Mention the term Small Form Factor and most people think of a PC case that you can hold in one hand. The term came into use when PC giants HP, Compaq, and IBM were all trying to shrink the corporate desktop. The question that came to mind when Benchmark Reviews first saw the XIGMATEK Gigas was, "Why this design?" It's because consumers want sleek, fashionable components in their life, and big tower cases are past their expiration date, as industrial designs go. There's an increasing focus on svelte boxes that work with a mini-ITX or micro-ATX motherboard. The tiniest boxes give up some measure of performance in exchange for space, but mid-sized models like the Gigas can handle the most powerful components available. The combination of four 120mm fans and passive ventilation on the side panel supplies plenty of cool air for all the critical components inside. The ability to use virtually any 120mm CPU cooler also helps keep temps down. While not exactly commonplace, you can also run a SLI/CrossFire arrangement. The Gigas will handle full-sized graphics cards up to 320mm in length, and PSUs up to 300mm. Let's see if we can turn this piece of art into a Power Cube.

In the world of computer audio, G-CUBE is not one of those names that comes up often. There's a valid reason for this: The company is still at the stage where it is trying to establish a place for itself amongst the crowd of contenders in this hotly-contested arena. Their new Luxy 500 Dynamic HiFi Headset (model number iHL-500BK) is the company's latest entry into the market of sub-$100.00 headsets. Benchmark Reviews examines the Luxy 500 Dynamic HiFi Headset and tests it through a wide variety of usage scenarios. Read on to see how the iHL-500BK stacks up against everything we throw at it.

There is a glass ceiling in the world of NAS devices, and like all glass ceilings it's not that obvious until you bang your head against it a few times. The standard-issue network interface in the IT world is a one Gigabit Ethernet connection. Convert bits to bytes and you end up with a less impressive sounding 125 MB/s interface. The ceiling comes into play quickly, because even a single 3TB HDD can push 160 MB/s through its SATA 6 Gb/s interface, when it's running hard. I was a little frustrated when I did an extensive review of the QNAP TS-879U-RP Turbo NAS server last month, because I didn't have a network environment that could unleash its full performance. Now that I do, let's take a look at what it takes to get this corporate animal up to full speed.

NVIDIA's new Kepler-based video cards have set new standards in performance for the desktop graphics market. Now that reference-design cards are widely available, manufacturers have the breathing space to start distinguishing their products. Benchmark Reviews has been given the opportunity to examine MSI's N680GTX Lightning video card, and as we'll see MSI has gone far beyond simply slapping a new cooler on a reference design board. As with other products in MSI's Lightning line, the N680GTX boasts a completely new board design that should allow substantial overclocking.

If you are familiar with Sentey, you'll recognize a certain pattern they have when releasing their computer cases. They generally release a style of case and then release a few more with the same style and some minor changes. There will be an R version of the case that has red highlights, a B version with blue, W for white, and so on. In some case series they will also release a V version with a different side panel (usually windowed). In the case of the Optimus series, as well as a couple of other series, Sentey has now released a II version of the case. At Benchmark Reviews, we have a Sentey GS-6000 II Optimus case on hand and ready break down to explore what they've changed on this one.

If you're like me, over the years you've collected a huge digital library full of music, pictures, and movies onto your computer. Occasionally, I might watch a video from off my laptop or listen to a song while working at the desktop, but high-definition movies and music are really best enjoyed on a home theater system with larger screen and powerful speakers. The ASUS O!Play LIVE HD Media Player makes this transition easy, accepting every modern media format over local storage and network connections. Watching broadcast television and DVD/BD movies have been replaced with streaming Internet content and downloaded multimedia files, especially for college aged viewers who own a smartphone or tablet device. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the ASUS O!Play LIVE HD Media Player, and we evaluate how well it performs our tasks.

Video games: They can be so beautiful to look at, lovely to listen to, and the best of them can take you on narrative journeys that can sometimes rival the best examples of cinema, theater, and literature have to offer. Which begs the question: Can video games be considered a legitimate form of art? Read along as Benchmark Reviews examines the question in-depth.