Antec Skeleton Open-Air PC Case

We see lots of PC enclosures aimed at a particular niche: thin and quiet home theater PC cases made to fit into A/V racks, little cube PCs with handles to take to the LAN party, towering wind tunnels with lots of room for extreme overclockers with their high-end gear—you name it. Seldom have we seen a case so obviously and aggressively designed explicitly for a very narrow market segment as with the new Skeleton from Antec.
If you look at your PC enclosure and think, "you know, there's just too much enclosure there," Antec has a case for you. If you read that and laughed, you're not the target market. If you read that and said, "finally!" you'll be happy with what these venerable case designers have come up with.
The Skeleton is less a case or enclosure for your PC and more of a rack. An open rack. A rack meant to mimic open test beds, only with a little more structural integrity. It's a framework built to securely hold all your PC components out in the open.

SOURCE:www.extremetech.com

NZXT Rogue Micro ATX Case

Building a Micro ATX system is an exercise in space. If you want it taller, as in some mini-tower designs, then it takes up less floor space. But if it's not tall enough, you end up with something fairly cramped, like the Silverstone SG03. The SG03 is a great little case—once the system is built. But working inside it requires a lot of patience and the willingness to start over. Cooling options are limited, due to the location of the power supply—directly over the CPU socket.
If you build something more like a cube, then it becomes something like the Silverstone SG01. These cases are easy to slide under a table or desk, but do take up a bigger footprint. With both the SG01 and SG03, Silverstone tried to create the shell for a very compact system. The upside: it takes up less space. The downside: a cramped interior that's difficult to work inside, with the side effect that you need to take a little extra effort to ensure adequate cooling.
But what if you don't care about building the tiniest possible case? What if, instead, you want a case that looks fairly cool, is smaller than a ridiculously large tower, but still allows you to easily upgrade the components? That appears to be the thinking behind the NZXT Rogue. It's a micro ATX case with a larger internal volume than many cube-shaped cases. That results in a larger footprint—but better cooling and it's much easier to work inside.

SOURCE:www.extremetech.com

Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard

This is not your ordinary keyboard. Nope. No way.
In fact, if what you're looking for in your next keyboard is something just to type on, then follow our advice: turn away, go, run as far away as possible and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Logitech's G19 keyboard is, well, a bit over the top. That's safe to say because it really is. And if you, Mr. ExtremeTech reader are just so extreme enough, then this keyboard's for you. Here's our spoiler to how this story ends: It kicks butt. But here's another spoiler: It costs two hundred dollars. At center stage for the Logitech's G19 keyboard is the main attraction: a 320x240 pixel color screen. With this you can cycle through a variety of apps, from a performance monitor on CPU and memory usage, to gaming stats and data of more than 60+ games. It can be your own personal digital photo frame, or video player—it can even stream YouTube videos. Yes, we're still talking about a keyboard. In the same vicinity, just behind the keyboard are two high-speed USB 2.0 ports for conveniently plugging in input devices like a camera or USB thumb drive. There is no dedicated headphone or microphone jack.

www.extremetech.com

Microsoft SideWinder X8 Gaming Mouse

From the makers of Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard and the Explorer Mouse comes the latest gaming phenomenon: the Microsoft SideWinder X8. The X8 delivers 4000 bone crushing dots-per-inch (dpi) designed for one thing only—to tally up a high body count. Rambo's trusty sidekick was his machine gun; a gamer's would be the SideWinder X8.
The SideWinder X8 sports the same "Batmobile-esque" shape and size as the previous two SideWinder mice, though with two notable refinements: Microsoft's improved BlueTrack mouse tracking engine and wireless (and wired) capabilities. The X8 includes a charging plug that easily snaps onto the mouse so that you can continThe metallic scroll wheel registers very distinct tactile and audible clicks, perfect for weapon selection and accurate line-by-line vertical scrolling. As a bonus to those more evolved, the wheel can be tilted to the left or right for horizontal scrolling. ue using it without putting it out of commission.

SOURCE:www.extremetech.com

Razer Mamba Gaming Mouse

Just last month we reviewed the SideWinder X8 gaming mouse that clocks at a gut-wrenching 4000dpi. Fast? Of course. Too fast? Well, probably. And then came the Mamba, Razer's first wireless gaming mouse that sees the SideWinder's high dpi, raises it another 1600dpi, for a whopping 5600 dots per freaking inch. This is the fastest gaming mouse on the planet, but "faster" doesn't always mean "better."
Sporting an ambidextrous design, a common characteristic from Razer's labs, the Mamba's shape is equally suitable for lefties and righties. However, its inclusion of side button (two on-the-fly dpi buttons and two thumb buttons) on the left side of the mouse caters the mouse more for righties. The Mamba has an all-black exterior with a top surface coated with that rubber-like substance to enhance grip. Once the mouse moves around and does its thing, a DPI indicator on the left of the mouse displays the current DPI setting. Also, the mouse wheel is outlined by two blue strips to add to the mouse's mystique.
Like the recently reviewed SideWinder X8, the Mamba works both wired and wirelessly. With the cord plugged in, the Mamba can be used just as any regular wired mouse while also charging its battery. When charged, you can untether the rodent and frag wirelessly. When in use wirelessly, gamers are required to attach the cord to the charging base which also acts as the receiver. If a gamer wants to get up and make a sandwich or something, he can dock the mouse on the base for a quick charge without the hassle of plugging the charging cord directly into the Mamba.

SOURCE:www.extremetech.com

Falcon Northwest FragBook DRX

If you're shopping for a Falcon Northwest gaming laptop, there's no middle ground: Either go for broke or leave the website. Consider the FragBook DRX ($6,449 direct, starting prices around $4,000); the money you'll have spent by the time you trick it out could avert several foreclosures. This 12-pound tank is one of only a handful of boutique laptops that have enough cooling fans to run a 3.33-GHz, Intel Core i7 975 processor—the top-of-the-line desktop processor, no less. Surround the CPU with an excellent supporting cast—an nVidia GeForce 280M GTX graphics card, 6GB of memory, and three internal hard drives (one of which is an 80GB SSD), and its competitors can only watch helplessly while they get pulverized in performance tests.

SOURCE:www.extremetech.com

AZZA Solano 1000 Computer Case

When your computer case sounds like a jet taking off and it's still not as cool as you'd like it to be, it's time for a new case.
We didn't mind the noise so much; working in a basement alongside the furnace/central air unit, a dehumidifier, and such will quickly teach you to tune out extraneous noise, no matter how loud it might be. Nevertheless, when you've installed four 120mm fans in your computer's case and it's still running north of 40 degrees Celsius, it might be time to investigate your options in computer enclosures.
The AZZA Solano 1000 (Buy Now) boasts a ridiculous number of fans, some the size of small desk fans. If this thing can't keep the ambient temperature down, nothing can. It's a roomy, full-tower case with lots of hard drive mounts and plenty of room for even the most massive power supply.

SOURCE:www.extremetech.com