General Gaming Article |
- Newegg Daily Deals: Corsair Carbide Series 500R Case, Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Mobo, and More!
- Acer Announces Two 34-Inch Ultra-Wide Monitors Starting at $600
- MSI Woos Gamers with 27-Inch Gaming 27T All-in-One
- Maingear Rush Shows Off Origami Wiring Through Tempered Glass
- Razer Diamondback Review
| Newegg Daily Deals: Corsair Carbide Series 500R Case, Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Mobo, and More! Posted: 12 Nov 2015 10:57 AM PST Top Deal:When you're shopping a home, you don't settle on just any dwelling, you look at things like space, amenities, and aesthetic appeal. It should be the same when hunting for a case for your components, and if you're looking for an attractive chassis with lots of high-end features, then check out today's top deal for a Corsair Carbide Series 500R Arctic White Steel / ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case for $90 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCKCKA34]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate). It's roomy, will turn heads, and offers excellent cooling or your PC parts. Other Deals: Asus Z170 Pro Gaming LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $145 with $3 shipping (normally $165; additional $25 Mail-in rebate) Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card for $300 with free shipping (normally $325; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) OCZ Trion 100 2.5-inch 240GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive for $60 with free shipping (normally $77) CyberPower Intelligent LCD Series 8 Outlets UPS for $120 with free shipping (normally $133 - use coupon code: [EMCKCKA32]) |
| Acer Announces Two 34-Inch Ultra-Wide Monitors Starting at $600 Posted: 12 Nov 2015 10:47 AM PST Productivity workhorses Acer just fleshed out its lineup of monitors with not one, but two new 34-inch models, both of which sport an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel and an ultra-wide form factor. The first is the B346CK, a 34-inch monitor with a Quad HD (3440x1440) resolution at 60Hz. It offers 178-degree viewing angles, 100 percent sRGB coverage with 6-axis color adjustment and 1.07 billion color options, 320 cd/m2 brightness, 100,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and 6ms response time. Due to its 21:9 aspect ratio, there's a lot horizontal real-estate for viewing documents and other windows side-by-side. It also supports Picture-in-Picture (PIP) in case you want to want watch a movie in a box while pretending to work on a TPS report. Acer's other 34-inch model is the B346C. It differs from the B346CK in that it has a 2560x1080 resolution (also at 60Hz), 300 cd/m2 brightness, and 16.7 million colors. Both monitors are VESA compliant, have two 3W speakers, and use an ErgoStand that provides -5 to 25 degrees of tilt adjustment, 60 degrees of swivel left or right, and up to 5.9 inches of height adjustment. Connectivity on both monitors consist of HDMI with MHL, DisplayPort, and a USB 3.0 hub. The Acer B356CK and B346C are now shipping to the U.S. priced at $800 and $600, respectively. |
| MSI Woos Gamers with 27-Inch Gaming 27T All-in-One Posted: 12 Nov 2015 10:08 AM PST An all-in-one with gaming chops It's not too often that we see all-in-one systems aimed at gamers, but that's exactly the segment MSI has in its sights with its new Gaming 27T, a 27-inch AIO that packs some pixel pushing hardware inside. MSI paired an Intel Core i7-6700 processor with a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M GPU. We'd have preferred if MSI opted for NVIDIA's recently announced desktop-class GTX 980 for laptops, though the included GTX 980M still provides enough grunt for a 1080p gaming experience, which is the display's native resolution. There's also 16GB of DDR4 RAM stuffed into this thing, along with a pair of 128GB PCI-E Gen 3.0 x4 SSDs in RAID 0 for a total of 256GB of fast storage flanked by a 2TB HDD and a Blu-ray burner. Other features include Killer Wireless connectivity, 3-in-1 card reader, a single USB 3.1 Type-C port, three USB 3.0 ports (one that's capable of charging devices when the system is turned off), two USB 2.0 ports, 2MP webcam, a pair of 5W speakers, two HDMI outputs, and Windows 10. The system comes with a USB gaming keyboard and mouse with a 3,500 DPI sensor. It's not a bad set of features and hardware, though once the GPU starts feeling long in the tooth you'd be looking at picking up a whole new system. We also wonder if MSI provides easy access to key components like the RAM and storage drives -- we've seen AIO systems go both ways in this regard. In any event, if you find the Gaming 27T intriguing, MSI says it's available to purchase now for $2,700. |
| Maingear Rush Shows Off Origami Wiring Through Tempered Glass Posted: 12 Nov 2015 09:40 AM PST Fancy pants aesthetics The standard formula for a gaming rig is pretty simple -- grab a pile of high-end parts, stuff them into an aggressive-looking chassis, turn on the LED light show for added bling, and posts pics on social media. Maingear's new Rush system takes a different approach. Instead of going for the fierce gaming desktop look, Maingear's Rush sports a tempered glass chassis with clean lines in place of aggressive angles, and of course LEDs because, well, this is still a gaming system after all. "The Rush is the James Bond of gaming desktops. It is lethal, resourceful, and powerful, but elegant, cool, and collected," says Wallace Santos, CEO and founder for Maingear. Sitting behind the tempered glass is a clean layout with "artistically positioned components," custom liquid cooling solutions, and "origami wiring" so you're not staring at a mess of cables. A Maingear Rush system starts at $1,999 for what's called a "Stage 1" configuration based on Intel's Z170 Express chipset for Skylake. It includes an MSI Z170 PC Mate motherboard, Core i5-6600K processor, closed loop Epic 120 liquid cooler, 8GB of Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4-2666 RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 graphics card, 250GB SAmsung 850 Evo SSD, 2TB SEagate Barracuda HDD, 24X DVD burner, and 750W EVGA SuperNova power supply. That configuration is just the tip of what can be a very big and expensive iceberg. The most expensive starting configuration -- a Stage 4 setup with a Haswell-E foundation -- starts at $5,749. From there you can upgrade components, add an automotive quality paint job, pick up accessories, and so forth. Regardless of the price tag, Maingear promises zero bloatware, a one-year warranty (that can be upgraded too), and lifetime technical support. The new Maingear Rush is available now. |
| Posted: 12 Nov 2015 12:00 AM PST We're working our way through playing with some of Razer's recent gaming mice, and each one has its own unique characteristics. The Razer Diamondback is one of the lighter and smaller units in Razer's offering. At A Glance(+) Menacing Rattler: Ambidextrous design good for lefties; 16,000dpi sensor, light and nimble. (-) Snakeskin Boots: Scroll wheel is a bit on the stiff side; costs $20 more than Logitech's similar G303. After using Razer's Deathadder Chroma for months, moving over to the nimbly-bimbly Diamondback was a big change in how we played games. It was a big change of scenery too, since the Diamondback boasts Razer's Chroma-style LEDs (though the mouse lacks the Chroma branding in its name). For those who prefer lighter and more agile mice like Logitech's G303, the Diamondback will feel right at home in your hand. The mouse is 89g without the cable, which is just a hair heavier than the G303's 87g. Just like the G303, the Diamondback uses a symmetrical design philosophy. But unlike the G303, there is a pair of buttons on both the right and left side of the mouse, offering true ambidextrous support. We don't see a lot of mice that are nice to lefties, so seeing symmetry in both shape and button layout is a breath of fresh air. The Diamondback's small size and taller sides also lends itself to gamers who prefer a claw grip. This design also lets you lift the mouse easily, without having to palm-grip the sides with a lot of force. The rubberized sides to the mouse help with traction, too. You can disable the buttons on the right or left sides, to eliminate accidental clicks with the ring or pinky fingers. In terms of looks, the Diamondback comes in the standard Razer black matte with the triple-serpent design on the palm rest. It has of RGB LED channels flanking both sides, similar to the Mamba Chroma. And keeping with the Razer's Chroma line, all of these LEDs are customizable in Synapse. (You can turn them off too, if you prefer less illumination on your desk.) However, RGB LEDs are becoming the standard in gaming peripherals, so we can't give extra points for lighting alone. And just like the Mamba, the Diamondback boasts a big 16,000dpi of responsiveness. That's 60 percent more than the Deathadder (10,000dpi), and 25 percent more than the G303 (12,000 dpi). Of course, only the most discerning twitchy player will need anything over 10,000dpi, which many consider more than enough. One thing that caught our attention was the mouse wheel. Depending on how (or what) you play, the Diamondback's wheel could be a deal breaker for some. The wheel has stiff "notches" while you scroll, making it harder to scroll several lines in rapid succession. In contrast, the Deathadder's wheel rotates much more freely, allowing for quick navigation through menus and faster weapon changes. While this stiffness can help prevent accidental scrolling, it also requires more effort and time to scroll. While a few milliseconds may not seem like much, for players who need the fastest response, this wheel might not be the best choice. For those who would prefer more deliberate scrolling and don't require fast or frequent scrolling, the wheel will be ideal. At $90 the Diamondback is $20 more than the G303, which competes in the same space in terms of form and function. On the other hand, the G303 only has thumb buttons on the left, and sports a lower DPI than the Diamondback. Overall, the Diamondback is a solid mouse for those who want a lightweight gaming mouse, need ambidextrous access, prefer high-sensitivity response, and don't mind a stiff scroll wheel. |
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