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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Intel NUC category has been an interesting product line to analyze, as it provides us with insights into where the traditional casual / home use desktop market might end up. Officially falling under Ultra-Compact Form Factor PCs (UCFF), units in this category take miniaturization to the extreme by even making 2.5" drives unnecessary. Last year, we reviewed Intel's first NUC. Fast forward to the present, and we have the Haswell-based NUC already in the market. How does Haswell improve upon the original NUC? Before going into that, a little bit of history is in order.</span></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) for PCs was originally championed by VIA Technologies with their nano-ITX (12cm x 12cm) and pico-ITX (10cm x 7.2cm) boards. Zotac was one of the first to design a custom UCFF motherboard (sized between nano-ITX and pico-ITX) for the ZBOX nano XS AD11 based on AMD Brazos. The motherboard was approximately 10cm x 10cm. Intel made this motherboard size a 'standard' with the introduction of the Intel NUC boards in May 2012. The first generation Intel NUCs were both launched with Core i3 17W TDP CPUs. While one model had a GbE port, the other traded it for a Thunderbolt port.</span></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Haswell NUCs come in two varieties too, but Intel has opted for a more conventional configuration this time around (particularly due to the slow uptake in Thunderbolt adoption in the target market). The following table provides a quick look at the specification of the two Haswell NUCs, with our review configuration highlighted. The WYB suffix refers to the board alone, while the WYK suffix refers to the kit with the chassis. The WYKH increases the dimensions of the chassis to support a 2.5" HDD / SSD in addition to the mSATA drive.</span></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/7566/intels-haswell-nuc-d54250wyk-ucff-pc-review" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"> </p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);">Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so the saying goes. Most development in home computers veers toward the ultra large (high impact gaming machines for 4K resolutions/multi-monitor immersive experiences) or the ultra-tiny (Intel NUC, Raspberry Pi). The downside of these two extremes is usually cost, and most regular Joes go for something in the middle trading one side for the other. One popular build right now is mini-ITX in a Bitfenix Prodigy chassis, as it offers space for a full on GPU or many 2.5” storage drives. ASRock now come to the market with the M8 barebones based on a BMW design for the Z87 platform, at half the width of the Bitfenix Prodigy and a high build quality. It mirrors what we are seeing with the latest consoles, and thus offers a prime opportunity as a Steam Box.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/7604/asrock-m8" target="_blank">Read more</a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);">After the wave of cheap 27” monitors from South Korea hit Ebay, a number of vendors started to offer their own inexpensive models. One of the first models to hit the US, and one that </span>I reviewed here<span style="font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);">, was the VUE27 from Nixeus. Now they have released their newest version, the VUE27D. Stripping the input selection down to a single DisplayPort input, the VUE27D reaches for an even lower price point than before. With all the changes in the display marketplace over the past year, how will the VUE27D fare today?</span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/7585/nixeus-vue27d-monitor-review" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></p>
<p><a id="fck_paste_padding"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246); font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px;">At the 2013 CES Samsung made a point to demonstrate the excellent accuracy of their monitors. They had an example of the automated calibration routine they go through at the factory. Using a Konica Minolta CA-310 meter, 25 points on the screen are measured to ensure uniformity and accuracy in every high-end monitor they produce. Included in the box of the S27B971D model that I am reviewing, there is a sheet of results showing the accuracy of the display. Very few vendors have displayed this level of confidence in their monitors, or commitment to calibration, so seeing how well Samsung can live up to their words is something I wanted to find out.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/7456/samsung-s27b971d-monitor-review" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></p>
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We would like to talk about a series of hard drives from Seagate targeted for use in network attached storage devices. We will review 2, 3 and 4 TB products with SATA 6 Gbps interface support.
The first Monoprice display I looked at didn’t fare well. While very affordable, it only offered a DVI input and very little in the way of controls. The worst sin was that the brightness control on the display just didn’t work correctly. A step up from that model is their IPS-Glass. With HDMI, DSub, and DisplayPort inputs to go with a dual-link DVI input, it is far more flexible than the cheaper model. It also returns the display controls to the front of the monitor instead of the rear. As important as these changes are, it won’t really matter if the issues found in the cheaper model exist here.
What separates a professional grade monitor, like the NEC PA242W, from a similarly designed consumer display? You can easily go to Dell and find a 24”, 1920x1200 resolution display with GB-LED backlighting for a few hundred dollars; why are displays like the NEC PA242W worth almost twice the price? Are they just coasting off the reputation they had from their CRT days, or do they engineer their LCD displays in a way that set them apart from everyone else? I set out to examine the PA242W and find what it offers that sets it apart from the competition.
The NEC PA242W is a 24”, GB-LED backlit display with 1920x1200 resolution. I recently saw GB-LED backlighting in the Dell U3014 monitor and it performed well. GB-LED backlighting allows for the full AdobeRGB color gamut while still using LED lighting. Also on the NEC are a full complement of inputs: HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, and VGA, as well as a 3-port USB hub. I would like to see USB 3.0 on the hub for the price of the NEC but we only get USB 2.0. What you do get are dual USB upstream ports, letting you connect the NEC to two computers. Video inputs can be assigned to a USB upstream connection, so when you switch the display from one PC to another, your connected peripherals switch to that PC as well.
Corsair's case lineup has been growing over time with a trickle down approach, as they launched with the venerable (and expensive) Obsidian 800D and have been able to shrink all the way down to the Carbide 200R. Yet outside of the Obsidian 900D, their enthusiast high end (as opposed to the obscene beast that is the 900D) has actually remained relatively unchanged. Today the Obsidian 750D launches, covering the space the 700D and 800D used to occupy while trickling down the 900D's industrial design.
The panel does not make the monitor. As I saw in my last 21:9 monitor review, even if you have the exact same panel in two displays, a whole lot more makes the display good or bad. One might assume that all the 21:9 displays now hitting the market are likely to be similar, or even the same, since they all use the same panel, but they would be greatly mistaken as that is but a small part of the overall display. Because of this I was looking forward to seeing what ASUS could manage to do with a high quality panel at its disposal for their MX299Q monitor.
While 21:9 aspect ratios were initially designed around movies in the scope format (2.39:1 and other similar aspect ratios), they also offer a unique experience for gaming. The wider aspect enables a wider field-of-view in many games and can offer an advantage. Personally, however, for general productivity work like Word and Excel I find a 2560x1440 display to be more useful as those benefit from the vertical space.
Out of the box the MX299Q has a stylish look to it. Vendors are trying to make a splash with their 21:9 panels and the styling on them has been nice so far. ASUS puts a thin silver bezel at the bottom of the display while the rest of the screen is effectively bezel-free. I’d like to see this bezel-free look come to more displays in the future. The inputs, DisplayPort, DVI, and HDMI/MHL, are located on the rear along with a headphone jack and audio line-in. Power is handled by an external power brick to accomplish the thin look.
During my tenure as case reviewer here, I've tried to avoid revisiting hardware whenever possible. There are a tremendous amount of cases available and more launching every day, so to go back and spend more time with something I've already tested is typically less fruitful for all involved. With that said, sometimes it's worth making an exception, and I absolutely believe the SilverStone Precision PS07 merits being checked out again.
The first time I reviewed the PS07 was more than a year and a half ago, when it launched. Yet what often happens with cases is that they see modest revisions during their lifespans. The manufacturers almost never publicize these revisions, but they're almost always positive. NZXT's initially much maligned H2 eventually had the door vent significantly widened to prevent it from suffering the same airflow issues our review unit did, and during the transition to USB 3.0, many manufacturers simply did a one-for-one swapped and replaced their USB 2.0 headers with USB 3.0. SilverStone is no different; the current PS07 is manufactured using thicker steel than the original, and SilverStone has replaced the middling fans they included in the original with quieter, more efficient models.
At the same time, there's been a bit of a dearth of strong Micro-ATX enclosures. Rosewill's Line-M is a good case, but not a great one; the Fractal Design Define Mini has acoustic padding but generally underperforms. The best Micro-ATX case I can really recommend at present is the Corsair Obsidian 350D, but that ignores SilverStone's entries from the year before. I was quite smitten with this enclosure design then, and our testing methodology has improved considerably since that time, so I'd like to see just how well it holds up.