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Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti Poseidon Platinum Review
BitFenix Prodigy M Micro-ATX Case Review
Das Keyboard 4 Professional Review
GTX 780 Ti vs R9 290X; The Rematch
Jam Titanium Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Speaker Review
Optimized CPU Cooling with Top-Down Heatsinks
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX SE Case Review
PNY GTX 980 XLR8 Review
The NVIDIA GPUs Delivering The Best Performance Per Watt & Per Dollar For Linux Gamers
Thecus N5810 Pro 5-bay NAS
Two And A Half Geeks 8/24/15: IDF Round-Up, Galaxy S6 Edge+, DirectX 12 Gaming And More
Typo for iPad Air Review - A Big Step Forward!



ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti Poseidon Platinum Review

We review and benchmark the coolest of them all, the ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti Poseidon Platinum ROG edition graphics card. This GeForce GTX 980 Ti based product comes factory overclocked and sports hybrid cooling up-to the level of enthusiast liquid cooling. Armed with a massive liquid cooling block (DirectCU H2O), a custom PCB, quality components and a factory overclock this product is bound to perform, whilst staying totally silent. Combine all that with the default goodness the GeForce GTX 980 Ti has to offer like the 6 GB graphics memory and this product simply cool.

The GPU that resides on under the hood is the big Maxwell, and oh man it's a freak of nature with that kind of game rendering powah! You'd expect a product with '980' in it to have a similar slightly tweaked GPU, but no Sir. Nvidia shifted a thing or two around, the 980 Ti is based on the BIG Maxwell GPU, the same GPU that is powering the Titan X. Obviously the product has been trimmed down a tiny bit, but trust us when we say, there's plenty performance to be found. This product comes with a luxurious six Gigabytes of graphics memory and with these specs, the GTX 980 Ti should be fetching a lot of interest for the true gamers among us. The GPU empowering the GeForce 980 Ti is big, this one has a massive transistor count; it is a slightly revised GM200 A1 GPU that currently feeds the Titan X its horsepower. So yes, a slightly different iteration of the GM200. The card has five display outputs: three DisplayPorts, HDMI and DVI-I. Where the GTX 980 has 4 GB, this product has a nice 6 GB frame buffer, and close to a third more shader processors when compared to the GeForce 980, accumulating up-to 2816 of them playing the binary game in a GPU that has a whopping 8 Billion transistors (GeForce GTX 980 has 5 Billion). The card looks pretty identical to previous models with subtle changes here and there and with that familiar cooler shroud. Memory wise NVIDIA equipped its GeForce GTX 980 Ti with 7 Gbps memory, the fastest GDDR5 memory you can find on a graphics card today, that's until HBM (stacked memory) is released by the competition in the near future. Combined with GPU Boost 2.0 you will see this product is advertised in the 1076 MHz range on its dynamic clock for the reference products. The reference base clock for 980 Ti is 1 GHz. It's not that the card can't go any higher, but it is done to keep the product in line power consumption wise. With a 250W TDP, we are not complaining at all, no Sir. For the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, monitor outputs include DVI, HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort, this will vary a little with board partner products that are bound to get released after Computex, based on their own design and cooling. With a card like the ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti STRIX you will be able to play the hottest games including the Witcher 3 and Grand Theft Auto V at that whopping Ultra HD 8.2 Mpixels at a 3840x2160 resolution with a single card, in fact we are going to check that out in this review. The maximum allowed board design power draw is roughly 250 Watts, not bad considering the caliber of this product.

Read full article @ Guru3D

BitFenix Prodigy M Micro-ATX Case Review

BitFenix started a cult-like following with its first original Prodigy Mini ITX computer case when it was first introduced in 2012. The original Prodigy back in 2012 was M-ITX form factor only, but that did not stop custom builders and Modders alike from changing the inside of the spacious case to accept even larger motherboards and custom water loops, the list goes on. After all the case had plenty of room to build in and people took that room and filled it with innovative ideas and parts creating a high demand for the little Cube Cabinet and custom parts to modify it more. BitFenix has now retooled the old case to accept some of the customer’s ideas and expanded to the bigger Micro-ATX form factor and has added 3 more PCI slots for a total of 5 PCI extension slots for SLI and Crossfire. The “Prodigy M” as it is named is a reaction to the amazing success and a few failures of this ground breaking small-cube like computer case.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Das Keyboard 4 Professional Review

Since the late 90's early 2000 it almost feels like the entire PC market revolves around gamers of all ages and types and that goes double when it comes to input devices like keyboards and mice. Manufacturers like Microsoft and IBM did try to cater to the needs of the professional community all around the world in the 90’s with high quality ergonomic keyboards and keyboards offering good tactile and audible feedback but now that i look back at that time that didn't really pan out since most manufacturers turned towards gamers really fast. There are still however some manufacturers that go against the "flow" of things and although their solutions are obviously aimed towards professionals they are also chosen by gamers all over the world. Das Keyboard is one of the leading companies in that field and today we're taking a look at their latest keyboard model the Das Keyboard 4 Professional.

Das Keyboard, a brand of Metadot, makes high-quality mechanical keyboards, along with RFID blocking gear that protects user privacy. Das Keyboard is a privately held technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas dedicated to delivering innovative technology products to increase productivity and lower costs. Developed in 2005, Das Keyboard has been praised by major media outlets, techie magazines, geeks and regular people who use and rely on keyboards to be productive throughout the workday. For more information, please visit www.daskeyboard.com.

With us we have the Das Keyboard 4 Professional model that features Cherry MX Brown switches but the same model is also available with Cherry MX Blue switches for people who want louder audible and higher tactile feedback (both types of switches are gold-plated). The Das Keyboard 4 Professional keyboard however has many tricks up its sleeve so it also features a top anodized aluminum panel, UV coated key caps, two USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports, dedicated media controls, sleep button (power saving feature), full n-key rollover (NKRO), single USB 3.0 connector (no extra power is required for use of the front USB 3.0 ports) and a magnetic foot bar which also doubles as a ruler. The question we're here to answer today is whether or not the Das Keyboard 4 Professional can be the one stop for both professionals and gamers alike so let's move forward with our review.

Read full article @ NikKTech

GTX 780 Ti vs R9 290X; The Rematch

I’ll be the first to admit that like many press, I have a tendency to look ahead to future products rather than dwell in the past. It’s unavoidable since the latest and greatest is what drives traffic. However, my reality doesn’t reflect what the vast majority of buyers actually experience, particularly when it comes to expensive core components like graphics cards and processors. Financial constraints typically dictate that an investment in hardware –be it leading edge or more affordable- should last a good amount of time. How long would that be? The longevity of a particular piece of hardware will vary from person to person but buyers do expect support for their purchases past the respective End of Life dates. This leads us to the reasoning behind this article.

While the GTX 780 Ti was considered a class-leading card and the very pinnacle of NVIDIA’s Kepler architecture when it was launched in November of 2013 (yes it’s been nearly two years) it has since been replaced with Maxwell-based cards like the GTX 980 and GTX 980 Ti. Meanwhile, the 700-series has faded into that dreaded EOL status, though there were assurances that driver support would continue.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Jam Titanium Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Speaker Review

When it comes to buying a wireless speaker to give your smartphone a little more oomph whilst playing music, many people merely look at the price and buy the most affordable one. However that is not going to do justice to the ever improving media quality that is available to consumers, so what can you buy that will, without breaking the bank?

Read full article @ KitGuru

Optimized CPU Cooling with Top-Down Heatsinks

Occasionally Benchmark Reviews looks at a hardware component, and recognizes the value in discussing it beyond the standard product evaluation. Not all that long ago we tested the Cooler Master Geminii S524 Ver 2 CPU Cooler, and noted how well it performed compared to many other high-end heatsinks. We looked at the temperatures, measured the cooling performance, compared it to the original GeminII S524 Heatsink, and then gave our rating of the product. What we didn’t do is discuss the benefits of a horizontal heatsink, and how they might actually help you reach an even higher overclock on your computer system.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX SE Case Review

Phanteks has decided to add some color to one of their popular series of cases and has branded it as a Special Edition. The Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX SE Case that we will be looking at has all the familiar traits of the a the original Enthoo Evolv ITX, but what makes these special is that you can get them … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

PNY GTX 980 XLR8 Review

NVIDIA's Maxwell core has so far been a predictable overclocker, delivering speeds from 1400MHz on up and over 1500MHz in some cases. In this case, the Maxwell core in this card was able to run a GPU Boost clock speed of 1491MHz by setting the power limit to 125% and bumping the voltage up by +39mv. The memory speed boost was significant as well with a final result of 1969MHz. Your mileage may vary, of course. All in all, PNY left some meat on the bone for the enthusiast gamer.

Read full article @ OCC

The NVIDIA GPUs Delivering The Best Performance Per Watt & Per Dollar For Linux Gamers

Following last week's NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 launch I took the current complete NVIDIA desktop line-up of Maxwell GPUs and ran a second set of Linux OpenGL gaming tests on each of them while this time looking closely at the performance-per-dollar and performance-per-Watt performance. Here's the look at these NVIDIA Linux results if you're wanting to find the graphics processor delivering the best value as a Linux gamer.

Similar tests will be published this week for my line-up of AMD Radeon graphics cards under Linux in looking at the performance-per-dollar/Watt, with the tests today looking at just the current NVIDIA Maxwell line-up of the GTX 750 Ti and all GTX 900 series parts. In a later article, pending sufficient reader interest, I may also do a similar open-source comparison in looking at what delivers the best value. In this article the NVIDIA 355.06 beta driver was used for testing all of the hardware.

Our open-source automated benchmarking software, the Phoronix Test Suite, has long been capable of producing performance-per-Watt benchmark results when it's able to find a supported hardware sensor for querying the overall AC power draw. In the case of this GPU testing, the entire system power consumption was measured using a WattsUp power meter that's automatically read by the Phoronix Test Suite's Phodevi library. Usually in our Linux graphics card reviews we publish just a few performance-per-Watt results as it tends to be sufficient without information overload, but in this article are these extra numbers for each of the Linux games tested.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Thecus N5810 Pro 5-bay NAS

The N5810 Pro by Thecus is an enthusiast-grade NAS that not only includes the usual features we expect to find in a product of its category as it also comes with its very own mini-UPS device as a precursory measure against data losses caused by power cuts.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Two And A Half Geeks 8/24/15: IDF Round-Up, Galaxy S6 Edge+, DirectX 12 Gaming And More

Join Marco, Dave and Jason today for our Two And A Half Geeks Webcast! We be kick around our Intel IDF coverage, the brand new Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Note 5, DirectX 12 graphics performance with Ashes Of The Singularity, the hot Asus ZenPad S, gaming on Windows 10 and more...

Read full article @ HotHardware.Com

Typo for iPad Air Review - A Big Step Forward!

If you remember a little while back in June of this year, Blackberry put the gears to Typo as they settled their dispute of IP infringement. Essentially, this prevents Typo from making any more smartphone keyboards. (http://technologyx.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d9b6193ffd32dd60e84fc74b&id=5b21034eb4&e=312ec141fb) While the full terms of the settlement were not released, we do know that Typo must "permanently discontinue selling anywhere in the world keyboards for smartphones and mobile devices with a screen size of less than 7.9 inches." Enter the Typo for iPad Air and Mini!

Read full article @ TechnologyX