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Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AMD Zen based Opteron chips detailed in CERN slides
AMD’s Zen-based Opteron will have 32 cores
Cooler Master MasterAir Maker 8 Cooler Review
Corsair Carbide 400C Review
Dell UltraSharp UP2715K 5K IPS Widescreen Review
G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 MX Keyboard Review
G.Skill TridentZ 3200 MHz DDR4 memory review
GeIL Super Luce DDR4-3000C16 16GB Review
Honor Band Z1 Review
How to Install Cinnamon 2.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Huawei Mate 8 video review
Kinivo URBN Bluetooth Headphones Review
Microsoft Lumia 550 Review
Moto 360 Sport Review: A Smartwatch Fitness Tracking Hyrid
NZXT HUE+ RGB LED Controller Review
oughTested Rugged Battery Pack Review
Take a video tour of our Breadbox build
The Best CPU Coolers



AMD Zen based Opteron chips detailed in CERN slides

A computer engineer at CERN used the slides when discussing data centre capabilities.

Read full article @ Hexus

AMD’s Zen-based Opteron will have 32 cores

It will also have 32 physical cores and 8-channel DDR4 support which is up from the quad-channel DDR4 from Chipzilla.
If AMD offers Opteron with up to 32 CPU cores, the company can scale down to 8, 16, and 24 cores easily which should mean that on the consumer desktop platform, AMD will have 8-core FX series CPUs. It is also possible that we will see 16-core processors based on Zen, too.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

Cooler Master MasterAir Maker 8 Cooler Review

With water based All In One CPU coolers becoming more efficient, quieter, easier to install and less expensive typical air-based heatsinks have started to become less and less alluring to enthusiasts and mainstream consumers alike. It is an interesting situation, one that has led to near extinction level event for air cooler reviews here on HWC. That’s why when Cooler Master approached us to review their new MasterAir Maker 8 (yes, it’s a mouthful) heatsink we stood up and took notice…mostly due to its staggering $130 price tag.

To counteract the growing trend of AIO water cooling domination, manufacturers who design today’s modern –yet traditional- air coolers typically go down one of two routes: they either focus on budget-oriented designs or turn to increasingly more exotic solutions to compete. Cooler Master went down the former path with the Maker 8, a heatsink that represents a great example of these market forces in action. This is not your typical air cooler and instead has been built from the ground up with some rather unusual design goals.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Corsair Carbide 400C Review

The Corsair Carbide 400C is an amazing little case. Not many cases this size can handle an array of motherboards from a Mini-ITX up to an E-ATX, all while supporting liquid cooling with room for a 120mm radiator at the rear, a 240mm radiator at the top, and a 360mm radiator in the front. Extra long GPUs? Multiple GPUs? Not a problem for the 400C. And it does it without breaking a sweat. It feels like a much larger case. And I honestly don't miss the optical drive bays. Your system can have two hard drives and three SSDs, or all five drives can be SSDs.

Read full article @ OCC

Dell UltraSharp UP2715K 5K IPS Widescreen Review

The Dell UltraSharp UP2715K is the company’s flagship colour-accurate 27-inch IPS display with a number of unique features. Top of the list is an enormous 5K resolution, giving greater pixel density than even 4K screens. There’s also higher colour accuracy than many standard displays, with quoted 99 per cent Adobe RGB coverage, not to mention great brightness and contrast. This is certainly a professional-grade display, and it’s priced accordingly.

Read full article @ KitGuru

G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 MX Keyboard Review

The KM780 series is offered in a variety of different switch and lighting combinations with at least one that is sure to please most gamers. As of this review, G.Skill offers the KM780 with your choice of brown, red and blue Cherry MX switches. By default the lighting is what G.Skill calls Crimson Red. Moving from a single crimson red LED to a full RGB layout adds about $30 MSRP. Other than those two options the boards are functionally identical.

For those willing to give up the extra gaming keycaps G.Skill offers the KM780 in a KM780R Mechanical Gaming Keyboard variation. This keyboard is otherwise identical but shaves a few bucks off the price while offering the same selection of lights and switches.

Let’s take a look at the specs.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

G.Skill TridentZ 3200 MHz DDR4 memory review

We review 32GB of TridentZ DDR4 memory from G.Skill. It's fast and runs 3200 MHz worth of XMP 2.0 memory profiles on Intel platforms as well. Join us as we review some of the fastest clocked bars of memory your money can get you.

DDR4 memory modules you can choose plenty from, the cheap but dull all green Kingston Value memory for example works absolutely fine. Then the regular mainstream DIMMs, then step it up a little and say high-frequency memory is a hint faster and often cooler looking inside your PC with the fancy designs and heatspreaders. Then there's enthusiast grade memory for the performance enthusiasts, which is what we will look at as G,SKILL has released TridentZ series memory, the successor to their TridentX series on the (back then) DDR3 platform. The DIMMs we received from them clock in at an amazing 3200 MHz (effective), considering that a lot of you run your memory at 2133 MHz and for DDR3 actually 1600 MHz, that's nearly double the memory frequency. But how will that relate to performance?

Stylish RAM memory for the people that need fast performance, the people that build their own PCs, perhaps customize it a little. In that mindset G.SKILL released an updated SKU based on quality, performance and aesthetics. Not the cheapest, but pretty cool with great looks and frequencies rating up to even PC4-25600 (3200 MHz) that can be enabled with a simple XMP profile in your BIOS. We received a dual channel kit, 32GB of it .. configured over 4 DIMMs thus holding 8 GB each. Rated PC4-25600 / 3200MHz at CAS latency 16, and sure this has to be one of the coolest looking memory kit anno 2016. The end results will be very interesting as we'll simply take this memory seated on a Core i7 6700K/ Z170 Intel chipset setup and evaluate it to the baseline performance of other chipsets/processors and their respective reference baseline performance.

Read full article @ Guru3D

GeIL Super Luce DDR4-3000C16 16GB Review

With their Super Luce series of DDR4 memory, GeIL has kits in its portfolio, which offer good looking design at a reasonable price. On the following pages we're going to have a look at what these modules can do performance wise and whether they can convince in terms of quality.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Honor Band Z1 Review

Ask the average person on the street to name a fitness tracker and they'll probably say Fitbit. The brand has become synonymous with the form factor, much like MP3 players became known as iPods to the general public. But Fitbit isn't your only option. The Honor Band Z1 is a useful reminder that Fitbit isn't the only manufacturer catering for those who just want a simple fitness tracker. A number of companies are vying for that space on your wrist.

But the Honor Band Z1 has the bonus of looking like a watch, without you having to fork out the extra money for a smartwatch.The Band Z1 costs £59 ($79.99, about AU$114). When you consider that it has the same functionality as the Fitbit Flex, which costs £79.99, it's quite an impressive price point from Honor.In a market full of smartwatches, however, it's difficult to stand out – and almost every new smartphone is just as capable of tracking your steps and doing the other things a fitness tracker does. So does the Honor Band Z1 offer anything that the competition doesn't?DisplayThe Honor Band Z1 has a circular 1.06-inch display. It gives you all the information you need from a fitness tracker in a compact design, as opposed to the chunkier build of smartwatches such as the Moto 360.There's a large bezel around the screen, though, and that means the display can feel a bit cramped – the Honor has a lot of information to fit in, and would benefit from a little more real estate.Tapping once on the display brings up the essential information: time, phone connection and battery level.

Read full article @ Techradar

How to Install Cinnamon 2.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

If you want to install the latest stable release of Cinnamon on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS you're in luck. A new PPA makes installing the desktop environment a cinch.

Read full article @ OMG! Ubuntu!

Huawei Mate 8 video review

We fondle the Chinese firm's iPhone 6S Plus competitor

Read full article @ The Inquirer

Kinivo URBN Bluetooth Headphones Review

When it comes to headphones there are two types of people typically, those we prefer in-ear headphones (earbuds) and those who prefer over-ear or on-ear headphones. When it comes to selecting a pair of on-ear headphones you definitely want them to be comfortable and sound good, but at the same time you want them to look good as well. The Bluetooth headphones we are taking a look at today look pretty awesome, so hopefully they sound good and are comfortable too. The headphones I’m talking about are the Kinivo URBN, which feature 40 mm drivers, an awesome carrying case, a load of controls, and much more. Let’s take a look and see what the URBN headphones are all about.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Microsoft Lumia 550 Review

The Christmas period wasn't kind to Windows 10 Mobile. With the Lumia 950 and 950 XL being the first flagship smartphones to come bearing the new operating system, they also came bearing the weight of expectation.Unfortunately, despite significant efforts on the part of Microsoft, their arrival was heralded by persistent software bugs and lukewarm reviews.Things have gone rather more smoothly, however, for the Lumia 550, the budget entry in the Windows 10 Mobile lineup.While some retailers even chose to postpone the release of the 950 and 950 XL, mainly due to the aforementioned software problems, the 550 has sailed onto the market virtually unannounced. And at £99.99 (US $139.00, AUS $199.00) direct from Microsoft, the phone has a price to set it apart from the likes of the dominant Moto G, competing directly with the likes of the Moto E, which can be found for a similar price. Is this alone enough to see the 550 succeed? And can it garner some desperately-needed positive press for the Lumia camp?D

Read full article @ Techradar

Moto 360 Sport Review: A Smartwatch Fitness Tracking Hyrid

If three's company, we'd say Motorola has gone and made a full-on family out of its Moto 360 smartwatch. Hot on the heels of its second-generation Moto 360 comes the Moto 360 Sport, an Android Wear timepiece designed to compete not with TAG or Sony or Samsung, but with FitBit, Polar, Garmin, and TomTom...

So, if the Moto 360 Sport is gunning for the aforementioned brand names in the fitness business, surely it offers something that the current establishment doesn't, right? Let's take a look inside...

Read full article @ HotHardware

NZXT HUE+ RGB LED Controller Review

Not the first time NZXT has played with RBG LED lighting, the HUE+ provides all of the functionality (and then some) of the original HUE in an even more streamlined package. Coupled with NZXT’s free standalone software package CAM, the HUE+ Smart RGB LED Controller provides eight configurable LED presets out of the box, ranging from breathing LEDs to color fades and marquee scrolling. For the endless tinkerers and those looking for even more fine control over their system lighting, the HUE+ with CAM 3.0 allows for each LED to be individually addressed! That’s an impressive repertoire for an LED controller, but is it worth the price of admission? Benchmark Reviews has an opportunity to find out – follow along as we take a closer look at the new NZXT HUE+ Smart RGB LED Controller.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

oughTested Rugged Battery Pack Review

ToughTested is a company that specializes in designing tech gear for outdoor usage. To live up to the name of ToughTested, it must pass rigorous testing meant to put the devices under extensive stress. Their products are designed with heavier duty cords, higher amperage, longer battery life and more durable materials. Today we take a look at the ToughTested Rugged Battery Pack!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Take a video tour of our Breadbox build

We recently built a small-form-factor PC we like to call the Breadbox with some help from our sponsors at Gigabyte, OCZ, G.Skill, EVGA, and Logitech. We documented this Breadbox on video, and now it's ready to make its Hollywood debut. Grab some popcorn and enjoy our tour of this pint-sized gaming PC.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

The Best CPU Coolers

There isn't a one solution fits all product when it comes to CPU coolers. Folks with spacious full tower PCs might favor massive tower style coolers, but even if you have the space, some prefer to prioritize volume over temperatures... and if air cooling comes off as unadventurous, an all-in-one liquid cooler may be your best bet.

Read full article @ Techspot