Reviews 51914 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AMD Radeon Crimson Edition Drivers
AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Is A Letdown On Linux
AMD Radeon Software: Crimson Edition First Look and Testing
Astro A40 TR + Mix Amp Pro & Mod Kit Multi-Format Pro Gaming Headset Review
Dell UltraSharp UP2715K review: 5K for the PC
DESTEK 3D VR Virtual Reality Headset Review
FunLux 4 Channel HD Video sPoE NVR Security System Review
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming Review
Gigabyte GTX980Ti XTREME Gaming Windforce Review
Hot Staff Picks For Great Tech Gifts
How to Change the Name of Your Windows 10 Computer
HP Z25n Review
Intel SSD 750 1.2TB PCIe Review
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard Review
Radeon R9 Nano Small Form Factor Competition Review
Radeon Software Crimson Edition: an overview
Radeon Software Crimson; The Review
SilverStone Tundra TD02-Lite AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review
Thermaltake Riing LED RGB Fans Review
Update: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition, First Benchmarks And Experience Testing
XFX R9 Fury Pro Triple Dissipation (R9-FURY-4TF9)
Z170 Charts: 13 Boards - ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 AMP! Graphics Card Review
Zotac Steam Machine Review



AMD Radeon Crimson Edition Drivers

Today AMD released this year's major update to their Radeon drivers. The new package is called Radeon Software Crimson and features an updated control panel, many new features as well as performance improvements in lots of games.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Is A Letdown On Linux

While leaked slides indicate AMD was planning better gaming on Linux for Crimson, in the end they really didn't deliver. Even for their mentioned games, when testing various Linux OpenGL games on three different systems the performance was largely unchanged.

For the past six hours since the release of Radeon Software Crimson Edition for Linux, I've been busy running Linux gaming tests on a Radeon R9 290, R9 295, and R7 370 as a selection of modern graphics cards now that they dropped the pre-GCN graphics card support.

Read full article @ Phoronix

AMD Radeon Software: Crimson Edition First Look and Testing

So a few weeks ago we all heard the news that AMD has split up its Processor and Graphics divisions. Well, today we have the official word from AMD regarding the newly branded Radeon Technologies Group.

Something that AMD has previously struggled with in the graphics market is the software and drivers. While they worked, a lot of users experienced problems and that put a bad taste in a large portion of the enthusiast community. This new rebrand hopes to change things with the discontinuation of the Catalyst software and introduction of Radeon/ FirePro settings.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Astro A40 TR + Mix Amp Pro & Mod Kit Multi-Format Pro Gaming Headset Review

To get the full Astro experience, they’ve been kind enough to supply us with one of their fantastic mod kits too. This is a completely optional addition, but it’s a prime example of how you can really make each Astro product your own. You can change backplates on the drivers, have your own made to match your team logos, or pick from the selection available on the Astro site. The Mod Kit goes one further, however, adding a new microphone, head support, ear pads and backplates, giving you a very different look for your headset of choice.

Equipped with the Mix Amp Pro, the Astro A40 TR comes with a vast amount of cool features. You can customise every input every output, the EQ, tweak streaming audio to suit your needs and your audience’s needs, and best of all, you can link multiple Astro headsets for high-quality team chat, with zero lag!

Read full article @ eTeknix

Dell UltraSharp UP2715K review: 5K for the PC

For those of you who find that UHD resolutions aren’t enough, Dell, for a little while now, has got you covered with a 5K monitor. The Dell UltraSharp UP2715K is the ultimate monitor, at least on paper, with 5120x2880 pixels and support for the AdobeRGB color space. Of course it’s got a price tag to match, but according to our test it’s more than justified.

Some products could be compared to Moby Dick’s white whale, where one has to take care not to take on Captain Ahab’s role, wanting to test them badly, while they continually appear out of reach. That description definitely fits the monitors offered by Dell; some of our readers have already told us multiple times that they missed the brand in recent tests. The reason for this is, as already known, that Dell doesn’t have marketing budget for the Benelux, which means they can’t buy samples to give out to reviewers like us.

For now, this situation isn't likely to change in the foreseeable future, but Dell has managed to give out some samples of a small number of monitors to the Dutch market. One of those monitors, the UltraSharp UP2715K, the current flagship of Dell, was really high on our wish-list of products we'd like to test.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

DESTEK 3D VR Virtual Reality Headset Review

Up for review today I’ve got another VR Headset version of Google Cardboard for your phone from a company called Destek. This headset is much more advanced than the real cardboard versions, but it’s not as good honestly. The headset is made of plastic with a magnetic door to keep your phone secure and it has three elastic straps to hold it in place on your head. The headset sadly doesn’t have any kind of interface on it, no buttons, no magnets no nothing to control the apps so you’ll need something else to do it or not play apps that require it. Read on to learn more…

Read full article @ Technogog

FunLux 4 Channel HD Video sPoE NVR Security System Review

Waiting until someone either breaks into your home, vandalizes your home, or steals something outside of your home is too late to decide that you need a video surveillance system. You need to install one before these things happen so that you can have video evidence of these events but also to help deter would be criminal from even approaching your home.

Video security systems have not only come down in price over the last few years but they have also been enhanced greatly both from a hardware perspective and software perspective. The FunLux 4-Channel 4 Camera Power Over Ethernet NVR security system with a 1TB hard drive that we are reviewing today comes in at only $225 bucks. Not only do you get a Network Video Recorder with a 1TB hard drive but you also get PoE (Power over Ethernet), and 720P High Definition quality with the included four IP video cameras.

Let’s dive into this budget priced system and find out if its easy to install, easy to manage, and to see if the video quality is any good!

Read full article @ Geek Inspector

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming Review

With the GeForce GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming, Gigabyte has a card in its portfolio which is heavily overclocked on the GPU as well as on the memory. Apart from that there is a capable Windforce 2X cooler, which can cool the card noiselessly in idle.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Gigabyte GTX980Ti XTREME Gaming Windforce Review

If you have £600 burning a hole in your pocket then perhaps today’s review product may interest you. The Gigabyte GTX980 Ti XTREME Gaming is a custom, heavily overclocked graphics card which features a semi passive three fan ‘Windforce’ cooler. With a 12+2 Phase Power implementation and proprietary backplate, the XTREME has been clearly designed to push frame rates as high as possible.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Hot Staff Picks For Great Tech Gifts

The entire team here at HotHardware has been plugged into the tech scene for ages. In fact, we’ve been doing our thing here on-line for close to two decades. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned about our readers in all that time, it’s that their affinity for technology and gadgets goes way beyond just PC hardware and mobile devices. Well, we here on staff feel the same way too, so we thought it’d be fun to give you all a little insight into our lives and talk about some of the latest gear we’d all like to get our hands on this holiday season...

Read full article @ HotHardware.Com

How to Change the Name of Your Windows 10 Computer

Are you sick of your computer being called windows-user-pc1 or some other random string of numbers and letters? Would you like to change it to something that flows off the tongue a little better, like Living Room PC or 1337 G4ming r1g? Sure, you can name your PC during the initial Windows 10 setup process, but if you didnt do it there for whatever reason, are you out of luck? Nope, you can easily go back and change the name of your Windows 10 PC at any time, and the process couldnt be any easier.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

HP Z25n Review

HP brings flair to its display lineup with the introduction of slim side bezels on the Z25n ($529, £350, AU$729). Slim bezels enhance the visual appeal of the color accurate screen, making a multi-monitor setup appear seamless. HP's near-bezel-less display comes in several different sizes, ranging from 22 inches to 27 inches. Our review unit has a 25-inch diagonal viewable area. The styling of the display is similar to Acer's S277HK, but Acer opts for a more modern aesthetic in a form over function design ethos. As an office-centric monitor, the Z25n, which features an articulating stand and adjustable base, competes more directly against the Dell UltraSharp 25 ($569, £377, AU$787), ViewSonic VP2772 ($899, £596, AU$1,243), and the BenQ SW2700PT ($599, £397, AU$828). DesignLike many other office monitors, the HP Z25n is only available in a matte black finish. This makes the Z25n unassuming on a desk, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as black helps frame your creative work and allows you to focus on the content and color. Out of the box, you'll notice that the display area dominates the monitor, and that the top, left and right sides are virtually bezel-less, save for a thin strip of plastic that surrounds the sides of the display to keep everything together.

Read full article @ Techradar

Intel SSD 750 1.2TB PCIe Review

With the SSD 750 Intel was the first manufacturer to launch an NVMe-SSD for end users. The drive which is lying front of us in this case performs extremely well pumping out up to 2400 MB/s sequential read and 1200 MB/s sequential write throughput performance. Apart from that there is the sheer capacity of this drive as well as the fact, that you get MLC NAND flash memory.

Read full article @ ocaholic

MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard Review

MSI was among the first to participate in our Z170 review series. Will the now-mature firmware give its $180 Z170A Gaming M5 a lead in the upper-midrange LGA 1151 enthusiast segment?

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Radeon R9 Nano Small Form Factor Competition Review

If you haven't done so already, make sure you guys take a moment to check out our Radeon R9 Nano Small Form Factor Competition Review. If you are considering the Radeon R9 Nano for your next SFF build, this article definitely is a must read.

Our second installment covering our AMD Radeon R9 Nano in a Small Form Factor chassis is finally done. We will upgrade the case to a Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX PC Case and compare the R9 Nano to price competitive video cards that can be installed. We game at 1440p and 4K for the ultimate small form factor experience.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Radeon Software Crimson Edition: an overview

AMD's Radeon Software Crimson Edition is the second in a line of major annual graphics driver updates from the company. Crimson also replaces the Catalyst Control Center software with a faster, more refined utility called Radeon Settings. We dug in to see what Crimson has to offer.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Radeon Software Crimson; The Review

A few weeks ago AMD announced a new ground-up project to improve every element of their drivers and control panel, from performance, to user interaction, to stability and everything in between. Dubbed Radeon Software, this grand plan has been years in the making and its first iteration is called Crimson. Essentially, Crimson will be the first of AMD’s once-a-year major driver updates with several minor updates interposed throughout the intervening months in an effort to keep up with new game launches, bug fixes and other optimizations.

We’ve already covered Crimson’s goals and new features in some detail but at that time we didn’t have any access to the drivers themselves or the sleek new interface that was promised. Now we are able to take a deep-dive into what is being offered since AMD is officially launching Radeon Software for public consumption. That’s pretty exciting since the Crimson Edition is supposed to not only enhance the overall user experience but also unlock a number of features that were previously inaccessible in some operating environments and with certain legacy products.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

SilverStone Tundra TD02-Lite AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Nowadays it almost feels that wherever i look i see manufacturers doing their best to cover even the last person in the market with their products. Take AIO liquid CPU coolers for example. As i type these lines in the market there are numerous such models from a large number of manufacturers not only with different length (120/140/240/280/360mm) and thickness (25/27/30/32/38/43/45/49mm) radiators but also with different type of tubes (rubber/FEP) and various performance pumps (2400/2500/2600/2800/2900/3600/3800RPM). This of course is not the same as custom tailoring a AIO liquid CPU cooler for your system but with the amount of available models right now things have gotten really close to that. SilverStone recently updated their Tundra TD02 line to include three new models the TD02-E, TD02-Slim and the TD02-Lite which we have here with us today.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Thermaltake Riing LED RGB Fans Review

For the most part if you are doing a PC build fans come into play. Now typically your case will come with a few fans, but they are typically not enough. If you get into water cooling then you are going to want to get fans that are specifically made for water cooling, or have a high static pressure. Well Thermaltake has you covered with their new Riing LED RGB fans. These fans are made specifically for radiators and feature a LED ring that goes around the frame of the fan. This LED ring is RGB giving you 256 multi-colored options to choose from, so you can definitely match it to your build quite easily. Thermaltake is offering these fans in 120 mm and 140 mm versions that come in a single pack (1 fan) or a 3-fan pack. Today we have a 3-pack of the 120 mm fans, let’s take a look and see what they are all about.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Update: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition, First Benchmarks And Experience Testing

We recently had the chance to take a beta build of the Radeon Software Crimson Update for a spin, and can confirm many of AMD’s claims. The software installed without a hitch and the super-fast launch times are very real. We took a quick look at features and some benchmark results as well, of course...

Read full article @ HotHardware

XFX R9 Fury Pro Triple Dissipation (R9-FURY-4TF9)

XFX dares to go where the competition would like to, but can’t. That’s because, at XFX, we don’t just create great digital video components—we build all-out, mind-blowing, performance-crushing, competition-obliterating video cards, power supplies, and computer accessories. And, not only are they amazing, you don’t have to live on dry noodles and peanut butter to afford them.

XFX is a division of PINE Technology Holdings Limited, a leading manufacturer and marketer of innovative solutions for the worldwide gaming technologies market. Founded in 1989, PINE designs, develops, manufactures and distributes high-performance video graphics technology and computer peripherals. The company’s dedicated research and development team are continually pushing the limits to meet the demands of the ever-growing and performance-driven community. Headquartered in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong SAR), PINE has more than 1,000 employees worldwide with 16 offices around the globe. PINE also maintains four state-of-the-art research and development facilities in the Asia Pacific region and two factories in Mainland China.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Z170 Charts: 13 Boards - ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme

In our comparison tables, meanwhile you find benchmark values regarding 13 recent Z170 motherboards. Furthermore we do not comment the benchmark values. The idea and also the goal is to present to you a market overview which helps you choose the right motherboard.

Read full article @ ocaholic

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 AMP! Graphics Card Review

With Fallout 4 just being released on November 10th 2015, some of you may be looking at upgrading your gaming pc's components. Probably one of the easiest upgrades you can make to your gaming rig is to upgrade the graphics card and SSD. Today, thanks to ZOTAC, we get to check out the performance of their GeForce GTX 980 AMP! graphics card!

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Zotac Steam Machine Review

Today we take a look at one of the first retail Steam Machines, featuring an i5 CPU and interesting TX 960 GPU.

Read full article @ Hardwareheaven