Here a roundup of the latest reviews and articles:

G.Skill SR910 & SV710 Headsets Review
GIGABYTE P34W v5 Review
Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 Motherboard Review
HyperX Predator PCIe M.2 SSD Bootable RAID 0 Performance
Intel SSD 750 400GB PCIe Review
Linksys EA9200 Tri-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router Review
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 4GB review: What difference does extra VRAM make?
Origin EON17-X Review
Patriot Viper V360 Gaming Headset Review
Rig of the Month - December 2015
SilverStone TD03 Slim AIO Liquid Cooler Review
Sound Blaster Roar 2
The Angelbird Wings PX1 M.2 Adapter Review: Do M.2 SSDs Need Heatsinks?
The Tech Report System Guide, December 2015 edition
TRENDnet TEW-824DRU AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router Review
Water Cooling 101: The ThinkComputers WC101 Rig – Product Overviews
WINE 1.7 review - Alcoholics Anonymous
XFX 4GB R7 370 Review

G.Skill SR910 & SV710 Headsets Review

With the KM780 gaming keyboard and the MX780 gaming mouse, G.Skill proved they were serious about moving from memory into gaming peripherals. Now, they has entered the audio segment with their SR910 and SV710 gaming headsets—and that's an even bigger step for a company still finding its feet outside its core market.

G.Skill sent along the SV710 virtual 7.1-channel headset ($84) as well as the SR910 real 7.1-channel headset ($159), prices that mean the company wants its first audio products to compete with some of the better offerings from Logitech, Razer, Creative and others. For a company making its first foray into audio, where many consumers have very high standard and where some companies have been working to perfect their product for decades, that's a bold choice.

The two headsets share an identical frame that our reviewer found, in a word, bizarre. The elevated headband looks very strange no matter how you position the self-adjusting padding, leaving the top plastic piece floating an inch above your head. The padding on both is comfortable, and the two headset are differentiated by the colour scheme indicated by the stitching—black for the SV710 and red for the SR910.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

GIGABYTE P34W v5 Review

With the advent of powerful mobile processors, gaming on-the-go has become an ever increasing leisure activity. Desktop computers certainly have their value but are generally awkward and cumbersome to transport between locations. Delivering the latest technology and hardware specifications is crucial for the manufacturers of such mobile units as they battle it out in a fiercely competitive market.

Today we are set to look at what GIGABYTE has to offer in the P34W v5. This gaming notebook arrives with some exciting hardware courtesy of a number of renowned vendors – including Intel’s Core i7-6700HQ, NVIDIA’s GTX 970M and Samsung’s 951 NVMe M.2 SSD. GIGABYTE claims that P34W v5 is the “world’s most powerful slim 14” laptop”. In our review today, we’ll be seeing if this claim holds true – let’s begin!

Read full article @ Vortez

Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 Motherboard Review

Shooting straight for the top of the enthusiast LGA 1151 market, Gigabyte's Z170X-Gaming G1 is packed with features including four-way SLI, dual networking and Wi-Fi. Might this be the best Skylake motherboard we've tested?

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

HyperX Predator PCIe M.2 SSD Bootable RAID 0 Performance

When the Intel Z170 chipset was released, one of the features we were looking forward to was the option to enable a bootable RAID utilizing M.2 drives. Kingston provided us a couple of their HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe 240GB drives to test this feature. Since the release of the Z170 chipset, Kingston has been working on updating the firmware again to enable the bootable RAID capabilities of the Intel Z170 chipset. Without any major announcements, Kingston quietly released the OC34L5TP firmware update to enable bootable RAID on the HyperX Predator PCIe M.2 drives when used in conjunction with an Intel Z170 chipset powered motherboard.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Intel SSD 750 400GB PCIe Review

With the SSD 750 Intel was the first manufacturer to launch an NVMe-SSD for end users. The drive which is lying front of us in this case performs extremely well pumping out up to 2200 MB/s sequential read and 900 MB/s sequential write throughput performance. Apart from that there is the sheer capacity of this drive as well as the fact, that you get MLC NAND flash memory.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Linksys EA9200 Tri-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router Review

Shortly after we published our AC3200 router roundup, Linksys contacted us and wanted to throw one of its routers into the ring. We agreed, and the company sent us its Linksys EA9200 Tri-band Smart Wi-Fi router, which like the others in the roundup is a tri-band router that uses the Broadcom XStream 5GHz platform, throwing out dual 5GHz networks along with a 2.4GHz network for older devices. Like the other routers, it's capable of pushing data at 1,300Mbp/s on its 5GHz bands, and 600Mb/s on the 2.4GHz band. It is also able to pair both 5GHz channels together using Smart Connect technology, or you can run them as two separate networks if you prefer. This router was one of the first to appear on the market, and has been around for almost a year now, so Belkin/Linksys has had some time to fine-tune its firmware based on real-world usage. Its specs are exactly the same as the other routers in the roundup, as is its MSRP of $300, though it's available at Amazon for just $189 at the moment, so it's significantly less expensive than most of the others we've looked at...

Read full article @ HotHardware.Com

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 4GB review: What difference does extra VRAM make?

It was rumored that Nvidia wanted to discontinue the 2GB model of their GTX 960, which would mean that the 4GB model would be the only one available. Does this extra video memory actually serve a purpose? We've tested these two 3D chips with the same drivers and compared the results to find out how much of an improvement in performance this extra memory brings.

Gamers have been pondering the age old question of whether it's worth it to buy a mid range video card with more video memory than the reference model forever. GPU manufacturers tend to release slightly more expensive versions of these mid range cards, with more video memory than the standard model. We've always been skeptic about the amount of extra performance this brings, since cards at a lower price point need less video memory to begin with. To be sure though, we have to benchmark these cards.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Origin EON17-X Review

Origin was one of the first companies to put a desktop processor into a gaming laptop, ringing in a whole new level of performance for gaming and production work. Now, Intel's latest line of Skylake processors should make Origin's EON17-X an even bigger powerhouse, with the ability to almost always overclock.Aside from the desktop chip, this gaming laptop has other features that gamers will appreciate, including a big 17.3-inch screen and booming speakers to boot. The EON17-X also can be loaded up with the fastest PCIe solid-state drives (SSD) and DDR4 memory. With all the available hardware options, this 17-inch gaming machine easily outpaces most gaming laptops – and even desktop rigs.DesignLike the Origin EON15-X, this 17-inch gaming laptop has a surprisingly reserved styling. You won't find any superfluous track-lighting along the exterior of the notebook or so many angular body features that it looks like a Lamborghini-branded laptop. Instead, the Origin EON17-X is a stealthy gaming system with a few sophisticated touches.

Read full article @ Techradar

Patriot Viper V360 Gaming Headset Review

Feel The Beat! That’s what Viper has said about their new gaming headset and boy did they deliver. The Patriot Viper V360 Gaming Headset is one powerful tool all gamers should have in their arsenal, especially ones begging for full immersion out of any game. Sporting a powerful built-in subwoofer system and 7.1 Surround Sound audio, these headphones are guaranteed to rattle any gamer’s expectations.

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Rig of the Month - December 2015

We just adore PC related hardware & think you do too. And sometimes you guys really make a PC that really stands out. We ask you to answer a few simple questions and send in photos of your rig. Each month we'll have a look at the entries and perhaps pick you and post your PC with photos and everything here at Guru3D.com. Here you can find out what you need to do and win a nice prize courtesy of Corsair.

Read full article @ Guru3D

SilverStone TD03 Slim AIO Liquid Cooler Review

The Tundra line of coolers by SilverStone is about to get larger…by getting slimmer? Well, at least two of them are: the TD03 Slim and TD02 Slim. Containing aesthetics from the Tundra Lite coolers and coupling them with a slim radiator and fan (with a total rad/fan package height of 37mm), this AIO cooler seems custom-built for slim cases or anywhere where space is at a premium. Benchmark Reviews has the opportunity to investigate the cooling potential of the 120mm TD03 Slim – will it survive the cooling testbed? We’ll also see how this cooler performs in one of its “intended use” cases: the slim Fortress FTZ01.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Sound Blaster Roar 2

Over the past few years it seems like everyone has been jumping into the portable bluetooth speaker market. You have trendy brands like beats pushing it heavily and even smaller companies bringing them out to slip into the market as well. Well Creative Labs got in fairly early with the original Sound Blaster Roar but I never took a look at it. Frankly portable audio isn’t exactly something that fits in my life very much, I’m typically in my car if outside of the house and in the house I have more than enough to output sound including the Sound Blaster X7 that I recently reviewed. That said a while back Creative Labs asked if I would be interested in checking out the Roar 2 and I figured it was about time I took a look. I’ve been using it around the house and whatnot for a while and now I can finally sit down and dive into its features and talk a little about my experience. So hang on, let’s take a close look at the Sound Blaster Roar 2.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

The Angelbird Wings PX1 M.2 Adapter Review: Do M.2 SSDs Need Heatsinks?

The M.2 form factor has quickly established itself as the most popular choice for PCIe SSDs in the consumer space. The small size easily fits in to most laptop designs, and the ability to provide up to four lanes of PCI Express accommodates even the fastest SSDs. By comparison, SATA Express never caught on and never will due to its two-lane limitation. And the more recent U.2 (formerly SFF-8639) does have traction, but has seen little adoption in the client market.

Meanwhile, although M.2 has its perks it also has its disadvantages, often as a consequence of space. The limited PCB area of M.2 can constrain capacity: Samsungs single-sided 950 Pro is only available in 256GB or 512GB capacities while the 2.5" SATA 850 Pro is available in up to 2TB. And for Intel, the controller used in their SSD 750 is outright too large for M.2, as its wider than the most common M.2 form factor (22mm by 80mm). Finally and most recently, as drive makers have done more to take advantage of the bandwidth offered by PCIe, a different sort of space limitation has come to the fore: heat.

When testing the Samsung SM951 we found that our heavier sustained I/O tests could trigger thermal throttling that would periodically restrict the drives performance. We also had a brief opportunity to run some of our tests on the SM951 using the heatsink from Plextors M6e Black Edition. We found that extra cooling made noticeable differences in performance on some of our synthetic benchmarks, but our more realistic AnandTech Storage Bench tests showed little or no change. But other than the quick look at the SM951, we havent had the chance to do a thorough comparison of how cooling affects high-performance M.2 drives, until now.

Read full article @ Anandtech

The Tech Report System Guide, December 2015 edition

In this edition of our System Guide, we leave Intel's Haswell CPUs and 9-series chipsets behind to look exclusively at Intel's Skylake chips and the best parts to pair with them.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

TRENDnet TEW-824DRU AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router Review

After testing the DIR-880L Wireless AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit Cloud Router by D-Link roughly a week ago some of you asked us if you should prefer external antennas over internal ones when purchasing a router or a modem/router so that you can have the best possible wireless performance. Unfortunately we don't have a valid answer for that since to date we've recorded very good numbers with models using both types (although models with external antennas seem to be doing just a tad better). My recommendation is to check our charts (or charts from other media for that matter) to see for yourselves which models do better in that area and decide based on that and not on the type of antennas used. With that out of the way today we'll be testing yet another model with internal antennas, the TEW-824DRU AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router with StreamBoost Technology by TRENDnet.

Founded in Torrance, California, TRENDnet has grown to become a leading global networking hardware brand. From the network core to the periphery, TRENDnet's expansive product portfolio includes Wireless, Wired, Surveillance, Connectivity, and Peripheral device categories. An emphasis on continual improvement and our ISO 9001:2008 quality management certification (click here to view certificate) is an essential component of TRENDnet’s success. The TRENDnet brand is consistently recognized for exceptional quality, superior performance, and responsive support. TRENDnet's vision is to build innovative, easy to use, and reliable Networks People Trust™. TRENDnet solutions network the countless devices which enable your connected lifestyle and workplace. Building award winning networking solutions since 1990, TRENDnet connects you with what you value most.

Unlike the previously reviewed TEW-818DRU AC1900 modem-router again by TRENDnet which used a Broadcom processor the brand new TEW-824DRU AC1750 model actually features one by Qualcomm Atheros and more specifically the QCA9558 dual-band, 3-stream 802.11n system-on-chip (SoC) clocked at 720MHz. The TEW-824DRU also features the QCA9880 3-stream 802.11ac radio solution, and the AR8327 Gigabit Ethernet switch again by Qualcomm Atheros along with 256MB of DDR3 RAM and 16MB of flash memory. As with pretty much every AC compatible router the TEW-824DRU makes use of 2 different bands to reach the advertised speed of 1750Mbps (2.4GHz/5GHz) and to do that it makes use of three 2dBi for the 2.4GHz band (N-450Mbps) and three 3dBi for the 5GHz band (AC-1300Mbps) antennas all placed inside the housing. So the time has come for us to see just how good this new router by TRENDnet based on the Qualcomm Atheros platform really is.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Water Cooling 101: The ThinkComputers WC101 Rig – Product Overviews

Well we’ve designed our loop, spent hours searching the web comparing parts and twiddling our thumbs nervously before clicking the submit order button. And why shouldn’t you be nervous? You just added enough gear to your cart to buy a crappy car! But it’s done, funds have been exchanged, time has slowly and painfully ticked by, and the tracking number has been checked hundreds of times (does the refresh button even work anymore?). Finally the status is green, the package has been delivered, our parts have arrived from Aquatuning.us, Phanteks, and ThermalTake! What did we get you ask? Follow along as we unbox and check out our glorious shiny new water cooling gear. Welcome to Water Cooling 101: Episode 3!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

WINE 1.7 review - Alcoholics Anonymous

Alas, today, all I have for you is a negative review of WINE 1.7.XX, a compatibilty layer software application framework for Windows programs on Linux, covering install and configuration, total lack of compatibility with various games and modern programs like Live For Speed, Microsoft Office 2013, Internet Explorer, and others, failed attempt to use DLL overrides and Winetricks, and more. Yes, I know, WINE 1.8 has just been released. That one's coming, too. But first, this. Take a look.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

XFX 4GB R7 370 Review

When it comes to computers and building our own personal computers one of the questions we need to ask ourselves what exactly are we going to be using this computer for? Now most of the time when we ask ourselves this question we answer ourselves with gaming. Now the next thing we need to do is to figure out exactly how much can we spend on a gaming computer, what is our spending limits? What will give us the most bang for our buck? Do we require having the most expensive computer components to play our games? Or, is there a happy medium which we can find that will give us a good gaming experience that does not break the bank or blow our computer budget? The answer to this question is a simple, yes. We can have or use an affordable computer system while giving us a great gaming experience without sacrificing our games visuals, or having to make constant tweaks to make our games playable.
Today we are going to be looking at such a video card that fits the bill for being affordable, while also being powerful enough to play our games at HD resolutions. I am not talking about a mere 1280 x 720 (720P) resolution; I am talking about taking this video card to the higher resolution of 1920 x 1080. So step inside and let’s look at one of many video cards from XFX, the XFX AMD 370 video card.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D