Gamer Grub
- Details
- Category: Other
- Published: Friday, 18 June 2010 00:00
Being the gamers and LAN goers that we are, we often sacrifice a good meal for a quick snack and more gaming time. Usually, it's more than our physical health that pays the price, it's also the health of our equipment. When we heard that a company had designed a snack food particularly for gamers, of course we were excited to check it out. Promises of no crumbs and grease transfer were appealing, but after checking out the product in-depth, we learned how much more it offered.
What If I told you that you could pick up a 23 inch monitor today for less than 160 bucks? A lot of people including one of our staff would jump right on that. Of course, no matter what the price it won’t make any difference if it’s sporting dead pixels. That’s why today I will be taking a closer look at one of these hot deals, I’m sure you have already ordered yours so you can read about my experience with it while you wait for it to come in the mail.
When it comes to PC gaming, owning your competition in-game just isn't enough anymore. When you arrive to a LAN and first power on your rig, they should know that you mean business. Whether your looking to complete a theme, light your PC up like a Christmas tree, or just trying to spruce up an old build, nothing gets the job done like cold cathodes. VIZO has a long line of lighting options, including UV reactant cables and binding kits (which we've already had the pleasure of testing). Today, they've sent us a more simple option, a set of cold cathode lights, to see how they perform.![IMG_5162 [lr] [lrsm]](http://lanoc.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/IMG_5162-lr-lrsm.JPG "IMG_5162 [lr] [lrsm]")
I don't think I have known anyone gamer or non gamer that doesn't enjoy playing a racing game every once in a while. While I was growing up I spent any time I could in the arcade playing Ridge Racer and Nascar racing games. Playing racing games on my 52 inch HD television, surround sound, and next generation systems still doesn't compare to the experience you get sitting in your seat holding on to a steering wheel. A company called Playseats apparently agrees with me, of course they have the knowledge and skills needed to duplicate that experience. The Playseat Evolution is designed to put all of your controls near you while sitting in a car racing like seat. Today I will be taking a look at the Evolution, will it bring me back to the good ol days? ![IMG_4736 copy [lr] [lrsm]](http://lanoc.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/IMG_4736-copy-lr-lrsm.jpg "IMG_4736 copy [lr] [lrsm]")
Sitting here in front of my 28 inch monitor I'm sometimes reminded of when my mom would remind me to not sit close to the TV or I would go blind. With my eyes being sensitive, I already have to wear sun glasses anytime I am outside, sitting in front of this monster (and the 24 next to it) puts out enough light to light up the entire room. Of course I have turned down the brightness on both of my monitors, and I try to run a light in the background. Until recently I didn't know there were any other things I could do to prevent eye fatigue. I heard about a company named Gunnar Optiks that produces glasses designed specifically to prevent fatigue along with a list of other benefits. Today I will be writing about my experience using a pair of their glasses for my everyday life and how it affected game play and overall pc usage.
We've come to a day and age where having just one hard drive, regardless of its size, just isn't enough. Whether its a media, gaming, or task computer, multiple hard drives have become a necessity. In non-transparent cases, this isn't much of a problem, but for those who are lookng to show-off their rig all those SATA cables can become as unappealing as any other. A reasonable solution is adding UV lights to any case, which can be paired with VIZO's Starlet line, in our case the UV reactant SATA cables. 
Cables suck. They're stubborn, thick, restrictive, and unattractive. While there have been countless attempts to try and eliminate the inconvenience, the cruel truth is that in our current generation, cords are a necessity. Even when wireless capabilites are available, a conflict of speed enters the equation. Bottom-line is they're not going away, so Vizo has come up with a way to help make cables a little more livable, and look good while doing it. Today we take a look at the Starlet Cable Binding kit. 
It's nice to see a company grow and come out with new and exciting products. The Osmanium Candy Company launched Crackheads2 on October 17th, 2008 and Jitterbeans on November 3rd, 2008 according to their blog. I will be reviewing these two products today.
When I play video games, I do it as an outlet or a way to calm down. The same goes for watching movies, after a long day at work it is nice to be able to kick back and relax doing something you enjoy. When I was a kid, the best way I could kick back was in a beanbag chair. Well at least 20 years later I have grown to be a very large guy. A standard beanbag isn't large enough for me, and frankly wouldn't hold up to my weight. Sumo produces a variety of quality products designed to handle the abuse of adults. In the case of their SumoSac's they make a variety of sizes for different people. Today we are going to look at the Sultan; the Sultan is the 2 largest model that Sumo produces.
In the past with DVD’s, CD’s, BluRays, and any other kind of disc you have to worry about finding a case to hold your discs while traveling. I have always found that case logic cases protected your discs from scratched well but lacked style. When looking for a case with a little style I had trouble finding one that was made with good quality and protected my discs. When our lan sponsor Slappa sent us out a few things to review I was very excited too see that they included one of there HardBody CD cases. It worked out that by the time I found time to take a close look at this case I was packing up for ShowDown Lan and needed a quality case to carry my game and system discs. This was perfect chance to put the case through its paces while saving room in an already full car. Please read on to find out how the case performed.
Having been looking for a powered USB hug to replace the junk one that came with our rock band kit I’ve learned two things. One, it’s hard to find any one hub that people can recommend. It seems the quality of almost every hub is hit or miss at best. Two it’s hard to find one that stands out. 
When 
If you haven’t tried Original Bawls it’s about time you did. Actually it’s crazy that I have to say original, it wasn’t that long that they had one flavor. Now they have sugar free original, Bawls Cherry and their newest drink G33k B33r. Today we will be checking out the G33k B33r the first ever high caffeine root beer.
If I were Rob Gordon (John Cusack) in the movie High Fidelity and I was making a top 10 list of things that aggravate me. It would include power strip “warts”. If you don’t know what a wart is, it’s one of those power bricks that you can never find a way to plug into a power strip without losing at least 2 spots. Almost every power strip sold now has their own way of fixing this problem. Most of them have one plug for a “wart”. Me being the gaming dork that I am; in my old school console gaming area I have a Nintendo, a Super Nintendo, a stereo, my TV, our cordless phone, and a battery charger. Of those six devices four of them have power bricks. Not even small bricks, some of them are almost 3 inches long! Obviously a normal 6 plug power strip isn’t going to cut it. Not to mention I would like to keep my old Nintendo for many years to come, I’m going to need a good surge protector. This leads us to the Power squid; namely there top of the line Surge3000 Calamari Edition. Click to find out how it worked out for us.
In the word of gaming and Lan Partys, it’s about more than who is the best player. It’s also about showing off your rig. People spend months getting their computers setup looking sharp so people can drool over them online and in person. One of the many ways to do this is to add lighting to the inside of your case.
How many products can have a slogan of “No need to go the Back… Do it in the Front!!”? That alone is enough to get my attention, but I’m also a little bit of a perv. Vizo has provided the second iteration of their Master Panel. It’s designed to bring all of your normal usable ports to the front of the case. This could be perfect for people who have their plugs on top of their case. Read more after the jump.
