Typically when you go to buy a DSLR and you don’t have any lenses already, you would opt to buy one with what is called a kit lens. It is called a kit lens because with DSLRs, there are two main parts to the camera. The body and the lens. Together they form a “kit,” you need both in order …

I have mentioned it before, how technology is in every aspect of our life and for good reason in some cases. This weekend we took a well deserved couple of days off and headed to the hills. Yep, the hills of West Virginia. We didn’t check emails or even Facebook for 24 hours. I think it did us good and …

Almost everyone have mobile phones and tablets these days. They help to run our chaotic lives and store photos, videos, and documents now just as our PCs do. However, with more powerful devices and larger media and document files comes the need for more battery power and capacity. Typically when one buys a phone or tablet, there usually is no …

It’s not often that when a package arrives at our doorstep we are baffled at what could possibly be inside, and that was just the case with our most recent product sample. Four black envelopes with an inviting “lift here” comment on the front of the packaging. Literally, the packaging is as thin as receiving a bill in the mail. You …

Introducing the world’s first consumer SSD with Samsung’s second generation of 3D NAND called V-NAND, the new and improved Samsung 850 Pro! Yes, that is right, 3D NAND. Oh, and do I even need to mention that it is fast? Finally, we are making break throughs in engineering and moving on to better NAND design. Samsung’s V-NAND offers significant advancements …

 Thermaltake has never been one to shy away from innovation and their newest Urban S71 chassis design is just that!  Moving back to values of simplicity and elegance, Thermaltake has recreated the beauty of a minimalist design, yet with modern ideas such as the side windowed cover that open’s by hinge, vice removal of the panel. The Thermaltake Urban S71 …

With life’s fast pace and active lifestyle, more people strive to capture that “live action” that we yern to remember so. With the invent of the small action cameras such as ‘Go Pro”, we also have SOCAM Ultimate Full HD Action Camera, by Conrad Electronics, hitting the market, as welll as our test bench today! EXTERIOR PACKAGING AND COMPONENTS The SOCAM Ultimate …

As you embark upon checking out the latest in our affiliate reviews, think about how powerful this sharing of information is because of the internet. I know we have heard it before and it’s old news. But really, we used to have to go to the library for this stuff, which meant waiting until it was in ‘print’. One of …

Who is Bayan Audio? Back in 2011, an UK-based company started that had the sole intent of creating high quality products that produce phenomenal sound out of natural materials, that you can take with you wherever you may go. You may recognize them from a previous report we did a few weeks back, when we took a look at the Bayan …

Perhaps one of the candidates for the most popular headphones of all time could be the Sennheiser HD-25’s which were first released in 1988 and can still be found today, although in a more contemporary design.  Many would claim these to be the most likely runaway winner and, if popularity alone through time is any indication, we would have to …

Time has come again, and Intel has released a new chipset for the LGA 1150 socket. The new Z97 chipset from Intel is pretty similar to that of the Z87 chipset that Intel released a little over a year ago. The only change that Intel has made over the Z87 is the addition of the M.2 SSD support. This doesn’t mean that …

Last week at Computex, our visit with Patriot brought to light several product introductions, of which the new Pyro M3 SSD caught our attention. The Pyro M3 is a mSATA SSD that will be available in capacities of 120 and 240GB.  Performance for this SSD is listed at both read and write speeds above 500MB/s.  Patriot is also showing much …

Small form factor PCs have become all the rage as of late and, considering their virtual complete silence and low heat, it only makes sense.  At Computex 2014 in Taipei this past week, Zotac was leading the way with their new ZBox Sphere and nano designs. First up is the ZBOX Sphere O1520 which we believe has a very appealing …

In-Win is definitely a company after my PC enthusiast heart.  Their claim to fame in having me hooked on their designs has already been seen in several of our reports with their limited edition D-Frame seen here; this the case used once again in our latest Z97 build: In-Win has gone one further this time and introduced their newest limited …

Just as they always do, Corsair pulled out all the stops to introduce some great looking cases at Computex this year.  First off, their new Graphite series 380T is based on a mini-ITX frame and has a carrying handle for easy portability.  Corsair couldn’t guarantee the color scheme at the time but these are expected to be released around the …