me a Water 2.0 Performer, a cooler we reviewed in August of last year. This is a very good water cooling solution for anyone not wanting to deal with a full customer water cooling rig. It comes stock with dual 120mm fans for a push/pull configuration meaning at it’s price point it is the best at keep a CPU with an all in one unit. However I was concerned about how thick we move out from the back of the case. As you can see the radiator is direct connected to the case, a fan in between would have pushed the radiator back quite a bit over the board and potentially hindering the air flow on the rest of the motherboard.

With this in mind I elected to go with a single cooling fan in a push configuration, the most efficient setup for a single fan. The stock fans from Thermaltake can get the fan done an using the stock fan generated some good cooling numbers but I wanted something a bit more. To kick things up a notched I turn to the fine folks at Noctua, a company known for making some of the best fans in the world for your PC.

The Noctua fan we chose was the NF-F12 PWM. This fan has a very high static pressure which is a must for work with a radiator. The fan also has a very low operating noise and has PWM control. PWM means the fan is able to receive instructions from the motherboard and control it’s speed based on the temperature of the CPU across a very broad range of speeds.

The result was exactly what I hoped, under gaming loads the overclocked CPU is usually around 55C topping at about 60C, under super stress testing we lock down at 70C and do not move. At low usage and even gaming the system is practically silent and under heavy load the noise is so low as not to matter. Using a second fan or a double width radiator solution we could have gotten the numbers even lower but in the end lower CPU temps would not make any difference in our system and the other solutions would have been louder under load.

Now as I said from the start the Node comes with three good cooling fans and it has in the back a small switch to let you set the fans at low, medium or high speed. I have found the medium setting gave the best balance of noise to cooling. However I HATE switch fan controllers. The computer has a solid, built in, method of telling a fan to speed up or slow down and we should make use of that. So lets look at the front fans.

As we showed in our review of the Node 304, the case comes stock with dual 92mm fans. These fans are great, very quiet and move a good amount of air. However they are speed locked and must use the switch controller on the back of the case to change their speed. YUCK. So again I have turned to Noctua for a solution and found the solution with the NF-B9 PWM. There are actually two Noctua fans that could work, the second is the NF-A9x14 PWM which is a thinner 90mm fan. The low profile design of the A9 really intrigued me but in the end the B9 has the better air flow and so was the fan of choice.

The dual Noctua will allow for complete control of the cases airflow to be handled based on the system needs, no fan in the case will just be always blasting at a set speed. However to do this we need a way to make two of the B9 fans work off a single motherboard fan header. The fan for the CPU cooler has the CPU header and the Z77N only has one additional header. The solution is actually very simple, a PWM splitter. The header can handle two fans easily so we just need to split the power. You can buy these for about $5 easily enough but the good news is the Noctua fans come with the splitter we need.

So with all our little tweaking done what did we gain? The CPU with a stock cooler at stock speeds under gaming conditions and stock case fans set to medium. we saw the CPU hover around 70C to 75C and at idle around 40C. With the new cooling system in place the CPU is overclocked to 3.9GHz. At idle the CPU hovers around 30C under gaming conditions around 55C. Now in fairness the majority of that cooling comes from the water cooling unit but the 92mm change works in other areas. For example at idle with the stock setup the computer room was measuring around 33db and under load around 44db. The new cooler setup drops that idle noise level to 31db and under load to 39db.

The fan replacements and cooler upgrade did a lot to make our system quieter and cooler. Now let me be clear, the system is a gaming brute at stock and the stock cooling setup will easily keep your system running through your marathon gaming sessions. However if you want to up things a notch making a few changes to the cooling setup can give you lower temps and quieter operation.

Thank you to the folks at Thermaltake for providing us the Water 2.0 Performer used in our build and to the folks at Noctua for sending us a number of different fans to look at for this build.

Show segment from show airing the weekend of April 27th, 2013

Choosing a graphics card today is tough and the reason why is both nVidia and AMD have given us some GREAT cards to choose from. Okay let me rephrase that, both have given us great chips. Neither company actually makes the cards, that is up to the various partners. If you read or listen to our past shows you know that I have always recommended that if you want an AMD card choose Sapphire and if you want an nVidia card then EVGA is your first choice. The opinion was formed years ago after dealing with many video cards from many venders and it has not changed today. We have a lot of options for our video needs and I am going to try to help you narrow those choices down.

For the purposes of our build we are setting our sights at game play with the resolution of 1080 and details levels in the high to ultra range. With this in mind we can quickly narrow down our choices and walk through them from the lowest cost to the most expensive.

The lowest cost card I would look at is the HD 7790, a relatively new card on the market. Priced at around $150 this card can do a solid job of gaming at 1080 and with most games set on high. A few of the more intense games might require the detail level to be lowered but they are the exception. A little further up the food chain we have the GTX 650Ti Boost. This card offers a nice step up in performance from the 7790 with only a mild cost increase but if you want a little extra umph, it is worth a look.

Next we come HD 7850, our 2012 Golden Mic Winner. If you thought it was an attractive buy when we named it for our award, now it is practically a steal. At under $200 is offers a great gaming experience for the money and many games will run at 1080 with the detail set to ultra, about an even mix will need to back off to high. For an ITX build the card is small, the Sapphire model we award cools amazing and is super silent. A perfect fit for an ITX build. Up the run around the $200 mark is the GTX 660, again, as in the last rung this card gives a bump in performance over the 7850 but that bump comes with a price. From a size point of view the GTX 660 is a little larger physically, but still easily fits in our ITX build.

With the next card up things begin to spread out a bit, priced at around $220 the HD 7870 gives a nice bump over the GTX 660 in performance. Only a tiny bit longer than the HD 7850 this card is a great size for the ITX build and packs a lot of gaming horsepower, chugging through most games at ultra detail and a few needing to step back to high.

The final rung we hit is the top of the cards we will talk about. The reason for this is simple, at the 7870 we have pretty much made every game we play smooth and with great detail, anything after this is gravy.

For our first entry at the top of our ITX build list is the GTX 660ti. This card packs a lot of horsepower into an package costing around $280. It can run any game we threw at it at ultra levels and does so with seeming ease. The top dog card for this build is the HD 7950, tipping the price scale at around $290. The 7950 is physically bigger than it’s actually a little longer than the 660ti however it still fits well in our ITX build. The 7950 brings more horsepower than the 660ti as well as a large memory buffer, 3GB instead of 2GB along with more memory bandwidth. Now at 1080 this is not a big deal as 2GB is plenty and both cards haven enough horse power to push the pixels around with ease. The advantage of the 7950 comes in when you push a ton of HD mods on a game like Skyrim or decide to go for a 1440 display or bigger instead of the 1080.

In this look we have covered a range of $150 and looked at 7 video cards. This is what meant when I said choosing a card was tough. All 7 cards mentioned will give a great gaming experience and each step up gives a little more detail to your games and horsepower for the future. The choice you make is based on balancing your budget against the gaming experience you desire.

The good news is that ANY of the cards mentioned here will give you a great experience, but there can be only one as the saying goes. Based on the cost, performance and our stated goal of 1080, the HD 7870 is the best bang for our buck in this build. It will give you amazing game play as well as being reasonably priced.

Be sure to join us on the March 27th at Rend Lake College, Doug and I will be there to talk to everyone, give some stuff away as well as show off the ITX rig we have been talking about the last few weeks. Come on by and see it in action first hand.

We would like to thank the folks at EVGA and SAPPHIRE for providing the card samples we used in our testing. All discussion of card pricing was based on EVGA and SAPPHIRE cards on Newegg at the date of this article.

Show segments from show airing the weekend of April 20th, 2013

The optical drive is a device, that in the PC world, is beginning to disappear. Over the years it has evolved from the CD to the DVD and today the Blu-Ray but even that is not keeping it’s place in the PC world thanks to digital distribution. When we can get our music, movies, software and well pretty much anything we want via a download off the internet the need to store and have a bunch of CD/DVDs laying around has passed. Installation of your OS even no longer need an optical drive with Microsoft offer a tool to install the OS via USB Flash Drives. The tool you will download says it for Windows 7 but I have used it with Windows 8 as well, all you need is an ISO of your install DVD. Now just copy your latest drivers from the various components websites and put them on a flash drive and you are all set.

Now there are a few people that still use optical drives, okay well they at least have them in their systems. Even Doug has mentioned that he uses his optical drive so seldom that he has trouble recalling the last time. However, as he points at, at around $20 for an optical drive he does not see the harm in buying it. This argument does not work with me because I can see that $20 used to move up to a better motherboard, better cooler, more RAM or any number of uses which will have more of a daily impact on your computer use.

I would be remiss however in having this discussion without pointing out one obvious exception to my position, if you plan to use your ITX gaming system as an HTPC as well. If this is your plan then the addition of a DVD or even a Blu-Ray player to the system makes sense to some degree as you can then play these to your TV without the need for a separate box. Again I would point out that with so many good streaming services the need for this type of drive had diminished. However for the times when the internet is down and you want a movie this is a solid option.

Despite the validity of this argument in the system we are building, our case choice has limited us. The Node 304 does not have an optical bay in it so if we decided to go with an optical drive we would need to use an external model. The external model will cost a bit more than an internal drive but can be added after the fact to any PC without opening the case. Often it is as simple as plugging in the USB and your off. For our build we are suggesting passing on the optical drive and grabbing an external Blu-Ray if you decide later you need an optical drive.

As we move to the hard drive or mass storage for your PC we again hit a choice that will be based on personal preferences. All of you that are regular listeners know my position on the “PC Hoarder Mentality”, if not read the article I linked. I took a lot of negative votes on that article but popularity does not determine my position on this facts do. Without doing the entire article again, I really do recommend reading it if you have not, let me just say that once we take a serious look we can find that we can easily live with smaller hard drives than the community suggests. However some people still want that massive storage space and in the end this is a personal choice.

Larger hard drives are a solid value if you want or need the storage space, however for our ITX build I am going to suggest looking at the smaller 2.5” models over the 3.5”.  Now you will pay a premium for making this choice, the smaller form factor tends to run quieter and cooler so they make a great choice for our ITX build, plus they take up little space, leaving more room in the case for air flow and other components. By a premium, what I found was that to achieve the same 7200 RPM speed for the drive you will go from a 1 TB drive to a 750 GB drive when using our friends at Western Digital. To get the full 1 TB drive in the smaller form factor you would move up in price about $30 and go to the slower 5400 RPM models.

The SSD side of this is worse when we consider pricing vs size. as a 240 GIG SSD will set you back around $120 more than the 3.5” drive if we go with one of the major brands. We could go smaller, with a 120 GIG SSD and shave that cost down but I feel the 240 is a near perfect size for a gamer build. You get your OS install and still have room for quite a few games as well as are able to some game streaming and recording if you like. The 120 GIG drive can work but you really need to be a hard core single or possible dual gamer to do this. What I mean is if you have only one or two games you play the 120 can work well.

While SSDs lack the space of a traditional “spindle” style drive, they make up for it with blazing speeds. We have said on this show many times that an SSD is one of the most impressive upgrades you can do to a modern computer when it comes to a notice change in the computing experience. Once you experience an SSD you will find it hard to rely on a traditional HD any more.

The good news is that because we are looking at the smaller drive sizes, the SSDs are 2.5” as well as the laptop style spindle drives, we can fit both in a system if we want to. This means we could get the SSD for our games and OS and then a spindle drive if we wanted more storage space.  Of course we have two other options, the first is called a Hybrid Drive. These are essentially a traditional HD with a massive cache that give some speed increases over traditional drives. While these drives are fast for sure, they do not match the performance, or even come close to that of a pure SSD solution. The second option is to use a small 60 gig or under, SSD as a caching drive. For our build this can be done on the Z77N board using Intel’s software or we can buy a caching SSD from OCZ or Corsair. Our own testing has shown that there is a performance boost but again, in my opinion it is not worth the cost. In the end for only a little more money you can move to a full 120 Gig SSD and use it for the OS and most used apps and get a much nicer performance boost.

So with all of this information what are we left with? Well first we will not be using an optical drive in our build. Our case choice precludes it but I just do not see the need  for the drive in a gaming machine. For our mass storage I am suggesting we use a 240 GIG SSD. This will give the system a nice snap in everything it does and gives us enough room to spread our wings a bit in gaming. As for what SSD to buy that is not so easy to suggest. The folks at Kingston, OCZ, Corsair and Samsung all make some great SSD drives and while benchmark numbers might show transfer rate difference, the truth is you will never notice the difference while you are using the PC. Right now I would look at these three brands and choose the least expensive at the time of preaches. Kingston has amazing value with their V300 and HyperX 3K but OCZ has always had aggressive pricing and the Vector is the fastest drive we have had in house, then Samsung has built up a reputation for incredible reliability, with Corsair sitting in the middle of this pack with solid options. Any of these will give you a great drive, so look for deals and find the best one.

Thank you to the folks at Kingston, OCZ and Corsair for providing SSDs for us to look at.

Show segments from show airing the weekend of April 13th, 2013

With the choice of a Z77 based motherboard we are looking at using an Intel for the CPU. We could go down the food chain and pick an i3 or jump to the top and grab an i7 but extremes are something we have sought to avoid and I feel so should you. Extremes in computer hardware carry little in the way of true benefit. The lowest extreme means that you have fewer cores for any multi-threaded work you might be doing and the highest extreme is great performance but no true benefit for 99% of consumers when taking the cost vs. experience into account.

From the i5 processors we get a solid quad core CPU and at a reasonable price point. The question now is which one?

If you look back a bit there is an article I did that explored the i5 processor lineup when we are looking at real world gaming experience and performance. In this article I noted that from top to bottom of the i5 lineup there is only about an average performance boost of 4.7%. Now let me be clear in the world of PC gaming a difference of 5% means ZIP when it comes to your gaming experience.

With this information in hand it should be clear that at stock speeds there is no real advantage at buying at the top of the i5 rack over the bottom. However as some will note, we picked a Z77 motherboard for our build and this gives overclocking options. With this motherboard surely the i5 3570K is the better choice, right?

Well when you consider that we had a professional overclocking , Shannon Robb, explain to use that anything over about 4 GHz is not going to be worth the effort in a single GPU gaming setup. There is really no reason to seek a high end overclocking chip for this build, since gaming is our goal and an ITX build will only be a single card. (Okay technically you can extreme this and get a dual chip card but again that is the extreme)

This information BTW is further muddled with the fact that in our own testing, pushing a CPU to 4.1 GHz only gave us a bump of 6.1% above the low end stock i5. Again 6% is not anything amazing when it comes to the gaming experience. Pushing much past 4.1 we see the increase in performance vs. clock speed begin to fall off, as Shannon said we would.

What this tells me is the upper extreme is not going to offer enough to justify an extra

$30 for the build, especially when that money can go into a different part to see a larger benefit that is tangible. So with this in mind we are suggested the i5 3450.

This chip is near the bottom of the i5 lineup in price. At stock speeds it delivers a great gaming experience and despite being a locked chip, our Z77 board can eek a little more kick out of her, we were able to to push up to 3.9 GHz.  Now true this is not going to give us a huge boost but it puts us past the high end of the i5 lineup at stock and puts us very close to a moderate overclock of that higher end i5.

With the CPU choice made we turn our attention toward the RAM. ITX motherboards have a premium on space so gone are the 4 stick options we have with a typical socket 1155 motherboard. With our limit at 2 sticks the amount of memory we choose is also limited. While the system can go up to 16 gig using a 2×8 configuration, none of our testing showed a performance boost over 8 gigs in any games or in day to day use.

Since we are pretty sure we want 8 gig for the RAM, what about the speed. I mean logic would dictate that faster RAM would make a faster system. In our testing the folks at Kingston sent us a set of their HyperX BEAST memory. The particular model they sent is us a 16 gig (2×8) kit with speeds as high as 2133. We also have some Kingston HyperX ram with speeds of 2400.

For our testing I used the RAM at all the speed options I was given by the XMS settings on the motherboard, as well default of no setting which is 1333 on our board of choice. The BEAST had 1600 and 2133 for it’s two XMS settings but we also tested the 2400 speed vs 1600 using an 8 gig kit. The result was not what we expected. It seems that while there is a boost in benchmarking the memory, in the actually gaming the speed difference did not make all that much difference.

Checking with some other people I found that the general consensus is that with the Intel platform anything past 1600 seems to have little real benefit to the user. Our own testing bore this out. With a price premium of roughly $20 for the higher speed RAM at an 8 gig configuration and no real performance boost I think we will suggest that the good 8 gig (2×4) kit of DDR3 1600 is the best choice for our build. As for which specifically, well Kingston has a number of great choices in the HyperX lineup at all roughly the same price point right now on Newegg. I would say find the color that best fits your build style and enjoy. We have never been disappointed with buy ANY Kingston RAM.

So there we have it, we will be using an i5 3450 and Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 RAM for our build and suggest you do the same.

Thank you to the folks at Intel for the processors they have provided as well as Kingston for our RAM selection.

Show segments from show airing the weekend of April 6th, 2013

For this build series we wanted to take a truly broad look at the possible build methods so we approached six different motherboard producers that made boards for the AMD F2 platform as well as the Intel 1155 platform. We had three of those companies promises us 1155 based systems, no one was interested in letting us review their AMD solutions. Of the three that actual told us they would take part only one sent a board, the others have all since stopped returning emails.

Our friends at Gigabyte were the first to express an interested in taking part and literally within a few days of speaking to them an H77N-WiFi board was at my door. We wanted to give you more than one sample so I went shopping at the local Microcenter and bought a Z77 solution so we could look at overclocking as well. While there I was surprised when the associates there steered me away from a more expensive solution to the less expensive board for my Z77 ITX needs, I was however happy to see our friends at Gigabyte are regarded as one of the best options and the most cost effective. So while our review sample may be limited it was not from lack of trying.

The H77N is a solid ITX motherboard to build from. Gigabyte has always taken the more budget oriented chips and delivered them on a board that packs some solid, high end features and this board follows that trend. The board is constructed using their Ultra-Durable design which means the board itself is very well made with a solid capacitor system in place and a great deal of general durability. Our experiences with the Ultra-Durable design over the years has been outstanding with boards that are stable and have never seen a failure to date.

The board is tiny, but that is just a fact of life in the world of ITX building. However, while it might lack some expansion options it is not lacking in features. the H77N allows for up to 16 gig of DDR3 using two sticks in dual channel. Has connections for 4 SATA devices, 2 of which are SATA 3. There is also an internal header for a front USB 3 port as well as USB 2. For video you have the choice of making use of the IGPU on the Intel chips or you have a full PCIe3 expansion slot for adding a more powerful video option or any other PCIe expansion you might want to make use of.

On the rear I/O we have four USB 2.0 ports along with two USB 3.0. We also find a PS2 port that can be used for a mouse or keyboard as well as sound jacks for up to 7.1 surround provided by the Realtek ALC892.

The onboard video comes with an interesting connection setup allowing for DVI and dual HDMI. You also some interesting networking options. The board comes with an Intel wireless solution that provides for B/G/N connectivity as well as makes use of Intel’s WiDi display system. This is a wireless display option to allow you to send your computers signal across the room or across the house. (We will be looking at this more closely in a future article) To this we also have Bluetooth connectivity and dual gigabit LAN that can be used as a team for some really incredible LAN transfer rates.

Of course with the motherboard you get your manuals, drives, SATA cables and so on. You also get a really nice I/O shield that is one of the new padded designs which makes it just nicer at every level to use. For our WiFi connection you get two antenna that connect via a coax connection. These come with some pretty long wires, a little over 3’ in length. This allows for a good size separation of the antenna and results in some strong signal reception ability. I tested in a few rooms in our home, including rooms that do not get good signal with out laptop and found no place that I did not get max signal. These antenna have a rubberized coating and a weighted base so they will not scratch surfaces and stand very stable.

Before we move to performance lets take a look at our second board and any experience of deja vu to this next board is perfectly normal.

No you are not seeing double, the H77 and Z77 are twins that were separated at birth it would seem. When I looked at the two boxes together I was amazed, they are identical, well with a few letters changed. When I pulled out the board I considered for a second returning it, figuring I got the wrong board in the box. The H77 and Z77 boards have identical feature sets, the same build quality, the same layout and even close to the same price with the Z77 only costing $20 more. The only difference in the two boards is that the Z77 allows for overclocking the H77 does not.

I can tell you that when I first saw this I was confused but after using the two boards I am not disappointed. Both boards have outstanding build quality and provided a very stable platform for our build.

For purposes of our build we used each but at the end of the day we spent a little more time with the Z77 so we could see what overclocking options it would allow. The two boards have solid power subsystems but they are not heavy duty so overclocking on the Z77 seems to top out quicker than most full size Z77 motherboards. This is shown as well in the HIOS which has no way, that I could find to easily overvolt the CPU. This means you will be limited in your overclocking to stock voltages but that is not a big deal as this also limits the heat increase of the overclock, a good thing for the ITX build.  My own overclocking experience with a 3570 was getting to 4.3 GHz on stock voltage, I was able to max out a 3450 at 3.9 as well. This might not be sexy to the uber overclocking crowd but for the real world and for a gaming rig this is outstanding.

With a $20 price difference and the Z77N being the lowest priced Z77 ITX solution we could find the competition between these two boards is a bigger deal than anything brought on by another company. If you are not going to overclock then the H77N is the board to buy. It is in every way except overclocking identical to the Z77N and delivers identical performance along with features, stability and build quality. The WiDi offers a great option not found in other H77 based boards or anything close to it’s price point, other than the Z77N of course. In fact the H77N feature set is closer to that of much more expensive boards. So if you do not plan to overclock then save the $20 and invest it elsewhere in your build.

The Z77N comes in with a feature set as good as pretty much any other Z77 based ITX board out there. It is a bit limited in overclocking potential but the ITX form factor makes that less of an issue due to limitations in cooling options. With exactly the same feature set as the H77N it is full featured and well made, the $20 price bump is minor enough that you really wonder if it is not worth the extra money for the overclocking options. This was the thought that kept running through my head as I looked at these two boards.

In the end I think we will be going with the Z77N for our build. The ability to basically get free performance from our CPU is wroth the $20 to me. It allows me to go to a local microcenter and pay $150 for the 3450 and the crank it up to 3.9GHz with minimal effort. Now our own testing has shown that the increase is not really something that will have a heavy impact on our gaming but the geek in me does it because I can.

For anyone building an ITX based system either of these boards show why I have always made use of Gigabyte boards. The outstanding build quality, stability and feature set, even at the lower cost model.

Thank you to the folks at Gigabyte for sending us the H77N-WiFi for review.

Show segments from show airing the weekend of March 30th, 2013

ITX Build Motherboard

When most people build a PC and think of the power supply they focus on the wattage of the unit. In the case of an ITX build, even one with a high end gaming card Wattage is less of an issue than you might imagine. Even a Core i7 3770 @ stock speeds with a HD 7970 for video will come in under 400 watts during gaming load in an basic ITX build. So for a moment we can spend less time on Wattage and more time on other factors.

Two factors play a roll in picking a good PSU for an ITX, the first is the depth of the PSU. Depth it the measurement from the back of the PSU, where the external power hooks up, to the front of the PSU where the cables for the inside of the PC are. Most PSUs come in wither 160mm or 140mm depths, usually the lower wattage ones at 140mm. When looking at ITX cases that will fit our gamer build theme we find that the 140mm depth is the most recommended. The reason for this is that the smaller case space often leaves the PSU crammed against a case wall of some sort on the inside and the shorter depth means the cables have to make less drastic bends to route, in some situations even fit.

You can see in the picture on the right where we have put a 140mm PSU into the Lian Li Q25 case. The cables at the end are bunched up and barely fit in the case, a bit of pressure had to be applied to the PSU to make sure it screwed into the case mount correctly. I also attempted with a 160mm PSU and was unable to make it mount without risking bending the HD rack or damaging the cabling, if it would have fit at all. While many of the ITX cases out there for gaming builds say they can fit a 160mm case, including our case of choice the Node 304, my suggestion is to look at 140mm and be safe. (Actually there is one other option but more on that in a moment.

The second factor to consider is modular cabling. Now at first thought this should be a no brainer, a modular PSU means you only have to use cables you need and thus can eliminate un-needed cabling and make cable management in the case much easier. This initial thought is right but becomes a bit more complex when you take into account factor one, Depth. You see by their nature most modular cables need an end piece that will stick out of the PSU end to allow you to easily remove it or add it. This module adds depth to the PSU design, a depth that is often not taken into account my manufacturer specs. This added depth could make a PSU that otherwise would have fit no longer fit or at the very least make it very difficult to work with.

Now I mentioned there are two factors and in many cases these are the primary concerns. However some cases, such as the Node add a third factor, the cable placement on the PSU. Most non-modular PSUs have a bundle location where the cables come out of the PSU for you to use in the computer. Depending on the way the PSU is meant to be mounted in the case for it’s air flow and the case layout you could find the cable bundle in an awkward place. For most non-modular this is not an issue as all the ones I have looked at come out the same side. However modular cables are a very different story. Many modular PSUs spread the modular connections across the back of the PSU, this could put some of the connection a place that is awkward to work with or could even make them impossible to use.

To understand what I mean about cable placement, look at the picture on the right and you will see the Node 304 case with a PSU in it. As you can see the cables for the bundle are exiting the PSU from a single side and in this example that side is farthest from the motherboard. In this particular setup this is important because if you are using a long video card it will be coming down that motherboard edge and if your cabling is across the back or for some weird reason coming out the other side, it could interfere with if not out right limit your choices on a video card.

So now that we know what we need to look for, lets look at a couple of PSUs. First up lets look at the Fractal Design Integra R2. Fractal sent us the 650 watt model of the PSU with their case and putting them together it is easy to see why, these are built for each other. With a 140mm depth the Integra is short enough to work well in pretty much any case you throw at it. While it lacks modular cables, it still brings a solid package for an ITX build with a small size and good wattage, more than enough power for most builds.  The cooling for the PSU is provided by a very quiet 120mm fan. The only real draw back is the PSU comes with regular length cables and an extra long 4/8 pin motherboard cable. This means you will spend extra time with cable management.

Our second PSU was provided by the folks at Silverstone, for this build they wanted to show us their SFX lineup, a truly build for ITX PSU.  Now normally here I would have a picture of the PSU for you to look at but for this PSU you need some perspective to understand what you are seeing. On the left is a Thermaltake EVO Blue 2 Modular PSU and on the right is the Silverstone SFX 450 Watt Gold. As you can see this is not just smaller in depth than a traditional PSU, it is smaller in all dimensions. Also unlike the EVO and for that matter most modular PSUs that have at least some of the cables as none modular the SFX is 100% modular.

With 450 watts of power and a tiny size this sounds like a great PSU for an ITX build and it is but it gets even better when you realize that all the cables for this PSU are shorter than normal cabling, making cable management in an ITX build much easier. This smaller size however does come with two draw backs, the first is price. The SFX comes in at around $100, making this a fairly expensive option. The second is that it has a smaller fan, a limit based on it’s size. The 80 mm does the job well enough but under load can get noisy. However from a pure build point of view it is a great PSU.

These two PSUs are obviously not the only ones that could work, in fact I found that in the Node case Thermaltake’s EVO actually is a great choice. In the picture on the left you can see that the EVO does fit in the case and the way Thermaltake kept the modular connections close to one end of the PSU results in the EVO being able to allow a 10” video card with ALL the power ports in use. Further testing however showed that the flat cabling used by the EVO made cable management easier that the traditional wrap on PSU cables and thus even with longer cards in the PSU still caused no issues and made cable routing easy. As I mentioned before it is about exploring the various factors and find which combination best fits the build you are doing.

If the two PSUs we were sent specifically for this series, the SFX and the Integra, we have extreme polar opposites in almost every way. This total opposite methodologies make this choice a lot tougher. If I was building in the Lian Li case then the SFX would win hands down because it’s small form allows the case to gain some cooling options it otherwise could not have. In the Node the PSU has no real effect on the cooling options so that comes off the table. Most people would say the Integra would win because it offers more power at 650 watts over the SFX at 450. That however is not a huge issue since a 450 will easily power even a powerful gaming ITX rig. The modular design on the SFX is big selling point and the fact that it is small enough that the modular setup does not create issues is a real bonus. In the end however it was a strength of the SFX that was it’s downfall, at least for our final build.

The SFX because of it’s small size comes with an adapter to make it fit in standard PSU mounts. This adapter pulls the PSU to the center of the mounting location, the issue arose with the short cabling that comes with the SFX. This is a strength of many ITX builds because it makes cable management easier. Because of the position of our motherboards 4 pin connection the short cable could not routed in any manner that would make me happy with the finish product. It required a more direct route and even with the more direct route was tighter than I liked. Also while the 450 watt PSU is enough to power the system while gaming the fan that cools it kicks in more that the fan does on the Integra, in fact I never heard the fan on the Integra once. The increased noise and the build circumstances we are facing made the Integra our choice of PSU. As we have said, finding an IXT build component is about studying what you are building.

Now reading this you might think I settled on the Integra and that is not the case, it is a great PSU. It has been totally silent under all testing, even when pushed for hours at a time the fan just cannot be heard. While the Integra is only a Plus Bronze and the SFX is a Plus Gold the difference in power draw from the wall is only around 1.3 watts during gaming, not nearly enough to matter in long term use. The Integra is a solid PSU that will work well in an ITX or more traditionally sized computer build.

I said earlier in this article that the Integra R2 felt like it was built for the Node 304 and after using it in many builds I can tell you that this impression still holds true today. Perfectly sized for our case, enough power for any level build and overclock in an ITX system and priced at about $80 the Integra truly seems to be built just for this build.

Thank you to the folks at Silverstone and Fractal Design for providing a PSU for our build.

Show segments from show airing the weekend of March 23rd, 2013

ITX Build PSU