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Here a roundup of todays review's and articles:

AOC Q2577PWQ Review
Buying Guide: Mac Buyer's Guide 2015
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 OC Mini-ITX Review
Home server - June 2015
In Win 707
NVIDIA Shield Android TV Review
NZXT Noctis 450 Mid-Tower Case Review
Sentey Arrow GS-4522 Headset Review
Xeon E3-1200 V4 launch: only with GPU integrated



AOC Q2577PWQ Review

This IPS display from AOC follows a new trend in PC displays, by presenting a native resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 (WQHD) with a 25-inch screen size, rather than the more common 27 inches. With all the usual benefits of an IPS display, including wide viewing angles of 178 degrees, along with full sRGB coverage and strong Adobe RGB performance we find out today if it offers stunning image quality that goes some way towards justifying its suggested retail price.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Buying Guide: Mac Buyer's Guide 2015

Buying a new Mac isn't as easy as picking out a new iPhone. With a phone you only have to worry about cost, color, and capacity, but when upgrading your computer you need to consider portability, power, speed, storage, screen size, pixels, expansion needs, and more.

So while Apple's Mac lineup is fairly streamlined and straightforward, there's still a lot to consider. If you decide you want a desktop, there's the Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro to choose from. If portability is your primary concern, you have the MacBook Air, MacBook and MacBook Pro. Even if you pass on the build-to-order options, there are dozens of possibilities ranging from $499 (about £325/AU$646)all the way up to $3,999 (about £2,610/AU$5,181).

Read full article @ Techradar

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 OC Mini-ITX Review

We test the 17cm long Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 OC Mini-ITX graphics card. The product does not vary much from any other 970 other than its size. Housed in a compact design this card might just be what the doctor ordered for a small Mini-ITX or Micro ATX build. The card has 4 GB graphics memory (well, 3.5 GB), is energy efficient and factory overclocked for you. You will be surprised by how this card looks, how silent it is and how well it performs.

The GPU used is the 28nm GM204, the two derivatives created from it are the GeForce GTX 970 and 980. Ah, you noticed? Yes, correct, Nvidia decided to skip the 800 series to avoid confusion with some of their rebranded mobile parts. Maxwell is a new and sound architecture and as such it is released with a new series name. In this article we will have an extensive look at the architecture behind Maxwell, we will look at gaming performance from Full HD to Ultra HD.

So, a compact performance graphics card designed primarily for small form factor PCs with mini ITX motherboards. This tiny dual-slot card measures just 17cm and features the NVIDIA GTX 970 GPU. With a TDP at roughly 160 Watts the card won't draw too much power either, but it surely packs power, it is silent and the GPU core temperatures remain completely under control.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Home server - June 2015

The home server. It's subject to heated debate on Hardware.Info. Opinions differ widely on subjects like the necessity for keeping the design compact, the advantage of hot-swap bays, acceptable energy consumption, how much CPU power is needed, what type of storage and so on. It's safe to say that the "ideal home server" does not exist, because its intended use differs widely among our readers.

This doesn't mean that we can't provide a good guide to effective home servers. There are two options, either you buy one off-the-shelf or you build one yourself. While there are a number of pre-assembled home servers available that have advantages in terms of compact design and price-performance ratio, the seasoned Hardware.Info reader of course prefers building one themselves. Our guide will focus finding the right balance between energy consumption, affordability and expandability.

Power usage is essential. A NAS with two disks and an Atom-based PC will consume less power, but both of these solutions lack the all-important aspect of expandability, so we are more flexible in how much power can be used. Our recommended configuration uses between 35W and 45W. You can achieve lower energy consumption, but at a significant trade-off in terms of processor power and upgrading options. A compromise in other words, like with all our recommended systems.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

In Win 707

The In Win 707 is the In Win 703's bigger brother, offering the full-tower experience with the same clean and asymmetrical design, but the ability to install potent water cooling and a very modular HDD cage. While the chassis is of high quality and offers the look, we cannot shake the feeling of having seen this all before.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

NVIDIA Shield Android TV Review

The SHIELD Android TV is NVIDIA's entry to the living room entertainment market. It's a market that's rapidly changing and evolving, yet it seems to be fragmented or lacking a certain standard, if that makes sense. The small Android-based set top boxes available so far are just not powerful enough, yet a full blown HTPC feels a bit overkill for most users. Proprietary boxes are just that, proprietary and limited, although some have a rich list of features. For the last year or so, I personally settled for a mini PC running the full Windows 8.1 OS, which provides great experience although still feels quite out of place in a living room. Things changed drastically with the announcement of Google's Android TV, and a few major manufacturers are releasing products running this new platform. In an era where users want full control of their media consumption, where 4K is the future, and where TV channels are becoming apps (HBO Now stand-alone streaming and on-demand video service being the perfect example), the NVIDIA SHIELD could be the Holy Grail for digital living room entertaiment.

NVIDIA is joining the Android TV arena with a contender that simply feels overpowered compared to similar solutions. Based on the latest Tegra X1 processor paired with 3GB of system memory, the NVIDIA SHIELD is in a class of its own in terms of hardware. By leveraging the powerful yet energy efficient Maxwell GPU architecture, it's capable of delivering incredible levels of performance never seen before in an Android based TV-box. This little device also offers an extensive list of connectivity options including USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IR port, and HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2. These base specs will be available in two models: the SHIELD and SHIELD PRO offering 16GB and 500GB of internal storage, respectively.

I spent a few days with the 16GB version of the NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV. In this review, I will try to relate my experiences with its media capabilities and gaming performance. Let's get to it!

Read full article @ Neoseeker

NZXT Noctis 450 Mid-Tower Case Review

Many manufacturing industries keep an award winning design and release updated versions of it; either to provide a change to the appearance or update features. Legit Reviews took a look at the NZXT H440 almost a year and a half ago, and recently the NZXT H440 Razer; both of which received high praise. NZXT took the internal heart of the H440 and updated the exterior and a few features of the case to become the Noctis 450. Read on to see how the NZXT Noctis 450 PC case is all about!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Sentey Arrow GS-4522 Headset Review

Here at Bjorn3D we have started to become more familiar with Sentey in the past few months, having taken a look at two of their gaming mice, as well as a PC case. Prior to our recent reviews, we were unaware of any of the products that Sentey manufactures. We have a feeling that Sentey will begin to become a more recognizable name in the upcoming months, as they have really been pushing hardware to reviewers to get their name out there. Case in point, today we are having a look at the Arrow headset, specifically the GS-4522. The Sentey Arrow GS-4522 headset is part of Sentey’s Elite Gamer Series of products, which looks to be a level lower than their Professional Gamer Series.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Xeon E3-1200 V4 launch: only with GPU integrated

Intels server CPU portfolio just got more diversified and complex with the launch of the Intel Xeon E3-1200 V4 at Computex 2015.  It is basically the same chip as the Core i7 "Broadwell" desktop that Ian reviewed yesterday: inside we find four Broadwell cores and a Crystal Well-backed Iris Pro GPU, baked with Intels state-of-the-art 14 nm process. The Xeon enables ECC RAM support, PCI-passthrough, and VT-D, the former two being features that the desktop chips obviously lack, and VT-D only being present in some desktop chips.

But the current line-up of the Xeon E3-1200 v4 based upon Broadwell is not a simple replacement for the current Xeon E3 1200 v3 "Haswell", which we tested a few months ago. Traditionally, the Xeon E3 was about either workstations or all kinds of low-end servers. 

Read full article @ Anandtech