Reviews 51951 Published by

Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

A few weeks with the Android N Developer Preview
Adata's XPG SX930 240GB SSD reviewed
AMD socket AM4 technical details leaked
ASRock X99 WS-E/10G Intel LGA2011-3 Motherboard Review
ASUS MG278Q, MG279Q and PG279Q review: three 144Hz WQHD gaming monitors
be quiet! Silent Base 600
Corsair SF 450 and SF 600 PSU Review
Everything We Know About Intel's Skylake Platform
Hitman PC game analysis
Microsoft Lumia 950 XL Review: The Windows 10 Mobile Flagship
Noctua NH-D15S Review
Roccat Kiro Modular Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse Review
Samsung Galaxy S7 review: iterative success
SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable USB 3.0 SSD Review



A few weeks with the Android N Developer Preview

For a few weeks now, the Android N Developer Preview (http://www.techspot.com/news/64183-tested-android-n-developer-preview-nexus-6p.html) has been available for anyone to install on their Nexus devices. With a collection of new features to be previewed, I decided to push the OTA update to my Nexus 6P and use it as my daily driver for a few weeks to see how these improvements affect everyday use.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Adata's XPG SX930 240GB SSD reviewed

Adata's XPG SX930 combines a JMicron controller and Micron MLC flash into an enthusiast-oriented 240GB SSD. We put it to the test to see whether it's worth its cost of admission.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

AMD socket AM4 technical details leaked

It is not clear where Bits and Chips  got its information, but it claims AM4 will have 1,331 pins, which is a big increase over the 942 pins on the AM3+ socket. The package will be square, and 40 mm in length, making it about as big as a current socket FM2+ package. It will have a pin-count of 1,331 pins, a big increase from the 942 pins of AM3+, and 906 pins of FM2+. AMD could continue to develop LGA sockets for its multi-socket capable Opteron processors based on the "Zen" architecture.
The AM4 platform layout will be functionally similar to the FM2+ than the AM3+. Besides the integrated memory controller, the northbridge will be entirely located on the processor die. This means that the HyperTransport main system bus will be wired internally.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

ASRock X99 WS-E/10G Intel LGA2011-3 Motherboard Review

With the latest X99 WS-E/10G motherboard ASRock shows very impressively the way in the future. Because the abbreviation 10G of the ASRock X99 WS-E/10G stands for one or more specifically two Intel X540 network connectors with up to 10 Gigabit per second transfer rate. We have tested two of these high-end motherboards with Intel Core i5-5930K processors and RAID0 arrays consisting of two Crucial MX200 SSDs to compare the very high 10G LAN speed with the current Gigabit LAN standard. First of all: We are excited and can’t wait until this standard prevails at home. On the CeBIT 2016 we have already discovered NAS companies, providing NAS with 10 GBit LAN for home users.

Read full article @ OCInside

ASUS MG278Q, MG279Q and PG279Q review: three 144Hz WQHD gaming monitors

Middle of 2014 Asus brought out the first gaming WQHD monitor, the Republic of Gamers “Swift” PG278Q. And for quite some time it was all alone on the market because Asus exclusively had the panel technology. Since then the technology and the competition have caught up. This does not seem to bother Asus as they have been popping out WQHD screens one after the other lately. In this article we will check out the MG278Q, the MG279Q and the PG279Q.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

be quiet! Silent Base 600

The be quiet! Silent Base 600 is the company's second chassis after the Silent Base 800 from 2014. With the more compact 600 series, be quiet! is aiming to offer the contested mid-tower market a choice of their own, while ensuring that the larger variant's overall look, feel, and engineering are still there.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Corsair SF 450 and SF 600 PSU Review

Today Corsair release two new SFX power supplies – the aptly named SF450 and SF600, in 450 watt and 600 watt capacities respectively. One of the talking points with these power supplies is the adoption of large 92mm fans, breaking the SFX trend of 80mm or smaller ‘noisemakers’. This should help reduce noise levels, while maintaining a high level of airflow. Both supplies are pure modular designs and are 80 Plus Gold Certified.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Everything We Know About Intel's Skylake Platform

Intel's Skylake architecture and corresponding platform represent a huge evolution in connectivity, overclocking and, ultimately, system performance. This resource should help answer any questions you have about the company's current desktop PC design.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Hitman PC game analysis

Hitman has been one of Square Enix’s staple franchises over the years but this time around, they are handling Agent 47 a little differently. Rather than launching a full game, we are getting ‘episodes’ which are due to be released on a monthly basis.

However, this is also one of the first triple-A titles to launch with DirectX 12 support which is quite exciting, so let’s dive in and see just how well it runs.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL Review: The Windows 10 Mobile Flagship

Forget almost everything you’ve read about the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL up to this point. We know that’s a bold statement, but bear with us here. Save for the phone’s specifications, if there’s one thing we’ve learned evaluating the 950 XL over the last few weeks it’s that virtually everything from the OS to the camera app has been changed or updated very recently, and it has affected battery life, responsiveness, and browsing, among many other things. Information published about the Lumia 950 XL that's any more than a couple of weeks old is simply outdated.

It seems that Microsoft was tweaking a large number of elements and features in preparation for Windows 10 Mobile’s “official” release on a wide range of devices. Sure, Windows 10 came pre-installed on the Lumia 950 series, but there have been major changes over the phones’ relatively short lifespan. In any case, we’ve been using the Lumia 950 XL as our daily driver for a few weeks now and think we’ve gotten a very good feel for the phone and how it compares to previous-gen devices and the competition...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Noctua NH-D15S Review

With the NH-D15S Noctua shows its latest high-end CPU cooler. This monster comes boxed with one 140 x 150 x 25 millimeter fan and weighing a massive 1150g. Overall this leaves us rather curious how this twin-tower cooler is going to perform.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Roccat Kiro Modular Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse Review

These days there are a lot of good gaming mice out there but if you are left handed you may feel like the party started without you! The good news is ROCCAT has your back with their latest ambidextrous gaming mouse; the Kiro Modular Ambidextrous Gaming mouse. The Kiro is the spiritual big brother to the award winning Lua design. It’s not only bigger; it has a few new tricks up its sleeve.

Designed for both left and right handed gamers the Kiro is packed with features and comes in at a surprisingly affordable price point. Let’s see if the Kiro can win this ROCCAT fan over to the new design.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Samsung Galaxy S7 review: iterative success

With a redesigned camera, all-new internals, and the return of expandable storage, the Samsung Galaxy S7 is the firm's best handset to date. Here's our review of the device. Read more...

Read full article @ Neowin

SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable USB 3.0 SSD Review

We review the SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD. It a very fast portable storage unit based on USB 3.0. Combined with the DNA of an SSD it can reach over 400 MB/sec on both reads and over 300 MB/sec writes - making this a VERY fast and easy to carry around portable SSD. Our sample has been equipped with 240 GB storage space and if you are on the move, this great device might just be what you need in terms of fast data you can travel with.

The SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD external storage drive is a thin external storage unit, lightweight as well. It is compatible with USB 3.0. (also known as SuperSpeed USB) has a maximum bandwidth rate of 5 gbps (gigabits per second). That would be to 625 MBPs (megabytes per second), ten times faster than USB 2.0 (aka Hi-Speed USB). The 500 series are available in three volume sizes, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB. The 240GB as tested today starts at roughly 95 EURO (40 cents per GB). These units are shockproof and vibration proof SSDs feature a USB 3.0 connection interface (USB 2.0 backward compatible) and come with SanDisk SecureAccess software that provides 128-bit AES file encryption and password protection so that you may add a layer of security towards the unit.

Depending on the volume sizes these drives have sequential read/write speeds of up to 415/340 MB/s (120GB & 240GB models) and 430/400 MB/s (480GB model). Interested already? Well have a peek with the help of a photo first and then head onwards into the review.

Read full article @ Guru3D