XFX Type-01 Series Bravo Edition

Best known for its AMD graphics cards, XFX has just made a debut in the chassis market with the Type-01 Series, an ATX tower chassis. The Bravo Edition retails for £69, which is an attractive price for such a case, being not quite what we’d consider a budget chassis, but it certainly sits towards the lower end of mid-range.

Standing out anew in the case market is difficult, but it would be hard to argue that the Type-01 Bravo doesn’t look unique. The entire front panel has a corrugated mesh effect, the lines of which hide the power and reset buttons, as well as the three 5.25in bay covers. The effect is continued in the cutaway sections of the roof and side panel too – it’s a wellventilated case. Plastic top and bottom sections add further visual interest, but also contribute to the case’s large diameters – it’s over 560mm tall.

Synology DS215J

A relentless launch schedule sees Synology releasing new NAS boxes regularly, and if you wondered where the dual-bay DS214j went, the answer is that you’re looking at it. The DS215j is the successor to the DS213j, with Synology focusing on the budget-friendly DS214SE instead of releasing a new mid-range NAS box. The DS215j is quite an upgrade too.

Tesoro Excalibur RGB Edition

A keyboard that would probably draw an envious glance from King Arthur himself

We reviewed the core Tesoro Excalibur some months back and found it to be an excellent, competitively priced, mechanical gaming keyboard. Indeed, there didn’t seem much else that could be added to enhance it, but Tesoro have tried to do just that – and now we have the Excalibur RGB Edition.

As with the previously reviewed Excalibur, the RGB Edition is still named after King Arthur’s legendary sword, and still offers full N-Key Rollover and antighosting, with a six-key Rollover for the USB version. The Tesoro preferred Kailh switches this time though come in a choice of four colours: Blue, Brown, Black or Red, with each having a slightly different feel, be that clickly or non-clicky tactile, silent or low actuation force.

Building A HDTV Media Centre

Leo Maxwell decides to increase his resolution for the New Year

Many of us are interested in the versatility of a media PC (sometimes called a home theatre PC, or HTPC for short), but is it worth building your own? If you only want a comparatively simple PVR, there are many hardware based solutions, some more accomplished than others. If you just want to watch the odd TV program on your PC, then you just need a simple media player. What we are talking about, though, is a dedicated PC to supply all of your home entertainment requirements.

Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H

A Micro-ATX motherboard that packs a decent punch

Gigabyte offers the consumer a wealth of choice when it comes to motherboards. It can deliver low-end/low-price (but relatively high-spec) boards for system builders, all the way up to models offering extreme overclocking, and feature suitable for high-end gaming desktops – at prices to match. However, it has felt like Gigabyte has taken a backseat recently with MSI leading the way in terms of features and component quality.