Reviews 51949 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AMD VR Performance featuring Sapphire
Corsair's Carbide Series 600C case reviewed
EVGA Z170 Classified K Motherboard Review
Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti XtremeGaming 6GB
House of Marley Chant Sport Review
Intel Compute Stick (2nd Generation) Review
Intel Xeon E5 2600 v4 Broadwell-EP unmasked
Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 Broadwell-EP Review
Intel Xeon Processor E5 v4 Family Debut: Dual E5-2697 v4 With 72 Threads Tested
Quantum Break Review
Quantum Break review: A storytelling success, a live-action failure
Razer Blade Stealth Review: A high caliber ultrabook
Rig of the Month - March 2016
Samsung Galaxy S7 Review
Samsung SSD 750 EVO 120GB and 250GB Review
System Builder Marathon Q1 2016: $662 Budget PC
WinAntiRansom Review



AMD VR Performance featuring Sapphire

It has been a long time since anyone asked, “can it run Crysis?” but there is no doubt that the recommended specifications for high-end Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual reality are expensive. An i5-4590K and a R9 290 or GTX 970 are priced at a level that only a small per centage of all Steam users can match, so for many people, VR will mean an upgrade as well as shelling out hundreds on a headset.

So with that in mind, Sapphire got in touch to offer us the chance to test all their high end graphics solutions. We wanted to see how they stacked up when it comes to displaying dual images of virtual reality right into your eyeballs. They sent us:
* Sapphire R9 FuryX.
* Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury.
* Sapphire R9 Nano.
* Sapphire Nitro R9 390X.
* Sapphire Nitro R9 390.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Corsair's Carbide Series 600C case reviewed

Corsair's Carbide Series 600C flips the motherboard upside-down in what Corsair calls an inverted ATX layout. We put this striking case to the test to see whether its performance is in keeping with its good looks.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

EVGA Z170 Classified K Motherboard Review

It is no secret that motherboards have gotten expensive and over the past several processor generations. Some of the cost is the considerable amount of “bloat” added to motherboards simply to make them more attractive to users. As hardware enthusiasts we are very excited to see companies push the limits and deliver things we wouldn’t normally see. Thing is, adding Creative Sound Blaster audio processors and PLX chips look good on a spec sheet but often make a product cost prohibitive to many users who may never need that stuff anyway.

In this review we’ll be looking at the EVGA Z170 Classified K. EVGA announced this motherboard during CES 2016 and described it as a lower cost version of the EVGA Z170 Classified that I reviewed back in November. As the Classified name suggests this is still a top of the line motherboard and in some ways is designed more for realistic mainstream builds that favor gaming over sheer looks and over-the-top system builds.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti XtremeGaming 6GB

Gigabyte's new GTX 980 Ti XtremeGaming is highly-overclocked, yet more affordable than other GTX 980 Ti variants. It also comes with a low-noise triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution that stops the fans in idle and provides great temperatures.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

House of Marley Chant Sport Review

Superior Quality, Earth-Friendly and Cause-Minded. This is the 3-step program to House of Marley. It’s hard not to get behind a company when their products are as good as the causes they support. If you’re not familiar with House of Marley (HoM), We are sure you can still predict what kind of products they produce from the name. Audio!

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Intel Compute Stick (2nd Generation) Review

Back in early 2015 at CES Intel showed us a really cool device that they were really excited about. It was their Compute Stick, which was an entire PC in the form factor of an HDMI stick. It is pretty awesome that with this device you can turn any HDMI display into a computer! The tagline of “Connect. Compute. It’s that simple.” really fits the Compute Stick perfectly. Intel released the first version of the Compute Stick in 2015 and now it is on its second generation. The second generation makes improvements over the first generation product, inside you have an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 processor (Cherry Trail), 2GB of DDR3L memory, and 32GB of onboard storage. Intel has also added a second USB port (compared to the single port on the 1st generation) and has improved wireless connectivity with 802.11ac wireless and Bluetooth 4.2 with a 2×2 antenna. Let’s take the 2nd generation Intel Compute Stick for a spin and see what it can really do!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Intel Xeon E5 2600 v4 Broadwell-EP unmasked

Part of a new platform for cloud computing. Technology giant Intel has multiple processors for the mobile, client and server segments. Each is home to various chips based on recent architectures, and these include Skylake, Broadwell and Haswell in reverse chronological order spanning the last three years.

What's interesting is that Intel uses different architectures for different segments. The consumer desktop and mobile line is spearheaded by the sixth-generation Skylake architecture whereas, until yesterday, the premium server line, known as Xeon E5, was powered by the fourth-generation Haswell. The slower pace of architecture evolution for the server and workstation can be explained by the two-fold reasoning of Intel having very little genuine competition in the area and a need for platforms that last multiple years.

Today, though, Intel is changing it up by releasing a slew of new Xeon E5 chips equipped with Broadwell technology. They aren't the first Xeons to do so - that accolade goes to the SoC-based Xeon D and Xeon E3 v4 from last year - but by updating to Broadwell across its most popular mainstream processors Intel is adding more performance and more cores for the same financial outlay.

Read full article @ Hexus

Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 Broadwell-EP Review

Intel rolls out is new Xeon E5-2600 v4 CPUs that offer more cores, cache and a bump in IPC performance.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Intel Xeon Processor E5 v4 Family Debut: Dual E5-2697 v4 With 72 Threads Tested

Intel is officially launching a brand new series of Xeon processors today, the Xeon Processor E5 v4. Unlike mainstream desktop products, which feature Intel’s latest core technologies like the Skylake-based Core i7-6700K, mission-critical, big-iron parts like the Xeon E5 v4 series are more complex and go through much more qualification, and as such tend to leverage core technologies that have long been proven in the consumer space. The the Xeon Processor E5 v4 family, for example, is based on Broadwell, or more specifically Broadwell-EP.

There is a large assortment of Xeon E5 v4 series processors en route targeting a wide array of market segments, from high-performance professional workstations to multi-socket servers for big data analytics. The Xeon E5 v4 series processors supplant last year’s E5 v3 series, which was based on Haswell-EP...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Quantum Break Review

You'd need a quantum singularity to condense everything there is to love about Quantum Break. It is a masterpiece. Quantum Break is one of the most visually enthralling games I've ever played. Forget its supremely satisfying and strategic take on third-person shooting; Quantum Break's story and its delivery are jewels that enrich the entire medium.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Quantum Break review: A storytelling success, a live-action failure

Remedy's gorgeous, smart sci-fi game hampered by tepid action, awful TV aspirations.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

Razer Blade Stealth Review: A high caliber ultrabook

Diverging from its usual modus operandi, Razer introduced its first ultrabook earlier this year, the Razer Blade Stealth. This is not a gaming machine out of the box. Rather, Razer has unapologetically prioritized mobility over gaming, and its specs are in line with a number of other premium non-gaming ultrabook offerings. But does the Blade Stealth have what it takes to stand apart?

Read full article @ TechSpot

Rig of the Month - March 2016

It is time for the March edition of the Guru3D Rig of the Month 2016. This months build is more of a wicked gaming room with a PC that is just awesome. Meet Lucy as built by Robert Mooney aka LunerK9.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Samsung Galaxy S7 Review

The Galaxy S7 is Samsung's less edgy handset but it still has curve appeal

Read full article @ V3

Samsung SSD 750 EVO 120GB and 250GB Review

The Samsung SSD 750 EVO has been shipping since 2015 in Asia, but it was only released in North America in 2016. This SATA III SSD drive represents a new budget line of drives from Samsung that is directly aimed at white box system builders or anyone in the DIY market that is looking for a solid performing low cost storage solution. Read on to see how they perform!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

System Builder Marathon Q1 2016: $662 Budget PC

It’s been a while since we’ve made a true low-budget machine. So how much performance can you get for under $600 of hardware now?

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

WinAntiRansom Review

WinAntiRansom is a commercial program for the Windows operating system that is been designed to protect PCs against ransomware attacks. Ransomware comes in two main flavors: programs that lock the PC down, and programs that encrypt files.

Read full article @ gHacks