Reviews 51945 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

ArmA 3 - AMD & NVIDIA CPU & Memory Stock vs. OC Performance Scaling Skylake
Case Mod Friday: Tropical Voodoo
Cooler Master MasterCase 5 Computer Case Review
DinoPC BX1 Review
Follow-up Review: ArmorSuit MilitaryShield for Microsoft Band 2
Linksys WRT1900ACS 802.11ac Wireless Router review
Microsoft Extends Skylake Support On Windows 7 And Windows 8.1
OCZ Trion 150 SSD Review
Quieting A Noisy Graphics Card With An Aftermarket Cooler
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge vs Galaxy S6 Edge head-to-head review
Why an Overclockable Core i3 Might Not Exist: The Supermicro C7H170-M and Intel Core i3-6100TE Review
Windows security updates come with ads? Let's check



ArmA 3 - AMD & NVIDIA CPU & Memory Stock vs. OC Performance Scaling Skylake

On the following pages we're going to have a close look at how ArmA 3 performs in combination with an overclocked Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake CPU as well as overclocked memory. We're also going to show you the effect when both memory and CPU have been overclocked and that we do in combination with nine different, recent graphics cards and at three resolutions: 1080p, 1440p as well as 2160p at ultra settings.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Case Mod Friday: Tropical Voodoo

Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have Alex Snef's “Tropical Voodoo” build. Here is what he had to say about it, "This one is for a fiend in West Palm Beach. He called me 2 weeks ago to explain what he need exactly, no need for monster power, just wanted a little upgrade of what he had and he wanted absolutely the same case as Icy Blue Angel but with darker blue and he told me about Tropical Tiki Man and a Voodoo theme, white Blue and silver, what a great color for Tropical, lol cant be more cold color but I think with a lot of graphics, I can do a really great theme with this and another request, he want windows on both side of case woah!!!!!, need a lot of work on cable management."

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Cooler Master MasterCase 5 Computer Case Review

From a young age, I have always been interested in challenging myself at different tasks, whether it be playing a musical instrument like the piano, or learning how to type on the keyboard. For whatever reason, if a task requires learning with your hands, I am probably the first one on the scene. Although I knew academics is an important aspect in my educational growth, I hated going to school. Yes, I learned how to read, write, have fun and be sociable. However, soon enough, I found I was always bored when the teacher or professor was teaching theoretical knowledge. History? Boring. Calculus? Easy. Philosophy? Cool story, bro. This is not to say that I was particularly good (or not) in any one of those subjects, but because most of the concepts did not really stick in my head by reading it in the textbook or communicating it to me in person. My way of learning was to use the concept in real life application. Logically, this has propagated into many aspects of my life, and while attending CES earlier this year with my colleague Aaron Lai, a part of me had an idea that many of the companies will be coming out with the "bigger and better" product. As we met up with a representative from Cooler Master and had him walk us through all the new products they had to offer this year, I thought to myself, "Every product here looks the same as the last company we visited." However, rather than letting the negative thoughts ruin the rest of the conference, I told myself I would talk to Alfredo Barroso, our PR representative, and ask him for a Cooler Master MasterCase 5 unit to play around with. "No problem," he said. "I will get on it right away and have a unit sent over immediately." Great, I thought. Now I can get my hands on it to see if it is truly worth the money. Sitting down for the past month or so at APH Networks, we have put the MasterCase 5 to the test. Read on to see what we have found!

Read full article @ APH Networks

DinoPC BX1 Review

Gearing up for VR? This Battlebox could be just what the doctor ordered.

Read full article @ Hexus

Follow-up Review: ArmorSuit MilitaryShield for Microsoft Band 2

New Band 2 owners should look into applying a screen protector right away, and the one from ArmorSuit is probably you're best bet.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

Linksys WRT1900ACS 802.11ac Wireless Router review

The Linksys WRT1900ACS is a 3×3 802.11ac router with the brand’s signature chunky blue design along with some fairly powerful innards. A dual-core 1.6GHz processor and 512MB of memory powers a graphics-heavy interface that’s chock full of useful features to give you plenty of control over your home network.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Microsoft Extends Skylake Support On Windows 7 And Windows 8.1

Back in January, Microsoft made a rather surprising announcement that it was changing the support model for older operating systems running on the latest Skylake hardware. As part of the announcement, going forward, the latest processors and chipsets would only be supported on the current version of Windows. As of now, and for the foreseeable future, that means new chips will only be supported on Windows 10.

This was a surprise because both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are still in their “extended support” phase, and generally that means the operating system is left as is, but security updates are done until the end of extended support. For businesses especially, many had just finished their Windows 7 upgrade and there was not necessarily a big push to start over again. But at the same time, workstations need to be replaced. As a slight reprieve, Microsoft said in January that they would provide a list of computers that would have support for Skylake until July 2017. Since then, the list has been made available here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/skylake-support

There was some ambiguity about the initial notification though. After July 2017, patches that are found to cause an issue with Skylake systems would be excluded from certain security patches. But what that meant exactly wasn’t stated. Today Microsoft has both extended the diary date for the end of support, as well as provided a bit more clarity on what will happen after.

Read full article @ Anandtech

OCZ Trion 150 SSD Review

OCZ is on its second-generation TLC-based effort. The new Trion 150 updates the flash to Toshiba's 15nm TLC, but the largest improvement comes from firmware that increases sustained write performance.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Quieting A Noisy Graphics Card With An Aftermarket Cooler

Professional system builders are usually obsessed with silence and cooling. Custom cooling solutions are some of the biggest differentiators in pre-built systems. And one of the chief selling points of aftermarket cooling gear for enthusiasts is noise output, usually listed in decibels. There are even companies, like "be quiet!" for example, that focus on noise output as a main selling point for entire line-ups of cases, power supplies, and heat sinks.

CPUs and GPUs are typically what get the most attention when it comes to aftermarket cooling. Stock coolers on GPUs usually do an adequate job, but there exists a decent aftermarket for GPU coolers, usually reserved for overclockers who like to jack their GPU frequencies up as high as possible. But many users seek out aftermarket coolers to quiet down their graphics cards as well, which is what we set out to do...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review

The most beautiful Android smartphone of 2016 so far

Read full article @ The Inquirer

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge vs Galaxy S6 Edge head-to-head review

Our in-depth comparison pits last year's flagship against the brand new S7 Edge

Read full article @ V3

Why an Overclockable Core i3 Might Not Exist: The Supermicro C7H170-M and Intel Core i3-6100TE Review

When a new Intel platform hits the market, there are two primary product chains - processors and chipsets. For the most part, at least in the consumer space within a particular generation, any processor should work with any chipset, with the higher end chipsets offering more functionality at an added cost. For Skylake, Z170 its the top model, with H170/H150, B150, Q150 and H110 filling the rest, with one more business focused. The Supermicro C7H170-M reviewed here has the H170 chipset, but also was the first to come with BCLK overclocking for non-K processors. This is our first proper look at a Supermicro motherboard in a long time, as well as our probe into the brief jump into H170 and non-K overclocking which provides some deep indicators into the current processor lineup. 

Read full article @ Anandtech

Windows security updates come with ads? Let's check

I thought you might be worried - worried? - about the security of your shi ... Here's an important article discussing the highly controversial decision by Microsoft to include non-security fixes into a security update for Internet Explorer, the actual changes in the system and their implications, impact on users, trust issues and call to action, critical practical advice on how to block and turn off OS upgrades, security considerations, other tips and tricks, and more. Lookie, lookie. Come hither.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo