Manufacturer: RedMere
Written by: Ethan Nixon

RedMere sent me two HDMI cables to review, and I was a little taken aback with the request, since I have never reviewed an HDMI cable before. The company RedMere makes the individual chips that lay inside most company’s thin HDMI cables, like Monster and Vizio. Naturally, they sent me an ultra-thin HDMI cable, one HDMI-to-HDMI and another Mini HDMI-to-HDMI.

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Manufacturer: Raptor-Gaming
MSRP: 34.99

The Raptor-Gaming LK-1 is a gaming keyboard produced, appropriately enough, by Raptor-Gaming. Their slogan is “Ultimate game devices designed by gamers for gamers…sooner or later, we get u!” The unit advertises itself as a high-end gaming keyboard, designed to avoid signal loss from multiple simultaneous keystrokes and built with a water-resistant frame. This keyboard aims to make itself part of your gaming arsenal.

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Manufacturer: TekNmotion
MSRP: $29.99
Written by: Ethan Nixon

Today, I have for review the TekNmotion Yapster Blaster headset. This headset has quite a powerful impact for the price and size. The universal headset supports both PC and XBOX 360. Inside the package you will find the headset, necessary adapters to connect to the XBOX, and a USB amplifier. The cables included with the Yapster Blaster are quite long, so get ready to scrunch them up.

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Manufacturer: Cooler Master
MSRP: $49.99

After my wonderful experience with the NotePal LapAir, I was a bit surprised to have another Cooler Master product sent to me in the mail. I figured that with such a fine laptop cooler like the LapAir, they wouldn’t need another product. It turns out, however, that Cooler Master has a high-end cooler for serious laptop gamers. For gamers with money to spend, this is a laptop cooler with all the bells and whistles.

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Manufacturer: Genius
System requirements: Available USB port
MSRP: $79.99

When it comes to PC accessories in my household, I tend to go cheap. Between cats and a bad habit of spilling liquids on keyboards, input devices just don’t last that long. However, it was my pleasure to review Genius’s Luxemate T810 Wireless Media Center keyboard during the past few weeks. That’s a fancy name for a three-in-one keyboard, mouse and remote control that integrates with Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). Intended to be not just a source of input for a PC, but also an all-in-one media-control suite, Genius claims their hardware is “…a total hardware solution for you to control media center features.” And they aren’t kidding, either.

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Manufacturer: XJacKer
MSRP: $19.99

Sound is an important part of gaming. Being able to hear your opponent coming can mean the difference between life and death, and clear communication is vital for your team to succeed. These are things the Soniq Rush Gaming Headset Amp Kit, created by XJacKer, promise to deliver to your Xbox 360. After I explain a little about how it works, I’ll tell you whether or not it’s worth your money.

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Manufacturer: Cooler Master
MSRP: $29.99

When it comes to cooling laptops, my general rule has always been, “If the equipment can’t cool itself at room temperature, then it’s a piece of garbage.” Thus, I have always been a bit skeptical about third party laptop coolers. After all, it seems like a waste of hardware dollars that could be better spent on other things, like a laptop that can cool itself. When my editors sent me a Cooler Master, I was fully prepared to roll my eyes in bored frustration. Yet, it turns out that the joke is on me. Rather than using a pointless piece of hardware for a few weeks, it turns out that I have had the chance to review a well engineered device.

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Manufacturer: Subsonic
MSRP: $59.95
Release date: Available now

During the recent PlayStation Network unpleasantness, many PS3 users took advantage of one of the features that sets the PS3 apart from the Xbox 360 and the Wii: it’s also a Blu-ray disk player. But there are no on-screen instructions for how to use the standard DualShock controller when watching movies, and let’s face it, most of us are too lazy to dig out the PS3 owner’s manual. Peripheral manufacturer Subsonic has come to the rescue with the NEO controller, which attempts to simplify the PS3 Blu-ray experience.

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Manufacturer: Genius
Requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, available USB port
MSRP: $44.90

What if a mouse was built and shaped like a pen? Would it be more efficient? Would it be easy to use? These are the questions Genius would like us to consider with the release of their new Pen Mouse. Designed to “…give you a brand new experience on cursor control for better handling and more comfort than a regular mouse,” this accessory aims high in an attempt to give users a better way to interact with their PCs.

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Manufacturer: Sony Computer Entertainment America
MSRP: $39.99

When we were young, the only way to play a video game was with a controller and your two thumbs. You held a gamepad and you let your brain fill in the rest of the fantasy. Motion controls, whether on the Wii, Playstation 3, or on Xbox’s Kinect, further the experience by making you get more involved. Instead of pushing buttons, you now have to swing, sway, and step your way to victory. While these motion controls help make your gaming experience feel more realistic, there are accessories that can take that experience to the next level. The Sharp Shooter, developed for the PS3’s Move controllers, is one of those accessories.

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Manufacturer: SteelSeries
MSRP: $149.99

Last time I reviewed a set of headphones, I didn’t get to hang onto them for long. About a month after publication, they were stolen from me by the marauding employees of Iberia Airlines. I was furious and almost declared war on Spain, but then decided it wasn’t worth it. Those were some good headphones, and I got them for free, and well…easy come, easy go. The true problem was that I was left without a decent set of phones. Since I am very particular about my requirements, it took me 11 months to find something that I felt was reasonably close to what I wanted. Sadly, there wasn’t a way to play with the headset before buying it, but after talking to some people I decided to place my trust in the words of Bones, an Avault forums regular who speaks very highly of SteelSeries. Although he recommended the Siberia V2, I decided that I might as well go for top of the line, so I bought the 7H USB instead.

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Manufacturer: Turtle Beach
MSRP: $149.95

Sound is a major part of the gaming experience. Sometimes an audio cue is the only thing standing between you and a foul-mouthed 12-year-old with a plasma rifle. Funny thing is, you could have the best surround-sound speaker setup available and still not get the full feeling of being placed right in the middle of the action—something an excellent headset can offer. In fact, a comfortable headset with a good microphone has become standard equipment for hardcore gamers.

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Manufacturer: PurePC
Review unit specifications: Intel 3.33 GHz Core i7 980x CPU (water-cooled), twin ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards in Crossfire, ASUSTek Rampage 3 Extreme motherboard, 6 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 RAM at 1333 MHz, 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 rpm SATA-II hard drive, 80 GB Intel X25-M Mainstream solid-state hard drive, Asus 12X BD-R Blu-ray optical drive (250 ms), Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS
Price as configured: $4,525.00
Base price: $2,940.00

One of the reasons why the PC is the superior gaming platform is its flexibility. Game developers are limited by console hardware characteristics, which have changed very little (if at all) since the beginning of the current console generation. But with a PC, a developer is free to let his imagination run wild, because he knows that PC hardware is constantly evolving. The downside of all of this technology is its expense. A pre-built, mid-range gaming PC is quite an investment, and some bleeding-edge rigs can be priced higher than a decent used car.

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Manufacturer: KontrolFreek
MSRP: $23.99

Every gamer wants to increase his or her accuracy. Some do it through hours and hours of practice. Others prefer faster solutions, such as controller mods. The FPS Freek Prestige, by KontrolFreek, falls into the latter category, offering gamers who are short on time a quick way to boost their kill/death ratios. The ad promises the Prestige will increase your accuracy while decreasing thumb fatigue, but does it deliver?

The FPS Freek Prestige is a set of analog stick extenders you can snap onto either a Playstation 3 or an Xbox 360 controller. The installation takes seconds and they can be easily removed without doing any damage to the controller. When attached, your analog sticks become slightly higher, which is supposed to increase your accuracy by giving you more room to make smaller adjustments.

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Manufacturer: Evil Controllers
MSRP: $84.99 (wireless), $64.99 (wired)

Evil Controllers, a company specializing in the customization and sale of Xbox 360 gamepads, has a wide variety of modded controllers in their catalog. While many of their items feature things such as rapid fire or hidden buttons, one of their mods is more casual: the Evil D-Pad controller.

While Xbox 360 controllers are usually held in high regard, one universal complaint is the D-pad. Its design makes it difficult to maintain accuracy during quick inputs. The Evil D-Pad replaces the traditional D-pad with four buttons. Instead of a traditional plus sign-shaped layout, the controller features four circular buttons, each with an arrow that represents its direction.

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