Reviews 51945 Published by

Here a roundup of todays review's and articles:

Acer Extensa MC2610 Review
Asus Maximus VIII Hero (Z170) Motherboard Review
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Review
ASUS Z170 ROG Maximus VIII Hero Review
ASUS Z170-A Review
Asus' Z170-A motherboard reviewed
Entry-level PC - August 2015
Intel 6th Generation Core i7 6700K Review
Intel Core i5 and i7 Skylake and Z170 motherboard reviews
Intel Core i5-6600K & Core i7-6700K Review
Intel Core I7 6700K Review, Skylake is Falling!
Intel Core i7-6700K & i5-6600K Skylake CPU Review
Intel Core i7-6700K (14nm Skylake) Review
Intel Core i7-6700K and Z170 Chipset Review: Skylake For Enthusiasts
Intel Core i7-6700K Review
Intel Core i7-6700K Review: Skylake arrives with the latest 'tock'
Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake Processor Review
Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake Processor Review
Intel i7-6700K Skylake
Intel Skylake recap: CPUs, DDR4, motherboards and systems
Intel's Core i7-6700K 'Skylake' processor reviewed
MIPOW VoxTube 500 Bluetooth Headset Review
MSI Z170A Gaming M7 (and i7-6700k) Review
MSI Z170A GAMING M7 Review
Our Windows 10 upgrade worked after third attempt
Scan 3XS Z170 Vengeance Review
What we know about Windows 10 Service Release 1 (SR1)
Why you should not upgrade to Windows 10
Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme – The fastest 980 Ti available?



Acer Extensa MC2610 Review

Sound desktop performance at a bargain price. Next to the transforming flashiness of convertible tablets and the sheer portable power of ultrabooks, the plain black box that is the Acer Extensa MC2610 desktop can't help but look a bit dull in comparison.

Which is fair enough, as the superior upgradability and relatively low prices of enterprise desktops mean they still can still find a place in the modern office, despite their lack of frills.

Acer has almost abandoned the very concept of frills for the Extensa MC2610, focusing instead on creating a low-cost desktop machine for juggling basic everyday tasks.

Read full article @ V3

Asus Maximus VIII Hero (Z170) Motherboard Review

The launch of Intel’s Skylake CPUs sees the introduction of a whole new platform based around the LGA 1151 socket. Making use of Intel’s feature-healthy Z170 chipset, Asus is targeting gamers who value premium aesthetics and enhanced gaming-grade features with the Maximus VIII Hero. Will the Republic of Gamers (ROG) features and branding tempt gamers to part with the Hero’s £171.99 asking price?

Read full article @ KitGuru

Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Review

The entry-level Asus Skylake motherboard targeting gamers. The arrival of Intel's latest mainstream and desktop-oriented platform is finally upon us. The platform arrives in two parts, the first of which is the 100-series chipset family, spearheaded by the Z170 chipset, and the second is a new generation of 14nm CPUs based on the Skylake microarchitecture. These CPUs make use of a new LGA1151 socket as well as a DDR3/DDR4 memory controller that retains no backwards compatibility with the LGA1150 socket which provided a home for Haswell and Broadwell CPUs.

As is typical of any new platform launch motherboard vendors have spent the last year or more preparing new designs, features and innovations to set themselves apart from the competition when the all-important launch day arrives. Leading the innovation charge is typically the high-end Asus Republic of Gamers product line, as is indeed the case this year too, but such prestigious innovations and premium styling come with a price point to match. Asus responds to this with its latest budget-oriented gaming motherboard, the Z170 Pro Gaming.

The company learnt a few things from its Z97 Pro Gamer that HEXUS reviewed earlier this year, with the most obvious being the branding Gamer was less familiar to consumers than Gaming. That minor naming technicality aside, the philosophy of the Z170 Pro Gaming is similar to its predecessor - Asus wants to bring the price point of the Gaming motherboards to a level that can compete with the increasingly affordable offerings from rival brands.

Read full article @ Hexus

ASUS Z170 ROG Maximus VIII Hero Review

In this review we test the ASUS Z170 ROG Maximus VIII Hero. If you fire it up with that new 14nm Skylake based Core i7 6700K processor this product will bring a smile to your face. The Maximus VIII Hero comes with a ROG black & grey design with red accents. Add to that the hippest features of 2015 and you are sure you'll have the right infrastructure for a gaming d-e-li-cious PC. These motherboards can (well must) be paired with new Skylake series processors. We'll quickly dive into the two most import ones. Skylake Core i5-6600K and Core i7-6700K processors for the desktop platform have been released. We test both processors, yet have separate reviews on each of these processors. A new chip, a new package meaning both of them are Socket 1151. The new series Skylake processors are energy efficient, quite powerful and this need to be paired with a new motherboards series. For you guys that means the Z170 and H170 range. In this review we test the Core i7-6700K. An unlocked Skylake processor that has four cores and slim a 92 Watt TDP, that is lower compared to Haswell with its 95 W TDP, thanks to the new and smaller 14 nm fabrication process. The quad core CPU has 8 MB L3 cache, and an integrated memory controller that supports both DDR4 and DDR3 memory. The Z170 and H170 series motherboards will all be offered with DDR4 though. For the gaming community two processors are the most important.

Read full article @ Guru3D

ASUS Z170-A Review

Intel’s 6th Generation Core ‘Skylake’ product line is launched today, and complementing that release is a range of motherboards from top-line vendors eager to have their hardware inside your new PC. However, for the first time Intel’s release range is limited to only K-series desktop CPUs – namely the Core i7 6700K and i5 6600K, so naturally motherboard vendors are highlighting their overclocking range of Z170 designs at launch this time around. With the H- and B-class motherboards scheduled for later in the year today’s range of available models is perhaps the most streamlined it’s ever been.

Intel’s Z170 chipset, codenamed Sunrise Point, is the first in the mainstream to features DDR4 support and an LGA 1151 socket. As a result new systems will tend to have a higher upgrade cost than previous generations, which could at least inherit DDR3 DIMMs from older systems, or otherwise take advantage of a depressed memory market price. The higher than usual costs necessitate hard work from partners to make their own motherboard designs – based on the standard Intel chipset and their own secret sauce – even greater value to get over this upgrade hurdle. Given how strong Z97 was, they truly have their work cut out for them; thankfully new chipset features not available for Z97’s launch, such as USB 3.1 and NVMe RAID, will help.

ASUS are well-known throughout consumer electronics, with a major presence in the motherboard and VGA market. However they have also gradually diversified into peripherals, monitors, and more recently wearables. By any measure they’re a hardware giant, but for today we’re focussing on just one small product, the ASUS Z170-A.

Read full article @ Vortez

Asus' Z170-A motherboard reviewed

Asus' Z97-A has long been our choice for a midrange enthusiast board. Will Asus' Z170-A carry on the company's tradition of excellence? We poked, prodded, and overclocked the Z170-A to see whether it's got what it takes.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Entry-level PC - August 2015

Our guidelines for the Entry-level PC category are as follows. The entire computer system, excluding OS, should not exceed £420. Its primary, but not only, function is to provide a smooth and enjoyable online experience. This means that the cheapest processors won’t be enough, as modern web pages and internet applications do demand some processing power.

Additionally, the system has to be able to efficiently perform internet-related tasks. This includes basic photo editing (cropping and resizing to upload or send a photo) and extracting compressed files. At the same time the necessary background programmes need to be active, such as a virus scanner, a firewall, and anti-spyware software. The computer also needs to be able to efficiently run word processing software and administrative programmes.

The cheapest PCs that you can currently buy are good enough for internet use. If you want to do other things, however, then you will quickly notice the limitations of the CPU and graphics processor. More powerful pre-assembled computers often turn out to have one weak component that becomes a bottleneck. Maybe it has a very fast processor, but lacks enough RAM, hard disk space, or a good enough graphics card.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Intel 6th Generation Core i7 6700K Review

Recently I took a look at Intel's Broadwell-based 5th Generation Core i7 5775C that proved to be an interesting step out of the gate for the company's first round of 14nm processors. It delivered excellent improvements in per-clock performance and came with what has proven to be Intel's best socketed integrated graphics solution to date, the Iris Pro 6200 graphics processor. Now we get to take a look at Intel's Skylake 14nm processor for the mainstream enthusiast: the Core i7 6700K.

Launching along with the 6th Generation Core i7 6700K is the quad-core Core i5 6600K that, much like the i5 series chips of the past, does not support Hyper Threading, leaving you with four cores and four threads. Coming along for the ride are motherboards equipped with the Intel Z170A PCH to support these new offerings from Intel. Pricing comes in at $350 for the Core i7 6700K and $243 for the Core i7 6600K.

As we look at the 6th Generation Core i7 6700K, Intel will be prepping for the full launch of Skylake later on this month at IDF, where the full scope of the architecture will be shown to the world. What we have today is a taste of things to come from Intel. Let's see how it performs in relation to the 4th and 5th Generation Core series processors from Intel. Looking at the paper specifications, performance should be impressive.

Read full article @ OCC

Intel Core i5 and i7 Skylake and Z170 motherboard reviews

We review the Intel Core i5 6600K processor. Developed at 14nm node these processors are very energy friendly. For this review we look at the performance of this processor in a wide variety of benchmarks and situations.

Skylake Core i5-6600K and Core i7 6700K processors for the desktop platform have been released. We test both processors, yet have separate reviews on each of these processors. A new chip, a new package meaning both of them are Socket 1151. The new series Skylake processors are energy efficient, quite powerful and this need to be paired with a new motherboards series. For you guys that means the Z170 and h170 range. In this review we test the Core i5 6600K. An unlocked Skylake processor that has four cores and a slim 91W TDP, that is lower compared to Haswell with its 84W/95W TDP, obviously thanks to the new and smaller 14nm fabrication process.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Intel Core i5-6600K & Core i7-6700K Review

The 6th generation of Intel’s Core architecture, codenamed ‘Skylake’, is the latest in a line of CPUs which began with the Nehalem microarchitecture in 2008. Since then Intel followed a ‘tick-tock’ development strategy - alternating larger architectural revisions and smaller fabrication process nodes in each new release – which has been hugely successful in keeping them ahead of the game and the competition.

As the 6th generation Core architecture, Skylake is classed as a ‘tick’. Utilising the same 14nm fabrication process node as Broadwell, in Skylake Intel have taken what they’ve learned from a year of Broadwell and focussed on advancements in architecture to make the CPU both more power-efficient and powerful. Furthermore Skylake brings high-bandwidth DDR4 memory to mainstream computing, one year after Haswell-E brought it to the enthusiast and workstation segment.

Read full article @ Vortez

Intel Core I7 6700K Review, Skylake is Falling!

Intel’s first Skylake offering, the I7 6700 with integrated High Definition Graphics HD530, landed squarely on our test bench about 72 hours ago. Based on a 14nm Fab and coming with a new Z170 chipset sliding into a 1151 LGA socket, the quad core has seen some architectural changes to the processor which we’ll get into a little later.. The Haswell-E’s little brother only sports 4 cores but the 6700K is threaded so you get the advantage of 8 threads and Intel did it at a base frequency of 4GHz and a turbo of 4.2GHz.

The 6700K is a “K” series processor and as such sports an unlocked processor multiplier that makes overclocking a dream. Just bump up a few voltages increase the Vcore, pop the multiplier up to your desired setting and you’re overclocking. If you prefer hands off overclocking the folks over at Asus were good enough to hit us with the Maximus Hero VIII and their excellent AI Suite III will put you on the overclocking path before you can grab a sip of that MT Dew Code Red about to spill on your keyboard.

Intel has designed the Skylake series to use DDR4 or DDR3L for mobile applications so expect to see Skylake in a variety of mobile devices. The 6700K processor is pretty tame from a thermal perspective so it should fit the thermal envelope of mobile platforms pretty well in its mobile version. The desktop version ran nice and cool at 4GHz but we had a heads up from both Intel and Asus that if you want all Skylake has to give good to great water cooling was the order of the day. In the information we got it told us 4.5GHz on good air and a good sample would hit 4.7GHz on good water cooling.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Intel Core i7-6700K & i5-6600K Skylake CPU Review

While Intel’s High-End Desktop (HEDT) CPUs are fast and fun, it’s on the mainstream platform where the chip manufacturing company really shifts volumes to gamers and DIY enthusiasts. Multiplier-unlocked Core i5 and i7 variants of the latest mainstream micro-architecture are the popularity champions on an annual basis; an affordable platform with good enough gaming and general performance from the CPUs translates into a recipe for success. Intel’s latest-and-greatest in desktop CPU technology – Skylake – aims to continue that trend, but this time with a platform that is designed to drive the market forward.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Intel Core i7-6700K (14nm Skylake) Review

Find out if Skylake deserves your hard-earned money. The PC landscape has changed irrevocably in the last five years. Intel, smarting from being behind rival AMD in the processor stakes after the Austin outfit launched the impressive Athlon range of chips way back when, released the Sandy Bridge architecture at the start of 2011, and what an architecture it was. It was Intel's engineering at its very best.

Good old Sandy came tearing into town armed with both performance and energy efficiency in spades. CPU performance was predictably strong, but Intel also used the Sandy Bridge launch as a pretext to dabble with improving onboard graphics, which is a trend that continues today.

It's very telling that the best Sandy Bridge processor, Core i7-2700K, is still considered decent four years on, and those with enough foresight to purchase it at that time haven't felt the need to upgrade. Ivy Bridge has come and gone, Haswell is probably powering your PC right now, while Broadwell has barely made a whimper.

Read full article @ Hexus

Intel Core i7-6700K and Z170 Chipset Review: Skylake For Enthusiasts

Although Intel is holding many of the architectural details regarding its latest Skylake-based, 6th generation Core processors back until the Intel Developers Forum goes down in San Francisco in a couple of weeks, the company is announcing a pair of new processors and a companion chipset today. Skylake is a “tock” in Intel’s release cadence, which signifies a new microarchitecture, built using a mature process—in this case the same 14nm process that brought us Broadwell. The new Skylake-based Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K squarely target performance enthusiasts, and pack all of the goodness we’ve come to expect from Intel’s unlocked K-SKUs, in addition to some things that are sure to please the overclocking crowd. But, we’ll be hearing more about the rest of the Skylake line-up and other details in a few weeks...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Intel Core i7-6700K Review

First the bad news. The all-new Intel Core i7-6700K – which pitches in at around $350 (about £225, or AU$475) – does not tear PC gaming a new one. It's not a render monster like none before. It doesn't take desktop number crunching to a whole new level. Bummer.

Instead, it's yet another Intel processor with four cores, eight threads and a habit of humming along at about 4GHz. Isn't that what Intel's top processors for its mainstream platforms have looked like forever? In fact, it's the way things have been since the arrival of Sandy Bridge back in late 2010.

Of course, we've been complaining about the glacial rate of progress at Intel for so long, you might expect this latest mediocrity to have us pondering the possibility of putting an end to it all by stringing ourselves up with SATA cables. After all, you could say the glacial progress comment is actually a bit kind. Intel has in fact backtracked in recent years courtesy of silliness like dumbed down chip packaging and cooling, along with overclocking that's ever more locked down.

Read full article @ Techradar

Intel Core i7-6700K Review: Skylake arrives with the latest 'tock'

Whereas Broadwell was a 'tick' in Intel's "tick-tock" release cycle, Skylake is a 'tock', which means the same manufacturing process along architecture improvements. Chief among the changes is a new LGA1151 socket, which will require a new motherboard that supports an Intel 100 Series chipset, as well as support for DDR4 memory. On hand today we have the Core i7-6700K, a quad-core processor operating at a base clock of 4.0GHz.

Read full article @ Techspot

Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake Processor Review

Intel today launched the 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K processors along with the Intel Z170 at Gamescom in Germany. Intel released these two new 14nm ‘Skylake’ unlocked K-Sku processors at Gamescom to show that Intel remains dedicated to PC gaming. Intel believes that this is the ideal gaming platform, offering the best all-around gaming experience. The ideal desktop gaming platform right now, according to Intel, would be a 6th Gen Core processor with a Z170 based board and an Intel 750 Series NVMe SSD to top it off. Many of the Intel Z170 boards will feature SuperSpeed+ USB 3.1, Thunderbolt 3.0 and DDR4 memory and up to three M.2 PCIe SSD slots, so you are talking about the most feature rich mainstream PC platform to ever be released. Chances are if you consider yourself an enthusiast you’ve been waiting for the Intel Z170 boards with the new LGA1151 socket and DDR4 memory support to come out before you upgraded. There is a large number of Intel Sandy Bridge owners out there that haven’t felt the need to update, but that will likely change now that this new platform has been released and they see the performance numbers.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake Processor Review

This week is a very exciting one if you are a PC enthusiast! Skylake is officially here and to start off Intel is launching their enthusiasts parts first which include the Core i7-6700K and the Core i5-6600K. The 6th Generation Skylake processors are the “tock” to Intel’s “tick” and “tock” release schedule. A “tock” represents a new architecture and a “tick” represents a process refinement. If you missed it Broadwell was based on the 14nm process, but with Skylake we have a brand new architecture. With Skylake Intel is focusing on bringing better CPU and GPU performance with reduced power consumption. Today we will be taking a look at the flagship Core i7-6700K processor which has a base frequency of 4.0 GHz and boosts up to 4.2 GHz! Let’s see what this processor and the Skylake platform is all about!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Intel i7-6700K Skylake

Well if it feels like I was just here talking about a newly launched Intel CPU it is because, well, I was. Intel ran into a few issues with their Broadwell launch and those issues pushed its launch back significantly. Well to their credit they didn’t let those issues slow down the Skylake launch, so today they are launching their new flagship consumer CPU at Gamescom. The reason they are launching there is because the first part of the Skylake launch is completely focused on gamers and overclockers. They are only launching two SKUs, their i7-6700K and the i5-6600K. Both are overclockable, high clock speed CPUs focused right at enthusiast and gamers who want to get the best possible performance without the heavy investment that an X99 build would cost them.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Intel Skylake recap: CPUs, DDR4, motherboards and systems

Catch up on all our coverage of Intel's sixth-generation Skylake microarchitecture.

Read full article @ Hexus

Intel's Core i7-6700K 'Skylake' processor reviewed

Intel's brand-new Skylake CPU architecture has arrived on the desktop in the form of the Core i7-6700K processor. We've tested five generations of Intel CPU architectures against one another in Windows 10 to see whether Skylake should prompt an upgrade. Here's what we found.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

MIPOW VoxTube 500 Bluetooth Headset Review

Because of the large amount of PC hardware and peripherals to make it at our lab these past months we "neglected" some of our other categories so we will do our best to get those up to date as well before the summer is over. One such category is the wireless headsets and although the market is filled with low-cost models aimed towards the majority of consumers there are some well-respected and established companies which follow a different path all together and seek to satisfy even the more demanding users with their products. There are however some new players in the market like MIPOW who are looking to win consumers with their high quality and innovative products and so today we're going to take a look at their VoxTube 500 Bluetooth Headset.

MIPOW, (pronounced as MY-POW, the letters “MI” stands for “myself”, and “POW” represents “vitality & power”) was founded in 2010 in Hong Kong by Mr. Yeung, Wei Yung, Stanley, as a young, innovative brand with the key value of “Make it Different”. MIPOW is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Baojia Investment Group which has major business interests in property development, new energy, electronics and venture capital. MIPOW has offices in the United Kingdom, United States and Hong Kong with sales channels covering Asia, Europe, America, Australia, Africa and the Middle East. Our functional and fashionable designs have won broad market acceptance as well as many prestigious awards including: European Red-Dot Design Awards, International Forum iF Design Awards, GOOD DESIGN Awards and Macworld Asia The Best Awards. MIPOW takes pride in its innovation and holds 48 patents with more to come. These and many other accomplishments have positioned MIPOW amongst the leaders in product excellence.

MIPOW has given the VoxTube 500 Bluetooth headset a small (just 6g heavy) tubular-design anodized aluminum body (award winning iF design) and packed it with Bluetooth v4.0 connectivity (HFP1.6, A2DP1.2 and AVRCP1.4 support), dual noise-cancelling microphones (featuring cVc audio enhancement by CSR) and a 70mAh lithium-polymer rechargeable battery which can power the headset for up to 6 hours (8/10 days in standby). Also as with most modern Bluetooth headsets the VoxTube 500 allows for simultaneous connection with up to 2 different compatible devices and offers both voice feedback (status prompts) and dialing.



Read full article @ NikKTech

MSI Z170A Gaming M7 (and i7-6700k) Review

A new Intel CPU? Oh, go on then... and while we're at it some new kit from Corsair and MSI too...

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven

MSI Z170A GAMING M7 Review

Intel’s 6th Generation Core ‘Skylake’ product line is launched today, and complementing that release is a range of motherboards from top-line vendors eager to have their hardware inside your new PC. However, for the first time Intel’s release range is limited to only K-series desktop CPUs – namely the Core i7 6700K and i5 6600K, so naturally motherboard vendors are highlighting their overclocking range of Z170 designs at launch this time around. With the H- and B-class motherboards scheduled for later in the year today’s range of available models is perhaps the most streamlined it’s ever been.

Intel’s Z170 chipset, codenamed Sunrise Point, is the first in the mainstream to features DDR4 support and an LGA 1151 socket. As a result new systems will tend to have a higher upgrade cost than previous generations, which could at least inherit DDR3 DIMMs from older systems, or otherwise take advantage of a depressed memory market price. The higher than usual costs necessitate hard work from partners to make their own motherboard designs – based on the standard Intel chipset and their own secret sauce – even greater value to get over this upgrade hurdle. Given how strong Z97 was, they truly have their work cut out for them; thankfully new chipset features not available for Z97’s launch, such as USB 3.1 and NVMe RAID, will help.

Read full article @ Vortez

Our Windows 10 upgrade worked after third attempt

We wanted to let the businesses be very aware of the probable issues in the installation of the software. CIOs and IT administrators around the world are probably still thinking if they want to do the free upgrade or not, and it looks like they should wait for another few weeks. Otherwise, they'll be spending a lot of time troubleshooting, like us at Fudzilla.
After three attempts to update my main computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and a lot of reading, I managed to get it done. This Windows 7 installation survived many computer upgrades but it struggled to get the Windows 10 running. We probably don’t have to explain why we skipped Windows 8 and 8.1 on this desktop machine, we had it on others but not on this one.  
None of the suggested things in the original article did work. It turns out that the antivirus was not causing problem. We continued reading and found that some users had to disconnect the secondary Hard Drive and all peripherals including the printer and webcam.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

Scan 3XS Z170 Vengeance Review

Skylake struts its stuff in a £1,500 base unit. Looking for a reason to upgrade your PC? Right now there are two that may have you reaching for your credit card: the launch of Intel's sixth-generation 'Skylake' processors, and the arrival of Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system.

Said developments serve as much-needed ammunition for system integrators looking to revitalise their portfolio, and UK-based Scan Computers is racing out of the gate with the 3XS Z170 Vengeance. Priced at £1,499.99, this isn't a PC for the faint-hearted, but rather a gaming rig for those who prefer to live close to the cutting edge.

Read full article @ Hexus

What we know about Windows 10 Service Release 1 (SR1)

When our own Rod Trent returned from attending the Windows Insider and Windows 10 launch events in New York City last week he shared some insight he gained during the various conversations he participated in.

One of the big pieces of info was the reminder that Windows 10, the release everyone is receiving after 29/7, is the beginnings of this new OS. Windows as a Service (WaaS) is a term that has been used to describe this process of keeping the OS up to date and continually improving it.

It was also reiterated that Windows Insiders are a big element of this WaaS process and will be testing updates before they head out to the general population. Just yesterday the ability to opt into receiving Insider builds is once again live and the next build should arrive soon for testing.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

Why you should not upgrade to Windows 10

Like many people I have many different machines in the house and my Windows 7 machine upgraded without a hitch. When I say without a hitch, there have been a couple of blue screens and some odd behaviour, but it was installed a day after the launch.
An install on my Windows 8 Lenovo machine showed up the ugliness of Redmond launch in all its evil glory. I am not mincing my words because I have tried to do this install three times, and the last time was following Lenovo's instructions, so I am, to use an industry term, pissed off.
If you upgrade you are given confusing information and it is a lottery if your upgrade will hang.
First there is the confusing information. It is not clear when you take your media out of the drive and when do you put it back. The instructions from Microsoft are confusing and the whole idea of a multi-million dollar programming company insisting that an operating system need a user to sit by their machine to shove an SSD drive into the machine when it gets past the BIOS loading phase is just a joke. If you can't write a line of code to avoid that problem, then you have to question your ability to write something grown up like an operating system.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme – The fastest 980 Ti available?

The GTX 980 Ti is not only a fast GPU but also a GPU that overclocks extremely well. This means that few cards for sale actually are running at reference speeds, 1000 Mhz, and instead are overclocked at different levels. Zotac are no strangers to overclocking usually offering a wide variety of cards for each generation. Their AMP!-edition cards not only are overclocked but come with their own special cooler and thus when we got a question whether we wanted to review one of their GTX 980 Ti AMP!-cards we jumped to the chance, especially as it turned out to be the Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme-card. With a base core clock of 1253 MHz, 25.3% higher than a reference GTX 980 TI, this is so far the highest clocked GTX 980 Ti we’ve seen from any OEM. And just to whet your appetite, the card even overclocks further! Add to that 6 GB of DDR5 memory running at 7220 MHz (up from 7010 MHz) and a special silent tri-fan cooler (IceStorm – love the names) and it is clear that this on paper is the “king of GTX 980 Ti”. Can it deliver on its promises? Read on to find out.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D