Reviews 51945 Published by

Here a roundup of todays review's and articles:

10 Days with Windows 10
ADATA XPG SX930 SSD Review (120GB/240GB/480GB)
Asus EA-AC87 4×4 wireless bridge review
ASUS Z170-A Motherboard Review
Be quiet! Silent Base 800 review: the quietest base!
DDR4 Memory Scaling on Intel Z170
Dual-GPU Face Off: GeForce GTX 980 Ti SLI vs. Radeon R9 Fury X Crossfire
How To: Easily Upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro
How To: Join the Windows Insider Program from Within Windows 10
Intel Core i7 6700K "Skylake" Processor Review
Intel Core i7-6700K Review
KitGuru Complete Guide to PC Workstations - Part 3
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard Review
ROCCAT NYTH Review
Sapphire R9 380 Nitro 4GB Graphics Card Review
Video review: Asus' MG279Q FreeSync monitor
You do not need to Activate Windows 10 to install it, but this is how you can activate later



10 Days with Windows 10

I take a look at the first ten days of the General Availability of Windows 10 and some of the hot topic areas that have surfaced around it.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

ADATA XPG SX930 SSD Review (120GB/240GB/480GB)

ADATA has memory products for all sections of the market, from consumer to industrial. As of late they have released a new consumer SSD, the XPG SX930 (http://thessdreview.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d9b6193ffd32dd60e84fc74b&id=26d016a770&e=1230c2ab07) . It is marketed towards the gamer and overclocker crowd at a pretty competitive price point. With a revamped package and aesthetic design the SX930 should stand out much better than with their typical styling. The XPG SX930 features a new controller by JMicron and what they state is enterprise-grade MLC+ NAND. So, today’s review is going to be quite interesting as we get to see what this new combination has in store.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

Asus EA-AC87 4×4 wireless bridge review

Supporting 4×4 quad-stream 802.11ac speeds, the Asus EA-AC87 is a wireless bridge that’s designed to compliment the RT-AC87U router, as one of the few ways to get the fastest possible performance from it. It’s capable of more than that, as it also doubles up as an access point, used to improve the performance of any router by adding an additional 5GHz wireless stream.

Read full article @ Kitguru

ASUS Z170-A Motherboard Review

Skylake is officially here! Since Skylake brings with it a brand new architecture and chipset that means we have a bunch of motherboards launching today! The biggest improvement on Z170 chipset is that you get 40% more high-speed I/O lanes (PCI-Express / USB 3.0) compared to Intel’s 9 Series chipsets. If you want the low-down on Intel’s Core i7-6700K processor be sure to check out our review, which went up earlier today. Our first Z170 motherboard review will be ASUS’s Z170-A, which is designed to bring you all of the features of the Z170 chipset, but at a very low cost. This motherboard has great hardware features like USB 3.1, SATA Express and M.2, but also great tuning options like auto-tuning, fan-tuning, and even the ability to use your mobile device as your keyboard and mouse. Let’s take a look and see what ASUS has in store for us with the Z170 chipset!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Be quiet! Silent Base 800 review: the quietest base!

Be quiet! has gained quite a bit of respect as a manufacturer of power supplies, fans, and CPU coolers. However, the German brand clearly isn't planning on resting on their laurels: in late 2014, they introduced the Silent Base 800, an enclosure that they claim will be the new standard for quietly yet efficiently cooling a complete system. With an MSRP of £90 / €120, it doesn't come cheap, but our test results indicate that Be quiet!'s first enclosure might just be worth it.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

DDR4 Memory Scaling on Intel Z170

Shortly ahead of the Intel Z170 platform launch we heard that the memory controller Intel developed for Skylake was amazing and that the new Intel Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K could come close running DDR4 4000 MHz memory kits in dual-channel. Just days before Intel launched their two new K-Skus that are aimed at enthusiasts and gamers we noticed that G.Skill released a dozen new dual-channel DDR4 memory kits with speeds ranging from 2133 MHz to 4000 MHz. Obviously, the memory controller used on Skylake is rumored to be good, so we asked G.Skill if we could get one of their news kits of memory in to investigate on our own. G.Skill graciously sent over a RipJaws V 8GB (4GB x 2) 3600MHz DDR4 memory kit over for us to play around with and we ran it from DDR4-2133 all the way up to DDR4-3866 to see how performance changed with the additional bandwidth!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Dual-GPU Face Off: GeForce GTX 980 Ti SLI vs. Radeon R9 Fury X Crossfire

Compared to reference designs by Nvidia and AMD, their partners usually come up with creations that run cooler and quieter. A perfect example of this is Gainward's GTX 980 Ti "Golden Sample", with a 15% factory overclock that provides 11% more performance on average and a "Zero RPM fan design". Not wanting to simply just revisit the GTX 980 Ti's performance, we'll be hooking up two of these in SLI and test them agains a pair of AMD's Radeon R9 Fury X cards in Crossfire.

Read full article @ Techspot

How To: Easily Upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro

Microsoft makes it easy to upgrade your Windows 10 edition from Home to Pro - right in Windows 10.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

How To: Join the Windows Insider Program from Within Windows 10

Every edition of Windows 10 offers the chance to join the elite team of Windows Insiders to test future builds of the OS before public release.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

Intel Core i7 6700K "Skylake" Processor Review

Back to school, yea. Increased traffic during the morning commute, teachers putting on their makeup while crossing all four lanes and businessmen reading their morning paper on their steering wheels. Now how’s that for a comfortable and safe drive? This is something I don’t look forward to as an adult but when I was younger it was a much happier time, almost like a second Christmas. Back to school meant new clothes, new gadgets and even some new technology if it was required for a class. Of course it was over 35 years ago and new technology was probably a Texas Instruments Scientific Calculator but it was memorable.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

Intel Core i7-6700K Review

About a year ago Intel unleashed its X99 platform and a trio of Haswell-E processors to match. The combination of the updated LGA2011-v3 socket, the new X99 chipset, and DDR4 memory together with the high end Haswell-E desktop processors allowed for impressive performance levels. A few months later we got the Devil's Canyon chips in the form of the Core i5-4690K and Core i7-4790K, which were geared towards mainstream enthusiasts who were not very impressed with the performance levels and high thermals witnessed with the first wave of Haswell CPUs. Just recently Intel released its 5th Gen Broadwell CPUs, the company's first 14nm processors represented by the Core i7-5775C and the Core i7-5675C for the desktop platform. Both releases still did not take full advantage of the improvements brought to the table by the X99/Haswell-E combo, especially the DDR4 memory, which was strictly exclusive to the upper segment of Intel's products.

This week however things changed quite a bit and Intel is focusing on the mainstream enthusiasts and gamers with the release of its first wave of 6th generation Skylake desktop processors which represent a "Tock" in Intel's Tick-Tock product cycle: the Core i7-6700K and the Core i5-6600K. Both CPUs, as the "K" in the name suggests, are fully unlocked SKUs and based on the new Skylake architecture built on the 14nm process technology. The new architecture requires a new socket in the form of the LGA 1151 and the new Z170 chipset. With the new Skylake processors and Z170 chipset, Intel projects up to 30% performance improvements over older systems. The new platform offers DDR4 memory support and higher levels of overclocking.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

KitGuru Complete Guide to PC Workstations - Part 3

In the second part of this series, we presented some initial tests to illustrate how CPU and graphics can affect different types of performance in a PC workstation. In this third part, we focus down on one particular, industry-standard benchmark that puts a workstation through a range of tests with popular 3D modelling and design applications.

SPECviewperf from the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation has been the most popular test of professional 3D graphics for many years. In this article, we put our smorgasbord of CPU and graphics combinations through every single test from SPECviewper 12.02. Some of the results may surprise you.

Read full article @ KitGuru

MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard Review

Skylake and the Z170 chipset is here and we are going to take a look at one of MSI’s motherboard offerings for the Z170 chipset. MSI has done an interesting thing with their Gaming Series motherboards. Because other manufacturers have copied their naming scheme they have named their boards Gaming “M” to distinguish them. So today we are checking out the MSI Z170A Gaming M5 motherboard, this naming scheme makes me think of BMW models! The Z170A Gaming M5 sort of sits in the middle of MSI’s Gaming M series with the M3 below it and the M7 and M9 ACK above it. Each of MSI’s new Z170 Gaming motherboards are loaded with features and the Z170A Gaming M5 is no exception with Killer E2400 Gaming networking, USB 3.1 support, dual M.2 slots, MSI’s audio boost 3 audio solution, steel reinforced PCI-Express slots and much more! Let’s take a look and see if this is the Z170 motherboard for you!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

ROCCAT NYTH Review

ROCCAT are powering innovation with their 'FUTURE READY' concept and applying it to their design philosophy, they created the NYTH. Shown off earlier this year at CES, the NYTH generated due hype not just because of its highly modular button array but also because it will be supported by a catalogue of 3D printable designs and replacements truly making the NYTH one of the most customisable gaming products conceived to date. As a product it is clearly gunning for the lucrative MMO/MOBA market which is arguably dominated by the 'NAGA/G600' camps, less clearly, the NYTH also comes with a modular swappable grips, optimising comfort for claw type grip AND palm type grips, catering for FPS and all types of PC gamers, which again adds to the customisation of the NYTH mouse.

This mouse isn't just about surface aesthetics either, featuring a Twin-Tech Laser Sensor which has adjustable DPI between 200 - 12,000, ROCCAT's 72MHz Turbo Core V2 and built in memory, we can expect the smooth performance many have come to expect from a ROCCAT mouse too.

Read full article @ Vortez

Sapphire R9 380 Nitro 4GB Graphics Card Review

Sapphire has long been known as one of AMD’s best GPU partners, making some very incredible cards in the past like the Toxic 290X, which was one of the best cards available. Today we have Sapphire’s R9 380 Nitro 4GB card, a value oriented card using a value oriented GPU, seems like a nice match lets see how well it stacks up!

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Video review: Asus' MG279Q FreeSync monitor

Asus' MG279Q is a 27" FreeSync monitor with a 144Hz, 2560x1440 IPS panel for an appealing price. Our own Gyromancer, Nathan Wasson, has spent some quality time with the MG279Q, and he's collected his impressions in video form.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

You do not need to Activate Windows 10 to install it, but this is how you can activate later

Microsoft has done an interesting thing with Windows 10. Besides giving it as a free upgrade to anyone with an activated Windows 7 or Windows 8 PC the OS is also one big shareware demo. Specifically, by the demo I mean near fully functional OS that you can install anywhere to try out. This ability means you can download the Windows 10 ISO right from Microsoft and install it on a home-built PC, or any PC for that matter. Even Mac users can do this and install the OS using Bootcamp (more on this later).

Read full article @ Windows Central