Razer announces the new Ouroboros gaming mouse

With 8200dpi 4G Dual Sensor

Razer has announced the latest addition to its gaming rodent lineup, the awkwardly named Ouroboros. Featuring customizable ergonomics in order to fit both left and right-handed gamers, a new 8200 dpi sensor and can be used as both wireless and wired mouse

In design, the Razer Ouroboros is described as an ambidextrous mouse but due to fully customizable shell it can be transformed to be either left or right-handed as well as any hand size. The specification list kicks off with new 8200 dpi 4G Dual Sensor System with a dedicated dpi clutch trigger button that provides a quick temporary change in dpi. The new 4G Dual Sensor combines an optical and a laser sensor in order to provide enhanced tracking precision and detect surface ten times faster than previous generation sensors. In total, it features eleven programmable Hyperesponse buttons

The Ouroboros is designed as a wireless mouse with ultra-low 1ms latency and powered by a single rechargeable AA battery that is enough for a minimum 12 hours of gaming. It comes with a recharge dock but can be also used as a wired mouse in case you run out of battery juice

The new Ouroboros gaming mouse should be available as of Q4 2012 with a price set at US $129.99 in the U.S. and €129.99 in Europe

You can check out more details here

Sapphire launches two new HD 7970 graphics cards

Vapor-X Editions with 3 and 6GB of memory

In addition to the recently introduced Sapphire HD 7970 Toxic Edition graphics card, Sapphire has decided to expand its HD 7970 lineup with two new HD 7970 models that will be a part of the Vapor-X Edition lineup. As expected, both are based on AMD's Tahiti XT2 GPU

The Sapphire HD 7970 6GB Vapor-X shares some features with the recently introduced Sapphire HD 7970 Toxic Edition as it packs the same 6GB of GDDR5 memory set to work at 6000MHz. It ticks at 1000MHz base and 1050MHz Powertune boost clock on standard BIOS while performance BIOS is set at 1050/1100MHz. It has a 10-phase power design with Black Diamond Chokes, DirectFET technology, 12-layer PCB and a set of LEDs that display PCB temperature, same thing we have seen on the Toxic Edition graphics card

The second model is the Sapphire HD 7970 3GB Vapor-X Edition, that, according to Sapphire, should deliver similar high performance at a more aggressive price point. It packs 3GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6000MHz and works at 1000MHz for the base and 1050MHz for Powertune boost clock. It is based on 8-phase power design

As a part of the Vapor-X Edition lineup, both cards feature the same dual-slot cooler based on a new vapor chamber that is connected to a heatsink via four heatpipes (2x8mm and 2x6mm) and cooled by two 90mm fans with aerofoil blades and dust repelling bearings

Unfortunately, the price or the actual availability date have not been announced but Sapphire noted that both cards are in production now and should hit retail/e-tail pretty soon

EVGA GTX 680 Classified 4GB lands in our lab

Preview: Lean, mean overclocking machine

EVGA GTX 680 Classified is a graphics card of a special calibre and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank EVGA for making this test possible. The GTX 680 Classified reared its face at Computex, but it's already available in shops. A glance at the card reveals what this cards is for - huge cooling, two 8-pin power connectors, 14+3 VRM design and EVBot connector make it clear that this is a card for overclockers

It's difficult to tell the size of the card from the picture, but the GTX 680 Classified is about 2.5cm longer and taller than the standard GTX 680 (depicted below is GTX 680 Beast which uses the PCB of standard size). The larger PCB made it possible to replace the 6cm fan with an 8cm one

The card is priced at $659.99, which is pretty steep generally speaking. Additionally, EVBot is ordered separately, and you'll be needing it if you want to max out your GPU by overvoltaging. EVBot will set you back $90, but we suspect that extreme overclockers who'll resort to water or LN2 cooling won't really mind - it's the results that matter

The GTX 680 packs a BIOS that offers three modes - normal, OC andlN2. The BIOS switch is next to the EVBot connector. LN2 and OC will turn off the power target limit, allowing for maximum overclocking. We've heard about some mouthwatering results with LN2, such as the one when Kingpin overclocked the GPU to 2GHz. This would of course be impossible with air cooling alone. We haven't played with overclocking yet, but we're hoping for minimum GPU clock of 1300MHz

We won't show you the PCB and cooling up close, because we'll take the cooler off when we're done with testing. What we can see for now are memory modules on the back, and GTX 680 Classified comes with 4GB of it

There are no air exhausts on the cooler other than on the I/O panel, which is typical of blower style coolers. When running at factory clocks, the GTX 680 Classified is cooler and quieter than the reference GTX 680. This is due to the larger fan and heatsink. EVGA redesigned the I/O panel in order to improve airflow and the exhausts are bigger than on the referencecard. The GTX 680 Classified has the same set of connectors like the reference GTX 680: two dual link DVIs, one HDMI and one DisplayPort. There are more air exhausts above the metal cover. We must admit that cases with additional exhausts above the expansion slots aren't quite common, but thankfully, our CoolerMaster Cosmos II was made to be future proof




You can check out the first results we got at factory GPU clock of 1111MHz. The memory was left at reference 6008MHz (GDDR5 effectively). Judging by the results, GTX 680 Classified's performance with this moderate GPU overclock and no memory overclock is comparable to an above average GTX 680 card. We're hoping that overclocking will help GTX 680 Classified beat all other previous performance records seen for GTX 680.