Today is the day that most everyone goes back to school or work from a long holiday break.  Keep your chin up, Summer will be here before you know it and it'll be vacation time again. 

On another note, Congrats go out to John Fuller for winning our most recent prize drawing.  We'll be getting John's prizes right out to him directly from the lofts of the Penthouse Labs.  Thanks to everyone who entered.

Let's start our news day off with the pros from Anandtech and the Thermaltake Spedo Case.

There are plenty of people that love fancy cases with all sorts of features, even if some aren't actually necessary. In our opinion a case doesn't need all of the extra fluff and the Thermaltake Spedo has a case of feature overkill, but there are surely people out there who will love the appearance and design.

Head over to the OCIA and see what they think about the WinFast PX9800 GTX+ Leadtek Limited VGA Card.

While the GTX 260/280 cards have taken over nVidia's top slots for video card gaming hardware, their 9 series continues to flush out the bulk of their product lineup, and the 9800 GTX+ reigns as top dog among the 9 series family. The WinFast PX9800 GTX+ Leadtek Limited appears to have identical specs to their standard PX9800 GTX+ with the only difference being that of a slightly different cooler face and bundled game selection.

Nano fans?  See Bjorn3D for the review of the Nonaoxia Nano Fans.  Just regular fans but UV yellow from the looks of em' with one exception...

If you read the last image on the previous page and have seen that Nanoxia listed these fans as waterproof, then you're on the right track. Yes, these fans will be tested in water. It states that, not only on their websites and across the web, but it is also printed on their packaging. Well, I just would not be doing my job if I did not test the full capability of these fans, now would I? This portion is all about the "Water Proofing" of these fans.

Still at Bjorn's place is another review but with this one covering the Cooler Master Aquagate Max H2O Kit.

NZXT Guardian 921 Case action up at TechPowerUp.

The Guardian 921 is an interesting looking chassis, featuring a "shield" as a door and a "head" raised above the rest of the case with a temperature LCD screen. Included with the case are three temperature sensors that can be placed at important locations that need to be monitored.

Another case from the long remembered ATCS lineup.  Inside Hardware has a go at the Cooler Master ATCS 840 Case.

Cooler Master ATCS 840 is one big (spacious), quiet, perfectly organized chassis.  Simply put: InsideHW Editor’s Choice. Price tag around 250€ might seem high at first sight but when you take a better look, you will conclude that it is not that much for this kind of chassis. What’s more Cooler Master ATCS 840 chassis is designed for most demanding users.

Hawking HWRN1A Hi-Gain Wireless-300N Router anyone?

Still using one of those older 802.11G or even 802.11b routers?  As demand for networking bandwidth increases, 802.11N is becoming more popular.  Today we’ll be looking at one such upgrade option offered by well-known networking provider, Hawking Technology: the Hawking HWRN1A Hi-Gain Wireless-300N Router.  Have they finally made wireless routers plug-in-play, or will you need to mess around a bunch of connection settings?  We’re here to answer that question in this review.

Definitely some of the coolest looking flash drive designs I've seen before.  Virtual-Hideout has a sample with one, the PromoLocker Custom VH USB Drive.

This combination lanyard and USB flash drive is ideal for any tradeshow go-er!  This cloth lanyard has a polished steel ID badge holder with a hidden USB flash drive in the clip.  WOW!  You can choose between 5 standard lanyard colors OR custom match to any PMS color you like!

Thermaltake Vi-On HDD Enclosure review posted by Pure Overclock.

Wrapping our news day up is the Thecus N4100 Pro NAS review over at Overclockers Online.

The N4100 Pro rings in at about $400 dollars, which in the world of network attached storage, falls into the lower range of things, compared its more expensive counterpart, the N4100 Pro packs quite a punch. For all this though, unfortunately this unit too shares the same flaws as the N5200 Pro. Documentation included with the unit is sparse, and the web interface could definitely use some work.

Our NZXT Guardian 921 Case and Avatar Gaming Mouse Contest is over.  The winner has been notified and as soon as we have conformation from them we'll post their name up for you.  So check your e-mail addys; it could be you!

Sidewinder Computers has ThermalRight's six heatpipe GPU Cooler, the HR-03 for the GeForce GTX260/280 in stock and on sale for $55.  For you water cooling folks, Sidewinder has a number of new H2O accessories in that will make customizing that rig a breeze.

Anandtech has a go right off with the new Foxconn Blood Rage Motherboard.  The red accents on the board are VERY tough looking.  But does the board perform as well as it looks?

We'll sum up by saying that there's no doubt the Blood Rage has some of the finest components we've ever seen used on a motherboard. The specifications for the CPU and memory power supply are so outlandish that you'd expect the board to be able to run dual processors and double the supported amount of memory with relative ease.

Next up is this review of the XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition over at the Hard|OCP.

If you thought it couldn’t get any better than XFX’s well known “XXX” edition of highly clocked video cards, then you haven’t met its “Black Edition” yet. XFX has a new line poised to take the performance crown sporting the latest GeForce GTX 260 specifications. Six games played and A2A as well.

Here's a clean little HTPC rig at Bjorn3D.  Check out the Glacial Altair A381 (iMon) Case.

It is easy to purchase a pre-built system for recording and playback HD contents. TiVo and Apple TV are a couple of example. Users can even add a TV tuner card to an existing system to convert it to an HTPC setup. For many computer enthusiasts, building their own system tailored to their needs is half the fun. Choosing the right case, one which offers ample expansion slots and good cooling, is essential for any HTPC. Of course, if the system can run at near silence, that would be a great plus when you immerse yourself in that digital enjoyment.

These ButtKicker LFE Kits are all well and good unless you live in an apartment.  See OCModShop for more.

Sitting under the back of the couch, fed by wireless bass from the from the core of your audio system is the Guitammer ButtKicker. What better way to let a girl know you love her than by giving her the gift of a vibrating couch? I hope you bought one for the bed too.

Several case reviews today.  First up is CaseUmbau (German) and the Lian Li Super-Case X-2000B Case.  That is one sleek looking unit!

SilverStone Fortress FT01 Case is next up and Hardware Secrets is the server.

FT01 is a high-quality all-aluminum mid-tower case from SilverStone, targeted to the very exigent user. Its superior quality is achieved by using a “unibody” chassis, i.e. the top, front and bottom panels of the case are made by a single aluminum sheet (very thick, by the way) that was bent using automotive-level press machines, a concept that was introduced by the Tejmin TJ07 case from the same manufacturer.

Motherboards.org brings us another case with this review of the NZXT Tempest Case.  Check it.

NZXT calls their Tempest case the Airflow King and I would agree with that. With two front 120mm fans, a 120mm fan on the rear, a 120mm fan on the side panel and two top 140mm fans, this case has more cooling fans and airflow than any other Med-Tower case I've ever seen.

This and that.

Perixx Periboard-306 Keyboard at Technic3D.

Hitachi's Deskstar E7K1000 HDD at The Tech Report.

Thermolab Baram Heatpipe CPU Cooler at the Hardware Bistro.

D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure at Overclocker's Club.