I am a case snob. The cases I like are brushed aluminum, have removable motherboard trays, neatly rolled edges, finished interiors, cable management, and so forth. They have SATA backplanes and mounts for triple-120 radiators. A certain degree of style doesn't hurt, either. Of course cases like this are expensive, but since I have to look at them all day, I figure they're worth it. In this article, Benchmark Reviews inspects the NZXT M59 Mid-Tower computer case, which at a suggested retail price of $59.99 for the M59-001BK model it is hardly in the milieu I'm become accustomed to. Will the design flair that was evident in NZXT's $400 Khaos gaming case be in evidence here? Let's see.

Many gamers swear by the proven stability that is Windows XP, but there's a new player on the market: Windows 7. While Windows XP is heralded by some as the best OS to ever come from Microsoft, Vista is the Windows ME of the 21st Century. Enter Windows 7. Built on the proven NT platform and in many ways appearing much like Vista, that's where the similarities end. Today, Benchmark Reviews will take a look at some of the different methods of installation, and hopefully clear up some of the confusion many of you may be having. I think some people will be surprised by how easy it can be, plus we will show you how to possibly bypass having to reinstall Windows XP or Vista during an upgrade.

AMD has retaken the crown for superior graphical power with their ATI Radeon HD 5870 video card, and consumers have confirmed that this is the hottest graphics accelerator of the moment. Armed with 1600 shader cores, the 40nm Cypress GPU claims to push video game frame rates well-beyond what NVIDIA offers from their GeForce GTX 285 counterpart. While the list of DirectX 11 video games has just started to grow, with one of the first being a free Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) named BattleForge. Perhaps ATI has created the perfect storm for their Radeon HD 5800-series by offering a price-competitive graphics card with several free games included or available. While NVIDIA toils away with CUDA and PhysX, ATI is busy delivering the next generation of hardware for the gaming community to enjoy. Sapphire factory overclocks the Cypress GPU and adds their own custom cooling solution, named Vapor-X. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X video card 100281-2GVXSR against a cross-section of modern graphics accelerators.

Convection is when moving air transfers heat to or from a surface. This is the method used by most laptop coolers to keep your CPU, GPU and other critical components from overheating. There are three major factors to effective cooling (or heating), namely temperature difference, surface area, and air flow. Any differences in these factors will lead to differences in performance, even for the same cooler. The Benchmark Reviews team tries hard to provide you with fair and repeatable testing. The Antec Notebook Cooler 200 uses all three factors to achieve effective cooling with minimal power. Our tests show which of those factors makes the biggest difference. We also consider ergonomics, looks and quality.

Xigmatek - A name that needs no introduction, But the first things that come to mind are CPU coolers, Right? A relatively young company, founded in 2005, Xigmatek has made some great quality coolers, 2 of which featured and performed very well in the Q2 best CPU cooler performance review here at Benchmark Reviews, Today's review focuses on the Xigmatek Midgard CPC-T55DB-U02 Computer Case, Big on features and while not an overly expensive case it is still closer to the top end of what I would call a Budget case. Tool free design, Midgard-W was designed by gaming and cooling thinking within tool-free hard drives and add-on card installation, easy installation CPU cooler back plate window, four pipe holes for water cooling system and seven cooling fan space at most. This case is certainly beautiful to look at, but looks are for the vain, Features and quality are essential to the success of a product. Will you be using this case in your next build? Come and take a closer look to see if this is the case ticks all the boxes for You.

In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the newly re-vamped AMD Phenom-II X4-965 BE desktop processor. For all intent and purpose, the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor has not changed. The model number is now HDZ965FBK4DGM, and the total TDP is down from 140W to 125W. The X4 965 CPU still honors the AM3 socket, and uses a 45nm process to construct the 258mm² die. GlobalFoundries FAB1 has added C1E implementation on the hardware level, and DDR3 is now supported at 1333MHz for 'Heavy' loads. Ultimately though, the 3.4GHz is still the same overclocking beast it always has been, and performance is relatively unchanged.

For years, Kingston has sold system memory upgrade kits to help boost personal computer performance. Installing RAM is a simple process, and it usually helped speed up an old PC. Yet, because the processor and memory both operate at level much faster than the average hard disk, the real bottleneck is the primary drive. Solid State Drives are the ideal upgrade for hard drives, and the difference an SSD makes is far noticeable than any memory upgrade. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the performance and speed for the ideal SSD starter kit: Kingston's SSDNow V 40GB Boot Drive SSD SNV125-S2/40GB.

Déjà vu is a funny thing. At first you're not sure it's real; then you're absolutely convinced; finally, it fades and you're not sure anymore. The CM Storm Sniper, first shown to the public when Cooler Master launched the CM Storm brand in 2008, started out life with a full "Black Ops" paint job. Black on the outside, black on the inside and the first gaming case to feature three massive 200mm cooling fans, it was an instant hit. Somehow, the production version ended up without the black interior, but it was still a rousing success when Benchmark Reviews looked at it in January of this year. Its ten months later, coming up on the holiday season, and what better (and easier) way to kick it up a notch than to bring back the black: The CM Storm Sniper Black Edition SGC-6000-KKN1-GP.